Fred AllenFilmography

Hell's Half Acre

Crew: Editor

Actors: Wendell Corey, Evelyn Keyes, Nancy Gates, Elsa Lanchester, Marie Windsor

Synopsis: Hell's Half Acre was written directly for the screen by Steve Fisher, whose I Wake Up Screaming remains one of the definitive "film noirs". The scene is a rundown section of Honolulu, where there dwells a group of wannabes, hasbeens and never-weres. While trying to go straight in this environment Read More

Make Haste to Live

Crew: Editor

Actors: Dorothy McGuire, Stephen McNally, Mary Murphy, Edgar Buchanan, John Howard

Synopsis: A gangster is sentenced to prison for killing his wife, but the woman isn't really dead: she's alive and well, raising her daughter in New Mexico. After 18 years, though, the husband comes back looking for revenge. Dorothy McGuire and Stephen McNally star in the 1954 film. ~ John Bush, All Movie Read More

The Atomic Kid

Crew: Editor

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Robert Strauss, Elaine Davis, Bill Goodwin, Whit Bissell

Synopsis: The Atomic Kid strives mightily to wring laughs from the otherwise humorless topic of atomic radiation. Mickey Rooney (who also produced the film) and Robert Strauss play a couple of brainless prospectors who stumble upon a A-bomb testing site. Led to believe that the area is rich with uranium, Strauss Read More

Sweethearts on Parade

Crew: Editor

Actors: Ray Middleton, Lucille Norman, Eileen Christy, Bill Shirley

Synopsis: Ray Middleton and Bill Shirley, Republic Pictures' answer to Hope and Crosby, star in Sweethearts on Parade. Middleton and Shirley play Cam Ellerby and Bill Gamble, the featured singers in a travelling medicine show. While stopping over in a small town, Cam renews his acquaintance with his former Read More

The Lady Wants Mink

Crew: Editor

Actors: Dennis O'Keefe, Ruth Hussey, Eve Arden, William Demarest, Gene Lockhart

Synopsis: In this comedy, a housewife schemes to make her dreams of feeling the soft touch of mink on her hardworking shoulders a reality. Unfortunately her husband does not have enough money for such a luxury. Being a resourceful lass, the wife decides the only viable alternative is to raise her own mink. Read More

Champ for a Day

Crew: Editor

Actors: Alex Nicol, Audrey Totter, Charles Winninger, Hope Emerson, Joseph Wiseman

Synopsis: Based on William Fay's short story The Disappearance of Dolan, Champ for a Day stars Alex Nicol as young pugilist George Wilson. Upon arriving in a small town for a scheduled bout, George discovers that his manager, Dolan, has vanished from sight. Also caught up in the mystery is Dolan's Read More

Flight Nurse

Crew: Editor

Actors: Joan Leslie, Forrest Tucker, Arthur Franz, Jeff Donnell, Ben Cooper

Synopsis: In this war drama, set during the Korean War, an Air Force nurse gets involved in a love triangle on the front lines. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Ride the Man Down

Crew: Editor

Actors: Brian Donlevy, Rod Cameron, Ella Raines, Forrest Tucker, Barbara Britton

Synopsis: Will Ballard (Rod Cameron) is the longtime foreman of the Hatcher ranch, a spread renowned for its size and the wealth it contains. When owner Phil Evarts dies suddenly, the speculation in the territory is that Hatcher will be broken up, especially since it was Evarts' determination coupled with Read More

The Woman They Almost Lynched

Crew: Editor

Actors: John Lund, Brian Donlevy, Audrey Totter, Joan Leslie, Ben Cooper

Synopsis: All suspense in The Woman They Almost Lynched would seem to be dissipated by title, but director Allan Dwan holds the viewers spellbound throughout. Part of the tension arises from fact that there are two leading female characters: Kate Quantrill (Audrey Totter), wife of infamous Confederate Read More

City That Never Sleeps

Crew: Editor

Actors: Gig Young, Mala Powers, William Talman, Edward Arnold, Chill Wills

Synopsis: John Auer directed and Steve Fisher wrote this police procedural film in the vein of the popular Detective Story of two years earlier. The film juggles around four characters through a particularly bad night in a Chicago precinct -- Johnny Kelly (Gig Young), a stressed out cop ready to crack; Read More

I Dream of Jeanie

Crew: Editor

Actors: Ray Middleton, Bill Shirley, Muriel Lawrence, Eileen Christy, Lynn Bari, Dick Simmons

Synopsis: The life of Stephen Foster, one of America's greatest and best-loved songwriters of the 19th century, sets the stage for this musical biography. Foster (Bill Shirley) is a shy bookkeeper who writes songs in his spare time. He is madly in love with Inez McDowell (Muriel Lawrence), but she isn't Read More

The Gold Raiders

Crew: Editor

Actors: George O'Brien, Moe Howard, Shemp Howard, Larry Fine, Sheila Ryan

Synopsis: Filmed in a record five days, Gold Raiders was an attempt by producer Jack Schwartz to inaugurate a new western series starring old favorite George O'Brien. Adding novelty value to the proceedings are the Three Stooges: Shemp Howard, Larry Howard and Moe Howard. The action is fairly divided Read More

Slaughter Trail

Crew: Editor

Actors: Brian Donlevy, Gig Young, Virginia Grey, Andy Devine, Robert Hutton

Synopsis: The Cinecolor "A" western Slaughter Trail anticipated High Noon by having its story narrated in song by troubadour Terry Gilkyson. The basic plotline is a traditional Indians-vs.-whites affair, with cavalry officer Dempster (Brian Donlevy) trying to undo the damage created by Indian-hating bandit Read More

The Enforcer

Crew: Editor

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Zero Mostel, Ted de Corsia, Everett Sloane, Roy Roberts

Synopsis: Humphrey Bogart plays Martin Ferguson, a prosecutor about to put Albert Mendoza (Everett Sloane), the head of a murder-for-hire ring, on trial. But the night before the trial, his key witness, Joe Rico (Ted de Corsia), dies in a fall out of the window of the room in which he's been guarded, part Read More

The Vicious Years

Crew: Editor

Actors: Tommy Cook, Sybil Merritt, Eduard Franz, Gar Moore, Anthony Ross

Synopsis: Though filmed in Hollywood, The Vicious Years is set in postwar Italy. Tommy Cook plays a homeless orphan named Mario, who happens to witness a murder committed by the son of a wealthy family. The enterprising Mario moves in with the family, promising to keep his mouth shut in exchange for food Read More

The Black Book

Crew: Editor

Actors: Robert Cummings, Arlene Dahl, Richard Hart, Arnold Moss, Richard Basehart

Synopsis: Also known as Reign of Terror, The Black Book is a bold effort by director Anthony Mann to film a French Revolution epic on a "B" detective picture budget. Robert Cummings stars as Charles D'Aubigny, who has been engaged by a group of political moderates to retrieve a little black book from Read More

The Scar

Crew: Editor

Actors: Paul Henreid, Joan Bennett, Eduard Franz, Leslie Brooks, John Qualen

Synopsis: John Muller (Paul Henreid), an intelligent, arrogant criminal who has been a medical student and a phony psychoanalyst, believes that people are only interested in themselves and do not notice what is happening around them. Paroled from prison to a boring job, Muller is more interested in a big Read More

T-Men

Crew: Editor

Actors: Dennis O'Keefe, Mary Meade, Charles McGraw, Alfred Ryder, Wallace Ford, June Lockhart

Synopsis: The moodily evocative docudrama T-Men stars Dennis O'Keefe as Dennis O'Brien, a treasury agent determined to bring a counterfeiting ring to justice. O'Brien and his partner Tony Genaro (Alfred Ryder) go undercover to gain the confidence of the ruthless Detroit mob responsible for the phony money. Read More

Love from a Stranger

Crew: Editor

Actors: John Hodiak, John Howard, Ann Richards, Isobel Elsom

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Agatha Christie and play by Frank Vosper, Love From a Stranger isn't quite as good as the 1937 version of the same property. This time, Sylvia Sidney and John Hodiak play the roles originally filled by Ann Harding and Basil Rathbone. Falling under the romantic spell of Read More

The Ghost Goes Wild

Crew: Editor

Synopsis: The Ghost Goes Wild is a low-cost but high-rolling farce starring James Ellison and Anne Gwynne. It starts off with Ellison, a young artist, being sued for an unauthorized caricature. To escape arrest, Ellison disguises himself as a mystic, only to conjure up a genuine ghost during a seance. Read More

The Red Stallion

Crew: Editor

Actors: Willie Best, Robert Bice, Bill Cartledge, Ray Collins

Synopsis: Under the aegis of veteran program-feature producer Bryan Foy, the fledgling Eagle-Lion company made great strides during its first year of existence. Filmed in Cinecolor, The Red Stallion is on the surface a standard yarn about a ranch boy and his beloved horse, replete with a Read More

Calendar Girl

Crew: Editor

Actors: Charles Arnt, Jane Frazee, William Marshall, James Ellison, Gail Patrick, Kenny Baker, Janet Martin, Victor McLaglen

Synopsis: In this Republic musical, all heck breaks loose when the girlfriend of an aspiring composer becomes a model for the starving artist who lives next door. The story takes place at the turn of the 19th century and is set in Miss Rich's boardinghouse, the temporary home of many young artists and Read More

The Plainsman and the Lady

Crew: Editor

Actors: Don "Red" Barry, Andy Clyde, William B. Davidson, Byron Foulger

Synopsis: The 87-minute running time of Plainsman and the Lady was evidence aplenty that this was no mere Republic B western. William Elliot (formerly and latterly "Wild Bill" Elliot) stars as cattleman Sam Cotten, who offers his services-and his six-guns-to the newly formed Pony Express. Erudite villain Read More

In Old Sacramento

Crew: Editor

Actors: Constance Moore, Hank Daniels, Ruth Donnelly, Eugene Pallette

Synopsis: Director Joseph Kane adapted his own story Diamond Carlisle for the screenplay of In Old Sacramento--the third film version of Kane's original tale. Bill Elliot stars as masked bandit Spanish Jack, who behaves as badly as he wishes with few of the usual redeeming features plaguing most cinema Read More

Sioux City Sue

Crew: Editor

Actors: Gene Autry, Lynne Roberts, Sterling Holloway, Richard Lane, Ralph Sanford

Synopsis: In his first film after four-years of military duty, Gene Autry returns to a familiar setting: a modern western musical-comedy with accent on music and comedy. Crooning Jimmie Hodges' lilting "Someday You'll Want Me to Want You", cattle rancher Gene Autry is discovered by Hollywood talent scouts Read More

The Madonna's Secret

Crew: Editor

Actors: Francis Lederer, Gail Patrick, Ann Rutherford, Edward Ashley, Linda Stirling

Synopsis: This drama is an updated version of Ulmer's 1944 film Bluebeard. It is set in New York and follows the exploits of an eccentric Parisian painter who has come to New York to escape a controversy surrounding his work. The trouble stems when the model he has used in all his work is found floating Read More

The Undercover Woman

Crew: Editor

Actors: Stephanie Bachelor, Robert Livingston, Richard Fraser, Isabel Withers, Helene Heigh

Synopsis: Stephanie Bachelor, Republic's answer to Ann Sheridan and Bette Davis, stars in Undercover Woman. The story takes place on a dude ranch, where female private eye Marcia Conroy (Bachelor) has been sent to gather evidence for a divorce case. Instead, she becomes involved with murder when Read More

Hitchhike to Happiness

Crew: Editor

Actors: Al Pearce, Dale Evans, Brad Taylor, William Frawley, Jerome Cowan

Synopsis: In this drama, an aspiring playwright gets a job in a New York City restaurant favored by celebrities in hopes of getting a break. Unfortunately, most of them believe that the waiter lacks the talent to make it big. Only an aspiring songwriter, and a former waitress who has become a famous Read More

Swingin' on a Rainbow

Crew: Editor

Actors: Jane Frazee, Brad Taylor, Harry Langdon, Minna Gombell, Amelita Ward

Synopsis: Republic's Swingin' on a Rainbow utilizes a plotline that had already done service in several of the studio's previous budget musicals. Would-be songwriter Lynn Ford (Jane Frazee) comes to the Big City, demanding $1000 from bandleader Jimmy Rhodes (Richard Davies). It seems that Rhodes has scored Read More

The Tiger Woman

Crew: Editor

Actors: Adele Mara, Kane Richmond, Richard Fraser, Peggy Stewart

Synopsis: Though released by Republic Pictures, The Tiger Woman is not a serial, as might be assumed from the title. Adele Mara stars as nightclub singer Sharon Winslow, billed for no discernible reason as "The Tiger Woman." Not exactly the sort of girl one takes home to mother, Sharon kills her husband for Read More

Scotland Yard Investigator

Crew: Editor

Actors: C. Aubrey Smith, Stephanie Bachelor, Forrester Harvey, Doris Lloyd

Synopsis: This Republic programmer is based on a true story, though its plot complications are anything but founded in reality. Set in London, the story is motivated by master criminal Carl Hoffmeyer (Erich Von Stroheim), who cooks up an intricate, apparently foolproof scheme to steal the Mona Lisa, on loan Read More

Gangs of the Waterfront

Crew: Editor

Actors: Robert Armstrong, Stephanie Bachelor, Martin Kosleck, Marion Martin, William Forrest

Synopsis: In his first starring role in several years, Robert Armstrong essays a dual role in Gangs of the Waterfront. Armstrong is seen as ruthless gangster Dutch Malone, who happens to be the exact double of mild-mannered taxidermist Peter Winkly. Hoping to avenge the death of his brother at Dutch's Read More

Behind City Lights

Crew: Editor

Actors: Lynne Roberts, Peter Cookson, Jerome Cowan, Esther Dale, William Terry

Synopsis: This Republic programmer stars Lynne Roberts as a country gal who is slickered by a couple of city-fied jewel thieves, played by Peter Cookson and Jerome Cowan. Roberts is set up for a patsy by these two rogues, and nearly ends up in jail-and later on, narrowly escapes being rubbed out by Read More

Wagon Wheels Westward

Crew: Editor

Synopsis: In this western, Red Ryder leads a wagon train of homesteaders into a ghost town and discovers that it has become an outlaw's hideout. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Dakota

Crew: Editor

Actors: John Wayne, Vera Ralston, Walter Brennan, Ward Bond, Mike Mazurki

Synopsis: According to Hollywood lore, both John Wayne and director Frank Borzage refused to work with Vera Hruba Ralston, the Czech-born inamorata (and future wife) of Republic Pictures owner Herbert I. Yates. Yates somehow managed to convince Wayne to change his mind, but Borzage was replaced by contract Read More

It's in the Bag

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Fred Allen, Jack Benny, William Bendix, Binnie Barnes, Robert Benchley

Synopsis: Based on the popular Russian novel The Twelve Chairs, this stars Fred Allen as flea-circus impresario Fred Floogle. Learning that he's inherited $12 million from his uncle, Fred also discovers that the money has been stuffed in one of thirteen chairs that he's sold at auction. The rest of the film Read More

Brazil

Crew: Editor

Actors: Tito Guizar, Virginia Bruce, Robert Livingston, Henry Da Silva, Edward Everett Horton, Veloz & Yolanda

Synopsis: Brazil is perhaps the best of the handful of American films made by Brazilian singing sensation Tito Guizar. In typical screwball-comedy fashion, the plot is set in motion by authoress Nicky Henderson (Virginia Bruce), who has hit the best-seller charts with her latest tome, Why Marry a Latin? Read More

The Chinese Cat

Crew: Editor

Actors: Sidney Toler, Joan Woodbury, Mantan Moreland

Synopsis: Charlie Chan's second mystery for Poverty Row company Monogram, The Chinese Cat is one of the inscrutable detective's better efforts. Director Phil Rosen keeps things moving at a reasonably expedient pace -- especially for a Monogram programmer -- and although the denouement is no big surprise Read More

Three Little Sisters

Crew: Editor

Actors: Mary Lee, Ruth Terry, Cheryl Walker, William Terry, Jackie Moran

Synopsis: In this romance, a GI falls in love with his pen-pal. Believing her to be a wealthy, beautiful girl, he goes to see her after the war. Unbeknownst to him, the girl is actually impoverished and wheelchair bound. Her two sisters work as char women and barely make enough to live on. When the soldier Read More

Secrets of Scotland Yard

Crew: Editor

Actors: C. Aubrey Smith, Edgar Barrier, Stephanie Bachelor, Lionel Atwill, Henry Stephenson

Synopsis: Secrets of Scotland Yard is Republic's spin on a plotline first elucidated in the old E. Phillips Oppenheim novel The Great Impersonation. After losing WW I, the German high command, with remarkable foresight, prepares for the next war by planting a spy in the British Admiralty. Edgar Barrier Read More

Guadalcanal Diary

Crew: Editor

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Lloyd Nolan, William Bendix, Richard Conte, Anthony Quinn

Synopsis: 20th Century-Fox's 1943 filmization of Richard Tregaskis' best-selling book Guadalcanal Diary does full justice to the spare, lean prose of Tregaskis' eyewitness account. The incidents in the "diary" are tied together by an off-screen narrator into a cohesive storyline. The principal characters Read More

The Man Who Wouldn't Die

Crew: Editor

Actors: Lloyd Nolan, Marjorie Weaver, Helene Reynolds, Henry Wilcoxon, Richard Derr

Synopsis: 20th Century-Fox's The Man Who Wouldn't Die is based on No Coffin for the Corpse, a "Merlini the Great" mystery penned by Clayton Rawson. Alas, magician-sleuth Merlini has been reduced to an expository bit role, and the property has been converted into a "Michael Shayne" series entry. In the first Read More

Berlin Correspondent

Crew: Editor

Actors: Virginia Gilmore, Dana Andrews, Mona Maris, Martin Kosleck, Sig Rumann

Synopsis: Berlin Correspondent is a cut-rate variation of Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent, courtesy of 20th Century-Fox. In one of his first important film roles, Dana Andrews plays Bill Roberts, an American radio commentator station in Berlin in the months before Pearl Harbor. Having witnessed Nazi Read More

On the Sunny Side

Crew: Editor

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Jane Darwell, Stanley Clements, Katherine Alexander, Donald Douglas

Synopsis: Roddy McDowall stars Hugh Aylesworth, as a well-bred English youth who is evacuated to America during the London blitz. Hugh moves into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Andrews (Don Douglas and Katherine Alexander), both of whom are charmed by their little guest's impeccable manners. Less charmed is the Read More

The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe

Crew: Editor

Actors: John Shepperd, Shepperd Strudwick, Linda Darnell, Jane Darwell, Virginia Gilmore, Mary Howard

Synopsis: John Shepperd, later known as Shepperd Strudwick, stars as the tragic Edgar Allan Poe in this low-budget biopic. Adopted as a child, Poe grows into a directionless adult, disgracing himself and his foster family through his inability (or unwillingness) to conform to the status quo of 19th century Read More

Life Begins at 8:30

Crew: Editor

Actors: Monty Woolley, Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde, Sara Allgood, Melville Cooper

Synopsis: In this drama, a has-been stage thespian finds that his alcoholism is ruining his life. When his daughter, a cripple, attempts to show her concern, he rebuffs her with his cruel, razor sharp witticism. His drinking and cynicism continue to increase, but, through it all, his daughter stands Read More

Dr. Renault's Secret

Crew: Editor

Actors: J. Carrol Naish, John Shepperd, Lynne Roberts, George Zucco, Bert Roach

Synopsis: A remake of the 1927 horror melodrama The Wizard (which, alas, no longer exists), 20th Century-Fox's Dr. Renault's Secrets packs a real wallop in its brisk 58-minute running time. The scene is a remote French village, where the murder of drunken tourist Austin (Jack Norton) coincides with the Read More

Sleepers West

Crew: Editor

Actors: Lloyd Nolan, Lynn Bari, Mary Beth Hughes, Louis Jean Heydt, Edward S. Brophy

Synopsis: This second entry in 20th Century-Fox's "Michael Shayne" series was a remake of the 1932 Fox romantic drama Sleepers East. In the original, the detective character was peripheral, but this changed once Michael Shayne (Lloyd Nolan) was written in as the leading character. Dogged by persistent girl Read More

Cadet Girl

Crew: Editor

Actors: Carole Landis, George Montgomery, William Tracy, Janis Carter

Synopsis: America had not officially gone to war in November of 1941, but try telling that to the producers of the "preparedness" drama Cadet Girl. The title character is nightclub songstress Gene Baxter (Carole Landis), but the weight of the film rests on the shoulders of West Point cadet Tex Mallory (George Montgomery Read More

Dressed to Kill

Crew: Editor

Actors: Lloyd Nolan, Mary Beth Hughes, Sheila Ryan, William Demarest, Ben Carter

Synopsis: The fourth of 20th Century-Fox's "Michael Shayne" mysteries finds private detective Shayne (Lloyd Nolan) anxiously preparing for his long-delayed marriage to showgirl Joanne La Mar (Mary Beth Hughes). Alas, Mike's pre-nuptual tete-a-tete with Joanne is interrupted by the sound of a scream. Rushing Read More

We Go Fast

Crew: Editor

Actors: Lynn Bari, Alan Curtis, Sheila Ryan, Don DeFore, Ernest Truex

Synopsis: This 20th Century-Fox programmer revolves around the misadventures of two not-overly-bright motorcycle patrolmen. Waitress Rose Coughlin (Lynn Bari) causes a rift between cycle cops Bob Brandon (Alan Curtis) and Herman Huff (Don Defore) when she falls in love with both. Rose then jilts the two of Read More

Romance of the Rio Grande

Crew: Editor

Actors: Cesar Romero, Patricia Morison, Lynne Roberts, Ricardo Cortez, Chris-Pin Martin

Synopsis: The Cisco Kid rides again, this time in the person of Cesar Romero. Cisco and Pancho (Chris-Pin Martin) come to the aid of proud but ageing cattle king Pedro de Cordoba. Posing as deCordoba's nephew, our hero snoops around in search of those who'd do the old man dirt. The villain turns out to be a Read More

Lucky Cisco Kid

Crew: Editor

Actors: Cesar Romero, Mary Beth Hughes, Dana Andrews, Evelyn Venable, Chris-Pin Martin

Synopsis: Despite the title, the Cisco Kid (Cesar Romero) doesn't feel too lucky at the beginning of this film. It seems that someone else has been committing crimes while passing himself off as Cisco. The scheme was cooked up by a corrupt judge (Willard Robertson), who hopes to drive the settlers off the Read More

Charlie Chan in Panama

Crew: Editor

Actors: Sidney Toler, Jean Rogers, Lionel Atwill, Mary Nash

Synopsis: Charlie Chan in Panama was the first entry in the "Chan" series to capitalize on WW2. Sidney Toler stars as the wily oriental sleuth, who on this occasion must weed out an elusive enemy saboteur named Ryner, who plans to destroy the Panama Canal. Any one of the supporting characters might be the Read More

Sailor's Lady

Crew: Editor

Actors: Nancy Kelly, Jon Hall, Joan Davis, Dana Andrews, Mary Nash

Synopsis: The sailor in this entertaining 20th Century-Fox programmer is Danny Malone (Jon Hall), while the lady is Sally Gilroy (Claire Trevor). Danny's impending marriage to Sally is put on the back burner when she is put in charge of an orphaned baby (Bruce Hampton, playing a girl!) During naval Read More

Charter Pilot

Crew: Editor

Actors: Lloyd Nolan, Lynn Bari, Arleen Whelan, George Montgomery, Hobart Cavanaugh

Synopsis: The title character in Charter Pilot is King Morgan (Lloyd Nolan), who thinks nothing of taking life-threatening risks on a daily basis. When Morgan marries radio personality Marge Duncan (Lynn Bari), he accedes to her wishes and takes a desk job. Alas, he is unable to resist the call of the Read More

Pier 13

Crew: Editor

Actors: Lynn Bari, Lloyd Nolan, Joan Valerie, Douglas Fowley, Chick Chandler

Synopsis: Pier 13 is a remake of the delightful Spencer Tracy-Joan Bennett vehicle Me and My Gal, which itself was a reworking of a 1922 silent picture. Wisecracking cop Danny Dolan (Lloyd Nolan) takes a liking to self-reliant waterfront waitress Sally Kelly (Lynn Bari), and the feeling is definitely Read More

Charlie Chan in Reno

Crew: Editor

Actors: Sidney Toler, Ricardo Cortez, Phyllis Brooks, George "Slim" Summerville, Kane Richmond

Synopsis: Sidney Toler made his second appearance as oriental sleuth Charlie Chan in the above-average Charlie Chan in Reno. It all begins when nervous young Mary Whitman (Pauline Moore) shows up in Reno to seek a divorce from husband Curtis Whitman (Kane Richmond). Before long, Jeanne Bentley (Louise Read More

20,000 Men a Year

Crew: Editor

Actors: Randolph Scott, Preston S. Foster, Margaret Lindsay, Mary Healy

Synopsis: A transport pilot is ordered to fly a risky mission. The pilot, Scott, refuses the dangerous mission and is fired from his job. Scott starts up a pilot school which struggles to stay in business. As an inspector for the government, Foster gives Scott trouble about his school, Scott hopes a new Read More

Too Busy to Work

Crew: Editor

Actors: Jed Prouty, Spring Byington, Ken Howell, George Ernest, June Carlson

Synopsis: Too Busy to Work is not a remake of the 1932 Will Rogers film of the same name-but it is a partial remake of Rogers' 1935 vehicle Doubting Thomas. This standard entry in the "Jones Family" series finds the Jones women trying to convince Pa Jones (Jed Prouty) that he's spending too much time at Read More

The Chicken Wagon Family

Crew: Editor

Actors: Jane Withers, Leo Carrillo, Marjorie Weaver, Spring Byington, Kane Richmond

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Barry Benefield, Chicken Wagon Family affords nearly equal screen time to child star Jane Withers and veteran character actor Leo Carrillo. Tired of living in the boonies, itinerant merchant J. P. B. Fiffany (Carrillo) packs his family into his ramshackle wagon and sets out for Read More

The Escape

Crew: Editor

Actors: Kane Richmond, Amanda Duff, June Gale, Edward Norris, Henry Armetta

Synopsis: This drama chronicles the life and times of a notorious gangster. The story begins at his funeral. There a reporter, assigned to do a brief biography, interviews a doctor who tells the gangster's sad tale. In flashback, the crook is first seen getting released from prison. His father pleads with Read More

The Adventures of Marco Polo

Crew: Editor

Actors: Gary Cooper, Sigrid Gurie, Basil Rathbone, George Barbier, Binnie Barnes

Synopsis: Gary Cooper stars in this lavish and often comic retelling of the life of the famed Italian explorer. Marco Polo (Cooper) crosses the sea in search of treasure and adventure, with the help of his loyal if cowardly sidekick Binguccio (Ernest Truex), and finds both in China, where as the nation's Read More

Arizona Wildcat

Crew: Editor

Actors: Jane Withers, Leo Carrillo, Pauline Moore, William Henry, Henry Wilcoxon

Synopsis: In this sunny western, a mischievous young girl living in the Arizona territory during the 1870s, causes all kinds of trouble while trying to prove that her foster-daddy did not steal a gold shipment. Later, the step-dad, a former outlaw, re-gathers his gang to find the real culprit -- a shady Read More

Speed to Burn

Crew: Editor

Actors: Michael Whalen, Lynn Bari, Marvin Stephens, Henry Armetta, Chick Chandler

Synopsis: Horse racing provides the framework of this crime drama that centers on an orphan who has been raising a promising horse. The trouble begins when the trainer who employs him sells the beast to the police department and ends its racing career forever. The angry boy begins investigating and with the Read More

Meet the Girls

Crew: Editor

Actors: June Lang, Ruth Donnelly, Gene Lockhart

Synopsis: 20th Century-Fox's Meet the Girls was the vanguard of an intended series about the misadventures of two trouble-prone chorus girls. June Lang and Lynn Bari star as Judy Davis and Terry Wilson, who after losing their jobs in a Honolulu nightclub also manage to misplace their ticket money for the Read More

Five of a Kind

Crew: Editor

Synopsis: The financial exploitation of Canada's Dionne Quintuplets rolled ever forward with 20th Century-Fox's Five of a Kind, the third Dionne feature-length vehicle. Under the watchful eye of kindly obstetrican Dr. Dafoe (Jean Hersholt), the lovable quints, now 4 1/2 years old, play with their pets and Read More

Charlie Chan at the Olympics

Crew: Editor

Actors: Allan Lane, Warner Oland, Katherine de Mille, Pauline Moore, Keye Luke, C. Henry Gordon

Synopsis: Actual footage of the 1936 Berlin Olympics is rabbeted into the action of this superior Charlie Chan entry. Assigned by the U.S. Navy to track down a gang of international spies, Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) heads to Berlin, where as luck would have it his son Lee (Keye Luke) is representing the Read More

Step Lively, Jeeves!

Crew: Editor

Actors: Arthur Treacher, Patricia Ellis, Robert Kent, Alan Dinehart, George Givot

Synopsis: Step Lively, Jeeves was the second 20th Century-Fox programmer to star Arthur Treacher as P.G. Wodehouse's resourceful butler Jeeves. In the first film, Thank You, Jeeves (36), the faithful family retainer extricated his boss Bertie Wooster (David Niven) from a jam. In the second film, Jeeves is Read More

One Mile from Heaven

Crew: Editor

Actors: Claire Trevor, Sally Blane, Douglas Fowley, Fredi Washington

Synopsis: Within the framework of a conventional newspaper yarn, One Mile From Heaven raises several controversial issues. Scoop-happy reporter Lucy "Tex" Warren (Claire Trevor) senses a big story in the plight of Flora Jackson (Fredi Washington), a young black woman who claims to be the mother of a white Read More

The Crack-Up

Crew: Editor

Actors: Peter Lorre, Brian Donlevy, Helen Wood, Ralph Morgan, Thomas Beck

Synopsis: Test pilot Brian Donlevy works for a major aircraft plant where a hush-hush project is in progress. Peter Lorre is a deceptively shy plant technician who is actually the head of a foreign spy ring. Eager to get his hands on the plans of a new, secret aircraft, Lorre bribes Donlevy to help him Read More

Every Saturday Night

Crew: Editor

Actors: June Lang, Thomas Beck, Jed Prouty, Spring Byington, Florence Roberts

Synopsis: The cinematic saga of The Jones Family began modestly in 1936 with Every Saturday Night. Jed Prouty and Spring Byington star as Ma and Pa Jones, with June Lang, Kenneth Howell, George Ernest, June Carlson and William Mahan as the five Jones kids and Florence Roberts as feisty Granny Jones. In this Read More

Under Your Spell

Crew: Editor

Actors: Lawrence Tibbett, Wendy Barrie, Gregory Ratoff, Arthur Treacher, Gregory Gaye

Synopsis: Otto Preminger was able to make his directorial debut on Under Your Spell solely because Darryl Zanuck couldn't care less about the film's quality; it was a contractual obligation film for Lawrence Tibbett, who was proving a washout as a film star. In Spell, Tibbett plays Anthony Allen, a world Read More

Pepper

Crew: Editor

Actors: Jane Withers, Irvin S. Cobb, George "Slim" Summerville, Dean Jagger, Ivan Lebedeff

Synopsis: Jane Withers plays "little Miss Fixit" in Pepper with a minimum of sentimental goo and a maximum of laughs. Though she's been warned not to do so, Pepper Jolly (Withers) intrudes upon the solitude of grouchy old millionaire John Wilkes (Irvin S. Cobb). Her unbridled good spirits virtually Read More

Gentle Julia

Crew: Editor

Actors: Jane Withers, Tom Brown, Marsha Hunt, Jackie Searl, Francis Ford

Synopsis: After several appearances as a "good girl," little Jane Withers returns to her patented screen brattiness in Gentle Julia. Based on a novel by Booth Tarkington, the film stars Withers as Florence Atwater, precocious kid-sister of flirtatious Julia Atwater (Marsha Hunt). After spending most of the Read More

The Country Beyond

Crew: Editor

Actors: Rochelle Hudson, Paul Kelly, Robert Kent, Alan Hale, Alan Dinehart

Synopsis: The Country Beyond is based on one of the scores of Canadian-Northwest yarns written by James Oliver Curwood. Robert Kent plays Corporal Robert King, a Mountie who has sworn to "get his man" -- the man in question being suspected fur thief Jim Alison (Alan Hale). Kings's resolve is weakened when Read More

This Is the Life

Crew: Editor

Actors: Jane Withers, John McGuire, Sally Blane, Sidney Toler, Gloria Roy

Synopsis: Marshall Neilan had fallen from the top ranks of directors by the time he helmed the Jane Withers vehicle This is the Life, but he still had it in him to deliver a first-rate job. Withers is cast as pint-sized vaudeville artiste Geraldine Revier. Tired of being professionally exploited by her Read More

Fighting Phantom

Crew: Director

Actors: Kent Taylor, Lona Andre, Irving Pichel, Gail Patrick, Warren Hymer

Synopsis: Another of Paramount's "pocket epics" based on the works of Zane Grey, The Mysterious Rider pits good guy Kent Taylor against villain Irving Pichel. A crooked land dealer, Pichel spends most of his screen time seeking out legal means to cheat the homesteaders out of their property. He is thwarted Read More

Ghost Valley

Crew: Director

Actors: Merna Kennedy, Mitchell Harris, Billy Franey, Harry Bowen, Kate Campbell

Synopsis: This entry in RKO's Tom Keene series was one of several early sound Westerns to cross over into the haunted house comedy-thriller genre. Keene played Jerry Long, the long-lost heir to the ghost town of Boom City. A crooked judge, Drake (Mitchell Harris). has discovered oil in an abandoned mine Read More

Ride Him, Cowboy

Crew: Director

Actors: John Wayne, Ruth Hall, Henry B. Walthall, Harry Gribbon, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: Ride Him, Cowboy was the first entry in John Wayne's "B"-western series for Warner Bros. Wayne plays John Drury, a handsome stranger who is blamed for a recent wave of barn-burnings. On the verge of being lynched, John is exonerated by the previously unconscious victim of the villains. At this Read More

Freighters of Destiny

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Barbara Kent, Tom Keene, Frank Rice, Billy Franey, Mitchell Harris

Synopsis: The title of this RKO western refers to the wagons which bore settlers Westward during the mid-19th century. Following in his father's footsteps, Tom Keene guides a wagon train through perilous territory, facing constant danger at the hands of a scurrilous outlaw gang. The bad guys are in the Read More

Partners

Crew: Director

Actors: Tom Keene, Nancy Drexel, Bobby Nelson, Otis Harlan, Victor Potel, Lee Shumway

Synopsis: Tom Keene's first western entry of 1932, Partners casts the star as the partner of travelling medicine-show entrepreneur Billy Franey (who's quite funny in his few scenes). When Franey is murdered, Keene is accused of the crime. Escaping from the sheriff on his faithful horse Flash, Keene sets Read More

The Saddle Buster

Crew: Director

Actors: Tom Keene, Helen Foster, Marie Quillan, Robert W. Frazer, Richard Carlyle, Fred Burns

Synopsis: The arrival of a new rider creates a furor at a rodeo in this average Tom Keene Western from RKO. Joining Fred Burns' training camp, Keene not only causes trouble between the veteran riders but also gets on the wrong side of the owner's daughter (Helen Foster) when he naively dallies with Read More

Beyond the Rockies

Crew: Director

Actors: Tom Keene, Rochelle Hudson, Marie Wells, Ernie S. Adams, Julian Rivero

Synopsis: David O. Selznick is listed as producer of the RKO western programmer Beyond the Rockies, but don't expect Duel in the Sun here. Within its own modest limits, however, this Tom Keene vehicle is quite enjoyable. Keene plays a cowpoke who battles a greedy land baron. The gimmick here is that the Read More

Sundown Trail

Crew: Producer

Actors: Tom Keene, Marion Shilling, Nick Stuart, Hooper Atchley, Stanley Blystone

Synopsis: In this western, a cowboy and an eastern city-slicker find they are co-inheritors of a ranch. The genteel woman loathes the West and is appalled by the rough and tumble ways of the cowboy. Later after he saves their ranch from cattle rustlers, she changes her tune and they fall in love. ~ Sandra Read More

Millie

Crew: Editor

Actors: Helen Twelvetrees, Lilyan Tashman, Robert Ames, Joan Blondell, John Halliday

Synopsis: Yet another variation on the already then-ancient Madame X theme, this early talkie stars Helen Twelvetrees in the title role, a small-town girl marrying a New York City businessman (James Hall). The union produces a daughter, but ends when Millie catches her husband with a mistress (Marie Read More

A Woman of Experience

Crew: Editor

Actors: Helen Twelvetrees, William Bakewell, Lew Cody, ZaSu Pitts, H.B. Warner

Synopsis: In this dramatic adventure a shady lady becomes a spy for the Austrian intelligence agency and ends up involved with a man suspected of being a German spy. She only pretends to love him to discover the truth. The man she really loves is a young naval officer, but in order to serve her country, she Read More

Headin' North

Crew: Editor

Actors: Barbara Luddy, Perry Murdock, Walter Shumway, Eddie Dunn, Fred Burns

Synopsis: Cowboy star Bob Steele looks embarrassed throughout most of Headin' North, as well he should. The film begins conventionally enough, with Steele once again accused of a murder he didn't commit. Hoping to remain in hiding until he can expose the real killer, our hero disguises himself as a Read More

Parade of the West

Crew: Editor

Actors: Gladys McConnell, Otis Harlan, Jack Hanlon, Bobby Dunn, Fred Burns

Synopsis: Having recently signed with Universal, Western star Ken Maynard became his own producer with this early talkie Western directed by Harry Joe Brown. Maynard plays Bud Rand, who, with his young ward, Billy (Jackie Hanlon), in tow, accepts an offer to ride the notorious "Mankiller" with the Copeland Read More

Pardon My Gun

Crew: Editor

Synopsis: This part-talkie is one of those strange hybrids so prevalent during the changeover to sound: part silent western, part variety show featuring Abe Lyman and His Orchestra, vaudeville comedienne Mona Ray, yodeling, and a barn dance. The silent western section of the film is actually more romantic Read More

Mountain Justice

Crew: Editor

Actors: Ken Maynard, Otis Harlan, Paul Hurst, Richard Carlyle

Synopsis: Western hero Ken Maynard lifted his voice in a campfire song, making the near tone-deaf actor the first "singing cowboy." Other than Ken's warbling and sound in general, Mountain Justice told the rather timeworn Western story of a young man searching for his father's killer. Jud McTavish (Otis Read More

The Fighting Legion

Crew: Editor

Actors: Ken Maynard, Dorothy Dwan, Harry Todd, Les Bates

Synopsis: In this musical western, a cowpoke goes searching for his brother's killer. The brother had been a Texas Ranger. He finds the killer and they have a midnight showdown on Main Street. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Song of the Caballero

Crew: Editor

Actors: Ken Maynard, Doris Hill, Francis Ford, Gino Corrado

Synopsis: This early sound western was cowboy-star Ken Maynard's second to last under his 1929-1930 contract with Universal. The studio's emphasis on bringing music to the western genre despite Maynard's rather limited vocal capabilities was not paying off at the box-office. Sound in general was increasing Read More

Sons of the Saddle

Crew: Editor

Actors: Doris Hill, Francis Ford, Joseph W. Girard, Carroll Nye, Harry Todd

Synopsis: The dashing Ken Maynard, who always warned that he sang loudly rather than well, finished his 1929-1930 stay at Universal with this average early sound western. Maynard sang several heart-felt prairie ballads in the film and even cut a record for Columbia. One of his songs, Down the Home Trail Read More

Sweethearts on Parade

Crew: Editor

Actors: Alice White, Lloyd Hughes, Marie Prevost, Ken Thomson

Synopsis: In this musical, a Marine gets a furlough in New York City and falls in love. He later returns and finds that a lazy socialite has proposed to her. The lass is practical and decides to accept. Then she discovers that he is a bigamist. Fortunately, the sailor and his pals make sure that the creepy Read More

The Wagon Master

Crew: Editor

Actors: Ken Maynard, Edith Roberts, Tom Santschi

Synopsis: Popular western star Ken Maynard crooned a couple of prairie tunes in this his first (part-)talkie, making Ken the screen's first singing cowboy. He plays a guide hired to escort a group of miners to a presumably prosperous site. Along the way, the group is accosted by a whip-toting villain Read More

The Royal Rider

Crew: Editor

Actors: Ken Maynard, Olive Hasbrouck, Philippe DeLacy, Joseph Burke

Synopsis: Royal Rider is an amusing mixture of traditional western fare and Ruritanian melodrama. Ken Maynard plays Dick Scott, a rodeo star who takes his Wild West show to the mythical kingdom of Alvania. Here he becomes pals with the country's boy-king Michael (Philipe De Lacey). Inevitably, our hero Read More

Senor Americano

Crew: Editor

Actors: Ken Maynard, Kathryn Crawford, Gino Corrado, Frank Yaconelli

Synopsis: Though Universal temporarily abandoned its western product when talkies came in, a few of its 1929 silent sagebrushers were released with audible sequences. Completed as a silent, Senor Americano was 85% reshot for the benefit of the microphone. Set in Old California, the film concerns the Read More

The Lawless Legion

Crew: Editor, Screenwriter

Actors: Ken Maynard, Nora Lane, Paul Hurst, Frank Rice, Howard Truesdell

Synopsis: By 1929, strapping cowboy Ken Maynard had become First National's ace western star. The former stunt rider was being afforded superior direction (from Harry Joe Brown) and solid supporting casts, but it was all about to end -- at least for the time being. The studio was about to be taken over by Read More

Phantom City

Crew: Intertitle Writer

Actors: Ken Maynard

Synopsis: In one of his finest silent Westerns, Ken Maynard comes to the rescue of a young girl whose mine is about to be appropriated by a villain. Three people are mysteriously summoned to the deserted mining town of Gold City: Tim Kelly (Maynard), whose father once lost his share of a mine to a man named Read More

Savage Passions

Crew: Director

Actors: Lucy Beaumont, Eddie Phillips, Alice Calhoun

Synopsis: Savage Passions was produced by Nat Levine, long before his fruitful association with Republic Pictures. Set in the hills of Tennessee, the story concerns a long-standing feud between two moonshining families. As much as the rival clans hate each other, they hate the Law even more. After reels and Read More

Bulldog Courage

Crew: Editor

Actors: Frank Whitson, Bessie Love, George Larkin, Albert MacQuarrie, Carl Silvera

Synopsis: Several westerns of the '20s centered around a foppish Easterner toughening up in a Western atmosphere, a role made popular by Douglas Fairbanks in the previous decade. George Larkin -- no Fairbanks by any stretch of the imagination -- portrays the Easterner in this inexpensive version of the Read More

Shadows of Conscience

Crew: Editor

Actors: Russell Simpson, Landers Stevens, Barbara Tennant, Nelson McDowell, Gertrude Olmstead

Synopsis: Usually cast in supporting roles, veteran character actor Russell Simpson earned a rare leading role in this obscure independently produced silent Western about a man falsely accused of murdering his own sister. The real culprit is actually the woman's husband (Landers Stevens), who had tricked Read More