An espionage agent investigates the theft of important secrets from a noted official’s home. Who among his household has been stealing the papers? Could it even be the official himself? The whodunit element is strong in this film, which predates and is distinct from the 1960s French movie series, but the pace is a bit …
Read the full post →“<em>O.S.S. 117 n’est pas mort</em> (1957)”
Bud and Lou are two volunteer firemen who rescue a man attempting suicide (Tom Ewell) on account of disappointment in love. When it turns out that the man has an incredibly wealthy gold claim up north, the boys accompany him back to help him win the gal (and to get some of the gold, of …
Read the full post →“<em>Lost in Alaska</em> (Universal, 1953)”
Marshals Nevada Jack McKenzie (Johnny Mack Brown) and Sandy Hopkins (Raymond Hatton) are on the trail of horse thieves who murdered another U.S. Marshal in this entry in their 18-movie series. This time around, Nevada goes undercover as an outlaw hoping to join up with the horse-stealing ring, while Sandy pretends to be an unsavory …
Read the full post →“<em>The Navajo Trail</em> (Monogram, 1945)”
Experience clashes with youth and learns a thing or two in 1943’s Destroyer. Edward G. Robinson stars as a retired sailor turned shipyard worker who returns to active duty to serve aboard the new John Paul Jones, built as a replacement for a heroic vessel on which he had sailed in the past. His “Old …
In Mission to Venice, a woman who says she’s the wife of one of his father’s old friends persuades young Michael Newman (Sean Flynn, son of Errol Flynn) to head to Venice to look for her husband, who has disappeared. He learns from the authorities that the missing Paul Trégard is thought to be a …
When a scientist experimenting with revivification brings a young man (Edward Norris) back to life after a car crash, something is very different about the boy. He soon is heading out of the house and taking up with a gang of crooks and proving himself a vicious member of the gang, even as he neglects …
Read the full post →“<em>Man with Two Lives</em> (Monogram, 1942)”
While visiting Paris for a convention and a vacation, Dr. Robert Ordway (Warner Baxter) is drawn into the case of a mentally unstable young man who may have killed his father in an argument over the young man’s marriage. Among the oddities of the situation is the fact that the family lawyer, though no criminal …
Read the full post →“<em>The Crime Doctor’s Gamble</em> (Columbia, 1947)”
The final Inspector Trent film starring Ralph Bellamy is rather a thriller than a mystery. A young woman out for thrills (Shirley Grey) helps a thief but soon finds she’s in over her head when the partners he was double-crossing come after the loot. Inspector Trent seems quite on the ball from the beginning in …
Read the full post →“<em>Girl in Danger</em> (Columbia, 1934)”
Dismal comedy from PRC stars Harry Langdon and Charley Rogers, here portraying hapless losers, fired from their jobs at a newspaper, hoping to land a big story on their own as reporters covering the invention of a new machine gun. The gun, of course, is the target of those who would steal it, and the …
A delightful comic entry in the 1960s heist genre, with Audrey Hepburn as the scion of a wealthy family that has its position through skillful art forgery and Peter O’Toole as the man whom she recruits to help her steal one of her family’s fakes, on loan to a museum, before an insurance evaluation can …
Read the full post →“<em>How To Steal a Million</em> (Twentieth Century Fox, 1966)”
