Showing posts with label undercover cop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label undercover cop. Show all posts

Thursday, June 25, 2026

Undercover

 

 (imdb)

BORDERLINE-1950-A woman cop, Madeline Haley (Clare Trevor) goes undercover to infiltrate the dope smuggling operation of Ritchie (Raymond Burr) and Deusik (Don Diamond). She winds up with Ritchie's rival drug runner Johnny (Fred MacMurray). They travel from Mexico to the US falling in love along the way. Surprise! Johnny is an undercover cop too! Roy Roberts is Johnny's gang boss. Morris Ankrum, Gregg Martel, Chris Pin-Martin and Charles Lane are in it too. 

Director William Seiter was more at home with comedy having made DIPLOMANIACS (1933) with Wheeler & Woolsey, SONS OF THE DESERT (1933) with Laurel & Hardy, ROOM SERVICE (1938) with The Marx Brothers and many others.

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Wednesday, March 18, 2026

You Go, Streetfighter

 

 (themoviedb.com)

SISTER STREETFIGHTER-1974-When her undercover cop brother (Lee Long) is exposed and captured by gangsters, the police enlist his sister Tina (Etsuko Shihomi), a cute but dangerous Kung-Fu fighter to help get him back. The head gangster has lots of henchmen (one is called Hammerhead) and Tina gets to fight them all. She also gets help from the original streetfighter (Shin'Ichi “Sonny” Chiba) who seems to have a little problem with women as streetfighters. 

Shihomi made 2 sequels and is also in MESSAGE FROM SPACE (1978). She and Chiba also starred in LEGEND OF THE EIGHT SAMURAI (1978). Director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi also directed the two SISTER sequels and KARATE BEAR FIGHTER (1975) and KARATE FOR LIFE (1977) with Chiba.

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Thursday, April 10, 2025

Pre-Wolfman Lon

 

 (imdb)

A SCREAM IN THE NIGHT-1935-Jack Wilson (Lon Chaney Jr.) is in Singapore planning on arresting thief Johnny Fly (Manuel Lopez) with the help of local guy Wu Ting (Phillip Ahn). He meets old friend Edith (Shelia Terry) and her Uncle Joe (John Ince), who subsequently becomes a victim of Fly and is robbed. Fortunately, the robbers don't get his most valuable ruby, so Wilson and Inspector Green (Richard Cramer) expect Fly to strike again. Wu Ting goes undercover as a peddler but is killed by Butch Curtain (also played by Chaney), one eyed henchman to Fly and his moll, Mora (Zara Tazil). Fly finally gets the ruby by kidnapping Edith. Of course, Mora is jealous of her. Meanwhile, Jack arrests Butch and impersonates him. After a lot of static talk and some fights, good triumphs over evil. 

This musty low budget Astor production has some too dark scenes and bad acting but Chaney is good taking a page out of dad's playbook playing the dual role. It seems this wasn't released until 1943 when Lon had hit the big time. It's one of his 6 movies appearances in 1935.

 Co-Star Richard Cramer made over 200 movie appearances (he's in the WC Fields short A FATAL GLASS OF BEER) but may be more to familiar to some having menaced Laurel & Hardy in several films. John Ince, brother of the ill-fated Thomas, was a director during the silent era. Female lead Shelia Terry left the motion pictures by 1938. She committed suicide in 1957. Director Fred C. Newmeyer (also an actor) made SAFETY LAST! with Harold Lloyd and “Our Gang” shorts.

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Friday, July 28, 2023

Brooklyn

 

 (imdb)

THE CASE AGAINST BROOKLYN-1958-A rookie cop (Darren McGavin) goes undercover to help break the borough's illegal gambling racket protected by some corrupt police officers. He romances a widow (Margret Hayes)) who's husband (Joe DeSantis) committed suicide. He runs afoul of thug henchman Rudi Franklin (Warren Stevens) who works for the big bosses (Nestor Paiva and Thomas B. Henry). Tragedy follows but he eventually succeeds. Emile Meyer is a police captain and Joe Turkel is another thug. 

This was the second film directed by Paul Wendkos after THE BURGLAR in 1957. He went on to make other films (GIDGET (1959) (and some sequels), BECAUSE THEY'RE YOUNG (1960) and THE METHISTO WALTZ (1971) but his major output was on TV.

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