The latest from the Warner Archives Monogram Matinee series is a pair of B westerns featuring Johnny Mack Brown as he blazes across the screen in Under Arizona Skies (1946) and Range Justice (1949). Monogram Matinee Volume 3 also features legendary horse-opera sidekicks Raymond Hatton and Max “Alibi” Terhune riding the range alongside Mack Brown.
Under Arizona Skies (60 min) is where Dusty Smith (Mack Brown) and his comic-relief partner Sante Fe Jones (Hatton) are offered jobs on the Simpson ranch that’s being pestered by rustlers. These bad lads are led by the black-hatted Blackie (there’s always a black hat and this one comes complete with pencil-thin mustache) and assisted by a crooked deputy sheriff. After killing a rustler in self defense and while sitting in jail waiting to be busted out by young Bill Simpson (Riley Hill), Dusty and Sante Fe discover that the dastardly deputy has been pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes. With the poisonous plot exposed, Dusty will assemble the ranch hands and bring down the pesky plague of rustlers in the climatic shootout that’s followed by the wedding celebration of Bill and Cindy (Reno Blair), the sheriff’s daughter. This little oater features a couple of B western staples with Tristram Coffin as Blackie and cowboy legend Kermit Maynard as stand-up, ranch-hand Joe Forbes. There’s also two songs by Smith Ballew and the Sons of the Sage.
Range Justice (54 min) finds Johnny Mack Brown as Johnny Mack Brown who throws in with the fiery old Ma Curtis (Sarah Padden) to help fight off her young neighbors, siblings Glenn and Beth Hadley, who she believes are encroaching on her land. After a dust-up at the saloon with Ma Curtis’ foreman, Stoner, Johnny bumps into an old showman friend, Alibi (Terhune), and the two become suspicious of Stoner. Johnny and Alibi soon learn Stoner is indeed plotting with shady real-estate man, the black-hatted Ed Dutton to swindle away Ma’s ranch while framing the young Hadley’s as the evil doers. Now Johnny, Alibi, and young Glenn Hadley must team up to thwart the theft of Ma’s beloved range land. Ventriloquist/magician Max Terhune and his buddy Elmer, provide the laughs while Tris Coffin returns as the black hat and Riley Hill resumes the role of the young hothead who needs Johnny’s big brotherly advice.
Johnny Mack Brown is a little past his prime in these two movies but he holds up pretty well and still packs a punch. The two Monogram Pictures featured in this volume are true matinee-fare westerns with standard plots, lots of fast-paced action, familiar filming locations, cliche chase music as well as stock footage of cattle on the open range. The key cast of players deliver their usual solid performances while the only real less-than-stellar work comes from Reno Blair in her big screen debut. Hatton’s lighthearted comic shenanigans remain funny and not overplayed or too silly. Terhume is good at what he does and even scenes sans Elmer work well. Directors Lambert Hillyer (Under Arizona Skies) and Ray Taylor (Range Justice) handle their duties behind the camera effectively and efficiently as both are veterans of these types of B pictures with resumes dating back to the silent era.
Buy Monogram Matinee Vol. 3 from AmazonFans of B western should delight in these little gems of six-gun cinema presented in HD on the latest installment of the Monogram Matinee series.
