Free Moovies Online!

I can be rather slow about ... connecting ... dots.

Two weeks ago I was in a conversation with the customer who ordered They Came From Beyond Space for showing in a movie theater. At one point he said: "I've already seen it on Youtube. I had to watch it in 7 sections. It's a pretty good film." After a delayed reaction of several days, I realized I should have replied: "That's nice. I'm glad you thought to view a film I offer for content, then come to me for the best version that includes some trailers, cartoons, a poster to make it a show, etc. However, there is a much better place to watch films online!

And that place is... dot-da-dah...



Click on the FMO logo above or click here -- Free Moovies Online -- to see what I'm talking about.

FMO is the brainchild of Franck Benedittini, who works out of French Guiana. Frank began as a web developer and website designer in 2004 and has created hundreds of websites. His own FMO site is a marvelously attractive, easy-to-use link to all things MOVIE, like his daily blog, his online magazine with extensive stories on John Wayne, Laurel and Hardy, Tarzan, etc., helpful links to the TCM site, Youtube, current trailers, and much more.

The heart of FMO website is the free movies you can watch online that look better than those on Youtube and are complete with one click. The "About Me" section states:

"Created in August 2007, FreeMooviesOnline (FMO) is an entertainment website that offers the largest selection of free public domain feature films on the Internet. With over 2000 public domain movies, TV shows, TV series episodes, cartoons and feature animations, FMO has something for everyone.

"FMO is a legal service. All of the films and television episodes on FMO are in the public domain. This means that the works were either never properly copyrighted, or their copyrights were allowed to expire and were never renewed as required by copyright law. Therefore, they are all now in the public domain, free and clear of copyright infringement laws.

"The professionals who work with FMO have a vast knowledge of the film and television industries, and have over 30 years of experience in the public domain business as well."

I have been supplying FMO with public domain films for just over two years. That's why I know he will soon be offering Holt of the Secret Service serial, Planet of the Dinosaurs, Adventures of Jim Bowie, Captain Z-Ro TV, Earthworm Tractors, Three Guys Named Mike, and others. I am pleased to be one of the "Professionals" associated with Franck and FMO.

Another part about me being slow is that I am finally telling my website visitors about FMO. My Festival Films home page sports a prominent link to FMO, and FMO links back to Festival Films. It is an ideal link exchange. I am happy that my customers can watch films before buying programs so they know what they will get. Many of my public domain films can be viewed free at FMO and more will appear in the months ahead.

Few FMO visitors will want to buy the films on DVD-R. They go to FMO to watch and have fun. For FREE! I think I said that. However, lots and lots of them go there. The average is 20,000 to 30,000 a day, and last December reached one million for the month. That is a lot of visitors and some just might be the special consumers I am looking for. The link from FMO to Festival Films says: "Festival Films. Public domain films for TV stations and movie theaters. High-quality, low-cost masters of DVD-R." A blog entry at FMO this past week states:

"Festival Films has been in business for a long time selling 16mm Films, DVDs, stock footage, Video Masters and Movie Posters.

This company is a true mine of classic films for Movie Theaters, TV Stations, Film Societies, Restaurants and Bars who are equipped to show films from DVD for either large screen TVs or video projection. If you fall in such category, you certainly need the best possible quality and assurance that each film is in the public domain. Festival Films will supply this information with each film and you can benefit greatly by getting Programs that include cartoons or shorts. All the films are clean with no company logos or watermarks over the picture. Also, Festival Films offers a quality guarantee – if any film is below par they will replace with a different title. Festival Films offers a FREE SAMPLER DVD to test how your customers like it!"

"Keep in mind that FMO doesn’t allow you to download the videos; it’s against our Terms of Use. However, you have the possiblity to purchase your favorite cult movies at Festival Films."


Visit my website at Festival Films and see the new link to FMO. When you want to preview a film, click over and see if FMO has it. If not, tell either of us and FMO will have it soon!

Make it A Show!

For movie theater showings, I will turn any feature film into a program with cartoons and shorts. This includes creation of a poster that you can use to promote your Show. I put the poster on my website to advertise the Roxy Programs to other potential users. In turn, you can download and print the poster, or use the Jpeg right on your own website.

I have been creating programs for awhile (outside of the Horror, Crime, Matinee, etc. series that include serial chapters) and many posters created for specific shows can be viewed and used at Just Classics. This page promises more posters soon, and arranged by genre. I have started a comedy posters page where you will find the poster for People Are Funny. How can you use the poster, one might ask, if it says "Watseka Theare, Food and a Flick" on it? Just ask and I will change it to your name. I will also remove the Watseka name in a month or so after they are finished showing it. The same applies to Matinee #3 whose posters currently say Parkway Matinee with specific dates.

Since Art Linkletter passed away recently, here is some info on People Are Funny, the 1946 movie, from IMDB: A comedy based on NBC's "People Are Funny" radio (and later television) program with Art Linkletter with a fictional story of how the program came to be on a national network from its humble beginning at a Nevada radio station. Jack Haley is a producer with only half-rights to the program while Ozzie Nelson and Helen Walker are the radio writers and supply the romance. Rudy Vallee, always able to burlesque himself intentional and, quite often, unintentional, is the owner of the sought-after sponsoring company. Frances Langford, as herself, sings "I'm in the Mood for Love" while the Vagabonds quartet chimes in on "Angeline" and "The Old Square Dance is Back Again."

FYI, I deleted a musical sequence where the Vagabonds appear in black face. The film is better without it ... my opinion. I do not censor out black singers, bands or dancers, but black face is too risky unless it is Fred Astaire in Holiday Inn upholding a long theatrical tradition. Ozzie Nelson and Rudy Vallee are quite funny together. An extended sequence toward the end/climax purports to show a "People Are Funny" radio show hosted by Mr. Linkletter. In short, pretty entertaining for those to whom this sounds like fun.

As I make these prgrams up, I see a huge transformation from mere feature into a Show. Who doesn't like vintage cartoons? All the "Not me!" answers out there can go buy popcorn. Trailers are great fun even if they are for films you will NOT see next week, like Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers, The Giant Claw or Forbidden Planet. If the feature is real short, I can add a comedy short like The Three Stooges. I add a quickie 10 second Café Roxy intro to the tune of the Universal Pictures opening fanfare. This can easily be bypassed. Many shows end with tail music ... Thank you for coming ... See you next time ... and fade to black with the going home music continuing.

Even a show as famous as Royal Wedding benefits by the addition of a little something, in this case a George Pal Puppetoon and a 1951 newsreel. "With Selected Short Subjects" is an old practice that added so much to movie showings during the golden age of movie exhibition.

I remaster each by checking quality and modifying sound levels. If I don't feel the quality is up to theater showing, then I cancel the order while I look for better material. As there are roughly 2,000 feature films in the public domain, I welcome any chance to review them for both quality and content. This week I made up a program for the science-fiction film They Came From Beyond Space. I thought my old master was only acceptable quality, but the new one looks much better and I re-watched enough of the film to see that it moves along pretty well and has some engaging sci-fi ideas.

There are not very many sci-fi cartoons. I added the Fleischer Color Classic "Dancing on the Moon" about a rocket tour to the moon with honeymooning animal characters -- 2 bears, 2 seals, etc. Mrs. Cat gets left behind, so the cat newlyweds don't get a visit by the stork upon Mr. Cats' sad and lonely return to earth. The second color cartoon is one I use a lot -- UB Iwerks Balloon Land from 1935. Many, many people over 60 remember this cartoon fondly, or fearfully, from childhood and it makes instant memories in kids today. The evil Pincushion Man breaks into Ballon Land and kills lots of balloon folks with pins. A late shot shows him falling off the "Land" into empty space. The trailer for Gulliver's Travels was added because the theater probably plans to show that film soon. Now they will have to after running the trailer.

Once a feature is "Roxified" with shorts, I offer this version to any TV station that might order the feature. They need to input the DVD into their computer system before broadcasting anyways, so they can either use the feature by itself or with the shorts. Added value, or something you can't find on DVD anywhere else, is what I love to offer. Movie Theaters tell me they like it, and are using the posters as well.

So remember, I will turn any feature film into a program with cartoons and shorts. Just ask.


Visit my website at Festival Films.

Matinee #3 -- Shows 5 thru 8!

We are already up to week #5 at the Parkway's Saturday Matinee series. You can see how the Parkway Theater promotes Saturday Matinee on their website along with their regular shows. This totally independent theater is a home to first and second run movies, occasional revivals like a successful 3-D festival a year ago and live stage events. Last night liberal talk show host Ed Schultz appeared for a town hall discussion and book signing, and upcoming is local comedian Scott Hansen on June 26. While checking their site just now I noticed that next week's Matinee is being bounced back a week for who knows why or what. That's not a good way to build an audience, needless to say, but at least this time they are announcing it a week ahead.

They keep telling me that everyone loves the Matinees and they want to keep going, so it is time to plan a line-up for Series #4. I will use the serial Zorro's Fighting Legion and already put a trailer for it in the last episode of Matinee #4. It was standard procedure for theaters to run both the last chapter of one serial and the first chapter of their next serial in the same program. This just occurred to me, too late to do it now since Buster Keaton in Speak Easily is scheduled in. What I would need is a short one-hour feature like a western or The Vampire Bat to be in the 12th spot. Then I would need to seriously consider if my audience wants that much serial at a time. I doubt it, and suspect the trailer is enough.

Continuing side comment... the film companies spent an exceptional amount of time and money promoting the hell out of their serials, probably because they were relatively inexpensive and yet primarily responsible for filling the theaters every Saturday afternoon. Many coming attraction trailers for serials run as long as five minutes, proof of which is this trailer for The Phantom Empire. Another way the producers splurged was to produce a distinctive one-sheet poster for every single episode. The poster would be displayed in the lobby all week, then moved to the poster area by the box office for the Saturday show. A good example is the poster for chapter #5 of Phantom Empire. Note the chapter title and number and exciting sci-fi action scene that promises to be in it. If the scene fails to appear, the cashier will hear about it as the boisterous young boys exit.

I pick the Matinee films based on variety of genres, entertainment value today and quality of the material I can find. Crimes in the Dark House was only added after I got a better quality film, which upon re-watching I realized was even more entertaining. I am considering these features: Hook, Line and Sinker with Wheeler and Woolsey, The Vampire Bat, Man in the Attic, another Bulldog Drummond, another Roy Rogers and new programs of Saturday Morning TV and Silent Comedy.

Joe E. Brown in Earthworm Tractors is playing today at the Parkway. Alexander Botts is a self-described natural born salesman and master mechanic, who is trying to make a big sale of Earthworm tractors to grouchy lumberman Johnson. Since Botts doesn't really know anything about tractors, and since the old-fashioned Johnson is opposed to tractors of any kind, it isn't going to be an easy sell. But Botts perseveres, encouraged by Johnson's daughter. Guy Kibbee enlivens the show as the old guy Botts must sell tractors to. A good slapstick scene of the tractor running amuck is still highly amusing. And, NO, that poster above is not from Earthworm Tractors but rather from a 1931 film Broad Minded with Joe, Thelma Todd and Bela Lugosi. I could not find the right poster to incorporate into my poster, so I took the best I could find. Also on the program is the excellent Buster Keaton short One Week, in which Buster and his new wife put up a pre-fabricated house on their own, except the plans have been altered by a jealous rival.

Matinee Week #6 features Gordon Scott as Tarzan in Tarzan and the Trappers. Upon recent review, I feel this is a pretty good Tarzan film that carries on the MGM concept of Tarzan, Jane, Boy and Cheeta living in a tree house. New actors in old roles, and possibly the same Cheeta??? Tarzan still stutters along in broken English. It's got jungle and animals and bad guys and moves along quickly so what more can you ask or a Tarzan adventure? Maybe a sharper looking video copy.... The highlight will probably be the trailers to the first 3 MGM Tarzans with Johnny Weismuller: Tarzan the Ape Man, Tarzan and His Mate and Tarzan Escapes. It has been established in legal cases that coming attraction trailers were unique films that needed to be copyrighted/registered as entities separate from the feature films, and then renewed 28 years later. Of course, back then no one knew this and so few trailers for films before 1970 (picking a random year) were ever copyrighted. Studios wanted their films advertised; that advertising in the form of preview trailers survives today and may even still work. Catch a preview of Tarzan and His Mate at my Matinee, then go get it from Amazon.com or netflix.

Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome has everything you want in a fast and compelling B-film. A gang of criminals, which includes a piano player and an imposing former convict known as 'Gruesome', has found out about a scientist's secret formula for a gas that temporarily paralyzes anyone who breathes it. When Gruesome accidentally inhales some of the gas and passes out, the police think he is dead and take him to the morgue, where he later revives and escapes. This puzzling incident attracts the interest of Dick Tracy, especially when the criminals later use the gas to rob a bank. The main star is the villain -- Gruesome -- played by Boris Karloff. Ralph Byrd was everyone's screen Tracy due to his starring role in 4 big-budgeted, smash hit, 15-chapter Dick Tracy serials for Republic. He went on to play Dick in one season of ultra low budgeted Dick Tracy TV episodes (1950-53) but then died at the early age of 43 from a heart condition.

Last up to discuss today is Matinee program #8, as advertised on this poster. It is not a true Saturday Matinee as in movie theater matinee. These are Saturday morning shows on TV. Why am I not a purist about the Matinee make-ups? Because I feel variety will attract a different audience and will keep the regular audience interested. In my opinion, this show is pretty entertaining. A not-entertaining program would include an episode of the TV Corliss Archer. Howdy Doody has the "Old-Time Movie" removed. These were silent comedies narrated by Buffalo Bob as the kids watched: "Little Mickey is going to get a pie in the face now. There, wasn't that funny." They were also markedly poorer quality than the rest of the Howdy show. Comic maniac Dayton Allen does appear in this episode in Clarabelle's dream, plus the Flub-a-Dub, something about oil wells vs. seltzer wells, clues to... who owns which well, I think, and mainly lots of ads!

Space Patrol episode is "The Hidden Treasure on Mars," that starts right after Buzz and Happy enjoy a hearty breakfast of Wheat and Rice Chex. Serial and B-western character actor I. Stanford Jolley is featured as a kidnapped scientist that the Commander must rescue while unravelling the clues of the mummy cases and totem heads. An excerpt is included from Andy's Gang in which Andy Devine spars with Froggy the Gremlin and a talking orangutan. The show concludes with a color episode of Sgt. Preston of the Yukon: "Dog Sled Race." The quality of this episode is excellent and should look good on the big screen.




Visit my website at Festival Films.

A Trip Thru the Poster Box!

I went to my first film convention in 1969 -- Cinecon #4 in Hollywood -- and have been going to one or two a year ever since. Mostly I get to the Syracuse Cinefest every March, and it just celebrated it's 30th year. But the topic today is my movie posters and I found many at these film gatherings where they showed rare, vintage films in one room and sold memorabilia in the room next door. In those early days they sold a lot of 8mm and 16mm film prints. I collected 16mm since that was the only way to see rare films back before the days of home video. I largely overlooked the posters, but today the films have lost value and good posters are out of sight. Had I only known where to put my money....

So I never collected posters seriously and I rarely looked thru the many bins of them at conventions. There were too many posters and they cost too much. However, one year I fortunately noticed a bunch of lobby cards from Alfred Hitchcock films. They could not have cost that much or I would not have been tempted to buy. I don't recall the prices but I imagine around $10 apiece, so I perused and purchased about 15 of them trying to get at least one card from each Hithcock film that was available. I should have just bought them all, of course. They range from a Rear Window reissue that is worth little, to unattractive ones from The Wrong Man and To Catch a Thief to the rather valuable Mount Rushmore card from North By Northwest and the title lobby cards from Shadow of a Doubt and Notorious. Also Grace Kelly standing by the telephone in Dial M for Murder, two from Strangers on a Train and Janet Leigh at the window in Psycho and Cary Grant at bedside with glass of milk from Suspicion. Here is my actual card of Notorious that is sold by moviegoods.com. I know it is a copy of my card because of the minor flaws like the tiny white flake at the top of Cary's head.



One reason I never acquired many movie posters is that I never framed and displayed them. That would take effort and cost money. Even today the only framed movie posters I have up in my office are a Belgian poster of The Searchers, that a friend gave me already framed, and a Fine Arts Serigraph reprint poster of Donald Duck in Sea Scouts, which we of course bought framed. An original one-sheet of the Disney sold at auction for $6,600 in 1992; mine is worth what I paid for it, or maybe $75, and there is no channel for re-selling it as a collectible. This Searchers poster sold in 2009 for $175. Many Belgian posters are gorgeous, but they are not dated and were sold for years to fans, so there is no particular value or way to prove that one has an original first issue poster. Mine is because I know the foreign source that gave it to me, and I enjoy it.

I have a far less attractive American window card for The Searchers that sells for more, and it resides where most of my posters do -- in some box or other. They have been in boxes for years, and because I have a poor memory it is always an adventure to open the boxes. One time they languished unlooked at for a very long time, like thru the entire 1980s. Remember that poor memory, so I don't really know, but it was so long that I was genuinely surprised by some of the posters I found. One of the biggest surprises in my life was to unfold a one-sheet for Singin' in the Rain. It is the familiar poster pictured here, but the surprise was to gradually realize upon close scrutiny that it was not a reproduction and it was not a re-issue from later years. Those posters would be marked as such in fine print at the bottom. Therefore, it could only be and indeed is ... an original issue one-sheet from 1952!

How did I ever get this one-sheet, one of which sold at a Christie's auction in 1993 for $1,265? I don't recall (yes, really) but have a guess. In 1973 I was running a film society in Minneapolis and had some contact with a man running a film series in St. Paul, John Scanlan. John told me he got posters to put up at his shows from a warehouse in Kansas City. I forget the details but any poster collector knows exactly which warehouse this is. So I asked John to order a few posters of any kind from a few favorite films. I know that's where my insert of White Heat came from and also a reissue poster for Dead End. My guess is that Singin' in the Rain came from this source (for about $10) and I never noticed that it was an original, or valuable. Several collector friends have examined the poster over the years and urged me to get it mounted on linen, which I finally did. So now it is stored in a tube, rather than folded in a box or framed and hung like it should be. Maybe I will get around to that someday.

I have just consigned 7 posters to Bruce Hershenson's Min-Major Auction in July. One poster is the Notorious lobby card pictured above. The most valuable one, I suspect, is a lobby card that apparently few have ever seen because it has never been auctioned before. I could not find any image of it online and it features two major cult stars about to kiss. On top of this, the 1928 Paramount film is lost! I will publish this poster image here as soon as emovieposter.com scans it properly in preparation for the auction.


Visit the combined Festival Films/Café Roxy Website!

Blasting Off!

"Space Patrol! High adventure in the wild vast reaches of space. Visions of daring in the name of interplanetary justice. Travel into the future with Buzz Corey, Commander in Chief of... The Space Patrol." Thus began every exciting adventure from 1950 to 1955 on Saturday morning. It is the first TV series I recall regularly watching (at a friend's house) before we had television ourselves. I suspect I did not see it until 1952, but stuck around until it snuck away and at the age of 9 may have felt too sophisticated to miss it.

Space Patrol has been on my mind lately since I recently watched a few episodes and spotted an ad for a toy I had as a kid -- the official Space Patrol Periscope. You could use it to peak over fences (had none) or around corners in rooms or trees (had those) or around space rocks on the moon to watch villains at their dastardly deeds (never tried that). Another ad was for a totem head helmet that was actually used as a prop in the show. The buy-for-home-model was of course cardboard, and I suspect the ones on the show were identical! Not sure I had one of those, but I do recall a Space Patrol space helmet with secret one-way vision: you could see out the plastic but no one could see in to see who you were. The things cost about .25¢ but were super exciting to get in the mail, unpack and unfold!

So these thoughts were running through my head when I named today's blog, which has nothing else to do with Space Patrol!

"Blasting Off!" refers to my revamped, refurbished, reinvigorating and resoundingly fabulous new-look website! Please, kindly, go take a look at it.

Most pages look like this sample one on the left. The two side bars are common to most pages. On the left is the Festival Films section that concentrates on public domain films. At anytime while browsing the site you can click on the vintage television set and return to the Catalog of Public Domain Films home page. Here you can pick any genre of interest -- Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi, etc. -- click and go to that page, which will look like the example shown here of lists of films that are in the public domain. I have already added the genres of Muscle Men, Exploitation and War films. Coming soon -- Kung Fu -- or I may call it Kung Fooey. The Action-Adventure page is being revised with Jungle Films added so far.

At the top of each genre I clarify that all films are available on DVD-R, and some as double features as noted. Here is a typical entry: Jungle Bride (1933) 63m. Charles Starrett, Anita Page. Persons shipwrecked on the coast of Africa face many jungle perils. A nice Monogram effort. Bonus feature: Tentacles of the North (1926, silent) 54m. Two ships are trapped in the Arctic ice. I also note that higher end video masters are available on formats like BetaSP and DVCam. Companies who process into commercial DVD releases need the highest quality with least compression. Whereas small TV stations and online streamers can use the more economical DVD-R format.

A quick click on the large Café Roxy sign will take you to a Roxy home page with links to all the programs. These pages are still in the old format which is mainly all the posters that both advertise each program to YOU and are also for your use to promote your showings. So the website -- here's another chance to go look at it -- is divided simply into the two aspects of Public Domain Films: 1) What they are, and 2) What you can do with them.

Here is how I got the long overdue, desperately needed and greatly appreciated website make over. I have one son, Jeffrey, who is a computer programmer. He has worked his way up through a number of jobs and only this year got hired by a firm in Silicone Valley. Jeff moved to Menlo Park and works in downtown Foster City, California. In his new job he is doing more website design than he had before, and he ran across a template he thought would work for me. Just a few weeks ago in the May 2 blog I wrote about combining Festival Films and Café Roxy websites. Jeff's offer and the final results happened since then! Thank you, Jeff, I am really happy with how the new site looks and works.

I have plenty of work ahead putting in several hundred new titles and revising many pages, but the framework is all set. Please go check it out for yourself and email me any comments to fesfilms@aol.com.


Did I mention you can reach the new website by simply clicking here?

Surprising B-Westerns #2

A truly surprising B-Western might unfold thusly: A cowgirl rides into town with her sidekick, perhaps played by Maude Eburn, meets a young, helpless (male) rancher whose elderly mother has just been killed by the bad guy. (We can assume the boy's father died in child birth.) The heroine with two six-guns takes up the cause to save his ranch, they almost fall in love but instead she rides off into the sunset at the fade out.

That film was never made, although a handful of B-westerns had a girl lead -- Dorothy Page. Dorothy started as a singer with Paul Whiteman, and was tested by Universal in the low-budget musical Manhattan Moon (1935). Her three westerns for cheapie studio Grand National were not particularly successful, as audiences didn't warm to the idea of a singing cowgirl the way they had to a singing cowboy. If you can, check out The Singing Cowgirl (1938), Water Rustlers and Ride 'Em Cowgirl (1939). I have only seen Water Rustlers, where she stars above the ineffectual Dave O'Brien, and can attest that it looks and feels like every other B of the era except for the switch in gender emphasis.

My candidate for a recently viewed western that surprised me is Texas Cyclone (1932) starring Tim McCoy. Tim had such a colorful life that I would like to share it with you courtesy of the IMDB:

One of the great stars of early American Westerns. McCoy was the son of an Irish soldier who later became police chief of Saginaw, Michigan, where McCoy was born. He attended St. Ignatius College in Chicago and after seeing a Wild West show there, left school and found work on a Wyoming ranch. He became an expert horseman and roper and developed a keen knowledge of the ways and languages of the Indian tribes in the area. He competed in numerous rodeos, then enlisted in the U.S. Army when America entered the First World War. He was commissioned and rose to the rank of colonel, eventually being posted as Adjutant General of Wyoming, a position he held until 1921.

In 1922, Tim was asked by the head of Famous Players-Lasky, Jesse L. Lasky, to provide Indian extras for The Covered Wagon (1923). He brought hundreds of Indians to Hollywood and served as technical advisor on the film. After touring the country and Europe with the Indians as publicity, McCoy obtained further work in the movies, both as a technical advisor and as an actor. McCoy rapidly rose to stardom, making scores of Westerns and occasional non-Westerns. In 1935 he toured with the Ringling Brothers Circus and then with his own Wild West show, but returned to films in 1940 teaming with Buck Jones and Raymond Hatton in The Rough Riders series.

So why did Texas Cyclone surprise me, one might ask? The plot is a bit different and far-fetched with a surprise ending I won't reveal: When Pecos Grant arrives in Stampede, Arizona, he is greeted as Jim Rawlins, a former inhabitant, believed dead for five years. Utah Becker, town boss and traditional enemy of Rawlins, starts a fight but Pecos quickly ends it. On the advice of Sheriff Lew Collins, Pecos, a rancher from Texas, decides to keep up the pretense. He finds that Helena, Rawlins' wife, is having her cattle rustled by her own cowhands, and he fires three of them and accuses Becker of being behind the conspiracy against Helena. Pecos sends for his Texas riders and succeeds in running the Becker gang out of Stampede.

The principal interest is in the actor who played the cowhand that Tim did NOT fire, because I never knew he had made a film with Tim McCoy even though I have enjoyed most of his other westerns for years and years. 20 minutes or so into the film Tim walks into the bunkhouse to meet his wranglers and off in the corner stands John Wayne, who dominates every subsequent scene he is in. A plot contrivance has Wayne wounded by henchmen so that only Tim faces the final shoot-out with baddie Wheeler Oakman. To be perfectly clear here, John Wayne is playing Tim McCoy's sidekick, in a dynamic similar to James Ellison and Russell Hayden doing much of the fighting and romancing for the older William Boyd in the Hopalong Cassidy series.

Wayne also made Two-Fisted Law in 1932 during his short stay at Columbia and also with Tim and Wheeler and, I forgot to mention him in the cast -- Walter Brennan in one his youngest roles ever as a "codger" at the age of 38. Wayne's Lone Star western Desert Trail, shown in the poster here, is from 1935.

There is another reason to rush to see Texas Cyclone from Netflix or a rental store (are there any left?) The film was copyrighted and renewed by Columbia, who still holds 35mm material, so the DVD is the result of a recent high definition transfer. No B-Western has ever looked this good on video!


Posters for all Café Roxy shows can be viewed at Roxy Programs.

Polishing Off Matinee #3!

"Polishing Off" is a phrase affectionately used by Mr. Tod Slaughter in many of his films, as in to "polish off" a patron in Sweeney Todd means to cut his throat and send him downstairs to meat pie heaven. I have been polishing off the programs and posters for the Matinee 3 series and you can view the entire line-up Here.

One of my missions, as mentioned in an earlier blog, is to spread the joy of Slaughter-dom to the uninitiated. To that end (pun) drop everything and go watch Tod Slaughter At Home. This 1936 short shows Mr. Slaughter off at his best, laughing maniacally throughout. A sign outside his door reads "Sweeney Tod Slaughter," alluding to the curious connection between his name and his most famous role. The over-the-top humor continues when a newsreel photographer enters to film his subject but is strapped in a barber chair for a shave. A scantily clad young lady wanders in from a neighboring set so that Tod can carve out an unexpected present for the barber victim. Leonard Maltin commented: "This is GREAT! Thanks for leading me to it!"

And I feel great about my decision this week to add Tod Slaughter's Crimes at the Dark House (1940) to week 11 of my third Saturday Matinee series. I just acquired excellent material on the film, which led to the inclusion, but I also feel it is his most enjoyable film for audiences today. In the first scene Tod creeps up on a sleeping man and pounds a spike into his brain! He then impersonates the man back in England to claim his estate and promised bride while murdering his numerous enemies. The film is based on the celebrated novel "The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins, which has been re-made for TV in various countries in 1957, 1960, 1966, 1970, 1980, 1992 and 1997! Whew! I think Hammer Films made a version as well. Basically, this version is an old-fashioned melodrama centered around the black villainy of the protagonist. You can view a short scene in the trailer I made to plug next week's film in Matinee Show #10.

That link actually shows trailers to the last four shows in the series. Besides Crimes at the Dark House, enjoy my productions plugging Missile to the Moon, The Big Show and Speak Easily. I simply take some good scenes out of each film, add "Next Week" lingo and sometimes words over the film clips, and that's all folks! The three best shots are in the prevu for Missile to the Moon -- a hypnotic scene by the moon woman, the giant spider attack and the rock men. Like a good trailer, this should inspire feelings of "I gotta see this!" Not true. You just gotta see the trailer!

I thought about but did not use Sweeney Todd in the Matinee. Sweeney starts a little slow and you need to know the story to appreciate it. Most people do know the story, but due to self-censorship, one assumes, this version does not clarify what happens between the bodies dropping into the cellar and what turns up in the meat pies. You know, don't you??? To make room for Tod and his more enjoyable Crimes film, I bumped Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon. Most fans have seen the Holmes film, and while not bad it just doesn't compare with the promised joys of seeing Mr. Slaughter cackling on the big screen.

Notes on some of the other Matinee programs will appear in upcoming weeks.

Posters for all Café Roxy shows can be viewed at Roxy Programs.