The Mystery of the Hooded Horsemen
(1937) – 5.5
This Singing Cowboy film should get it out of my system for a while though
the song Ride, Ride, Ride was darn catchy. Like a little senorita named Rosita
in the local cantina. That many of the actors are credited as "barfly" is
always a good sign of one of these B Westerns. Riding, shooting, singing,
drinking and maybe a slice of Rosita on the side. Starring Tex Ritter and
his only real love, his horse White Flash who appeared with Tex for 32 films.
A good career. Ritter sings three songs here and the Range Ramblers get one
of their own. Been listening to Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys all morning
and he sounds good. When you are in the mood for country-western no one else
will do.
Tex is with his sidekick Stumpy who is played by Horace Murphy. Never heard
of Horace I would bet. Over 120 credits - a lot of them as Ritter's sidekick.
Sidekicks are a big plus in these old B westerns - some great ones who add
color and humor. The two of them are just moseying along minding their own
business, singing a song when they come across a friend who has been shot
and is dying. By the Hooded Horsemen. A gang that is rampaging and causing
trouble. In black hoods and sheet with the skull and crossbones on the back.
A nice touch. Tex of course has to look into it. They meet Rosita who jumps
into the arms of . . . no not Tex but Stumpy who has been that way
before. A fine finale here when about 25 vigilantes headed by Tex chase after
the gang across the plains with lots of gunplay. Probably looked much better
on the big screen if you were 12 years old with a box of Good N' Plenty in
your hand.
Riders of the
Frontier (1939) – 5.0
Small external things sometimes decide what film I am going to watch. Chapati
and a curry will get me in the mood for Bollywood, listening to Francoise
Hardy and I will want to see a French film from the 1960s, a news article
about Hong Kong and I will feel like putting on an old HK film before all
of this and if I get whacked on the head and someone throws up on my shoes,
I will want to see a Korean comedy. In this case I was watching the second
episode in Ken Burn's documentary on Country Music and there is a bit on
the singing cowboy stars - Gene Autrey, Roy Rogers and Tex Ritter. Ritter
is my favorite singer of the bunch. He was the singer of High Noon for the
film. Father of John Ritter. Hard to imagine now just how popular these Singing
Cowboy films were in parts of the country. Hundreds were made over a few
years. Generally about a $20,000 budget. Usually only a couple songs
in the film. All low budget and basic good guys against the bad guys; the
good guys win and usually get the girl.
That certainly describes this one. Ritter goes undercover as a crook with
a fast draw who is in jail. He infiltrates the gang of the foreman of a ranch
who is cheating the elderly widow owner out of her money. There is a young
pretty nurse that Tex sings to. The crook he is pretending to be does break
out of jail and comes looking. Best part about the film is that it has Mantan
Moreland as one of the ranch hands - the cook of course. Reasonably big part.
At one point he says "I wish I was back picking cotton". Not likely. This
was post-Civil War but blacks didn't exactly have it good being sharecroppers
in the south. I can't think of too many films from this period that had a
black actor in a Western. And Mantan is the best. He even joins in with Ritter
to sing the Boll Weevil Song. The version of the film I watched on YouTube
is cut as most of these are to fit into an hour TV show - from IMDB it looks
like a couple songs were left out. Depressing as that is the main reason
a lot of people watch these now.
Sing, Cowboy Sing (1937) – 5.0
For a B Singing Cowboy movie of the 1930s this delivers everything it should.
A barroom brawl, a bad guy in black, a jail break, a damsel in distress,
the handsome hero, his strange looking sidekick and a bunch of songs. Because
there was nothing those cowboys and cowgals in the Old West appreciated more
than a grown man breaking into song. Especially, if it is Tex Ritter singing
those songs. I like these Tex Ritter Westerns. He is so relaxed and at ease
as if this is just a bit of fun. And it probably was for him. It took no
great acting but you have to be willing to roll around on the ground with
some varmint, ride across the plains and sing.
On his trusty steed White Flash along with his trusty monkiesh looking sidekick
Duke (Al St John - he had been in a bunch of the Fatty Arbuckle and Keaton
shorts) are minding their own business riding somewhere that doesn't much
matter when they come across a few wagons being attacked by a gang of villains.
They ride right into trouble but too late to do much good and everyone in
the wagon train has been killed but the good looking daughter (Louise Stanley)
of the now dead wagon master. Well, Tex is no man to leave a lady in need
and so of course helps her out and rounds up the killers. All in 60 minutes.
Pretty standard but a good finale when the good guys and the bad guys have
a big shootout on horseback with a lot of stuntmen falling off and pretending
to be dead and wagons racing and horses going down. I would guess the rest
of the film was shot in a day or two and the big ending took the rest of
the week.
Directed by Robert Bradbury who directed a ton of these B Westerns. There
is also a small bit by another old comedian from the silent days - Snub Pollard
as the fellow getting tried in court. Pollard was one of the great clowns
of Silent pictures usually in a supporting role and now he was doing bits
here and there and was Ritter's sidekick in some other pictures. Somewhere
in this is also Chester Conklin, another well-known comedian from the silent
days. For having three legendary comedians this film gives us no comedy.
Deep in the Heart
of Texas (1942) – 5.5
Not too difficult to figure out what song will feature prominently in this
one. There is also a song that begins on The Streets of Laredo and then veers
off into something different. It was titled Cowboy's Lament. A good group
of songs in this Singing Western and a slightly better than normal B Western.
That is because it was produced by Universal instead of one of those Poverty
Row studios. It also brings together two of the bigger stars in the world
of B Westerns - Tex Ritter and Johnny Mack Brown. Brown was in about 170
of these Westerns and Ritter around 70. That's a lot of riding.
This takes place after the Civil War when a group of Damn Yankees set up
their own Republic in the south of Texas and refuse allegiance to the USA.
They run it like a fascist state - this being 1942 I expect that wasn't a
coincidence - sentencing any one who dissents to death. Jim (Brown) returns
from the Civil War only to find his own father a head of this so-called Republic.
He teams up with a representative (Ritter) from the Governor to bring it
down. The ending is pure patriotic sentiment as the head realizes he has
gone down the wrong path and Pledges Allegiance to the United States of America
and then a Deep in the Heart of Texas breaks out again. Enough to bring a
tear to the eye of the most hard-hearted man. Texas may do it again and I
wish them luck. Take a few other southern states with you.
