The Lone Wolf (Warren William) is in London, where he steals important plans from an official’s home safe, putting Scotland Yard, and the visiting New York police, on his tail. Unbeknownst to them, he is working with the official to try to trap a ring of German spies, but his efforts are endangered after the …
Read the full post →“<em>Counter-Espionage</em> (Columbia, 1942)”
Plenty of good fights and a challenging arena competition among noted fighters make for an entertaining tale filled with vengeance, love, and humor, in this movie also known as Invincible Swordswoman. Fans of the genre will want to take a look. Mildly recommended. Otto judiciously thinks this movie is OK, but not great. Movie 481 …
Read the full post →“<em>Leng yue gu xing jian wu qing</em> (1977)”
This Italian sci-fi film, originally titled L’umanoide, gives Richard Kiel top billing as a kindly pilot who is turned into a hulking, destructive automaton by a wicked scientist working with an evil tyrant. Barbara Bach plays an evil space queen who lives on young women’s blood and works with the tyrant and the scientist as …
Stylish, even stylized, cinematography adds visual interest to this movie, also known as Tokyo Drifter, as a reformed gang enforcer (Tetsuya Watari) encounters betrayal when a rival gang takes aim at his yakuza’s holdings. Deliberate pacing and visual set-pieces are punctuated by violence as the enforcer becomes the drifter of the title, but I found …
The mighty warrior Ursus (Samson Burke) has retired to his farm, where he lives a peaceful life with his young brother. But things change when Princess Sira (Wandisa Guida), whom Ursus loves, is kidnapped, and when the evil King Zagro (Livio Lorenzon) plans to marry her. A less-than-charismatic lead undermines this fairly standard sword-and-sandal flick. …
Read the full post →“<em>The Vengeance of Ursus</em> (1961)”
A planned vacation at a dude ranch comes to naught for Marshal Cheynne Davis (Lash La Rue) and pal Fuzzy (Al St. John) when they discover that Fuzzy’s ranch-owner friend is dead and those at the ranch want no visitors. A complicated plot involving not one but two impostors — one a good guy, one …
Read the full post →“<em>Cheyenne Takes Over</em> (PRC, 1947)”
A murderous bank robber vows to kill those he holds responsible for ensuring he is executed for killing a guard while committing the crime, and soon after his execution his threats begin to be realized. It falls to Scotland Yard’s Chief Inspector Long (Joachim Fuchsberger) to put an end to these murders by figuring out …
Johnny Mack Brown is the owner of a ranch whose lessees have been systematically murdered, the last just as Johnny comes back to the area after a long absence. It is clear that someone is killing them, and other ranchers, too, in an effort to gain control of the valley. Johnny spots a masked rider …
Read the full post →“<em>Montana Desperado</em> (Monogram, 1952)”
A year has passed since the events of Zatôichi monogatari, and the blind masseur/swordsman (Shintarô Katsu) is on a journey back to the locale to pay his respects at the grave of a friend. First, however, he learns of a yakuza leader’s secret and is pursued by the man’s minions to silence him, though he …
Read the full post →“<em>Zoku Zatôichi monogatari</em> (1962)”
