Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Watson (Nigel Bruce) are deep in it again this week as the take on The Pearl of Death. Using Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Six Napoleons as its basis, this tale ends up being a lot of fun. After Holmes foils Naomi Drake’s (Evelyn Ankers) attempt to steal the famous Borgia…
Tag: 1944
The Scarlet Claw (1944) – Roy William Neill
Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Watson (Nigel Bruce) find themselves in Quebec, Canada (read as the Universal backlot) for their next adventure, The Scarlet Claw. An original story, this adventure sees the dogged duo working to solve a murder that may or may not have paranormal trappings. While Watson is played up for humor again,…
The Spider Woman (1944) – Roy William Neill
Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) is back! By his side, the redoubtable Watson (Nigel Bruce)! Despite the (once again) short runtime, I really liked this one. It got the series back on track to solving mysteries and while the War was still going on I liked the fact that it decided to be more escapism than…
The Invisible Man’s Revenge (1944) – Ford Beebe
John Carradine plays a scientist, Drury, who has perfected an invisible serum, though it has no relation to the work that the Griffin family was working on in previous films. We are introduced to him when an escaped psychotic murderer, Robert Griffin (Jon Hall) – no relation escapes to the U.K. It seems that he’s…
The Mummy’s Curse (1944) – Leslie Goodwins
The Mummy’s Curse feels like a wasted opportunity. Once again Lon Chaney Jr. seems to get short shrift without much to do in this installment of the Universal Monsters series. I have a couple of problems with this one. My first issue, this entry barely runs an hour and a good quarter of it is…
The Mummy’s Ghost (1944) – Reginald Le Borg
Lon Chaney Jr. dons the bandages again in this short entry in the Universal Monsters collection. Kharis the Mummy (Chaney) is once again wandering New England, working to protect the body of his beloved Princess Ananka. It seems a new priest is on his way to America, Yousef Bey (John Carradine). He is supposed to…
Sisu (2022) – Jalmari Helander
Sometimes you just want a little of the old ultra-violence and you want to see nazis get the comeuppance you know they deserve. Sisu will check that box for you. Running a brisk ninety minutes there is blood, gore and violence galore as we join an older prospector (Jorma Tommila) in 1944 Finland. He’s left…
Galactica 1980 (1980) – Galactica Discovers Earth: Part 1, and Part 2
I remember, as a kid, when Battlestar Galactica didn’t return for a second season, and was then very happily surprised when Galactica 1980 came along. To a kid it seemed awesome, the Galactica had finally found Earth, and not only did the fleet still have those awesome vipers, but now they had these very cool…
Star Trek: Enterprise (2004) – Storm Front Parts I & II
Captain’s log: date unknown Manny Coto launched the fourth and final season of Enterprise with the first part of a two-part story that first debuted on 8 October, 2004. In a story that wraps up both the Xindi arc and the Temporal Cold War/Suliban thread that has been running through the series, both the Enterprise,…
Star Trek: Enterprise (2004) – Countdown, and Zero Hour
Captain’s log: 13 February, 2154 Robert Duncan McNeill directs the penultimate episode of the third season, which was written by Andre Bormanis and Chris Black. It debuted on 19 May, 2004. The crew of the very battered Enterprise work with members of the Xindi Council and some of the species’ factions, to stop the arming…
The Mind Reels 