Arthur Rosson Movies

The first entry in a proposed series of six Westerns starring Ken Maynard and produced for Grand National by M.H. Hoffman, Boots of Destiny featured a script written for Hoffman's previous star, Hoot Gibson. Maynard, whose personality was far removed from the lackadaisical Gibson, played Ken Crawford, a cowboy getting himself involved in a range feud between the Mexican Vascos and the Yankee Wilsons. Hired by Alice Wilson (Claudia Dell), Ken and sidekick Acey Ducey (Vince Barnett) discover that the Wilson foreman, Harmon (Edward Cassidy), is the brains behind a series of cattle rustlings. Harmon attempts to get rid of Ken by framing him in a killing, but the cowboy escapes and saves Alice from both the raiding Vascos and Harmon. A rather downbeat Western featuring a tired-looking Claudia Dell, Boots of Destiny came to life only when Maynard and his horse, Tarzan, performed part of their circus act. Maynard broke his foot prior to filming and was forced to wear a special boot enlarged to accommodate his plaster cast. This less than pleasant situation made the often difficult star even more so and after Trailin' Trouble (1937), Hoffman gave up and sold Maynard's contract to the Alexander brothers, Max and Arthur. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Tom Mix goes undercover as a prison inmate in this Western from Universal. The reason for Tom's masquerade is a bank robbery that wiped out his pretty boss, Nora Lane (Judith Barrie). The perpetrators, Doc (Donald Kirke), Spike (Raymond Hatton), and Big Ben (Eddie Gribbon), were all sent to the big house, but without revealing where they hid the loot. It is Tom's job to find out and a prison break offers him the perfect opportunity to do so. But the cowboy's disguise works all too well and soon both Nora and the law believe him to be in cahoots with the escapees. According to Hidden Gold's publicity, an actual forest fire was used in the film, the crew having been enlisted by the fire brigade during location filming in the hills north of Los Angeles. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Sailor George Barraud and a shopgirl marry while the sailor's first girlfriend is in prison. When released, the girlfriend attempts to get her man back, but ends up saving the wife from suicide when the girlfriend realizes their true love. ~ All Movie Guide

Nearing the end of his long association with Universal, rough-edged silent screen cowboy Hoot Gibson released eight sound Westerns in 1930 before the studio dropped him in favor of the more streamlined Ken Maynard. Mounted Stranger, a remake of Gibson's 1924 The Ridin' Kid From Powder River, certainly broke no new ground and the once so popular entertainer was increasingly criticized for refusing to change with the times. Gibson played Pete Ainslee, who as a child witnessed his father's killing. The adult Ainslee, known as the "Ridin' Kid," locates the killer, Steve Gary (Fred Burns ), whom he wounds in a gun battle. Gary, unfortunately, recovers and seeks revenge. Ainslee manages to stay a couple of steps ahead of the killer, who is subsequently killed by his own disgruntled gang members. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Hoot Gibson's final film for his old Alma Mater, Universal, this early sound Western was played solely for laughs. Ranch hand Gibson is in love with a radio songstress (Kathryn Crawford) and bets his colleagues that he can make her marry him. All dressed up and on his way to propose, the Concentratin' Kid learns that the ranch has been rustled and the songbird kidnapped and caged. The kidnapper (James Mason) needs the girl to help decorate his home! "The Hooter" left his longtime employer after fifteen years of filling Carl Laemmle's coffers. His bitterness was understandable, but Gibson was no longer in the bloom of youth and following a series of very low-budget oaters produced by poverty row company Allied between 1931 and 1933, he spent the remainder of his career in supporting roles. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Universal's top western ace, the charming Hoot Gibson, starred in this average oater about a young man who goes undercover as a bandit to infiltrate the gang responsible for his father's death. As always, Gibson uses guile and wit instead of brute force to unmask and apprehend the guilty party (nasty-looking Frank Campeau). The rather commonplace story was concocted by the prolific B.M. Bowers, AKA novelist Bertha Muzzy Sinclair. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Marjorie Beebe, leading lady of many a Mack Sennett comedy 2-reelers, plays the title character in the slapstick feature The Farmer's Daughter. Gormless Arthur Stone plays Beebe's hometown sweetie, a would-be inventor. When Stone's latest creation, a cheese-making machine, falls apart at the seams, it is the cue for city slicker Warren Burke to move in on Beebe. But the day is saved when a representative for a big-time cheese manufacturer offers Stone a huge contract. Boasting a cast of grotesques, The Farmer's Daughter has all the subtlety of the Keystone Kops. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The "silk legs" of the title belong to star Madge Bellamy, and a fine pair of extremities they are indeed. The story focuses on the rivalry between two travelling lingerie salespersons, Ruth Stevens (Madge Bellamy) and Phil Barker (James Hall). Phil has the slicker sales approach, but Ruth has the advantage of being able to model her wares. The animosity between the two halts abruptly when Phil becomes worried that one of their customers, elderly Ezra Fulton (Joseph Cawthorn) harbors improper attentions towards Ruth. When it turns out that old Ezra's interest in the girl is strictly platonic, the relieved Phil relaxes long enough to declare his love for the heroine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

No relation to the earlier John Ford western of the same name, The Last Outlaw was a vehicle for Paramount's up-and-coming action star Gary Cooper. The actor is cast as frontiersman Buddy Hale, who endeavors to prove that young Ward Lane (Jack Luden) is innocent of murder. He does this primarily because he's fallen in love with Ward's pretty sister Janet (Betty Jewel). But when Hale is appointed sheriff, he is obliged to track down Ward and arrest the boy, convincing Janet that Hale has betrayed her brother. It turns out that Ward was actually guilty, and that he's also the head of a vicious outlaw gang. Ultimately, Ward expires in a hail of bullets, and Hale and Janet are reunited. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Raymond Griffith's famed nonchalance adds to the humor of this delightful mystery-comedy. During a posh party on a houseboat, a valuable diamond necklace is stolen. The host, who also happens to be the district attorney (Edward Martindel), announces the theft and turns out the lights to give the thief an opportunity to return the necklace. When the lights come back on, the district attorney is dead with a knife in his back. The coroner (Griffith) arrives, quite vexed that this assignment is taking him away from a night at the opera. Since business won't wait until after the show, he decides to solve the crime within the next 20 minutes so he can still get there on time. Everybody is a suspect, but Griffith manages to unmask the real killer -- the deputy district attorney (Earle Williams) -- along with winning the heart of the dead man's ward (Dorothy Sebastian), who accompanies him to the opera. The screenplay to this witty feature was written by Jules Furthman, whose impressive writing career would include films such as Blonde Venus, Mutiny on the Bounty, and To Have and Have Not. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Richard Jones (Richard Talmadge) is the assistant to the district attorney (Herbert Prior). He decides to single-handedly expose a drug ring that is terrorizing Madison, a reformer (Charles Clary). Madison's son, Bob (Arthur Rankin), has become a hophead because of the ring, and Greer (Frank Elliott), Jones' rival for the hand of Madison's daughter, Constance (Kathryn McGuire), is the ring's leader. The district attorney himself is in league with Greer as well. Jones disguises himself as an Asian, leaps over tenement roofs, beats up a mob of Chinese gangsters, and performs several dozen other daredevil feats. In the end, he's appointed the new district attorney and wins the girl. Kathryn McGuire, incidentally, was the leading lady in two of Buster Keaton's best silents, Sherlock Jr. and The Navigator. This F.B.O. release was a typical Richard Talmadge vehicle -- it was fast-paced, cheaply made, and gave the star loads of opportunities to show off his stunt work. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

One of the more popular western plots of the silent era detailed the trials and tribulations of a spoiled Easterner growing muscles and character on a tough western ranch. This time around Raymond L. Schrock based his screenplay on a none too original story by B.M. Bowers (AKA Bertha Muzzy Sinclair), and Hoot Gibson took the part of the wastrel son put to work on his father's (Edwin Booth Tilton) western spread. Proving his true worth, Gibson earns the love of the neighbor's pretty daughter (Marceline Day). Day, whose sister Alice also appeared in films, is best remembered today as Buster Keaton's leading lady in The Cameraman. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide