After an evening in which he decides to take action against someone for malfeasance, grumpy old millionaire Silas Wayne (William V. Mong) is reading his will to a gathering of grasping relatives, as well as his doctor and his housekeeper, when he collapses across his desk. The members of the group, which includes two policemen …
Read the full post →“<em>A Strange Adventure</em> (Monogram, 1932)”
Family is at the center of this Durango Kid outing, as Sheriff Jeff Clinton (George Chesebro) and outlaw Black Murphy (Steve Darrell) are grandfathers to a young girl (Anita Castle) who plays an important part in the plot, both as welcome family and as target for a villain. Steve Rollins (Charles Starrett) initially is helping …
Read the full post →“<em>West of Sonora</em> (Columbia, 1948)”
Twisty tale of murder and a missing million-dollar insurance payment, originally titled La coda dello scorpione, opens with a businessman dying in an airplane explosion and his unfaithful widow collecting his life insurance. As the circumstances of the death were suspicious, an investigator (George Hilton) begins to check on things, and the dead man’s former …
Read the full post →“<em>The Case of the Scorpion’s Tale</em> (1971)”
A young man (Antonio Cantafora) foolishly recites an incantation that brings his long-dead, evil baronial ancestor back to life. Not long after, a mysterious wheelchair-bound millionaire (Joseph Cotten) seeks to restore the baron’s castle, and killings begin to occur. It falls to the young man and the millionaire’s assistant (Elke Sommer) to try to put …
A parolee (Ralph Bellamy) too handy with his fists comes to the aid of a woman in distress (Fay Wray) who takes refuge in his cabin, and he then clashes with an old rival (Melvyn Douglas) and may have ended up committing the same sort of crime that had put him behind bars. The movie, …
Read the full post →“<em>Woman in the Dark</em> (RKO, 1934)”
Rather grim and quite violent Turkish cop movie, with Cüneyt Arkin as a tough officer who essentially loses everything and takes the battle to the crooks. Not recommended. Otto thinks you should avoid this movie. Movie 372 for 2021.
This early talkie mystery opens with a scene that seems to involve a murder but does not (similar to the opening of the following year’s The Death Kiss). Then, however, a real murder occurs as a stage star lothario has met his doom: But how was it done, as he was found strangled to death …
Read the full post →“<em>Grief Street</em> (Chesterfield, 1931)”
Uchu kaijû Gamera might be better titled “The Great Gamera Clip Show,” as the giant turtle, the friend of children, is called upon to battle his previous opponents as aliens use them in an attempt to take over the Earth. There’s perhaps not much point to seeing a Gamera film with so much footage from …
Personable Tom Tyler stars as a sheriff caught in the middle of a feud between sheepherders and cattlemen. When one of the former is gunned down, he pins the blame on Ned Hampton, the brother (Edmund Cobb) of the sheriff’s girl (Virginia Brown Faire), making Tom’s position even more difficult as he comes to arrest …
