Author Archive: Retro

In the tradition of such big-budget “docudramas” as House on 92nd Street and Call Northside 777, the modestly budgeted C-Man adopts a quasi-documentary approach to its subject matter. The “C” stands for Customs, and indeed the leading character, Cliff Holden (Dean Jagger), is a detective for the U.S. Customs Department. Against a backdrop of genuine New York locations (with a few rather obvious back-projected shots thrown in), Holden puts the heat on a homicidal jewelry smuggler. John Carradine steals the show as an alcoholic doctor, reduced to fronting for the smugglers. The rest of the cast is populated with such Broadway regulars as Edith Atwater and Walter Brooke. Though it obviously cost next to nothing to produce, C-Man is far more atmospheric and suspenseful than many a major-studio effort.

A would-be playwright and a young woman escaping from a job at a gas station meet cute and fall in love.

Its title notwithstanding, the PRC western Range Beyond the Blue was lensed in glorious black-and-white. Singing cowboy Eddie Dean and his sidekick Soapy (Roscoe Ates) enter into the thick of things when they thwart a stagecoach holdup. Our heroes take it upon themselves to champion the cause of stage-line owner Margie Rodgers (Helen Mowery), who’s being victimized by an unknown villain. Dean suspects that there’s more to the case than mere robbery, and he’s right: someone wants to gain control of Margie’s business, and that someone is?.. Well, that should be obvious the moment the “mystery” villain saunters into view. Range Beyond the Blue was the next-to-last entry in PRC’s Eddie Dean series.

The trial and tribulations of a strong-willed woman who elopes and gives birth out of wedlock without telling her ex-husband.

Wartime propaganda piece giving the warning “Be like Dad, Keep Mum”. A gossipy housewife is overheard talking about what her son is doing by a Nazi spy.

Greedy oil speculators, led by Morgan, are trying to force Tiger Woman and her band of warriors from their jungle home. Allen Saunders of Inter-Ocean Oil wants to develop the oil, too, but fights with Tiger Woman to stop the bad guys.

A paroled prisoner hits a man attacking a woman. He runs away scared that he may have killed him – he did not. From a book “Woman in the Dark” by Dashiell Hammett.

Madcap society girl June Bolton has a talent for trouble. Trying to evade a subpoena in connection with one of her misadventures, she winds up in jail and has to be bailed out by the family attorney, Dick Clayton. But June is soon in trouble again, this time involved with a mob boss and a shady lady. Exasperated by his wealthy client’s reckless escapades, Clayton determines to quit… until he realizes he has fallen in love with the little madcap.