Spencer Gordon BennetFilmography

Sombra, the Spider Woman

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Sombra, the Spider Woman is the feature-film abridgement of the 1947 Republic serial The Black Widow (which explains why a number of the listed actors had died by this film's listed year of release). The formidable Carol Forman stars as Sombra, whose fortune-telling establishment serves as a front Read More

Requiem for a Gunfighter

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this western, a gunfighter finds himself mistaken for a judge when he journeys to a beleaguered town that is under the oppressive influence of an outlaw and his evil gang. One couple knows the gunslinger's true avocation and they talk him into working as a lawman and putting one of the crooks Read More

The Bounty Killer

Crew: Director

Actors: Dan Duryea, Rod Cameron, Audrey Dalton, Richard Arlen

Synopsis: Dan Duryea plays a Western bounty hunter, expert in his job, but ill at ease with his conscience. He is shunned by the "good" townsfolk until they need him to track down and kill a criminal; the gratitude doesn't last long, and it's back to outcast status for Duryea. At one juncture, the Read More

Submarine Seahawk

Crew: Director

Actors: John Bentley, Brett Halsey, Wayne Heffley, Steve Mitchell, Henry McCann

Synopsis: In this WW II actioner, the crew of the Seahawk nearly mutinies when they discover that their new commander is a tactical instructor who has very little experience as a leader. They are quite angry because he refuses to allow them to sink the Japanese warships that are so close to them. Read More

The Atomic Submarine

Crew: Director

Actors: Arthur Franz, Dick Foran, Brett Halsey, Tom Conway, Paul Dubov

Synopsis: Seasoned serial director Spencer Gordon Bennett helmed this story of a one-eyed, octopoidal space alien, wreaking havoc upon atomic subs at the North Pole. The monster is determined to take over the world, though it seems ill equipped for that purpose. Heroes Arthur Franz, Dick Foran, and Brett Halsey Read More

Perils of the Wilderness [Serial]

Crew: Director

Actors: Dennis Moore

Synopsis: The second-to-last American serial ever made, this film series very uneasily combined two popular genres: The Northwest Mounted Police melodrama and Science Fiction. The mix of Medicine Men and airplane dog fights were too ridiculous even for the small fry who, by the '50s, had become the sole Read More

Blazing the Overland Trail [Serial]

Crew: Director

Actors: Dennis Moore, Lee Roberts

Synopsis: With this film, the final American-produced motion picture serial, the once so powerful genre went out with a whimper. Starring a couple of nonentities -- Lee Roberts, a former bit-part player, and Dennis Moore, who had the dubious honor of also starring in the penultimate serial, Perils of the Wilderness Read More

Adventures of Captain Africa [Serial]

Crew: Director

Actors: Paul Marion, Bud Osborne, Rick Vallin, John Hart, Michael Fox

Synopsis: A long-awaited sequel to Columbia Pictures' popular The Phantom (1943), this film was produced by legendary Hollywood cheapskate Sam Katzman. Katzman refused to pay the owners of the character, King Features, their royalty demands, thus the name change to "Captain Africa." The 1943 Phantom still Read More

Devil Goddess

Crew: Director

Actors: Johnny Weissmuller, Angela Stevens, Selmar Jackson, William Tannen, Ed Hinton

Synopsis: Devil Goddess was the sixteenth and last of Columbia's "Jungle Jim" series. Johnny Weissmuller, playing "himself" (as he had in the last few films in this series), agrees to help a professor (Selmer Jackson) find a colleague who has disappeared into the jungle. Before you can say "Heart of Read More

Phantom of the Jungle

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this adventure, set in the dark African jungles, visiting American scientists inadvertently enrage the local natives when they steal a sacred golden tablet. Fortunately a jungle dwelling doctor helps the insensitive brutes return the tablet before they are killed by the natives. ~ Sandra Read More

Riding with Buffalo Bill [Serial]

Crew: Director

Actors: Marshall Reed

Synopsis: Columbia Pictures elevated a run-of-the-mill B-western supporting player, Marshall Reed, to the title role in this equally run-of-the-mill western serial released in 15 chapters. Like most serials in the '50s, Riding with Buffalo Bill consisted of quite a bit of budget-stretching stock footage Read More

Gunfighters of the Northwest [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Yet another serial from penny-pinching producer Sam Katzman, the fifteen chapter Gunfighters of the Northwest suffered from the usual Katzman shortcomings, including grainy stock-footage and slapdash writing. As an added economy measure, not a single scene was filmed indoors! {$Jock Mahoney plays Read More

The Lost Planet

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this comical sci-fi adventure, two brave heroes take on a mad scientist and his legion of wicked aliens from the planet Ergo. Thanks to the efforts of the two brave fighters, Earth is saved again. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Savage Mutiny

Crew: Director

Actors: Johnny Weissmuller, Angela Stevens, Lester Matthews, Nelson Leigh, Charles Stevens

Synopsis: The tenth of Columbia's "Jungle Jim" series, Savage Mutiny finds Jim (Johnny Weissmuller) working on behalf of the US government. Jim must evacuate a tiny African island that is to be used for atomic testing. Scurrilous Communist agents hope to thwart America's defense program, and also stir up Read More

Killer Ape

Crew: Director

Actors: Johnny Weissmuller, Carol Thurston, Max Palmer, Burt Wenland, Nestor Paiva

Synopsis: Killer Ape is one of the most violent entries in Columbia's "Jungle Jim" series. In this outing, Jim (Johnny Weissmuller) finds out that members of the Wazuli tribe are selling animals to white hunters. These animals are in turn used for illegal research in a scheme to create drugs for bacterial Read More

Voodoo Tiger

Crew: Director

Actors: Johnny Weissmuller, Jean Byron, James Seay, Jean Dean, Charles Horvath

Synopsis: Voodoo Tiger was the ninth of Columbia's "Jungle Jim" "B"-pictures, with seven more on the docket before the series expired in 1955. Johnny Weissmuller returns as Jungle Jim, who this time comes to the aid of anthropologist Phyllis Bruce (Jean Byron), who has arrived in Africa to study tribal Read More

Brave Warrior

Crew: Director

Actors: Jon Hall, Christine Larson, Jay Silverheels, Michael Ansara, Harry Cording

Synopsis: Veteran serial director Spencer Gordon Bennett keeps things moving at a hectic pace in Brave Warrior. The title character is legendary Shawnee chief Tecumseh, well-played by Jay Silverheels (better known as Tonto on TV's The Lone Ranger). Though he has every reason to distrust the White Man Read More

Son of Geronimo [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: The self-styled son of Indian chief Geronimo gets himself involved with a gang of nasty whites in this typical low-budget 15 chapter serial, which benefitted from a great deal of footage from the the stock piles at Columbia Pictures. Jim Scott (Clayton Moore) and wagon train boss Tulsa (Bus Osborne Read More

Blackhawk [Serial]

Crew: Director

Actors: Kirk Alyn, Carol Forman, John Crawford, Michael Fox, Don C. Harvey

Synopsis: The 15-episode Columbia serial Blackhawk was based on the comic book created by Reed Crandall and Charles Cuidera. The title character is played by Kirk Alyn, previously the leading man in Columbia's Superman serial. Also returning from Superman is Carol Forman, here cast as slinky Soviet spy Read More

King of the Congo [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this convoluted adventure serial, a U.S. Air force captain begins searching for some stolen microfilm that contains vital information. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Mysterious Island [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: This serial is set during the American Civil War and is based on the Jules Verne story. A Union Army captain is captured by the Confederates and imprisoned in Richmond, Virginia. He and four other men escape in a balloon, but a hurricane blows them off course and they land on an uncharted island. Read More

Roar of the Iron Horse [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Columbia Pictures elevated stunt man Jock O'Mahoney to stardom in this 15 chapter western serial about the building of the transcontinental railroad. O'Mahoney played a railroad agent who uncovers the master criminal behind a series of sabotage attempts on the construction site. The culprit, a Read More

Captain Video [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Based on the television series Captain Video and His Video Rangers, this 15-chapter serial was pretty much the beginning of the end for that venerable format (the last serial was made five years after this). Although put together by such longtime serial specialists as director Spencer Bennett Read More

Cody of the Pony Express [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Juvenile actor Dickie Moore starred in the title role of this 15 chapter serial as a teen-aged Buffalo Bill Cody, who with an adult friend (played by the husky Jock Mahoney, still billed as Jock O'Mahoney), battles a gang of outlaws secretly headed by an unscrupulous lawyer (George J. Lewis). Read More

Pirates of the High Seas [Serial]

Crew: Director

Actors: Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Lois Hall, Symona Boniface

Synopsis: Buster Crabbe stars in this Columbia serial about a modern-day "Flying Dutchman" ghost ship. Costarring are Tristram Coffin, Lois Hall), and Symona Boniface as "The Lotus Lady." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide Read More

Atom Man vs. Superman [Serial]

Crew: Director

Actors: Kirk Alyn

Synopsis: The second of Columbia's Superman serials, the 15-episode Atom Man Vs. Superman stars Kirk Alyn in the dual role of Clark Kent and the "Man of Steel." This time, Kent/Superman is pitted against bald-pated Lex Luthor (Lyle Talbot), who, disguised as Atom Man, threatens to devastate Metropolis with Read More

Batman and Robin [Serial]

Crew: Director

Actors: Robert Lowery

Synopsis: Following up on the popular 1943 film serial The Batman, this 15-part serial is about a nefarious masked figure called the Wizard, who swipes a diamond-powered remote control device that renders all of Gotham City's machines immobile. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide Read More

The Adventures of Sir Galahad [Serial]

Crew: Director

Actors: Charles King

Synopsis: The legendary Knights of the Round Table came to the screen in 1949 courtesy of penny-pinching serial producer Sam Katzman. A pre-Superman George Reeves starred in the title role, a knight who, in order to join King Arthur (Nelson Leigh) and his famous table, must obtain the missing sword Read More

Congo Bill [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Yet another comic strip character -- Whitney Ellsworth's Congo Bill -- reached the screens in serial form courtesy of Columbia Pictures' penny-pinching Sam Katzman. But this intrepid jungle hero broke no new ground, to put it mildly. Played by a mustached Don McGuire -- a B-movie actor lacking Read More

Superman [Serial]

Crew: Director

Actors: Kirk Alyn

Synopsis: This adventure is the first live-action Superman serial and was one of the most successful multi-chapter films ever made. Superman is played by B-movie hero Kirk Alyn. The story centers upon the hero and the nefarious Spider Lady, who is trying to rule the Earth. If she cannot have complete Read More

Son of Zorro [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Although benefitting from the "Zorro" trademark, the title character of this Western serial is not the direct offspring of the legendary hero, but rather a distant relative assuming the role of masked avenger in order to prevent a corrupt politician from taking over the territory. Handsome Read More

Brick Bradford [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Based on a popular comic strip, this 15 episode Columbia chapterplay produced by legendary cheapskate Sam Katzman (aka "Jungle Sam") heralded the beginning of the end of the American movie serial. Starring the otherwise watchable Kane Richmond in the title role, Brick Bradford had pretensions of Read More

The Black Widow [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: The Black Widow is a low-budget, surprisingly entertaining adventure, science-fiction serial produced by Republic Pictures. Steve Colt (Bruce Edwards) and Joyce Winters (Virginia Lindley) battle to save the world from the evil powers of Sombra (Carol Forman), a wicked woman who intends to rule Read More

The Phantom Rider [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Adhering to the long tradition of casting non-action leads in their serials, Republic Pictures hired former 20th Century-Fox light leading man Robert Kent to headline no less than two chapterplays in 1946, King of the Royal Mounted and The Phantom Rider. In the latter, the amiable, good-looking Kent Read More

King of the Forest Rangers [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Steve King stars in this serial as a forest ranger who must prevent a mad scientist from discovering a buried treasure. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Daughter of Don Q [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Republic Pictures attempted to mix the popular Zorro sub-genre with a modern crime story in this action serial directed by veterans Spencer G. Bennet and Fred C. Brannon. It was an uneasy mix at best, and after establishing that Dolores Quantaro (Adrian Booth) was indeed the granddaughter of the Read More

Manhunt of Mystery Island [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: The luscious Linda Stirling starred in this 15-chapter action serial from genre specialist Republic Pictures as Claire Forrest, the daughter of that eminent inventor of the Radiatomic Power Transmitter, Dr. William Forrest (Taylor Forrest). The good doctor has disappeared during an expedition Read More

The Lone Texas Ranger

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Red Ryder rounds up a crooked sheriff in this western adventure. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Federal Operator 99 [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Also released in a feature version -- retitled FBI 99 -- this 12 chapter Republic Pictures serial benefitted from fine second-unit direction of action scenes by the legendary Yakima Canutt. Adhering to the long-held tradition of casting a relative unknown in the starring role for obvious economy Read More

The Purple Monster Strikes [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Comprised of 15 episodes from one of Republic Studio's favorite sci-fi serials, this chiller follows the terrifying exploits of a Martian bully who begins badgering and trying to trick a hapless scientist into giving him his plans for a super secret spaceship. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Tucson Raiders

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this western, Red Ryder, his youthful sidekick, and another pal take on a wicked governor. This was the first in a new series of Red Ryder, a character based on Frank Harman's comic strip westerns. An earlier attempted series had proven a dismal failure. This series was more successful and Read More

Haunted Harbor [Serial]

Crew: Director

Mojave Firebrand

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this western, a crusty old sourdough finally finds the silver mine of his dreams only to find his mine threatened by vicious outlaws. Fortunately, a cowboy hero rides up to save him, but not until considerable rootin' tootin' action. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Zorro's Black Whip [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Popular latter-day serial queen Linda Stirling starred in the title role in this well-made 12 chapter serial produced by genre specialist Republic Pictures. Stirling plays Barbara Mededith, a pretty girl who takes over her murdered brother's crusading newspaper. She also assumes the dead sibling's Read More

Beneath Western Skies

Crew: Director

Actors: Smiley Burnette, Effie Laird, Frank Jaquet, Tom London

Synopsis: In this off-beat western, a cowboy is struck on the head and loses his memory. Opportunistic outlaws then assure him that he is in their gang. With no choice but to believe them, he begins a series of robberies. Another smack on the noodle restores his memory and he suddenly realizes that he's a Read More

Code of the Prairie

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Code of the Prairie was among the first of cowboy star Sunset Carson's vehicles for Republic Pictures. There is nothing extraordinary about the plot, in which Carson, wrongly accused of a crime, vanquishes the villains with a spectacular (and undoubled) display of fisticuffs. What is unusual is Read More

The Tiger Woman [Serial]

Crew: Director

Actors: Allan Lane

Synopsis: The most obvious discrepancies concerning this otherwise well-remembered cliffhanger from genre specialist Republic Pictures are the quite demure-looking leopard outfit worn by the serial's heroine, Linda Stirling, and that Darkest Africa looks suspiciously like the hills of suburban Chatsworth. Read More

Canyon City

Crew: Director

Actors: Don "Red" Barry, Wally Vernon, Helen Talbot, Twinkle Watts, Morgan Conway

Synopsis: In this western a pugnacious cowboy tries to prevent a city-slicker from conning the local ranchers and the utility company. The hero believes the man is really a murderer. To find out for sure, the hero and his assistant pretend to be cons on the lam. The hero is soon accused of the murder. Now Read More

California Joe

Crew: Director

Actors: Don "Red" Barry, Wally Vernon, Helen Talbot, Twinkle Watts, Brian O'Hara

Synopsis: Don "Red" Barry plays Lt. "California Joe" Weldon in this Civil War-era western. Joe is a Union undercover agent, whose job it is to stem the activities of Southern sympathizers. It turns out that the rebels aren't villainous, merely misled. The picture's real heavy is a Quantrill type who intends Read More

Manhunt in the African Jungle [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: This 15-episode serial traces the activity of two undercover agents (Rod Cameron and Joan Marsh) who infiltrate the German army in North Africa during World War II. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Secret Service of Darkest Africa [Serial]

Crew: Director

Actors: Rod Cameron, Joan Marsh

Synopsis: Rod Cameron is the virile hero, and Joan Marsh the dauntless heroine; both are Allied secret agents working to outwit the Gestapo in North Africa. The acting honors go to Lionel Royce, who plays the dual role of kindly Sultan Abou Ben Ali and the sadistic German Baron Von Rommler. The baron Read More

Calling Wild Bill Elliott

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Wild Bill comes to the rescue when his friend needs him to take care of a crook in this western. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

The Masked Marvel [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this flag-waving adventure, the Masked Marvel helps keep the world safe for capitalism by taking on the evil Japanese agent Sakima who is trying to take over the World-Wide Insurance Company. The film was originally a 12-part serial. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

They Raid by Night

Crew: Director

Actors: Lyle Talbot, June Duprez, Victor Varconi, George Neise

Synopsis: Directed by serial specialist Spencer Gordon Bennet, They Raid by Night is a PRC "special" dealing with the activities of the commandos in WWII. Lyle Talbot plays Capt. Robert Owen, the head of a three-man commando squad who parachute into Norway to rescue an Allied general (Paul Baratoff) from a Read More

The Secret Code [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Tough-guy actor (on-screen and off) Paul Kelly starred in this typical war-time serial about a police officer going undercover in order to smash a spy ring. The ring is led by fifth columnist Thyssen (Robert O. Davis), who has knowledge that the Americans are developing a secret formula for Read More

The Valley of Vanishing Men [Serial]

Crew: Director

The Gunman from Bodie

Crew: Director

Actors: Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, Raymond Hatton, Christine McIntyre, Dave "Tex" O'Brien

Synopsis: Veteran action and western director Spencer G. Bennet certainly opens this the second of Monogram's eight "Rough Riders" oaters on a suspenseful and unusual note. On a dark and stormy night, a lone rider enters a secluded and seemingly vacant ranch house to find the slain bodies of the occupants Read More

Arizona Bound

Crew: Director

Actors: Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, Raymond Hatton, Luana Walters, Dennis Moore

Synopsis: Monogram Pictures launched its lucrative "Rough Riders" western series with 1941's Arizona Bound. Producer Scott Dunlap hoped to attract new customers by teaming two of the most popular cowboy stars in the movies, Buck Jones and Tim McCoy, throwing in another old favorite, Raymond Hatton, as Read More

Ridin' the Cherokee Trail

Crew: Director

Actors: Tex Ritter, Slim Andrews, Forrest Taylor, Betty Miles, Jack Roper

Synopsis: Tex Ritter's penultimate Western for Monogram -- and his second-to-last as a solo star -- Ridin' the Cherokee Trail featured no less than 13 musical numbers, several composed by Ritter and his sidekick Arkansas Slim Andrews. Surrounding all this warbling, screenwriter Edmond Kelso and director Read More

Westbound Stage

Crew: Director

Actors: Tex Ritter, Nelson McDowell, Muriel Evans, Nolan Willis, Steve Clark

Synopsis: Filmed back-to-back with Roll, Wagons, Roll (1939), this minor Tex Ritter Western once again teamed Ritter with the rangy, unfunny Nelson McDowell. Also repeating was a story of a wagon train guided by an army scout (Ritter). This time, however, the train is attacked, not by wild Indians, but by Read More

Cowboy from Sundown

Crew: Director

Actors: Tex Ritter, Roscoe Ates, Carleton Young, George Pembroke

Synopsis: Hoof and mouth disease reared its ugly head in this unusual Tex Ritter singing Western from Monogram. Ritter played Tex Rocketts, the sheriff of Sundown who is forced to quarantine the valley's cattle to prevent the spread of the disease. The desperate ranchers, all of whom are in debt to banker Read More

Riders of the Frontier

Crew: Director

Actors: Tex Ritter, Jack Rutherford, Hal Taliaferro, Nolan Willis

Synopsis: The Tex Ritter Monogram Westerns had a change of directors with Riders of the Frontier, Spencer Gordon Bennet having replaced Al Herman. But that was really the only difference between this entry and the previous seven. Ritter impersonated a notorious outlaw in order to infiltrate the gang that is Read More

Oklahoma Terror

Crew: Director

Actors: Virginia Carroll, Davison Clark, Nolan Willis

Synopsis: Monogram's low-budget Jack Randall Western series went through a change of supervisor/writer with this entry -- Lindsley Parsons replacing Robert Emmett Tansey -- but the improvements, if any, were hardly noticeable. Randall (the brother of better-known B-Western star Robert Livingston) played a Read More

Across the Plains

Crew: Director

Actors: Jack Randall, Frank Yaconelli, Joyce Bryant, Hal Price, Dennis Moore

Synopsis: Having explored the old wheeze about the young man searching for his brother's killer and the one about the cowboy impersonating an outlaw, Robert Emmett Tansey, the producer/writer of Monogram's Jack Randall Westerns, turned to the ever popular "brothers separated during an attack of their wagon Read More

Ranger Courage

Crew: Director

Actors: Martha Tibbetts, Walter Miller, Bud Osborne

Synopsis: Ranger Courage was part of Columbia's short-lived western series starring utility actor Bob Allen. Allen plays the ranger of the title, who demonstrates his courage in solving a string a stagecoach holdups. The robberies are being committed by a renegade band of Indians, or so it seems. It doesn't Read More

Law of the Ranger

Crew: Director

Actors: Elaine Shepard, John Merton, Hal Taliaferro, Lafe [Lafayette] McKee

Synopsis: Each of Bob Allen's six westerns for Columbia had the words "Ranger" or "Range" in the title, and Law of the Ranger was no exception. It all begins when despotic frontier fuhrer Nash (John Merton) doesn't like what newspaper editor Polk (Lafe McKee) has been writing about him. He arranges Polk's Read More

The Mysterious Pilot [Serial]

Crew: Director

Actors: Frank Hawks, Dorothy Sebastian, Rex Lease, Guy Bates Post, Kenneth Harlan

Synopsis: Real-life flying ace Frank Hawks stars in the 15-chapter Columbia serial The Mysterious Pilot. Running the gamut of emotions from A to B, Hawks is cast as Jim Dorn, mapmaker for the Royal Canadian Air Force. With his sidekicks, a mountie named Kansas (Rex Lease) and an Indian named Luke (Yakima Read More

Reckless Ranger

Crew: Director

Actors: Bob Allen, Charles "Slim" Whitaker, Louise Small, Lane Chandler, Mary MacLaren, Tex Palmer, Frank Ball, Harry Woods, Jack Perrin, Chick Hannon

Synopsis: Robert Allen isn't particularly "reckless" in this rather pedestrian Western, which had the gall to cast the non-actor in dual roles. When Jim Allen (Allen number one) is lynched, his identical twin brother Bob (Allen number two), a Texas Ranger, takes his place in an attempt to flush out the man Read More

Rio Grande Ranger

Crew: Director

Actors: Iris Meredith, Paul Sutton

Synopsis: Inheriting the props, costumes and much of the stock footage from Columbia's previous Ken Maynard series, Bob Allen rides tall in the saddle in Rio Grande Ranger. The villains are a band of outlaws who manage to elude the authorities by high-tailing it across the border to Mexico. Sheriff Bob Read More

The Rangers Step in

Crew: Director

Actors: Eleanor Stewart, John Merton, Hal Taliaferro, Jack Ingram

Synopsis: A courageous Texas Ranger leaves his job to mediate a violent, long-standing dispute between his family and that of his sweetheart. When, his investigations reveal that there is a third party of troublemakers involved, he gallops off to stop them and restore the peace. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Read More

Heroes of the Range

Crew: Director

Actors: Ken Maynard, June Gale, Harry Woods, Harry Ernest, Bob Kortman

Synopsis: Most of Ken Maynard's westerns were highly distinctive, if not always good. Heroes of the Range is okay but virtually indistinguishable from the horse operas being ground out by every other cowboy star. In this one, the hero poses as a notorious gunslinger, the better to infiltrate a gang of Read More

The Cattle Thief

Crew: Director

Actors: Ken Maynard, Geneva Mitchell, Ward Bond, Roger Williams, James Marcus

Synopsis: Ken Maynard goes the Zorro route in this lethargic Western produced by Larry Darmour for Columbia. Ailing rancher Cal Pierson (Sheldon Lewis) is being double-crossed by his own foreman, the greedy Ranse (Ward Bond), who has hired a quack doctor (Edward Cecil) to make certain he won't recover. Read More

Avenging Waters

Crew: Director

Synopsis: The opening sequence of this Ken Maynard Western is spectacular: Attempting to save heroine Beth Marion from the ubiquitous runaway horse, the hero makes a death-defying, head-first plunge on horseback into the Kern River far below. The stunt was performed by Maynard's unfairly neglected double Read More

The Fugitive Sheriff

Crew: Director

Actors: Ken Maynard, Beth Marion, Walter Miller, Hal Price, John Elliott

Synopsis: Ken Maynard at least tries to keep his characteristic off-the-wall ad-libs to a minimum in Fugitive Sheriff. Hoping to rid a small western community of its corrupt political machine, Maynard runs for sheriff against the bad guys' candidate and wins the election. Dissatisfied with this, the Read More

Heir to Trouble

Crew: Director

Actors: Ken Maynard, Joan Perry, Harry Woods, Martin Faust, Harry Bowen

Synopsis: In this western, a cowboy finds himself a mine owner and a daddy simultaneously when a friend dies and wills him his mine and his baby. The outlaws eying the mine try to frame the hero for the death. In one of the film's highlights Tarzan the horse takes care of the infant and even saves its life Read More

Lawless Riders

Crew: Director

Actors: Ken Maynard, Geneva Mitchell, Harry Woods, Frank Yaconelli

Synopsis: Ken Maynard saves Geneva Mitchell from a runaway coach in the opening of this so-so Columbia western. The victim of a stage hold-up, Geneva is mighty grateful but her banker father (John Ince) is only too willing to believe uncouth Charles "Slim" Whitaker when he fingers Ken as the master-mind Read More

The Unknown Ranger

Crew: Director

Actors: Martha Tibbetts, Harry Woods, Hal Taliaferro

Synopsis: Columbia general purpose actor Bob Allen was briefly transformed into a cowboy for the studio's "B" unit in the mid-1930s. Allen stars in Unknown Ranger as a ranch ranger on the trail of rustlers. The gang has rounded up a wild stallion, in order to lure a prize horse away from a wealthy rancher. Read More

Calling All Cars

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Calling All Cars was the title of a popular radio anthology of the mid-1930s, broadcast exclusively on the West Coast. The 1935 film version of Calling All Cars, unlike the series, was not (so far as we can determine) based on an actual case history. The sliver of a plot involves mobile thieves Read More

Rescue Squad

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Former silent-screen leading man Ralph Forbes makes the best of his B-picture surroundings in Empire Productions' Rescue Squad. Forbes plays a fearless fireman, assigned to solve a series of arsons. It's rough work, and it takes its toll on Forbes' private life. Slow going for its first 5 reels, Rescue Squad Read More

Get That Man

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this thriller, a humble cab driver is mistaken for the dead heir to an enormous fortune. Once the resemblance is noticed, his life becomes interesting. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Night Alarm

Crew: Director

Actors: Bruce Cabot, Judith Allen, H.B. Warner, Sam Hardy, Betty Blythe

Synopsis: In this newspaper drama, a reporter known for criticizing the top city official has his column taken over by the man's daughter. As a farewell, he writes a huge attack on the man, causing friction between him and the daughter. But he rescues her when she is trapped in a fire at her father's paper Read More

Western Courage

Crew: Director

Actors: Ken Maynard, Geneva Mitchell, Charles French, Betty Blythe, Cornelius Keefe

Synopsis: Ken Maynard's western series for Columbia was a mixed bag indeed, with Western Courage neither the best nor worst of the bunch. Maynard plays Ken Baxter, foreman of a dude ranch who takes it upon himself to "tame" spoiled city gal Gloria Hanley (Geneva Mitchell). Lest this seem presumptuous on Read More

Badge of Honor

Crew: Director

Actors: Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Ruth Hall, Ralph Lewis, Betty Blythe, John Trent

Synopsis: Buster Crabbe plays one of his more offbeat roles in Mayfair's Badge of Honor. Crabbe is cast as Bob Gordon, a spoiled society boy who finds himself in a small town, rife with political corruption. Hoping to bring the crooks to justice, Bob poses as a hotshot reporter, getting away with all sorts Read More

The Fighting Rookie

Crew: Director

Synopsis: After being framed in a warehouse robbery, a police officer goes undercover as a drunk in order to get the goods on the real culprit in this low-budget affair from Mayfair Pictures Corp. starring Jack La Rue. Arriving at the resort owned and operated by the suspect in the warehouse case, Louis Read More

The Oil Raider

Crew: Director, Producer

Synopsis: From low-budget Mayfair Pictures Corp., this robust action-melodrama starred Larry "Buster" Crabbe as an oil prospector whose financial backer turns crooked when he suddenly finds himself faced with bankruptcy. Learning that Dave Warren (Crabbe) has been forced to fire a troublesome worker Read More

Ferocious Pal

Crew: Director

Actors: Harry Dunkinson, Henry Roquemore, Nelson McDowell, Edward Cecil, Grace Wood

Synopsis: Intrepid low-budget entrepreneur Sol Lesser attempted to recreate the popularity of the silent dog melodramas with this mix of Depression-era mise-en-scene and Grade-Z western tropes. Juvenile runaways Johnnie Diggins (Gene Toler) and Patsy Bolivar (Ruth Sullivan) meet on a freight train bound for Read More

Jaws of Justice

Crew: Director

Actors: Kazan the Dog, Jack Perrin, Robert Walker, Ruth Sullivan, Lafe [Lafayette] McKee

Synopsis: Filmed at picturesque Lake Tahoe, NV, this ultra-low-budget dog melodrama starred one of Rin-Tin-Tin's better successors, Kazan, and silent Western hero Jack Perrin, billed for unexplained reasons as "Richard Terry." The latter plays Kincaid, a Mountie coming to the aid of Judy Dean (Ruth Read More

Justice Takes a Holiday

Crew: Director

Actors: H.B. Warner, Huntly Gordon, Audrey Ferris, Robert W. Frazer

Synopsis: In this syrupy tear-jerker a young girl is adopted by the judge who sent her daddy to prison. The father agreed to this relationship and soon the aging judge becomes very fond of his new charge. Unfortunately, his love for her blinds him to mounting evidence attesting to her real father's Read More

The Last Frontier [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: A serial remake of a 1926 Western feature starring William Boyd, The Last Frontier became an early opportunity for young Lon Chaney, Jr. -- still billed Creighton Chaney -- to prove himself worthy of the Chaney name. But young Creighton, handicapped as he was by stilted dialogue and sub-par action Read More

The Midnight Warning

Crew: Director

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, Claudia Dell, Huntly Gordon, John Harron, Hooper Atchley

Synopsis: Inspired, it was stated at the time, by a real event, this minor but well-made Poverty Row mystery features Claudia Dell as Enid Van Buren, a young girl who checks into Apartment A at the Clarendon Arms Hotel with her brother, Ralph, and fiancée Erich (John Harron). But Ralph mysteriously Read More

99 Wounds

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this western adventure set in the Sonora Desert upon the border between Mexico and the US, a marshal is summoned to stop renegade Indians from attacking hapless settlers. He is aided by a Mexican bar maid and soon discovers that the "redskins" are really whites in disguise. To stop them, the Read More

Rogue of the Rio Grande

Crew: Director

Actors: Raymond Hatton, Carmelita Geraghty, Walter Miller, Myrna Loy

Synopsis: This somewhat obscure early musical western produced by George W. Weeks for poverty row's Sono Art-World Wide has gone down in film history as Myrna Loy's talkie debut. Loy and Carmelita Geraghty played South-of-the-Border Belles dallying with notorious bandit El Malo (Jose Bohr) who, of course Read More

Marked Money

Crew: Director

Actors: George Duryea, Tom Kennedy, Virginia Bradford

Synopsis: Directed by serial specialist Spencer Gordon Bennet, Marked Money stars Junior Coghlan as the orphaned son of a seafaring man. His late father has left instructions that The Boy is to be delivered to the home of Captain Fairchild (Bert Woodruff) the father's old sailing master, along with $25,000 Read More

Hawk of the Hills

Crew: Director

Actors: Frank Lackteen

Synopsis: One of the most fondly remembered serials of the late silent era, The Hawk of the Hills became a showcase for Frank Lackteen, the Lebanese character actor who played the title role. When an old prospector (Robert Chandler) hits the mother lode, the vicious half-breed leader of a gang of renegades Read More

The Green Archer [Serial]

Crew: Director

Synopsis: The first screen version of Edgar Wallace's The Green Archer starred the Pathé company's popular team of Allene Ray and Walter Miller with Burr McIntosh -- of Way Down East fame (or infamy) -- as the mysterious millionaire Abel Bellamy, whose castle on the Hudson was brought over from England Read More