Tag Archives: Spencer Gordon Bennett

The Gunman From Bodie (1941, directed by Spencer Gordon Bennett)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The second of the Rough Riders films opens with Bob “Bodie” Bronson (played by Buck Jones) seeking shelter from a storm and coming upon a house.  Brodie enters the house, just to discover two dead bodies, a crying baby, and a note that says that the house was attacked by rustlers.  After the storm passes, Bodie takes the baby to a ranch owned by Alice Boden (Christine McIntyre) and her boyfriend, Joe (David O’Brien).  Alice and Joe agree to look after the baby while Bodie heads into town.

Anyone who has seen Arizona Bound or any of the Rough Riders films that  came out after The Gunman From Bodie will know that Boodie Bronson is actually Marshal Buck Roberts and that he’s working undercover.  His partner, Marshal Sandy Hopkins (Raymond Hatton), is already working as a cook at the ranch.  Soon, the third rough rider, Marshal Tim McCall (Tim McCoy), shows up with a wanted poster for Bodie.  It’s all a plan, of course, to help Bodie ingratiate himself with the actual rustlers.

The Gunman From Bodie is considerably darker than Arizona Bound.  Because of the murder of the baby’s parents, the Rough Riders aren’t just looking to uphold the law.  They’re looking to avenge a terrible crime and to dispense some frontier justice.  Buck Jones and Tim McCoy both give grim and determined performances that leave you with no doubt that you don’t want to get on their bad side.  While Alice and Joe tug at the audience’s heartstrings by becoming parents to the orphaned child, the Rough Riders do what they have to do to prevent any more children from losing their parents.  I especially liked the scene where Marshal McCall graphically described what happens when someone is executed by hanging, describing each detail until the actual murderer freaks out and reveals himself.  The Gunman From Bodie is quick-moving western for adults that features Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, and Raymond Hatton at their best.

Previous Rough Rider Reviews:

  1. Arizona Bound

Arizona Bound (1941, directed by Spencer Gordon Bennett)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The town of Mesa City, Arizona has a problem.  A gang of thieves are holding up stagecoaches and shooting the drivers.  Stagecoach lines are removing Mesa City from their list of destinations and the town is having to depend on the services of corrupt businessman Steve Taggert (Tristram Coffin).  After the death of her father and the shooting of her boyfriend, Ruth Masters (Launa Walters) takes over her family’s stagecoach line and is determined to keep it running.  But who will drive her coaches?

Cattle salesman and former marshal Buck Roberts (Buck Jones) rides into town and volunteers to drive the next stagecoach.  Because the stagecoach is carrying a gold shipment, everyone suspects that it will probably be targeted by the thieves.  Volunteering to help Buck is another cattleman named Sandy Hopkins (Raymond Hatton) and the town’s newly arrived preacher, Parson McCall (Tim McCoy).  McCall has already run afoul Taggert because of his crusade to close down Taggert’s saloon.  What Taggert and the other citizens of Mesa City don’t know is that Buck, Hopkins, and McCall are the Rough Riders, undercover government agents who have a plan to both protect the gold and to reveal the identities of the culprits.

Arizona Bound was the first of seven films about the Rough Riders.  While the plots were never anything special, these films stood out because they paired Buck Jones and Tim McCoy, two B-western mainstays who had been active since the silent era and who both brought a good deal of authentic toughness to their performances.  In Arizona Bound, both Jones and McCoy don’t hesitate to show that they’re not going to put up with any nonsense from Taggert and his men.  There’s a great scene where McCoy proves that even a preacher can outdraw and intimidate an entire saloon full of roughnecks.  Jones, McCoy, and Hatton made a good team, though world events would come together to prevent the Rough Riders from having too many adventures.  After the U.S. entered World War II, McCoy volunteered for active duty.  Meanwhile, Jones died in a tragic night club fire.  Raymond Hatton continued to play Sandy Hopkins in other films but none with the original Rough Riders.

Across The Plains (1939, directed by Spencer Gordon Bennett)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In the old west, a group of outlaws attack a wagon train, killing a husband and wife but sparing their two children.  One child is taken by the outlaws, who tell him that they have saved him from an Indian attack.  He grows up to be The Kansas Kid (Dennis Moore), a wagon master who still works for Gordon (Bob Card), the outlaw who raised him.  The other child is adopted by a Native tribe and grows up to be known as Cherokee (Jack Randall).  Cherokee has been hired to protect a gold shipment that Kansas and Gordon are determined to steal.  How long until the brothers come into conflict?

Across The Plains is a pretty good programmer.  Dennis Moore and Jack Randall are convincing as two men on opposite sides of the law who don’t realize that they’re brothers and director Spencer Gordon Bennett captures the scenery of the old west.  This is a western where the frontier really feels and looks like an untouched frontier!  The gunfights are effectively choreographed and directed and the family aspect is a good spin on a simple story.  For fans of westerns, Across The Plains is an enjoyable example of the genre.

Dennis Moore and Jack Randall were both B-western mainstays.  Moore occasionally played a hero but was usually cast as a villain.  Across The Plans gives him a chance to play a more complex role than usual and he takes full advantage of the opportunity.  The Kansas Kid may be an outlaw but he’s not so much bad as just misguided.  Jack Randall was one of the many stage names used by actor Addison Randall.  He started out as a singing cowboy before playing more traditional heroes, like in this film.  In Across The Plans, Randall was as tough and convincing a western hero as he always was.    Tragically, he died six years after making this film when he fell off a horse while filming a Universal serial called The Royal Mounted Ride Again.  He was only 39 years old.