The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969)
Despite the allure of the locations and what at first blush seems an interesting plot, the final film in the series of Fu Manchu movies starring Christopher Lee as the fiendish doctor is an exercise in tedium, perhaps even more so than the last one I watched, The Blood of Fu Manchu. Here, the criminal …
Read the full post →“<em>The Castle of Fu Manchu</em> (1969)”
City Hunter (1993)
A crime fighter, City Hunter (Jackie Chan), reluctantly becomes involved in battling a criminal plot to loot a cruise ship, finding some allies and plenty of opponents — including one from the past — along the way. There are many characters, action-filled sequences, and comedy as well, though the jumble isn’t in the end particularly …
Hawk the Slayer (1980)
A king murdered by his elder son (Jack Palance) passes along the secret to a magic sword to the younger (John Terry), who then busies himself righting wrongs. When his older brother, now a ruthless brigand leader, kidnaps an abbess and demands a ransom for her return, Hawk “the Slayer” assembles an interspecies team — …
The Echo Murders (Anglo-American, 1945)
A mine owner in fear for his life sends for great English detective Sexton Blake (David Farrar), and the sleuth soon finds himself investigating murder and more. Hectic and choppy, with far too much going on to follow the story as it jumps around, but interesting withal, though the version I saw was also so …
Read the full post →“<em>The Echo Murders</em> (Anglo-American, 1945)”
Terror Trail (Columbia, 1946)
Mediocre Durango Kid outing has saloon owner Duke Catlett (Lane Chandler) plotting to push out the local cattlemen using large herds of sheep to overwhelm the grazing land. To that end, he also makes use of newly arrived Easterner Karen Kemp (Barbara Pepper) as a dupe to conceal his involvement; her brother, Rocky (Elvin Field), …
Read the full post →“<em>Terror Trail</em> (Columbia, 1946)”
Murder on a Bridle Path (RKO, 1936)
Helen Broderick takes over as Stuart Palmer’s sleuth, Hildegarde Withers, here helping Inspector Piper (James Gleason) — with some good-natured rivalry, too — solve the murder of a woman who met her doom while taking an early-morning ride. Suspects abound, including an ex-husband, jailed for non-support but sprung the night before the killing, the ex-husband’s …
Read the full post →“<em>Murder on a Bridle Path</em> (RKO, 1936)”
Seventh Time’s the Charm?
Wyoming Roundup (Monogram, 1952)
Wandering cowboys Whip (Whip Wilson) and Bob (Tommy Farrell) break up a saloon confrontation and in the aftermath are offered jobs as marshals for the town, which is on the brink of a range war. More is going on than meets the eye, of course, and soon the boys are threatening to disrupt a conspiracy …
Read the full post →“<em>Wyoming Roundup</em> (Monogram, 1952)”
Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 16, 1926
The third issue of Argosy All-Story Weekly for the year 1926 included the first installment of a new serial, Wild Paradise, by Kenneth Perkins; it’s a western adventure concerned with an Arabian stallion. Other serials in the issue include The Vanishing Professor (Part 2 of 4), There Goes the Bride (Part 4 of 5), and …
Read the full post →“<em>Argosy All-Story Weekly</em>, January 16, 1926”