PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

The Squeaker 1937

 

The Squeaker 1937 Based on the novel of the same name by Edgar Wallace, screenplay by Edward O Berkman and Bryan Edgar Wallace, directed by William K Howard. A British film that's known in the US as Murder On Diamond Row.

A fence called The Squeaker has the London underworld at his mercy. He knows all about the big robberies. If he doesn't get a nice cut he'll turn the crooks into the police.

Edmond Lowe is Inspector Barrabel. He's after The Squeaker. Ann Todd, Robert Newton and Alastair Sim are the cast members I knew. It's a fairly entertaining story that is about average in it's telling. Worth a look for those that like a mystery.

The League Of Frightened Men 1937

The League Of Frightened Men 1937 Based on The League Of Frightened Men by Rex Stout, screenplay by Guy Endore, Eugene Solow and Edward Chodorov, directed by Alfred E Green.

This time Nero Wolfe is being played by Walter Connolly. Edward Arnold decided he didn't want to continue in the role. Lionel Stander returns as Archie Goodwin. He's about the same character, minus the fiancée, but the scriptwriters have their own ideas about Nero Wolfe. He's a comical goof who spends more time out of the house than Nero spent out of the house in the 33 novels and 39 stories Rex Stout wrote. Edward Arnold was more entertaining.

Someone is sending frightening letters to some guys. A couple of them are killed off and Nero offers to help catch the killer, provided the men pay him if he does well. He sends Archie out and there's the usual running about with some fun bits of humor. Sadly, the movie isn't as good as the previous film. 

Rex Stout wasn't too happy with the adaptations of his novels and I can't blame him. They aren't the characters he created and he wouldn't let anyone use them for a very long time. After his death the estate sold the rights to do a TV show, that was the one that William Conrad was in.

Meet Nero Wolfe 1936

Meet Nero Wolfe 1936 Based on the Rex Stout novel Fer-de-lance, screenplay by Howard J Green, Bruce Manning and Joseph Anthony, directed by Herbert Biberman.

Edward Arnold plays Nero Wolfe and Lionel Stander plays Archie Goodwin. They aren't the characters from the books but they're entertaining. Nero Wolfe writer Rex Stout thought they were miscast. Can't argue with that. The lady in the picture is Dennie Moore, she's Archie's fiancée Mazie Gray. She follows him around complaining about not getting married for pretty much the whole movie.

A rich guy drops dead on the golf course. Rita Hayworth asks Wolfe to find her brother. Nero decides to take the case and the investigation leads to that dead golfer. There's a lot of running around and most of a good mystery. It's pretty darn goofy and there are a few good jokes. You can try it out on YouTube. Link above.

Friday Night Movies 900

The Mysterious Dr Fu Manchu 1929 Written by Lloyd Corrigan, Florence Ryerson and uncredited work of George Marion Jr and Joseph L Mankiewicz, directed by Rowland V Lee.

Warner Oland plays Dr Fu Manchu. He's a peaceful man who becomes a fiend after British soldiers fire at some Boxer rebels using the walls of the Fu compound as protection. In the attack Fu's wife and son are killed. Fu vows vengeance on the evil Westerners who killed his family. Many years pass.

Neil Hamilton plays Doctor Petrie, the grandson of General Petrie and his father is Sir John Petrie. The General was leading the British during the Boxer rebellion. Fu is well along with his revenge, he's only got Neil, his father and grandfather to kill. Fu comes up with a complex plan that's partially interrupted by Inspector Nayland Smith.

Jean Arthur plays Lia Eltham, she was a child staying at Fu's compound during the rebellion. He raises her with the idea in mind to use her in his revenge. Fu hypnotizes her and sends her to do his killing. She's used to lure Doctor Petrie into Fu's clutches.

There's plenty of running about, fist fighting, gun shooting, poison date bowing and murdering. Fu's henchmen are capable and ready to die for him. The Inspector has his own crew and some of them get murdered while trying to keep the Petrie's safe. The story is fairly entertaining but some of the dialog between characters is a bit on the goofy side. There's a even a comic relief machine in the form of Sir Petrie's secretary. There's a lot of nice sets and the like, the rebellion at the start of the movie is quite elaborately staged.

We watched the new Kino Lorber 2 film Blu-ray and the film looked quite good. It entertained me enough to ad the Blu-ray to my wish list. There's a sequel to the film on the disc.

The Return Of Dr Fu Manchu 1930 Written by Lloyd Corrigan and Florence Ryerson, directed by Roland V Lee. Most of the surviving characters return to the screen with some new folks tossed into the mix.

The story pretty much takes up right where the first movie ended. Fu is being buried, unbeknownst to Petrie and Nayland Smith the evil one is alive. He escapes and gets back to the job of revenge. Doctor Petrie and Lia Eltham are getting married but that doesn't go so well once they find out that Fu's alive. Battle ensues.

It's almost as good as the previous film but with a bit more annoying comic relief machine and goofy dialog. I still enjoyed it. I'd watch them both again. Recommended for those that like classic movies with evil villains.

Night Key 1937

Night Key 1937 Story by William Pierce, screenplay by Tristam Tupper and John C Moffitt, directed by Lloyd Corrigan. The first film in the Universal Horror Collection Volume 4. Like the other sets there are 4 Blu-ray discs with a movie on each one. All have a commentary, four have stills and three have trailers as extras. This film has the trailer and some stills, the commentary is by Tom Weaver with a segment by Doctor Robert J Kiss. Tom's not much of a fan of the movie, he makes it sound like everyone wanted to pass on doing the commentary.

I hadn't seen Night Key before, I have it in a DVD set of Karloff movies but hadn't gotten around to watching it, I'd already watched all the other films in the set. Boris plays an elderly man who's invented a new burglar alarm system. He'd been part of an alarm company twenty years ago but was cheated out of his work by his partner. He offers the same man a chance to make it right and the guy cheats him again.

With the help of a petty crook Boris decides to show the cheater who's boss. His new invention can bypass any electronic alarm system. He breaks in to the cheater's client's stores and plays tricks but doesn't steal anything. The police are baffled and so is the cheater.

 

The petty crook, unable to get his head around revenge when stealing is what should be happening, pulls some local crooks into the mix. Boris finds himself kidnapped, he's forced to open shops for a massive round up of goodies. Boris struggles against the baddies who even threaten to kill his daughter to keep him in line. Boris eventually gets the upper hand and escapes.

The story kept me interested for the most part, though it isn't anything outstanding. I liked the characters, especially Boris. It's only 73 mins so they don't have much time to waste. I'd watch it again.

Murder with Pictures 1936

Murder with Pictures 1936 Based on a story by George Harmon Coxe, screenplay by Jack Moffitt and Sidney Salkow, directed by Charles Barton.

After a gangster gets acquitted his lawyer has a party for him. Someone kills the lawyer at the party.

Lew Ayers is a reporter who gets involved with the major suspect, played by Gail Patrick. He works to solve the murder and save Gail. Lucky for her there's a picture of the real killer. Can Lew get the picture before the killer destroys it. You can find out at the link above. I thought it was alright, fairly good story and a good cast. Worth a look for the crime fan.

The Sherlock Holmes Vault Collection

The Sherlock Holmes Vault Collection consists of four restored Sherlock Holmes films from the 1930s. Three of the films star Arthur Wontner and one stars Reginald Owen. The Film Detective put the set out and each film is on it's own Blu-ray with a commentary, an essay in a booklet, a small postcard of the film's poster, and a series of short bits and pieces.

The Wontner films are much better looking than the Owen film. I suspect they might not have had any good film elements to work with as the Wontner films are much sharper and darker. I've seen these films 2 or 3 times already and they're all fairly entertaining. I like Wontner as Sherlock more than Owen.

I wasn't that impressed with the extras. I tried all the commentaries. I bailed on the one by Jennifer Churchill on The Fatal Hour because she wasn't that interesting and giggle too often at her own comments. I quit listing to the Atkins and Breckman on A Study In Scarlet because they had too much uninteresting banter and laughed at their own jokes too much. The Ney commentary on The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes was fairly good but he spent too much time on studio history than the film. The Sutton & Legan commentary on Silver Blaze was mostly worth listening to though it had a bit of time wasting banter. The Sam Sherman featurettes were short and sort of interesting. The short films and other Sherlock items were a mixed bag, mostly public domain material but not the best of that sort of thing.

I'm glad to get the nice versions of the Wontner films and will watch those again sometime. The rest I'd pretty much skip across the board. I got no time for it.

Here's the list of what's on each disc.

Disc 1

• The Fatal Hour (1931) featuring Arthur Wontner
• Essay by Don Stradley
• Commentary Track with Jennifer Churchill
• The Adventures of Sam Sherman: Part One featurette
• Recreated Sherlock Holmes Radio Broadcast
• A Black Sherlock Holmes (1918) cut bonus short
• A Black Sherlock Holmes (1918) uncut bonus short
• Baffled (1900)

Disc 2

• The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935) featuring Arthur Wontner
• Essay by Jason A. Ney
• Commentary Track with Jason A Ney
• The Adventures of Sam Sherman: Part Two featurette
• The Copper Beeches (1912)
• Blind Man's Bluff TV episode (1954)

Disc 3

• Silver Blaze (1937) featuring Arthur Wontner
• Essay by Don Stradley
• Commentary Track with Phoef Sutton & Jordan Legan
• The Adventures of Sam Sherman: Part Three featurette
• Sure Luck Holmes Felix the Cat cartoon
• Cousins of Sherlocko (1913)

Disc 4

• A Study in Scarlet (1933) featuring Reginald Owen
• Essay by C. Courtney Joyner
• Commentary Track with Peter Atkins & David Breckman
• Elementary Cinema an original production by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures
• Slick Sleuths Mutt & Jeff cartoon

Also includes:

• 4 original poster replications in ease disc case

Absolute Quiet 1936

Absolute Quiet 1936 Screenplay b Harry Clork, directed by George B Seitz.

Lionel Atwill is a well off business man who collapses at work, his doctor tells him to take a rest with absolute quiet. Lionel goes to his ranch with assistant. Wallace Ford and Bernadene Hayes are a Bonnie and Clyde pair who are on the run, they take over the ranch at gun point.

A plane needs to make an emergency landing in a fog and crashes when the ranch's runway lights aren't lit. The pilots die and the governor shows what a scumbag coward he is by pushing a woman out of the way to escape the plane. There's a reporter and an actor on the flight. The actor gets a couple of cuts on his face. He dismayed it probably means the end of his career.

Things stay civil for a while then Wallace and Bernadene pull their rods and start bossing people around. Their short career as criminals comes to an end when the actor finds a gun and blasts them repeatedly. It's a comedy with some romance, some political commentary, and some murder. Some parts of the script don't make much sense, especially the part where they plan to white wash Wallace and Bernadene being on the scene and letting them run away. They were the ones that caused the plane crash when they stopped Lionel from turning on the runway lights. If anyone deserved to die in a hail of bullets, it's those two.

I thought it was OK but still think the gangster aspect is sill annoying. You can take a look at it on the Internet Archive. See link above.

You Can't Buy Luck 1937

You Can't Buy Luck 1937 Story by Martin Mooney, screenplay by Arthur T Horman and Martin Mooney, directed by Lew Landers. Arthur wrote a lot of films, many mysteries, many comedies including a couple for Abbot and Costello. Martin wrote quite a number of pictures, some stories, some screenplays, some uncredited. I know I've seen The Monster Maker, In Fast Company and Crime Inc. Lew directed nearly 150 movies and over 200 TV episodes. I've certainly seen much of his work.

You Can't Buy Luck starts as a silly comedy then turns into a murder story. Onslow Stevens plays a gambler who owns a race horse called Sarcasm. Onslow is a firm believer in luck and thinks he can generate good luck by being charitable. He sends his cheating girlfriend good luck charm on a trip to Europe too keep her happy. He doesn't know she's got her lover in another cabin. He did meet the guy, played by Vinton Hayworth, when he got a light for a cigarette from him.

Things go sour in the race game and Onslow tries to change his luck. It doesn't work and soon enough he's charged with the murder of his good luck charm. We know that Vinton did it but the police have no clues. Onslow is convicted but escapes jail to prove himself innocent. With the help of Paul Guilfoyle and Helen Mack he finds out who the real killer.

It delivers a decent story with some likeable characters. It's only a hour so there's a certain urgency in getting from one place to another. Enjoyable enough to get to the end, no rush to see it again.

A Honeymoon Adventure 1931

A Honeymoon Adventure 1931 Based on the novel Footsteps In The Night by C Fraser-Simson, screenplay by John Paddy Carstairs and Rupert Downing, directed by Maurice Elvey, produced by Basil Dean. It's was released in the US as Footsteps In The Night.

I watched this on YouTube but I find out that I've got it on DVD. I've only watched the 1st volume of The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection from Network's The British Film series. Another reminder that there are plenty of films waiting to be watched in the other room.

A couple marries and on the eve of their honeymoon the scientist husband is called away to work on a project. He'll only be gone a short while so the wife stays home.

Hubby doesn't get to where he was going, he's kidnapped and locked in a room in a house.

The baddie wants some papers in the scientist's house and pretends to be a colleague of the wife's new husband. She invites him to stay until her husband returns but becomes suspicious when she sees him searching her husband's office. She escapes and the baddie chases after her. She does her best but he seems to be right on her tail.

It's an entertaining thriller with Benita Hume as the plucky bride. I don't recall having heard of her before but I've seen several of her films. She was married to Ronald Coleman and later George Sanders. I liked it and will want watch it again someday. You can see it over at the Internet Archive.