Dr. Robert Ordway resolves to take a rural vacation, doing some hunting and fishing, but soon finds himself in the midst of a typhoid epidemic — with woes in part attributable to an old-fashioned doctor’s resistance to modern methods — that has set the stage for murder as well. The story is a bit meandering, …
Read the full post →“<em>The Millerson Case</em> (Columbia, 1947)”
Cowboy Trigger Carson (Harry Carey) sets out to infiltrate and thwart a band of outlaws headed up by rancher Luke Todd (Tom London), whose brother is in love with the daughter of one of Luke’s principal opponents. The fairly standard plot nevertheless has some appeal: A particular highlight is a rattlesnake that one of the …
Read the full post →“<em>The Last of the Clintons</em> (Ajax, 1935)”
R.A.J. Walling’s sleuth Mr. Tolefree is called in by a man dealing with an eccentric family to buy a long-held antique, but not to investigate anything to do with the purchase, but rather to figure out the strange goings-on the buyer experienced while staying at the family home. Mr. Tolefree ends up a guest there …
Read the full post →“<em>The Corpse in the Green Pyjamas</em>, by R.A.J. Walling”
Laurel & Hardy are vacationing in France, and Ollie has become enamored of an innkeeper’s daughter, who — unknown to him — is already married to an officer in the French Foreign Legion. Disappointed in his romance, Ollie resolves to end it all, taking Stan along with him, but instead decides to join the Legion …
Read the full post →“<em>The Flying Deuces</em> (RKO, 1939)”
A grumpy and bedridden man is shot down while a storm rages. Which of his greedy relatives committed the crime? Or was it someone outside the family instead? A local clergyman investigates, using interviews with the various parties to discard the red herrings and eventually find the true killer, who is trapped thanks to a …
Pia Zadora stars as Dee Dee, who just wants a chance to sing with a band, though her jerk of a boyfriend, who has a Stray Cats-like rockabilly group, doesn’t want her to do so. She gets her chance, however, when aliens arrive and decide to perform at the local high school cotillion — if …
Read the full post →“<em>Voyage of the Rock Aliens</em> (1984)”
Tarzan (Lex Barker) works to resolve a situation in which members of a tribe suffering from plague are kidnapping women from neighboring tribes to sacrifice in the hope of averting the sickness. There’s a new Jane in this one, Vanessa Brown; this would be her only outing in the role. Barker is lithe and fit …
Read the full post →“<em>Tarzan and the Slave Girl</em> (RKO, 1950)”
College student Eddie (Eddie Cantor) and his buddy Ricardo (Robert Young) are booted out of college just before graduation because of a prank. When Eddie innocently becomes involved in a bank holdup, the crooks force him to leave the country and go to Mexico, Ricardo’s homeland, and, to try to put a clever detective off …
Read the full post →“<em>The Kid from Spain</em> (Goldwyn / UA, 1932)”
