4/5 "Bob Steele Series ... Trail of Terror (1935) ... Poverty Row"
  by J. Lovins (Missouri-USA)
Poverty Row Pictures presents "TRAIL OF TERROR" (20 December 1935) (63 mins/B&W) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) -- Bob Steele was an American actor --- He was born Robert Adrian Bradbury in 1907 in Portland, Oregon, into a vaudeville family --- Bob's career began to take off for good in 1927, when he was hired by production company Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) to star in a series of Westerns. Bob--who was rechristened Bob Steele at FBO--soon made a name for himself, and in the late 1920s, 1930s and 1940s starred in B-Westerns for almost every minor film studio, including Monogram, Supreme, Tiffany, Syndicate, Republic (including several films of the Three Mesquiteers series) and Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) (including the initial films of their "Billy the Kid" series)

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, that "new medium" television had many hours to fill and few dollars to fill them --- They re-discovered the B-Western, still a popular mainstay of Saturday afternoon matinees and many cowboy stars thrilled a new audience --- Taking advantage of this rebirth in popularity, publishers brought to the marketplace comic books featuring these western heroes of "Bob Steele" Westerns --- These bimonthly issues were copyrighted in February and April of 1950 by Fawcet Publications --- His career which included nearly 200 feature films, serials and TV appearances --- Steele in his twilight years at the age 59 when he got the part of the cantankerous "Trooper Duffy", in the western comedy series "F Troop" (1965), who at the drop of a hat would give his rendition of fighting "shoulder to shoulder with Davy Crockett at the Alamo" --- Steele retired from the screen in 1973 --- Bob's long career, spanning more than 50 years came to an end in 1988 when he passed away.

Under the production staff of:
Robert North Bradbury - Director / Screenwriter
A.W. Hackel - Producer
E.M. MacManigal - Cinematographer
S. Roy Luby - Film Editor
Wally West - Stuntman

Our story line and plot, Bob Steele at his best with impersonating an outlaw more than once in his career --- Spike Manning (Bob Steele) breaks out of prison and joins Blake's (Forrest Taylor) gang of outlaws --- Later a paroled Muggs (Richard Cramer) arrives to rejoin the gang, as Muggs is the only one who knows where the stolen money is hidden and Manning is after it --- Like Steele, the supporting cast had played their roles many times before, however, and Trail of Terror does generate a certain sense of deja vu with Charles King always giving his best with Steele egging him on.

the cast includes:
Bob Steele ... Jim Wilson, posing as Spike Manning
Beth Marion ... Judy Baxter
Forrest Taylor ... Blake
Charles King ... Hashknife (as Charlie King)
Frank Lyman Jr. ... Kent Baxter
Charles K. French ... Sheriff Baxter (as Charlie French)
Lloyd Ingraham ... Warden
Richard Cramer ... Muggs (as Dick Kramer- typo)
Nancy Deshon ... June O'Day (as Nancy DeShon)
Barney Cosnack ... Dugan (wrestler) (as Dr. Barney Cosnack)
Ed Cassidy ... Man with strongbox
Dick Dickinson ... Fight spectator
Herman Hack ... Henchman
Robert McKenzie ... Wrestling promoter
Milburn Morante ... Jake
Perry Murdock ... Stage guard
Horace Murphy ... Fight spectator
Tex Phelps ... Barfly
Wally West ... Deputy

SPECIAL FEATURES:
BIO:
1. Bob Steele (aka: Robert Adrian Bradbury) (Actor)
Date of Birth: 23 January 1907 - Portland, Oregon
Date of Death: 21 December 1988 - Burbank, California

If you crave action, drama and plenty of adventure check out other western double features --- Ask Amazon.Com to carry the volumes as they are not available on Amazon as of yet --- you can order and pick up your copy now from VCI Entertainment

BOB STEELE WESTERN DOUBLE FEATURES:
1. Vol. 1 - Tombstone Terror/Lightnin' Crandall (VCI #7212) (DVD)
2. Vol. 2 - The Brand of Hate/Trusted Outlaw (VCI #7252) (DVD)
3. Vol. 3 - The Arizona Gunfighter/Last of the Warrens (VCI #7261) (DVD)
4. Vol. 4 - Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin'/The Feud Maker (VCI #7275) (DVD)
5. Vol. 5 - Border Phantom/A Demon For Trouble (VCI #7311) (DVD)
6. Vol. 6 - The Kid Ranger/Nevada Buckaroo (VCI #7336) (DVD)
7. Vol. 7 - The Red Rope/Paroled To Die (VCI #7338) (DVD)
8. Vol. 8 - Smokey Smith/Sundown Saunders (VCI #7340) (DVD)
9. Vol. 9 - Doomed At Sundown/The Law Rides (VCI #7344) (DVD)
10.Vol 10 - No Man's Range/Rider of the Law (VCI #7347) (DVD)

CLASSIC WESTERNS - BOB STEELE FOUR FEATURE:
11. Border Phantom, A Demon For Trouble, Trusted Outlaw, Brand of Hate (VCI #5521) (DVD)

Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc) and Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") as they have rekindled my interest once again for B-Westerns and Serials --- If you're into the memories of B-Westerns with high drama, this is the one you've been anxiously waiting for --- please stand up and take a bow --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Time: 63 min on VHS/DVD ~ Poverty Row Pictures ~ (9/28/2004)

3/5 Trail of Terror - just "o.k." early Bob Steele B-Western
  by Mr. Get Real (Long Beach, CA USA)
This review is for the Alpha Video issued DVD "TRAIL OF TERROR (1935)" starring Bob Steele. This Alpha issued DVD runs a little over 59 minutes. Initially when I watched it I found the picture quality to be poor with the blacks so washed out and faded that they appear light grey. Definitely not one of your pristine transfer jobs. However, I found that if you turn down the brightness and turn up the contrast on your TV the picture is vastly improved to the point that you really can't complain too much. The splices and scratches typical of these older moves are very minimal. But, after making those adjustments to my TV I had to wonder why the manufacturer couldn't have done the same thing when they mastered this film onto DVD to save me the trouble? I guess they don't really care about quality. Also, the sound quality is not great, but good enough considering when this was made - don't get me wrong, you can watch the movie and understand everything being said without being distracted, it's just that it's obviously not up to today's standards. I think the sound in this release is as good as it will ever get. It's just that movies made even just five years after this one seem to have much better sound quality. I guess they were just figuring it all out during that time period.

The film itself is your basic early Bob Steele western - not great in my opinion, but not all that bad either for what it is. Some reviewers rate this movie higher than I do. I have at least two reasons for not listing this film as among Bob's best. The first half of "Trail of Terror" is rather light on action focusing instead on the story line, although it does pick up towards the end. This film is set in the then modern 1930's as opposed to a true western in the 1800's. I greatly prefer the westerns that are set in the real old west as opposed to those set "modern" times. I will say that I've seen several early Bob Steele films and generally they are sub-par for the genre and for that era (pre-1940's), however, this one is one of the better ones from Bob from that time period - not great, but just o.k. It's just that most of Bob's early films were really low-budget productions - it's not his fault as an actor! A much better movie in my opinion is the "Carson City Kid" starring Roy Rogers where Bob Steele is a pretty good bad guy - a great performance for him where he shows his acting ability to better effect. By the way, be sure to check out "Have Gun Will Travel - Season 1" for a great episode called "The High Graders" from the late 50's where Bob Steele plays a bad guy and eventually shoots it out with Paladin. Bob played bit parts in a lot of Westerns even through the 60's - check out Clint Eastwood's "Hang 'em High - 1968."

Bottom line, "Trail of Terror" is just an o.k. early Bob Steele western set in "modern" times, but nothing great.

For some well-made and well produced (for DVD) early westerns check out the Hopalong Cassidy (Platinum is the company putting those out) and Red Ryder series - the DVD transfers on those are generally very good from excellent source material. Also check out the 2 Roan DVD releases of several Roy Rogers movies. There are also some very excellent Johhny Mack Brown DVDs that are very good DVD transfers - check out "Bad Man From Red Butte/Rawhide Ranger".