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 …
Revolt of the Zombies begins during the First World War, but then the setting changes, as an expedition heads to Cambodia, where one of the party discovers the secret of making zombies and uses his evil knowledge to plot his punishment of those who oppose him. Unfortunately, it all plays out more as melodrama than …
Two Americans in Egypt looking for work find murder, cultists, criminal plotters, and the living dead instead. Abbott and Costello, in their last picture for Universal, offer up plenty of laughs, including Lou’s mugging when he finds a corpse and some amusing wordplay of the sort most famously found in their “Who’s on first” routine, …
Read the full post →“<em>Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy</em> (Universal, 1955)”
Movie star Shelah Fane (Dorothy Revier), who is contemplating marriage to Alan Jaynes (William Post, Jr.) but whose past connection with the death of actor Denny Mayo weighs upon her, is found murdered in her pavilion ahead of an evening party. Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) investigates, with no help from his offspring — such less …
A movie with a perplexing title, Exiled to Shanghai recounts how a newsreel reporter (Wallace Ford) gets involved with a contest winner (June Travis) and a company pushing television. There’s not a lot of substance here, but some use of real newsreel footage, and the action takes place entirely in the U.S. The leads are …
Read the full post →“<em>Exiled to Shanghai</em> (Republic, 1937)”
