Edward L. Cahn Filmography

Gun Street

Crew: Director

Actors: James Brown, Jean Willes, John Clarke, Med Flory, John M. Pickard

Synopsis: This routine, often disappointing, "B"-grade, low-budget western is directed by Edward L. Cahn and was the penultimate film of his career. (He died the year after Gun Street was released.) The story is mainly one long chase, as the Sheriff (Jame Brown) goes after an outlaw. One obstacle after Read More

Incident in an Alley

Crew: Director

Actors: Chris Warfield, Erin O'Donnell, Harp McGuire, Willis B. Bouchey, Nelson Leigh

Synopsis: Rod Serling penned the story on which this crime melodrama was based. The trouble begins when as a policeman rushes toward the scene of a robbery. En route he hears a woman scream in a dark alley and gets there just in time to see someone tearing away. The cop calls out, but the runner does not Read More

Frontier Uprising

Crew: Director

Actors: James Davis, Nancy Hadley, Ken Mayer, Nestor Paiva, Don O'Kelly

Synopsis: Jim Stockton (James Davis) leads a group of pioneers into California and trouble in this routine western by director Edward L. Cahn. Stockton gets caught up in the battles and grievances between the Mexicans, white Californians, and Native Americans that rage during the 1840s -- the Read More

Boy Who Caught a Crook

Crew: Director

Actors: Wanda Hendrix, Roger Mobley, Johnny Seven, Robert Stevenson

Synopsis: In this children's movie, an adorable newsboy, his dog, and his friend the hobo accidently stumble across a briefcase containing $100,000. It belongs to a desperate thief who definitely wants it back. The honest child, not knowing the loot is stolen, looks for its owner. Fortunately the police Read More

Five Guns to Tombstone

Crew: Director

Actors: James Brown, John Wilder, Walter Coy, Robert Karnes, Joe Haworth

Synopsis: One more stock western in a long line stretching back to the turn of the 20th century, this oater by peripatetic director Edward L. Cahn has nothing particularly distinctive in its story about a group of outlaws. Billy Wade (played by the athletic James Brown) is an ex-gunslinger who is approached Read More

You Have to Run Fast

Crew: Director

Actors: Craig Hill, Elaine Edwards, Grant Richards, Shepherd Sanders, John Apone

Synopsis: This is a competently put-together "B"-grade film starring Craig Hill as a doctor who in the process of trying to save a man badly beaten by two gangsters, identifies the culprits to the police. When their victim dies and the charge becomes murder, the doctor hightails it to the far woods where he Read More

The Clown and the Kid

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this sentimental crime melodrama, an ailing clown dies while trying to take his son to a Texas convent school. The orphaned lad then hooks up with a fugitive who dons the late clown's make-up as a disguise. At first the boy doesn't know that he is traveling with an escaped convict, but when he Read More

Gun Fight

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this western, a discharged cavalry soldier rides a stage to his brother's cattle ranch. En route he meets a dance hall girl. Later he saves her from an outlaw's unsavory advances during a heist. When he gets to his brother's ranch he soon learns that his brother makes his real living by Read More

When the Clock Strikes

Crew: Director

Actors: James Brown, Merry Anders, Henry Corden, Roy Barcroft, Peggy Stewart

Synopsis: In this crime drama, several people gather at an inn adjacent to a prison where a man is scheduled to be executed at midnight. Just as the clock is about to strike twelve, a man comes in and confesses the crime. He is arrested. The rest of the guests, who have come to retrieve the original Read More

The Gambler Wore a Gun

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this western, an Eastern gambler buys a mail-order ranch, heads out to claim it and discovers that the deed is unregistered, the rightful owner is dead, and that the land has been taken over by cattle rustlers. Strapping on the title weapon, the fellow rectifies the situation, but only after Read More

The Clock Strikes Three

Crew: Director

Synopsis: The Clock Strikes Three is the alternate title for the low budgeter When the Clock Strikes. The scene is a deserted lodge where a group of people have gathered to await the execution of a convicted killer at a nearby prison. The group plans to search the lodge for money hidden away by the Read More

Secret of Deep Harbor

Crew: Director

Actors: Ron Foster, Barry Kelley, Merry Anders, Norman Alden, James Seay

Synopsis: Based on the novel I Cover the Waterfront, this uninspired crime melodrama stars Ron Foster as Skip Hanlon, a reporter who inadvertently gets involved in tracking down a criminal operation on the waterfront. Hanlon falls in love with Janey Fowler (Merry Anders) whose father is a sea captain doing Read More

Operation Bottleneck

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this WW II drama, a unit of paratroopers attempt to a colleague after he is captured by the Japanese during a mission in Burma. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Police Dog Story

Crew: Director

Actors: James Brown, Merry Anders, Barry Kelley, Milton Frome

Synopsis: This one-hour, police-story melodrama does not focus on the two-legged officers commonly found chasing the bad guys, but a four-legged K-9 corps German Shepherd named "Wolf" (played by Rocco), whose training forms a large part of the story. Wolf is put through his paces so that when the time Read More

Cage of Evil

Crew: Director

Actors: Ron Foster, Patricia Blair, John Maxwell, Preston Hanson

Synopsis: Scott Harper (Ron Foster) is frustrated and angry as a police detective because he keeps getting passed over for a promotion to lieutenant. Meanwhile, he is assigned to gain the confidence of Holly Taylor (Patricia Blair), the girlfriend of a suspect in a robbery/homicide. Predictably, the two Read More

Noose for a Gunman

Crew: Director

Actors: Jim Davis, Lyn Thomas, Ted de Corsia, Barton MacLane

Synopsis: Jim Davis was light-years away from his role as Larry Hagman's dad on Dallas when he starred in Noose for a Gunman. In this 1960 B oater, Davis is a gunslinger who is appointed town marshal to clean out the criminal element. It isn't long before Davis is kicked out of town on a trumped-up murder Read More

The Walking Target

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a man serves five years in the state pen for armed robbery. Upon his release, the man is anxious to retrieve the $260,000 in loot he hid before he went to jail. Unfortunately, he is still pursued by both the police and his former gang mates. He ends up severely beaten, robbed Read More

Oklahoma Territory

Crew: Director

Actors: Bill Williams, Gloria Talbott, Ted de Corsia, Grant Richards, Walter Sande

Synopsis: Predictable and a little slow and labyrinthian, this western features Bill Williams as Temple Houston, a gun-toting D.A. whose heart lies with the cause of justice but whose actions toward that end can be controversial. Bigelow (Grant Richards) is a railroad agent who frames a Cherokee chief (as Read More

Three Came to Kill

Crew: Director

Actors: Cameron Mitchell, John Lupton, Steve Brodie, Lyn Thomas, Paul Langton

Synopsis: A routine story about an attempted assassination of a foreign head of state, Three Came to Kill is one of many action dramas directed by the indefatigable Edward L. Cahn in 1960 and '61. In this instance, the setting is Los Angeles and a gang of hoodlums, for their own reasons, are intent on Read More

Twelve Hours to Kill

Crew: Director

Actors: Nico Minardos, Barbara Eden, Grant Richards, Russ Conway, Art Baker

Synopsis: Although this quickly made, routine drama has some future television talent acting in it (Barbara Eden, Gavin MacLeod, Ted Knight), the story wanders back and forth between straight drama and an unintentional parody. Martin (Nico Minardos) has just witnessed a murder and in order to protect him Read More

A Dog's Best Friend

Crew: Director

Actors: Bill Williams, Marcia Henderson, Roger Mobley, Charles Cooper

Synopsis: In this children's drama, an angry little boy is adopted by a ranching couple. The mean little tyke takes an immediate dislike to his new parents, but his life changes for the better when he finds a wounded German Shepherd that was especially trained by the Marines. The troubled youth begins Read More

Gunfighters of Abilene

Crew: Director

Actors: Barton MacLane, Judith Ames, Arthur Space, Eugenia Paul

Synopsis: One of the busiest directors of westerns at this time, Edward L. Cahn helms this uninspired saddle saga about love and betrayal. Kip (Buster Crabbe) is a gunslinger with a score to settle. Seth (Barton MacLane), a villainous land baron, frames Kip's brother for a crime he never committed and Read More

The Music Box Kid

Crew: Director

Actors: Ron Foster, Luana Patten, Grant Richards, Johnny Seven, Carl Milletaire

Synopsis: The "music box" of the title of this low-budget, routine gangster film is a submachine gun, and its owner Larry Shaw (Ronald Foster) is the focus of attention. Larry has as little concern for morality or human life as an exterminator does for cockroaches, and so he is able to climb up the ladder Read More

Riot in Juvenile Prison

Crew: Director

Actors: Jerome Thor, Marcia Henderson, Scott Marlowe, John Hoyt, Dick Tyler

Synopsis: Conflicting views on how to handle juvenile delinquents are not convincingly brought across in this teen melodrama by Edward Cahn. Colonel Walton (John Hoyt) is the repressive head of an institution for young male juvenile delinquents. Responsibility for the deaths of two teens is indirectly laid Read More

The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake

Crew: Director

Actors: Eduard Franz, Valerie French, Henry Daniell, Grant Richards, Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: An angry head-shrinker (not a psychiatrist) puts a curse upon a family of white traders in this well-wrought low-budget horror film. It must have been a doozy for 200 years later it is still going strong. The story opens as the eldest male descendant of the cursed Drake family finds himself on the Read More

Invisible Invaders

Crew: Director

Actors: John Agar, Jean Byron, Robert Hutton, Philip Tonge, Hal Torey, John Carradine

Synopsis: The Earth is attacked by mysterious invaders from outer space, who plan on destroying humankind. The invaders are invisible in our atmosphere, but are able to inhabit and reanimate the bodies of the dead. The armies of rotting corpses march on the cities, and it seems as though there is no Read More

Inside the Mafia

Crew: Director

Actors: Cameron Mitchell, Elaine Edwards, Robert Strauss, Jim L. Brown, Ted de Corsia

Synopsis: Thanks to the notorious gangland conference in Appalachian, New York, the word "Mafia" was on everyone's lips in 1959. Rushing to capitalize on this fact was the low-budget expose Inside the Mafia. Grant Richards plays a Lucky Luciano type who is about to return to the US after several years' Read More

Pier 5, Havana

Crew: Director

Actors: Cameron Mitchell, Allison Hayes, Eduardo Noriega, Michael Granger, Logan Field

Synopsis: Having the unique distinction of being perhaps the only American drama filmed in Cuba just after Fidel Castro's revolution, Pier 5, Havana is also distinctive because the American hero Steve Daggett (Cameron Mitchell) fights to protect Castro from dangerous pro-Batista counterrevolutionaries. Read More

Vice Raid

Crew: Director

Actors: Mamie van Doren, Richard Coogan, Brad Dexter, Frank Gerstle, Barry Atwater

Synopsis: A low-budget, tawdry police yarn with the world of prostitution and gangsters thrown in, Vice Raid features Mamie Van Doren as Carol Hudson, a Motor City hooker. The bosses of the prostitution racket have Hudson go to New York City to entrap a police officer and get him thrown off the force. She Read More

Hong Kong Confidential

Crew: Director

Actors: Gene Barry, Beverly Tyler, Allison Hayes, Noel Drayton

Synopsis: Director Edward L. Cahn always knew how to make lemonade from a lemon; his B pictures of the late 1950s displayed a raw energy that many of his higher-budgeted films of the 1930s lacked. Hong Kong Confidential is a backlot cheapie starring Gene Barry and second-feature stalwarts Beverly Tyler and Allison Hayes Read More

Guns, Girls and Gangsters

Crew: Director

Actors: Mamie van Doren, Gerald Mohr, Lee Van Cleef, Grant Richards, Elaine Edwards

Synopsis: This generically-titled crime caper stars Mamie Van Doren as Vegas nightclub singer Vi Victor and Lee Van Cleef as her gangster husband Mike Bennett. While Mike is stuck in prison, Vi has an affair with his former cellmate Chuck Wheeler (Gerald Mohr), who masterminds a $2 million armored car Read More

Jet Attack / Paratroop Command

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In Jet Attack, a brainwashed scientist is rescued by a paramilitary team; in Paratroop Command, a soldier sets off North African land mines to regain his honor after killing one of his own men. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Suicide Battalion

Crew: Director

Actors: Michael Connors, John Ashley, Russ Bender, Scott Peters

Synopsis: American-International's Suicide Battalion was filmed virtually simultaneously with the studio's Jet Attack; both films were originally released on a double bill. Michael Connors plays Lt. Matt McCormick, who leads the eponymous battalion on a suicide mission in the Philippines during WW II. Their Read More

Jet Attack

Crew: Director

Actors: John Agar, Audrey Totter, Gregory Walcott, James Dobson, Leonard Strong

Synopsis: Denied a big budget, Jet Attack scores dramatic points by concentrating on the human side of warfare. Shot down behind enemy lines in North Korea, jet jockeys Tom (John Agar), Bill (Gregory Walcott) and Chick (Nicky Blair) link up with Russian nurse Tanya (Audrey Totter). She insists that she's on Read More

Suicide Battalion (1958) / Hell Squad

Crew: Director

Synopsis: This video offers a double dose of war dramas. The first Suicide Battalion chronicles the courage of two GIs who risk everything to cross enemy lines and bring back secret documents from an outpost overrun by the enemy. The second Hell Squad follows the exploits of five Yankee soldiers who must Read More

It! The Terror from Beyond Space

Crew: Director

Actors: Marshall Thompson, Shawn Smith, Kim Spalding, Ann Doran, Dabbs Greer, Richard Benedict

Synopsis: One of the best of the medium-budgeted science fiction flicks of the 1950s, It! The Terror from Beyond Space is set in "the future" (1973, to be exact). An rescue ship travels out to Mars to retrieve the only survivor of a space probe that has experienced some sort of cataclysm. That survivor Read More

Curse of the Faceless Man

Crew: Director

Actors: Richard Anderson, Elaine Edwards, Adele Mara, Luis Van Rooten, Gar Moore

Synopsis: Archeologists excavating the ruins of Pompeii discover what seems to be a perfectly preserved human figure, encased in lava. A scientific team led by Dr. Paul Mallon (Richard Anderson) begins to piece together the history and identity of the stone figure. Using surviving records from the city and Read More

Shake, Rattle and Rock

Crew: Director

Actors: Fats Domino, Lisa Gaye, Sterling Holloway

Synopsis: The endearingly awful Shake, Rattle and Rock! serves as a showcase for four top rock-and-roll talents of the 1950s. Fats Domino heads the cast as "himself", performing "I'm in Love Again", "Ain't it a Shame" and "Honey Chile". Likewise, Joe Turner offers renditions of "Feelin' Happy" and Read More

Invasion of the Saucer Men

Crew: Director

Actors: Steve Terrell, Gloria Castillo, Frank Gorshin, Raymond Hatton, Lynn Osborn

Synopsis: Invasion of the Saucer Men can't make up its mind whether it wants to be a comedy, a j.d. melodrama or a horror outing. When a spaceship lands in the woods, Johnny (Steve Terrell) and Joan (Gloria Castillo) accidentally run over one of the aliens. In retaliation, the saucer-men kill Joe (Frank Gorshin Read More

Flesh and the Spur

Crew: Director

Actors: John Agar, Marla English, Raymond Hatton, Maria Monay

Synopsis: One of the least-known of the American-International "B" westerns of the 1950s, Flesh and the Spur offers the spectacle of the inimitable John Agar in a dual role. When his twin brother Mathew is killed, Luke Random goes gunnin' for his brother's murderer. Along the way, he teams up with Read More

Zombies of Mora-Tau

Crew: Director

Actors: Gregg Palmer, Allison Hayes, Autumn Russell, Joel Ashley, Morris Ankrum

Synopsis: Quickie king Sam Katzman's Zombies of Mora Tau is a game attempt to imitate what Roger Corman was doing so well over at American-International. The story takes place on the coast of Africa, where a race of white zombies jealously guards an ancient, jewel-encrusted African Idol. The treasure rests Read More

Voodoo Woman

Crew: Director

Actors: Marla English, Tom Conway, Lance Fuller

Synopsis: Advertised as an out-and-out horror picture, Voodoo Woman is more of a "greed and revenge" melodrama than anything else. Mad scientist Dr. Roland Gerard (Tom Conway) squirrels himself away in the jungle, hoping to create a race of super-beings. What he comes up with is a passel of hideous-looking Read More

Runaway Daughters

Crew: Director

Actors: Marla English, Anna Sten, John Litel, Lance Fuller, Adele Jergens

Synopsis: Another American-International opus which managed to attain top bookings on the strength of an exploitational titles, Runaway Daughters concentrates on the misadventures of a trio of teenaged girls. Audrey Barton (Marla English) wants something more out of life than her parents' money can buy; Read More

Dragstrip Girl

Crew: Director

Actors: Fay Spain, Steve Terrell, John Ashley, Frank Gorshin, Russ Bender

Synopsis: Originally double-billed with Rock All Night, Dragstrip Girl is a typical J.D. potboiler from American-International. The title character, played by Fay Spain, is insatiable in her search for new thrills. Fay derives great pleasure in playing her two boyfriends, garage mechanic Steve Terrell and Read More

Motorcycle Gang

Crew: Director

Actors: Anne Neyland, Steve Terrell, John Ashley, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Raymond Hatton

Synopsis: The title tells practically all in the American-International exploitationer Motorcycle Gang. The film's main conflict arises from the rivalry between "good" cyclist Randy (Steve Tyrrell) and his "bad" counterpart Nick (John Ashley). Recently released from a jail term, Nick forces Randy (who Read More

Girls in Prison

Crew: Director

Actors: Richard Denning, Joan Taylor, Adele Jergens, Helen Gilbert, Lance Fuller

Synopsis: Girls in Prison is a typical babes-behind-bars affair, elevated by a better than usual cast. Richard Denning stars as a prison chaplain who believes inmate Joan Taylor's story that she's been framed. But Joan's cellmates, convinced that the girl has salted away several thousand dollars of stolen Read More

The She-Creature

Crew: Director

Actors: Chester Morris, Marla English, Tom Conway, Cathy Downs, Lance Fuller

Synopsis: The lovely assistant of an evil hypnotist has no idea that she is the descendant of a horrifying prehistoric sea monster she is mesmerized by her boss. When the monster comes forth, she goes on a killing spree. A promoter learns about the hypnotist's shenanigans and figures a way to cash in on the Read More

Creature with the Atom Brain

Crew: Director

Actors: Gregory Gaye, Richard Denning, Angela Stevens, S. John Launer, Michael Granger

Synopsis: A gangster is killed by a big man who pays no attention to bullets, and who leaves glowing fingerprints. Police scientist Chet Walker (Richard Denning) discovers that the fingerprints are radioactive -- as well as those of a dead man. We soon learn that this walking corpse was created by Dr. Read More

Betrayed Women

Crew: Director

Actors: Carole Mathews, Beverly Michaels, Peggy Knudsen, Tom Drake, Sara Haden, Esther Dale

Synopsis: Despite its lurid title, Betrayed Women is more subdued than the usual "babes behind bars" melodrama. The scene is a Southern women's prison, where the inmates are subjected to all manner of sadism and brutality. State's attorney Jeff (Tom Drake) arrives to investigate prison conditions, whereupon Read More

Two Dollar Bettor

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: John Litel, Marie Windsor, Steve Brodie, Barbara Logan, Robert Sherwood

Synopsis: Dependable supporting actor John Litel is top-billed in the independently produced Two Dollar Bettor. Litel plays John Hewitt, a respectable widower who takes the first step on the road to depravation when he makes his first-ever bet at the race track. Consumed by gambling fever, Hewitt is reduced Read More

The Great Plane Robbery

Crew: Director

Actors: Tom Conway, Margaret Hamilton, Steve Brodie, Lynne Roberts, David Bruce

Synopsis: Taking place during a transcontinental flight, the story of The Great Plane Robbery concerns an airborne robbery (hence the title) and a series of ancillary murders. With no minions of the law on board, it is up to the pilot (Tom Conway) and an eccentric passenger (Margaret Hamilton) to solve the Read More

Destination Murder

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Joyce MacKenzie, Stanley Clements, Hurd Hatfield, Albert Dekker, Myrna Dell

Synopsis: Producer-director Edward L. Cahn's Prominent Pictures produced this low-budget thriller-noir which was then sold outright to RKO. Joyce MacKenzie stars as Laura Mansfield whose father (Franklyn Farnum) is killed in cold blood by smalltime hoodlum turned messenger boy Jackie Wales (Stanley Read More

Experiment Alcatraz

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: John Howard, Joan Dixon, Walter Kingsford, Lynne Carter, Robert Shayne

Synopsis: Experiment Alcatraz stars John Howard as a doctor who develops a serum to cure radioactive poisoning. He tests it on several Alcatraz "lifers," who have volunteered for the experiment on the promise of freedom if they survive. A murder within the group casts aspersions on the doctor, but the Read More

I Cheated the Law

Crew: Director

Actors: Tom Conway, Steve Brodie, Robert Osterloh, Barbara Billingsley, Russell Hicks

Synopsis: This independently produced crime caper was picked up for distribution by 20th Century-Fox. Tom Conway stars as criminal attorney John Campbell. After saving Frank Bricolle (Steve Brodie) from a murder charge, Campbell is taunted with revelation that Bricolle is actually guilty. Even more galling Read More

Prejudice

Crew: Director

Actors: David Bruce, Mary Marshall, Tommy Ivo, Bruce Edwards, Barbara Billingsley

Synopsis: This cautionary fable was produced by the Protestant Film Commission. The main character is plant-manager Joe Hanson (David Bruce), who manages himself to be free of all forms of racial prejudice. Yet when he feels that his job is being threatened by Jewish co-worker Al Green (Bruce Edwards), Joe Read More

Bungalow 13

Crew: Director

Actors: Tom Conway, Margaret Hamilton, Richard Cromwell, James Flavin, Marjorie Hoshelle

Synopsis: In this detective drama, a gumshoe must find a priceless hunk of jade. His several leads evaporate when the police succeed in killing all of the suspects. Angered, the dick relaxes in a motel room and ponders the remaining clues, not realizing until it is almost too late that the biggest clue is Read More

The Checkered Coat

Crew: Director

Actors: Tom Conway, Noreen Nash, Hurd Hatfield, James Seay, Garry Owen

Synopsis: In this crime drama a psychiatrist tries to help a psycho patient who loses consciousness after he kills someone. When the doctor provides the patient with a letter that explains his problem, he inadvertently implicates himself in the crimes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Born to Speed

Crew: Director

Actors: Johnny Sands, Terry Austin, Don Castle, Frank Orth, Geraldine Wall

Synopsis: The romantic, dangerous and fast-paced world of professional midget auto racing provides the backdrop for this dramatic tale of a young driver who decides to follow in his late father's footsteps and win the big race. Johnny Randall is aware of the risks. His father died in a fireball during a Read More

Gas House Kids in Hollywood

Crew: Director

Synopsis: The Gas House Kids, the very poor man's Bowery Boys, head for Hollywood. While en route to their destination, they accept the invitation of scientist Milton Parsons to spend the night at his home. Head "Gas Housers" Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer and Tommy Bond investigate strange nocturnal noises and Read More