A young Charles Starrett, not yet settled into cowboy roles, plays the lead in this low-budget crime flick as an agent who goes undercover as a boxer to get a line on the man (Noel Madison) suspected of being behind a criminal gang’s activities, a man who has a keen interest in pugilism as well. …
El imperio de Drácula (1967)
After an opening in which Count Draculstein (Eric del Castillo) is destroyed by sunlight, we shift forward in time to a point when the vampire is returning, according to the warning of his previous foe’s dying widow, and her adult children then become the target of the evil count. Slow but occasionally effective. Mildly recommended. …
Triumph of the Son of Hercules (1961)
A version of ancient Egypt is the setting for this sword-and-sandal flick, originally titled Il trionfo di Maciste. This time around, the hero, Maciste (Kirk Morris) tackles the forces of an evil queen (Ljubica Otasevic), who has usurped the throne of Thebes, but himself falls prey to the queen’s sorcerous power. There’s the expected test …
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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 …
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El planeta de las mujeres invasoras (1966)
Alien women invade Earth, kidnapping some Earthlings and bringing them back to their home planet, ruled by an evil queen (Lorena Velázquez). There they must try to effect an escape, aided by a scientist back on Earth, who is the boss of one of those abducted, as well as the queen’s good-hearted twin sister, but …
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Vulcan, Son of Jupiter (1962)
An unusual storyline set among the gods, but operating on Earth, makes this sword-and-sandal movie, originally titled Vulcano, figlio di Giove, distinctive. Jupiter (Furio Meniconi), tired of the promiscuity of his daughter Venus (Annie Gorassini), plans to give her in marriage to either Mars (Roger Browne) or Vulcan (Iloosh Khoshabe), but Venus takes matters into …
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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 …
Colossus and the Headhunters (1963)
Wandering hero Maciste (Kirk Morris) — hence the original title, Maciste contro i cacciatori di teste — rescues some people from the volcanic destruction of their island home, but upon their arrival at what should be a land of refuge, the folk are taken captive by the forces of Queen Amoha (Laura Brown), whose own …
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Hitman in the Hand of Buddha (1971)
Wong Chin (Jang-Lee Hwang), a country fellow, battles rivals, with the plot following the usual arc of such films with an early defeat and additional training in a new technique. Plenty of kicking action in this one, originally titled Jie dao sha ren. Mildly recommended. Otto judiciously thinks this movie is OK, but not great. …
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Young Blood (Monogram, 1932)
Nick (Bob Steele), a rather callous and callow youth, indulges in crime à la Robin Hood, but must split his loot with the gang that assists him and with the sheriff (Charles King), who is on the take. Trouble arises when Gail Winters (Helen Foster) comes to town, and when the sheriff murders a rather …