Author Archive: Retro

Champagne Mogul tries to teach his frivolous daughter a lesson in responsibility by feigning bankruptcy. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock.

Small-town girl Mary Barry wins a beauty contest and goes to New York to meet D. V. Cortelyou, the magazine’s publisher. Greatly taken by young girl, Cortelyou arranges for her to live with Dolly Griffith, a woman of questionable reputation who often aids him in his wicked schemes of blackmail and seduction. During a party, seemingly in Mary’s honor, Cortelyou obtains some apparently, compromising evidence with which to blackmail Mrs. Young, the wife of a wealthy broker; Cortelyou then makes rough advances toward Mary, and one of his assistants, Jack McGuire, gives him a good beating. Threatened with blackmail, Mrs. Young turns in desperation to Jack for help. Jack and Mary attempt to trap Cortelyou in a net of his own making, but the blackmailer is too smart, outwitting Jack and abducting Mary. Cortelyou also kidnaps Mrs. Young, keeping her and Mary in a deserted house. Jack learns of their whereabouts and arrives with the [...]

Mckee plays dual roles as a prudish college professor who is mistaken for his playboy brother.

An already engaged young woman is blackmailed into marrying a count in order to save her father from imprisonment.

Drama about the opening of The Oklahoma Territory to settlers. 1939 re-issue print with Hart’s spoken prologue, the only time he ever spoke in the movies. Hart’s last film. Dir. King Baggot.

Allegory regarding the decadence of post WWI Germany told through the person of Dr. Mabuse, a master criminal who gambles with other peoples lives and fates. Brilliantly directed and photographed. English titles.

Carousing son of an Earl is disowned “until he can earn half a crown”. The son takes a job as a gardener and falls in love with a poor minister’s daughter, who makes friends with the Earl in order to bring the family together. Would make an interesting double-feature with John Wayne’s “His Private Secretary”. Written by Maurice Tourneur. Dir. Maurice Tourneur.

A brutal, sadistic overseer runs a pearl-diving operation on a South Seas island and treats the natives terribly, torturing them and violating their women. A local native girl falls in love with him, despite his sadistic tendencies, and things come to a head when the locals can’t put up with any more of his brutality and take matters into their own hands.

Stunt-saturated Christie thrill-comedy comparable to Lloyd’s SAFETY LAST. Destitute young woman becomes a reporter and will brave any risk to get the goods on an eccentric millionaire. COLOR-TINTED.