Author Archive: Retro

On a stormy night, a theatrical producer, his secretary, and playwright Prescott Ames are stranded when their car skids off the road and gets stuck. The three take refuge in the nearby home of Dr. Kent, a friend of Ames. One of Kent’s patients, who is staying at the house, is acting strangely, and the others in the house tell the newcomers that she is behaving this way because it is the anniversary of her husband’s murder. At dinner, the group begins exchanging accusations about the murder, when suddenly the lights go out, and soon afterwards comes the first in a series of mysterious and fearful events.

Martin and Lewis’ first starring vehicle has the duo as army recruits who get mixed up in all kinds of wild situations at their army base. Alvin Corwin is low man on the totem pole, and goes from one mishap to another at an army training camp in World War II. Great musical comedy, featuring Jerry Lewis at his slapstick best. Dir. Hal Walker.

The story of the famous turn-of-the-century race horse. Dir. Joseph Newman.

Gary Ainsworth (Dennis O’Keefe), a brilliant young inventor, is confronted with the gift he gave Mabel, an old flame of his, before he was married. Mabel, about to be married to his partner, Arthur (Lee Bowman), wants to make a fresh start of things by showing the present, which is monogrammed with a sentimental jingle, to Gary’s wife and her own future husband. The inventor, mortally afraid of his jealous wife, takes his dour manservant Boris (Mischa Auer) along with him to the snow lodge of his partner where the two couples and their friends are staying over the weekend, and hires him to steal the present. From then on, a long list of misunderstandings, hilarious incidents and general bedlam result in a happy ending!

Bungling reporter is caught in haunted house on the trail of jade chess pieces. Dir. Frank McDonald.

Maharis is a modern day private eye framed into an embarrassing situation that leads to murder. Characters created by Blake Edwards. Also starring Edward G. Robinson and Joe Besser.

Young boy is permanently crippled after a tenement fire, and vows revenge on the negligent owner of the slums. Dir. Rowland V. Lee.

Queen Elizabeth is running this show. The men in her court should be thinking about how to add to the glory of the Elizabethan Age and how to foil those pesky Spanish who got far too much influence in England when her older sister Mary was on the throne after their father Henry VIII was succeeded by their sickly half brother. Elizabeth thinks Michael Ingolby can do great things. Michael is mostly thinking about one of Elizabeth’s ladies in waiting, Cynthia. Soon his mind is on survival when Elizabeth sends him on a voyage to Spain.

Young boxer joins the police department in order to use the state of the art equipment in their gym, but his skills are soon put to the test when a local mob takes two cops hostage. Dir. Eugene Cummings