Song of the Thin Man (MGM, 1947)

The long-running Thin Man series draws to a close with this solid entry. Nick and Nora (William Powell and Myrna Loy) are among the attendees at a dance where a band leader is murdered, and a young couple turn to them for help because the new groom is suspected of the crime. Dean Stockwell as …

Lord Edgware Dies (1934)

Agatha Christie’s novel comes to the screen with Austin Trevor appearing for the third time as Poirot, but it’s a pretty sad affair altogether. Lady Edgware (Jane Carr) is supposedly American but has a terrible fake American accent. Trevor’s Poirot has an odd accent, too, and lacks the trademark mustache, although he’s reasonably entertaining. Captain …

Special Agent K-7 (Puritan, 1936)

An FBI agent (Walter McGrail), a reporter (Queenie Smith), and a lawyer (Irving Pichel) try to clear a man accused of murdering nightclub-owning gangster Eddie Geller (Willy Castello), even as the body count rises. An unmemorable, middling mystery fills its running time adequately but is likely worth only a single viewing.   Mildly recommended for genre …

The Hidden Eye (MGM, 1945)

In the second of two movies featuring Baynard Kendrick’s detective Duncan Maclain (Edward Arnold), a young friend (Frances Rafferty) turns to the blind sleuth for help when her fiancé (Paul Langton) is suspected of murdering her uncle and her father, in part because the killings seem to have ties to Sumatra, where the fiancé’s father …

Muss ’Em Up (RKO, 1936)

A grating private eye, Tippecanoe ‘Tip’ O’Neil (Preston ), is called in by Amy Hutchins (Margaret Callahan), the secretary of an old friend, Paul Harding (Alan Mowbray), to find out who isresponsible for some strange goings-on, including threatening letters and the killing of Mowbray’s dog. O’Neil, aided by his violence-prone assistant (Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams) …

Secret Evidence (PRC, 1941)

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 …

Secrets of the Lone Wolf (Columbia, 1941)

Inspector Crane (Thurston Hall) turns to Michael Lanyard, the Lone Wolf (Warren William), for advice about safeguarding some jewels that are intended to finance a foreign nation’s war effort, but his trust turns to suspicion when the goods are targeted by thieves. Crane’s less-than-brilliant assistant Dickens (Fred Kelsey) is on hand again, as is Lanyard’s …

Big Boy Rides Again (1935)

The earnest charm of Guinn “Big Boy” Williams provides some appeal in this story of a young man out to avenge his rancher father’s murder and pursuing a black-hooded figure that would fit well in an “Old Dark House” mystery. Gaping plot holes (e.g., what was up with the servant’s apparent attempt to poison the …

Girl Missing (WB, 1933)

Kay Curtis (Glenda Farrell) and June Dale (Mary Brian) are two golddiggers left stranded in Florida when their mark (Guy Kibbee) gets wise that he’s not going to get any action. When a former fellow performer marries a millionaire (Ben Lyon) but disappears, perhaps kidnapped, on their wedding night, while a local gambler (Harold Huber) …

The Crooked Circle (1932)

After the arrest of one of its members, the Crooked Circle, a secret society of crooks, plots vengeance against Col. Walters (Berton Churchill), the head of a rival organization on the side of law and order, and plenty of spooky doings follow at that man’s new home, an old mansion with a sinister reputation. Will …