An American western directed by Harry L. Fraser, starring John Wayne and George Gabby Hayes.
A cowboy finds several men dead in a bar, including the man whom he was sent there to meet. The outlaw responsible alerts the sheriff so that he will find the innocent cowboy among this destruction. The dead bar owner's daughter helps the cowboy to escape and he helps her to defeat the outlaws who killed her father.
I did not recognize Gabby when he wasn't playing the old sidekick role. At first, I thought the film would be silent because of the primitive video and speeded up horse riding, but it turned out to be a talkie. Throughout the duration, this silent film visual style could be seen. The pacing was fast to fit a complex plot into 52 minutes, but the plot and characters were clearly presented. I'm not spoiling the ending, but in the last shot, the cowboy and bar owner's daughter turn away from the camera with arms around eachother instead of kissing. A kiss would have required tall Mr. Wayne to bend down quite a bit to level his face with Alberta Vaughn's. I rate it adequate. It was pretty good, but not a keeper.
An American western directed by David Howard and Joseph Kane, starring George Gabby Hayes, with a musical appearence by Gene Autry.
A cowboy and his sidekick are run off the road by a woman driving her car. She crashes as well and catches a ride on a passing stagecoach while the duo tow the car to town for her. The men from the stagecoach are villains who trick the cowboy's sidekick into gambling everything the duo owns on a horse race that the villains are planning to cheat at. The cowboy will not give up his horse until he finds who is responsible for injuring it and making him lose the race.
This was pretty standard for old westerns. The plot was easy to follow and the characters easy to keep track of. The audio and video were very primitive, but not bad. Gene Autry's musical numbers came as a set of 3 performed in a dance hall at about the halfway point of the film. Wikipedia identifies this as a screentest for singing cowboys that was successful. If you look closely, you will notice that Autry has a fretboard inlay of his name on the guitar. Overall, this was a very standard western of the time. It may have been a formative film in the singing cowboy genre, but 81 years later, it just seems to fit in with that crowd. I rate it o.k.
An American western directed by Robert N. Bradbury, starring John Wayne.
An undercover marshall teams up with the local sheriff to stop a gang of thieves and save the woman whom they have kidnapped.
This was really bad. The audio was the worst and sounded like it was recorded inside a tiny plastic box. Much of the film was accompanied by the muted sound of horses running. The video was shoddy, but there were no editing mistakes and the camera-work looked decent. The plot was not clearly communicated, partially because of inability to hear what the actors were saying. Speaking of actors, the acting was terrible. Long scenes of horse riding slowed the pace to a crawl. Put all of this together and you've got shit. No wonder the initials of the title are BS for bullshit. I turned it off at about 40 minutes of the 54 minute duration. Now that's bad! I rate it shit. DO NOT WATCH!
An American drama directed by Robert G. Vignola, starring Colleen Moore.
A woman whose husband has gone away has a child by the preacher of the town and is labeled an adultress. The husband returns and the priest confesses.
The plot was simplistic and was drawn out by using filler scenes. The audio and video were nightmarish, but not totally trashy. I cannot blame this on the early date of the film because I have seen better films that were made earlier in history. This did not hold my interest and had crappy production. Hence, I rate it bad.
An American romantic drama directed by Christy Cabanne, starring Virginia Bruce.
The story of the eventful life of a woman in England is told. An adopted girl from an abusive home leaves for school or goes back to the orphanage (depending upon the version of this story that you see) where she stays until she becomes a teacher. After an argument with the headmaster over discipline, she leaves and gets a job as a governess, taking care of the daughter of a rich family. She falls in love with the uncle, but her employment takes her away from him.
I actually liked the plot and characters. I remember my mom and sister being really into this story a long time ago when I did not have the patience for it. The main character is portrayed very well as being an honest and caring person. She does her best to stand up for what is right. You can go on Wikipedia if you want to read their gigantic article about the morals of this story. The audio and video were absolutely prehistoric to the point where I thought I was in for a silent film at the beginning. Video artifacts, lines and noise are everywhere onscreen. Dead air hiss, crackles and pops can be heard. If you can get past the primitive production, the acting is good and there's a good story hidden in there somewhere. I rate it adequate.
An American horror exploitation film directed by Dwain Esper.
A mad scientist and his assistant are trying to bring dead people back to life. The assistant shoots the scientist and to cover up the crime, pretends to be him.
This was made as the motion picture production code was beginning to be enforced, so we've got nearly naked women, drugs, inferences of sexual perversion and murder. All things that the code was designed to prevent being shown on movie screens. The plot was simple to fit the 50 minute duration, but they put as many characters as they could in this little bugger. The audio and video showed their age and there was some sloppage, but no real errors. The nearly naked women get about 7/16ths of a female anatomy point since they were not actually nude, but looked good to me (picture, I think I see nipples!). The text screens between "talkie" scenes indicate a transition from the silent film of the 1920s to the talkies of the 1930s. I rate this o.k. because the more you know about it, the more enjoyable it is (to a point).
An American comedy drama directed by Arthur Lubin.
An old newspaper worker loses his job and a co-worker friend quits because of this. They decide to work together and end up doing a radio show. The older man's family micro-manages his life and the daughter is dating a man.
Boring. This was just way too boring and slow paced for me. The antique style, audio and video didn't help either. There were video artifacts where the actual film itself had been damaged. The plot was pretty vague in some areas and generally threadbare all around. The characters were annoying and shallow. At least it wasn't painful to watch. I rate it poor and would advise against viewing.
An American comedy drama directed by John Ford, starring Will Rogers.
Men are fighting over a woman and the judge set to preside over the case has too close a relationship with the people involved to do his job impartially.
The plot was one of the murkiest and most complex I've ever experienced. The characters all kind of blended together with their southern drawls. I feel that this film did not communicate clearly, as is the case with many films of this time period. The video was grainy, blurry and pixelated with harsh, treble-biased audio. I rate it bad. You probably shouldn't watch it.
An American western directed by Robert N. Bradbury, starring John Wayne.
A gang of harriers are terrorizing a town and a lone gunslinger with his Native American friend must stop them.
The plot was simple, yet hard to follow and the characters were few, but difficult to differentiate. I thought John Wayne (the sheriff) was robbing a stagecoach in the beginning! The video was appropriate, but the audio was very weak. An example of this is when John Wayne jumps into a river and it sounds like someone dropped a pebble into a cup of water. There was also a section of video where the screen goes totally black for a few moments. The costumes were very cowboy western and the sets were pretty stereotypical. If you want to watch cowboys ride horses for 53 minutes, that's what this is for. Otherwise, skip it. I rate it o.k. because it served it's purpose.
A British adventure drama directed by Harold Young.
An English aristocrat leads a double life as a namby-pamby fashion consultant and a political revolutionary.
The poem: "They seek him here, they seek him there, those Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven? Is he in hell? That damned elusive pimpernel." I like the poem and the main character is played very well. I also award this film some female anatomy points for noble women in low-cut dresses. The plot was not the clearest that has ever been presented and the audio had a loud dead air hissing sound throughout. Normally, nobility, politics and romance bore me to tears, but they worked well for this film. Even though it's something that I would not usually have an interest in, I kind of liked it and thought it had style. I rate it adequate.
An American murder mystery directed by William Nigh.
A murder happens on a boat and those on the boat try to figure out "who done it".
The only thing that really stood out in this film was Granny Plimpton's alcoholism. The old girl was always about to have a drink, wanting a drink or trying to open a bottle. The other thing was the text on the communications screens. It was clearly added after the fact, with actors staring at a blank screen and acting like there was something on it. Otherwise the movie was a waste. At an hour and 2 minutes, at least it didn't waste too much of my time. I'm rating it poor.
An American action film directed by David Howard and Armand Schaefer, starring Clyde Beatty.
A lion tamer's girlfriend goes on a jungle expedition with her father on an island. When it is discovered that the expedition is stuck on the island, the lion tamer leads a rescue mission.
It is difficult to say whether the animals in this film were being mistreated. The zoo animals were in small cages (one of which contracted on the lion) and the "wild" animals were forced close together on a small movie set. There was a tense feeling throughout, as if the situation was just barely under control and could erupt into untold violence at any point. The audience was definitely being mistreated, though, while being forced to watch this gruesome spectacle. Most of the soundtrack consisted of canned growls and roars that were played whenever an animal was on-screen. The plot was basic and the characters were pretty shallow. I can't say I liked the style much, considering these factors. Though I may not like it, the style was very definitive and conveyed with a clear sense of strength. I'm giving this one of those wonky pink ratings because It did a very good job of communicating something that I don't really know if I agree with.
An American drama directed by John Cromwell, starring Betty Davis.A painter in France moves to England to become a medical doctor. He meets a tearoom waitress who he falls madly in love with, but is not interested in him at all.The production value looked like pre-1920 and the plot was painfully dull. I don't blame the copyright holders for letting this one slip. I would have too. I'm rating it shit because I had to turn it off.
A drama directed by Frank Capra.A rich woman runs away from her family and joins up with a regular traveler. As they make their way towards New York, her family searches for her and the relationship between the 2 travelers deepens.This is a perfect example of what I mean by plot, setting and characters value. For fuck's sake, it's made in 1934, but it's a damn good film. The story is told very well and without any Hollywood bullshit. Mock me if you wish, but I know a good movie when I see one. That's why I'm running this film blog and you're not!
