William "Wild Bill" ElliottFilmography

Footsteps in the Night

Actors: Don Haggerty, Eleanore Tanin, Douglas Dick, Robert Shayne

Synopsis: "Wild Bill" Elliot once again plays diligent police lieutenant Boyle in Footsteps in the Night. This time, Doyle investigates the murder of a friend, who was killed shortly after a high-stakes card game. The principal suspect is Henry Johnson (Douglas Dick), who was heavily in debt to the dead Read More

Calling Homicide

Actors: Don Haggerty, Kathleen Case, Myron Healey, Jeanne Cooper

Synopsis: Calling Homicide was another of Bill Elliot's "working-man detective" efforts of the 1950s. This time, Elliot plays LA sheriff's department operative Lieutant Doyle. While searching for a cop killer, Doyle discerns a connection between the first murder and the strangling of a pretty model. The Read More

Sudden Danger

Actors: Tom Drake, Beverly Garland, Dayton Lummis, Helene Stanton

Synopsis: Having forsaken westerns for detective melodramas in Dial Red O, William "Wild Bill" Ellliot continues in this vein in Sudden Danger. Elliot is cast as detective lieutenant Doyle, who at present is investigating the alleged suicide of a clothing manufacturer. Doyle suspects that the victim was Read More

Dial Red 'O'

Actors: Keith Larsen, Helene Stanley, Paul Picerni, Jack Kruschen

Synopsis: In this thriller, a mentally unstable ex-GI escapes from the mental ward and goes searching for his ex-wife who only recently divorced him. The man is not dangerous; he just wants to talk to her. Meanwhile the woman is murdered by her lover, a married man, because she is pregnant with his child. Read More

House of Bamboo

Actors: Robert Ryan, Robert Stack, Shirley Yamaguchi, Cameron Mitchell, Brad Dexter

Synopsis: Samuel Fuller directed and cowrote this typically hard-boiled drama set in Japan following World War II. Eddie Kenner (Robert Stack) is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson (Robert Ryan), a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese Read More

The Fortyniners

Actors: William "Wild Bill" Elliott, Virginia Grey, Henry Morgan, John Doucette, Lane Bradford

Synopsis: The Fortyniners stars Wild Bill Elliot as California-based federal agent Sam Nelson. While others pan for gold, Sam searches high and low for the murderers of a fellow "fed". The trail leads to smooth-talking gambler Alf Billings (played by Henry Morgan, who went on to TV fame as Harry Morgan) Read More

Bitter Creek

Actors: William "Wild Bill" Elliott, Carleton Young, Beverly Garland, Claude Akins, Jim Hayward

Synopsis: Neither a B nor an A picture, Bitter Creek is a solid western programmer, offering an excellent, unglamorized performance by Wild Bill Elliot. Though officially prohibited to do so by the Production Code, the film is motivated by revenge. Elliot arrives in Bitter Creek seeking retribution for the Read More

Vigilante Terror

Synopsis: Vigilante Terror was one of the last of the "Wild Bill" Elliot westerns for Columbia. This time, Elliot comes to rescue an imperiled storekeeper. A band of masked vigilantes is laying waste to the countryside, and the storekeeper is blamed. Wild Bill saves the day by going undercover -- or under Read More

The Homesteaders

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

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

Topeka

Synopsis: Bill Elliot emulates his idol William S. Hart in the superior western Topeka. Elliot plays the archetypal Good Bad Man, hired to kick the crooked element out of a small town. A hard-drinking, hard-living man, Elliot entertains thoughts of taking over the town himself for the benefit of his own Read More

Rebel City

Actors: William "Wild Bill" Elliott, Marjorie Lord, Robert Kent, Keith Richards, I. Stanford Jolley

Synopsis: Rebel City is a "B" western with "A" aspirations. Wild Bill Elliot plays gambler Frank Graham, who heads to Kansas in search of his father's murderer. This being 1864, the local military presence is more preoccupied with keeping Southern sympathizers out of the state to worry about Graham's Read More

Kansas Territory

Actors: William "Wild Bill" Elliott, House Peters, Jr., Peggy Stewart, Lane Bradford

Synopsis: Kansas Territory is one of Bill Elliot's latter-day Allied Artists westerns--meaning that even the non-western fan is in for a treat (albeit a violent one). Elliot's brother is killed, which naturally prompts him to seek revenge. On his bloody quest for the guilty party, Elliot learns many facts Read More

Fargo

Synopsis: Cowboy hero Wild Bill Elliot (whose trademark was wearing his six-shooters backwards in his holsters) stars in this oater. After his brother is murdered by crooked cattlemen, Elliot is determined to bring honest business to the plains of North Dakota, and he pioneers the use of barbed wire to Read More

Waco

Actors: William "Wild Bill" Elliott, I. Stanford Jolley, Pamela Blake, Paul Fierro, Rand Brooks

Synopsis: The Waco depicted in this film is a wide-open Texas frontier town, in desperate need of a strong authority figure to clean out the criminal element. The man needed is the man found: Matt Boone, played by Wild Bill Elliot. Though himself a fugitive from justice (he killed a man in self-defense) Read More

The Maverick

Actors: William "Wild Bill" Elliott, Myron Healey, Phyllis Coates, Richard Reeves, Terry Frost

Synopsis: In this "Wild Bill Elliot" western, Elliot and two other lawmen (Myron Healey and Robert Bray) are assigned to take three outlaws to prison. Along the way, they agree to escort Phyllis Coates and her grandmother Florence Lake through Indian territory. Everyone's safety is threatened when one of Read More

The Longhorn

Actors: William "Wild Bill" Elliott, Phyllis Coates, Myron Healey, Lane Bradford

Synopsis: After several elaborate Republic western vehicles, William Elliot returns to the clean-cut minimalism of his "Wild Bill Elliot" days in Longhorn. The story involves the efforts by cattle rancher Jim Kirk (Elliot) to cross-breed his Longhorn cattle with Hereford stock, thereby increasing their Read More

The Savage Horde

Actors: Adrian Booth, Grant Withers, Barbara Fuller, Noah Beery, Jr.

Synopsis: William Elliot is the multitextured hero of the deluxe Republic western Savage Horde. Elliot plays a gunslinger named Ringo, who, though no paragon of virtue, is not a murderer. After killing a man in self-defense, Ringo takes it on the lam from the law. Hiding out in a remote frontier town, Ringo Read More

The Showdown

Crew: Producer

Actors: William "Wild Bill" Elliott, Marie Windsor, Walter Brennan, Henry Morgan, Rhys Williams

Synopsis: Showdown is the story of a trail boss named Shad Jones (Bill Elliott) whose younger brother is murdered. Knowing that a member of a wagon train is responsible for the killing, Shad joins the train in attempt to discover who the guilty man is. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Hellfire

Crew: Producer

Actors: William "Wild Bill" Elliott, Marie Windsor, Forrest Tucker, Jim Davis, H.B. Warner

Synopsis: Western star William Elliot always insisted that his idol was silent-film cowboy William S. Hart. Elliot's Hellfire, then, can be seen as his tribute to the 1916 Bill Hart classic Hell's Hinges. Elliot plays a hard-bitten frontier gambler whose life is saved by a preacher. When the preacher dies Read More

The Last Bandit

Actors: Adrian Booth, Forrest Tucker, Andy Devine, Jack Holt

Synopsis: Republic's program westerns of the 1940s fell into two categories: the Saturday-matinee fare of Roy Rogers, Allan "Rocky" Lane et. al., and the more adult-oriented William Elliot vehicles. In The Last Bandit, Elliot and Forest Tucker play a couple of James-like bandit brothers, Frank and James Read More

The Gallant Legion

Actors: Adrian Booth, James Brown, Bruce Cabot, Andy Devine, Steve Drake

Synopsis: When Republic moved its popular star William Elliot from "B" series westerns to "A" frontier specials, a lot of the fun and excitement was lost in the process. Additionally, Republic seemed reluctant to admit the new Elliot films were westerns, as witness the title Gallant Legion, which could have Read More

Old Los Angeles

Actors: John Carroll, Catherine McLeod, Andy Devine

Synopsis: Also known as California Outpost, Old Los Angeles stars Bill Elliot in one of his expanded-budget Republic "specials." The film is set during the early statehood days of California, with Elliot keeping the peace and warding off plunderers and marauders. As always, Elliot is a "peaceable Read More

Wyoming

Actors: Roy Barcroft, John Carroll, George Cheseboro, Dick Curtis

Synopsis: Promoted from Republic B westerns to "A" productions, William "Wild Bill" Elliot found himself in the sort of roles previously essayed by John Wayne, Richard Dix and Errol Flynn. In the Republic "special" Wyoming, Elliot plays Charles Alderson, a wealthy Wyoming Territory ranch owner who takes an Read More

The Fabulous Texan

Actors: Roy Barcroft, Robert H. Barrat, George Beban, Jr., James Brown, John Carroll

Synopsis: Fans of William "Wild Bill" Elliot vastly prefer his B westerns to his big-budget Republic "specials", though the latter films have their adherents. In The Fabulous Texan, Elliot emulates his idol William S. Hart in the role of ex-Confederate officer Jim McWade. Returning to Texas to find his home Read More

The Plainsman and the Lady

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

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

California Gold Rush

Synopsis: All 7 "Red Ryder" B-westerns of the 1946-47 season were directed by R. G. Springsteen. All were written by veteran Earl Snell. And, all starred Allan "Rocky" Lane, returning to the series after briefly being replaced by Bill Elliot. Bobby Blake co-starred in these seven films as Ryder's young Read More

In Old Sacramento

Actors: Constance Moore, Hank Daniels, Ruth Donnelly, Eugene Pallette

Synopsis: Director Joseph Kane adapted his own story Diamond Carlisle for the screenplay of In Old Sacramento--the third film version of Kane's original tale. Bill Elliot stars as masked bandit Spanish Jack, who behaves as badly as he wishes with few of the usual redeeming features plaguing most cinema Read More

The Sheriff of Redwood Valley

Synopsis: In this western, Red Ryder and his sidekick prove that a man never committed the crime of which he has been accused. They then round up the real outlaws. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Sun Valley Cyclone

Synopsis: In this western, Red Ryder rounds up a gang of horse thieves who have been stealing cavalry horses. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Conquest of Cheyenne

Synopsis: Red Ryder and his comical sidekick take on a new batch of bad-guys in this western, the 16th in the Red Ryder series. This time the heroic duo try to save a female rancher from a greedy financier who wants her land so he can exploit the enormous oil fields lying under it. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Read More

Phantom of the Plains

Synopsis: In this western, Red Ryder and his young sidekick Little Beaver help prevent an impressionable duchess from being duped by a bogus British aristocrat. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Wagon Wheels Westward

Synopsis: In this western, Red Ryder leads a wagon train of homesteaders into a ghost town and discovers that it has become an outlaw's hideout. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Colorado Pioneers

Synopsis: An interesting entry in Republic Pictures' long-running "Red Ryder" B-Western series, this film is not about hardy settlers braving the Colorado winters, as the title would suggest. Instead it's a sort of Reform School Western about a couple of wayward Chicago boys (Billy Cummings and Freddie Chapman Read More

Great Stagecoach Robbery

Synopsis: In this western, Red Ryder tries to be a good example for a young man who idolizes his father, an outlaw. The boy wants to follow in his father's footsteps when the hero intervenes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Bells of Rosarita

Actors: Roy Rogers, George "Gabby" Hayes, Dale Evans, Adele Mara, Grant Withers

Synopsis: The standard Roy Rogers musical western Bells of Rosarita is enlivened by a cute last-reel gimmick. Rogers is appropriately cast as a cowboy star who invariably rescues the heroine from the villain in his movie vehicles. But when Sue Farnum (Dale Evans) is cheated out of her inheritance by the Read More

Marshal of Laredo

Synopsis: Substituting for Allan Lane, who'd been called away to active military service, Bill Elliot stars in the Republic "Red Ryder" western Marshal of Laredo. This time, Red comes to the aid of a frontier lawyer, who is suspected of being an outlaw (a logical enough error). Enlisting the aid of his Read More

The Lone Texas Ranger

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

Cheyenne Wildcat

Synopsis: Bill Elliot is back as Red Ryder in Cheyenne Wildcat. Also back are Ryder's perennial cohorts Little Beaver (Bobby Blake, later Robert Blake of Baretta fame) and the Duchess (Alice Fleming). When not pummeling the bad guys, Ryder is the reluctant apex of a love triangle. It's formula stuff all the Read More

Tucson Raiders

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

Mojave Firebrand

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

Marshal of Reno

Synopsis: Two wild western towns battle it out for the position of county seat. Fortunately, Red Ryder and his little side-kick are around to restore the peace. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The San Antonio Kid

Actors: William "Wild Bill" Elliott, Bobby Blake, Alice Fleming, Linda Stirling, Earl Hodgins

Synopsis: There's oil in them thar' hills and an unscrupulous oil company scout attempts to drive the settlers off their newly valuable land in this typical Red Ryder Western starring "the Peaceable Man" (William Elliott). Oil company representative Walter Garfield (LeRoy Mason) and his equally nefarious Read More

Sheriff of Las Vegas

Synopsis: In this western, brave Red Ryder and his sidekick save a murdered judge's son from going to jail by proving that someone else killed his father. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Hidden Valley Outlaws

Synopsis: "Wild Bill" Elliott heads the all-star (by B-flick standards, at any rate) western Hidden Valley Outlaws. Elliott does battle with a cartel of ruthless landgrabbers, who are victimizing settlers throughout the Southwest. With such formidable villains as Roy Barcroft, Kenneth Duncan, Leroy Mason Read More

Vigilantes of Dodge City

Synopsis: This "Red Ryder" entry stars Gordon "Wild Bill" Elliot as Ryder. The heroine (Linda Stirling) is having troubles with the freight company that she owns. Time and again, her coaches are beset by hooded thieves. With Red Ryder on the job, the robbers haven't got a chance, but they put up a fight Read More

Overland Mail Robbery

Actors: George "Gabby" Hayes, Anne Jeffreys, Alice Fleming, Weldon Heyburn

Synopsis: Overland Mail Robbery is another entry in Republic's "Wild Bill" Elliot western series. Once again, Elliot's leading lady is Anne Jeffreys, and once again his comical sidekick is Gabby Hayes. The plot finds Wild Bill coming to the aid of namby-pamby Easterner Tom Hartley (played by future Read More

The Man from Thunder River

Synopsis: In this western, a cowboy and his pals must stop outlaws from stealing a cache of gold ore. Action ensues, and they succeed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Calling Wild Bill Elliott

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

Bordertown Gunfighters

Actors: George "Gabby" Hayes, Anne Jeffreys, Harry Woods

Synopsis: The 1943 Republic westerns of "Wild Bill" Elliot maintained a high batting average, and Bordertown Gunfighters was no exception. Elliot is cast as an undercover government agent, assigned to stop a gang of swindlers who've been preying on Mexican immigrants. The villains aren't averse to Read More

Death Valley Manhunt

Actors: Anne Jeffreys, George "Gabby" Hayes, Herbert Heyes, Davison Clark

Synopsis: Republic's winning combination of western star Wild Bill Elliot, comic sidekick Gabby Hayes and leading lady Anne Jeffreys is shown to good advantage in Death Valley Manhunt. Elliot plays a lawman who is hired by a group independent oilmen to protect them from crooked business interests. One of Read More

Wagon Tracks West

Actors: George "Gabby" Hayes, Anne Jeffreys, Rick Vallin, Robert W. Frazer

Synopsis: In this western, Wild Bill and his assistant, try to learn why a young med school graduate is being spurned by the members of his own Native American tribe. The heroes learn that the clan's medicine man is a phony in cahoots with a corrupt Indian agent and that these two are working for a wicked Read More

The Valley of Vanishing Men [Serial]

Prairie Gunsmoke

Synopsis: "Wild" Bill Elliot is the star of Prairie Gunsmoke. This time Elliot is paired with Tex Ritter, both of whom prove the bane of the bad guys' existence. It's fun to watch Ritter swing into action the moment he finishes singing, though Elliot may not have been overly pleased at sharing the Read More

North of the Rockies

Vengeance of the West

The Devil's Trail

Synopsis: Cowboy-pic legends Wild Bill Elliot and Tex Ritter team up in The Devil's Trail. While the film contains barely enough plot for one star, it's nice to see Bill and Tex working together so smoothly. Our heroes head to a wide-open town in search of a gang of desperadoes, headed by swarthy Noah Beery Read More

Bullets for Bandits

Across the Sierras

Actors: Luana Walters, Dub Taylor, Dick Curtis

Synopsis: The taciturn William Elliott stars in this above-average entry in Columbia's "Wild Bill Hickock" B-Western series. Returning to town with Larry Armstrong (Richard Fiske), an old friend he has just saved from a lynch mob, Hickock learns that Mitch Carew (Dick Curtis), a prison parolee, has killed Read More

Hands Across the Rockies

Synopsis: As Wild Bill Hickok and sidekick Cannonball stalk a murderer, they encounter the killer's fiancee. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

King of Dodge City

Actors: Tex Ritter, Judith Linden, Dub Taylor, Guy Usher

Synopsis: Columbia's King of Dodge City was the first of several westerns costarring "Wild Bill" Elliot and singing cowboy Tex Ritter. Though Elliot is billed first, the plot and action are evenly divided between the two B-picture favorites. The story takes place in Kansas, just after the Civil War. Wild Read More

The Lone Star Vigilantes

Actors: Tex Ritter, Frank Mitchell, Virginia Carpenter, Luana Walters

Synopsis: It's Wild Bill Elliot as Wild Bill Hickok in the Columbia B-western Lone Star Vigilantes. This time out, Elliot is teamed with singing cowboy Tex Ritter, while comedy relief is provided by diminutive stuntman Frank Mitchell. Returning from Civil War duty, Hickok, Tex Martin (Ritter) and Cannonball Read More

Roaring Frontiers

Synopsis: In their second of eight co-starring westerns for Columbia Pictures, William "Wild Bill" Elliott and Tex Ritter were joined by veteran comedian Frank Mitchell, who replaced the departing Dub Taylor as comic sidekick "Cannonball." Vowing to avenge the murder of his father, Tex Rawlings (Ritter) Read More

The Son of Davy Crockett

Actors: Iris Meredith, Dub Taylor, Kenneth MacDonald, Richard Fiske

Synopsis: Bill Elliot took time out from his "Wild Bill Hickok" westerns series to essay the title role in Son of Davy Crockett. During the Reconstruction era, Davy Jr. (Elliot) is hired by President Grant (Harrison Greene) to convince the residents of a small territory on the Texas border to align Read More

The Return of Daniel Boone

Actors: Betty Miles, Dub Taylor, Ray Bennett, Walter Soderling

Synopsis: Having previously portrayed Wild Bill Hickok on screen, cowboy hero Bill Elliot impersonates another famed frontiersman in The Return of Daniel Boone. Somehow finding himself in the 19th century west, Daniel Boone takes on a pair of clever crooks, one of whom (Walter Soderling) serves as mayor of Read More

Wildcat of Tucson

Actors: Evelyn Young, Stanley Brown, Dub Taylor, Kenneth MacDonald

Synopsis: Wild Bill Hickok is once more impersonated by Will Bill Elliot in the Columbia western Wildcat of Tucson. This time, Hickok is saddled with an irresponsible brother named Dave (Stanley Brown). Falling in with a bad crowd, Dave ends up victimized by claim jumpers, forcing Wild Bill to leave his Read More

North from Lone Star

Actors: Richard Fiske, Dorothy Fay, Dub Taylor, Arthur Loft

Synopsis: Wild Bill Hickock (William Elliott), aka The Peaceable Man, meters out justice in the tough town of Deadwood in this highly fictional western from Columbia. Unlike the historic character, Elliott's gunfighter survives his encounter with the South Dakota hellhole, where he arrives to aid Read More

Beyond the Sacramento

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

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

The Return of Wild Bill

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

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

Prairie Schooners

Actors: Evelyn Young, Dub Taylor, Ray Teal

Synopsis: An average Columbia B-Western, Prairie Schooners once again features William Elliott as a highly fictitious Wild Bill Hickock. When local farmers are ready to string up nasty banker Dalton Stull (Kenneth Harlan), who had taken advantage of a drought to foreclose on their loans, Wild Bill agrees Read More

The Man from Tumbleweeds

Actors: Iris Meredith, Francis Walker

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

Pioneers of the Frontier

Actors: Dick Curtis, Dub Taylor, Stanley Brown

Synopsis: The second of Columbia Pictures' four "Wild Bill Saunders" westerns, Pioneers of the Frontier features William Elliott as the title character who discovers that his uncle Mort (Lafe McKee) has been murdered by an unscrupulous ranch foreman, Matt Brawley (Dick Curtis). But before he can right Read More

The Law Comes to Texas

Actors: Veda Ann Borg, Leon Beaumont

Synopsis: In this actioner, a hardened cowboy decides to stop studying law and become a Texas state trooper instead. At the governor's request he then impersonates an outlaw to trick a band of bandits. Once he gains their trust, he and his assistant organize a trooper raid to stop the outlaws. The good guys Read More

Frontiers of '49

Actors: Hal Taliaferro

Synopsis: Following up his movie portrayal of Wild Bill Hickok, Bill Elliot stars as famed trailblazer John "Frontier" Freeman in Columbia's Frontiers of '49. The film takes place in 19th century California, where a crooked real estate firm is merrily selling off Spanish land grants in exchange for Read More

The Taming of the West

Actors: Iris Meredith, Dick Curtis, Dub Taylor, James Craig

Synopsis: Cowboy star Bill Elliot makes his first appearance in his familiar guise of "Wild Bill" in Columbia's Taming of the West. When a gang of cattle rustlers knocks off several sheriffs in quick succession, it's up to Wild Bill to get to the bottom of things. The moment he pins on his marshal's badge Read More

Lone Star Pioneers

Actors: Dorothy Gulliver, Lee Shumway

Synopsis: In this western, a U.S. marshal impersonates an outlaw and rides to Texas to find the looters who have been raiding supply shipments. He finds them and infiltrates their gang. He soon finds out that the desperadoes have commandeered a ranch and are holding the rancher and his family prisoner while Read More

The Devil's Party

Actors: Victor McLaglen, William Gargan, Paul Kelly, Beatrice Roberts, Frank Jenks

Synopsis: This melodrama chronicles the enduring friendship between four boys in New York's Hell's Kitchen. As boys, the made a pact that they would meet annually to renew their friendship. Trouble ensues when one of the boys accidently sets fire to a building. Another boy took the blame. He went to reform Read More

The Lady in the Morgue

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Patricia Ellis, Frank Jenks, Barbara Pepper

Synopsis: Preston S. Foster and Frank Jenks play Bill Crane and Doc Williams, the pulp-novel detectives created by mystery writer Jonathan Latimer. Crane and Williams tackle the case of a morgue robbery; the missing body is that of a young woman who died mysteriously. As the detectives follow the clues Read More

Tarzan's Revenge

Actors: Glenn Morris, Eleanor Holm, George Barbier, C. Henry Gordon, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: While the "Tarzan" series was going full blast at MGM, several independent producers managed to secure the screen rights to Edgar Rice Burrough's Lord of the Jungle for their own low-budget adventure films. Taking into consideration the fact that MGM's Tarzan was Olympic swimming star Johnny Read More

In Early Arizona

Actors: Dorothy Gulliver, Harry Woods, Jack Ingram, Franklin Farnum

Synopsis: In Early Arizona was western star Bill Elliot's first effort for Columbia Pictures. Not yet "Wild Bill" Elliot (as he would later be billed), the actor is cast as Whit Gordon, who rides into Tombstone Arizona to help keep the peace. Elliot is appointed sheriff, making him the particular target of Read More

A Letter of Introduction

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Andrea Leeds, Edgar Bergen, George Murphy, Rita Johnson

Synopsis: A master blend of high comedy and tense emotional drama, A Letter of Introduction reteams Adolphe Menjou, Andrea Leeds, and Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, who'd previously costarred in the negligible Goldwyn Follies. Menjou plays John Mannering, a Barrymoresque actor who years earlier had Read More

Melody for Two

Actors: James Melton, Patricia Ellis, Marie Wilson, Fred Keating, Dick Purcell

Synopsis: Operatic tenor James Melton stars as on-the-skids bandleader Tod Weaver, who finds himself in charge of an all-girl orchestra. Though he tries to remain oblivious to his musicians' charms, he can't help but fall in love with assistant conductor Gale Starr (Patricia Ellis). Things look bad for hero Read More

Midnight Court

Actors: Ann Dvorak, John Litel, Carlyle Moore, Jr., Joseph Crehan, Walter Miller

Synopsis: District attorney Victor Shanley (John Litel) is forced out of his job through the machinations of gang boss Al Kruger (William B. Davidson). Thirsting for revenge against the legal system that apparently failed to back him up, Shanley goes to the "other side," becoming a defense lawyer on Read More

Love Takes Flight

Actors: Bruce Cabot, Beatrice Roberts, John Sheehan, Astrid Allwyn, Elliot Fisher

Synopsis: Though he would later dismiss it as "just a ten-day job," actor Conrad Nagel made a remarkably smooth directorial debut with Grand National's Love Takes Flight. Bruce Cabot stars as Neil Bradshaw, an egotistical commercial pilot in love with stewardess Joan Lawson (Beatrice Roberts). Somewhat Read More

Boy of the Streets

Actors: Jackie Cooper, Maureen O'Connor, Kathleen Burke, Robert E. O'Connor

Synopsis: In this urban drama, a teenage street punk learns a valuable lesson about the dangers of crime. Jackie Cooper is the tough gangleader with political aspirations. He tries to get himself involved in the graft and corruption of local city government. He almost dies after he is plugged by a gangster. Read More

Guns of the Pecos

Actors: Dick Foran, Anne Nagel, Gordon Hart, Joseph Crehan, Eddie Acuff

Synopsis: Warner Bros.' resident singing cowboy, the amiable Dick Foran, warbles "The Prairie Is My Home" and "When the Cowboy Takes a Wife" (by M.K. Jerome and Jack Scholl) in between battling a corrupt judge in this pleasant B-Western produced by the studio's busy Bryan Foy unit. Foran is Steve Ainslee, a Read More

Wife, Doctor and Nurse

Actors: Loretta Young, Warner Baxter, Virginia Bruce, Jane Darwell, Sidney Blackmer

Synopsis: Loretta Young is the wife, Warner Baxter the doctor and Virginia Bruce the nurse in this 20th Century-Fox trifle. Society gal Young marries Park Avenue medico Baxter, little guessing that humble nursie Bruce also loves the doc. Young raises vociferous objections, compelling Bruce to leave. Read More

You Can't Have Everything

Actors: Alice Faye, The Ritz Brothers [Al, Jimmy, Harry], Don Ameche, Charles Winninger, Louise Hovick

Synopsis: Alice Faye stars as aspiring playwright Judith Poe Wells. She falls in love with producer George Macrae (Don Ameche), which makes George's girlfriend Louise Hovick (Gypsy Rose Lee) see red. Judith drops from view while George loses his troublesome girlfriend and prepares to put together a Broadway Read More

Fugitive in the Sky

Actors: Jean Muir, Warren Hull, Gordon Oliver, Carlyle Moore, Jr., Howard Phillips

Synopsis: Fugitive in the Sky closely resembles such earlier aviation programmers as 13 Hours by Air and Absolute Quiet. Once again, a plane-load of diverse passengers is hijacked by a fugitive criminal, who this time forces the plane to land during a dust storm. This incident opens a whole new can of worms Read More

Swing It, Professor

Actors: Pinky Tomlin, Paula Stone, Mary Kornman, Milburn Stone, Pat Gleason

Synopsis: Swing It, Professor stars Pinky Tomlin, the bespectacled crooner who parlayed the song "The Object of My Affections" into a sizeable career. Tomlin plays a professor of music who is dead-set against the jazz and big-band craze of the late 1930s. After several career reverses, Pinky comes to terms Read More

Boots and Saddles

Actors: Gene Autry, Merrill McCormack, Nelson McDowell, Smiley Burnette, Chris-Pin Martin, Judith Allen, Ra Hould, Bob Reeves, Al Taylor, Guy Usher

Synopsis: A superior Gene Autry Western in every way, Boots and Saddles features child prodigy Ra Hould (aka Ronald Sinclair) as Edward, Earl of Granville, a young Briton arriving in the West to claim his inheritance: a sprawling ranch. Foreman Gene Autry and sidekick, Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette), who Read More

Roll Along Cowboy

Actors: Smith Ballew, Cecilia Parker, Ruth Robinson, Frank Milan

Synopsis: Roll Along, Cowboy was the second starring vehicle for Smith Ballew, producer Sol Lesser's answer to Gene Autry. Our hero reports for work at the ranch of middle-aged Ruth Robinson, only to find that she's being threatened by outlaws. With a song in his heart and a gun in his holster, Ballew routs Read More

Speed to Spare

Actors: Charles Quigley, Dorothy Wilson, Eddie Nugent, Patricia Farr, Gene Morgan

Synopsis: If Charles Quigley never became Columbia's answer to Clark Gable (which seemed to be the studio's intention), it wasn't for lack of trying. In Speed to Spare, Quigley plays champion racecar driver Tommy Morton, eternal rival to less-ethical speed king Skids Brannigan (Eddie Nugent). What no one Read More

Trailin' West

Actors: Dick Foran, Paula Stone, Addison Richards, Robert H. Barrat

Synopsis: This Dick Foran "singing western" makes extensive use of stock footage from First National's Ken Maynard series of the silent era. Foran is cast as Northern officer Rod Colton, who goes undercover during the Civil War to flush out a gang of Confederate spies. It develops that the mercenary Read More

Murder by an Aristocrat

Actors: Lyle Talbot, Marguerite Churchill, Claire Dodd, Virginia Brissac

Synopsis: Nurse Sarah Keate, the middle-aged crime-solver created by mystery novelist Mignon Eberhardt, was reshaped as a much younger and prettier woman in Murder by an Aristocrat. Marguerite Churchill is the white-clad heroine, here rechristened Sarah Keating, while Lyle Talbot is her doctor boyfriend Read More

The Walking Dead

Actors: Boris Karloff, Ricardo Cortez, Edmund Gwenn, Marguerite Churchill, Warren Hull, Barton MacLane

Synopsis: In one of his most successful portrayals of a "living dead" man, Boris Karloff plays John Ellman, an ex-convict who is framed by the mob for the murder of the judge who first put him away. Evidence proving Ellman's innocence arrives seconds after he is electrocuted. Officials allow Dr. Evan Read More

Moonlight on the Prairie

Actors: Dick Foran, George E. Stone, Joe Sawyer

Synopsis: Dusting off a couple of old Ken Maynard Western plots -- already recycled once with John Wayne in the early 1930s -- Warner Bros. jumped on the singing cowboy band wagon with a series starring baritone Dick Foran (formerly Nick Foran. The opener, Moonlight on the Prairie was filmed on glorious Read More

The Murder of Dr. Harrigan

Actors: Kay Linaker, Ricardo Cortez, Mary Astor, John Eldredge, Joseph Crehan

Synopsis: The Murder of Dr. Harrigan is based on a "Nurse Sarah Keats" mystery novel by Mignon Eberhardt. The middle-aged protagonist of the novel has been transformed into pretty, young nurse Sally Keating (Kay Linaker), in love with handsome doctor George Lambert (Ricardo Cortez). The founder of the Read More

The Case of the Black Cat

Actors: Ricardo Cortez, June Travis, Jane Bryan, Craig Reynolds, Carlyle Moore, Jr.

Synopsis: Warner Bros.' "Perry Mason" series quietly slipped from the "A" to the "B" category with this adaptation of Erle Stanley Gardner's The Case of the Caretaker's Cat. Ricardo Cortez and June Travis take over from Warren William and Claire Dodd as criminal attorney Perry Mason and his faithful Read More

Polo Joe

Actors: Joe E. Brown, Carolyn Hughes, Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, Joseph King

Synopsis: At the time of its release, Polo Joe was critically lambasted as the worst Joe E. Brown starrer to date. Compared to his later non-Warners efforts, however, it's not so bad: the biggest criticism that can be levelled against it is that it's virtually indistinguishable from Brown's other 1930s Read More

The Case of the Velvet Claws

Actors: Warren William, Claire Dodd, Winifred Shaw, Gordon Elliott, Joseph King

Synopsis: Perry Mason (Warren William) actually marries his secretary, the redoubtable Della Street (Claire Dodd) in this, the fourth installment of Warner Bros.' popular series based on the novels by Erle Stanley Garner. The honeymoon, alas, is rudely interrupted when Perry is kidnapped by Eve Belter Read More

Bullets or Ballots

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Barton MacLane, Frank McHugh, Joseph King, Humphrey Bogart, Joan Blondell

Synopsis: Two-fisted New York police detective Edward G. Robinson is so volatile that he manages to get himself thrown off the force in disgrace. The local gangsters are delighted, in that Robinson had been breathing down their necks. When Robinson goes to crime boss Barton MacLaine insisting that he's Read More

The Golden Arrow

Actors: Bette Davis, George Brent, Eugene Pallette, Dick Foran, Carolyn Hughes

Synopsis: Bette Davis plays a facial cream heiress in this middling comedy, which Warner Bros. filmed partially in Florida. Mistaking George Brent for a fellow socialite, Bette quickly marries him only to discover that he is a penniless reporter searching for peace and quiet to finish the great American Read More

Down the Stretch

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Patricia Ellis, Dennis Moore, Willie Best, Gordon Hart

Synopsis: In this drama, a teen is adopted from a reform school by a wealthy couple. They own horses and the boy becomes a jockey. His father was also a rider, but he got involved with crime. The young rider soon finds himself being framed by gamblers who are using his father's reputation against him. Read More

The Story of Louis Pasteur

Actors: Paul Muni, Akim Tamiroff, Josephine Hutchinson, Anita Louise, Donald Woods, Fritz Leiber

Synopsis: "Every time Paul Muni parts his beard and looks through a microscope, we lose a million dollars." Producer Jack Warner's lament concerning Muni's historical dramas is cute enough, but hardly backed up by facts; the economically produced The Story of Louis Pasteur proved to be a surprise hit for Read More

The Traveling Saleslady

Actors: Joan Blondell, Glenda Farrell, William Gargan, Hugh Herbert, Grant Mitchell

Synopsis: In this comedy, a toothpaste magnate's mischievous daughter, tired of her father's traditional ways of conducting business, joins forces with her father's rival and a crazy inventor. Together they create "Cocktail Toothpaste." The new concoction tastes like whiskey in the morning, a martini at Read More

Ceiling Zero

Actors: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, June Travis, Stuart Erwin, Barton MacLane

Synopsis: Ceiling Zero is an adaptation of the Broadway play by Frank "Spig" Wead. James Cagney and Pat O'Brien are supremely typecast as, respectively, Dizzy Davis, a cocky civil aviator and Jake Lee, a sober-sided ground commander. Dizzy ducks out of a dangerous mission in order to dally with pretty Tommy Read More

Stars over Broadway

Actors: Pat O'Brien, James Melton, Jane Froman, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: This musical chronicles the rise to stardom of a humble bellhop after he is discovered by a talent agent. Though he becomes a very popular singer of contemporary songs, the young man really aspires to a career in opera. At first his manager is appalled and refuses to let him, but when his Read More

Devil Dogs of the Air

Actors: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Margaret Lindsay, Frank McHugh, Helen Lowell

Synopsis: Warner Bros.' Devil Dogs of the Air is very much a "formula" picture -- but what a wonderful formula it is! James Cagney plays reckless stunt flyer Tommy O'Toole, who is encouraged to join the Marine Flying Corps by his old Brooklyn buddy Lt. William Brannigan (Pat O'Brien). An undeniably talented Read More

The Secret Bride

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Warren William, Glenda Farrell, Grant Mitchell

Synopsis: The Secret Bride is Ruth Vincent (Barbara Stanwyck), the daughter of Governor Vincent (Arthur Byron). Attorney general Robert Sheldon (Warren William) falls in love with Ruth and they marry, but Sheldon insists that their marriage be kept secret. It seems that the Governor has been accused of Read More

Dangerous

Actors: Bette Davis, Franchot Tone, Margaret Lindsay, Alison Skipworth, John Eldredge

Synopsis: Not even considered a good film back in 1935, Dangerous is held together by the mesmerizing performance of Bette Davis. The star is cast as alcoholic, self-destructive stage actress Joyce Heath, a character obviously based on Jeanne Eagels. Wealthy architect Don Bellows (Franchot Tone) becomes Read More

I Live for Love

Actors: Dolores Del Rio, Guy Kibbee, Allen Jenkins, Berton Churchill

Synopsis: Though Busby Berkeley is the director of I Live for Love, there isn't a dancer or dance number anywhere to be seen. Dolores Del Rio stars as hot-tempered South American stage favorite Donna Alvarez, who is brought to America to headline a Broadway show. The film details the backstage romance Read More

The Goose and the Gander

Actors: Kay Francis, George Brent, Genevieve Tobin, John Eldredge, Claire Dodd

Synopsis: In this bedroom farce, an ex-wife overhears her former hubby's new wife and her lover planning a tryst for the weekend while the husband is away on a business trip. Hoping that the husband will catch them in the act, the ex creates an elaborate scheme whereby the lovers' plans are foiled and they Read More

The Girl From Tenth Avenue

Actors: Bette Davis, Ian Hunter, Colin Clive, Alison Skipworth, John Eldredge

Synopsis: The fourth screen version of Hubert Henry Davies' 1914 play Outcast, this comedy-drama stars Bette Davis as Miriam Brady, a shop girl offered 100 dollars to keep drunken socialite Geoffrey Sherwood (Ian Hunter) out of trouble. The next morning, alas, Miriam discovers that she has become Mrs. Read More

Bright Lights

Actors: Joe E. Brown, Ann Dvorak, Patricia Ellis, William Gargan, Joseph Cawthorn

Synopsis: Joe E. Brown's extensive circus and burlesque training serve him well in this familiar but likeable yarn. Brown and Ann Dvorak stars as small-time vaudevillians Joe and Fay Wilson, presently employed by a seedy burlesque troupe. Also on tour with the Wilsons is society girl Peggy (Patricia Ellis) Read More

The Woman in Red

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Gene Raymond, Genevieve Tobin, Phillip Reed

Synopsis: In this romantic drama, a horsewoman is forced to work in a society dame's stable. There she meets and falls in love with a destitute polo-player who has curried the favor of his lovely employer. The matron gets jealous of the budding relationship between the horsewoman and the player. A wealthy Read More

I Found Stella Parish

Actors: Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, Paul Lukas, Sybil Jason, Jessie Ralph

Synopsis: Kay Francis stars as Stella Parish, a London stage favorite who suddenly disappears without a trace. British news correspondent Keith Lockridge (Ian Hunter) girdles the globe in search of Stella, who has left her beloved daughter Gloria (Sybil Jason) in the care of an aunt (Jessie Ralph). Finally Read More

Alibi Ike

Actors: William Frawley

Synopsis: In this rollicking adaptation of Ring Lardner's short story, Joe E. Brown plays an ace baseball player whose insistence upon making up excuses earns him the nickname "Alibi Ike." In the course of his first season with the Chicago Cubs, Brown also falls in love with Olivia De Havilland Read More

Dr. Socrates

Actors: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Barton MacLane, Raymond Brown, Robert H. Barrat, John Eldredge, Ralph M. Remley

Synopsis: Paul Muni is a prominent physician who is kidnapped by gangsters and forced to tend the needs of head crook Barton MacLaine. MacLaine takes a liking to the intellectual doctor and allows him to go home after his job is done. Muni finds himself the reluctant "staff physician" for the gangster, thus 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

Man of Iron

Actors: Barton MacLane, Mary Astor, John Eldredge, Dorothy Peterson, Joseph Crehan

Synopsis: Though usually a supporting player in Warner Bros' A pictures, Barton MacLane was permitted an occasional leading role in the studio's B-picture product. Man of Iron casts MacLane as a blue-collar factory worker who, through hard work and initiative, is promoted to vice president. Unfortunately Read More

Broadway Gondolier

Actors: Dick Powell, Joan Blondell, Adolphe Menjou, Louise Fazenda, William Gargan

Synopsis: A tuneful taxi driver secretly works to achieve his dream of becoming a radio singer in this musical comedy. One day he gives a radio station secretary a lift. She prattles on about a sponsor's new contest. The sponsor, a prominent cheese company, is looking for a singing gondolier to participate Read More

Page Miss Glory

Actors: Marion Davies, Pat O'Brien, Dick Powell, Mary Astor, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Productions moved from MGM to Warners with Page Miss Glory--along with Cosmopolitan's biggest commodity, actress Marion Davies. The plotline has something to do with a composite photo prepared for a magazine contest: The combined facial attributes of Garbo, Dietrich Read More

Living on Velvet

Actors: Kay Francis, George Brent, Warren William, Helen Lowell

Synopsis: In this drama, an amateur pilot is driven to living life in the fast lane after he pilots that plane that crashed and killed his parents and his sister. He goes on to marry. He and his new wife live in terrible conditions until he suddenly inherits $8,000 which he uses to buy a plane and start up Read More

Personal Maid's Secret

Actors: Ruth Donnelly, Warren Hull, Margaret Lindsay, Anita Louise, Frank Albertson

Synopsis: This cozy little Warner Bros. drama was based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Lillian Day. Ruth Donnelly stars as Lizzie, a personal maid who after serving several of New York's "best" families, elects to work in the middle-class home of insurance salesman Tom Smith (Warren Hull) and his wife (Margaret Lindsay Read More

Doctor Monica

Actors: Kay Francis, Warren William, Jean Muir, Veree Teasdale, Phillip Reed

Synopsis: The second of three Kay Francis films in which the star was cast as a dedicated lady physician, Doctor Monica was adapted from a Polish play by Marja Morozowicz Szezepkowska. Francis plays obstetrician Dr. Monica, whose husband John (Warren William) cheats on her with young Mary (Jean Muir). When Read More

Twenty Million Sweethearts

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers, Allen Jenkins, Grant Mitchell

Synopsis: A satire on radio crooners, Twenty Million Sweethearts stars Dick Powell as a singing waiter--fake handlebar mustache and all. Publicity man Pat O'Brien discovers Powell and gets him a radio gig, leading to nationwide adulation for the nonplused tenor. All of this jeopardizes Powell's happy Read More

Desirable

Actors: Jean Muir, George Brent, Veree Teasdale, Arthur Ayleswofth, Joan Wheeler

Synopsis: This drama examines the rivalry between a mother and the daughter she is too vain to acknowledge. The mother is a famous actress who does not want her true age to be known. She, therefore, keeps her 19-year old daughter secreted away in a boarding school. The daughter is too old to be concealed. Read More

Registered Nurse

Actors: Bebe Daniels, Lyle Talbot, John Halliday, Irene Franklin, Sidney Toler

Synopsis: In this sudsy hospital melodrama, a married nurse finds herself falling in love with one of two surgeons when her husband goes mad and needs an operation. One of the surgeons regards his pursuit a lark, while the other harbors genuine affections for the nurse. At first, she is attracted to the Read More

Wonder Bar

Actors: Kay Francis, Dick Powell, Al Jolson, Dolores Del Rio, Ricardo Cortez

Synopsis: Based on Al Jolson's 1931 Broadway hit, Wonder Bar transposes the "Grand Hotel" formula to a lavish nightclub in Paris' Montmartre district. Presiding over the evening's entertainment is manager-emcee Al Wonder (Jolson), who after greeting his guests in a multitude of languages (a la Joel Grey in Cabaret Read More

Housewife

Actors: George Brent, Bette Davis, Ann Dvorak, John Halliday, Ruth Donnelly

Synopsis: A pre-stardom Bette Davis struggles mightily as the "other woman" in this rather obvious divorce court drama from Warner Bros. George Brent stars as William Reynolds, a hardworking but markedly unmotivated office manager whose wife, Nan (Ann Dvorak), manages to make ends meet with the little she's Read More

Here Comes the Navy

Actors: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Gloria Stuart, Frank McHugh, Dorothy Tree

Synopsis: Actually this film should have been titled "Here Comes Jimmy Cagney Again, so Duck!". James Cagney is a bantam-cock sailor who runs up against chief petty officer Pat O'Brien. Seems that Cagney and O'Brien had come to blows early in the film when O'Brien stole Cagney's date at a dance hall. Read More

Dancing Lady

Actors: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, May Robson, Winnie Lightner, Fred Astaire

Synopsis: Virtually everybody except President Roosevelt was in the lavish MGM backstage musical Dancing Lady. Joan Crawford stars as Janie Barlow, an impoverished dancer reduced to working in a seedy Manhattan burlesque house. While on a slumming party with his society friend, wealthy young Tod Newton (Franchot Tone Read More

The Keyhole

Actors: Kay Francis, George Brent, Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins

Synopsis: In this melodrama, the wife of a wealthy man abruptly leaves him and sets sail for Cuba leaving him to hire a gumshoe to find out why. The girl left because she was being blackmailed for $50,000 by her former ex-husband who claims that they were never legally divorced. Before heading to Cuba for a Read More

Gold Diggers of 1933

Actors: Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell

Synopsis: The second talkie version of the Avery Hopwood's theatrical war-horse The Golddiggers of Broadway, Gold Diggers of 1933 was the second of three back-to-back 1933 Warner Bros. musicals benefiting from the genius of Busby Berkeley. The basic plot is retained from the Hopwood play: Showgirls Joan Blondell Read More

Man Killer

Actors: William Powell, Margaret Lindsay, Ruth Donnelly, Gordon Westcott, James Bell

Synopsis: Romance throws a spanner into the works of a con game in this light drama. Donald Free (William Powell) is a private detective whose career in on the skids. Dan Hogan (Arthur Holh) is another, less scrupulous shamus who persuades Free to help him frame Janet Reynolds (Margaret Lindsay), a wealthy Read More

The Little Giant

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Mary Astor, Helen Vinson, Ken Thomson, Shirley Grey

Synopsis: The end of prohibition spells the end of business as usual for Chicago gangster Bugs Ahearn (Edward G. Robinson in this delightful spoof of mob melodramas from Warner Bros. Paying off their latest moll, Edith (Shirley Grey, Bugs and chief lieutenant Al Daniels (Russell Hopton) grab their Read More

One Hour with You

Actors: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Genevieve Tobin, Charlie Ruggles, Roland Young

Synopsis: A musical remake of The Marriage Circle (1924), One Hour with You stars Maurice Chevalier as a Parisian doctor and Jeanette MacDonald as his loving wife. Chevalier is scrupulously faithful, much to the chagrin of his lovely female patients. But when MacDonald's best friend Genevieve Tobin insists Read More

Merrily We Go to Hell

Actors: Sylvia Sidney, Fredric March, Adrianne Allen

Synopsis: If only Merrily We Go To Hell was as interesting as its title! To escape an arranged marriage, heiress Joan Prentice (Sylvia Sidney) elopes with reporter Jerry Corbett (Fredric March). Unfortunately, Corbett is not only irresponsible, but also an abusive drunkard. To make matters worse, predatory Read More

The Rich Are Always with Us

Actors: Ruth Chatterton, George Brent, Adrienne Dore, Bette Davis, John Miljan

Synopsis: A talented cast does its best with a nonsensical script in The Rich are Always With Us. Ruth Chatterton stars as a witty socialite saddled with caddish husband John Miljan. Upon learning that Miljan has been fooling around with Adrienne Dore, Chatterton divorces him, whereupon his brokerage firm Read More

Lady with a Past

Actors: Constance Bennett, Ben Lyon, David Manners, Don Alvarado, Albert Conti

Synopsis: This droll, sophisticated comedy stars Constance Bennett as Venice Muir, a shy young lady with no "past" of any kind -- and very little romance in her life. Hoping to overcome her bashfulness during a trip to Europe, she invents a lurid history for herself, then engages the services of paid escort Read More

Jewel Robbery

Actors: William Powell, Kay Francis, Helen Vinson, Hardie Albright, Alan Mowbray

Synopsis: This imitation-Lubitsch romantic comedy stars William Powell as an elegant jewel thief plying his trade in Vienna. Powell's latest victim is bored baroness Kay Francis, who is much taken by the gentleman crook's handsomeness and poise. Since Francis is casting about for a new lover and newer Read More

Night After Night

Actors: George Raft, Constance Cummings, Wynne Gibson, Mae West, Alison Skipworth, Roscoe Karns

Synopsis: In one of his first starring roles, George Raft plays Joe Anton, a tough but basically decent speakeasy owner who falls in love with Park Avenue socialite Miss Healy (Constance Cummings). Hoping to come up to the girl's social level, Joe starts taking lessons in speech and behavior from haughty Read More

City Streets

Actors: Gary Cooper, Sylvia Sidney, Paul Lukas, Guy Kibbee

Synopsis: Never one to hide his talent under a bushel basket, director Rouben Mamoulien proudly proclaimed that, while there were ten killings in his 1931 gangster drama City Streets, the audience never sees any of them. This was not the only innovation in this fascinating early talkie, in which Read More

Platinum Blonde

Actors: Loretta Young, Robert Williams, Jean Harlow, Louise Closser Hale, Donald Dilloway, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: A rather bleak comedy-drama from Frank Capra, Platinum Blonde basically starts where Capra's later and much more buoyant It Happened One Night (1934) ends: the marriage between a brash newspaperman and a society dame. But where the latter comedy was enhanced by the director's patented optimism Read More

Born to Love

Actors: Constance Bennett, Joel McCrea, Paul Cavanagh, Frederick Kerr, Anthony Bushell

Synopsis: A WWI American nurse stationed in London (Constance Bennett) meets a handsome flier and finds only sorrow in this three-hanky melodrama. She gets pregnant; then the flier disappears during a mission and she must bear her child alone. Time passes and eventually, she reluctantly agrees to marry a Read More

East Is West

Actors: Lupe Velez, Lew Ayres, Edward G. Robinson, Henry Kolker, Mary Forbes

Synopsis: In this romance, men board "The Love Boat" (no, not the TV boat) and set sail for China with the hope of buying a Chinese bride. The hero disembarks and immediately finds himself in the midst of an auction of women. There he spies a beautiful girl being sold by her father. The hero saves her. She Read More

The Great Divide

Actors: Dorothy Mackaill, Ian Keith, Lucien Littlefield, Ben Hendricks, Jr., Myrna Loy

Synopsis: In this early musical western, Stephen Ghent (Ian Keith) is a businessman who, after the death of his partner, has been helping to support Ruth Jordan (Dorothy Mackaill), the late man's college-age daughter. While visiting a town near the Mexican border on business, Ghent is shocked to discover Read More

Sunny

Actors: Marilyn Miller, Lawrence Gray, Joe Donahue, Mackenzie Ward, O.P. Heggie

Synopsis: Broadway star Marilyn Miller's second starring film was an adaptation of her 1925 stage hit Sunny. Flashing her celebrated dazzling smile at every possible occasion, Miller is cast as a circus bareback rider, in love with wealthy Tom Warren (Lawrence Gray). Naturally, Tom's aristocratic family are Read More

Broadway Scandals

Actors: Sally O'Neil, Jack Egan, Carmel Myers, J. Barney Sherry, John Hyams

Synopsis: Filmed back-to-back with the similar The Broadway Hoofer, Broadway Scandals marked the first musical production from then-Poverty Row company Columbia Pictures and the feature film debut of popular Broadway emcee Jack Egan. Egan plays Ted Howard, a vaudevillian left stranded in a tank town. A Read More

Private Life of Helen of Troy

Actors: María Corda, Lewis Stone, Ricardo Cortez, George Fawcett, Alice White

Synopsis: Setting the standard for his later light-hearted biopics The Private Life of Henry VIII and Rembrandt, producer-director Alexander Korda steadfastly refuses to take any of The Private Life of Helen of Troy seriously. Maria Corda, wife of the director, plays the title character as a fetchingly Read More

Arizona Wildcat

Actors: Tom Mix, Dorothy Sebastian, Ben Bard, Cissy Fitzgerald

Synopsis: This western is one of Tom Mix's most inventive and certainly among his most off-beat. This time he plays a California breeder of polo ponies in love with a society gal. The cowboy saves the day when a member of her brother's polo team is injured during an important match. Mix immediately replaces Read More

The Plastic Age

Actors: Clara Bow, Donald Keith, Mary Alden, Henry B. Walthall, Gilbert Roland

Synopsis: Produced by Preferred Pictures on rental stages at FBO and on-location at Pomona College in Claremont, CA, The Plastic Age was Clara Bow's 15th and final release of 1925 and the comedy-drama that made her a major star. She plays Cynthia Day, the campus flirt whose "hotsy-totsy" lifestyle does not Read More

Hearts of the World

Actors: Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, Dorothy Gish, George Fawcett, Erich Von Stroheim

Synopsis: On the heels of his masterpiece, Intolerance, which dramatized the futility of war born out of prejudice, director D.W. Griffith shifted gears for this film. Intolerance had proven a financial disaster for Griffith, so he signed with producer Adolph Zukor to release his next film. He came upon the Read More

Woman and Wine

Synopsis: Woman and Wine almost bring about the downfall of the hero of this 5-reel melodrama. After inheriting a fortune, an impressionable young man falls under the spell of a beautiful "adventuress" (a 1915 euphemism for "hooker"). He soon runs through all of his money, and in the process all but Read More