Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 9, 1926

My pulp magazine focus this year is on Argosy All-Story Weekly in 1926, ninety-five years ago. My aim is to read all the issues I possess (currently around 18) in the week that corresponds to the week the issue would have been available, bearing in mind that the date on pulp magazines was the date …

Montana Incident (Monogram, 1952)

Railroad surveyors Whip and Dave (Whip Wilson and Rand Brooks) tangle with a large local landowner and his daughter, who is boss of the local town and will happily take steps, up to and including murder, to keep the railroad away from the captive market. Noel Neill is sympathetic as the younger daughter, who opposes …

Daughter of the Dragon (Paramount, 1931)

Anna May Wong delivers a good performance as a dancer who learns she is the daughter of the evil Fu Manchu and vows vengeance for his death and thereafter struggles mightily within herself when that revenge conflicts with love. Warner Oland appears once again as the fiendish doctor (his fourth time in the role, including …

Thunder River Feud (Monogram, 1942)

There’s a bit of a different setup for the Range Busters in this outing, their twelfth, with Dusty masquerading as rodeo champion Crash and Crash pretending to be an Eastern dude to woo a rancher’s daughter. Alibi gets some attention, too, as he used to work for the rancher, who is being maneuvered into a …

Best Cartoons of the Year 1970, ed. by Lawrence Lariar

The long-running series of volumes edited by Lawrence Lariar and collecting cartoons that appeared in various magazines throughout the year, which began in the midst of World War II, was nearing its end with this edition. The book contains the usual mix of topical cartoons and those with more timeless appeal; a few will be …

The Trap (Monogram, 1946)

Tensions run high when a troupe of performers takes a vacation at a Malibu beachfront house,  and then a strangler strikes. As a girl who knows Jimmy tries to get his help, Charlie Chan ends up investigating, with the help of both Jimmy and Birmingham Brown, and with the aid of a state policeman (Kirk …

The Desert Trail (Monogram, 1935)

A rodeo rider and his gambler buddy are framed for theft and the murder of a rodeo official. They make their escape and follow the real killers to another town, but what will they do when they both fall for the sister of one of the crooks and then are framed — again! — for …

The Nitwits (RKO, 1935)

A young Betty Grable replaces Dorothy Lee as the love interest for Bert in this 1935 Wheeler-Woolsey mystery-comedy. In this one, the boys get mixed up in the murder of a music executive who was trying to put the moves on his secretary (Grable). There are plenty of other suspects, of course, and mutual misunderstandings …