Known for Acting
The Saturday matinee crowd got two cowboy stars for the price of one in this lavishly budgeted western serial starring former singing cowboy Dick Foran and Buck Jones. The latter contributed deadpan humor to the proceedings, making Jones perhaps the highest paid B-western comedy relief in history. The two heroes defend the Death Valley borax miners from an outlaw gang headed by Wolf Reade. An extraordinarily strong cast -- for a serial, at least -- supported the stars, headed by Charles Bickford as Reade, Leo Carillo, Lon Chaney, Jr., and silent screen star Monte Blue. Leading lady Jeanne Kelly later changed her name to Jean Brooks and starred in the atmospheric RKO thriller The Seventh Victim (1943). Universal claimed to have spent $1 million on this serial and made sure to get their money's worth by endlessly recycling the action footage in serials and B-westerns for years to come.
In this dramatized account of his early law career in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln is born into a modest log cabin, where he is encouraged by his first love, Ann Rutledge, to pursue law. Following her tragic death, Lincoln establishes a law practice in Springfield, where he meets a young Mary Todd. Lincoln's law skills are put to the test when he takes on the difficult task of defending two brothers who have been accused of murder.
An Italian immigrant studying the law gets mixed up with crooks.
The boys are a dentist and his assistant traveling to the Old West to open a new practice. Once in town, they buy a business--only to wake up the next day and see that the entire population of this bustling town had left for the California gold fields early that morning! Then, they discover an evil plot to sell out these settlers to some hostile Indians, so they spring to the rescue.
Survivors of a shipwreck find refuge on a tropical island--but so do the ship's cargo of lions and tigers.
After a roustabout sailor avoids being shanghaied in 1850s San Francisco, his audacity helps him rise to a position of power in the vice industry of the infamous Barbary Coast.
It's just after the Civil War in Kansas and Joan Randall and her troops are continuing the struggle. Jeff Conners is sent to bring her in and when he does she is found guilt and sentenced to hang. Earlier Jeff learned that her assistant Colonel Jedcott is the real culprit and rides to the Governor for a pardon only to be waylaid by Jedcott on the return trip.
Dean Randall is a hero of the Great War who comes home to his horse and his father's ranch. When back he saves a family in a wagon train -- a father, daughter Grace, and three orphan children.
Bob Haynes, the unknown leader of an outlaw gang, has been offered the job of Deputy. When his men commit murder and robbery against his orders, he takes the job and brings them in. He then confesses he was one of them and the Sheriff is forced to arrest him leaving his fate up to the Judge.
In a small Nova Scotia, Canada, fishing village, Charity Byfleet marries William Pennland, a romantic soldier of fortune, just before he leaves on a long voyage. The irrepressible William, however, soon initiates a flirtation with the captain's wife and is thrown overboard. He swims to shore, landing on a rough and isolated stretch of the Nova Scotia coast, where he is found half-dead and nursed back to health by Hagar Levanti.
Ben Trego dies defending his twin sons from Indian attack. Separated, the two boys grow up very differently, one as Paul Marsden, the other as a cowboy named Three Word Brand. Paul becomes governor of Utah while Brand partners with George Barton in a ranch. The owner of the adjacent ranch plots to get Barton and Brand out of the way in order to control water rights. When Governor Marsden comes to the area to investigate, Brand sees the resemblance between them, though neither knows about his twin. Brand waylays Paul and takes his place as governor in an attempt to thwart the crooked rancher in the water rights scheme.
A poor hat-check girl loses her job and is forced to get a job as a dancer at a roadhouse. There she falls in love with the son of a rich businessman. The boy's father, believing her to be after the family's money, determines to embarrass her and show his son what she really is.
