Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Post about classic films and films related to combat sports and history.
On September 27, 1941, Warner Brothers Film Corporation released Sergeant York (1941). The film (affiliate link) tells the story of Sergeant Alvin C. York, a reluctant World War I hero from the small town of Pall Mall, Tennessee. Western film veteran Gary Cooper stars as Sergeant York. The film begins with the contrast of a Sunday church service and the
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943) is loosely based on The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual. The short story was published in The Strand Magazine during May 1893. It was later compiled in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. In the story, the Musgrave Mansion held a secret that even it’s inhabitants did not know. This film follows the same plot line
I’ve been on an Alan Ladd kick lately. When I was still in college, I watched a number of Alan Ladd films one summer. I’ve been watching them over again the last few weeks on Amazon Prime. I’ll share some of these films over the next few months. The first film I watched was Thunder in the East (1951) starring
Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947) is the final entry in “B” film series. RKO Pictures took the series over from Republic Pictures, who released the original Dick Tracy serials in the late 1930s and early 1940s. RKO Pictures released the film to theaters on September 26, 1947. RKO brought Boris Karloff in to play Gruesome, one of Dick Tracy’s arch
When Twentieth Century-Fox decided to drop the Charlie Chan series after Castle in the Desert (1942), Sidney Toler purchased the rights to the series and took it to Monogram Pictures. After making 11 films with Twentieth Century-Fox, Toler would make 11 Charlie Chan films with Monogram Pictures. Shadows Over Chinatown (1946) was the ninth film that Toler made for Monogram
Monogram Pictures released Behind the Mask (1946), the second of three films based on the popular Shadow radio program, on May 25, 1946. “B” Film leading actor Kane Richmond returns as Lamont Cranston, the alter ego of the mysterious Shadow. The film begins by following the activities a blackmailing newspaper reporter Jeff Mann, played by James Cardwell. After threatening several
Warner Baxter returns for a fourth time as Dr. Robert Ordway in The Crime Doctor’s Courage (1945). The newly married third wife of Gordon Carson asks Dr. Ordway to look into his first two wives’ mysterious deaths. Authorities declared both cases to be accidents. Kathleen Carson, played by Hillary Brooke, has begun to doubt the official verdict. Dr. Ordway arrives
The Scarlet Clue (1945) is the fifth of eleven Charlie Chan films Monogram Pictures produced after Twentieth-Century Fox cancelled the series in 1942. Sidney Toler made eleven films for Twentieth-Century Fox before moving the series to Monogram. After Toler died in 1947, Roland Winters took over the role for seven more films. In this film, Inspector Charlie Chan discovers a
Charlie Chan in Paris (1935) is another entry in the series starring Warner Oland as Charlie Chan. Charlie is returning from his London investigation, when he stops in Paris for a vacation. Actually, the vacation is a cover for his investigation of forged bonds from the Lamartine Bank. Charlie installed an undercover agent named Nardi but the gang kills Nardi
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942) is the second of the Universal film versions of the stories and the fourth movie starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. Lionell Atwill makes an appearance as Dr. Moriart This movie is set during the early years of World War II, when Holmes sneaks a scientist out of