Author Archive: Retro

A comic look…at Cuba after Castro regime take over.

This film finds Stan & Ollie as traveling mousetrap salesmen in Switzerland, a logical place to sell mousetraps they think, because it’s full of cheese. They ultimately end up as waiters at a Swiss chalet where with their usual “talents”, they wreak havoc. This underrated Laurel & Hardy vehicle features a wonderful sequence where Ollie serenades his true love while Stanley accompanies him on the tuba. Songs and laughs galore in this Classic film from The Boys. Dir. John G. Blystone

Silvana Mangano (a very lovely & sexy voiced actress) plays a young, poor Venetian woman, Giovanna Masetti. She is struggling with an difficult life as a shop assistant when one day a young count Enrico sees her in the glass shop where she works. She gets invited to the masquerade ball (ah – if they would have parties like this now – oh wow) with the help of her unscrupulous boyfriend Mario’s dirty deal with the count – the glorious evening does not turn out well, not at all. One bright moment to this disastrous evening is Giovanna’s meeting up with a troupe of MAMBO dancers in particular the troupe leader, Toni Salerno (Shelley Winters

Greedy diamond hunters mistakenly believe that Costello has memorized a lost map to a hidden diamond fortune in Africa. A classic! Dir. Charles T. Barton.

Julius Caesar leads the Roman army to battle against rebels in Gaul.

Innocent purchasers of cheap music boxes begin turning up dead, and Sherlock Holmes believes this has something to do with some stolen Bank of England plates. Rathbone and Bruce’s final appearance in the Holmes series. Produced by Roy William Neill. Dir. Roy William Neill

A doctor uses shock treatment to treat his most aggressive patients. Controversial film. AKA: HAPPINESS CAGE, THE; THE DEMON WITHIN

A teenaged boy arrives in Hollywood to become a movie star, but winds up becoming a male prostitute and gets involved with a gay football star.

Newspaper war; one paper engages gangsters to fight the other paper.