Best Action Movies of 1945

Elmer brings Bugs home for dinner. To save himself, Bugs tricks Elmer into thinking there is a terrible outbreak of Rabbititus.

A group of men parachute into Japanese-occupied Burma with a dangerous and important mission: to locate and blow up a radar station. They accomplish this well enough, but when they try to rendezvous at an old air-strip to be taken back to their base, they find Japanese waiting for them, and they must make a long, difficult walk back through enemy-occupied jungle.

Shortly after Pearl Harbor, a squadron of PT-boat crews in the Philippines must battle the Navy brass between skirmishes with the Japanese. The title says it all about the Navy's attitude towards the PT-boats and their crews.

Sherlock Holmes investigates when young women around London turn up murdered, each with a finger severed. Scotland Yard suspects a madman, but Holmes believes the killings to be part of a diabolical plot.

A group of archaeologists asks Tarzan to help them find an ancient city in a hidden valley of women. He refuses, but Boy is tricked into doing the job. The queen of the women asks Tarzan to help them.

The US Government tries to track down embedded Nazi agents in the States.

An Army colonel leads a guerrilla campaign against the Japanese in the Philippines.

The life of American public enemy number one who was shot by the police in 1934.

This unhistorical account of pirate Captain Kidd revolves around treasure and treachery. In 1699, William Kidd, presenting himself as an honest shipmaster, dupes King William III into backing his mission to fight pirates, with a crew of condemned pirates and the promise of pardon.

Rancher Clay Hardin arrives in San Antonio to search for and capture Roy Stuart, notorious leader of a gang of cattle rustlers. The vicious outlaw is indeed in the Texan town, intent on winning the affections of a beautiful chanteuse named Jeanne Starr. When the lovely lady meets and falls in love with the charismatic Hardin, the stakes for both men become higher.

An easy-going cowboy is mistaken by the townsfolk for a notorious gunman. The cowboy decides it would be best to leave town, until he meets the gunman's girlfriend.

Nick Condon, an American journalist in 1945 Tokyo, publishes the Japanese master plan for world domination. Reaction from the understandably upset Japanese provides the action, but this is overshadowed by the propaganda of the time.

Robert L. Scott has dreamed his whole life of being a fighter pilot, but when war comes he finds himself flying transport planes over The Hump into China. In China, he persuades General Chennault to let him fly with the famed Flying Tigers, the heroic band of airmen who'd been fighting the Japanese long before Pearl Harbor. Scott gets his chance to fight, ultimately engaging in combat with the deadly Japanese pilot known as Tokyo Joe.

Detective Tracy (Morgan Conway) rescues Tess Trueheart (Anne Jeffreys) and Junior from a killer called Splitface (Mike Mazurki).

A famous scientist invents a humanoid robot (the titular "monster"), so a greedy rival scientist plans to steal it for use in his criminal plans. His henchmen often kidnap a trained gorilla (the titular "ape") from the zoo, to aid in the schemes.

A desert pickpocket, his sidekick, and an escaped slave help an incognito queen in danger.

American, Chinese and Australian agents join forces to stop the Nazis from obtaining the formula for synthetic fuel.

Laddie (Son of Lassie) and his master are trapped in Norway during WW2 - has he inherited his mothers famous courage?

In time-honored fashion, a couple of supporting players -- George Dolenz and Bill Kennedy -- found themselves elevated to starring roles in this minor Universal serial. They played Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers investigating the murder of a miner. The story, of course, was less important than speed and action, which directors Ray Taylor and Lewis D. Collins delivered in typical slap-dash Universal style. Starlet Daun Kennedy did not make much of an impression as the imperiled leading lady, and former star Robert Armstrong (of King Kong fame) was wasted in a subordinate role. Rondo Hatton, a non-actor whose grotesque appearance (caused by acromegaly, the so-called "Elephant Man" disease) was tastelessly exploited by Universal in the '40s, appeared as one of the outlaws.

A carnival showman tries to keep Japanese spies from sabotaging the Panama Canal.

A reporter learns that an executed killer has taken over a scientist's mind.

In a hill city of war-torn China, the American mission hospital is run by Dr. Gray Thompson and Dr. Sara Durand, who secretly loves him. Then Gray comes back from the USA with new equipment ...and new wife Louise, who is jealous of Sara, shows herself a coward in the first Japanese air raid, and wants to take Gray back to the States. Others have similar troubles; and Japanese prisoner Colonel Yasuda manipulates them for his own ends.

Greedy traders have kidnapped a researcher, hoping he will reveal the location of a treasure in a hidden village. Family and friends of the researcher come looking for him. Adventure ensues.

Claire Forrest seeks her kidnapped scientist father, hidden somewhere on Mystery Island. He is held and forced to work on diabolical inventions by Captain Mephisto, a costumed villain.

With the ending of the Spanish Civil War, a dispirited band of volunteers from the International Brigades seeks refuge in France. But on reaching the frontier, the band is disarmed, and all are detained as political prisoners. Then come instructions from Vichy that all fit prisoners are to be sent to Morocco to work on the Sahara railway for the Germans. However, one man manages to escape to London with vital information for the Allies.

Heading west for his health, Colonel Lambeth takes his daughter Rill along. Lost on the desert they are saved by Pecos and Chito. The Colonel hires the two and the Lambeths soon find themselves mixed up in Pecos' trouble. Pecos has killed Sawtelle's brother and Sawtelle as head of the vigilantes is after him.

Wildcat Kelly has been dead and buried for years. Or has he? Dale is a reporter for an Eastern magazine who comes West to find out the true story of Kelly, of whom Gabby seems to have mysterious knowledge.

A Martian invader crashes his spaceship conveniently close to the workshop of a scientist who is developing an interplanetary craft. If the extraterrestrial Purple Monster can complete the rocket ship and return to Mars, he will be able to start a full-scale invasion of Earth. Good thing Craig Foster sets out to thwart the Monster's mission!

The corny daughter (Joan Davis) of a famed policewoman tries to catch a blowgun killer.

The story involves a rather odd flashback by Dale who is visiting El Dorado, home of her grandmother. She dreams about her grandmother's adventures including a romance with a cowboy who looks very much like Roy. Roy, of course, also exists in the present for Dale.

U.S. Marshal Clay Stacy brings law and order to a frontier community terrorized by an old Nemesis.

A white gorilla causes trouble in the deepest heart of Africa. The film uses footage from the silent 1927 serial Perils Of The Jungle which was written by director of The White Gorilla Harry L Fraser under the name Harry P.Crist

Joan Wingate's wealthy father doesn't want his daughter to go into show business. As they vacation in the west she gets a job with Dan Tyler's show and uses Wingate money to keep him afloat. Sandwiched in between the numerous musical numbers they try to keep her father away from the show. But he eventually finds out and decides they will return east

Reporter Brenda Starr (Joan Woodbury) and her photographer Chuck Allen (Syd Saylor) get involved in a search for the loot from a payroll robbery. Cliffhanging action and adventure and a fair amount of comic relief follow them at every turn.

Before the outbreak of WWII, Nazi sympathizers plot to undermine America.

Kirby sends his henchmen to break killer Matt Brawley out of jail. But Brawley has already broken out and they return with Fuzzy instead. Realizing they think he's Brawley, Fuzzy plays the part. He and Bill plan to round up the gang but Fuzzy is in trouble when the real Brawley shows up to expose the hoax.

The feuding Lanes and Whittakers are brought together with the help of Roy Rogers, when a business tycoon tries to play one family against the other.

A London curator loses the Mona Lisa to a collector, who discovers it's a fake.

The Topeka Terror is a western film of 1945 directed by Howard Bretherton. The land-rush opening of the Cherokee Strip brings in its wake a scattering of outlaws and claim jumpers. Among these is a crooked promoter. Trent Parker (Frank Jacquet), and his henchmen who plan a huge swindle by compiling falsified reports, putting the claims of honest settlers into the names of various henchmen. Clay Stevens (Allan Lane), a government agent posing as a drifting cowhand, advises the settlers to organize their resistance. Ben Jode (Roy Barcroft), the gang leader, runs for sheriff so he can gain full control of the town.

A young girl journeys to Africa to find her father, an explorer who vanished in the jungle.

Panic arises among the Allied prisoners on a Japanese ship when they learn that the ship is decoy for American submarines and is not blacked out at night. The prisoners unite and attack the Japanese sailors and officers just an American submarine surfaces and, not knowing the prisoners are aboard, prepares to torpedo the ship

The East Side Kids are pursued by killers seeking a stolen necklace.

Tim takes a job as a lowly chipper because he has been afraid to go high ever since a bad fall in which he was injured and another workman was killed.

A wildcat oil outfit is seeking to take over the ranch belonging to Pop Martin and his son Bob and daughter Helen. Bob sends his ex-army pals a "stay-way" message, which brings them on the double. The WW II vets use their jeeps, first for a cattle roundup, and then to round up the gang of crooks, including the crooked family-lawyer Thatcher, brains of the gang.