Fred F. Sears
Also Known As: Fred Sears, Frederick Francis Sears
Biography: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Frederick Francis Sears (1913-1957) was an American film actor and director. Though a marginalized figure in 1950s cinema, he created 52 feature films in a number of genres for Columbia Pictures from 1949 to 1957, before his premature death at the age of 44. Description above from the Wikipedia article Fred F. Sears,licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Department: Directing
Place of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Adult: No
Birthday: July 07, 1913
Age: 111 years old
Gender: Male
Deathday: November 30, 1957
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Known For:
Rusty Leads the Way
Overview: Danny Mitchell and his canine pal Rusty befriend blind girl Penny Moffatt. Feeling cheated by life, Penny resists all efforts to cope with her handicap. But with Rusty's help, the girl gains a new lease on life and agrees to adopt a seeing-eye dog.
Genres: Family Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-10-21
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The Secret Of St. Ives
Overview: A French soldier in the Napoleonic Wars plots his escape after he's captured and imprisoned in a castle fortress in Edinburgh, Scotland. Director Philip Rosen's 1949 film, adapted from a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, stars Richard Ney, Vanessa Brown, Henry Daniell, John Dehner, Douglas Walton, Aubrey Mather, Jean Del Val, Luis Van Rooten, Maurice Marsac and Billy Bevan.
Genres: Action Adventure History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-06-30
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Brave Warrior
Overview: In Indiana of the early 1800s, conflict once again arises between the United States and Great Britain over territory and boundaries. Each side endeavors to gain the support of the Shawnee Indian tribes in the area. Governor William Henry Harrison enlists the aid of Steve Rubbell, whose friendship with the Shawnee chief Tecumseh goes back to childhood. Tecumseh's leadership of the Shawnee is contested by his brother, known as The Prophet, who sides with the British. Tecumseh, who grew up as a childhood playmate of Steve and of Laura McGregor, loves Steve as a brother and hopes to marry Laura. But Laura is in love with Steve. Laura's father, Shayne McGregor, secretly leads local support of the British against the Americans, even though it risks the life and love of his daughter. Everything comes to a head at the battle of Tippecanoe.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-05-31
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The Corpse Came C.O.D.
Overview: Rival reporters (George Brent, Joan Blondell) investigate a Hollywood star (Adele Jergens) and the box she receives with a dead man inside.
Genres: Comedy Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-06-02
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David Harding, Counterspy
Overview: A Counterspy in the US military is killed under suspicious circumstances. His friend, Jerry Baldwin, a Navy Commander, is assigned to replace him and stop a saboteur in a torpedo factory.
Genres: Action Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-07-13
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Shockproof
Overview: Jenny Marsh, recently released from prison for killing a man, finds herself under the watchful eye of her parole officer, Griff Marat, who helps her secure a job caring for his ailing mother.
Genres: Romance Crime Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-01-25
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Flame of Calcutta
Overview: A British captain and a French official's daughter save the East India Company.
Genres: History Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-07-20
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On the Isle of Samoa
Overview: After committing a robbery, a man is inspired to confess by a lovely native girl he meets on a small island.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-08-03
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The Family Secret
Overview: When his son accidentally kills someone, a lawyer must defend the man wrongly charged with the murder.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-10-21
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Gasoline Alley
Overview: A young man tries to get rich by opening a diner. Comedy based on the popular comic strip.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-01-02
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The Giant Claw
Overview: Global panic ensues when it is revealed that a mysterious UFO is actually a giant turkey-like bird that flies at supersonic speed and has no regard for life or architecture.
Genres: Science Fiction Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-06-01
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Frontier Outpost
Overview: Federal agent Steve Lawton works undercover with his assistant, Smiley Burnette, to track down an outlaw gang that is raiding government gold shipments bound for Fort Navajo.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-12-29
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Tokyo Joe
Overview: An American veteran returns to Tokyo to try to pick up the threads of his pre-World War II life there, but finds himself squeezed between criminals and the authorities.
Genres: Drama Thriller Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-10-26
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Whirlwind Raiders
Overview: It's 1873 and the disbanded Texas Rangers have been replaced by the corrupt Texas State Police. Steve Lanning arrives posing as a wanted outlaw to get in with them in his attempt to have them replaced. His inside work helps the Durango Kid break up the State Police raids but he is in trouble when his secret identity as Durango becomes known to them.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-05-12
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The Gallant Blade
Overview: Larry Parks in a Cinecolor swashbuckler.
Genres: Action Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-10-12
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Counterspy Meets Scotland Yard
Overview: A federal agent joins forces with a British lawman to foil a spy ring.
Genres: Drama Adventure Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-11-21
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Laramie
Overview: A major Indian uprising is expected and Wyoming military posts are alerted. Colonel Dennison is meeting with Chief Eagle and his son Running Wolf when Chief Eagle is mysteriously shot. Steve Holden, an agent for the government peace commission, with the aid of a wandering shoemaker, Smiley, discover the troubles and the Chief's murder have been instigated by Cronin, the regimental scout, for personal gain for he and his gang of outlaws.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-05-19
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The Blazing Trail
Overview: Old Mike Brady built Brady Town and was a leader, but a bullet from an unknown assailant has ended his life. When the will is read, it leaves the bulk of the property to Kirk, the gambling son of Mike. This upsets Sam, the hard working son, but not gambler Full House who always beats Kirk at cards. But even the Sheriff is suspicious of the will, but he needs proof and the Durango Kid will find the proof.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-06-05
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South of Death Valley
Overview: When Steve Downey arrives to reopen his brother-in-law's gold mine, he finds a war between the ranchers and the miners. Ashton has had the water poisoned killing cattle. When Ashton's men find Steve's hat, they kill Tom Tavish and frame Steve for the murder. Escaping jail the Durango Kid goes into action.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-08-08
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Bandits of El Dorado
Overview: Wanted outlaws have mysteriously disappeared. Ranger Captain Henley and Steve have a plan to find them. Steve becomes a wanted man by faking the killing of Henley. Not only is he now in trouble as both the Rangers and the Mexican Rurales are after him, but Smiley knows him and may expose his masquerade to the bad guys.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-10-19
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Bonanza Town
Overview: Using marked bills, Steve is looking for the supposedly dead Henry Hardison. Coming to Bonanza Town he gets a job with the town boss Crag Bozeman and gets paid with marked bills. He suspects Hardison is Boseman's boss and he is right as Hardison and his men are now planning to get rid of both him and the Durango kid.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-07-26
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Cyclone Fury
Overview: A late entry in Columbia's seemingly endless Durango Kid Western series, Cyclone Fury was augmented with a hefty dose of stock footage from an earlier Durango effort, Galloping Thunder (1946), footage that included sidekick Smiley Burnette warbling "Hear the Wind (Singing a Cowboy Song)" accompanied by Merle Travis and his Bronco Busters.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-08-14
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Laramie Mountains
Overview: Markham and his men have found gold on the Indian reservation and are trying to get rid of them by starting an Indian war. Dressed as Indians they are attacking the soldiers. Steve Holden is the Indian agent sent to prevent a war. After finding proof that white men posing as Indians were responsible, he is able to locate the gang's hideout but quickly becomes a prisoner slated to be killed. - Written by Maurice VanAuken
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-04-19
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The Rough, Tough West
Overview: Charles Starrett returns as the Durango Kid in Columbia's Rough, Tough, West. For most of the film, however, Starrett is known as "Steve Holden," a former Texas Ranger who comes to a wide-open mining town to visit an old friend (Jack -- later Jock -- Mahoney). Alas, said friend has turned bad, and is busy arranging a major land grab when Steve arrives on the scene. With deep regret, our hero dons his Durango disguise to thwart his ex-friend's criminal activities.
Genres: Western Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-06-14
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It Had to Be You
Overview: A chronic runaway bride is haunted by her conscience, who becomes reality.
Genres: Romance Comedy Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-12-07
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Smoky Mountain Melody
Overview: Country-western favorite Roy Acuff and his Smoky Mountain Boys star in the Columbia musical western Smoky Mountain Melody. Not much happens plotwise: Acuff, playing "himself," is a tenderfoot who somehow manages to come out on top when he heads westward. The villains (who aren't all that villainous) try to promote a phony stock deal, but Roy and his pals foils their plans. The comedy honors go to Guinn "Big Boy" Williams as a blowhard sheriff. Smoky Mountain Melody was scripted by Barry Shipman, the son of pioneering female filmmaker Nell Shipman.
Genres: Music Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-12-16
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The Kid from Amarillo
Overview: Charles "Durango" Starrett and his pal Smiley Burnette go after smugglers. Our heroes travel incognito across the Mexican border to beard the leader of the gang in his den.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-10-29
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Fort Savage Raiders
Overview: Fort Savage Raiders is another entry in Charles Starrett's "Durango Kid" western series. Starrett once again does double duty as a peacekeeper named Steve (this time his last name is Drake) and as masked avenger Durango. The heavy of the piece is escaped military prisoner Craydon (John Dehner) who, with several other fugitives from justice, forms an army of terrorists.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-03-14
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Texas Dynamo
Overview: Charles Starrett plays The Durango Kid in the 1950 Columbia western Texas Dynamo. As a novelty, Starrett not only plays Durango and his "alter ego" Steve Drake, but also takes on a third identity, that of a hired gun in the employ of the film's bad guys. As one critic noted, this may be the only western in which the hero is obliged to chase himself. Jock O'Mahoney -- later known as Jock Mahoney -- plays a secondary role, and also doubles for Starrett during the riskier stunt sequences.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-06-01
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Renegades of the Sage
Overview: The plot finds Steve/Durango attempting to capture ex-Civil War guerilla fighter Miller who may be the man who's been going around knocking down telegraph wires.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-11-24
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Law of the Canyon
Overview: Freight wagons are being stolen and ransomed back to their owners. Government agent Steve Langtry (and his alter ego the Durango Kid) is sent break up the Hood Gang that's behind the robberies.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-04-23
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Adventures in Silverado
Overview: Author Robert Louis Stevenson takes a trip to Napa Valley, California, in 1880 and gets involved in the exploits of a stagecoach driver who captures a hooded highwayman called The Monk. Supposedly inspired by a true incident, this offbeat Western based on Stevenson's The Silverado Squatters is a dandy, high-spirited adventure yarn.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-03-25
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Singin' Spurs
Overview: In order to help neighboring Indians irrigate their farms, the Hotshots plan to put on a fair for tourists. But first they need $2000 for an advertising campaign, and the only way they can get it is to borrow it from a wealthy local woman, who has made it clear that she won't give them the money until Hezzie marries her.
Genres: Music Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-09-22
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Home in San Antone
Overview: Posing as unemployed musicians, Roy Acuff and his Smoky Mountain Boys, are being helped by Ted Gibson owner of the Harmony Inn in San Antonio, Texas. Gibson is impoverished because he keeps buying his kleptomaniac Uncle Zeke out of trouble, supports his Ma, and Grandpa. He wants to marry Jean Wallace, and doesn't know that Acuff and his musicians are traveling incognito for the radio show "Who Am I Helping?" If he guesses their identity, he wins $100,000.
Genres: Western Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-04-14
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A Snitch in Time
Overview: The Stooges are painters who are re-staining some furniture at a boarding house, unaware that a gang of bank robbers has its hideout there.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-12-07
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Slightly French
Overview: A film director, in bad standing with his studio, tries to turn a local carnival dancer into a "French" movie star and pass her off as his big new discovery.
Genres: Comedy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-02-02
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Johnny Allegro
Overview: Treasury Department officials recruit a florist (Raft) to lead them to a wanted criminal (Macready); but once he gets too close, he finds he's the hunted.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-05-26
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Convicted
Overview: A prison warden fights to prove one of his inmates was wrongly convicted.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-08-01
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The Werewolf
Overview: The arrival in a small mountain town of a dissheveled stranger launches a series of murders committed by some sort of animal. As the town doctor and his daughter attempt to help the stranger, the sheriff investigates the murders; and they uncover a sinister experiment involving two rogue scientists, a car accident victim, his wife and children, and a serum that causes a man to turn into a ravaging werewolf.
Genres: Horror Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-07-01
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Blondie's Anniversary
Overview: Blondie finds a valuable watch that has been hidden by hubby Dagwood. She assumes that it's a surprise wedding gift, but the truth is that Dagwood has been guarding the watch on behalf of a client who bought the gift for his own wife, which soon leads to trouble with his boss, a loan shark, and crooked building contractors.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-12-18
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Blondie Knows Best
Overview: Dagwood Bumstead poses as his boss Mr. Dithers so that a big business deal can be consummated while Dithers avoids nearsighted process server Jim Gray. The upshot of all this is that Dagwood ends up in a lunatic asylum, forcing Blondie to come to the rescue.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-10-17
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Blondie's Holiday
Overview: Dagwood gets a raise due to a new contract with a bank manager. Blondie misunderstanding the amount of the raise pledges more than they can afford to Dagwood's high school reunion organizer who was also Dagwood's high school sweetheart. To make matters worse Dagwood becomes involved with a gang running a gambling establishment.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-04-10
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Blondie in the Dough
Overview: BBlondie opens a bakery in her home to help fill the family cookie jar. Her tasty cookies become so popular that a cookie magnate makes her an offer that is difficult to refuse. Unfortunately, this creates all kinds of problems for the Bumsteads.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-10-16
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Millie's Daughter
Overview: An errant mother tries to teach her daughter to avoid the same errors she made by choosing a different lifestyle.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-03-20
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My True Story
Overview: Ann Martin is serving time as a jewel thief. Paroled and determined to stay clean, she quickly finds out that her freedom was bought by an old, vicious boss that has picked her for a job.
Genres: Romance Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-03-08
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The Man from Colorado
Overview: Two friends return home after their discharge from the army after the Civil War. However, one of them has had deep-rooted psychological damage due to his experiences during the war, and as his behavior becomes more erratic--and violent--his friend desperately tries to find a way to help him.
Genres: Western Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-08-07
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The Fuller Brush Man
Overview: Poor Red Jones gets fired from every job he tries. His fiancée gives him one last chance to make good when he becomes a Fuller Brush man. His awkward attempts at sales are further complicated when one of his customers is murdered and he becomes the prime suspect.
Genres: Adventure Comedy Crime Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-06-01
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