The Film Detective

In Hell Town (aka Born to the West) John Wayne is back in the saddle as two-fisted Dare Rudd, a roaming cowhand trying to prove he can win a woman's love and outwit a crooked saloon owner. This exciting B-movie from Paramount Pictures was based on a novel by western write Zane Grey. With a wild and wooly cast that includes Johnny Mack Brown, Marsha Hunt, Monte Blue, and Lucian Littlefield, director Charles Barton (Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein) gives us a tale of romance, action, and...

The great William S. Hart stars in this classic tale of settlers in the Oklahoma territory. Directed by King Baggot, one of the most versatile movie figures of the silent era, this movie is not only "history recorded in heart throbs," as the original print ads boasted, but shows us why Hart is considered by some to be the top western actor of them all. Hart, who directed many of his own films, also had a hand in directing this feature, which turned out to be his last starring role.

Erich Von Stroheim, the man you love to hate, stars in perhaps the first film where a wooden dummy torments a ventriloquist. And if you needed proof that they don't make 'em like they used to, this psychological thriller from 1929 is livened up by a few musical numbers! Even Otto the dummy sings a couple of tunes, including 'Icky' (The Lollipop Song). It's hard to resist a dummy who not only drives his owner crazy, but sings! The cinematography, by the way, was by Ira H. Morgan, who shot...

ITS PRINTS SPELLED DOOM! Based on a pair of Foulton Osler's thrilling detective stories, The Panthers Claw tracks Police Commissioner Thatcher Colt (Rosemary's Baby's Sidney Blackmer) and his trusted partner Anthony Abbot as they use methods both scientific and deductive to solve the murder of an opera singer. In doing so, the pair get caught up in a larger mystery involving a mysterious blackmailer known only as "The Panther," eventually winding up victims of his vindictive games in this...

Roy Rogers goes to jail after he's wrongly accused of killing Gabby Hayes' horse in this action packed yarn from Republic Pictures. All of the old jokes about cowboys kissing their horse may have started with this very movie, as it focuses on Roy's loving relationship with Trigger, the greatest horse in all of Hollywood. The film also features Roy's beloved Dale Evans, plus, adding some country swing to the musical numbers is Roy's favorite backing band, the Sons of the Pioneers! Songs include...

The great John Sturges (Bad Day at Black Rock, The Magnificent Seven) directed this tale of a badly injured fugitive telling his life story to a priest. Lew Ayres, Teresa Wright, and Victor Jory star in this Republic feature from author Niven Busch, who had provided thrills with Duel in the Sun. With The Capture, we learn that killing a man is one thing, but loving his wife is quite another. Both are DYNAMITE!

Lillian and Dorothy Gish, William Powell, and Ronald Colman star in this romantic tale set in Renaissance Florence. Lillian Gish plays the title character, a good-hearted young woman who finds herself marrying a cruel chief magistrate (Powell). Director Henry King, a two-time Oscar nominee who would go on to direct such favorites as Love is a Many Splendored Thing and The Sun Also Rises, added to the film's realism by using Italian locations, including Rome and Florence.

Roy Rogers and Gabby Hayes are together again in this Republic Pictures gem. This time they're trying to set up a medicine show in Deadwood, a town known for dangerous entrepreneurs who don't like competition. Sally Payne is on-hand as a member of the troop where Roy and Gabby work as entertainers, while Carol Adams plays a reporter who may have a romantic interest in Roy. Songs include 'Song of the Dusty Trail', and 'Home on the Rangeland'.

A redneck officer leads a squad of African-American troops on a mission against the Nazis in this intriguing feature from director George McCowan (Frogs, The Magnificent Seven Ride!). Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, Stephen Boyd, Robert Hooks, NFL star Roosevelt Grier, and one of Hollywood's great character actors Paul Stewart, fill out the cast. Co-written and produced by television legend Aaron Spelling as a pilot for a possible series, this forgotten war drama will strike you as being...

What could possibly happen when one woman leaves her job? When gangsters and $50,000 are on the line, a lot! In a release from Pine Thomas Productions, mobster gambling rackets and family betrayal is only the beginning of the story! Phillip Reed, Ann Gillis, and Hillary Brooke star is this dramatic feature from 1947.

Killing and lies are rampant in this exciting Poverty Row western. Cowboy star Bob Steele headlines an energetic cast, but stealing the show is Don Alvarado as a rebellious Mexican outlaw. Steele plays Bob Worth, a man wrongly charged with murder while Alvarado is Galindo, a man with his own set of rules! Directed by Robert Hill, the master behind such 1930s pulp films as Shadow Of Chinatown and Flash Gordon.

It's Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin in their first starring vehicle! Lewis plays Alvin Korwin, a bumbler who goes from one disaster to the next, while the suave Sgt. Vic Puccinelli (Martin) tries to keep him out of trouble. Director Hal Walker, who had previously worked with the team of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, found comedy gold in Martin and Lewis. Songs include 'You And Your Beautiful Eyes', and 'Tonda Wanda Hoy'. For trivia buffs, throughout the film, Lewis gives a Boy Scout salute instead of...