Director: SAM NEWFIELD. Story: Kenne Duncan. Screenplay: Murison Dunne. Photography: Sam Leavitt. Film editor: Alex Meyers. Art director: Robert Hall. Production manager and assistant director: Jack Chisholm. Sound recording: Harry Belock. Producer: J.R. Booth. Associate producer: Arthur Gottlieb. A Booth Dominions picture, produced on location in Ontario, with interiors at the Ravena Rink, Toronto.
Not copyrighted or theatrically released in the U.S.A. Released in Canada by Dominion Motion Pictures Ltd in 1935 and in the U.K. by M-G-M in January, 1936. 60 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A bank clerk is disgraced for failing to foil a hold-up. He joins the Mounties and tracks down the bandits.
NOTES: The first of Starrett's 132 westerns.
COMMENT: Supported by M-G-M and designed for the British quota market, this was the second of a planned twelve Canadian "B" features to be co-produced by Arthur Gottlieb. Only this one and The King's Plate (1935), a racing melodrama starring Kenne Duncan and Toby Wing, also directed by Newfield, were actually made.
According to the Monthly Film Bulletin, both films suffered from naive, clumsy direction and dialogue. Though better than "The King's Plate", acting here in "Undercover" was "barely competent". However, the magazine's critic did more or less commend the "he-man action."
Hardly a brilliant start to what must be the most prolific career of any "B" western star. By comparison, Gene Autry, for instance, made only 92 features and one serial. Only 93! Hopalong Cassidy made a mere 66 pictures, whilst Roy Rogers starred in just 84.
Unlike some of the other minor western stars, Charles Starrett was just as popular in Australia as in the States. In England, however, he was never a great favorite. Some of his later Columbia westerns were not released overseas at all. Many had title changes - often purposely designed to disguise the fact that they were westerns!
SYNOPSIS: A bank clerk is disgraced for failing to foil a hold-up. He joins the Mounties and tracks down the bandits.
NOTES: The first of Starrett's 132 westerns.
COMMENT: Supported by M-G-M and designed for the British quota market, this was the second of a planned twelve Canadian "B" features to be co-produced by Arthur Gottlieb. Only this one and The King's Plate (1935), a racing melodrama starring Kenne Duncan and Toby Wing, also directed by Newfield, were actually made.
According to the Monthly Film Bulletin, both films suffered from naive, clumsy direction and dialogue. Though better than "The King's Plate", acting here in "Undercover" was "barely competent". However, the magazine's critic did more or less commend the "he-man action."
Hardly a brilliant start to what must be the most prolific career of any "B" western star. By comparison, Gene Autry, for instance, made only 92 features and one serial. Only 93! Hopalong Cassidy made a mere 66 pictures, whilst Roy Rogers starred in just 84.
Unlike some of the other minor western stars, Charles Starrett was just as popular in Australia as in the States. In England, however, he was never a great favorite. Some of his later Columbia westerns were not released overseas at all. Many had title changes - often purposely designed to disguise the fact that they were westerns!