Directing

John Rawlins

Born — Died

1902-06-09 — 1997-05-20

Place of birth

Long Beach, California, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

42 titles

Director John Rawlins started in films in 1918 as an actor, stunt man, gag writer and assistant director. For a while he sidelined as a comedy writer, then became an editor and later directed second features for First National in Britain from the early 1930s. Returning to the US, he joined Universal (1938-46), where he turned out "B" pictures and serials, including installments of the "Dick Tracy" and "Sherlock Holmes" series. He had similar assignments at RKO (1947-48) and United Artists (1951-53), before branching out into television dramas.

Known for

Film credits

Behind the camera

Dick Tracy's Dilemma poster
5.6

Dick Tracy investigates the theft of a fortune of fur coats, a possible insurance swindle and several murders, all linked to a huge thug who wears a hook in place of his right hand.

Dick Tracy's Dilemma

1947

Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror poster
6.5

England, at the start of World War Two. Mysterious wireless broadcasts, apparently from Nazi Germany are heard over the BBC. They warn of acts of terror in England, just before they take place. Baffled, the Defense Committee call in Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror

1942

Arabian Nights poster
6.0

Two half brothers battle each other for the power of the throne and the love of sensual, gorgeous dancing girl Scheherazade.

Arabian Nights

1942

The Green Hornet Strikes Again! poster
6.8

Second serial featuring The Green Hornet and Kato.

The Green Hornet Strikes Again!

1940

Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome poster
5.5

A gang of criminals, which includes a piano player and an imposing former convict known as 'Gruesome', has found out about a scientist's secret formula for a gas that temporarily paralyzes anyone who breathes it. When Gruesome accidentally inhales some of the gas and passes out, the police think he is dead and take him to the morgue, where he later revives and escapes. This puzzling incident attracts the interest of Dick Tracy, and when the criminals later use the gas to rob a bank, Tracy realizes that he must devote his entire attention to stopping them.

Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome

1947

Mississippi Gambler poster
6.5

A journalist finds out, that a plantation owner he meets is a gangster the police is looking for, who has changed his face with plastic surgery.

Mississippi Gambler

1942

The Great Impersonation poster
6.4

An Englishman kills a German look-alike and poses as a Nazi spy in London.

The Great Impersonation

1942

Ladies Courageous poster
5.3

Loretta Young stars in this drama about female pilots during WWII.

Ladies Courageous

1944

Fort Defiance poster
6.4

It's just after the Civil War and Ben Shelby arrives looking for Johnny Tallon whom he plans to kill. Shelby was the only survivor of a battle due to the cowardice of Tallon. Thinking Tallon dead, another man who lost a brother at the same battle arrives to kill Tallon's blind brother. Tallon arrives to find Shelby and his brother fleeing. Then they are attacked by Indians and Shelby and Tallon must now fight together postponing the inevitable showdown.

Fort Defiance

1951

Massacre River poster
6.6

Two Cavalry Officers clash over the Colonel's Daughter at a remote outpost with Indian troubles.

Massacre River

1949

Six Lessons From Madame La Zonga poster
5.8

The brash, opinionated owner of a nightclub manages to drive everybody crazy on a boat trip to Havana.

Six Lessons From Madame La Zonga

1941

The Boy From Indiana poster
9.0

Happy-go-lucky aspiring sportswriter Lon Decker from Indiana who has aspirations of becoming a sportswriter meets the shrewd and larcenous old man, "Mac" Dougal during his wandering. Mac likes to ensure his bets on Quarter-Horse races by doping a horse or two here and there. When Lon finds out Mac intends to fleece wealthy rancher Zelda Bagley he sets out to stop him.

The Boy From Indiana

1950

Rogue River poster
7.0

The story of Ownie Rodgers, the nephew of crooked Oregon police chief Joe Dandridge. A $70,000 windfall, bequeathed to Dandridge by a man he'd once framed on a bank robbery charge, unleashes innumerable family skeletons. Ownie is obliged to solve the long-ago bank job himself, and in so doing he discovers that his "faithful" girl friend Judy was in on the scheme.

Rogue River

1951

Lost Lagoon poster
6.2

Saddled with a loveless marriage and three ungrateful children, Charlie Walker (Jeffrey Lynn) dreams of escape. When he falls overboard on a boating trip and is presumed dead, his fantasy comes true. He washes up on a Caribbean island and meets a lovely local (Leila Barry). He gets a fresh start at life, opening a resort on his island home. But guilt and a few insurance agents may cut Charlie's dream short.

Lost Lagoon

1957

Lost Lagoon poster
6.2

Saddled with a loveless marriage and three ungrateful children, Charlie Walker (Jeffrey Lynn) dreams of escape. When he falls overboard on a boating trip and is presumed dead, his fantasy comes true. He washes up on a Caribbean island and meets a lovely local (Leila Barry). He gets a fresh start at life, opening a resort on his island home. But guilt and a few insurance agents may cut Charlie's dream short.

Lost Lagoon

1957

Mr. Dynamite poster
8.0

A ball player takes his girlfriend to a carnival, only to discover a ring of saboteurs.

Mr. Dynamite

1941

The Missing Guest poster
7.5

Newspaper man "Scoop" Hanlon is looking for a way out of his assigned women's interest column. The one chance he has is to spend the night in the "blue room" of a haunted mansion where a number of people are gathered for a party. When one of the guests disappears from his room, "Scoop" decides to get to the bottom of things.

The Missing Guest

1938

Sea Raiders poster
6.5

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

Sea Raiders

1941

Sudan poster
6.6

A desert pickpocket, his sidekick, and an escaped slave help an incognito queen in danger.

Sudan

1945

We've Never Been Licked poster
6.5

Young Brad Craig enters the military school with a chip on his shoulder which upperclassmen quickly knock off. Once adjusted, Craig falls in love with a professor's beautiful daughter, only to find she is in love with his roommate.

We've Never Been Licked

1943

State Police poster
8.0

The state police try to break up racketeering in a coal mining town.

State Police

1938

Mutiny in the Arctic poster
7.5

A pair head to the frozen wastes with an expedition in search of radium deposits. Certain members of the group succumb to greed, plotting to bump off the others and claim the radium for themselves.

Mutiny in the Arctic

1941

Junior G-Men poster
6.5

A gang of urban street kids and a club of suburban would-be federal agents, at first rivals, join forces to rescue the father of one of the kids, the inventor of a super-explosive and its remote detonator, from the clutches of a band of foreign subversives call the "Flaming Torch Gang". A 12-episode movie serial with the chapters: •1. Enemies Within •2. The Blast of Doom •3. Human Dynamite •4. Blazing Danger •5. Trapped By Traitors •6. Traitors' Treachery •7. Flaming Death •8. Hurled Through Space •9. The Plunge of Peril •10.The Toll of Treason •11.Descending Doom •12.The Power of Patriotism

Junior G-Men

1940

Young Fugitives poster
3.7

A young man befriends the last surviving Civil War veteran, intending to rob him of $50,000.

Young Fugitives

1938

The Arizona Ranger poster
6.7

A disgraced veteran wanders the West alone until he decides to help a battered woman.

The Arizona Ranger

1948

Michael O'Halloran poster
8.0

A young crippled girl and her love for a teenage newsboy despite her over-protective and alcoholic mother's objections.

Michael O'Halloran

1948

Half Way to Shanghai poster
6.0

A murder occurs on a train bound for Shanghai during World War II.

Half Way to Shanghai

1942

The Leather Pushers poster
8.0

A shifty boxing promoter places an amateur in fixed fights, then hands his contract over to an suspicious female investigative reporter as a raffle prize. He later regrets his actions, however, when the boxer becomes an honest champion.

The Leather Pushers

1940

Men of the Timberland poster
8.0

Tim MacGregor, unscrupulous lumber operator, obtains by bribery a contract to cut a vast quantity of timber from land owned by Kay Handley, rich débutante. When Dick O'Hara, forestry inspector, demands a postponement, MacGrgeor refuses and sends his henchman, Jean Collet, to obtain the services of the famous "bull-of-the-woods" Andy Jensen and his partner "Lucky." Kay arrives and gives her permission to cut the timber, defying Dick. Dick, with his two assistants, Withers and "Tex," begins a survey of the timber stand. When Dick and Tex finally reveal MacGrgeor as a crook, Collet is sent to kill "Tex" and obtain the reports. A fight ensues and "Lucky" is killed by one of Collet's flying knives. Kay then admits that Dick is right and helps him trap Collet. Dick and Andy force a confession from Collet and MacGregor is exposed.

Men of the Timberland

1941

Overland Mail poster
10.0

Two investigators for a stagecoach company are assigned to find out why the company's stages keep being ambushed. They discover that the culprits are white men disguised as Indians, and they set out to discover who is behind the plot.

Overland Mail

1942

Raiders of the Desert poster
8.0

Two American leave a ship where they had stowed away, in a Middle Eastern port and wind up in the fighting in a brutal civil war

Raiders of the Desert

1941

No artwork available
7.0

A British comedy film directed by John Rawlins

High Society

1932

Torpedo Boat poster
7.5

Richard Arlen and Phil Terry star as Skimmer and Tommy, two lifelong buddies who've invented a lightweight, high-speed torpedo boat (hence the title). Their copacetic business relationship is strained when nightclub singer Grace Holman (Jean Parker), having been jilted by Skimmer, marries Tommy on the rebound.

Torpedo Boat

1942

Unseen Enemy poster
6.0

The Unseen Enemy in this wartime meller is Nick (Leo Carrillo), the outwardly effusive manager of a San Francisco waterfront café. To make enough money to ensure his daughter Gen's (Irene Hervey) entree into society, Nick sells his services to a gang of foreign spies, who then use Nick's establishment as a rendezvous point. The plan is to covertly send out a Japanese vessel for the purpose of raiding and destroying American merchant ships. The spies' secret code is hidden in the lyrics of a song called "Lydia", which the unwitting Gen performs on request day after day.

Unseen Enemy

1942

Air Devils poster
4.2

Two daredevil pilots go after the same girl.

Air Devils

1938

Dead End Kids vs. Spies, Inc. poster
NR

The Dead End Kids smash a spy ring in this feature-length version of the Universal serial Junior G-Men. Billy, the leader of the Dead End Kids, learns that his scientist father has been captured by the "Order of the Flaming Torch." This group of fifth columnists plans to use America's biggest brains to destroy the country from within. When the saboteurs outwit the gang's street smarts, the kids have no choice but to ask the FBI for help. The feds send in their own teenage contingent -- The Junior G-Men! Now the two groups must form an uneasy alliance, before the Order of the Flaming Torch can turn the U.S.A. into Amerika, the Evil Empire!

Dead End Kids vs. Spies, Inc.

1940

Bombay Clipper poster
6.0

Someone has absconded with $4,000,000 worth of diamonds, and that someone may very well be a passenger on the Bombay Clipper.

Bombay Clipper

1942

A Dangerous Game poster
7.0

Detectives Dick Williams and Andy McAllister find themselves trying to solve several crimes at an isolated mentally-ill hospital, where the patients range from slightly daffy to criminally insane, and they don't know which is which. A gang is out to steal a fortune inherited by one of the patients and, before Dick and Andy solve the case, several patients are transferred to the cemetery. And 'tiddlie-winks" are indeed involved.

A Dangerous Game

1941

Strange Conquest poster
8.0

Two doctors try to find the cure for a fatal disease, while battling each other for the affection of a beautiful woman doctor.

Strange Conquest

1946

Her Adventurous Night poster
6.7

A boy's tall tale about a gun puts his parents and school principal in jail.

Her Adventurous Night

1946