hogwrassler

Wilfred Prescott (Alfred Drayton) and his wife Joyce (Beatrice Campbell) find that their large country estate house is haunted. Pictures are found turned to the wall, a bearskin rug catches fire, and a window is broken. What's worse, their daughter, Audrey (Gwyneth Vaughan) seems possessed sometimes by this female spirit.

With the help of friend Vincent Ebury (Robertson Hare), insurance investigator Joe Harris (Gordon Harker), and self styled ghost buster Spenser (Garry Marsh), Prescott tries to get rid of the poltergeist.

What follows is a night of comedic slap stick spiced with some clever special effects as the ghost raises windows, levitates plates and vases, and generally bamboozles the ghost hunters. Spenser tries to get a photo, Harris uses a bottle of bug spray as a weapon, and Prescott tries shooting it with a shotgun. It's all quite lighthearted and amusing. Can they ever get this spirit out of the house?

Although uncredited and never seen on camera, Patricia Owens provides the laughing voice of the poltergeist.

I just watched Things Happen at Night (1948) on YouTube. The complete movie is available there. I don't know think it's ever been released on DVD. It's a pleasant way to spend an hour or so.

Bees in Paradise concerns a female society on an uncharted island in the Atlantic Ocean. The Queen (Antoinette Cellier), Rouana (Anne Shelton), and Jani (Jean Kent) run things. Men are scarce because after they marry, the bride and groom have a 60 day honeymoon, and then the man has to fling himself off a cliff and commit suicide).

The women are delighted when a British plane crashes and the four men on board look like sure matrimonial partners. The crewmen are Arthur Tucker (Arthur Askey), Peter Lovell (Peter Graves), Ronald Wild (Ronald Shiner), and Max Adler (Max Bacon). The men like the all female society, but aren't fans of the male's bee-like death after the honeymoon.

This film is a lot of fun with Arthur Askey at his best. The funniest sequence is when he tries to referee a rugby game between two rugged female teams. It's laughing out loud funny. The singing and dancing are well done and are highly entertaining.

Although not listed in her credits, 19-year old Patricia Owens appears in Bees in Paradise. She is one of the guards who carries Arthur around in his chair. She is also the one who selects Max as hers, telling the other girls, "I don't want any arguments. He's mine!" Later, Patricia is one the four girls playing pool. She even sinks a ball in the side pocket. Watch for her if you see this movie.

Bees in Paradise is a very pleasant way to spend 72 minutes. Arthur Askey was always funny and this one will leave you smiling.

Ned Anderson (Robert Clarke) is an eastern reporter sent west to do a story on The Lone Ranger. Ned meets newspaper owner Hale Monroe (Lois Hall). Hale hatches a scheme to have Ned pose as an outlaw in order to get the Ranger to try to find him.

Meanwhile, The Ranger and Tonto are after three convicts who escaped from Brimstone Prison: Big Tom Davis (Richard Reeves), Hawk Mason (Michael Ansara), and a young fellow named Peterson (James Parnell).

The Ranger wounds Peterson in a gun battle with the convicts. Davis then shoots Peterson dead to keep him reporting details of the underground escape system that is operated by hotel owner Moley Sanders (Lester Dorr). Then Davis and Mason flee.

Ned, posing as outlaw Frosty March, encounters Moley and gets involved in a planned robbery by Davis and Mason. The Ranger and Tonto are close behind. It's a real dangerous situation. Can our heroes figure it out or is Moley too smart for them?

Lois Hall plays Hale Monroe. She got her start acting in 1948 and appeared in many westerns. She continued to act on occasion after 1957 but concentrated mostly on caring for her family. After her husband died in 1995, Lois spent most of her time doing volunteer work for her church. She died in 2006.

This is an entertaining episode and the second featuring John Hart as The Ranger.

I just watched FBW on a DVD I got from eBay. It had been taped from TV to VHS and then transferred to DVD. The picture wasn't great, but it was very watchable.

This movie is a bit of a minor league "Stagecoach." Marshall Kirk Reed (Jeff Morrow) is taking five female prisoners to the penitentiary. He is assisted by Deputies Tom Ames (George Kramer) and Big Foot (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams). Also along is a railroad executive whose appears totally uncredited. The prisoners are outlaw Big Pearl Jackson (Irish McCalla), outlaw's wife Ellen Downs (Merry Anders), card cheat Kitty Brewster (Kathy Marlowe), knife killer Maria Garcia (Lucita Blain), and demented baby killer Hanna Gates (Dee Carroll).

Along the way, they have to contend with Ellen's husband, The Missouri Kid (Jim Ross, who also produced), trying to free his wife, and rampaging Comanches. A romance develops between Marshal Kirk and prisoner Ellen. Can the stalwart lawmen possibly get their prisoners safely to the final destination?

Irish McCalla steals the movie. She dominates every scene that she's in with her big personality. Irish is a delight too see. Also, watch closely for just a bit of a suggestion of a romantic relationship between Big Pearl and Kitty. It's pretty subtle, but it's there.

Five Bold Women (1960) is a surprisingly good and entertaining western. It's definitely worth watching.

Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) made a lot of low budget, low quality movies, but Down Missouri Way (1946) is one of the best things they did. Being from a small Missouri town just north of the Ozarks, I may be a bit biased but I really like this pleasant little film.

College professor Jane Colwell (Martha o'Driscoll) has a scientifically trained mule named Shirley. A Hollywood movie company descends on their small town. They need Shirley to be the star of their movie. Producer Thorny Dunning encourages director Mike Burton (William Wright) to get friendly with Jane to ensure her cooperation with Shirley. But the movie's leading lady, Gloria Baxter (Renee Godfrey) sees Mike as her personal property. All sorts of misunderstandings and conflicts occur. Will Jane agree to let Shirley be in the movie? And more importantly, does Shirley want to be a movie star? Some great singing and fine songs to keep the viewer entertained.

Soon to be singing cowboy star Eddie Dean displays his fine voice as Mortimer. Mabel Todd plays Cindy, and shows off her unique voice. Both Martha O'Driscoll and Renee Godfrey demonstrate truly entertaining singing with memorable songs. Even John Carradine gets to sing in his deep voice. Country singing groups the Tailor Maids and the Notables also help keep the music fest moving along. Shirley is the real star of the show, though. She is one smart mule and steals every scene that she is in.

Down Missouri Way (1946) is also known as Missouri Hayride. It shows up on The Westerns Channel every now and then. It's a very pleasant way to spend 70-75 minutes so watch it if you can. It's one PRC movie that you will enjoy and remember.

I just finished watching "Smilin' Through" on TCM. Others have recounted the plot, so let's just say that the acting is outstanding by Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, and Fredric March. There really aren't any bad guys in this one, just likable characters who respond to tragedy and love in ways that really tug at your heart strings. This movie is a genuine tear jerker, and one that you will be glad you watched. It's especially interesting to see Norma and Leslie each playing two different characters.. the credits only list one character name for each of them, though. The glimpse of the next world that the viewer is given is an uplifting element to the story. Highly recommended for all viewers, no matter what type of movie you usually watch.

I just watched the last episode on Grit TV. Glad the series is still on Grit TV, the INSP Channel, and The Westerns Channel. For its first five seasons, TOWF was a 30 minute show telecast on Monday nights. For the sixth season, it was moved to Saturday night, expanded to an hour and shot in color. A few regular characters were added and Jim Hardy now owned a ranch in addition to his Wells Fargo work. The change to Saturday is probably what caused the series to finally end its run.

In Vignette of a sinner, a Wells Fargo relay station has been blown up and negotiable letters of credit stolen. The plot was masterminded by banker Les Caldwell (Jeff Morrow), with the assistance of nasty outlaw Lucius Kramm (William Mims). But they double cross each other and both of them get wounded in the gunfire, but Caldwell gets away with the letters of credit. Kramm is in pursuit. Meanwhile, Jim meets his great love from the past, Rachel Whitman (Joyce Taylor). But Rachel is engaged to Caldwell. He and Rachel flee together across the border. Can Jim catch up with them before Kramm? Can Jim recover the letters of credit? Will Kramm shoot Jim in the back? Will anything happen between Jim and Rachel?

This is not a wrap up show for the series. It's just the final episode of season six. But it is very enjoyable and good to watch.

I watched this movie today on a DVD from Amazon. Thunder in Carolina was shot on location in North Carolina and the color looks very good. The script keeps the viewer interested and the story moves right along. It's an entertaining look at the early days of NASCAR.

Big time stock car driver Mitch Cooper (Rory Calhoun) breaks his ankle in a crash and returns to his hometown to recuperate and fix his car at the garage where he used to work. He finds the owner has died and the place is now owned by Les York (Race Gentry) and his pretty blonde wife Rene (Connie Hines in her only movie credit). Les welcomes Mitch and soon Mitch is training him to be a stock car driver, much to Rene's disapproval. Mitch has the hots for Rene but she isn't having any. With Mitch's help, Les soon wins a few races and gets the big head. He leaves Mitch to work for the win-at-all-cost millionaire. Then the big race day arrives. Mitch's ankle has healed and his car is repaired. Now it's Mitch and Les head to head in the final race. What will happen?

Alan Hale Jr (The Skipper on Gilligan's Island) plays a pit crew boss and Mitch's old buddy. There are many amateurs in the cast for whom this is their only movie or TV credit. There is some good stock footage of races. However, some of the filming was done at an actual NASCAR event where Rory Calhoun actually drove a couple of laps during the race with a camera attached to the hood of his car.

Tobacco is a big product in North Carolina and Rory does many of his scenes with a cigarette hanging out out his mouth. Connie Hines also smokes a lot.

Thunder in Carolina is an enjoyable movie and well worth watching.

I am watching Southward Ho on Grit TV right now. Roy and Gabby are Confederate soldiers who bushwhack Union Colonel Denby and steal his chicken dinner, and his pants. They make their getaway before Denby's troopers cac catch them. Then the war ends and Gabby and Roy return to Texas, where Gabby has inherited half interest in a ranch. There they find that the other half owner is none other than Colonel Denby, accompanied by his beautiful daughter Ellen. Denby is appointed military governor of the area, but the soldiers assigned to him are a bunch of ruthless crooks. They use taxes as a way to steal from the townspeople and ranchers. They also use the animosity between Gabby and Denby to keep things stirred up. It's going to be up to Roy, Gabby, and Ellen to open the Colonel's eyes as to what's going on and to stop these no good varmints!

This was the first pairing of Roy and Gabby. Wade Boteler is Colonel Denby. Lynne Roberts, billed as Mary Hart, is Ellen. Lynne's fourth and last husband was professional wrestler and sometimes actor Don Sebastian. They were separated in 1978 when Lynne suffered a serious head injury and died after falling in her bathroom.

Southward Ho is good early Roy Rogers western. Definitely worth watching.

Gilbert Roland was an outstanding actor with leading man credits dating back to the silent era. He had a tremendous screen presence and was good in anything he did. Roland not only appears in this WT episode, but he also wrote the story for it.

Bernal Sierra (Roland) is saved from execution by other Juaristas and sets out to the United States to find some stolen gold, along with the treacherous Gringo gun runners who betrayed him and the cause to the French. He finds them on Major Adams' wagon train. They are the three Reardon brothers, Casey (Louis Jean Heydt), Hughie (Lane Bradford), and Art (James Dobson). Sierra also finds the widow of his murdered friend, Perdita (Charlita), now married to Casey Reardon. Sierra figures they have the stolen gold hidden somewhere, but how to find it? Will Perdita help him, or is she out for herself? There's a lot of conflict between Sierra and the Reardons. Can the Major keep them from killing each other? And just how do these tricky Reardons plan to dispose of that gold? It's a real mystery and the bad guys' final plan is a real work of art.

I just watched The Bernal Sierra Story episode this Friday afternoon on MeTV. It's one of my favorite WT episodes. Be sure to watch it when you can.

Morgan Starr was deservedly one of the most disliked regular characters on TV. John Dehner played him with little or no emotion, just rugged determination. There just isn't much to like about the character. Fortunately, he only lasted a few episodes. In this one, Randy and Starr deliver a herd of cattle to the Sioux in Dakota, but the army doesn't want to give them. The army commanding officer and his civilian scout are the bad guys here. Unfortunately, the Indians are played as ignorant savages. When the chief cuts his own arm, Starr explains, " He sheds his his blood to mourn his son." Not very smart. Really puts the Sioux in a bad light, although the intention was the opposite.

The writers wanted to make a statement about persecution, but the episode just drags on and on with a lot of speechifying about the slaughter of the Buffalo and the plight of the Sioux, but it's not very convincing, just dull.

I only rate this episode as high as four stars because Martine Bartlett appears as a courageous homesteader who helps Randy and Starr. She was a fine actress who should have gotten better roles.

This episode is only for die hard fans of The Virginian. Otherwise, only watch it if you want to cure your insomnia.

The final Bowery Boys film is typical of the series after Leo Gorcey left. Plenty of Sach initiated slapstick. Only Chuck and Blinky provide support in this one.

The plot involves Sach being hired by three jewel thieves to smuggle stolen diamonds on a ship form New York to England. The diamonds are concealed under the fur of a beautiful poodle named Gloria. Sach is hired to be the bodyguard of this valuable canine. There is an inspector from Scotland Yard on board looking for the diamonds.

Lovely Patricia Donahue plays one of the jewel thieves. She really brightens things up.

The series really suffered after Bernard Gorcey died in a car accident and Leo Gorcey left the series. Stanley Clements played Duke, not as a new Slip, but as a combination of the Slip and Gabe Moreno characters. Stanley and Huntz Hall never could duplicate the chemistry between Leo and Huntz.

This last Bowery Boys movie is worth watching, for Patricia Donahue if nothing else. But it is typical BB fare and you like the series, you will like this one, too. I am watching it right now on TCM Saturday morning movies.

In the later seasons, the writers often delved into current day topics. In 1970, the Vietnam War protesters were front and center on the news every night. Rebelling against society was highly respected by some influential media commentators. "The Weary Willies" takes up the subject of a few Civil War veterans trying to avoid living a normal life. Billy (Richard Thomas), Krulak (Kevin Tighe), and Pellemin (Mayf Nutter) descend on Virginia City. They con people into getting handouts from citizens, as Pellemin pretends to have twisted his ankle. General store owner's daughter Angie Colter (lovely Lee Purcell) is taken with Billy and resolves to help, convincing a few friends to do likewise. They camp on Ben's land, cutting down his trees and putting up crude shacks. Then they are joined by a two more Willies, a man and his wife, who is expecting a baby. They seem to come from everywhere.

The Willies are always shown in the best light, as wonderful, decent people. The Virginia City folk who despise them are always shown to be bigots and totally unreasonable. The writers ignore the serious moral and legal questions. When Ben asks why they feel they can cut down trees and put up shacks without permission, Billy tells him that trees die eventually, anyway. And he says they take everything down and leave the land exactly as they found it when they depart. How are they going to put the trees back up. Pellemin tells Ben, "The way I see it, this land isn't doing you any good anyway." So, the Willies are seen as completely justified to trespass, destroy property, and ignore the rights of others. Billy doesn't show up for work when Ben gives a job. And that OK, as this episode believes.

In 1970, the Willies in this episode would be the counterparts to the hippies, druggies, and draft dodgers of that time. Clearly, the writers were trying to curry favor with these groups. And perhaps trying to teach a lesson as to how all people should be allowed to,do their own thing, even if doing their own thing involves being totally irresponsible and violating the rights of everyone else. In 2022, the Willies would be the homeless people who sit on the corner with signs about working for food, when they have no intention of working, only deputing handouts, just like Billy ignoring the job offer in this episode.

Bonanza was at its best when it focused on the family members righting wrongs and defending the Ponderosa. This episode sure isn't that. And it's not very good, either.

Made and released shortly after Pearl Harbor, this high octane musical is designed to encourage enlistments raise the spirits on the home front. It does just that.

The plot involves Harry James being drafted. His entire orchestra then joins up, including crooner Dick Foran. Foran doesn't think he needs any training as he is good condition and already knows how to fire a rifle. Will he ever fit in with the "army way?"

Forget the plot and just sit back and enjoy the great entertainment. The Andrews sisters were real entertainers and the numbers by Harry James and the band are truly memorable. Joe E. Lewis was a unique performer. Don't miss the number by Peggy Ryan. She could sing and dance both.

Among the supporting cast, Shemp Howard and Mary Wickes have some really funny scenes together. This was Shemp's best non-Three Stooges role. Donald O'Connor is on hand also. Watch for Bowery Boy Huntz Hall as a corporal telling Harry he is appointed as company bugler.

I am watching Private Buckaroo on TCM right now on their Saturday morning movie. It's one one the best musicals made during WWII. It's great entertainment from a bygone era that deserves to be remembered by all of us.

Johnny Santos is a Mexican rancher who rustles their gringos' cattle and changes the brand to prevent identification of the stolen cows. He's quits good at changing the brands but he may be in for a big surprise before the end of the episode.

Robert Fuller plays Johnny Santos and it real entertaining to hear his Mexican accent. This was one of Robert's early roles on TV and do3s his best trying to sound Hispanic. Also,Brooklyn born Joan Lora plays Johnny's girlfriend Chiquita, and her Mexican accent has a little Brooklyn-ease thrown in unintentionally.

The episode is worth watching to see a young, slim, Robert Fuller playing a role that could have been played by Martin Landau or Leonard Nimoy.

I watching the episode right now on Grit-TV. Glad to see the old western TV series on the daily schedule.

Ballad of a Gunfighter(1964) is clearly a vehicle for Marty. The script was clearly written to match the lyrics of his popular song "San Angelo."

Marty plays a former Confederate soldier who turns outlaw. He only robs from the rich Yankees, and then gives the money to the poor people. A real western Robin Hood story. But Marty soon comes into conflict with a band of nasty outlaws who who prefer to,keep,their I'll gotten gains themselves. Then the governor suddenly offers amnesty to any outlaw willing to join the Texas Rangers. What? That has to be done to make the plot make the lyrics of the song, even if it is a ridiculous idea. At one point, Marty's stuntman engages in a long fistfight with the stuntman of the main bad guy. It's obvious that it's not the actors doing the action, except for the closeups. The fight is poorly done.

The color is not very good and gives the film the look of a spaghetti western, even though it was filmed in Utah.

Joyce Redd plays Secorro, Marty's love interest. This was her only acting credit and not much info is available about her.

Marty and Joyce are no actors and this film is of interest only to Marty Robbins fans as a curiosity. If you listen to the song "San Angelo," you will know the entire plot of "Ballad of a Gunfighter."

Dale owns a rodeo managed by Gabby Hayes. Roy and The Sons Of The Pioneers are singers in the show. They're in financial trouble, but the offer of a booking at the in Albuquerque can put the rodeo on easy street. But a nasty rival rodeo owner, Tom Keene, tries various nefarious schemes to keep them from getting there. It's up to Roy and Trigger to try to save the day. The highlight is a chariot race between Roy and Keene.

"Lights of old Santa Fe" is a pleasant Roy/Dale entry in their series of numerous movies. The Lights of Old Santa Fe theme song is memorable, one of their best. It gets sung a few times. There is more singing than action in this one, but it's still a enjoyable to watch for us older kids who remember it from our younger days.

I'm watching "Lights of Old Santa Fe" on The Westerns Channel right now. It's a good one so see it if you can.

This is a Columbia studios effort to recruit women into the military during the early days of WWII.

Several civilian nurses hear about the new Parachute Nurse Corps and volunteer for the training. The preamble scrolling down the screen at the start of the movie says that this is a fictitious story, which may be fact in the future. In fact, no Parachute Nurse Corps was ever created for the military.

Glenda (Marguerite Chapman) and Dottie (Kay Harris) are the two main characters going through the difficult training at the jump school. Their two trainers are Lt. Woods (William Wright) and Sgt Peters (Frank Sully). There are the other assorted nurses from all across the country as background characters.

It's all a whitewashed version of military training. The girls are allowed to go the the base canteen, where everyone drinks chocolate soda, instead of beer and whiskey. The Lieutenant and sergeant are entirely too informal, and even drink chocolate sodas together in the canteen. Naturally, the four main characters develop a romance, another unrealistic portrayal of students and instructors fraternizing.

Nobody smokes in this movie, either. A couple of the girls mention going outside to have a cigarette, and one is seen holding a cigarette, but there is no actual smoking in Parachute Nurse. Very one is a true blue American with few vices.

Lauretta Schimmoler plays Captain Morgan, the very overweight commander of the students. Lauretta had created the Aerial Nurse Corps of America in 1936, but it was never officially recognized. It may, however, have been the predecessor of the Army Flight Nurse program, which was introduced during WWII. Lauretta also served as the technical advisor for the movie.

Paraxhute Nurse (1942) can be enjoyed if the viewer just remembers that the goal of making it was to encourage women to become military nurses. RKO and Universal did much better flag waver films during the war, but Columbia Pictures made a big effort also. That's what has to be remembered when judging the quality of these types of movies.

I vaguely remember this series as a kid in the 1950s. Grit TV is currently showing two episodes each weekday at 1PM and 130PM. All the episodes seem new to me. It was a well done western series with Pat Conway and Richard Eastham as the stars. Conway as Sheriff Clay Hollister always had a deputy during the run, but they often seemed to be elsewhere when the trouble starts and Eastham and newspaper man Harris has to fill in and help catch the bad guys.

The scripts were well written and the action fast in the half hour shows. It really makes me feel young again to see these old shows from my youth.

I do recommend Tombstone Territory if you ever have a chance to see it. It's worth watching.

The Boys are collecting money for mine of the neighborhood kids who has polio. Sach loses what they collected to some crooked gamblers betting on a phony horse race. Desperate, Sach sells his soul to The Devil in exchange for being able to pick winners at the horse racing track. Can The Boys possibly get their money back and save Sach's soul in the process?

Character actor Dick Elliott took over as Mike, cafe owner, in place of Bernard Gorcey, who had been killed in a car accident.

After Leo Gorcey left the series following his father's death, Stanley Clements came back onboard as Duke. Stanley had been one of the original Dead End Kids. His Duke character didn't seem to be a true replacement of the Slip character, but instead was a combination of Slip and former character Gabe Moreno, played by Gabriel Dell. Duke was maybe 30% Slip and 70% Gabe. The series now focused almost entirely on Sach, as Huntz Hall had taken over the direction the series went.

Clearly, the Bowery Boys movies lost steam after The Gorcey were gone. There was only one more film after this one. They are all watchable and provide a few laughs, but are nowhere near as good as the earlier movies in the series.

The army got bashed in "Bowery Battalion" and then the navy got it in "Let's Go Navy" now it's the Marines turn to taste the slapstick antics of the BBs.

This one opens with a salesman trying to unload a movie projector on Louie. He shows Louie and the boys stock footage of WWII combat action. The paratroopers shown jumping and landing is the actual film of the 503rd PRCT landing on Corregidor on February 16, 1945.

The Boys get drafted into the marine corps. Aturally, Sach gets into trouble by impersonating a doctor, and then a chef. But when Colonel Brown learns that Sach's dad was his sergeant from WWI, he promotes him to sergeant. Sach turns into the toughest marine since John Wayne in "Sands of Iwo Jima." While on a Sach ordered 20-mile hike with full packs, slip finds a badly beaten up marine, along with a unique playing card. The boys get a pass and are steered to an illegal gambling joint by gorgeous fur-draped Lulu Mae. Slip sees that the cards are the same as the one he found by the beaten marine. Can the BBs use this information to bring these crooks to justice?

Hanley Stafford plays Colonel Brown. He is best remembered for playing "Daddy" to Fanny Brice's "Baby Snooks" on the radio for many years.

Myrna Dell is Lulu Mae. She and fellow actress Marguerite Chapman are credited with having invented the autograph show. They started with just two chairs and a card table at a supermarket and it evolved into the big industry that it is today. Quite a legacy for those two lovely ladies.

"Here Come The Marines" is a very good entry in the Bowery Boys series. Worth watching.

The Ranger and Tonto meet their old friend, Chinese laundryman Lee Po. Lee wants nothing more than to be a good American citizen and work for an honest living. He is expecting his mail order bride, Mah Lin Soong, to arrive on the stage. But the town bigots don't want a Chinese living in their town. They kidnap Mah Lin off the stage and hold her to force Lee to leave town.

The Ranger resorts to a disguise as a Swedish watchmaker to smoke out the kidnappers. When he uses his Swedish accent to ask local racist Ed Jones if there's any work in this town, Jones replies, "There's plenty of work for a white man." These villains are both ruthless and ignorant.

Familiar faces John Beradinio, Mickey Simpson, Dennis Moore, Slim Pickens, Tudor Owen, and Joseph Vitale all do an excellent job. Victor Sen Yung and Judy Dan play the betrothed couple.

Claire Carleton plays Jenny, who appears sympathetic to Lee, but who may not be all she seems. Claire had a long career as an attractive but matronly female character. She was married to Fred Sherman, who may be best remembered for his two appearances on The Andy Griffith Show as Fred Goss, the owner of the dry cleaning store in Mayberry. Sadly, Fred suffered a stroke right after finishing his second appearance on TAGS and died soon afterward.

This is an outstanding color episode with a great message for both kids and adults.

Fighting Fools (1949) has a much more serious tone than the usual slapstick hijinks seen in the other BB movies. It opens with the Boys working as vendors at a boxing match. Their friend, Jimmy Higgins, takes a bad beating beating and dies in the ring. Sach and Slip find Jimmy's brother, Johnny, to tell him the bad news. Johnny was a promising fighter until he was double crossed by crooked hoodlum/gambler manager Blinky Harris and lost his will to box. Now he's living on skid row and is down and out. Slip convinces him to get back in shape and make a comeback. With Slip, Sach, and the other boys holding workouts in Louie's Sweet Shop Johnny becomaes a real contender. Sports reporter Gabe Moreno gives the Boys good coverage in the newspaper. But will blinks Harris interfere with Johnny's march to the title?

There's not much comedy in this one. It's mostly a regular B-movie boxing drama. It's definitely not the typical Bowery boys flick.

Frankie Darrow plays Johnny and he fits right in with the Bowery Boys. Gabriel Dell is Gabe and he was always a positive addition to these movies. Lyle Talbot is properly nasty as Blinky Harris.

Check the credits for John Indrisano as the boxing coordinator. John fought as a welterweight from 1923-1934. He had a record of 64-9-4. The Ring Boxing magazine once called him "The Uncrowned Champion of the World." He worked as a driver and bodyguard for Mae West. John was also friends with Frank Sinatra and appeared in five of his movies. He trained most of the big male stars for roles in which they played a boxer. John died at the age of 62, apparently a suicide by hanging.

Fighting Fools (1949) is enjoyable as long as the viewer doesn't expect to see the usual comedy routines of the boys.

The first episode of season two marked a major change in the series. The episode opens with General Savage being killed in action, although the viewers don't see his face, just his crew members unsuccessfully trying to keep him alive after he's been hit. With Savage dead, the command of the 918th is turned over to now Colonel Joe Gallagher. The episode then details Gallagher's transition to group commander.

12 O'Clock High was one of my favorite shows as a 12-year old in 1965, along with Combat!. I also liked The Gallant Men, but it was canceled after one season.

I remember reading about the reason for the change in lead actors in TV Guide. ABC was moving the show's time slot from 10PM on Friday to 730PM on Monday. Being on at an earlier hour, the ABC wanted to attract a younger viewing audience, and felt that Robert Lansing was too old looking to interest a younger viewer. Hence, they replaced Lansing with Burke, although Burke was, in reality, two years older than Lansing. However, Burke was considerably younger looking than Lansing. Critics were quick to point out the age difference when reviewing the change in lead actors.

Also, the producers added young looking Chris Robinson to the cast as TSgt Sandy Komanski, hoping he would lure younger viewers as well. However, the familiar relationship between a full colonel and an enlisted man was far too informal to be realistic. But it did low two supposed hunks to be on camera together a lot, especially when Air Corps Colonel Gallagher was leading a commando raid or some other wild and unrealistic mission. But that's what TV is, a suspension of realism for awhile.

My personal belief is that Robert Lansing as General Savage made the series much more realistic and primarily focused on the gritty problems of daylight bombing and the huge losses suffered during 1942-1943. When Paul Burke and Chris Robinson came on board, it became just another adventure series.

This is a typical Eddie Dean singing western churned out by PRC. Eddie and his pals Soapy and Waco deliver a herd of a cattle to a rancher, only to find a young lady in charge of the ranch, her father and brother having been wounded by rustlers. The Eddie gang decides to hang around and help smoke out this bad guys.

Watch for a real young Hal Smith playing Mr. Tucker, the salesman. This was about 13 years before he started playing town drunk Otis Campbell on The Andy Griffith Show. He looks different that there's no mistaking that familiar voice. This was a good role for Hal.

Shirley Patterson plays Terry Lawrence, the female star of "Stars Over Texas." Shirley retired to raise a family from 1947-1953 but then returned to acting under the name "Shawn Smith." She appeared in several six-fi flicks. But, in 1958, she suffered a badly broken leg in a skiing accident at California's Big Bear mountain resort. This led to her permanent retirement from acting. Shirley was a beautiful and talented actress.

Eddie Dean came along at the tail end of the singing cowboy movie era. He had a great voice and sings several songs in "Stars Over Texas." He never became as popular as many of the other singing cowboys. Eddie was never a great actor but his singing was always a pleasant addition to any movie he appeared in.

I'm watching "Stars Over Texas" right on on the Encore Westerns Channel. It's a good enough musical b-western and Shirley Patterson looks great in a cowboy hat and jeans. Watch this one if you get the chance.