Dude Cowboy (1941) User Reviews (6)

Counterfeiting In the West

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 4 September 2011]

Dude Cowboy casts Treasury Agent Tim Holt on the trail of counterfeiters in the west. I can't say whether it was the old west or modern west as the cast wore 19th century garb, but there were such things as telephones in use. In that I certainly agree with the other reviewer.

Despite that the film was a decent one, very typical of the quality of Tim Holt's westerns at RKO which were a lot better than even Republic cowboys were doing. Tim's not just looking for counterfeiters, but for a kidnapper as well as Bureau of the Mint engraver Byron Foulger is snatched off a train and forced to work for the outlaws. Pursuing her own investigation is Foulger's daughter Marjorie Reynolds. And helping Tim are his sidekicks Ray Whitley and Lee White.

The boys go to work at a Dude Ranch as that's where the trail leads and the film even gives grizzled old Lee White a bit of romance with spinster schoolteacher Helen Holmes. Her trying to correct his grammar, she might have had better success with Gabby Hayes.

As in Holt westerns enough action and gunplay to satisfy any fan of who I consider the best of cowboy heroes.

B western with tim holt

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 27 October 2022]

Hollywood really was a tiny little town in the days of black and white; the trivia tells us that both the female leads had been married to actor john whitney at some point. Here, tim holt is mcvey, who goes checking up on an engraver for the US mint. He seems to be putting out counterfeits these days, in silver city nevada. (that happens to be a real place, right off route 50, near virginia city!) mcvey asks the town-folk to help round up the bad guys. Mines, chases on horseback. Shoot-outs. Some fun locations too... the corrigan ranch, which is now a county park. Bronson cave, which was later used as the bat cave. It's like a a typical western, but with a different side story. Not bad. Nothing too new going on here. It's only a shortie B from rko... 59 minutes. Directed by david howard. Died young at 45. This film was released december 12 1941, and howard died on december 21. And both events were probably over-shadowed by pearl harbor. Also note the actor john ince in the uncredited role "Owed money for food"... he was the brother of thomas ince, the director producer who died in very mysterious circumstances, after partying on hearst's boat in 1924.

"Hey, you trying to railroad me?"

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 13 May 2016]

It's a counterfeiting scheme this time that gets Tim Holt together with fellow cowboys Ray Whitley and Lee 'Lasses' White. Unlike other stories in which the threesome worked together, this one doesn't give the impression that they were partners to begin with, although Terry McVey (Holt) seems to know them well enough when he arrives in Silver City, Nevada. Professor Hatch (White) is peddling his World Famous Indian Root Medicine Remedy to a local crowd while Smokey (Whitley) offers up some musical entertainment. They team up after the local authorities seize the Professor's wagon load of supplies and auction it all off to the highest bidder to pay for his debts around town.

The villain of the piece is Gordon West (Eddie Kane), owner of the Silver Bar Guest Ranch and the brains behind the counterfeiting ring operating from a cave outside of town. After they kidnap an engraver from the U.S. Mint (Byron Foulger as Frank Adams), Holt's character is assigned the task of investigating his disappearance and uncovering the counterfeiters. Working separately while trying to locate her father is pretty Barbara Adams (Marjorie Reynolds), using the alias Bernice Allen when she arrives in Silver City.

With Whitley supplying the tunes, Lee White provides the comic touch when he gets the bucking barrel treatment from the Silver Bar ranch hands, as he keeps up a running romance gag with Althea Carter (Helen Holmes). Apparently the old carrot and stick approach she used on the mule didn't get very far with Whopper, he high tailed it pretty quickly when the story came to a close.

All told there are four songs by Whitley in the picture making this the most musical of the Tim Holt Westerns I've seen. In addition to the title song 'I'm a Dude Cowboy', he opens the story with 'End of the Canyon Trail', followed up by 'Silver Rio' and 'Echo in the Wild Wind'. As a bonus, Whitley even throws in some yodeling on the Canyon Trail song, another first for this viewer in a Holt Western.

Yet another enjoyable Tim Holt Western.

[Bruce_Cook · 24 December 2003]

Typical fast-paced Tim Holt B-movie Western. Tim is tracking down a missing engraver who's being forced to print counterfeit money. The engraver's daughter (cute little Marjorie Reynolds) is looking for him, too.

Lots of pretty cowgirls -- all wearing pants, despite the historical period -- although the characters talk about making phone calls, so I'm not sure when the story takes place. I think I saw a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall of the bunch house.

Western music fans will enjoy the snappy tunes from singing cowboy costar, Ray Whitley. Lee 'Lasses' White provides comic relief. Lovely Louise Curry has her eye on Tim, but he's too busy for romance (and that's far too busy for me, yessiree . . . ).

I've yet to see a Tim Holt Western that didn't deliver a wagon load of fun. The only thing this one needed was Richard Martin as Tim's sidekick, Chito Jose Gonzalez Bustamante Rafferty (his father was Irish).

Tim Holt B Western, not as good as most

[jacobs-greenwood · 5/10 · 18 December 2016]

This Tim Holt B Western was written by Morton Grant and directed by David Howard. The story revolves around counterfeiting, and Holt is joined by his frequent sidekicks Ray Whitley as Smokey, who sings at least 3 songs intermixed with the 'action', and Lee 'Lasses' White as (Professor) Whopper (Hatch), who provides the comic relief along with Helen Holmes, who plays Aunt Althea Carter, a fairly refined woman that's inexplicably charmed by the Professor's poor grammar and use of the English language. Marjorie Reynolds and Louise Currie play the female leads to whom Holt's character would typically be more interested. Eddie Dew, Byron Foulger, Tom London, Lloyd Ingraham and Glenn Strange fill other key roles in the cast.

Terry McVey (Holt) is sent west by his uncle, an official with the U.S. Secret Service, to investigate the disappearance of a U.S. government engraver named Frank Adams (Foulger) and any connection between his handiwork and a casino in Silver Springs, California, where Smokey and Whopper are trying to make a living selling 'medicine' for $1 a bottle. Frank's daughter Barbara (Reynolds) hears about it, and makes her way to the town by train as well; once there, she poses as Bernice Allen to avoid suspicion.

Terry soon discovers that the casino is a big money laundering operation; all payouts are in counterfeit bills. Gordon West (Eddie Kane) runs the operation, aided by henchmen French (Dew) and Krinkle (Strange, who may not have a single line of dialogue). Bernice and Terry follow French to an old mine where they discover that Adams is being forced to make the counterfeit bills from paper that's concealed as dynamite (a plot device, used later by Holt to escape capture).

It's a pretty straight forward and uncomplicated plot. Ingraham plays Pop Stebbins, who shows up just in time to enable Terry's escape then fetches the sheriff (London) while Terry et al try to stall the criminals at the mine. The outcome is never in doubt.

Not as good without Richard Marin

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 3 April 2020]

I usually enjoy Tim Holt s RKO westerns.However this is one of the lesser titles as it does not have the character of Chito Rafferty.Furthermore the plot takes a long time to get going.Additionally there is a comedy side kick who is totally unfunny.However it is still better than many B westerns of the period.