Norman Willis Filmography

Voodoo Woman

Actors: Marla English, Tom Conway, Lance Fuller

Synopsis: Advertised as an out-and-out horror picture, Voodoo Woman is more of a "greed and revenge" melodrama than anything else. Mad scientist Dr. Roland Gerard (Tom Conway) squirrels himself away in the jungle, hoping to create a race of super-beings. What he comes up with is a passel of hideous-looking Read More

A Hatful of Rain

Actors: Eva Marie Saint, Don Murray, Anthony Franciosa, Lloyd Nolan, Henry Silva

Synopsis: A Hatful of Rain, based on the stage play by Michael V. Gazzo, is the story of a drug addict's debilitating effect on his family. Don Murray has managed to keep his addiction secret from his pregnant wife Eva Marie Saint and his boorish father Lloyd Nolan, but Murray's brother Anthony Franciosa Read More

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Fog Closing In

Synopsis: Having had a premonition of disaster, Mary Summers (Phyllis Thaxter) begs her husband Arthur (Paul Langton) not to leave her home alone while he goes out of town on business. But oafish Arthur thinks that Mary is being ridiculous, and refuses her request. Sure enough, the moment Mary is alone, the Read More

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Revenge

Synopsis: Alfred Hitchcock himself directed the first half-hour episode of his long-running suspense anthology. Heading the cast of Revenge is Ralph Meeker as aircraft worker Carl Spann and Vera Miles (The Wrong Man, Psycho) as Carl's ballerina wife Elsa. Having given up his job to care for Elsa after she Read More

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Case of Mr. Pelham

Synopsis: Wealthy Walter Pelham (Tom Ewell) finds out that someone is going around impersonating him. Hoping to foil his "double," Pelham goes to great and strenuous lengths, changing his own appearance, his personal habits and quirks, and even his handwriting. Unfortunately, the impostor always seems to be Read More

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Santa and the Tenth Avenue Kid

Synopsis: Barry Fitzgerald, who made his film debut in Alfred Hitchcock's 1930 theatrical film Juno and the Paycock, guests in this episode as Stretch Sears, a recently paroled thief. With Christmas approaching, Stretch has no trouble landing a job as a Santa at a big department store. But it isn't the Read More

Pals and Gals

Synopsis: This two-reel Western spoof is a remake with plenty of stock footage of The Three Stooges earlier Out West (1947) and Goofs and Saddles (1937). The Stooges journey West and rescue three gals from the notorious Barker gang. Norma Randall and Ruth Godfrey appear in added 1954 footage. ~ Hans J. Read More

Silver River

Actors: Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Thomas Mitchell, Bruce Bennett, Tom D'Andrea

Synopsis: Love leads a man to his most evil deeds and forces him to change his ways in this Western. After being handed a dishonorable discharge during the Civil War, Mike McComb (Errol Flynn) becomes a professional gambler and follows a path of ruthless action to get what he wants. After moving out West Read More

Lulu Belle

Actors: Dorothy Lamour, George Montgomery, Albert Dekker, Otto Kruger, Glenda Farrell

Synopsis: In this musical drama set at the turn-of-the-century, a saloon singer marries a wealthy attorney and then begins fooling around with a series of lovers, including a boxier, his manager, and a powerful owner of a railroad who takes her to New York where she becomes a Broadway star. Unfortunately Read More

Bandits of Dark Canyon

Actors: Allan Lane, Bob Steele, Eddy Waller, John Hamilton

Synopsis: Back to his standard Rocky Lane characterization after a brief series of "Red Ryder" westerns, Allan Lane stars in Republic's Bandits of Dark Canyon. In this outing, Lane takes it upon himself to clear ex-convict Ed Archer (Bob Steele) of a trumped-up murder charge. Making things easier is the Read More

Cheyenne

Actors: John Alvin, Bruce Bennett, Monte Blue, John Compton, Tom Fadden

Synopsis: A mysterious crook by the name of "The Poet" is robbing Wells Fargo stages and creating havoc in the Old West. The sheriff is having no luck discovering the desperado's identity; when he comes across James Wylie (Dennis Morgan), a gambler who is running from the law in Carson City, he blackmails Read More

Bowery Buckaroos

Actors: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell, Billy Benedict

Synopsis: Bowery Buckaroos would have the viewer believe that pint-sized sweetshop proprietor Louie Dumbrowski (Bernard Gorcey), perennial patsy for the Bowery Boys, is actually notorious western desperado Louie the Lout. When sheriff Luke Barlow (Russell Simpson) rides into the Bowery to arrest Louie for Read More

Little Miss Broadway

Synopsis: In this musical, an orphan is under the false impression that her newly found relatives are filthy rich. Lacking the heart to tell her the truth, the relatives move into an abandoned mansion to entertain her and her fiance. Songs include: "That's Good Enough for Me", "A Man Is a Brother to a Read More

Heading West

The Plainsman and the Lady

Actors: Don "Red" Barry, Andy Clyde, William B. Davidson, Byron Foulger

Synopsis: The 87-minute running time of Plainsman and the Lady was evidence aplenty that this was no mere Republic B western. William Elliot (formerly and latterly "Wild Bill" Elliot) stars as cattleman Sam Cotten, who offers his services-and his six-guns-to the newly formed Pony Express. Erudite villain Read More

Traveltalks: Old New Mexico

Apology for Murder

Actors: Ann Savage, Hugh Beaumont, Charles D. Brown, Russell Hicks, Pierre Watkin

Synopsis: PRC's Apology for Murder is aptly named: the production values in this 67-minute quickie are pretty sorry. If you're willing to look past the mildewed sets and murky lighting, however, this well-paced film noir is pretty enjoyable. Hugh Beaumont (yes, that Hugh Beaumont) plays a tough Read More

In Old New Mexico

Actors: Duncan Renaldo, Martin Garralaga, Gwen Kenyon, Norman Willis

Synopsis: The second of Monogram's 1945 trio of "Cisco Kid" westerns, In Old New Mexico stars Duncan Renaldo as Cisco and Martin Garralaga as Pancho. The plot concentrates on heroine Ellen (Gwen Kenyon), a nurse accused of murder. Gallant Cisco "kidnaps" Ellen from the authorities, then sets about to prove Read More

San Antonio

Actors: Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, S.Z. Sakall, Victor Francen, Florence Bates, Paul Kelly

Synopsis: In his final epic Western, Errol Flynn plays cattleman Clay Hardin, who, on a trek south of the border, has discovered that San Antonio saloon proprietor Roy Stuart (Paul Kelly) is actually a cattle rustler of major proportions. Determined to bring Stuart to justice, Clay runs into difficulties Read More

Roaring Guns

The Falcon out West

Actors: Tom Conway, Carol Gallagher, Barbara Hale, Joan Barclay, Cliff Clark

Synopsis: The murder of a wealthy, much-married rancher (Lyle Talbot) in a posh Manhattan nightclub is the catalyst for The Falcon Out West. Amateur sleuth Tom Lawrence (Tom Conway), aka The Falcon, deduces that the victim was killed with rattlesnake venom. He follows the trail of evidence to a dude ranch Read More

Gentle Annie

Actors: James Craig, Donna Reed, Marjorie Main, Henry Morgan

Synopsis: Marjorie Main's first solo starring vehicle for MGM finds the formidable character actress cast as a tough-but-tender female outlaw. Living on her tumbledown ranch in Oklahoma territory, Annie Goss (Main) shelters her desperado sons (Henry Morgan, Paul Langton) from the authorities. While planning Read More

Frontier Badmen

Actors: Robert Paige, Anne Gwynne, Noah Beery, Jr., Diana Barrymore, Leo Carrillo

Synopsis: Cattlemen Robert Paige and Noah Beery Jr. run up against a shady syndicate, set up to squash the dealing between independent dealers and cattle buyers. Paige sets up his own exchange, in direct competition with cattle baron Thomas Gomez. He also falls in love with Anne Gwynne, daughter of a man Read More

Hail to the Rangers

Actors: Charles Starrett, Arthur Hunnicutt, Norman Willis

Synopsis: In this western, fake settlers make themselves at home on an ex-ranger's ranch and drive him away. A shady newspaper publisher and a gambler then conspire to take over the land. Fortunately, another ranger endeavors to help his pal. Enlisting the aide of his fellow rangers, they get oust the Read More

King of the Cowboys

Actors: Roy Rogers, Smiley Burnette, Peggy Moran, Gerald Mohr

Synopsis: The budget for this fine Roy Rogers Western was doubled and the title changed from Starlight on the Trail to the more descriptive King of the Cowboys, mainly due to Rogers' great reception on a personal appearance tour in the fall of 1942. Republic had lost Gene Autry to the war effort and this Read More

Johnny Come Lately

Actors: James Cagney, Grace George, Marjorie Main, Hattie McDaniel, Marjorie Lord, Edward McNamara

Synopsis: For his first independently-produced starring effort, James Cagney chose the sentimental drama Johnny Come Lately. Cagney plays itinerant newspaperman Tom Richards, who wanders into a small corruption-ridden town. Striking up a friendship with elderly Vinnie McLeod (Grace George in her only movie Read More

The Avenging Rider

Actors: Tim Holt, Ann Summers, Davison Clark, Norman Willis

Synopsis: Tim Holt's third RKO Radio western for 1943 was The Avenging Rider. The story finds Holt trying to clear himself and his partner Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards of a robbery-murder rap. The actual villains each carry a portion of a Five of Spades, so that they can identify themselves when they claim Read More

I Escaped from the Gestapo

Actors: Dean Jagger, John Carradine, Mary Brian, Bill Henry, Sidney Blackmer

Synopsis: With a title like I Escaped from the Gestapo, it's a wonder that there's any suspense at all in this Monogram programmer. Dean Jagger stars as Lane, an imprisoned counterfeiter who is sprung from jail by a group of sinister-looking gentlemen. It soon develops that Lane is expected to apply his Read More

I Was Framed

Actors: Michael Ames, Julie Bishop, Regis Toomey, John Harmon

Synopsis: I Was Framed was a heavily disguised remake of Dust Be My Destiny, filmed only three years earlier. Michael Ames stars in the old John Garfield role, originally a drifter named Joe Bell but here a crusading reporter named Ken Marshall. Framed by a corrupt politician for a crime he dind't commit Read More

Overland to Deadwood

The Living Ghost

Actors: James Dunn

Synopsis: A true "guilty pleasure" crime melodrama with horror movie touches, the low-budget The Living Ghost stars future Academy award-winner James Dunn as Nick Trayne, a retired detective hired to look into the mysterious disappearance of banker Walter Craig. Working with Craig's pert secretary Billie Read More

They All Kissed the Bride

Actors: Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas, Roland Young, Billie Burke, Helen Parrish, Allen Jenkins

Synopsis: Joan Crawford is the kissable bride of the title--but when the film opens, matrimony is the farthest thing from her mind. Crawford becomes a big-time executive upon inheriting her father's trucking business, which leaves her no time for such trivialities as romance. To enhance her business Read More

Down Rio Grande Way

Actors: Charles Starrett, Russell Hayden, Britt Wood, Norman Willis

Synopsis: Slightly more elaborate than most Charles Starrett westerns, Down Rio Grande Way is set in the mid-19th century, when the Republic of Texas was poised to join the Union. Starrett plays Texas Ranger Steve Martin (!), who is dispatched to a "renegade" Texas country that refuses to become part of the Read More

Outlaws of the Panhandle

Actors: Charles Starrett, Frances Robinson, Stanley Brown, Norman Willis, Ray Teal

Synopsis: Outlaws of the Pandhandle was the last of Charles Starrett's "formula" westerns for Columbia: hereafter, Starrett would be seen only in the guise of frontier medico Steven Monroe or masked do-gooder The Durango Kid. For the moment, however, the star is cast as Jim Endicott, bound and determined to Read More

Twilight on the Trail

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, Andy Clyde, Brad King, Wanda McKay, Jack Rockwell

Synopsis: Twilight on the Trail was one of three "Hopalong Cassidy" entries tradeshown in New York during the last two weeks of September, 1941 (the other two were Stick to Your Guns and Secret of the Wastelands). William Boyd returns as Hoppy, with Brad King and Andy Clyde as his sidekicks Johny and Read More

Beyond the Sacramento

Actors: Art Mix, Bud Osborne, Evelyn Keyes, Dub Taylor, Blackjack Ward, George McKay, John Dilson, Bradley Page, Jack Low

Synopsis: That "Peaceable Man," William "Wild Bill" Elliott, once again plays Wild Bill Hickock in this fine B-Western from Columbia Pictures. This time, sidekick Cannonball (Dub Taylor) discovers that two old enemies, swindlers Cord Crowley (Bradley Page) and Jeff Adams (Frank LaRue), are fooling the good Read More

Gauchos of El Dorado

Actors: Bob Steele, Tom Tyler, Rufe Davis, Lois Collier, Duncan Renaldo

Synopsis: It's "The Three Mesquiteers" again, this time played by Bob Steele (as Tucson Smith), Tom Tyler (as Stony Brooke) and Rufe Davis (as Lullaby Joslin). It all begins when young bank robber Gaucho (played by ex-Mesquiteer Duncan Renaldo) is mortally wounded during a holdup. As the lad lays dying, he Read More

The Iron Claw

Synopsis: One of silent serial queen Pearl White's best efforts, The Iron Claw was remade by Columbia Pictures starring brunette Joyce Bryant as the imperiled heroine. Bryant, alas, was no Pearl White, and needed a strong male lead in order to defeat that master criminal, the Iron Claw. She found him in Read More

The House Across the Bay

Actors: George Raft, Joan Bennett, Lloyd Nolan, Gladys George, Walter Pidgeon

Synopsis: Producer Walter Wanger's House Across the Bay serves as an excellent showcase for Wanger's then-wife Joan Bennett. She is cast as nightclub singer Brenda Bentley, the wife of high-rolling gambler Steve Lawrett (George Raft). When Steve is railroaded into Alcatraz by duplicitous attorney Slant Read More

They Drive by Night

Actors: George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Gale Page

Synopsis: They just don't make 'em like They Drive By Night anymore. This slam-bang Warner Bros. attraction stars George Raft and Humphrey Bogart as Joe and Paul Fabrini, owners of a small but scrappy trucking firm. The film deftly combines comedy with thrills for the first half-hour or so, as the Fabrini Read More

You, the People

Synopsis: This episode in MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series takes on election fraud. It gives a behind-the-scenes account of how gangsters and crooked politicians conspire to fix elections and install their own candidates instead of the ones who were legally elected and warns that public apathy can lead to Read More

Little Miss Pinkerton

Actors: Bobby Blake, Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas, Billy "Froggy" Laughlin, Janet Burston, Norman Willis

Synopsis: The janitor of the Greenpoint department store is murdered during a robbery, and Our Gang members Mickey (Robert Blake), Froggy (Billy Laughlin), Buckwheat (Billie Thomas), and Janet Burston witness the crime. The thieves (Norman Willis and Dick Rich) take the boys hostage, but Janet escapes and Read More

King of the Royal Mounted

Synopsis: The twelve-chapter serial King of the Royal Mounted stars Allan Lane as Zane Grey's fictional Canadian Mountie Sergeant King. The story involves King hunting down some foreign spies who have entered Canada in order to take back materials that will help wage war against Great Britain. ~ Perry Read More

Legion of the Lawless

Actors: George O'Brien, Virginia Vale, Herbert Heywood, Norman Willis, Hugh Sothern

Synopsis: George O'Brien's first 1940 western release, Legion of the Lawless uses its frontier trappings for a plea against vigilante justice-specifically, lynching. A group of masked night riders terrorize the homesteaders in the 19th century village of Iveston, all the while insisting that they're merely Read More

The Grapes of Wrath

Actors: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charles Grapewin, Doris Bowden

Synopsis: The adaptation of Nobel Prize-winner John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of dirt-poor Dust Bowl migrants by 4-time Oscar-winning director John Ford starred Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, who opens the movie returning to his Oklahoma home after serving jail time for manslaughter. En route, Tom Read More

Homicide Bureau

Actors: Bruce Cabot, Rita Hayworth, Marc Lawrence, Richard Fiske, Moroni Olsen

Synopsis: On the verge of superstardom, Rita Hayworth played in scores of minor dramas like Homicide Bureau, an entertaining little crime story released a scant three months before her big breakthrough, Howard Hawk's Only Angels Have Wings. She plays J.G. Bliss, a girl scientist assigned to help the city's Read More

Convict's Code

Actors: Robert Kent, Anne Nagel, Sidney Blackmer, Victor Kilian, Norman Willis

Synopsis: Monogram's seemingly endless series of inexpensive crime mellers continued with Convict's Code. Robert Kent plays a star football player who is framed by gamblers on a robbery charge and sentenced to prison. Serving three years behind bars, Kent is paroled in the custody of the same gambling boss (Sidney Blackmer Read More

Tell No Tales

Actors: Melvyn Douglas, Louise Platt, Gene Lockhart, Douglas Dumbrille, Florence George

Synopsis: A model of precision and economy, the MGM "B" thriller Tell No Tales represented the feature-film directorial debut of former actor Leslie Fenton. Reportedly an expansion of a "Crime Does Not Pay" 2-reeler, the story follows editor Michael Cassidy (Melvyn Douglas) as he tries to save his newspaper Read More

The Forgotten Woman

Actors: Eve Arden, William Lundigan, Donald Briggs, Donnie Dunagan

Synopsis: Sigrid Gurie, the Swede from Brooklyn who in 1938 was touted as Sam Goldwyn's answer to Garbo, was taking whatever work she could get in 1939. Forgotten Woman casts Gurie as a woman unjustly sent to prison. Four years go by before the DA unearths new evidence that proves her innocence. But first Read More

The Roaring Twenties

Actors: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Priscilla Lane, Jeffrey Lynn, Gladys George

Synopsis: Based upon an idea by Broadway columnist Mark Hellinger, The Roaring Twenties opens during World War I as doughboys Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney), Lloyd Hart (Jeffrey Lynn), and George Hally (Humphrey Bogart) discuss what they will do when the war is over. Bartlett wants to go back to repairing Read More

I Am Not Afraid

Actors: Jane Bryan, Charles Grapewin, Henry O'Neill, Elizabeth Risdon, James McCallion

Synopsis: I Am Not Afraid was the preview title for the 60-minute Warner Bros. crime melodrama The Man Who Dared. A remake of 1931's Star Witness, the film concerns the efforts made by gangster to intimidate murder witness Matthew Carter (Henry O'Neill) into silence. When all else fails, the villains kindap Read More

Blackwell's Island

Actors: John Garfield, Rosemary Lane, Dick Purcell, Victor Jory, Stanley Fields

Synopsis: This gangster film is based upon fact as it tells the tale of a determined reporter who has decided to make sure a certain notorious gangster gets his just desserts. It takes a long time, but eventually the reporter succeeds and the gangster is sent up river. Unfortunately, once there, he becomes Read More

Three Comrades

Actors: Robert Taylor, Margaret Sullavan, Franchot Tone, Robert Young, Guy Kibbee, Lionel Atwill

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, Three Comrades represented one of the few successful screenwriting efforts of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in Germany in the years just following World War I, the film stars Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone and Robert Young as three battle-weary, thoroughly Read More

Racket Busters

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, George Brent, Gloria Dickson, Allen Jenkins, Walter Abel

Synopsis: In this gangster movie set in the Big Apple, a crime lord strong arms teamsters into paying him protection money. One young trucker with a very pregnant wife, stands up to the thug. His partner also refuses to pay in the hopes that they will help the other truck drivers. Naturally this enrages the Read More

The Dawn Patrol

Actors: Errol Flynn, David Niven, Basil Rathbone, Donald Crisp, Melville Cooper

Synopsis: This 1938 remake of Howard Hawks' 1930 film The Dawn Patrol is faithful to the original's basic plotline. The story is set during World War I; the scene is the French headquarters of the British Royal Flying Corps, 59th division. The corps is suffering heavy losses, a fact that ace pilot Courtney (Errol Flynn Read More

Boy Slaves

Actors: Anne Shirley, Roger Daniel, James McCallion, Alan Baxter, John Fitzgerald

Synopsis: Boy Slaves is an effective indictment of the exploitation of reform school labor. Several troublesome boys are offered an opportunity to work on a turpentine farm run by the seemingly benign Charles Lane, with the promise that their good behavior will ensure their early release from the Read More

City Girl

Actors: Phyllis Brooks, Ricardo Cortez, Robert Wilcox, Douglas Fowley, Chick Chandler

Synopsis: In this tearful crime melodrama, a waitress becomes so taken with her dream of living in posh luxury and comfort that she leaves her honest boyfriend the district attorney to take up with a notorious gangster who lavishes her with stolen furs and fabulous diamonds. She has no idea that the crook Read More

Prison Nurse

Actors: Henry Wilcoxon, Marian Marsh, Bernadene Hayes, Ben Welden, Ray Mayer

Synopsis: The title character in Republic's Prison Nurse is a "woman in white" named Judy, played by Marian Marsh. Together with her friend Pepper (Bernardine Hayes), Judy hires on at a maximum-security prison smack dab in the middle of flood country. When she's not braving the elements and fending off the Read More

Outlaws of the Prairie

Actors: Charles Starrett, Donald Grayson, Iris Meredith, Norman Willis, Dick Curtis

Synopsis: Charles Starrett plays two-fisted frontiersman Dart Collins in this slick Columbia "B" western. Collins wants to find out who's behind a series of gold-shipment robberies. So does heroine Judy Garfield (Iris Meredith), whose stage transport business faces foreclosure if the holdups continue. It Read More

Men in Exile

Actors: Dick Purcell, June Travis, Alan Baxter, Margaret Irving, Victor Varconi

Synopsis: Director John Farrow was always at his best when dealing with desperate men in desperate situations. One of Farrow's lesser but still fascinating 1930s assignments was the Warner Bros. actioner Men in Exile, starring Dick Purcell as American fugitive from justice Jimmy Carmody. Escaping across the Read More

Life Begins in College

Actors: The Ritz Brothers [Al, Jimmy, Harry], Joan Davis, Tony Martin, Gloria Stuart, Fred Stone

Synopsis: The Ritz Brothers play three goofballs working their way through college by putting in time at a tailor shop. The college football team's star player is Nat Pendleton, a wealthy Native