Up till now, the only Jimmy Wakely Westerns I've seen were ones is which he and his musical trio backed up other cowboy stars like Johnny Mack Brown and Tex Ritter. However Wakely actually starred in twenty eight oaters for Monogram Studios from 1944 to 1949, appearing as the lead in more movie Westerns than guys like Eddie Dean, Lash LaRue and Sunset Carson. So that was a surprising bit of info to learn.
Wakely's backed up by sidekick Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor in this flick; Taylor replaced Lee 'Lasses' White in the Monogram series about half way through and was sort of a goofball character. In this one he uses a photography gimmick that starts out with a flash powder gag that blackens half his face when he attempts to take a family photo when pretty Pat Croft (Jan Bryant) returns home from back East. By the end of the story, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that as a photographer, Cannonball's all wet.
Pat Croft's beau turns out to be the baddie of the story, an older con-man who takes Pat's mom Mary (Claire Whitney) into his confidence with an eye toward using her stage line to set up some robberies. The back and forth between Wakely's good guys and Lance Regan's (Douglas Evans) outlaw bunch strains credibility at times, but that didn't seem to bother matinée fans of the day. Regan thought he had Mary Croft blackmailed sufficiently to maintain his presence in her employ, but he didn't figure on the the quick thinking Wakely and a surprise visit from Mary's 'surprise' husband that no one seemed to know about, including daughter Pat. Look, don't try to figure it out, just watch and enjoy.
One thing I noticed in the picture was how impressive Jimmy's horse looked so I had to look it up. Wakely rode two different mounts in his Monogram pictures, the first one was named Lucky. The one he rode here was a handsome sorrel with four white socks and a white face blaze. Though it never came up in the story, the horse's name was Sonny (not Sunny). So I thought that was some cool trivia.
Wakely's backed up by sidekick Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor in this flick; Taylor replaced Lee 'Lasses' White in the Monogram series about half way through and was sort of a goofball character. In this one he uses a photography gimmick that starts out with a flash powder gag that blackens half his face when he attempts to take a family photo when pretty Pat Croft (Jan Bryant) returns home from back East. By the end of the story, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that as a photographer, Cannonball's all wet.
Pat Croft's beau turns out to be the baddie of the story, an older con-man who takes Pat's mom Mary (Claire Whitney) into his confidence with an eye toward using her stage line to set up some robberies. The back and forth between Wakely's good guys and Lance Regan's (Douglas Evans) outlaw bunch strains credibility at times, but that didn't seem to bother matinée fans of the day. Regan thought he had Mary Croft blackmailed sufficiently to maintain his presence in her employ, but he didn't figure on the the quick thinking Wakely and a surprise visit from Mary's 'surprise' husband that no one seemed to know about, including daughter Pat. Look, don't try to figure it out, just watch and enjoy.
One thing I noticed in the picture was how impressive Jimmy's horse looked so I had to look it up. Wakely rode two different mounts in his Monogram pictures, the first one was named Lucky. The one he rode here was a handsome sorrel with four white socks and a white face blaze. Though it never came up in the story, the horse's name was Sonny (not Sunny). So I thought that was some cool trivia.
