An FBI agent (Walter McGrail), a reporter (Queenie Smith), and a lawyer (Irving Pichel) try to clear a man accused of murdering nightclub-owning gangster Eddie Geller (Willy Castello), even as the body count rises. An unmemorable, middling mystery fills its running time adequately but is likely worth only a single viewing. Mildly recommended for genre …
Read the full post →“<em>Special Agent K-7</em> (Puritan, 1936)”
Alien women invade Earth, kidnapping some Earthlings and bringing them back to their home planet, ruled by an evil queen (Lorena Velázquez). There they must try to effect an escape, aided by a scientist back on Earth, who is the boss of one of those abducted, as well as the queen’s good-hearted twin sister, but …
Read the full post →“<em>El planeta de las mujeres invasoras</em> (1966)”
An unusual storyline set among the gods, but operating on Earth, makes this sword-and-sandal movie, originally titled Vulcano, figlio di Giove, distinctive. Jupiter (Furio Meniconi), tired of the promiscuity of his daughter Venus (Annie Gorassini), plans to give her in marriage to either Mars (Roger Browne) or Vulcan (Iloosh Khoshabe), but Venus takes matters into …
Read the full post →“<em>Vulcan, Son of Jupiter</em> (1962)”
In the second of two movies featuring Baynard Kendrick’s detective Duncan Maclain (Edward Arnold), a young friend (Frances Rafferty) turns to the blind sleuth for help when her fiancé (Paul Langton) is suspected of murdering her uncle and her father, in part because the killings seem to have ties to Sumatra, where the fiancé’s father …
Wandering hero Maciste (Kirk Morris) — hence the original title, Maciste contro i cacciatori di teste — rescues some people from the volcanic destruction of their island home, but upon their arrival at what should be a land of refuge, the folk are taken captive by the forces of Queen Amoha (Laura Brown), whose own …
Read the full post →“<em>Colossus and the Headhunters</em> (1963)”
Wong Chin (Jang-Lee Hwang), a country fellow, battles rivals, with the plot following the usual arc of such films with an early defeat and additional training in a new technique. Plenty of kicking action in this one, originally titled Jie dao sha ren. Mildly recommended. Otto judiciously thinks this movie is OK, but not great. …
Read the full post →“<em>Hitman in the Hand of Buddha</em> (1971)”
Nick (Bob Steele), a rather callous and callow youth, indulges in crime à la Robin Hood, but must split his loot with the gang that assists him and with the sheriff (Charles King), who is on the take. Trouble arises when Gail Winters (Helen Foster) comes to town, and when the sheriff murders a rather …
A grating private eye, Tippecanoe ‘Tip’ O’Neil (Preston ), is called in by Amy Hutchins (Margaret Callahan), the secretary of an old friend, Paul Harding (Alan Mowbray), to find out who isresponsible for some strange goings-on, including threatening letters and the killing of Mowbray’s dog. O’Neil, aided by his violence-prone assistant (Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams) …
The grounding of a passenger vessel bound for Havana prevents a salesclerk, Nan Spencer (Alice Faye), from having her vacation, and she refuses to be mollified until company official Jay Williams (John Payne) arranges for an extravagant weekend trip for her; if she enjoys it sufficiently, she will sign a waiver of claims against the …
Read the full post →“<em>Week-End in Havana</em> (Twentieth Century Fox, 1941)”
A tale of espionage and revenge: Michael Lanyard, the Lone Wolf (Henry B. Walthall), pursues a German agent, Karl Eckstrom (Lon Chaney), to avenge the killing of his sister and nephew, a pursuit that takes him from the World War I battlefields of France to a ship sunk by a German submarine and to a …
Read the full post →“<em>The False Faces</em> (Paramount, 1919)”
