Best Action Movies of 1948

A hurricane swells outside, but it's nothing compared to the storm within the hotel at Key Largo. There, sadistic mobster Johnny Rocco holes up - and holds at gunpoint hotel owner James Temple, his widowed daughter-in-law Nora, and ex-GI Frank McCloud.

Athletic adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' classic adventure about the king's musketeers and their mission to protect France.

The adventures of the notorious Spanish Lothario Don Juan highlights Errol Flynn's swashbuckling and romantic antics.

A night club owner becomes infatuated with a torch singer and frames his best friend/manager for embezzlement when the chanteuse falls in love with him.

The true story of the British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and his ill-fated expedition to try to be the first man to discover the South Pole - only to find that the murderously cold weather and a rival team of Norwegian explorers conspire against him

Mitchum plays drifter cowboy Jim Garry. After receiving a job-offer letter from smooth-talking Tate Riling (Preston), Garry rides into an Indian reservation and finds himself in the middle of a feud between cattle ranchers and homesteaders. What Garry doesn't realize is that Riling, the man he now works for, is crooked.

After two gang-related killings in "Center City," a suspect (who was framed) is arrested, released on bail...and murdered. Inspector Briggs of the FBI recruits a young agent, Gene Cordell, to go undercover in the shadowy Skid Row area (alias George Manly) as a potential victim of the same racket. Soon, Gene meets Alec Stiles, neurotic mastermind who's "building an organization along scientific lines." Stiles recruits Cordell, whose job becomes a lot more dangerous.

The story of seven scholars in search of an expert to teach them about swing music. They seem to have found the perfect candidate in winsome nightclub singer Honey Swanson. But Honey's gangster boyfriend doesn't want to give her up.

Smith is an iron-willed railroad detective. When his friend Murray is fired from the railroad and begins helping Rebstock wreck trains, Smith must go after him. He also seems to have an interest in Murray's wife (and vice versa).

Two friends return home after their discharge from the army after the Civil War. However, one of them has had deep-rooted psychological damage due to his experiences during the war, and as his behavior becomes more erratic--and violent--his friend desperately tries to find a way to help him.

When two US cavalrymen transporting a gold shipment get killed, US Army Intelligence investigator John Haven goes undercover to a mining and logging town to find the killers.

Captain Ralls fights Dutch shipping magnate Mayrant Sidneye for the woman he loves, Angelique Desaix, and for a fortune in gold aboard the Red Witch.

A high priest tries to force a young beauty to marry a pearl trader who is masquerading as the god Balu.

An escaped criminal impersonates a Police Commissioner, causing no end of trouble to a determined Federal Agent.

Cole Armin comes to Albuquerque to work for his uncle, John Armin, a despotic and hard-hearted czar who operates an ore-hauling freight line, and whose goal is to eliminate a competing line run by Ted Wallace and his sister Celia. Cole tires of his uncle's heavy-handed tactics and switches over to the Wallace side. Lety Tyler, an agent hired by the uncle, also switches over by warning Cole and Ted of a trap set for them by the uncle and his henchman.

William McClure is the villlage doctor in a remote Scottish glen. Tricked into buying Lassie, a collie afraid of water, he sets about teaching her to swim. At the same time he has the bigger problem that he is getting older and must ensure the glen will have a new local doctor ready.

During World War II, an insubordinate fighter pilot finds the shoe on the other foot when he's promoted.

A doctor hunts a vicious, man-eating tiger that terrorizes a native jungle village. In time the doctor experiences a personal change when he accepts their native customs and beliefs.

Larry Parks in a Cinecolor swashbuckler.

Willis Newcomb and Bart Carroll head a gang engaged in smuggling wanted-American criminals back into the United States from Mexico. Operating from Sharperville, an oil town on the American side of the border, they transport their human cargo in oil drums loaded on trucks. Border Patrolman Tom Sharper intercepts one of the trucks but is overpowered and left for dead. Carroll, having already been paid for the job and not wanting any evidence to walk around, get caught and lead back to him, backs the human-cargo trucks to the edge of a cliff and sends the drums crashing to the boulder far below. Judge Cookie Bullfincher and Border Patrolman Roy Rogers conduct a search for the missing Tom, but the crooks have gone back for him and find him in a state of amnesia. They rob the bank and pin it on Tom. It is now up to Roy to clear his friend and also put an end to Carroll's human-smuggling racket.

Prisoners battle each other -- and the police -- when they escape the Colorado State Penitentiary.

A ranch owner (Francis Ford) turns his place into a home for boys who have lost their fathers in World War II. His evil female lawyer (Nana Bryant) covets the ranch and works in cahoots with Ford's long-lost nephew and a pack of killer dogs to get it. U.S. Marshal Roy Rogers puts an end to her plans.

In the 1850s, in a logging town on the Mississippi River, a conflict between the people of a mill town and the lumberjacks who work downriver. Romance and deceit are catalyzed by the arrival of the gambling river boat, River Lady, owned by the beautiful Sequin. Bauvais, a representative of the local lumber syndicate and Sequin's business partner, is trying to convince H.L. Morrison, the mill owner, to sell his business.

US Marshall Vance is assigned to rid the Oklahoma Territory of outlaws.

Superman comes to Earth as a child and grows up to be his home's first superhero with his first major challenge being to oppose The Spider Lady.

An escaped World War 2 Nazi doctor, impersonates a murdered English doctor so he can work on a vaccination to protect the Germans in their planned germ warfare.

Scotland Yard cop goes undercover to nab counterfeiter and his gang.

This one has Nylon, an American dancer fleeing Morocco after her employer gets into trouble with the police, and she stops off at Tangiers on her way to Gibraltar. $50,000, in gold, is stolen from the ship's safe and the captain tells the police that the purser was the thief and that he had to kill him in self defense, but the purser must have hidden the money before he got dead. The purser isn't in any position to make a disclaimer. Everybody buys that with the exception of an insurance detective, Shapley, who, along with the audience, suspects the captain of being the thief shows up to investigate further. Written By Les Adams

Sunset Carson is trying to raise money for a new school and his partner Sam Webster is out to stop him. When Carson plans a benefit prize-fight, Webster plans to make off with the proceeds.

After fighting in the Crusades alongside Richard I of England Sir Allan Claire is returning home to marry his betrothed Lady Christable. Accompanied by his sister Lady Marian Claire, the two are intercepted by Robin Hood and his band of Merrie Men. Recognising a friend of King Richard, Robin informs them that Lady Christabel is the be married to another against her well in the interest of politics and her father's fortune. The three team up to rescue the fair lady.

While on shore leave to celebrate his first anniversary, Lt. Peter Duluth (Warren Douglas) takes his wife, Iris (Audrey Long), to a Los Angeles hotel but is turned away. When mysterious Colette (Stephanie Bachelor) offers them her suite, the young couple becomes entangled in a murder plot. Aided by two PIs, Peter and Iris find two corpses and are desperate to locate Colette before she becomes the next victim, but the killers are one step ahead.

Slip and Sach are working as cleaners in a high rise building. They enter an office to clean it when a messenger hears them use Slip's given name, Terrance Mahoney. The messenger has a letter for "Terrance Mahonoey, Esq." and mistakenly delivers it to Slip. The letter informs Slip that he has inherited a mansion in Long Island. The boys then make their way to the mansion and find that it is inhabited by diamond smugglers. The real owner of the house shows up and helps save the day and defeat the smugglers and gives the boys the house as a reward.

In this classic black-and-white actioner, Lon Chaney Jr. -- star of The Wolf Man and son of legendary master of disguise Lon Chaney -- plays a bitterly jealous sponge fisherman who tries to sabotage a fellow diver (Lloyd Bridges).

Big cats are killing people... after being trained by a twisted lion tamer.

Ted Daniels, a ranch hand working for a rodeo, captures a magnificent wild horse that he tames and trains. As Ted is recovering from an accident that happened during a rodeo, the rodeo owner cheats him out of his horse. Ted must decide whether to pursue him and try to recover the horse, or whether to settle down with the doctor's daughter who is nursing him back to health. Written by Snow Leopard

Government agent Dick Barton battles a ring of Nazi spies who are planning to poison the entire London water supply.

Congo Bill is hired to locate an heiress lost somewhere in Africa.

Cowboy Rocky Lane thwarts an attack on a courier delivering a precious Indian tribal belt and becomes embroiled in a conspiracy in the process. When the courier dies, Rocky delivers the belt to the Agent. But he quickly finds himself arrested for murder and learns not only is the belt missing, but the murdered Agent is not the man he gave the belt to.

Jesse James returns to Missouri, and he and brother Frank come to the aid of a young woman who owns a gold mine. Her father was murdered and she took over the mine, and now the villains who killed her father are trying to drive her out of the mine so they can take it over.

A photographer is choked to death just outside of where a college dance is being held. The body is discovered by Lee Watson, but promptly disappears, as it is being whisked from one point to another on the campus by a night watchman, who is an ex-convict.

Psychiatrist David Lamont is pressured into "analyzing" the madcap but glamorous niece of a judge. Then crooks on the lam intrude...

Loggers Jeff Collins and Boomer Benson compete for a mail-order bride by means of a timber-cutting contest.

Terry O'Rourke, an American operating a small airline in Canada, is having a tough time making a go of it; he has to cope with unfavorable weather conditions, a rocky terrain, and a large Americam company determined to buy him out at their low price. In addition, one of his primary employees is working against him. One of his airplanes is transporting a cargo of gold and the pilot arranges for the gold to be stolen. He planned to parachute to safety, letting the airplane be looted when it crashed, but a co-worker cuts his parachute cord and he is killed. O'Rourke, with the air of one of his best pilots, Kay Cameron, sets out to track down the culprits.

Tornado Range is one of five Eddie Dean westerns originally produced by PRC in 1947 but released the following year by Eagle-Lion. Cast as a troubleshooter for the U.S. Land Office, Dean is assigned to settle a deadly range war. Sure enough, the warring homesteaders and cattlemen are being whipped into a frenzy by a third party, who hopes to "divide and conquer," claiming the land for himself. Surprisingly, all-purpose PRC villain George Cheseboro isn't the culprit in this one; instead, he's cast as the father of heroine Jennifer Holt. Roscoe Ates is once more on hand for some questionable comedy relief.

Little Larry Havens, whose father died in WWII, runs away from home to keep from being separated from "Shep," his father's dog. In Arizona, he is befriended by a kindly Mexican, Manuel Ortiz, who he is able to repay in time, with the aid of Sheriff "Cap" Weatherby, when Ortiz is suspected of crimes committed by local gangsters. "Shep" is instrumental in saving Ortiz from a lynching, and Larry, "Shep" and Ortiz all find a home with a couple they have befriended.

Crooks discover a Genghis Khan treasure ship on the Canada-Alaska border but the treasure is hidden somewhere on land. In their efforts to find the hidden treasure they resort to murder and sabotage to stop the construction of the Alcan highway which will bring homesteaders to the area. Sergeant Royal of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police battles through 12 episodes to find the crooks and to learn the identity of their mysterious leader known only as 'The Boss'.

A cowboy frees a rancher framed for murder by outlaws after his ranch.

A trio of young boys become involved in a criminal plot.

When a plane carrying the daughter of a millionaire crashes in an African jungle, two pilots set out to collect the reward. They discover that she has become the goddess of a primitive tribe. An insurgent witch doctor and fierce wild animals make escape from the jungle difficult for the trio.