Come On Tarzan (1932), Forbidden Trails (1941), Pioneer Justice (1947), Arizona Bound (1941), Breed of the Border (1933), The Jade Mask (1945), Romance of the West (1946), Suspense (1946) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Poverty Row Film movies.
Storyline: When Eddie and his pals deliver cattle to the Lawrence ranch, they run into trouble with Ringo Evans and his gang. Ringo's men are rustling cattle and attempting to kill the foreman. Seeing the resemblance between the foreman and his pal Waco, Eddie has Waco impersonate the foreman. They then find proof that Evans is behimd the rustling but find themselves greatly outnumbered when the gang attacks.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>
Plot Keywords: actor shares first name with character, fast draw, redemption, reprisal, imposter, violence, vindication ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A pretty Chinese woman, seeking help from San Francisco detective James Lee Wong, is killed by a poisoned dart in his front hall, having time only to scrawl "Captain J" on a sheet of paper. She proves to be Princess Lin Hwa, on a secret military mission for Chinese forces fighting the Japanese invasion. Mr. Wong finds two captains with the intial J in the case, neither being quite what he seems; there's fog on the waterfront and someone still has that poison-dart gun...—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: psychotronic film, chinatown san francisco, princess, retribution, reprisal, stock footage, 1930s ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The Bowery Boys--Slip, Sach, Bobby, Whitey & Chuck--start their own exterminating service, and get a job which takes them to a spooky old abandoned mansion in the middle of the night. Meeting up with pal Gabe and his new French bride, the boys are tormented by mad scientists who try to convince them the place is haunted and then kidnap Sach in order to place his brain inside a gorilla.—Marty McKee <mmckee@soltec.net>
Plot Keywords: actor shares first name with character, post world war two, ex soldier, henchman, stock footage, new york city, gang leader ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Hayden is after the rancher's land. He lends them money and then to stop repayment, he has his henchmen rob the stage of the anxiously awaited money. But Billy and Fuzzy recover the letters before they are burned, and Billy, reading the letters, comes to believe the towns leading citizen Hayden is the culprit.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>
Plot Keywords: independent film, texas, greed, treachery, stagecoach robbery, stagecoach driver, vindication ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Eddie Dean, under orders as a U.S. Land Office agent, is trying to prevent a range war from being started between homesteaders and ranchers when a caravan of the so-called 'Nesters', start to take over land acquired by the homesteaders by a government lease. Quirt Thayer, working both sides against the middle, has his gang join with the ranchers seeking revenge against the settlers for raids on the ranchers by Quirt's henchmen. Eddie uses his friendship with Mary King, daughter of the leading rancher, to pin the guilt on the correct culprits.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: actor shares first name with character, western music, vindication, schemer, lynch mob, frame up, false accusation ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Not knowing what else to do, Georgia Thursday contacts her estranged ex-husband, alcoholic Max Thursday, after their toddler son, Jeff, goes missing, Max a former NYPD detective now the house detective of the rundown Brooklyn establishment, the Riverview Hotel, run by his streetwise friend, Smitty, who gave him a job and a room when nobody arguably would. Georgia did not go to the police as her now missing brother Fred Mace's disreputable associate Dr. Elder threatened her against doing so in he probably having something to do with the missing pair. As such, Max goes on a quest for Jeff and by association Fred with the only lead they have, namely Dr. Elder, with help from Smitty who knows, through experience, the grittier side of most urban streets in the United States than most. In the process, Max comes to believe that their disappearance most-likely centers on a criminal with the code name St. Paul, with Jeff solely being an innocent bystander in whatever criminal activity is going on. Beyond following the leads, the question becomes whether Max can hold it all together, namely by staying away from the bottle, long enough to save his family.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: gang member, gunfire, anxiety, despair, desperation, deception, damsel in distress ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Brade has hired Rattler Haynes to kill Tom Shaw. But when Shaw intercepts a message between the two, he alters it hoping it will cause the two outlaws to fight each other.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>
Plot Keywords: independent film, 1880s, retribution, reprisal, law and order, lawlessness, bushwhacker ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Curley Thompson purchases a ranch near the town of Douglas and is surprised to find that his inherited, happy-go-lucky foreman, Sam Hawkins, can't even ride a horse. Freight owner Hatch Bolton is boss of the town and is out to ruin the local ranchers in order to get their ranches and sell to a Chicago grain combine. After Sheriff Tom Gordon is ambushed, his brother Walter and Alice Rhodes join Curley in his fight against Bolton. A rancher is murdered and Bolton tries to frame Curley, but Gordon lets him out of jail. Curley learns that the murdered man had been trying to tell him that a pair of steer horns over the bar contain the evidence needed against Bolton.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: independent film, actor billed above the title, grindhouse film, 1880s, shootout, gunfire, frame up ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Miner Dan Barton (Ken Maynard) and his partner George Malden, known as "Tennessee", have hit a strike on their claim, and Dan returns to their cabin to find that Malden has departed to meet his sister, Alice (Jeanette Loff), who is arriving on the stage from Tennessee to join her brother. Dan knows that Malden has a weakness for drink, gambling and girls and follows him to town, where he finds him playing cards with gamblers Fox Tyson (Charles King) and saloon owner Ace Brady (William Thorne) who, with the aid of bar girl Queenie (Carmelita Geraghty), are well on their way to cheating him out of his share of the claim. Dan puts the stop to that, but Malden is killed by Tyson and Dan is framed for the killing. He escapes and saves Alice from a stagecoach disaster, and takes her to his and Malden's cabin, but doesn't let her know he is wanted for the death of her brother. But Ace and Tyson quickly inform her, and are well on their way to getting all of the Barton/Malden gold mine. The two songs are "Wait for the Wagon" and "Oh, Susanna." Other than being filmed under the working title of "California in 1878", which was also the title of Jack Natteford's original story,and then getting sold to TV in 1949 and having the title changed, there are no other alternative titles on this film. Two alternative spellings are shown by some sources---fighting for fightin' and through for thru---but those are typos created by two different trade paper reviewers in 1930.Accuracy regarding B-western titles was not a sticky point with the trade papers of the day.There are several versions of this story, including a Maynard remake called "Fargo Express" and Reliable Pictures used the story for Bob Steele's "The Pal from Texas."—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: independent film, horse billed above the title, grindhouse film, betrayal, prospector, jail break, white horse ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A killer of young women, dubbed Bluebeard, is loose in Paris. Lucille and her friends meet Gaston Morrell, a puppeteer. He invites them to a show the next night; they go. Afterwards, he walks with Lucille; she offers to make costumes for his next show, he accepts, and feelings develop that may lead to love. She suspects he has a tragic past. Meanwhile, his leaving the show with Lucille prompts the jealousy of Renee, Gaston's sometime lover. Lucille's younger sister, Francine, comes back to Paris - her boyfriend is Inspector Lefebre, who's hunting for Bluebeard. Some clues point toward Lamart, a greedy art dealer. Who is in danger, and can Gaston be trusted?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: death by strangulation, serial murder, strangulation, obsession, paris france, psychopath, color in title ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Federal agent Smitty assists Butch Cooper, leader of a gang that robbed a train in which the loot was never recovered, in making an escape and accompanies him to the Utah badlands. Parker, leader of a gang of cattle rustlers, recognizes Butch. The latter takes Smitty to the spot where the loot was buried, but it has disappeared. Butch suspects his former comrades of making off with the money. Smitty and Butch have acquired jobs on a nearby ranch and Cookie, a former gang member, is questioned about the missing money. Butch encounters two members of his old gang and they take him to Parker. Both suspect the other of having the money, but they finally conclude that Cookie either has it or knows where it is. They kidnap him and he confesses he dug up the money and it is in the safe at the ranch of Judge Carlton. Smitty comes in and, in the struggle that follows, is revealed as a federal agent working undercover. He is left guarded while Butch, Parker and the gang ride to Carlton's ranch.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: independent film, saloon, 1880s, trickery, ruse, prison escape, treachery ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Cocky young street kid worships his father, a sleazy political operative.
Plot Keywords: independent film, navy, new york city, pier, poverty, racketeer, skyline ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The life and loves of composer Stephen Foster, from his early success through his decline, degradation, and death from alcoholism.
Plot Keywords: independent film, desperation, reprisal, retribution, grief, stress, tension ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Hammond is after the Craig ranch and has framed Charlie Craig for murder. Mother Craig brings in the Range Busters. They capture one of Hammond's men and Alibi plans to trick him into a confession as to who the real murderer is. Meanwhile, Denny has overheard Hammond's plans for his next move and he and Crash set out to round up the gang.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>
Plot Keywords: independent film, stock footage, vindication, two gun man, bushwhacker, ambush, ventriloquist ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: American aviator Tom Wayne (John Wayne)and his co-pilot, Stubbs (Noah Beery Jr.)are flying over an African desert when they see trouble below...Arab bandits are attacking three troopers of the French Foreign Legion. Using the machine gun mounted on his airplane, Wayne quickly stops the Arab attack. The rescued Legionaires---Clancy (Jack Mulhall), Renard (Raymond Hatton) and Dutch Schmidt (Francis X. Bushman Jr.)introduce themselves as "The Three Musketeers." They inform Wayne that the attackers were followers of "The Devil's Circle," a fanatic cult out to destroy the Foreign Legion by gun-running and insurrection. The cult's leader is El Shaitan, a masked man whose real identity is known to none. Wayne is drawn into the fight through the encouragement of his new friends, and a call for help from an old friend, Armand Corday (Lon Chaney Jr.), who has been duped into The Devil's Circle, but is trying to break away. But Armand, is killed by an assassin before he can tell what he knows about the cult. Stubbs is also killed. Helped by the Musketeers and Armand's sister, Elaine (Ruth Hall)), Wayne sets out to smash the cult.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: ruse, brawl, escape, horse chase, foot chase, chase, main character shot ...
Movie Details Click Here!