One Frightened Night (1935)

Millionaire Jasper Whyte (Charley Grapewin) decides to divide his fortune between his relations, friends and staff - who he has touchy relationships with to various degrees - before a new inheritance tax comes into force. He'd rather give the money to his granddaughter Doris but he can't locate her. But then, just after he has shared out his millions, two women (Mary Carlisle and Evalyn Knapp) turn up that stormy night who both claim to be her...

Obviously this throws the night into confusion and those suddenly disinherited rather put out. One of the Dorises then turns up dead.

This is a fun film (which plays up to the stereotypes of the genre nicely) with some good performances - especially by the rather ropey magician Luvalle (Wallace Ford). Set on a stormy night in a creepy old house to give it the required atmosphere the film has plenty of red herrings, murders, mysterious ways to commit them and suspects which results in a true Golden Age type romp.

Frankenstein (1910)

The first movie adaptation of the famous Frankenstein story, with Augustus Phillips as Dr Frankenstein, Charles Ogle as the monster and Mary Fuller as Elizabeth, the doctor's fiance and the object of the monster's love.

This early Edison movie is a fairly loose take on the story though features plenty of running around by the monster. The monster though is not the one familiar in later movies, looking more like a ballet dancer that has hit hard times. Being one of the earliest movies the camera work is completely static, sometimes the actors accidentally wandered off screen when doing their parts.

It is rather intriguing though and pretty macabre.

Lucky Terror (1936)

Lucky Terror is an unchallenging but enjoyable enough western starring Hoot Gibson as a Lucky Carson who gets dragged into a chase. The man being chased Jim Thornton (George Chesebro) forces Lucky to swap horses with him but unfortunately Lucky's horse gets spooked and drags the man over the cliff to his death. Lucky finds gold in the man's saddle and later learns he was a miner being chased by thieves led by Bat Moulton (Jack Rockwell).

Lucky joins a travelling show which includes the miner's niece Ann (Lona Andre). Lucky gets accused of killing Jim Thornton by Bat (really it was his horse) but is acquitted rather amusingly...

Although not too dramatic a film and lacking in much action (though the action that it does have is decent), Lucky Terror has enough unusual touches to elevate it above the usual film of this genre.

Ellery Queen’s Penthouse Mystery (1942)

Ventriloquist Gordon Cobb (Noel Madison) is hired by the Chinese to secretly bring jewels to the US to raise funds to feed the hungry, yes that's right a ventriloquist. However on arrival in New York he vanishes and is later found dead in a chest. The vent's daughter Sheila (Ann Doran) brings Ellery Queen (Ralph Bellamy) and Nikki (Margaret Lindsay) in to help out.

There are many suspects in this complicated case including Cobb's manager (Russell Hicks), Cobb's Chinese contact (Anna May Wong) and the mysterious Count Brett (Edward Ciannelli)...

It is a bright and breezy crime film with a dose of dodgy racial stereotypes. Unexceptional but enjoyable. Ellery and Nikki spend half the film arguing but as fans of Ellery Queen movies will know, that's quite normal.

Sea Racketeers (1937)

A cute and light hearted little nautical adventure set on a gambling boat, the owner of which (J. Carroll Naish) is also smuggling furs though the Coast Guard is doing their best to stop them (though not that well).

Weldon Heyburn and Warren Hymer are two of the Coast Guard seamen but seem to spend most of their time making fools of themselves and chasing women, especially showgirl Toots (Penny Singleton). Their dog Skipper seems to be the brains of the outfit though.

Meanwhile Patricia (Jeanne Madden), the daughter of a lighthouse keeper who was killed by the smugglers turns up to carry out her own investigation, and sing. Yes there are some pretty swell songs interspersed thoughout. Its light and inconsequential but fun.

The Fatal Hour (1940)

Mr Wong (Boris Karloff) is enlisted by his friend Police Captain Street (Grant Withers) to find the killer of his old friend who was found fished out of the waterfront in San Francisco whilst investigating a smuggling ring.

Harry "Hardway" Lockett (Frank Puglia) is something to do with the smuggling ring which involves his club, the Neptune. Helping (or is that hindering?) is reporter Bobbie (Marjorie Reynolds) who has a fractious relationship with Street...

It is an enjoyable murder mystery it starts off quite slow and formulaic but things perk up when the bodycount starts rising. An early remote control (for a radio) also becomes a very interesting technological plot device. The story is quite average but what raises the film above the average of Karloff of course.

Panama Patrol (1939)

Major Waring (Leon Ames) is just about to marry his secretary Helen Lane (Charlotte Wynters) when he gets the call to translate a coded message that has just been received, well duty calls! After a brief interlude to arrest a suspicious East Asian and suspected spy (who promptly gets shot by enemy unknown) the code is broken.

Waring heads to New York masquerading as the shot spy and begins to uncover a plot by Chinese spies to damage the Panama Canal. However is one of his own men, Arlie Johnson (Abner Biberman) in on the plot? Why indeed and Waring ends up getting captured by the spies, who luckily are pretty useless...

Much of the plot doesn't make sense and there is plenty of Yellow Peril nonsense but it is an exciting and fast paced movie with plenty of action and some neat code breaking. The soundtrack though is weird, no attempt at all seems to have been made to match the music to the actual action.