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9.5mm film frames



Pathéscope 9.5mm film boxes - one label says no showing where addmission is charged
the other with the 'no exhibition after this date' - but someone has crossed this out!!


T.9745 (6 reel 9.5mm optical sound release by Pathéscope April 1954)
"THE SILVER BULLET" US Aug1942   Directed by: Joseph H Lewis
----------------------
 58 minutes B/W Cert "U"             Assoiate producer: Oliver Drake
 (approx 50mins on 9.5mm)            A Universal Production
                                     Released by: Universal Pictures
 Screenplay: Elizabeth Beecher       Original story: Oliver Drake
 Photography: Charles Van Enger      Music director: Hans J. Salter
 Art direction: Jack Otterson
 Film Editing: Maurice Wright        Sound Engineer: Bernard B. Brown
 Original songs: Jimmy Wakely, Oliver Drake, Milton Rosen

 
 Cast:
  Johnny Mack Brown ............ 'Silver Jim' Donovan
  Fuzzy Knight ................. Wild Bill Jones
  William Farnum ............... Doctor Thad Morgan
  Jennifer Holt ................ Nancy Lee
  LeRoy Mason .................. Walter Kincaid
  Rex Lease .................... Lance Harris
  Grace Lenard ................. Queenie Canfield
  Claire Witney ................ Emily Morgan
  Slim Whitaker ................ Buck Dawson (as 'Charles 'Slim' Whitaker)
  Michael Vallon ............... Nevada Norton
  Merrill McCormick ............ Pete Sheen
  Pals Of The Golden West ...... Musicians
  Nora Lou Martin .............. Nora - Band singer
  Hank Bell .................... Hank (uncredited)
  Jim Farley ................... Sheriff Sam (uncredited)

  Pals Of The Golden West - Scotty Harrel (guitar); Russell 'Slim' Howie (guitar);
                            Roy 'Bud' Jackson (clarinet); Art Wenzel (accordion)
                            Nora Lou Martin (vocalist)            

A cowboy heads for the town where his father was murdered to find out who was responsible. (IMDb)

Jim Donovan roams the West searching for the masked man who killed his father and shot Jim in the back with a silver bullet. His only clue - the murderer had a jagged scar on his arm. Arriving in Winchester, Donovan's life is saved in a saloon brawl by respectable businessman Walt Kincaid who is standing for election as a senator. Kincaid then visits political rival Doc Morgan to have a scar removed from his arm ......... (Maurice Trace)

Wild Bill Jones is saved from three toughs by "Silver Jim" Donovan, a newcomer to Winchester. They team up to campaign for Thad Morgan for state senate running against crooked incumbent Walter Kincaid. Morgan's campaign is headed by saloon owner Queenie Canfield. Jim visits Doc Winslow and asks him to keep on the lookout for a man with a jagged scar on his left arm, as a man so-marked had shot Jim's father in the back with a silver bullet which Jim now wears as a watch fob, with full intentions of returning it to the former owner. Kincaid has Morgan killed, and Jim, Nancy Lee and others now campaign for Morgan's widow, Emily. (Written by Les Adams)


Cinema 'front-of-house' poster



Pathéscope Monthly magazine April-May 1954



Notes:
  1. Number 21 in a series of 29 Westerns made by Johnny Mack Brown for Universal Pictures
     between 1940 & 1943. Not to be confused with another Western called "The Silver Bullet"
     that came from Reliable Pictures in 1933 with Tom Tyler in the lead. Slim Whitaker 
     played a bad man in both pictures.

  2. Much of the music, including everything over the opening credits, is lifted from the
     Frank Skinner score for Universal's big budget Western "Destry Rides Again" (1939)
     with Jame Stewart and Marlene Dietrich.    
  3. Songs include "My Gal She Works In The Laundry", "Vote For Emily Morgan", "From The 
     Valley" (based on "Red River Valley"), and "Sweethearts Of The Rio Grande" - the last
     one is not in the Pathéscope print. The first is sung by Fuzzy Knight - the rest by
     Nora Lou Martin and The Pals Of The Golden Wesr.
  4. The Pathéscope print omits an action packed six minute sequence. After the inquest on
     Doc Morgan, Donovan rides after one of the villains. There is a fight in a river which
     ends when Silver Jim is knocked out from behind by another badman.
  5  It is the only film on 9.5mm sound to start the credits with the famous Universal
     "Globe Of The World" logo.
  6. William Farnum and William Duncan had been popular leading men in the Silent Cinema,
     Jennifer Holt was the daughter of matinee idol Jack Holt and the sister of cinema
     star Tim Holt (who appears in "Swiss Family Robinson". LeRoy Mason also acted under
     the name Roy Mason in "Northern Frontier" (both films are on 9.5mm sound).
  7. Filming locations: Corriganville, Ray Corrigan Ranch, Simi Valley, California, USA
  8. There is an excellent article about this film, written by Maurice Trace in the
     Group 9.5 magazine "9,5 Review" dated Feb 1967.
     (Extra information from film historian extraordinaire Maurice Trace)


Available on DVD (Panamint) - usually from the USA


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Created 25Jul2016 ...... Last updated: 07 October 2016 ...... 95flmcatt9745.htm ...... ©MMXV1 Grahame L. Newnham