Biography: Norman Willis |
In films from 1935, American actor Norman Willis was almost invariably cast as a villain. With his eternal half-sneer, pencil mustache, and nasal, insinuating voice, Willis was a convincing menace in Westerns, serials, and detective melodramas. One of... more
Find videos of Norman WillisFree Norman Willis videos- Movies (11)
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Cast: Duncan Renaldo Vincent Price Edward Dmytryk Phil Rosen Art Ortego Edward Earle Frank Jaquet Betty Burbridge
Length: 60min
The second of Monogram's 1945 trio of "%Cisco Kid" westerns, In Old New Mexico stars Duncan Renaldo as %Cisco and Martin Garralaga as %Pancho. The plot concentrates on heroine Ellen (Gwen Kenyon), a nurse accused of murder. Gallant %Cisco "kidnaps"...
Cast: Arthur Hunnicutt Lionel Banks Lloyd Bridges Art Mix Eddie Laughton Gerald Geraghty William F. Claxton Ben Kline
Tags: Action Western Traditional Western
Length: 58min
In this western, fake settlers make themselves at home on an ex-ranger's ranch and drive him away. A shady newspaper publisher and a gambler then conspire to take over the land. Fortunately, another ranger endeavors to help his pal. Enlisting the aide...
Cast: Tim Holt Albert S. D'Agostino Bert Gilroy Cliff Edwards Roy Hunt Bob Kortman Darrell Silvera Earl Hodgins
Length: 56min
Tim Holt's third RKO Radio western for 1943 was The Avenging Rider. The story finds Holt trying to clear himself and his partner Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards of a robbery-murder rap. The actual villains each carry a portion of a Five of Spades, so that...
Cast: Davison Clark Edward Peil Sr. Frank McCarroll Paul Newlan Russell Hayden William Desmond Forrest Taylor Jack Fier
Length: 57min
Slightly more elaborate than most Charles Starrett westerns, Down Rio Grande Way is set in the mid-19th century, when the Republic of Texas was poised to join the Union. Starrett plays Texas Ranger Steve Martin (!), who is dispatched to a "renegade"...
Outlaws of the Panhandle (1941)
Cast: Charles Starrett Ray Teal Bud Osborne Pat Brady Frances Robinson Stanley Brown Art Seid Blackie Whiteford
Length: 59min
Outlaws of the Pandhandle was the last of Charles Starrett's "formula" westerns for Columbia: hereafter, Starrett would be seen only in the guise of frontier medico Steven Monroe or masked do-gooder The Durango Kid. For the moment, however, the star...
Cast: Bobby Blake Dick Rich Jackson Rose Robert E. O'Connor Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas Billy "Froggy" Laughlin Herbert Glazer Janet Burston
Tags: Comedy Family-Oriented Comedy
Length: 11min
The janitor of the Greenpoint department store is murdered during a robbery, and Our Gang members Mickey (Robert Blake), Froggy (Billy Laughlin), Buckwheat (Billie Thomas), and Janet Burston witness the crime. The thieves (Norman Willis and Dick Rich)...
Cast: George O'Brien Herbert Heywood Virginia Vale Henry Wills Mary Field Monte Montague William Benedict Charles "Slim" Whitaker
Length: 59min
George O'Brien's first 1940 western release, Legion of the Lawless uses its frontier trappings for a plea against vigilante justice-specifically, lynching. A group of masked night riders terrorize the homesteaders in the 19th century village of...
Cast: Robert Kent Sidney Blackmer Anne Nagel Ben Alexander Lambert Hillyer Russell Schoengarth Victor Kilian Carleton Young
Length: 83min
Monogram's seemingly endless series of inexpensive crime mellers continued with Convict's Code. Robert Kent plays a star football player who is framed by gamblers on a robbery charge and sentenced to prison. Serving three years behind bars, Kent is...
Cast: Dick Curtis John W. Boyle Edward J. Le Saint George Morrell Jack Kirk Jack Rockwell Lee Shumway The Sons of the Pioneers
Length: 56min
Charles Starrett plays two-fisted frontiersman Dart Collins in this slick Columbia "B" western. Collins wants to find out who's behind a series of gold-shipment robberies. So does heroine Judy Garfield (Iris Meredith), whose stage transport business...
Cast: Jack Mulhall Norman Willis Richard Arlen Howard P. Bretherton Sid Saylor Sol Lesser Virginia Grey Charles E. Schoenbaum
Tags: Western
Length: 60min
Released in Great Britain as Gangster's Valley, Secret Valley is a modern western (that is, it takes place in 1937). Richard Arlen plays a Nevada rancher who is compelled to extend his hospitality to headstrong Virginia Grey. She has arrived to...
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