The Missing Lady (1946)

One of a short movie series featuring the masked crime fighter, The Shadow, not that he is in costume very much.

Lamont Cranston (Kane Richmond) a.k.a. The Shadow is looking for a missing jade statuette. His investigations lead him into sleazy bars, a doss house and then into a murder scene in his own apartment block! Lamont finds himself accused of the murder though he gets off after outwitting Police Inspector Cardona (James Flavin) - to be honest a piece of cheese could probably do that.

Lamont and his assistant Shrevvie (George Chandler) investigate a complicated plot which the local hoodlum (Jack Overman), his gal (Claire Carleton) and a glamorous model (Jo-Carroll Dennison) seem to be involved in... 

It is all fine B-movie detective work and can be a bit Noir-ish at times, what does detract from the movie a bit though is the repetitive humour such as Cardona's stupidity and Lamont's and Shrevvie's jealous girlfriends (Barbara Reed and Jennie Delaney) getting involved to various degrees of non-assistance. 

In the Year 2889 (1969)

We are in the future, actually no we arn't. In fact this is a rather low budget slice of nonsense set firmly in 1969.

World War 3 has occurred, radiation is killing everyone but smug Captain John (Neil Fletcher) has a plan in his remote house protected from the fall out by geographical oddities. Unfortunately his remote house doesn't turn out to be that remote after all after a number of unwanted guests come to join him and his daughter (Charla Doherty). While some of the visitors including Steve (Paul Petersen) are benign, Micky (Hugh Feagin) is a wrong-un just waiting to cause trouble. There also appears to be a radiation mutated monster prowling in the gardens...

Low budget and low thrills, it also has a distinct lack of good acting (though Doherty isn't bad). The story is a bit slow and stilted and sometimes you wish for the radiation to put us all out of out misery. The title by the way has nothing to do with the film, but is taken from a Jules Verne short story. That probably is the most interesting thing about this disaster.

Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin (1937)

Romeo and Juliet on the range, a great Western.

Trouble is brewing between the ranchers and the homesteaders, the trouble being caused secretly by greedy crooked lawyer Bowdre (Karl Hackett). Son of the ranch boss Dan (Bob Steele) and daughter of a homesteader Gail (Louise Stanley) only have eyes for each other though. But when the guns start firing and the bodies start falling, newly married Dan and Gail find themselves caught between the two sides...

One of the better B-movie Westerns with a good story (maybe inspired by Shakespeare, i guess we'll never know) that isn't overshadowed by endless speeded up horse riding and fights - although you will get some of these. Super little film. Strange title though.

Edge of Fury (1978)

Complicated kung fu action in flares.

Fang (Bruce Li) is the chauffeur for a rich man who ends up being arrested for drug offences in Thailand and eventually executed. Fang, who seems pretty naive at times, ends up tangling with his boss' young wife Mrs Chen (Dana Tsen) who seems more interested in inheriting her executed husband's money more than anything. He also finds himself under attack by his boss' main man King (Yasuaki Kurata) who is trying to find the opium cache of his boss...

This is quite complicated for a HK action film, using flashbacks to fill in Fang's back story and why he is loyal to his boss. We also find out why King is keen to stop Fang. The action scenes are good (if not out of the ordinary), though sometimes the gap between them drags a bit. 

This isn't a great HK film though is a reasonable watch. The most fun thing about this film is the fashions. Kung fu in flares is great!

Arizona Stage Coach (1942)

Another in the long-running Range Busters series, with the usual B-movie shenanigans. 

The Range Busters (Ray Corrigan, Dusty King and Max Terhune) are hanging out on their new ranch when they are visited by their friend Larry (Forrest Taylor) and his niece Dorrie (Nell O'Day). A gang of outlaws are menacing Larry's town. To make matters worse Dorrie's brother (Riley Hill) has been framed as being the outlaw where really it is Laughlin (Stanley Price) who is using Larry's ranch as cover for his banditry...

Its up to the Range Busters, assisted by the slightly sinister puppet Elmer, to save the day of course though plans do not go smoothly as usual. Nothing too out of the ordinary but this is a perfectly fine B-movie Western.