Best Action Movies of 1938

In New York, the boys Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connelly are best friends and small time thieves. After a robbery, Rocky is arrested and sent to a reformatory school, where he begins his criminal career. Jerry escapes and later becomes a priest. After three years in prison, Rocky is released and demands the return of $100,000 deposited with his solicitor - prior to his jail term.

In 1915 France, Major Brand commands the 39th Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps. The young airmen go up in bullet-riddled "crates" and the casualty rate is appalling, but Brand can't make the "brass hats" at headquarters see reason. Insubordinate air ace Captain Courtney is another thorn in Brand's side...but finds the smile wiped from his face when he rises to command the squadron himself. Everyone keeps a stiff upper lip.

A wealthy society doctor decides to research the medical aspects of criminal behaviour by becoming one himself. He joins a gang of thieves and proceeds to wrest leadership of the gang away from it's extremely resentful leader.

Pepe Le Moko is a notorious thief, who escaped from France. Since his escape, Moko became a resident and leader of the immense Casbah of Algiers. French officials arrive insisting on Pepe's capture are met with unfazed local detectives, led by Inspector Slimane, who are biding their time. Meanwhile, Pepe meets the beautiful Gaby , which arouses the jealousy of Ines

The O'Leary brothers -- honest Jack and roguish Dion -- become powerful figures, and eventually rivals, in Chicago on the eve of its Great Fire.

Newspaper man "Scoop" Hanlon is looking for a way out of his assigned women's interest column. The one chance he has is to spend the night in the "blue room" of a haunted mansion where a number of people are gathered for a party. When one of the guests disappears from his room, "Scoop" decides to get to the bottom of things.

A young boxer gets caught between a no-good father and a crime boss when he starts dating the boss's daughter, although she doesn't know what daddy does for a living.

French pirate Jean Lafitte rescues a girl and joins the War of 1812.

Celebrated as supersleuth, Mr. Moto comes out fighting when a brutal boxing match turns into cold-blooded murder! Assisted by detective-in-training Lee Chan, Moto sets out to track down the killer based on a single ominous clue: a poisoned boxing glove! But when Moto's hunch points to a corrupt gambling syndicate, he's forced to wager his very life to unmask the culprit—or go down for the count...permanently!

While searching the South Pacific for a missing aviator, Bob Mitchell and Jimmy Wallace are caught in a typhoon and crack up on an island, escaping unharmed with the aid of Tura, a beautiful jungle girl who is the only inhabitant of the island and is believed a goddess by the natives of the adjoining islands. The three are about to leave the island on a make-shift raft when a gang of savage tribesman land, headed by Kuasa, a half-mad potentate who informs them that all whites are his mortal enemies because an Englishwoman once spurned his love and he got his revenge by stealing her daughter, who is Tura.

A 15-episode serial starring Buster Crabbe.

The invention of a machine that can cause remote explosions brings the attention of Scotland Yard and Bulldog Drummond.

The Japanese detective rounds up a league of assassins for Scotland Yard.

Two Alaskan salmon fisherman find their friendship at risk when one aligns with Russian fish pirates and the other aligns with local vigilantes.

Cowboy star Ken Maynard is Jim "Trigger" Morton, in town undercover while pursuing the man who framed him for robbery. But a well-placed shot tames a band of scofflaws and gains Morton the sheriff's badge. Now, he's riding on both sides of the law. The line is further blurred when old buddy Chuck (Walter Long) offers evidence of Morton's innocence in exchange for a blind eye to Chuck's impending postal heist in this classic Western.

Dick Tracy battles spies and saboteurs in his efforts to bring to justice the Stark gang, a criminal family led by the vicious Pa Stark.

In the jungle near Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Mr. Moto poses as an ineffectual archaeologist and a venerable holy man with mystical powers to help foil two insurgencies against the government.

A beautiful girl inherits a newspaper that sponsors a charity home for boys.

Gang Bullets was one of a myriad of late-1930s Monogram crime pictures, bearing such interchangable titles as I Am a Criminal, Convict's Code and Federal Bullets. Morgan Wallace plays a Capone-like racketeer named Anderson, who after being chased out of one town by the authorities immediately sets up shop in another. Unable to get any tangible evidence against Anderson, DA Wayne (Charles Trowbridge) orders his assistant Carter (Robert Kent) to dig up some dirt on the gangster boss. To do this, Carter pretends to turned crooked, joining Anderson's gang in order to accumulate evidence. Alas, Carter's girl friend Patricia (Anne Nagel) knows nothing of her boyfriend's subterfuge, and she suspects the worst. With such formidable henchmen as John Merton and Carleton Young at his beck and call, it's something of a surprise when Anderson comes a-cropper in the last reel.

In his starring debut, Roy gets elected to Congress in order to bring water to the ranchers in his district. In Washington, he learns he needs the backing of a key congressman and gets that man to go west for an inspection trip. When the congressman is initially unimpressed, Roy gets the inspection party stranded without water to show the true conditions.

G-Man Charles Bent Martin is sent out to break up a nationwide racket. A transport company is aiding fugitives making a getaway in exchange for the lion's share of their loot. Through an old friend, whom he once barnstormed in an air circus, Martin joins the gang as a pilot. He becomes interested in Carol Butler, a beautiful girl involved with the gang through the activities of her ne'er-do-well father.

After graduating college an aspiring photographer lands his first job--with a big city newspaper.

A spoiled boy sent to the country to grow-up. He has to deal with life, friends and crooks.

Feature version of the 1936 movie serial of the same name, with altered music scoring, released outside the USA only until 1950. Also, it was only shown abroad under the serial's title; it was re-named Rocket Ship for the US release.

Drummond has to leave for Morocco on his wedding day with his fiancee and trusted friends to rescue his friend Nielsen who is kidnapped by an international criminal.

Given the job of training young pilots for important post-war cargo flights, hard-boiled Col. Stockton forces ex-officer Stag Cahill back into the military to be his aide at the academy. Complications arise when Stockton's son Kenneth arrives for training and Stockton, believing his son to be a slackard, looks for an excuse to drop him from the program. Rivalry develops between Stag and Ken as well, as they fall for the same girl.

After Pat Garrett kills Billy the Kid, Billy's look-alike Roy Rogers arrives and is mistaken for him. Although a murderer, Billy was on the side of the homesteaders against the large ranchers. As Billy's death is unknown, Roy gets Garrett to let him pose as Billy to continue the fight, but without the killing.

Agadez is a lonely French outpost baking under the desert sun and commanded by the cruel and oppressive Captain Savatt. To it comes, at his own request, Legionnaire Jim Wilson soon followed by his fiancée, Carla Preston, who has been tracing him from post to post. Legionnaires seize the fort and turn Savitt loose in the Arab-haunted desert with only a fraction of the water and food needed to get back to civilization. But Savitt gets through and returns to the fort at the head of an avenging troop of men. But Arabs surround Savitt and his men, and the mutineers, knowing that to leave the fort and aid them means their own death

A government representative travels to the backwoods of Arkansas to convince the people there of the benefits to them of a proposed dam on their river.

A cowboy is wrongfully accused of murder. He winds up in Harlem, where he assumes the identity of a preacher-turned-gangster who looks like him. He infiltrates the gang to catch the men who framed him.

A cocky new West Point cadet from Cambridge is given the cold shoulder by his classmates because of his rule-breaking antics.

Death stalked Garou's Landing, in the Canadian frozen north, but who was the killer who murdered two men and left them huddled in the snow. Sergeant Renfrew (James Newill, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, accompanied by his dog, Silver King (Silver King the Dog), and Kay Larkin (Terry Walker) the daughter of the man, Andrew Larkin (Robert Frazer) accused of the crime, sets out to solve the crime and bring the real killer to justice.

The wealthy owner of a Pennsylvania steel business travels to New York to break up his son's romance with a showgirl. Director George Marshall's 1938 comedy stars Victor McLaglen, Brian Donlevy, Gypsy Rose Lee, Raymond Walburn, Hattie McDaniel, Lynn Bari, Robert Kellard, Jane Darwell, Andrew Tombes, Esther Muir and Frank Moran.

In this episode of the western series, the Mesquitters try to stop a ring of silk thieves while dealing with a shady medicine show man and his kids. One of his offspring is a beautiful young woman. The Mesquiteers must hurry to find the thieves as they too are suspects.

To spite his girlfriend, the owner of a successful bus company, an auto racer goes to work for her rival.

Tarzan retells the story of a trip to Guatemala in which the ape-man had gone to aid a friend in searching for a very valuable totem pole called the Green Goddess. Second of two feature versions of the 1935 serial film "The New Adventures Of Tarzan", culled from the serial's last 10 episodes.

Adventuring author Jean Williams is living in the wilds of Alaska alongside the Eskimo people gathering material for her novel. She befriends several animals who become her loyal friends such as a pair of bear cubs whose mother has been killed by hunter Gaston Rogers, a talking raven and the bereaved collie Firefly who will not leave the grave of her master, a game warden killed in the line of duty. The community is imperiled by a pack of wolves and wild dogs, led by a wild dog called Swift Lightning, who are killing all the reindeer. With the supply of fresh meat gone, the Eskimos are migrating to lands with more food. Hunter Gaston agrees to take Jean to Nenana, Alaska, along with his furs by dog sled. Jean, who despises Gaston as being more savage and blood thirsty than the four-legged predators, is followed by her loyal animals.

Eleanor and her parents are hunting big game, acompanied by her wimpish fiance.

Two daredevil pilots go after the same girl.

A variety of people are searching for a long-hidden treasure somewhere on an island. Chapter titles: 1.The Isle of Fear 2.The Ghost Talks 3.The Phantom Duel 4.Buried Alive 5.The Girl Who Vanished 6.Trapped by the Flood 7.The Cannon Roars 8.The Circle of Death 9.The Pirate's Revenge 10.The Crash 11.Dynamite 12.The Bridge of Doom 13.The Mad Flight 14.The Jaws of Destruction 15.Justice

When headstrong pilot Bill Kellogg disobeys orders and takes a plane to photograph potential landing fields in uncharted Latin American country, he ends up running out of gas and crashing. The members of a nearby tribal village save Bill from the wreckage, but arent willing to help him get home.

An expedition arrives on an uncharted jungle island to rescue the local natives, led by a jungle boy, from a volcano that is about to erupt.

Two marine lieutenants battle a masked would-be world conqueror who uses electricity as a weapon.

Pulp hero "The Spider" seeks to destroy all criminals. In this serialized adventure, he battles The Octopus, who intends to replace the government of the United States.

A district attorney uses psychology to expose a criminal gang by publicizing the prosecution of an innocent man.

A police detective is caught up in a plot to steal two million dollars in bonds.

A cocky young Marine who's alienated many of his fellow soldiers with his smart-aleck, wiseguy attitude gets a "wake-up call" when his unit comes under attack by bandits.

The story of a D.A. who becomes a prison warden and winds up overseeing the sentence of a man he prosecuted.

A group of "Phantom Raiders" interfere with a cattle drive from Texas to Abilene; fortunately, U.S. Marshal Wild Bill Hickok is appointed to ensure the success of the mission.