Acting
Major Lex Kearney, dishonourably discharged from the army for cowardice in battle, volunteers to go undercover to try to prevent raids against shipments of horses desperately needed for the Union war effort. Falling in with the gang of jayhawkers and Confederate soldiers who have been conducting the raids, he gradually gains their trust and is put in a position where he can discover who has been giving them secret information revealing the routes of the horse shipments.
Physical comedy drives this vehicle for then-famous clown Poodles Hanneford, part of a legendary British circus family. Already pushing forty but impeccably nimble, he plays suitor to beauteous, heavily daddy-guarded Betty (Betty Walsh) and the duo try their hardest to elope. This is an essentially plotless series of gags but they're good ones, well above the producing Weiss Brothers' average at the time. While "Poodles" never quite parlayed his big-top celebrity into screen stardom, he occasionally appeared in movies as late as circus-themed Hollywood spectacular BILLY ROSE'S JUMBO. He passed away five years later in the Catskills, no doubt surrounded by a diehard old-school showbiz community to the end.
Rancher Clay Hardin arrives in San Antonio to search for and capture Roy Stuart, notorious leader of a gang of cattle rustlers. The vicious outlaw is indeed in the Texan town, intent on winning the affections of a beautiful chanteuse named Jeanne Starr. When the lovely lady meets and falls in love with the charismatic Hardin, the stakes for both men become higher.
Peter Miles stars as Tom Tiflin, the little boy at the heart of this John Steinbeck story set in Salinas Valley. With his incompatible parents -- the city-loving Fred and country-happy Alice -- constantly bickering, Tom looks to cowboy Billy Buck for companionship and paternal love.
The Princess of Samarkand and an English knight confront the armies of Genghis Khan.
Don Middleton is so caught up with his work he neglects his wife Elsa. Lonely Elsa begins to spend more time with Don's best friend and they become attracted to one another. Don and Elsa decide to get a divorce, unaware of the effect their problems are having on their daughter Molly. When Elsa announces plans to remarry, Molly runs away from home.
Circus employee Poodles gets into plenty of monkey business while competing with the bully ringmaster for the love of equestrienne heroine Betty. But when she faints before an important performance, he must don drag so the show can go on.
Josh is a young boy who feels neglected and misunderstood at home. Preparing to run away, he chances across an old diary once kept by his grandfather. Leafing through the yellowed pages, Josh discovers that Grandpa went through many of the same childhood travails that he is enduring at that moment. Armed with a renewed understanding of and appreciation for his elders, Josh decides to stick around for a while and see how things develop.
Mountie Matt O'Brien is assigned to escort Miss Owens to a remote outpost. But when he finds an illegal mining operation there that is smuggling gold across the border, his superior Sgt. Means orders him to leave.
A man who wants to join the circus against the wishes of his ex-circus clown father.
Mother in law has annouced her visit, chaos ensues.
Poodles loses a job working at a car dealer so he gets a job working for the Hardly Able Cab Company. How he got from driving a cab to fighting with a horse is an odd and contrived situation, though the horse appears to be his co-star from CIRCUS DAZE.
Poodles Hanneford comedy produced and distributed by the Weiss Brothers.
In 'The Circus Kid', Buddy, an orphan who runs away from a a harsh orphanage, joins Cadwallader's Circus.
