“Aye, me Buckos!” Errol Flynn (“The Adventures of Robin Hood,” “The Dawn Patrol“) made his swashbuckling debut as a dashing young Irish physician who is exiled into slavery by a tyrannical governor.Read More »Captain Blood
The most famous of Sir Arthur Conan Doyles canon is The Hound of the Baskervilles. It was originally released by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1939. It’s the first of fourteen Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.
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House of Frankenstein is the first of the Universal Studios monster mashes. In short, mad scientist Niemann and “friend Daniel” his hunchback assistant escape prison and enact a series of revenges on the people who had him imprisoned. They murder a proprietor of a travelling show of horrors, impersonate him and revive his corpse of Dracula. Dracula succeeds in the first part of the revenge scheme, but Niemann abandons him to be destroyed in the sunlight. Niemann then travels to the ruins of Frankenstein’s castle. He hopes to recover the dead doctor’s secrets, but instead recovers both the Wolf Man and Frankenstein’s monster. He revives them both, but a romantic triangle unravels the plot.
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In Ghost of Frankenstein, the ghost isn’t literal, but psychological. Another son of Victor Frankenstein, brain surgeon Ludwig (played well by Cedric Hardwicke), who is manipulated by Ygor (wonderfully done by Bela Lugosi) who also manipulates Ludwig’s former mentor and current assistant, Dr. Bohmer (Lionel Atwill) as well as the childlike Frankenstein’s monster (portrayed here by Lon Chaney Jr.)
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Movie review of “Son of Frankenstein” starring Basil Rathbone as the son of the deceased mad scientist. He tries to repair and revive the Monster to vindicate his father. All the while Ygor (brilliantly played by Bela Lugosi) schemes to use the Monster for his own plans … for revenge.
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Movie quotes from Son of Frankenstein – the classic sequel with Boris Karloff portraying the monster for the last time, Bela Lugosi portraying the manipulative Ygor for the first time, Basil Rathbone as the Son of Frankenstein himself, and Lionel Atwill as the suffering police constable.
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I’ve known of the Ritz Brothers for some time, although I’ve not seen many of their movies. Previously, the only one of their movies that I saw was The Gorilla (with Bela Lugosi). And I wasn’t impressed with their comedy. The Three Musketeers, however, has totally changed my opinion of the Ritz Brothers.
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In short, The Gorilla is a “haunted house” mystery. Lionel Atwill’s character is threatened to become the next victim of “The Gorilla” — a serial killer. His niece drops in to visit with her fiance. And she announces that they’ll be married in two days. Adding to the creepiness of the house is the butler, Peters, and Patsy Keller as the easily-frightened maid round out the household staff. Peters is played by Bela Lugosi. He is half the reason to watch the film. As I watched The Gorilla with my children, they were all convinced that he must be doing something villainous … Lionel Atwill has hired detectives–the Ritz Brothers–to safeguard him … despite their comical ineptness.
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