The Black & Blue Collection is from Troma's Roan Group label. It's got three classic crime films starring Bela Lugosi, John Carradine and George Zucco. The films are all in the public domain and turn up on other collections.
Bluebeard 1944 Directed by Edgar G Ulmer, story by Arnold Lipp and Werner H Furst, screenplay by Pierre Gendron.You can see a copy of the film on YouTube, there's a link in the title.
John Carradine plays a Parisian puppeteer, times are hard, people aren't coming to his shows because of Bluebeard. That's the nickname for the man who's murdering young women on the dark streets of Paris. John's also a painter but uses another name. John's paintings bring out the worst in him and he's trying to stifle that urge.
Jean Parker and her friends meet John and take in one of his shows. Jean offers to make costumes for his puppets and John accepts the offer. One of John's painting is exhibited and a policeman recognizes the woman in the painting as one of Bluebeard's victims. Armed with a good clue to who the madman murderer is the police try flushing Bluebeard out with a decoy.
There are more murders before the climax and it's fairly exciting. It's better than average. I'd seen it some years ago and enjoyed it all over again.
The Black Raven 1943 Directed by Sam Newfield, screenplay by Fred Myton. Sam directed over 250 films in his career, including The Terror Of Tiny Town, The Mad Monster, The Monster Maker, White Pongo and plenty of westerns.
George Zucco is the proprietor of The Black Raven Inn, he's also a criminal called the Black Raven. The inn is located near the Canadian border and the BR can smuggle a fellow baddie out of the US and into Canada for a stack of greenbacks. Glenn Strange is George's dogsbody.
An escaped criminal tries to kill George one night and that's the start of all his troubles. Another gangster shows up, he wants the Black Raven to smuggle him to Canada but George isn't too keen on it. The heavy rain washes out a bridge and forces an embezzler and a pair of newly weds to take shelter in the inn.
Charles B Middleton plays the idiotic sheriff, he stumbles into the action but can hardly catch a cold. Eventually everything works itself out. It's looking up at average but it's sense of humor saves it for me. Like all the movies on the disc, I'd seen it before, I gave it a an OK on my Watched Movie List and I'd still watch it again.
The Black Dragons 1942 Directed by William Nigh, story and screenplay by Harvey Gates. Another on you can see on YouTube.
A bunch of scumbag businessmen are secretly 5th columnists sabotaging factories critical to the war effort. Bela Lugosi shows up and starts killing the men, all of whom are part of the Black Dragon Society. The BDS are Japanese and they're working with the Nazis.
The police are baffled by the stack of bodies but eventually they get enough clues to figure it out. It's even more below average than the previous film. It started filming a month after Pearl Harbor and seems like they rushed it out without spending time to make a better movie. Still watchable.
All in all nothing too special here, just average examples of low budget films of the time. Still glad to have them.
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