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)”
Ming loyalists battle Manchus in this historical tale, originally titled Wu lin ke zhan, that offers some twists — including one that was a surprise to me but others that were fairly obvious — but drags despite a good deal of action, in part because the editing makes it hard to follow. Carter Wong stars …
Read the full post →“<em>Shaolin’s Magnificent Disciples</em> (1977)”
This thoughtful science fiction film deals with prejudice and what it means to be human, as a post-nuclear-war society struggles to determine just how cyborgs might fit in. Rather too much talk and an obvious twist keep this from being as good as it might be, but it’s nevertheless worth a look. Mildly recommended. Otto …
Read the full post →“<em>The Creation of the Humanoids</em> (1962)”
In the days leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a somewhat shady nightclub owner (Preston Foster) gets tangled up with a British spy (Lynn Bari) and the Japanese forces in Shanghai when his club is used as the delivery spot for a coded letter with explosive contents. The leads are unimpressive, but …
Read the full post →“<em>Secret Agent of Japan</em> (Twentieth Century Fox, 1942)”
Singer Jimmy Wakely starred as a singing cowboy in a fair number of movies for Monogram Pictures in the 1940s. In this entry, in which he is teamed with Dennis Moore and Lee “Lasses” White, Wakely and his pals contend against a crooked town boss (Rex Lease) and his tame marshal while framed. Wakely’s smooth …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Springtime in Texas</em> (Monogram, 1945)”
My first movie of 2021 was a B western, and my first for 2022 is one as well. John Wayne stars as Captain John Ashley, a veteran of the Civil War who fought in the Union Army and returns to Texas to find a chilly welcome from former friends and neighbors, and even from the …
Read the full post →“<em>The Lonely Trail</em> (Republic, 1936)”
Happy New Year! At the start of 2021, I had a goal of watching and commenting on a total of 730 movies for the year, or an average of two per day. I did watch that many, but I did not manage that many blog posts on the movies. I do plan to comment on …
