A young man-about-town (John Darrow) captures the heart of an heiress (Mary Brian), but their plans for wedded bliss are put on hold when the playboy is arrested for murder. Fortune favors the fellow, however, and he escapes to find the real killer — his only clue a roulette betting system involving the numbers 7, …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Monte Carlo Nights </em>(1934)”
The Bowery Boys, newly graduated from exterminator college (all save Sach), get their first job tackling pests in a reputed haunted house… and soon end up tangling with a mad scientist (Douglass Dumbrille) with designs on Sach’s brain. There are some good gags involving various members of the group. I tend to like the boys’ …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Spook Busters</em> (Monogram, 1946)”
Singer Jimmy Wakely starred as a singing cowboy in a fair number of movies for Monogram Pictures in the 1940s. In this entry, in which he is teamed with Dennis Moore and Lee “Lasses” White, Wakely and his pals contend against a crooked town boss (Rex Lease) and his tame marshal while framed. Wakely’s smooth …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Springtime in Texas</em> (Monogram, 1945)”
Enjoyable Johnny Mack Brown movie has him teaming up with an ex-Army officer (James Ellison) cashiered because a gold shipment he was escorting was stolen. It’s up to the two of them to expose the inside man providing information to the bandits and put an end to the depredations, A ghost town hotel and some …
Johnny Mack Brown is the owner of a ranch whose lessees have been systematically murdered, the last just as Johnny comes back to the area after a long absence. It is clear that someone is killing them, and other ranchers, too, in an effort to gain control of the valley. Johnny spots a masked rider …
Read the full post →“<em>Montana Desperado</em> (Monogram, 1952)”
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)”
Nick (Bob Steele), a rather callous and callow youth, indulges in crime à la Robin Hood, but must split his loot with the gang that assists him and with the sheriff (Charles King), who is on the take. Trouble arises when Gail Winters (Helen Foster) comes to town, and when the sheriff murders a rather …
Personable Johnny Mack Brown is a ranger called in to help Sheriff Ed Lowery (Lyle Talbot) and Wells Fargo agent Ben Williams (Marshally Bradford) by investigating the robbing and murder of Wells Fargo riders carrying gold. He clashes with town tough guy Chet Murdock (Myron Healey, who also penned the screenplay). After he is targeted …
Read the full post →“<em>Colorado Ambush</em> (Monogram, 1951)”
A chilling opening in which a cowboy, Randy Bowers, finds a tavern filled with dead men sets up a good early movie for John Wayne. Bowers (Wayne) investigates the killings, aided by the daughter (Alberta Vaughn) of one of the victims, who even helps Randy to escape jail when he is arrested for the murders …
Read the full post →“<em>Randy Rides Alone</em> (Lone Star / Monogram, 1934)”
After an evening in which he decides to take action against someone for malfeasance, grumpy old millionaire Silas Wayne (William V. Mong) is reading his will to a gathering of grasping relatives, as well as his doctor and his housekeeper, when he collapses across his desk. The members of the group, which includes two policemen …
Read the full post →“<em>A Strange Adventure</em> (Monogram, 1932)”
