John Carpenter Filmography

Night of the Ghouls

Actors: Criswell, Kenne Duncan, Duke Moore, Tor Johnson, Valda Hansen

Synopsis: Night of the Ghouls (which was also known as Revenge of the Dead) was Edward D. Wood Jr.'s first attempt at making a horror film without any contribution, either in a true performance or through the presence of archival footage, from Bela Lugosi, who had died three years earlier. The plot, which Read More

Tomboy and the Champ

Synopsis: This heartwarming tale chronicles the friendship between a young Texas girl and her pet calf, which she won at the county fair. When the girl is stricken with polio it is caring for the animal that keeps her strong. Later she enters her beloved pet in the Chicago International Exposition. The Read More

No Place to Land

Synopsis: This romantic melodrama centers on a love triangle shaped by the restless, dissatisfied girl friend of a crop-duster who refuses to marry her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

I Killed Wild Bill Hickok

Actors: Helen Westcott, Tom Brown, Virginia Gibson, Denver Pyle

Synopsis: The redoubtable John Carpenter strikes again with the ultra-low-budget I Killed Wild Bill Hickok. Carpenter serves as the film's producer and screenwriter, and also heads the cast, pseudonymously billed as John Forbes. Everybody knows that Wild Bill Hickok (here played by Tom Brown) was shot in Read More

Red Sundown

Actors: Rory Calhoun, Martha Hyer, Dean Jagger, Robert Middleton, Grant Williams

Synopsis: Strong acting and direction overcomes the more cliched aspects of Red Sundown. It all begins when gunslinger Alec Longmire (Rory Calhoun), weary of living up to his reputation, decides to hang up his firearms and start life anew as a cowpuncher. Before long, however, Alec is obliged to strap on Read More

Outlaw Treasure

Actors: Frank "Red" Carpenter, Adele Jergens, Glenn Langan, Hal Baylor

Synopsis: Self-style western star John Carpenter is the "auteur" of the low-budget hayburner Outlaw Treasure. Carpenter not only stars in the film (billed as "John Forbes"), but also produced and wrote the picture as well; surprisingly, however, he handed over the directorial reins to Oliver Drake. The Read More

The Lawless Rider

Actors: John Carpenter, Frankie Darro, Douglas Dumbrille, Noel Neill, Kenne Duncan, Bud Osborne

Synopsis: The redoubtable Johnny Carpenter is producer, author and star of the low-budget western Lawless Rider. Exploiting his slight resemblance to Montgomery Clift to the hilt, Carpenter plays a taciturn sheriff who disguises himself as a notorious gunslinger. His mission: to stem a series of violent Read More

Law and Order

Actors: Ronald Reagan, Dorothy Malone, Preston S. Foster, Alex Nicol, Ruth Hampton

Synopsis: The first film version of W.R. Burnett's novel Saint Johnson was filmed as Law and Order in 1932. Essentially an all-names-changed retelling of the Wyatt Earp legend, the film scored on its humanity and restraint. The 1953 remake eschewed the shadings and subtleties of the original in favor of a Read More

Son of the Renegade

Actors: John Carpenter, Lori Irving, Jack Ingram

Synopsis: Son of the Renegade was the first of a short series of westerns produced and written by John Carpenter (not the horror-film specialist), who also starred. The villain, a chap named Three Fingers (Jack Ingram) frames Red River Johnny (John Carpenter) for a series of bank holdups. While trying to Read More

Cattle Queen

Actors: Maria Hart, Drake Smith, William Fawcett, Robert Gardett, John Carpenter

Synopsis: With a female protagonist as its only selling point, Cattle Queen trots out a farfetched Western story of Queenie Hart (Maria Hart), a rather glamorous bleached blonde cattle driver in 1866 Wyoming. After conning a potential buyer (Robert Robinson) into believing that Queenie's herd is diseased Read More

Badman's Gold

Actors: John Carpenter, Alyn Lockwood, Kenne Duncan, Verne Teters

Synopsis: Produced by Jack Schwarz on behalf of Eagle Lion Studios, Badman's Gold was ultimately released through United Artists. John Carpenter (not the horror-film director) stars as a U.S. marshal, sent westward to stop a series of stagecoach robberies. The villains have been pilfering gold intended for Read More

The Fighting Stallion

Actors: Bill Edwards, Doris Merrick, Forrest Taylor, Don C. Harvey, Robert Carson

Synopsis: The Fighting Stallion stars Bill Edwards as Lon Evans, an ex-GI who is slowly losing his eyesight. Lacking a seeing-eye dog, Lon opts for a seeing-eye horse, training one of his father's stallions for that purpose. Unfortunately, the horse is slated to be destroyed because of its alleged wildness. Read More

Border Outlaws

Actors: Spade Cooley, Maria Hart, Bill Edwards, Bill Kennedy, George Slocum

Synopsis: Produced at Agoura, CA, and directed by silent film action star Richard Talmadge, this minor Western starred bandleader and early television personality Spade Cooley. Actually, Cooley had very little to do in the film other than offer name recognition to a cumbersome Western tale of a special Read More

Red Canyon

Actors: Ann Blyth, Howard Duff, George Brent, Edgar Buchanan, John McIntire

Synopsis: Red Canyon was one of several medium-budget, Technicolor westerns turned out by Universal-International between 1949 and 1959. Howard Duff plays wandering cowpoke Lin Sloane, who spends most of the film trying to capture a fabled wild stallion. While thus occupied, he finds time to romance Lucy Read More

Relentless

Actors: Robert Young, Marguerite Chapman, Willard Parker, Akim Tamiroff, Barton MacLane

Synopsis: Described by one critic as a western version of The 39 Steps, Relentless stars Robert Young as a cowboy on the lam. Framed for murder, Young must find the one man who can clear him, while a posse dogs his trail. He briefly becomes an outlaw, hoping to make contact with his quarry by befriending Read More

Larceny

Actors: John Payne, Joan Caulfield, Dan Duryea, Shelley Winters, Dorothy Hart

Synopsis: John Payne is the no-good lowdown rat who tries to capitalize on postwar patriotism and grief. He finagles a war widow (Joan Caulfied) into giving up her savings for a nonexistent memorial. When Payne falls in love with the widow he has pangs of conscience, but he reckons without his con-artist Read More

Song of the Wasteland

Synopsis: C&W singer Jimmy Wakely would never be Gene Autry or Roy Rogers, but he strove to please. In Song of the Wasteland, Jimmy tries to uphold law and order in a tough frontier town. The villainy was in the grimy hands of Holly Bane, Pierce Lyden, Ted Adams and George Cheseboro, so Wakely had his work Read More

Northwest Trail

Synopsis: Produced by Gower Gulch maverick Robert L. Lippert and filmed in not-so-glorious two-strip Cinecolor near Idyllwild, California, this Northwest Mounted melodrama starred the veteran Bob Steele as a rather surly mountie who, against his own better judgment, is persuaded to escort a patronizing Read More

The El Paso Kid

Actors: Sunset Carson, Marie Harmon, Hank Patterson, Edmund Cobb, Robert Filmer

Synopsis: In this Western, an outlaw tries to escape from a gang of robbers after they refuse to assist a gang member wounded during a stagecoach caper. He and the wounded outlaw leave and try to steal a stagecoach as their ex-gang robs it. The sheriff's daughter observes the incident. Believing that the Read More

Trail of Kit Carson

Synopsis: Kit Carson appears in Trail of Kit Carson in the form of Allan "Rocky" Lane. The tall, dark and taciturn western hero spends most of his time searching for the murderer of the trailblazer partner. According to the official reports, Lane's pal died in an accident, but neither he nor we believe Read More

Santa Fe Saddlemates

Synopsis: The first of actor Sunset Carson and director Thomas Carr's collaborations, Santa Fe Saddlemates is about a U.S. marshal (Carson) attempting to break a diamond smuggling ring at the U.S./Mexican border. Accompanied by a female reporter (Linda Stirling), Carson has to pose as a bandit in order to Read More

The Navajo Trail

Synopsis: Johnny Mack Brown and Raymond Hatton once again play undercover U.S. marshals Nevada McKenzie and Sandy Hopkins. This time, Sandy's sergeant, Trevor (Jasper L. Palmer), is shot in the back by Slim Ramsey (Raphael Bennett), an outlaw he had been tracking. Masquerading as a desperado himself, Nevada Read More

Song of Old Wyoming

Actors: Eddie Dean, Sarah Padden, Jennifer Holt, Emmett Lynn

Synopsis: Statehood for Wyoming became the weighty focal point in this very low-budget music Western from poverty row company PRC, which served to introduce Eddie Dean as the company's newest singing cowboy. Old Ma Conway (Sarah Padden) champions statehood for Wyoming, believing the measure would put an end Read More

Dante's Inferno

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Claire Trevor, Rita Hayworth, Alan Dinehart, Scotty Beckett

Synopsis: Carnival barker Spencer Tracy befriends elderly concessionaire Henry B. Walthall, who owns a picturesque but stodgy display depicting Dante's Inferno. Walthall is more interested in the spiritual aspects of Man's fascination with Hell, but Tracy uses hoopla and exaggeration to get the suckers into Read More