Norman S. Hall
This is Academy Award-winning sound designer and editor Ben Burtt's novel edit of the 215-minute Spy Smasher serial (released as a 12-chapter serial action adventure by Republic Pictures in 1942), into one 94-minute feature. Spy Smasher was based on a popular comic book character and tells the exciting tale of a costumed hero battling the Nazis in the early days of America's entry into World War II. Burtt has also enhanced the sound effects, remastered the mix in stereo surround, included new special effects footage and added a few new scenes. This "love letter to Republic" is a special edition that brings to life a new crackerjack thriller that would leave Indiana Jones breathless.
An American gunslinger kills a Mexican man in California immediately after the Mexican-American war. The killer is arrested and put on trial for murder with the Hispanic population waiting to learn of American justice.
Byron Turner, a 15-year-old runaway from the Eatondale Orphan Asylum, receives a ride into the rural Missouri town of Delphi with rich land-owner Tobias Brown.
A singing territorial ranger (Gene Autry) spots his younger brother in an outlaw gang.
Gene Autry is assigned to safely transport supplies to a band of settlers. The villains, headed by Ross McLain (Kenne Duncan), intend to bushwhack Autry, grab the supplies, and sell them at high prices to a local mining camp.
Feature version of the film serial BUCK ROGERS (Universal Pictures, 1940). It is the story of an American soldier who wakes up in the future, it is the year 2500...
A former Texas Ranger teams up with some of his old colleagues to rid the state of corruption in their new police force.
Oklahoma outlaw Belle Starr meets the Dalton gang when rescued from lynching by Bob Dalton, who falls for her. So do gang member Mac and wealthy saloon owner Tom Bradfield, who's enlisted in a bankers' scheme to trap the Daltons. Dissension among the gang and Bradfield's ambivalence complicate the plot, as Belle demonstrates her prowess with shootin' irons, horses, and as a surprisingly racy saloon entertainer. Written by Rod Crawford
A criminal gang provokes the local Apaches in order to divert the authorities' attention from their own activities.
Montana Marshals Gene and Scat are tracking some bank robbers. When the baddies cross into Canada, the Mounties are called upon to help.
A Texas Ranger tries to bring down counterfeiters selling fake lottery tickets.
The editor of a sleazy tabloid newspaper has been borrowing money from his lover, the wife of a rich theatrical producer, and promises to marry her when she gets a divorce. However, the husband refuses to grant her a divorce, and takes back all the money and jewelry he has given her. The editor sees her husband leaving her apartment and, seeing his opportunity, kills her, takes all his IOUs (and the jewelry) and frames the husband for the murder.
In a typical western (movie) town (possibly described as 'hick' by someone who possibly hasn't seen the film) Gene Autry and his friend Jack Beaumont are present when the bank is robbed and Sheriff Whiteside is killed. Judge Beaumont, Jack's father, appoints Gene the new sheriff. When Jack learns that his father is making a new will in his disfavor, they quarrel and Jack leaves under suspicious circumstances. Rocky Morgan who has been swindling the judge murders him and Gene has to jail his friend, who thinks Gene is double crossing him. But Gene has a plan to clear Jack.
Columbia's final release for 1950 was the Gene Autry western Indian Territory. Set during the Reconstruction Era, the story finds Autry working as an undercover agent for the U.S. cavalry. His mission: to neutralize a former Austrian army officer named Curt Raidler (Phil Van Zandt), who is leading a group of renegade Indians on a series of destructive raids.
Just after the Civil War a Texan and his men are fighting a ruthless Commissioner and his excessive taxes. After a Lieutenant is falsely accused of a pay wagon massacre by the Commissioner's men, he deserts the Army and tries to clear himself. At first he belives the Texan was behind the massacre but then learns it was the Commissioner and joins the Texan in his fight.
The town of Rio Blanco is the center of a fight over the statehood issue and is a perfect setup for Lon Bryson and Chuck Bowers, who organize a couple of phony protection associations. Opposing them is Henry Waterman, publisher of the Rio Blanco Herald. He and his assistant, Andrew Jackson Weems, send for the help of the Territorial Rangers. One of the dispatched Rangers is Jeff Lanning who, unknown to him, has a brother as a member of the gang under an assumed name of Bob Mitchell. Jeff is so shocked at seeing his brother gun down Waterman that he is unable to act in time to prevent it. Unable to explain the cause of is inaction, he is suspended by the governor. Unable to persuade his brother to quit the gang, Jeff, with the aid of Weems and Waterman's daughter Carol, begins his quest to bring the outlaws to justice.
Major Geoffrey Barnett, U. S. Army Intelligence Service, is sent to Alaska, to apprehend a deserter, Tom Clark, who was presumed to be dead as a member of a small force wiped out on Attu in World War II. With the aid of Rose Flambeau, he finds evidence that the now-prosperous Clark killed his own comrades to prevent their reporting of a deposit of uranium, which he is now mining with the intention of selling to a foreign power.
Young Buffalo Bill Cody goes after the murderer of his father and uncovers a land-grab conspiracy.
It's 1873 and the disbanded Texas Rangers have been replaced by the corrupt Texas State Police. Steve Lanning arrives posing as a wanted outlaw to get in with them in his attempt to have them replaced. His inside work helps the Durango Kid break up the State Police raids but he is in trouble when his secret identity as Durango becomes known to them.
Sundown in Santa Fe is an adventure film directed by R.G. Springsteen in 60. A dagger has been left in every robbery by Walter Durant, fugitive leader of the President Lincoln murder ring. Rocky is sent to Santa Fe to find Durant and arrest him and the gang of outlaws he controls. Rocky soon finds that the information for every robbery comes from Tom, who is the son of the sheriff. But Rocky has to arrest the whole gang, and he does not know who is part of the gang and where Durant may be hiding.
Treasury Department Steve Waring, and also, unknown to others, the Durango Kid, comes to Sunset Pass in search of $1000,000 in gold coins, stolen from the government by the late Forrest Brent. He is aided by Smiley Burnette, the local deputy sheriff. Later, Paula Thorpe, Brent's daughter from his first marriage, arrives with her lawyer sweetheart Frank Raeburn, with intentions of proving her father's estate belongs to her and not to Mrs. Brent, his wife of record when he died. The widow Brent has no intentions of giving up one single cent.
Steve arrives looking for the person printing counterfeit bonds. He finds his man in Pop Ryland who has two sons and a stepson. The stepson doesn't want to be an outlaw like the other sons and helps Steve out by posing as the Durango Kid when needed and then leading him to the evidence he is looking for.
Postal Inspectors Carson and Underwood have been sent to investigate a series of robberies where both the driver and stagecoach disappear. They team up with Pinkerton agent Bennett who has found some of the stolen money in the possession of Stevens.
Sunset Carson, ace driver for the Harding Stagecoach Line, persuades his boss Frank Harding (Edmund Cobb) to hire his brother, Jeff (Bob Steele), recently released from the penitentiary. Sunset isn't aware that Jeff owes his release to Marc Redmond (Tristram Coffin), owner of the rival line, and that Redmond is forcing Jeff to give him advance information when the Harding stages are carrying valuable shipments, so that his henchmen can rob the stage and force Harding out of business.
The Topeka Terror is a western film of 1945 directed by Howard Bretherton. The land-rush opening of the Cherokee Strip brings in its wake a scattering of outlaws and claim jumpers. Among these is a crooked promoter. Trent Parker (Frank Jacquet), and his henchmen who plan a huge swindle by compiling falsified reports, putting the claims of honest settlers into the names of various henchmen. Clay Stevens (Allan Lane), a government agent posing as a drifting cowhand, advises the settlers to organize their resistance. Ben Jode (Roy Barcroft), the gang leader, runs for sheriff so he can gain full control of the town.
After the Civil War, veteran Jim Christi (Allan Lane) returns to Texas, where he is unjustly accused of murder. In flashback, Mr. Christi relates the story of his father Corpus Christi Jim. After robbing a stage, Jim and partners Rocky and Steve decide to go straight and return the money. But the fourth member of the gang, Spade refuses and leaves. The two former partners soon find themselves on opposite sides of the law.
After bank robber Bob Hackett (Don "Red" Barry) learns that his real father was a marshal, he reforms and travels with his pal Buckshot (Wally Vernon) to Santa Fe, where his father was killed. When he stands up to rustlers working for Henry Jackson (Herbert Heyes), Hackett is made the new marshal.
A geologist has found oil on the neighboring ranches and teams up with Ace who has his gang create a reign of terror to get the ranchers to sell out. But to get rid of Red Ryder, Ace sends for the San Antonio Kid. Arriving, the Kid has a freak accident and Red comes along to save his life. When the Kid later meets with Ace he learns that Red is the man he has been paid to kill. Written by Maurice Van Auken
Bringing his large cattle herd to Sundown, rancher Tex Jordan must sell his cattle to corrupt baron Jack Hatfield. He does OK but learns Hatfield is cheating the small outfits. When one refuses to sell he is murdered and Tex then decides to stay and take up the fight. He is appointed a special Agent by the Governor but unknonw to him the Governor's Secretary is a spy for Hatfield and reveals his plans.
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.
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 anyway.
Barstow and Stevens are forcing the local printer to print fake silver certificates which they then sell. Treasury Agents Chick Weaver and Throckmorton Snodgrass arrive working under cover. But when Chick's true identity as an Agent is revealed, Barstow sends his henchmen to finish him off.
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.
In this western, a paroled desperado and his twin, a preacher, wander about the Old West to bring "salvation." The parson begins trying to help a gang leader's niece whose uncle has been forcing parolees to join him or return to prison. Naturally he tries to rope the paroled twin into his gang.
The suspicious death of Henry King during a hunting trip with his brother John leaves the inheritance of the rich Santa Rita Ranch to be shared with John, Henry's daughter Doris and a young girl from New York, Twinkle Watts. King says that a son, Henry King Jr., who left home as a young boy was killed in a Texas gunfight. - Written by Les Adams
After the Civil War and Burgess, Atkinson and Colton have plans to make California a separate nation. Weldon with sidekicks Tumbleweed and Carteret are sent west to thwart the attempt.
When the Pony Express disbands, riders Tennessee and Johnny head for Adobe Wells. Tennessee becomes the Deputy Marshal while Johnny joins an outlaw gang. It's not long before Tennessee catches Johny attempting murder. As Johhnny is his best friend, he gives him another chance. But to no avail as Johnny murders a man and this time Tennessee must do his duty.
When the night watchman at the bank is gunned down during a robbery, he fingers Barton as the trigger man. When the trial comes up in neighboring Carson City, Gil finds a witness named Sullivan who says that Barton was with him on the night of the murder. Gil gets Barton off, but Sullivan soon cashes a check from Gil at the bank and that raises questions. His father, Judge Phalen, starts an action against Gil, and when his father is shot dead, Gil is blamed for his murder.
Clint Ross's skill at fisticuffs earns him the town marshal's job in Cheyenne. Thanks to the string-pulling of political boss Big Bill Harmon, Ross makes it all the way up to the governor's office. But when Ross figures out that Big Bill is a big crook, it's showdown time.
Unknown to oil company president Ross, his man Quinn is pulling a swindle on the independent drillers. Quinn controls both the Judge and the Marshal. But when the Marshal is accidentally killed, Wild Bill Elliott is brought in as the new Marshal and things begin to change.
Cameo Shelby is running a crooked lottery out of El Paso and treasury agent Bill Elliott has been sent to break it up. When Bill intercepts a shipment of tickets to New Mexico he forces Shelby to send incriminating papers in the next shipment. Bill captures these also and now has the evidence he needs to go after Shelby.
In this western, the Three Mesquiteers team up with a Texas Ranger to round up the outlaws who forced the ranger's younger brother into becoming a criminal.
Feature version of the 1940 Republic serial, about Fu Manchu's attempt to conquer Asia.
Black Hills Express gets off to a powerful start, as hero Lon Walker (Don "Red" Barry) and his sidekick Deadeye (Wally Vernon) pick through the bloody remains of a stagecoach holdup-massacre. Vowing to catch the varmints responsible, Walker is impeded by a crooked sheriff (Jack Rockwell) and a crookeder banker (George Lewis).
Professor Campbell's expedition into the hills of Libya obtains a papyrus which might reveal the hiding place of the Golden Tablets of Hippocrates, containing lost medical secrets. Also in the region is intrepid Nyoka Gordon, still seeking her father, lost on a previous expedition. She alone can translate the papyrus, which directs our heroes through deadly perils (including the Tunnel of Bubbling Death) into the land of the Tuaregs. Opposing them are Vultura, Queen of the Desert, and her Arab ally Cassib, both greedy for the treasure...
A Pinkerton agent masquerades as a criminal in order to infiltrate a gang of counterfeiters that is using wealthy widow Lucy Randall as a front. Arriving at the gang's hideout the Dawson ranch, Red discovers that the counterfeiting ring is headed by Mrs. Randall's attorney J. Richard Spencer and Dawson himself.
Director William Witney puts his distinctive stamp on the Don "Red" Barry western Outlaws of Pine Ridge by opening the picture with a body sailing through the plate-glass window of a frontier saloon. Barry stars as gun-slingin' Chips Barrett, who makes it his mission in life to prevent the inaccurately nicknamed Honest John Hollister (Noah Beery Sr.) from becoming territorial governor. Complicating things is the fact that Chips is in love with Honest John's daughter Ann.
A well-acted, well-paced entry in the Don "Red" Barry Western series from Republic Pictures, The Sombrero Kid featured the diminutive Barry as Jerry Holden, the apparent son and heir of veteran lawman Tom Holden (Robert Homans). But when Holden Sr. is killed by one of Banker Martin's (Joel Friedkin) gang of claim jumpers, Jerry learns that his real father was Bart Clanton, a notorious bandit killed by Marshal Holden, who then raised the orphaned boy as his own.
Tom King Jr. seeks to discover who murdered his father, a Texas Ranger; the trail leads to a network of Axis spies.
A mad scientist named Dr. Satan plots to steal key pieces of technology to enable him to build an army of robots based on his prototype to conquer America. The only one standing in his way is Bob Wayne, who fights Satan as the enigmatic Copperhead. Mysterious Doctor Satan is a 1940 film serial named after its chief villain. Doctor Satan's main opponent is the masked mystery man, "The Copperhead", whose secret identity is Bob Wayne, a man searching for justice and revenge on Satan for the death of his step-father. The serial charts the conflict between the two as Bob Wayne pursues Doctor Satan, while the latter completes his plans for world domination.
Calvin Drake employs a group of low-lifes to drive away land owners along the path of a new railroad; Red Ryder opposes this strategy.
The Canadians have discovered a valuable substance called Compound X, which can cure infantile paralysis. When a country at war with Canada learns that Compound X also contains magnetic properties that could aid them in their warfare against the British, they send agents to infiltrate Canada and steal a large quantity of the substance. It's up to Sgt. King (Allan Lane) and his Mounties to track down the agents and put an end to their scheme.
A tough street kid takes the rap for a burglary committed by the son of his foster family and is sent to a boys reformatory, where the inmates are under the thumb of corrupt guards and a brutal prison doctor.
Gene Autry follows a clue written on a rock by his murdered partner and discovers a fur smuggling operation near the Canadian border.
An expedition arrives on an uncharted jungle island to rescue the local natives, led by a jungle boy, from a volcano that is about to erupt.
Bob Carter, a member of the Foreign Legion, is glad to see his brother, Don, for the first time in ten years but is sorry that Don has joined the Legion. Bob, Don and Bob's buddies, Muggsy and Bilgey, go to a café and there Don falls for Nina, a singer in love with Bob. Bob doesn't know this and thinks she is Garccia's girl, and warns Don to have nothing to do with her. Don disregards the warning and Garcia discovers Nina and Don together and provokes Don into hitting him. Don is arrested and thrown into the company brig. Nina, with the aid of an Arabian sheik, Ul Ahmed, helps Don escape. Bob, Muggsy and Bilgey follow but are captured and taken to Ul Hamid's headquarters. The sheik tortures Don to force Bob to work some captured machine guns for him. Ah Hamid and his tribe attack the fort, but Bob manages to turn the machine guns against his captors, and the fort is saved.
A 12-episode serial in which Tim Tyler goes to Africa in search of his father in gorilla country. He meets up with Laura, who is after Spider Webb who has framed her brother. Webb causes the death of Tim's father, but is eventually tracked down.
Feature version of the 1936 movie serial of the same name, with altered music scoring, released outside the USA only until 1950. Also, it was only shown abroad under the serial's title; it was re-named Rocket Ship for the US release.
Three brash and cocky powder mixers are sent to South America to work at a dynamite plant there.
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.
A mysterious criminal known as The Whispering Shadow commits crimes by means of a gang he controls by television and radio rays. Jack Norton, whose brother was murdered by The Whispering Shadow, suspects that the eerie Professor Strang - whose ghostly wax museum contains figures far too lifelike - may be involved in the crimes.
