Buddy Roosevelt | Through the Shattered Lens

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.

In the days of the wild west, Tom Cameron (George Houston) rides the range alone, seeking vengeance for the murder of his family. They were killed when their wagon train was ambushed by the same outlaws who has previously sold them a plot of land. Tom was a child at the time and he only remembers that the leader of the outlaws had a distinctive facial scar. Tom Cameron is The Lone Rider.

No, not the Long Ranger. The Lone Rider! George Houston was an opera star who made for a surprisingly convincing gunslinger and the movie opens with him singing I Am The Lone Rider, just to make sure that it was understood that his vengeance-driven vigilante was a completely different character from that other vengeance-driven vigilante. The Lone Rider is looking to avenge his family and, with the help of store keeper “Fuzzy” Jones (professional sidekick Al St. John), the Lone Rider does just that. Though this is a standard B-western, the plot is a little more serious than most other B-movies. This was the first of several Lone Rider movies and, despite the obviously low budget, there’s some emotional heft to its story. Tom discovers that his brother (Lee Powell), who he thought had died in the attack, actually survived and joined up with the gang. The story is about both Tom’s vengeance and his brother’s redemption. Fans of the genre will enjoy the film’s classic western story and George Houston’s convincing performance as a gunslinger on a mission.

The Lone Rider would ride on for 16 more movies, the last one being released in 1944. In 1942, George Houston was replaced in the lead role by Robert Livingston. Houston went from starring in westerns to becoming one of Hollywood’s most respected vocal coaches. (Howard Keel was one of his students.) Shortly after the Lone Rider road for the last time, George Houston died while planning his musical comeback. He had a heart attack and the police, thinking he was just intoxicated, tossed him in the drunk tank where he subsequently died. He was only 48 years old.