Fred Kohler, Jr. Movies

Piper Laurie (the mother in the horror film Carrie) appears here as the mother of a deranged deaf-mute girl. The mom runs a drive-in theater which shows mostly horror films. The girl is deranged because she is possessed by the spirit of her long-dead dad, a gangster who was gunned down by the mob. The vengeful spirit uses his daughter to gain vengeance on his assassins, many of whom now work at the drive-in. One by one the mobsters bite the dust as the demonized little girl extracts revenge for her deceased daddy. ~ Rovi

This near-legendary western stars Sterling Hayden as George Hanson, the son of a Swedish seaman-turned-farmer (Ted Stanhope). When he runs afoul of town boss Ed McNeil (Sebastian Cabot), Hanson's father is gunned down by McNeil's henchman Johnny Crale (Ned Young). Knowing full well that he can expect no help from the town's corrupt sheriff (Tyler McVey), Hanson takes matters in his own hands. Tension mounts steadily until the unforgettable climactic showdown, wherein Hanson arms himself with a harpoon! Extremely well written by Ben L. Perry, Terror in a Texas Town was one of the last directorial efforts of cult favorite Joseph H. Lewis. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer was lensed in the Trucolor process. Brice Bennett plays the titular 18th century frontiersman, carving out a home for himself, his family and his fellow settlers in the wilds of Kentucky. The climax finds Boone and company defending Fort Boonesborough from a Shawnee Indian attack, fomented by unhinged renegade Simon Girty (Kem Dibbs). Lon Chaney does the strong-and-silent bit as Shawnee chief Blackfish. Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer was filmed in its entirety in Mexico. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Produced, directed and cowritten by former child star Wesley Barry, Racing Blood was distributed in the US by 20th Century-Fox. Jimmy Boyd, a juvenile singer who'd risen to fame with the hit single "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", stars as a sensitive stable boy. When a colt is born with a split hoof, its owner decides to destroy it. The animal is rescued by young Boyd, who nurses the colt to health and trains the animal as a racer. Inevitably, the horse is entered in a crucial competition--opposite its own brother, a proven champion. Bill Williams, George Cleveland, Jean Porter and John Eldredge costar in this amiable equestrian yarn. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

William "One Take" Beaudine sat in the director's chair for the independently produced Born to the Saddle. Chuck Courtney plays a young horse trainer who goes to work for the truculent Donald Woods. Courtney believes that Woods was responsible for the death of the boy's father, and hopes to exact revenge if his suspicions are confirmed. Instead, the older and younger man become close friends thanks to their mutual love of horses. Featured in the cast is actress Karen Morley, in one of her few screen appearances after being officially blacklisted for her allegedly leftist political beliefs. Adele Buffington adapted the screenplay of Born to the Saddle from a short story by Gordon Young. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth is a lavish tribute to circuses, featuring three intertwining plotlines concerning romance and rivalry beneath the big top. DeMille's film includes spectacular action sequences, including a show-stopping train wreck. The Greatest Show on Earth won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Story. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

Roy Rogers enters the atomic age with this sci-fi western directed by serial ace William Witney. Our hero runs a pipeline near a site where Dr. Manning (William Forrest) and his daughter Frankie (Penny Edwards) are experimenting with long-range weather forecasting by using rockets. Enter nasty Gregory Camwell (Ralph Withers) and his crew of thugs, who have in mind quite different uses for the missiles. Aided by Frankie, sidekick Splinters (Gordon Jones), Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage singing group and Bullet, the dog, Roy is soon knee-deep in a whole new kind of trouble that culminates with a blazing fight to the death on an oil derrick. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Samuel Fuller wrote and directed this lively drama based on the real-life adventures of James Addison Reavis, one of the most ambitious swindlers of the 19th Century. In 1871, Reavis (played by Vincent Price) began hatching an elaborate scheme to claim the Arizona territory (then three decades away from statehood) as his own. At the time, land grants established during Spanish rule of Arizona were still valid, and one rainy evening Reavis visited Pepito Peralta (Vladimir Sokoloff) and his daughter Sofia (Karen Kester) with some exciting news. While working as a real estate clerk, Reavis found documents which granted ownership of nearly the whole of the Arizona territory to one Miguel Peralta, who was named Baron of the new land by Spain's rulers, and as his heir Sofia will become Baroness when she reaches adulthood, giving her claim to the territory. After giving Pepito and Sofia money and hiring a governess (Beulah Bondi) to educate the girl in a manner befitting the Barony, Reavis sailed for Spain on business; unknown to the Peraltas, Reavis posed first as a monk and then as a gypsy in order to revise old land grant documents to conform with his story. Several years later, Reavis returned to Pepito and Sofia's home, and asked the young woman (now played by Ellen Drew) to marry him. Once wed, Reavis presented his carefully forged paperwork to the Arizona authorities which gave him and his bride royal claim to the land; however, not everyone believed Reavis's elaborate tale, and John Griff (Reed Hadley), an expert in falsified documents, was brought in to examine the evidence. The Baron of Arizona gave Vincent Price a rare leading role in a non-horror vehicle, and he cited it as one of his favorite performances on film. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Samson and Delilah is Cecil B. DeMille's characteristically expansive retelling of the events found in the Old Testament passages of Judges 13-16. Victor Mature plays Samson, the superstrong young Danite. Samson aspires to marry Philistine noblewoman Semadar (Angela Lansbury), but she is killed when her people attack Samson as a blood enemy. Seeking revenge, Semadar's younger sister Delilah (Hedy Lamarr) woos Samson in hopes of discovering the secret of his strength, thus enabling her to destroy him. When she learns that his source of his virility is his long hair, Delilah plies Samson with drink, then does gives him the Old Testament equivalent of a buzzcut while he snores away. She delivers the helpless Samson to the Philistines, ordering that he be put to work as a slave. Blinded and humiliated by his enemies, Samson is a sorry shell of his former self. Ultimately, Samson's hair grows back, thus setting the stage for the rousing climax wherein Samson literally brings down the house upon the wayward Philistines. Hedy Lamarr is pretty hopeless as Delilah, but Victor Mature is surprisingly good as Samson, even when mouthing such idiotic lines as "That's all right. It's only a young lion". Even better is George Sanders as The Saran of Gaza, who wisely opts to underplay his florid villainy. The spectacular climax to Samson and Delilah allows us to forget such dubious highlights as Samson's struggle with a distressing phony lion and the tedious cat-and-mouse romantic scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Johnny Mack Brown does his usual Johnny Mack Brown thing in the Monogram western Range Justice. Once more teamed with comic sidekick Max Terhune, Brown champions the cause of feisty lady rancher Ma Curtis (Sarah Padden). A gang of crooks led by the scurrilous Stoner (Fred Kohler Jr.) is trying to drive Ma off her land. Going undercover, Brown joins the gang to bore from within. The rest of the story adheres religiously to the formula firmly established in previous Johnny Mack Brown oaters. Legendary stunt man Eddie Parker is seen in a rare speaking role as "Lacey." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Gene Autry goes in search of the man who killed his friend during a blackout in this action-packed western from Columbia. Someone cuts the lights and kills Ed Norton (Stanley Blystone) during a heated poker game and that someone, according to Sheriff Cramer (Chill Wills), may just be young hothead Larry Evans (Russell Arms). Gene, however, thinks otherwise and arranges for Larry to hide out in a cabin belonging to elderly prospector Jim Hedge (Clem Bevans). But the real killer is doing his best to incriminate Larry and Gene must not only fight the sheriff but also the accused man's pretty sister, Mary (Barbara Britton), in order to uncover the truth behind the killing. Despite a preponderance of action, Autry, backed by the Cass County Boys, manages to perform five songs in Loaded Pistols: "Pretty Mary", "Jimmy Crack Corn", "When the Bloom is on the Sage", "A Boy from Texas, A Girl from Tennessee" and the title tune. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Cecil B. DeMille's first postwar production, the $5 million Technicolor historical spectacular Unconquered lacks only the kitchen sink. The story begins in England in the 1760s, as Abigail Martha Hale (Paulette Goddard), unjustly accused of a crime against the Crown, is sentenced by the Lord Chief Justice (C. Aubrey Smith) to 14 years' forced servitude in North America. Carted off to the auction block, Abigail is highly coveted by slavemaster Martin Garth (Howard da Silva), but the highest bidder turns out to be Virginia militiaman Captain Christopher Holden (Gary Cooper). Having been jilted by his aristocratic fiancee Diana (Virginia Grey), Holden harbors no romantic feelings for Abigail, but he's determined not to let her fall into Garth's grimy clutches. The patriotic Holden also knows that Garth, who is married to the daughter (Katherine de Mille) of Indian chief Pontiac (Robert Warwick), has been trading firearms to the Ottawas. The treacherous Garth later participates in the "Pontiac Conspiracy," an allegiance of 18 Indian nations forsworn to wipe out every colonist on the East Coast. To put Holden out of the way, Garth arranges for him to be court-martialed and sentenced to death on a trumped-up desertion charge. But Abigail, partly in repayment for her rescue from Seneca chief Guyasuta (Boris Karloff) and partly because she's fallen in love with Holden, helps him escape, just in time to save a nearby military fort from an Indian massacre -- a feat accomplished by a subterfuge straight out of Beau Geste, which also starred Gary Cooper! As historically suspect as any Cecil B. DeMille epic, Unconquered is still marvelous escapist entertainment, especially during the time-honored bathtub scene involving a bare-shouldered Paulette Goddard (who spends most of the film in either a state of dishabille or bondage, or both!) Once again, however, Mr. "Spare No Expense" DeMille cuts corners by filming most of his major exterior scenes within the artificial confines of the Paramount sound stages. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi