Gene Autry’s first starring role in a feature (after the weird and wonderful serial The Phantom Empire for Mascot Pictures) and first picture for Republic (though originally filmed by Mascot) is this musical western. Gene plays a young man who, disowned by his father for opposing the latter’s contentiousness and now performing with a medicine …
Read the full post →“<em>Tumbling Tumbleweeds</em> (Republic, 1935)”
A gloved killer strangles an unknown woman and has her body shipped to a girls’ boarding school that itself is full of secrets, and soon a murderer (perhaps the same) begins stalking members of the faculty and student body. Could the killer be one of the teachers, such as the handsome riding instructor (Mark Damon)? …
District Attorney Thatcher Colt (Adolphe Menjou) heads out of town for a brief vacation, accompanied by his secretary (Ruthelma Stevens), but they don’t find the upstate New York town of Gilead particularly restful. A small circus comes to town, with a love triangle at the center of its prominent acts, and murder follows. Dwight Frye …
Read the full post →“<em>The Circus Queen Murder</em> (Columbia, 1933)”
Eighteen years after the largest seaborne assault in history, Twentieth Century Fox released a movie based on Cornelius Day’s bestseller recounting the events of D-Day, the 6th of June, 1944, with Day himself penning the screenplay (with some episodes by others). Multiple directors and an international cast collaborated to deliver what is probably the best …
Read the full post →“<em>The Longest Day</em> (Twentieth Century Fox, 1962)”
After a man dies in a car crash shortly after increasing his insurance, suspicion falls on his widow, who is strapped for cash because of the insurance company’s reluctance to pay and is then helped to get a job with a charity that assists ex-convicts in returning to society. At the same time, Scotland Yard …
Disappointing monster movie, originally titled Kyôryû kaichô no densetsu, is largely devoted to plesiosaur attacks in a lake where a festival is being held, in imitation of Jaws, although at the same time a scientist is investigating reports of the discovery of a giant egg in the mountains. A fair amount of violence, including some …
Read the full post →“<em>Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds</em> (1977)”
Everyone is after a golden Watusi idol that Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) has taken from the evil Ali Ben Mamoud (Paul Guilfoyle), who had stolen it. Among those after the treasure are a crooked ivory hunter, Joe Hawkins (Lane Bradford), who is brought into the matter by Mamoud but has plans of his own, and archaeologist …
Read the full post →“<em>The Golden Idol</em> (Allied Artists, 1954)”
The always entertaining Polly Ling-Feng Shang-Kuan stars in this lighthearted movie, originally titled Shi da zhang men chuang Shao Lin and also known as Fight for Survival, as a young woman with an earnest desire to learn kung fu despite a prohibition on female students at the Shaolin temple, and her intense dedication ends up …
A UFO causes a plane to crash in a remote location, and the survivors of the crash must then contend with hostile aliens that turn their victims into vampires. Vivid, unrealistic colors give the movie a visual presence, but the story drags a bit, with some implausible behavior by the characters and perhaps a bit …
There’s more undercover work for Rough Riders Buck, Tim, and Sandy (Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, and Raymond Hatton) in the last entry in the series, with Buck pretending to be an outlaw, Tim a preacher, and Sandy an undertaker. This time around, the marshals are out to stop a gang that is hijacking miners’ gold. …
Read the full post →“<em>West of the Law</em> (Monogram, 1942)”
