The best Jerome Cowan’s action movies

Given a pardon from jail, Roy Earle gets back into the swing of things as he robs a swanky resort.

In the colonial era, island native Terangi (Jon Hall) spends a blissful honeymoon with his bride, Marama (Dorothy Lamour). Soon after, however, their relationship is torn asunder when Terangi is sent to prison for punching a prejudiced white man. Prominent members of the community -- including the governor's wife, Mme. De Laage (Mary Astor), petition the governor for clemency, but he refuses to budge. However, all pretense of law and order are soon shattered by an incoming tropical storm.

Land, a family, a future. They're "dreams, fried up, short order" for Blayde Hollister (Gary Cooper). Rightly or wrongly, this ex-Confederate from Georgia has waged his own war to settle past injustices. Now he's a wanted man. And he can feel the law closing in on him. Posing as a Boston dandy, he comes to the boom town with a gun and a plan: to smoke out the notorious Marlow brothers (including Steve Cochran and Raymond Massey), then give 'em a whiff of gunsmoke. Director Stuart Heisler (Along Came Jones) keeps the pace flowing like the local saloon's liquor. Max Steiner's score gallops like a hell-for-leather posse and screenwriter John Twist fires scene after scene with lines like "you'll get your pockets picked in a graveyard". Dallas, here we come!

A Central American plantation manager and his boss battle over a traveling showgirl.

A favor for an old friend leads a Los Angeles gambler (Kent Taylor) into a dangerous search for a missing document.