Best Action Movies of 1937

A Polynesian sailor is separated from his wife when he's unjustly imprisoned for defending himself against a colonial bully. Members of the community petition the governor for clemency but all pretense of law and order are soon shattered by an incoming tropical storm.

Get ready for a Gold Medal murder mystery! This "tense, thrilling mystery" ('California Congress of Parents and Teachers') pits Charlie Chan against international spies who are using the Berlin Olympic games as the perfect cover...for cold-blooded murder!

In the underworld of Manhattan, a woman dares to stand up to one of the city's most powerful gangsters.

Ex-Army officer Jameson takes a job a prison guard at San Quentin. Joe, the brother of his new girlfriend May, is sentenced to the prison for robbery. When Jameson tries to separate lawbreakers from hardened criminals, badguy Hansen tries to stir up trouble by telling Joe about Jameson's interest in his sister.

When his import/export business infiltrated by international diamond smugglers, Mr. Moto must follow a trail of clues littered with beautiful women, glittering gems and deadly assassins. Making his way from the mysterious streets of San Francisco's Chinatown to the dark and dangerous alleys of Shanghai, Mr. Moto will stop at nothing to bring the culprits to justice...even if it means making the ultimate sacrifice!

Adventurer Allan Quartermain leads an expedition into uncharted African territory in an attempt to locate an explorer who went missing during his search for the fabled diamond mines of King Solomon.

The California-Yucatan Railroad, being built for the good of Mexico, is under siege by a gang of terrorists hoping to force its sale; no one can prove their connection to profiteer Marsden. Manuel Vega, aged co-owner, calls in the aid of his nephew James, great-grandson of the original Zorro. Alas, James seems more adept at golf than derring-do; but after he arrives, Zorro rides again! Can one black-clad man on horseback defeat a gang supplied with airplanes and machine guns?

Mr. Moto Heads to China on a quest for seven ancient scrolls that reveal the location of Genghis Khan's tomb—a crypt filled with fabulous treasure! But Moto isn't the only one stalking the scrolls—so is a shadowy band of thieves. But when his ruthless rivals go too far, the mild-mannered detective's quest for antiquities becomes a passion for vengeance—because if he can't bring these villains to justice... he'll bring them to their knees.

A radio reporter sets out to rescue his ex-girlfriend when she is kidnapped by gangsters.

Drummond manages to save a woman from jumping in front of his car but she runs away with his car. He traces her and she asks him to help her out of a dangerous situation.

Cowboy Larry O'Day and his sidekick Lucky Smith happen upon a distraught Barbara Hartwell, who is about to be arrested for the murder of her uncle. With Barbara behind bars, Larry is determined to find the real killer and soon finds himself in the middle of a mystery involving crazed German entomologists and a smuggling ring bringing Chinese "picture girls" across the Mexican border for sale to wealthy Chinese bachelors.

Bulldog Drummond goes up against foreign agents who are trying to steal plans for a top-secret aircraft.

The story of seven people: their lives and love affairs in Madrid during the Civil War.

Millioniare Curran, thinking his son too intellectual, sends him west to learn logging at one of his lumber camps. Unknown to his father, Grant Curan is a professional wrestler and easily able to handle the thugs that attack him at the lumber camp. This enables him to stay on the job and he soon undercovers how his father is being cheated by the local boss.

Just after Kramer goes to Wyoming to start his protection racket, cowboy actor Jeff Carson finishes a picture and goes camping. Attracted to Joyce Butler, he hires on at her ranch and quickly gets caught up in Butler's conflict with Kramer. When the Butlers refuse to buy his service, he has their cattle stampeded.

Runyonesque crooks on the lam hide out on blind man's pastoral farm and decide to go straight.

Drummond's girlfriend is kidnapped by his enemies and he along with his friend Nielsen, an inspector from Scotland Yard, follow the trail and try to rescue her from the kidnappers.

William Reardon, a steel magnate, dies and leaves a strange will. When his spineless and dandified heir and son returns home from living in Paris, he finds "Tons' Walker, a strong and burly steel worker running the company, per his late-father's will request. He also finds that his father's will specifies the Junior will change his name to Bill Hall and work in the family steel mill for a year under the fake name. Walker's job is to make a man out of the son. The son is not overjoyed by this prospect. Neither is Walker.

A detective (Edmund Lowe) trails a professor (Henry Daniell) who stole credit for his wife's research, then killed her.

Barry Brandon, a criminal lawyer, visits the night club of Denny Larkin, his primary client, with Betty Walker, a spoiled society girl. The police raid the club and Brandon pleads that the whole group is guilty, just to get even with Larkin for a rebuke. On the same night in court, Madge Carter is on trial for disorderly conduct, and Brandon volunteers to defend her, and proves the case against her if a frame-up. Finding that she is penniless, Brandon hires her as his secretary, and falls in love with her. Brandon is appointed district attorney and has ambitions of becoming the state governor. Having dinner at Betty's home, she maneuvers him, while he is drunk, into marrying her. Later, Madge is a witness when Larkin shoots down a fellow gangster. By threatening Brandon's life, he forces her to commit perjury at his trial, and say he fired in self-defense. Brandon, the prosecuting attorney (who has had his marriage to Betty annulled) knows she is lying but doesn't know why.

A detective and his bumbling sidekick join the crackdown on racketeering in '30s New York City.

A sightseeing portrait of New York, with lively narration taking the viewer aboard the New York elevated and subway trains. Then the view from the windows becomes slightly abstracted, the voice of the commentator becomes uncertain. Featuring Joseph Cotten (credited 'Cotton') Virginia Nicholson Welles, John Becker and Edwin Denby.

When Professor Marsh disappears while searching for the lost city of Lukachukai, his daughter enlists the help of the Three Mesquiteers.

Dick Tracy's foe for this serial is the crime boss and Masked Mystery Villain The Spider/The Lame One and his Spider Ring. In the process of various crimes, including using his Flying wing and sound weapon to destroy the Bay Bridge in San Francisco and stealing an experimental "Speed Plane", the Spider captures Dick Tracy's brother, Gordon. The Spider's minion, Dr. Moloch, performs a brain operation on Gordon Tracy to turn him evil, making him secretly part of the Spider Ring and so turning brother against brother.

A young man with a checkered past struggles to make good as a fireman.

Hildegarde Withers (ZaSu Pitts) and Inspector Piper (James Gleason) try to solve a murder while attending a popular Broadway show. Comedy-mystery.

The building of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

American racketeer Jimmie Dean travels to England, where he assumes the identity of a Canadian whom he has been falsely accused of murdering. Jimmie is then forced to join the British army in the dead man's place. He falls in love with the Canadian's childhood playmate, Sally Briggs, and becomes a hero after saving an isolated English colony in China.

A lumberjack knocks out a champion boxer in a brawl, gets drawn into the boxing world where he is unknowingly set up for a fixed fight.

An explosives carrier at an oil field falls in love with a colleague's daughter.

An internationally-notorious criminal scientist returns to the US to sell his latest invention, a disintegrating gas, to a foreign power. When he arrives, however, he is spotted by a young Coast Guard man, whom he kills - and thus earns the enmity of the entire US Coast Guard, but especially the murdered Guardsman's older brother who, together with his reporter-girlfriend and her comical photographer, vigorously sets to tracking him down and interfering with his plans to develop the city-melting gas in quantity. A Republic Serial in 12 Chapters.

A man who has been railroaded into prison is framed for the murder of a fellow inmate and must prove his innocence.

A truck driver races a train to the West Coast in an attempt to determine which method of transportation is faster.

his was one of the earlier uses of Robert Tansey's favorite plot (only the 3rd time he had trotted it out of the stable, but he got six more films out of it in later years) in which a group of outlaws (wrongly jailed this time) are let out to join up with the good guys against a worse bunch of outlaws. And, not unusual in the B-western genre, most of the production crew wore several hats; director Robert N. Bradbury and supervisor Lindsley Parsons wrote a song for Tommy Bupp, one of the actually good kid actors of the time who proved real quick-like that singing wasn't his strong suit, while Robert Emmett Tansey worked three jobs under three names... Robert Emmett on story and screenplay, Robert Tansey as the production manager and Al Lane as the assistant director. And, for a change, music director Frank Sanucci actually earned a composers' credit as he did write a song... Written by Les Adams

Western favorites Ray "Crash" Corrigan and Hoot Gibson head the cast of the 12-chapter Republic serial The Painted Stallion. Corrigan plays American federal agent Clark Stuart, on assignment in Santa Fe to draw up a trade agreement with the newly installed Mexican governor. Meanwhile, Walter Jamison (Hoot Gibson) leads a wagon train from Missouri, hoping to take advantage of the new agreement. Among Jamison's passenger are famed frontiersman Jim Bowie (Hal Taliaferro) and a very youthful Kit Carson (Sammy McKim). The destinies of all these personalities intersect when villainous ex-governor DuPrey (LeRoy Mason) schemes to undermine the treaty and take over the New Mexico territory for his own vile purposes. Somewhere along the way, Davy Crockett (Jack Perrin) joins the "good guys" in their efforts to thwart the despicable DuPrey. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Butch Rogers and Sock McGillis are old submarine hands stationed in Panama. On land, Butch and Sock battle over pretty Ann Sawyer. At sea and underwater, however, our two heroes are inseparable.

A jealous trapeze star decides he must eliminate his romantic rival.

A classic "B" featurette about "smugglin' in Chinamen for $300 a load"

Doris lives with her rough Coast Guardsman father. He has plans for her to marry an up and coming officer, but there is competition when a new, brash, Guardsman enters the picture. Dad hates the new guy, mostly because he is like himself.

New York City cop Phil Donlon leaves the force to join the U.S. Olympic team. When he falls for a Marine colonel's daughter he gets kicked off the team. Joining the Marines to win the Colonel's approval many adventures follow.

Sir Percy is forced to return to France one last time, to rescue his wife from the clutches of the sinister Robespierre. It clearly is a trap, but nothing will keep the good old Pimpernel from carrying out his mission. He is up against the usual clods and dolts, after all.

A crooked real estate manipulator sells worthless land on mortgage to flood refugees, then tries to profit by reselling the land to the state, committing murder in the process, as the Three Mesquiteers work to bring him and his gang to justice.

Famous pioneer aviator Dick Merrill was front-page news in the 1930s, so it's understandable that he was summoned to Hollywood to star in his own film. In "Atlantic Flight" he's top-billed as a pilot who undertakes a dangerous mission to transport medicine to an ailing friend. Monogram.

The son of a disgraced Olympic decathlete prepares to become a star in his own right. His quest is complicated by a beautiful girl and a bitter rival.

Two safaris enter the African jungle intent on finding a white girl who is the heiress to a fortune. One safari, led by Jungle Jim, wants to make sure she gets the news that she is now a rich woman. The leaders of the other safari want to kill the girl so they can try to get hold of her inheritance.

Johnny Eaton, trouble-shooter for an American oil company drilling in China, leaves his bride-to-be to head for the Orient and straighten out problems at the inland-concession site his company controls.

Stony's brother George has been accused of murder and the Mesquiteers have returned to prove his innocence. But they find that Harvey rules the town along with his stooge Sheriff Gray and that George won't get a fair trial.

A federal agent and a female reporter team up to catch a criminal gang that has kidnapped a scientist in order to get his formula for a new type of poison gas.

Noah Beery Jr. stars as Kirk Cameron in the modern-day western Trouble at Midnight. Freshly discharged from WWI, Cameron goes into the dairy-farming business, only to be hounded by his chief creditor, flint-hearted banker Everett Benson (Charles Halton). Despite his uncharitable feelings for Benson, Cameron falls in love with Catherine (Catherine Hughes), the banker's daughter.