After six years as the East Side Kids (for a total of 22 movies), several of the actors who started out in Dead End moved over to the long-running Bowery Boys series. Live Wires was the first of 48 Bowery Boys movies made through 1958, and like many of the other entries, it provides a …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Live Wires</em> (1946)”
Chills and chuckles, with an emphasis on the latter, are both provided by this little programmer, in which two comedians (Alan Carney and Wally Brown) promise to supply a gangster (Sheldon Leonard) with a real zombie for the opening of his new nightclub, the Zombie Hut. Their efforts bring the boys to the island of …
Read the full post →“<em>Zombies on Broadway</em> (RKO, 1945)”
Likeable Johnny Mack Brown stars as Jim Waters, who invests in a friend’s ranch only to find that someone seems to be framing the friend for rustling, as other ranchers are losing cattle even as the friend’s herd mysteriously grows. When a murder causes even more chaos and one of the victimized ranchers, Hamp Harvey …
Read the full post →“<em>Bar-Z Bad Men</em> (Republic, 1937)”
Rushed experimentation brings tragedy for a scientist (David Hedison) and his wife (Patricia Owens) in this well-crafted tale that begins with the discovery of a dead man. The story is largely recounted retrospectively, with the wife telling of the developments that led to the gruesome situation that kicks off the movie. Careful direction builds suspense, …
Read the full post →“<em>The Fly</em> (Twentieth Century Fox, 1958)”
Hijackers end up with a truckload of nitroglycerine — a sinister criminal wants it for his own purposes, while the FBI races to recover it before the unstable explosive brings death and destruction to Manhattan. Who will find the hidden stash first, and what will happen as the time before catastrophe ticks away? Can agent …
Read the full post →“<em>The Trap Snaps Shut at Midnight</em> (1966)”
This dull spy flick, originally titled Mister Dynamit – Morgen küßt euch der Tod and also known as Die Slowly, You’ll Enjoy It More, stars Lex Barker as a West German secret agent called in to assist the United States when a master criminal is using a missing atomic bomb to blackmail the country. The …
Read the full post →“<em>Spy Today, Die Tomorrow</em> (1967)”
Lash (Lash La Rue) and Fuzzy (Al St. John) tangle with smugglers and Lash’s long-lost brother in this fair outing. Of course, the brother, who is in cahoots with the bad guys, is Lash’s twin, so there’s an opportunity for substitution; the family tie complicates the confrontations, too. The movie is entertaining enough for fans, …
