Overland Pacific *** (1954, Jock Mahoney, Peggie Castle, Adele Jergens) – Classic Movie Review 8,860

Director Fred F Sears’s neat and nifty little 1954 colour Western film Overland Pacific is busy, stalwart, decently plotted and quite well made, with two good star performances from Jock Mahoney and Peggie Castle.

Jock Mahoney stars as a special railroad agent called Ross Granger, who poses as a telegrapher and investigates when the Silver Dollar saloon bar boss Del Stewart (William Bishop), a fellow Civil War veteran, plots to set the Comanche Indians on the warpath as the railroad comes in to town, crossing their land.

Also in the cast are Peggie Castle as Del’s fiancée Ann Dennison, Adele Jergens as dance-hall girl Jessie Loraine who also loves Del, Chubby Johnson as Sheriff Blaney, Pat Hogan as Comanche leader Chief Dark Thunder, Walter Sande as Mr Dennison, George Eldredge, Chris Alcaide as Del’s hired gun Jason, Fred Graham as Jenks the stage driver, Dick Rich and House Peters Jr as Perkins.

Overland Pacific runs 73 minutes, is made by Reliance, Superior Pictures Inc and World Films Inc, is written by J Robert Bren, Gladys Atwater and Martin Goldsmith, from a story by Frederick Louis Fox, shot in Cinecolor by Lester White, scored by Irving Gertz, and produced by Edward Small for United Artists release.

Originally known as Silver Dollar, it was the first film in Mahoney’s five-picture deal with producer Edward Small.

It is one of the first films to use blood squibs to simulate someone being shot.

Peggie Castle (December 22, 1927 – August 11, 1973) was born as Peggy Thomas Blair.

Peggie Castle was Miss Cheesecake in 1949, so named by the Southern California Restaurant Association. She appeared in around a dozen Westerns between Wagons West (1952) and Hell’s Crossroads (1957). She left show business in 1962, developed an alcohol problem and died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1973 at the age of 45.

Jock Mahoney (February 7, 1919 – December 14, 1989) appears as the villain Coy Banton in Tarzan the Magnificent (1960) and then took over as Tarzan in Tarzan Goes to India (1962) and Tarzan’s Three Challenges (1963). His fitting last film appearance was as Old Man in The End (1978).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8,860

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