The best Richard Alexander’s action movies

When a tough western town needs taming, the mild-mannered son of a hard-nosed sheriff gets the job.

Three earthlings visit the planet Mongo to thwart the evil schemes of Emperor Ming the Merciless.

The heirs of Anton Benson are searching Bensonhurst for hidden gold; they are joined by a reporter, a gangster...and a masked fiend known as The Iron Claw.

Roy Rogers, Smiley Burnette and the Sons of the Pioneers go undercover to help Texas Governor Russell Hicks stop World War II Axis sympathizers from blowing up U.S. warehouses.

Boston pharmacist Tom Craig comes to Sacramento, where he runs afoul of local political boss Britt Dawson, who exacts protection payment from the citizenry. Dawson frames Craig with poisoned medicine, but Craig redeems himself during a Gold Rush epidemic.

Tom Riley and sidekick Windy arrive at the Baker ranch where horses are being rustled. It appears the culprit is a wild horse, but Tom catches and rides the horse which leads to trouble with the real rustlers.

Two friends working a jungle oil field clash when one marries a lady of the evening.

A bunch of waterfront youths pursue the Sea Raiders, a gang of saboteurs.

The Saturday matinee crowd got two cowboy stars for the price of one in this lavishly budgeted western serial starring former singing cowboy Dick Foran and Buck Jones. The latter contributed deadpan humor to the proceedings, making Jones perhaps the highest paid B-western comedy relief in history. The two heroes defend the Death Valley borax miners from an outlaw gang headed by Wolf Reade. An extraordinarily strong cast -- for a serial, at least -- supported the stars, headed by Charles Bickford as Reade, Leo Carillo, Lon Chaney, Jr., and silent screen star Monte Blue. Leading lady Jeanne Kelly later changed her name to Jean Brooks and starred in the atmospheric RKO thriller The Seventh Victim (1943). Universal claimed to have spent $1 million on this serial and made sure to get their money's worth by endlessly recycling the action footage in serials and B-westerns for years to come.

Although Larry "Buster" Crabbe earns top billing, the hero of Drift Fence is former Western star Tom Keene as Jim Travis, who, at a rodeo, meets city dweller Jim Traft (Benny Baker), who has come west to erect a fence that will prevent Clay Jackson (Stanley Andrews) from continuing his cattle rustling business. A tough Western type, Travis suggests that he impersonate Traft and the building of the fence soon begins. But Travis is opposed by Slinger Dunn (Crabbe) and his family, whose small ranch will suffer from the division of the land. A romance between Travis and Slinger's sister, Paula (Katherine DeMille), paves the way for a meeting of the minds, however, and Slinger switches sides completely upon learning that Travis is a Texas Ranger in disguise. An in-house production (as opposed to Harry Sherman's Hopalong Cassidy Westerns), Drift Fence was the closest Paramount came to a B-Western in the mid-'30s. Zane Grey's original novel was published in 1932.

The otherwise standard Ken Maynard western Death Rides the Range is distinguished somewhat by a topical slant. The plot concerns a group of spies from an unnamed foreign country (gee, they sure sound German) who head westward to undermine American morale. Into this malaise wanders Maynard, supposedly a rootless cowpoke but in reality an FBI agent. Things begin to heat up when the villains lay claim to a helium well on the property owned by heroine Fay McKenzie. The film's silliest moment occurs in mid-stream, when chief villain Charlie King begins beating up everyone within arm's length, with nary a scratch on his own person.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Jim and Buddy decide to follow their pal Tater-bug who left them for another job. No sooner do they arrive than Tater-bug gets shot in the back. Jim suspects Joe Weller but has no proof.

FBI Agent Kendall Gaige goes undercover on a South Seas island in order to expose the underhanded and exploitative business practices of Steve Landrau. In the course of his investigation Gaige is introduce to the Paris-educated native princess Tahia, who believes that he has arrived to save her people from poverty. A romance, of course, ensues as Gaige attempts to expose Landrau before his cover is blown.