Franklin Adreon Movies

In this sci-fi spy thriller, a secret agent for Espionage, Inc., is assigned to stop the Dragon, a Chinese communist organization, from detonating a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Good samaritan Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly) offers assistance to two tired travellers with only one horse. They repay his generosity by stealing his horse--and then framing him for bank robbery and murder. When one of the thieves is killed, the other escapes with a posse hot on heels. . .while Bart cools his own heels in jail, under the watchful eye of Sheriff Edwards (Dick Foran). Clearly, the only way Bart can clear himself is by capturing the remaining outlaw--but how is he going to get past the sheriff? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bret and Bart Maverick (James Garner, Jack Kelly) bid on the salvage rights to a derelict cargo ship, the Apolonia. It turns out that someone is willing to commit murder to steal those rights away--which naturally arouses the curiosity of the Mavericks. In their efforts to determine why the sunken cargo is so valuable, our heroes find themselves up against a gang of drug smugglers. This episode is adapted from The Wrecker, a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a naive truck driver gets tricked into helping crooks pull off a major heist. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Carolyn Grant (Marie Windsor), a Monterey gallery owner, is playing the field and seems to have one too many men on her string, including her wealthy estranged husband, the local art critic, and even the fiancé of her shop assistant. So when Carolyn is murdered during an apparent break-in at her gallery, there are plenty of male suspects -- with the husband and father-in-law in the lead. Windsor's sultry temptress is the brightest spot in an otherwise so-so mystery, although her wickedness isn't quite at the level she achieved a year later as Sherry Peatty in The Killing. ~ Michael P. Rogers, All Movie Guide

Masked crimefighter El Latigo fights the baddies and works for justice in this wild western. Man with a Steel Whip was a popular 1950s Republic studio serial. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

This pedestrian chapterplay added William Henry -- renamed Bill Henry for the occasion -- to the long list of lesser known journeymen actors elevated for economy purposes to stardom during the last years of American movie serials. As the title suggests, Canadian Mounties vs. Atomic Invaders combined two cherished genres: Northwest melodrama and Science Fiction. Not that the two necessarily mixed well, and the drawn out story of a Canadian mountie teaming up with a female undercover agent (Susan Morrow broke no new ground, to put it mildly. The 12 chapter serial was edited down and released as a feature film entitled Missile Base at Taniak. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In the second of Republic Pictures' three "Rocket Man" serials, the government assigns Commando Cody (George Wallace) to look into a series of strange atomic explosions threatening the United States' defense systems. As Cody discovers, the threat comes from the Moon, whose ruler, Retik (Roy Barcroft), is planning an invasion of Mother Earth due to a severe lack of atmosphere on his own planet. Retik works through Krog (Peter Brocco), an inter-planetary henchman who does all the financing and hiring on Earth. Unfortunately, the hooded lunar visitor fails miserably on both fronts: the preparations for the invasion are severely under funded and the hired guns, such as former prison inmate Graber (Clayton Moore), less than competent. But despite these caveats, Commando Cody and his fellow space travelers, Joan Gilbert (Aline Towne) and Ted Richards (William Bakewell), have to suffer through 12 chapters before finally destroying the threat from the planet Moon. Radar Men From the Moon was filmed between October 17, 1951, and November 6, 1951, on a budget of $172,840. Most location filming, not excluding plenty of stock footage from earlier Republic serials, was done at the Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, California. The serial was followed by a brief television series, Commando Cody: Sky Marshal, which retained Aline Towne as Joan Gilbert but replaced George Wallace and William Bakewell with Judd Holdren and William Schallert. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In his second starring vehicle, singing cowboy Rex Allen plays the head of a frontier cattlemen's association. The villain is dishonest meat packer Charles Stevens (Robert Emmet Keane), who has been trying to fix cattle prices to his advantage. When Rex decides to do business with another firm, it requires driving the herds through miles and miles of desolation--and, incidentally, avoiding Stevens' hired guns. The action highlights include a harrowing cattle stampede. Johnny Downs, star of many of collegiate musicals of the 1940s, has a cameo role as a square-dance caller. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

To stop a madman from blowing up New York City, a researcher dons a flying suit and prepares for battle in this serial, later re-editing into the feature Lost Planet Airmen. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

In this low-budget Africa-set jungle adventure, the excitement begins when a small plane crash-lands deep in the dense tropical forest. Everyone survives the landing, but now they must survive the many dangers there as they journey through the jungle to safety. It doesn't help that two of the passengers are notorious Chicago gangsters who were being extradited to the US by the police. En route the little group runs into an eccentric millionaire, who simply vanished years before and was presumed dead. With the tycoon is his lovely, feral daughter who, using her expertise at jungle living, helps the travelers successfully make the arduous, danger-fraught journey. Among the terrors they face are vicious gorillas, and angry natives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This western mystery offers a behind-the-scenes look at movie making. The trouble begins when a cowboy star is mysteriously killed on the set. A detective investigates and becomes determined to save the prime suspect. Despite the terrible danger he faces, the investigator does not stop until the real culprit has been apprehended and justice is served. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide