Reviews

John Beal plays a doctor who in an absent-minded moment places some addictive and dangerous pills in his pocket at a research laboratory. He is feeling washed-out with attacks of migraine headaches when he takes the dangerous tablets in mistake for those he usually takes for migraine. He discovers the pills he has taken in error are concocted of the blood of vampire bats which are present at the laboratory. There the researcher has died along with the research animals except for the bats. John Beal gives a good performance as the tormented doctor who believes he is responsible for three deaths although he has no memory of actually killing. Like the Lawrence Talbot character of Universal's Wolf Man movies, through no fault of his own he has turned into a monster who kills at night. I like Dabbs Greer who gives good support as Dr. Beaumont who tries to save John Beal from his addiction to the pills. Also James Griffith as Beaumont's assistant Henry looking sinister with dark glasses and a creepy smile playing on his lips. Suspicion could have easily fallen on him as he is a withdrawn character who was traumatized by a gas explosion in his childhood. There are some good eerie images like the laboratory mansion half-hidden by trees and Woodend Cemetery where the exhumation of one of the victims takes place. This movie was made in just seven days but I reckon this is up there with the best of the 1950s b-horror films.

In this review, I just want to highlight the differences in the main characters of the Sherlock Holmes stories between the Basil Rathbone series and this TV presentation. The movie-going had long identified Rathbone with Sherlock Holmes so it was always going to be interesting what changes this 1954 series would make. Basil Rathbone was aged 47 to 54 when he played Holmes onscreen whereas Ronald Howard was 36. So immediately it is the level of maturity that comes into play when comparing the two. Basil Rathbone's Holmes did occasionally err but he was always mature and immediately chided himself for his mistakes. Ronald Howard's Holmes makes more mistakes because he has some hotheaded immaturity about him. Howard's rendition is more relaxed after seeing Rathbone's edginess as Holmes. Ronald Howard himself declared that his Holmes was "not an infallible, eagle-eyed, out-of the-ordinary personality, but an exceptionally sincere young man trying to get ahead in his profession." Moving to Watson, I have a soft spot for Nigel Bruce but I think Howard Marion Crawford insisted he wouldn't play a Nigel Bruce type Dr. Watson. Bruce's muttering and slow-witted Watson didn't always appear to be a boon to Holmes but often his Watson would turn up in the end to save Holmes to make up for it. Crawford's Watson seems to be a more visible help to the detective and does keep a protective eye on Holmes throughout each case, making him appear more on equal terms.

Confining this review to the role of the headmistress in this movie, she has to be my most favorite characters of all. Millicent Fritton is a maiden lady who still dresses in the Edwardian garb of her younger day. Ostensibly she is a genteel character who is horrified by the contemporary declining standards of post-war England. But her own ethics are questionable when she needs to save her school from financial ruin. Her carelessness and her permissiveness as regards to her pupil's destructive rampages are to blame for the monetary disaster hanging over her. Alastair Sim must have relished the dry wit of the dialogue he delivers as Miss Fritton. He is able to alter his deep voice into female tones and he is padded out to take on a more womanly shape. With a hairpiece piled high on the top of his head he towers above the rest of the cast including himself as Miss Fritton's twin brother, resulting in something like a mother hen clucking around her chicks. Miss Fritton is particularly motherly to her fourth-form girls with her kindly smile, but doesn't believe in smother-loving as she wants her girls to be able to take on a merciless world when they leave school. For her teaching staff, she hires misfits including Miss Walters who is on the run from the law. It's a toss up to fortune whether Miss Fritton will end up in Holloway Prison herself when her school comes under surveillance from the police.

It is essential that paranormal anthology series like 'The Twilight one' and 'One Step Beyond' have a host who is able to draw you into the mystery of each episode. I reckon 'One Step Beyond' was fortunate to have such a host in John Newland. Immediately he demands respect as he is about to tell you a story which would have had some viewers laughing their heads off. There is an air about him which stifles skeptical chuckles. He has the creepy courtesy of Vincent Price who would have made a good regular horror host himself. Newland's voice is reminiscent of VP at times but it's not exactly menace that John Newland offers. Instead he is your apprehensive friend warning you as he is about to creep you out with his story. He lurks like a ghost in the background of the story he is telling even in those episodes with a historical setting. He stands there in his immaculate attire, staring at you while those characters in period costume carry on oblivious of his presence. And at the end Newland gives the you that enigmatic smile, worthy of the Mona Lisa, as he bids you goodnight. Some may interpret it as a comforting smirk as though the story isn't for real, or to some it is meant to chill us out even further.

Joe is a small town boy who has 48 hours to kill in New York before he sails to England and onto war service. He is sure that it is fate that has brought a thoughtful girl called Alice his way after they collide at a busy escalator. Alice can't help but relent to the young soldier's child-like enthusiasm. Robert Walker and Judy Garland play Joe and Alice to perfection as the couple who are willing to risk everything on a complete stranger. Their hurried dating arrangement, made through the window of a moving bus, is to be at the Beaux Arts clock in the lobby of the Astoria Hotel. The clock becomes a symbol for their race against time to cement their 'meaningful' relationship. There is no time for sleep as they career through comical adventures in one crazy 48 hour rush. They stumble across a kindly milkman and his wife Em (not Auntie Em for Judy this time round) who encourage them to go for it in their ideas of a union. For a romcom full of wacky and wistful incidents I reckon this movie is hard to beat. Sometimes a person can look back on their lives and wonder if that beautiful stranger they once met was the right one for them, but they had been afraid to take the risk of counting on that stranger. This is the movie where two strangers feel they have no choice but to seize the moment because they dare not risk a lifetime of regret.

Moriarty walks free from a court despite Sherlock Holmes' efforts to present evidence that should have convicted Moriarty. We next see Holmes walk in the pouring rain to be greeted by Moriarty with an offer of a lift in his carriage. Full of himself after his court discharge, Moriarty brags to Holmes that he is about to execute the crime of the century. One of my favorite villains, George Zucco with his deeply sinister voice, makes an excellent Moriarty. He is out to thieve some fabulous jewels from the Tower of London. He hoodwinks Holmes as to which valuable prize he has his eyes on. Basil Rathbone looks so good as Holmes as he climbs a Tower of London stairway, with a gun in one hand and a magnifying glass in the other. Some mysterious footprints turn up in this story the same as they do in 'The Sign of Four' tale. Ida Lupino plays a young woman who petitions Sherlock Holmes for help. At one point she is disturbed by a shady street player with his mournful flute music. Another good scene shows her pursued by a killer who is only thwarted at the last moment by Holmes.

A cozy English village can pride itself on being a well-knit community where most people get along well with each other. But the peaceful life of the village in 'Poison Pen' is disrupted by a spate of spiteful letters written to the inhabitants. Trust in their fellow-villagers is broken even though there is no proof that the letters are just rumor-mongering mischief. The women of the village band together led by the plain-speaking ringleader played by Marjorie Rhodes. But the situation gets worse and lead to a grisly suicide and a revenge killing. The police are called in to monitor the village mail. And to closely question the inhabitants. The village vicar and his charitable spinster sister are the pillars of the community. They try to help the police to track down the malicious culprit. Flora Robson leads the cast as Mary Rider who is the vicar's sister. She questions whether there may be some truth in the accusations that the poison pen writer is spreading. This film's popularity was initially marred somewhat by the negative Spectator review written by Graham Greene. But I think that mystery fans will probably like this movie because Agatha Christie covered the village 'poison pen' subject in 1942. That was in the Miss Marple mystery called 'The Moving Finger.' Also the same sort of scenario was done in the 1951 mystery film called 'The Thirteenth Letter' which starred Michael Rennie.

After years of watching this movie on a poor quality DVD I'm was glad to see this on a restored print. Now I can appreciate it more for it's lively and atmospheric evocation of C1820 Cornwall. The stormy sea scenes, as ships are lured onto the coastal rocks, are exhilarating to watch. A bereaved orphan is left stranded on a remote Cornish highway. A kindly squire helps her by taking her to her aunt and uncle at the infamous Jamaica Inn. She soon discovers it's infamy for herself as it is the headquarters for the land pirates responsible for the looting of the deliberately wrecked ships. It seems Hitchcock occasionally liked to ring the changes with a historical setting and I reckon this is the best of those efforts. As co-producer of the movie, Charles Laughton gave himself license to play the double-dealing squire with pompous swagger. He does fascinate with his grimaces and lurid makeup and Joan Crawford eyebrows. Maureen O'Hara is the orphan who teams up with the undercover investigator played by Robert Newton. This movie may be more suited to swashbuckling adventure lovers but mystery fans will probably appreciate the film's constant ominous menace.

This has to be my favorite seance movie. Dame May Whitty is in her one and only main lead feature role here. She plays a medium of humble background who is sought by society people for her 'powers.' She enters a big grand house and has to endure all the skeptical jokes bandied upon her. However she is able to rebound jokes back at her well-heeled customers. Henry Daniell plays the man who believes in her powers. He has instigated the seance in order to find the name of a murderer. Rather than wondering about the whodunit aspect of the story, I found myself more concerned for the proven innocence of one of the suspects. It's revealed that the medium is more involved with one of the suspects than we know at the beginning. After the first seance produces another murder, a second seance is held. The medium finds true inspiration at last and fetches out the murderer at her second attempt.

Somewhere in the South Pacific there is a large supply of uranium that governments are keen to get their hands on. There is a great poster for this espionage mystery containing the picture of an atomic explosion and a cryptic piece about a ring that holds something valuable. That ring turns out to belong to Cathy (Evelyn Ankers) as a gift from her brother who sponges off her after she has inherited the family fortune. Hobe Carrington (Alan Curtis) is a fresh civilian flying charter flights in his Lockheed plane. He is hired by a 'countess' for a weekend that he had intended to keep for himself but her offer becomes too tempting for him to refuse. She springs other passengers on him at the last moment including Cathy and her brother Claude. The story continues in Death Valley where Hobe gets knocked out a few times as he realizes he is in the company of spies and racketeers. He doesn't know who he can trust which gets worse when his ex-wife turns up and reveals something about the past of the 'countess.' The plot gets untidy which is a pity because there are some sinister characters present who would have become really intriguing in a better production. This one and only release from Golden Gate Pictures has some locational interest going for it. Las Vegas can be seen when it was sparsely populated and there are some desert and ranch scenes filmed on the Iverson Movie Ranch where many famous screen cowboys once roamed.

Amnesia is a good subject matter for a mystery movie especially when the sufferer may have forgotten committing a murder. Walter Abel plays the unfortunate individual beset by an unwanted blank sheet in his life. But he is lucky that he chooses to sit on a park bench opposite a temporarily vagrant actress played by Margot Grahame. She helps sort out what the items in the man's pocket tell about him as the man is too dazed to think clearly for himself. A theater stub gives the name of a venue and another clue leads them to a hotel called the Yorkshire Arms. Also there is a fancy monogram which is designed in a way that could represent either the initials RD or DR. RD is the initials of a man of the theater called Richard Denning who has been murdered by two shots from a gun. Denning had been involved in a play called 'Dark Menace' in which a line from the play including the words "a couple of slugs" which is overheard just before Denning is shot twice. Margot Grahame's character, Marie, proves to be quick-thinking in order for Walter Abel being taken in for questioning about the murder. A nice refined portrayal from her with witticisms about being married is "usually the first thing a man forgets" and telling him he'd "make a sphinx curious." Her and Eric Blore's performance as the fainthearted Edmund Fish are my choice characters which I look forward to enjoying again sometime.

John Forsythe plays a doctor who has a history of losing patients wherever he's practised. While he is supposed to be on his outcall rounds we see him making out with Lisa Manning (Barbara Bain) in the woods. He plays golf with her husband who is not prepared to give Lisa a divorce. The two men spar with each other on this matter and on the doctor's dubious backstory. There are hints that the doctor fiddles his patients' medical records with regards to electrocardiograms and blood samples. So we are teased as to how far the doctor will go to achieve his needs and desires. There's a small cast in this TV Movie so the story is sped through quickly. There's a policeman who is trailing a drug-addicted Vietnam veteran who both play their part economically in the story. My choice of the characters is Nurse Regis played by the matronly Reta Shaw with her throwaway lines. Her warnings that she doesn't trust doctors and that her dog Happy "howls every time we lose a patient" are delivered in a dry and dark and humorous way. I didn't see the end of the plot coming too far in advance so be prepared for some late twists and turns.

This is a good suspenseful mystery that grabbed me from the very beginning and never let me go. Sharon (Mala Powers) is seen at a rail station being given instructions to travel to San Francisco in the opening scene. She has a shock awaiting for her in her booked 4B sleeper compartment on the train when a man with a gun is waiting for her. A woman is lying on the floor who Sharon takes as being murdered. Sharon is knocked out by a heavy slug from a gun in the hands of the mysterious intruder. When she recovers consciousness, she undergoes a series of bizarre incidents starting with an arrest by a man calling himself a policeman. The mystery continues with reveal after reveal, only we can never be sure that any reveal is genuine. She enlists the help of a good samaritan in the guise of Paul Colbert (Jacques Bergerac). He manages to elicit some details of Sharon's past but it becomes obvious she isn't declaring everything. There are twists and turns in the story in which we get the impression that Sharon is being gaslit by individuals who are using information about her from her past. Mala Powers gives a good performance in this one and only release from Scaramouche Productions.

A woman is found strangled in a cheap hotel. Friday and Smith are puzzled by this because what the woman is wearing seems to belie this situation. Her coat and shoes and handbag are of expensive quality. A guy named Morgan volunteers information but the detectives doubt his reliability. Morgan claims to have known the murdered woman as Maude McLeod from her days in a circus. It does turn out that the woman was in the habit of changing her name and life story. Friday and Smith's investigation start to bear fruit when they trace the woman's recent history to a boarding house. There the landlady turns out to be a mine of information. She runs the boarding house for single women lodgers and keeps an eye on them for their protection. There's a good portrayal of the landlady by Helen Kleeb who later was the thin and bespectacled advertisement for Kelloggs Special K. Friday and Smith eventually trace the murderer and break them down quickly to send them away for life as in the true story.

The movie opens on a train where a mysterious Dr Valorius is sitting next to a woman who is finding the journey tedious. Valorious seems to be able to predict minor accidents caused by the jolting movement of the train. He boycotts timepieces and yet he knows the time precisely. He begins to relate a story to the woman that begins on a similar train journey as though he is recounting a past event. Next we witness a scuffle taking place on a darkened railway platform which doesn't allow us to identify those involved. Then we see a man called McFee giving a lift to a stranger by the name of Dunlap. Dunlap seems edgy and it's obvious he has a secret that is troubling him. The rest of the story takes place in and around a small town boarding house and it's various lodgers. There Dunlap is befriended by a boy who likes to secretly steal out at night. Dunlap seems to become worried by what the boy may have witnessed during one of the boy's nights out. This is a fairly suspenseful noir-mystery which is the one and only production by a company called M. R. S.

This is the 20th Lone Wolf movie from Columbia out of the 22 they made from 1917 to 1949. The Lone Wolf character is a retired jewel thief played here for the second time by Gerald Mohr. I think he plays well off Eric Blore as Jamison the manservant. At the beginning we see that Lone Wolf and Jamison have just booked into a hotel in Mexico City as they begin their vacation. Jamison is in a mutinous mood as he declares that it will not be a working holiday for him for their fortnight stay. They make a good pair of rogues as it never seems clear by their banter whether their professional relationship is based on crime detection or skulduggery. Eric Blore with his trademark petulant pout steals every scene with his roguish manner. He eyes Mrs Van Weir's rahjput stone pendant with longing as they sit together at a dining table at the El Paseo nightclub. Mrs Van Weir, played in great dowager style by Winifred Harris, is part of the select clientale who indulge in illegal gambling at the rear of the premises. She turns out to be heavily in gambling debts and the nightclub owner has a safe full of jewels that his indebted clientale are giving him to keep their gambling addictions alive. The murder of the roulette wheel croupier and the secret shenanigans of the clientale make for a good lively mystery for the Lone Wolf to investigate.

This is a pleasing animated movie from Argentina. It tells the story of a lonely and empathic urban cat who wanders in search of company. It begins in the sploshy rain-ridden streets of a city where the cat is watching TV in a shop window. Via a refuse-removal truck it finds itself along a trackway through the desert. At various moments the cat makes friends with an armadillo and a pygmy owl and a frenemy in the guise of remote service station guard dog. This short has some moments of pathos as the lone cat parts company with his fellow lost friends. But there are no really upsetting scenes so I feel it is OK for younger children. It has a good sense of environmental atmosphere with moments of storm and howling wind and desert tumbleweed blowing along. I liked the music by Daniel Soruco. There is little pieces of piano that accompanies the pathos and drama very well. Also a nice touch of a bandoneon tango accordion during the end credits.

This was meant to be the first film in a new crime detection series to replace the run of Ellery Queen movies by Columbia. But my guess is that they may have scuppered this idea by suggesting that Jess Arno, the lead character, was about to join the army in this story. Arno has turned private detective when we meet him as he springs Dolly Adair from a San Franciscan jail. Arno's girlfriend is supposed to prepare a beachside house at Sandhaven for Dolly so that the rehabilitated jailbird can be secreted away from reporters. June, the girlfriend in question, is livid that Arno is prepared to protect the "blonde menace" at his secret seaside hideaway. She sets up a practical joke with a 'murdered' wax blonde dummy at the house and deliberately forgets to have the electricity switched on. But a real murdered body turns up on the premises and then it disappears. So it's a good setup for this witty wartime mystery starring William Gargan as Arno and Margaret Lindsay as June. It also has the versatile Jerome Cowan as the chief suspect whose rich lady friend has gone missing. He is a singer at an upmarket dining place where Cowan underlines his versatility by singing a song with the appropriate tile of 'A Cottage By The Sea.' This is a good entertaining 66 minutes of comic-sinister shenanigans accompanied by the type of mysterioso music I always enjoy in these old movies.

This is the third version Fox made of John W. Vandercook's 'Murder in Trinidad' story. It stars James Dunn as a Brooklyn private eye called in to investigate the disappearance of treasure-hunting mineralogists on the island. There is an opening scene showing two of the treasure hunters being guided to a swamp which they believe holds pirate's treasure in it's depths. Two shots are heard offscreen so we suspect they are being murdered to keep them from searching the swamp. The action moves to a seedy hotel in San Juan where another murder takes place shortly after Smith arrives there. His investigation of this most-recent murder is made difficult because the murderer probably used a balcony that can be accessed from another 24 rooms in the hotel. An antique pirate's dagger is displayed on the wall of the bespectacled Colonel Lane's office where Smith had to report to at the start of his investigation. Smith takes a dislike to the sight of the dagger before the same or similar weapon is thrown towards him in a room he has been asked to visit at midnight. Smith is described as an oaf and a louse from Brooklyn in a role written specifically for James Dunn. It seems that Fox had Reed Hadley originally in mind for the lead role in this but he had to make do as one of the suspects after the script had been rewritten. I've seen the Mr Moto version of the story and I would really like to see if the Nigel Bruce 1934 turns up for me to complete my viewing of the three Fox versions.

The film opens with a thunderstorm as five people arrive at a spooky castle, all wondering if they are to inherit it. They are 'greeted' by Dr Bela Reinhart played with slow scornful menace by Ron Chaney of the monster-playing Chaney family. The guests are warned they will have to endure a thorough examination of their character in order for them to inherit. There is a long steady advance into the mystery as the guests try to fathom whether they truly do have a connection to the Reinhart family. The first hour is more like the 1930s mystery movie classics of 'The Old Dark House' and 'The Cat and the Canary' about family ties and inheritance. After the hour the old Universal monsters take charge starting with Ron Chaney's transformation into Wolfman. Michael R. Thomas, as Dracula, is particularly impressive in his last screen appearance. There is a creepy atmosphere throughout with some ghoulish characters in make-up. The two outstanding are Barlow the monstrous manservant, and the bedridden Vadoma reminding me of the ancient Femm character from 'The Old Dark House.' Fans of 'The Addams Family' and 'The Munsters' and possibly Scooby Doo may go for this although 'House of the Wolfman' is definitely not a spoof of old horror films. There is so much respect for old horror and mystery classics in this which faithfully observes the details of those old movies.

I was so pleased to see this hour-long documentary made at the time the 1994 Lassie movie was being made. It is hosted by the amazingly prolific June Lockhart now in her 97th year and still doing a bit of voice acting. She played Ruth Martin in the 1958-1964 TV Lassie series and had appeared as Priscilla in the 1845 movie 'Son of Lassie.' We get to see choice scenes from the MGM Lassie films with Margaret O'Brien and Elizabeth Taylor and Roddy McDowall. Roddy McDowall mentions the propaganda value of the first two Lassie films made in wartime. The original Lassie was played by a male rough collie called Pal. We hear Pal's markings became the prescribed look that all Lassie dog actors had to have in the years since. Pal earnt a lot of money for MGM so he got to be centre stage for MGM's 1949 group of stars photo shoot. But by 1951 wanted to ditch the Lassie films and offered to pay off the dog's owner and trainer, Rudd Weatherwax. He refused the $40,000 MGM were offering and instead asked for the trademark rights of the Lassie character. Family movies moved to TV a lot after 1951 and we get to see the various TV Lassies and hear the actors' stories of those lovely times.

I have to admit this is the first film version I have seen of this classic children's adventure story. Country boy Emil is sent to stay with his grandma in London for a while. He carries £6 worth of his mother's hard-earned money as he boards a train to take him to Charing Cross. He is left alone in on of the rail compartments with a stranger who has been telling all sorts of weird stories of what London has in store for a boy visiting London. George Hayes gives a mesmerizing and creepy performance as the stranger in the bowler hat. His characterization is a good example of the ideal children's adventure villain. He is polite and precise but with a sinister smile that should have warned Emil not to trust him. In London Emil is joined by a chummy horde of boys all eager to help track down the man in the bowler hat. This movie gives some indication of how English lads of the 1930s behaved and of their interests in play. I noted the presence of push scooters that are now back in fashion as the most convenient way to get to school by many. Allan Gray's music is a superb accompaniment to the action with it's various themes of mysterioso and whimsy and adventure-gallop at the appropriate moments of this movie.

A dog leash hanging on a hook in a home without a dog immediately reveals the sadness a boy feels for the loss of the dog he has loved. Owen is not allowed to have a replacement dog because of his sister's allergy to dog fur. So his need to care for a dog is shown when he needs to save a dog being used to smuggle flawless stolen diamonds. The comic trio of crooks who want to secrete the diamonds enter the story. Although very discreet with the diamonds they have a conspicuous get-away car of pink and white with a backfiring exhaust. Then there is the mystique of a mad mountain man who we can't be too sure is just a figment of Own's imagination. We're yearning for the hermit's backstory but mention of him is kept to a minimum until his role in the story is revealed. A number of the characters in the film didn't really qualify as necessary and I could actually done without them. I say this because I was feeling fatigued towards the end of the film and would have welcomed a shorter running time. But it is a nice movie with some heart-warming moments between Owen and the dog which he names Diamond. The crooks have some funny moments, my first choice of which is the head of the gang Blackie disguised as a blind nun wearing lipstick.

Nick needs a new guardian while his dad is in a coma so he is passed into the hands of his eccentric aunt. Debra Kurts plays Aunt Edna who talks to a doll called Diana. I enjoyed her performance and that of Julie Chapin who plays a kindly widow called Mrs Goldstein. Nick is forced to stay in an outhouse, at Aunt Edna's, where he finds a pair of magical glasses that enable him to see dead people and talk to them. There is also a stage psychic called Friskin who is naturally interested in the ability Nick has acquired. People who enjoy 'ParaNorman' may like this one and also youngsters going through a goth phase. There are some whacky moments with Nick's grotesque ghost crew of friends. A cemetery ghost teaches Nick martial arts so he won't get bullied so much. Nick gets called Harry Potter and the glasses do give him the appearance of that character. There is a nice sentimental piece about Nick's pet kitten which he finds in a cemetery. The version I saw only had a running time of 74 minutes which I find just right.

Harold Shillman had been a good reputable cop but who had then turned to drink. When the mystery opens he has become an unlicensed private investigator taking on a job to find somebody's wife. That job changes after he tracks down the wife and there is an investigation with a possibility of it being a murder one case. This mystery progresses at a leisurely pace where we continually learn of peoples' past lives. Gradually some of those lives merge with each other to form a baffling intrigue. Robert Mitchum with his weary-sounding baritone voice is Shillman who has lost a lot of his confidence. He befriends a nice easy going woman called Faye (Angie Dickinson) who tries to give him back his manly confidence. She has a couple of ex husbands who pimp their way through life. Mel Ferrer plays Charnock who employs Shillman and Jose Perez is a Cuban-born detective. So a good cast and there are number of characters whose motives we cannot be sure of. The turning point comes when Shillman becomes really interested in the case for himself which brings him alive to start thinking like a cop gain to go on and solve the mystery.