Amusing but uneven, this western comedy, originally titled ¡Viva la muerte… tua!, features Peter Nero and Eli Wallach as the roguish Prince Dmitri Vassilovich Orlowsky and the petty bandit Max Lozoya, respectively, who team up to go after a hidden fortune but along the way get involved with a revolution-pushing Irish reporter (Lynn Redgrave), a …
Read the full post →“<em>Long Live … Your Death! </em> (1971)”
The end was near for Johnny Weissmuller’s adventures in backlot and soundstage jungles with 1955’s Jungle Moon Men, one of three films in which he played a character named, in fact, “Johnny Weissmuller.” This time around, Johnny accompanies an author (Jean Byron), nice guy Bob Prentice (William Henry), and shady guide Mark Santo (Myron Healey) …
Read the full post →“<em>Jungle Moon Men</em> (Columbia, 1955)”
Billy Donovan (Johnny Mack Brown) adopts the guise of an ammunition salesman as he seeks the man responsible for the deaths of his sister and brother-in-law. He comes to the aid of ranch owner Jean Halloran (Sheila Bromley), who is being threatened by the mysterious “Phantom” in an effort to force her off her land. …
Jimmy Wakely and sidekick Lee “Lasses” White intervene when a rangeland dispute prompts an old friend to block a public right of way, even as crooks working for both sides of the quarrel hope to foment a range war and take advantage of the fighting. A rather unexpected complexity to the situation makes for an …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Rainbow over the Rockies</em> (1947)”
Singing cowboy Jimmy Wakely and his pal Lasses (Lee “Lasses” White) tangle with a clever crook, a big rancher who has tied up all the railroad cars needed by the smaller ranchers to ship their cattle, with an eye toward gaining control of the railroad and forcing his smaller competitors out of business, too. A …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Moon over Montana</em> (1946)”
U.S. Marshals Nevada Jack McKenzie (Johnny Mack Brown) and Sandy Hopkins (Raymond Hatton) go undercover to investigate recent murders around the town of Springfield, including the killing of a rancher named Hilton, whose daughter happens to be traveling to town aboard a stage the bad guys try to rob, a robbery that Nevada Jack foils. …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Partners of the Trail</em> (1944)”
The boys tangle with phony spiritualists and Sach gets help from a real ghost (played by Lloyd Corrigan) in this enjoyable Bowery Boys outing. There are plenty of laughs for fans. Mildly recommended. Otto judiciously thinks this movie is OK. Movie 560 for 2021.
Karloff and Lugosi are in fine form in this Universal picture, with the former essaying the not-unusual role of a scientist gone mad (here driven murderously so by exposure to the dreaded Radium X) and the latter a humanitarian doctor who saves the scientist’s life but must eventually face the consequence of his action. Well …
Read the full post →“<em>The Invisible Ray</em> (Universal, 1936)”
A freelance photographer (Robert Stack) ends up in possession of a medallion that provides a key to hidden treasure, and others (most notably crooks led by Nancy Kwan) are after it. And can the photographer trust the purported widow (Elke Sommer) of the man who entrusted him with the item? Stack’s protagonist is effective in …
Lash (Lash La Rue) and Fuzzy (Al St. John) are called in by a friend who has found gold in his mine, only to discover the friend is missing. The two pursue their investigation, uncovering a murder along the way. There are some good action sequences and fun whip work as well in this programmer. …
