In this grim movie, also known as Super Gun Lady Police Branch 82, two policewomen investigate after a company official is murdered in a crime that is dressed up as suicide. Excessive violence and the degradation of one protagonist and of others make for unpleasant viewing, and a bank robbery-hostage “diversion” drags on for far …
Read the full post →“<em>Sûpâ gun redei Wani Bunsho</em> (1979)”
Twists galore and a fair amount of action make for an entertaining tale as three Confederate soldiers facing death for selling guns — George Hilton, Edd Byrnes, and Jorge Martín — are given their freedom (after a fashion) in exchange for going after some stolen Confederate gold. The protagonists aren’t particularly admirable, but it is …
Read the full post →“<em>Professionals for a Massacre</em> (1967)”
Pedestrian pacing and a poor script, together with a less-than-likeable main character, sink this 1970 action movie, based on the novel by Mickey Spillane and starring Christopher George as Morgan, the freelancer forced into helping out the government in a plan to rescue an imprisoned scientist. Yvette Mimieux is the agent assigned to work with …
As a new money-making venture, Slip (Leo Gorcey) and the boys turn Louie’s into an escort bureau, with the guys as the sophisticated escorts, while Louie (Bernard Gorcey) and his wife are away on vacation. They soon obtain some beautiful (and unlikely!) clients, including Joan Marshall (Adele Jergens), but the gals are part of a …
Read the full post →“<em>Blonde Dynamite</em> (Monogram, 1950)”
A young Charles Starrett, not yet settled into cowboy roles, plays the lead in this low-budget crime flick as an agent who goes undercover as a boxer to get a line on the man (Noel Madison) suspected of being behind a criminal gang’s activities, a man who has a keen interest in pugilism as well. …
A race car driver (Etsuko Shihomi) doubles as a government agent as she tries to avenge her father’s death, aided by her step-siblings and a lady wrestler. The villains are ruthless and strange, and the plot is at times rather chaotic, but it does hold the viewer’s interest. Original title: Karei-naru tsuiseki. Mildly recommended. Otto …
The return of an old boyfriend (Malcolm ‘Bud’ McTaggart), just released from prison, threatens to spoil the planned marriage of an incoming assistant district attorney (Charles Quigley) and his former secretary (Marjorie Reynolds), especially after the man is shot and the gal’s brother (Howard Masters) is the prime suspect. A rather implausible sequence of events …
Rogelio (Armando Silvestre) battles criminals as the masked wrestler La Sombra Vengadora (“the Avenging Shadow,” played by Fernando Osés). The bad guys are led by La Mano Negra ( “the Black Hand”), who is trying to force scientists to decipher a formula that he wants to use. This early luchador film is fairly undistinguished but …
Captain Carroll (Frank Hall Crane) is just asking for trouble when, desperate for ship’s officers, he hires Woolf Barstow (Noah Beery) as first mate despite his very bad reputation — a reputation that is soon shown to be well-deserved, as Barstow is soon slowly poisoning the captain and plotting both the takeover of the ship …
A parolee (Ralph Bellamy) too handy with his fists comes to the aid of a woman in distress (Fay Wray) who takes refuge in his cabin, and he then clashes with an old rival (Melvyn Douglas) and may have ended up committing the same sort of crime that had put him behind bars. The movie, …
Read the full post →“<em>Woman in the Dark</em> (RKO, 1934)”
