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 …
Read the full post →“<em>Dressed To Kill</em> (Universal, 1946)”
Retired (?) super-thief Modesty Blaise (Monica Vitti) is recruited by the British government to foil a jewel heist, and though she warns them that if they double-cross her she will target the diamonds herself, she allows herself to be persuaded to take the job. The heist is being planned by the nefarious and odd Mr. …
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 …
John Bentley is the Honourable Richard Rollison, aka the Toff, an aristocratic adventurer quite similar to the Saint, but who was featured in nearly 60 novels by the prolific John Creasey. Here, a secretary asks the Toff to find her missing boss, and various complications — including murder — ensue. Unfortunately, the movie isn’t particularly …
Pilot Jim Clark (Richard Arlen) and the stewardess who loves him, Shirley Brooks (Jean Parker) start an independent airline of their own, conveying couples to Las Vegas to get married and see the town on a whirlwind visit. It’s clear that Shirley hopes all these matrimonial trips will spur Jim to do something along those …
Read the full post →“<em>Flying Blind</em> (Paramount, 1941)”
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 …
Read the full post →“<em>Return of the Frog</em> (British Lion, 1938)”
Spooky doings at a lighthouse whose lamp mysteriously goes out from time to time, even as another ghostly light appears to lead vessels to their doom. It’s all a bit of a jumble, with a few bits unclear even at the end, but Gordon Harker is good as the new lighthouse keeper, dealing with irregular …
Odd little wartime thriller from Republic, in which a young woman (Mary McLeod), bombed out of her home in London, gets a room in the building where a tobacconist (John Abbott) lives and has his shop. This tobacconist, however kindly he may seem, has a secret: on some nights of air raids, he stalks and …
Read the full post →“<em>London Blackout Murders</em> (Republic, 1943)”
Expect loads of action, along with some lighthearted romance, when an heiress is menaced by villains with a base at a weird sanitarium. Her only hope of rescue lies in a new acquaintance who himself is suspected of wrongdoing. As usual, Richard Talmadge, who produced, delivers on the stunts and battles, even if the plot …
Read the full post →“<em>Get That Girl</em> (Richard Talmadge Productions / Mercury, 1932)”
Creepy happenings ensue when a producer plans to reopen a theater, closed since the killing of the star performer in the middle of a performance five years before, and put on the same play with the surviving members of the original cast. An atmospheric and fast-paced late silent. Recommended. Otto finds this one pleasing enough …
Read the full post →“<em>The Last Warning</em> (Universal, 1928)”
