C. Henry Gordon plays Nicholas Rood, a miser of a man who once upon a time, murdered one of his business partners. When he receives a black doll upon his desk one […]
Heralding Death – The Black Doll (1938)
Mystery and Menace Was… – The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Despite heavy studio cuts, The Lady from Shanghai remains a film noir classic and one of Orson Welles’ best movies. Intended to be a much longer picture than it was, Welles might […]
A Criminal Known Only as… – The Bat (1959)
With a title like The Bat and the fact that it stars Vincent Price, one would automatically assume that this would be a horror film of some sort, perhaps about vampires or […]
Quaint, Yet Forgettable – Murder By Television (1935)
With television still being new to the world, one man has discovered a way to send a television signal all across the world nearly instantaneously and as such, there are those that […]
A Thumb, a Gun and Bad Intentions – The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
The Hitch-Hiker, like many movies before and after it, is based upon real-world events, specifically the story of killer Billy Cook. It stars William Tallman as sociopath Emmett Myers who has been […]
A Door Not Fully Closed – Crime Wave (1954)
Steve had thought that after two years away, he had left his former life of crime behind. He is on parole, has a job, a wife and leads what some might call […]
One Body is… – One Body Too Many (1944)
One Body Too Many is a mystery film with some comedy and horror thrown in for good measure and while it is never all that bad, it is not a film that […]
Treachery and Treason in… – Hell’s Half Acre (1954)
A man is accused of a murder he did not commit while half a country away, a woman hears his voice on a record and believes it is her husband, long-dead from […]
Deceit and Betrayal on… – Hell’s Island (1955)
Hell’s Island is a film noir filmed in VistaVision, a statement that seems utterly ridiculous but with the advent of television during the 1950’s, colour was apparently all the rage and as […]
Not as Tough as He Seems – Pushover (1954)
Fred MacMurray stars in Pushover, a Columbia Pictures release from 1954 and while one can always count on the man for a good performance, the film feels more like Double Indemnity-lite than […]
The Telltale Mind 