John Miljan Filmography

Apache Warrior

Actors: Keith Larsen, Jim Davis, John Miljan, Rodopho (Rudy) Acosta, Eddie Little

Synopsis: Keith Larsen stars as the Apache Kid, an Indian scout. He is willing to cooperate with the US cavalry until his brother is killed by another Native American. The Apache Kid is permitted to seek revenge under tribal law, but white law does not recognize this ruling; as a result the Kid is branded a 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

The Wild Dakotas

Synopsis: The fraternal filmmaking team of produced Sigmund Neufeld and director Sam Newfield once again joined forces on The Wild Dakotas. Made some two years after the "official" demise of the "B" western, the film attempts to revive the genre with a new cowboy star, one Will Williams. In keeping with the Read More

Pirates of Tripoli

Actors: Paul Henreid, Patricia Medina, Paul Newlan, John Miljan, Mark Hanna

Synopsis: Paul Henreid was light-years removed from Now Voyager and Casablanca when he starred in the Columbia costume cheapie Pirates of Tripoli. Henreid is cast as Edri-Al-Gadrian, a bold buccaneer who comes to the rescue of Princess Karjan (Patricia Medina). Much of the action footage is culled from Read More

Run for Cover

Actors: James Cagney, John Derek, Viveca Lindfors, Jean Hersholt, Ernest Borgnine, Grant Withers

Synopsis: In his first western since 1939's The Oklahoma Kid, James Cagney is a pillar of integrity in the Pine-Thomas production Run for Cover. Cagney plays Matt Dow, who at the beginning of the film has been released from prison after serving six years for a crime he didn't commit. Heading westward, Matt Read More

The Savage

Actors: Charlton Heston, Susan Morrow, Peter Hanson, Joan Taylor, Richard Rober

Synopsis: The Paramount publicity department had a field day heralding the news that Charlton Heston portrays a Native American named "Warbonnet" in The Savage. Actually the ad campaign was a bit of a cheat, since Heston turns out to be a white man raised by the Sioux. The crisis comes when hostilities Read More

Bonzo Goes to College

Actors: Maureen O'Sullivan, Charles Drake, Edmund Gwenn, Gene Lockhart

Synopsis: Bonzo Goes to College is the one that Ronald Reagan isn't in. The focus, of course, is on brainy chimpanzee Bonzo, who escapes a seedy sideshow and hides out on a college campus. Here he is adopted by Betsy Drew (Gigi Perreau), the daughter of nonplused professor Malcolm Drew (Charles Drake). Read More

M

Actors: David Wayne, Luther Adler, Howard Da Silva, Martin Gabel, Steve Brodie, Raymond Burr

Synopsis: It took nerve for director Joseph Losey to attempt a remake of Fritz Lang's classic chiller M, but by and large Losey was up to the challenge. David Wayne steps into the old Peter Lorre role as the compulsive child-murderer who is tracked down and then placed on trial by the criminal underworld. Read More

Mule Train

Actors: Gene Autry, Pat Buttram, Sheila Ryan, Robert Livingston, Frank Jaquet

Synopsis: Though the hit song "Mule Train" is most closely associated with Frankie Laine, it was Gene Autry who first sang the tune on film, in a picture titled ... what else? .... Mule Train. This time, Autry plays a federal marshal who comes to the aid of a grizzled old prospector who has been framed for Read More

Adventure in Baltimore

Actors: Robert Young, Shirley Temple, John Agar, Albert Sharpe, Josephine Hutchinson

Synopsis: Set in the early 1900s, Adventure in Baltimore is a romantic comedy about the woman's suffrage movement. Shirley Temple plays a student at an exclusive girl's school who "sees the light" and begins campaigning for women's rights. This doesn't sit well with her minister father (Robert Young) nor 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

Mrs. Mike

Actors: Dick Powell, Evelyn Keyes, J.M. Kerrigan, Angela Clarke, John Miljan

Synopsis: Dick Powell stars as Canadian Mountie Sgt. Mike Flannagan. When Boston-bred Kathy O'Fallon (Evelyn Keyes) marries Mike, she is immediately nicknamed "Mrs. Mike" by her new friends and neighbors. Unprepared for the hardships of life in the Great White North, Mrs. Mike nonetheless perseveres through Read More

Stampede

Actors: Rod Cameron, Gale Storm, Johnny Mack Brown, Don Castle, Donald Curtis

Synopsis: Stampede is a choice example of the Lesley Selander B-plus westerns of the late 1940s/early 1950s. Rod Cameron and Don Castle star as feuding brothers who own separate cattle ranches. The siblings find themselves on opposite sides of a water-rights battle, in which settlers are being deprived Read More

Queen of the Amazons

Synopsis: In this adventure, a devoted fiancee journeys to the jungle to take on the terrifying Amazon women who have been holding her lover hostage. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Unconquered

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

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

The Flame

Actors: John Carroll, Vera Ralston, Robert Paige, Broderick Crawford, Henry Travers

Synopsis: Carlotta Duval (Vera Ralston) is willing to help her boyfriend George McAllister (John Carroll) get his hands on his ailing brother Barry's (Robert Paige) fortune. She is willing to marry Barry, knowing full well that he has only been given a few months to live. And when she deviates from the Read More

Sinbad the Sailor

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak, Anthony Quinn, Jane Greer, George Tobias

Synopsis: In the RKO swashbuckler Sinbad the Sailor, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. nostalgically emulates his famous father. The first seven voyages of Sinbad have come and gone: now he is on an eighth mission, in search of the island where Alexander the Great allegedly hid his treasure. Participants in the Read More

Perilous Waters

Actors: Don Castle, Audrey Long, Peggy Knudsen, Samuel S. Hinds, Gloria Holden

Synopsis: Future TV writer/producer Don Castle heads the cast of Monogram's Perilous Waters. Most of the action takes place aboard the yacht owned by millionaire newspaper publisher Dana Ferris (Samuel Hinds Jr.) Because of his virulent crusade against gambling, Ferris has been targeted for extermination by Read More

That's My Man

Actors: Don Ameche, Catherine McLeod, Roscoe Karns, John Ridgely

Synopsis: A man's addiction to gambling almost destroys his life in this racetrack adventure. Joe Grange is nearly broke when he buys an ailing colt and brings it back to health. He then turns the horse into a promising champion. During the big race, Joe places a large amount of money upon the horse. It Read More

Lost City of the Jungle

Synopsis: British character actor Lionel Atwill, in his final performance, appeared as a power-mad Englishman attempting to rule the world in this 13 chapter Universal serial. Sir Eric Hazarias (Atwill) is searching the mountains of Himalaya for Metorium 245, the only known antidote to the Bomb. Sir Eric is Read More

White Tie and Tails

Actors: Scotty Beckett, William Bendix, Barbara Brown, Donald Curtis

Synopsis: In this comedy drama, a butler and a crap-shooting chauffeur find themselves having the run of their employer's mansion after he goes on a ten-day vacation. They decide to avail themselves of their master's luxuries. The butler finds his boss's clothing fits him perfectly, and so pretends to be Read More

The Killers

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Albert Dekker, Jeff Corey, Sam Levene, Jack Lambert

Synopsis: The Killers uses Ernest Hemingway's short story as a springboard for a complex film noir. Two mysterious men (William Conrad and Charles McGraw) muscle their way into a small town and kill an aging boxer (Burt Lancaster, making his screen debut), who offers no resistance and seems to be welcoming Read More

The Last Crooked Mile

Actors: Don "Red" Barry, Ann Savage, Adele Mara, Tom Powers, Sheldon Leonard

Synopsis: Republic contractee Don Barry plays private eye Tom Dwyer, whose ability to irritate both cops and crooks alike hides his keen deductive skills. Dwyer takes on the case of a missing $300,000, stolen from a bank by three robbers who were subsequently killed in a car accident. Before he can recover Read More

Wildfire

Actors: Bob Steele, Sterling Holloway, William Farnum

Synopsis: Wildfire was the first release from Screen Guild Productions, the adventuresome little independent that would eventually metamorphose into Lippert Pictures Inc. The title character is a magnificent wild horse, slated to be destroyed by a group of ranchers. It seems that Wildfire is being held Read More

It's in the Bag

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

I Accuse My Parents

Actors: Mary Beth Hughes, Robert Lowell, John Miljan, Vivienne Osborne, George Meeker

Synopsis: I Accuse My Parents was one of PRC's entries in the "wartime juvenile delinquent drama" sweepstakes, as exemplified by such earlier films as RKO's Youth Runs Wild and Monogram's Where are Your Children? This time around, it's high schooler James Wilson (Robert Lowell) who suffers from lack of Read More

Back to Bataan

Actors: John Wayne, Anthony Quinn, Beulah Bondi, Fely Franquelli, Richard Loo

Synopsis: Edward Dmytryk's Back to Bataan stars John Wayne as Colonel Joe Madden. After General MacArthur decides to follow his order and leave the Philippines, Madden agrees to stay behind and organize an underground resistance movement. Anthony Quinn plays Andres Bonifacio, a captain who falls in love Read More

The Merry Monahans

Actors: Donald O'Connor, Peggy Ryan, Jack Oakie, Ann Blyth, Rosemary de Camp

Synopsis: The Merry Monahans is one of the higher-budgeted Universal musicals of the 1940s, even though the storyline is strictly grade-B material. During the first two decades of the 20th century the film concerns a family vaudeville troupe headed by patriarch Pete Monahan (Jack Oakie). Because of his love Read More

Bride by Mistake

Actors: Alan Marshal, Laraine Day, Marsha Hunt, Allyn Joslyn, Edgar Buchanan

Synopsis: Bride by Mistake is a remake of the 1934 Miriam Hopkins vehicle The Richest Girl in the World, with a wartime angle providing topicality. Tired of being romanced by fortune hunters and being rejected by poor-but-proud suitors, fabulously wealthy Norah (Laraine Day) decides to pose as her own 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

Submarine Alert

Actors: Richard Arlen, Wendy Barrie, Nils Asther, Roger Pryor, Abner Biberman

Synopsis: The plot of the Pine-Thomas adventure quickie Submarine Alert is more than a little beholden to Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. Richard Arlen plays FBI radio engineer Lee Deerhold, who turns bitter and vindictive when he is abruptly fired. Actually, his termination was engineered by his FBI superiors Read More

The Fallen Sparrow

Actors: John Garfield, Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak, Patricia Morison, Martha O'Driscoll

Synopsis: John Garfield was borrowed from Warner Bros. by RKO Radio for the tense espionage melodrama The Fallen Sparrow. Garfield is cast as Kit, an idealistic Spanish Civil War veteran who survives two torturous years in a fascist prison. Upon returning to New York, Kit is pounced upon by Nazi agents, who Read More

Boss of Big Town

Actors: John Litel, Florence Rice, H.B. Warner, Jean Brooks, John Miljan

Synopsis: Quality was seldom a consideration in the low-budget films of PRC Studios; still, the company was a welcome harbor for character actors who aspired to occasional leading roles. In Boss of Big Town, veteran supporting player John Litel is top-billed as crusading city market official Michael Lynn. Read More

Bombardier

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Randolph Scott, Anne Shirley, Eddie Albert, Walter Reed

Synopsis: A major moneymaker for RKO Radio, Bombardier stars Pat O'Brien and Randolph Scott as trainers at a school for bomber pilots. O'Brien and Scott argue over teaching methods, while their students vie for the affections of Anne Shirley. O'Brien's methods prove sound during a bombing raid over Tokyo. Scott Read More

The Big Street

Actors: Henry Fonda, Lucille Ball, Agnes Moorehead, Barton MacLane, Eugene Pallette

Synopsis: Lucille Ball delivers the finest dramatic performance of her career in this satisfying adaptation of Damon Runyon's The Big Street. Ball is cast as Gloria, aka "Your Highness," the vain and thoroughly selfish star attraction of gangster Case Ables' (Barton MacLaine) New York nightclub. Henry Fonda Read More

Scattergood Survives a Murder

Actors: Guy Kibbee, John Archer, Maggie Hayes, Wallace Ford, Spencer Charters

Synopsis: The title neatly gives away the ending in RKO Radio's Scattergood Survives a Murder. Guy Kibbee once again stars as storekeeper Scattergood Baines, the sage of the small town of Coldriver. The story gets under way when two reclusive spinsters die under mysterious circumstances. Inasmuch the as the Read More

Criminal Investigator

Synopsis: A better-than-average crime thriller from Poverty Row company Monogram, the plainly titled Criminal Investigator (aka Crime Reporter) stars Robert Lowery in the title role, an intrepid sleuth who discovers that the two cases he has been investigating have something in common. A deaf-and-dumb Read More

True to the Army

Actors: Judy Canova, Allan Jones, Ann Miller, Jerry Colonna, William Demarest

Synopsis: In this musical comedy set during WW II, a circus aerialist desires to be closer to her lover, a soldier. When she finds herself chased by gangsters, the woman dresses up as a man and joins the military. Mayhem ensues as she tries to undergo training and keep her sex a secret. The secret is Read More

Double Cross

Actors: Kane Richmond, Pauline Moore, Wynne Gibson, John Miljan, Richard Beach

Synopsis: In this action film, an officer is thrown off the force by his father the chief of police. The bitter ex-cop then joins a racketeering operation. The ring leader assigns him to drive a truck-load of armed hoods to ambush his father. Unbeknownst to the crooks, the ex-cop is still active on the Read More

The Cowboy and the Blonde

Actors: Mary Beth Hughes, George Montgomery, Alan Mowbray, Roberl Conway, John Miljan

Synopsis: This back-stage romantic comedy pokes fun at Hollywood cowboys as it tells the story of a champion rodeo rider who is contracted to work in a series of low-budget westerns. He has rootin' tootin' fun until he meets a spoiled, volatile actress. He decides to personally take responsibility for Read More

The Deadly Game

Synopsis: Charles Farrell, once a heartthrob of the silent screen, is the snow-on-the-roof protagonist in Monogram's The Deadly Game. Farrell rescues the lovely June Lang from a jam, only to get involved with a complex murder case. Evidently, no one can be trusted, so Farrell has his hands full during the Read More

Forced Landing

Synopsis: In this war drama, a commercial pilot joins the air corps of a South Pacific island, and there he finds that he must contend with a dictator. He also falls quietly in love with the leader's girlfriend. Unfortunately, the evil leader is the head of the air corps, and to get rid of the young man who Read More

Riot Squad

Synopsis: This Monogram quickie stars Richard Cromwell as Dr. Tom, an idealistic young tenement-district physician. When his best pal, a police captain, is killed by gangsters, Dr. Tom offers his services to the authorities in hopes of bringing the villains to justice. Working undercover, our hero becomes a Read More

Obliging Young Lady

Actors: Joan Carroll, Edmond O'Brien, Ruth Warrick, Robert Smith, Eve Arden

Synopsis: The studio concocted the film as a showcase for its 9-year-old discovery Joan Carroll, here cast as precocious Bridget Potter. Little Bridget has been willingly "kidnapped" by secretary Linda Norton (Ruth Warrick), who hopes that the girl's disappearance will precipitate a reunion between Read More

New Moon

Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Mary Boland, George Zucco, H.B. Warner

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1930 with Lawrence Tibbett and Grace Moore, the robust Sigmund Romberg operetta New Moon was given another airing in 1940 as Nelson Eddy-Jeanette MacDonald vehicle. Set in 18th century Louisiana, the story concerns the relationship between haughty plantation owner Marianne de Read More

Young Bill Hickok

Actors: Roy Rogers, George "Gabby" Hayes, John Miljan, Sally Payne

Synopsis: This Roy Rogers vehicle is a followup (though not a sequel) to 1940's Young Buffalo Bill. Definitely a "premature anti-fascist", singing frontiersman Bill Hickok (Roy Rogers) tries to thwart the takeover of West by foreign invaders. John Miljan is frontier fuhrer Nicholas Tower, who hires a gang Read More

Emergency Squad

Actors: William Henry, Louise Campbell, Richard Denning, Robert Paige, John Marston

Synopsis: In this B movie actioner, a plucky female cub reporter is determined to get her boss a front page scoop and so finagles a way to spend a few days with two drivers in the title squad. While with them she finds herself reporting a huge fire at a chemical plant. She gets herself in real danger when Read More

Women Without Names

Actors: Ellen Drew, Robert Paige, Judith Barrett, John Miljan, Fay Helm

Synopsis: Paramount's "B" pictures of the early 1940s were generally more interesting than their star-studded "A"s, as witness Women without Names. Ellen Drew and Robert Paige star as newlyweds Joyce and Fred MacNeil, whose honeymoon comes to an abrupt and unsatisfying halt when Fred is accused of murder. Read More

Texas Rangers Ride Again

Actors: Ellen Drew, John Howard, Akim Tamiroff, May Robson, Broderick Crawford

Synopsis: Filmed on location at Mesa, AZ, this minor Paramount western featured newcomer Ellen Drew as "Slats" Dangerfield, a young girl returning to her grandmother's ranch in Texas. Old Mrs. Dangerfield (May Robson) is experiencing a rash of cattle rustlings and, fed up with her no-good grandson Carter's Read More

Queen of the Mob

Actors: Ralph Bellamy, Blanche Yurka, J. Carrol Naish, William Henry

Synopsis: Though the title character is loosely based on that of the notorious killer/robber Ma Barker, she has been sanitized and prettified to meet the perceived conservative values of Hollywood movie audiences. Unlike Barker, who was bad to the bone, Ma Webster is simply a matriarch who would do anything Read More

Land of Liberty

Synopsis: Originally designed for exhibition at the 1939 World's Fair, Land of Liberty is a 137-minute compendium of filmclips from past American historical epics. The project was sponsored by the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America, Inc. and supervised by Cecil B. DeMille, who also edited Read More

Pardon Our Nerve

Actors: Lynn Bari, June Gale, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Michael Whalen, Edward S. Brophy

Synopsis: A sequel of sorts to 1938's Meet the Girls, Pardon Our Nerve stars as Lynn Bari and June Gale (replacing June Lang) as intrepid chorus girls Terry Wilson and Judy Davis. Unable to find any showbiz work, our heroines take jobs with a dating service. Before getting fired as usual, Terry and Judy Read More

Fast and Furious

Actors: Franchot Tone, Ann Sothern, Ruth Hussey, Lee Bowman, Allyn Joslyn

Synopsis: Harry Kurnitz' fictional book-dealer/detectives Joel and Garda Sloane appeared in three MGM "B"s of the late 1930s, each with different stars in the leads. Fast and Furious, the last of the mini-series, featured Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern as the Sloanes. The couple attends a seaside beauty Read More

Torchy Runs for Mayor

Actors: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Tom Kennedy, John Miljan, Frank Shannon

Synopsis: Torchy Runs for Mayor stars Glenda Farrell as fast-lipped newspaper reporter Torchy Blaine. In possession of a crooked political boss' "little red book" of crimes and misdemeanors, Torchy can't convince any of the newspapers in her city to print the contents. She has to rely on a small-town Read More

Juarez

Actors: Paul Muni, Bette Davis, Brian Aherne, Claude Rains, John Garfield

Synopsis: Juarez was originally designed to concentrate almost exclusively on the tragedy of Hapsburg Emperor Maximillian, whose attempts to establish a puppet government in Mexico on behalf of Napoleon III ended in disaster and death. But when Paul Muni decided that he wanted to play Read More

The Oklahoma Kid

Actors: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Rosemary Lane, Donald Crisp, Harvey Stephens

Synopsis: James Cagney stars in the humorous Western The Oklahoma Kid, set during the land rush of 1893. John Kincaid (Hugh Sothern) and his son, Ned (Harvey Stephens), try to settle on a plot of land, but they are met by the villainous Whip McCord (Humphrey Bogart) and his band of miscreants. McCord runs a Read More

Of Human Hearts

Actors: Walter Huston, James Stewart, Beulah Bondi, Guy Kibbee, Charles Coburn

Synopsis: Clarence Brown directed this heart-tugging piece of Americana, set during the Civil War era. Walter Huston plays a stern family patriarch, a preacher who thrusts his family into poverty in order to set an example for his parishioners. As a result, his son (James Stewart) grows up to resent him. He 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