Sheriff Billy The Kid

 

 (wikipedia)

SHERIFF OF SAGE VALLEY-1942-Billy the Kid (Buster Crabbe) and his two cohorts Fuzzy (Al St. John) and Jeff (Dave O'Brien; REEFER MADNESS; CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT) become the law in Sage Valley when they save a stagecoach from being robbed and the sheriff is murdered. They take on Sloane (Charles King), who runs the local crooked casino and his gang but the real boss is Kansas Ed, Billy's twin brother (also Crabbe) who kidnaps Billy and impersonates him for a while. Billy's buddies save him and they stop Kansas but are almost hanged anyway. 

This PRC western quickie was directed by...who else but the speed demon himself Sam Newfield using his frequent alias, Sherman Scott. His brother Sigmund Neufeld produced. According to my (not so reliable) calculations Buster Crabbe played a character called Billy the Kid in 36 westerns!

Read about the real outlaw: Billy the Kid | Biography, Death, & Facts | Britannica

Thnaks for reading,partner!

Dual Belas!

 BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT-1942-Prof. Brenner (Bela Lugosi) is a criminology teacher by day and at night he's Karl Wagner who runs a Bowery mission that's a front for robbery and murder. Sgt. Crawford (Dave O'Brien) investigates. Wagner's M.O. is to kill one accomplice at the scene of a crime. He recruits psycho killer Frank Mills (Tom Neal; he'd star in DETOUR in 1945) to help. Wagner's nurse Judy (Wanda McKay) doesn't suspect but her boyfriend Richard (John Archer) goes undercover as a bum to study the underprivileged and winds up dead. The nutty ending has an insane doctor resurrecting Wagner's dead victims who in turn kill him. Since Richard comes back to life he and Judy live happily ever after. When Richard is on the Bowery he meets two oddballs almost in a row. One is played by Pat Costello and the other by Bernard Gorcey! Wheeler Oakman, Victor Adamson and Snub Pllard have small roles.

Director Wallace Fox made several "East Side Kids" comedies (that were set in The Bowery) and directed Lugosi in THE CORPSE VANISHES the same year. After making PILLOW OF DEATH, one of the Inner Sanctum series of film at Universal he drifted into low budget westerns then went into TV (The Gene Autry Show, Ramar Of The Jungle). He dies in 1958.

https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2020/01/vanishing-bride.html

Sam Katzman was the executive producer of this low budget quickie released through Monogram but it's not bad despite some lapses in reason!

Thanks for reading!

Batty!

DEVIL BAT (KILLER BATS)-1942- is weird but enjoyable poverty row production from PRC. It stars Bela Lugosi as Dr. Paul Carruthers, a bitter inventor who uses a giant bat to kill people he believes have wronged him. It's also the only movie I know of that's plot revolves around shaving lotion!

Yeah, Lugosi is mad because the shaving lotion he invented made millions for the company he sold it to. Now he wants revenge! He implores his intended victims to sample a new lotion he's created and after they are gone he sends his "gigantic" bat to do them in (it also makes strange whooping sounds before it attacks). It's funny when the victims say something like "See ya Later, doc" and his reply is just "goodbye". Suzanne Kaaren portrays Lugosi's niece. Her love interest is a reporter played by Dave O'Brien (from The East Side Kids series, Pete Smith shorts and REEFER MADNESS).

Director Jean Yarbrough began as an assistant director in 1926 who graduated to the full time in 1936. He made some other interesting low budget movies: THE BRUTE MAN and HOUSE OF HORRORS (both starring Rondo Hatton), KING OF THE ZOMBIES, THE CREEPER and five for ABBOTT and COSTELLO. He later directed all 52 episodes of their great TV show. He worked mainly in TV after that directing episdoes of THE ADDAMS FAMILY, BONANZA, GUNSMOKE, MY FAVORITE MARTIAN and others.

PRC later remade this as THE FLYING SERPENT with George Zucco in Bela's role. Instead of a bat, mythic Aztec creature, Quetzalcoutl is the killer. They also made a semi-sequel THE DEVIL BAT'S DAUGHTER in 1946 which actually exonerates the Carruthers character's evil ways!!!


Bela has some fun! Thanks for reading!