Dusting off a couple of old Ken Maynard Western plots — already recycled once with John Wayne in the early 1930s — Warner Bros. jumped on the singing cowboy band wagon with a series starring baritone Dick Foran (formerly Nick Foran. The opener, Moonlight on the Prairie was filmed on glorious locations at California’s June Lake and featured a good supporting cast that included future Western hero William “Wild Bill” Elliott (here billed Gordon Elliott) as an agent for the ubiquitous Cattlemen’s Association.
Foran himself played Ace Andrews, a Wild West Show performer falsely accused of murdering rancher Butch Roberts. Butch’s estranged wife, now his widow, Barbara (Sheila Mannors), and young son have until midnight to take over the ranch or lose it to nasty Luke Thomas (Joe Sawyer and crooked lawyer Buck Cantwell (Robert Barrat).
After a scheme to delay Barbara and little Dickie (Dickie Jones) is foiled by Ace and his escape artist sidekick “Small Change” (George E. Stone), Luke and his motley crew engage in a bit of cattle rustling. Ace, who has already proven Cantwell to be Butch’s real killer, successfully leads the sheriff’s posse to victory and soon both Thomas and Cantwell are apprehended.
Foran, whose inclination to shout every line was tempered in subsequent entries, found time between fightin’ and shootin’ to warble {&Covered; Wagon Days} and {&Moonlight; on the Prairie}, both composed and written by M.K. Jerome, Joan Jasmyn, Vernon Spencer and Bob Nolan. Foran’s horse, Smokey, earned second billing ahead of leading lady Sheila Mannors, a brunette beauty who also spelled her last name “Manners” on occasion. Miss Mannors / Manners would attempt to escape an increasing list of B-Westerns by changing her moniker to Sheila Bromley in the 1940s.
Moonlight on the Prairie is a 1935 American Western film directed by D. Ross Lederman. It was the first of a Warner Bros. singing cowboy film series with Dick Foran and his Palomino Smoke. A print is preserved in the Library of Congress collection.
Moonlight on the Prairie (1935)
Directed by: D. Ross Lederman
Starring: Dick Foran, Smoke, Sheila Bromley, George E. Stone, Joe Sawyer, Joe King, Robert Barrat, Dickie Jones, Bill Elliott, Herbert Heywood, Raymond Brown, Richard Carle, Milton Kibbee
Screenplay by: William Jacobs
Cinematography by: Fred Jackman Jr.
Film Editing by: Thomas Pratt
Art Direction by: Esdras Hartley
Music by: Howard Jackson
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: November 2, 1935
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