Sam Newfield

Bank robber Steve Clark stashes nearly $200,000 in a safety deposit box and lays low in a small town driving a cab, where he woos and marries Julie Saunders — niece of a wealthy invalid — to give himself the perfect cover. When Julie discovers who her husband really is, she is pulled into a tightening web of greed, blackmail, and murder as the law closes in. Hugh Beaumont, later famous as Ward Cleaver on Leave It to Beaver, plays against type as the cold-blooded killer, with Frances Rafferty as Julie. Directed by B-movie workhorse Sam Newfield. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Crime · Noir · Thriller

She Shoulda Said No! (also released as Wild Weed and The Devil's Weed) is a 1949 exploitation film directed by Sam Newfield and starring Lila Leeds, whose arrest with Robert Mitchum on marijuana charges the previous year provided the marketing hook. Leeds plays a chorus girl whose descent into marijuana addiction ruins her career and drives her brother to suicide, in the spirit of earlier drug-scare pictures like Reefer Madness. The film was produced and roadshown by the exploitation impresario Kroger Babb under his Hygienic Productions banner, with a sensational prologue and an in-person lecture component. It features the feature-film debut of the character actor Jack Elam. The film is in the public domain.

Exploitation · Drama

A 1943 Poverty Row mystery-horror film directed by Sam Newfield and produced by Sigmund Neufeld for Producers Releasing Corporation. On a stormy night, a group of strangers—including an eloping couple, an embezzling bank teller, and a gangster—take shelter at the Black Raven inn, run by the mysterious Amos Bradford (George Zucco), known in the underworld as "The Raven." When a murder occurs and the roads wash out, the trapped travelers begin to suspect each other. The film co-stars Wanda McKay, Robert Livingston, and Charles Middleton. The film is in the public domain.

Mystery · Crime · Horror

The Mad Monster is a 1942 horror film directed by Sam Newfield and produced by Sigmund Neufeld for Producers Releasing Corporation. George Zucco plays Dr. Lorenzo Cameron, a discredited scientist who injects his simple-minded handyman Petro (Glenn Strange) with a serum derived from wolf's blood, transforming him into a werewolf. Cameron unleashes his creation on the colleagues who ruined his career, while reporter Tom Gregory (Johnny Downs) and Cameron's daughter Lenora (Anne Nagel) close in on the truth. A quickie knock-off of Universal's monster pictures, it gave Glenn Strange an early turn as a screen monster before he played Frankenstein's creature at Universal. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Horror · Sci-Fi

A mad scientist becomes obsessed with a concert pianist's daughter and, when she rejects him, injects the pianist with a serum that causes acromegaly, the glandular disease that hideously enlarges the face and extremities. He offers the cure only in exchange for the daughter's hand. J. Carrol Naish plays the villain with relish, and the film uses the real, disfiguring effects of the disease as its horror rather than a fictional monster. A cheap, brisk PRC production from the prolific director Sam Newfield, it is a solid example of 1940s Poverty Row horror. The film is in the public domain.

Horror · Sci-Fi

A musical Western directed by Sam Newfield and produced by Jed Buell, billed as the world's only musical Western with an all-dwarf cast. Billy Curtis stars as the hero Buck Lawson, who must rescue the town from the villainous Bat Haines while winning the heart of Nancy Preston. The film uses a conventional Western story to showcase gags such as cowboys walking under swinging saloon doors and riding Shetland ponies. It is frequently cited as one of the worst films ever made. The film is in the public domain due to non-renewal of its copyright.

Western · Comedy · Music