The Gambling Terror

Two photography errors, toward the end, and one silly script flaw do little to lessen the pleasure of this Johnny Mack Brown oater.

Brown was an extremely likable hero, and a good actor, and further proof of that assertion is available in any of his pictures, including his earliest performances.

"The Gambling Terror" has a clever-enough plot with a different-enough setting but all the action a B Western connoisseur could want. Heck, Charlie King and Earl Dwire are both in it!

And they're not all: So are Dick Curtis and Bud Buster. And several other excellent cowboy bad guys and townsmen.

Iris Meredith is a strong performer, as is young Bobby Nelson, and they provide their characters enough personality to make the action they cause more than believable.

The script flaw comes in some business by the printer's devil drunk, very well played by Horace Murphy. Try to ignore it. (This and a few other negatives made me mark my rating down from a 9 to an 8 -- which is still pretty darn good.)

And some more silliness right at the end is pretty bad, but watch Brown's face. How can you not like him?

"The Gambling Terror" is available at YouTube, and I hope you get a better print than the one I saw. It's a good movie, that, yes, could have been better, but it has so much going for it you will be glad you clicked on it.

Jeff Hayes cuts a deal with the local saloon keeper and sets up his profitable gambling operation in the back room. A secret syndicate is demanding protection money from all of the local businesses and Jeff is soon forced to contribute. Citizens refuse to testify against the gang, because any rancher or shopkeeper who resists is murdered. Joining forces with newspaper publisher Frank Garret, Jeff is determined to root out the extortionists, and put an end to their reign of terror.

The Gambling Terror is Johnny Mack Brown who runs a gambling operation and gives a protection racket gang cronies a hard time- it's another entertaining western, pacy with a clever plot. There's a neat twist concerning the secret head of the gang. I thought it was someone else. A certain actor who plays villains. But I was wrong. The dialogue is quite snappy - Johnny Mack Brown utters those witty lines with ease. He plays a smart character who goes undercover to find out who the head honcho is. Nice stunt work at the finale with the wagon going over a cliff.

Producer A. W. Hackel completed twenty-four B-type Westerns for his own penny pinching Supreme Pictures Corporation, most characterized by a basic linear storyline with this Johnny Mack Brown vehicle being true to the type, as well as one of the best, with Brown cast as Jeff Hayes in a unique role: operator of a traveling gambling operation, upon this occasion setting up his roulette wheel, poker tables, and other tools of the trade in the back room of a saloon, queerly enough encouraged to do so by the town's sheriff who is requesting assistance from old friend Hayes in a struggle against a local criminal group. This is a self-styled "cattleman's association", collective villain of the melodrama, essentially a protection racket that demands "dues" from anyone owning one or more head of cattle. It is managed by Brett (Charles King) although the actual boss of the organization is not revealed to its various henchmen, of whom "Dirk" (Dick Curtis) is the foremost collector of the mandatory membership fees. Garrett (Frank Ball), publisher of the town's newspaper, is determined upon restoring freedom of choice to victims of the blackguards by utilizing the power of the press, and therefore is busily gathering resistance from among the hapless citizens impelled to pay for "protection"; however, he and his daughter Betty (Iris Meredith) do not trust Hayes due to his gambling vocation, and when Jeff ostensibly becomes a member of the vicious gang, it would seem that any negative opinion of him has been validated. Brown is impressive from his initial scene, both as actor and horseman, through the film's finale, while there is solid support turned in from Curtis and Meredith. A substantial assemblage of skillful Western supporting players is effective for this production by avoiding the omnipresent risk within this genre of cardboard characterization, while a well constructed script and the brisk editing of Roy Luby add value to this action propelled adventure tale.

While the topic of "The Gambling Terror" is very familiar, Johnny Mack Brown's lovely performance and the writing elevate this B-western above most of the rest. It's not Brown's best film...but it's a darn good one, by gum!

When the story begins, a stranger, Jeff Hayes (Brown) arrives in a western town. He soon learns that a so-called 'Protective Association' is running things. This is a familiar racket if you've watched a lot of B-westerns. It's actually a variation of the protection racket...something used to extort money out of folks by organized crime. In other words, you join and pay up or else bad things will happen, such as your cattle being rustled or you barn burns down! But before Hayes can round up this gang and dispense justice, he needs to pose as a morally ambiguous guy in order to figure out who's behind all this.

Despite the familiar plot and the cliche of a hero going undercover to expose an evil gang (a trope OFTEN used in old westerns), this one works because Brown's character is wonderful. Instead of arriving in town and shooting the place up or punching everyone in sight, he uses good old fashion wisdom and manages to outsmart the baddies. Well worth seeing and fun.