A Showman’s Review of the Drums of Fu Manchu from the February 17, 1940 issue of Motion Picture Herald.
Tag: Review
Hogan’s Heroes
55 Years ago today, a comedy was introduced to the television world about a group of allied “prisoners” of war, in a concentration camp, who ran an underground operation for the allied war effort.
The show ran for 6 seasons, from 1965 until 1971, but for some reason I thought it was newer than it was, as I remember watching it growing up in the late 70s, apparently as reruns. It is currently playing over the airways on MeTV.
Col Klink (Werner Klemperer), Sgt Schultz (John Banner), Hilda (Sigrid Valdis), Col. Hogan (Bob Crane), Carter (Larry Hovis), LeBeau (Robert Clary), Kinchloe (Ivan Dixon), Newkirk (Richard Dawson)
The Showman’s Review of Secret Agent X-9
The Showman’s Review of the 1945 serial Secret Agent X-9, from the September 8th, 1945 issue of the Motion Picture Herald.
The Most Dangerous Game
After a shipwreck, big game hunter Bob Rainsford (Joel McCrea), finds himself to be the sole survivor on an island called Baranka, but he is not alone. The hunter becomes the hunted as a bored and crazed Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks), forces him to become the prey. The prize is Eve Trowbridge (Fay Wray), who was on the island because of similar circumstances. The Most Dangerous Game is currently playing on tubitv
If some of the scenery looks familiar, it’s because its the same set as used in the film King Kong.
The old charts call it Ship-Trap Island
Detail of map above
The Showman’s Review of the Green Archer
Another preview from the from the Motion Picture Herald (Nov 2nd, 1940) promoting the Green Archer serial.
The Amazing Transparent Man, 1960
A crazed former U.S. Army major Paul Krenner designs an invisibility machine and uses it on an escaped convict who was doing time for safe-cracking to gather more material to improve his device in order to create an army or invisible men! The safe-cracker, however, has other plans. Decent flick, less than an hour long, you can watch it here (archive.org)
The Showman’s Reviews of the Green Hornet
Two Showman’s Reviews from the Motion Picture Herald (Dec 2nd, 1939 & Nov 2nd, 1940, respectively) promoting the Green Hornet & Green Hornet Strikes Back serials.
When describing The Showman’s Reviews, it states “This department deals with new product from the point of view of the exhibitor who is to purvey it to his own public”
Continue reading “The Showman’s Reviews of the Green Hornet”
Brave New Jersey
The year is 1938, and the citizens of one small New Jersey town believe the radio broadcast of the War of the Worlds is a real invasion. Brave New Jersey is a light comedy, featuring a pushover mayor (Tony Hale) who loves his town, a neglected housewife Lorraine Davison (Heather Burns), her ambitious husband (Sam Jaeger), a washed up preacher (Dan Bakkedahl), and decorated World War one hero, Captain Ambrose P. Collins (Raymond J. Barry), who leads the scared townfolk into defending their land.
If you are a fan of the radio show, ignore the reviews, you might just like it. It’s currently playing on tubitv.com
And Then There Were None, 1945
Seven guests, one newly hired secretary and two house servants find themselves stranded and alone in a mansion on a remote island at the invitation of “U.N. Owen.”
After dinner, one of the servants plays a record and the voice on it accuses each of murder. One by one they end up dead, and after each death a ceramic Indian figurine is found broken off of the peculiar table display in the dining room. Early on they realize the deaths are relatable to an old minstrel song called “Ten Little Indians” (lyrics below). Can they find the killer before there are none? Based off of the novel by Agatha Christie. Continue reading “And Then There Were None, 1945”
Colonel March of Scotland Yard
Based on a character in John Dickson Carr’s The Department of Queer Complaints, Boris Karloff plays detective Colonel March. In this 26 episode television series we find Colonel March solve “unsolvable” mysteries. Being only 30 minutes long the mysteries don’t go very deep and in in the case of at least one episode, had a very “Scooby Doo” vibe to it. As of this writing it is available on TUBI
The role of Colonel March allowed Boris, then age 65, to go back to England to go into semi-retirement and visit old friends.