Monogram Monday: The Fatal Hour (1940)

A policeman who has been working undercover investigating smuggling is found murdered, and detective James Lee Wong (Boris Karloff) helps police captain Bill Street (Grant Withers) to track down their friend’s killer(s). Marjorie Reynolds is very good as reporter Bobbie Long, and the rest of the supporting cast does well with their parts. This is …

Weekly Reader — March 12 – 18, 2023

I finished two books during this week, as well as one pulp magazine issue. Books The Interlopers, by Matt Helm. Matt Helm takes the place of a murdered courier so that another agency can identify all the people making up the spy network for which the dead man worked, but Helm has an assignment of …

Wednesday Pulp: Adventure, March 10, 1923

One of the best and most widely read of the pulps was Adventure, which started in 1910. The magazine’s content was aptly described by its title, and the reader can expect plenty of action. The March 10, 1923, issue has the expected assortment of long and short fiction, including one serial part, filled out with …

Monogram Monday: Trailing Double Trouble (1940)

An early entry in the 24-picture Range Busters series, Trailing Double Trouble has the three amigos — Crash, Dusty, and Alibi (Ray “Crash” Corrigan, John “Dusty” King, and Max “Alibi” Terhune) — dealing themselves in when a man in a buckboard is attacked by a gang. Though the man dies, he leaves behind his baby, …

Weekly Reader — March 5 – 11, 2023

I finished four books during this week, as well as two pulp magazine issues. Books Wednesday’s Wrath, by Don Pendleton. Mack Bolan reaches the third day in his final week-long sweep against the resurgence of the Mafia, but this time he is diverted from his planned target to tackle something much bigger in scope, with …

Fathom (1967)

A young woman visiting Spain with a skydiving team is recruited to recover a missing atomic device that is desired by the Chinese and apparently in the hands of a notorious international criminal, but she soon hears many different stories from the competing parties. There are lots of twists in this lighthearted entertainment that is …

Wednesday Pulp: Top-Notch Magazine, March 15, 1923

Street & Smith’s Top-Notch Magazine started as a magazine aimed at boys but soon changed to a general-interest adventure pulp, lasting from a start in 1910 until 1937. The March 15, 1923, issue is the first I’ve read, and it has the expected assortment of long and short fiction, including serial parts, filled out with …