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Special Agent & Masked Raiders; August, 1949
Topic Started: Sep 22 2012, 03:06 PM (605 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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Oh, some days ya just don't care, you feel like goin' to the movies, right? So I took the fabled Balcony Wayback Machine to the summer of '49, for no particular reason other than I felt like it, as good a reason as I have for doin' most stuff. My favorite local cheap theatre, the Liberty, had a lovely Thursday night double-feature of two movies I'd never heard of. Perfect. I didn't even mind missing the cartoon (if they had one) and the newreel (I was at the snack bar).

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Special Agent
starred people I'd never heard of, although the supporting cast turned out to be very familiar. William Eythe (which I pronounce "eye teeth") is a very bored railroad dick in some small, out-of-the-way-of-being-even-CLOSED-to-anywhere burg. Why they've got him stationed there, nobody knows, but he's sweet on one of the local ladies in town, daughter of a conducter. Well, before you can say "This movie sure is dull", the train is held up, Pa is killed, and Mr. Eye Teeth has all the excitement he can stand (so to speak). Turns out a pair of nogoodnik ranchers, the Devereaux brothers, is behind it. Older brother is a snake who shoots first and forgets to ask questions later; the li'l brother is a real wimp, just sorry for everything and whining about how the old guy they killed reminded him of his Grandpa, or the nice Padre down at the church. Not only THAT, but wimpy li'l brother is (get this) George "Superman" Reeves! Wow! Frank Puglia, whom I'd just seen in 20 Million Miles to Earth about 2 weeks ago (I never would've remembered him otherwise) is the grandfather, Jeff York & Virginia Christine are a pair of witnesses, and Carole Mathews (the cute-as-the-dickens Bab from Monster and the Ape) is a new widow, thanks to Superman & his brother. I forget who played the sweetie, inasmuch as Babs was in this picture (pardon me while I howl at the moon for a while). The two brothers on the run elude Mr. Eye Teeth for a while, but not forever. Million dollar dialog, as Mr. Eye Teeth tries to sneak up on his prey: "I'm a lazy hunter - I prefer sitting ducks!" The film's narrated in a flat, Dragnet-style voice; really, this is a police procedural film set with a railroad officer instead of a vice cop. Anyway, I liked it well enough. Fun to see Reeves without a cape or glasses for once.

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Our second big feature was a Tim Holt cowboy pitcher; HIM I heard of. In fact, he plays "Tim Holt, Texas Ranger" here. His sidekick is Richard Martin, playing a Cisco Kid-goofy ass wannabe called Chito Rafferty ("He's half Irish", Tim explains). Tom Tyler, Marjorie Lord, and Clayton Moore are all in it, too, and if I told you who the bad guy is you'd never believe me. Okay, I'll tell you... See, Holt & Chito are in town undercover to discover who the mysterious masked desperado, the Diablo Kid, is. Well, since the Kid has boobies and a figure that would stop tumbleweed in its tracks, it sure the hell isn't Tom Tyler. That's right, Marjorie Lord, stagecoach bandit. She's actually not all that bad, as she gives the money to the townspeople who have been fleeced by -- wait for it -- the BANKER WITH THE PENCIL MOUSTACHE!!!

See, don't tell ME I don't know my B-westerns.

Look, it's an hour long, it's got some laughs, some fights, some horsie ridin', and the whole thing is brisk beyond reproach (director Lesley Selander, although not as well known as William Beaudine, was nearly as prolific; in just the 1947-49 period, for example, he directed nearly 20 films). I got no complaints, lack of a cartoon notwithstanding, regarding gettin' my money's worth. Fun night at the movies.



"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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The Batman
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I enjoyed SPECIAL AGENT, too. And George Reeves gets the top (and only) billing on the DVD cover!


Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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Barcroft
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Gravy,
Lesley Selander was a pretty prolific Director starting back in the mid 30's directing many of the Hoppy's and Buck Jones films and in the 40's was directing quite a few films at Republic, RKO, and later did many of the Allied Artists westerns. He was still directing well into the 60's including one of the later Audie Murphy's. A check of my The "B" Directors - A Biographical Directory shows shows Selander directed 133 films and 1 Serial while William Beaudine directed 165 films, so it looks they were both very busy directors.
Barcroft
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