It had been many years since I had last read the comic strip Fred Basset when I ran across this paperback and picked it up. I still found the often-jovial hound amusing, though I had forgotten — if I had ever noticed — that the strip was set in England. Worth a look for fans …
Month: February 2021
The Woman in Green (Universal, 1945)
Who is killing women around London and then mutilating the corpses by cutting off fingers? Sherlock Holmes suspects that this is more than just the actions of a madman, but if so, what is the purpose, and who is behind the fiendish actions? The case proves perhaps more thriller than mystery, as the viewer soon …
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Day of the Animals (1977)
Ecological horror, as the depleted ozone layer causes animals at higher altitudes to go mad and become violent. Right in the middle of this is a group of high-country “survival hikers” led by guide Christopher George. And to say things go from bad to worse for the members of this little group, which includes Leslie …
Not What He Wanted To Hear
The Argyle Secrets (Film Classics, 1948)
A reporter (William Gargan) searches for a notebook, compiled by an investigative journalist, that contains information about people who were traitors during World War 2, while dealing with others out to get the same item, to protect themselves or to use for blackmail. Gargan’s character is a little too unlikeable, and the plot a bit …
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Before Midnight (Columbia, 1933)
A police chief responds to an ambitious detective’s desire for a promotion with the tale of a real smart piece of detection, explaining how Inspector Steve Trent (Ralph Bellamy) uncovered who killed wealthy Edward Arnold, and why. The murder takes place with Trent on the scene, summoned by Arnold because of his fear that he …
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Nomads of the North (First National, 1920)
Lon Chaney stars in this melodrama, based on a novel by James Oliver Curwood, set in northern Canada. He plays an earnest young man set up for prosecution for killing a man in a fight (he acted in self-defense) by the dishonest son of the local factor for the Hudson Bay Company; that son desires …
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Finding the Good Ones
Roman Antiquities, Books 8-9.24, by Dionysius of Halicarnassus
I’ve been slowly making my way through the several Loeb Classical Library volumes that contain the historical work Roman Antiquities, by the first-century B.C. author Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and I recently finished up the fifth volume, covering Books 8 and 9 (through section 9.24). The volume is largely devoted to the career of, and the …
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Ski Party (American International, 1965)
Snow takes the place of sand — at least for most of the movie — in this variation on the beach movie theme, with Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman as college kids who join a ski club outing in order to be near the girls they hope to romance (Deborah Walley and Yvonne Craig). The …
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