William Witney

Directing

William Witney

Born 1915-05-15 · Lawton, Oklahoma, USA

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. William Nuelsen Witney (15 May 1915 – 17 March 2002) was an American film and television director. He is best remembered for the movie serials he co-directed with John English for Republic Pictures such as Daredevils of the Red Circle, Zorro's Fighting Legion and Drums of Fu Manchu. He directed many Westerns during his career, and is credited with devising the modern system of filming movie fight sequences in a series of carefully choreographed shots, which he patterned after the musical sequences of American director Busby Berkeley.[1] Prolific and pugnacious, Witney began directing while still in his 20s, and continued until 1982. Quentin Tarantino singles out Witney as one of his favorite directors, particularly for The Golden Stallion (1949), a Roy Rogers vehicle.[2] Witney also directed Master of the World (1961) starring Vincent Price and Charles Bronson. Description above from the Wikipedia article William Witney, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Acting credits

Fighting With Kit Carson poster
6.5

In this Western, comprised of 12 chapters from a serial, Kit leads a group carrying a large gold shipment across the wild West. When the Mystery Riders attack and steal the gold, Kit is the only survivor. He later joins forces with the cavalry to retrieve it.

Fighting With Kit Carson

1933

The Republic Pictures Story poster
NR

A history of Republic Pictures studios, featuring hundreds of clips plus on-camera interviews with stars, director, stuntman, etc.

The Republic Pictures Story

1991

Cliffhangers: Adventures from the Thrill Factory poster
NR

A documentary about the Republic serials of the 1930s, '40s and '50s, hosted by Leonard Maltin, and featuring interview segments with a serial writer, director, actors and actresses.

Cliffhangers: Adventures from the Thrill Factory

1993

The Wild Blue Yonder poster
7.0

Wendell Corey and Forrest Tucker star as a pair of World War II Army Air Corps officers. In between their battles over the affections of a beautiful nurse, Corey and Tucker prepare to fly a bombing mission in the South Pacific. Before boarding their B29 Superfortress, Tucker appears to be chickening out, but he's steadfastly at his cockpit post at takeoff time.

The Wild Blue Yonder

1951

Quell and Co. poster
5.0

A malevolent land mogul has threatened an honest group of Texas homesteaders, and when the innocent suffer justice must be served in director William Witney's action-packed, post-Civil War western. In a time when life was cheap and bullets were plentiful, Quell (Madison Mason) was a man to whom justice meant everything. A greedy land mogul whose mistreatment of the poor frontiersmen has raised the ire of Quell and his justice seeking band of followers, Kirk (Skip Homeler) thinks that he can bankroll respect and buy his way into power. That's not the way things work when in old Texas though, and when Kirk faces off against Quell and his crew, bullets are sure to fly.

Quell and Co.

1982

No artwork available
8.0

Thys Ockersen enjoyed in his childhood in the Fifties with his friends the Roy Rogers pictures in the local cinema. Many years later he starts his search for the old singing cowboy and his wife Dale Evans. A journey that starts in Amsterdam with a meeting with Roy's granddaughter Mindy who lives there. On his travels he meets co-stars of Roy and Dale and their director William Witney. And then there's the Roy Rogers Museum in Victorville where Thys talks with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans and sees the stuffed Trigger.

Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys

1992

Behind the camera

Border Saddlemates poster
6.5

Rex Allen ('Rex Allen'), a U. S. government veterinarian, rides into the picturesque town of Pine Rock, near the Canadian border, to take the place of the regular vet who is on vacation. Used to doctoring animals in Texas, Allen finds out that herein the heart of the fox-farming industry, he is to doctor the most finicky and high-priced of fur on four feet. On the farm of Mel Richards (Tom London), Allen learns the habits of the valuable creatures from Richard's niece, Jane (Mary Ellen Kay, and her ten-year-old brother Danny (Jimmy Moss'), and on his own learns that the trusted owner of the trading post, Steve Baxter (Roy Barcroft) heads a gang that is smuggling counterfeit money across the American/Canadian border in the fox cages.

Border Saddlemates

1952

SOS Coast Guard poster
5.1

An internationally-notorious criminal scientist returns to the US to sell his latest invention, a disintegrating gas, to a foreign power. When he arrives, however, he is spotted by a young Coast Guard man, whom he kills - and thus earns the enmity of the entire US Coast Guard, but especially the murdered Guardsman's older brother who, together with his reporter-girlfriend and her comical photographer, vigorously sets to tracking him down and interfering with his plans to develop the city-melting gas in quantity. A Republic Serial in 12 Chapters.

SOS Coast Guard

1937

Master of the World poster
6.0

A mad genius tries to bomb the world into peace.

Master of the World

1961

Spy Smasher poster
6.1

Prior to the United States' involvement in World War II, the masked vigilante Spy Smasher fights Nazi agents operating within the US, led by the treacherous sabotage leader codenamed The Mask.

Spy Smasher

1942

Adventures of Captain Marvel poster
6.4

On a scientific expedition to Siam young Billy Batson is given the ability to change himself into the super-powered Captain Marvel by the wizard Shazam, who tells him his powers will last only as long as the Golden Scorpion idol is threatened. Finding the idol, the scientists realize it could be the most powerful weapon in the world and remove the lenses that energize it, distributing them among themselves so that no one would be able to use the idol by himself. Back in the US, Billy Batson, as Captain Marvel, wages a battle against an evil, hooded figure, the Scorpion, who hopes to accumulate all five lenses, thereby gaining control of the super-powerful weapon

Adventures of Captain Marvel

1941

Juvenile Jungle poster
7.4

Planned kidnapping goes awry when gang leader falls for the victim.

Juvenile Jungle

1958

King of the Royal Mounted poster
7.5

The Canadians have discovered a valuable substance called Compound X, which can cure infantile paralysis. When a country at war with Canada learns that Compound X also contains magnetic properties that could aid them in their warfare against the British, they send agents to infiltrate Canada and steal a large quantity of the substance. It's up to Sgt. King (Allan Lane) and his Mounties to track down the agents and put an end to their scheme.

King of the Royal Mounted

1940

Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc. poster
6.8

Dick Tracy goes up against a villain known as The Ghost, who can turn himself invisible.

Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc.

1941

Bonanza: Ride the Wind poster
7.4

The Pony Express opens up an office in Virginia City. Despite being an investor, Ben objects to Joe signing up as a rider. Adding to his concerns, the Paiute Indians don't want the Pony Express riding across their land, and the manager's assistant, Curtis Wade, is itching to make a name for himself as an Indian fighter. The international theatrical release of the 1966 William Witney feature cowboy western movie made from two 1966 episodes of the television series "Bonanza", entitled "Ride the Wind"

Bonanza: Ride the Wind

1966

Under California Stars poster
5.3

On vacation at his ranch, western actor Roy quickly finds himself involved with a horse rustling operation and a boy ward of one of the rustlers, leading to the kidnapping of Roy's trick horse Trigger by the gang with a demand for ransom.

Under California Stars

1948

40 Guns to Apache Pass poster
5.3

The Apaches are on the warpath and the Army must defend them. Murphy's mission is to get a shipment of rifles, but it's stolen by greedy white traders with the help of mutinous soldiers

40 Guns to Apache Pass

1967

Mysterious Doctor Satan poster
6.0

A mad scientist named Dr. Satan plots to steal key pieces of technology to enable him to build an army of robots based on his prototype to conquer America. The only one standing in his way is Bob Wayne, who fights Satan as the enigmatic Copperhead. Mysterious Doctor Satan is a 1940 film serial named after its chief villain. Doctor Satan's main opponent is the masked mystery man, "The Copperhead", whose secret identity is Bob Wayne, a man searching for justice and revenge on Satan for the death of his step-father. The serial charts the conflict between the two as Bob Wayne pursues Doctor Satan, while the latter completes his plans for world domination.

Mysterious Doctor Satan

1940

Arizona Raiders poster
6.4

Murphy plays an ex-Quantrill's Raider who's released from jail with buddy Cooper to be deputized as Arizona Rangers in order to hunt down the remnant of the gang, rumored to he hiding out in a town "neer dee border" in the words of the loose-lipped saloon dancer. The goons are found hiding in an Indian mission. Murphy and Cooper pretend to want to rejoin the gang, but the bad guys catch on and brutally beat Cooper, who protects Murphy's true sentiments to the death.

Arizona Raiders

1965

The WAC from Walla Walla poster
10.0

An unsophisticated country girl accidentally joins the army.

The WAC from Walla Walla

1952

Apache Rifles poster
6.0

A young cavalry officer is assigned the job of bringing in a band of Apaches who have been terrorizing the countryside.

Apache Rifles

1964

The Girls on the Beach poster
4.4

The girls of Alpha Beta need to raise $10,000 in two weeks to save the sorority house. Among their schemes to raise the funds are a beauty contest, a newspaper puzzle, and a baking contest. But when three guys hit the beach with love on their minds, bragging that they know the Beatles, the girls plan a concert with the Fab Four as the main attraction.

The Girls on the Beach

1965

The Crimson Ghost poster
5.3

A criminal mastermind known as The Crimson Ghost is out to steal a device called the Cyclotrode, which can short-circuit all electrical current on the planet.

The Crimson Ghost

1946

Zorro Rides Again poster
7.5

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?

Zorro Rides Again

1937

Old Overland Trail poster
7.0

Anchor is building a railroad and to get cheap labor he gets Black Hawk's Indians to attack and burn the incoming wagon train. This forces the settlers to work for Anchor and he pays them in devalued scrip. When Rex figures out Anchor's swindle, Anchor gets Black Hawk to capture him. When Anchor turns on Black Hawk and shoots him, Black Hawk gets a chance to repay a debt to Rex.

Old Overland Trail

1953

The Outcast poster
6.7

Thanks to the chicanery of his crooked uncle Major Cosgrave, Jet has been cheated out of his father's property and branded a pariah. He spends the rest of the film trying to regain his birthright and clear his name. The two women in Jet's life are Judy Polsen, who chases him for so long that he finally catches her, and Alice Austin, Major Cosgrave's fianee.

The Outcast

1954

Jungle Girl poster
6.8

Dr. John Meredith has been driven from civilization by the criminal activities of his twin brother Bradley Meredith. With his infant daughter, he settles in the African jungle, where his ability to cure the native ills has resulted in his virtual control of the Masamba tribes, who possess vast diamond mines coveted by a gang of crooks.

Jungle Girl

1941

Trigger, Jr. poster
5.3

Evil Grant Withers lets a killer horse loose to ruin valuable horses on nearby ranches. He hopes to shake down the ranchers for his "protection". Roy tracks down the bad guys, but is suddenly trapped by them. Peter Miles, a boy terrified of horses, overcomes his fear and rides for help to save the day.

Trigger, Jr.

1950

Dick Tracy's G-Men poster
5.3

A mad doctor named Zanoff uses a drug to bring himself back from the dead after his execution in prison. Dick Tracy sets out to capture Zanoff before he can put his criminal gang back together again.

Dick Tracy's G-Men

1939

Paratroop Command poster
5.9

Charlie becomes a paratrooper, but, while serving in North Africa, he mistakenly kills one of his fellow U.S. soldiers, who is masquerading as a Nazi in order to wipe out a nest of the enemy. Shunned by his fellow soldiers, including his childhood friend Ace, Charlie is forced to prove himself when it is left up to him to transport a generator across an open road in full view of Nazi attackers.

Paratroop Command

1959