James Ellison
Also Known As: Jimmie 'Shamrock' Ellison, Jimmie Ellison, Jimmy 'Shamrock' Ellison, Jimmy Ellison, James Ellison Smith
Biography: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. James Ellison (May 4, 1910 - December 23, 1993) was an American actor, born James Ellison Smith in Guthrie Center, Iowa, son of Edward James Smith and Ona Mary Ellis. Ellison appeared in nearly seventy films between 1932 and 1962. Ellison worked for a time in a film laboratory and while there was offered a screen test. He developed it himself and when he saw it, decided it was not satisfactory so he would not show it to the director. But he saw it anyway and Ellison got a contract. Despite his rugged good looks and height of 6 feet 3 inches, Ellison's limited range and somewhat wooden screen presence kept him from the first (or even second) ranks of stardom. He spent much of his career in Westerns, including a stint in the mid-thirties as the sidekick of Hopalong Cassidy in Paramount's successful series. In 1938, he played a charming, romantic character opposite 26 year old Lucille Ball in the comedy, "Next Time I Marry", a film where Ball had her first top billing on screen credits. Before that, in 1936, he played his highest-profile role, as Buffalo Bill in Cecil B. DeMille's The Plainsman, which also starred Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. Despite that film's success, Ellison spent most of the remainder of his career shuttling between cowboy pictures and more varied roles, primarily in B movies with titles like Mr. District Attorney in the Carter Case and The Undying Monster. He had a supporting role in 1941's Charley's Aunt (which starred Jack Benny) and played the romantic lead in 1943's The Gang's All Here, a Twentieth Century Fox musical in which he seemed somewhat lost among the vivid antics of Carmen Miranda, Charlotte Greenwood, and Edward Everett Horton (and was the only principal not to sing a note). He also co-starred with Tom Conway and Frances Dee in Val Lewton's production of I Walked with a Zombie, directed by Jacques Tourneur. Ellison landed another romantic lead role as 'Jerry Gibson' in the musical film Lady, Let's Dance (1944) which starred ice skating sensation 'Belita'. In the early 1950s, Ellison moved from acting to real estate. Joining fellow veteran Jackie Coogan, Ellison returned to the screen only once to play Axel 'Longhorn' Gates in a picture called When the Girls Take Over (1962). James Ellison died at age 83 in Monterey, California after suffering a broken neck as the result of a fall. Description above from the Wikipedia article James Ellison (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Guthrie Center, Iowa, USA
Birthday: May 04, 1910
Deathday: December 23, 1993
Adult: No
Gender: Male
Popularity:
Known For:
Vivacious Lady
Overview: College town life gets turned upside down after a button-down botany professor secretly weds a sizzling night-club singer.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-05-13
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I Walked with a Zombie
Overview: A nurse in the Caribbean turns to voodoo in hopes of curing her patient, a mindless woman whose husband she's fallen in love with.
Genres: Mystery Horror Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-04-21
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The Undying Monster
Overview: A werewolf prowls around at night but only kills certain members of one family. It seems like just a coincidence, but the investigating Inspector soon finds out that this tradition has gone on for generations and tries to find a link between the werewolf and the family, leading to a frightening conclusion.
Genres: Horror Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-11-27
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Charley's Aunt
Overview: In 1890, two students at Oxford force their rascally friend and fellow student to pose as an aunt from Brazil--where the nuts come from.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-08-01
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The Plainsman
Overview: Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill go up against Indians and a gunrunner.
Genres: Western War Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-11-16
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Fifth Avenue Girl
Overview: A wealthy man hires a poor girl to play his mistress in order to get more attention from his neglectful family.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-09-22
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Crooked River
Overview: Ellison is the star searching for the killer of his parents while Hayden's a not-too-bad bandit leader.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-06-09
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The Gang's All Here
Overview: A soldier falls for a chorus girl and then experiences trouble when he is posted to the Pacific.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-12-24
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The Eagle's Brood
Overview: When the outlaw El Toro saves Hoppy's life, Hoppy agrees to find his missing grandson.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-10-25
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Three on the Trail
Overview: An evil gang is involved in both cattle rustling and the robbing of stagecoaches. Hoppy must stop them without help from the sheriff who turns out be a major outlaw himself.
Genres: Action Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-04-14
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Hop-a-long Cassidy
Overview: An evil ranch foreman tries to provoke a range war by playing two cattlemen against each other while helping a gang to rustle the cattle. Each cattleman blames the other for missing cattle. With the help of Bill Cassidy (Hop-along, because of an earlier bullet wound) and Johnny Nelson, the warring cattlemen join forces to do in the outlaws.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-08-23
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Call of the Prairie
Overview: Hoppy returns to find Johnny in trouble. Buck Peters has been shot by Porter who made it look like Johnny did it. When Johnny flees he runs into Linda. He takes a liking to her only to learn her father Shanghai is one of Porter's gang. Going after Shanghai, he gets captured by the gang and Porter now plans to kill him. But Hoppy is near by and Johnny will get unexpected help from Shanghai.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-03-06
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Heart of the West
Overview: Problems come in the form of one of Hopalong Cassidy's neighbors, but the matter is settled when Hoppy roots out the troublemaker.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-02-24
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Bar 20 Rides Again
Overview: Cattle rustler Nevada dreams of living like an emperor in the West. Hoppy and the Bar 20 boys aim to put an end to his dream.
Genres: Music Western Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-12-06
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Borderland
Overview: Hoppy goes undercover as an outlaw (which permits him, for once, to drink and be mean to children) to track down a bunch of outlaws operating along the border. Loco, the head bad guy, deflects suspicion from himself by pretending to be a moron.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-02-26
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Trail Dust
Overview: Hoppy, Johnny and Windy are fighting a malicious gang trying to stop a cattle drive from reaching a drought-stricken North.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-12-11
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The Ghost Goes Wild
Overview: Young artist Monte Crandell is being sued for an unauthorized caricature. To escape arrest, he disguises himself as a mystic, only to conjure up a genuine ghost during a seance. Things come to a head during his trial, where the invisible ghost takes the witness stand on Our Hero's behalf.
Genres: Fantasy Comedy Romance Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-08-08
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Hollywood and Vine
Overview: A young girl arrives in Hollywood determined to become a star in the movies but finds that attaining stardom is a lot more difficult than she counted on. However, she does become a star of sorts — as the owner of a dog who DOES become a movie star.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-04-25
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The Winning Ticket
Overview: A barber tries to find the winning lottery ticket he hid from his moralistic wife.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-02-08
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Zenobia
Overview: A modest country doctor in the antebellum South has to contend with his daughter's upcoming marriage and an affectionate medicine show elephant.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-04-21
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Play Girl
Overview: When a gold digger starts to get a little old to ply her trade, she teaches a younger woman all her tricks.
Genres: Comedy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-01-29
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Buried Loot
Overview: An embezzler who expects to serve his time in prison and then pick up his buried loot is in for a surprise.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-01-19
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Anne of Windy Poplars
Overview: Sentimental drama about an ambitious young teacher who arrives in a small town to take the job of vice-principal. Based on one of L M Montgomery's 'Anne of Green Gables' sequels.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-06-28
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Calendar Girl
Overview: Around the turn of the century, two young men, Johnnie Bennett, a composer and Steve Adams, an artist, go to New York City to make their fortune. They both fall in love with the same girl, Patricia O'Neill. The artist paints a picture of her which outrages her father's sensibilities; but, as a result of the picture, she wins a chance to star in a Broadway play. She soon learns that the artist is just a trifler; and she turns to the composer, who loves her sincerely
Genres: Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-01-31
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Hitch Hike Lady
Overview: Brit Amelia Blake travels to America to join her son Alfred. Fate forces her to hitchhike to California, a perilous journey that she shares with kind young Judy Martin. When Judy and another fellow traveler discover the unfortunate truth about Alfred, they struggle to spare Amelia's feelings.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-12-28
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Texas Lawmen
Overview: A Texas Ranger goes up against the Morrow outlaw gang.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-12-02
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Last of the Wild Horses
Overview: A cowboy must clear himself of a murder he did not commit.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-12-27
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Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Overview: A young girl rents an apartment from a man who has recently enlisted in the Marines. The trouble is that he's given out keys to a half-dozen of his friends, and they all keep dropping in.
Genres: War Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-07-07
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Hotel for Women
Overview: Guests at a women's residence club help a jilted small-town girl turn to modelling.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-08-03
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Sorority House
Overview: A young girl begins to wonder if she really fits into the upper-class sorority she's trying to join.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-05-05
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Almost a Gentleman
Overview: Saving a dog from the pound gets a man mixed up in murder.
Genres: Action Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-03-31
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Careful, Soft Shoulders
Overview: In this espionage movie, set in Washington during WW II, the daughter of an ex-senator has become a dress model. She is approached by an American counter-espionage agent who offers her a chance to serve her country. The carefree son of a naval official receives a similar offer. He is asked to secure secret Naval plans. Unbeknownst to them, the man they work for is actually a Nazi spy. The two dupes finally figure it out, and the spy kidnaps them. Somehow they escape and break up the spy ring.
Genres: Comedy Romance War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-09-18
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The Texan Meets Calamity Jane
Overview: A western in which Calamity Jane's rightful ownership of a gambling hall is challenged. She nearly loses the business to a shady crook, but Texas lawyer Ellison puts up a legal battle to help her stay in charge. After a sensational fight, the letters proving her right are discovered.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-11-15
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Lady, Let's Dance
Overview: Singing, dancing, and ice skating are featured in this musical that focuses on ice-skating sensation Belita. The story begins as she travels to a California resort where she has been hired as a replacement for a dance team. The resort is run by a handsome fellow. As a result of the gig, the skater becomes a national star while the resort manager gets fired and becomes a drifter until he ends up in the Army. The Oscar nominated score includes the following songs: "Silver Shadows and Golden Dreams", "Dream of Dreams", "Rio", "In the Days of Beau Brummel", "Lady, Let's Dance", "Happy Hearts", "Ten Million Men and a Girl", and the rhumba standard "Esperanza".
Genres: Music Romance War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-04-11
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When the Girls Take Over
Overview: A comic look...at Cuba after Castro regime take over.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1962-04-30
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Annapolis Salute
Overview: The adventures of three disparate cadets at the US Naval Academy--one the son of a Navy enlisted man, the other the scion of a wealthy family, the third decent but somewhat slow-witted--and their struggles with the rigors of the academy, women, and each other.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-09-10
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Mother Carey's Chickens
Overview: A financially-strapped mother and her children relocate from the city to a small rural town.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-07-29
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23 1/2 Hours Leave
Overview: Army training Sgt. Gray makes a bet that he can get himself invited to breakfast with his commanding officer, General Markley. But he gets into an unhappy tangle with a couple of enemy spies (and a happy tangle with the general's daughter) before the bet is finally decided.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-03-21
Popularity:
You Can't Fool Your Wife
Overview: Longtime school sweethearts discover married life, thanks to a disagreeable live-in mother-in-law and pressing business obligations, is more rocky than idyllic.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-05-21
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Next Time I Marry
Overview: Heiress Nancy Crocker Fleming will only receive her inheritance if she marries a "plain American." Her late father was afraid a foreign gigolo would steal her heart and money. So Nancy pays Tony Anthony, working on a WPA road project, to marry, then divorce her. When Nancy inadvertently drives off with Tony's dog, Tony seemingly kidnaps her to retrieve the pooch, which leads to a cross-country race between the two to reach Reno and the divorce court since neither one wants to be the second to file papers.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-12-09
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Play Girl
Overview: A young innocent falls for a compulsive gambler.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-03-12
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Ice-Capades
Overview: Bob Clemens is a cameraman for newsreels. Assigned to shoot the Swiss ice skater Karen Vadja, he arrives too late, so decides to film a woman skating on a different New York rink and pass her off as Karen. The scheme backfires when promoter Larry Herman takes a look at Bob's film and decides to make the skater a star. Unfortunately, it's actually amateur (and illegal immigrant) Marie Bergin in the newsreel footage, not the great figure skater from Switzerland. Chaos ensues as Bob tries to straighten everybody out.
Genres: Comedy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-08-19
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Reckless
Overview: A theatrical star, born on the wrong side of the tracks, marries a drunken blue-blood millionaire.
Genres: Music Drama Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-04-19
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That Other Woman
Overview: A secretary by the name of Emily Borden comes up with a convoluted plan to get her boss to marry her which backfires after some bad advice.
Genres: Romance Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-11-13
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Kentucky Jubilee
Overview: A film director travels to Kentucky to seek out local talent for a hillbilly musical film. There, he gets kidnapped.
Genres: Music Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-05-18
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They Met in Argentina
Overview: A Texas oil millionaire, after failing to secure oil lands in Argentina, seeks out a famous racehorse in Buenos Aires and orders his representative to buy the nag at any price. The representative, Tim Kelly, has a love affair with Lolita O'Shea, the beautiful daughter of the prize horse's owner.
Genres: Romance Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-04-25
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The Barrier
Overview: Gale, a store owner, lives in an Alaskan village with his grown ward, Necia, whom he had rescued years before from her murderer father, Captain Bennett. Now Bennett, disguised as Ben Stark, has arrived in the village seeking vengeance and his daughter.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-12-10
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Army Surgeon
Overview: Drama about military doctors and nurses during wartime.
Genres: Drama Romance War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-12-04
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Everybody's Dancin'
Overview: Dance-hall owner Dick Lane is in dire need of some big-name acts or he will lose his business. Several country-western stars come to his rescue by agreeing to appear on a TV special to be broadcast from his club.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-03-31
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Dixie Dugan
Overview: Roger Hudson, a wealthy businessman who has moved to Washington to work for the government as a "dollar a year man," is late for a radio broadcast about his new department, the Mobilization of Woman Power for War. He takes a cab driven by Dixie Dugan, who hopes that being a cabbie while the country's men are away fighting will help the war effort. Her incompetent driving, however, results in an accident for which Roger must take responsibility in order to reach the radio station in time. Dixie then returns home, where she lives with her father Timothy, who is constantly practicing his air raid warden duties, her mother Gladys, an aspiring Red Cross worker, and cousin Imogene, who studies incessantly to become a "quiz kid." The Dugans rent out their spare rooms to Dixie's fiancé, Matt Hogan, and to blustering Judge J. J. Lawson. Matt, who works in a munitions factory, wants Dixie to settle down and marry him, but Dixie is determined to help her country.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-03-12
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Fast on the Draw
Overview: As a boy, Shamrock's parents were killed. He took possession of a pistol belonging to his father, a famous marshal. Now that he is grown, he takes the job of marshal and uses the same gun, but he still has to solve the mystery of what happened to his parents.
Genres: Crime Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-06-30
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Colorado Ranger
Overview: The Shamrock Kid, Lucky, and The Colonel get caught in a feud between outlaws and homesteaders.
Genres: Crime Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-05-12
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Hostile Country
Overview: In this remake of No Man's Range (1935), Shamrock travels to the ranch of his stepfather who he has never met and finds himself caught in the middle of a range war.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-03-24
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Marshal of Heldorado
Overview: Shamrock and Lucky team up to drive the Tulliver Brothers out of Heldorado.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-04-21
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West of the Brazos
Overview: An outlaw impersonates Shamrock in order to lease his land to an oil company for $75,000.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-06-02
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The Famous Ferguson Case
Overview: A foreword warns against the peril of yellow journalism, and the story illustrates it by following events in the upstate New York town of Cornwall after prominant financier George Ferguson is killed. Two types of New York City journalists descend on Cornwall, one interested in facts, the other in getting sensational "news". Mrs. Ferguson is known to have been friendly with a local banker. The Fergusons quarrel the evening he is killed (by "burglars", his wife tells the police later), and she is arrested, spurred on by the "bad" journalists, who also manage to badger the banker's wife into the hospital. Meanwhile, young Bruce Foster runs the Cornwall Courier, and shows the big city reporters how to dig out real news while they attempt to subvert justice for their own ends.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-04-19
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Mr. District Attorney in the Carter Case
Overview: Like the first entry, this one is played mostly for laughs, with Radio's Mister District Attorney. James Ellison replacing Dennis O'Keefe as feckless assistant DA P. Cadwallader Jones. The publisher of a tony fashion magazine is murdered, requiring Jones to sift through a colorful array of suspects. He is helped along by snoopy girl reporter Terry Parker.
Genres: Mystery Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-12-18
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Oklahoma Justice
Overview: Johnny Mack Brown goes up against a lady bank robber in this average Mack Brown series late-entry from Monogram. The lady, played by Barbara Allen, is of course called "Ma." In order to get the goods on "Ma" and her "brood," Mack Brown must masquerade as a lone bandit.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-08-18
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Whistling Hills
Overview: Johnny Mack Brown was recruited by Chet Norman, the owner of a stagecoach line, to end the heist perpetrated by a mysterious knight who plays strange notes with a hiss of money before robbing them.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-10-06
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Dead Man's Trail
Overview: Johnny Mack Brown was nearing the end of his starring career when he appeared in the Monogram oater Dead Man's Trail. Brown and his youthful sidekick Jimmy Ellison come to the aid of imperiled Barbara Allen. At this point, Johnny was too long in tooth and thick around the middle to qualify as a romantic lead, hence the presence of Ellison.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-07-19
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G.I. War Brides
Overview: Linda Powell, and English girl, stows away on a ship bound for the United States in order to join the G.I. she loves. She assumes the identity of an English war bride, Joyce Giles, who has decided she no longer loves the American soldier she married and is not going to join him in the U.S. Linda arrives to find that her soldier no longer wishes to marry her...
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-08-12
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The Leathernecks Have Landed
Overview: Dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Marines after starting a barroom brawl that gets his leatherneck buddy "Tubby" Waters killed, hothead "Woody" Davis infiltrates a gang of Shanghai gunrunners to bring the culprit to justice.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-02-17
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I Killed Geronimo
Overview: Going undercover as the notorious "Waco Kid," U.S. Army Captain Jeff Packard manages to infiltrate a gang of gold-shipment thieves lead by nasty Walt Anderson. But Anderson and his gang are not the only troublemakers around: Packard must also contend with Geronimo and his Apache warriors, who are demanding guns in exchange for peace.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-08-08
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Man from the Black Hills
Overview: As other "B"-western series kept dropping like flies in 1952, Johnny Mack Brown kept grinding 'em out for Monogram. In Man From Black Hills, Johnny tries to help locate his saddle pal Jim Fallan's (James Ellison) long-lost father. Arriving in a small mining town, Johnny and Jim discover that Jim's father has established a financial empire--and that a local opportunist (Randy Brooks) has capitalized on this by claiming to be the old man's son.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-03-29
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Texas City
Overview: Johnny Mack Brown substitutes brains for brawn during most of Texas City. Cast once more as a U.S. marshal, Johnny investigates when several government gold shipments are hijacked. Someone has been tipping of the outlaws as to when and where the supposedly secret shipments will take place. The principal suspect is dishonorably discharged cavalry officer Kirby (James Ellison), but Johnny has a gut feeling that Kirby is innocent on all counts.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-01-27
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Best Foot Forward
Overview: Bud Hooper, a cadet at Winsocki Military Academy, sends an invitation to movie star Lucille Ball to come to Winsocki's big dance. Ball's publicity-hungry agent convinces her to go in order to boost her career. Complications arise when Bud's girlfriend Helen Schlesinger unexpectedly shows up, too.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-10-08
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