FILM REVIEW OF ''KING OF THE COWBOYS" (1943)

Roy Rogers tangles with Axis sympathizers in director Joseph Kane's "King of the Cowboys," a contemporary Republic Pictures western set during World War II. Basically, "King of the Cowboys" (**1/2 OUT OF ****) is an espionage oater. You won't find any Fifth Columnists either wielding Lugars or snarling oaths, but these American traitors mean business. Incidentally, neither Kane nor scenarists Olive Cooper, J. Benton Cheney, and Hal Long ever identify the people that these anarchists are supporting. Roy sings "I'm an Old Cowhand," "Ride, Ranger, Ride," "Red River Valley," and "Roll Along Prairie Moon." Roy has several interesting scenes, including his escape from a warehouse wired to blow sky high. Pat Brady, one of the Sons of the Pioneers, utters an immortal line of dialogue that I always thought was first used in the 1982 epic "Conan the Barbarian": "Do you want to live forever?" Most of the physical action involves the kind of derring-do that was the bread and butter of Republic's serials. Gerald Mohr provides sufficient villainy as the kind of felon who has no qualms about indiscriminate murder. Gene Autry's perennial sidekick Smiley Burnette plays Roy's right-hand man Frog Millhouse and serves as comic relief. One of the gimmicks the villains deploy to wreck the car filled with good guys predates a similar gimmick that the villains used against James Bond when he careered around Goldfinger's factory in the third OO7 epic.  The villains are a technologically savvy bunch.

A sabotage ring is terrorizing Texas, and the dastards are destroying warehouses with explosives. Texas Governor Shuville (Russell Hicks of "Captain America") summons Roy Rogers and Frog Millhouse about an incident that occurred when they pursued the Wilson gang to Arkansas. They confronted the outlaws in a saloon that straddled the border between Arkansas and Texas. One of them is Duke Wilson (Stuart Hamblen), and Duke robbed the rodeo where Roy worked. Predictably, the Arkansas sheriff (Herbert Heyes of "New York Confidential") isn't happy about Roy's decision and lodges a formal complaint with  Governor Shuville. "Rogers," Shuville observes, "I like the way you work. I like your nerve. I can use a fast-thinking man like you. In fact, I need you for an assignment." The Governor wants Roy to infiltrate a group that has thwarted each of his operatives. He wants Roy because "the fellows after you wouldn't mistake you for anything but a cowboy." The Governor briefs Roy, "There is a wave of sabotage sweeping through this territory with the precision of a well-organized gang. All my efforts to apprehend them have failed." The Governor warns Roy that his predecessor died making his report by telephone. The only available clues are the words: "following Merry." Roy volunteers to take care of the problem for the Governor. The chief executive asks Roy to memorize a secret phone number. This will be the only way they will communicate until they close the case. The Governor is the only man who knows about Roy’s mission.  This became a familiar but suspenseful ruse in mystery-thrillers.  The only man who can vouch for the discredited hero is a law enforcement official of the highest authority who winds up indisposed.

What the Governor has no way of knowing is that his personal secretary, William Kraley (Lloyd Corrigan of "Son of Paleface"), is the leader of the saboteurs. A suspicious Kraley warns Maurice (Gerald Mohr of "The Angry Red Planet") and his henchmen to be on the look-out for Roy Rogers.  He explains that Roy Rogers quit the rodeo after a private conference with the Governor.  Kraley tells them their new "key word: triplets."Later, while Roy is singing and strumming his guitar in the back of a cafe, two actresses from The Merry Makers Carnival and Tent Show enter and order the $35 cent lunch. Roy serves them coffee, and they have a conversation. "Every town we play has an explosion or a fire," Judy Mason (Peggy Moran of "Horror Island") points out. The other girl, Ruby Smith (Dorothea Kent of "Pin-Up Girl"), gripes because an explosion interrupted her dancing act. Roy says he is looking for a job, and Judy agrees to notify her stepbrother Dave (James Bush of "Massacre River") about Roy needing employment. The comments about the explosions arouse Roy's suspicions after the Ruby uses the words “following Merry.” He visits the carnival in the town of Rawhide with Frog. Roy decides to join the carnival to learn first-hand what is really happening behind the scenes. The carnival features a mind-reading act with a turban-clad individual known as Maurice the Mental Marvel. Actually, Maurice is Kraley's second-in-command. The act is rather sophisticated. A cowgirl with a microphone in her ring, Judy Mason, which she calls 'the mystic stone' asks spectators to confidentially address their problems to the stone. Interestingly, the stone serves as a microphone. A man behind the stage, usually David Mason, sits at a radio transmitter and relays the information to a man in a turban and a robe. Roy and Frog disrupt Maurice's show and their commotion prompts Mason to give Roy a chance to sing. Later, after he lies about  a date with Judy, Roy has a run-in with Maurice, and they tie him up and abandon him in a warehouse about to be blown to smithereens. Afterward, Roy contacts Shuville, and the Governor and his men cruise into a trap because Kraley listened in on their conversation. They think they are about to have a head-on collision with another vehicle when in fact all that is happening is they are driving toward a huge mirror. This is rather ingenious. The Governor's car tumbles down the side of a mountain.

Meantime, Roy suspects that they have trapped the saboteur when Frog and he take over the mind-reading act. Maurice catches Roy using the receiver. When he is about to shoot Roy, Mason threatens to expose them all. Instead of Roy, Maurice shoots Dave in the back. Maurice frames Roy for Dave's murder. During his stay in jail, Roy learns that the Governor isn't expected to survive the car crash. Roy telephones Frog, who appears in a disguise masquerading as Roy's grandfather, and tells him to tell Judy about Maurice's treachery. Judy and Ruby arrange for Roy to escape from jail and returns to the carnival. Kraley passes along information during the Maurice act. Maurice tries to intervene, and Roy guns down Kraley. Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers hightail it on horseback to prevent the saboteurs from dynamiting a metal bridge that a train will cross. Roy climbs the bridge and defuses the dynamite. While he is climbing on the bridge, Maurice's henchmen keep him busy dodging their lead and firing back at them.

"King of the Cowboys" is a predictable but entertaining, lightweight espionage western. Roy Rogers makes a charismatic, clean-cut hero in a white Stetson. He warbles several tolerable songs.  Veteran director Joe Kane keeps the action constantly moving headlong so this B-movie doesn't wear out its welcome during its 56-minute running length.

FILM REVIEW OF ''CAPTAIN AMERICA" (2011)

“Rocketeer” director Joe Johnston’s “Captain America” (**** OUT OF ****) amounts to a timeless David versus Goliath tale set in the Marvel Comics’ universe where good always trumps evil. Unlike “Thor” and “Green Lantern,” “Captain America” ranks as a thoroughly spectacular but larger-than-life extravaganza with a genuinely charismatic hero struggling against a marvelously malignant villain. Chris Evans’ engaging performance as the ‘First Avenger’ is something else, too! If you recall, Evans had the time of his life several years ago playing egotistical Johnny Storm, aka ‘the Human Torch,’ in the two “Fantastic Four” flicks. Make no mistake; Evans is nothing like he was in those two super heroic sagas. Indeed, “Captain America” boasts some amazing special effects, but its best special effect is the sincerity that Evans brings to the role of Steve Rogers. Whether he plays Rogers as either a scrawny, 98-pound zero or a brawny, fleet-footed hero, Evans imparts heart to this $140-million thriller. During the first half of “Captain America,” Johnston gradually builds the momentum to let us grow accustomed to Evans as a scrappy little fellow who suffers the wrath of bullies. This pathetic weakling refuses to let anybody keep him down, and it’s fun because Evans makes it look so authentic despite the obvious CGI effects. Hugo Weaving registers as the ideal villain who holds the upper hand throughout most of the supercharged shenanigans. Tommy Lee Jones and Hayley Atwell co-star respectively as Captain America’s superior and his love interest.

“Captain America” opens in the present before it reverts to the past. Typically, movies with contemporary openings and endings sacrifice any sense of suspense. After all, you know if the characters thrive in the present that they must not have suffered in the past. Basically, this constitutes nothing more than a narrative cinematic convention. The chief difference here is that we’re only given a glimpse of Captain America’s legendary star-spangled shield instead of the eponymous protagonist himself. Anyway, the film unfolds in the frozen wasteland of the Arctic Circle as a Russian oil expedition stumbles onto something buried in the ice. They contact the Americans who slice into the ice with a laser, find a commodious craft of unknown origin, and uncover a circular red, white, and blue shield with a star. The scene shifts to March 1942 as despicable Nazi officer Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving of “The Matrix”) and his men storm into Tønsberg, Norway, and confiscate an enigmatic tesseract. Essentially, this is a magical cube boasting incalculable power. Supposedly, the tesseract was a fabulous jeweled artifact that belonged to the legendary Norse god Odin. Once anybody lays their eyes on it, they are no longer the same.

Meanwhile, in New York City, the U.S. military brands Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) unfit for duty owing to a myriad of health problems. The resilient Rogers tries to enlist again when his buddy James Buchanan ‘Bucky’ Barnes (Sebastian Stan of “Black Swan”) takes him to a showcase of futuristic technologies. Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci of “Easy A”) eavesdrops on Rogers' conversation with Barnes about his desperate need to get into combat. Suitably impressed by Rogers’ attitude, Erskine allows him to enlist. Moreover, Erskine recruits Rogers as part of a "super-soldier" experiment under the aegis of Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones of “Coal Miner's Daughter”) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell of “The Duchess”). Phillips displays considerable skepticism about Erskine's contention that Rogers qualifies as the ideal candidate for the procedure. One day during a training exercise, Phillips lobs a grenade among the recruits. Everybody but Rogers scrambles for cover, while he smothers the grenade with his frail body. Predictably, the grenade is a dummy, but Rogers’ act of self-sacrificing bravery convinces the colonel that he is the appropriate choice.

No sooner has Rogers emerged from the procedure as an entirely new man with a buffed up body than a Nazi saboteur steps in and kills Erskine. As it turns out, Erskine keep no notes except those in his head. After Erskine dies, Rogers experiences his new-found strength and captures the saboteur. The saboteur lives long enough to warn Rogers that he has to face more of his kind before he crunches on a cyanide capsule and croaks. Roger wins fame and acclaim across the country, but he suffers a setback because he is the first and only of his kind. Colonel Phillips reassigns him and Roger ends up at War Bond rallies where he acts like a cheerleader surrounded by dancing girls. Eventually, when our hero learns that his best friend has been caught, he disobeys orders and leads an inspirational rescue behind enemy lines. Now that Rogers has proven himself, he must face the Red Skull. The Red Skull is Nazi officer Johann Schmidt and he is so ambitious that he not only wants to crush America but also Adolf Hitler. Talk about a villain to end all villains!

Anybody who has read the reprints of the World War 2 era “Captain America” comic book should be thrilled with the way that “The Chronicles of Narnia” scenarists Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have handled the original material by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Of course, Johnston and his scribes have ratcheted up the hardware for the big transformation scene that turns Steve Rodgers into Captain America. In the original comic, instead of being injected with several drugs and sprawling in a large contraption, Rogers was given a vial of chemicals that he drank before he turned into the eponymous hero. Altogether, “Captain America” is a predictable but entertaining comic book movie with sensational special effects and a sympathetic hero. If you are a Marvel Comic fan, you should stick around after the lengthy end credits for a glimpse of the forthcoming “Avengers” film due for release in May 2012.

FILM REVIEW OF ''CRIMINALS WITHIN" (1943)

“Criminals Within” (** out of ****) exemplifiea one of many espionage thrillers that Hollywood immersed the market with prior to World War II. These pictures did not cost as much to make since the stories occurred in the United States and the villains were usually fifth columnists without uniforms. Ostensibly, this movie amounts to little, aside from its director, Joseph H. Lewis, who carved out a reputation for his himself in later films. “Secret Evidence” story contributor Edward Bennett penned the screenplay from “Texas to Bataan” scenarist Arthur Hoerl’s story. Hoerl’s output in screenplays far surpassed anything that Bennett. “Criminals Within” represented Bennett’s only screenplay, though he proved the story for director William Nigh’s “Secret Evidence.” The action replicates the typical Hitchcock thriller that incriminates an innocent man for a crime he didn’t commit. Everything about “Criminals Within” complies with the formula, right down to the racist abuse of African-Americans as secondary characters in traditionally subservient roles. Ironically, the African-American characters malign themselves. The maid character slams a door in her boyfriend’s face and later makes a joke that “it won’t turn black.” Early, she claims that her boyfriend couldn’t possibly know a character because the person is a gentleman and the boyfriend only knows people in prison.

Director Joseph H. Lewis gets “Criminals Within” off to a bang-up start. An U.S. Army officer meets with a civilian scientist at a huge, three-story, brick building, in a locked room with the legend Research Dept. and Chemical Div. inscribed on the marbled glass door panel. The bespectacled Professor Carroll (George Lynn of “Hitler’s Madman”) produces spherical glass containers and demonstrates the formula for a top-secret military explosive. “I wouldn’t risk putting anything so valuable in writing,” Carroll taps his head, “I keep it here.” He mixes the chemicals while the officer watches. “I shall demonstrate the process to you and you alone so that only you and I will know it.” Director Lewis frames the medium shot perfectly so that we see both individuals with the glass paneled door in the background. The shadow of an unknown assailant appears at the door between the officer and Professor Carroll. Lewis cuts to a medium shot of the man behind the door and the guy smashes the glass, thrusts his revolver through the crack, and guns down Professor Carroll.

The Army officer phones Military Intelligence and Martin forms a plan. “For the present, his death must remain an absolute secret,” Martin informs the officer. “I’ll be here to work with you.” Nobody else knew about Professor Carroll’s research except his younger brother, Corporal Greg Carroll (Eric Linden of “Gone with the Wind”), in Selective Service at Camp Madison. Corporal Carroll displays dexterity with playing cards and demonstrates considerable initiative in his job. Captain Bryant (Robert Frazer of “Robin Hood”), Carroll’s superior officer, summons him and inquires about a valuable document missing from his safe. Carroll knows the combination to Bryant’s safe because his superior often mumbles the numbers when he opens the safe. Since an important sheet of paper was never replaced in the safe, Carroll had filed the document away for safekeeping in a cabinet. Initially, Bryant believed Carroll had stolen the paper. Carroll remembers a list of scientists on the document, but the Bryant prohibits him from mentioning any names in front of Lieutenant John Harmon (Donald Curtis of “Bataan”) who is romantically linked with Alma. Interestingly, instead of a portrait of Franklin Roosevelt on Captain Bryant’s office, a picture of Abraham Lincoln hangs there. Bryant is concerned when Alma Barton (Constance Worth of “Meet Boston Blackie”) enters the filing room while Greg is searching for the paper. He fears that she may have access to privileged information.

Bryant detains Carroll in the guard house, but our hero escapes to warn his brother. You see, Carroll doesn’t know his brother has been murdered. Our hero gets a little help from parties unknown (actually Sergeant Paul) when he finds the jail cell key in his meal. Carroll goes to the Recreation Hall to telephone his brother, but his brother’s assistant answers and says he hasn’t seen the professor. Carroll conceals himself in an out-of-order phone booth in the recreation room with Barton’s blessing. Bryant visits around closing time. He tries to pry information out of a reluctant Barton. She conceals coded messages in the high heels of her shoes and regularly sends an African-American private with them to a cobbler, Carl Flegler (I. Stanford Jolly), who serves as the go-between for an espionage ring. Naturally, since “Criminals Within” is a pre-World War II movie, the identity of the foreign government is never disclosed. The cobbler passes the shoes along to men in suits ensconced in another office on the premises. The stylist villains have a torture chamber that they call a ‘fever’ room where they can rise and lower the temperature and force a person to talk.

Meanwhile, Barton grows scared enough of Bryant that she has him murdered in the Recreation Hall. Carroll discovers Bryant’s corpse in time to get away before Lieutenant Harmon shows up with security. Initially, Carroll throws Harmon off the trail by smashing a window and then taking refuge in the out-of-order phone booth again to mislead them. When he overhears the lieutenant phone Alma, Carroll slips out the window and heads to her apartment. Meantime, a sergeant who was a former newspaperman calls newspaperwoman Linda (Ann Doran of “Mr. Skeffington”) and she gets on the case. Linda employs a loquacious African-American maid Mamie (Bernie Pilot) whose boyfriend is none other than Sam Dillingham (Dudley Dickerson of “Kentucky”), the canteen orderly. Clearly, the filmmakers ignored military customs since Sam never wears his cap. Anyway, Sam has been delivering Alma’s secret messages without realizing it. Linda hustles over to Alma’s apartment and Greg arrives not long after. She hides in the hallway and Greg discovers Alma has been murdered. About that time, fifth columnist Stanley Hume (Dennis Moore) arrives and demands to see Alma. Greg clobbers him, stashes him bound and gagged in a closet, and leaves dressed in his clothes. On the way out the door, Linda intercepts Greg. They team up and narrowly miss Lt. Harmon and his MPs heading for Alma’s apartment.

Linda takes Greg back to her apartment and orders him a new suit of clothes because she thinks the military will pick him up based on a description of his apparel. In the meantime, Harmon and his MPs find Alma’s corpse and Hume tied up in the closet. No sooner does the military have Hume in custody than an attorney arrives with a write of Habeas Corpus to obtain his release. The commanding officer-in-charge gives these two a dressing down because they are using the hard-fought for privilege of all Americans to their fiendish advantage. This obvious bit of flag-waving exposition is as patriotic as “Criminals Within” gets in the course of its 70 minute running time. The two fifth columnists are cruising away from Camp Madison when they are overtaken by the inside man, Sergeant Paul (Ben Alexander of “Dragnet”) who is a double-agent of considerably higher rank in his country masquerading as a non-commissioned officer. He reprimands the attorney for showing up too early, thus tipping off the military that something is amiss.

Greg and Linda go to the cobbler’s shop, but he is captured at gunpoint and has to accompany them to their superior who threatens to shoot Greg if he refuses to divulge the name of the scientist. In fact, Greg never learns during the story that his brother was murdered. When Greg refuses to talk, the fifth columnists capture Linda and imprison her in the ‘fever’ room to break Greg. Surprising everybody, Linda smashes the observation window in the room and Greg gets the drop on the villains. The surprising but least believable moment comes when Linda exerts her strength to break the observation window. Everything is neatly sown up in the end with the capture of the spy ring.


This forgettable, low-budget, Producer’s Releasing Corporation espionage thriller appears to have been lensed largely within the confines of a studio. Aside from the checkpoint gate and the base’s name sign, we never see anything remotely resembling the actual exteriors of a military installation. “Criminals Within” was produced in 1941, but the film was not released until 1943. One character sums up “Criminals Within” concisely with the line: “Oh, brother, this is worse than a movie melodrama.” The best thing about this mystery is the identity of the traitor. “Criminals Within” qualifies as an efficient but unremarkable potboiler. Interestingly, Frazer as the distinction of being the first actor to portray Robin Hood in the cinema. Furthermore, director Joseph H. Lewis would helm bigger and better movies like “The Big Combo” (1955) with Cornel Wilde, “A Lawless Street” (1955) with Randolph Scott, and “Terror in a Texas Town” (1958) with Sterling Hayden. Primarily, Lewis is best known for his B-movie jewel “Gun Crazy” (1950) written by blacklisted scribe Dalton Trumbo based on MacKinlay Kantor’s story “Gun Crazy.”

FILM REVIEW OF ''ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT'' (1942)

Humphrey Bogart tangles with treacherous Nazi spies in director Vincent Sherman's "All Through the Night," (**** out of ****) a witty World War II propaganda thriller that takes place before Uncle Sam entered the war against the Axis powers. "All Through the Night" boasts a terrific, top-notch supporting cast featuring Judith Anderson, Jane Darwell, Jackie C. Gleason, Phil Silvers, Peter Lorre, and William Demarest. Perennial Nazi impersonator, real-life German Jew Conrad Veidt of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" battles with Bogart in this serio-comic espionage melodrama. A year later Bogart and Veidt locked horns again in Michael Curtiz's Oscar-winning love story "Casablanca," and Veidt played more Nazis in MGM's "Nazi Agent" and "Above Suspicion" before he succumbed to a heart attack in 1943. Scenarist Leonard "Mystery Street" Spigelgass and Edwin "Larceny, Inc.," Gilbert have penned a top-flight, lightweight, rollicking, white-knuckler that puts our hero between a rock and a hard place. "All Through the Night" shares a lot in common with Hitchcock thrillers such as "The 39 Steps" and "North by Northwest" because our wrongly accused hero has to stay one step ahead of the police to exonerate himself of charges that he murdered a nightclub owner. Anybody who loves off-beat Humphrey Bogart movies will enjoy this humorous hokum.

"All Through the Night" opens with a group of Runyonesque Broadway gamblers sitting around a table discussing the combustible European predicament. Mr. Alfred 'Gloves' Donahue (Humphrey Bogart) interrupts their heated conversation. One of Gloves' minions, Sunshine (William Demarest of "Escape from Fort Bravo"), explains what they've been doing with toy soldiers and tanks on the table in front of them, "Just showing how England can win the war." An amusted Gloves chuckles, "I'll arrange a conference between you and Churchill." Sunshine points out, "Don't you think it's time you got your mind out of the sports section and on to the front page." Gloves dismisses Sunshine's suggestion, "That's Washington's racket, let them handle it." Gloves' problems start when Louie (Phil Silvers) runs out of Gloves favorite cheese cake from Miller's Bakery. Gloves lives and breathes to munch Miller's cheesecake. When Louie tries to pass off an inferior brand, Gloves spots the difference in a heartbeat. Later, Gloves' mother 'Ma' Donahue begins to worry him about Mr. Miller's disappearance. When Gloves stumbles onto Miller's corpse in the shop basement, things really begin to click. The N.Y.P.D. is suspicious about Gloves from the start, but they don't arrest him until they find one of his gloves next to the body of a dead nightclub owner. Everything hinges on finding a young vocalist Miss Leda Hamilton (Kaaren Verne of "A Bullet for Joey") that was seen with Miller before he died. As it turns out, Franz Ebbing (Conrad Veidt) and his second-in-command Pepi (Peter Lorre of "M") are planning a 9/11 style terrorist attack not unlike a similar act of sabotage in Alfred Hitchcock's own "Saboteur" with Robert Cummings about Nazis blowing up a ship in New York harbor.

Jane Darwell of "The Grapes of Wrath" is hilarious as Gloves' presumptuous mother who is constantly interfering in her son's affairs. She gets Gloves into real trouble when she follows Miss Hamilton to a nightclub run by Marty Callahan (Barton MacLane of "High Sierra") called the Duchess Club and summons him. Lorre is particularly nasty as Ebbing's right-hand man. One of the greatest running gags in "All Through the Night" concerns Gloves' flustered chauffeur Barney (Frank McHugh of "Bullets or Ballots") who has just been married and cannot convince Gloves to let him have time enough to consummate his marriage. The Production Code Administration cautioned Warner Brothers about a lot of subversive dialogue with regard to Barney's situation. Apparently, some kind of deal was struck between Jack Warner and Joseph I. Breen over the salacious content of the dialogue. In the opening scene, for example, Sunshine argues that they can catch the Nazis with their Panzers down, a comment that drew the wrath of the Production Code, because of the implied sexuality in the remark. Nevertheless, the line made it into the film. Despite its racist content, there is a howler of a scene when Gloves' African-American valet Saratoga (Sam McDaniel of "Three Godfathers") delivers with supreme straight-faced solemnity to Miss Hamilton that "Things ain't as black as they look." Sherman keeps things moving in a dead heat as Gloves struggles to elude the police and get the goods on Ebbing and his dastardly bunch. Another hilarious scene occurs at an auction with some incredibly funny dialogue that sounds more like gibberish than actual words.

"All Through the Night" runs a close second to Raoul Walsh's Errol Flynn actioneer "Desperate Journey" as one of the best pre-World War II thrillers.