Monogram Monday: The Chinese Cat (1944)
Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) investigates the locked-room murder of wealthy chess expert Thomas P. Manning (Sam Flint). He has little time to do so, as he must head back to Washington in a couple days to continue his war work. There’s a moderately effective use of a funhouse setting — I always enjoy it when …
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Funny Friday: Peanut Shortage
In Memoriam: Otto the Movie Cat (2011–2024)
For nearly 13 years, our sweet cat Otto shared our lives. He was very much a people cat. One of the ways in which he expressed this was by coming running to the living room nearly every time we started watching a movie, and though he seldom would actively view it, he’d doze in the …
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Funny Friday: Perspective
Monogram Monday: Murder by Invitation (1941)
Old Cassie Denham has invited her relatives, who had unsuccessfully tried to have committed, to come to her house, ostensibly so she can decide who will be her heir. Murder soon ensues. After the first killing, Reporter Bob White (Wallace Ford) arrives after the first killing, and he, together with his girlfriend and his photographer, …
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Funny Friday: Our Dog’s Dream
Pulp Centenary: Weird Tales, January 1924
Last year, I kicked off an effort to increase my reading of old pulp magazines, with a particular focus on those issues celebrating their centenary (i.e., issues from 1923). I started the focused project with Volume 1, Issue 1 of Weird Tales, as that famed magazine began publication in early 1923, and all issues from …
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Monogram Monday: Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944)
After a hiatus, star Sidney Toler brought Charlie Chan to Monogram Pictures in this wartime mystery. A inventor working on an advanced torpedo design is killed for the plans of his invention, though the exact means of the crime are unclear initially. Charlie is called upon to sift through a houseful of suspects, including a …
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Monogram Monday: Snow Dog (1950)
Mountie Rod Webb (Kirby Grant) investigates attacks by a wolf, and his pal Chinook (“the Wonder Dog”) thus gets a chance to face a canine combatant. This well-scripted entry in the series moves along at a good clip, with plenty of action and interest. Recommended. Otto finds this one pleasing enough to relax.