Bushwhacked!

  (imdb)

THE BUSHWHACKERS-1951-After the Civil War ends Jefferson Waring (John Ireland) vows never to raise a gun against another man again. He heads west. Things aren't much better. He witnesses some homesteaders killed and their house burned down. Later he meets Peter Sharpe (Frank Marlowe), a newspaper publisher who let's him stay at his home but Sharpe's daughter (Dorothy Malone) has him arrested. The useless Marshall (Wayne Morris) and his dimwitted deputy (Norman Leavitt) lock him up. Sharpe clears him and gives him a job but Waring wants to leave town. He winds up in a fist fight with hired gun Tobin (Lawrence Tierney) and his thugs (one is Jack Elam). 

After he leaves, Waring runs afoul of arthritic wheelchair bound Artemis Taylor (Lon Chaney) and bitchy daughter Nora (Myrna Dell). They know the railroad is planning to buy up the surrounding land for a new line and Taylor wants to drive out the homesteaders before they find out it's valuable. Sharpe saw some surveyors and knows about it so Taylor orders his flunky Ding (William Holmes) to kill the rebel. Nora orders Tobin (who works for Taylor) to kill Ding too. There's a big botch up and Waring is wounded but not killed. He finds shelter with the homesteaders and tells them about the railroad. Nora plans to lead a gang to drive the settlers out once and for all. Sharpe prints an editorial that lays out Taylor's plan for everyone to see and is killed. Later when Nora leads her thugs to destroy the homesteaders they are caught in an ambush. Nora and her dad both die. 

This was the directorial debut for actor/stuntman Rod Amateau who went on to direct many TV shows (Burns & Allen, My Mother,The Car). This last movie was THE GARBAGE PAIL KIDS MOVIE in 1987. He co-wrote the screenplay with debuting writer Tom Gries who went on to write an early Bert I. Gordon movie KING DINOSAUR in 1955. 

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Jungle Jim 2

THE LOST TRIBE-1949-This was the second installment of the Jungle Jim series starring ex-Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller. ]

A travelogue opening uses stock footage to explain the various local animals. 

When Jim rescues Li Wanna (Elena Verdugo the doomed  gypsy in  HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN), a native girl from rampaging animals he learns she is from a lost city “beyond the mountains”. Her tribe needs Jim's help because “white men” want the tribe's stash of diamonds. When a lion attacks a gorilla and it's baby, Jim wrestles the king of the jungle and kills it with his knife. He seems none the worst for wear except he loses his hat but the gorilla (man in a suit) seems grateful. Jim also gets help from Kaw-Kaw, a crow and Skipper, a dog. 

A guy named Calhoun (Joseph Vitale) is after the diamonds and fortunately Li Wanna's brother Chot (Paul Marion) is sweet on Norina (Myrna Dell) who is in cahoots with Calhoun and a ship captain (Ralph Dunn) to obtain the mother lode. Later (in a badly staged scene) Jim kills a shark threatening some pearl divers. I liked the introduction Jim gives to Norina when she asks his name : “Jim. Just Jim”. Most of this is Jim running back and forth from the jungle to the town then swimming to the ship and going back to the jungle. He has a lot of fights but never runs out of energy. Finally when he's forced to lead Calhoun and his men to the lost city, a gang of gorillas kill the intruders. Jim's relationship with the apes is kind of funny!

The weirdest thing about this Sam Katzman low budget production is the “un-Africa” like setting. There are no black natives. Most seem Asian or Polynesian!

Johnny Weismuller's last Tarzan appearance was in 1948's TARZAN AND THE MERMAIDS. Except for one movie in 1947 (SWAMP FIRE with Buster Crabbe, another film Tarzan) the only movies he'd make would JJ films until 1977 when had a cameo in WON TON TON: THE DOG THAT SAVED HOLLYWOOD! 

THE LOST TRIBE was directed by William Berke, the veteran low budget director who'd helm a few more in the series.

I reviewed the first Jungle Jim entry here: http://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2010/01/jungle-jim-jumps-in.html

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Stanley Before The Bowery

DESTINATION MURDER-1950-Stanley Clements (6 years before replacing Leo Gorcey in The Bowery Boys series) is Jackie Wales, a telegram delivery boy who kills a man for club owner Mr. Armitage (Albert Dekker) who likes to talk in the third person. The dead man's daughter Laura (Joyce MacKenzie) suspects Jackie and begins dating him. Later she gets a job as a cigarette girl in the club where manager Stretch Norton (Hurd Hatfield) puts the moves on her. Armitage's mistress (Myrna Dell) gets Jackie involved in blackmail and eventually his own murder. It turns out Norton is actually the brains of the operation. 

After Jackie's killed (it's not shown; his character seems to have just been written out) it turns into a revenge love story focusing on Laura and her relationship with Norton. 

 Star Joyce MacKenzie played Jane to Lex Barker's Tarzan in TARZAN AND THE SHE DEVIL. James Flavin is a police lieutenant and John Dehner is another suspect. Future star of THE WEREWOLF Steve Ritch has a bit role. 

A great vocal band Steve Gibson's Red Caps plays in the club. You can read about them here: http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/redcaps.html

There's actually a lot of strange twists in this little murder mystery directed by Edward L. Cahn a few years before he made some of the greatest low budget horror and Sci-Fi movies of all time.

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