Paul Campbell Movies

John Ford's last western film, Cheyenne Autumn was allegedly produced to compensate for the hundreds of Native Americans who had bitten the dust in Ford's earlier films (that was the director's story, anyway). Set in 1887, the film recounts the defiant migration of 300 Cheyennes from their reservation in Oklahoma territory to their original home in Wyoming. They have done this at the behest of chiefs Little Wolf (Ricardo Montalban) and Dull Knife (Gilbert Roland), peaceful souls who have been driven to desperate measures because the US government has ignored their pleas for food and shelter. Since the Cheyennes' trek is in defiance of their treaty, Captain Thomas Archer (Richard Widmark), who agrees with the Indians in principle, reluctantly leads his troops in pursuit of the tribe. While there was never any intention to shed blood, the white press finds it politically expedient to distort the Cheyennes' action into a declaration of war. Thanks to the cruelties of such chauvinistic whites as Captain Oscar Wessels (Karl Malden), the Cheyennes are forced to defend themselves--and whenever Indians take arms against whites in the 1880s, it's usually misrepresented as a massacre. Only the intervention of US secretary of the interior Carl Schurz (Edward G. Robinson) prevents the hostilities from erupting into wholesale bloodshed. Based on a novel by Mari Sandoz, Cheyenne Autumn is a cinematic elegy--not only for the beleaguered Cheyennes, but for John Ford's fifty years in pictures. It is weakest when arbitrarily throwing in a wearisome romance between Richard Widmark and pacifistic schoolmarm Carroll Baker, who out of sympathy for the Indians has joined them in their 1500-mile westward journey. When the Warner Bros. people decided that the film ran too long, they chopped out the wholly unnecessary but very funny episode involving a poker-obsessed Wyatt Earp (James Stewart). Contrary to popular belief, this episode was included in the earliest non-roadshow prints of Cheyenne Autumn; the scene was excised only when the film went into its second and third runs in 1966 (it has since been restored). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The three stories in this anthology are all set beside the Nile River and are narrated by Joseph Cotten. The first story deals with the potentially dangerous, tumultuous love affair between a knife-thrower and his partner. The knife thrower is married and when his wife finds out about the affair, she gives him an ultimatum that could result in the end of the girl. In the second story, a caravan to Mecca finds itself afflicted with cholera. Now the leader must decide what to do. In the last story, two Yankee con artists attempt to sell holy bread. One of them really wants to use the sacred loaves to smuggle diamonds out of the country. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Set in 18th-century South America, The Golden Coach (Le Carrosse D'Or) stars Anna Magnani as an earthy Commedia Del Arte performer. Magnani is lusted after by diplomat Duncan Lamont, who leaves both his job and his mistress to pursue the sexy actress. Also vying for Magnani's favors are a bullfighter and a nobleman. Magnani tries to avert bloodshed by giving away the Golden Coach that had been bestowed upon her by the expansive Lamont. When director Jean Renoir was asked if he intended The Golden Coach to be Pirandellian, what with its linking of reality and theatricality, Renoir responded that his intention was to establish that "life is life and the stage is the stage." Maybe so, but the film's brilliant Technicolor and superb performances easily transcend that mundane entity known as Real Life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Three Stooges comedy begins with a joke similar to their 1943 short Phony Express -- there's a poster of the Stooges, who are wanted for vagrancy. The reward is 50 cents each, or three for a dollar. To escape getting thrown in the hoosegow, the boys (Moe Howard, Shemp Howard, and Larry Fine) head west to Peaceful Gulch. As might be expected, things aren't too peaceful in Peaceful Gulch at the moment. Bad guys are shooting up the town and have virtually taken over the saloon. A couple of frightened bankers take the Stooges "wanted" photo and run it in the local paper, proclaiming them to be three famous marshals. The Stooges arrive at the saloon to clean up the place -- literally (they're looking for janitorial work), and the bad guys are actually intimidated for about two minutes before figuring out that the Stooges are dangerous only to themselves. The boys manage to round up the outlaws anyhow and put them behind bars. The sheriff, however, is crooked and releases them almost immediately. The bandits dress up as ghosts and head for the Horton house where the Stooges are guarding the bank's money. Moe and Larry are captured, but Shemp saves the day by stealing one of the outlaw's disguises and knocking out the other bad guys. The local cowboy "hero" shows up to admire the boys' work, but faints when he sees one of the unconscious crooks is bleeding. While not a complete rip-off like some of the other, later Stooges films, this picture is quite similar to 1950s Punchy Cow Punchers. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Having signed up with Columbia to re-create his stage role in Death of a Salesman, Cameron Mitchell was obliged to earn his keep in such potboilers as Smuggler's Gold. Mitchell plays Mike Sloan, the fiancé of Susan Clarke (played by future Gunsmoke regular Amanda Blake). Susan's uncle is supposedly respectable skipper Pop Hodges (Carl Benton Reid). In truth, lovable old Pop is a ruthless smuggler, who strong-arms Mike into retrieving a sunken cache of stolen gold. Filmgoers with long memories were able to discern resemblances between Smuggler's Gold and the 1933 melodrama I Cover the Waterfront. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Western star Charles Starrett does not disappoint his fans in Frontier Outpost. As usual, Starrett plays Steve Lawton, a lawman who is compelled to assume the identity of the masked avenger known only as "The Durango Kid." This time, the villains are gold raiders, preying upon Army shipments. Falsely imprisoned through the machinations of the head criminal (who, of course, is an "above suspicion" solid citizen), Lawton escapes, dons his Durango disguise, and brings the crooks to justice. Way down the cast list as "Lieutenant Peck" is Jock O'Mahoney, who also doubled for Charles Starrett in the tougher stunt sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Allan "Rocky" Lane and his faithful steed Black Jack star in Vigilante Hideout. The plot revolves around a bitter struggle over water rights. Eccentric inventor Nugget Clark (Eddy Waller) tries to help his drought-ridden neighbors by blasting for water, while a $25,000 nest egg rests in the bank for the purpose of building an aqueduct. The villains decide to rob the bank while Nugget is setting off his charges. Once "Rocky" Lane gives chase, however, the bad guys haven't got a chance. Roy Barcroft, who must have taken his meals and slept at Republic Studios, is one of the heavies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Columbia kept insisting upon placing its hottest new star Larry Parks in swashbucklers, and though Parks wasn't really suited to the genre, he always strived to please. Set in 17th-century France, the film stars Parks as Lt. David Picard, a peace-loving officer who is nevertheless handy with his sword when the need arises. Hoping to crush the burgeoning pacifistic movement in France, warmongering Marshall Mordore (Victor Jory) plots to abduct popular "people's general" Cadeau (George Macready, in a rare sympathetic role). Picard, Cadeau's adjutant, spends the balance of the film trying to shield the general from harm -- and to romantically pursue beautiful spy Nanton de Lartigues (Marguerite Chapman). The antiwar philosophies of The Gallant Blade would return to haunt Larry Parks when he was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Durango Kid rides again in the person of Charles Starrett in Buckaroo From Powder River. The story concerns the efforts made by Steve Lacey (Starrett) to break up the outlaw family headed by Pop Ryland (Forrest Taylor). Posing as a hired killer, Lacey infiltrates the Ryland gang, rescuing the only "good" member of the family along the way. And when the necessity arises, Lacey dons the mask of the mysterious Durango Kid. The love interest is provided by Eve Miller, the laughs by Smiley Burnette, and the music by the Cass County Boys. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The dastardly mayor of this film's title town sets out to provide the local Native Americans with guns and ammunition so that they may pillage a neighboring burg. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Filmed at the Providencia Ranch (today a cemetery in Burbank, CA), this entry in Columbia's long-running "Durango Kid" Western series features Texas Jim Lewis and his Lone Star Cowboys performing Lewis' own "Hootenanny Annie" and series regular Smiley Burnette singing "Top It," "Law and Order," and "Hill Billy Lil." In between all the music acts, Charles Starrett as Steve Larkin dons his usual guise of the Durango Kid in order to get the goods on the less desirable elements of Red Mound, TX. As local café proprietor Smiley Burnette explains, the white line dividing the town has been painted along main street to separate respectable businessmen such as himself from the lawless gunmen inhabiting the southern section, a dividing line that not even Deputy Marshal Tug Carter (Paul Campbell dares to cross. Despite Burnette's dire warnings, Steve purchases the abandoned Atkins ranch and soon all hell breaks loose. But dressed as his masked alter ego, Steve eventually discovers the true mastermind behind the lawlessness and Tug, now appointed town marshal, erases the white line that once divided the community. In her first of four appearances opposite Starrett, busy Columbia starlet Virginia Hunter played a real estate broker, and future leading men Jock Mahoney (billed as Jacques O'Mahoney) and John Carpenter make early screen appearances as the villain's henchmen. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Charles Starrett once more assumes the guise of the Robin Hood-like Durango Kid in Last Days of Boot Hill. The star is cast as US marshal Steve Waring, assigned to locate $100,000 in missing gold and round up the thieves. Much of the story takes place in flashback, permitting cost-conscious Columbia Pictures to sneak in several stock shots from earlier "Durango Kid" entries (notably Both Barrels Blazing). This moneysaving device worked well enough for Columbia to extend the practice to the studio's 2-reel comedies, which explains why so many of the Three Stooges shorts of the early 1950s look alike. For the record, Last Days of Boot Hill comes to a climax as Steve Waring, aka the Durango Kid, gallops to the rescue of pretty rancher Paula Thorpe (Virginia Hunter). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy a young man and woman base their love on lies that eventually manage to come true. Songs include: "It's All In The Mind," "The More We Get Together," "How Can You Tell?" "They Won't Let Me Sing," "Honeymoon On A Dime." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide