SADDLE ACES OF THE CINEMA

SADDLE ACES OF THE CINEMA. Buck Rainey. A. S. Barnes; 1980.

In this very interesting volume, Rainey looks back at the cowboy heroes of yesteryear, from the silent era to the mid-fifties when television took over from the B movie westerns that proliferated before the "boob tube" became ascendant. The book is much more interesting than I first imagined, because Rainey's prose is quite good and he unearths a lot of interesting information on these mostly forgotten movie stars. The names of Tom Mix and Gene Autry [The Phantom Empire]  and a couple of others may be familiar to the casual reader, and we've also got the likes of Ken Maynard, Hoot Gibson, Rex Bell, Harry Carey [The Vanishing Legion], Buck Jones, Jack Holt [Holt of the Secret Service] and others. Many of these gentlemen went on to successful careers as character actors in westerns, serials and other genres. The book is packed with black and white illustrations, a complete list of each actor's film credits, as well as lots of biographical information. If nothing else the book makes it clear how fleeting fame can be, but each man had many, many devoted fans in their day.

Verdict: For western fans and film enthusiasts. ***. 

TRAIL OF ROBIN HOOD

Roy sings to dog Bullet

TRAIL OF ROBIN HOOD (1950). Director: William Witney. Filmed in TruColor.

Retired actor Jack Holt, playing himself, hopes to sell a batch of Christmas trees at cost so all the little children can have one. Businessman Aldredge (Emory Parnell) sees this as a good way for him to lose money, so his daughter Toby (Penny Edwards of That Hagen Girl) goes out west to see what she can do. She can't convince Holt to change his methods, and comes into conflict with Roy Rogers (Roy Rogers), who heads the Soil Conservation Service. When Jack is injured in a bad fire, little Sis McGonigle (Carol Nugent of Vice Raid) rounds up a bevy of cowboy stars to bring the Xmas trees to market even though the bridge out of town has been set on fire!

Rex Allen yells at Sis to move her ass -- sort of

Republic studios would occasionally bring together many of its western stars in one movie but fans must have been greatly disappointed -- as I was -- to see how little screen time they get in this, which is, after all, a Roy Rogers and Trigger picture. Monte Hale doesn't even get a close up, although Rex Allen and Allan "Rocky" Lane have a little more to do (but not much). Lesser lights such as Tom Tyler, Crash Corrigan, Tom Keene, and Kermit Maynard at least get a little dialogue. Rex yells at Sis to go ahead and plough over the bridge even though it's on fire and collapses just a second later -- good idea, Rex! 

Jack Holt

Jack Holt appeared in only two more movies and died the year after Trail was released. He had started out in silent films in 1914 and amassed nearly 200 credits, including the serial Holt of the Secret Service. George Chesbro, who was a bad guy in many of Holt's movies, also appears in Trail. The title of this flick makes no sense as there's no Robin Hood, and it's stretching things a bit to suggest that Holt is like Robin Hood in his giving his Christmas trees to the poor. The dog Bullet also appears in the movie, and there's a talented turkey named Galahad who is spared the carving knife. Gordon Jones, who played The Green Hornet, is cast as Sis' big brother, and Clifton Young, who began as a child actor in "Our Gang" comedies, makes an impression as the bad guy Mitch McCall. Young was especially notable in Dark Passage with Bogart.

Verdict: Boo! Hiss! Let's see more of Monte Hale! **. 

HOLT OF THE SECRET SERVICE

Evelyn Brent and Jack Holt

HOLT OF THE SECRET SERVICE (15 chapter Columbia serial/1941). Director: James W. Horne.

Jack Holt of the Secret Service (Jack Holt) is assigned to getting back some valuable plates stolen by counterfeiters, so to that end he pretends to be gangster Nick Farrell, and takes along agent Kay Drew (Evelyn Brent of Daughter of Shanghai) to pretend to be Farrell's wife. The most unusual feature of this serial is that the two leads are not typically "young and pretty" but are both middle-aged -- Holt, who'd been acting since silent movies, was 54 [and looks much older] and Brent was 43. Still, their performances are top-notch for this type of material, so their casting can not be faulted. Holt has a lot of gravelly presence as the secret service man, and Brent is saucy and thoroughly convincing both as agent and moll. Of the supporting cast, Tristram Coffin makes the best impression as a member of the counterfeit gang, and Stanley Blystone is effective as Garrity. The other henchmen and comparatively colorless leaders are all satisfactory if not especially memorable. After much rushing around with different factions trying to get their hands on those plates, the last few chapters take place on an island where the bad guys try to rile up the natives to their own ends, and thieves fall out. There are a few lively fight scenes and some more-than-decent cliffhangers. Holt of the Secret Service is entertaining, but not outstanding.

Verdict: Solid, enthusiastic lead performers never hurt. **1/2.