Female impersonator Akihiro Miwa stars as Black Lizard (also the English-language title), a notorious jewel thief who sets her sights on the Star of Egypt diamond and plots the kidnapping of its owner’s daughter to force him to hand it over. The owner turns to the famed detective Akechi (Isao Kimura) to protect his daughter …
Gasu ningen dai 1 gô (1960)
This is a dark tale of crime driven by devotion, in which an experimental subject gains the ability to turn himself into a gaseous form. He then uses that form to rob banks — and commit murders — while hoping to fund the comeback of a disappointed dancer. A grim ending ensues. The movie, directed …
Private Detective 62 (WB, 1933)
A former government agent (William Powell), down and out, takes a job with a sleazy detective agency, but he balks when called upon to frame a society woman with a penchant for gambling (Margaret Lindsay). Powell’s suave charm is the principal reason to watch this movie, which is long on drama and romance and rather …
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Daughter of the Tong (1939)
FBI agent Ralph Dickson (Grant Withers) goes undercover as a crook to infiltrate a gang involved in smuggling in illegal aliens, a gang led by the mysterious Carney (Evelyn Brent) and based in Chinatown. Modest amounts of action and a few engaging performers, including both Withers and Brent, but also Dorothy Short and Dave O’Brien, …
Cry Danger (RKO, 1951)
Rocky Mulloy (Dick Powell) is back in town after five years in prison, freed because an old pal (Richard Erdman) has at last come forward to back up his alibi, though the viewer quickly learns that Rocky has never met this “old pal” before, and the guy is hoping to cash in on some hidden …
Onna hissatsu ken: Kiki ippatsu (1974)
Etsuko Shihomi is back as Koryu in thesecond Sister Street Fighter movie, also known as Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by a Thread. This time around, she again travels to Japan looking for a woman who has gotten involved in smuggling diamonds in a very uncomfortable fashion, and Koryu learns to her dismay of a family …
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Robo Vampire (1988)
Incoherent mix of futuristic policing (à la RoboCop), horror, and crime, edited together from two other movies, fails to gel and in the end doesn’t really manage to entertain. Not recommended. Otto thinks you should avoid this movie. Movie 506 for 2021.
Son of Superbug (1979)
The Dudu series draws to a close with this movie, originally titled Zwei tolle Käfer räumen auf, and a disappointing close it is, with the fun little Beetle destroyed at the beginning of the movie and the rest of the film devoted to El Guancho (Rudolph Zehetgruber) contending against assorted bad guys for a hidden …
Tôkyô nagaremono (1966)
Stylish, even stylized, cinematography adds visual interest to this movie, also known as Tokyo Drifter, as a reformed gang enforcer (Tetsuya Watari) encounters betrayal when a rival gang takes aim at his yakuza’s holdings. Deliberate pacing and visual set-pieces are punctuated by violence as the enforcer becomes the drifter of the title, but I found …
Eyes of the Underworld (Universal, 1942)
Richard Dix stars as a police chief with a hidden criminal past who is framed when he tries to crack down on an auto-theft ring. A special investigator (Don Porter) is not convinced of the chief’s innocence, but his loyal and adoring secretary (Wendy Barrie) although it seems that a new romance may be in …
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