Author Archive: Retro

Bentley and Summerfield team up as reporter and his assistant to investigate a series of murders.

Vigilante hero Judex (Channing Pollack) goes after Favraux (Michel Vitold), a crooked banker who defrauded scores of unwitting lenders. To make him pay for his crime, Judex slips the swindler a potion at the engagement party of his daughter Jacqueline (Édith Scob). Favraux appears to drop dead; one grave-digging expedition later, Judex has revived the big shot to administer justice! But the avenger will still have to keep one eye on Favraux’s scheming governess, Diana Monti (Francine Bergé).

Embezzler’s young daughter survives a plane crash in Africa, befriending a gorilla who protects her. Years later, however, treasure hunters appear searching for the embezzler’s loot. Produced by Sigmund Neufeld. Dir. Sam Newfield

Prank playing college student gets mixed up with an heiress who is being guarded from a group of kidnappers.

Navajo was one of a group of intelligent “chamber” westerns turned out by Lippert productions in the 1950s. Technically, it’s not a western at all, but what would later be termed a “docudrama.” Shot on location at a Navajo Indian Reservation, the film features nonprofessional Native Americans in the major roles. Francis Kee Teller plays Son of the Hunter, a young Navajo boy who is separated from his family so that he may be given his government-dictated mandatory education. Disdaining the “white” world, Teller runs from his instructors. The two tenderfeet find themselves in a perilous situation, from which the savvy Teller must rescue them. One of the teachers is played by Hall Bartlett, the producer of Navajo (and, parenthetically, the then-husband of actress Rhonda Fleming).

Stoker in a Welsh coal town risks his life to save the mine after a gas leak.

Newspaper attempts to boost ad sales by offering a reward to anyone who can locate aging safecracker Jimmy Valentine. Unfortunately two old men come forward claiming to be the robber. Dir. Lewis D. Collins

A retired professor has returned to his estate to live with his beautiful young wife, Yelena. The estate originally belonged to his first wife, now deceased; her mother and brother still live there and manage the farm. For many years the brother (Uncle Vanya) has sent the farm’s proceeds to the professor, while receiving only a small salary himself. Sonya, the professor’s daughter, who is about the same age as his new wife, also lives on the estate. The professor is pompous, vain, and irritable. He calls the doctor (Astrov) to treat his gout, only to send him away without seeing him. Astrov is an experienced physician who performs his job conscientiously, but has lost all idealism and spends much of his time drinking. The presence of Yelena introduces a bit of sexual tension into the household. Astrov and Uncle Vanya both fall in love with Yelena; she spurns them both. Meanwhile, Sonya is in [...]