MILL CREEK LEGENDS OF HORROR: Shadow of Chinatown (1936)
Shadow of Chinatown, a condensed 65-minute version of the 300-minute serial, presents a unique narrative. It delves into the destruction of San Francisco’s Chinatown by Victor Poten (Bela Lugosi) and The Dragon Lady (Luana Walters), hired by white businesses to eliminate the new Chinese businessmen who threaten their profits. This atypical plot, where white individuals […]
MILL CREEK LEGENDS OF HORROR: The Face at the Window (1939)
A series of murders happens with a face appearing at each victim’s window, the image of what people begin to call the Wolf Man. A bank clerk named Lucien Cortier (John Warwick) is blamed, which pleases Chevalier Lucio del Gardo (Tod Slaughter), as he’s the real killer. According to Wikipedia, “Slaughter’s blood-and-thunder films were too […]
MILL CREEK LEGENDS OF HORROR: Jamaica Inn (1939)
Daphne Du Maurier wrote the books that Hitchcock based Rebecca and The Birds, as well as this, his last British movie. Those two are way better, trust me. Mary Yellan (Maureen O’Hara), with her Aunt Patience (Marie Ney) and Uncle Joss (Leslie Banks), works at the Jamaica Inn, which kind of does what Antonio Bay did […]
CHILLER THEATER MONTH: The Man They Could Not Hang (1939)
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Man They Could Not Hang was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, January 22, 1966 at 1:00 a.m. Directed by Nick Grinde (The Man with Nine Lives, Before I Hang) and written by Kurt Brown (A McKeesport native who was the assistant to D.W. Griffith’s cameraman G.W. Bitzer before becoming a cinematographer; he was […]
CHILLER THEATER MONTH: Dark Eyes of London (1939)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Dark Eyes of London was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, February 10, 1973 at 11:30 p.m., Saturday, February 8, 1975 at 1:00 a.m., Saturday, October 4, 1975 at 11:30 p.m. and Saturday, August 26, 1978 at 1:00 a.m. It played as The Human Monster. Dr. Orloff (Bela Lugosi) has quite the scam going. He […]
KINO LORBER BLU RAY BOX SET: Mr. Wong In Chinatown (1939)
Every time someone comes to Mr. Wong for help, it seems like they die. Like in this film — the third movie in the series of William Nigh-directed, Boris Karloff-starring movies — when Princess Lin Hwa (Lotus Long, who played the murderous maid in The Mystery of Mr. Wong) comes for his assistance and she’s […]
KINO LORBER BLU RAY BOX SET: The Mystery of Mr. Wong (1939)
William Nigh returns to direct and Boris Karloff stars in the second Mr. Wong movie. Wealthy gem collector Brandon Edwards (Morgan Wallace) has taken possession of the largest star sapphire in the world, the Eye of the Daughter of the Moon. Yet his life is in danger, a fact he tells Mr. Wong. On cue, […]
MILL CREEK THRILLERS FROM THE VAULT: The Man They Could Not Hang (1939)
Directed by Nick Grinde (The Man with Nine Lives, Before I Hang) and written by Kurt Brown (A McKeesport native who was the assistant to D.W. Griffith’s cameraman G.W. Bitzer before becoming a cinematographer; he was the son of comedian and character actor William H. Brown and his mother was Lucille was an actress), The Man They […]
El Signo de la Muerte (1939)
The SIgn of Death comes from way back in the past of Mexican genre cinema, yet director Chano Urueta would make movies the whole way up to 1974, including Blue Demon vs. the Satanic Power and the amazing El Baron del Terror (he’s also in Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia). Here, he’s […]
The Phantom Creeps (1939)
This Universal movie serial — told in twelve parts — shares some similarities with the earlier serial The Vanishing Shadow, including the inventions of an invisibility belt and a remote-control robot. That makes sense — at the time, Universal was all about recycling. This movie contains stock footage from The Invisible Ray and The Vanishing Shadow, as […]
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