Incoherent action and a muddled plot fatally weaken this tale of rival groups of gun-runners out to obtain a fortune in gold and jewelry stolen during the Second World War and concealed beneath a swimming pool in the former home of the Japanese commander in charge of Surabaya (hence the original title, Surabaya Conspiracy). Michael …
Month: January 2023
Funny Friday: Snow Throw
Cat People (1942)
Engineer Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) meets and marries Irena, a Serbian immigrant (Simone Simon), who is fascinated by the big cats at the zoo and who worries that she herself may be descended from the were-panthers of her homeland. Although Oliver tries to help her, Irena’s beliefs put a strain on their relationship, as does …
Smart Blonde (1937)
Glenda Farrell, often cast as a wise-cracking gold digger, found a fitting role as clever reporter Torchy Blane in Smart Blonde, the first of a series of nine pictures from Warner Brothers (Farrell played the role in seven of them). In this initial outing, she is right on the scene when a fellow buying a …
Monogram Monday: Bowery Bombshell (1946)
This early entry in the Bowery Boys series offers another example of the blend of crime and comedy so often found in the films. This time, thanks to a photographer friend, Sach (Huntz Hall) ends up suspected of involvement in a bank robbery, one in fact committed by a gang led by Ace Deuce (Sheldon …
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Weekly Reader — January 8 – 14, 2023
I finished five books and one magazine this week. Monday Mob, by Don Pendleton — The 33rd book in Pendleton’s highly successful series about Mack Bolan, the Executioner, kicks off a Hell Week as the warrior brings his special brand of destruction to the Mafia before retiring from that war to tackle a different threat …
Sunday Fun: Winter Sport
Five to One (1963)
A small-time crook (John Thaw), his gal (Ingrid Hafner), and his pal plot to rob a bookie (Lee Montague) who doubles as a fence of a bundle they induce him to put together on the promise of loot from a different robbery. But unexpected actions on the part of their target complicate matters, and the …
Funny Friday: Doing Fine
A-Haunting We Will Go (1942)
A-Haunting We Will Go opens with our heroes, Laurel and Hardy, being warned to leave town after a night in jail. To accomplish that, the boys, who are down on their luck, take a job escorting a coffin to Dayton, Ohio. Yet unbeknownst to them, the coffin contains not a cadaver, but a notorious criminal, …