Wheeler OakmanFilmography

Jack Armstrong: The All-American Boy [Serial]

Synopsis: When scientific mastermind Jack Armstrong is kidnapped by a devious fiend determined to discover the secrets of atom-powered motors, our hero must escape the island fortress of his nefarious captor in this thrilling cliffhanger starring John Hart and Rosemary La Planche. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Read More

Son of the Guardsman

Synopsis: Looking for all the world like Robin Hood, Robert Shaw starred in this typically threadbare Sam Katzman serial as David Trent, a nobleman who forms an outlaw group to combat his evil uncle Sir Edgar Bullard (Charles King). The outlaws of Sherwood Forest (yes, Sherwood Forest!) are championing Read More

Hop Harrigan

Synopsis: Like Captain Midnight before him, Hop Harrigan came to the serial screens courtesy of Columbia Pictures; and, also like the captain, Harrigan had appeared in both radio and the pages of comic strips before becoming a screen star in the guise of fresh-faced William Bakewell. But there the Read More

Who's Guilty?

Actors: Tim Ryan

Synopsis: Undoubtedly inspired by Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians, filmed the same year by United Artists as And Then There Were None, this 15 chapter serial told the drawn-out story of a family who is about to be decimated, one by one, by a mysterious master criminal. Just like in the classic Christie Read More

Rough Ridin' Justice

Brenda Starr, Reporter

Synopsis: Based on the popular comic strip by Dale Messick, this Sam Katzman-produced Columbia serial starred the beautiful and talented Joan Woodbury, an actress who never really lived up to her early potential. Brenda Starr, Reporter didn't exactly change that sad fact; a rather straightforward tale of a Read More

Bowery Champs

Actors: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Billy Benedict, Jimmy Strand, Bobby Jordan

Synopsis: By the time Bowery Champs came out, the East Side Kids had become so domesticated that they actually had jobs. Muggs (Leo Gorcey), for example, works as a newspaper copy boy, and even aspires to be a crime reporter. He gets his chance when a wealthy man is murdered and the regular reporter isn't Read More

Sundown Valley

Actors: Charles Starrett, Jeanne Bates, Jessie Arnold, Clancy Cooper

Synopsis: In this wartime western, an evil Nazi and his partner endeavor to sabotage a western gunsight plant. Unfortunately, the tough plant manager has plans of his own and action ensues until the villains are vanquished. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

What a Man!

Actors: Johnny Downs, Wanda McKay, Robert Kent, Harry Holman

Synopsis: In this romantic drama, an office clerk's quiet personal life is disrupted when a sick woman appears at his doorstep in desperate need of help. The kindly fellow takes her in and helps her to recover. He then discovers that she isn't sick at all; she was only trying to hide from the cops who Read More

Riding West

Actors: Charles Starrett, Arthur Hunnicutt, Shirley Patterson, Ernest Tubb, Steve Clark

Synopsis: Charles Starrett stars in the lightning-paced Columbia western Riding West. Somebody is planning to sabotage the new Pony Express mail service, and hard-ridin' Steve Jordan (Charles Starrett) aims to find out who. Though he claims to be "a peaceable man," Jordan isn't above using his fists or Read More

Teenage

Actors: Herbert Heyes, Wheeler Oakman, Johnny Duncan

Synopsis: Teen-Age is another "exposé" film of the 1940s, cheaply made but widely distributed. In the guise of a warning against wartime juvenile delinquency, the film offers the exploitational tale of a bunch of wild, unsupervised kids at large in a small community. With nothing but time on their hands Read More

The Girl from Monterey

Actors: Armida, Edgar Kennedy, Veda Ann Borg, Terry Frost

Synopsis: The world of boxing provides the framework for this romantic musical that tells the story of Baby and his manager who is also his sister. Baby is slated to fight Jerry O'Leary, but his sister won't let him because she is in love with the opponent. To ensure that the two do not fight, O'Leary's Read More

The Fighting Buckaroo

Actors: Charles Starrett, Kay Harris, Arthur Hunnicutt, Stanley Brown, Ernest Tubb

Synopsis: In this western, a lonesome cowpoke trots into a town and helps clear his pardner's name. The trouble began when the friend was framed by the leader of the Cattlemen's association who made it seem like he was a rustler. Because the friend was an ex-con, the evidence against him seems airtight. The Read More

Saddles and Sagebrush

Synopsis: After faithfully serving in supporting roles in Columbia's Charles Starrett westerns, Russell Hayden was awarded his own series in 1943. Starrett's Saddles and Sagebrush is nothing special plotwise, but it does show off the star to best advantage actionwise. In trying to keep the peace by Read More

Ghosts on the Loose

Actors: Bela Lugosi, Ava Gardner, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan

Synopsis: Ghosts on the Loose (which features no ghosts whatsoever) is perhaps the best-known of Monogram's "East Side Kids" series. This time, Muggs (Leo Gorcey), Glimpy (Huntz Hall), and the rest of the kids offer to decorate the honeymoon cottage of Glimpy's sister, Betty (Ava Gardner), and her new Read More

Kid Dynamite

Actors: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell, Pamela Blake

Synopsis: Amateur fighter and all-around bully Muggs McGinniss (Leo Gorcey) tries to cheat in a pool game with hustler Harry Wycoff (Gabriel Dell). He is thwarted by his own friend Danny Lyons (Bobby Jordan), who has some strong ideas about right and wrong and wants to keep his friend honest. Muggs has to Read More

The Ape Man

Actors: Bela Lugosi, Wallace Ford, Louise Currie, Minerva Urecal, Henry Hall

Synopsis: Whatever poor Bela Lugosi may have done in a past life, the man did not deserve The Ape Man, arguably the worst of his Monogram horror clunkers. Viewed today, it seems that screenwriter Barney Sarecky and infamous director William Beaudine (whose nickname "One Shot" was earned helming movies like Read More

Bowery at Midnight

Actors: Bela Lugosi, John Archer, Wanda McKay, Tom Neal, Vince Barnett

Synopsis: Bowery at Midnight casts Bela Lugosi as Professor Brenner, a psychology instructor at New York University (which looks a lot like Berkeley in the exterior shots!). When not enlightening his students -- most of them buxom Monogram starlets -- Brenner is engaged in charitable work, running a mission Read More

Meet the Mob

Actors: ZaSu Pitts, Roger Pryor, Warren Hymer, Gwen Kenyon, Douglas Fowley

Synopsis: Monogram's So's Your Aunt Emma owes whatever success it enjoys to its star, the incomparable ZaSu Pitts. The fluttery ZaSu plays a countrified maiden aunt who comes to the big city when her nephew Roger Pryor gets into trouble with the Law. Seems that Pryor is inextricably involved with gangsters Read More

Double Trouble

Synopsis: In this comedy, funny Langdon and Rogers end up working at a bean factory and getting into deep trouble when they accidentally lose an irreplaceable bracelet in a can. Now, before it is too late, they must somehow find that can out of a thousand that look just like it. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Read More

The Medico of Painted Springs

Actors: Charles Starrett, Terry Walker, Ben Taggart, Ray Bennett, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: Medico of Painted Springs was the first of western hero Charles Starrett's appearances as frontier doctor Steven Monroe. Riding into a small town, Dr. Monroe finds himself smack-dab in the middle of a range war between cattlemen and sheepmen. It doesn't take long for Monroe to figure out that the Read More

Men with Steel Faces

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Jack Carlyle, Dorothy Christy, Frankie Darro, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: In hopes of cashing in on the popularity of "Number One Cowboy" Gene Autry, a fly-by-night firm called Times Pictures reissued a shortened version of Autry's 1935 Mascot serial Phantom Empire under the title Men with Steel Faces. It will be remembered that the original plotline of this 12-episode Read More

Mutiny in the Big House

Actors: Charles Bickford, Barton MacLane, Pat Moriarity, Dennis Moore, William Royle

Synopsis: A frequent visitor to contemporary TV cable services, Monogram's Mutiny in the Big House affords stalwart supporting player Charles Bickford top billing as a prison chaplain, with jailhouse-flick veteran Barton MacLane billed second as a hardened con. The nominal hero, however, is fourth-billed Dennis Moore Read More

Torture Ship

Actors: Lyle Talbot, Irving Pichel, Jacqueline Wells, Sheila Bromley, Anthony Averill

Synopsis: Torture Ship is a strange amalgam of crime thriller and horror chiller that can't quite make up its mind what it wants to be. Irving Pichel plays Dr. Herbert Stander, a well-meaning physician who becomes a little too much the single-minded visionary. Convinced that criminality is a result of a Read More

Wolf Call

Actors: John Carroll, Movita, Peter George Lynn, Guy Usher, Holmes Herbert

Synopsis: Based on a story by Jack London, this film follows the adventures of young Michael Vance (John Carroll) as he travels with his faithful dog to check out the value of a family mine. As they travel north, John meets a beautiful Indian girl (Movita) and his canine companion joins up with a pack of Read More

In Old Montana

Synopsis: The war between cattle ranchers and sheepmen once again took center stage in this low-budget Western starring former opera baritone Fred Scott. Scott played Army Lieutenant Fred Dawson who upon learning that his father has been wounded heads for home disguised as a medicine show performer. He Read More

Code of the Rangers

Actors: Tim McCoy, Rex Lease, Judith Ford, Wheeler Oakman, Roger Williams

Synopsis: Code of the Rangers was one of four Monogram westerns of the 1937-38 season starring the venerable Tim McCoy. In this one, Texas Ranger Tim Strong (McCoy) tries his best to straigthen out his hotheaded brother Jack (Rex Lease). Things don't work out, and before long Tim is protecting Jack from a Read More

Land of Fighting Men

Actors: Louise Stanley, Dick Jones

Synopsis: Having eschewed music interludes in his previous Western effort, Gun Packer, Jack Randall returned to warbling a tune or two this time around. Accompanied by the Colorado Hillbillies, Randall sang "King of the Trail" by Eddie Cherkose and Charles Rosoff and "Cowboy Band" and "The West Was Meant Read More

Red Barry

Actors: Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Frances Robinson, Edna Sedgwick, Cyril Delevanti, Frank Lackteen

Synopsis: Based on Will Gould's popular comic strip, the 13-episode Universal serial Red Barry stars Buster Crabbe in the title role. Detective Barry is galvanized into action when $2,000,000 worth of bonds is stolen from an unnamed Asian country. Among the villains involved are prima ballerina Natacha (Edna Sedgewick Read More

Mars Attacks the World

Actors: Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Jean Rogers, Charles B. Middleton, Frank Shannon, Beatrice Roberts

Synopsis: This science fiction film features the revenge of Ming who vowed to destroy the Earth. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Texans

Actors: Joan Bennett, Randolph Scott, May Robson, Walter Brennan, Robert Cummings

Synopsis: In the rough-and-tumble world of post-Civil War Texas, ex-Confederate soldier Kirk Jordan (Randolph Scott) crosses paths with ranch owner Ivy Preston (Joan Bennett). Although a loyal Southerner, Jordan can't get past the waste and tragedy of the four years that have just ended, but Ivy is eager to Read More

Crusade Against Rackets

Actors: Lona Andre, Donald Reed, Wheeler Oakman, John Merton, Rychard Cramer

Synopsis: What would an "exploitation" film of the 1930s be without Wheeler Oakman in the cast and Sam Newfield in the director's chair? In Crusade Against Rackets, Oakman is his usual slimy self as Jim Murray, the head of a big-city vice ring. His "cover" is an outwardly respectable beauty parlor, where Read More

Death in the Sky

Actors: Lona Andre, John Carroll, Henry Hall, Leon Ames, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: Puritan Pictures, a poverty-row operation devoted in the main to Tim McCoy westerns, turned out a few diverting murder mysteries during its short life span. In Death in the Sky, Leon Ames plays a World War I ace whose combat experiences have driven him mad. Convinced that every other aviator on Read More

Bank Alarm

Actors: Conrad Nagel, Eleanor Hunt, Vince Barnett, Frank Milan, Wilma Francis

Synopsis: Bank Alarm was one of four low-budget but high-entertainment crime melodramas starring Conrad Nagel and Eleanor Hunt as Federal agents Alan O'Connor and Bobbie Reynolds. On this occasion, the two G-people are on the trail of a gang of desperate bank robbers. Making their job slightly easier is the Read More

Slaves in Bondage

Synopsis: A police raid on a roadhouse leads to a war on vice that results in the downfall of a vicious gangster and the sadistic madam who runs his prostitution ring in this sordid crime drama from director Elmer Clifton. While she may be beautiful on the outside, on the inside Belle Harris (Florence Dudley Read More

Vice Racket

Actors: Wheeler Oakman, Bryant Washburn, Jay Sheridan

Synopsis: All expense was spared in bringing this sleazy "exposé" to the screen. It's all about Mrs. Miller (Martha Chapin), the virtuous wife of kindly Dr. Miller (Robert Frazer). Alas, our heroine is lured into the questionable gambling emporium run by the shady Lucky Wilder (Wheeler Oakman, who made Read More

Death in the Air

Actors: Lona Andre, John Carroll, Leon Ames, Henry Hall

Synopsis: An airborne serial killer terrorizes a group of war veterans in this ultra-cheap but fairly engrossing whodunit produced by one of Hollywood's few women executives, Fanchon Royer. Assigned to investigate a series of flight disasters committed by a phantom aircraft bearing only the legend "X," Read More

Timber War

Actors: Kermit Maynard, Lucille Lund, Lawrence Gray, Robert Warwick, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: Like most of Kermit Maynard's "northerns" for Ambassador Films, Timber War is ostensibly based on a story by James Oliver Curwood. Maynard is cast as Jim Dolan, a two-fisted young man forced by circumstance to impersonate weak-willed playboy Larry Keene (Lawrence Gray), scion of a powerful lumber Read More

Gambling with Souls

Synopsis: "Suggested" by the notorious trial of gangster Lucky Luciano, this typical low-budget sexploitation-melodrama came complete with the promise to rip "the lid from a vicious phase of American life." In reality, the sordid little film, which was instantly banned by New York censors, depicted little Read More

Roarin' Guns

Actors: Tim McCoy, Rosalinda Price, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: An average low-budget Western from short-lived Puritan Pictures, Roarin' Guns starred Tim McCoy as Tim Corwin, an agent for the Cattlemen's Association assigned to look into a range war between settlers and powerful cattle baron Walton (Wheeler Oakman). Tim befriends Bob Morgan (John Elliott), a Read More

The Mysterious Avenger

Actors: Jon Hall, Charles Starrett, Joan Perry, Wheeler Oakman, Edward J. Le Saint, Lafe [Lafayette] McKee

Synopsis: In his second of an unprecedented 131 Westerns for Columbia Pictures, handsome Charles Starrett donned his trademark white Stetson to portray Ranny Maitland, a Texas Ranger whose father (Lafe Mckee) is feuding with his neighbor, Lockhart (Edward Le Saint. Pretending to be on Lockhart's side in the Read More

Batmen of Africa

Synopsis: In their first serial effort, newcomers Republic Pictures went with the tried and true: beloved animal trainer Clyde Beatty, who had earlier headlined the Mascot serial The Lost Jungle (1934). It is really Beatty, playing himself, who meets and saves Baru (Manuel King), "The Son of the Jungle," Read More

Ghost Patrol

Actors: Tim McCoy, Claudia Dell, Walter Miller, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: A cowboy turned G-Man looks into a series of mysterious plane crashes in this low-budget but fairly engrossing B-Western starring Tim McCoy. Masquerading as an outlaw, Tim Caverly manages to infiltrate a gang of mail thieves holed up in a ghost town. As Tim discovers, the gang leaders, Dawson Read More

The Man from Gun Town

Actors: Tim McCoy, Billie Seward, Rex Lease, Jack Clifford, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: In his second Western for low-budget Puritan Pictures, Tim McCoy comes to the aid of a pretty ranch owner whose property is in danger of being usurped by a crooked saloon owner. Ruth McArthur (Billie Seward) cannot pay her late father's debt and lawyer Eric McGillis (Robert McKenzie) advises her Read More

Aces and Eights

Actors: Tim McCoy, Jimmy Aubrey, Luana Walters, Wheeler Oakman, Earl Hodgins

Synopsis: Although slow-moving at times, Aces and Eights is nevertheless a fine little Western and certainly the best of the ten Tim McCoy would make for low-budget (and short-lived) Puritan Pictures. McCoy plays the legendary Wild Bill Hickock in a prologue that depicts how Wild Bill is assassinated during Read More

Death from a Distance

Actors: Russell Hopton, Lola Lane, George F. Marion, Lee Kohlmar

Synopsis: Eccentric professor Einfeld (Lee Kohlmar) is lecturing a select group of scientists at a darkened planetarium when one of the spectators is shot to death. Homicide detective Ted Mallory (Russell Hopton) can't get a straight story from the witnesses and refuses to allow reporter Kay Palmer (Lola Lane Read More

Song of the Trail

Actors: Kermit Maynard, Evelyn Brent, George "Gabby" Hayes, Fuzzy Knight, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: Cowboy star Kermit Maynard's rope-twirling skills are seen to good advantage in Song of the Trail. Maynard is cast as a wandering rodeo performer named Jim, who settles in one place long enough to save an old pal in trouble. The fact that the old pal has a pretty daughter only serves to strengthen Read More

Roaring Guns

Actors: Tim McCoy

Synopsis: Tim McCoy's western series for Puritan Pictures were pretty shabby production-wise, but nearly always delivered the goods in the action department. McCoy plays a representative of a cattleman's association, dispatched to quell a range war. Fomenting the trouble is shifty-eyed Wheeler Oakman, who Read More

Motive for Revenge

Actors: Donald Cook, Irene Hervey, Doris Lloyd, Edwin Maxwell, LeStrange Millman

Synopsis: After a burst of creativity in 1933 and 1934, independent Majestic Pictures had settled into the usual "B"-picture rut by 1935. One of the last Majestic efforts was Motive for Revenge, starring Donald Cook as hapless bank teller Barry Webster. Plagued by a domineering mother-in-law (Doris Lloyd) Read More

Annapolis Farewell

Actors: Guy Standing, Rosalind Keith, Tom Brown, Richard Cromwell, John Howard

Synopsis: Tom Brown and Richard Cromwell, who'd previously played military-academy classmates in Tom Brown of Culver (1932), were reunited in Paramount's Annapolis Farewell. Brown plays Click Haley, a wise-guy naval cadet who learns the hard way to tow the line and honor the traditions of the academy. Cromwell Read More

G-Men

Actors: James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay, Lloyd Nolan, Ann Dvorak, Robert Armstrong, Barton MacLane

Synopsis: In G Men, Warner Bros. "bad boy" James Cagney plays James "Brick" Davis, a young lawyer whose education has been financed by soft-hearted racketeer McKay (William Harrigan). When Cagney's best pal, detective Eddie Buchanan (Regis Toomey), is killed in a gangland shooting, James decides to become a Read More

The Headline Woman

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

Square Shooter

Synopsis: In this his penultimate Western for Columbia Pictures, Tim McCoy played Tim Baxter, a cowboy returning to the old homestead to prove he did not kill his uncle. Ranch foreman Jed Miller (Charles Middleton) has inherited the ranch but Tim knows the will was forged. He gathers a group of vigilantes Read More

The Phantom Empire [Serial]

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Jack Carlyle, Dorothy Christy, Frankie Darro

Synopsis: In his first starring role, Gene Autry must perform daily on Radio Ranch or forfeit his contract. Meanwhile, local kids Frankie (Frankie Darro) and Betsy Baxter (Betsy Ross King) establish a group of Junior Thunder Riders to emulate a mysterious band of horsemen that seems to vanish into thin air. Read More

Undercover Men

Synopsis: Undercover Men concerns a man who attempts to regain his honor after behaving like a coward when the bank where he worked as a teller was robbed by bad guys. He proceeds to be fired, joins the Mounties, and attempts to infiltrate the gang. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide Read More

Trails of the Wild

Actors: Kermit Maynard, Billie Seward, Fuzzy Knight, Monte Blue, Theodore Von Eltz

Synopsis: Ostensibly based on James Oliver Curwood's Caryl of the Mountain, but bearing little or no resemblance to the 1935 Rin-Tin-Tin Jr. vehicle bearing that title, this Northwest melodrama stars Kermit Maynard as McKenna, a mounted police officer trailing the gang that kidnapped mining engineer Mason Read More

The Phantom Empire: Chapter 09 - Prisoners of the Ray

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Jack Carlyle, Dorothy Christy, Frankie Darro

Synopsis: Both Frankie (Frankie Darro) and Betsy (Betsy Ross King) survive the airplane crash no worse for wear but are quickly picked up by the Muranian Thunder Riders. Brought before Queen Tika (Dorothy Christy), the kids ridicule Murania in general and the queen in particular and are condemned to spend Read More

The Phantom Empire: Chapter 07 - From Death to Life

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Jack Carlyle, Dorothy Christy, Frankie Darro

Synopsis: On Queen Tika's orders, a lifeless Gene Autry) is brought to Murania's Radium Reviving Room, the queen (Dorothy Christy) hoping that the crooner may disclose the identity of the traitor among her officers. But before the reconstituted Autry can spill the beans, Lord Argo (Wheeler Oakman) destroys Read More

The Phantom Empire: Chapter 06 - Disaster from the Skies

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Jack Carlyle, Dorothy Christy, Frankie Darro

Synopsis: Saved from electrocution by the sudden appearance of a trap door operated by the traitorous Lord Argo (Wheeler Oakman), Gene Autry overhears the Muranian conspirators plan to destroy the universe by means of several hideous weapons invented by Rab (Warner P. Richmond). After subduing both Rab and Read More

The Phantom Empire: Chapter 10 - The Rebellion

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Jack Carlyle, Dorothy Christy, Frankie Darro

Synopsis: Despite the deadly radium beam, Frankie Baxter (Frankie Darro) manages to pull the lever that opens the surface entrance to Murania, allowing Gene Autry and sidekicks Oscar (Smiley Burnette) and Pete (William Moore) entry to the underground empire. Queen Tika (Dorothy Christy) finally learns of Read More

Code of the Mounted

Synopsis: In this western about the adventures of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a fur trapper is robbed and killed by a local thug. Although he is caught by the Mounties and thrown in jail, his partner soon breaks him out. It turns out they are both part of a gang headed by a ruthless killer -- who is Read More

The Phantom Empire: Chapter 12 - The End of Murania

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Jack Carlyle, Dorothy Christy, Frankie Darro

Synopsis: In the final chapter of The Phantom Empire, Gene Autry is saved by Oscar (Smiley Burnette) and Pete (William Moore), who manage to drag him away from Murania's feared disintegrating atom-smashing machine. In the control room, Queen Tika (Dorothy Christy) can only watch as a bumbling Lord Argo Read More

The Phantom Empire: Chapter 11 - A Queen in Chains

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Jack Carlyle, Dorothy Christy, Frankie Darro

Synopsis: Gene Autry is saved in the nick of time by Frankie Frankie Darro, who smartly pulls him off the conveyor belt. Murania is now under the evil regency of the former chancellor, Argo (Wheeler Oakman), and Gene's attempt to rescue the dethroned Queen Tika (Dorothy Christy) causes him once again to be Read More

The Phantom Empire: Chapter 05 - Beneath the Earth

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Jack Carlyle, Dorothy Christy, Frankie Darro

Synopsis: Gene Autry, {$Frankie (Frankie Darro) and Betsy (Betsy Ross King) all escape the tunnel explosion courtesy of the Junior Thunder Riders, who manage to unlock the secret exit. Planning to broadcast from a shack in the desert, the fugitive Autry is surprised by a Muranian lieutenant (George Read More

The Phantom Empire: Chapter 03 - The Lightning Chamber

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Jack Carlyle, Dorothy Christy, Frankie Darro

Synopsis: Both Frankie (Frankie Darro) and Betsy (Betsy Ross King) manage to parachute to safety. Meanwhile, 25,000 feet below the surface, in Murania, Queen Tika (Dorothy Christy) sentences the captain of the Thunder Riders (Ray Bernard, later known as Ray "Crash" Corrigan) to death in The Lightning Read More

The Phantom Empire: Chapter 02 - The Thunder Riders

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Jack Carlyle, Dorothy Christy, Frankie Darro

Synopsis: Although the Thunder Riders sever his rope, Gene Autry manages to grab hold of a tree limb, climb to safety and return to Radio Ranch in time to join Oscar (Smiley Burnette) and Pete (William Moore) for a hearty rendition of Burnette's "I'm Oscar; I'm Pete". The Ranch performers then reenact a Read More

The Phantom Empire: Chapter 01 - The Singing Cowboy

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Jack Carlyle, Dorothy Christy, Frankie Darro

Synopsis: In the opening chapter of the Mascot serial The Phantom Empire, a stagecoach is held up for its content -- musical instruments. One of the "outlaws," a bashful young man, removes a fake mustache to address his radio audience: "Yes folks, it's Gene Autry making another raid on your time with his Read More

The Phantom Empire: Chapter 04 - Phantom Broadcast

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Jack Carlyle, Dorothy Christy, Frankie Darro

Synopsis: Seconds before his automobile crashes over a cliff, Gene Autry is saved by Frankie (Frankie Darro), Betsy (Betsy Ross King) and the Junior Thunder Riders. Still wanted for the murder of his Radio Ranch partner, Gene is forced to broadcast from Frankie's secret laboratory in the barn. Meanwhile Read More

The Lost Jungle [Serial]

Actors: Clyde Beatty, Cecilia Parker, Sid Saylor, Warner P. Richmond, Wheeler Oakman

One Is Guilty

Actors: Ralph Bellamy, Shirley Grey, Warren Hymer, Rita La Roy, J. Carrol Naish

Synopsis: One is Guilty was an entry in Columbia's "Inspector Trent" mysteries, all starring the ubiquitous Ralph Bellamy. A philandering prizefighter is murdered, and then the prizefighter's manager is likewise bumped off. All evidence points to heroine Sally (Shirley Grey), but Inspector Trent isn't about Read More

Murder in the Clouds

Actors: Lyle Talbot, Ann Dvorak, Gordon Westcott, Robert Light, George Cooper

Synopsis: Lyle Talbot stars as "Three Star" Halsey, a hotshot West Coast aviator with a reputation for recklessness. Time and time again, Halsey promises his stewardess sweetheart Judy Wagner (Ann Dvorak) that he'll stop taking risks, and time and again he breaks his word. After several misadventures Read More

In Old Santa Fe

Actors: Ken Maynard, Evelyn Knapp, H.B. Warner, Ken Thomson, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: Having recently left Universal Pictures in a huff, mercurial cowboy star Ken Maynard stopped briefly at Mascot Studios for a brace of films. The first was In Old Santa Fe, a modern story set at a dude ranch where Maynard (playing himself) is employed. The villain is dude sharpshooter Chandler (Kenneth Thomson Read More

The Lost Jungle

Actors: Clyde Beatty, Cecilia Parker, Sid Saylor, Warner P. Richmond, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: The Lost Jungle is a feature-length version of the 12-episode Mascot serial of the same name. Legendary animal trainer Clyde Beatty plays himself, while Cecilia Parker portrays Beatty's screen sweetheart Ruth Robinson. When Ruth and her father are lost in the African jungle during a scientific Read More

Operator 13

Actors: Gary Cooper, Marion Davies, Jean Parker, Katherine Alexander, Ted Healy

Synopsis: If you can accept blonde, blue-eyed Marion Davies disguising herself in blackface, chances are you'll swallow the rest of Operator 13. Davies plays a Belle Boyd-like actress who agrees to become a Northern spy during the Civil War. She assumes the identity of an octoroon servant and heads into Read More

Frontier Days

Actors: Ada Ince, Wheeler Oakman, Franklin Farnum, William Desmond, Bill Cody, Jr.

Synopsis: Written (under the pseudonym of Jimmy Hawkey) and directed by Robert F. Hill, this very low-budget Western from poverty row company Spectrum starred former silent screen cowboy Bill Cody and his real-life son Bill Cody, Jr.. Everything of course being relative, Frontier days, filmed at majestic Read More

The Sundown Rider

Actors: Buck Jones, Barbara Weeks, Pat O'Malley, Wheeler Oakman, Niles Welch

Synopsis: This dark, brooding ancestor to Hang 'Em High features Buck Jones as a happy-go-lucky cowpoke who is duped by a gang of rustlers into "guarding" their camp. When the camp is raided, Jones is caught and savagely branded by a group of heavy-handed lawmen in spite of his protests of innocence. Read More

Speed Demon

Out All Night

Actors: George "Slim" Summerville, ZaSu Pitts, Laura Hope Crewes, Shirley Grey, Alexander Carr

Synopsis: In this comedy, a young couple are forced to marry after they are accidentally locked in a store overnight. Unfortunately for the young groom, his overbearing mother is unhappy with the match and keeps trying to get them divorced. She even follows them on their honeymoon. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Read More

Revenge at Monte Carlo

Actors: June Collyer, José Crespo, Wheeler Oakman, Dorothy Gulliver, Edward Earle

Synopsis: A notorious crook and a Parisian ballet dancer get involved with international intrigue in this low-budget action-adventure from Poverty Row company Mayfair Pictures Corp. It is all about an important manifesto that may re-establish President Alarcon as the ruler of the Republic of Luvania. The Read More

Hold the Press

Actors: Tim McCoy, Shirley Grey, Henry Wadsworth, Oscar Apfel, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: Hopscotching between westerns and modern-dress actioners in 1933, Tim McCoy once more finds himself at large in the Big City in Hold The Press. The bane of the police department, crime reporter McCoy insists upon conducting his own investigation when a baffling murder occurs. At one point, he is Read More

Silent Men

Synopsis: Tim McCoy played the classic good/bad man in this average B-Western from Columbia Pictures filmed in about a week and on a reported budget of 12,000 dollars. McCoy played Tim Richards, a cowboy who escapes from jail after serving a sentence for a crime he didn't commit. He obtains a job checking Read More

Soldiers of the Storm

Actors: Regis Toomey, Anita Page, Barbara Weeks, Robert Ellis, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: Much of this exciting crime drama is set aboard an airplane in which a brave hero does battle with a gang of smugglers. Meanwhile, the hero's girl friend joins the gang, but later quits before they are arrested and imprisoned. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Rusty Rides Alone

Actors: Tim McCoy, Barbara Weeks, Rockliffe Fellowes, Dorothy Burgess, Clarence Geldert

Synopsis: Adhering to an old Hollywood tradition, Tim McCoy's dog, Silver King, earned billing above the heroine, 1931 WAMPAS Baby Star Barbara Weeks, in this typically workmanlike Columbia Western. McCoy and Silver King come to the aid of Mollie Martin (Weeks), whose brother, Tom, has been kidnapped by Read More

Man of Action

Synopsis: In his first Western of 1933, Columbia Pictures' Tim McCoy once again played a Texas Ranger, this time investigating the death of a supposed bank robber, "the Falcon." Tim and his buddy, Miguel (Julian Rivero), arrive at the Sherman ranch, whose owner (Lafe McKee) is the real victim of the robbery Read More

The Riding Tornado

Actors: Shirley Grey, Wallace MacDonald, Russell Simpson, Montagu Love, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: A typical low-budget but competently made Columbia Western, The Riding Tornado featured Tim McCoy as a famous rodeo champ who, incognito, wins a supposed killer stallion, Pal, and a purse of 500 dollars in a small town race. Having amicably lost the money in a poker game, Tim is hired by Pal's Read More

Heart Punch

Actors: Lloyd Hughes, Wheeler Oakman, Mae Busch

Synopsis: Lloyd Hughes, a silent star on the downslide, heads the cast of the 1932 programmer Heart Punch. Hughes plays a boxer who accidently kills his opponent (George J. Lewis) with a punch to the heart. Hoping to make amends, Hughes approaches the dead man's sister (Marion Schilling), offering to help Read More

Western Code

Actors: Tim McCoy, Nora Lane, Wheeler Oakman, Mischa Auer

Synopsis: An average entry in Columbia Pictures' Tim McCoy Western series, The Western Code features perennial Bad Guy Wheeler Oakman as Nick Grindle, a crooked saloon keeper who marries lovely Polly Loomis' mother for her money. The woman dies leaving everything to Grindle while Polly (Nora Lane) and her Read More

End of the Trail

Synopsis: Tim McCoy played a cavalry officer dishonorably discharged for selling weapons to the Indians in this arguably his finest sound film and by many considered one of the best series Westerns produced in the 1930s. Leaving the army fort in disgrace along with his young foster son Jimmy Travers (Wally Albright Read More

Devil on Deck

Honor of the Press

Actors: Eddie Nugent, Rita La Roy, Wheeler Oakman, Dorothy Gulliver, Russell Simpson

Synopsis: In this newspaper drama, a cub reporter is puzzled when he is consistently scooped out of big crime stories by a rival. His nose for news tells him something is amiss, so he and his gal begin investigating. When he witnesses a bank-robbery that was reported before it happened, he figures out that Read More

Two-Fisted Law

Actors: Tim McCoy, Alice Day, Tully Marshall, Wheeler Oakman, Wallace MacDonald

Synopsis: Penned by prolific pulp writer William Colt MacDonald, this Tim McCoy Columbia Western may have been the forerunner of McDonald's later so popular The Three Mesqueteers. John Wayne, whose character is named, appropriately, Duke, and Wallace MacDonald (no relation to William Colt) play McCoy's Read More

Beauty Parlor

Actors: Barbara Kent, Joyce Compton, John Harron, Albert Gran, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: Before he moved to MGM, director Richard Thorpe virtually lived at the tiny production firm of Chesterfield-Invincible. Thorpe's Beauty Parlor is a Chesterfield programmer that aspires to be Grand Hotel. The titular parlor is the setting for a multitude of comic and dramatic episodes, most of them Read More

The Boiling Point

Actors: Hoot Gibson, Helen Foster, Wheeler Oakman, Roy "Skeeter Bill" Robbins, Billy Bletcher

Synopsis: Future Academy Award-winner Hattie McDaniel briefly brightened the proceedings in this, one of her two B-Western appearances in 1932. (The other was George O'Brien's The Golden West.) The rotund African-American comedienne portrays a cook on a ranch belonging to banker Tom Kirk (Lafe McKee). Also Read More

Texas Cyclone

Synopsis: In this his first Western of 1932, Tim McCoy is supported by a young John Wayne. Learning that he is a dead ringer for rancher Jim Rawlins, drifter Texas Grant (McCoy) agrees to keep up the charade in order to scare off a gang of rustlers that has been terrorizing the area. The missing man's wife Read More

The Gorilla Ship

Actors: Ralph Ince, Vera Reynolds, Reed Howes, Wheeler Oakman, James Bradbury, Jr.

Synopsis: It may be hard to believe, but Gorilla Ship is almost as ludicrous as its title. Wheeler Oakman plays Mr. Wells, a millionaire yachtsman who is insanely jealous of his "friend" Dave Burton (Reed Howes). Believing that Burton is in love with Mrs. Wells (Vera Reynolds), Mr. Wells sets a deadly trap Read More

Guilty or Not Guilty

The Good Bad Girl

Actors: Mae Clarke, James Hall, Marie Prevost, Robert Ellis, Nance O'Neil

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a moll tells her imprisoned gangster lover that she is leaving him for another whom she really loves. He is a wealthy boy who marries her without knowledge of her past life. The happy couple soon has a baby. Their happiness is destroyed when the gangster escapes from prison Read More

First Aid

Actors: Wheeler Oakman, Grant Withers, Marjorie Beebe, Donald Keith, William Desmond

Synopsis: A cast of silent-film veterans distinguishes the pedestrian crime drama First Aid. Grant Withers stars as a doctor who is forced to operate on a wounded gangster. As if this wasn't enough of a headache, the gangster's rivals converge upon the doc's office, hoping to find out where the patient has Read More

Sky Raiders

Actors: Lloyd Hughes, Marceline Day, Wheeler Oakman, Walter Miller, Kit Guard

Synopsis: Sky Raiders may be a talkie, but its plotting and performances are strictly from the silent era. Lloyd Hughes plays Bob, a daredevil aviator in love with Grace (Marceline Day). Bob's recklessness and fondness for bootleg hootch causes the death of Grace's brother, whereupon she storms out of his Read More

The Lawless Woman

Actors: Vera Reynolds

Synopsis: Former silent star Vera Reynolds plays the title role in this low-budget thriller from Poverty Row studio Chesterfield. She is June Page, a showgirl accused of killing Honest Ed Baker, her gangster sugar daddy. Although she refuses to grant him an interview, June does allow cub reporter Allan Read More

The Costello Case

Actors: Tom Moore, Lola Lane, Wheeler Oakman, Roscoe Karns

Synopsis: Originally slated for release through Tiffany Pictures, James Cruze Production's The Costello Case ended up being distributed by Educational, a firm usually limited to cheap two-reel comedies. Tom Moore lays on plenty o' blarney as an Irish cop who befriends would-be burglar Lola Lane. Turns out Read More

On Your Back

Actors: Marion Shilling, H.B. Warner, Irene Rich, Raymond Hackett, Ilka Chase

Synopsis: In this drama, a New York dressmaker struggles to make it big so she can provide a good life for her beloved son. As her son enters college, she opens a Fifth Avenue boutique. When her son falls in love with a chorus girl, the mother is appalled. Later, the girl finds herself a wealthy benefactor Read More

The Big Fight

Synopsis: Produced by Fox Studios, The Big Fight was ultimately released by a lesser firm, Sono-Art. Lola Lane stars as manicurist Shirley, who only has eyes for lovable prizefighter Tiger (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams). Unfortunately, Shirley's weakling brother Lester (James Eagle) is up to his snap-brimmed Read More

Roaring Ranch

Actors: Hoot Gibson, Sally Eilers, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: Hoot Gibson is left with a foundling on his hands while trying to fend off an evil land-grabber in this slow-moving early sound western produced by Gibson himself for release by Universal. "The Hooter" was nearing the end of his reign as a western star, not only due to advancing age (there were Read More

Little Johnny Jones

Actors: Alice Day, Edna Murphy, Robert Edeson, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: George M. Cohan's 1904 musical came to the screen a second time in 1930 courtesy of Warner Bros., who cast light leading man Edward Buzzell as the small-town jockey whose impromptu renditions of "Yankee Doodle Boy" lead to all kinds of theatrical offers. Johnny, however, is in New York to race Read More

The Girl from Woolworth's

Actors: Alice White, Charles Delaney, Wheeler Oakman, Rita Flynn

Synopsis: The Girl From Woolworth's was an appropriate title for this bargain-counter musical. Alice White stars as Pat King, a salesgirl in Woolworth's musical department. Naturally, Pat's job requires that she sing for her supper, as good an excuse as any for several otherwise superfluous musical numbers. Read More

Father and Son

Actors: Jack Holt, Dorothy Revier, Mickey McBan, Helene Chadwick, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: A phonograph recorder provides incriminating evidence in this mystery that centers upon a widower and his 10-year old child who receives it as a birthday present. The devoted father journeys to Paris and there falls in love with a secretive countess of dubious character. Though his father is Read More

Handcuffed

Actors: Virginia Brown Faire, Wheeler Oakman, Jimmy Harrison

Synopsis: Directed by action specialist Duke Worne and starring Worne's wife Virginia Brown Faire, this minor murder mystery featured newcomer Dean Jagger as a young man framed for the murder of his late father's enemy (Broderick O'Farrell). Convicted of the killing, Jagger is saved in the nick of time by Read More

On with the Show

Actors: Betty Compson, Louise Fazenda, Sally O'Neil, Joe E. Brown, Purnell Pratt

Synopsis: This early talkie antique is a backstage musical from Warner Bros. The plot involves the out-of-town tryout of a new musical comedy, and the people who perform therein: a bitchy leading lady (Betty Compson), an arrogant comedy lead (Joe E. Brown), and a starstruck chorus kid (Sally O'Neil). At the Read More

Devil's Chaplain

Actors: Josef Swickard, Virginia Brown Faire, Cornelius Keefe, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: Escaping from a revolution, the King (Joseph Swickard) of a mythical Balkan country heads to the United States. Here he finds a friend in the form of dashing secret service agent Yorke Norray (Cornelius Keefe). With Norray's help, the King is restored to his throne, and the rascally Read More

Shanghai Lady

Actors: James Murray, Mary Nolan, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: Mary Nolan, whose own private life was as sensationally scandalous as any of her screen roles, starred in this cinemadaptation of the stage play Drifting. Having spent several wasted months in a Shanghai opium dem, former prostitute Cassie Cook (Nolan) yearns to start her life afresh. Likewise Read More

Morgan's Last Raid

Actors: Dorothy Sebastian, Wheeler Oakman, Tim McCoy

Synopsis: Even as his parent studio MGM was gearing up for talkies, popular western star Tim McCoy ground out four silent vehicles during 1929. The second of the four was Morgan's Last Raid, in which McCoy's romantic vis-a-vis was busy MGM contractee Dorothy Sebastian. Conscripted into the Union army during Read More

The Donovan Affair

Actors: Jack Holt, Dorothy Revier, William Collier, Jr., Fred Kelsey

Synopsis: This comedy-mystery is famed director Frank Capra's first all-talking film. It tells the story of a bungling police inspector who tries to re-enact a murder scene with disastrous results. The first killing occurred within a darkened dining room. Unfortunately, when the inspector resets the scene Read More

The Shakedown

Actors: Barbara Kent, George Kotsonaros, Wheeler Oakman, Jack Hanlon

Synopsis: Director William Wyler made the move up to talking pictures with this blend of action and comedy. Dave Roberts (James Murray is a professional boxer who is better at losing conveniently than in knocking out is opponents. Dave's less-than-happy life on the margins begins to change when he meets and Read More

The Power of the Press

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Jobyna Ralston, Philo McCullough, Robert Edeson, Mildred Harris, Dell Henderson, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: Presently unavailable for public reappraisal, the biting and cynical melodrama Power of the Press would seem to be a precursor to such Frank Capra talkies as Platinum Blonde and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Cub reporter Clem Rogers (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) wants a "big scoop" more than anything else in Read More

While the City Sleeps

Actors: Lon Chaney, Anita Page, Carroll Nye, Wheeler Oakman, Mae Busch

Synopsis: Lon Chaney Sr. eschews his trademarked makeup in the MGM crime melodrama While the City Sleeps. The plot is sparked by the misbehavior of heroine Myrtle (Anita Page), who enjoys rubbing shoulders with gangsters like Skeeter (Wheeler Oakman). When she learns too much about Skeeter's set-up, Myrtle Read More

What a Night!

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Neil Hamilton, William Austin, Wheeler Oakman, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: Bebe Daniels once again plays an intrepid -- and somewhat foolhardy -- girl reporter in Paramount's What a Night!. A spoiled socialite, Dorothy Winston (Daniels) decides to prove that she's a valuable member of society by becoming a news hound. She manages to get the goods on mobster boss Mike Read More

Broken Mask

Actors: Cullen Landis, Barbara Bedford, William V. Mong, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: For a humble "B" picture, The Broken Mask was able to assemble an impressive cast. Cullen Landis stars as an Argentine dancer who is unable to find work because of his horribly scarred face. While seeking out employment in New Orleans, Landis is reaquainted with another Argentine, popular dancing Read More

Lights of New York

Actors: Helene Costello, Cullen Landis, Gladys Brockwell, Mary Carr, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: Contrary to popular belief, no one speaks into microphones hidden in vases in this, the first 100% "all-talking" feature film, although an oversized telephone prop is rather conveniently placed near the actors in one long sequence. Although not nearly as crude as its tattered reputation, Lights Read More

The Good-Bye Kiss

Actors: John Burke, Sally Eilers, Matty Kemp, Wheeler Oakman, Carmelita Geraghty

Synopsis: At 9 reels, The Good-Bye Kiss was comedy producer Mack Sennett's most ambitious feature to date. Eschewing the usual Sennett slapstick, the film is a romantic seriocomedy with a WW I background. Sally Eilers plays a young girl who follows her soldier boyfriend (Johnny Burke) to the front. He is Read More

Heart of Broadway

Actors: Robert Agnew, Wheeler Oakman, Pauline Garon

Synopsis: Defying her strait-laced aunt, country lass Pauline Garon heads to New York, where she gets a job as a cabaret dancer. Gangster Wheeler Oakman falls in love with Garon, and he's not a man to take "no" for an answer. In fact, whenever someone else expresses an interest in the girl, that someone Read More

Masked Angel

Actors: Betty Compson, Wheeler Oakman, Jocelyn Lee, Grace Cunard

Out All Night

Actors: Reginald Denny, Marian Nixon, Ben Hendricks, Jr., Dan Mason, Dorothy Earle

Synopsis: Fate is a funny thing: If young physician John Graham (Reginald Denny) had not been stuck in a faulty elevator overnight with stage star Molly O'Day (Marian Nixon), the two might never have met and fall in love. Once the couple is rescued, John and Molly legalize their union at City Hall. At this Read More

Heroes of the Night

Actors: Rex Lease, Cullen Landis, Marian Nixon, Wheeler Oakman

Hey! Hey! Cowboy

Actors: Hoot Gibson, George "Slim" Summerville, Kathleen Key, Clark Comstock, Nick Cogley

Synopsis: Silent screen western hero Hoot Gibson played a private investigator hired by a rancher to get the goods on a disagreeable neighbor in this average Universal oater. The villain, as it turns out, is a cunning city-slicker who is buying up land in the valley. An above-average cast that included Read More

Snarl of Hate

Actors: Johnnie Walker, Mildred June, Jack Richardson, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: The identical twin of a murdered prospector tracks down the killer in this silent Western produced by Sam Bischoff. Johnnie Walker, an actor more often seen in light comedy roles, portrayed both the unfortunate prospector and his dapper Big City twin. The latter travels West in search of the Read More

In Borrowed Plumes

Fangs of Justice

Actors: June Marlowe

Synopsis: Fangs of Justice stars yet another Rin Tin Tin competitor, Silverstreak. The canine hero spends most of his time saving his master from predators who'd do him out of his inheritance. He also finds time to rescue a child (surprised?). The better-than-expected human cast includes Johnny Walker, Wheeler Oakman Read More

Lilies of the Streets

Synopsis: Mary E. Hamilton, a well-known New York policewoman in charge of welfare work, sponsored this highly melodramatic offering, which was written by her assistant, Elizabeth J. Monroe. Hamilton herself appears in the picture. Because she is neglected and given too much freedom, Judith Lee (Virginia Lee Corbin Read More

The Pace That Thrills

Actors: Ben Lyon, Mary Astor, Charles Beyer, Tully Marshall, Warner P. Richmond

Synopsis: Paula (Fritzi Brunette), a chorus girl, marries into an aristocratic family. Unfortunately, her husband is a drunk. When he tries to give some liquor to their infant son, she brandishes a pair of scissors at him. He wrestles them away from her, then falls down the stairs and stabs himself. Due to Read More

Slippy McGee

Actors: Wheeler Oakman, Colleen Moore, Sam de Grasse, Edith Yorke

Synopsis: This heart-warming drama was one of Colleen Moore's first films for First National, but her star would not ascend until later that year when she starred in Flaming Youth; here she primarily supports Wheeler Oakman, who plays the title role. Slippy McGee is a notorious safecracker who is seriously Read More

Mine to Keep

Actors: Bryant Washburn, Mabel Forrest, Charlotte Stevens, Kate Lester, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: This domestic drama may sound tiresome, but it was considered solid entertainment in 1923. Just before he gets married, Victor Olney (Bryant Washburn) attends a bachelor party where dancer Carmen Joy (Charlotte Stevens) is performing. She is injured, and Olney winds up giving her money to pay for Read More

Half Breed

Actors: Wheeler Oakman, Ann May, Mary Anderson, Hugh Thompson

Synopsis: This murky, rambling Western was an adaptation of the stage play by Oliver Morosco. Cattle buyer Delmar Spavinaw (Wheeler Oakman) is the son of an Indian mother and white father. He is rivals with widower Ross Kennion (Hugh Thompson) for the hand of Evelyn Huntington (Mary Anderson). Evelyn Read More

The Son of the Wolf

Actors: Wheeler Oakman, Edith Roberts, Sam Allen, Ashley Cooper, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: Edith Roberts improbably stars as an Indian maiden in this Northwoods drama, based on the story by Jack London. Prospector Scruff Mackenzie (Wheeler Oakman) prepares a camp for his future wife -- whoever she may be. He falls in love with Chook-Ra (Roberts), an Indian girl who is the ward of Father Read More

Outside the Law

Synopsis: One of the earliest of the "psychological" crime yarns, Outside the Law stars Priscilla Dean as "Silk Moll" Madden, daughter of ex-crook "Silent" Madden (Ralph Lewis). Moll has tried to remain honest, like her reformed father. But when Silent Madden is framed for a shooting and sent to jail, Moll Read More

Peck's Bad Boy

Actors: Jackie Coogan, Wheeler Oakman, Doris May, Raymond Hatton, James Corrigan

Synopsis: After his appearance in The Kid, little Jackie Coogan was obviously destined for stardom. For his first starring role, he was given this story written by George W. Peck, which had been made into a stage play by George M. Cohan. While the film didn't live up to the stage version (Moving Picture Read More

Virgin of Stamboul

Synopsis: In the '20s, the Turkish empire was considered a lawless and barbaric place by Westerners who didn't understand the people's religion or their ways. Such civilized ignorance gave this part of the world an aura of mystery and decadence, which director Tod Browning captured in this tale of romance Read More

False Evidence

Synopsis: Viola Dana was Metro Pictures' top star when False Evidence came out in 1919. Promised in marriage to wealthy Lot Gordon (Joe King), Scottish lassie Madelon MacTavish (Dana) prefers Lot's poor relation Burr Gordon (Wheeler Oakman). The wisdom of her choice is proven later on, when a vengeful Lot Read More

Back to God's Country

Synopsis: Nell Shipman stars in this handsomely mounted James Oliver Curwood production as Dolores LeBeau, a child of nature on a voyage to the Arctic circle with her new husband, Peter Burke (Wheeler Oakman). En route, she discovers to her horror that the Captain, Rydal (Wellington Playter), is none other Read More

The Splendid Sin

Synopsis: Once again, Madlaine Traverse plays a long-suffering woman in this drama. Lady Marion Chatham (Traverse) and her husband, Sir Charles (Charles Clary), are happily married except for one thing -- they are childless. This is good news, however, for the dowager Lady St. Aubrey (Elinor Hancock) Read More

Mickey

Actors: Mabel Normand, Wheeler Oakman, Lew Cody, Minta Durfee

Synopsis: Mickey was comedienne Mabel Normand's first full-length feature film and it was perhaps her finest moment. Normand is Mickey, a rambunctious and untamed orphan of the West. On his deathbed, her father left her and his mine in the care of Joe Meadows (George Nichols) and his Indian housekeeper Read More

Revenge

Actors: Edith Storey, Wheeler Oakman, Ralph Lewis, Alberta Ballard, Charles H. West

Synopsis: The seeker of the eponymous revenge in this five-reel western is Alva Leigh (Edith Storey), whose fiancé was killed under mysterious circumstances in a small town located in the deserts of Arizona. She leaves the East and confronts the Arizona locals in her search for the truth -- and for Read More

I Love You

Synopsis: Alma Rubens, at the time still a fresh face in motion pictures, starred in this Triangle melodrama. French artistJules Mardon (Francis MacDonald) travels to Italy for his health. There, he meets the breathtakingly beautiful Felice (Rubens), who is known as the Passion Flower. Mardon paints her Read More

Betrayed

Synopsis: One of the most overused titles in the history of films, Betrayed was affixed to this early effort from director Raoul Walsh. Miriam Cooper, who at the time was married to the director, stars as Mexican peasant girl Carmelita Carruti. Not the brightest of senoritas, Carmelita falls in love with Read More

The Ne'er-Do-Well

Synopsis: Parts of this adventure/drama, written by Rex Beach, were actually shot at the Panama Canal during and after its construction. Kirk Anthony (Wheeler Oakman) is a spendthrift son who drives his rich father (Frank Clark) up a wall. An embezzler drugs him and leaves him unconscious on a steamer Read More

The Carpet from Bagdad

Synopsis: Kathlyn Williams, who starred in the 1913 serial The Adventures of Kathlyn (the very first serial made in the U.S.), also stars in this Selig adventure. Horace Wadsworth, the reprobate brother of a banker (Guy Oliver), has gotten mixed up with a gang of international crooks. They shadow antique Read More

The Spoilers

Synopsis: The 1914 version ofThe Spoilers, the first of five movie adaptations of Rex Beach's two-fisted Alaska Gold Rush novel, was probably the best feature-length effort ever turned out by the old Selig Polyscope company. Certainly it was one of the most authentic-looking "Klondike" pictures to come out Read More

Smuggler's Sister

Synopsis: Selig Polyscope Company's doe-eyed leading lady Bessie Eyton both wrote and starred in the title-role in this one-reel melodrama. Harold Lockwood, the company's up-and-coming leading man, was featured as Bessie's brother, whom she is constantly protecting from the law. He returns the compliment Read More

The Hopeless Dawn

Synopsis: A tragic silent melodrama written and directed by Colin Campbell, The Hopeless Dawn featured Harold Lockwood and Wheeler Oakman as fishermen brothers in love with the same girl, a coquettish tease (Bessie Eyton). Fighting over the girl, both brothers drown. When their bodies wash ashore, the girl Read More

Phantoms

Synopsis: A highly charged early silent melodrama, Phantoms starred French-born Eugenie Besserer as a stage star who spurns her devoted manager (Wheeler Oakman) in favor of dallying with a young artist (Harold Lockwood), realizing too late what she has lost. Hailing from France, Eugenie Besserer usually Read More