The Republic Pictures Checklist

Republic Pictures Corporation, began as a motion picture laboratory in 1915. By 1935, Republic had become a studio and released its first movie, Westward Ho! starring a young John Wayne, who would stay with Republic for the next 17 years. Republic would go on to produce highly successful Westerns starring singing cowboys Gene Autry and Roy Rogers as well as serial adventure series. The studio cranked out so many exciting (not to mention money-making) serials that it became known as “The Thrill Factory.” Occasionally, Republic would produce and distribute “A” features, such as Macbeth and The Quiet Man, but it was the “B” Westerns and adventure serials that they knew best how to produce and market. Until its demise in 1959, Republic fed hungry moviegoers with a steady diet of “B” Westerns, serials, dramas, series pictures and musicals. The Republic Pictures Checklist provides a full listing of Republic releases, with plot synopses, release dates, alternate titles, chapter titles and awards. All of Republic’s output, including documentaries and training films, is included.

ROY, “ROCKY” & RED RYDER; “HOPPY”, DURANGO & MO(O)RE By: Dr. Jim Vickrey, Ph.D., J.D. From Chapter One: The Wages of Cinema -- on Coming of Age on the B-Western Movie Range, to the Conclusion: Why You Can Yet Join Me in Riding the Range Again ..., author Dr. Jim Vickrey is "hopeful that the experiences I've had while researching and writing this movie-related memoir will engender within readers the same happy thoughts I had and have resulting from my first and every subsequent encounter thereafter with the world of Western, particularly B-Western, cinema”

This revised and greatly expanded edition of a well-established reference book presents 5105 feature length (four reels or more) Western films, from the early silent era to the present. More than 900 new entries are in this edition. Each entry has film title, release company and year, running time, color indication, cast listing, plot synopsis, and a brief critical review and other details. Not only are Hollywood productions included, but the volume also looks at Westerns made abroad as well as frontier epics, north woods adventures and nature related productions. Many of the films combine genres, such as horror and science fiction Westerns. The volume includes a list of cowboys and their horses and a screen names cross reference. There are more than 100 photographs.

Anthony Mann (1906-1967) is renowned for his outstanding 1950s westerns starring James Stewart (Winchester '73, The Naked Spur, The Man from Laramie). But there is more to Mann's cinematic universe than those tough Wild West action dramas featuring conflicted and secretive heroes. This brilliant Hollywood craftsman also directed fourteen electrifying crime thrillers between 1942 and 1951, among them such towering achievements in film noir as T-Men, Raw Deal, and Side Street. Mann was as much at home filming dark urban alleys in black-and-white as he was the prairies and mountains in Technicolor, and his protagonists were no less conflicted and secretive than his 1950s cowboys. In these Mann crime thrillers we find powerful stories of sexual obsession (The Great Flamarion), the transforming images of women in wartime and postwar America (Strangers in the Night, Strange Impersonation), exploitation of Mexican immigrants (Border Incident), studies of the criminal mind (He Walked by Night), and Civil War bigotry (The Tall Target). Mann's forceful camera captured such memorable and diverse stars as Erich von Stroheim, Farley Granger, Dennis O'Keefe, Claire Trevor, Richard Basehart, Ricardo Montalbán, Ruby Dee, and Raymond Burr. The Crime Films of Anthony Mann features analysis of rare documents, screenplays, story treatments, and studio memoranda and reveals detailed behind-the-scenes information on preproduction and production on the Mann thrillers. Author Max Alvarez uses rare and newly available sources to explore the creation of these noir masterworks. Along the way, the book exposes secrets and solves mysteries surrounding the mercurial director and his remarkable career, which also included Broadway and early live television.

The Korean experience changed the way Americans viewed war. The lack of a clear-cut victory inspired filmmakers to try to make sense of fighting another country’s civil war and risking American lives for an unpopular cause. This filmography details more than 90 English-language films. Each entry includes complete cast and credit listings, a plot synopsis, evaluation, review snippets, and notice of video availability. This book places each film in its historical context, assesses the essential truthfulness of each film and evaluates its entertainment value, and discusses how—and why—Korean War films differ from other Hollywood war genres. Four appendices list the films by chronology; production company and studio; level of historical accuracy; and subject and theme. Additional appendices list films with incidental references to the Korean War; documentaries on the Korean War; and South Korean films about the war. Photographs, a bibliography, and an index are included.

A comprehensive filmography, this book is composed of lengthy entries on about 75 films depicting legendary New Mexico outlaw Billy the Kid--from the lost Billy the Kid (1911) to the blockbuster Young Guns (1988) to the direct-to-video 1313: Billy the Kid(2012) and everything in between. Each entry gives a synopsis, cast and credits, critical reception, and a discussion of the events of the films compared to the historical record. Among the entries are made-for-TV and direct-to-video films, foreign movies, and continuing television series in which Billy the Kid made an appearance.

The Hollywood studios of the 1930s, '40s, and '50s were rarely concerned with film as an art form; this was especially true of those specializing in the B film. Of these, Republic Pictures Corporation was the finest. Their quality B action pictures and serials influenced the industry and the moviegoing public, resulting in greater public acceptance. The Republic's roster of talent included John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and Gene Autry, and the serials it produced featured such iconic figures as Dick Tracy, Captain America, Zorro, and The Lone Ranger. In Republic Studios: Between Poverty Row and the Majors, author Richard Hurst documents the influence and significance of this major B studio. Originally published in 1979, this book provides a brief overview of the studio's economic structure and charts its output. Hurst examines the various genres represented by the studio, including the comedies of Judy Canova and westerns featuring Autry, Rogers, and The Three Mesquiteers. The book addresses the non-series B films Republic produced, as well as rare A films such as Wake of the Red Witch, Sands of Iwo Jima, and John Ford's The Quiet Man, all of which starred John Wayne. This new edition of Republic Studios, with two additional expanded chapters on serials, a new introduction, and an epilogue, brings the Republic story up to date. This fascinating look at Republic chronicles the impact the studio had on American cultural history from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s and examines the studio's role in Hollywood history and its demise in the late '50s.

Rod Serling’s anthology series The Twilight Zone is recognized as one of the greatest television shows of all time. Always intelligent and thought-provoking, the show used the conventions of several genres to explore such universal qualities as violence, fear, prejudice, love, death, and individual identity. This comprehensive reference work gives a complete history of the show, from its beginning in 1959 to its final 1964 season, with critical commentaries, incisive analyses, and the most complete listing of casts and credits ever published. Biographical profiles of writers and contributors are included, followed by detailed appendices, bibliography and index.