A Birthday Tribute to Richard Martin

Actor Richard Martin was born on December 12, 1917, in Spokane, Washington.

As I've come to know Tim Holt's RKO Westerns over the past year, one of the things I enjoy the most about them is Richard Martin. Martin may not be known to many film fans, but to those who love the Holt Westerns, Martin is Holt's irrepressible Mexican-Irish sidekick, Chito Jose Gonzalez Bustamonte Rafferty.

Part of the movies' charm is the relationship between Tim and Chito. Chito may be easily distracted from work, especially by a beautiful lady, but Tim never becomes impatient with Chito; instead he's perpetually amused by him, giving Chito sidelong grins when Chito's not looking. And while Tim may be the serious one of the pair, when the chips are down, Chito can always be counted on to come through.

Martin's film career began with bit roles in 1942, and the next year the Chito character actually debuted in a WWII film, BOMBARDIER (1943). BOMBARDIER starred Randolph Scott, Pat O'Brien, and Robert Ryan.

Martin next played Chito in the "B" Western NEVADA (1944), opposite Robert Mitchum, and from that point on, with rare exceptions, his acting career consisted of playing Chito. He did one more Western with Mitchum, one with James Warren, and then starred with Tim Holt in 29 Westerns released from 1947 to 1952, when RKO stopped making "B" films.

Martin was popular off camera as well. In a 1970 interview, nearly two decades after the series came to an end, Tim Holt said, "Richard Martin’s still a good friend… we keep in touch. We had such fun together on the series."

Barbara Hale said of Martin "What a darling man!" while Jacqueline White said "Richard Martin was a charming guy -- real nice and tall! A good looking fellow."

As for actress Elaine Riley, who appeared with Martin and Holt in RIDER FROM TUCSON (1950), she and Martin had married in 1946. It was a union which would last until his death in 1994; Elaine Riley will be 91 in January.

In an interview in Michael Fitzgerald and Boyd Magers' LADIES OF THE WESTERN, Riley related "But certainly one of the most exciting things that happened to me was the first day I was on the set at RKO when I saw Richard Martin come through a door. That's the most exciting thing that ever happened to me...About ten minutes later, over my right shoulder, I heard this voice...and there he stood. I thought, of all these people, why is this happening?" They didn't get to know each other well until they were both on location in Carmel a few months later, when they went to dinner and that was it, the start of a happy relationship which lasted roughly half a century.

Riley said of her husband and Tim Holt: "They loved one another...Tim really did fabulous things...got Dick raises...he was just wonderful. Just incredible."

Martin and Riley lived in the Balboa Island area of Newport Beach, California. Richard Martin passed away in Newport Beach on September 4, 1994.

Many of the films Martin made with Tim Holt can be found in the Warner Archive's Tim Holt Western Classics Collection Vol. 2 and Vol. 3. They're seen at the right with Myrna Dell in GUNS OF HATE (1948).

A handful of Martin's other Westerns are out in Lions Gate's Zane Grey Collection, including NEVADA (1944) and WEST OF THE PECOS (1945) with Robert Mitchum, WANDERER OF THE WASTELAND (1945) with James Warren, and THUNDER MOUNTAIN (1947), UNDER THE TONTO RIM (1947), and WILD HORSE MESA (1947) with Tim Holt.

January 2016 Update: Actress Elaine Riley Has Died at 98.

Tonight's Movie: Wanderer of the Wasteland (1945)

In honor of the late Audrey Long I pulled out my copy of WANDERER OF THE WASTELAND (1945), a Zane Grey Western in which she starred with James Warren and Richard Martin.

With Tim Holt off serving in WWII, RKO starred Robert Mitchum and then James Warren in some of its mid-'40s "B" Westerns. The then up-and-coming Mitchum starred in NEVADA (1944) and WEST OF THE PECOS (1945), while Warren appeared in WANDERER OF THE WASTELAND (1945), SUNSET PASS (1946), and CODE OF THE WEST (1947).

Richard Martin appeared in both Mitchum films and in WANDERER OF THE WASTELAND, always playing Chito, the leading man's girl-crazy sidekick.

Holt resumed his place as RKO's "B" Western star with THUNDER MOUNTAIN (1947) -- after first taking the time to play a small role in a little film called MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (1946). Richard Martin also starred in THUNDER MOUNTAIN and a long-running friendship with Holt, off and on the screen, was born. Holt and Martin worked together steadily for half a decade, until RKO shut down making "B" Westerns in 1952.

WANDERER OF THE WASTELAND is especially interesting as it provides a back story for Chito. Chito's parents, Papa and Mama Rafferty (Harry D. Brown and Minerva Urecal) adopt orphaned Adam Larey (Harry McKim as a child, and later Warren). They raise Adam alongside their son Chito (Tommy Cook as a child, and later Martin).

Adam's mother had died as the family trekked to California, and immediately afterwards his father was killed and their savings of $10,000 was stolen. Once Adam reaches adulthood, he spends years looking for the brand which was on the horse of the man who killed his father.

One day he finds the brand on the luggage of lovely Jean (Long), and he follows her to her family ranch, where she lives with her crippled uncle (Robert Barrat), her shiftless brother Jay (Robert Clarke), and foreman Guerd (perennial "B" villain Harry Woods). Adam believes that Jean's uncle is his father's killer, which stands in the way of his romancing Jean.

It's a pretty good story, although the real treat for fans of the Holt Westerns is learning more of Chito Jose Gonzalez Bustamante Rafferty's background and meeting his oft-mentioned parents.

The star of WANDERER OF THE WASTELAND, James Warren, is adequate but on the bland side, lacking the charisma of a Mitchum or Holt. Warren was also a talented artist, and he left the movies in the '50s for a life painting in Hawaii.

It's a fun coincidence that Warren was played as a boy by Harry McKim, one of a family of child actors. Harry's brother Sammy also left acting in the '50s and became a Disney Legend as a Disney artist and mapmaker. I've had the good fortune to see many of Sam McKim's works on display over the years.

WANDERER OF THE WASTELAND provides a strong role for Audrey Long, who gets to ride, shoot, and assertively pursue Adam, the man she loves. She also has the chance to dress up in a beautiful gown for a party scene.

The movie has a fantastic cast in small roles. Look for frequent Tim Holt costar Nan Leslie in a bit part at a dance, Gordon Jones in a brief role as a sheriff, and Myrna Dell in an amusing scene as a lady pursued by Chito. Jason Robards Sr. plays a crooked card dealer.

WANDERER OF THE WASTELAND was directed by Wallace Grissell and Edward Killy. It was shot by Harry J. Wild in locations which included Lone Pine.

The Norman Houston screenplay was inspired by Zane Grey's novel. It runs 67 minutes.

The movie is available on DVD in the Zane Grey Collection from Lions Gate. The C&C Television print is adequate though not approaching the crisp, gleaming look of the Warner Archive's Tim Holt releases. Although RKO's Zane Grey Westerns fell into public domain, Western fans such as myself are very much hoping one day to see cleaned-up prints via the Warner Archive!

Actress Elaine Riley Has Died at 98

Actress Elaine Riley, the widow of Richard "Chito" Martin, has died at the age of 98.

Riley, who was born January 15, 1917, died on December 7, 2015.

I learned of Riley's passing thanks to my friend Jerry's post on DIAL RED O (1955) as part of this weekend's Allied Artists Blogathon. At the time I reviewed the film myself earlier this month I was unaware of Riley's death.

Here she is smiling at Bill Elliott in DIAL RED O:

London's Daily Telegraph ran a nice obituary.

Riley appeared in small roles in numerous films which have been reviewed here, with a few representative examples being HIGHER AND HIGHER (1943), THE FALCON AND THE CO-EDS (1943), and THE BIG CLOCK (1948).

As time went on she won some larger roles, appearing as the leading lady in several Hopalong Cassidy Westerns such as THE DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND (1946), FALSE PARADISE (1948), SINISTER JOURNEY (1948), and STRANGE GAMBLE (1948).

She also starred in RIDER FROM TUCSON (1950) with Tim Holt and her husband, Richard Martin, and in THE HILLS OF UTAH (1951) with Gene Autry. Here she is with Holt in RIDER FROM TUCSON:

She guest starred on numerous TV series throughout the '50s, including multiple episodes of the Hopalong Cassidy and Gene Autry TV shows. She retired from acting after appearing on an episode of Rod Cameron's series CORONADO 9 in 1960.

Riley had a very long, happy marriage to Martin, best known as Tim Holt's genial sidekick in the series of RKO Westerns beloved by many. Here she is with both Holt and Martin in another shot from RIDER FROM TUCSON:

As I related in a tribute to Martin, Riley described meeting her husband to Western historian Boyd Magers: "But certainly one of the most exciting things that happened to me was the first day I was on the set at RKO when I saw Richard Martin come through a door. That's the most exciting thing that ever happened to me...About ten minutes later, over my right shoulder, I heard this voice...and there he stood. I thought, of all these people, why is this happening?"

A few months later they got to know one another on location in Carmel. They were married from 1946 until his passing in 1994, living for much of that time on Balboa Island here in Orange County, California.

For more background on Elaine Riley, an article by the East Liverpool Historical Society from her hometown in Ohio is of interest; the Society has posted more photos and news articles on her here.

Tonight's Movie: Nevada (1944)

NEVADA is a fun Western programmer "Introducing Bob Mitchum." The movie was largely filmed in the great outdoors of the Alabama Hills in Lone Pine, California, which makes it particularly enjoyable for anyone who has visited the area. My photos of our 2007 visit are here.

Bob plays Jim Lacey, aka "Nevada," an amiable cowpoke who is unjustly accused of murder. Jim eventually figures out that the evil town banker (Craig Reynolds) was responsible. Along the way Jim is helped out by a saloon singer (Anne Jeffreys), the murder victim's daughter (Nancy Gates), and his friends Chito (Richard Martin) and Dusty (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams).

The movie -- based on a Zane Grey story -- is a trifle melodramatic at times, but it does a nice job for an hour-long B Western. The location shooting adds a lot of atmosphere, and the plot also works in the discovery of silver in the Sierra Nevadas. There are a few touches of humor, a song by Jeffreys, and lots of action sequences filmed around the "Movie Rocks" of the Alabama Hills. The confident Mitchum demonstrates why he would become a big star just a couple years later.

Lovely Anne Jeffreys just turned 87. She was married to actor Robert Sterling from 1951 until his passing in 2006, and they costarred in the TOPPER TV series in the 1950s. I'm not sure I'd ever had the chance to see her sing in a film before watching this.

Nancy Gates is three years younger than Jeffreys. Her best-known work was probably in Westerns, including MASTERSON OF KANSAS (1954) with George Montgomery; STRANGER ON HORSEBACK (1955) and GUNFIGHT AT DODGE CITY (1958) with Joel McCrea; and the Randolph Scott Western COMANCHE STATION (1960), directed by Budd Boetticher. She did a great deal of TV work, including a couple episodes of MAVERICK in the late '50s.

A fun bit of trivia: Richard Martin played the same character, Chito Jose Gonzales Bustamante Rafferty, in an endless string of different RKO Westerns throughout the '40s. The casts and characters varied -- many starred Tim Holt -- but Martin turned up time and again as a character with this unusual name. According to an Amazon DVD reviewer, the first time Martin played the role was actually in a World War II movie, BOMBARDIER (1943).

Sadly, Craig Reynolds passed away a few years after playing the villainous banker.

Alan Ward plays the by-the-book sheriff, with Edmund Glover as an assayer. Harry McKim plays Nancy Gates' little brother; he was one of a family of child actors which also included Sammy McKim, who became a Disney Imagineering legend.

IMDb says Ben Johnson is a saloon patron. I'll have to slip the DVD in again and see if I can spot him in the crowd.

NEVADA was directed by Edward Killy. It runs 62 minutes. It was filmed by Harry J. Wild, who seems to have shot both "A" and "B" type pictures; the same year he filmed NEVADA, Wild shot MURDER, MY SWEET.

NEVADA is available on DVD. The picture quality is fuzzy but acceptable; based on the opening title card, it's apparently a print which was used for airing on TV.

NEVADA is by no means a great movie, but it's fun entertainment and a nice little slice of movie history, capturing both the young Mitchum and the beautiful Alabama Hills on film.

October 2017 Update: I had the wonderful opportunity to see this movie and visit the locations at the Lone Pine Film Festival.

Tonight's Movie: Riders of the Range (1950)

One of the highlights for me at the recent TCM Classic Film Festival was the chance to see Jacqueline White, the delightful star of THE NARROW MARGIN (1952), interviewed by Eddie Muller.

It was thus a real treat to see White as the leading lady in the latest Tim Holt Western I've watched, RIDERS OF THE RANGE. Adding to the fun, the villain was played by Reed Hadley, the distinctively voiced narrator of countless "docu-noir" titles. White and Hadley were great additions to this solid Holt entry, which was filmed in the San Bernardino National Forest.

This time around Holt's character goes by the name of Kansas Jones; he'd also play a Kansas again in RIO GRANDE PATROL. Holt's character names may vary, but his sidekick, played by the irrepressible Richard Martin, is invariably named Chito Rafferty!

Kansas and Chito ride into town and become involved in the problems of Harry Willis (Robert Clarke) and his sister Priscilla (White), known as Dusty. Harry is a nice but dumb guy who owes evil saloon owner Burrows (Hadley) a lot of money. Harry initially plans to repay the debt by letting Burrows' henchman steal some of Dusty's cattle, but Kansas puts an end to that plot in a hurry.

When Harry comes clean to Dusty, she provides the funds to pay off Burrows, but there are more complications ahead, including a murder.

This is a typical Holt Western, with nice interplay between Holt, Martin, and the cast, against some beautiful mountain backdrops. The story moves quickly, over and done in an hour.

Having seen a handful of Holt Westerns now, it's fun to start recognizing familiar sets, such as the saloon.

A comment at IMDb notes that both Holt and Tom Tyler, who plays Burrows' murderous henchman, were in the cast of John Ford's STAGECOACH (1939), and it's thus rather amusing that Tyler's character is named the Ringo Kid -- which was the name of John Wayne's character in STAGECOACH.

I found a nice interview with Jacqueline White at Western Clippings. She shared that when she was in high school, a good friend of hers dated Tim Holt, so it was fun to make a movie with him years later.

White also said, "Richard Martin was a charming guy -- real nice and tall! A good looking fellow." I was glad to learn he was a nice guy off the screen as well. Martin (in photo) played the genial Chito roughly 30 times between 1943 and 1952; other than bit parts and some small roles, his film career consisted of being Chito! And in doing so he made a wonderful contribution to the movies.

RIDERS OF THE RANGE was filmed in black and white by J. Roy Hunt and directed by Lesley Selander. Selander's name has appeared in the credits of a number of films I've seen this year, most recently PANHANDLE (1948) with Rod Cameron and RIDER FROM TUCSON (1950) starring Tim Holt.

RIDERS OF THE RANGE is available in an excellent print from the Warner Archive's Tim Holt Western Classics Collection, Vol. 2.

Previous reviews of Tim Holt Westerns here at Laura's Miscellaneous Musings: THUNDER MOUNTAIN (1947), STORM OVER WYOMING (1950), RIDER FROM TUCSON (1950), and BORDER TREASURE (1950).

Tonight's Movie: Dynamite Pass (1950) at the Lone Pine Film Festival

Friday morning was the first full day of the Lone Pine Film Festival. Longtime readers know I've become quite a fan of Tim Holt over the past couple of years, and he's the reason I left our motel room early that day, when it was still dark out!

I made my way to the McDonald's across the street from the high school for a small breakfast, which was a bit more exciting than bargained for due to a brief power outage which hit the entire town! Fortunately the power was restored within a few minutes, and after eating I headed to the high school auditorium for the screening of a Tim Holt film I'd never seen, DYNAMITE PASS (1950).

The films I saw in the high school auditorium were all DVDs shown on a projector, and I was pleasantly surprised by the presentation quality. I was also pleasantly surprised by how many people turned out to watch Tim at 7:00 a.m.! That's the high school campus in the photo at the right.

Although DYNAMITE PASS has been shown on Turner Classic Movies, it's not yet among the Holt films out on DVD from the Warner Archive, so it was especially enjoyable seeing it in this setting.

DYNAMITE PASS is a 61-minute film directed by Lew Landers, whose work I have so enjoyed getting to know over the past couple of years. DYNAMITE PASS had an especially good cast and was a fast-paced film presented with Landers' usual flair. I enjoyed it a great deal.

Tim plays Ross Taylor; he and best pal Chito (Richard Martin) come to the aid of a young woman, Mary (Lynne Roberts), and her husband Dan (Regis Toomey).

Mary and Dan want to build a new road so that local settlers no longer have to deal with nasty Anson Thurber (John Dehner) and his toll road; Anson continually blocks the project, and a despondent Dan has taken to drink. Dehner is always such a good oily villain, small wonder one of his victims hits the bottle!

(Funny side note: In Mary's first scene I thought she was calling Dan "Dad," which is perhaps understandable, as Toomey is a couple dozen years older than Roberts!)

Cleo Moore has a small but flashy role as a blonde who catches the eye of girl-crazy Chito. The supporting cast also includes Robert Shayne, Don Harvey, Denver Pyle, Don Haggerty, and Ross Elliott.

DYNAMITE PASS was filmed by Nicholas Musuraca, who did great work at RKO for many years, notably on OUT OF THE PAST (1947), which was filmed further up Highway 395 in Bridgeport. DYNAMITE PASS filmed extensively in Lone Pine's Alabama Hills, as we shall see below.

As soon as the movie ended, those of us with tour tickets boarded a bus waiting in front of the high school to drive us down Whitney Portal Road to Movie Road and the Alabama Hills. Every seat on the bus was filled!

In a really nice touch, we were each provided with an 18-page booklet of screen captures to help us match up scenes in the movie we'd just watched with the terrain in front of us. This was a really splendid idea which added a lot of fun to the experience.

The bus took us to several different sites in the hills, and I think we must have walked over all of the ground seen in the movie! The tour was due to end at 10:00 a.m., but as it happened we didn't get back to town till 11:00. I don't think anyone minded spending another hour as we were all having a good time.

For those who have seen the film or catch it in the future, here we're on the road where Lynne Roberts drives the covered wagon up to the toll road chain. She drives down this road toward my camera. The boulder in the foreground of the picture was not there when the movie was made; roughly 20 years ago it sheared off a big rock at the side of the road during an earthquake and fell to block the path.

Here we're looking toward the boulder, which is right about where the chain was which Tim Holt shoots down, after which the wagon takes off, coming toward my camera, to get away from the bad guys.

This page of the booklet shows Chito (Richard Martin) and Dan (Regis Toomey) in a shootout with the bad guys; screen captures of the scene include the top right and bottom center. (Click to enlarge for a closer look.)

Here our guide is standing pointing out the rock to us where Martin and Toomey stood in the scene.

If you look closely you can match up the groves in the rocks with those in the booklet photos.

Tim rides away for help in a completely different area of the hills, seen here first in the booklet and then as it is today:

We also saw where other scenes were filmed, including the scene where Chito bandages Tim's arm and where the dynamite explodes. I couldn't help musing what Tim and Richard would think if they could have known that over six decades later people would be so interested in figuring out the precise spots where they'd worked!

During the festival many photos from films are enlarged and placed on stands near the locations they were taken, which is a neat touch. Here, for example, is a scene with Holt and Martin in BORDER TREASURE (1950):

Here's a scene from THE TALL T (1957). See how the rocks match up with the rocks in the far background of the still?

While I was on the DYNAMITE PASS tour, my husband took a three-hour horseback ride through the Alabama Hills which was the highlight of the trip for him.

I'll be sharing more from the festival in the near future, including additional tours and screenings. Stay tuned!

For more on the film DYNAMITE PASS, check out Toby's post of last year at 50 Westerns From the 50s.

For more on the Lone Pine Film Festival, please visit The 25th Lone Pine Film Festival in Review, which includes all links to all of my festival coverage at the end of the post.

Tonight's Movie: Flaxy Martin (1949)

FLAXY MARTIN is a minor but enjoyable film noir which is worth catching thanks to its three lead actors.

Virginia Mayo plays the oddly named title character, a scheming wench who frames Walter Colby (Zachary Scott), the lawyer who loves her, for a murder rap in order to protect her mobster boyfriend (Douglas Kennedy).

Walter escapes from the police and is aided by librarian Nora Carson (Dorothy Malone) as he attempts to clear his name.

The movie is fairly derivative, but that's part of its charm. The couple on the run needing to clear the hero's name seems inspired by Hitchcock's THE 39 STEPS (1935) and SABOTEUR (1942), but certain aspects of the film are also curiously reminiscent of IMPACT (1949), which was released just a month after FLAXY MARTIN. (Perhaps it would thus be more accurate to say that IMPACT is reminiscent of FLAXY MARTIN.) As in IMPACT, the hero is betrayed by the glamorous, two-timing love of his life; at one point he has to deal with being charged with a murder he didn't commit, and he has hope restored by the love and assistance of a small-town girl.

Of course, any movie with Elisha Cook Jr. calls to mind the classic crime titles THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) and THE BIG SLEEP (1946).

It's a nice touch that Malone's character works in a library, given that she appeared in THE BIG SLEEP herself, in a small but notable breakout role as a bookstore clerk who flirts with Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart). Malone and Scott are sympathetic as a couple with big problems who quickly recognize each other as kindred spirits. Mayo is striking as the amoral Flaxy, who's willing to do pretty much anything for an easy meal ticket. A little more background to understand the motivations of both Mayo and Malone's characters would have been nice, but the actresses do what they can with the roles as written.

Helen Westcott, who plays Peggy, starred with Gregory Peck in THE GUNFIGHTER (1950) the year after FLAXY MARTIN. Other roles in the early '50s included TAKE CARE OF MY LITTLE GIRL (1951) and THE SECRET OF CONVICT LAKE (1951); the latter film costarred Zachary Scott.

FLAXY MARTIN was directed by Richard L. Bare, billed here simply as Richard Bare. Bare, who directed the long-running SO YOU WANT TO... series of short subjects, later directed episodes of several Warner Bros. TV shows of the late '50s, including MAVERICK. Bare last directed in 1973 and is now 97.

This black and white Warner Bros. movie runs 86 minutes. It isn't available on VHS or DVD, but it can be seen on Turner Classic Movies, which has the trailer available here.

Some parts of FLAXY MARTIN are a little hard to buy, such as the speed with which Walter decides to plead guilty to a murder he didn't commit, but all in all it's a diverting movie which builds to a satisfying conclusion.

2015 Update: FLAXY MARTIN is now available on DVD from the Warner Archive, which I've reviewed here.

Tonight's Movie: Four Fast Guns (1960)

FOUR FAST GUNS (1960) was reviewed last month by Toby at 50 Westerns From the 50s.

Toby's enthusiasm inspired me to pull out my Darn Good Westerns Vol. 2 set and give the movie a look myself this week. I'm quite glad I did, as I found it a superior "B" Western -- no classic, to be sure, but creative and entertaining filmmaking on a shoestring budget.

James Craig plays gunslinger Tom Sabin, who kills a "town tamer" in self-defense and then takes his job in the unruly town of Purgatory. The local drunk (Edgar Buchanan) who sleeps in the sheriff's office warms to Sabin and helps him when needed.

Saloon owner Hoag (Paul Richards) doesn't want the town cleaned up and mails letters to three gunmen, offering a substantial fee to the man who succeeds in taking Sabin out. One of the men, Quijano, is played by Richard Martin of the Tim Holt Westerns, sort of an edgier spin on his womanizing Chito character; I was amused by the scene where he burst's into a lady's bath so she can read him the letter. This was Martin's last film.

Another of the gunmen is surly "Farmer Brown" (Blu Wright), and the last of the men, Johnny Naco (Brett Halsey), proves to be quite a surprise for Sabin, spinning the plot into unexpected directions in the film's final minutes.

Complicating matters throughout all of the above is Hoag's wife Mary (Martha Vickers), who finds herself falling for Sabin.

This film may have had a small budget but it has an engaging style. The economical yet dramatic presentation of Sabin's encounters with the first two hired gunmen called to mind the way Budd Boetticher staged the gunfights in SEVEN MEN FROM NOW (1956); sometimes not showing everything is more effective than putting it all on the screen. The movie is also very well-paced, running just 72 minutes.

I've always liked James Craig, who had a knack for working with children in MGM films such as LOST ANGEL (1943), OUR VINES HAVE TENDER GRAPES (1945), and BOYS' RANCH (1946). His 1944 MGM film GENTLE ANNIE, incidentally, is another unique Western which is worth seeking out.

Craig looks considerably more worn here than in his MGM days, just as he did in another good role in another good low-budget Western, MAN OR GUN (1958). While Craig's genial demeanor of his earlier films occasionally makes an appearance here, world-weariness, sadness, and a certain edginess dominate.

Martha Vickers is interesting as the saloon owner's wife with a yen for Sabin, though I felt that the script gave her short shrift in terms of helping us to understand why she married Sabin and has stuck with him, when he's clearly not a good man. Hoag and Mary are in the same scenes yet they virtually never interact, which is curious; possibly that's meant as a commentary on their relationship, or lack thereof. Mary's somewhat underdeveloped character is my only significant criticism of the film.

Vickers is best known for her spectacularly good performance as the disturbed Carmen Sternwood in THE BIG SLEEP (1946); I also fondly recall her from the musical THE TIME, THE PLACE AND THE GIRL (1946), which introduced me to the lovely song "Oh, But I Do." As with Richard Martin, this was Vickers' last feature film.

FOUR FAST GUNS was directed by William J. Hole Jr. and filmed in widescreen black and white by John M. Nickolaus Jr.

FOUR FAST GUNS is also available from VCI as a single-title DVD release.

Western fans should like this one. Recommended.

Tonight's Movie: Gunplay (1951)

I hadn't seen a Tim Holt Western since SADDLE LEGION (1951) last January, so I was overdue to see another one!

I chose GUNPLAY (1951), which like SADDLE LEGION is from the Warner Archive's Tim Holt Western Classics Collection Vol. 3.

GUNPLAY was entertaining enough, though I didn't care for the story as much as I usually do. Tim Holt (played by...Tim Holt!) and his buddy Chito (Richard Martin) have been hired by mail to work as ranch hands for Terry Blake (Joan Dixon). When they arrive at the ranch they're surprised but pleased to realize that Terry is an attractive woman.

The plot takes a detour here to follow Sam (Robert Bice) and Chip (Harper Carter) Martin. Martin has been done out of money by Landry (Mauritz Hugo) but after Martin forcibly claims his rightful property, Landry sends his henchmen (including Robert J. Wilke) to kill Martin and get the money back. Chip hides and survives but there's a disturbing scene when he finds his lynched father.

The above sequence setting up the story with the Martins took way too much time away from Tim and Chito and was more than a little troubling to watch; it was definitely darker than your average Holt Western! From that point the film improves, as Tim, Chito, and Terry search for the killers and plan Chip's future.

Regardless of the story, Holt and Martin are always terrific company. My enjoyment of the movie was also elevated by the presence of Joan Dixon, leading lady of the crime films BUNCO SQUAD (1950) and ROADBLOCK (1951).

Dixon appeared in five Holt Westerns including the previously reviewed LAW OF THE BADLANDS (1951). I look forward to seeing her in the future in the Holt Westerns PISTOL HARVEST (1951), HOT LEAD (1951), and DESERT PASSAGE (1952), along with the crime film EXPERIMENT ALCATRAZ (1950). At that point I'll have seen all of her movies, excepting a bit part she had in CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS (1953). it's a shame she didn't make more films as she's a striking presence.

The scenery in GUNPLAY, filmed in black and white by J. Roy Hunt, was only so-so; it was all done on Southern California movie ranches or the nearby area. IMDb says filming took place in Santa Clarita. No Lone Pine or Idyllwild this time!

GUNPLAY was directed by Lesley Selander. It runs 61 minutes.

Though GUNPLAY wasn't one of my favorite Holt Westerns, I've seen seven of the films in this Tim Holt Vol. 3 set and highly recommend it. In addition to the films being fun to watch, the set and the discs themselves are attractively produced. Western fans will love it along with the other three volumes in this series.