Author Archive: Retro

English nurse Edith Cavell is matron in a small private hospital in German-occupied Brussels during WWI. When the son of a recently deceased patient escapes from a German prisoner-of-war camp, Cavell aids him to reach Holland and safety. This leads to Cavell, a local noblewoman, the grandmother of the escaped prisoner-of-war, and others to form an organization to help Belgian, French, English and other soldiers escape as well. Eventually the Germans become aware of what’s happening and take action.

A wealthy Chinese banker sets his sights on a pretty British singer, and eventually marries her and takes her back to Chinese Bungalow, his estate deep in the Malayan jungle. However, his frequent absences on extended business trips make his wife feel abandoned, and she soon begins an affair with a nearby plantation owner. Her husband soon finds out, and begins to plot his revenge.

The Millionaire Kid is young Tommy Neville whose wealthy parents, Thomas and Gloria Neville are preparing to fight it out in divorce court.Tommy runs away from home. The private detective assigned to watch him tells Mrs. Neville he has been kidnapped. She immediately suspects her husband. Meanwhile, Tommy is selling newspapers in another city. He is attacked by a bully, and is rescued by gangster Terry Mallon and his daughter Kitty. Unaware of his identity, they take him to their beach home. Reporter Breezy Benson is sent to interview Mrs. Neville about the divorce, and is fired when she won’t talk to him. He meets Kitty at the beach and is intrigued by her. He meets her father, who is curious but not suspicious as news of the alleged kidnapping has not been reported.

Looks like the film that might have inspired Hugo Hass to make one like it twice a year in the early fifties. Connie (June Lang) is all smitten with lighthouse keeper Sam Wells (Don Castle), but he brushes her off and she ups and marries his fellow-lighthouse keeper Hank Armitage (John Litel) out of spite. All three live together in the close confines of the lighthouse and jealously and recrimination rise nearly as high inside as the pounding surf and howling winds outside. It also begins to look like an Edgar G. Ulmer) film, if it wasn’t so semi-rational. Sam is pleased with the situation that appears to him to promise action with no responsibilities. But Connie, in addition to rebuffing Sam’s unwanted passes, is actually falling in love with ol’ Hank. Trouble is brewing.

Bank teller Barry Webster is driven to stealing bank funds by his mother-in-law who continually nags him about forcing her daughter Muriel to live in poverty. He is caught and sent to prison and, while there, the mother forces Muriel to divorce him and marry a wealthy industrialist. After serving his term and being released, the new husband catches Barry and Muriel together. A shot is heard, the husband is killed and Barry and Muriel are accused of the murder.

In the early 1900s, as the Panama Canal is being built, a group of doctors try to discover a cure for yellow fever, a disease that is decimating the workers constructing the canal.

This is the story of a woman who kicks out her no-good second husband after he wastes all her money. Since gambling and drink had taken all her money, she decides to use the money from a windfall to open an illegal after hours night club and gambling parlor, in order to provide her two daughters with a high society education. Eventually she gets caught, and the daughters take over the night club and legitimize it. But the daughters have conflicts, and the no-good husband shows up to complicate matters.

While in Singapore, a man and a pretty young girl find themselves mixed up in blackmail and murder.