Sherlock Is Back!

 

 (imdb)

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SECRET WEAPON1942-Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) smuggles bomb inventor Dr. Toben (William Post Jr.) out of Nazi occupied France. Once safe at 221 Baker Street, the ingrate sneaks out to see a girlfriend and give her a letter. On the way back, he's attacked. He survives and the next day there is a demonstration of his new aerial bomb. For some reason he doesn't want to divulge the secret and gives 4 parts to 4 different scientists (one is played by Henry Victor). Later Holmes deduces that Prof. Moriarty (Lionel Atwill) has kidnapped Toben. Holmes adopts several disguises in this modern WW 2 propaganda mystery and has a weird haircut. It marks the first appearance of Inspector Lestrade (Dennis Hoey) who isn't as pompous as in later films. 

Of course, Nigel Bruce is back as Dr. Watson as is Mary Gordon as Mrs. Hudson. There are unbilled appearances by Rudolph Anders, Whit Bissell, Veda Ann Borg, Paul Bryar, Harry Cording, James Craven, Paul Fix and Michael Mark. 

This is the first Holmes adventure directed by Roy William Neil, who'd go on to produce and direct the rest of the series.

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Early Color Horror

 

 (tcm.com)

DOCTOR X-1932-Reporter Lee Taylor (Lee Tracy) investigates cannibalistic murders (The Moon Killer) that seemed tied to the medical research facility run by Dr. Jerry Xavier (Lionel Atwill). A few of his eccentric suspicious staff have had brushes with cannibalism. After he meets Xavier's daughter Joanne (Fay Wray), Taylor's almost done in by a cloaked monster but a trick cigar saves him. To avoid a scandal, Xavier asks the police to give him 48 hours to discover if the killer is on his staff. He sets up an elaborate machine that measures subjects' blood while recreating the murders. 

This early two-tone technicolor horror has great direction (from Michael Curtiz, who made MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM the next year), is very creepy in spots, has lots of suspects and some weird sfx but is brought down a bit by a static screenplay and an annoying wisecracking performance by Tracy.

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Defective Detectives

 

 (imdb)

THE GORILLA-1939-A series of murders committed by “the gorilla” plague the city. Walter Stevens (Lionel Atwill) believes he is the next victim. His niece Norma (Anita Louise) comes to visit him with her husband Jack (Edward Morris). Stevens has a suspicious looking butler (Bela Lugosi) and a loud maid (Patsy Kelly). He hires detectives Harrigan, Mulligan and Garrity (The Ritz Brothers) for protection. Stevens owes money to someone and explains how he and Norma are the sole heirs to her father's fortune. Meanwhile a mysterious figure (Joseph Calliea) prowls around the house in the rain. The brothers shout a lot, spout one-line insults at each other and fall down. A real gorilla (Art Miles) shows up (it escaped from its trainer) and Bela saves the day. 

The Ritz Brothers were kind of a combo of the 3 Stooges and The Marx Brothers. Atwill and Lugosi were in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN same year as this mildly amusing comedy was made. Prolific director Allan Dwan also made a version of THE THREE MUSKETEERS which also featured The Ritz Brothers and Atwill. THE GORILLA is based on a play by Ralph Spence.

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Atwill In Wax

MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM-1933-Eccentric and brilliant Ivan Igor (Lionel Atwill) owns a wax museum. His greedy partner burns the place down (with Igor in it) to collect the insurance money. A year later Igor is hiding out, a cripple. A disfigured guy in a long coat and top hat steals a dead female body from the morgue. Florence (Glenda Farrell) a wise talking reporter is practically fired from her job by her boss (Frank McHugh) unless she gets a story. 

Meanwhile Ralph (Allen Vincent), a sculptor who works for Igor introduces his girlfriend Charlotte (Fay Wray; the same year as KING KONG) to his boss. Igor believes she will be a perfect model for his Marie Antoinette figure. When she goes to visit Ralph at the museum at night Igor puts the moves on his “Marie”. She discovers his secrets. He can walk and has a wax mask covering his deformed face. Oh yeah, he's also mad (well, I wouldn't be happy about it myself). Fortunately, the police break in, Igor falls into a vat of wax and Charlotte is saved. Florence gets a great story and marries her boss. 

This classic horror tale from Warner Bros. was filmed in an early type of two tone Technicolor by director Michael Curtiz. Though the process was unpopular and costly it gives the film an eerie quality. Curtiz's other horror film from the year previous DOCTOR X was also filmed in the two tone process (with Atwill and Wray). MYSTERY was the last to use it.

Of course this was remade as HOUSE OF WAX IN 1953 with Vincent Price!

https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2008/07/this-price-is-right.html

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Zucco & Atwill!

FOG ISLAND-1945-Gail (Sharon Douglas) lives on an isolated island with her step-father Leo (George Zucco), a disgraced financier who blames his former clients for his downfall and the murder of his wife and a jail sentence. To get revenge he invites them to his gloomy old home and also engages the services of his former cellmate Doc Lake (Ian Keith) to help him. The butler Allerton (George Lloyd) spies on them the whole time from behind a suit of armor. Alec Ritchfield (Lionell Atwill), phony psychic Emilline (Jacqueline daWit), John Kavanaugh (Jerome Cowan) and his secretary Sylvia (Veda Ann Borg) are the guests/suspects/victims. 

Also aboard is Jeff Kingsley (John Whitney), the son of a now dead associate who seems to have had a “relationship” with Gail prior to coming to the island. She plays the ice princess (and also an organ) while Jeff tries to break her down. Leo talks very mysteriously and gives each of his guests a small token (a skull, a key, a pen,a  knife) to keep them guessing. Everyone is suspicious of each other and we learn butler Allerton is really an escaped con who Lake kills. Meanwhile a short seance is held and Jeff finds a secret passage. He meets Gail in the fog and once again unsuccessfully tries to woo her. Their scenes together really drag. 

Things pick up a little when Leo accuses Ritchfield of murdering his wife and Ritchfield kills Leo. He disposes of the corpse, putting it in a secret floor space where there's a skeleton. Unknown to Ritchfield, Lake has been watching the whole thing. After Ritchfield kills Emiline, Kavanaugh and Sylvia go looking for him and Jeff and Lake have a fist fight. Lake subdues Jeff and goes after the others who are looking for Leo’s fortune in an underground cave. Gail revives Jeff and they find her mom's jewels hidden in a weird desk. Meanwhile the four greedy survivors meet a watery death in a cave Leo booby trapped. Seems to take place in one night. Everyone talks about going to bed but no one ever takes off their evening clothes! 

Another very low budget but enjoyable mystery from PRC directed by Terry Morse (who was later credited with directing the added US scenes in the original GODZILLA). 

https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2016/12/charlie-again.html

https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2014/02/pre-super-reeves.html

It's based on a 1937 stage play.

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Chan On The Sea

 CHARLIE CHAN’S MURDER CRUISE-1940-Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) is ready to spank no.7 son Willie (Layne Tom Jr.) for going through Pop’s mail to find a bad report card but is interrupted by a visit from his old friend Inspector Duff of Scotland Yard (Montague Shaw). He’s on the trial of an international killer known only as “The Strangler” and has narrowed the search down to 10 people all on an around the world cruise ship. Unfortunately before they can act Duff is strangled to death in Chan’s own office! Charlie meets archaeologist Prof. Gordon (Leo G. Carroll), tour director Dr. Suderman (Lionel Atwill), Richard Kenyon (Robert Lowery), a murdered passenger’s nephew, the hypochondriac Pendelton (Leonard Mudie) and the smug Mr. Ross (Don Beddoe). Also thrown in is a quick to hysterics socialite Suzie (Cora Witherspoon) and her secretary Paula (Marjorie Weaver), who Kenyon is sweet on. Then there's the Amish looking Mr.& Mrs. Walters (Charles Middleton and Claire Du Brey). She’s psychic and implicates Kenyon in the murder of his uncle. Meanwhile a mysterious bearded beggar hangs around. The killer leaves a bag of 30 silver dimes with each of his victims. A weird hobby horse race figures into the plot. Jimmy (Sen Yung) hangs around as a steward and gets into trouble. 

Eugene Forde directed this easy to take mystery with a good cast.

Followed by CHARLIE CHAN IN THE WAX MUSEUM.

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Chan Goes Everywhere

CHARLIE CHAN IN PANAMA1940--A suspicious bunch gather in Panama. Jolly author Cliveden Compton (Lionel Atwill), school teacher Jennie Finch (Mary Nash), local club owner Manolo (Jack La Rue), Godley (Addison Richards), Dr. Grosser (Lionel Royce), a grouchy, fez wearing German Halide (Frank Puglia) and a guy named Cabot (Kane Richmond) that Manolo has one of his employees Kathie (Jean Rogers) spy on.

In Panama City Godley visits a hat maker who happens to be Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) undercover. Godley has secret info on a saboteur/assassin named Reinhardt (no one knows what he looks like) but he smokes a poisoned cigarette and dies before revealing his info. Chan must stop Reinhardt from harming the Navy fleet before it uses the canal. No. 2 son Jimmy (Sen Yung) is kind of a pain but the identity of the killer is a lulu! Norman Foster directed this enjoyable installment, no doubt enhanced by the presence of the always entertaining Lionel Atwill.

 Next up: CHARLIE CHAN'S MURDER CRUISE.

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The Blue Room

THE SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM-1933-On the onset of Irene Van Hoffler’s 21 birthday, she (Gloria Stuart, who was in James Cameron's TITANIC 64 years later,,,) gathers with her father Robert (Lionel Atwill) and her three best friends (all male). After the youngest of the trio Tommy (William Janney) confesses his love for her, Irene sings a weird operatic song. They all want to know more about the legend of the blue room which had been locked for 20 years after three murders had occurred there.  On a dare Tommy decides he will stay overnight in the cursed room. Meanwhile the butler (Robert Barrat) has a disheveled visitor at the back door who he tells to come back the next night. Irene is very nervous about Tommy staying in the room. The next day Tommy has disappeared and a window overlooking the moat is open. Possibly he committed suicide but the others find it hard to believe. They search for him but find nothing. Then Irene is “attacked” by a man whose shadow looks suspiciously like the guy the butler put out. That night their novelist/friend Frank (Onslow Stevens) stays in the room. While playing the piano, he's shot to death and the door is locked from the inside. A police commissioner (Edward Arnold) is called in to investigate. He questions everyone and finds a few lying. The  killer is eventually captured, though it's never explained who committed the old murders. Paul Lukas plays Capt. Brink, the one friend who manages to stay alive. (SPOILER: He's not the killer!). This is one of the earliest full length features directed by Kurt Neumann who went onto make many low budget dramas and several TARZAN films. In 1958 he was immortalized in the Sci-Fi genre when he directed THE FLY! 

Wow! Lionel Atwill was a busy actor in 1933! Besides BLUE ROOM he also starred in THE VAMPIRE BAT, MYSTERY IN THE WAX MUSEUM and MURDERS IN THE ZOO!

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RX

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. RX-1942-Universal quickie with private investigator Jerry Church (Patric Knowles) getting involved in a rash of murders by a mysterious killer known only RX. He just wants to move to Boston and work in the family business but a famous attorney (Samuel S. Hinds) hires him to investigate the murders since all 5 victims were clients of his. Church also agrees to help a police captain (Edmund MacDonald) who's dopey assistant is played by Shemp Howard! Add in Church's man servant played by the great Mantan Moreland and you have at least two reasons to watch this minor whodunit. Need another? The equally great Lionel Atwill hangs around wearing thick glasses but only gets to show his stuff at the climax. Church's ex-flame Kit Logan (Anne Gwynne) is also a reporter who marries Church half way through the story. Near the end the masked killer uses a gorilla and the threat of a brain transplant to intimidate his victims. There's also a brief reflection of studio lights in a windshield. 

This seldom seen quickie was one of seven low budget films directed by the fast but competent William Nigh who also made BLACK DRAGONS with Lugosi the same year.

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Lon Frank

THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN-1942-In the wake of events that transpired in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, the angry villagers blow up Castle Frankenstein despite the best efforts of Ygor (Bela Lugosi; also in BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT the same year) to dissuade them (the broken neck ex-assistant to Wolf Frankenstein seems to have recovered from being shot to death in the last installment). Their explosive blasts unleash the monster from his sulfur pit doom of the previous picture much to the delight of Ygor (“My friend!”). After being struck by lightening the monster becomes stronger. The duo decided to visit Vasaria where the baron's second song Ludwig Frankenstein (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) lives. Ludwig is a brain surgeon who studies “diseases of the mind” and is assisted by the cheerful Dr. Kettering (Barton Yarborough; later in the I LOVE A MYSTERY series of films) and the unhappy Dr. Bohmer (Lionel Atwill; also in PARDON MY SARONG with Abbott & Costello the same year) and his daughter Elsa (Evelyn Ankers; in the previous year's THE WOLFMAN). 

Igor and his friend walk right into the village square and scare children. The monster befriends a little girl (“Are you a giant?”) and takes her to the rooftops to retrieve her ball. After returning the girl to her daddy he's overpowered by the cops and townspeople. Cut to Ludwig's residence where town prosecutor Erik (Ralph Bellamy; also in THE WOLFMAN) tells the doctor about an imprisoned madman who killed 2 villagers. But unbeknownst to Erik, Ygor has already met with Ludwig to discuss helping fix his friend's “sick brain”. When he's put on trial the monster escapes and almost kills Ludwig but Ygor's horn playing pacifies him. Bringing him back to Ludwig's laboratory the monster kills Kettering and gas is used to subdue him. Ludwig plans to take the monster apart “piece by piece” but his father's ghost (also Hardwicke) intervenes and Ludwig decides to put Kettering's brain into the monster's head! Ygor convinces Bohmer (who feels his part in Frankenstein's experiments have been overlooked because of a mistake he made years before) to put his demented brain in the monster's skull. Erik accuses Ludwig of deception and the doc nearly 'fesses up but the monster kidnaps his little girlfriend and all that's put to the side. The operation is a success but of course the monster's evil brain has been replaced by one that is even eviler. It doesn't go as planned though. The monster, now talking with Ygor's voice plans on ruling the world but it turns out Ygor's blood doesn't match the monster's and he (they?) go blind. The monster kills Bohmer and starts a fire that burns down the house, killing him (for now) and Ludwig while Erik saves Elsa. 

SON OF FRANKENSTEIN director Earle C. Kenton made this fine if a little convoluted follow-up which although cheats on story continuity provides some good scenes and great performances. Cedric Hardwicke is excellent as the noble scientist who wants to do the right thing but once again falls victim to the “Frankenstein curse”. And having Lugosi back as the scheming Ygor (especially since he was killed at the end of SON) is a major plus. Though criticized a lot for his portrayal Lon Chaney (in the first post-Karloff role of the monster) does an acceptable job considering he's not given much to do! Atwill of course is at his best here, the seemingly co-operative assistant hiding a bitter vengeance driven other self. The screenplay is by W. Scott Darling, a prolific film writer before his death by drowning in 1953. GHOST of course features several actors in un-billed roles: Holmes Herbert, Richard Alexander, Harry Cording and Dwight Frye.

Director Kenton later worked with Abbott and Costello and also made two "sequels"  HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and HOUSE OF DRACULA.

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Man Made Lon

MAN MADE MONSTER-1941-After a near fatal car accident jolly lug “Dynamo” Dan McCormick (Lon Chaney Jr.; he made THE WOLFMAN the same year) survives an accidental electrocution because of an electricity act he does at the local carnival. He's invited to the home of Dr. Lawrence (Samuel S. Hinds) so he can be studied. June (Anne Nagel), the doctor's niece takes a shine to Dan. So does the family dog. Mark Adams (Frank Albertson), a wise ass reporter tries to get a story by wooing June. Unfortunately Lawrence's crazy genius assistant Dr. Riggs (Lionel Atwill) uses Dan for his own experiments in making an invincible man. Dan becomes a sad, slow moving “electricity addict” and turns into a glowing ghoul like monster who can kill with one touch. Despite wearing a rubber suit when not electrocuting people he kills Lawrence anyway. He's arrested, found guilty of murder and sentenced to the electric chair. Naturally he survives and gets his revenge on Riggs (by electrocution; the same way Chaney,s Frankenstein monster does in Atwill's Dr. Bohmer in GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN the next year!) For some reason he runs off with an unconscious June but drops her in time to die by touching a barbed wire fence. In a touching final scene the dog mourns over Dan's dead body. ''

The story has good acting and fine direction by George Waggner and Chaney is very good as the happy go lucky Dan. It's real shame to see him come to such a terrible end especially when he was actually exploited by the rotten Riggs. Waggner also wrote the screenplay which was based a story called “The Electric Man” although some have claimed Ed Wood came up with the story idea and was cheated out of the credit. Universal had purchased the rights to the story years earlier hoping to use it for a Karloff/Lugosi team up but that never happened. It's been noted most everywhere now that Byron Foulger is credited as Alienist #2 but doesn't appear in the film. His scene was cut prior to release but strangely his name is still listed. Even stranger, there doesn't seem to have been an Alienist #1...

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A Vacation Forever

MR. MOTO TAKES A VACATION-1939-The (phony) Japanese detective gets involved in protecting an ancient relic called “The Queen of Sheba's Crown” in San Francisco's Chinatown. Moto (who also appears in disguises) is less suspiciously acting than usual and is shot at several times by a mysterious trench coated figure. Mr. Featherstone (GP Huntley), the English dandy shows up to get in the way and Moto surmises that Mataxsa, an international jewel thief might be after the crown despite the fact that he's suppose to be dead! Suspects include Hildebrand (Lionel Atwill) the museum curator, Stevens (John “Dusty” King), the guy who headed the expedition that found the crown and Manderson (Joseph Schildkraut), the expedition's sponsor. In their finale fight Moto and Mataxsa nearly wreck the museum! 

Norman Foster once again directed this, the last of 8 Mr. Moto films with Peter Lorre.

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Atwill

BEGGARS IN ERMINE-1934-Steel works industrialist Flint Dawson (Lionel Atwill) loves his work so much he always has lunch with his factory employees. He's against a merger so board director Jim Marley (Jameson Thomas) plots to do away with him. He has molten steel dropped on Dawson but it doesn't kill him, only leaving him cripple. Mrs. Dawson (Astrid Allwyn) was in on it too and she and Marley steal everything and go to England with Dawson's young daughter. 

In the hospital (where he smokes a pipe constantly) Dawson meets Marchant, a blind beggar (Henry B. Walthall) who he teams up with and forms an organization of beggars who's money he wisely invests to help them live. Years later Dawson's daughter (Betty Furness), who he's taken care of anonymously, is engaged to Marley's nephew (James Bush) after Mrs. Dawson committed suicide. Eventually through stock manipulations and help from the beggars Dawson gets his revenge (he kind of makes Marley commit suicide) and wins back his company. Very cheap Monogram picture worth seeing for Atwill. 

Russian born director Phil Rosen (a founding member of the American Society of Cinematographers) was a well regarded silent film director but in the sound era he worked mainly in cheap independent films. He made THE SPHINX another curious low budget film with Atwill the year before. Later he made PHANTOM OF CHINATOWN starring Keye Luke, SPOOKS RUN WILD with Lugosi and The East Side Kids and several Charlie Chan entries. He died in 1951. Screenwriter Tristram Tupper , who also wrote the non-horror Karloff vehicle NIGHT KEY, based his screenplay on a novel by Esther Lynd Day.  

Night Monster

NIGHT MONSTER-1942-Ingston Towers is full of strangeness. It's guarded by an ominous caretaker (Cyril Delevanti) and his dogs. The place is run by Mr. Ingston (Ralph Morgan; later in THE MONSTER MAKER), a rich reclusive deformed cripple with a lecherous chauffeur (Lief Erickson; in PARDON MY SARONG with Abbott & Costello the same year), a swami named Singh (Nils Ashter), a grouchy housemaid Sarah (Doris Floyd) and smarmy seemingly sinister butler Rolf (Bela Lugosi). Guests for a dinner party Kingston is throwing include psychiatrist Dr. Harper (Irene Hervey), horror author Dick Baldwin (Don Porter; also in WHO DONE IT? with Abbott & Costello the same year) and the three doctors who left Kingston in his sorry state (Lionel Atwill, Frank Reicher and Francis Pierlot). Also thrown in is Kingston's sister (Fay Helm) who every believes is insane. The swami goes into a trance and materializes a skeleton that bleeds. Later the three doctors are murdered and it turns out Ingerston is using the swami's power to give himself new limbs and seek revenge. The estate burns at the end but Rolf's fate is never determined (I assume he died in the fire).

NIGHT MONSTER isn't a bad film by any means. It's well directed by Ford Beebe who keeps it mysterious and creepy up until its strange ending. It's usually thrown aside because neither Atwill or Lugosi have primary roles in it (top billed Bela, a red herring; Atwill, a victim). It does seem a little strange though to have these two guys in it and waste them in co-starring roles (though Bela is suspiciously sinister in several scenes). 

Lugosi reprised his role as Ygor in GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN the same year.

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Universal Horror Classic

SON OF FRANKENSTEIN-1939-At Castle Frankenstein, several years after the events in BRIDE, broken necked Ygor (Bela Lugosi) hangs around scaring children. Frankenstein's son Wolf (Basil Rathbone) comes to town to collect his inheritance. He brings along his wife Elsa (Josephine Hutchinson) and young son Peter (Donnie Dunagan). They have no idea what they are getting into! 

It's great to see Karloff back as the monster (in Jack Pierce's legendary make-up) for the last time even if he really doesn't do much until the finale. Another highlight is the clipped banter between Wolf and the memorable Inspector Krogh (Lionel Atwill) whose wooden arm replaces the one the monster “tore out by the roots” when he was a child. And of course there's Lugosi's Ygor, the broken necked body snatcher who was once pronounced dead (“They die dead. Ygor died live!”) who now uses the revived monster to carry out his revenge on those who condemned him (including Lionel Belmore). Ward Bond has a small unbilled role and some viewers claim Dwight Frye is also in it! 

Producer-director Roland V. Lee keeps things interesting with cavernous sets and shadowy lighting plus a gigantic sulfur pit. The screenplay was written by Willis Cooper, creator the the radio show “Lights Out”. SON, two Mr. Moto entries and providing the story for the serial THE PHANTOM CREEPS with Lugosi) were about all his film credits. SON kind of “ushered out” the first wave of horror films in the sound era and they would never be the same there after...

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Bats and Rains

VAMPIRE BAT-1933-is a creaky low budget horror film from the early 30's but despite it's obvious restrictions and drawbacks it's fairly entertaining.

The great Lionel Atwill stars as Dr. Von Neimann, the local doctor in a village where vampire like murders are taking place. Whenever giant bats appear at night, some unfortunate local dies, the body drained of blood. Melvyn Douglas (who was in James Whale's THE OLD DARK HOUSE the year before) is the investigating police constable. Fay Wray (the same year as KING KONG) is his love interest.

The best performence though is by Dwight Frye, essaying another village idiot role (it would type-cast his career) as Herman, a bat loving red herring (who meets his demise at the famous Bronson Canyon).

Familiar '30's character actor Lionel Belmore (2 Lionels for the price of one! What a movie!) also appears. The photography is a little too dark at times and there's a lot of talk but it's short running time makes it enjoyable.

Screenwriter Edward T. Lowe had been writing movies since the '20's (including HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME with Lon Chaney). He later penned HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, HOUSE OF DRACULA, several Charlie Chan and Bulldog Drummond mysteries and other stuff.

Director Frank Strayer made several unusual movies in the '30's (THE MONSTER WALKS, THE GHOST WALKS and CONDEMNED TO LIVE) before devoting most of his time to the movie series based on the "Blondie" comic strip in the '40's.



I also recently saw THE CLAIRVOYANT (aka THE EVIL MIND)-1934-made one year later and also featuring Fay Wray.

The always entertaining Claude Rains (one year after his film debut in THE INVISIBLE MAN) stars as a phony mind reader named Maximus who's predictions start to come true whenever he's around a certain woman (English actress Jane Baxter). Wray is his assistant-wife who fears his new power. Rains' trance states are very eerie (especially his last!). It's ok and probably influenced a few future films.

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First of 2010

THE MURDER MAN-1935-Interesting murder mystery with Spencer Tracy (he did DANTE'S INFERNO the same year) as an alcoholic reporter who's court testimony convicts a con-man and sentences him to the death penalty. The great Lionel Atwill plays the chief of police. Virginia Bruce (who was later in PARDON MY SARONG with Abbott & Costello and Atwill) is the female lead and James Stewart makes his screen debut as a reporter named Shorty.




THE ALPHABET MURDERS-1966-Weird black and white comedic adaptation of Agatha Christie's mystery novel features Tony Randall as Belgium detective Hercule Pirot. Robert Morley is an inept English secret service man. Anita Ekberg (five years after LA DOCE VITA) is the mystery woman with the initials A B C. I guess it was done to compete with THE PINK PANTHER series (SHOT IN THE DARK was made the year before). Others in the cast include Guy Rolfe, Maurice Denham, Julian Glover and Patrick Newell (4 years before his role as "Mother" on TV's THE AVENGERS). During the opening credits Pirot talks to the audience.

Director Frank Tashlin had previously directed Randall in WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER?

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Calling The Doctor...

THE SECRET OF DR. KILDARE-1939-MGM produced the Dr. Kildare series from 1938-42. They all starred Lew Ayres as the young intern Jimmy Kildare and Lionel Barrymore as his cantankerous but lovable mentor Dr. Gillespie. Laraine Day was the nurse/love interest in most of them and Nat Pendlelton played the dumb but helpful hospitial intern in a few.This was the third entry in the series and considered one of the best.

This time out Kildare is assigned to care for a wealthy young socialite (Helen Gilbert) who suffers from mood swings and temporary blindness. Her father is played by the great Lionel Atwill, who had co-starred with Barrymore (and Lugosi) in the MARK OF THE VAMPIRE remake in '35 and was the one armed inspector in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN the same year this was made.

Meanwhile, Dr. Gillespie is having his own health problems and is sent on a forced vacation. And why have Jimmy's parents come to town with a mysterious note?

Samuel S. Hinds plays his father (he and Barrymore were later in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE). The always recognizable (and great) character actor Byron Foulger has a cameo as well as other "familiar faces" like Martha O'Driscoll, Don "Red" Barry and William Tannen. Dated but painless.

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Old Zoo Revue

MURDERS IN THE ZOO-1933-The always great Lionel Atwill is a millionaire who collects animals for a zoo. The movie opens with him sewing a man's mouth shut for trying to kiss his wife! Kathleen Burke (Lota The Panther Woman in ISLAND OF LOST SOULS the same year) is Atwill's philandering wife, plotting to runaway with John Lodge. Randolph Scott (who had an un-billed "beast man" role in ISLAND OF LOST SOULS) is a zoo lab technican working with snakes. The sinister story however suffers from the comical antics of Charles Ruggles as a fast talking press agent. Like after fainting from fright he says "Is there a good laundry in town?" Atwill gives a party at the zoo where the guests are surrounded by wild animals but it's ruined when Lodge is bitten by a snake and dies (how convenient!).

Atwill gives a terrific performance as the high class but obsessed husband who eventually throws Burke in an alligator pit and pins two murders on Scott's character. His demise is pretty memorable too. Gail Patrick plays Scott's love interest/assistant.

Atwill made the classic MYSTERY IN THE WAX MUSEUM and THE VAMPIRE BAT the same year. John Lodge ended his career playing Luther The Bersek in the low budget horror film THE WITCHMAKER in 1969.

Strangely director A. Edward Sutherland later directed WC Fields in POPPY (1936), Laurel & Hardy in THE FLYING DEUCES (1939) and Abbott & Costello's film debut ONE NIGHT IN THE TROPICS in 1940!
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