The last of 16 Range Busters movies starring the original trio of Ray “Crash” Corrigan, John “Dusty” King, and Max “Alibi” Terhune (with Elmer) provides a reasonable amount of entertainment but offers nothing particularly original. Here, the boys are asked by an old friend to help put a stop to outlaws terrorizing a town and …
Read the full post →“<em>Arizona Stage Coach</em> (Monogram, 1942)”
A bombastic radio detective, Bill Martin (Jack Oakie), with a dim view of the police finds himself the latest target of a “poison pen” killer. Is he up to the task of foiling the fiend? Can the woman (Ann Sothern) who loves him keep him alive and employed and on good terms with the police? …
The Dragon Missile (Chinese title: Fei long zhan) is a well-crafted Shaw Brothers martial arts feature, with Lo Lieh the wielder of the titular weapon, actually a pair of boomerang blades capable of decapitating opponents and returning to the user’s hands. Lo’s character, the henchmen of an evil nobleman, is sent to get a healing …
Read the full post →“<em>The Dragon Missile</em> (Shaw Brothers, 1976)”
Madcap mishaps and misunderstandings as a publicity stunt goes awry aboard the eastbound Broadway Limited, the Pennsylvania Railroad’s premier passenger train. There are plenty of laughs from Victor McLaglen, Patsy Kelly, Zasu Pitts, and the others in the cast, even if the ending is a little weak, and it’s pure delight to see a streamlined …
Read the full post →“<em>Broadway Limited</em> (Hal Roach / UA, 1941)”
A man (Li Tung) sent to prison after killing his adulterous sister-in-law and her lover is recruited by the warden’s son to fight the gangsters who have taken over the nearby resort of Delightful Forest. There’s a certain amount of humor blended with the action in this Shaw Brothers movie, whose Chinese title is Kuai …
Read the full post →“<em>The Delightful Forest</em> (Shaw Brothers, 1972)”
James Coburn returns as super-cool secret agent Derek Flint, this time helping the ousted Lloyd Cramden (Lee J. Cobb) determine just what happened during a missing three minutes on a golf course and then working to foil the villains and effect a rescue from their island base. There’s plenty of silliness in evidence — witness …
Read the full post →“<em>In Like Flint</em> (Twentieth Century Fox, 1967)”
A man takes in a young boy left stranded in the desert, and shares with him the secret gold mine discovered when he found the child. The boy grows to manhood with no knowledge of his parents, but both are in fact still alive and have parts to play in the young man’s efforts to …
Read the full post →“<em>Son of Oklahoma</em> (Sono Art-World Wide, 1932)”
Early Wheeler & Woolsey vehicle is flawed but nonetheless entertaining. The loosely constructed plot has the boys as phony fortune tellers who get involved with a wealthy woman and her daughter, a fortune-hunting nobleman, and also gypsies, but what plot there is serves more as a vehicle to move from musical number to musical number, …
Just before his execution, a convicted killer gets ready to reveal the man who hired him, but he is struck down by a poison dart. Who committed the crime right in front of witnesses, including the assistant district attorney (Ricardo Cortez)? When a search of all present turns up no weapon, the assistant DA makes …
Read the full post →“<em>I Killed That Man</em> (Monogram, 1941)”
Two unsuccessful businessmen try to contribute to the war effort. After being turned down by all the uniformed services, the well-meaning bumblers hope to make good in their town’s civil defense organization, but even here their talent for accidental destruction makes them misfits. Will they get a chance to serve their country and redeem themselves …
