Posts about “B” films from the 1930s and 1940s.
Universal Pictures released the thirteenth (affiliate link) of fourteen Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes on February 1, 1946. Twentieth Century-Fox produced the first two films. Universal produced the final 12 films. Terror By Night (1946) finds Holmes hired to protect the Star of Rhodesia diamond on a train bound for Scotland. Rodney Carstairs hires Holmes to […]
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On August 19, 1943, Columbia Pictures released Passport to Suez (1943). Warren William plays Michael Lanyard, the Lone Wolf, for the final time in this film. The film (affiliate link) opens in Alexandria, Egypt, where Lanyard has just arrived. Lanyard meets up with his old friend Johnny Booth, a successful cafe’ owner. However, Lanyard’s real purpose is a mission for […]
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On December 16, 1937, Paramount Pictures released the second “Bulldog” Drummond film (affiliate link) starring John Howard as Drummond. Ronald Coleman and Ralph Richardson played Captain Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond in the past. By the time Bulldog Drummond’s Revenge was released, the series had become a formula “B” movie franchise. Despite Captain Drummond being married to Phyllis Clavering in The Return […]
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On January 27, 1939, Columbia Pictures released the first of the Lone Wolf films, The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939). Warren William plays the “Lone Wolf” Michael Lanyard, a former safe burglar and jewel thief. The film opens with two men kidnapping Lanyard off the streets of Washington, D.C. A mysterious man asks Lanyard to burglarize a safe but he […]
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Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947) is the final entry in “B” film series (affiliate link). 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 […]
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Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum (1940) starring Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan is my favorite Charlie Chan film. Charlie Chan is searching for a murderer in a wax museum. The wax museum is a front for a plastic surgeon, who changes the appearance of wanted criminals for a price. The surgeon Dr. Cream, played by C. Henry Gordon, also hosts […]
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On March 19, 1942, RKO Radio Pictures released the second film (affiliate link) starring the Old Time Radio comedy team Lum and Abner. The Bashful Bachelor (1942) starred Chester Lauck as Lum Edwards and Norris Goff as Abner Peabody, the owners of the Jot’Em Down Store in Arkansas. In this film, longtime bachelor Lum Edwards wants to become a hero […]
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Dressed to Kill (1946) is the fourteenth and final Sherlock Holmes film starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. Universal Pictures released the last film (affiliate link) in the series on June 7, 1946. Once World War II ended, the series returned to non-war related crime stories. Cyril Delevanti plays a thief serving at Dartmoor […]
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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 […]
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On July 12, 1939, Paramount Pictures released the final film (affiliate link) in their “B’ series adaptation of the Bulldog Drummond story. Bulldog Drummond’s Bride (1939) starred John Howard for the seventh final and time as Captain Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond. Heather Angel returns as Phyllis Clavering, Drummond’s long time fiancé. Phyllis has given Bulldog Drummond one last chance to marry […]
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