Chan Can Solve It!

CHARLIE CHAN IN RIO-1941-Detective Chan (Sidney Toler) and number 2 son Jimmy (Sen Yung) with the help of local police chief Souto (Harold Huber) plan to arrest singer Lola Dean for the murder of a man in Honolulu after tracking her to a club in Rio De Janeiro. Lola (Jacqueline Dalya) plans to elope with her fiance Carlos but first she visits a Hindu swami (Victor Jory) where she is kind of drugged and reveals that she did in fact kill a man in a jealous rage. I say kind of drugged as the swami only uses a herbal cigarette and a cup of coffee to achieve this. Anyway, her guests start to arrive when she returns to her place. When Chan arrives to make the arrest he finds Lola stabbed to death. Naturally all her party goers are suspects. They include jilted alcoholic (Mary Beth Hughes from I ACCUSE MY PARENTS), (future TV's Science Fiction Theater host Truman Bradley), the singer's secretary Grace (Cobina Wright), another disgruntled woman and a armchair detective. Jimmy actually has a fist fight with the butler who's trying to steal some jewels and comes  out on top! He even gets a love interest in the form of the singer's Asian maid Lili (Iris Wong). Fun outing but Jimmy is just a little to dumb at times... 

One of four Chan entries Harry Lachman directed. He also made OUR RELATIONS with Laurel and Hardy, DANTE'S INFERNO with Spencer Tracy and THE LOVES OF EDGAR ALLEN POE before retiring after 1942 to devote his life to being a full time artist.

Followed by CASTLE IN THE DESERT. Thanks for reading!

Charlie In The Big Apple

MURDER OVER NEW YORK-1940-On a plane en route to NYC for a police convention, Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) meets his old friend Inspector Drake of Scotland Yard (Frederick Worlock). Drake is on the trial of a saboteur named Narda and his Hindu servant Ramullah (Lal Chand Mehra) who seem to have vanished so he’s been following Narda’s wife. Drake seems like a future victim especially after being invited to a party given by the smarmy and suspicious George Kirby (Ricardo Cortez). Then when Chan is met by Inspector Vance (Donald MacBride), No. 2 son Jimmy (Sen Yung) shows up! Sure enough, Drake is murdered in Kirby's study, killed by a odorless gas. There are many suspects of course including June Preston (Joan Valerie), an actress, chemist David Elliot (Robert Lowery) , Ralph Percy (Kane Richmond), a guy named Richard Jeffery (John Sutton), a pompous Englishman Herbert Fenton (Melville Cooper) and Patricia West (Mariorie Weaver)and Narda’s wife who turns out not to be a collaborator.

 An hysterical but politically incorrect scene involves a police lineup of local Hindi men where a phony mystic is played by Shemp Howard! They find Narda’s servant but he’s killed. His curio shop turns out to be a front for making poison gas! This method seems similar to the M. O. of the the kiiler in MR. WONG DETECTIVE (1938). Eventually Charlie gets all the suspects on a moving plane and reveals the real killer (Narda with plastic surgery). Jimmy is really a pest in this. Clarence Muse has one scene as stereotypical scared suspect. 

Director Harry Lachman directed DEAD MEN TELL the next year.

https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2015/07/chan-returns.html

Mr. Wong: https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2017/07/mr-wong.html

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Chan The Man

CHARLIE CHAN AT THE WAX MUSEUM-1940-Gangster Steve McBirney (Marc Lawrence) is convicted of murder  thanks to the work of famous Chinese detective Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler). McBirney manages to get a gun and “shoot his way out”. He and his buddy hide in a wax museum run by Dr. Cream (C. Henry Gordon) and his female assistant Lily (Joan Valerie). He wants Cream to give him a new face (Cream used to be a surgeon). Later while Charlie confers with police inspector O’Matthews (Joe King), son Jimmy (Sen Yung) comes by. With him are Dr. Cream and reporter Mary Boland (Marguerite Chapman) who want Chan to be on a radio show where he and the pompous Dr. Von Brom (Michael Visaroff) will  try to determine if an innocent man Joe Rock was executed for a crime he didn't commit. It’s really just a trap set by Cream and McBirney to kill Chan. They gather for the broadcast but  unbeknownst to the rest, Joe’s widow is there too. McBirney and his friend convince the crazy caretaker to help electrocute Chan but Von Brom insists on sitting in Chan’s chair and seems to be electrocuted but Charlie deduces that he was shot with a poisoned dart and it is the work of Butcher Deegan, a criminal thought to be dead! 

This is a nice little whodunit with a cool wax museum backdrop but Jimmy's dumb antics (he faints twice) get a little annoying. Funny, unexpected final scene though. Director Lynn Shores was a little bit of a mystery man. He directed several short subjects and an early talkie THE JAZZ AGE (1929) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and also THE SHADOW STRIKES (1937) but not too much else. He died in 1949.

Next installment: MURDER OVER NEW YORK

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Lead Belly - "Black Betty"

UK Strangeness

THE WHITE BUS-1967-A woman (Patricia Healy) who may be suicidal (or dead?) leaves her boyfriend (“I'll write”) and takes a train ride full of football fans to an unnamed city (some say it's Manchester). She joins a double decker tour bus after witnessing what seems like a kidnapping. On the bus she meets the Mayor (Arthur Lowe) and the Macebearer (John Sharp). They go by factories and apartment complexes and listen to a guy (Anthony Hopkins in his film debut) sing in German. They also see people doing Kendo and a fire fighting demonstration. The film changes from black and white to color and back again several times. It ends with the woman eating in a cafe' while a waitress complains about her work. A good double feature with DILLINGER IS DEAD..

.https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2018/10/are-you-sure.html

Director Lindsey Anderson made this freaky short film (46 minutes) a year before IF... for a trilogy that was never finished. Based on a story by Shelagh Delaney. Also known as RED WHITE AND ZERO.

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Also From Japan

FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES-1969-This eclectic experimental Japanese new wave film is part documentary and partially based on the story of Oedipus although it takes place in the gay underground of the '60's. It follows a young transvestite Eddie (Peter) and his pals in Tokyo and features real interviews, unrelated images, sped up fights with comical music, people dancing in their underwear and several violent and graphic murders. One character even shows up and thanks the audience! The ending reminded me a bit of CARNIVAL OF SOULS. 

Director Toshio Matsumoto pushes the envelope especially for the time. He made some other interesting features and shorts but I haven't seen any of them.

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Kill One or A Hundred, You Only Hang Once...

YOJIMBO-1961-In 1860 Japan a master-less samurai Sanjuro wonders the land. In a small town he meets a father and son fighting over the son's wanting to leave their farm and become a gambler. While getting a drink of water he hears the farmer's wife talking about how helpless children are. Then he's insulted by the farmer. In the main part of town people hide behind shutters and a dog wanders around with a human hand in it's mouth. An officer says he could be a bodyguard. Then he's surrounded by some bandits but nothing happens. When he stops for some food the old proprietor tells him about two warring gamblers, Seibei (who's backed by a silk merchant) and Ushi-Tora (who's backed by a sake brewer).The only successful resident seems to be the undertaker. “I'll think as I drink”. Sanjuro hatches a plan to get rid of all the bad guys. “Two coffins...no maybe three”. First he goes to Ushi Tora and kills two of his toughest men (“I've done everything bad”) and cuts off the arm of a third. 

Then he goes and offers his services to Seibei but refuses all offers until he gets what he wants. He also learns that Seibe (Seizaburo Kawazu who had a role in MOTHRA the same years), who's really a coward and his wife and son plan on killing him first chance they get. When the two gangs are assembled for a daylight fight Sanjuro quits Seibei and watches from above. Both gangs are hesitant and afraid to attack first. They flash their swords and yell while Sanjuro laughs. The would be skirmish is interrupted by the news of “an official visit”. Later Ushi-Tora's weird brother Unosuke (Tatusuya Nakadai; FACE OF ANOTHER) arrives with a gun and messes up a hostage exchange. After he saves a kidnapped woman and returns her to her husband and son Sanjuro gets mad when they thank him using words like “idiot” and “stupid” and saying “If you cry I'll kill you”. Later he's imprisoned by Unosuke and beaten up by a giant henchman but he manages to trick his guards and escape. While Ushi-Tora's men wipe out Seibei's gang, Sanjuro plots revenge. In a final showdown he kills everyone and meets someone he met EARLIER. 

 YOJIMBO despite it's serious and violent story line is full of funny wry comments by Mifune. For me this is Kurosawa Akira's greatest film and influenced Sergio Leone (“A Fistful of Dollars”) and many others. Mifune starred in SANJURO, a sequel by Kurosawa in 1962. 

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The Original Harry Potter

TROLL-1986-An ugly troll (Phil Fontacaro) pretends to be a little girl and terrorizes her dysfunctional family (Michael Moriarty and Shelly Hack) and the idiot tenants in their apartment building. After turning Pete (Sonny Bono) into a plant, the troll turns the apartment into a breeding ground for other trolls. He turns a dwarf professor (also Fontacaro) into an elf and wants to rule the world. The landlady (June Lockhart) has a singing mushroom and knows magic. She becomes young (Junes's real life daughter Anne) but is turned into a tree sump. A kid named Harry Potter (Noah Hathaway from THE NEVER ENDING STORY) must fight a giant bat creature to save his sister and everyone else. 

Typical Empire production for the time, part fantasy, part horror film. Special effects artist John Carl Buechler also made CELLER DWELLER and FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE NEW BLOOD soon after this. It was followed by TROLL 2 and TROLL 3 which aren't sequels. 

Because of the name of the lead character and the fantasy elements some think this is where JK Rowling got her idea for her Harry Potter series.

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Not Bad For A TV Movie

GARGOYLES-1972-Dr. Boley (Cornell Wilde) and his daughter Diana (Jenifer Salt) visit an old desert rat named Uncle Willie (Woody Chambliss) who has an unusual skeleton of what he says is a demon from a local Indian tribe. While interviewing Willie, they are attacked by something with claws that kills Willie and sets the place on fire. The father and daughter escape (with the skull) but one of the creatures attacks their car. They stay at a hotel owned by the boozy Mrs. Parks (Grayson Hall). The local sheriff blames some bikers but Boley tries to convince him otherwise. Later some gargoyles invade the hotel and one is hit and killed by a truck. Boley wants to take the dead creature back to LA but the gargoyle leader (Bernie Casey) wants it back. They re-invade to get the body and kidnap Diana too. With the help of the police (including Scott Glen), the bikers and some dogs, Boley infiltrates the lair, saves Diana and ruins the gargoyles' plan for world dominance. 

Director Bill Norton directed this above average TV horror movie after making his debut earlier with CISCO PIKE. He made some other mainstream films like MORE AMERICAN GRAFFITI and BABY: SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND but later went back to making TV movies.

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Godzilla Follow Up

RODAN-1956-After a “cheery” intro about the H-bomb, a narrator named Shigeru Kawamura (Kenji Sahara) tells us what's happening in the mines of Kyushu. After his future brother in law Goro (Rinsaku Ogata) has a fight, he talks about the uneasiness of the miners on that day and how mine #8 was deeper than any of the others. After a flood in the tunnel, they find one miner “hacked to pieces”. Goro is the other missing miner who's found and blamed for the death. A police officer and two miners investigate and are killed. Goro's sister (and Shigeru's main squeeze) Kiyo (Yumi Shirakawa) doesn't have it easy as everyone thinks her brother is a murderer. A giant insect invades a village. Rodan shows up with his mate and although they destroy several cities and kill many people their deaths are quite poignant. 

Keye Luke provides the dubbed voice of Shigeru and other well known voices are provided by Paul Frees, Art Gilmore and George Takei. Following up his success with GODZILLA, director Ishiro Honda shot this in color with most of the “Big G's” personal behind him.

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Not A Poe Film

WAR GODS OF THE DEEP-1965-After Ben Harris (Tab Hunter) finds the body of Mr. Penrose washed ashore, he's attacked by a scaly creature. Later a sailor talks about an undersea city called Lyonese. Ben meets Penrose's daughter Jill (Susan Hart) and her eccentric friend Harold (David Tomlinson who complains about a sketch he made of Jill having disappeared. Ben thinks it's all connected somehow. At night Jill is captured by the same creature that attacked Ben. Following, Ben and Harold find a secret passage that leads to some caves and they see a man chained to a pole who drowns when the cave fills with water. Later they meet The Captain (Vincent Price) who rules over an underground city threatened by a volcano. He and the rest of the populace are all over 100 years old! They live near the legendary lost city where the sea creatures are the last inhabitants. To top it off The Captain thinks Jill is his late wife. The trio want to leave but aren't allowed. They plan their escape which leads to an unusual and long underwater chase/fight in clunky diving suits. They make it back to the surface but The Captain and his gang follow them. The volcano makes some statues break up and fall trapping them and The Captain. After another encounter with “the gill men”, they get to the surface. So does The Captain who quickly ages and dies. The volcano erupts and destroys both cities. 

These days WAR GODS OF THE DEEP is known CITY IN THE SEA. British writer Charles Bennett, who wrote several films for Alfred Hitchcock, wrote the original screenplay which was heavily rewritten by producer Louis Heyward in England where this was filmed. It seems to try and capitalize on the AIP-Poe films Vincent Price was starring in at the time and uses lines from the poem “City In The Sea” by Poe at the beginning and end. 

This was the last film directed by Jacques Tourneur (CAT PEOPLE, I WALK WITH A ZOMBIE) who had worked previously with Price on THE COMEDY OF TERRORS in 1963.

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Restored Silent

BEHIND THE DOOR-1919-Amid anti-German sentiment at the beginning of WWI, Capt. Krug (Hobart Bosworth) and his toughest rival Tavish (James Gordon) join the navy. Krug also marries Alice (Jane Novak} against her families wishes. Ostracized, she stows away on her husband's ship (Tavish is his first mate). Their ship is eventually torpedoed by a German sub which finds Krug and Alice in a lifeboat. Lt. Brandt (Wallace Beery), the sub commander has Alice taken aboard but abandons Krug to the open sea. He survives and vows revenge. Alice is gang raped by the crew, then killed and her body thrown overboard. Later both Krug and Brandt meet again and Krug gets his revenge big time. 

This rediscovered classic, which uses stills for some missing scenes, starts off like some typical “DW Griffith” drama and ends like a nightmare that may have influenced Edgar Ulmer. It kind of manages to say ethnic hatred is wrong but still shows the German as being very bad. It's based on a story by Gouverneur Morris.

Director Irvin Willat made THE GRIM GAME starring Harry Houdini the same year.
 https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2017/10/houdini.html

Holmes Is Back!

PURSUIT TO ALGIERS-1945-Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) are planning a vacation in Scotland. After some mumbo-jumbo about fish & chips, a committee wants Holmes to escort Prince Nicolas (Leslie Vincent), young heir to the throne of his native country Rovenia. The intrepid duo split up with the doctor taking a boat to the Mediterranean while Holmes takes a mysterious airline ride. For a short time Watson believes Holmes is dead but he shows up on board alive with Nicolas who then pretends to be Watson's nephew. A sinister trio, Gregor (Rex Evans), Mirko (Martin Kosleck) and Gubec (Wee Willie Davis) are after the prince. A woman named Shelia (Marjorie Riordan) carries the stolen jewels of a duchess. A twist ending reveals who the real future king is. Final scene seems edited.

 Once again this “modern day” Holmes mystery was produced and directed by Roy William Neill. PURSUIT makes mention of several “unrecorded” Holmes cases including “The Giant Rat of Sumatra”. It's also the only entry that has no scenes at the Baker Street flat so Mrs. Hudson doesn't appear. John Abbot has a small role though.

This was the 12th of 14 Holmes/Watson stories produced by Universal. TERROR BY NIGHT was next.

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Vanishing Bride

THE CORPSE VANISHES-1942-Somebody is drugging then kidnapping newlywed brides. A young headstrong reporter named Pat (Luana Walters) and her older comic photographer Sandy (Vince Barnett) try to investigate. It's all a fiendish plot by Dr. George Lorenz (Bela Lugosi) who extracts bodily fluid from the dead brides to keep his ungrateful wife, The Countess (Elizabeth Russell) young and vital. Dr. Foster (Tris Coffin) assists Lorenz in a cure for The Countess. Lorenz uses drugged orchids and gets help from “my little family” which includes little Toby (Angelo Rossitto), tough guy Mike (George Eldredge), housekeeper Fagah (Minerva Urecal; also in THE APE with Bela) and her brutish son Angel (Frank Moran) who Lorenz whips. He and his wife also like to sleep in coffins. When Pat is forced to stay at the doc's place for the night she snoops around and sees Angel talking to a dead bride. When Foster sees Lorenz strangle Angel he decides to help Pat by setting up a phony marriage but instead Lorenz drugs and kidnaps her. Before he can make the lethal injection Fagah stabs him to death (he killed her son). When the Countess tries to make the injection Fagah stabs her too. 

This is a typical outrageous Monogram studios Lugosi melodrama with Bela being a pretty cruel guy. Luana Walters is good as the noisy wisecracking lead. Too bad she didn't get better roles. Wallace Fox directed Lugosi in THE BOWERY AFTER MIDNIGHT the same year. He also made several “East Kids” comedies. Later he made a bunch of westerns and went into TV. He died in 1958. Sam Katzman was the producer...

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Happy New Year!

13 GHOSTS-1960-College teacher Cyrus Zorba (Donald Woods; THE BLACK DOLL) inherits a spooky house from his dead uncle Pluto. After Zorba, his wife Hilda (Rosemary DeCamp) and 2 kids Medea (Jo Morrow) and Buck (Charles Herbert; THE BOY AND THE PIRATES) move in the real estate agent (Martin Milner; on TV's ROUTE 66 at the time) tells them the place is haunted and a Ouija board tells them there are 13 ghosts. When dad puts on some special glasses invented by Pluto he sees a few of them. A colleague Van Allen (John Van Dreelan) translates a book in Greek which tells how Pluto “captured” ghosts from all around the world and brought them to his house. Housekeeper Elaine (Margaret Hamilton), called “the witch” behind her back, gives them the scoop on how Pluto died and warns them to leave. Later Medea has a strange encounter and when Buck puts on the glasses he sees a headless lion tamer! There's also a ghost chef who killed his wife and her lover and a flaming skeleton. Thanks to a special bed Uncle Pluto gets his revenge on the person who killed him. 

William Castle directed this unusual horror story which had the gimmick “Illusion-O” wherein moviegoers were given special ghost viewers to see the ghosts more clearly. Castle provides on screen instructions at the film's onset.

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