Dude Cowboy

Hollywood really was a tiny little town in the days of black and white; the trivia tells us that both the female leads had been married to actor john whitney at some point. Here, tim holt is mcvey, who goes checking up on an engraver for the US mint. He seems to be putting out counterfeits these days, in silver city nevada. (that happens to be a real place, right off route 50, near virginia city!) mcvey asks the town-folk to help round up the bad guys. Mines, chases on horseback. Shoot-outs. Some fun locations too... the corrigan ranch, which is now a county park. Bronson cave, which was later used as the bat cave. It's like a a typical western, but with a different side story. Not bad. Nothing too new going on here. It's only a shortie B from rko... 59 minutes. Directed by david howard. Died young at 45. This film was released december 12 1941, and howard died on december 21. And both events were probably over-shadowed by pearl harbor. Also note the actor john ince in the uncredited role "Owed money for food"... he was the brother of thomas ince, the director producer who died in very mysterious circumstances, after partying on hearst's boat in 1924.

Engraver Frank Adams gets kidnapped by ranch owner Gordon West and forced to make counterfeit bill engravings. Terry McVey (Tim Holt) comes across some of the bills. He is recruited by his uncle at the Secret Service to infiltrate the suspected dude ranch. His friends, Smokey and Prof. Whopper Hatch, are in town. Smokey is playing his guitar and Whopper is selling his snake oil. Adams' daughter Barbara (Marjorie Reynolds) infiltrates as Bernice Allen.

There is some singing, some cowboying, and some crime solving. It has enough singing to be a musical. There is some light humor with Whopper. There is some horse riding and gunplay although I would like more good stunts. This is a B-movie for the old western fans.

I usually enjoy Tim Holt s RKO westerns.However this is one of the lesser titles as it does not have the character of Chito Rafferty.Furthermore the plot takes a long time to get going.Additionally there is a comedy side kick who is totally unfunny.However it is still better than many B westerns of the period.

Dude Cowboy casts Treasury Agent Tim Holt on the trail of counterfeiters in the west. I can't say whether it was the old west or modern west as the cast wore 19th century garb, but there were such things as telephones in use. In that I certainly agree with the other reviewer.

Despite that the film was a decent one, very typical of the quality of Tim Holt's westerns at RKO which were a lot better than even Republic cowboys were doing. Tim's not just looking for counterfeiters, but for a kidnapper as well as Bureau of the Mint engraver Byron Foulger is snatched off a train and forced to work for the outlaws. Pursuing her own investigation is Foulger's daughter Marjorie Reynolds. And helping Tim are his sidekicks Ray Whitley and Lee White.

The boys go to work at a Dude Ranch as that's where the trail leads and the film even gives grizzled old Lee White a bit of romance with spinster schoolteacher Helen Holmes. Her trying to correct his grammar, she might have had better success with Gabby Hayes.

As in Holt westerns enough action and gunplay to satisfy any fan of who I consider the best of cowboy heroes.

Typical fast-paced Tim Holt B-movie Western. Tim is tracking down a missing engraver who's being forced to print counterfeit money. The engraver's daughter (cute little Marjorie Reynolds) is looking for him, too.

Lots of pretty cowgirls -- all wearing pants, despite the historical period -- although the characters talk about making phone calls, so I'm not sure when the story takes place. I think I saw a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall of the bunch house.

Western music fans will enjoy the snappy tunes from singing cowboy costar, Ray Whitley. Lee 'Lasses' White provides comic relief. Lovely Louise Curry has her eye on Tim, but he's too busy for romance (and that's far too busy for me, yessiree . . . ).

I've yet to see a Tim Holt Western that didn't deliver a wagon load of fun. The only thing this one needed was Richard Martin as Tim's sidekick, Chito Jose Gonzalez Bustamante Rafferty (his father was Irish).