Arthur Alexander Filmography

The Navajo Kid

Crew: Producer

Actors: Bob Steele, Sid Saylor, Edward Cassidy, Caren Marsh, Stanley Blystone

Synopsis: A B-Western hero since the late silent era, Bob Steele would hang up his spurs after a final four westerns for director Harry L. Fraser. In the opener, The Navajo Kid, Steele, as he had so many times before, went in search of the villain, or villains, who murdered his foster-father and stole both Read More

Thunder Town

Crew: Producer

Actors: Bob Steele, Sid Saylor, Ellen Hall, Bud Geary, Charles King

Synopsis: In his final starring Western for PRC, Bob Steele plays Jim Brandon who is imprisoned for a bank robbery and murder he didn't commit. Returning home on parole, Jim is ostracized by all and sundry, except Sheriff Warner (Steve Clark) and Betty Morgan (Ellen Hall), both of whom believe in his Read More

Six Gun Man

Crew: Producer

Actors: Bob Steele, Sid Saylor, Jim Martin, Jean Carlin, I. Stanford Jolley

Synopsis: Diminutive western hero Bob Steele stars in Six Gun Man. Steele plays federal marshal Bob Storm, who has been assigned to halt the activities of cattle rustlers. Given his previous movie track record, we'll wager that Bob also wants to avenge the death of his father. Jean Carlin is the ingenue, I. Read More

Ambush Trail

Crew: Producer

Actors: Budd Buster, Edward Cassidy, Frank Ellis, I. Stanford Jolley

Synopsis: One of four western films made for PRC by bantam-weight Bob Steele, Ambush Trail stars Steele as cowpoke Curley Thompson. The villain of the piece intends to bankrupt all the local ranchers and grab up the surrounding property for himself. But with Curley involved, the bad guy and his minions Read More

Arson Squad

Crew: Producer

Actors: Frank Albertson, Robert Armstrong, Grace Gillern, Byron Foulger, Chester Clute

Synopsis: PRC's Arson Squad stars Frank Albertson as an insurance investigator and Robert Armstrong as chief of the police department's arson troubleshooters. Albertson and Armstrong team up to solve a particularly vicious series of deliberate fires. A man has been killed in one conflagration, so the Read More

Marked for Murder

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: In this western, the Texas Rangers must stop a range war between sheepherders and cattle ranchers from erupting. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Flaming Bullets

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: A gang which frees criminals and kills them to collect their reward is broken up by the Texas Rangers who plant one of their men in jail in order to be freed by the gang. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Frontier Fugitives

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: The penultimate entry in the Texas Rangers lineup, PRC's super-low-budget rival to Republic Pictures' Three Mesqueteers series, Frontier Fugitives once again stars Tex Ritter, Dave O'Brien, and Guy Wilkerson. This time, the trio are on to a gang that preys on both traders and Indians. Trailing the Read More

Enemy of the Law

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: A great old Western filled with Tex Ritter's songs, this one revolves around a manhunt by the Texas Rangers who are trying to find the outlaw gang who, years before, broke into a safe and hid the money. Good Western comedy. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

Gunsmoke Mesa

Crew: Producer

Actors: Dave "Tex" O'Brien, Guy Wilkerson, Patti McCarty, Jack Ingram

Synopsis: The Texas Rangers ride again in the PRC oater Gunsmoke Mesa. As in earlier series entries, the rangers are played by Jim Newill (the handsome one), Dave O'Brien (the athletic one) and Guy "Panhandle" Wilkerson (the funny one). The villain is the appropriately named Henry Black (Jack Ingram) Read More

Guns of the Law

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: In this western, the Texas Rangers take on a shyster who is trying to bilk a family of their money after he learns that an oil company thinks their land may contain the black gold. The Rangers tell the family about the oil before the lawyer and his gang can take it from them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Read More

The Whispering Skull

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: In this western, the Texas Rangers ride out after "The Whispering Skull" an enigmatic killer who murders his victims in the dead of night. Following the death of a town sheriff, one of the Rangers begins posing as the phantom. This forces the real killer to reveal his identity. ~ Sandra Brennan Read More

Waterfront

Crew: Producer

Actors: John Carradine, J. Carrol Naish, Maris Wrixon, Edwin Maxwell, Terry Frost

Synopsis: With such charismatic villains as John Carradine and J. Carroll Naish on hand in PRC's Waterfront, who cares about nominal leading man Terry Frost. The story is set in the docks of San Francisco, where Nazi spy Carl Decker (Naish) poses as a harmless optometrist. Decker is aided and abetted by Read More

Three in the Saddle

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: Partners in most of the low-budget Texas Rangers Westerns, Tex Ritter and Dave O'Brien are at loggerheads through the greater part of this slow-moving entry, the last in the series. In fact, despite a title card that reads, "Tex Ritter and Dave O'Brien as the Texas Rangers," Ritter actually works Read More

Spook Town

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: In this western, the residents of a town are terrorized by the presence of a mysterious ghost. The Texas Rangers investigate and discover the true culprits behind the hauntings. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Trail of Terror

Crew: Producer

Actors: Dave "Tex" O'Brien, Guy Wilkerson, Patricia Knox, Jack Ingram

Synopsis: Trail of Terror is a PRC Studios western starring Dave O'Brien (here billed as Dave "Tex" O'Brien) and Jim Newell. Texas ranger O'Brien has an outlaw twin brother. When his sibling is killed, O'Brien assumes his identity in order to infiltrate a gang of stagecoach robbers. The ruse falls apart at Read More

Gangsters of the Frontier

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: Replacing James Newell, country and western crooner Tex Ritter joins Dave "Tex" O'Brien and Guy Wilkerson in the last eight of PRC's "Texas Rangers" western series. In his initial effort, Ritter, as Sheriff Tex Haines, is again confronted with Bart Kern (I. Stanford Jolley) and his gang of Read More

Brand of the Devil

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: In this western, a gang of evil cattle rustlers wreaks havoc upon a community of ranchers. Three Texas Rangers come to the rescue and find out the ring leader works as a local ranch foreman. The bad guys do not escape the trusty Rangers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

West of Texas

Crew: Producer

Actors: Dave "Tex" O'Brien, Guy Wilkerson, Frances Gladwin, Marilyn Hare

Synopsis: A would-be Western epic soundly defeated by an almost nonexistent budget, West of Texas was the third of 22 "Texas Rangers" oaters released by Gower Gulch company PRC from 1942-1945 in an attempt to compete with Republic's The Three Mesqueteers and Monogram's "Rough Riders" and "Range Busters." Read More

Lady from Chungking

Crew: Producer

Actors: Harold Huber, Mae Clarke, Rick Vallin, Paul Bryar

Synopsis: Though cheaply produced in the time-honored tradition of PRC Productions, The Lady from Chungking was nothing if not timely. Anna May Wong heads the cast as Kwan Mei, the aristocratic leader of a band of Chinese partisans. Operating secretly, Kwan Mei's compatriots wage vicious guerilla warfare Read More

Bad Men of Thunder Gap

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: In the second of PRC's ramshackle Texas Rangers Westerns, Tex Wyatt (Dave "Tex" O'Brien) is blamed for a murder actually committed by Ransom (Jack Ingram) and Holman (Charles King), a couple of thieves. Tex manages to escape and is reunited with his two ranger pals, Jim Steele (James Newill) and Read More

Border Buckaroos

Crew: Producer

Actors: Dave "Tex" O'Brien, Guy Wilkerson, Christine McIntyre, Eleanor Counts

Synopsis: Another low-budget entry in PRC's interminable Texas Ranger series, Border Buckaroos is perhaps the only B-Western to misprint its own name in the titles, which read "Border Buckaroo." (Supporting actor Ethan Laidlaw's name became "Laidlow," and so on.) The rangers -- Tex (Dave "Tex" O'Brien), Jim Read More

The Return of the Rangers

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: In this western, the Texas Rangers round up rustlers by masquerading as the same. Trouble ensues when while in disguise one of the Rangers is accused of a killing. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Ghost and the Guest

Crew: Producer

Actors: James Dunn, Florence Rice, Mabel Todd, Sam McDaniel, Robert Dudley

Synopsis: Comedian Morey Amsterdam and cartoonist Milt Gross were responsible for the script of the low-budget comedy The Ghost and the Guest. James Dunn and Florence Rice play newlyweds Webster and Jackie Frye, who spend their honeymoon in a sinister old country house. Before long, the Fryes are besieged Read More

The Rangers Take Over

Crew: Producer

Actors: Dave "Tex" O'Brien, Guy Wilkerson, Iris Meredith, Forrest Taylor

Synopsis: In the first entry in PRC's Texas Ranger series, Tex Wyatt (Dave "Tex" O'Brien) and Panhandle Perkins (Guy Wilkerson) are recruits assigned by Tex's stern father, Captain Wyatt (Forrest Taylor), to look into a series of cattle rustlings. Despite strict orders not to arrest anyone, Tex goes after Read More

Fighting Valley

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: The Fighting Valley is another of PRC's "Texas Rangers" westerns, with Dave O'Brien, Jim Newell and Guy Wilkerson as the aforementioned Rangers. This time, our heroes try to find out who's been stealing ore from a valuable smelting mine. One of the independent mine-owners victimized by the crooks Read More

Bombs Over Burma

Crew: Producer

Actors: Noel Madison, Leslie Denison, Ned Young, Dan Seymour

Synopsis: Of the two PRC Anna May Wong vehicles filmed during the 1942-43 season, Bombs Over Burma is marginally the best, thanks to the cinematic savvy of writer-director Joseph H. Lewis. Relying more on strong visuals than clever dialogue, the film details the contributions of the courageous Chinese Read More

Secrets of a Co-Ed

Crew: Producer

Actors: Tina Thayer, Rick Vallin, Russell Hoyt, Marcia Mae Jones

Synopsis: College co-ed Brenta (Tina Thayer) is the daughter of district attorney Reynolds (Otto Kruger). In defiance of her dad's wishes, Brenta begins dating underworld figure Nick (Rick Vallin), the covert head of a gambling ring. Rather than see his daughter's reputation ruined by the slimy Nick Read More

Hard Guy

Crew: Producer

Actors: Jack LaRue, Mary Healy, Kane Richmond, Iris Adrian, Gayle Mellott

Synopsis: Hard Guy (British title: Professional Bride) stars singer Mary Healy (later of "Peter Lind Hayes and?" fame) as Julie, a nightclub cigarette girl with a mission. Julie is determined to ascertain the identity of the man who murdered her sister, hence her current employment at the tawdry nightery Read More

Dead or Alive

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: Although rather grandly dedicated to "the law officers of the Old West, who led the fight for law and order in the pioneer days of this country in 1880," Dead or Alive was merely another entry inThe Texas Rangers series, PRC's low-budget answer to Republic Pictures' Three Mesqueteers Westerns. Read More

Death Rides the Range

Crew: Producer

Actors: Ken Maynard, Fay McKenzie, Ralph Peters, Julian Rivero

Synopsis: The otherwise standard Ken Maynard western Death Rides the Range is distinguished somewhat by a topical slant. The plot concerns a group of spies from an unnamed foreign country (gee, they sure sound German) who head westward to undermine American morale. Into this malaise wanders Maynard Read More

Lightning Strikes West

Crew: Producer

Actors: Ken Maynard, Claire Rochelle

Synopsis: Ken Maynard's western series for bottom-barrel Colony Pictures sputtered along with Lightning Strikes West. Former government agent Ken Morgan (Maynard) is pressed back into service when bank robber Taggart (Michael Wallon) escapes from jail. Morgan's principal nemesis is Taggart's partner Laikon Read More

Phantom Rancher

Crew: Producer

Actors: Ken Maynard, Dorothy Short, Ted Adams, Dave "Tex" O'Brien

Synopsis: Cowboy star Ken Maynard goes the "Lone Ranger" route in Phantom Rancher. Upon inheriting his uncle's ranch, Ken Mitchell (Maynard) finds himself in the middle of a range war. Crooked real estate agent Collins (Ted Adams) is not averse to using strongarm methods to "persuade" the local ranchers to Read More

Flaming Lead

Crew: Producer

Actors: Ken Maynard, Eleanor Stewart, Walter Long, Tom London, Ralph Peters

Synopsis: Though it probably isn't saying much, Flaming Lead is the best of Ken Maynard's starring vehicles for low-budget Colony Pictures. The story begins, curiously enough, at a nightclub where Maynard is wowing the customers with his expert lariat tricks. One of the patrons is ranch owner Dave O'Brien Read More

Whirlwind Horseman

Crew: Producer

Actors: Ken Maynard, Joan Barclay, Kenneth Harlan, Joseph W. Girard

Synopsis: The first of six Ken Maynard Westerns produced on the cheap by the Alexander brothers, Max and Arthur, Whirlwind Horseman awarded Ken one of filmdom's least memorable sidekicks, Bill Griffith. En route to their friend Cherokee Jake's (Budd Buster) gold mine, Ken and Happy Holmes are waylaid by Read More

Six Shootin' Sheriff

Crew: Producer

Actors: Ken Maynard, Marjorie Reynolds, Lafe [Lafayette] McKee, Walter Long, Bob Terry

Synopsis: The second of six low-budget Ken Maynard Westerns produced by Max and Arthur Alexander, Six Shootin' Sheriff featured a veteran star who, as reviewers were quick to point out, had gained quite a bit of poundage since his heyday in the early '30s. Maynard played Trigger Martin, a cowboy falsely Read More

International Crime

Crew: Producer

Actors: Rod La Rocque, Astrid Allwyn, Oscar O'Shea, William Von Brincken

Synopsis: International Crime is the second of two Grand National programmers inspired by the popular "Shadow" pulp novels by Maxwell Grant. Rod La Rocque plays Lamont Cranston, famed criminologist and (in this film at least) radio crime reporter. This time around Cranston does not "cloud men's minds" Read More

The Shadow Strikes

Crew: Producer

Actors: Rod La Rocque, Lynn Anders, Walter McGrail, James "Doc" Blakely, Kenneth Harlan

Synopsis: The Shadow, the famed radio and pulp-novel hero with the mysterious power to "cloud men's minds" so that they cannot see him, was first brought to the screen by low-budget Grand National Pictures in 1937. Former matinee idol Rod LaRocque stars as the Shadow's man-about-town alter-ego Lamont Read More

Law and Lead

Crew: Producer

Actors: Rex Bell, Wally Wales, Harley Wood, Earl Dwire, Soledad Jiminez

Synopsis: Rex Bell was always an agreeable cowboy hero, even when stuck in such bottom-barrel oaters as Law and Lead. On this occasion, hero Jimmy Sawyer (Bell) tries to find out who's been impersonating a famous retired bandit. Since the ex-outlaw is a friend of his, Jimmy is anxious to clear his buddy's Read More

The Idaho Kid

Crew: Producer

Actors: Rex Bell, David Sharpe, Earl Dwire, Lafe [Lafayette] McKee

Synopsis: The third of six Rex Bell Westerns produced by the Alexander brothers, Arthur and Max, The Idaho Kid was the first to be distributed by newcomer Grand National. Bell appeared in the title role, a drifter who returns to the old homestead only to find his adopted family engaged in a range war with Read More

Here's Flash Casey

Crew: Producer

Actors: Eric Linden, Boots Mallory, Cully Richards, Holmes Herbert, Joseph Crehan

Synopsis: Flash Casey (Eric Linden), per his nickname, is an ace photojournalist--at least, he will be once he gets out of high school. After winning a prize in a photography contest, Flash vows that within two years of his graduation, he'll own his own newsphoto agency. To attain his goal, Flash goes after Read More

Too Much Beef

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: Directed by the veteran Robert F. Hill -- who also wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym of Rock Hawkey -- this Rex Bell Western was the first in a series of six produced by Arthur Alexander and his brother Max. Bell played Tucson Smith, a character well-known to Western fans from the writings Read More

West of Nevada

Crew: Producer

Actors: Rex Bell, Joan Barclay, Steve Clark, Georgia O'Dell

Synopsis: The second of six generally well-made Rex Bell Westerns produced on the cheap by Gower Gulch company Colony Pictures, West of Nevada starred the personable Bell -- husband of silent star Clara Bow -- as Jim Lloyd, a young drifter coming to the aid of an embattled prospector. The latter, Milt Read More

Men of the Plains

Crew: Producer

Actors: Rex Bell, Joan Barclay, George Ball, Charles King, Forrest Taylor

Synopsis: Produced for around 10,000 dollars by Gower Gulch entrepreneur Arthur Alexander, this the fourth of six Rex Bell Westerns was distributed through the newly founded Grand National exchanges. Jim Dean (Bell) and Dad Baxter (John Elliott) are postal inspectors assigned to investigate a series of gold Read More

Stormy Trails

Crew: Producer

Actors: Rex Bell, Bob Hodges, Lois Wilde, Lane Chandler, Earl Dwire

Synopsis: The second-to-last Rex Bell Western for Poverty Row producers Max and Arthur Alexander, Stormy Trails was the only entry not directed by Robert F. Hill. Sam Newfield, however, was even more of a hack than Hill and Stormy Trails bore Newfield's trademark of carelessly inserted stock footage (a Read More

Gun Play

Crew: Producer

Actors: Marion Shilling, Wally Wales, Charles French

Synopsis: The last of five inexpensive Westerns produced by small-scale Beacon Pictures, Gun Play starred brawny Guinn "Big Boy" Williams as a drifter who unwittingly comes into possession of a treasure map concealed in an old boot. The inheritance of siblings Madge (Marion Shilling) and George Holt (Wally Read More

Law of the 45's

Crew: Producer

Actors: Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Molly O'Day, Al St. John, Ted Adams, Fred Burns

Synopsis: Based on William Colt MacDonald's Law of the Forty-Fives, this ultra low-budget Beacon Western stars Guinn "Big Boy" Williams and Al St. John as Tucson Smith and Stony Martin, a couple of drifters coming to the defense of elder rancher Hayden (Lafe McKee). Like their neighbors, the rancher and his Read More

Danger Trails

Crew: Producer

Actors: Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Marjorie Gordon, John Elliott, Steve Clark, Edmund Cobb

Synopsis: Guinn "Big Boy" Williams had only himself to blame for this hackneyed Western, which he based on his own "original" story. A brawny actor who usually played dumb cowboys, Williams would make five low-budget Westerns for Beacon Pictures, Danger Trails being the second-to-last, before finding his Read More

Big Boy Rides Again

Crew: Producer

Actors: Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Constance Bergen, Charles French, Lafe [Lafayette] McKee, Victor Potel

Synopsis: More of a whodunit than a straight Western, this Guinn "Big Boy" Williams vehicle from low-budget Beacon Pictures at least attempted something a bit different. Having just revised his will under the watchful eyes of lawyer Hartecker (William Gould), rancher John Duncan (Charles K. French turns Read More

Cowboy Holiday

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: The second of four Westerns starring Guinn "Big Boy" Williams and released by low-budget Beacon Pictures, this film has retained none of the lustre accorded the series opener, Thunder over Texas (1934). That drab little oater is still written about due to its director, cult phenomenon Edgar G. Ulmer Read More

Thunder over Texas

Crew: Producer

Actors: Marion Shilling, Helen Westcott, Claude Payton, Philo McCullough

Synopsis: The first of five Guinn "Big Boy" Williams Westerns produced by low-budget Beacon Pictures, Thunder Over Texas remains one of the decade's more obscure sagebrush melodramas. Written by Sherle Castle, the film was directed by her soon-to-be husband, legendary cult figure Edgar G. Ulmer, who Read More