Beth Marion Movies

In this western, a looter finds an abandoned, empty mine and begins claiming that he has found the mother lode. Soon, gold-hungry prospectors are giving every penny for a chance to work the mine until the hero rides into town and gets suspicious. Fate intervenes: the hero and the duped miners really do find a mother lode in the "worthless" mine. When they go to stake their claim, the outlaw tries to stop them. He fails and justice prevails. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The opening sequence of this Ken Maynard Western is spectacular: Attempting to save heroine Beth Marion from the ubiquitous runaway horse, the hero makes a death-defying, head-first plunge on horseback into the Kern River far below. The stunt was performed by Maynard's unfairly neglected double, Cliff Lyons, who would marry Marion two years later. As for Maynard himself, the veteran cowboy star didn't do much action-wise in Avenging Waters, spending instead an inordinate amount of time playing his mouth organ and making romantic chit-chat with Marion. The story is the old one about the fencing off of the once free range. Ken and his top hand, Slivers (Wally Wales, aka Hal Taliaferro), are delivering a herd of cattle to rancher Charles Mortimer (John Elliott) when they have a run-in with Marve Slater (Ward Bond). The latter is demanding that Mortimer remove his new fences or else. The "or else" proves to be damming up the river and leaving Mortimer without water for his cattle. Ken takes umbrage to this kind of vigilantism but is overpowered by Slater's henchmen, Hoppy (Tom London) and Jake (Glenn Strange). A rain storm causes the dam to burst and the waters rush toward the shack where Ken is held prisoner. He is saved in the nick of time by his clever palomino, Tarzan, while Slater is left to drown in his own flood. Maynard's legendary ornery temper caused all kinds of delays on this inexpensive Western and the veteran star was getting a bit paunchy to boot. Director Spencer Gordon Bennet was forced to use rear-projection in a scene where Maynard desperately attempts to grab hold of Tarzan, one of the very few instances that this technique was used in a B-Western. The grand finale, the flooding of the valley, was done using a model built to scale and is not bad for this kind of low-budget fare. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

This above-average Johnny Mack Brown Western from A.W. Hackel's low-budget Supreme Pictures features the bizarre spectacle of an infant contentedly sucking on the barrel of Mack Brown's gun. The scene is played for warm-hearted comedy with Mack Brown and two wizened gunslingers (Frank Campeau and John Beck) all beaming at the clever toddler. The three gunfighters are hired by Sheriff Horace Murphy and cattle rancher Lloyd Ingraham to drive off the local homesteaders, but when they miss a rendezvous due to their baby-sitting endeavors, Roger Gray and his gang are deputized instead. Gray and company, however, robs both the sheriff and Ingraham before turning their attention toward pretty Beth Marion, the baby's presumed mother. Mack Brown, who reveals himself to be a Texas Ranger in disguise, manages to clear up the mess, arrest the guilty and make the valley safe for the homesteaders. Miss Marion on her part reveals herself to be the baby's aunt and a relieved Mack Brown promises to become a steady caller. Despite a rather complicated plot, Everyman's Law is engrossing most of the way and Mack Brown works well with the dour-looking Campeau and Beck. A scene where the three engage in a bit of target practicing on Miss Marion's laundry is played to the hilt and the entire baby-sitting sequence is an eye-opener, to say the least. The scruffy-looking Gray makes a particularly fiendish villain in his B-Western debut and his climactic fight with Mack Brown is well-staged by director Albert Ray. Johnny Mack Brown was to make 16 low-budget but slightly off-beat Westerns for Supreme Pictures 1935-1937 before moving on to Universal. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

The 1936 Buck Jones western Silver Spurs was helmed by Jones' favorite director Ray Taylor, whose association with the star dated back to the silent years at Fox Studios. Jones plays Jim Fentriss, a wealthy rancher whose spread is besieged by cattle rustlers. The chief heavy is Art Holden (Robert W. Fraser), but Jim has trouble proving it. After playing a waiting game for five reels, Jim swings into action (at long last!) in reel six. Buck Jones' leading lady, here as elsewhere, is Muriel Evans, who first gained popularity as comedian Charley Chase's vis-a-vis at Hal Roach. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ken Maynard at least tries to keep his characteristic off-the-wall ad-libs to a minimum in Fugitive Sheriff. Hoping to rid a small western community of its corrupt political machine, Maynard runs for sheriff against the bad guys' candidate and wins the election. Dissatisfied with this, the villains contrive to frame Ken on a murder charge. He breaks out of jail (hence the film's title) and tracks down the genuine culprit, pausing ever so briefly to sing a song or two for the benefit of leading lady Beth Marion. Maynard's singing is definitely an acquired taste, but there's no argument that his riding stunts are astonishing. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In his second Western for Poverty Row producer A.W. Hackel, former football star Johnny Mack Brown goes in search of both his long-lost father and foster-sister. Mistakenly believing that they murdered his young son Johnny, John Wellington (William Farnum) kills three ruffians and becomes a wanted man. Young Johnny (Barry Downing), who had survived the attack, is instead raised by rich Sir George Thorne (Lloyd Ingraham). The latter's old-fashioned ideas causes him to lose both his son-in-law, Gentry Winters (Frank Ball), and young granddaughter, Gale. In his search for the missing girl, Johnny ( now Mack Brown) learns that Winters has been killed by Trent (Earl Dwire), an outlaw whose advances Gale (Beth Marion) had spurned. Aiding Johnny in his quest to capture Trent is one Rand who, it turns out, is none other than the missing John Wellington. Although initially opposed to Johnny's courting of Gale, Wellington/Rand changes his mind in due time and heroically takes a bullet meant for his son. After finishing off the murderous Trent in a final confrontation, Johnny can begin to plan a more peaceful future with Gale. According to contemporary reports, Between Men was filmed in six days at Lone Pine, CA. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi