Ghost?

THE BLACK DOLL-1938-Forgotten murder mystery that goes from serious mystery to comedy murder case. A mean millionaire (C. Henry Gordon) with a second wife (Doris Lloyd) and a no good stepson (William Lunigan) also has a long suffering daughter (Nan Grey) who's in love PI Nick Halstead (Donald Woods). When the millionaire is killed Halstead and a dumb sheriff (Edgar Kennedy) and his deputy (Syd Saylor) investigate. It seems the millionaire and three cronies were responsible for the death of his wife's original husband years before. After every death a weird voodoo like black doll is found. Is the dead man still alive or is it his ghost? 

This average whodunit was the first of 11 features directed by Otis Garrett, a former film editor for Universal who produced this as an entry into their 11 part “Crime Club Mystery” series.

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Forgotten Cosmo

COSMO JONES THE CRIME SMASHER-1943-In this low budget Monogram crime drama with comic overtones, amateur criminologist Cosmo Jones (Frank Graham, mainly a voice actor and announcer), a nerdy umbrella toting guy teams up with an African-American janitor (Mantan Moreland) to help vindicate a cop named Flanagan (Richard Cromwell) accused of killing a bystander. Flanagan's captain is played by Edgar Kennedy and his girlfriend is Gale Storm. Jones can impersonate many voices and there's a gang war and the kidnapping of a rich woman but the story isn't very good and Moreland is wasted (though he helps catch the thugs). 

Director James Tinling made CHARLIE CHAN IN SHANGHAI and MR. MOTO'S GAMBLE plus a whole bunch of forgotten low budget features and later went into TV. Despite having a very successful career star Frank Graham committed suicide in 1950.

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I Smell A Bad Oater....

SCARLET RIVER-1933-Just watched this hokey western that's less than 60 mins.long! Western star Tom Keene stars as Tom Baxter a famous western star who decides to shoot his new film on location at a real ranch. Edgar Kennedy (who was in DUCK SOUP with The Marx Bros. the same year) is his director. Lon Chaney Jr. (billed here under his real first name of Creighton) is a ranch hand who's actually in cahoots with cattle rustlers. Keene is a big dumb hero who never loses a fight or his hat. Chaney is much cooler despite being the bad guy. Also with Rosco Ates as a stuttering ranch hand, Betty Furness as Baxter's leading lady and stuntman/actor Yakima Canutt. Bruce Cabot, Mryna Loy and Joel McCrea appear as themselves. Keene, the star of many cheapy westerns in the '30's and '40's also appeared in other movies under the name Richard Powers. He ended his career as the

major in Ed Wood's PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE!

DRAGONBALL:THE MAGIC BEGINS-1989-This is a wacky live action version of the popular Japanese anime series DRAGONBALL, made in China. I'm not a fan of the original but this is a alternately funny and dumb comedy with great fighting scenes and cheesy SFX. The dubbing is terrible though and the names of the lead characters are inexplicably changed (as is much of the plot) so this probably won't appeal to die-hard fans of the anime but if you're a fan of live action fantasy-sci-fi like ULTRA-MAN or INFRA-MAN you might like it...

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