Corporal Rod Webb of the Mounties (Kirby Grant), assisted by his dog Chinook and storekeeper Anne DuMere (Gloria Saunders), investigates the murder of a prospector who had discovered oil. This is quite an enjoyable little film series, particularly when Chinook takes an active part. It’s a pity that, unless things have changed fairly recently, only …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Northwest Territory</em>”
In Boris Karloff’s final outing as detective James Lee Wong, he is persuaded by reporter Bobbie Long (Marjorie Reynolds) to investigate the murder of shipping magnate Cyrus Wentworth. All appearances are against young Dick Fleming (William Stelling), who is the son of Wentworth’s chief rival, Paul Fleming (Guy Usher), but nevertheless engaged to Wentworth’s daughter …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Doomed to Die</em> (1940)”
A policeman who has been working undercover investigating smuggling is found murdered, and detective James Lee Wong (Boris Karloff) helps police captain Bill Street (Grant Withers) to track down their friend’s killer(s). Marjorie Reynolds is very good as reporter Bobbie Long, and the rest of the supporting cast does well with their parts. This is …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>The Fatal Hour</em> (1940)”
An early entry in the 24-picture Range Busters series, Trailing Double Trouble has the three amigos — Crash, Dusty, and Alibi (Ray “Crash” Corrigan, John “Dusty” King, and Max “Alibi” Terhune) — dealing themselves in when a man in a buckboard is attacked by a gang. Though the man dies, he leaves behind his baby, …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Trailing Double Trouble</em> (1940)”
The Mr. Wong series took on what I consider its definitive form with this, the third entry in the series. Marjorie Reynolds joins the regular cast as reporter Bobby Logan, always ready to bend rules to get a story and also eager to champion those she thinks wrongfully accused. She and Wong’s friend Captain Street …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Mr. Wong in Chinatown</em> (1939)”
Mr. Wong (Boris Karloff) attends a party whose host (Morgan Wallace) is slain in the midst of a charades-type game. The victim had feared for his life after arranging for a rare gem to be smuggled out of China. The slain collector’s wife (Dorothy Tree) and private secretary (Craig Reynolds) are suspected, as they were …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>The Mystery of Mr. Wong</em> (1939)”
Before the Charlie Chan series moved to Monogram in the 1940s, that little studio had its own series about a Chinese detective, James Lee Wong, who had starred in short stories in the magazine Collier’s. The first five of the six movies star Boris Karloff as the sleuth, an expert on many things, including Chinese …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Mr. Wong, Detective</em> (1938)”
Trapper Paul Lautrec (Edward Norris) is shot and framed for a string of fur robberies and killings, and it’s up to Mountie Rod Webb (Kirby Grant), aided by his faithful dog Chinook, to untangle the scheme. This is another entertaining programmer in the Monogram series starring Grant and Chinook. Recommended. Otto finds this one pleasing …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>The Wolf Hunters</em> (1949)”
Wilkie Collins’ famed novel was brought to the screen as a fairly standard low-budget mystery movie by Monogram in 1934. The film is competent but nothing more, though it is enlivened a bit by Elspeth Dudgeon as a housekeeper and Gustav von Seyffertitz as a moneylender. Mildly recommended. Otto judiciously thinks this movie is OK.
Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, and Raymond Hatton, old hands at movie-making whose audience appeal dated back to the silents, made an appealing western trio for Monogram as the Rough Riders. In this series entry, U.S. Marshals Buck Roberts (Jones), Tim McCall (McCoy), and Sandy Hopkins (Hatton) investigate a gang that has murdered a local sheriff …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Below the Border</em> (1942)”
