Fred Kohler, Jr. Filmography

Ruby

Actors: Piper Laurie, Stuart Whitman, Roger Davis, Janet Baldwin, Chrystin Sinclaire

Synopsis: Piper Laurie (the mother in the horror film Carrie) appears here as the mother of a deranged deaf-mute girl. The mom runs a drive-in theater which shows mostly horror films. The girl is deranged because she is possessed by the spirit of her long-dead dad, a gangster who was gunned down by the mob. Read More

13 Fighting Men

Actors: Grant Williams, Brad Dexter, Carole Mathews, Robert Dix, Richard Garland

Synopsis: This action film set just after the Civil War tends to stay on the surface of the story instead of diving deeper into character motivation. A group of Union Army soldiers is charged with protecting a box of gold and getting it to its rightful place within the government coffers. As might be Read More

Terror in a Texas Town

Actors: Sterling Hayden, Sebastian Cabot, Carol Kelly, Eugenio Martín, Ned Young

Synopsis: This near-legendary western stars Sterling Hayden as George Hanson, the son of a Swedish seaman-turned-farmer (Ted Stanhope). When he runs afoul of town boss Ed McNeil (Sebastian Cabot), Hanson's father is gunned down by McNeil's henchman Johnny Crale (Ned Young). Knowing full well that he can Read More

The Buccaneer

Actors: Yul Brynner, Charlton Heston, Claire Bloom, Charles Boyer, Inger Stevens

Synopsis: When Cecil B. DeMille was set to direct a re-make of his 1938 swashbuckler The Buccaneer and suddenly became ill, his son-in-law, Anthony Quinn, jumped into DeMille's jodhpurs. In this version, Yul Brynner plays the starring role of debonair pirate Jean Lafitte, who is contacted by General Andrew Read More

Journey to Freedom

Synopsis: In this espionage thriller, Communist agents pursue a fleeing activist for "Voice of Freedom" from Bulgaria to the United States. Along the way he falls in love with a supportive nurse who helps him recuperate from an injury. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer

Actors: Bruce Bennett, Lon Chaney, Jr., Faron Young, Damian O'Flynn

Synopsis: Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer was lensed in the Trucolor process. Brice Bennett plays the titular 18th century frontiersman, carving out a home for himself, his family and his fellow settlers in the wilds of Kentucky. The climax finds Boone and company defending Fort Boonesborough from a Shawnee Read More

The Ten Commandments

Actors: James Coburn, Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, Yvonne De Carlo

Synopsis: Based on the Holy Scriptures, with additional dialogue by several other hands, The Ten Commandments was the last film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The story relates the life of Moses, from the time he was discovered in the bullrushes as an infant by the pharoah's daughter, to his long, hard Read More

Racing Blood

Actors: Bill Williams, Jean Porter, George Cleveland, John Eldredge

Synopsis: Produced, directed and cowritten by former child star Wesley Barry, Racing Blood was distributed in the US by 20th Century-Fox. Jimmy Boyd, a juvenile singer who'd risen to fame with the hit single "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", stars as a sensitive stable boy. When a colt is born with a split Read More

Born to the Saddle

Synopsis: William "One Take" Beaudine sat in the director's chair for the independently produced Born to the Saddle. Chuck Courtney plays a young horse trainer who goes to work for the truculent Donald Woods. Courtney believes that Woods was responsible for the death of the boy's father, and hopes to exact Read More

Six-Gun Decision

Hoodlum Empire

Actors: Brian Donlevy, Claire Trevor, Forrest Tucker, Vera Ralston, Luther Adler

Synopsis: The Kefauver Committee's ongoing investigation of organized crime spawned several "Torn from Today's Headlines!" films in the early 1950s. Republic's Hoodlum Empire concerns the efforts by gangster Joe Gray (John Russell) to get out of the rackets after WW II. Part of Gray's "reclamation" is to Read More

The Greatest Show on Earth

Actors: Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Charlton Heston, Dorothy Lamour, Gloria Grahame

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth is a lavish tribute to circuses, featuring three intertwining plotlines concerning romance and rivalry beneath the big top. DeMille's film includes spectacular action sequences, including a show-stopping train wreck. The Greatest Show on Earth won Read More

The Red Badge of Courage

Actors: Audie Murphy, Bill Mauldin, John Dierkes, Royal Dano, Arthur Hunnicutt

Synopsis: The backstory of The Red Badge of Courage involves the toppling of MGM's old Louis B. Mayer regime in favor of Dore Schary and his young Turks. It is also the tale of how an intended epic was ruthlessly whittled down to a lower-berth programmer. Since this story has already been related in detail Read More

Spoilers of the Plains

Actors: Roy Rogers, Penny Edwards, Gordon Jones, Grant Withers

Synopsis: Roy Rogers enters the atomic age with this sci-fi western directed by serial ace William Witney. Our hero runs a pipeline near a site where Dr. Manning (William Forrest) and his daughter Frankie (Penny Edwards) are experimenting with long-range weather forecasting by using rockets. Enter nasty Read More

The Baron of Arizona

Actors: Vincent Price, Ellen Drew, Beulah Bondi, Vladimir Sokoloff, Reed Hadley

Synopsis: Samuel Fuller wrote and directed this lively drama based on the real-life adventures of James Addison Reavis, one of the most ambitious swindlers of the 19th Century. In 1871, Reavis (played by Vincent Price) began hatching an elaborate scheme to claim the Arizona territory (then three decades Read More

Twilight in the Sierras

Actors: Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Estelita Rodriguez, Pat Brady, Russ Vincent

Synopsis: The King of the Cowboys and the Queen of the West perform their noublesse oblige in Twilight in the Sierras. Roy Rogers plays a US marshal, pursuing a vicious gang of counterfeiters. Dale Evans (not yet Mrs. Rogers) hasn't got much to do but provide love interest, warble a few tunes, and Read More

Samson and Delilah

Actors: Hedy Lamarr, Victor Mature, George Sanders, Angela Lansbury, Henry Wilcoxon

Synopsis: Samson and Delilah is Cecil B. DeMille's characteristically expansive retelling of the events found in the Old Testament passages of Judges 13-16. Victor Mature plays Samson, the superstrong young Danite. Samson aspires to marry Philistine noblewoman Semadar (Angela Lansbury), but she is killed Read More

The Gay Amigo

Actors: Duncan Renaldo, Leo Carrillo, Armida, Joe Sawyer, Walter S. Baldwin

Synopsis: The Gay Amigo was the second "Cisco Kid" theatrical entry produced for United Artists release by Philip N. Krasne. Duncan Renaldo, who would go on to portray Cisco in the popular 1950s TV series, stars in this outing, together with Leo Carrillo as his comical sidekick Pancho. Cisco and Pancho are Read More

Range Justice

Actors: Johnny Mack Brown, Max "Alibi" Terhune, Felice Ingersoll, Sarah Padden, Riley Hill

Synopsis: Johnny Mack Brown does his usual Johnny Mack Brown thing in the Monogram western Range Justice. Once more teamed with comic sidekick Max Terhune, Brown champions the cause of feisty lady rancher Ma Curtis (Sarah Padden). A gang of crooks led by the scurrilous Stoner (Fred Kohler Jr.) is trying to Read More

Tough Assignment

Actors: Marjorie Steele, Steve Brodie, Marc Lawrence, Ben Welden

Synopsis: William "One Take" Beaudine warms the director's chair for Lippert Pictures' Tough Assignment. The film is essentially a combination western and contemporary crime yarn, with Don Barry cast as Dan Reilly, a frontier journalist. With the help of his wife Margie (Marjorie Steele), Dan tries to get Read More

The Gallant Legion

Actors: Adrian Booth, James Brown, Bruce Cabot, Andy Devine, Steve Drake

Synopsis: When Republic moved its popular star William Elliot from "B" series westerns to "A" frontier specials, a lot of the fun and excitement was lost in the process. Additionally, Republic seemed reluctant to admit the new Elliot films were westerns, as witness the title Gallant Legion, which could have Read More

Loaded Pistols

Actors: Gene Autry, Barbara Britton, Chill Wills, Jack Holt, Russell Arms

Synopsis: Gene Autry goes in search of the man who killed his friend during a blackout in this action-packed western from Columbia. Someone cuts the lights and kills Ed Norton (Stanley Blystone) during a heated poker game and that someone, according to Sheriff Cramer (Chill Wills), may just be young hothead Read More

Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'

Actors: Donald O'Connor, Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, Penny Edwards, Joe Besser

Synopsis: Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin' starts off on a tense note as a struggling man is led through the streets of a western town, presumably headed for his own execution. Within a few minutes, however, we discover that the "victim" is a reluctant trainee for an upcoming foot-race between the feuding Read More

Unconquered

Actors: Gary Cooper, Paulette Goddard, Howard Da Silva, Boris Karloff, Ward Bond, Katherine de Mille

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's first postwar production, the $5 million Technicolor historical spectacular Unconquered lacks only the kitchen sink. The story begins in England in the 1760s, as Abigail Martha Hale (Paulette Goddard), unjustly accused of a crime against the Crown, is sentenced by the Lord Chief Read More

O.S.S.

Actors: Alan Ladd, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Patric Knowles, Richard Benedict, Richard Webb

Synopsis: Set during WWII, this taut and suspenseful espionage outing chronicles the courage of a brand-new cadre of specially trained American O.S.S. agents who parachute into France to destroy the vital Corbett Mallon tunnel to stop the German invaders from shipping supplies to their troops. One of the Read More

Why Girls Leave Home

Actors: Sheldon Leonard, Pamela Blake, Paul Guilfoyle

Synopsis: In this crime drama a young woman leaves her unhappy life at home to become a sophisticated night club singer. Her first job is nearly fatal when she entangles herself with the mobsters who own the joint and learns too much about their operation. Her boss decides to kill her and make it look like Read More

The Big Bonanza

Actors: Richard Arlen, Jane Frazee, Robert Livingston, George "Gabby" Hayes, Lynne Roberts

Synopsis: The Big Bonanza was a Republic Studios in-betweener: too elaborate for B picture, not expensive enough for an "A". Richard Arlen stars as an army deserter who heads back to his home town. Unable to hold down a legitimate job, Arlen falls in with childhood chum Robert Livingston, now a high-rolling Read More

The Story of Dr. Wassell

Actors: Gary Cooper, Laraine Day, Signe Hasso, Dennis O'Keefe, Carol Thurston

Synopsis: The genesis of The Story of Dr. Wassell is said to have been a story told by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to director Cecil B. DeMille. Gary Cooper stars as Corydon M. Wassell, a real-life country doctor from Arkansas who worked as a medical missionary in China in the years prior to WWII. Read More

Frenchman's Creek

Actors: Joan Fontaine, Arturo de Cordova, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: Daphne du Maurier's novel formed the basis for this romantic adventure saga. Lady Dona St. Columb (Joan Fontaine), an English noblewoman, is unhappily married to the weak-willed Harry St. Columb (Ralph Forbes), while Harry's sinister best friend Lord Rockingham (Basil Rathbone) makes no secret of Read More

Mr. Winkle Goes to War

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Warrick, Ted Donaldson, Bob Haymes, Richard Lane

Synopsis: The year is 1942: Mr. Winkle (Edward G. Robinson), a mild-mannered bank clerk, decides to quit his job and open a fix-it shop in his garage. Winkle's wife Amy (Ruth Warrick) disapproves of this, and orders her husband to move into his little shop. Tired of being browbeaten, Winkle is delighted Read More

Up in Mabel's Room

Actors: Marjorie Reynolds, Dennis O'Keefe, Gail Patrick, Mischa Auer, Charlotte Greenwood

Synopsis: Up in Mabel's Room was one of a mid-1940s series of profitable film revivals of venerable theatrical comedies, all produced by Edward Small and directed by Allan Dwan. Previously filmed in 1925, this rusty-dusty stage perennial was written by Otto Harbach and Willson Collison; Tom Reed was the Read More

See Here, Private Hargrove

Actors: Robert Walker, Donna Reed, Keenan Wynn, Robert Benchley, Ray Collins

Synopsis: Newspaper reporter Marion Hargrove's best-selling novel was adapted to the screen by MGM as a vehicle for Robert Walker. The story is basically a series of humorous anecdotes about Hargrove's tenure at boot camp in the early days of World War II. Keenan Wynn is terrific as Hargrove's topkick, and Robert Benchley Read More

The Iron Major

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Ruth Warrick, Robert Ryan

Synopsis: The Iron Major is the saga of WW1 hero-cum-football coach Frank Cavanaugh, played with his usual no-nonsense professionalism by Pat O'Brien. Leaving home and hearth behind to serve his country in the Great War, Cavanaugh goes on to lead the Dartmouth, Boston College and Fordham football teams to Read More

Calling Wild Bill Elliott

Synopsis: Wild Bill comes to the rescue when his friend needs him to take care of a crook in this western. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

No Time for Love

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Ilka Chase, Richard Haydn, Paul McGrath

Synopsis: Mitchell Leisen utilizes his stylistic pizzazz to enliven this romantic comedy that proves the old adage "opposites attract" -- but only after three or four reels. Claudette Colbert is Katherine Grant, an upper-crust fashion photographer who has a gang of admirers snapping at her heels. When her Read More

China Girl

Actors: Gene Tierney, George Montgomery, Lynn Bari, Victor McLaglen, Alan Baxter

Synopsis: China Girl charts the exploits of two-fisted newsreel photographer Johnny Williams (George Montgomery), stationed in Burma and China in the early stage of WW II. Captured by the Japanese, he escapes from a concentration camp with the aid of beautiful, enigmatic "China Girl" Miss Young (Gene Tierney Read More

Lucky Jordan

Actors: Alan Ladd, Helen Walker, Sheldon Leonard, Mabel Paige, Marie McDonald

Synopsis: Lucky Jordan (Alan Ladd) is a tough but good-natured New York racketeer who tries to finagle his way out of Army service. Despite his efforts, Jordan is drafted, but soon goes AWOL, with a lovely USO worker (Helen Walker) dogging his heels. She tries to arouse Jordan's patriotism, but he is Read More

Lone Star Ranger

Actors: John Kimbrough, Sheila Ryan, Jonathan Hale, William Farnum, Truman Bradley

Synopsis: 20th Century-Fox hoped to make a film star out of Texas A&M football hero John Kimbrough, and to that end placed the gridiron hero in a brace of compact westerns. The first of these was Zane Grey's The Lone Star Ranger, previously filmed by Fox in 1931 with George O'Brien in the lead. Kimbrough Read More

Western Mail

Actors: Tom Keene, Frank Yaconelli, LeRoy Mason, Jean Trent, Fred Kohler, Jr.

Synopsis: Monogram's Tom Keene western series continued its winning streak with 1942's Western Mail. As was customary, Keene is a good guy posing as a bad guy to get the goods on the other bad guys. While operating undercover, Keene befriends Lucky (Fred Kohler Jr.), the gone-astray brother of heroine Julia Read More

Boss of Hangtown Mesa

Actors: Johnny Mack Brown, Fuzzy Knight, William Farnum, Rex Lease, Helen Deverell

Synopsis: It is now an accepted fact that the best of Johnny Mack Brown's Universal westerns were directed by the talented Joseph H. Lewis. Boss of Hangtown Mesa may not be in the same league as the Brown-Lewis classic Arizona Cyclone, but it comes awfully close. This time around, hero Steve Collins (Brown) Read More

Raiders of the Range

Actors: Bob Steele, Tom Tyler, Rufe Davis, Lois Collier, Frank Jaquet

Synopsis: Republic's "Three Mesquiteers" western series was in its fifth year of production when Raiders of the Range was released in March of 1942. In this one, the Mesquiteers are enacted by Bob Steele (as Tucson Smith), Tom Tyler (Stony Brooke) and Rufe Davis (Lullaby Joslin). Our heroes come to the aid Read More

Two Gun Sheriff

Actors: Don "Red" Barry, Lynn Merrick, Jay Novello, Lupita Tovar, Milt Kibbee

Synopsis: The paying customers got two Donald Barrys for the price of one in this typically well-mounted Republic Western directed with his customary vim and vigor by George Sherman. A petty criminal, The Sundown Kid (Barry number one), is persuaded by a gang of rustlers to change places with his lookalike Read More

Nevada City

Actors: Roy Rogers, George "Gabby" Hayes, Sally Payne, George Cleveland, Billy Lee

Synopsis: Nevada City finds Roy Rogers and his perennial sidekick Gabby Hayes cast as stagecoach drivers. Their boss is Joseph Crehan, an ornery crust who can't abide the notion of the railroad cutting into his business. Roy and Gabby try to establish a détente between Crehan and railroad man George Read More

Bahama Passage

Actors: Madeleine Carroll, Sterling Hayden, Flora Robson, Leo G. Carroll, Mary Anderson

Synopsis: Bahama Passage is a leisurely bit of Technicolor exotica starring Madeleine Carroll and her future husband Sterling Hayden. Based on Nolson Hayes' novel Dildo Cay, the story takes place on a remote Bahaman island where the principal commodity-in fact, the only--is salt. The owner of the island is Read More

Half a Sinner

Actors: Heather Angel, Constance Collier, Walter Catlett, Tom Dugan

Synopsis: A young, naive schoolteacher gets in over her head when the advances of a suitor grow too ardent. To escape his unwanted attentions she steals a rich man's car and takes off. In her haste she does not check the car. If she had, she would have seen the murdered corpse of a gangster stuffed into the Read More

Rough Riders' Roundup

Actors: Roy Rogers, Mary Hart, Raymond Hatton, Eddie Acuff, William Pawley

Synopsis: Hot on the heels of Frontier Pony Express came the equally exciting Roy Rogers vehicle Rough Riders' Roundup. In the first film, Rogers was an express rider during the Civil War era; in the second, he's a veteran of the Spanish American war (ubiquitous fellow, isn't he?) With several of his fellow Read More

Young Mr. Lincoln

Actors: Henry Fonda, Alice Brady, Marjorie Weaver, Arleen Whelan, Pauline Moore, Richard Cromwell

Synopsis: John Ford's fine direction distinguishes this highly fictionalized account of the early life of Abraham Lincoln. The film shows Lincoln (Henry Fonda) as he rises from a country boy born in a log cabin to a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois defending two young men unjustly accused of murder. The Read More

Texas Stampede

Actors: Charles Starrett, Iris Meredith, Fred Kohler, Jr., Lee Prather

Synopsis: One of the more original aspects of the Charles Starrett western Texas Stampede is that perennial Starrett-series villain Dick Curtis isn't in the film. Another is its lack of overt violence; even nominal heavy Wayne Cameron (Fred Kohler Jr.) isn't such a bad fellow, and ends up shaking hands with Read More

Ride a Crooked Mile

Actors: Akim Tamiroff, Frances Farmer, Lynne Overman, John Miljan

Synopsis: A macho Cossack immigrant to the U.S. goes West and joins a ring of rustlers. Later his son follows him to states and he too begins stealing cows. Not knowing his father very well, the youth is anxious to prove himself a manly man and a friendly rivalry develops until the father is captured and Read More

Lawless Valley

Actors: George O'Brien, Kay Sutton, Walter Miller, Fred Kohler, Jr.

Synopsis: Lawless Valley is one of the best of George O'Brien's series westerns for RKO Radio. Falsely accused of orchestrating a stage robbery with his conveniently deceased father, O'Brien spends the rest of the film trying to clear his name. Along the way, he uncovers the perfidy of land baron Fred Kohler Sr. Read More

Prison Nurse

Actors: Henry Wilcoxon, Marian Marsh, Bernadene Hayes, Ben Welden, Ray Mayer

Synopsis: The title character in Republic's Prison Nurse is a "woman in white" named Judy, played by Marian Marsh. Together with her friend Pepper (Bernardine Hayes), Judy hires on at a maximum-security prison smack dab in the middle of flood country. When she's not braving the elements and fending off the Read More

Hold That Co-Ed

Actors: John Barrymore, George Murphy, Marjorie Weaver, Joan Davis, Jack Haley

Synopsis: This tuneful campus comedy features aging star John Barrymore as a sly, blustery Southern governor with his eye on the Senate (aka Louisiana's Huey Long). He sees opportunity knocking when he learns how desperate his constituents have become to build their miserable state college football team Read More

Roaring Timber

Actors: Jack Holt, Grace Bradley, Ruth Donnelly, Raymond Hatton, Willard Robertson

Synopsis: In this outdoor drama, a plucky young woman inherits her father's logging business and decides to try running it, even though she knows nothing about it. In her innocence, she fires all her trustworthy workers and instead hires a band of slick talking hoods who immediately try to cheat her. Read More

The Plainsman

Actors: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, James Ellison, Charles Bickford, Helen Burgess

Synopsis: One is immediately aware that The Plainsman is a Cecil B. DeMille production in the opening scene, wherein President Abraham Lincoln (Frank McGlynn Sr.), on the verge of signing crucial legislation which will determine the future of the American West, is dragged away from his Cabinet by a scolding Read More

The Holy Terror

Actors: Jane Withers, Tony Martin, Leah Ray, Joan Davis, El Brendel

Synopsis: Is it any surprise that hoydenish child star Jane Withers plays the title role in The Holy Terror? This time she plays Corky Wallace the irrepressible daughter of Naval Air Service Lt. Commander Wallace (John Eldredge), spending her spare time staging all-aviator musical shows. One of these Read More

Life Begins in College

Actors: The Ritz Brothers [Al, Jimmy, Harry], Joan Davis, Tony Martin, Gloria Stuart, Fred Stone

Synopsis: The Ritz Brothers play three goofballs working their way through college by putting in time at a tailor shop. The college football team's star player is Nat Pendleton, a wealthy Native American who has donated a large amount of money to the school. As long as Pendleton is able to play, the Read More

Strike Me Pink

Actors: Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman, Sally Eilers, William Frawley, Brian Donlevy

Synopsis: Musical comedy star Eddie Cantor stars in this story, well suited to his talents, as Eddie Pink, a meek gentleman who works as a tailor and has a terrible crush on Joyce (Ethel Merman), a nightclub singer. Eddie buys a book (through the mail, of course) called Man or Mouse: What Are You?. Taking Read More