“B” Movie Western Sampler
It’s time for my annual “B” Western sampler!
In 2022 and 2023 I shared reviews of short “B” Westerns I watched while traveling. Once again my portable DVD player and “B” Western discs accompanied me on this year’s summer vacation, the only difference being that this year, instead of a road trip, I went on an Alaskan cruise!
The movies were perfect short viewing for down time, especially on a foggy sea day without any scenery to be enjoyed.
All four of these films were released by Lippert Pictures; one of them, Outlaw Women, was originally produced by Howco, while the other three were original Lippert productions. All four movies are readily available thanks to DVD sets from VCI Entertainment.
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Deputy Marshal (William Berke, 1949)
The first film I watched during my trip, Deputy Marshal, was also the one I liked best. Jon Hall, known for his adventure films opposite Maria Montez earlier in the decade, plays the title role, Deputy Marshal Ed Garry.
Garry witnesses the shooting of a railroad employee, Harley Masters (Wheaton Chambers), and is entrusted by Masters with a secret map. Everyone wants the map, including baddie Joel Benton (longtime “B” Western hero Dick Foran) and his henchman, Eli (Joe Sawyer).
This 60-minute film, cowritten by Charles Heckelmann and director William Berke, is somewhat confusing yet provides genial company. I wasn’t quite clear how Ed switched his romantic interest so quickly from Claire Benton (Julie Bishop) to Janet Masters (Frances Langford), but maybe I missed something!
Hall has a pleasant voice and demeanor as the deputy, and it’s fun to note that leading lady Langford was actually Hall’s wife for many years, from 1938 to 1955. Langford singing a couple of tunes adds to the movie’s appeal.
The deep cast of familiar faces is another plus, with the cast including Russell Hayden, Clem Bevans, Mary Gordon, and Forrest Taylor.
The movie was shot in black and white by Carl Bergner. Like a couple other films on this list, much of the location filming was done at the Iverson Movie Ranch. There’s much more about Iverson in a column I wrote here in 2022.
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Colorado Ranger (Thomas Carr, 1950)
Colorado Ranger is one of a series of six films shot simultaneously starring Jimmy Ellison, Russell Hayden, and Betty Adams, later known as Julia or Julie Adams.
I wrote about another film in the series, Crooked River (1950), here in 2022. As I shared then, Julie Adams wrote in her memoir that it was both challenging and educational to have to remember which of the six characters she was playing at any given moment! The productions saved money by shooting scenes for each film in a particular location before moving on to the next stop.
Shamrock Clark (Ellison) and his pals Lucky (Hayden) and the Colonel (Raymond Hatton) are on the trail of outlaws harassing homesteaders. One such homesteader, Ann (Adams), eventually comes to think the men are outlaws themselves and locks them in her cellar.
More confusion abounds when Ann babysits her nephew and Shamrock, who’s attracted to the young woman, mistakenly thinks she’s married.
The chief charm of this brisk 59-minute Western is its cast of appealing leads. Ellison and Hayden were familiar to Westerns fans as Hopalong Cassidy sidekicks, and it’s great fun to watch the young Adams, who occasionally has a bit of her native Southern accent slip out.
The movie was written by Ron Ormand and Maurice Tombragel, based on a story by E.B. Mann. It was filmed in black and white by Ernest Miller, with Iverson Ranch one again appearing onscreen. I highly recommend visiting the Iverson Movie Ranch site to learn more about the filming of the half-dozen films with this cast and crew, which were shot in just five weeks!
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Three Desperate Men (Sam Newfield, 1951)
Three Desperate Men, written by Orville Hampton, was the only real disappointment from this quartet of films. I’ll insert a spoiler alert here, as I’m necessarily going to reveal the entire plot in order to explain my dissatisfaction.
I’m a big fan of this movie’s leads, Preston Foster and Virginia Grey, and I’ve also enjoyed Jim Davis (later of TV’s Dallas) in many a Western, but this story went so far sideways it left me sputtering with disappointment. Indeed, a book on the Lippert films, written by Mark Thomas McGee, quotes a contemporary reviewer: “The film’s weakness lies in scripting.” The reviewer was correct.
As the movie begins, deputies Tom Denton (Foster) and his brother Fred (Davis) are law-abiding citizens working for Marshal Pete Coleman (Monte Blue) in Texas.
When the Dentons learn their youngest brother Matt (Ross Latimer, also known as Kim Spalding), has been arrested and framed for murder in California, they leave their mother (Margaret Seddon) and Fred’s sweetheart Laura (Grey) behind in Texas to go rescue Matt.
The Dentons succeed in saving Matt from being railroaded into a hangman’s noose, but things go from bad to worse. A guard is killed as they escape, and Ed Larkin (Rory Mallinson) frames them for numerous crimes.
The Dentons initially commit a robbery just to get by, but before long they end up pursuing a life of crime. Laura, dismayed by Tom’s behavior, breaks off their engagement and leaves town. As the movie concludes, the brothers are killed or arrested when committing yet another robbery.
For some reason I believed the story would depict the brothers bringing justice to bad guy Larkin and reclaiming their lives as honorable marshals. I didn’t realize they were going to turn into stone-cold villains themselves, and I have to say the final scene with bodies strewn across a street left me in open-mouthed disbelief.
Perhaps if the film were better scripted and followed a clearer trajectory from marshals to bank robbers I would have been more accepting of the outcome, but this is one I’ll skip rewatching.
The movie was filmed in black and white by Jack Greenhalgh – and yes, it was filmed at Iverson Ranch!
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Outlaw Women (Sam Newfield and Ron Ormond, 1952)
Outlaw Women, on the other hand, was an entertaining 75 minutes from the very same writer as Three Desperate Men, Orville Hampton.
The movie has some overtones of the later Woman They Almost Lynched (1953) and Johnny Guitar (1954); it’s not in the same league as those “woman power” films, but I liked it.
Outlaw Women, shot in Cinecolor by Ellis Carter and and Harry Neumann, was also the lone color film among the four films I watched on my trip. It’s interesting to note that the reason there were two directors and two cinematographers on this movie was that it was made at breakneck pace by two units working simultaneously!
Marie Windsor was later quoted by Western film historian Mike Fitzgerald as saying it was an “exciting picture,” though she was “annoyed” by special privileges accorded supporting actress Jacqueline Fontaine.
Windsor is as fun as always as saloon owner “Iron Mae” McLeod. She also runs the town of Las Mujeres (“the women”), where women do indeed run the place. The saloon bouncer is even a woman, played by Maria Hart. The aforementioned Fontaine plays one of Iron Mae’s “girls,” Ellen Larabee.
Gambler Woody Callaway (Richard Rober) and Dr. Bob Ridgeway (Allan Dixon) arrive in Las Mujeres, and are soon romancing Iron Mae and pretty Beth Larabee (Carla Balenda) – who had forced the good doctor to come to Las Mujeres at the point of a gun!
There’s doings with bad guys, not to mention a catfight, and it all manages to be an enjoyable watch. Veterans like Tom Tyler, Jackie Coogan, and Lyle Talbot plus up the cast.
A couple interesting Outlaw Women cast notes: Leading man Richard Rober tragically died in a car accident in May 1952, just a month after the movie’s release.
Actress Carla Balenda, on the other hand, lived until age 98, passing away in the spring of 2024. She was long married to publisher William Rutter of The Rutter Group, a name well known to those in the legal profession.
Finally, for those who might have missed it when first published, I’d like to point readers to my 2023 column with a photograph of Marie Windsor’s final resting place in Marysvale, Utah. It was a privilege to visit.
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– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub
Laura can be found at her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she’s been writing about movies since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film fan, Laura loves the classics including Disney, Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns. She regularly covers Southern California classic film festivals. Laura will scribe on all things western at the ‘Western RoundUp’ for CMH.
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