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 …
Read the full post →“<em>Secrets of the Lone Wolf</em> (Columbia, 1941)”
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 …
Effective adaptation of Alistair MacLean’s suspense novel features a young and athletic Anthony Hopkins in the lead role as a British agent investigating just what happened to a ship that has recently disappeared — along with several others previously. The changes made from the book are reasonable, and the end result is a well-paced thriller …
Twisty tale of murder and a missing million-dollar insurance payment, originally titled La coda dello scorpione, opens with a businessman dying in an airplane explosion and his unfaithful widow collecting his life insurance. As the circumstances of the death were suspicious, an investigator (George Hilton) begins to check on things, and the dead man’s former …
Read the full post →“<em>The Case of the Scorpion’s Tale</em> (1971)”
Mischa Auer as the crooked swami Yomurda is the only reason to spend any time with this exposé of the fake spiritualism racket. Reporter Jimmy Reeves (Earl McCarthy) goes undercover and joins the swami’s gang, making friends with one of the other helpers, Mame (Mae Busch); the reporter also must look out for the interests …
A man who wears a black mask that covers his whole head — making him appear headless in some views — battles a secret society whose members where monks’ robes and skull masks, and which murders those in the area who try to sell their ranches. At the same time, a justice of the peace …
Brilliant doctor Boris Karlov (Warner Oland), driven mad by his daughter’s death and a thirst for vengeance against the family of the man responsible, and especially the man himself, pursues his mad schemes of destruction even after the passage of years and an intervening political revolution. Indeed, having made himself useful to the Communists, he …
Read the full post →“<em>The Drums of Jeopardy</em> (Tiffany, 1931)”
Mod London and its environs are the setting for this tale of a killer stalking partiers who head out to an abandoned mansion and then try to cover up a murder and solve the crime themselves. Frankie Avalon heads the cast as a cool cat everyone wants to follow, with Jill Haworth as the premier …
Read the full post →“<em>The Haunted House of Horror</em> (1969)”
A veteran engineer (J. Farrell MacDonald) is fired in disgrace after he has a wreck while trying, he says, to avoid running into an oncoming train — yet there was no evidence of such a train on the tracks. His dismissal occurs despite the fact that other, similar instances have been happening. What is the …
Read the full post →“<em>The Phantom Express</em> (Mascot, 1932)”
Couples gather on one’s private island with the aim of gaining access to a chemist’s new formula, but a killer soon is stalking the party. This giallo, originally titled 5 bambole per la luna d’agosto, is filled with unappealing characters and has a rather disappointing ending, so even if the twists hold one’s interest, the …
Read the full post →“<em>Five Dolls for an August Moon</em> (1970)”
