Earlier this summer, to celebrate Mel Brooks’s 95th birthday, we watched two of his movies. The first was his parody of Star Wars, Spaceballs, a delightful and spot-on skewering of its target. Memorable characters abound, including John Candy as the Wookie-like Barf, Rick Moranis as the not-so-menacing Dark Helmet, and Brooks himself as President Skroob, …
Alias the Bad Man (1931)
Texas Ranger Ken Neville (Ken Maynard) poses as killer Red River Gantz in a bid to capture the murderers of his father (Lafe McKee) and another rancher, Silas Warner (Robert Homans). He’s aided in his work by another Ranger, Repeater (Irving Bacon), but Warner’s too-trusting daughter Mary (Virginia Brown Faire), whose careless words had led …
El jinete sin cabeza (1957)
A man who wears a black mask that covers his whole head — making him appear headless in some views — battles a secret society whose members where monks’ robes and skull masks, and which murders those in the area who try to sell their ranches. At the same time, a justice of the peace …
Oh, Yeah? (Pathé, 1929)
A pair of boomer brakemen (Robert Armstrong and James Gleason) get jobs on a new railroad, planning to travel on after a spell of work, but the attractions of the eatery owner and her pal (Patricia Caron and Zasu Pitts) tempt them to settle down. This buddy drama / comedy includes a subplot related to …
The Drums of Jeopardy (Tiffany, 1931)
Brilliant doctor Boris Karlov (Warner Oland), driven mad by his daughter’s death and a thirst for vengeance against the family of the man responsible, and especially the man himself, pursues his mad schemes of destruction even after the passage of years and an intervening political revolution. Indeed, having made himself useful to the Communists, he …
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The Haunted House of Horror (1969)
Mod London and its environs are the setting for this tale of a killer stalking partiers who head out to an abandoned mansion and then try to cover up a murder and solve the crime themselves. Frankie Avalon heads the cast as a cool cat everyone wants to follow, with Jill Haworth as the premier …
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Sinister Hands (1932)
Jack Mulhall as the energetically talkative detective and Mischa Auer as a menacing swami are the chief features of this tale of the murder of a millionaire during a séance at his house. There’s the usual gang of suspects, all with motives for killing the victim, and no real surprises as the plot moves along. …
The Phantom Express (Mascot, 1932)
A veteran engineer (J. Farrell MacDonald) is fired in disgrace after he has a wreck while trying, he says, to avoid running into an oncoming train — yet there was no evidence of such a train on the tracks. His dismissal occurs despite the fact that other, similar instances have been happening. What is the …
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Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970)
Couples gather on one’s private island with the aim of gaining access to a chemist’s new formula, but a killer soon is stalking the party. This giallo, originally titled 5 bambole per la luna d’agosto, is filled with unappealing characters and has a rather disappointing ending, so even if the twists hold one’s interest, the …
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Destination Moon (Eagle Lion, 1950)
Solid science fiction story of the first journey to the Moon, co-scripted by Robert A. Heinlein and produced by George Pal with an eye toward technical accuracy (insofar as possible) in projecting a realistic account of such a trip. The story is fairly basic and at times a little slow, but it does eventually ramp …
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