Month: January 2021
Tales from the Magician’s Skull, No. 5
Back in 2021, role-playing games publisher Goodman Games launched a new magazine focusing on sword and sorcery, a well-made and well-illustrated journal whose production values were very high, and whose contents were a good match for that quality. I recently received the latest issue, No. 5, and promptly read it this past week. I’m pleased …
Read the full post →“<em>Tales from the Magician’s Skull</em>, No. 5”
Silver Blaze (1937)
While visiting old client Sir Henry Baskerville, Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Wontner), aided by Dr. Watson (Ian Fleming), solves two killings and the disappearance of a horse. Professor Moriarty (Lyn Harding) and helper Colonel Moran are involved in the plot in this thriller, acting on behalf of a bookie who wants the favored horse to lose …
The Millerson Case (Columbia, 1947)
Dr. Robert Ordway resolves to take a rural vacation, doing some hunting and fishing, but soon finds himself in the midst of a typhoid epidemic — with woes in part attributable to an old-fashioned doctor’s resistance to modern methods — that has set the stage for murder as well. The story is a bit meandering, …
Read the full post →“<em>The Millerson Case</em> (Columbia, 1947)”
Say “Ouch”
The Last of the Clintons (Ajax, 1935)
Cowboy Trigger Carson (Harry Carey) sets out to infiltrate and thwart a band of outlaws headed up by rancher Luke Todd (Tom London), whose brother is in love with the daughter of one of Luke’s principal opponents. The fairly standard plot nevertheless has some appeal: A particular highlight is a rattlesnake that one of the …
Read the full post →“<em>The Last of the Clintons</em> (Ajax, 1935)”
The Corpse in the Green Pyjamas, by R.A.J. Walling
R.A.J. Walling’s sleuth Mr. Tolefree is called in by a man dealing with an eccentric family to buy a long-held antique, but not to investigate anything to do with the purchase, but rather to figure out the strange goings-on the buyer experienced while staying at the family home. Mr. Tolefree ends up a guest there …
Read the full post →“<em>The Corpse in the Green Pyjamas</em>, by R.A.J. Walling”
The Flying Deuces (RKO, 1939)
Laurel & Hardy are vacationing in France, and Ollie has become enamored of an innkeeper’s daughter, who — unknown to him — is already married to an officer in the French Foreign Legion. Disappointed in his romance, Ollie resolves to end it all, taking Stan along with him, but instead decides to join the Legion …
Read the full post →“<em>The Flying Deuces</em> (RKO, 1939)”
Shot in the Dark (1933)
A grumpy and bedridden man is shot down while a storm rages. Which of his greedy relatives committed the crime? Or was it someone outside the family instead? A local clergyman investigates, using interviews with the various parties to discard the red herrings and eventually find the true killer, who is trapped thanks to a …
Voyage of the Rock Aliens (1984)
Pia Zadora stars as Dee Dee, who just wants a chance to sing with a band, though her jerk of a boyfriend, who has a Stray Cats-like rockabilly group, doesn’t want her to do so. She gets her chance, however, when aliens arrive and decide to perform at the local high school cotillion — if …
Read the full post →“<em>Voyage of the Rock Aliens</em> (1984)”