Mystery Ranch (1934)

Director: Bernard B. Ray
Writer: J.K. Henry (Story), Carl Krusada (Dialogue)
Continuity: Rose Gordon
Producer: Bernard B. Ray
Associate Producer: Harry S. Webb
Cinematographer: J. Henry Kruse
Sound: J.S. Westmoreland
Editor: Fred Bain
Assistant Director: B. Raymond
Music: Unknown
Stunts: Jim Corey, Jack Hendricks, Frank McCarroll

Production Company: Reliable Pictures Corporation









Cast

Tom Tyler - Robert Morris
Roberta Gale - Mary Henderson
Louise Cabo - Mrs. Henderson
Jack Perrin - George Andrews (Credited as Jack Gable)
Frank Hall Crane - Percy Jenkins (Credited as Frank Cane)
Charles King - Sam
Tom London - Blake
George Chesebro - Kern
Lafe McKee - Sheriff

Jimmy Aubrey - Pig Sty Pete / Jim Crocker (uncredited)
Jim Corey - Cowhand (uncredited)
John Elliott - Dad Morris (uncredited)
Lew Meehan - Bill (uncredited)
Robert Walker - Deputy (uncredited)

Plot

A writer of Western novels is invited to a ranch to sample the cowboy life for real, including set-ups of a lynching, a runaway, a chase after horse thieves and a fake feud. The writer isn't fooled by any of it until real robbers turn up.

Review

Watched this one a while ago and it was just poor. A very bad excuse for a movie. As usual Charles King is the best actor in it, but he is stifled by a bad plot, a bad script. and bad direction. And the good actor that is John Elliott could have been used to better effect. The highlight for me was seeing how bad Louise Cabo was. She was a former silent actress and she seemed to have been plucked off the street and asked to fill in because she didn't seem to know what to do. Was there any direction at all? I don't normally give films such a poor rating but what can I do.














Interesting Additional Information

Jimmy Aubrey was a legendary comic performer and originally worked in theatres with Fred Karno before becoming an understudy to Charlie Chaplin. He starred in his own silent comedy shorts starting in 1915. Aubrey worked with Oliver Hardy in a series of shorts starting in 1919 and later appeared in the Laurel and Hardy film That's My Wife in 1929. He retired from films in the mid 1950s, having appeared in over 470. This may not have been his finest moment, but it is always good to see him in anything.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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