An American western directed by Armand Schaefer, starring John Wayne.
An apparent murderer on the run from the law falls in with a band of outlaws. It becomes apparent that he is not guilty and the real killer is revealed.
This was very standard, but not annoying. Plot and characters were mostly clear and the audio and video were passable. Most of all, this was boring. All of these western films got cranked out because they were the thing to do, but watching ALL of them seems an interminable and unrewarding task. I have doubts if I will finish my viewing and review writing of public domain films. I rate this tolerable.
An American western mystery directed by S. Roy Luby.
A rich old man is murdered and a group of cowboys solve the crime.
This was standard through and through. The only thing that differentiated it from the other westerns was the murder mystery element in the plot. Audio and video standard for 1941. Stretching REALLY far, I noticed that the old man had a pet raven. I rate it tolerable.
An American western musical directed by Joseph Kane, starring Gene Autry and Smiley Burnette.
A cowboy in Texas gets a letter from his brother who is mining diamonds in Africa. The American brother rounds up the horses requested and goes to Africa in search of his brother.
This was pretty standard. The plot and characters were clearly communicated and there was plenty of music and comic relief. All of the songs were diegetic, but seemed to be from pre-recorded audio with actors miming and lip synching. It just boggles my mind how few actual music performances there are in movies. The audio and video were standard for the date, but clear enough to pass my inspection. Overall, it's a standard 1937 western musical with Gene Autry. What other description would be necessary? I rate it o.k.
An American musical western directed by Joseph Kane, starring Roy Rogers.
A group of border patrol cowboy/soldiers detain a woman who is supposed to cross the Mexican border to marry a man who owns a mine there.
This just seemed very old to me. The plot was a little vague or murky in some areas, but the main characters were clearly identifiable and easy to keep track of. The audio and video were very old and not the best, but not bad. There was one scene where I noticed good directing. The male lead duo were getting on their horses in unison and I thought it looked cool. The songs were good, with the exception of the intro "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" which I found annoying. Overall, pretty standard and blends into the crowd of old westerns I've been watching. I rate it tolerable.
An American western directed by Albert Herman, starring Tex Ritter.
A ranger and his sidekicks settle a feud between sheep men and cattle men.
The plot was not clearly presented. It just seemed thrown together. The characters were alright. The sidekicks provided comic relief, but I was disappointed that the musicians in the film were lip synching and miming guitar playing. The video had lots of scribbly artifacts and the audio had lots of hiss and pops. I have to rate this poor because it was poorly made.
An American western directed by John English, starring Gene Autry.
A cowboy crashes his stagecoach in a race and meets a woman in a ghost town. The woman has been in communication with the ghosts and a plot involving 20 year old treasure, the cowboy's father and a group of bandits is revealed.
The plot and characters were clearly presented. I liked how the backstory got filled in with flashbacks. Another general aspect that I noticed was the romantic interest replacement. There were lots of underexposed shots on the video and the audio had too much dead air hiss. There were some good shots in the stagecoach race, the fist fight and the cowboy jumping onto his horse. Overall, it was a regular western with some good things and some bad things. I rate it o.k.
An Australian animated musical comedy directed by Alexander Stitt.
The main part of the epic poem, Beowulf is told from the monster's perspective.
So unique! The animation looked like a combination of traditional cartoon and cut paper. Superfluous musical numbers punctuated the film's main points, with vocals by Grendel, the dragon, clams, Hrothgar's "shaper" and an inept warrior. The humor element was mainly in character design, plot and Australian dialect dialogue. This was aided by a lighthearted presentation. My only problem with this was that much of it was too dark and nebulous in the video. If you're looking for good animation, this is definitely worth watching. I rate it awesome.
