Howard Bretherton

Directing

Howard Bretherton

Born — Died

1890-02-13 — 1969-04-12

Place of birth

Tacoma, Washington, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

40 titles

Howard Bretherton (13 February 1890, in Tacoma, Washington – 12 April 1969, in San Diego, California) was an American film director, film editor, and the father of film editor David Bretherton.

Known for

Behind the camera

Star Reporter poster
3.9

An idealistic young newspaper reporter crusades against organized crime.

Star Reporter

1939

Ladies They Talk About poster
6.1

A moll, imprisoned after participating in a bank robbery, helps with a breakout plot.

Ladies They Talk About

1933

The Trap poster
6.8

When a troupe of showgirls with their impresario and press agent vacation at a Malibu Beach resort, two of them are garroted. Charlie takes on the case assisted by Number Two Son Jimmy and faithful chauffeur Birmingham Brown.

The Trap

1946

Tough Kid poster
6.5

Skipper Murphy is serving as trainer and inspiration for his brother Red Murphy training for a world championship title bout. Trouble comes for the Murphys when Red runs up against a gambling syndicate and is put on the spot to throw the fight.

Tough Kid

1938

Up in the Air poster
5.8

A none-too-popular (nor good) radio singer, Rita Wilson is murdered while singing on the air in a radio studio. Radio page boy, Frankie Ryan, and his janitor pal, Jeff, solve the mystery for the none-too-sharp police.

Up in the Air

1940

Sign of the Wolf poster
7.0

Two German shepherds and their mistress (Grace Bradley) crash-land in Canada by a fox breeder's (Michael Whalen) farm.

Sign of the Wolf

1941

The Girl Who Dared poster
6.1

A group of people are invited to a party at a creepy mansion where legend has it a ghost appears once a year.

The Girl Who Dared

1944

Danger Flight poster
4.4

Crooks plot to steal a payroll being shipped by air.

Danger Flight

1939

Second Choice poster
8.0

Vallery Grove is in love with Don Warren but her mother opposes the match because he is poor and has no social standing. Don decides to terminate his engagement to Vallery after attending a party where he meets a spoiled rich girl who is interested in him.

Second Choice

1930

Boys' Reformatory poster
5.3

A tough street kid takes the rap for a burglary committed by the son of his foster family and is sent to a boys reformatory, where the inmates are under the thumb of corrupt guards and a brutal prison doctor.

Boys' Reformatory

1939

The Singer of Naples poster
7.0

A blacksmith's son from Naples rises to become a celebrated opera singer, performing at La Scala in Milan.

The Singer of Naples

1935

Dawn on the Great Divide poster
5.3

Buck Roberts is leading a wagon train of railroad supplies and Jim Corkle and his henchman Loder are out to stop them by using white men dressed as Indians for the attacks.

Dawn on the Great Divide

1942

Undercover Agent poster
4.2

A railway postal clerk goes after a sweepstakes counterfeiting ring.

Undercover Agent

1939

Heart of the West poster
5.3

Problems come in the form of one of Hopalong Cassidy's neighbors, but the matter is settled when Hoppy roots out the troublemaker.

Heart of the West

1936

Ridin' Down the Trail poster
9.0

Jimmy finds a dying Ranger Braden who asks him to give his money belt to his sister. When he rides into town he finds another man claiming to be Ranger Braden. When the money belt is found in Jimmy's saddle bag, the fake Marshal tries to arrest him. But Jimmy escapes and hopes a telegram to Ranger headquarters will clear him.

Ridin' Down the Trail

1947

Triggerman poster
8.0

Johnny Mack (Johnny Mack Brown ) is hired by Lois Benton (Virginia Carroll) as a hand on her ranch, formerly run by Daley, who is in jail on a payroll theft charge. Despite the warning for foreman Rusty Steele (Raymond Hatton), Johnny sees real estate agent Kirby (Bill Kennedy), who wants to buy the Benton ranch. When Johnny refuses to align with Kirby, he is forced to knock out henchman Moran (Marshall Reed) in a fist fight. Rusty finds on henchman Harris (Forrest Matthews), when he is caught spying on the ranch, half a map revealing the location of the missing payroll.

Triggerman

1948

Bar 20 Rides Again poster
6.7

Cattle rustler Nevada dreams of living like an emperor in the West. Hoppy and the Bar 20 boys aim to put an end to his dream.

Bar 20 Rides Again

1935

Twilight on the Trail poster
5.0

Hoppy, California and Johnny come to the ranch of a friend and his daughter, disguised as dude detectives from the east, to investigate the disappearances, without a trace, of several herds of cattle.

Twilight on the Trail

1941

Santa Fe Scouts poster
9.0

This late entry in Republic's long-running "Three Mesquiteers" series stars Bob Steele, Tom Tyler and Jimmy Dodd as, respectively, Tucson Smith, Stony Brooke and Lullaby Johnson. This time out, the Mesquiteers try to help young Tim Clay (John James), who's been framed for murder by villains who want to gain possession of Clay's ranch property.

Santa Fe Scouts

1943

Riders of the Rio Grande poster
10.0

A banker struggles to keep his bank solvent and his town from going bankrupt after the bank is robbed and all its money taken. The Three Mesquiteers ride into town and set out to help.

Riders of the Rio Grande

1943

Pirates of the Prairie poster
7.0

In one of his better early Westerns, Tim Holt, as Deputy Marshal Larry Durant, is sent to Spencerville where a gang of vigilantes has been terrorizing the citizenry. Going undercover as a gunsmith, Larry quickly learns that the leader of the vigilantes, John Spencer (John Elliott), is an honest man who only seeks to establish law and order. The real brains behind the crimes, meanwhile, are revealed to be Spencer's brother-in-law, Lou Harmon (Roy Barcroft), and his chief henchman, Leighton (Charles King), who speculate in the coming of the railroad by forcing the townspeople to relinquish their land.

Pirates of the Prairie

1942

Three on the Trail poster
6.0

An evil gang is involved in both cattle rustling and the robbing of stagecoaches. Hoppy must stop them without help from the sheriff who turns out be a major outlaw himself.

Three on the Trail

1936

The Greyhound Limited poster
8.0

A train engineer and his fireman are best friends until the engineer breaks up a romance between his pal and a trampy girl he knows is no good for him, which also breaks up their friendship.

The Greyhound Limited

1929

The Prince of Thieves poster
6.4

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

The Prince of Thieves

1948

From Headquarters poster
8.0

United States Marine Corps Captain "Happy" Smith and Gunnery Sergeant Wilmer lead a squadron of Marines in a search of a party of American tourists lost in a Central America banana republic jungle.

From Headquarters

1929

The Leathernecks Have Landed poster
7.0

Dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Marines after starting a barroom brawl that gets his leatherneck buddy "Tubby" Waters killed, hothead "Woody" Davis infiltrates a gang of Shanghai gunrunners to bring the culprit to justice.

The Leathernecks Have Landed

1936

The Match King poster
6.7

Unscrupulous Chicago janitor Paul Kroll uses deceit to fund a return trip to his homeland of Sweden. There, via ongoing continuing deceit and manipulation, he gradually attains a monopoly on the matchstick market in several countries and becomes an influential international figure. Based on the true story of Ivar Kreuger.

The Match King

1932

Hop-a-long Cassidy poster
6.5

An evil ranch foreman tries to provoke a range war by playing two cattlemen against each other while helping a gang to rustle the cattle. Each cattleman blames the other for missing cattle. With the help of Bill Cassidy (Hop-along, because of an earlier bullet wound) and Johnny Nelson, the warring cattlemen join forces to do in the outlaws.

Hop-a-long Cassidy

1935

Return of the Terror poster
6.5

"The Terror", a killer whose identity is unknown, occupies an English country house that has been converted into an inn.

Return of the Terror

1934

Dinky poster
7.3

A mother sends her young son to military school so he won't find out she's been sentenced to a prison term on a framed fraud charge.

Dinky

1935

The Eagle's Brood poster
5.8

When the outlaw El Toro saves Hoppy's life, Hoppy agrees to find his missing grandson.

The Eagle's Brood

1935

Riders of the Badlands poster
6.5

Officially a Charles Starrett western, Riders of the Badlands divides its running time fairly evenly between Starrett and second-billed Russell Hayden. The plot concerns a Texas Ranger named Collins and his lookalike, notorious outlaw Langdon. When his wife is killed by Langdon's minions, Barton vows to avenge her death.

Riders of the Badlands

1941

The Monster and the Ape poster
6.8

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.

The Monster and the Ape

1945

The Girl from Mandalay poster
4.7

John Foster and Kenneth Grainger are a couple of Englishmen stationed at a teak wood post. When Foster's fiancée, Mary Trevor, writes him that their engagement is off, he goes off to Mandalay.

The Girl from Mandalay

1936

Call of the Prairie poster
5.8

Hoppy returns to find Johnny in trouble. Buck Peters has been shot by Porter who made it look like Johnny did it. When Johnny flees he runs into Linda. He takes a liking to her only to learn her father Shanghai is one of Porter's gang. Going after Shanghai, he gets captured by the gang and Porter now plans to kill him. But Hoppy is near by and Johnny will get unexpected help from Shanghai.

Call of the Prairie

1936

King of the Royal Mounted poster
7.0

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant King protects a girl who has come to claim a mine left by her father. An evil lawyer plans to keep the mine for himself.

King of the Royal Mounted

1936

On the Spot poster
5.8

Frankie Kelly is the soda jerk and embryo scientist in Midvales only drugstore. Two murders and an attempted killing suddenly swing Midvale into national prominence. Frankie and his pal, Jefferson, become involved when a wounded gangster starts to tell them where $300,000 in stolen loot is hidden, but he is murdered before he can give them all of the information. The search is on.

On the Spot

1940

No artwork available
NR

An insight into the gossip among window mannequins as they come to life when no one's watching.

Model Women

1930

Riders of the West poster
6.5

Ma Turner of Red Bluff sends for U.S.Marshal Buck Roberts to investigate a series of wide-spread rustling in the area. Town banker Miller, saloon-owner Duke Mason and the crooked sheriff are in cahoots with rancher John Holt, but they double-cross and kill him. His son Steve witnesses the murder and kills the sheriff. Buck arrives and arrests Steve. Marshal Tim McCall, posing as an outlaw, gains the confidence of the gang and engineers the escape, with Buck's knowledge, of Steve from the jail. Sandy Hopkins, the third Marshal of the trio, poses as a peddler and learns that the gang intends to do away with Buck and rides to the Turner ranch to warn him. Red, a Turner ranch hand but also a member of the gang, overhears Buck telling Ma that Tim is really a U.S. Marshal, and he has Miller and Mason informed. Written by Les Adams

Riders of the West

1942

Outlaws of the Desert poster
6.0

Hoppy, Johnny and California go to Arabia to buy some horses. There they get involved with a sheik and a harem and a kidnapping plot.

Outlaws of the Desert

1941