JENNI-LOVE HARRIS                               LACEY CALVERT

                                     (Jennifer Love Hewitt)                                       (Lacey Chabert)

                                       As "Jenni Starr"                                              As "Lacey Starr" 

 

REOCCURRING CHARACTERS:

 

"HANNAH DARK" (ELISHA CANTRELL/Elisha Cuthbert) (1942-1947)

"JESSIE DARK" (JESSICA D'ALBA/Jessica Alba) (1942-1947)

"CORA DARK" (KRYSTAL KRAMER/Kristin Kreuk (1942-1943)

"CORA DARK" (JENNA DONOVAN/Jenna Dewan) (1943-1945)

"BELLE STARR" (MISSY PRESTON/MIssy Peregrym) (1943-1946)

"ADA JENKINS" (MARY ELIZABETH WINTHROP/Mary Elizabeth Winstead (1944-45;1947)

 

THE FILMS

 

PART I: 1942-1943

 

JENNI-LOVE HARRIS and LACEY CALVERT were a DOUBLE-ACTION PICTURES novices when they were cast into D-A Pictures first female Western series. Ms. Harris had been discovered doing a trick shooting act in a Wild West circus show and, somewhat to the Casting Department’s surprise, did a very strong screen test. The test was confirmed when she cast in one of 1941 RANGE BUSTER Westerns, THE GIRL FROM WACO.  LACEY CALVERT made her debut in 1940’s THE BEAUTY PAGEANT MURDERS (“I spent about a week mostly wearing a bathing suit and my biggest line was: “I didn’t see anyone leave the room, detective” Lacey wrote in her memoirs: SIX GUN SISTER AND OTHER ADVENTURES IN TINSELTOWN). She also has a small role in the KARA HARCOURT Ketherine Heigl)/JANE BARRETT(Jessica Biel)  film CHEYENNE WILCAT (1941) (“I’m the nameless student who is boxing at this Eastern boarding school and gets a low-blow from REGINA ADAMS  (Rachel McAdams)so we’ll know she’s mean and nasty. The rest of the time I’m in the front row of the crowd scenes at the big fight at the end where Kara beats the school’s arch-rival played by ADRIANNE PALMER (Adrianne Palicki). When Adrianne finally goes down, that’s me at ringside cheering while Regina looks all mad because she wanted Kara to lose.”)

 

“Then I was one of the villainous ‘Spy Girls’ in THE ADVENTURES OF WONDER WOMAN (1942). I was a little surprised when decided to bring me back in the sequel, WONDER WOMAN VS. THE CHEETAH (1943) as one of Wonder Woman’s allies ‘The Alphabet Girls’. I always preferred that second one because, at one point the Cheetah’s chorus girl crooks raided the rooming house where Diana Prince and the Alphabet Girls lived, the chorus girls were all in black suits and masks and we got to fight in our silky pajamas. I wasn’t one of the ones doing the jumps and swinging, but I had some great fight exchanges with SARAH CARSON (Sarah Carter), JENNA DONOVAN (Jenna Dewan), and SCARLETT JEWELL (Scarlett Johansson)They were all new girls, too, so we really worked hard to impress the front office and I think we did.”

 

Casting relative newcomers in major roles may actually have indicated D-A was nervous that a female Western series would work and they did not wish to risk the careers of more established actresses. In any case, it was a gamble that paid off in fifteen successful pictures from 1942-1947.

 

Still, thew first SIX-GUN SISTERS installment was bolstered by the presence of four promising actresses: ELISHA CANTRELL (Elisha Cuthbert)bossy “Hannah Dark”, JESSICA D’ALBA (Jessica Alba) as middle ister “Jessie Dark”) and KRYSTAL KRAMER (Kristin Kreuk) as the younger sister “Cora Dark” Plus KARA HARCOURT (Katherine Heigl) as “Blaze Bryant”. a saloon girl with a murderous secret.

 

SIX GUN SISTERS (1942) begins as Jenni and Lacey Starr arrive in Reckoning Valley to examine the ranch they have just inherited from their grandfather. They soon discover.  that the ranch is coveted by the ambitious Hannah Dark and her two younger sisters, Jessie and Cora. Jenni and Lacey were both Wild West performers—Jenni  is probably the best trick shot artist behind the legendary Annie Oakley (whom Jenni often mentions in terms of great respect). Lacey was Jenni’s steel-nerved human target, though she is a playful girl fond of jokes and a tendency to fall in love with unsuitable men from which her more practical-minded  older sister. Lacey also tends to get into more fights than her sister.

 

The two sisters battle it out with the Dark girls, but it turns out a local banker is the enemy of both groups and he has a hidden assassin working for him. The assassin attempts to kill Cora Dark while she and Lacey are having a horse race.

 

“People remember that horse race scene because; Kristin was just a great rider. She did everything, but take the actual fall off the horse after she’s ‘shot’ in the back,” Lacey wrote in here memoirs, “but I always liked the scene that set it up. Cora is in the habit of swimming in this pond that’s actually on Starr land. Lacey catches her at. Lacey teases her by not giving Cora her clothes back, but then they start talking about their horses and actually become friendly. Then they agree to have a race and they are having this really great time when poor Cora gets in the back from a long-range rifle. That she and Lacey were actually getting along gives her getting shot like that real impact. (Oh, and is it true Kristin did that swimming hole scene nude? Well, all I’ll say is that it doesn’t show up on film, so I’ll deny it happened).”

 

In a dramatic scene, Lacey brings the badly wounded Cora to the Dark ranch where Hannah and Jessie immediately assume Lacey tried to kill their sister.

 

Eventually, Jenni realizes that saloon owner “Blaze” is really a renegade former trickshot artists named Bess LaRue. Jenni, who never shoots to kill, shoots a pistol out of Blaze’s hand, but then the treacherous killer pulls a derringer and would have shot Jenni in the back, but Hannah Dark shoots her dead:

 

“Nobody tries to kill a Dark and gets away with it!” Hannah says.

 

(Meanwhile, Lacey and Jessi have rounded up the banker and his gang. The Darks and the Starrs then establish an uneasy truce).

 

With plenty of action, humor, and vivid characters, the series was off to a good start.

 

SIX GUN FURY (1942) finds the ranchers of Reckoning Valley threatened by the loss of their land when an Englishwoman Lady Aurelia Audley  (played by JANET SETON/Jane Seymour) and her daughter Amelia (played by NATALIE PRYOR/Natalie Portman) show up with what they claim is a Spanish land grant. Lady Audley offers not to claim the land in return for a cash payment, but the Darks and the Starrs refuse to pay up. (Hannah because she’s being mulish; Jenni because she’s suspicious of the claim). Suddenly, night riders start terrorizing the ranchers. Lacey and Cora have to go undercover in the hotel where the Audleys have set up shop. After a battle with Amelia Audley and her “maids” (played by MEG FOXWOOD/Megan Fox and TERI PORTER/Teri Polo), Lacey and Cora discover that Reckoning Valley is the victim of an elaborate scam masterminded by a monopolistic cattle company that secretly wants to gain control of the Reckoning Valley pasture lands. JENNI then has to demonstrate her gun handling prowess to rescue her sister, then dukes it out with Lady Audley and her “secretaries” BELINDA PIPER (Billie Piper) and REGINA ADAMS (Rachel McAdams), with some help from Hannah and Jessi Dark, while Lacey and Cora are having a rematch with Amelia and her “maids”.

A luxury Victorian hotel suite gets demolished and the defeated con artists end up in pile, ready for the sheriff to make a belated appearance.

 

SIX GUN WARPATH (1942) finds the beleaguered citizens of Reckoning Valley being threatened by what appears to be Indian renegades from the reservation in nearby Thunderbird Canyon. The Darks want to organize a citizen’s militia to wipe out the Native Americans, but the Starrs think something else is going on. Indeed, the “renegades” are actually an outlaw gang hired by a syndicate that hopes to make a fortune selling the Thunderbird Canyon to a railroad as a route through out of Reckoning Valley. The Native Americans are ready to fight to defend the canyon, but tragedy seems certain. Then Indian girl Morning Sun (played by CAMILLA BELLAMY/Camilla Belle), another early Native American role, though not as deadly as some she later played) learns the “renegades” are really white outlaws. The male warriors have all been trapped in a section of the canyon by the militia who plan to attack them with a cannons once they can be brought to the scene. Morning Sun has a big fight with JESSICA D’ALBA (Jessica Alba) when Jessi Dark  tries to stop her from reaching her village (this went so well it led to their epic series of battles in D-A’s “South Seas Adventure” films). Hannah and Cora arrive on the scene but so do like-minded Native American girls played by TAYLOR COLT(Taylor Cole)and MEG FOXWOOD (Megan Fox). There is a nice six-women brawl until Jenny and Lacey finally break things up. Eventually, the Darks are convinced who the real villains are and ride with the Native Americans and Lacey Starr to round up the outlaws in their secret headquarters. Meanwhile, Jenny gets to show off her shooting prowess to keep the militia and the male Native Americans apart until the outlaws are captured and delivered to the U.S. Marshal, who then exposes the conspiracy. Thunderbird Canyon is left in peace and the railroad goes elsewhere.

 

( Some fans have grumbled there wasn’t enough Starr sisters fighting action, though Lacey has a nice stream-side fight with sexily buckskin clad Morning Sun and Jenny has one of her many with the obstinate Hannah Dark—ELISHA CANTRELL/Elisha Cuthbert).

 

The 1943 Season opened with SIX GUN CHALLENGE. In it, Jenny and Lacey befriending a shy newcomer to Reckoning Valley played by SARAH CARSON (Sarah Carter), who would like to become a seamstress, but then falls for a local cowboy, who has an aggressive ex-girl friend played by ERICA DARE (Erica Durance). When Sarah finally can’t take any more of Erica’s attempts to intimidate her, she challenges her to a wrestling match, loser to leave town. When Hannah and Jessi hear that Jenny and Lacey are training Sarah, naturally they decide to support Erica. The whole community takes sides and there is a lot of wagering going on. To keep the money secure, the local bank agrees to hold all the wagered cash, but this sets up the opportunity for a gang of owlhoots to stage a holdup while everyone else is at the fight. Luckily for the good folk of Reckoning Valley, Cora Dark who had refused to get involved because she’s actually friends with both girls, which makes both of them mad at her, discovers the robbery in progress. Jenny’s sharpshooting thwarts the robbers as, after a fierce battle Sarah finally forces Erica to say “I quit!” The defeated Erica prepares to leave town, but Cora convinces Sarah to ask her to stay because the community needs to strong fighter like her. Erica’s decision to stay is helped by meeting a new beau who helps her forget the other guy.

 

The fight scenes were very good in this one, but there was some grumbling that Jenny and Lacey were too secondary to the action.

 

The next movie for 1943, SIX GUN JUSTICE seemed an effort to return the focus to Jenny and Lacey. In this story, Jenny’s U.S. Marshall friend is gunned down by a member of a vicious outlaw clan, the Braddocks who have moved into a distant corner of Reckoning Valley where they take over an old trading post on Reckoning Mountain. They supposedly sell supplies to prospectors and travelers, but really it is a new stop on the Outlaw Trail along which outlaws and their stolen gains move out of reach of the law.

Determined to catch the Braddock who shot her friend, Jenny takes on the identity of her outlaw cousin Belle Starr (this is the first film in the series to establish a fictional connection between the sisters and the real Western outlaw Belle Starr). This works well as Jenny penetrates the hideout and tries to deduce who is the killer. Then Lacey finds out that the real Belle Starr has been seen headed towards Reckoning Mountain. (This introduces MISSY PRESTON/Missy Peregrym in what will become the reoccurring role of Belle). Lacey tries to intercept her cousin, but Belle, closely hounded by bounty hunters makes it to Reckoning Mountain just as Jenny finds out the marshall’s killer was Betsy Braddock (played by TERI PORTER/Teri Polo) who killed him to get revenge because the marshall had killed her outlaw lover in a gun battle. Meanwhile, Lacey, having failed to stop Belle, does find a secret way into the stronghold and leads a posse that arrives in the nick of time. REBECCA RAYMOND (Rebecca Romijn) does her usual fine job as the clan leader “MA BRADDOCK.  She and MISSY PRESTON join JENNY and TERI in a climatic four-way battle while Lacey brings in the posse. The outlaw band is scattered. Betsy and Ma are arrested, but the Starrs hadn’t seen the last of the “Bad Braddocks”. Also seen as female members of the Braddock gang were DANIELLE SAYRE (Danielle Savre) and MONICA KEENE (Monica Keena) who have clashes with Jenny during her investigation in the outlaw lair.

 

(The movie is also the first in which the Dark Sisters do not appear, though it is mentioned they are out of town. With KRYSTAL KRAMER/Kristin Kreuk biting necks as the Vampire Queen and ELISHA CANTRELL/Elisha Cuthbert heavily involved with the Donnybrook Girls series, it was apparently decided to omit the Dark Sisters for one movie).

 

The third 1943 movie in the series was SIX GUN THUNDER. The Dark Sisters return to Reckoning Valley, but KRYSTAL KRAMER (Kristin Kreuk) was gone as Cora and was replaced by JENNA DONOVAN (Jenna Dewan) (scholars now think this may have been the reason Donovan was later selected to replace Kramer in THE VAMPIRE QUEEN series). ELISHA CANTRELL/Elisha Cuthbert and JESSICA D’ALBA/Jessica Alba remained as Hannah and Jessie, though they don’t get as much screen time as Cora. This time Cora has brought home a potential suitor who shows his true colors by trying to seduce Lacey. Cora finds out and there huge brawl with Lacey.  Then suitor turns up dead and both Cora and Lacey seem to be suspects. As usual, the level-headed Jenny figures out that the suitor was actually a member of an outlaw gang looking for likely ranches to raid, and he was killed in an argument with yet another member of the gang—the woman who is assistant telegrapher at the railroad depot and sends coded messages to and from the gang. She and dead man quarreled over their ill-gotten gains from earlier crimes.

Just as Jenny is confronting the woman (played by NICOLE AYERS/Nicki Aycox)) the gang rides  up and there is a huge crowd-pleasing gun battle. The outlaws are routed, Jenny brings Nicole to justice after a big fight, while Cora and Lacey resume their uneasy friendship.

 

SIX GUN SISTERS: PART 2 1944-1945

 

1944 was mostly notable by the relative absence of ELISHA CANTRELL’s Hannah Dark due to Ms. Cantrell’s pregnancy that also caused her absence from the DONNYBROOK GIRLS series. (She did make a few brief appearances in the three films that year, but much of the action was carried on by JESSICA D’ALBA and JENNA DONOVAN as Jessie and Cora. This actually seem to work better as it matched the two sets of sisters on equal terms).

 

“I have to say that we got a lot of great two-on-two fights out of that,” Lacey said in her memoirs. “Up to then we usually fought the Dark girls separately because it would have been 3 on 2. I think that’s where the stories got started that Jenni and I didn’t get along in the set. That’s not true. We’d have a wrestling match before we started shooting and that worked things out. Who won the most? Honestly, I lost count, Jenni really was a crack shot but she wrestled really well, too. If you’ve ever seen that footage of our USO Relief Fund tag team fight they used in THUNDERBOLT ARENA (1944), you know how good she was. I mean we fighting Jessica D’Alba and Neve Northwood (Neve Campbell), it could have been one-sided, but Jenni fought her heart out and I did, too. We weren’t faking tears when I finally got that pin on Jessica, we bawled like a couple of beauty pageant winners, but darn it, it was how we felt!”

 

\First up in 1944 was SIX GUN TRACKDOWN. A female gang of robbers robbers apparently headed by Belle Starr (MISSY PRESTON/Missy Peregrym) robs the Reckoning Valley Express. Jenny and Lacey join the posse though they know Belle was with them at the time of the robbery. Jessie and Cora join up because a friend of theirs was shot during the robbery. The posse is ambushed and only Jenny’s crackshot ability allows most of the posse to escape, but Lacey won’t leave Jenny and Cora won’t abandon her stunned sister Jessie, who was thrown from her horse. The four of them find themselves being held prisoner by the real gang leader who turns out to be KATIE DAWSON(Katie Holmers) (also in the gang are ARIELLE KENT/Arielle Kebbel, ALLISON MCKAY/Allison Mack, AGNES BROOKE/Agnes Bruckner and AMANDA SHEFFIELD/Amanda Seyfried). Belle Starr manages to fight her way into the gang’s hideout (she has a dandy fight with Agnes Brooke in the process) to rescue her cousins. Cora does one of her cross-country horseback runs (For years it has been rumored that KRYSTAL KRAMER (Kristin Kreuk) was brought back to do that scene. Lacey Calvert says: “Jenna did it, but she trained with Krys for weeks to do it.  Krys was really proud of her.” Meanwhile Jenny, Lacey, Jessie  and Belle fight it out in a barn with the outlaws in an elaborately choreographed fight that is a series (and D-A) highlight. By the time Cora returns with a new posse, the outlaw women have been subdued and Belle Starr is allowed to slip away.

 

 

Next up in 1944 was SIX GUNS OF THE BORDER. The Starr sisters leave Reckoning Valley behind to travel down to Mexico to discuss a cattle sale with Don Rodrigo Ruiz, who owns a major hacienda on the border. They discover that Jessie and Cora are already there trying to make a deal of their own. Don Rodrigo and his sexy younger wife Isabelle (Accion Latina star JENNIFER LAREDO/Jennifer Lopez), who is actually in cahoots with mystery bandito leader who turns out to be played by EVA DE LA VEGA (Eva Longoria) to kill her husband and make it looks like the Starrs or the Darks did it. SILVIA ARIAS/Silvia Arias plays the innocent daughter of Don Rodrigo by his first marriage, who helps the visitors clear their names and expose her step-mama’s murderous dealings. Other A-L stars appearing in supporting roles are VIDA GUERRERA(Vida Guerra) MAYRA MONTEVERDE (Mayra Veronica) and ROSARIO DIAZ (Rosario Dawson) as the assistant banditas, while MARISA RAMIREZ (Marissa Ramirez) is Silvia’s loyal (and hard fighting) maid.

There are plenty of fights between the banditas and the gringas.  Much of the picture was shot in Mexico giving the picture an especially good look to go with the femme fighting.

 

Lacey chuckled over that movie: “Those A-L girls were not to be taken lightly. I had worked with SARAH CARSON (Sarah Carter) on a 1942 Accion- Latina picture called MARIA, LA PISTOLERA and learned just how good those girls were. They called themselves “Las Rebeldes” and challenged us to a bunch of matches after the picture wrapped. A lot of our girls found out the hard way what I had been trying to tell them.”

 

The third film of 1944 was SIX GUN VENGEANCE, opens with a newspaper report that Ma Braddock (REBECCA RAYMOND/Rebecca Romijn) and Betsy Braddock (TERI PORTER/Teri Polo) have perished in a prison fire. Very quickly we discover the evil pair are, in fact, alive and back in Reckoning Valley, though disguised as members of a traveling medicine show. This allows them to scout out their targets. They then quit the medicine show and return to ambush Lacey Starr accompanied a new henchwoman played by newcomer MARY ELIZABETH WINTHROP (mary Elizabeth Winstead). They succeed in kidnapping Lacey and hold for a supposed ransom, but it is really to lure Jenny into a trap where they can kill her as Lacey watches.

Jenny feels she has no choice but to go to the ransom drop—alone—but she is secretly trailed by Cora Dark (JENNA DONOVAN/Jenna Dewan), who is determined to help rescue her friend Lacey. Meanwhile, Lacey works on the “sibling” rivalry between Betsy and the new girl “Ada Jenkins”, a runaway who met the Braddocks in the medicine show and sees Ma as a mother substitute, something the older woman takes advantage of and angers Betsy. Pretty good psychological material for a B-Western, but there is also good fight  scene between Ada and Betsy that got some attention for Miss Winthrop. As for the main plot, the ambush nearly works, but Cora’s presence throws the scheme off and the tensions between Ada and Betsy lead to Ma viciously turning on the new girl stabbing her in the back!. However, this creates enough distraction for Lacey to break free and the Braddocks are recaptured after a hard fight. The duped Ada somehow survives the knifing and, ends up going to work for the Starrs as their new assistant cook!

 

“In the original script, Ada dies, but then the ‘Higher Ups’ decided we needed some new supporting characters. So Ada pulls through and we suddenly discover she can cook. Of course, there turned out to more to Ada than that,” Lacey Calvert wrote.

 

(Note: JENNA DONOVAN’s “Cora” is the only Dark sister to appear in this film).

 

1945 began with a surprising change in the titles of the series episodes. The 10^th entry in the series was called “RIDE’EM COWGIRL!”   (“Nobody ever explained to me why they did that. If you’ve seen the posters it was always “THE SIX GUN SISTERS In ‘RIDE’EM COWGIRL!” or whatever the title was.”) It certainly confused early D-A scholars who tended to count only those films with “Six Gun” in the title, since many of the films themselves (let alone the studio archives) were not available.

 

“They’d decided they wanted to showcase Mary Elizabeth, so in this chapter she gets involved with this girl from the East played by another rising star at the time: MICHELLE TRENT (Michelle Trachtenberg). Michelle’s “Violet” can’t seem to resist bragging (or getting into fights either with Mary’s “Ada” or “Rae-Lynn”  a nasty town girl played by NATALIE PRYOR (Natalie Portman),” Lacey Calvert explained.  “Mostly Jenny and I tried to referee the fighting. Michelle and Mary had one in pigpen that I was glad was them and not me. Then Michelle and Natalie have one in a hayloft. Mary and Natalie get into one a swimming hole.”

 

Violet brags about her horseback riding skills and  Rae-Lynn challenges her to race that turns into a community event. Violet tries to sneak out of town, confessing she isn’t that good a rider. So Mary gets Lacey is train Violet. Violet turns out to be a better Western rider than she knew and so keeps up with Rae-Lynn who is not pleased. Out of sight,. Rae-Lynn tries to knock Violet out of the saddle, but Violet though knocked part way off, regains the stirrups and nearly beats Rae-Lynn to the wire. Violet angrily knocks Rae-Lynn into a horse trough, but she looks like a bad sport.

 

Things aren’t looking good for Violet, though the Starrs loyally stand by her and it looks like she’ll be leaving town in disgrace. Then Ada finds out Hannah Dark was seen near where Rae-Lynn cheated and goes to the Dark ranch. ELISHA CANTRELL (Elisha Cuthbert) admits she saw it all, but sees no reason to come forward just to help some “spoiled rich girl”. As they talk Ada’s eye is caught by a portrait over the fireplace. It is  a portrait of Isaac Dark who the first rancher in Reckoning Valley.

 

“Violet wanted to win that race to show her father that she could accomplish something on her own. Rae-Lynn robbed her of that. I think you know what’s it’s like to want to impress a father, don’t you Miss Dark?” Ada asks shrewdly sizing up the older woman. “Doesn’t seem fair to let Rae-Lynn to get away with something like that. It seems to me Rae-Lynn’s the brat in this story.”

 

Ada’s visit turns the tide and Hannah comes forward to set the record straight. Violet’s honored restored and Rae-Lynn justly disgraced. (Rae-Lynn then tries to ambush Ada, but Ada defeats her and sends her running home without her dress which got snagged on something in the course of the fight.

 

The title situation reverted to standard with SIX GUN SECRETS, the second series film of 1945 and 11^th overall. This one featured Reckoning Valley getting it’s first circus which arrives by train. Aboard the train is  “Afton Avery” played by SCARLETT JEWELL Scarlett Johansson), who plays a trick shot artist, an old rival of Jenny Starr’s, who is eager to show Jenny up (evidently she’s hoping Jenny’s sharpshooting skills have grown rusty).However, Ada strangely refuses to go near the circus, but sneaks in where she spies on “Afton”. It seems “Afton” is being blackmailed by the circus’ slimy publicity agent about something into cooperating into something illegal. “Afton” has a big shooting contest with Jenny which she very narrowly loses. Jenny attempts to talk to her after her, but this turns into a fight, which, since they are in the women’s dressing area attracts some other circus performers: MEG FOXWOOD (Megan Fox) and ARIELLE KENT (Arielle Kebbel), then Lacey jumps in and there is lots of 3:2 action until somebody calls the sheriff to break up the action. However Ada has found out that while everyone was watching the shooting contest and the fight, something was secretly being removed from the circus train. It turns out to be shipments of repeating rifles being smuggled into Mexico in return for emeralds which are smuggled into the USA.

 

Ada tries to tell the Starrs about this but caught by the crooked manager and his two female cohorts Megan Foxwood and Arielle Kent before she can get to them. However her kidnapping is seen by the Darks who alert the Starrs. The circus train has left town, buy the Starrs know where they intercept it.

 

Aboard the train we learn that Afton and Ada are actually sisters and that Ada has run away after a terrible circus fire that Ada believes was her fault. It turns out Afton has always thought SHE was a fault and that’s what she’s been blackmailed about. It turns out neither one of them is guilty, the fire was actually started to cover the murder of the girls’ parents (who owned the circus originally) and found out their manager was stealing from them.

 

Fortunately for all concerned, the Starrs succeed in intercepting the train. After a fierce battle, the bad guys (and girls) are defeated. Ada is reunited with Afton and agrees to go with her on tour, thus leaving the series after three films.

 

“I had been working mostly with the South Seas &  Mystery Unit up until then,” Mary Elizabeth told D-A historians. “I had also been in the  three AMANDA SHEFFIELD  (Amanda Seyfried) CO-ED DETECTIVES and a couple of the DANCING DETECTIVES, but I  had never done a Western. Still, I saw those three SIX GUN SISTERS as a big chance and they were wonderful for me. You’d have thought the regulars would have resented me, but they made me feel welcome. I learned how to ride horse right, how to shoot a gun without flinching, and even how to ‘walk Western’. I had a wonderful time. I hated to leave, but I didn’t want to wear out my welcome.”

 

Things did not quiet down, of course, in Reckoning Valley as was proved by the 12th installment in the series:  SIX GUN STORM (1945). A new outlaw gang suddenly sweeps into the valley led by a man who calls himself “Colonel Storm” (apparently he is a former Civil War officer court-martialed during the Civil War). He is bringing his gang through the valley on the way to raiding down in Mexico. There are no U.S. troops in the area and not much to stop his military-style raids which he uses to keep his men supplied and well-paid on their way to Mexico. It so happens that the Colonel is accompanied by some hard fighting women played by CLAIRE DALTON (Claire Danes), NEVE NORTHWOOD (Neve Campbell), MEG FOXWOODMegan Fox) and TAYLOR COLT (Taylor Cole). They launch a fierce attack on the Dark ranch, capturing Hannah (ELISHA CANTRELL/Elisha Cuthbert) and Jessie (JESSICA D’ALBA/Jessica Alba), but Cora (JENNA DONOVAN/Jenna Dewan) escapes to the Starr ranch to warn Jenny and Lacey that they are surely next and then the town of Reckoning Valley will fall.

 

The Starrs send Cora to warn the town and conduct their own guerrilla war against the invaders, creating the occasion for gunfights and fistfights with the female outlaws.

Cora returns with several volunteers SARAH CARSON (Sarah Carter) and ERICA DARE (Erica Durance) (remember them as the feuding girls in 1943’s SIX GUN CHALLENGE?) and Rae-Lynn (NATALIE PRYOR/Natalie Portman) the mean cheater from RIDE’EM COWGIRL now trying to recover her lost honor.  The group finds the odds mounting against them as JENNIFER LORADO (Jennifer Lopez) and EVA DE LA VEGA (Eva Longoria) show up from Mexico with messages of where the Colonel start his Mexican raids.

 

The Colonel and his force now arrive outside of Reckoning Valley and threaten to kill their hostages (including Hannah and Jessie) unless the town surrenders. Out-numbered and out-gunned it doesn’t look good. However, the daring Cora leads Sarah, Erica, and Rae-Lynn into the enemy camp to free the hostages and blow up the invaders munitions supply while Jenny and Lacey prove distraction with sniper fire in another part of the camp. The plan succeeds. The hostages are freed and seize guns to turn on their captors from behind as Cora sets off the main ammo wagons. The explosion is one of the DA Special Effects Department’s best shattering the army, but, alas Cora Dark has sacrificed her life and she has a dramatic death bed scene. Hannah and Jessie take their sister’s death hard and seem inclined to blame it on the Starrs for allowing her to do something so dangerous.

 

“Jenna Donovan was about to take over as The Vampire Queen, so she couldn’t be seen as a Western heroine anymore,” Lacey explained in her memoirs. “And killing her off like that rekindled the old feud with the Darks and stir things up again. We were all sorry to see Jenna go, but she got a great scene out of it.”

 

SIX GUN SISTERS: PART 3 1946-1947

 

Lacey Calvert wrote in her memoirs: “When we started on the movies for the 1946 season we all knew the series was ending. We had had good long run and we were proud of what we’d done. There were four scheduled for 1946 (though they ended up opening our final picture in January of 1947). We were determined to wind things well and I think we did.”

First up, was the second “non-Six Gun” title of the series: TREACHERY TRAIL (1946). In the story, the ranchers of Reckoning Valley discover their local railroad has been taken over by people who are conspiring with cattle buyers to force out of business so that a monopoly cattle company can move in. The Starrs and the Darks believe they can get their herds to another railroad through a seldom-used trail and organize a cattle drive to prove it can be done. The drive is bedeviled by sabotage and rustlers, who are in the pay of the monopoly who naturally don’t want the drive to succeed. The rustlers have infiltrated the drive by having the drovers encounter a “lost” family of travelers led by REBECCA RAYMOND (Rebecca Romijn) who comes along with her son and daughters HAYDEN PARNELL/Hayden Panettiere (in one of earliest feature roles) and ANN ROBERTSON /AnnaSophia Robb)(fresh out of the DONNYBROOK GIRLS series). It turns out they are all members of a family of rustlers, though the main bad girl is Hayden’s “Tess” who not only brawls with Lacey and Jessie, but tries to shoot Jenny Starr, who is saved only because Ann’s “Beth Travis” who had grown fond of Jenny knocks her sister’s gun hand aside. Of course, the rustlers are defeated, and the monopoly falls apart as the original owners of the railroad regain control. The movie is first to hint that the Dark’s long-suffering foreman Clint Hawke is in love with Jessie Dark (and she returns the feelings).

 

The second Six Gun Sisters of 1946 was SIX GUN SHOOTOUT. HAYDEN PARNELL (Hayden Panettiere) had impressed her D-A bosses with her ability to play a believable heel despite being little more than 5’1 and blessed with “girl next door sweet” good looks. (“Hey, I had to work hard to be bad,” she once told an interviewer. “They kept wanting me to play “nicely nice” girls and I had to fight for every bad girl I played. Why bad girls? Well, even though we always bit the dust in the end, they were more fun to play, at least for me. Oh yes, I did play my share of “faces”, but at least they usual had some quirk or sense of humor or something to keep them from being boring.”) In this one, Tess Travis doesn’t stay in jail for long, but does not try to rejoin her family. Instead, she comes to Reckoning Valley obsessed with out-drawing and killing Jenny Starr.

 

However, Jenny is out of town visiting her former Wild West show friends. The frustrated and evidently mentally unstable Tess then confronts Lacey who is at a local saloon. Lacey is there with Jessi Dark. Jessi and Lacey attempt to reason with her, but she suddenly whips out her gun and shoots them both!

 

By the time Jenny arrives back in Reckoning Valley, Lacey and Jessi are recovering, but Tess has eluded the posses sent after her. Hannah has been doing some investigating of her own and has learned that Tess is hiding out at Rancho Renata, located on strip of border territory with uncertain law jurisdiction.. This has made it ideal as a refuge for the area’s “most wanted”. Jenny decides to go there with her cousin Belle Starr (MISSY PRESTON/Missy Peregrym) whom she has secretly summoned to her ranch.

 

Arriving at the Rancho, Jenny and Belle discover Tess has ingratiated herself with the owner “Renata” (D-A newcomer CATHERINE DELL/Catherine Bell) and her right-hand woman “Red” (LAURA PRINCE/Laura Prepon). Though in disguise, Jenny and Belle try to find a way to grab Tess and get away with her. Then they discover Tess is about to leave with her latest boy friend, who is a member of a gang that plans to start raiding unsuspecting ranches deep in Mexico. They finally grab Tess, but fail to make good their escape. Tess now demands Jenny face her in a quick draw contest with live bullets (and we see lots of evidence she has become lightning fast). Jenny refuses to participate, even the enraged Tess fires shot around her (some have wondered if John Ford didn’t copy this scene in his classic RED RIVER). Only when Tess threatens to shoot Belle, does Jenny finally agree, and Tess is fast, but not as fast as Jenny, whose shot shatters Tess’ gun and her gunhand.

 

Meanwhile, it turns out that a maid on the property (played by Accion Latina’s MARISA RAMIREZ/Marissa Ramirez is really an agent for the Mexican authorities. She has tipped off them about the plans for the raids on Mexico and these authorities decide they’ll just wipe the whole place out, legalities be damned.  Shortly after the showdown, the Mexican forces storm the place. Jenny and Belle barely manage to escape. The dogged Tess tries to shoot Jenny with her good hand, but a shot from Belle finally puts an end to her evil career as she topples off a burning balcony).

 

“Yes, that was my first movie death. I thought it went great, they wouldn’t let me do the fall, but MONICA KEENE (Monica Keena) did a great job and I can’t complain. So that was end of Tess Travis and the start of my career as the ‘Blonde Bad Girl Next Door’.” Hayden has said of the picture.

 

The third film of 1946 was SIX GUN GOLD. Belle Starr (MISSY PRESTON /Missy Peregrym again) returns and, as is usually the case, she is in trouble. She has been shot and wounded by a ruthless female bounty hunter called by MEG FOXWOOD Megan Fox). It turns out the bounty hunter is really in the secret pay of the mining company bookkeeper CLARE KNIGHT (Clare Kramer). CLARE had attempted to recruit Belle for a mysterious job, but when Belle backed out, sent “Dead-Eye Annie” after her. Lacey decides to take a job as cook at the mine and finds out CLARE is actually planning to rob a major shipment, now using a gang led by another woman outlaw, KRYSTAL KRAMER (Kristin Kreuk. (Obviously, the studio bosses were hoping to pull in former VAMPIRE QUEEN fans, though one has to wonder if long time fans didn't remember her more clearly as the the original "Cora Dark".). It turns out they need women for the robbery because they will more easily able to approach the heavily guarded wagon trains and take out the guards, then the men outlaws will get the gold moved to a location from which they will taken an neglected railroad spur line and removed from Reckoning Valley.

 

The gold robbery itself is very well done. So is the capture of the gang aboard their getaway train. Missy Preston successfully shoots it out with Meg Foxwood, but the law doesn’t understand and Belle goes back on the run. Lacey gets to battle Clare, while (late in the picture) Jenny got to fight it out with Krystal aboard the train. Jenny finally knocks Krystal off the train and down into a canyon, while Lacey knocks Clare out, but the criminal mastermind perishes when the train derails.

 

“The only problem the fans had with the movie is that the Darks were nowhere in sight, though their absence is mentioned,” Lacey said. “We couldn’t tell them it was part of the set-up for the final film in the series.”)

 

SIX GUN WEDDING (1947) the finale of the series. It opens with Jenny and Lacey arriving in San Francisco where they are about to attend the wedding of “Afton Avery” (SCARLETT JEWELL/Scarklett Johansson) and meet her sister Ada (MARY ELIZABETH WINTHROP/Mary Elizabeth Winstead). They have also encountered the foreman of the Dark ranch Clint Hawk, who tells them that Hannah has brought Jessie with her to San Francisco to marry a wealthy man which save the ranch from foreclosure. Hawk, who loves Jessie, is heartbroken since Jessie still loves him.

 

The Starrs try to reason with Hannah, but the prospect of the ranch is clearly clouding her judgement. It also appears the wealthy H.H. Hillyard has bedazzled the elder Starr sister as well. The highlight is a delightful brawl in a two-level bridal shop between Jenny, Lacey, Afton, Ada, vs,  Jessie’s mysterious bridesmaids (they are all supposed to be relatives of Mr. Hillyard) led by Maid of Honor JERI-LYNN RYDER (Jeri Ryan), backed up by REGINA ADAMS (Rachel McAdams), NICOLE AYERS (Nicki Aycox), MONICA KEENE (Monica Keena). The women are all in Victorian lace undies and battling it out. Our girls win, but end up in prison until they are bailed out by Jessie, who confesses she is actually afraid of Hillyard and wants their help.

 

It turns out Hillyard is actually a con man, who has left a trail of mysteriously missing former wives behind him. The female “relatives” are part of his con. The climax features Hillyard now attempting to marry Hannah while Jessie is being held prisoner in a secrfet room into which Hillyard plans to pump poison gas! Luckily, the Starrs and their friends break up the wedding. Hawk KO’s Hillyard before he can kill Jessie and all is well. Afton marries her fella and Jessie marries Hawk, who has a more sensible plan to save the Dark ranch.

 

“Inspite of the murderous Mr. Hillyard, we really did it pretty tongue in cheek. It was such a great time. For the first time, badly dressed Hannah Dark actually looks beautiful  and in a wedding dress. Of course, she then had a big brawl with Jeri Ryder that pretty much demolished it, but it was all in a good cause,” Lacey Calvert has written.

 

The SIX GUN SISTERS thus came to a wild conclusion. For Jenni-Love Harris and Lacey Calvert, they faced an uncertain future.

 

“Our long-term contracts were up and D-A was already worried about the impact of TV and rising costs, They would only do one-year contracts at most. We weren’t sure what was going to become of us,” Lacey Calvert wrote. “Then in the summer of 1946 we got invited to the French Riveria by D-A’s European distributor. Little did I know what that would lead to…”

 

(THE END—FOR NOW).

 

10/14/07