Author Archives: Jedadiah Leland

Law of the Rio Grande (1931, directed by Forrest Sheldon)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

I nearly didn’t review Law of the Rio Grande.

First, the only copies I could find were at the Internet Archive and on YouTube.  The available copies run 48 minutes but according to the IMDb, Law of the Rio Grande originally had a 57-minute run time.  If that number is correct, that means that the versions on the Internet Archive and YouTube are missing 9 minutes.  Since there doesn’t appear to have been anything objectionable in the film (this is a 1931 b-western, after all), I’m going to guess that the 9-minutes were probably cut when the movie started playing on television in the 50s.  That is something that happened to a lot of the old western programmers.  Television was quick to buy them because they were cheap and they made for appropriate children’s programming but the movies were always edited for time and often, the original versions were lost.

Secondly, edited or not, Law of the Rio Grande is not very good.  It was made, for a very low-budget, by Syndicate Pictures, a poverty row studio.  The majority of the cast was made up of actors who had found success in the silent era but who never made the adjustment to the sound era.  Though the actors have the right look to play cowboys, none of them know how to actually make dialogue sound convincing.  There’s also a persistent sound of crackling static in the background of most of the scenes.  I don’t know if that’s the fault of the film or if it’s just a bad upload but it’s obvious that the cast and crew of Law of the Rio Grande were not used to working with sound.

Despite the film’s title, the Rio Grande was nowhere to be seen in the version that I saw.  Instead, the film is about two outlaws, Jim (Bob Custer) and Cookie (Harry Todd), who are determined to go straight.  Jim and Cookie end up working for Colonel Lanning (Carlton S. King) and his daughter, Judy (Betty Mack).  But then a former acquaintance known as the Blanco Kid (Edmund Cobb) shows up and threatens to reveal the truth about Jim’s background.  It’s a typical western programmer, with the main message being you can’t escape your past but you can beat it up in a fair fight.

The kids probably loved it in 1931.  Today, it’s mostly interesting as an example of one of Bob Custer’s final films.  Custer was a legitimate rodeo star who went to Hollywood during the silent era and who had a lot of success because he looked authentic jumping on a horse.  Like many silent era stars, he didn’t have to actually recite or even know his lines.  He just had to be himself.  Unfortunately, the sound era destroyed his career because, while he may have looked like a character from the old west, he didn’t sound like one.  Unable to find work at the major studios, Custer ended up making movies like this one for studios like Syndicate Pictures.  He retired from acting in 1936 and went on to become a building inspector for city of Los Angeles.  It turned out that he was a better engineer than he wan actor and eventually, he named Chief Building Inspector for the city of Newport Beach, California.  He passed away in 1974, nearly forty years after starring in his final film.  He was 76 years old.

Music Video of the Day: Wall of Hate by Shine (1988, directed by Richard Levine)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

To tell the truth, up until 8:03 pm yesterday, I had never hear of Shine nor had I ever heard their first single, Wall of Hate.  It was at 8:03 that I came across an entry for this video over at the Internet Movie Video Database.  I liked the song so I decided to go with it.

This video was uploaded to YouTube by George Wheelwright, who was a member of the group.  In the video’s description, he explains that this was Shine’s first single and that it was released by RCA.  He writes that the song did well on college radio and the video occasionally aired on MTV “but alas didn’t set the world on fire, story of a thousand bands i know, but we had a great time…”  I’m glad they had a great time because it’s actually a pretty good song.  Wheelwright adds that the video was shot around Glasgow.  The video has a very 80s, Miami Vice-like feel to it, as does the song.

Today, I’m featuring this video as a way to honor all of the good bands that “didn’t set the world on fire” but who still produced some damn good music.  If you get a chance, click on the video YouTube link and let George Wheelwright know that the song is still appreciated.

Enjoy!

The Hard Hombre (1931, directed by Otto Brower)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In this short and comedic western, Hoot Gibson plays a cowboy who is so mild-mannered that his nickname is Peaceful.  William “Peaceful” Patton is such a pacifist that he’s even named after the first Quaker, William Penn.  When the movie starts, a group of cowboys are shooting at each other from opposite sides of a ravine.  Patton rides into the middle of the fight and tells them to put down their guns and settle things peacefully.  Everyone ignores him.

Patton has gotten a job in a neighboring town, working on the ranch of Senora Martini (Lina Basquette).  Leaving behind his beloved mother (Jessie Arnold), Patton heads to the Martini ranch and he discovers that everyone is scared to death of him.  That’s because Patton looks just like a notorious outlaw known as The Hard Hombre.  The Hard Hombre has killed a man for every year that he’s been alive.  Realizing that he can use this to bring peace to the town and to help Senora Martini get her cattle back from rival rancher Joe Barlowe (G. Raymond Nye), Patton pretends to be the Hard Hombre.

Soon, everyone in town is getting along and Senora Martini has fallen in love with the man that she thinks is the Hard Hombre.  But then, the Hard Hombre actually does show up in town!  Even worse, Peaceful’s mother also shows up and wants to know why everyone thinks her son is a killer!

With a 64 minute running time, this low-budget programmer isn’t bad.  It pokes fun at every western cliché, showing that even in the early days of Hollywood, the conventions of the western were already set in stone.  The film gets a surprising amount of comedic mileage from people acting scared of the mild-looking and acting Hoot Gibson.  Gibson was one of the earliest western stars, playing heroes who used their wits and who rarely carried a gun.  Appearing in a film for a poverty row studio was a step down for Gibson but his casting still pays off in That Hard Hombre and he gives a good performance as a cowboy who just wants everyone to get along and to make his mother proud.

Music Video of the Day: And We Danced by The Hooters (1985, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Today’s music video of the day comes to us from The Hooters, a Philadelphia-based band whose sound will always be identified with the mid-80s.  And We Danced is their biggest hit to date.  It’s certainly the one that most people think of if they think about The Hooters.

This music video, which was hugely popular back when MTV played music videos, was shot at a drive-in theater in Exton, Pennsylvania in the summer of 1985.  Unfortunately, the theater has since been torn down but, in a sense, it will exist forever because of this music video.  The video itself was nominated for a Best New Artist award at the MTV Music Video awards but it lost to Take Me On by a-ha.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: All of My Life by Phil Collins (1990, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

What sets All of My Life apart from all of the other adult contemporary, “easy listening” music that Phil Collins released in the 90s is that saxophone solo at the start of the song.  That sax solo almost makes up for all the bland Disney sons that Collins wrote in search of that first Oscar.

As for this video, it’s largely a performance clip but, mixed in, there are a few scenes of Phil Collins going about his everyday life.  Of course, for Phil, everyday life meant a private plane and a luxury tour bus.  What a likeable bloke!  Personally, I don’t care how Phil Collins spent his money.  As the saying goes, “If you’ve got it…”

This video was directed by Jim Yukich.  Yukich was one of those video directors who, if you were a successful musical artist in the late 80s or the 90s, you would probably end up making at least one video with Yukich.  Yukich directed videos for everyone from Iron Maiden to Genesis to REO Speedwagon.  He got around.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Me Myself and I by De la Soul

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

To understand this video, it is necessary to understand how Me Myself and I came to be written in the first place.  While recording their debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, De La Soul was told that they needed to record a song that would serve as an “introduction” and which would also hopefully become a radio hit.  In other words, the label wanted at least one song that wasn’t, as Posdnous put it to Rolling Stone, “so over everyone’s head.”.  Me Myself and I was De La Soul’s way of letting listeners know that they were individuals but they also weren’t hippies.  The band was surprised when it went on to become their biggest hit off the album.

Me Myself and I finds the members of De La Soul as the students of Prof. Defbeat, who ridicules De La Soul for not conforming to the “traditional” hip hop image before the band is finally able to drop out of his class.  The video’s message is summed up by producer Prince Paul, who says, “If you take three glasses of water and put food coloring in them, you have many different colors, but it’s still the same old water. Make the connection?”

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Bombers in the Sky by Thompson Twins (1990, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Like so many of the songs that were written in the 80s and the early 90s, Bombers in the Sky was inspired by the fear of the nuclear war that so many people assumed was, at the time, inevitable.  However, the song was better known for being included on the soundtrack of Gremlins 2.

There are actually two videos for Bombers in the Sky.  They’re both pretty much the same, except that the second video mixes in scenes from Gremlins 2 with the band performing the song.  The second version is the version featured in this post.

Three years after the release of the single, Thompson Twins changed their name to Babble and recorded for three more years before calling it quits.

Enjoy!

The Great Missouri Raid (1951, directed by Gordon Douglas)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

During the Civil War, brothers Frank (Wendell Corey) and Jesse James (Macdonald Carey) leave the family farm and fight as Confederate guerillas under the leadership of the infamous William Quantrill.  When the war ends with the Confederacy’s defeat, Frank, Jesse, and their friend Cole Younger (Bruce Bennett) return home to Missouri and discover that their town is being ruled over the tyrannical Major Towbridge (Ward Bond).  With their farms in ruin and having little opportunity to make honest money, the James Brothers and the Younger Brothers soon resort to robbing banks and trains.  It’s their revenge against not only the soldier occupying their land but also the bankers and land barons who have been taking advantage of their friends and family members.  The James-Younger Gang become heroes to economically oppressed people everywhere.

From the minute that they arrive home, Towbridge is determined to imprison the James brothers.  Not only does he distrust them because of their past with Quantrill but he also blames them for the death of his own brother.  Towbridge becomes so obsessed that he even leaves the army so that he can pursue Frank and Jesse as a private detective.  Even as it appears that Jesse might be on the verge of settling down and abandoning his criminal life, he still has to deal with unexpected visitors like the Ford brothers.

The story of Frank and Jesse James inspired several films, some of which were better than others.  Directed with a good eye for detail by Gordon Douglas, The Great Missouri Raid tells the familiar story with enough skill to be watchable but it never reaches the classic status of Walter Hill’s The Long Riders. 

The main problem is that both Wendell Corey and Macdonald Carey come across as being almost too civilized as the James brothers.  The film is obviously sympathetic to the James brothers and, as westerns tended to do in the 50s, it ignores some of the less heroic details of their lives of outlaws.  (The film, for instance, doesn’t mention that the James brothers were probably already outlaws before the Civil War started and it’s doubtful that a modern film would be as sympathetic to two men who left home to fight for the Confederacy.)  Usually, though, even the most sympathetic film portrayals of the James brothers still portray them as being the type of people who you wouldn’t necessarily want to meet while riding the trail.  Wendell Corey and Macdonald Carey play Frank and Jesse as being so nice that it’s hard to believe that they could have even rode with Quantrill, let along the Younger brothers.  They’re the most reasonable outlaws this side of the Mississippi.  Bruce Bennett and Bill Williams are more believable as the rough and tough Cole and Jim Younger.

Not surprisingly, the film is stolen by Ward Bond.  Bond usually played reasonable authority figures for John Ford and Frank Capra.  As Major Towbridge, though, he’s cast as a martinet who allows his obsession with James brothers to turn him into a fanatic.  For those who are used to only seeing Bond cast as a fair cop or a tough-but-fair military officer, his performance in The Great Missouri Raid is a revelation.

The Long Riders is the best movie about the James Gang but, for western fans, The Great Missouri Raid should be entertaining if not definitive.

Music Video of the Day: Back to the Cave by Lita Ford (1989, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

At the risk of getting called a nerd by our readers, when I came across this video and I saw that the song was called Back to the Cave and that the video was released in 1989, my initial thought was, “I didn’t know Lita Ford was on the Batman soundtrack.”

I didn’t know that because she’s not.  The song has nothing to do with Batman.  The title is Back To The Cave, not Back to the Batcave.  The Batman soundtrack was pretty much dominated by Prince and Danny Elfman.  All of this, I should have been able to figure out on my own without resorting to Google and Wikipedia.  Excuse me while I hang my head in shame.

No, this song isn’t in any ways connected to Batman.  Instead, it’s just Lita Ford doing what Lita Ford does best.  The video doesn’t need any gimmickry.  All it needs is Lita Ford being a guitar goddess.

Enjoy!

The Fighting Marshal (1931, directed by D. Ross Lederman)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The town of Silver City has a new marshal. He’s tough, no-nonsense, and an expert marksman. He is exactly what it needed to clean up the town and he is also a complete fraud. The marshal is actually Tim Benton (played by Tim McCoy), an escaped convict who was doing time after being framed for the murder of his father. Seeking revenge on the men who framed him and who stole his family’s silver mine, Tim escaped from prison with the help of Red Larkin (Matthew Betz), who actually was guilty of the crimes for which he was imprisoned. After Red kills the man who was actually appointed to serve as Silver City’s new marshal, Tim took the man’s identity.

Despite the years that he spent wrongly imprisoned, Tim really isn’t an outlaw at heart. He’s one of the good guys and he soon starts to settle into his role as town marshal. He even falls in love with Alice Wheeler (Dorothy Gulliver). However, Tim still has to get revenge for his father’s death and he is also going to have to deal with Red Larkin, who has no interest in going straight. Ironically, what Tim doesn’t know, is that he was only a day or two away from receiving a full pardon when he broke out of prison and went on the run.

The Fighting Marshal is an above average western programmer. Though the low-budget and rushed quality of the production is obvious (just check out the opening title card, which misspells Marshal), Tim McCoy is a credible western hero, looking credible on a horse and handling a gun with the skill of someone who started his career as a sharp shooter. The film’s mistaken identity plot is an interesting wrinkle on all of the usual western action and McCoy is convincing as he goes from being an escaped convict to being a man who truly cares about maintaining law and order in Silver City.

Of course, like many of the early western stars, McCoy was himself an authentic cowboy. He looked convincing with a gun because, in real life, McCoy was an expert marksman who was considered to be the best shooter in Hollywood. When he wasn’t making movies, McCoy served in the U.S. Army and he was also one of the first Hollywood actors to try to make the leap over to politics, running unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in Wyoming. Later, when his film career waned, McCoy hosted a children’s show where he would show his movies and discuss the history of the old west. He was nominated for a daytime Emmy but refused to attend the ceremony when he discovered he would be competing against a show featuring a talking duck. His exact words, when turning down the invitation to the ceremony, are often quoted as being; “I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit there and get beaten by a talking duck!”

One final note: According the IMDb, The Fighting Marashal was filmed over the course of a week in October in 1931. Less than a month later, it was released on November 25th. That’s the old Hollywood system for you. They didn’t waste anytime getting their movies into the theaters.