Author Archives: Jedadiah Leland

Rainbow Valley (1935, directed by Robert N. Bradbury)

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In the early 1900s, the town of Rainbow Valley is trying to complete a road that will connect it to another town.  Outlaw Rogers (LeRoy Mason) doesn’t want that road finished because he wants to buy up all the land around Rainbow Valley.  He brings in a hired gun named Galt (Jay Wilsey) to intimidate the townspeople.  When a traveler named John Martin (John Wayne) saves mail carrier George Hale (George “Gabby” Hayes) from the outlaws, the townspeople ask Martin to serve as their marshal and to help finish the road.  Martin agrees but it turns out that he and Galt have a history.

This was one of the B-westerns that John Wayne made before Stagecoach made him a major star.  Wayne gives a confident performance as John Martin.  It’s about as close to a traditional John Wayne performance as you are likely to find in his early films.  It’s a good and short western, with enough gunfire and tough talk to appeal to fans of the genre.

The most interesting thing about this film is that it takes place at the turn of the century, when the old west was being replaced by the modern world.  Everyone in town is amazed that George Hale drives a car.  John says that it’s the first car that he’s ever actually seen.  Of course, this is a western and all the important work is done on horseback.  The best part of the movie is when George realizes that he and Miss Eleanor (Lucille Brown) can’t drive to warn John about an ambush because the car is out of gas and there’s not a filling station to be found.  Eleanor can’t ride a horse so he does the next best thing.  He has the horses pull his Model T like a wagon!

Four years after this movie came out, John Wayne starred as The Ringo Kid in Stagecoach.  In Rainbow Valley, he showed that he was already a star.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Steven Soderbergh Edition

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4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking.

Today, we wish a happy birthday to one the early pioneers of independent film, Steven Soderbergh.  Soderbergh was 26 years old in 1989, when he became the youngest director to ever win the Palme d’Or at Cannes.  Soderbergh went on to become one of the busiest and most interesting director in Hollywood, working in all genres and inspiring filmmakers the world over.

4 Shots From 4 Films

sex, lies, and videotape (1989, directed by Steven Soderbergh)

Kafka (1991, directed by Steven Soderbergh)

Out of Sight (1998, directed by Steven Soderbergh)

Traffic (2000, directed by Steven Soderbergh)

Music Video of the Day: Going Back To Cali by LL Cool J (1988, directed by Rick Menello)

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Today is LL Cool J’s birthday.

Going Back to Cali was a song that originally appeared on the Less Than Zero soundtrack.  Supposedly, the song is as much about producer Rick Rubin’s ambivalence towards Los Angeles as it is about LL Cool J’s feelings towards the city.

The video was directed by Ric Menello, who best-known for his work with the Beastie Brothers and for his later collaborations with director James Gray.  One of the dancers is MTV VJ Martha Quinn, who was dating the video’s cinematographer at the time.

Enjoy!

Phantom Ranger (1938, directed by Sam Newfield)

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Treasury agent Pat Doyle (John St. Polis) is sent to investigate a counterfeiting ring in Wyoming but ends up getting kidnapped by gang leader Sharpe (Karl Hackett) instead.  With Doyle’s daughter, Joan (Suzanne Kaaren), demanding that the government rescue her father and generating all sorts of bad publicity for the Secret Service, the decision is made to send in Tim Hayes (Tim McCoy).  Hayes, who will be working undercover, is selected because he’s not a “city boy.”  He’s a cowboy, through and through.  If you want to tame the west, you have to send a cowboy.

Phantom Ranger is a low-budget, 56-minute western from Monogram Pictures.  The plot is nothing special but the film itself still interesting because it’s a western that takes place in the 1930s.  Tim Hayes may ride a horse and wear a cowboy hat but he also works in a Washington D.C. office building and he interacts with a woman dressed like a flapper.  In this movie, the frontier has not caught up with the modern world but the modern world has also forgotten what life is like away from civilization.

The movie has the usual collection of B-western stalwarts.  Karl Hackett, John Merton, Charles King, Frank Ellis, Herman Hack, and Horace B. Carpenter are all present and accounted for.  Tim McCoy, a former rodeo performer and army officer, plays the hero and brings a lot of natural authority to the role.  McCoy was not only one of the first western heroes but he was also one of the best.

There’s no phantoms to be found in Phantom Ranger.  It’s still a good western.

The Nevada Buckaroo (1931, directed by John P. McCarthy)

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When the population of a small frontier town all sign a petition asking that the governor name their town the new county seat, the petition is stolen by outlaw Cherokee (George “Gabby” Hayes).  Cherokee substitutes a different petition requesting a pardon for a member of his gang, The Nevada Kid (Bob Steele).

The Nevada Kid gets his pardon, is released from prison, and returns to the town.  No one is happy to see him, even though he says that he has changed his ways.  Even if the pardon was gotten through illicit means (which the Nevada Kid himself knew nothing about), the Kid still says that he’s going to take advantage of his second chance.  When Chereokee and the gang start to demand that the Nevada Kid once again work with them, Nevada gets his chance to show whether or not he’s really left being an outlaw behind.

I never expect much from these Poverty Row westerns but The Nevada Buckaroo, despite having not a great title, is actually pretty good.  A very young-looking Bob Steele gives a good performance as the Nevada Kid and George Hayes show that, before he became everyone’s favorite sidekick, he was capable of being a very intimidating actor.  The movie actually has something to say about trust, community, and second chances.

I don’t know much about director John P. McCarthy and I think this is the first of his films that I’ve seen.  He and cinematographer Faxon M. Dean put together a film that looks infinitely better than the average B-western.  That was obvious with even the grainy print that I watched.  The final shot, of the Nevada Kid riding into the sunset, is a perfect western image.

Gun Packer (1938, directed by Wallace Fox)

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Someone is holding up stages and making off with a fortune of gold bullion.  The government decides to send in a gun packer.  Jack Denton (Jack Randall), the son of a legendary lawman, is sent to investigate, along with his sidekick Pinkie (Ray Turner) and Rusty the Wonder Horse.  Jack goes undercover, telling an elderly ex-con (Barlowe Borland) that he’s a former partner of his, which leads Jack to the leader of the robbers, Chance Moore (Charles King).

There are a lot of familiar faces in this western.  Not only does Charles King play yet another villain but Glenn Strange shows up in his customary role as the town sheriff.  Lloyd Ingraham, Forrest Taylor, Victor Adamson, George Hazel, Dave O’Brien, and Tex Palmer all have roles.  It’s interesting that the same actors showed up in these movies and almost always seemed to be playing the same roles.  The only thing that changed was the hero.  In this case, it’s Jack Randall, who may not have been a great actor but who was a believable western hero.  His sidekick here is Ray Turner, a black actor who began his career during the silent era and who had a long career in the westerns.  While Turner plays a subordinate character, the role still avoids a lot (though not all) of the demeaning racial stereotypes that were very common in most films from the 1930s.  Jack treats Pinky with respect and they’re clearly friends outside of work.  That may not sound like a lot but it was a big deal for a 1938 Poverty Row western.

The real hero here is Rusty the Wonder Horse.  Rusty’s best scene?  Jack, needing to climb a mountain, calls for Rusty to drop his lariat.  Jack grabs the rope and Rusty pulls him up.  Rusty truly earns the right to be called a wonder horse.

Music Video of the Day: Touch of Grey by Grateful Dead (1987, directed by Gary Gutierrez)

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Rest in Peace to Bob Weir.  A founding member of the Grateful Dead, Weir passed away yesterday at the age of 78.

Today’s music video of the day was also the Grateful Dead’s first.  Touch of Grey introduced the Dead to the MTV generation and caused a notable rise in the band’s popularity.  The shots of the audience were taken from a Dead show in Monterey, California.  The scenes with marionettes were filmed at Laguna Seca Raceway.  Director Gary Gutierrez was a longtime associate of the band who had previously created the animation sequences for The Grateful Dead Movie.

Enjoy!

Man’s Country (1938, directed by Robert F. Hill)

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When his innocent son, Ted (David Sharpe), is accused of committing a murder, Lex Crane (Walter Long) turns him over to Texas Ranger Jack Haile (Jack Randall) because he knows that Jack will make sure that Ted gets a fair trial.  Lex says that he and his men are accused of every crime that happens in the area, even though they’re always innocent.  Jack understand and respects Lex as a man and a father.  But when someone shoots and kills Ted, Lex and his men set out for revenge.  The twist?  Lex has a twin brother named Buck (also played by Walter Long) and the two brothers hate each other.

Most poverty row westerns blend into each other but Man’s Country stands out as an intelligent and well-acted western.  Even though the twin twist is undoubtedly an overdone one, Man’s Country does a good job with it and Walter Long gives such a good performance that both Lex and Buck emerge as individual, identifiable characters.  Jack Randall may not have been the greatest of the old western actors but he’s believable as the tough but fair Texas Ranger.  There’s enough western action for fans of the genre but, for once, the plot is interesting enough that it might hold the attention of other watchers as well.

Of course, this is a Poverty Row western so Charles King does appear as one of the bad guys.  He gets into a fist fight, like he almost always did.  I wonder how many onscreen punches Charles King actually threw over the course of his career in the westerns.  It had to have been a lot.

Music Video of the Day: One More Time by Rod Stewart (2021, directed by ????)

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Today is Rod Stewart’s 81st  birthday and today’s music video of the day is One More Time, taken from his 32nd studio album, The Tears of Hercules.  Appearing with Stewart in this video are his actual backup singers, Amanda Miller, Holly Brewer, and Becca Kotte.

Rod Stewart holds the record for being the artist featured most frequently during MTV’s first day of broadcast.  On August 1st, 1981, MTV featured eleven of his videos.

Enjoy!

Boss Cowboy (1934, directed by Victor Adamson)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Boss Cowboy takes place in the 30s but it’s very much a western.  One car shows up and telephone poles dot the countryside but almost everyone in the movie rides a horse.  The Nolans and the Rosses are two ranching families.  Both families are losing cattle.  Nolan foreman Dick Taylor (Buddy Roosevelt) suspects that the culprit is the Ross foreman, Jack Kearns (George Cheseboro) and he’s right.  Kearns is ripping off both families.  Complicating Taylor’s effort to stop Kearns are his romantic feelings towards Mary Ross (Frances Morris), who is visiting from “back east.”  Sally Nolan (Fay McKenzie) is also visiting and running joke is her handing off her small dog to a ranch hand named Slim (Alan Holbrook).

No apparent relation to either Teddy or FDR, Buddy Roosevelt was a respected stunt man who tried his hand at starring in a few westerns,  Unfortunately, Buddy Roosevelt wasn’t much of an actor, which is painfully apparent while watching him in Boss Cowboy.  He’s fine when he’s riding a horse and pulling a gun but when he has to speak, it’s difficult to watch.  As bad as Buddy Roosevelt’s acting was, he was not the worst actor in Boss Cowboy.  That honor was split between Frances Morris and Fay McKenzie.  Boss Cowboy is pretty dull.  Every scene drags and there are plenty of awkward silences while the cast tries to remember their lines.

Though he wasn’t much of an actor, Buddy Roosevelt remained in a demand as a stunt man throughout the 40s.  In the 50s and 60s, he was kept busy playing townsmen in shows like The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.  In 1962, he made his final film appearance in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.  He then retired to Colorado, where he did at age of 75 in 1973.  In all, his Hollywood career spanned 46 years, from 1916 to 1962.