Pardon My Gun / Half Pint Polly (DVD)

Pardon My Gun (1930, B&W): Ranch owner "Pa" Martin has a beautiful daughter named Mary, and her suitors include amiable ranch hand Ted Duncan and greedy schemer Burt Cooper, a neighboring land-owner. Cooper's eye is far more focused on Martin's land than Mary's hand, and he challenges Martin to an "all-or-nothing" wager on a crooked horse race. Ted is slated to ride for Martin, but he's kidnapped by Cooper's henchmen. With her father's ranch on the line, Mary begins a desperate search for the man she loves.

Filled with singing cowboys and side-splitting corral comedy, early talkie Pardon My Gun features young Tom Keene, performing under the name of George Duryea. It also provides great showcases for Abe Lyman and his band, rodeo funnymen Tom and Hank MacFarlane, plus zany comedienne Mona Ray.

Starring Tom Keene, Sally Starr, Mona Ray, Harry Woods, Lee Moran; Directed by Robert De Lacey.

Half Pint Polly (1930, B&W): Pardon My Gun was actually a remake of a western short, Half Pint Polly, which was filmed six months earlier with most of the same personnel. Tom Keene's role in the short was played by silent screen cowboy star Tom Tyler in what may be his first talkie. Starring Tom Tyler, Mona Ray; Directed by Robert De Lacey.

• western