Dean Martin essays the role of espionage agent Matt Helm with tongue firmly planted in cheek, in the first of series of movies loosely based on Donald Hamilton’s ruthless character reworked into distinctly lighter fare. Here, Helm partners with a former flame (Daliah Lavi) and then with an innocent mixed up in the whole affair …
Read the full post →“<em>The Silencers</em> (Columbia, 1966)”
Gene Autry gets plenty of credit in many of the posters, and also at the beginning of the print I watched, as a reflection of his popularity, but this is Ken Maynard’s movie, with Autry only present with a band — and Maynard gets some dubbed singing in as well. Ken and his partner Cactus …
Read the full post →“<em>In Old Santa Fe</em> (Mascot, 1934)”
Early sound musical set in New Orleans, notable for featuring the team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey in supporting roles, has little interest save as a historical curiosity. Although some of the singing and dancing is good, a hackneyed plot and a stiff leading man weaken the film; Bebe Daniels in the title role …
A battle over a land lease is at the center of this Durango Kid outing, as a conniving crook plots to use a forged lease to keep young Bronc Masters (Robert Scott, aka Mark Roberts), the rightful lessee, from rounding up horses for use by the Army. Luckily Steve Bolton, the agent of the Department …
Read the full post →“<em>Prairie Raiders</em> (Columbia, 1947)”
A young woman investigating the disappearance of her boyfriend, a psychiatrist, ends up at a villa full of strange people who all have stories to tell about the missing man, who had plenty of secrets. An exiled gangster helps the young woman in her investigation, but does he have ulterior motives? This well-made giallo, originally …
The final Range Busters movie with the lineup of John “Dusty” King, David Sharpe, and Max “Alibi” Terhune, and the 20th overall, Haunted Ranch has one of my favorite plot devices — apparent hauntings — but falls rather short of the earlier ghost town movie in the series, Trail of the Silver Spurs. Here, both …
Read the full post →“<em>Haunted Ranch</em> (Monogram, 1943)”
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)”
When a small band of people is shipwrecked on an uncharted island, they soon find themselves facing a greater menace than isolation and survival against the elements: the island is ruled over by a Nazi scientist who escaped after the war and continues his experiments on some captive women in an effort to find a …
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)”
