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LASH, THE (director: Ron
Ormond; screenwriters: Timothy Ormond/June Carr/Kathy McKeel;
cinematographer: Ernest
Miller; editor: Hugh Winn; music: Walter Greene;
cast: Lash LaRue (U.S. Marshal Lash LaRue
), Al St. John (Fuzzy Q. Jones), Peggy Stewart (Joan Delysa ), Ray
Bennett ('Deuce'
Rago), John Carson (Cord), Kermit Maynard
(Lem
Woodruff), Larry Barton (Judge), Roy Butler (Mayor Redfield), Clarke
Stevens (Johnson, mine foreman), Byron Keith (Bill
Leonard), Jim Bannon (Brant); Runtime: 55;
MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Ron Ormond;
Grapevine Video; 1952) "It should appeal to the fans of the star, Lash LaRue." Reviewed
by Dennis Schwartz The Black Lash is a low-budget b/w sequel, filled with stock footage, to Frontier Revenge (1948). Director Ron Ormond ("Frontier Woman"/"White Lightnin' Road"/"39 Stripes") fights through the shoddy production values of this routine B Western and adheres to the unexciting formulaic way of presenting this familiar narrative. Though it provides a good example of the way they used to make the more simple-minded Westerns back in the 1950s, it unfortunately looks like a TV program of the time and is unimaginatively written by Timothy Ormond, June Carr and Kathy McKeel. But, in any case, it should appeal to the fans of the star, Lash LaRue, and to Al St. John, his scruffy character actor sidekick, around for comic relief. After
Marshal Lash LaRue (Lash LaRue), known for using the whip and
dressing in black, arrested dangerous stagecoach
robber 'Deuce'
Rago (Ray Bennett), in the
Frontier Revenge, he finds out that in this movie the
crooked judge (Larry Barton) only gave
him a six month sentence and his outlaw gang is again
operating in an Arizona silver mining town with
impunity. LaRue goes undercover with bearded partner Fuzzy
Q. Jones (Al St. John) and joins the
gang when Rago's legit frontman partner, the lawyer Bill Leonard (Byron Keith),
unwittingly hires him as a gunslinger looking to add
firepower to the gang. LaRue then diverts a
hold-up of the Silver Queen Mine, is saved by Fuzzy
from being killed by Rago's henchmen when his
undercover is blown and the marshal rounds up all the
baddies--including Rago's saloon singer girlfriend (Peggy
Stewart). REVIEWED ON 3/31/2012 GRADE: C+ Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ |