After two years touring with a circus, former silent star Tom Mix returned to movies to star in several for Universal in 1932 and 1933. The first of these was Destry Rides Again, based on the novel by Max Brand but rather different from the later film versions. Here, daredevil cowboy Tom Destry (Mix) is …
Read the full post →“<em>Destry Rides Again</em> (Universal, 1932)”
Detective Thorwaldt Cornish (William “Stage” Boyd) and his friend, Dr. Steven Walcott (Hooper Ashley), investigate after Walcott first finds a human ear bone in the fireplace of his hotel room and then is struck down (temporarily) by a sniper while he talks with Cornish. Their inquiry, aided by magnifying spectacles, leads them to a young …
Read the full post →“<em>The Midnight Warning</em> (Mayfair, 1932)”
Sidekick Fuzzy (Al St. John) looms large in this western starring Lash La Rue as Marshal Cheyenne Davis, who is out to stop the greedy Kirby (George Chesebro) from taking over local ranches. Cheyenne hopes to raise the money the ranchers need via rewards for captured outlaws and sends Fuzzy to get the cash, but …
Read the full post →“<em>Return of the Lash</em> (PRC, 1947)”
Dracula (a very menacing Atif Kaptan) plans a move from Romania to Istanbul in this Turkish film about the bloodsucker set in contemporary times, and a young lawyer (Bülent Oran) gets involved with him. There are some spooky scenes and the usual need to hunt down and destroy a victim turned vampire, too. Well worth …
Mischa Auer as the crooked swami Yomurda is the only reason to spend any time with this exposé of the fake spiritualism racket. Reporter Jimmy Reeves (Earl McCarthy) goes undercover and joins the swami’s gang, making friends with one of the other helpers, Mame (Mae Busch); the reporter also must look out for the interests …
The Red Raiders is an exciting Ken Maynard cavalry actioner with good stunt work and impressive tricks performed by Tarzan. Maynard is a cavalry lieutenant out to stop a troublemaking young Indian leader, Lone Wolf (Chief Yowlachie), who is fomenting war, while also competing against his commanding officer (J. P. McGowan) for the affections of …
Read the full post →“<em>The Red Raiders</em> (First National, 1927)”
Where Eagles Dare is a fine action movie, filled with twists and tense moments, based on a novel by a master of mystery-filled adventure fiction, Alistair MacLean. At the start, a small group of Allied agents led by a British major (Richard Burton) undertakes a mission to rescue an American general captured by the Germans. …
The first movie that Mel Brooks directed was this uproarious backstage comedy, in which a conman producer (Zero Mostel) tempts a mild-mannered accountant to cooperate on a massive swindle, in the form of a guaranteed flop: a paean to Hitler by a mad former German soldier. Yet pitfalls await: Can they raise the money needed? …
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, …
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 …
