Joseph H. LewisFilmography

Bonanza: The Quality of Mercy

Crew: Director

Actors: Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Richard Rust

Synopsis: Investigating a mine cave-in, Joe Cartwright finds his friend Seth Pruitt (Richard Rust standing over the dead body of Seth's future father-in-law. Admitting to murder, Seth explains that the dead man suffered extensive injuries in the cave-in, and begged to be killed rather than live out his life Read More

Terror in a Texas Town

Crew: Director

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 Rifleman: Duel of Honor

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Cesare Danova and Jack Elam guest star in this episode of the popular The Rifleman television series. The town of North Fork is startled by the arrival of a genuine Italian count (Danova) and no one more so than brutish cattle buyer Sim Groder (Jack Elam), who does his best to rile the newcomer. Read More

The Halliday Brand

Crew: Director

Actors: Joseph Cotten, Viveca Lindfors, Betsy Blair, Ward Bond, Bill Williams

Synopsis: It's "Freud on the Frontier" time in the tension-filled western The Halliday Brand. Ward Bond plays Big Dan, the despotic head of the Halliday clan, while Joseph Cotten and Betsy Blair costar as Halliday's offspring Daniel and Martha. Intensely anti-Indian, Big Dan encourages a mob to lynch Jivaro Read More

Seventh Cavalry

Crew: Director

Actors: Randolph Scott, Barbara Hale, Jay C. Flippen, Jeanette Nolan, Frank Faylen

Synopsis: Though the film's title may suggest otherwise, Seventh Cavalry takes place after Custer's Last Stand. Randolph Scott stars as Cavalry officer Tom Benson, who is branded a coward after supposedly deserting at the Little Big Horn. Benson hopes to redeem himself by personally leading a burial detail Read More

A Lawless Street

Crew: Director

Actors: Randolph Scott, Angela Lansbury, Warner Anderson, Jean Parker, Wallace Ford

Synopsis: Up until its surisingly mundane finale, A Lawless Street is one of the best of the Randolph Scott westerns of the 1950s. Scott plays famed marshal Calem Ware, whose strenous activities on behalf of law and order have exacted a toll on his personal life. Keeping the peace in the town of Medicine Read More

The Big Combo

Crew: Director

Actors: Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte, Brian Donlevy, Jean Wallace, Robert Middleton

Synopsis: Police Lt. Leonard Diamond (Cornel Wilde) is criticized by his superior Capt. Peterson (Robert Middleton) for his obsessive but fruitless investigation of organized crime boss Mr. Brown (Richard Conte). Peterson calls it a waste of the taxpayers' money motivated by Diamond's love for Brown's Read More

Cry of the Hunted

Crew: Director

Actors: Vittorio Gassman, Barry Sullivan, Polly Bergen, William Conrad, Mary Zavian

Synopsis: On the whole, the MGM B product of the 1950s contained some of the studio's best-ever "small" pictures. Filmed on location in the Louisana swamplands, Cry of the Hunted boils down to an extended chase, with escaped convict Vittorio Gassman as the fox and sheriff Barry Sullivan as the hound. Sullivan Read More

Desperate Search

Crew: Director

Actors: Howard Keel, Jane Greer, Patricia Medina, Keenan Wynn, Robert Burton

Synopsis: Desperate Search is a lower-echelon MGM programmer, elevated by the crisp direction of cult favorite Joseph H. Lewis. Jane Greer plays the mother of two small children who are on board an airliner which crashes. The children survive, but are stranded in the middle of the Canadian wilderness. With Read More

Retreat, Hell!

Crew: Director

Actors: Frank Lovejoy, Richard Carlson, Russ Tamblyn, Anita Louise, Ned Young

Synopsis: Retreat, Hell! is out of favor with most disciples of director Joseph H. Lewis, partly because it was a major-studio release, whereas Lewis' cult classics were made on shoestring budgets for independent producers. Despite this "handicap," Retreat, Hell! holds up beautifully when seen today. The Read More

A Lady without Passport

Crew: Director

Actors: Hedy Lamarr, John Hodiak, James Craig, George Macready, Steven Geray

Synopsis: A Lady Without Passport stars Hedy Lamarr in the title role. Lamarr plays Marianne Lorress, a concentration-camp refugee who takes up residence in Cuba while waiting permission to enter the U.S. Immigration agent Pete Karczag (John Hodiak) decides to use Marianne as bait to entrap Palinov (George Macready Read More

The Undercover Man

Crew: Director

Actors: Glenn Ford, Nina Foch, James Whitmore, Barry Kelley, David Wolfe

Synopsis: Eliot Ness may have gotten lots of publicity (especially long after the fact) for breaking the Capone mob, but as Joseph H. Lewis' The Undercover Man reminds us, it was the accountants and the numbers-crunchers that brought down Capone and his mob. Frank Warren (Glenn Ford) started out as an Read More

Gun Crazy

Crew: Director

Actors: Peggy Cummins, John Dall, Berry Kroeger, Morris Carnovsky, Anabel Shaw

Synopsis: The definitive Joseph H. Lewis-directed melodrama, Gun Crazy is the "Bonnie and Clyde" story retooled for the disillusioned postwar generation. John Dall plays a timorous, emotionally disturbed World War II veteran who has had a lifelong fixation with guns. He meets a kindred spirit in carnival Read More

The Return of October

Crew: Director

Actors: Glenn Ford, Terry Moore, Albert Sharpe, Dame May Whitty, Henry O'Neill

Synopsis: In this whimsical fantasy, a young girl suddenly discovers that her horse is really a reincarnation of her beloved uncle who upon his death bed was heard to say that if could ever come back, he would want to be a race horse that wins the Kentucky Derby. When the girl's relatives learn of her Read More

The Swordsman

Crew: Director

Actors: Larry Parks, Ellen Drew, George Macready, Edgar Buchanan, Ray Collins

Synopsis: Capitalizing on Larry Parks' "overnight" success in The Jolson Story, Columbia Pictures rushed their hottest new star from one picture to another, whether he was suited to the role or not. In The Swordsman, Parks makes a valiant stab at swashbucklery, playing an 18th-century Scottish aristocrat Read More

So Dark the Night

Crew: Director

Actors: Steven Geray, Micheline Cheirel, Eugene Borden, Ann Codee, Egon Brecher

Synopsis: This well-plotted and executed film noir suffered from its lack of star power, but has become something of a cult classic. Steven Geray stars as Henri Cassin, a French detective from the Paris Surete, who takes his first vacation in many years to St. Margot and the country inn of the Read More

The Falcon in San Francisco

Crew: Director

Actors: Tom Conway, Rita Corday, Edward S. Brophy, Fay Helm

Synopsis: Filmed extensively on location, The Falcon in San Francisco is one of the best of RKO Radio's "Falcon" series. This time around, amateur sleuth Tom Lawrence (Tom Conway), aka The Falcon, comes to the aid of 10-year-old Annie Marshall (Sharyn Moffet). While trying to solve the murder of Annie's Read More

My Name Is Julia Ross

Crew: Director

Actors: Nina Foch, Dame May Whitty, George Macready, Roland Varno, Anita Bolster

Synopsis: Cult figure and B-movie auteur Joseph H. Lewis directed this taut exercise in film noir. Julia Ross (Nina Foch), an American receiving medical treatment in London, finds herself short on money and takes a job as secretary for Mrs. Hughes (May Whitty), the matriarch of a large estate. Julie meets Read More

Minstrel Man

Crew: Director

Actors: Benny Fields, Gladys George, Alan Dinehart, Judy Clark

Synopsis: Unusually elaborate for a PRC film, Minstrel Man is a lively musical drama built around the talents of veteran vaudevillian Benny Fields. The star is cast as Dixie Boy Johnson, who rises from the ranks of minstrel shows to become a top Broadway attraction. On the opening night of his greatest Read More

The Mad Doctor of Market Street

Crew: Director

Actors: Una Merkel, Lionel Atwill, Nat Pendleton, Claire Dodd, Richard Davies

Synopsis: Considering the fact that it was the only Universal horror film directed by cult favorite Joseph H. Lewis, it's a shame that Mad Doctor of Market Street isn't better than it is. Lionel Atwill dominates the proceedings as Dr. Benson, an addlepated medico obsessed with the notion of restoring the Read More

Secrets of a Co-Ed

Crew: Director

Actors: Tina Thayer, Rick Vallin, Russell Hoyt, Marcia Mae Jones

Synopsis: College co-ed Brenta (Tina Thayer) is the daughter of district attorney Reynolds (Otto Kruger). In defiance of her dad's wishes, Brenta begins dating underworld figure Nick (Rick Vallin), the covert head of a gambling ring. Rather than see his daughter's reputation ruined by the slimy Nick Read More

The Silver Bullet

Crew: Director

Actors: Johnny Mack Brown, Fuzzy Knight, William Farnum, Jennifer Holt, LeRoy Mason

Synopsis: Despite its title and the fact that it was made by Universal Studios, 1942's The Silver Bullet has nothing to do with werewolves. This is a western, starring Johnny Mack Brown as the hero and Fuzzy Knight as his comical sidekick. Brown seeks to avenge the death of his father, who was shot in the Read More

Bombs Over Burma

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Noel Madison, Leslie Denison, Ned Young, Dan Seymour

Synopsis: Of the two PRC Anna May Wong vehicles filmed during the 1942-43 season, Bombs Over Burma is marginally the best, thanks to the cinematic savvy of writer-director Joseph H. Lewis. Relying more on strong visuals than clever dialogue, the film details the contributions of the courageous Chinese Read More

Boss of Hangtown Mesa

Crew: Director

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

Criminals Within

Crew: Director

Actors: Eric Linden, Ann Doran, Constance Worth, Donald Curtis, Weldon Heyburn

Synopsis: Talented B-picture director Joseph H. Lewis wasn't yet in the "auteur" class when he helmed the PRC quickie Criminals Within. Eternal juvenile Eric Linden plays Greg, an Army draftee accused of stealing a top-secret document. Escaping from the stockade, Greg tries to clear himself by exposing the Read More

Arizona Cyclone

Crew: Director

Actors: Johnny Mack Brown, Fuzzy Knight, Nell O'Day, Kathryn Adams, Herbert Rawlinson

Synopsis: Arizona Cyclone is usually cited as the best of Johnny Mack Brown's Universal western series, if only because of the inventive direction of Joseph H. Lewis. Brown is cast as Tom, owner of a wagon-freight line who business is coveted by crooked banker Quirt (Dick Curtis). The villain will stop at Read More

Pride of the Bowery

Crew: Director

Actors: Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Donald Haines, Carleton Young, Ken Howell

Synopsis: Muggs Maloney (Leo Gorcey) is supposed to be preparing for the Golden Gloves competition but he doesn't want to train anymore in a stuffy slum building. His friend Danny (Bobby Jordan) lures him upstate to what he thinks is going to be a training camp, but instead turns out to be a Civilian Read More

The Invisible Ghost

Crew: Director

Actors: Bela Lugosi, Polly Ann Young, John McGuire, Clarence Muse, Terry Walker

Synopsis: Invisible Ghost is far from the best of Bela Lugosi's Monogram vehicles (if indeed there is such a thing), but with Joseph H. Lewis at the controls it is far and away the best directed. Lugosi is cast as Kessler, an otherwise normal gentleman who goes balmy whenever he thinks about his late Read More

That Gang of Mine

Crew: Director

Actors: Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Clarence Muse, Dave "Tex" O'Brien, Joyce Bryant

Synopsis: Despite the ridicule of the rest of the East Side Kids, Mugs Maloney (Leo Gorcey) aspires to be a jockey. He gets his chance with the help of elderly stablehand Ben (Clarence Muse), the owner of a thoroughbred race horse. Ben agrees to train Mugs on the condition that the rest of the gang raise Read More

The Return of Wild Bill

Crew: Director

Actors: Iris Meredith, George Lloyd, Luana Walters, Edward J. Le Saint

Synopsis: Like its predecessor The Man From Tumbleweeds, the 1940 Bill Elliot western The Return of Wild Bill was directed by Joseph H. Lewis, whose innovative choice of camera angles was always well worth watching. Returning to his home town after a long absence, Wild Bill Saunders (Elliot) discovers that Read More

The Man from Tumbleweeds

Crew: Director

Actors: Iris Meredith, Francis Walker

Synopsis: In the third of his four Wild Bill Saunders Westerns, Bill Elliott, "the Peaceable Man," is assigned by Governor Dawson (Don Beddoe) to put a stop to the reign of terror, including cold-blooded murder, perpetrated by Powder Kilgore (Raphael Bennett). When the state legislature refuses to fund a Read More

Two-Fisted Rangers

Crew: Director

Actors: Charles Starrett, Iris Meredith, Bob Nolan, Kenneth MacDonald, Dick Curtis

Synopsis: Two-Fisted Rangers was the first of a handful of Charles Starrett westerns to be lifted from the routine by the camera pyrotechnics of director Joseph H. Lewis. The story is usual one about hero Thad Lawson (Starrett) avenging the death of his brother at the hands of villainous Jack Rand (Kenneth Read More

Texas Stagecoach

Crew: Director

Actors: Charles Starrett, Iris Meredith, Bob Nolan, Dick Curtis

Synopsis: Texas Stagecoach was one of a group of 1940 Charles Starrett westerns directed by cult favorite Joseph H. Lewis. Outside of this, there's very little new herein. Starrett once more plays a frontier do-gooder who champions the cause of heroine Iris Meredith-but only after he and Miss Meredith spend Read More

Boys of the City

Crew: Director

Actors: Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Dave "Tex" O'Brien, George Humbert, Hally Chester, Frankie Burke

Synopsis: In their second Monogram caper, Knuckles (Dave O'Brien) and the East Side Kids (Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Sunshine Sammy Morrison, et al.) are on their way to camp in the Adirondacks when they offer a lift to Judge Parker (Forrest Taylor) and his ward Louise (Inna Gest), who are having car Read More

Blazing Six Shooters

Crew: Director

Actors: Iris Meredith, Dick Curtis, Al Bridge, George Cleveland

Synopsis: Blazing Six Shooters is a by-the-numbers Charles Starrett western, with the same sets, supporting actors and plot devices already seen in so many earlier Starretts. The story revolves around a valuable silver deposit, located between two ranches. Villain Lash Bender (Dick Curtis) cooks up a scheme Read More

The Spy Ring

Crew: Director

Actors: William Hall, Jane Wyman, Esther Ralston, Leon Ames, Ben Alexander

Synopsis: Spy Ring (aka International Spy) was designed as a trial balloon for new Universal contractee William Hall. He is cast as Captain Todd Hayden, star player of an army-camp polo team. What Hayden doesn't know is that some of his polo cronies are enemy spies, anxious to steal the plans for a Read More

The Last Stand

Crew: Director

Actors: Bob Baker, Constance Moore, Fuzzy Knight, Earl Hodgins, Forrest Taylor

Synopsis: The Last Stand is among the better Bob Baker westerns, with the star getting to show off his athletic prowess as well as his singing skills. The story borrows a page from the repertoire of Bob Steele, with hero Tip (Baker) trying to find out who murdered his father. To expedite this, Tip and his Read More

Border Wolves

Crew: Director

Actors: Bob Baker, Constance Moore, Fuzzy Knight, Dick Jones, Willie Fung

Synopsis: Universal's newest singing cowboy Bob Baker heads the cast of Border Wolves. The film starts off like gangbusters, with an outlaw attack on a covered wagon (largely culled from Universal's stock-footage vault). Falsely accused of masterminding the attack, young Rusty Reynolds (Baker) vows to track Read More

Courage of the West

Crew: Director

Actors: Bob Baker, Lois January, John Farrell MacDonald, Fuzzy Knight, Carl Stockdale

Synopsis: Nothing of cult director Joseph H. Lewis' much-vaunted flair is on display in this average musical Western, the screen debut of Bob Baker, Universal's dark-haired answer to Gene Autry. Baker -- who had beaten a young Roy Rogers for the berth at Universal -- had sung on the National Barn Dance Read More

Singing Outlaw

Crew: Director

Actors: Bob Baker, Joan Barclay, Fuzzy Knight, Carl Stockdale, Harry Woods

Synopsis: In this western, a singing outlaw and a US marshal kill each other in a fight. Their demise is witnessed by an opportunistic fellow who assumes the dead lawman's identity. He soon finds himself in over his head when he tries to stop cattle rustlers and gain the love of a rancher's daughter. Read More

Navy Spy

Crew: Director

Actors: Conrad Nagel, Eleanor Hunt, Judith Allen, Phil Dunham

The Devil on Horseback

Crew: Editor

Synopsis: This musical tells the story of Campo wooing Damita from Keating with songs "So Divine," "Out of the Hills," "The Love Fiesta," "Oh Bella Mia." (Harry Tobias, Jack Stern) ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Man of the Frontier

Crew: Editor

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Boothe Howard, Jack Kennedy

Synopsis: Singing cowboy Gene Autry stars in this formula western as Gene Autry (so far, so good), who teams up with his buddy Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) to investigate a series of accidents which have stopped construction of a dam being constructed by Sam Flint (George Baxter) and claimed the lives Read More

King of the Pecos

Crew: Editor

Synopsis: John Wayne stars in this Western as a law student seeking revenge on the ruthless land baron who killed his parents; after he is thwarted in the courts, he chooses to explore frontier justice instead. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Laughing Irish Eyes

Crew: Editor

Actors: Phil Regan, Walter "Judge" Kelly, Evelyn Knapp, Ray Walker, Mary Gordon

Synopsis: Singer-bandleader Phil Regan, Republic Pictures's answer to Dick Powell, stars in Laughing Irish Eyes. Regan plays Danny O'Keefe, a pugnacious County Cork blacksmith who rises to prizefighting fame in the U.S. Fight manager Pat Kelly (Walter C. Kelly) isn't above using his pretty daughter Peggy (Evelyn Knapp Read More

The Headline Woman

Crew: Editor

Actors: Heather Angel, Roger Pryor, Jack LaRue, Ford Sterling, Conway Tearle

Synopsis: This typically lightning-paced Mascot Studios production stars Heather Angel as the title character, a thrill-seeking socialite named Myrna Van Buren. During a raid on a gambling joint, Myrna witnesses the murder of gambler Johnny Corinti (Theodore Von Eltz). Hoping to get an exclusive story Read More

One Frightened Night

Crew: Editor

Actors: Charles Grapewin, Mary Carlisle, Arthur Hohl, Evelyn Knapp, Wallace Ford

Synopsis: Hoping to avoid the new inheritance tax, eccentric millionaire Jasper Whyte (Charles Grapewin) gathers together his greedy relatives and associates and announces that he intends to give away his fortune to his long-lost granddaughter Doris -- but if she doesn't show up for the reading of the will Read More

Daniel Boone

Crew: Editor

Actors: George O'Brien, Heather Angel, John Carradine, Ralph Forbes, Clarence Muse

Synopsis: The great wilderness explorer Daniel Boone has many exciting adventures in this family-oriented outdoor actioner that primarily centers on the big man's attempts to quell an Indian uprising and capture the ornery villain who has been stirring up all the trouble. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Streamline Express

Crew: Editor

Actors: Evelyn Venable, Victor Jory, Esther Ralston, Ralph Forbes, Sidney Blackmer

Synopsis: Grand Hotel meets Twentieth Century in this Mascot feature. Evelyn Venable stars as Patricia Wells, a tempestuous stage actress who impulsively elopes on opening night of her newest play. Wells and her new fiancée Fred Arnold (Ralph Forbes) book adjoining compartments on the Streamline Express Read More

Harmony Lane

Crew: Editor

Actors: Douglass Montgomery, Evelyn Venable, Adrienne Ames, Joseph Cawthorn, William Frawley

Synopsis: Produced on a reasonably lavish scale by the usually parsimonious Mascot Pictures, Harmony Lane was the first of three filmed biographies of 19th-century songwriter Stephen Foster (the others were Fox's Swanee River [1939] and 1952's I Dream of Jeannie, produced by Mascot's successor, Republic Read More

Ladies Crave Excitement

Crew: Editor

Actors: Norman Foster, Evelyn Knapp, Esther Ralston, Eric Linden, Purnell Pratt

Synopsis: Perhaps the best of Mascot Pictures' feature-film releases, Ladies Crave Excitement is also one of the fastest 69 minutes ever put on film. Norman Foster and Eddie Nugent play Don and Bob, a pair of ace newsreel cameraman for The March of Events, forever keeping one step ahead of their Read More