Leon Ames returns as Major Waring, together with much of his crew from the movie Cipher Bureau, including Charlotte Wynters as Helen Lane; there’s even a mention of Waring’s brother, who had a prominent role in the prior film. Indeed, this sequel opens with Waring and Lane about to get married, when they are interrupted …
Read the full post →“<em>Panama Patrol</em> (Grand National, 1939)”
A surgeon with scandalous secrets is murdered in the middle of an operation. Which of those with a motive in the room could have done it? And just how did the killer manage to have the lights go out to facilitate the crime? Bruce Cabot is the lead as a doctor who is one of …
Read the full post →“<em>Mystery of the White Room</em> (Universal, 1939)”
Some sort of inexplicable illness is carrying off inhabitants of a Cornwall village, and the young doctor there (Brook Williams) is unable to prevent the deaths. Fortunately for him and eventually for the rest of the villagers, famed doctor Sir James Forbes (Andre Morrell), whose daughter is a close friend of the young doctor’s wife, …
Read the full post →“<em>The Plague of the Zombies</em> (Hammer / Twentieth Century Fox, 1966)”
When the lead in the remake of a studio’s big silent hit is murdered, there’s plenty of suspicion to go around, particularly as the director was jealous of the star’s closeness with his wife (Gail Patrick), herself another star at the studio. Reginald Denny plays the studio PR man and the amateur investigator as this …
Read the full post →“<em>The Preview Murder Mystery</em> (Paramount, 1936)”
A radio engineer ends up unknowingly working for Axis spies who are using a stolen new shortwave transmitter to supply information to a Japanese sub targeting U.S. ships. Richard Arlen is fine as the lead, a man who has lost his job and takes what he can, and Wendy Barrie has a good role as …
Read the full post →“<em>Submarine Alert</em> (Paramount, 1943)”
The Range Busters — John “Dusty” King, Max “Alibi” Terhune, and David Sharpe — are called in by Marshal Jim Hammond when his son Frank, a sheriff, is shot down during a bank robbery and the crooks get away. It seems crime has been on the increase, despite the existence of a vigilance committee: Could …
Read the full post →“<em>Trail Riders</em> (Monogram, 1942)”
The last of three movies based on mysteries by Jonathan Latimer and starring Preston Foster and Frank Jenks is another disappointment. Here the duo is called upon to protect a young man who reports receiving threatening letters. When murder strikes at a gambling den the young man frequents, and a kidnapping follows, there’s plenty for …
Read the full post →“<em>The Last Warning</em> (Universal, 1938)”
While bringing in supplies to start a new store, dude Steve Langtry (Charles Starrett) is set upon and has his wagons hijacked. Upon arrival in town, Steve, slightly injured in the fracas, goes to see the town doctor (Fred F. Sears), who offers his services as a go-between to take a ransom to the bandits …
Read the full post →“<em>Law of the Canyon</em> (Columbia, 1947)”
