Empty Holsters (1937) User Reviews

Judy! Judy! Judy!

[bsmith5552 · 6/10 · 12 July 2018]

"Empty Holsters" was another of the Dick Foran Singing Cowboy oaters for Warner Bros. In this one he's a ranch hand working for rancher Tom Raines (Charles Le Moyne).

The film opens with Clay Brent (Foran) and the cowboys singing a "drivin' the cattle" song. Even Tex Roberts (Glenn Strange), Clay's pal is "singing" along. Back at the ranch, after a bunk house sing a long, Tex's practical joke backfires and he is fired by Raines. Meanwhile back in town, Town boss Ace Cain (Emmett Vogan) is trying to take over the bank run by John Ware (Wilfred Lucas). Ace it seems, controls everything in town but the bank. Ware's daughter Judy is being pursued by Ace but her heart belongs to Clay. (awwww).

Ace wants to get Clay out of the picture so he has his cohorts Buck (Anderson Lawler) and Cutter (George Chesebro) ride the local stage as passengers to witness Ace's holdup and murder of the stage driver and shotgun and swear it was Clay whut done it. One of the murdered men was the brother of sheriff Hardin (Edmund Cobb). Hardin arrests Clay for the murders and he is brought to trial. He is found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison. For some reason, Clay is not sentenced to be hanged, probably because the hero never gets hanged..,.come on.

Clay serves 5 years and is paroled. He comes back to Judy and the ranch where he sings a song to have his horse Smoke return to him from the wild. (awwww). Sheriff Hardin takes Clay's guns away (hence the empty holsters) and forbids him to carry any weapons that will violate his parole.

Clay discovers a gold concho given to his father (Tom Brower) by Ace to be affixed to Ace's saddle. The concho it seems was struck from a gold coin from the stage robbery of five years earlier. Clay goes to Marshal Billy O'Neill (J.P. McGowan) with his proof of Ace's guilt. But Sheriff Hardin phones ahead and has O'Neill arrest Clay instead.

Tex breaks Clay out of jail and they go to convince Hardin of Ace's guilt. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Ace is making plans to "get outta hyar" and take Judy with him. Clay sends Tex to Raines ranch to assemble a posse but will they get there in time......awwww you know that they will.

By the way, did Tex ever get his job back?

so so western from warner

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 5 February 2019]

Who knew those cowboys were such singers on the trail ? another western that opens with a group of singing cowboys. It's a lovers triangle.. both Clay (Nick Foran) and Ace (Emmet Vogan) are sniffin around Miss Judy (Pat Walthall). She works at her father's bank, and the wagon has been robbed! and Clay is blamed once again. This is a warner brothers western from 1937. Not a lot of info about Walthall... looks like she only has four credits to her name. sadly, no filming locations shown... would be interesting to know where it was made, even if it's only a short "B" film. it appears to be the iverson ranch, or maybe the corriganville ranch in north LA. SO much time spent on Clay singing, while his horse gallops towards him. time which could have been spent on more of a (better) story....sigh. it's very "okay". Directed by Breezy Eason, who had a reputation as a ruthless director, not concerned with damage to horses or actors during the film shoot. only 52 ratings on imdb so far...

Dick Foran is the Singing Cowboy with Smoke "The Wonder Horse"

[jacobs-greenwood · 6/10 · 18 December 2016]

Featuring Dick Foran as the "Singing Cowboy" with his trusty horse Smoke "the Wonder Horse". Also appearing in the film are the prolific, if unknown, "B"-movie stock players Emmett Vogan and Glenn Strange.

Ace Cain (Vogan) owns everything in town except the bank, which is owned by Jim Ware, who also happens to have the prettiest daughter (and only woman in the film?) in town, Judy. Ace wants her too, and will stop at nothing to get both Ware's bank and Judy. But Judy is in love with Clay Brent (Foran), who works with Tex (Strange) as a "cow puncher" for yet another man's ranch. Very early in the story, Tex is fired by the ranch foreman for playing a practical joke. Clay, who is getting ready for a dance and a date with Judy, stands up for his friend only to be assigned more work as well. At the dance, Ace asks Judy for a dance, but she tells him that she is saving the first dance for Clay. When Clay is late because of the extra work and Ace asks her again, she agrees but stipulates it's only until Clay arrives. When Clay does show, a small scuffle ensues between Ace and Clay's father (Tom Brower), but Ace backs down when Clay intercedes and draws first.

Infuriated, Ace leaves and hatches a plan to get Clay out of the picture. He gets two of his flunkies to be passengers on the stage coach which he then robs, killing the two men driving it. His two flunkies accuse Clay of the robbery and murders and Clay gets railroaded into a 10 year sentence. After 5 years of exemplary service, Clay gets paroled. But, when he returns to town, he is told that he can't carry a gun anymore (hence, the film's title). Clay soon discovers that Ace was behind the robbery for which he was framed, and hatches a plan to get the Marshall involved. However, Ace learns of Clay's plan and turns it around such that Clay is locked up by the Marshall.

Conveniently, for the past 5 years, Tex has been working for Ace and pretending to be on the level, all the while looking for an opportunity to clear Clay. He shows up in time to help Clay escape from jail and, with the ranch hands, get Ace and his gang before they can get out of town.

In love and the future seems rosy

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 18 June 2012]

Dick Foran could have been better served with some better editing and script in Empty Holsters. Only briefly does Foran have Empty Holsters, most of the time he goes around weaponless because he's on parole from the territorial prison.

Things at one time were pretty rosy for Foran, he's an amiable sort of cowboy hero with a good baritone, one that served him well in film musicals, as a singing cowboy, and in a revival of A Connecticut Yankee on Broadway. He and Patricia Walthall, daughter of the bank president are in love and the future seems rosy.

But they don't reckon with Emmet Vogan a villain in the Snidely Whiplash tradition who has designs on Walthall. He frames Foran for a stagecoach holdup and Foran goes to prison. Not helping is the fact that the sheriff's brother was killed in said holdup. After he's paroled, Foran as all parolees can't carry weapons.

Glenn Strange is on hand, usually a villain in these horse operas, but here he's the hero's pal. Empty Holsters was good for Saturday matinée crowd for whom this was good fare. It doesn't wear well though.

Great Classic Western with Singing!

[whpratt1 · 10/10 · 1 October 2004]

This is another Classic Western with the Singing Cowboy, Dick Foran,(Clay Brent),"The Big Night",'60, who gets a bum rap and has to do time in jail for something he got framed for. The real bad guy is Emmett Vogan,(Ace Cain),"How To Marry A Millionaire",'53, who just can't seem to keep his eyes off the pretty bank teller, Patricia Walthall (Judy Ware)," Alcatraz Island",'37,(uncredited). Judy does everything she can to let Ace Cain know that she loves and wants to be with Clay Brent. Ace Cain makes certain that Clay is put out of circulation for a few years. Glenn Strange, (Tex Roberts),"Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein",'48 gave a good supporting role. If you like Classic Westerns and a singing Cowboy, catch this film on TV sometime!!

It's extremely unwise to appoint a committee of . . .

[oscaralbert · 8/10 · 5 February 2019]

. . . wolves, fox, weasels, and rats to guard your own henhouse or America's, the always eponymous Warner Bros. warn our USA Homeland throughout EMPTY HOLSTERS. Warner Bros.' prophetic prognosticators delineate how "Ace Cain" is able to fool his base of weak-minded core supporters for years on end through his combination of non-stop lies, wild claims of "witch hunts," and his loyal network of Fake News purveyors who convince a town full of demonic dupes that two plus two is red, and that the sun rises in the desk. Viewers of EMPTY HOLSTERS will yell their heads off at its milquetoast anti-hero "Clay," who puts his faith in the never-ending Dullard Investigation. No doubt contemporary EMPTY HOLSTERS audiences faulted Warner for presenting such an obvious villain as Ace--a shameless evil-doer who surrounds himself with 40 indisputable crooks (whom he calls "the best team ever assembled")--as he wages a Reign of Terror, plundering the wealth and impairing the health of U.S. Citizens. Back in the 1930s, folks grumbled "As if America could fall so low!" But Warner Bros.' seers are messaging We Patriots of Today with EMPTY HOLSTERS, urging us to load up and start packing heat!