An earnest young police constable (Hugh Latimer) goes undercover to try to track down and capture a gang of violent thieves targeting trucks. He’s helped by his fiancée, Joan (Patricia Cutts), who proves able to hold her own in the investigation … but what will happen when the mysterious leader of the gang learns they’re …
The Shadow Laughs (Trojan, 1933)
Unmemorable low-budget mystery with a title meant to exploit audience interest in the famous, but unrelated, pulp and radio character, has a reporter trying to solve murders distinguished by the presence of thousand dollar bills, loot from a bank robbery, on the victims. The film was Cesar Romero’s screen debut. Not recommended. Otto thinks you …
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Dressed To Kill (Universal, 1946)
The Rathbone/Bruce Sherlock Holmes series draws to a close with this thriller, in which the great detective and his chronicler race to beat three ruthless criminals to the secret held by three seemingly ordinary music boxes produced in a prison workshop, facing trickery and traps along the way. The final entry in the series is …
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The Intruder (Allied, 1933)
A murder takes place aboard a vessel shortly before it is wrecked in a storm, and when the few survivors make it to a nearby island, it soon becomes clear that the killer is among them. Ample oddness follows as the survivors get into various scrapes, and the viewer is soon introduced to a wild …
The Lone Wolf Keeps a Date (Columbia, 1940)
Enjoyable entry in the Warren William Lone Wolf series from Columbia has Michael Lanyard (William) in Havana to acquire a stamp for his collection and ending up involved with a young woman whose fiancé is in jail for a murder he did not commit. Of course, the Lone Wolf lends a hand, but then himself …
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Home to Danger (1951)
Minor thriller has a woman inheriting a house and fortune after her father’s apparent suicide. She is soon herself the target of a murder plot, but why, then, is the hired killer himself killed by some person unknown? Unmemorable, with no particularly interesting characters, but reasonably entertaining nonetheless. Mildly recommended. Otto judiciously thinks this movie …
Mr. Moto in Danger Island (Twentieth Century Fox, 1939)
On the island of Puerto Rico, Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre), aided after a fashion by a wrestler named Twister McGurk (Warren Hymer), investigates murders connected with diamond smuggling. A well-crafted plot with plentiful suspects among the planters and officials — including the head of the island’s police force — and the story of a famed …
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Eye in the Labyrinth (1972)
A young woman investigating the disappearance of her boyfriend, a psychiatrist, ends up at a villa full of strange people who all have stories to tell about the missing man, who had plenty of secrets. An exiled gangster helps the young woman in her investigation, but does he have ulterior motives? This well-made giallo, originally …
Return of the Frog (British Lion, 1938)
In this sequel to the aptly named The Frog, both movies based on works by Edgar Wallace, a ruthless master criminal who uses a radio in a porcelain frog to communicate with his underlings proves to be still at large, and still dangerous, and Inspector Elk (Gordon Harker) is once again called upon to battle …
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The Girl from Outer Space, by Carter Brown
Hollywood fix-it expert Rick Holman is hired to discreetly track down a German starlet who has disappeared right after signing a big contract: if she doesn’t show, it’s likely to break the agency that is promoting her. Holman’s investigation takes him to Europe and back and nearly costs him his life as he digs up …
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