Author Archive: Retro

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 [...]

Gamblers plan to fix a college basketball game by bribing one of the players.

Gang of crooks takes over a bank and must resist their instinctive inclinations.

An orphaned New Zealand girl married to an older, wealthy businessman learns to deal with his strange sexual desires.