The return of the killer B's

I've been watching many of John Wayne' s early B-westerns, many of which are available on DVD.

Many of the titles I've managed to pick up are from the Lone Star Studio -


"When the Monogram logo appeared on the screen,everyone knew they were in for a good bit of action and adventure. Monogram was founded by W. Ray Johnston in the early 1930's. They produced many low budget features from 1930 thru 1935. At this time Trem Carr was in charge of production. Another independent producer, Paul Malvern, released his Lone Star western productions thru Monogram.Monogram and Lone Star were fortunate to have a good father and son combination of Robert Bradbury , writer and director, and Bob Steele,western actor, on their roster. Bradbury scripted almost all of Monogam's and Lone Star's western output during the early years. During this early period, Monogram also produced melodramas, classics, mysteries and action features. In 1935 Johnston and Carr were invited to merge Monogram with several other independent comapanies to form Republic Pictures. After a short time in this new venture, Johnston and Carr decided to pull out and restart Monogram.This proved to be a smart move as they probably would not have enjoyed as much independence at Republic under Herbert Yates. Some of the early stars at Monogram who went on to greater fame were, Preston Foster(Sensation Hunters 1933),Randolf Scott(Broken Dreams 1933),Lionel Atwill(The Sphinx 1933), and John Wayne who made many Lone Star westerns.In 1946 Monogram wanted to take on a much more polished image, and started the Allied Artist subsidiary. In 1953 Monogram changed the name of the company to Allied Artist. Monogram was the king of the motion picture series.They produced the following series and more; Charlie Chan, The Trail Blazers, The Range Busters, The Cisco Kid, The Teen Agers, BombaThe Jungle Boy, Joe Palooka (From the comic strip), The East Side Kids and The Bowery Boys.Monogram was a well run organization and survived where others had failed."

When watching these movies - often made in ten days - we are firmlly in the world where the good guys wear white hats and the bad guys, black. It is a world of singing cowboys and super intelligent horses.

The titles I've managed to get so far are:
The lucky Texan
Riders of Destiny
The Sagebrush trail
West of the Divide
The Man From Utah
The desert Trail
The Dawn Rider
The Trail Beyond
Texas Terror
Rainbow Valley
Hell Town
Winds of the Wasteland
Randy Rides Alone
Lawless Range
Lawless Frontier




What is remarkable is that the above list is only a fraction of the B-movies Wayne made before his breakthrough in John Ford's Stagecoach. All of the films are fun to watch, some are truly thrilling in that old fashioned way of the Saturday Morning Cinema sessions and there is a cult built up around collecting the movies. There's a great review of Randy Rides Alone here.

I'd urge western fans to seek these out - especially as they are so cheap and often sold in sets of four films or more.

So go on and settle back in the comfort zone of true nostalgia.