William F. Claxton Trailers
Little House on the Prairie: A Merry Ingalls Christmas TrailerBonanza: The Next Generation TrailerThe Canterville Ghost Trailer
William Francis Claxton (October 22, 1914 – February 11, 1996) was an American film and television producer, editor and director. He made a number of films for Robert L. Lippert. He also directed and produced episodes of Bonanza, the NBC-TV series Little House on the Prairie, and also directed episodes of the NBC-TV series Father Murphy, The Rifleman, The Twilight Zone, Fame, and The High Chaparral.
Claxton got his start in Hollywood as a film editor in the 1940s, where he was employed an editor for Edward Small Productions, as he would move into directing of second feature films by 1950s and 1960s, and also delve into television directing during this period.
During World War II, Claxton served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps as a captain. Claxton worked under Frank Capra as a film editor on the Why We Fight series. Claxton worked alongside Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) in the animation and film department of the U.S. Army.
Claxton's very first directorial effort was 1951's All That I Can Have. Claxton, who is best known for his TV work, enjoyed a long stint as producer/director of the syndicated Christian anthology series This is the Life (which was his first work in TV) from 1951 to 1980.
He spent much of the 1950s with 20th Century Fox's Regal Pictures subsidiary, turning out medium-budget films which included the films God Is My Partner (1956) and Desire in the Dust (1960); occasionally, as in the cast of Rockabilly Baby (1957), he produced as well as directed.
Claxton was a close friend to actor Michael Landon, with whom he worked on the NBC-TV series Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie and then Highway to Heaven, and who also enjoyed the This is the Life series, which Claxton was involved with. Claxton also directed the feature-length series pilot Bonanza: The Next Generation (1988).
Most Popular William F. Claxton Trailers
Total trailers found: 41
01 March 1947
In a series of flashbacks, shows that attorney John Morland has given a lift to a hitchhiker who turns out to be a murderer.
01 September 1948
A boy tries to protect his dog, a German shepherd that served with U.S. Army forces after it begins attacking strangers several years after the war.
01 July 1957
A retired surgeon starts giving away money to religious causes and his family tries to file suit, claiming that he's incompetent.
01 March 1948
A detective encounters a woman in a nightclub. He finds that she is being blackmailed by a dancer who is murdered that very night.
28 June 1946
A favor for an old friend leads a Los Angeles gambler (Kent Taylor) into a dangerous search for a missing document.
13 May 1964
A former gunfighter, now a circuit court judge, faces his father's killer in a small post-Civil War Kansas town.
02 July 1947
Larry Morgan, a private detective, is hired by a woman who wants Larry to trail her husband. The husband is murdered and, shortly afterwards, the wife is also killed.
11 February 1949
Winning a mink coat brings nothing but trouble to a couple on a budget.
10 October 1960
Lonnie Wilson returns to small southern hometown after spending six years on the chain-gang for killing Colonel Ben Marquand's son in an automobile accident.
27 November 1946
Eight strangers meet in Shanghai to stake claims to the fortune of a late shipping magnate, then must evade a murderer in their midst.
15 October 1947
A former GI gets his old job back working for a bookie after returning from serving in the military. Unfortunately, he loses the $20,000 he was supposed to deliver to gambling and a con artist.
04 October 1972
Rancher Cole Hillman is fed up of rabbits plaguing his fields. Zoologist Roy Bennett conducts an experiment to curb their population, but it gives rise to giant rabbits that terrorise the town.
30 July 1948
An ex-convict, freed to fight in World War II, gets a factory job and is accused when a bracelet is missing.
01 January 1985
The poor ghost of Sir Simon Canterville has been roaming his castle searching in vain for a brave descendant who will release him from the Canterville curse by performing a brave deed.
02 August 1960
When Missouri farm boy Jesse James witnesses the lynching of his father by the Yankees, he forsakes his family's homestead to find his brother Frank, a soldier in Quantrill's Raiders, a renegade band of Confederates.
22 March 1988
This is the continuing saga of the Cartwrights, only none of the original Cartwrights are here anymore but their sons.
30 October 1957
Tommy Price is the leader of a gang of young thugs interested in thrills, hot rods and girls. His friends bet him he can't make it with 17-year-old Rosemary Clinton.
01 December 1956
Story about two boys who want ponies for Christmas but their family can only afford one. The horse owner, who is bitter about the loss of his son in the war, is softened by the boys' sacrifice for each other.
30 July 1976
The story of Sara Yarnell, a schoolteacher who moves from Philadelphia to the Western frontier to start a new life.
07 April 1948
A young woman must find a way to break the news to her parents and a stuffy suitor that she is now married to a sailor.
01 January 1958
A young girl helps her parents as she wonders what God's special gift is at Christmas time.
27 April 1949
The story of Andy Bryant, a University of Arizona student whose grades suffer because of his preoccupation with an upcoming intercollegiate rodeo.
07 December 1947
Jeff Carter has put an end to the town's delinquency with a boys' club. Young hoodlum Danny shows up and influences teenagers Doris, Willy and Leo.
03 February 1960
This story opens with John Bradford throwing a graduation party for his son, Jim, who has just earned a degree in engineering.
16 October 1941
Tim Hanley, an American agent, posing as a lawyer with the United States Embassy in London, and Reggie Oliver, a Scotland Yard detective, posing as a music critic are both keeping their eye on Carla Nillson, a famous singer, whom they suspect of espionage.
18 May 1951
Blake Washburn blames manufacturer MacFarland for his defeat in the race for re-election to the state legislature.
05 July 1951
A 1950's family man is out of work and looking for a job discovers that putting God first in your life is what matters most.
30 October 1957
The mysterious Mrs. Eleanor Carter moves to Springville with her two teenage children Jimmy and Cathy.
11 November 1964
An aging sheriff is put in the position of having to arrest the outlaw father and two sons with whom he was raised.
14 January 1965
A little Chinese girl comes into the life of a well-to-do lawyer.
01 October 1951
As a wealthy retired surgeon nears the end of his life, he begins to distribute his wealth to those in need, stating that "all that I have belongs to God.
02 April 1954
A young boy living at a mountain lodge witnesses a murder, and is then targeted himself by the killer.
28 November 1941
Cultured Mario and outlaw Lucien, twins separated at birth, join forces to avenge their parents' death at the hands of evil Colonna.
13 December 1956
A group of stagecoach passengers are held hostage by bandits waiting for a shipment of gold they plan to steal.
30 August 1940
Frontiersman Kit Carson fights off Indian attacks on the trail to California.
20 November 1953
During the many challenges in preparing for Thanksgiving holiday festivities, Anna and other family members forget the real meaning of the day.
18 July 1957
A mild mannered sheriff must fight both a hired gun and local anti-Indian bigotry in a small frontier town.
03 October 1946
Reformed racketeer "Lucky" Leeds flees from the police when he thinks they are about to arrest him for a murder he didn't commit.
04 November 2014
Celebrate the holidays with two classic "Little House" specials, restored and remastered for superior picture and sound.
01 January 1958
High school reporter Dave writes an essay for the school contest about the importance of finding God's will for his own life which causes quite a controversy.
27 June 1954
Young and restless Steve lives on a ranch with his father and brother. Yearning for independence, he takes his share of the farm's cash settlement and leaves for the big city.
