Author Archive: Retro

A crashed plane that had a shrunken head aboard is the only clue to a mystery involving a secret code.

Tarzan helps a girl in her search for her missing father, finding a lost city and an evil Arab along the way. Based on the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Produced by Sol Lesser. Dir. Robert Hill. Adapted by serial of same title.

Boy runs away from home after his schoolmaster rebukes him; boy’s story in the grand manner.

Two bumbling insurance agents try to help a beautiful heiress restore an old hotel, which happens to be a gangster hangout.

Blackmailer claims to be a bridegroom”s long-lost illegitimate son. Dir. Howard Bretherton.

Featuring the outrageously operatic antics of early horror star Tod Slaughter, this stagebound murder-mystery.A third adaptation of the stage play by F. Brooke Warren, this film stars Slaughter as Chevalier Lucio del Gardo, a respected Parisian aristocrat responsible for the ghastly crimes previously attributed to a notorious killer known only as “The Wolf.” Del Gardo has concocted a devious plan with his deranged, brutish brother to pull off a rash of bank robberies, using The Wolf’s murderous ways to throw police off their trail. Their plans are foiled in the end, though del Gardo apparently escapes the clutches of the law. One of Slaughter’s better efforts, made bearable by a brief running time.

Frank “Bring-Em-Back-Alive” Buck comes to the rescue in Malaya when Nazis begin using man-eating tigers to shut down the Allies’ rubber production. Produced by Jack Schwarz. Dir. Sam Newfield

Another in the famous series of Doctor Christian films, adapted from the radio programs.

In this campy action-adventure, a crazy gang of hot-rodding teens are racing about the Mojave when they encounter an ex-con who has come to the desert to bring back the nearly quarter of a million dollars in loot that he has hidden there. The kids learn about his search and in trying to get him to talk, accidentally kill him. Desperate to own the goods, they then abduct the dead con’s wife and try to persuade her to tell them where he stashed the money. Unbeknownst to them, their ranks have been infiltrated by an insurance investigator who sees that justice is finally done.