The Hardy Boys: The Secret of the Old Mill (1927/1962) – Franklin W. Dixon

Frank and Joe Hardy are back in their third adventure, The Secret of the Old Mill, and their friends Chet and Tony are along for the ride! It’s summer break, Chet is trying to get a job to flame the passions of his new hobby, science, and he wants to work at Elekton, a new…

The Hardy Boys: The House On The Cliff (1927/1959) – Franklin W. Dixon

The second adventure of Frank and Joe Hardy, sons of the Bayport detective Fenton Hardy, sees the boys taking on smugglers on the edges of their hometown, just outside the local police’s jurisdiction. Once again, the fast-moving story is more of an adventure than a mystery, and it also seems like most of the adults…

The Big Four (1927) – Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot is reunited with his old friend Captain Hastings who comes to England to see his old friend, but the duo find themselves caught up in their biggest adventure yet. The Big Four moves the characters into some new territory, almost James Bondian in nature, as the pair encounter an international master criminal (well…

It (1927) – Clarence G. Badger, and Josef von Sternberg

Philip Kemp’s Movies book brings me another classic from the silent film era, and while it’s a romantic comedy, some of the subject matter doesn’t quite stand up to the test of time. You’ll see what I mean as I get into the narrative below. Having said that, it was a delightful little film, and…

The White Gorilla (1945) – Harry L. Fraser

Well, as one of my favourite music groups will tell you, sometimes, bad is bad. This entry in the chapter called Monstrous Apes in DK Canada’s highly enjoyable Monsters in the Movies book is pretty horrid. It marries footage from a 1927 silent three hour epic called Perils of the Jungle, which clashes with the…

Indiana Jones and the Genesis Deluge (1992) – Rob MacGregor

Chicago 1927 Indiana Jones is back in Chicago after his teaching job at the University of London falls through. Still reeling from the death of his wife Deirdre, he heads back to the States where he finds his old friend Jack Shannon still playing jazz, but getting into the Family business. The pair soon find…

London After Midnight (1927) – Tod Browning

Tod Browning’s London After Midnight has been lost, burned in a fire that cleared out a percentage of the MGM vault in 1965. That doesn’t stop it from making it into John Landis’ brilliantly enjoyable Monsters in the Movies, available from DK Canada. A reconstructed version, created from film stills, and a script was released…

The Lodger (1927) – Alfred Hitchcock

One of Hitchcock’s earliest film, the silent black and white piece, The Lodger is the next title on the What Else to Watch list in DK Canada’s The Movie Book, following the viewing recommendation of Murnau’s classic Sunrise. You can definitely see hints of what is to come from the master, as he works from…