THIRTY DAY PRINCESS (1934)

In the kingdom of Taronia, American banker Richard Gresham has a chance meeting with King Anatol XII at a mud bath. Anatol is searching for a solution to the country's economic woes. Gresham agrees to set up a $50 million bond loan, but he says the country needs to initiate a major public relations campaign in the United States to get enthusiastic backing. Anatol sends his daughter Princess Zizzi who is happy to leave the country for a while as she is engaged to Prince Nicholaus, a man she doesn't love. Upon her arrival in the States, shepherded by Gresham, Zizzi faints while being introduced to the press. Gresham says she is exhausted, but it turns out she has the mumps and can't travel. A small team of investigators is sent out on the streets of New York to hunt for a young woman who resembles Zizzi to take her place on the PR tour. Meanwhile, penniless actress Nancy Lane, who looks exactly like the princess, steals a sandwich from an automat. When she is accosted by two men, she thinks they're police but they are really Gresham's men. Gresham offers her $10,000 to pose as the princess for a month, and a bonus if she can pull off one extra twist. Newspaper publisher Porter Madison III has been running stories opposing the bond loan, so Nancy is expected to do some extracurricular work and charm Madison into backing the loan. The tour is a success as is Nancy's charm offensive with Porter. Meanwhile, complications pile up. An actor who knows Nancy recognizes her as Zizzi; Nancy's landlord suspects that Nancy has been kidnapped; the drippy Nicholaus shows up in the States, catches on to the ruse, and plants suspicions in Porter's mind. This being a forerunner to the screwball comedy genre, we know happy endings are in store.

Sylvia Sidney, not known for comedy, is the reason to watch this. She is charismatic and energetic in the dual role of Zizzi and Nancy (pictured above in both roles). Edward Arnold does a fine job as Gresham; given his persona in other films and the fact that he's playing a banker during the Depression, we might expect him to be unlikable (he tells Anatol, "We don't boast about being bankers these days; we're all in the doghouse!") but he's almost as appealing as Sidney. Reliable character actor Henry Stephenson is fun in the small role of the King (he does get to reappear briefly at the end) and Vince Barnett is fine as Nicholaus. The script is fairly solid and the repartee fun. The only minus is, surprisingly, Cary Grant as Porter. His character is one-dimensional—we don't even know why he is against the loan—and Grant seems uncomfortable in the role, never quite finding his footing. This was still early in his career, and he was apparently not happy to take the part in the first place and I think that shows a bit. There is a very amusing scene at a party where a slightly drunken Sidney starts toasting the past kings of Taronia, leading the partygoers to smash drinking glasses with each toast. An amusing trifle which Sidney makes worth watching. [TCM]

CHARLIE CHAN IN THE SECRET SERVICE (1944)

Detective Charlie Chan is currently in Washington D.C, engaged in wartime service for the government. Melton, an inventor working on a bomb that will be effective against German U-boats, opens a closet door during a cocktail party and drops dead, and his plans go missing. A secretive master spy named Manlich is suspected and Chan is on the case. Among the suspects: a wealthy matron, a war refugee, an unpopular economist, and a brother and sister pair; he uses a wheelchair but we discover that he can get around without it if need be. Two Secret Service agents are also present, as are Chan's son Tommy and daughter Iris who want to help out but, as usual, are mostly in Dad's way, despite extolling themselves as "hip cats of the younger generation." It's discovered that Melton was killed by a set-up that electrocuted him when he grabbed the closet light chain. But who did it and where are the plans?  Though the title promises adventure, this is basically an old dark house mystery set in a house that is not dark enough to generate much atmosphere.

This is the first in a series of seventeen Charlie Chan films made by Poverty Row studio Monogram Pictures after 20th Century Fox ended their series. The phrase Poverty Row is a bit misleading. Basically, these studios made low budget B-films which often wound up as second features to A-films from bigger studios. The films are not necessarily poor in quality, as the word "poverty" might imply, but their cheaper budgets are in evidence. In this film, the bland sets, the stark lighting, the haphazard plotting, and a lack of star talent are all marks of a Monogram production. However, there is still Sidney Toler as Chan to help make the movie worth watching, though I also think this is the beginning of Toler's decline. For the first time, Chan seemed to be getting old. Toler turned 70 the year this film was released—his pace is slower and he seems less invested in the role, understandably perhaps as this is his twelfth outing as Chan. (It's noted in this movie that Chan has 14 children which could be a reason for the character's weariness.) Benson Fong made his first of six appearances in the series as Tommy. One other character is introduced who would appear in most of the Chan films that followed: the Black chauffeur Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland, pictured with Toler above). Here, he works for the wealthy matron; in his next film, he's Chan’s taxi driver, and later, Chan would hire him as a valet. The comic relief antics of Birmingham, usually in conjunction with whatever Chan son was present, are high points of the films. He introduces his trademark "Good gracious me!" remark here, often uttered almost directly to the camera. I admit the identity of the killer was a surprise to me. No one in the lackluster supporting cast is worth pointing out. [DVD]

COMMANDO CODY: SKY MARSHAL OF THE UNIVERSE (1953 serial)

Mr. Henderson, government official "in charge of all operations in outer space," is at Commando Cody's office and meets Cody's new assistants Ted and Joan, who have been hired to work on a top secret project: an atomic powered rocket ship capable of reaching any planet in the solar system. (I was pleased to see more security here than in the previous Cody serial RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON; in fact, Cody now wears a domino mask to hide his identity. Also, who the hell appointed Cody "sky marshal of the universe," which seems to be an official title?) When missiles were being fired at Earth from outer space, Cody developed a "radioactive cosmic dust layer" which was put in place above our planet to burn up any object heading toward Earth. As we later learn, a robed villain called The Ruler is creating this havoc from his headquarters on Venus, with some help from a band of henchmen on Earth. Cody has created a dispersal ray that allows his rocket to pass through the dust layer, and the bulk of this serial involves the Ruler's attempts to get his ships through the dust to invade. Over the twelve chapters, Cody and his team have to face an earth-melting ray (using footage from KING OF THE ROCKET MEN), destructive floods, germ warfare weapons, a lumbering robot, explosions intended to knock the moon out of its orbit, climate changes, hydrogen hurricanes, and a trip to visit the Queen of Mercury (!) before their final showdown with the Ruler. 

First, let's deal with the Cody character problem. Though the same Rocket Man suit is used in four Republic serials (ROCKET MEN, RADAR MEN, ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE, and this one), only this and RADAR have a hero named Commando Cody, and he's played by two different actors. Here, he’s Judd Holdren who played Rocket Man Larry Martin in ZOMBIES. I like to think of all of them as Cody, but technically they're not, or depending on your viewpoint, technically they are. Next, there's the definition problem: is this really a serial? It was shot to be a 12-episode television show, but contractual problems obligated Republic to release it in theaters as a serial first. Later, it was shown on television during the summer of 1955. Some serials fans maintain that this is not really a serial, mostly because there are no cliffhangers—each episode is more or less self-contained, though there is an overarching arc story. (And the last two episodes are more directly linked.) My opinion: of course it's a serial. It was one long narrative shown in weekly chapters in theaters; the chapters are numbered and titled, though the word 'chapter' is not used onscreen. 

How does it stand up to the other Rocket Man serials? Even though I sometimes complain about cliffhangers—their predictability, their cheating visuals—I admit I miss their presence here. There are cliffhanger moments at the ends of some chapters, continuing characters, and plenty of fistfights. The sets are pretty much the same as in the other films, as is, of course, Cody's flight suit. Judd Holdren is at a bit of a disadvantage in the domino mask but I guess he's heroic enough. Aline Towne (Joan) was in three of the other serials and, as always, has little to do. Willam Schallert as Ted is surprisingly tentative and low energy. After a break in filming between chapters 3 and 4 (to film ZOMBIES), he was replaced by Richard Crane (as Dick, pictured at top left with Towne and Holdren), handsome and energetic, and well versed at decent comic relief (he played space ranger Rocky Jones in a 1954 TV show). Many episodes end with a sort of punch line delivered by Crane, my favorite being one in which he fantasizes about using the Ruler as a houseboy and having him whipped. Crane is definitely a plus. Gregory Gaye (The Ruler) has little to do except give orders to his thugs. He's pictured at right with Gloria Pall, credited only as The Moon Girl.

Our heroes have to face some interesting situations. One involves a second sun appearing in the sky (then a third and a fourth), causing Earth temperatures to skyrocket. In the following chapter, the Ruler puts our planet into a tilt, aligned with Saturn, causing the threat of a new Ice Age in the Northern Hemisphere. In addition to the Venus HQ (the same sets used by the villains in the other serials), the moon, Saturn and Mercury are involved in plotlines. The good guys use "insignia radios" pinned to their outfits to communicate. The bad guys use a huge machine which decodes secret messages from the Ruler to the chief Earth baddie (Lyle Talbot in a thankless and repetitive role). Of the three Rocket Man actors, I think I still like George Wallace (RADAR MEN) the best. I did miss the rough-and-ready feel of the other Republic serials—to call this production glossy is misleading, but it is on the shiny and clean side—but it’s fun to watch. [Blu-ray]

PLAYING AROUND (1930)

On his ship, Blackbeard the pirate is about to engage in a fight with a rival when a chorus line appears, a woman begins singing, and the camera pulls back to reveal that we are watching an elaborate production number called "You're My Captain Kidd" in a nightclub called the Pirate's Den. At a side table, low-level gangster Nickey Solomon (Chester Morris) is asked by the club's owner to judge a women's leg contest called the Pageant of Knees just as young Jack (William Bakewell) brings his long-time gal Sheba (Alice White) in for dinner. Jack is shocked at the prices—for a drink, he wants her to order buttermilk because it's the cheapest thing on the menu—and wants to leave, but Sheba enters the Pageant. Nickey chooses her as the winner and instead of giving a speech, she sings a song. Jack, a soda jerk who works for her father at a tobacco store, remains irritated the entire evening, but Nickey decides he's going to get her attention, and when the couple leaves, Sheba is impressed by Nickey's fancy car (with a goofy air-horn sounding horn that Nickey uses frequently and obnoxiously). The next day as Sheba tries to hail a taxi, Nickey pulls up and she hops right in. Angry at Jack partly because he hasn't asked for a raise, she starts going around Nickey, and doesn't care what Jack thinks about it. One night Nickey takes her out for a spaghetti dinner. Despite his fine clothes and lounge lizard manner, Nickey doesn't have the three dollars to pay for their meal, so he finagles it out of the diner owner, and even gets a hundred extra bucks to take Sheba out to see George White's Scandals on Broadway. Jack is waiting at her dad's apartment (where Sheba lives) to talk to her, but midnight rolls around and she is still out, giving Jack the occasion for the movie's best line, "Midnight doesn't mean anything to Sheba since she started skating around with this new sheik!" Eventually Jack is all washed up with Sheba, who accepts a proposal of marriage from Nickey, but needing more money, Nickey robs the cigar store and shoots the employee who is, unknown to Nickey, Sheba's dad. Jack witnesses the shooting and though he didn't see Nickey's face, he heard Nickey's car horn right afterward. Now can he get the police to believe that Nickey is guilty?

This very early talkie, shot in 1929, highlights the best and worst of that short era. There are some impressively fluid camera shots, including the opening pull-back into the club and a later scene when Sheba goes running for a taxi, but the acting is stiff with actors still not comfortable with sound. (A silent version was produced but may not have been distributed widely.) Worst is the leading lady, Alice White, who doesn't deliver a single line with anything like depth or meaning. William Bakewell, playing a sort of juvenile role as the innocent pup who is always in the middle of a mild hissy fit, is only slightly better, but as peeved is his default emotion, he got on my nerves by the halfway point of the movie. Chester Morris, who was in his heyday (he was nominated for an Oscar for ALIBI that same year), is much better, but he doesn't display the slightly oily charm that would serve him well in other early talkies, and it's difficult to see what Sheba sees in him besides his nice clothes and slicked-back hair. The only other substantial part is Sheba's father, played competently by Richard Carlyle. A couple of other fun lines: Jack to Sheba, when she expresses sorrow that she failed to see through Nickey's facade: "Women can't be expected to judge human nature like us men"; Sheba referring to herself as "becoming a big league girl"; Sheba's insult to Jack, "Don't be an eggnog!" (I'm dying to use that one myself). Directed a bit unevenly by Mervyn LeRoy who would go on to a long career at MGM. Pictured are White and Bakewell. [TCM]

THE TROJAN HORSE (1961)

We're nine years into the fabled Trojan War, nine years after Paris from Troy abducted Helen from Sparta, and the Geeks have held Troy under siege since then. The Greek hero Achilles (I'll be including place name adjectives just to keep things clear for myself) has killed the Trojan hero Hector and disrespectfully dragged the body in the dirt behind his chariot. Aeneas, who has brought a wounded soldier back to Troy, believes that this war over Helen has dragged on far too long. When he is told that Helen is a symbol of Troy's prestige and glory, he replies "Helen is our gravedigger," which is hard to dispute. King Priam learns that Hector's body is to be left for the vultures, and decides to go to the Greeks to ask for the body. Aeneas plans to join him, but Paris, a bit of a passive jerk, is jealous of the respect that Aeneas has built up in Troy, so he orders Aeneas not to go, but Priam insists. At the Greek camp, Priam is given Hector's body, but in order to get Hector's weapons to give to his widow Andromache, Aeneas has to fight the Greek strongman Ajax. Aeneas wins, a victory which just adds to Paris's jealousy. Paris sends Aeneas off to build up an army, then sends his sister Creusa, pregnant by Aeneas, to Greece as a hostage to be held for a temporary truce. The Greek king Agamemnon also asks for chariots, gold, and a large quantity of wood for building purposes. If you've read Virgil (or have seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail), you know what's coming. Aeneas and his troops battle the Greeks, with Paris shooting an arrow into the Achilles' heel, killing him. The Greeks retreat, leaving behind a giant wooden horse, supposedly built to honor the god Poseidon. Priam's daughter Cassandra, known as a seer, warns that the horse contains the seeds of Troy's destruction, but it is brought into the walled city anyway. As we know, inside the horse is a group of Greek warriors, led by Menelaus (the legit husband of Helen), who, late at night, break out of the horse, set fire to the city, open the gates, and let in the Greek troops who wreak total destruction.

Despite having read some Virgil and Homer in my youth, I've never been clear about the Trojan War, but this adventure film presents its climax in a way that is easy to understand, even as it leaves out any mention of the meddling Greek gods. The budget for this peplum must have been higher than average, with spectacular sets, decent battle scenes, and huge numbers of extras—you often see the phrase "a cast of thousands" used in publicity for these kinds of films, and in this case, I'd believe it. The director, Giorgio Ferroni, made several sword-and-sandal movies (though his real classic is the small scale horror film MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN. He is clearly in his element here. Barry Atkinson, peplum expert, considers this film to be superior to the Brad Pitt TROY from 2004. The horse is impressive and the climactic fall of Troy is particularly well handled. Acting, rarely a strong area in peplum films, is adequate here. It's a little strange to have muscled hero Steve Reeves playing a character who doesn't prevail (Aeneas), though he does escape the destruction at the end and goes off with others to help found Rome. Actually, except for Paris, there really are no traditional peplum heroes and villains—there is good and bad in the actions of both populations. John Drew Barrymore has the relatively small role of Ulysses; Mimmo Palmara makes an impression in his few minutes as Ajax. For the record, Edy Vessel is Helen and Warner Bentivegna is Paris. The print I watched on YouTube is widescreen and in pretty good shape. Pictured are Palmara and Reeves. [YouTube]

CHARLIE CHAN AT MONTE CARLO (1937)

Detective Charlie Chan and his oldest son Lee are in Monte Carlo on their way to Paris where Lee is exhibiting a painting. French policeman Joubert is happy to (literally) run into them and takes them to the casino where he points out Savarin and Karnoff, bitter enemies in business as well as gambling. Gordon Chase, secretary to Karnoff, reveals to Joan, Gordon’s sister and Karnoff’s wife, that $25,000 of metallurgic bonds (the movie's MacGuffins) are missing, and he knows she took them to get out of some trouble. The problem is that Karnoff is sending his bonds by messenger to Paris in a deal to dump them and wreck Savarin. That night, the messenger is found dead in his car on the way to the airport, the bonds gone. Evelyn, Savarin's mistress, was seen near the car and falls under suspicion as does Savarin and, eventually, Al Rogers, a bartender at the casino to whom Joan was selling the bonds. Al also happens to be Joan's secret husband, separated but never divorced. Joubert gets Chan to help him track down the killer. This is the last Chan movie starring Warner Oland, who passed away just months after its release, and it's par for the course. The business with the bonds gets convoluted but the supporting actors make it fun to stick with. Oland and Keye Luke (as Lee) are the central attraction, of course, but just as good are Harold Huber, giving a pleasantly light-toned performance as Joubert, and Sidney Blackmer as Karnoff who walks a nice line between likable and suspicious. Robert Kent is handsome but bland as Gordon; George Lynn as Al is a standout, displaying a bit more personality than Kent in a smaller but important role. Virginia Field as Evelyn and Kay Linaker as Joan are almost interchangeable but they both give adequate performances. Sometimes the reveal of the killer is disappointing if it's a minor character with little screen time but here the reveal is surprising and satisfying. Pictured are Lynn and Linaker. [DVD]

MERRILY WE GO TO HELL (1932)

At a cocktail party, Joan (Sylvia Sidney), a young heiress who escapes to the balcony to avoid a masher, meets Jerry (Fredric March), a drunk reporter who really wants to write plays and who is still not quite over his previous relationship. They hit it off and she invites him to a party at her home the next day, but he arrives so late that everyone else has left. Joan’s father isn’t impressed with Jerry, and when he proposes to Joan, Dad offers Jerry $50,000 to leave her alone. The bribe doesn’t work, and at the engagement party, Jerry shows up late and very drunk. Despite the warning signs, the wedding occurs. For a time, Jerry gives up drinking and manages to write a play. It is accepted for production, but the leading lady is Jerry’s ex, Claire. On opening night, Jerry flirts a bit with Claire, gets very drunk, and back home as he passes out, calls Joan Claire. Her father calls Joan a doormat, and indeed Jerry puts the onus on Joan for stopping him from having an affair with Claire. Joan starts doing a fair amount of drinking herself, and surprisingly, at a party, Joan announces that they should have a modern marriage: “Single lives, twin beds, and triple bromides in the morning,” and she leaves with Charlie, a friend of the couple. The rest of the film is predictably melodramatic, with separation, a pregnancy, and a rushed and ambiguous ending that can be read as either hopeful or depressing.

The "modern marriage" aspect of this film seems to have been at least partly inspired by 1930's THE DIVORCEE in which Norma Shearer suggests a similar arrangement, though she goes farther by kicking her husband out of her love life. But this pre-Code romantic melodrama adds the complication of alcoholism, and at one point, it feels like it's anticipating the 1950s DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES about a couple who both fall into drink. That plot strand is dropped when Joan discovers she's pregnant and stops drinking. If you're familiar with domestic melodramas of the 1930s, there will be few surprises in how this plot plays out, though the ending is not exactly straightforwardly "happy." [Spoiler: while separated, Joan has the baby—Jerry hears about it from a newspaper column—but there are complications that leave the baby dead and Joan very ill. Jerry shows up demanding to see her, and in her delirium she has been calling for him. They are reconciled in the hospital room, but we are not necessarily confident that enough has changed for them to work things out.] The lead actors, as directed by Dorothy Arzner, are very good. Sidney does not, in fact, act like a doormat most of the time; despite her petite frame, she is strong and solid. March is especially good at being both charming and (sometimes) repellent, and his drunk scenes are not overdone, possibly thanks to Arzner's direction. The supporting cast is adequate, though no one is given the opportunity to shine. Skeets Gallagher is fine as a peppy pal of Jerry's and Cary Grant, in a very early role, has the small part of Charlie. Given the focus on drinking and extramarital sex, this could not have been made after the Production Code went into effect in 1934. The title comes from a snarky farewell greeting of Jerry's that grows more ominous throughout the movie. Pictured are March and Sidney. [TCM]

ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE (1952 serial)

Larry Martin is an inventor and scientist who has a jetpack that allows him to fly through the air (and therefore, according to the government, he's an expert on interplanetary affairs). G-man Steele asks him and his assistants Bob and Sue to investigate the appearance in the skies of an alien spacecraft. We see it land and Martians (with pale skin and tight sparkly jumpsuits) disembark. With help from some hired earthling thugs, they transport materials to the home of Prof. Harding who is being blackmailed to help the Martians. The population of Mars is dying off due to the thinning of the atmosphere, so the Martian plan is to set off an H-bomb explosion strong enough to send Earth spinning out of its orbit and allow Mars to take its place closer to the sun. But the Martians, led by Marex and his underling Narab, still need to get their hands on materials to finish building the bomb. In the way of Republic serials, most of the twelve chapters feature attempts at robbery (of both uranium and cash to get more uranium) and mayhem that Larry and Bob—and Sue in the unlikely event that she's around—try to thwart. Marex has a headquarters in a cave that can only be accessed by an underwater passage from another cave, so get ready for lots of scenes of Martians and humans going slowly back and forth underwater from one ladder to another, and at least one underwater fight scene. A remote control robot is used by the bad guys to pull off a bank robbery and to threaten our heroes, but nothing can keep the heroic Larry down for long.

This is the third of Republic's four Rocket Man serials. All the heroes have the same rocket suit (and the same plain office with an electronic grid along one wall so at least once in each serial someone will fall against it and get fried, or nearly so) but most have different names. The first was Jeff King (KING OF THE ROCKET MEN), and this movie came after RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON which featured George Wallace as Commando Cody; here, it's Judd Holdren as Larry Martin, but he's Cody in all but name. The generally accepted reason: ZOMBIES was planned as a Cody serial, but when Republic signed up to produce a Cody TV show, they had to change this guy's name, picking the blandest name possible. Holdren does get to be an official Commando Cody for the TV show which also became the fourth serial. Despite a great title, this is the least of the four serials in quality. Part of it might be that the shots of the Rocket Man leaping in the air, flying, and landing, which were very effective in the first movie, are used over and over again in each succeeding serial and come to feel tired. Judd Holdren is more emphatically heroic than Wallace was, but I miss Wallace's somewhat quirkier personality. The always drab and interchangeable sidekicks are particularly drab here: Aline Judge, who was Joan in RADAR, is Sue; Wilson Wood, who had a small part in RADAR, is upgraded to play Bob. Lane Bradford is oddly mild-mannered as Marex but his performance works; Leonard Nimoy, the future Mr. Spock, is in many scenes as Narab but only has a few lines of dialogue, though he gets to shine (sort of) in the final chapter. John Crawford is a standout as Roth, one of the main thugs, and he even gets a chapter heading summary card to himself (see right). One cliffhanger involves a runaway coal car which may have influenced the similar scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. In another cliffhanger, everyone's guns run out of bullets at the same time.  The fight scenes are, as par for the course for Republic and their stable of stunt men, pretty good. There is a lot of stock footage used from earlier serials (even from a western). Despite being watchable, this was still a disappointment for me as it just didn't live up to the cool title. The 70 minute condensed version is reviewed here. Pictured at top left are Nimoy and Bradford. [Blu-ray]

HERCULES AND THE TYRANTS OF BABYLON (1964)

3000 years ago, Babylon was ruled by a triumvirate of three siblings: Salman Osar is the bald, goateed sinister-looking brother; Azzur is the older, bearded, and slightly wiser brother; Taneal is the sexy sister who looks out only for herself. They build up their state laborers by having their army capture citizens of surrounding lands to be slaves, and among a batch of newly acquired female slaves is rumored to be Esperia, Queen of the Hellenes, though she hasn't yet been identified. The brutal Salman Osar just wants to have his way with her; Azzur wants to marry her for diplomatic reasons; Taneal wants her dead, seeing her as a threat. Then Phaleg, the king of Assyria, presents himself to the Babylonian rulers and gives them heaps of riches in exchange for all their female slaves. He claims to want them to repopulate Assyria but he really just wants Esperia. But the rulers are upset by reports that one man is acting as a protector to vulnerable folks in the region. Sure enough, legendary muscle man Hercules is doing said protecting, and we see him single-handedly stop a raiding party by tossing huge boulders at the soldiers from the hills. But Hercules is also on a personal mission: to save Esperia, who is apparently his mistress, from both slavery and forced marriage. 

Despite its lackluster title, this is one of the better sword and sandal movies of the peplum era. It has a strong and clear narrative, decent acting, a muscular lead, attractive women, and a couple of nice battle scenes. Hercules is played by Peter Lupus (pictured), a bodybuilder and actor best known for his role in the original Mission Impossible TV series (and credited here as Rock Stevens). He has a very impressive body and his acting is a notch above most other muscleman actors; he's good in most of the fight scenes as well (he kicks ass and takes names), though no one could have brought any sense of realism to the silly boulder-tossing scenes—he's better when tossing people and using weapons. Helga Liné is very good as Taneal; Anna Maria Poloni, as Esperia, is attractive but remains a flat character, and Taneal's role is stronger. Two scenes stand out. One, a riff on the famous "I am Spartacus!" scene has the female slaves tied to stakes in the boiling sun, and when asked which one is the queen, they all start yelling, "I am the queen!" The other is a battle between Hercules and three champions which is supposed to be for show until Herc discovers that one of the champion's clubs is actually a spiked mace. Finally, a point I've touched on in previous posts. It is difficult to separate the relative worth of a movie (in terms of recommending it to others) from the experience of watching it. This, like so many peplum films, was shot in widescreen but is generally only available in a pan-and-scan print (or, even worse, a squeezed distorted print), and it's usually not in very good shape. This one is good enough for me to consider watching it again if it shows up in a clean, widescreen presentation. [DVD]

CHARLIE CHAN IN HONOLULU (1938)

It looks like I have given myself two summer projects for my blog. One is to get through a backlog of serials I have been watching over the past few months, starting with the Republic Rocket Man serials. The other is rewatching some of the classic era Charlie Chan movies, occasioned by my finally catching up on the later Chan films with Roland Winters. The generally accepted Charlie Chan film canon consists of over forty films made between 1931 and 1949. Three different actors played Chan. The first and best known is Warner Oland; after his death, Sidney Toler took over, followed by Winters. Because the Oland movies are generally better known and remain fresher in my memory, I'll probably focus on the Toler films with a few Olands sprinkled in here and there. HONOLULU, the first Chan movie made after Oland died, is Sidney Toler's first. Die-hard Oland fans don’t care much for Toler, but honestly, I don't see a great deal of difference between them. Toler is a little feistier and, in his first few films, a bit lighter on his feet than Oland, and of course, both are portly non-Asian actors done up in varying degrees in yellowface elements. I give a slight nod to Oland just because his films at Fox are generally of a higher budget—many of the later Toler films, done for B-movie studio Monogram, suffer from a lower budget. 

Chan is a globe-trotting detective throughout the film series, but his home base was Hawaii and, appropriately for a new beginning, this is set in Honolulu, with the opening scene showing Chan eating dinner with his large family. His oldest son Lee is away at art school but his #2 son Jimmy is adamant about following in his pop's footsteps as a detective. Son-in-law Wing arrives with news of the imminent birth of Charlie's first grandchild, so most of the clan heads to the hospital, but Jimmy takes a phone call meant for his father to investigate a murder on a freighter. Claiming to be Charlie, Jimmy, accompanied by his younger brother Tommy, heads to the docks. Among the passengers who are being detained on the ship: a bank secretary who was supposed to deliver $300,000 in cash to the murdered man, a psychiatrist who pretends to be hard of hearing and who claims to have a live brain in his luggage (and because he's played by George Zucco in mad doctor mode, we believe he might), a rich widow, an animal keeper who is guarding a large shipment of zoo animals in the hold, and a San Francisco cop who is transporting a handcuffed criminal. Eventually, Tommy is exposed just as the group is about to dump him in the drink, but his dad arrives in time to save his son and take over the case. Chan soon discovers that few of the people on the ship, perhaps even the crew members, are what they claim to be, but Chan eventually gathers all the suspects in a room and reveals the killer and the motive. This one is enjoyable, with Victor Sen Yung (pictured with Toler) making his first appearance as Jimmy Chan; he went on to do eighteen Chan movies, though in the later entries with Roland Winters, his name was Tommy. George Zucco is always a welcome face and he keeps us on our toes here—is he an insane bad guy or a goofy good guy? John King is the possible love interest for the secretary (Phyllis Brooks), assuming that she is cleared of suspicion. The entire supporting cast is solid, including Richard Lane, Marc Lawrence, Robert Barratt, and Philip Ahn. At times, the film threatens to approach the pace of a screwball comedy, and it generally works. [DVD]

RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON (1952 serial)

There has been a series of explosions of unknown origin, generated with atomic power, destroying military and industrial properties. Government agent Henderson seeks help from Commando Cody, a civilian research scientist whose main claim to fame is the jetpack outfit that allows him to fly in the air. Atomic activity has been observed on the moon, so Cody, with his associates Ted and Joan (and a pilot named Hank whom we don't see much of) head up there in his experimental rocket, wearing their street clothes, to see what's what. They find Retik, ruler of a small populace living in a city (with architecture out of ancient Rome), making plans for a full-scale invasion of Earth due to the thinning out of the moon’s atmosphere (with the moon landscape, complete with clouds, looking like that of California). Retik has been using a powerful atomic ray gun to cause the destruction on Earth and Cody pumps nitrous oxide into Retik's lair to knock everyone out so he can steal the ray gun, which is powered by the moon element lunarium. They don't get it and head back to Earth where they are set upon by Krog, Retik's chief underling, his henchman Graber, and a handful of thugs. What follows is a series of chapters involving Krog using robbery to get funds, Cody going back to the moon to get some lunarium, and Retik eventually coming to Earth himself to ensure his plans are fulfilled. Of course, they're not, and despite atomic ray guns and earth-melting weapons, it's old-fashioned guns and fistfights (and the jetpacks) that help Cody beat the moon men.

This is a quasi-sequel to KING OF THE ROCKET MEN, using the same jetpack and some of the same sets and effects (like the flying scenes and the melting earth), but with a different lead character, as Commando Cody (George D. Wallace, pictured) replaces Jeff King. ROCKET MEN is probably the better movie with a more diverse repertory of characters and cliffhangers, though this one has space travel and a more interesting lead actor. Wallace is a bit doughy looking and sometimes overarticulates his lines, but both his looks and his delivery grew on me. He has an air of confidence that inspires his cohorts. The rest of the actors are nothing special. William Bakewell makes little impression as Ted; Aline Judge is a little better as Joan, but she has to remain subservient. When Cody questions why she should join them on the trip to the moon, she replies that someone has to make their meals, right? Later, as they leave the moon, the first thing she does in the ship is to get coffee for everyone. Both main villains (dumpy men in long robes) inspire little fear, though Clayton Moore (later TV's Lone Ranger) is effective as Graber, the only henchman to survive to the end. Roy Barcroft as Retik is incredibly bland. The best fisticuffs scene isn't on the moon, but in Al's Cafe back on Earth. Like ROCKET MEN, this has an ill-fitting title; men from the moon (who look every bit like slow, stocky earthlings) are present, but I don't remember anything about radar coming up. A 100-minute condensed version put together for TV in the 1960s, RETIK THE MOON MENACE, crams in a surprisingly good amount of the plot—one entire chapter of RADAR is a recap episode—though I must admit that the constant action with little downtime wears one down. Still, watching RETIK might be the way to go if you have a low tolerance for serials. Also known as Rocket Man 2. [Blu-ray]

KING OF THE JUNGLE (1933)

The Knolls family gets a permit to go into lion country in Kenya on a photographic safari. When lions attack their camp, the parents are killed but their 5-year-old son survives and is raised by a lion family as if he were a cub. Years later, he's all grown-up, wearing a loincloth and living with the lions (whom he communicates with by roaring) and sometimes protecting them. We pick the story up again as a rancher (Douglas Dumbrille) is trying to ward off attacks by lions on his cattle—the lions are starving due to drought and desperate for food. Crabbe sneaks onto his property and lets the cattle loose for the lions to feast on. Hunter Robert Barrat, who is looking to trap some lions to sell to circus manager Sidney Toler, tells Dumbrille that it was probably the work of the rumored Lion Man. They set up their own trap for the lions and manage to bag a handful, and the Lion Man as well. Sent to the States, Crabbe jumps off the ship as it comes into the harbor, gets to land, jumps through the first suburban dining room window he sees, and starts eating off the freshly set plates. He is discovered by Frances Dee who wants to help him, but her friend calls the police and Crabbe is taken back to Toler. Dee winds up accompanying him and becomes a friend, teacher, and confidante (and perhaps a romantic interest, though that is mostly downplayed). At the circus, Toler ends up putting Crabbe on salary and featuring him in a lion taming act and he's a hit—as he also is with some of the female members of the circus troupe. He tells Dee that his plan is to make enough money to buy the lions and take them back to Kenya. Things go sideways when a hired hand (Warner Richmond) taunts one of the lions and gets his hand bitten off; for revenge, he tries to poison the lion. Toler catches him, but not before he has set a fire that rages through the circus, setting off lions, a tiger, and some elephants. Can Crabbe save the day?

Clearly, this was a mid-budget attempt by Paramount to steal some of MGM's A-budget Tarzan thunder a year after the first Ape Man movie was released. Supposedly Crabbe, a swimming champ, tried out the role of Tarzan but lost it to Johnny Weissmuller, also a swimming champ. But though there are similarities in the backstory, this quickly sets itself up in a different direction, with the bulk of the movie set in the States as Crabbe becomes civilized and educated. Whereas Tarzan (in the first couple of movies at least) remains in a relatively uncivilized state of nature, Crabbe can pass for fully socialized in manner and dress—though he continues to wear that abbreviated loincloth in his circus act, which not only shows off Crabbe's nice physique, but also his comely ass (it's basically a thong). His somewhat light vocal delivery lacks danger, making him a less threatening figure than Tarzan. Frances Dee is nicely befuddled at first but grows to truly care for Crabbe (his character is given the name Kaspa by Toler, which has no significance). I like there are few real villains here: Toler, who is in fact engaging in human trafficking, treats Crabbe well; Barrat is just doing his job (frowned upon nowadays though it may be), and Dumbrille is justified in trying to save his cattle—once we leave Africa, we hear no more about those two. Only Richmond is a hissable bad guy, and he's not around long enough to think about much. The fiery climax is well done. This was a pleasant surprise, and if there had been a sequel, I'd watch it with pleasure. Crabbe (best known as Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers in the 30s serials) would eventually play Tarzan later that year in the serial TARZAN THE FEARLESS, which is now considered lost but can be seen in an 85-minute feature film version. Pictured are Toler, Crabbe and Dee. [YouTube]

NIGHT SLAVES (1970)

Clay Howard is dropping out of the rat race, selling his half of his business to his partner, Matt Russell, while his wife Marjorie, who happens to be having an affair with Matt, is planning on leaving Clay. But when Clay gets in a serious car accident which kills two other people, a metal plate is put in his head, and weeks later, for rest and recreation, he and his wife stop at a boarding house in a small town on a short, impromptu vacation. That night, Clay wakes up to see hordes of townspeople sleepwalking their way onto trucks that are driven out of town. He's even more shocked when he sees his wife among them. Clay tries to stop her but she, like the others, is unresponsive. The only person who seems conscious is a silent giggling girl who takes him back to his room. The next morning, everything seems back to normal. Marjorie, the sheriff and the townspeople seem not to know what happened and tell Clay he must have dreamed it. But that night, it happens again. [Spoiler!] It turns out that the giggling girl is possessed by an alien force named Naillil who, along with another alien (Noel) in the person of the town simpleton, is forcing the townsfolk to devote their nights to helping to rebuild their spaceship which crashed just outside of town. Clay is immune to their mental commands because of the plate in his head. Naillil says her people are basically energy beings who are forbidden from falling in love, but of course, that's what she's doing with Clay. It seems improbable, but could a happy ending be in store for these two? The climax involves a lynch mob (the townsfolk think Clay might be a murderer), the arrival of Matt Russell, and a somewhat ambiguous ending.

This TV movie, which resembles a relatively benign Invasion of the Body Snatchers, tries for a while to keep up the possibility that all the small town nighttime weirdness is in Clay's head, but the sci-fi explanation kicks in about halfway through, which causes the well-wrought tension of the first half to collapse, and the ending, though unexpected, is a bit disappointing. Its short run time doesn't allow any real character development, and poor Matt (Scott Marlowe), with little to do, seems to have been thrown into the mix at the last minute. James Franciscus, handsome and hunky as usual (pictured), is pretty good as the confused Clay, though his need to escape the rat race is never examined and is unimportant to the plot until the last few minutes. He has some chemistry with Lee Grant, as Marjorie but none with Tisha Sterling who is dull as dishwater as Naillil. Andrew Prine is a bit better as Noel; he gets to play two different personalities as the slow-witted Fess and the smart alien, whereas Stirling mostly just plays one persona. Leslie Neilsen is adequate as the sheriff. By the 45 minute mark, the film has run out of steam and the last half hour feels padded out, especially with no believable attraction between Franciscus and Stirling. At one point, it's pointed out that Noel and Naillil are the names of Clay's accident victims, Leon and Lillian, backwards, a gimmick thrown in to make us briefly think this all might just be a hallucination. It ends up being an unconventional romance between two people with no chemistry—a fairly meh experience. [YouTube]

TEENAGE MONSTER (1957)

In June, 1880, on the outskirts of an Old West town, Ruth, her husband Jim and their 10-year-old son Charlie are hunting for gold in a cave when a meteor falls from the sky, killing Jim and scarring Charlie's face. Seven years later, Charlie has become a large, hairy, deformed man, still with the mind of a child, barely able to communicate. He and his mother have been living in an isolated cave while Ruth still looks for gold. Occasionally the restless Charlie escapes, killing cattle and sheep, scaring children, and sometimes killing a person who stumbles into his path. Ruth finally discovers a vein of gold, buys a small house, and keeps Charlie isolated in an upstairs bedroom. She also begins a mild flirtation with Bob, the local sheriff. Jealous of the attention his mom is giving to someone else, Charlie eventually attacks Kathy, a young waitress. Ruth pays Kathy not to tell anyone, and to live with them as a companion. When Kathy's boyfriend Marv finds out she has money, he takes the money from her, and she gets Charlie to kill Marv for her. Eventually, Kathy starts blackmailing Ruth, then decides to get Charlie to kill both Ruth and Bob. There are unhappy endings all around.

The thing anyone who has seen this movie will tell you first is that there isn't really a teenage monster—the actor playing the "teenaged" Charlie, Gil Perkins, is fifty and looks it, and the hairy monster makeup ages him even more. The second thing they'll tell you is that the movie isn't very good. It isn't, not even as a campy good-bad movie. It was made because the producer needed a second feature to run with his slightly better B-horror film THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS. At least two of the cast members are legitimate actors with careers: Anne Gwynne (Ruth) who appeared in over fifty B-films and TV shows from 1939 to the 1950s, and Gloria Castillo (Kathy), known to sci-fi fans for INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN. They both overact, as does Gil Perkins (the monster), who had a long career in TV and in stunt work. Perkins growls his dialogue in a way that makes it understandable only half the time. The slightly manic edge brought to the performances encourages kinky psychological readings of the plot that were almost certainly not intended by the filmmakers. Stuart Wade, as Bob, gives the only low-key performance, but it doesn't help. The repetition of the monster constantly escaping and his mother constantly telling him not to gets wearying. The director, Jacques R. Marquette, was mostly a producer and cinematographer and never directed another film. Not recommended. Pictured are Perkins and Castillo. [YouTube]

MONSIEUR HULOT’S HOLIDAY (1953)

This French film, directed by and starring Jacques Tati, has been described as a farce, a slice-of-life comedy, a character-driven film, a film with no character development, and the last great silent movie even though it's not silent (though it's true that sound effects play a more important role than spoken dialogue). Most everyone agrees that it's essentially plotless, and what plot there is occurs in the first few minutes. We see a crowd of people at a French train station heading off for vacations, listening to virtually unintelligible announcements over a loudspeaker, then tromping up and down staircases to get to their trains. A crowd of vacation people get on a bus, and in the confusion, a toddler winds up in the bus driver's lap. At a resort, vacationers arrive, including the lovely and unflappable Martine, who takes a room by herself at a beachside house. Finally, a rattletrap old car pulls up to the resort area and M. Hulot, a tall, lanky man who walks with a stiff, stuttering gait, goes into a resort inn, unaware of the chaos that ensues in the lobby when stiff breezes blow in with him. What follows is roughly 90 minutes of physical comedy played out in short vignettes by Hulot and his fellow vacationers. Hulot has the habit of unintentionally spreading chaos (the breezes at the beginning, accidentally crashing a funeral, setting off fireworks), but the film doesn't just focus on him—we see the adventure of a little boy carrying two ice cream cones trying to open a door; two men colliding while staring at the same woman; and a mule causing trouble by kicking through its shed. People go on hikes, ride horses, and form exercise groups on the beach. Aside from the farcical incidents, nothing really happens. People get to the beach, spend time on the beach (and often, in the hotel, just reading or listening to the radio), and leave the beach. No romances develop; I expected one to occur between Hulot and Martine, but they barely interact. The film's pace is a bit slow, and many of the comedy bits elicit only smiles or mild chuckles. Still, it's very fun in a quiet way, and you can see the influence Tati has had on Monty Python and Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean.

There is a jaunty jazzy score (newly added by Tati when he revamped the film for re-release in 1978, when he also apparently added a sight gag inspired by the movie Jaws). The sound effects (the wind, the hinges on a door, a ping pong game) draw more attention than the bits of overheard dialogue. Tati is careful not to let Hulot become too obviously the butt of the jokes, though because he is often so oblivious, he doesn't become a heartwarming character, just a sort of everyman bumbling through his day. Tati is sometimes compared to Chaplin, but I also saw some Harold Lloyd in him. My favorite scenes involve Hulot's unique tennis style: standing rigid, thrusting his racket out and back, then smashing the ball (pictured at top). This never failed to make me laugh, and what makes it funnier is that because he tends to win, others imitate him, including a boy playing ping pong. He also uses short but elaborate ritualistic movements when he goes through doors. Though Hulot is definitely a character, we know nothing about him except what we see him do. This is my first Tati film, and I'll probably line a couple more up soon. [TCM]

BEHIND THAT CURTAIN (1929)

Hilary Galt is holding dirt on two men: noted explorer Colonel John Beetham (information about illegal financial dealings which Beetham insists is false) and playboy Eric Durand (a philandering gold digger who wants to marry Sir George Mannering's niece Eve). The night before Mannering is about to collect the dirt about Durand, Galt is murdered in his office, some papers are stolen, and Galt's body is found wearing a pair of Chinese slippers which were a gift from Beetham. As Scotland Yard inspector Frederick Bruce investigates, Mannering realizes he'll never get the evidence he needs against Durand, after which Eve spills the news that she and Durand got married in secret the night before. Beetham comes under suspicion; Bruce is sure it can't be him and continues working on the case. Months later, Durand and Eve are living unhappily in India. He's having a fling with Nuna, the native housemaid, and is being blackmailed by the night watchman at the Galt building who figured out he was the killer. Eve returns from shopping one day to find Durand and Nuna in a post-coital haze, and later when she meets Beetham, who is crossing Asia in a caravan, she runs off with him. Bruce catches up with Beetham and finds out that the slippers worn by Galt had actually belonged to Eve. For her part, Eve leaves the caravan, now a possible suspect in the murder, and heads to San Francisco where she gets a job as an elevator operator. Eventually, Beetham, Bruce and Durand all wind up there as well and, with a little help from local detective Charlie Chan, the case is solved.

This is usually cited as the earliest Chan movie still in existence, but oddly, Chan only appears in the last fifteen minutes and has little to do, though he does get an amusing scene in which he scolds a young saxophone-playing man who replies, good-naturedly, “Hotsi-totsi, Mr. Chan!” (Pictured at left.) He also plays a crucial role in the climax. The novel this is based on, by Earl Derr Biggers, the third of his six Chan books, is completely centered on Chan so it's strange that the adaptation would erase him. The main story is the same though the novel plays out over the period of several years, with a second murder case and a central romantic couple not in the film. It also takes place entirely in San Francisco with some backstory flashbacks which become the bulk of this movie. Taken on its own as just a melodrama, it's tolerable—though as an early sound film, I imagine modern viewers will be bored by its slow pace, the draggy delivery of some of the dialogue, and the lack of a background score. I liked Warner Baxter and Lois Moran as Beetham and Eve, and Philip Strange is effective as the decadent villain Durand. A Chinese American actor who went by the name E.L. Park plays Chan; he is rather stiff and he never made another movie, so it's hard to judge how good he would have been if he'd been in other Chan films. Boris Karloff has a small role as Beetham's manservant, but he gets a nicely portentous line: "The desert gives, and the desert takes away." Another line, "Fear and love make their own destiny," spoken by Bruce (Gilbert Emery), sounds good though I'm not sure what it means. At ninety minutes, it does drag in places, but I think classic-era film buffs will enjoy this, though if you're looking for a Charlie Chan mystery, this isn't it—it also isn't really a mystery as we know all along who was behind the murder. The title is just a metaphor about finding what's hidden, and it's used more effectively in the novel. Pictured at top are Lois Moran and Philip Strange. [DVD]

IN THE SHADOW OF THE EAGLES (1966)

In the early years of the Common Era, Rome is dealing with a barbarian uprising in the remote province of Pannonia. Rome sends centurion Marcus Ventidius to deal with it. The barbarian leader Magdo is inclined to seek peace and blames young upstart Batone, who wants to continue the attacks, for being the reason for Rome's anger. Magdo's daughter Helen is supposed to marry Batone but Magdo has changed his mind, calling Batone bloodthirsty. Marcus visits his lover Julia before heading out to the battlefield with his assistant Publius. After a battle, Magdo and Julia are captured with other women and children and held hostage by Marcus, who finds himself captivated, if you will, by Helen. Julia, jealous, bribes guards to ensure that Magdo and Julia escape. When Marcus finds out what has happened, he turns his back on Julia. The Roman governor Messala orders the destruction of Pannonia leading to a major battle scene, and eventually to a peace which is settled between Helen and Marcus. 

Despite the title, this is not a documentary about 70s bands like Poco or Firefall that were overshadowed by the Eagles. Here, Eagle refers to the battle standard of the Romans. This Italian film came late in the prime peplum era and is not loved by Barry Atkinson, author of Heroes Never Die, the authoritative book on peplum cinema. I agree with him to some extent that it feels a little low energy, especially the performance of  American actor Cameron Mitchell (pictured) as Marcus. His physical presence seems diminished and he sort of sleepwalks through his part. Being filmed in Yugoslavia in the winter, with snow on the ground and actors' breath in the air, might have contributed to Mitchell's lack of enthusiasm, in addition to Mitchell being close to 50. But overall, the movie is decent, with good sets, adequate performances by others, and a lengthy and nicely done battle scene at the climax. Alex Medar is quite good as the well-meaning Magdo, and Alex Gavin is fine as Batone. There is some disagreement out there about the spelling of character names and even about which actors played what roles, with the usually dependable IMDb giving two different actors the role of Publius. I have gone with what seemed right to me (and it's clearly Dieter Eppler playing Publius, not Remo De Angelis). One of the best scenes involves Batone forcing Marcus to run barefoot three times over flaming coals; the makeup on the feet afterwards is quite effective. Though this is generally regarded as a peplum film, there are no muscles or bare chests present here. I think that the historical peplums (as opposed to the mythical ones) might deserve a separate name of their own—which I guess would be "historical peplums"! [YouTube]

THE SKY DRAGON (1948)

The last entry in the long Charlie Chan series, featuring the sixth and final appearance of Roland Winters as the Chinese detective, is a disappointment. Things begin promisingly as Chan and his son Lee (Keye Luke) get on a small commercial plane heading to San Francisco. We meet some of the passengers, including a follies showgirl and an insurance company courier who is carrying a satchel full of cash, and crew members, including the pilot, co-pilot, stewardess (who is the pilot's main squeeze) and a stewardess in training. We soon realize that some folks on board have secrets that will come to the surface (for example, the new stewardess is using a false name and is the showgirl's sister). Someone drugs the onboard coffee, everyone falls asleep, and the courier is stabbed to death, his money gone, presumably thrown out of the plane by parachute. While the action is confined to the plane, the movie achieves the kind of pleasurable tension that train movies often have, but unfortunately, once the plane lands and the cops, including series regular Lieutenant Mike (Tim Ryan), arrive, things slow down. More secrets and hidden connections are revealed and, as in so many episodes of Midsomer Murders, events of the past are key to unraveling the mystery. The cast is not to blame for the blandness of this movie. Winters, Luke, Ryan, and eventually, Mantan Moreland as Chan's chauffeur, are as entertaining as usual, and there is good support from Milburn Stone (the competent pilot), Joel Marston (the cleancut co-pilot), Noel Neill (the pilot's gal), Iris Adrian (the showgirl), Lyle Talbot (Adrian's husband, maybe), Elena Verdugo (the showgirl's sister), and John Eldredge (the insurance company boss). The writing is weak; I lost track of the mystery in the last 15 minutes and didn't really care. Direction and sets are barely adequate, and the pace slackens a good deal once we get off the plane. The climax has Chan bringing all the living passengers and crew back on the plane for a suspect roundup that does bring some energy back, but too little too late. With the character of Tommy not present, Lee reverts from being mature and responsible in the previous film to being mostly comic relief, although his training to become a commercial pilot comes in handy for a few minutes. B-movie watchable, but not one of the better Winters-as-Chan films. Winters went on to a lengthy career in supporting roles in movies and TV; his biggest role might be as Elvis Presley's dad in Blue Hawaii. I'm planning on going back and rewatching some of the previous 40-something Chan films over the summer so there will be a few more reviews. Pictured are Stone, Neill and Luke. [DVD]

THE HOLE IN THE WALL (1929)

Madame Mystera is a medium with a number of gullible rich folks who come to her to hear messages from the dearly departed. Actually, she is part of a crime ring that uses information from the rich to steal jewels. A man known as The Fox (Edward G. Robinson) is the leader of the group. Jim, a pickpocket, and Goofy, a bootlegger, are his associates, and a former circus wildman called Dogface is a hanger-on; he has a mental disability of some sort that leads him occasionally to howl like a dog, and mostly he's kept in a bed in a room to make creepy noises during their seances. One night, Madame Mystera is killed in a train wreck. The Fox puts Goofy in a dress and veil and tries to pass him off as the medium, but that is clearly nor a long-term solution. Meanwhile, Jean Oliver (Claudette Colbert) is a jailbird looking for a job who heard about the Fox's set-up in the slammer. The Fox sets her up as Madame Mystera. Her long game is to get revenge against the rich Mrs. Ramsey, who set Jean up to get sent to prison because she didn't want her son to marry her. After the gang identifies the Madame's body as that of Jean Oliver, Jean's plan is to kidnap Mrs. Ramsey's granddaughter, raise her as a criminal, then years later, show Mrs. Ramsey what has become of the girl. Jean is good at the medium swindle, but the gang has perhaps been a little sloppy in their thievery, and soon the cops have made a tenuous connection between the Madame and the rash of jewel thefts. A reporter, Gordon Grant, once a beau of Jean's, comes calling to get some details. The little girl is kidnapped (and treated very nicely by the whole gang), the Fox falls for Jean, and Jean has warm feelings for Gordon even though she can't reveal herself to him. In the end, an actual paranormal event leads to the busy climax.

I suspect that viewers with little experience watching very early talkies would not stick with this. The whole thing feels rather creaky, with a plodding pace, flubs left in, and times when actors seem to be waiting for a signal to start speaking. It's also quite stagy, with most of the action taking place in the gang's lair (it's got a nice creepy atmosphere, somewhere between art deco and German expressionism). This was the first talkie for both Robinson and Colbert and they're fine. He plays the kind of gangster role for which he became famous, though this part isn't as showy as his breakout role in Little Caesar a couple of years later. Colbert goes a bit against her later persona as a high-class romantic heroine. Donald Meek (Goofy), one of my favorite character actors, is good, as is David Newell as Gordon Grant, who despite being second-billed doesn't have a lot to do. Directed blandly by Robert Florey who forged a long career directing in television. There are plot problems: Why don't we ever see the little girl's parents? Why is Dogface even around? Why aren't people more freaked out by the supernatural intervention at the end? For all its weaknesses, it did keep me watching and involved. Pictured are Colbert and Newell. [YouTube]

THE CHINESE RING (1947) / SHANGHAI CHEST (1948)

In THE CHINESE RING, a Chinese woman comes to Charlie Chan's house, and though his butler Birmingham Brown tries to get rid of her, she gives him a ring to show Chan that indicates she is royalty. But before Chan can talk to her, she is killed by a poison dart gun shot from the window of Chan’s study. As she dies, she scrawls the name "Capt. K" on the desk blotter. The dead woman is Princess Mei Ling who was in the process of having a shipment of planes sent to her warlord brother in China. Chan and police officer Bill Davidson discover two Captain Ks: Captain Kong, the captain of the Shanghai Maid, the ship the planes were supposed to be on, and Captain Kelso, head of Kelso Aviation, maker of the planes. The princess had a million dollars to draw on to pay for the planes and the transportation, but Chan learns that most of that money is gone and unaccounted for. With the unwanted help of feisty reporter Peggy Cartwright (who seems to be casually dating Davidson), Chan and Davidson try to track down the killer, who strikes again by killing Mei Ling's maid with the same dart gun. This is the first of six Charlie Chan films with Roland Winters as Chan (pictured) These were also the last six Chan movies in the lengthy series that started in 1929. Going against critical consensus, I have found that Winters' portrayal of Chan is perfectly acceptable, though this introductory film is not the strongest of the batch. The antics of the supporting characters Tommy (Victor Sen Yung) and Birmingham (Mantan Moreland) are amusing, but the storyline is both convoluted and underwritten, and at just 70 minutes, it bogs down in the middle. For some reason, though Victor Sen Yung played Chan's son Jimmy in many of the earlier films, in the Winters movies his name is Tommy. No one has a good theory as to why. Warren Douglas is bland but serviceable as the cop, as is Louise Currie as the reporter. My favorite scene in the movie has Douglas manhandling Currie, followed by Currie slugging him. I was so surprised by her reaction that I yelped out loud. Philip Ahn is fine as Kong as is Byron Foulger as the banker. Not the best of the Winters Six but watchable.

SHANGHAI CHEST begins as someone sneaks into Judge Armstrong's study and goes through the papers on his desk. When the judge enters, the intruder stabs him. Vic, the judge's nephew, who had been denied entrance to the house by the butler, comes into the study through the window and is knocked out by the killer. Despite this, Vic is the chief suspect in the judge's murder; he knew that his uncle was planning to disinherit him due to his mishandling of the judge's finances. Vic's fingerprints are found on the murder weapon, but so are the prints of Tony Pindello, a killer who was executed six months ago. Charlie Chan helps police lieutenant Mike Ruark (known as Lt. Mike) investigate. When the local D.A. is shot and killed a couple of days later, Tony's fingerprints are again found at the scene. Chan soon discovers that Judge Armstrong, who had sentenced Tony to death, had recently found evidence that Tony may have been innocent, and his case may have a bearing on an insurance swindle that the D.A. was investigating. When Tony's grave is opened, his body is gone. The jurors on Tony's case are put under police protection, but one man who can't be found turns up hanged. This is looking like revenge from the grave; can Chan and Lt. Mike find a flesh and blood killer behind this carnage? This is the third Roland Winters Chan movie and it's totally average in quality. Victor Sen Yung is again Chan's son Tommy and Mantan Moreland is again Birmingham Brown. In a weird but amusing scene, Brown sees actor Willie Best (playing himself) in jail for loitering in a bank—at midnight. Tim Ryan plays Lt. Mike for the first of three such appearances, and he's an asset. A fairly bland supporting cast includes John Alvin, Deannie Best and Erville Alderson. Milton Parsons is somewhat memorable as a creepy undertaker. The title means nothing—at no point is a Shanghai chest presented or referred to. (I’m avoiding making a pun about a Chinese man’s torso.) [DVD]

THE LADY REFUSES (1931)

Hungry, unemployed and desperate, June is wandering the foggy night streets of London, attempting to start a business as a streetwalker—a cop says she must be new to be out on such a night. As the police close in on her, she stumbles to the door of a fancy townhouse where Sir Gerald, seeing her plight and feeling sorry for her, takes her in, telling the police that she is his niece. Sir Gerald is a bit down as his playboy son Russell has once again dashed Gerald's plans for a nice dinner together in order to go out on the town with his latest gold digging paramour Berthine—who has a jealous admirer/pimp (I was never sure how their relationship was supposed to work) named Nikolai. Gerald shares his disappointment with June who tries to give him advice by telling him that there are two times when no one should try to advise a man: when he's drinking too much and when he's in love with the wrong kind of woman. But Gerald doesn't listen: he hires June to get Russell out of Berthine's arms, and figures getting him off alcohol will be a side effect. June proves good at her work; their very first night together, he's drunk, she takes him to her apartment (which Sir Gerald has provided) and he wakes up confused but under her good influence. Over time, Russell stops partying, quits seeing Berthine, and gets serious about his architectural work. But June has fallen in love—not with Russell but with Sir Gerald. When this comes out, so does the information that June has been doing Sir Gerald's bidding. Gerald fears he's lost his son and, to help them make up, she goes into full Cockney hooker mode to make Russell think that she's no good. Just when you thought the melodramatics couldn't be dialed up anymore, Berthine is found dead and Russell is blamed, though we're sure the culprit is that nasty piece of work, Nikolai. The ending is interesting if not totally satisfying.

This pre-code melodrama, which starts out almost as a drawing room comedy, is interesting rather than compelling. One problem is a total lack of characterization. I feel like fifteen minutes of backstory is missing. And partly due to this, we have to take a lot of the plot points on faith. For example, it's not clear why Sir Gerald trusts June to start with. There is zero chemistry between the nearly 60-year-old Gerald and the 20-something June, and why she falls for him is a total mystery, unless the attraction is misguided gratitude. I was never sure if June and Russell were sleeping together (it doesn’t seem like it) but then we're not given any reason to buy Russell's transformation, which happens far too quickly. I never knew exactly what the relationship between Berthine and Nikolai was. And so on. It's a B-movie from RKO, which means production values are good, but the acting is scattershot, and I’m willing to blame the problematic script for some of this. I've never been a fan of Betty Compson (June) and this movie doesn't change my mind. She lacks an inner spark that would help make her character rounder, though she does pull off the closing hooker persona well. David Farrow is handsome and, I don't know, 'fluffy' as Russell. I'm not sure what I mean by that, but he is the most charismatic performer here. Gilbert Emery (Sir Gerald) is about average in a fairly non-demanding role. Ivan Lebedeff barely has to act at all as Nikolai, just look severe and dangerous. Margaret Livingston is OK as Berthine. My favorite lines: Gerald's butler thinks cocktails are too modern to serve: "They even put ice in them in America." Gerald: "I don't think we'll go that far." Pictured are Livingston and Darrow. [TCM]

THE GOLDEN EYE (1948)

Manning, owner of the Golden Eye mine in Arizona, is in San Francisco and visits a Chinatown curio shop to speak to his old friend Wong Fai. Manning says his mine and his life are in danger and he asks about getting in touch with Charlie Chan for help. While Wong phones Chan, Manning is shot at from the street but not hurt. Chan agrees to take on his case and, along with son Tommy and chauffeur Birmingham Brown, heads out to a dude ranch, The Lazy-Y, near Manning's mine. At the pool, Chan observes a rather ostentatiously drunken guest named O'Brien, who is actually police lieutenant Mike Ruark undercover, looking into why the Golden Eye has suddenly gone from being almost fallow to producing a large increase in gold, and Lt. Mike cultivates a relationship with Driscoll, the mine superintendent, to get more info. Visiting Manning's home, Chan meets up Manning's daughter Evelyn and local assayer Bartlett (who seems a bit sweet on Evelyn), and finds out that Manning had a serious injury in the mine and is recovering in his bedroom, wrapped in bandages and unable to speak, under the constant supervision of a somewhat suspicious nursing sister (in a plot point borrowed from THE LADY VANISHES). In short order, Chan and Lt. Mike discover a gold smuggling operation, with cheap Mexican gold brought in across the border and passed off as coming from a new vein of gold at the mine. Given the small number of characters, it's not difficult to figure out who is behind the operation, but how will Chan expose the guilty party?

This entry in the Charlie Chan series, featuring the fourth appearance of Roland Winters as Chan, is a bit above average if only due to the unusual Arizona setting. Winters is fine, Mantan Moreland steals most of his comic relief scenes as Birmingham, and Victor Sen Yung is, once again, son Tommy. Tim Ryan, in his second appearance as Lt. Mike is good, though his drunk scenes come perilously close to going over the top. The amateurish Wanda McKay barely registers as the daughter. There are really only two possible bad guys; as Bartlett, Bruce Kellogg gives the best supporting cast performance more or less by default, since Ralph Dunn is fairly colorless as Driscoll. The very best moment in the film is the final minute: after Chan has explained the case, Birmingham turns directly to the camera in wide-eyed wonder and says, "Ain’t that somethin'? Good gracious me!" This might not turn you into a Winters fan but it's enjoyable if you already are. Pictured are Kellogg, McKay and Winters. [DVD]

THE FEATHERED SERPENT (1948)

We open with an exposition dump presented by a group of people at a streetside cafe in a Mexican village. Professors Scott and Farnsworth were searching for a lost Aztec city but have gone missing, and this group, which includes professors, fiancées and relatives, has vowed to find them. Meanwhile, Charlie Chan, on a vacation road trip in Mexico with his number one and two sons, Lee and Tommy, and his chauffeur Birmingham Brown, find an older man collapsed in the nearby desert. It turns out he is Prof. Scott, who says that he and Farnsworth found the city but have been held captive and forced to decipher hieroglyphics which tell the whereabouts of a hidden fortune. Scott is knifed in the dark and Chan agrees to join the search since Farnsworth is a friend of his. One of the search party members, however, is the villain behind the hostage taking, though one is also a police spy in disguise. One by one, people find the secret entrance to the city and one by one, get captured by the bad guy, though there is more than one baddie in the mix. But with Chan and sons on the case, justice will prevail. The fifth of six movies with Roland Winters as Chan, this is notable primarily for being the only entry in the 47-film series to feature two sons in action with their dad. Victor Sen Yung plays the youthful and bumbling Tommy, and Keye Luke is the older "number one" son Lee. Luke played this character, also youthful and bumbling at the time, in several of the 1930s Chan films. It's fun to see the contrast here between the more mature Lee and his kid brother, and they get to kick some bad guy ass in the end. Interestingly, Luke and Winters in real life were the same age, and Yung was only eleven years younger than Winters. As in all the Winters movies (and many earlier ones), Mantan Moreland is a comic relief standout as Birmingham. I noticed here that Moreland pronounces "Tommy" as "Toe-mee"; I don't know if that is an accent thing or what, but he does it in all the Winters films. Included in the mostly colorless supporting cast is Nils Asther, whose career peaked in 1932 with The Bitter Tea of General Yen. Busy character actor Erville Alderson, who seemed to specialize in older and sickly roles, is old and sickly as the ill-fated Prof. Scott; Robert Livingston is OK as Prof. Stanley. Things begin to drag a bit in the last half, and the promise of the somewhat exotic setting is fulfilled only a bit by the Aztec temple set. Despite the title, the serpent is a tiny part of the story, and its name, Quetzalcoatl, is never mentioned. Pictured from left are Yung, Luke, Winters and Moreland. [DVD]

WAR OF THE PLANETS (1966)

A narrator intones this bit of profound philosophy: "The universe is endless and timeless—who knows how it all began?" This has nothing to do with the story which begins on a New Year's Eve in the future as the population of the space station Gamma 1 celebrates with dancing, drinking, and putting on spectacular tableaux shared with the other space stations of the World's United Democracies on video displays, like spacewalk acrobatics done to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne," or an array of dozens of astronauts floating in space spelling out Happy New Year like a band at a college football game. But troubles are about to arise. On Earth, people are concerned that Captain Dubois of Space Command has not turned up for his shift. We see him attacked by glowing green clouds of gas, and we realize later that he has been possessed by invisible alien forces, called Diaphanoids; they are referred to as "bodiless patterns of energy" who act a bit like Star Trek's Borg in taking over individual beings (called hosting) for the greater force. A distress call from the space station Delta 2 ends the partying. Commander Mike takes a small crew, including his girlfriend Connie and his buddy Jake, to Delta 2 where they find the crew members frozen in place, not quite alive but not yet dead. When Dubois shows up on Earth, he is said to have "gone galaxy," but he's actually now a spokesperson for the aliens and heads up plans to possess some of the Delta 2 folks and dispose of the rest. There is much more to the plot but I am pretty unsure about the details, so I'll leave the summary right here.

Despite a confusing narrative and cheap effects (green gas is a lot cheaper than making dozens of alien costumes), this is fun to watch.  It's the second of four films that director Antonio Margheriti (aka Anthony Dawson) made which were retroactively labeled the Gamma 1 Quadrilogy. I reviewed the first one, WILD WILD PLANET, some years ago, but I'm reviewing this as basically a stand-alone film and not trying to parse out connections of characters or places. The miniature sets, in the Thunderbirds style, are cheap and charming, as are the interior sets and costumes. The laser guns they use are basically flamethrowers. After the first 20 minutes, I wasn't always sure where scenes were taking place but I don't think it mattered all that much. The acting is exactly what you'd expect from a mid-60s dubbed Italian sci-fi movie, alternately serious, humorous and campy. American Tony Russel, who made his name in Italian films, is the commander who frequently fights with his 'feisty' gal (Lisa Gastoni). Franco Nero (best known as Lancelot in CAMELOT) is nice eye candy as the buddy. I like that Connie calls Mike out as a martinet for ordering her about. My husband and I kept referring to Capt. Tice as "big head" because his head looked ready to pop right out of his space helmet. Not suited for viewers of the current generation who take their sci-fi seriously, this is pretty close to delirious fun for the rest of us. In the picture above, Tony Russel is in the center of the crew. [DVD]