Fred KohlerFilmography

Blockade

Actors: Madeleine Carroll, Henry Fonda, Leo Carrillo, John Halliday, Vladimir Sokoloff

Synopsis: Since the United States was officially neutral in the Spanish Civil War, the struggle of the Loyalists against Franco's forces didn't find much favor in Hollywood; this drama, produced by Walter Wanger, was one of the few films to deal with the conflict, albeit in watered-down terms. Marco (Henry Fonda Read More

Billy the Kid Returns

Actors: Smiley Burnette, Lynne Roberts, Morgan Wallace, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: Roy Rogers fans were in for a shock in the opening scenes of Billy the Kid Returns--for there was Rogers, playing the title character, being gunned down in the dark by sheriff Pat Garrett! Within a few minutes, however, things were explained satisfactorally when Rogers showed up again as a young Read More

The Painted Desert

Actors: Laraine Day, George O'Brien, Laraine Johnson, Ray Whitley, Stanley Fields, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: 1938's The Painted Desert borrows the title and precious little else from the 1931 western of the same name. Hero George O'Brien makes it his mission in life to stop crooked Fred Kohler from getting his mitts on a valuable strip of land. He also takes time out to romance heroine Laraine Johnson Read More

Gangs of New York

Actors: Charles Bickford, Ann Dvorak, Alan Baxter, Wynne Gibson, Harold Huber

Synopsis: In this crime drama, an undercover cop infiltrates a crime syndicate being run by an incarcerated mob boss who conducts his business via a short-wave radio concealed in his cell. The boss is caught and placed in solitary confinement. The cop, the boss's physical double, takes his place. Soon Read More

Forbidden Valley

Actors: Noah Beery, Jr., Frances Robinson, Fred Kohler, Alonzo Price, Samuel S. Hinds

Synopsis: In this youth-oriented western, a young man's father is wrongfully accused of murder. Unfortunately, his pa can't prove it and so flees into the rugged mountains. He brings his boy with him. In those lonely hills lives a sad, but wealthy young woman. Love blossoms between the son and the girl as Read More

The Buccaneer

Actors: Fredric March, Franziska Gaal, Akim Tamiroff, Margot Grahame, Walter Brennan

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's The Buccaneer stars Fredric March, complete with curly hair, pencil moustache and florid "Sacre Bleu!" French accent, as 18th century pirate Jean Lafitte. Operating out of a "buccaneer's haven" of the coast of New Orleans, Lafitte plunders all passing ships for their wealth, but Read More

Heart of the West

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, James Ellison, George "Gabby" Hayes, Sidney Blackmer

Synopsis: Based on Clarence E. Mulford's Mesquite Jenkins, Tumbleweed from 1932, Heart of the West addresses the issue of fences on the hitherto free range. Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) and Johnny Nelson (James Ellison) have been hired to head a cattle drive by Trumbull (Sidney Blackmer), but then learn Read More

Daughter of Shanghai

Actors: Anna May Wong, Philip Ahn, Charles Bickford, Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Cecil Cunningham

Synopsis: Anna May Wong, who cornered the 1930s market in Eurasian heroines, stars in Daughter of Shanghai. Wong is on the trail of the criminals who murdered her father. The villains are running an illegal-alien operation, smuggling cheap Chinese and Mexican labor into San Francisco and killing those 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 Accusing Finger

Actors: Marsha Hunt, Robert Cummings, Paul Kelly, Kent Taylor, Harry Carey

Synopsis: Dynamic district attorney Douglas Goodwin (Paul Kelly) has no patience with murderers: his philosophy is "burn them all," and never mind the mitigating circumstances. But Goodwin finds himself on the other end of the spectrum when he is framed on a murder charge and sent to Death Row. During his Read More

Arizona Mahoney

Actors: Joe Cook, Robert Cummings, June Martel, Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Marjorie Gateson

Synopsis: Fabled Broadway comedian Joe Cook, who hadn't been seen on screen since 1930's Rain or Shine, essayed the title role in 1937's Arizona Mahoney. As in his earlier film, the star plays a travelling circus entrepreneur, said "circus"consisting of an elephant, a goose, and a rusty old cannon. When Read More

Dangerous Intrigue

Actors: Ralph Bellamy, Gloria Shea, Joan Perry, Fred Kohler, Fredrik Vogeding

Synopsis: This drama focuses upon a beleaguered surgeon. He is first involved with a social-climbing fiancee who constantly puts him down. Then he suffers amnesia and wakes to find himself in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Though he cannot remember his name, his medical skills remain intact and he is able to find Read More

For the Service

Actors: Buck Jones, Clifford Jones, Fred Kohler, Beth Marion

Synopsis: Cowboy star Buck Jones made his directorial debut with the Universal western For the Service. Jones is cast as Indian scout Buck O'Bryan, trying his best to keep the peace between the Native Americans and a government outpost. O'Bryan is replaced by George Murphy (Clifford Jones), the son of Read More

The Vigilantes Are Coming [Serial]

Actors: Fred Kohler

Synopsis: Yet another Zorro imitation, this adventure serial starred Robert Livingston as Don Loring, whose father and brother are killed by the evil General Burr (Fred Kohler). Seeking revenge, Loring dons a black cape and mask, calls himself "The Eagle," and goes about bringing Burr and his men to Read More

The Texas Rangers

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Jack Oakie, Jean Parker, Lloyd Nolan, Edward Ellis

Synopsis: Made with the full cooperation of the real-life Texas Rangers (who never met a publicity gimmick they didn't like), this sprawling historical western stars Fred MacMurray as Jim Hawkins, one of three outlaws working the Lone Star State in the years following the Civil War. Both Hawkins and his Read More

Mississippi

Actors: Bing Crosby, W.C. Fields, Joan Bennett, Queenie Smith, Gail Patrick

Synopsis: In this comedy with musical numbers set in the Old South, Bing Crosby plays a singer (talk about a casting stretch!) from Philadelphia named Tom Grayson, who has fallen in love with Southern heiress Elvira Rumford (Gail Patrick). Tom wants to marry Elvira, but a man called Major Patterson (John Miljan Read More

Men of Action

Wilderness Mail

Synopsis: In this off-beat outdoor adventure, a courageous Mountie braves the elements and many dangers to deliver mail to remote Northwestern outposts. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Frisco Kid

Actors: James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay, Ricardo Cortez, Lili Damita, Donald Woods

Synopsis: Clearly inspired by the success of Goldwyn's Barbary Coast, Warner Bros.' The Frisco Kid stars James Cagney as turn-of-the-century opportunist Bat Morgan. Heading to the gold fields of California, Bat is almost shanghaied in San Francisco but manages not only to escape his would-be captors but Read More

Lightning Triggers

Synopsis: When a lawman infiltrates an outlaw gang, he discovers that his own father is the group's leader. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Trail's End

Synopsis: Produced by Mitchell Leichter's low-rent Beaumont Pictures, this inexpensive but fairly effective oater was the first of four to star veteran silent leading man Conway Tearle. Tearle plays "Trigger" Jim Malloy who, newly released from prison, goes in search of the men who sent him to prison. Read More

Stormy

Actors: Jean Rogers, John Farrell MacDonald, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: In this drama, a young boy earns the trust of an especially skittish colt and they form a special bond. Trouble ensues when the lad finds himself between two arguing brothers. One wants to save the little horse and the herd he runs with, while the other brother wants to exploit the mustangs. The Read More

Border Brigands

Actors: Buck Jones, Lona Andre, Fred Kohler, Frank Rice, Edward Keane

Synopsis: Westerner Buck Jones heads to the Great White North in Border Brigands. Jones plays Canadian Mountie Tim Barry, who always gets his man. This time, however, he's forced to cross the border into the United States -- apparently without permission -- to "get" villain Conyda (Fred Kohler Sr.). The Read More

West of the Pecos

Actors: Richard Dix, Martha Sleeper, Samuel S. Hinds, Fred Kohler, Louise Beavers

Synopsis: RKO Radio's first official 1935 release was the Zane Grey adaptation West of the Pecos. Richard Dix stars as Pecos Smith, a strong, silent Westerner suspected of cattle rustling. He spends half of the film proving his innocence, and the other half trying to deal with the tempestuous Terrell (Martha Sleeper Read More

Goin' to Town

Actors: Mae West, Paul Cavanagh, Ivan Lebedeff, Gilbert Emery, Tito Coral, Marjorie Gateson

Synopsis: Mae West is Goin' to Town in this elegant post-Production Code vehicle. West plays Cleo Borden, a nouveau riche cattle rancher who hopes to crash into high society. Though she is willing to subject herself to "refinement" lessons, she still has a high old time puncturing the pretensions of those Read More

Hard Rock Harrigan

Actors: George O'Brien, Irene Hervey, Fred Kohler, Dean Benton

Synopsis: Hard Rock Harrigan is an easygoing George O'Brien actioner with emphasis on comedy and romance. The plot revolves around a rivalry between sand-hog "Hard Rock" Harrigan (O'Brien) and his foreman Black Jack Riley (played by O'Brien's frequent screen sparring partner, Fred Kohler Sr.) At the center Read More

Times Square Lady

Actors: Robert Taylor, Virginia Bruce, Helen Twelvetrees, Isabel Jewell, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: In this drama, a prominent Broadway producer's daughter inherits a fortune when her father dies. Included in the estate is a nightclub managed by an unscrupulous louse who teams up with the sneaky executor to steal her inheritance. Fortunately, after meeting his pretty young victim, the manager Read More

The Last Round-Up

Actors: Randolph Scott, Barbara Fritchie, Monte Blue, Fred Kohler, Fuzzy Knight

Synopsis: Zane Grey's frequently-filmed story Border Legion was produced in 1934 under the title The Last Round-Up. Randolph Scott plays Jim Cleve, one of several volunteers keeping the US-Mexican border safe on behalf of American settlers. Ostensibly the hero, Cleve is actually out-heroed by the film's Read More

Little Man, What Now?

Actors: Margaret Sullavan, Douglass Montgomery, Alan Hale, Catherine Doucet, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: Set in Germany shortly before the collapse of the Weimar Republic, this romantic drama chronicles the travails of an impoverished newlywed couple who leave their home village and move in with the groom's stepmother in bustling Berlin to find success. The husband gets a small job in a department Read More

Under the Tonto Rim

Synopsis: This western is an adaptation of a Zane Grey novel and chronicles the exploits of a simple-minded cowpoke who proves his mettle and wins the heart of his employer's daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Ship of Wanted Men

Actors: Leon Waycoff [Ames], Gertrude Astor, Maurice Black, Jason Robards, Sr., James Flavin

Synopsis: Ship of Wanted Men stars former MGM leading lady Dorothy Sebastian and burly, all-purpose villain Fred Kohler Sr. A shipful of fugitives from justice pulls up on a Pacific Island where there are no extradition laws. The island is a magnet for the scum of the earth, as well as a few honest guys who Read More

The Fiddlin' Buckaroo

Actors: Ken Maynard, Gloria Shea, Fred Kohler, Frank Rice, Joseph W. Girard

Synopsis: In this musical western, everybody sings, even the outlaws. The story follows a government agent who goes undercover as a musical ventriloquist named Fiddlin' to find an ruthless outlaw and his gang. The gang comes to Fiddlin's town, commits a robbery and leaves the ventriloquist to shoulder the Read More

The Fourth Horseman

Actors: Margaret Lindsay, Raymond Hatton, Edmund Cobb, Buddy Roosevelt, Rychard Cramer

Synopsis: Tom Mix once again goes up against corrupt Fred Kohler in this would-be epic Western filmed on-location at Kanab, UT. Retiring from a life of train robbing, Benjamin R. Jones (Kohler) takes over the ghost town of Stillwell, knowing full well that the property belongs to Molly O'Rourke (Margaret Read More

Rider of Death Valley

Actors: Tom Mix, Lois Wilson, Fred Kohler, Forrest Stanley, Edith Fellows

Synopsis: A semi-sequel to Tom Mix's 1932 Destry Rides Again, Rider of Death Valley finds Mix protecting the gold-mine claim of little Edith Fellows. Fellows' father has met his end at the hands of villain Fred Kohler. Kohler confronts Mix in the wastes of Death Valley, hoping to leave Mix to perish beneath Read More

Texas Bad Man

Actors: Tom Mix, Fred Kohler, Willard Robertson, Lucille Powers, Joseph W. Girard

Synopsis: The 1932 Tom Mix western talkie Texas Bad Man has much in common with the sombre silent efforts by Mix's former rival William S. Hart. Lawman Mix deliberately cultivates a reputation as an outlaw in order to infiltrate a gang of thieves. What sets this one apart from most budget westerns of its Read More

Carnival Boat

Actors: Ginger Rogers, Fred Kohler, Hobart Bosworth, Marie Prevost

Synopsis: A pre-Hopalong Cassidy William Boyd is the robust star of this logging camp melodrama which also featured a very young Ginger Rogers -- who performs Bernard Grossman and Harold Lewis' "How Could I Love You" -- and Hollywood veteran Hobart Bosworth. The latter plays Jim Gannon, a lumberjack boss Read More

Wild Horse Mesa

Actors: Randolph Scott, Sally Blane, Fred Kohler, Lucille La Verne, James Bush

Synopsis: In this western, a lawman restores law and order in town. He also stops a greedy horseman from trapping wild stallions with barbed wire traps. In the end the villain gets his just desserts when he is trampled by the king of the wild horses during a stampede. The hero saves the herd from the deadly Read More

The Right of Way

Actors: Conrad Nagel, Loretta Young, Fred Kohler, William Janney, Snitz Edwards

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1915 and 1920, Sir Gilbert Parker's novel The Right of Way was exhumed once more in 1931. Conrad Nagel stars as Conrad Steele, a Canadian lawyer saddled with a nagging wife (Olive Tell) and a lazy brother-in-law (William Janney). When the latter steals some of Conrad's money Read More

Other Men's Women

Actors: Grant Withers, Mary Astor, Regis Toomey, James Cagney, Fred Kohler, Joan Blondell

Synopsis: William A. Wellman's triangle melodrama "The Steel Highway" -- a title referring to the film's railroad setting -- was changed to the more suggestive Other Men's Women shortly before it's April 19, 1931 New York premiere. Grant Withers and Regis Toomey played lifelong friends and co-workers in Read More

99 Wounds

Synopsis: In this western adventure set in the Sonora Desert upon the border between Mexico and the US, a marshal is summoned to stop renegade Indians from attacking hapless settlers. He is aided by a Mexican bar maid and soon discovers that the "redskins" are really whites in disguise. To stop them, the Read More

A Soldier's Plaything

Actors: Lotti Loder, Harry Langdon, Ben Lyon

Synopsis: In this WW I comedy, several young men decide to join the army. Each one has his own reason for joining up. Songs include: "Forever," "Qui, Qui," "Honey Boy," "Ja, Ja, Ja," "Side by Side." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

X Marks the Spot

Actors: Lew Cody, Sally Blane, Fred Kohler, Wallace Ford, Mary Nolan

Synopsis: In this crime drama, the writer of a Broadway newspaper column finds himself accused of murder after a showgirl, who had been suing his paper for libel is found murdered. Just before she died, the columnist had been seen leaving her apartment. He launches his own investigation and discovers that Read More

Woman Hungry

Actors: Lila Lee, Raymond Hatton, Fred Kohler, Ken Thomson

Synopsis: In this western, three rambunctious young cowboys head for the hills after spending a night painting a town red and terrorizing its residents. During their flight, they find a woman from the East alone at her brother's home. They are preparing to rape her, but they do not count on her ingenuity. Read More

Fighting Caravans

Actors: Gary Cooper, Lili Damita, Ernest Torrence, Fred Kohler, Tully Marshall

Synopsis: Directly after his successful screen teaming with Marlene Dietrich in Morocco, Gary Cooper returned to Paramount's "Zane Grey" western series with Fighting Caravans. Cooper is cast as Clint Belmet, a hell-raisin' frontiersman facing a misdemeanor jail term. To avoid arrest, Clint talks French-born Read More

Corsair

Actors: Chester Morris, William Austin, Frank McHugh, Emmett Corrigan

Synopsis: Of interest mainly because of the talent involved, this film remains a tepid bootleg melodrama about a small-town football hero attempting to prove that he is as ruthless as his rich girlfriend's father. Spoiled Alison Corning (Alison Loyd) persuades her Wall Street banker father (Emmett Corrigan) Read More

Roadhouse Nights

Actors: Helen Morgan, Charlie Ruggles, Fred Kohler, Jimmy Durante, Eddie Jackson

Synopsis: Jimmy Durante made his movie debut in Roadhouse Nights, a strange amalgam of musical comedy and gangster melodrama. In truth, Durante is a special added attraction, together with his nightclub partners Lou Clayton and Eddie Jackson. The film's nominal star is Helen Morgan, a nitery chanteuse whose Read More

The Light of Western Stars

Actors: Richard Arlen, Mary Brian, Fred Kohler, Harry Green, Regis Toomey

Synopsis: The Light of Western Stars goes a long way towards using Paramount's fledgling sound system creatively; some scenes are filmed in complete darkness, allowing voices and sound effects to carry the day. Otherwise, this is a pleasantly familiar western concerning the relationship between Read More

The Lash

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, James Rennie, Mary Astor, Marian Nixon, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: In this western adventure, set in California just after the Spanish-American War, a Mexican rancher becomes a populist avenger battling injustice and corruption. Among his targets is the wicked gringo land commissioner. He also preserves the honor of a beautiful senorita. In addition to fighting Read More

Hell's Heroes

Actors: Charles Bickford, Fred Kohler, Fritzi Ridgeway, Maria Alba, Raymond Hatton

Synopsis: William Wyler was still primarily a western specialist when he was assigned to direct Hell's Heroes. Based on Peter B. Kyne's Three Godfathers (which was filmed officially and unofficially several times), the story deals with three frontier bandits (Charles Bickford, Raymond Hatton, and Fred Kohler Sr Read More

Under a Texas Moon

Actors: Frank Fay, Raquel Torres, Myrna Loy, Armida, Noah Beery, Sr.

Synopsis: Comedian Frank Fay and director Michael Curtiz reportedly despised one another at sight, and their mutual animosity tends to seep through every frame of Under a Texas Moon. The vainglorious Fay is cast as Don Carlos, a gay caballero ("gay" meaning "carefree") whose serenades every senorita he Read More

Quitter

Actors: Ben Lyon, Fred Kohler, Claire McDowell

Synopsis: Although a humble stable boy, Ben Lyon is a whiz when it comes to medical know-how. This endears Lyon to his boss, Fred Kohler Sr., who taps the hero's services as a horse doctor. Lyon also has a talent for music, and this wins him the affections of Kohler's girlfriend Dorothy Revier. A flashback Read More

River of Romance

Actors: Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Henry B. Walthall, Mary Brian, June Collyer, Wallace Beery

Synopsis: In this melodrama set in the South, a plantation owner's son finishes his education in Philadelphia and returns to his father's land. There he falls in love with a pretty belle and gets engaged; he does not realize that her younger sister is also in love with him. Trouble begins when his fiancee's Read More

Thunderbolt

Actors: George Bancroft, Fay Wray, Richard Arlen, Tully Marshall, Eugénie Besserer

Synopsis: Thunderbolt was Josef von Sternberg's first American talking picture. George Bancroft, a von Sternberg regular (despite frequents clashes between the two men), plays a death row inmate who may be on the eve of eternity, but who has still one more murder on his mind. He plans to kill the young Read More

The Dummy

Actors: Ruth Chatterton, Fredric March, John Cromwell, Fred Kohler, Mickey Bennett

Synopsis: The early Paramount talkie The Dummy represented a collaboration of sorts between screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who adapted the play on which the film was based, and Mankiewicz' brother Joseph, who wrote the subtitles for the film's silent version. The title character is office-boy Barney Read More

Say It with Songs

Actors: Al Jolson, Davey Lee, Marian Nixon, Holmes Herbert, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: On the strength of his previous hits The Jazz Singer (1927) and The Singing Fool (1928), Al Jolson was Hollywood's hottest star in 1929. Jolson's cinematic offering for that year was Say It With Songs, a characteristic blend of music, comedy and treacly sentiment. The star is cast as Joe Lane, a Read More

Sal of Singapore

Actors: Alan Hale, Phyllis Haver, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: Sal of Singapore contains only two reels' worth of dialogue, but it was enough to prove that Phyllis Haver's decision to retire from films in 1929 was a wise one. Haver plays the title character, a saloon habitue who catches the eye of burly Captain Ericcson (Alan Hale). Invited on board Read More

The Spieler

Actors: Alan Hale, Renée Adorée, Clyde Cook, Fred Kohler, Fred Warren

Synopsis: This crime drama is an early talkie that tells the story of a hard-working woman's attempts to run a clean carnival. It is difficult as criminals have snuck in and regularly cheat the public while selling tickets to the freak show. The crooks are lead by a man who kills someone on a midway. The Read More

Broadway Babies

Actors: Alice White, Charles Delaney, Fred Kohler, Marion Byron

Synopsis: The popularity of the Universal musical Broadway resulted in a whole slew of minor films with similar titles. In First National's Broadway Babies, the eponymous "babies," Delight Foster, Navarre King and Florine Chandler, are portrayed respectively by Alice White,Sally Eilers and Marion Byron. Read More

Case of Lena Smith

Actors: Esther Ralston, James Hall, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Emily Fitzroy, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: A lesser-known effort from director Josef Von Sternberg, The Case of Lena Smith has been unfairly chastised for all the wrong reasons. It has been branded a financial failure, but in fact its comparatively small box-office take was due to the decision by Paramount Pictures to withdraw several of Read More

Stairs of Sand

Actors: Wallace Beery, Jean Arthur, Chester Conklin, Phillips Holmes, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: The gruff but lovable Wallace Beery starred in this Zane Grey adaptation from Paramount. He plays the prototype outlaw with a Heart of Gold, sacrificing his own life for the happiness of two young people in love. The young lovers were played by relative newcomers Jean Arthur and Phillips Holmes. Read More

Vanishing Pioneer

Actors: Jack Holt, Fred Kohler, William Powell

Synopsis: This silent Paramount Zane Grey Western marked the screen debut of the then 7-year-old Tim Holt. Young Tim's father, Jack Holt, starred as John Ballard, a courageous rancher who leads his neighbors in their righteous fight against corrupt politician John Murdock (William Powell) and his even Read More

Forgotten Faces

Actors: Clive Brook, Mary Brian, Olga Baclanova, William Powell, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: A criminal with a conscience will go to any lengths to give his daughter a better life in this silent drama. "Heliotrope Harry" Harlow (Clive Brook) is a stick-up man who, after robbing a gambling den with his partner Froggy (William Powell), returns home to discover his wife Lily (Olga Baclanova) Read More

The Leatherneck

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, Alan Hale, Robert Armstrong, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: When Cecil B. DeMille's own production company was absorbed by Pathe in 1928, several DeMille contractees went along for the ride. One of these was William Boyd, the star of the 1929 Pathe effort The Leatherneck. The setting is China, specifically the headquarter of the 6th U.S. Marine regiment Read More

The Showdown

Actors: George Bancroft, Evelyn Brent, Neil Hamilton, Fred Kohler, Helen Lynch

Synopsis: Often misrepresented as an entry in Paramount's Zane Grey series, Showdown is actually based on a novel by Houston Branch. In his never-ending search for new oil sources, wildcat driller Cardan (George Bancroft) lets nothing get in his way -- least of all his chief rival Winter (Fred Kohler Sr.) Read More

Chinatown Charlie

Actors: Johnny Hines, Harry Gribbon, Louise Lorraine, Fred Kohler, Sojin

Synopsis: Critics in 1928 often commented on the near-oriental facial features of popular screen comedian Johnny Hines (political correctness wasn't a consideration back then), so few were surprised when Hines turned up in the 8-reel comedy Chinatown Charlie. The star plays a likeable pickpocket who happens Read More

The Dragnet

Actors: George Bancroft, Evelyn Brent, William Powell, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: The 1928 Dragnet bears no relation to the 1950s TV series of the same name. This Josef von Sternberg exercise in esoterica stars George Bancroft as tough cop Two-Gun Nolan. When he becomes convinced that he has accidentally killed his partner, Nolan goes on a bender. Actually, the crime was Read More

The Devil's Masterpiece

Synopsis: Produced on the very cheap by Sanford F. Arnold, this minor silent Northwest melodrama featured 1922 WAMPAS Baby Star Virginia Brown Faire as a Northwoods girl suspecting her boyfriend (Gordon Brinkley) of being a dope smuggler. Unbeknownst to the damsel, however, Brinkley is really a Northwest Read More

Blood Ship

Actors: Hobart Bosworth, Jacqueline Logan, Walter James, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: That indefatigable old trouper Hobart Bosworth topped the cast of the Columbia "B"-plus feature The Blood Ship. The villain of the piece is Captain Swope (Walter James), a "Wolf Larsen" type who shanghais his crewmen, beats them into submission, then allows them to jump ship so he won't have to Read More

The City Gone Wild

Actors: Fred Kohler, Thomas Meighan, Louise Brooks, Charles Hill Mailes, Wyndham Standing

Synopsis: Made during Hollywood's first "gangster cycle," The City Gone Wild stars Thomas Meighan as an honest prosecuting attorney. Meighan's integrity is compromised when he falls in love with Louise Brooks, the "moll" of gang boss Fred Kohler. Brooks steals the show from Meighan and Kohler Read More

Underworld

Actors: George Bancroft, Clive Brook, Evelyn Brent, Larry Semon, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: Underworld opens with a series of title cards setting its mood, telling of "a great city in the dead of night...streets lonely...moon clouded...buildings as empty as the cave dwellings of a forgotten age." Suddenly an explosion shatters the façade of a bank building, and the title cards announce Read More

Loves of Carmen

Actors: Dolores Del Rio, Don Alvarado, Victor McLaglen, Nancy Nash

Synopsis: Dolores Del Rio and director Raoul Walsh took on Prosper Mérimée with this sumptuous silent film produced by William Fox and originally tinted lavender. Del Rio was, of course, the gypsy cigar factory worker caught between two men: the bullfighter Escamillo (Victor McLaglen) and the soldier Don Read More

Open Range

Actors: Betty Bronson, Lane Chandler, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: Paramount Pictures used the Zane Grey adaptation Open Range as a showcase for its newest western star (and potential Gary Cooper replacement) Lane Chandler. Teamed with winsome Betty Bronson, who three years earlier had starred in Paramount's Peter Pan, Chandler plays an itinerant cowboy who is Read More

The Way of All Flesh

Actors: Emil Jannings, Belle Bennett, Phyllis Haver, Donald Keith, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: This was Emil Jannings' first American-made picture, and his portrayal is reminiscent of his characters in his previous films, The Last Laugh and Variety, and would later be echoed in The Blue Angel. Jannings' powerful performance, along with his acting in The Last Command, would win him the first Read More

Shootin' Irons

Actors: Jack Luden, Sally Blane, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: Screen newcomer Gary Cooper achieved some success as a western leading man in Arizona Bound (1927), and the studio, Paramount, attempted to repeat with Jack Luden, a graduate of the Paramount acting school. Luden was darkly handsome and should have made it as a cowboy star, but this story of a Read More

Gay Defender

Actors: Richard Dix, Thelma Todd, Fred Kohler, Robert Brower, Fred Esmelton

Synopsis: The freewheeling direction of Gregory LaCava helps to enliven the otherwise standard actioner The Gay Defender. Decked out with sideburns and mustache, Richard Dix stars as real-life outlaw Joaquin Murietta, who (according to this film, anyway) is a latter-day Robin Hood, dedicated to driving Read More

The Rough Riders

Actors: Frank Hopper, Charles Farrell, Charles Emmett Mack, Mary Astor, Noah Beery, Sr.

Synopsis: Designed as a western "special" in the tradition of Covered Wagon and The Pony Express, The Rough Riders unfortunately proved a box office disappointment, causing Paramount Pictures to rethink its policy regarding epic films. Storywise, the film is a respectable if highly romanticized account of Read More

The Ice Flood

Actors: Kenneth Harlan, Viola Dana, George Irving, Fred Kohler, Norman Deming, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: A robust potboiler from Universal, The Ice Flood stars Kenneth Harlan as Jack De Quincey, a handsome youth returning from Oxford to take part in his father's Oregon lumber business. But Jack demands to work incognito and bets the elder DeQuincey (George Irving) 10,000 dollars that he will not only Read More

Old Ironsides

Actors: Esther Ralston, Charles Farrell, Wallace Beery, George Bancroft, George Godfrey

Synopsis: Long derided by film historians as a talented but visually unimaginative director, James Cruze made up for any and all past artistic sins with his rousing Old Ironsides. Per its title, this 11-reel silent film is set at the time of Stephen Decatur's defeat of the Barbary pirates in Tripoli. Read More

Danger Quest

Actors: Reed Howes, Ethel Shannon, J.P. McGowan, David Kirby, Billy Franey

Synopsis: Reed Howes, the original Arrow Collar man, stars in the action-packed Danger Quest. Set amongst the African diamond mines, the story concerns a fearless young mining engineer named Bob Rollins (Reed Howes) who must contend not only with the natural dangers surrounding him, but also such human Read More

Country Beyond

Actors: Olive Borden, Ralph Graves, Gertrude Astor, John Farrell MacDonald

Synopsis: The Country Beyond is another "Northwest Mountie" opus from the pen of James Oliver Curwood. Filmed on location in Canada's Jasper National Park, the story focuses on Valencia (Olive Borden), an orphan girl left in the care of the abusive Hawkins family. Fugitive from justice Roger McKay (Ralph Graves Read More

Winds of Chance

Actors: Anna Q. Nilsson, Ben Lyon, Viola Dana, Hobart Bosworth, Victor McLaglen

Synopsis: Frank Lloyd, who directed The Sea Beast, tried to create another epic with this Rex Beach tale of the 1897 gold rush. The story, however, isn't all that interesting, and there are too many important characters that muddy the plot. Pierce Phillips (a miscast Ben Lyon) loses his stake in a shell Read More

Dick Turpin

Actors: Tom Mix, Kathleen Myers, Philo McCullough, James Marcus, Lucille Hutton

Synopsis: Cowboy ace Tom Mix allowed himself a change of pace with this costume adventure produced by Fox. Mix plays the legendary British highwayman, who after robbing nasty Lord Churlton (Philo McCullough) learns that the nobleman is to be married to innocent Lady Alice Brookfield (Kathleen Myers), a Read More

Riders of the Purple Sage

Actors: Tom Mix, Beatrice Burnham, Arthur Morrison, Seesel Ann Johnson, Warner Oland

Synopsis: First filmed by Fox in 1918 with William Farnum, Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage became a typically lavish Tom Mix extravaganza, filmed on locations at picturesque Lone Pine, California. Mix plays Jim Lassiter, the bold Texas Ranger whose sister, Millie Erne (Beatrice Burnham), and her Read More

Thundering Herd

Actors: Jack Holt, Lois Wilson, Noah Beery, Sr., Raymond Hatton, Tim McCoy

Synopsis: Zane Grey's 1925 story of the great Buffalo hunts became a sprawling silent Western produced by Paramount and starring the studio's stalwart Jack Holt as a trader who uncovers a scheme to blame the Indians for a Buffalo massacre. The film's highlight, a breathtaking shot of wagons careening across Read More

The Iron Horse

Actors: George O'Brien, Winston Miller, Peggy Cartwright, Madge Bellamy, Charles Edward Bull, Cyril Chadwick, James Gordon, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: John Ford directed this epic-scale silent western, which was one of his first major successes and was hugely influential on outdoor films that followed. David Brandon (James Gordon) is a surveyor in the Old West who dreams that one day the entire North American continent will be linked by Read More

Fighting Fury

Actors: Fred Kohler

Synopsis: Not one of Hollywood's leading thespians, burly action star Jack Hoxie plays both father and son in Fighting Fury. When the elder Hoxie is murdered by three disfigured bandits, the son vows vengeance. Taking a job as a ranch hand after discovering one of the suspected killers among the wranglers Read More

Abe Lincoln (The New Salem Period)

Abraham Lincoln

Actors: Irene Hunt, Charles French, Calvert Carter

Synopsis: This epic covers all of Lincoln's life. His birth in a blizzard; his boyhood (depicted by Danny Hey as young Lincoln); his romance with the ill-fated Anne Rutledge (Ruth Clifford) and courtship of Mary Todd (Nell Craig), who he married; his debates with Stephen Douglas (William Humphreys); and his Read More

The Flame of Life

Actors: Priscilla Dean, Robert Ellis, Kathryn McGuire, Wallace Beery, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: This is not the 1919 Swedish picture, but an adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel, That Lass o' Lowrie's. It takes place in the English coal mines of the 1870s and revolves around Joan Lowrie (Priscilla Dean), who works as a pit girl. Fergus Derrick (Robert Ellis) is the son of the mine's Read More

North of Hudson Bay

Actors: Tom Mix, Frank Campeau, Frank Leigh, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: Cowboy star Tom Mix takes a break from the far West to play a rancher headed for the far North in this action-adventure. Michael Dane (Mix) is headed for gold country to join his brother Peter (Eugene Pallette) and his partner, where they have struck it rich. On the boat he meets fetching Estelle Read More

The Eleventh Hour

Actors: Shirley Mason, Charles "Buck" Jones, Richard Tucker, Alan Hale, Walter McGrail

Synopsis: This 1923 Hollywood thriller The Eleventh Hour should not be confused with the like-vintage British melodrama of same name. This Fox production top-bills heroine Shirley Mason, but the star of the proceedings is Charles Jones as Secret-Service agent Brick McDonald. His principal antagonist is Read More

Anna Christie

Actors: Blanche Sweet, William Russell, George F. Marion, Eugénie Besserer

Synopsis: In this silent drama based on the play by Eugene O'Neill, Blanche Sweet plays Anna Christie, a young woman whose father Chris (George F. Marion) is a sailor and knows enough of the life of seafaring men to be certain that he doesn't want his daughter to become involved with one. Hoping to guide Read More

Red Warning

Actors: Fred Kohler, William Welsh

Synopsis: This Western starring Jack Hoxie) has all the typical elements one would expect: the mortgaged ranch, cattle rustlers, a grizzled old prospector, and a girl in need of saving. Hoxie is hero Phillip Haver, who, along with his friend Toby Jones (Frank Rice -- the old prospector), finds David Ainslee Read More

Yellow Men and Gold

Actors: Richard Dix, Helene Chadwick, Henry Barrows, Rosemary Theby, Richard Tucker

Synopsis: This adventurous story-within-a-story was based on a novel by Gouverneur Morris. Parrish (Richard Dix), a young author, decides to use himself, his friends, and neighbors as characters in his latest book. During a rainstorm (according to his tale), he finds a treasure map that he shows to Carroll Read More

The Son of the Wolf

Actors: Wheeler Oakman, Edith Roberts, Sam Allen, Ashley Cooper, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: Edith Roberts improbably stars as an Indian maiden in this Northwoods drama, based on the story by Jack London. Prospector Scruff Mackenzie (Wheeler Oakman) prepares a camp for his future wife -- whoever she may be. He falls in love with Chook-Ra (Roberts), an Indian girl who is the ward of Father Read More

The Eleventh Hour

Synopsis: We'd like to find an Ethel M. Dell novel that wasn't made into a British silent film. Dell's The Eleventh Hour relates the travails of Madge White, daughter of career officer M. Gray Murray. Hoping to escape the nomadish life of an "army brat," Madge marries farmer Dennis Wyndham, whom she does Read More

The Scrapper

Synopsis: Just about all the major players in this romance were miscast here; in the 1920s heavy ethnic characterizations (offensive as they may seem nowadays) were the norm and none of the stars were even remotely Irish. In addition, the plot, based on R. G. Kirk's Saturday Evening Post story "Malloy Read More

Thunder Island

Actors: Edith Roberts, Fred DeSilva, Jack O'Brien, Arthur Jasmine

Synopsis: Isola Garcia (Edith Roberts) is kidnapped by a band of Mexican sheep bandits. Paul Corbin, an American (Jack O'Brien), rescues her and they fall in love. There's one problem, however -- Isola discovers that the old man she married two years prior is still alive when all this time she thought him Read More

Daughter of the Law

Synopsis: Eddie Hayes (Joe Bennett) is the son of police inspector Hayes (Charles Arling), but that doesn't stop him from becoming involved with a gang of crooks. His sister Nora (Carmel Myers) goes on a search for him in underworld dives and haunts. She finds him, along with gang leader George Stacey (Fred Read More

Partners of the Tide

Synopsis: A seafaring action melodrama based on a 1905 novel by Joseph Crosby Lincoln, Partners of the Tide starred future cowboy hero Jack Perrin as an orphan adopted by spinster Temperance Allen (Florence Midgley). As a young adult, Perrin's Bradley Nickerson signs on as first mate of the Thomas Doone, a Read More

Polly of the Storm Country

Synopsis: Polly Hopkins (Mildred Harris) belongs to a family of squatters living in Silent City. The poor squatters are constantly at odds with the wealthy "hilltoppers," but Polly's grandmother has gone against popular opinion by teaching Polly to love everybody. Polly keeps the faith, even when her Read More