Monogram Monday: Yukon Manhunt (1951)

Kirby Grant, best known as TV’s Sky King, starred as a Mountie in a series of 10 movies for Monogram Pictures that prominently featured Chinook, a dog who later played White Shadow in Disney’s Corky and White Shadow (and my dog’s favorite actor — the only one for which she pays attention to the screen). …

Murder by Television (1935)

During an experimental broadcast, the inventor of an improvement for television technology is murdered. The chief of police (Henry Mowbray), who is among the party gathered in the inventor’s home to watch the broadcast onscreen, has his work cut out for him, as there are various potential culprits, including the inventor’s assistant (Bela Lugosi) and …

Monogram Monday: Live Wires (1946)

After six years as the East Side Kids (for a total of 22 movies), several of the actors who started out in Dead End moved over to the long-running Bowery Boys series. Live Wires was the first of 48 Bowery Boys movies made through 1958, and like many of the other entries, it provides a …

Monogram Monday: Oklahoma Blues (1948)

Singing cowboy Jimmy Wakely is thought to be a gun-slinging desperado, the Melody Kid, thanks to tales told by pal Cannonball (Dub Taylor). Wakely is persuaded to fill in for an injured lawman to put an end to a crime wave and thus secure a town’s bid to become the county seat. Matters get even …

Monogram Monday: Hidden Valley (1932)

Likeable cowboy star Bob Steele is the lead in this unusual western, directed by his father, Robert N. Bradbury. It’s a lost-race tale in which Bob Harding (Steele) is framed for the murder of an archaeologist who possesses a map to the valley of the title, which supposedly contains gold, silver, turquoise, and opals. Harding …