classicsoncall "Oath of Vengeance" - Wow, sounds like a Van Damme or Seagal flick from the Nineties. What you have instead though is one of the more routine B oaters to come out of the era with a town boss pitting cattlemen against homesteaders and reaping the reward by victimizing both sides. The picture opens on a comical note as Fuzzy Jones (Fuzzy St. John) wrestles a calf and comes out on the short end while his partner Billy Carson (Buster Crabbe) laughingly takes it all in stride.Actually, Fuzzy has a pretty good share of screen time in this one, one of the principal elements of the story has him operating a general store. This wouldn't have been so bad, Fuzzy had his concept of capitalism down pretty well - buy low and sell for more. The problem however was that all the local nesters had to wait for their crops to come in before they had any money, so all of Fuzzy's merchandise left the store on credit.Having performed in his share of these programmers before, Carson knew he just needed to bide his time before smoking out Steve Kinney (Jack Ingram) as the villain of the piece. Kinney's bunch included perennial baddies Charles King as his partner Mort and Kermit Maynard as a henchman named Red. In a somewhat uncharacteristic turn for a B Western, the female lead portrayed by Mady Laurence was unusually hostile to the film's hero in her role as head of the Kirby outfit. The credits here on IMDb state her first name was Dale but I didn't hear her called by name during the story.So without a romantic angle between the principals to fall back on, that chore fell to the postmistress (Marin Sais) who supervised a small operation in Fuzzy's store. With a keen eye on Fuzzy's antics throughout the story, she was all ready to offer a marriage proposal by the end of the picture. To his great consternation, Fuzzy made it real clear that this was one time he wasn't going postal.

JohnHowardReid Average PRC Billy Carson western in which Al St John buys a store in cattlewoman versus nester country. The cattlewoman is played, none too attractively, by Mady Lawrence and the chief nester by Karl Hackett, a not particularly dynamic sample of the breed. Still it's always nice to see such old friends as those partners in villainy, Jack Ingram and Charles King (with both of whom Buster has the customary fist tussle, though Jack's role is mainly confined to registering reaction shots). Buster also has two tussles with our old friend, Kermit Maynard (in the first of which Maynard is partnered by another old buddy, Al Ferguson). Marin Sais figures in some comic encounters with Fuzzy who is at his acrobatic best (or worst if you prefer it that way). The direction of Sigmund Neufeld is no more desultory than usual, the photography is its usual flat and washed-out, and the musical background contains all the familiar stand-bys of this series, including "Home On the Range" played jerkily underneath the typical forties-style credits. Mr. Crabbe is his usual self. The dialogue is as clichéd as all get- out and the plot is as familiar as beef on the hoof (only of course we don't see any beef in this film — or cabbages either for that matter — we just have to take their word for it that they are ranchers and nesters). We are so used to this series now that we don't get very excited at the prospect of a big shoot-em-out climax for we know Buster is going to arrive in time to prevent it. He does!

bkoganbing Buster Crabbe and Al St. John find themselves in the middle of an arranged range war in Oath Of Vengeance. Everybody is swearing blood oaths in this one. It's homesteaders versus cowboys here.Of course in reality the whole thing is being arranged with a series of well planned incidents by villain Jack Ingram. He's looking to pick up some cheap land and this plot has been used a gazillion times in westerns both A and B.Al St. John going under the name Fuzzy in most films had a remarkable rubber face that he could contort into all kinds of funny expressions. Note when Crabbe is having his climatic fight with Ingram, St. John puts a kind of minor key climax to the whole affair. The expression afterward is priceless.No new trails blazed in

FightingWesterner A fun entry in Producers Releasing Corporation's Billy Carson series, Oath Of Vengeance has Carson and his sidekick Fuzzy Jones opening a country store and trying to quell fighting between local ranchers and emigrating homesteaders.They're pitted against some bad men who are trying hard to stoke tensions and ignite an all out range war between the feuding factions.Al St. John is especially animated this time around, delivering an almost endless stream of sight gags, many of them revolving around his bickering with the local post master, played with comic ease by Marin Sais.Buster Crabbe's heroics almost take a backseat to St. John's monkey shines, as he clearly walks away with the movie!