Al Ferguson
Spaceship to the Unknown is a condensed version of the original serial, compressing the original twelve episodes into an efficient 97 minute feature. Flash Gordon (Buster Crabbe) heads into space with brilliant scientist Dr. Zarkoff (Frank Shannon) and his sweetheart Dale Arden (Jean Rogers) in an effort to throw the planet Mongo off course; it is expected to crash into the Earth within a matter of days. However, once Flash and his crew arrive on Mongo, they have to deal with the supremely evil Ming the Merciless (Charles B. Middleton) and his wicked minions.
Roberts and Moore played an army scout and a pony express rider who come to the aid of settlers terrorized by a greedy rancher-turned-outlaw.
In the 56th (and next-to-last serial) made by Columbia Pictures, Montana Deputy Dan Lawson, posing as an outlaw called Laramie, goes to the Canadian northwest on the trail of Bart Randall who is wanted for murder and bank robbery in the states. In Canada, Randall is a little more upscale and uses a hydra-plane and a fake totem to over-awe the Indians. Laramie is aided in his search by RCMP Sergeant Gray and by Donna Blane, who is suspected at first of giving information to Randall, but who is actually a Canadian secret agent investigating Randall's gun-trading with the Indians.
In the Salinas Valley, in and around World War I, Cal Trask feels he must compete against overwhelming odds with his brother for the love of their father. Cal is frustrated at every turn, from his reaction to the war, to how to get ahead in business and in life, to how to relate to estranged mother.
The residents of a small town are excited when a flaming meteor lands in the hills, until they discover it is the first of many transport devices from Mars bringing an army of invaders invincible to any man-made weapon, even the atomic bomb.
Highwayman Dick Turpin rides 200 miles to save his wife from the gallows in 18th-century England.
Set against the back drop of Rome in crisis, General Marcus Vinicius returns to the city from the battle fields and falls in love with a Christian woman, Lygia. Caught in the grip of insanity, Nero's atrocities become more extreme and he burns Rome, laying the blame on the Christians. Vinicius races to save Lygia from the wrath of Nero as the empire of Rome collapses around them.
Rich, eccentric T.J. Banner adopts a feral cat who becomes an affectionate pet. Then T.J. dies, leaving to Rhubarb most of his money and a pro baseball team, the Brooklyn Loons. When the team protests, publicist Eric Yeager convinces them Rhubarb is good luck. But Eric's fiacee Polly seems to be allergic to cats, and the team's success may mean new hazards for Rhubarb.
A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.
A prim psychology professor fights to hide a murder she committed in self-defense.
In order to gain passage to the West, a woman poses as an opera singer, and causes a feud between two cousins.
After straight-arrow district attorney Joseph Foster says in frustration that he would sell his soul to bring down a local mob boss, a smooth-talking stranger named Nick Beal shows up with enough evidence to seal a conviction. When that success leads Foster to run for governor, Beal's unearthly hold on him turns the previously honest man corrupt, much to the displeasure of his wife and his steadfast minister.
Filmed back-to-back with three other Sunset Carson vehicles in 1947, this Yucca Pictures Western starred the former Republic cowboy as a Texas Ranger chasing a gang of rustlers into the notorious outlaw territory of Three Corners. Attempting to sabotage the proposed annexation of the territory, desperado Bart Dawson (Stephen Keyes) and his men ambush Sunset and his young trainee Jed (Al Terry). The villains, who have been terrorizing pretty trading post operator Helen Bennett (Patricia Starling), are eventually defeated by the rangers in a violent gun battle and the planned annexation takes place on schedule. For all intents and purposes, the handsome but wooden Sunset Carson ended his screen career with this series of extremely low-budget Westerns, originally filmed in 16mm and released by that dumping ground of Poverty Row flotsam, Astor Pictures.
Lee Preston, aka Leland Bruce, kills a man in self defense but flees to the redwood country when the law makes it a murder charge. There he meets Lynn O'Malley, the niece of Sandy McTavish who runs the trading post. Lee learns the reason why this is good trapping country is because the timber barons across the lake are ruthlessly cutting the trees and driving the animals across the river. The trappers appeal to him to take a petition to the Governor which would prohibit the timber people from coming to their side of the lake. At first, because he is a wanted man, he refuses but does so later for the sake of the people even though he knows it will lead to his arrest.
A cowboy (Buster Crabbe) and his sidekick (Al "Fuzzy" St. John) track mail thieves to a hide-out.
Tom Wayne rescues Clancy, Renard and Schmidt in the Arabian desert and they join him in going after El Shaitan, a bad guy who is never seen as he tries to wipe out the Foreign Legion. Feature version of the movie serial, The Three Musketeers (1934).
A honest stranger arrives in Devil's Gap and helps the local sheriff expose the murderer of a rancher.
While on a ship to Skagway, Alaska, Duke and Chester find a map to a secret gold mine, which had been 'stolen' by thugs. In Alaska to recover her father's map, Sal Van Hoyden falls in with Ace Larson, who secretly wants to steal the gold mine for himself. Duke, Chester, the thugs, Ace and his henchman chase each other all over the countryside—for the map.
Isaiah, a 19th-century businessman, has his eye on the beautiful and very young Jenny. Finally of age, she accepts his marriage proposal, but their love affair quickly turns sour. Ephraim, Isaiah's college-age son, comes for a visit, immediately striking up a chemistry with Jenny. She promises marriage -- if he murders his father first. But Jenny also swoons for John, the fiancé of her best friend, Meg.
A cowboy and his sidekick fight evil guys who want to rustle cattle in order to get hold of land.
Determined to become a radio singer, a young girl runs away from her family. She hooks up with a man who is actually the real voice of a famous radio crooner, who actually can't sing at all.
A British doctor and painter must kill for the glands he needs to stop the aging process.
Sent to investigate a payroll robbery, Marshall Rocky meets his old friends Ken, Eddie, and Max. He has the serial numbers and when Pop puts on his medicine show they get one of the bills. This enables Ken to see through Sorrell's scheme that threw the blame on an innocent rancher and he sets out to prove it. Written by Maurice Van Auken
The Trail Blazers are bringing in a prisoner to stand trial for bank robbery, when several attempts are made to kill him; convinced of the man's innocence, they arrange a trap for the real thieves.
US marshals Ken, Hoot and Bob stop a gang dressed as Indians from robbing the stage. After getting repairs at the relay station, but before they get to town, another trap is set, but they get away. In town, they search the stage and find nothing. But hidden in the axle grease can are diamonds. Polini wants them cut into smaller diamonds so that he can easily dispose of them. Throughout this Western, the courageous trio faces off against cunning opponents, including the gang's merciless leader (Ian Keith) and an unsuspecting banker (Karl Hackett).
An English lady falls in love with a French Pirate after he kidnaps her from her ancestral home on the coast of Cornwall and swept off her feet into a world of adventure.
Learning that Montana is about to become a state and that property values will rise rapidly, Caldwell is using his outlaw gang to force the ranchers off their land.
Law of the Saddle stars Bob Livingston as Rocky Cameron, aka "The Lone Rider". With his sidekick Fuzzy Q. Jones (Al St. John), Rocky rides into a small town plagued by cattle rustlers. He can expect no help from the Law, since the sheriff is as crooked as the Yellow Brick Road. In fact, the sheriff is the head of the rustlers, meaning that Rocky's really got a dilemma on his hands this time out. The villain in Law of the Saddle is played by Lane Chandler, a former silent-film cowboy star who sustained his career into the 1960s by specializing in stubble-chinned heavies.
A crooked lawyer and his gang are trying to steal some government land meant for a stagecoach company. The company hires a cowboy to stop them.
The famed female scientist fights to keep her marriage together while conducting early experiments with radioactivity.
When a fed-up businessman tires of watching gold shipments disappear without a trace, he calls in the Trail Blazers (Ken Maynard, Hoot Gibson and Bob Steele) -- a legendary trio of law enforcers -- to find the gold and figure out who's behind the thefts.
Sergeant MacLane of the Mounties investigates the disruptive activities of a bunch of troublemakers.
An Arizona frontiersman (James Craig) steals an Indian agent's girlfriend (Lucille Ball), followed by trouble.
In the 17th of the 24 films in Monogram's "Range Buster" series, Texas ranch owner Conroy returns from Washington with an order for horses to be shipped to the Philippines. The Range Busters, Dusty, Davy and Alibi, are selected to take the horses there but, before leaving, they capture three spies who are trying to steal the horses and also learn that the ranch cook, Cookie, is a Japanese spy, but he manages to escape. In the Philippines, they go to a café for dinner and see Cookie and Miller, a German spy. Eavesdropping, they learn that Ken Richards, a neighboring Texas rancher, is the Axis contact back in the states. They capture Cookie and break up the spy ring in the Phillipines, and then return to Texas intent on settling matters with Richards. They do so and are honored by the U.S. Government just as the radio blares forth the December 7, 1941 announcement of the Pearl Harbor bombing. They head for the nearest enlistment station.
An unknowing orphan idolizes the horse thief/mail robber who has shot his father.
A shy horticulturist becomes involved with a local criminal in the old west.
Two Virginians are heading for a new life in Texas when they witness a stagecoach being held up. They decide to rob the robbers and make off with the loot. To escape a posse, they split up and don't see each other again for a long time. When they do meet up again, they find themselves on different sides of the law. This leads to the increasing estrangement of the two men, who once thought of themselves as brothers.
Someone wants to kill Magpie Harper. Crash and Dusty arrive too late, Magpie Harper is allready dead.
A young woman arrives in the western town of Headstone and helps the locals outsmart a gang of outlaws.
A group of young men who work at an aviation factory begin to suspect that a doctor who runs an air ambulance service is secretly a spy transporting secret information from the plant to enemy agents.
Nightclub owner Steve Larwitt (George Raft) sees his empire of investments collapse as he faces tax evasion charges and attacks by rivals. Believing Steve will be safer in prison for one year, his wife, Brenda (Joan Bennett), testifies against him on advice from his lawyer, Slant Kolma (Lloyd Nolan), who is in love with her. After Steve receives 10 years in Alcatraz, Brenda moves to be near him and avoids advances of airplane builder Tim Nolan (Walter Pidgeon), who knows nothing about her past.
A skip tracer--someone who collects late payments from people who've purchased appliances, etc., or takes them back them when they don't pay--repossesses a small radio from a deadbeat who's skipped payments. What he doesn't know is that a gang that has stolen diamonds from a Hollywood movie star has stashed them inside the radio, and they start hunting for him.
Escaping from the law once again, Billy, Fuzzy, and Jeff ride to the ranch of Jeff's uncle only to find another family living their. They soon learn of Cobb Allen's scheme where he sells a ranch, makes sure the rancher can't pay off his note, kicks him out, and resells the ranch. But Billy has a plan to recover the ranchers' money and he sends Fuzzy to town with a fake map to a gold treasure.
Texas Ranger Dusty Rivers ("Isn't that a contradiction in terms?", another character asks him) travels to Canada in the 1880s in search of Jacques Corbeau, who is wanted for murder. He wanders into the midst of the Riel Rebellion, in which Métis (people of French and Native heritage) and Natives want a separate nation. Dusty falls for nurse April Logan, who is also loved by Mountie Jim Brett. April's brother is involved with Courbeau's daughter Louvette, which leads to trouble during the battles between the rebels and the Mounties. Through it all Dusty is determined to bring Corbeau back to Texas (and April, too, if he can manage it.)
Columbia's 11th serial and the first western serial that James W. Horne solo-directed.
Columbia's 12th serial of 57 total (following 1940's "Deadwood Dick" and ahead of 1941's "White Eagle") is another of director's James Horne's "classics" where he evidently figured that the same reactions that served him well in Laurel and Hardy films would work well in action serials where he has all hands, heroes and villains alike, doing some kind of over-the top "take", no matter the situation. This loose adaptation of an Edgar Wallace story finds Michael Bellamy (Kenne Duncan in his Kenneth Duncan period) inheriting Garr Castle, but his brother, Abel Bellamy (James Craven, as usual making Oil-Can Harry look smooth), has him imprisoned unjustly and moves into the castle himself. When Michael's wife, Elaine Bellamy (Dorothy Fay), fails to return after visiting Abel, her sister Valerie Howett (Iris Meredith), accompanied by their father,
Set in the American Old West of the 1880s, Miss Flower Belle Lee (Mae West) is on her way to visit relatives out west. While she is traveling on a stagecoach a masked bandit on horseback holds up the stage for its shipment of gold. As he makes his getaway with the gold, he takes Flower Belle with him. Flower Belle then walks into town under suspicion of being in collusion with the bandit.
Wyatt Earp agrees to become marshal and establish order in Tombstone in this very romanticized version of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
In Springdale, a small town near New York, taxi driver Brick Tennant and his friend Joe Linden are unjustly accused of a hideous crime and blindly convicted by those who are only interested in feeding the voracious machinery of an inhumane justice system.
A prison trustee rescues a despondent executioner from a bar-room brawl, and is blamed for the fight by a tabloid reporter who actually started it, and loses parole, becomes embittered, and gets blamed for murder of guard.
Rose Sargent, a Roaring '20s singer, becomes a Ziegfeld Follies star as her criminal husband gets deeper in trouble.
Reporter Sue Walker has too much inside information on the local gambling rackets to suit her sweetheart, Detective Lieutenant Jerry Brown, chief of the police Homicide Squad. When the call comes in that there has been a killing at Lefty Ross' place, a notorious gambling joint, Jerry is peeved when Sue beats him there. He discovers that gambler Jimmy Clark was killed as he answered a telephone call, and his body is riddled with bullets but Jerry can't find any weapon. Sue is amazed to see Gloria Cunningham there. Gloria's father is one of the town's leading reformers and she is engaged to District Attorney Richard Sutton. Ross decides to give Sutton all the information he needs and makes an appointment to go to Sutton's home. Once there, Ross is called to the telephone before he can give any information, and is killed in the same mysterious manner as Jimmy Clark.
In the 15th century Richard Duke of Gloucester, aided by his club-footed executioner Mord, eliminates those ahead of him in succession to the throne, then occupied by his brother King Edward IV of England. As each murder is accomplished he takes particular delight in removing small figurines, each resembling one of the successors, from a throne-room dollhouse, until he alone remains. After the death of Edward he becomes Richard III, King of England, and need only defeat the exiled Henry Tudor to retain power.
A dedicated police officer is torn between family and duty when his son turns to a life of crime.
A southern aristocrat clashes with a driver transporting stolen slaves to freedom.
Jim 'Socker' Conway, former boxer and FBI hero, is maneuvered for political reasons into a do-nothing job in the district attorney's office. Meanwhile, he meets wild debutante Letty Lane, girlfriend of mob mouthpiece Steve Lawrence; and Letty's much nicer sister Susan. Now the slot machine gang brutally beats Jim's friends Franz and Otto. And Jim finds a way to use his nominal position to go into the racket- busting business. But his success puts Letty in deadly peril...
A young singer, Marge Dexter, becomes involved in trouble when she works in a nightclub in which two of the band-members are in reality undercover-police officers who believe that the club is the headquarters of a dangerous gang of crooks.
The young Austrian princess Marie Antoinette is arranged to marry Louis XVI, future king of France, in a politically advantageous marriage for the rival countries. The opulent Marie indulges in various whims and flirtations. When Louis XV passes and Louis XVI ascends the French throne, his queen's extravagant lifestyle earns the hatred of the French people, who despise her Austrian heritage.
Two gangsters provide details of an actual bank robbery when helping a neophite screenwriter create a hit Hollywood film.
Hoppy's brother has been murdered and he is on the trail of the murderers. To get them he makes himself seem to be a wanted man.
In the 1840s, Ramsey MacKay, the driver for the struggling Wells Fargo mail and freight company, will secure an important contract if he delivers fresh oysters to Buffalo from New York City. When he rescues Justine Pryor and her mother, who are stranded in a broken wagon on his route, he doesn't let them slow him down and gives the ladies an exhilirating ride into Buffalo. He arrives in time to obtain the contract and is then sent by company president Henry Wells to St. Louis to establish a branch office.
The 1937 film version of Bret Harte's story, starring Preston Foster.
In the 1840's Mexico has ceded California to the United States, making life nearly impossible for the Mexican population due to the influx of land and gold-crazy Americans. Farmer Joaquin Murrieta revenges the death of his wife against the four Americans who killed her and is branded an outlaw. The reward for his capture is increased as he subsequently kills the men who brutally murder his brother. Joining with bandit Three Fingered Jack, Murrieta raises an army of disaffected Mexicans and goes on a rampage against the Americans, finally forcing his erstwhile friend, Bill Warren, to lead a posse against him.
Trouble has been reported in Placerville where Tom Barton's brother is the Marshal. Arriving Tom finds a phoney Marshal in his brother's place. Learning that Clark is behind the all the trouble and that he is after the Madison stage line, Tom joins up with Mary Madison to fight Clark while he also looks for his missing brother.
While a ship captain is at sea dealing with a mutiny among his crew, his wife is at home having an affair with his best friend.
A 12-episode serial in which scholastic sports star Frank Merriwell leaves school to search for his missing father. His adventures involve a mysterious inscription on a ring, buried treasure, kidnaping and Indian raids. He saves his father and returns to school just in time to win a decisive baseball game with his remarkable pitching and hitting.
A brilliant but deranged neurosurgeon becomes obsessively fixated on a judge's daughter who in no way wants him. With the help of an escaped criminal whose face he has surgically deformed, the mad man lures her, her father, and her fiance to his isolated castle-like home, where he has created a torture chamber with the intent of torturing them for having "tortured" him.
When reporter Dan Miller is once again late to meet his girl friend, Helen Murdock, because he is working on a story, Helen breaks up with him. Later, in an effort to reconcile with her, Dan misses an appointment with the district attorney, and is fired when his editor learns that the district attorney was murdered in Dan's absence. The man suspected of the crime, Mitts Coster, is rumored to be traveling to Europe aboard an ocean liner. While Dan's friend, photographer Snapper McGillicuddy, fetches Helen to the boat, under the pretense that Dan is leaving town to forget her, Dan searches the ship for Mitts, whom he does not recognize. When Helen arrives, Dan feigns illness, and she admits her love for him. When Helen learns of Dan's ruse, however, she angrily hits him with a package that a passenger gave her when she boarded the ship. The package contains a passport for Dorothy Madden, who greatly resembles Helen, and $2,000 dollars.
The wealthy Van Dyke family are constantly in the media for outrageous behavior, much to the frustration of the patriarch, Dan Van Dyke. His self-centered wife has a fondness for foreign imports, including "pet projects" like dancers and such and his spoiled children Tony and Carol have constant run-ins with the law. When Dan himself ends up in the clink for five years for tax evasion, he becomes bunk-mates with ex-bootlegger Joe "Spots" Ricardi. Ricardi lectures him on being such a push-over for an out-of-control family, so a dying Dan makes Ricardi his estate trustee once he is released from prison. Ricardi is then thrust into high society and must do everything he once nagged Dan to do.
Rodeo star John Scott and his gambler friend Kansas Charlie are wrongly accused of armed robbery. They leave town as fast as they can to go looking for their own suspects in Poker City.
Two competing teams of scientists search the African jungles for a secret formula.
When Morley has his own bank robbed, Tom tries to break it up. Mistaken for one of the gang, he is caught and sentenced to a chain gang. His girlfriend Peggy then sets out to prove his innocence.
"Red" Davison(Buck Jones), the sheriff of Sun Dog, sacrifices his job and his good name to save his best friend, "Silent" Slade from the hangman's noose, following a framed-up court decision which sentences Slade to hang for the murder of "Scotty McKee (J.P. McGowan). Davidson allows Slade to escape from jail and follows him to aid him in proving his innocence.
An accomplished aviator sets out to locate treasure hidden by one of his ancestors. He encounters interference from various adversaries.
The Wrecker wrecks trains on the L & R Railroad. One of his victims is Larry Baker's father. Baker wants to find the evildoer, among a host of suspects, but it will be difficult since the Wrecker can disguise himself to look like almost anyone
A lady reporter and two college students search for the "Gold Special," a train that disappeared without a trace.
It's time for the stagecoach race to win the mail contract and the only entries are Reden and Farrell. Reden's men kidnap Farrell's daughter and then force him to withdraw. Wally rescues Ruth, buys out Farrel, and enters the race himself. But Reden has his men planted along the course to make sure Wally doesn't win.
Jack Logan is the heir to half of a map to a hidden Indian mine. The trader and villain Jean Gregg sends his chief henchman Mack to make life difficult for Jack. Jack is aided in his quest by the heirs to the other half of the map: Helen Holt and her younger brother Billy, and by a uniformed mystery man known as "The Mystery Trooper".
In a trapper's cabin, Sergeant Stone finds a fellow Mountie murdered and is given the assignment of locating the killer.
A cowhand named Bob Blake visits with Sally Thompson and her kid-brother, Jimmy, on their hard-scrabble homestead adjoining the Steele Ranch where Bob works. He learns that their father just died, and he plans on seeing if he can make things a bit easier for them.
Tim thinks saloon owner Coldeye killed his brother. Seeking the ultimate payback, Tim gets a job in the saloon but has no idea he is targeting the wrong man.
Despite past friendliness, cattle ranchers Tom and Jim Bledsoe, father and son, fence off their range to prevent its use by neighboring sheep ranchers Tug Wilson and Buck Rankin, suggesting that they hope to end their recent loss of cattle. Rankin (not Rankins) shoots Tug, who is unaware of Rankin's lawless activities, in an argument and Jim is accused of murder and also stampeding the sheep. Believing Jim is guilty, Tug's daughter, Ruth, aids Buck in capturing Jim, but he escapes. Ruth gets help from Sheriff Hank Bosley, and a sheepherder, Sanchez, reveals Rankin's responsibility for both the rustling of Bledsoe's cattle and the killing of Wilson.
Bill Hollister (Jack Hanlon) organizes a wagon train to break the unfair monopoly held by Jake Lynch (Tom Santschi) on food prices in the mining camps. The Rambler (Ken Maynard) joins the train when it leaves for Gold Hill, and takes command when Hollister is killed from ambush. Jacques Frazelle (Al Ferguson) schemes to get rid of The Rambler and win Sue Smith (Edith Roberts). He plots with Lynch to disrupt the train, but The Rambler beats him in a whip-fight...
Mary and Bobby Trevor are castaways befriended by Tarzan. When Lord arrives, looking for the family heir, Black John tries to fill that role and marry Mary in England. Tarzan shows up and marries her instead.
The plucky boy rider Red discovers the dead body of Jim Crawford in the desert. A message scratched on a canteen begs the finder to protect Jim's daughter Ann from the killer, Luke Matthews.
Horses are being rustled by outlaws known as the Hell Hounds. When the Sheriff is killed, his Deputy Yak takes over the search for the rustlers. John Lawson says Yak cannot marry his daughter until the murderer of the Sheriff is caught. But unknown to Lawson, the murderer is his own son.
When Montana cowpuncher Larry Benson, riding his horse Starlight and accompanied by his dog Rex, tied up at the hitching post in front of McAvoy's hotel in Dam, Texas, he had little idea of the extraordinary series of adventures that were in store for him, Starlight and Rex.
