Known for Acting
Edited version of the 1942 Republic serial "Spy Smasher," cut down to one hour and sold for TV release in 1966 in a syndication package with other truncated Republic serials.
Vigilante Terror was one of the last of the "Wild Bill" Elliot westerns for Columbia. This time, Elliot comes to rescue an imperiled storekeeper. A band of masked vigilantes is laying waste to the countryside, and the storekeeper is blamed. Wild Bill saves the day by going undercover -- or under hood, as it were
Bill Elliot emulates his idol William S. Hart in the superior western Topeka. Elliot plays the archetypal Good Bad Man, hired to kick the crooked element out of a small town. A hard-drinking, hard-living man, Elliot entertains thoughts of taking over the town himself for the benefit of his own gang. After several reels of soul-searching, Elliot decides to honor his promise to clean up the town for its decent citizens. Evidently director Thomas Carr rented a camera crane for this Allied Artists production, since the camera performs remarkable calisthenics, the kind not normally seen in a medium-budget western.
When Pa wins a jingle-writing contest, he and Ma head for New York City. They they get in trouble with gangsters when they lose some stolen money which they had already agreed to deliver to one of the thugs.
Jack Garrett interrupts a stagecoach holdup where he meets Fuzzy (The town's stagecoach driver, station agent, baggage agent, and sheriff) and banker Jim Thorn. The trio team up to prevent robberies of Thorn's bank by Clem Yantis's large gang.
Jimmy Wakely befriends Hank Carrdigan, a former outlaw who has served his sentence and wants to go straight. Jimmy, after clearing Hank of a wrongful shooting charge, helps him get a job as an express messenger. Hank drives off some bandits in an attempted hold-up, but recognizes his son Tom as one of the bandits. A later robbery is blamed on Hank but Jimmy and his sidekick Cannonball Taylor bring in the real culprits and clear Hank's name.
The Cisco Kid and Pancho set off to find the missing owner of a devoted little dog in this western adventure. From the vanished man's sister, the heroes learn that her brother disappeared soon after striking a major gold vein in his mine. In the end Cisco accosts the villain, saves the kidnapped miner and reunites him with his dog.
This musical tells the tales of two movie extras who abscond to an expensive resort with their costumes and pretend to be aristocrats. Included in the film are ice skating numbers and songs.
Jimmy and his pal Cannonball are hired by a rancher and horse breeder to capture Midnight, a wild stallion that has been interfering with local herds and has a reputation as a killer.
Set at the beginning of the Civil War, Tap Roots is all about a county in Mississippi which chooses to secede from the state rather than enter the conflict. The county is protected from the Confederacy by an abolitionist and a Native American gentleman. The abolitionist's daughter is courted by a powerful newspaper publisher when her fiance, a confederate officer, elopes with the girl's sister. The daughter at first resists the publisher's attentions, but turns to him for aid when her ex-fiance plans to capture the seceding county on behalf of the South.
After Marshal Jordan is honored by Jimmy, Cannonball and others for his forty years as a law officer, the Sawyer mine is blown up by Belle's foreman, Kern, following Sawyer's refusal to sell out. Dan Jordan, the Marshal's son, interested in Belle, secretly the head of the outlaws, is lured by her from scouting the road on which his father guards a ore shipment. Jimmy and Cannonball drive off the outlaws, headed by Kern and Burton, but the Marshal is fatally wounded. The town council appoints Jimmy the new Marshal, which disappoints Dan, but Belle persuades him to become Jimmy's deputy, in order to get information from him about ore and payroll shipments. Dan quits as deputy and fights Jimmy when the latter suspects Belle of involvement in the robberies.
Jimmy finds a dying Ranger Braden who asks him to give his money belt to his sister. When he rides into town he finds another man claiming to be Ranger Braden. When the money belt is found in Jimmy's saddle bag, the fake Marshal tries to arrest him. But Jimmy escapes and hopes a telegram to Ranger headquarters will clear him.
