Preston Foster

A former convict is framed for a bank robbery he had nothing to do with and, to clear his name, infiltrates the gang of masked thieves on their way to a heist in Mexico. Phil Karlson's taut, hard-edged noir was a touchstone for later heist films. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Noir · Crime

The Big Cat is a 1949 outdoor adventure directed by Phil Karlson and set in the Utah canyon country during the Great Depression. A young man (Lon McCallister) returns to his mother's birthplace in the high country and finds the community terrorized by a marauding mountain lion and by a bitter feud between two families. Preston Foster and Forrest Tucker play the older men at odds, and Peggy Ann Garner is the girl between them. Karlson, later known for his tough 1950s noir, brings real tension to the wilderness scenes and the climactic hunt. The film was released by United Artists and is in the public domain.

Adventure · Drama

Preston Foster plays "Killer" Mears, a condemned man leading a death-row breakout in this adaptation of the Broadway prison play that made stars of its stage leads. The escape attempt goes wrong in stages — a hostage guard, a machine gun turned on the tier — and the film's final act is essentially one long, escalating riot. An early talkie prison drama from Sono Art-World Wide that set the template for every death-row picture that followed. The film is in the public domain.

Crime · Drama