Tarzan (Lex Barker) finds a young boy (Tommy Carlton) and brings him home, while at the same time he and Jane (Dorothy Hart) receive a visit from a man purporting to be Tarzan’s cousin (Patric Knowles), though in fact one of two crooks (the other played by Charles Korvin) who have murdered the real cousin …
Read the full post →“<em>Tarzan’s Savage Fury</em> (RKO, 1952)”
The Bowery Boys, newly graduated from exterminator college (all save Sach), get their first job tackling pests in a reputed haunted house… and soon end up tangling with a mad scientist (Douglass Dumbrille) with designs on Sach’s brain. There are some good gags involving various members of the group. I tend to like the boys’ …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Spook Busters</em> (Monogram, 1946)”
This British movie offers a disappointing version of a standard mystery plot — a wealthy but unpleasant relative (here an uncle) brings the family together to talk about his will (which he might change!) but is soon the victim of a killer, and the rest of the movie involves attempts to uncover the culprit. The …
Read the full post →“<em>Three Steps in the Dark</em> (1953)”
Hugh Drummond (John Howard), together with Algy (Reginald Denny) and Tenny (E. E. Clive), and with Phyllis (Heather Angel) aboard his plane as a stowaway, dashes off to Morocco when he learns that Colonel Nielson (H. B. Warner) has been abducted by a ruthless spy (J. Carrol Naish). A hostile reception from the local British …
Read the full post →“<em>Bulldog Drummond in Africa</em> (Paramount, 1938)”
Two siblings, separated when their father is killed in a police raid after betrayal by a fellow criminal, grow to adulthood still within the ambit of crookdom, Roy (Raymond Griffith) as part of a “mechanical chess player” con, and Sylvia (Priscilla Dean) as a pickpocket under the tutelage of Hawkes (Wallace Beery), the man who …
Read the full post →“<em>White Tiger</em> (Universal, 1923)”
Joel McCrea does a solid job as a stage company detective seeking to uncover the crook(s) responsible for recent holdups. To accomplish his goal, he goes to work for the local sheriff (Addison Richards) as deputy. Velvet Clark (Mark Stevens), the man responsible for the crimes, proves to be a ruthless killer, and though the …
Female impersonator Akihiro Miwa stars as Black Lizard (also the English-language title), a notorious jewel thief who sets her sights on the Star of Egypt diamond and plots the kidnapping of its owner’s daughter to force him to hand it over. The owner turns to the famed detective Akechi (Isao Kimura) to protect his daughter …
David McCallum falls short as a special agent sent to Mexico undercover as a would-be drug dealer in an effort to trap a Mafia boss (Rip Torn). The complicated plot involves partnering with a drug lord (Telly Savalas) who has lost access to the U.S. and thus luring the Mafia to try to shut down …
