Sierra Passage (DVD)

There's no business like minstrel-show business as Wayne Morris headlines his first Monogram Western. In Sierra Passage, he plays sharpshooter Johnny Yorke, adopted by a traveling troupe of entertainers led by impresario Thad Kring (Lloyd Corrigan) and trick-shot Sam Cooper (Roland Winters) after his father is gunned down by robbers. Haunted by the memory of the gang leader (Alan Hale, Jr.) with a distinctive laugh and a gaudy ring on a stub finger, Johnny spends his offstage hours tracking the bad men's whereabouts. Even the addition of a lovely, romance-minded singer (Lola Albright) to the bill doesn't blunt his vengeful obsession, which compels him to leave the show. But Johnny's eventual stage return unexpectedly triggers a showdown 12 years in the making. With the story's theatrical setting, veteran Monogram music director Edward J. Kay ups his game with a score mixing traditional melodies and three new songs in jaunty period arrangements. Give Sierra Passage a shot, and this dandy mix of sagebrush and show folk will hit its mark.