No Shadow

 

 (imdb)

INTERNATIONAL CRIME-1938-Disappointing crime drama features Lamont Cranston (Rod La Rocque; a silent film star who retired in 1941)) as a crime fighting reporter who writes a column and broadcasts a radio show both called “The Shadow Knows”. He's kind of assisted by Phoebe Lang (Astrid Allwyn) and a short cab driver (Lew Hearn). He doesn't “cloud men's minds” or laugh in this. He's just a regular guy. 

Director Charles Lamont went on to directed many of Abbott & Costello's “Meet” movies.

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Come In Anytime. I'm Always Open

 

 (themoviedatabase)

FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE-1973-Excellent horror anthology from Amicus, revolving around an antique shop run by The Proprietor (Peter Cushing). 

 In “The Gate Crasher”, art dealer Edward (David Warner) buys a mirror and says he cheated the proprietor. Then he and his friends hold a séance. Edward finds himself inside the mirror. He's grabbed by a hairy hand but it's only an hallucination. Soon after, he sees a hairy corpse like head in the mirror that says “You must feed me”. He brings a hooker back to his place and kills her. He wakes up with traces of blood in his apartment but no body. Next time the head says “Feed me blooood!”. He picks up another girl and kills her. He breaks the mirror but it fixes itself. He invites his girlfriend over (the head says “You are learning”). David doesn't kill her but instead kills a downstairs neighbor. The head turns up young and in the flesh and kills David. Later when his apartment is redone, the mirror watches different tenants occupy the place until one of them gets the bright idea to hold a séance and it's David who's in the mirror.

In “An Act of Kindness”, an unhappy business clerk, Christopher Lowe (Ian Bannen) with an unpleasant wife Mabel (Diana Dors), who's complaining and insulting and a bratty kid becomes friends with a former vet named Underwood (Donald Pleasance) who sells laces and matches. To impress him, because he was not in the army, Lowe wants to buy a DSO medal but can't without the proper papers, so he steals it. Later, he goes to Underwood's house for dinner and meets his daughter Emily (Pleasance's lookalike daughter Angela), who he takes a shine to. Meanwhile someone is shadowing Mabel, taking pictures of her, stealing a lock of her hair. Emily shows Lowe a doll she's made of his wife. When she sticks a pin in it, Mabel dies. Later, he and Emily get married. On their wedding cake is figures of a bride and groom. When Emily cuts off the head of the groom figure, blood spurts from the Lowe's head and he dies. Apparently, this was his son's wish.

Next is “The Elemental”. At the antique shop, a businessman Reginald Warren (Ian Carmichael) switches snuff boxes, then is told by the eccentric Madame Orloff (Margaret Leighton) that there is an “elemental” on his shoulder. His wife Susan (Nyree Dawn Porter) accuses him of hitting her even though he didn't. She even has a mark. Later she says he tried to choke her in bed. Orloff tries to help him. She seems to banish the spirit (and wreck his house) but the spirit takes over Susan and she kills Warren with a poker.

In “The Door”, William Seaton (Ian Ogilvy) buys an elaborate door which he says leaves him broke. While the dealer's back is turned, he eyes the money he just spent. He leaves and the dealer counts the money. He and his wife Rosemary (Lesley-Anne Warren) mount the door on a closet but later that night, William opens the door and finds a mysterious cobwebbed room. He hears footsteps and runs out. When he looks again, it's just a closet. He finds a book that mentions a guy named Richard Sinclair who created a “ghost room”. When Sinclair (Jack Watson) kidnaps his wife, William destroys the door and the room starts to crumble. Before the decrepit Sinclair can choke William to death, Rosemary whacks him a few times sounding the evil guy's death knell. They get their closet back, the dealer's money is all there and they live.

Finally, a robber who was hanging around outside the whole time, visits the shop. He threatens the dealer with some old guns. When he fires them, they have no effect and the robber winds up in a coffin.

This was directorial debut of Kevin Connor (THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT (1972); AT THE EARTH'S CORE (1974)), a former film editor. Screenwriters Raymond Christ and Robin Clarke adapted the segments from the stories of R. Chetwynd-Hayes (his stories were also basis for THE MONSTER CLUB, also produced by Amicus' Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg). Cushing was in THE BEAST MUST DIE!, MADHOUSE and FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL the same year. 

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Killer Party Time

 

 (themoviedatabase)

KILLER PARTY-1986-This opens with a movie at a drive-in. A girl then rebuffs her date's advances and goes for popcorn at a deserted concession stand. Then as a weird 80's pop rock band plays, the girl is attacked by zombies. Surprise! It's really a cheesy music video by a band called White Sister. Anyway, some sorority sisters hold their “goat night” in an old house where the owner, a woman who talks to her brother's grave, is beaten to death before the party starts. A killer is dressed in a diving suit and one girl becomes possessed. After she's killed, her friend Phoebe is possessed. It goes from slasher movie to “Evil Dead” rip-off. The diver murders are never explained. Paul Bartel is a teacher who's electrocuted. 

Director William Fruet also made FUNERAL HOME in 1980 and many TV episodes. Screenwriter Barry Cohen also penned FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER the same year.

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The Last Whistle

 

 (imdb)

THE RETURN OF THE WHISTLER-1948-A man (Michael Duane) and woman (Lenore Aubert) want to get married but the minister is away. Meanwhile someone sabotages their car. Since this is the 1940's they can't stay together in one room. The next day he goes to her room and she's disappeared. A private eye (Richard Lane)) tries to help him and flashbacks reveal how the two lovers met. Double crosses, evil in-laws and an inheritance all figure in the wild plot. Uncredited roles go to Trevor Bardette, Ann Doran, Wilton Graf and Olin Howland. 

This last installment into the series was directed by D. Ross Lederman. 

Lead actress Lenore Aubert was in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN the same year.

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Secret Whistler

 

 (imdb)

THE SECRET OF THE WHISTLER-1946-After the usual intro, a woman (Mary Currier) buys a headstone for herself (from Byron Foulger). Her husband Ralph Harrison (Richard Dix) is called away from a party he's throwing because his wife, Edith has a heart attack. He meets a model Kay (Leslie Brooks) and begins to romance her while waiting for his wife to die. Somehow, his wife gets better and overhears Harrison telling Kay how much he loves her. Edith throws him out but he returns at night and switches her meds with poison. She dies and he marries Kay. Everyone suspects him of murder but Kay finds the old wife's diary that has an entry that seems to clear Ralph. Both wind up dead and the Whistler keeps whistling. John Hamilton and Arthur Space have uncredited roles. 

This is another weird entry into the series (the sixth installment), this time directed by George Sherman (THE LADY AND THE MONSTER (1944)). Star Dix would make one more film in the series, which be his last film appearance as he died in 1949 at age 56. His death may have been hastened by alcoholism.

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Still Whistling

 

 (imdb)

THE POWER OF THE WHISTLER-1945-In this strange drama, Richard Dix is a man who suffers a blow to the head and can't remember his name or the purpose of an important mission he knows he has to perform. Jean Lang (Janis Carter)) reads his fortune in a Greenwich village cafe and deduces he's in danger. She and her sister (Jeff Donnell) decide to help him from clues he has on him. (a lighter, a Canadian dollar, a bakery slip and a doctor's prescription). It all comes together when it's discovered he's an escaped lunatic out for revenge. John Abbott is a book shop owner and I. Stanford Jolley, Kenneth MacDonald, Nina Mae McKinney, Eddie Parker and Frank Scannell have small roles. 

Screenwriter Aubrey Wisberg later wrote and produced THE MAN FROM PLANET X (1951) and wrote THE NEANDERTHAL MAN in 1953. Prolific low-budget film director Lew Landers made this sometimes eerie film noir mystery. It's the third in the series.

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The First Whistler

 

 (imdb)

THE WHISTLER-(1944)-In the first of the series, Earl Conrad (Richard Dix) is a businessman who blames himself for the death of his wife and decides to have a hit man knock him off. Later, when it appears his wife is still alive, Conrad changes his mind and doesn't want to die. His journey takes many twists. A psychotic hit man (J.Carroll Nash in standout performance) tries to scare him to death. Conrad almost winds up as a stowaway on a ship bound for Japan. 

Nice little film noir directed by William Castle. Also with Gloria Stuart, Byron Foulger as a flophouse attendant, William Bennidict as a mute delivery boy, Trevor Bardette, Ralph Dunn and George Lloyd. It's based on a CBS radio show created by J. Donald Wilson. This was the first of 8 Whistler films produced by Columbia Pictures. Richard Dix was the star of the first 7. The titular character is the narrator (Otto Forrest). 

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