Margo WoodeFilmography

Go, Johnny Go!

Actors: Alan Freed, Ritchie Valens

Synopsis: Go, Johnny, Go! was second and last of a proposed trio of jukebox movies built around and co-produced by DJ Alan Freed. He plays himself in this rags-to-riches tale, told in flashback, of a young rock & roll singer named Johnny Melody (Jimmy Clanton), whose rise from life in an orphanage where no Read More

Bullwhip

Actors: Guy Madison, Rhonda Fleming, James Griffith, Don Beddoe, Peter Adams

Synopsis: When seen today, Bullwhip seems to be a dry run for the 1975 Jack Nicholson-Mary Steenburgen western Goin' South. To save himself from being hanged on a trumped-up murder charge, frontiersman Guy Madison agrees to marry whip-wielding spitfire Rhonda Fleming. Once the ceremony is over, Fleming Read More

Showdown at Boot Hill

Actors: Charles Bronson, Robert Hutton, John Carradine, Fintan Meyler

Synopsis: A pre-superstardom Charles Bronson plays a US marshal in Showdown at Boot Hill. Tracking down a wanted murderer to a small town, Bronson kills him in a shootout. It develops that the dead man, whose criminal past was unknown to his fellow townsfolk, was a popular and highly respected member of the Read More

Hell Bound

Actors: John Russell, June Blair, Stuart Whitman, Margo Woode, George Mather

Synopsis: Drugs are the focus of the exploitation film set in the Los Angeles harbor. The plot centers around a villain's evil scheme to raid a ship and abscond with surplus war drugs. To help him get backers for the heist, he begins showing criminals a slide show depicting his scheme. A young woman Read More

Bop Girl

Actors: Judy Tyler, Bobby Troup, Margo Woode, Lucien Littlefield, George O'Hanlon

Synopsis: Also known as Bop Girl, this diverting musical time capsule features several of the best Calypso performers of the late 1950s. Real-life jazz musician Bobby Troup stars as a college music student, writing a graduate thesis on rock 'n' roll. For research purposes, Troup persuades nightclub singer Judy Tyler Read More

At Gunpoint

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Dorothy Malone, Walter Brennan, Tommy Rettig, Skip Homeier

Synopsis: One of the best of the High Noon derivations, At Gunpoint is the story of reluctant hero Fred MacMurray. When a band of gunmen invade a small frontier town, storekeeper MacMurray fires off a lucky shot and kills the leader. Hailed as a hero, MacMurray realizes deep down that he's a coward. When Read More

Silver Lode

Actors: John Payne, Lizabeth Scott, Dan Duryea, Dolores Moran, Emile G. Meyer, Frank Sully

Synopsis: Next to Slightly Scarlet, Silver Lode is the best of the many 1950s collaborations between producer Benedict Bogaeus and director Allan Dwan. Clearly inspired by High Noon, the story covers three hours in the lives of a group of westerners. As the townsfolk prepare for the Fourth of July Read More

The Great Jesse James Raid

Actors: Willard Parker, Barbara Payton, Tom Neal, Wallace Ford, James Anderson

Synopsis: Within its own modest limits, The Great Jesse James Raid is a well-crafted western. Willard Parker plays Jesse James, who when the film opens is seen comfortably settled into respectable retirement. At the instigation of the unscrupulous Bob Ford (Jim Bannon), Jesse leaves hearth and home behind Read More

The Homesteaders

Actors: William "Wild Bill" Elliott, Emmett Lynn, George Wallace, Buzz Henry

Synopsis: After a number of overproduced, overlong western "specials," Wild Bill Elliot went back to basics with a series of Monogram/Allied Artists "B"s. In the 62-minute The Homesteaders, Mace Corbin (Elliot) is hired to pick up a consignment of dynamite on behalf of a group of Oregon homesteaders. But Read More

Fort Osage

Actors: Rod Cameron, Jane Nigh, Morris Ankrum, Douglas Kennedy, John Ridgely

Synopsis: Lesley Selander took time off from his directorial duties on Tim Holt's RKO western series to helm the Monogram oater Fort Osage. Rod Cameron stars as frontier scout Tim Clay, assigned to guide a wagon train through Indian territory. Clay knows that he's in for a lot of trouble because of the Read More

Wild Stallion

Actors: Ben Johnson, Edgar Buchanan, Martha Hyer, Hayden Rorke, Hugh Beaumont

Synopsis: Though Ben Johnson would have to wait until the 1970s before full stardom was bestowed upon him, 1952's Wild Stallion proved that, even at this early stage, Johnson had what it took to carry a picture. Harking back to his pre-movie rodeo days, Johnson plays inveterate horse-lover Dan Light, who Read More

Never Wave at a WAC

Actors: Rosalind Russell, Paul Douglas, Marie Wilson, William Ching, Arleen Whelan

Synopsis: Self-centered Washington socialite Rosalind Russell joins the WACS in order to be near her boyfriend William Ching, a GI stationed in Paris. Russell is certain that her DC connections will enable her to get out of the service as easily as she got in. Unfortunately for her, Russell's ex-husband Paul Douglas Read More

Confidence Girl

Actors: Tom Conway, Hillary Brooke, Eddie Marr, Dan Riss, Jack Kruschen

Synopsis: As was his custom, director Andrew L. Stone filmed most of Confidence Girl away from the studio on actual locations. The title character, Mary Webb (Hillary Brooke), is in league with sharpster Roger Kingsley (Tom Conway). The pair's latest scam is to pose as a clairvoyant and a detective while Read More

The Rose Bowl Story

Actors: Marshall Thompson, Vera Miles, Richard Rober, Natalie Wood, Keith Larsen

Synopsis: Nancy Thorne, 1952's Tournament of Roses queen, makes an extended guest appearances in this Monogram "special." In her first important film role, Vera Miles plays Denny Burke, one of Thorne's attendants, whom stuck-up football hero Steve Davis (Marshall Thompson) mistakes for an heiress. Upon Read More

Little Big Horn

Actors: Lloyd Bridges, John Ireland, Marie Windsor, Reed Hadley, Jim Davis

Synopsis: Ninety per cent of Little Big Horn takes place before Custer's Last Stand; thus, the emphasis is on character and suspense rather than spectacle (just as well, since spectacle was well out of the range of parsimonious Lippert Studios). Lloyd Bridges heads a small band of cavalrymen who desperately Read More

Canyon Raiders

Synopsis: Whip Wilson only gets to crack his trademark weapon once in this economic Western filmed in toto at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, CA. A government agent, Wilson arrives in the near ghost town of Tunis, where his friend (Jim Bannon) is in trouble with a couple of horse thieves. The Read More

No Sad Songs for Me

Actors: Margaret Sullavan, Wendell Corey, Viveca Lindfors, Natalie Wood, John McIntire

Synopsis: Rudolph Mate directs this sentimental melodrama about a ridiculously self-sacrificing wife based on the book by Ruth Southard and starring a 12-year-old Natalie Wood. Mary Scott (Margaret Sullavan) is pregnant when she finds out that she has terminal cancer with only a few months left to live. She Read More

Everybody's Dancin'

Actors: Spade Cooley, Richard Lane, Hal Derwin

Synopsis: By the standards of low-budget Lippert Productions, Everybody's Dancin' is an "A" picture. Country-western favorite Spade Cooley (who also co-produced and co-scripted) heads the enormous cast of this innocuous musical comedy. Setting the plot in motion is fast-talking Dick Lane, playing a phony Read More

When You're Smiling

Actors: Jerome Courtland, Frankie Laine, Lola Albright, Jerome Cowan

Synopsis: When You're Smiling is distinguished by the presence of several top recording artists of 1950. The wafer-thin plotline concerns the misadventures of Texan Gerald Durham (Jerome Courtland), who arrives in the Big City to learn the ropes of the music business. Durham not only ends up with a Read More

The Return of Jesse James

Actors: John Ireland, Ann Dvorak, Henry Hull, Hugh O'Brian, Reed Hadley

Synopsis: Return of Jesse James is an excellent example of how to get full value for money from an attenuated budget. John Ireland plays Johnny, a bank robber who closely resembles the late Jesse James. As Johnny's crime spree spreads, so do rumors that Jesse is still alive. This forces Jesse's brother Read More

The Baron of Arizona

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

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

Gunfire

Actors: Robert Lowery, Wally Vernon, Pamela Blake, Claude Stroud

Synopsis: Gunfire stars bantam-weight western favorite Don Barry as legendary outlaw Frank James. Actually, Frank is an ex-outlaw when the film begins; in fact, he's sworn never to use his guns again. But when somebody begins posing as Frank and pulling off a series of robberies....well, what's a man to do? Read More

State Department File 649

Actors: Virginia Bruce, William Lundigan, Jonathan Hale, Frank Ferguson, Richard Loo

Synopsis: Those scurrilous Chinese communists are up to their old tricks in the 1949 flagwaver State Department - File 649. William Lundigan plays Ken, an operative of the U.S. Foreign Service stationed in North China. Ken is one of several people trapped in a remote village by evil warlord Yun Usu (Richard Loo Read More

Bad Boy

Actors: Lloyd Nolan, Jane Wyatt, Audie Murphy, James Gleason, Stanley Clements

Synopsis: In 1947, Variety Clubs International, a showbiz charitable organization, was responsible for the frothy musical Variety Girl. The organization's 1949 film effort, Monogram's Bad Boy, is a bit on the grimmer side, but not too much so. Most of the film was lensed at the VCI's Boys Club Ranch at Read More

Joan of Arc

Actors: Ingrid Bergman, Selena Royle, José Ferrer, Ward Bond, Robert H. Barrat, Francis L. Sullivan, Jimmy Lydon, Rand Brooks, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: Director Victor Fleming's final film features Ingrid Bergman as a vivid and luminous Joan of Arc, the 15th-century French peasant girl who led the French in battle against the invading English, becoming a national hero. When she was captured, tortured, and ultimately executed by the English, she Read More

Force of Evil

Actors: John Garfield, Thomas Gomez, Marie Windsor, Roy Roberts, Beatrice Pearson

Synopsis: John Garfield, in the best performance of his career, portrays Joe Morse, an ambitious attorney who has long since abandoned his scruples in favor of monetary reward. Morse now represents the interests of crime boss Ben Tucker (Roy Roberts), who plans to take over the numbers racket in New York. Read More

Framed

Actors: Glenn Ford, Janis Carter, Barry Sullivan, Edgar Buchanan, Karen Morley

Synopsis: A man down on his luck runs afoul of a beautiful but dangerous woman in this superior low-budget film noir. Mike Lambert (Glenn Ford), while trained as a mining engineer, has fallen on hard times and is driving a truck when his rig breaks down in a small town. He soon meets the seductive Read More

Moss Rose

Actors: Norman Ainsley, Peggy Cummins, Victor Mature, Harry Allen, Ethel Barrymore, Billy Bevan, Vincent Price, Margo Woode, Clifford Brooke

Synopsis: A woman trying to solve the mystery of a friend's murder finds that she may be the next victim in this suspense story set in turn-of-the-century London. Belle Adair (Peggy Cummins) is a struggling showgirl willing to use her charms to snare an eligible bachelor. When her roommate is murdered Read More

Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman

Actors: Susan Hayward, Lee Bowman, Eddie Albert, Marsha Hunt, Carl Esmond

Synopsis: A woman struggles to reassemble her broken life in this drama that features Susan Hayward in her first starring role. The woman started out as a night-club singer, but abandoned her career after marrying a budding radio star. At first she does everything she can to insure his success, but when he Read More

The Return of Rusty

Wife Wanted

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a fading movie star plays a similar character in her farewell film, a B crime-drama about a lonely-hearts club that masks a racketeering operation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Somewhere in the Night

Actors: Charles Arnt, Richard Benedict, Whit Bissell, Richard Conte, Clancy Cooper

Synopsis: George Taylor (John Hodiak) is a war veteran suffering from amnesia with only two clues to his past: the bitter letter from a woman who hates him and another mysterious letter signed "Larry Cravat." Taylor goes to Los Angeles to meet Cravat. It turns out that Cravat is wanted for murder and the Read More

The Secret of the Whistler

Synopsis: The Whistler, mysterious narrator of the radio series of the same name, "knows many things" for he "walks by night." This time the unseen whistler knows all about mentally disturbed artist Richard Dix, whose first wife died under mysterious circumstances. Wife Number Two (Leslie Brooks) begins to Read More

Little Miss Big

Actors: Beverly Simmons, Fay Holden, Frank McHugh, Dorothy Morris

Synopsis: In this comedy, a spoiled, temperamental and filthy rich aunt is committed to an asylum by her nephew after he learns that she has willed her fortune to her dog. Fortunately, the aunt escapes and is sheltered by the family of a poor barber. It is the barber's daughter that soothes the savage Read More

The Mysterious Mr. Valentine

Synopsis: The Mysterious Mr. Valentine is a neat-and-tidy thriller from the Republic B-picture mills. Lovely Linda Stirling is driving down a country road when one of her tires blows out. This seemingly innocuous, everyday occurrence leads Linda into a labyrinth of murder, blackmail and intrigue. William Read More

The Bullfighters

Actors: Richard Lane, Carol Andrews, Diosa Costello

Synopsis: Laurel & Hardy's last American film is a marked improvement over their previous 20th Century-Fox features, though still not in the same league as their 1930s classics. Stan and Ollie play a couple of detectives from Peoria, Illinois, who fly to Mexico City to arrest the notorious Larceny Nell (Carol Andrews Read More

The Samurai

Synopsis: Samurai is an anti-Japanese film made during WW II about a traitorous Japanese orphan boy living in America who conspires to aid an invasion of California. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Spider

Actors: Richard Conte, Faye Marlowe, Kurt Kreuger, John Harvey, Martin Kosleck

Synopsis: In this mystery, a detective and his partner are hired by a carnival psychic to help her find her long-lost sister who vanished a few years back. It is the partner who solves the mystery, but before she can tell her boss, she is killed. The detective is accused of the crime and arrested. He Read More

State Fair

Actors: Jeanne Crain, Dana Andrews, Dick Haymes, Vivian Blaine, Charles Winninger

Synopsis: Twentieth Century-Fox couldn't make a film version of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's Oklahoma in 1945--that particular Broadway musical would remain a "hot ticket" until the end of the decade--so the studio did the next best thing by hiring Rodgers & Hammerstein to pen the score for the Read More

Lady, Let's Dance

Actors: Belita, James Ellison, Walter Catlett

Synopsis: Singing, dancing, and ice skating are featured in this musical that focuses on ice-skating sensation Belita. The story begins as she travels to a California resort where she has been hired as a replacement for a dance team. The resort is run by a handsome fellow. As a result of the gig, the skater Read More

It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog

Actors: Carole Landis, Allyn Joslyn, Margo Woode, Henry Morgan, Jean Wallace, Reed Hadley

Synopsis: This 20th Century-Fox cheapie stars Carole Landis as a pretty detective and Allyn Joslyn as a fast-talking reporter ever on the verge of losing his job. Landis is entrusted with a large, troublesome Doberman pinscher named Rodney, who is docile only around her. After numerous Disney-like Read More

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Actors: Carole Lombard, Robert Montgomery, Gene Raymond, Jack Carson, Philip Merivale

Synopsis: In Hitchcock's rare foray into comedy (courtesy of a wittily risque script by Norman Krasna), Mr. Smith (Robert Montgomery) makes the mistake of telling Mrs. Smith (Carole Lombard) that if he had it to do all over again, he might not have married her. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Smith discovers that Read More