Three bumbling criminals have been trying to get their hands on the computerized control system of Mr. Twister, a talking monster truck with a mind of its own. This is one of those made-in-Wisconsin movies about heavy machinery (maybe the only one). Yep, before heavy machinery bots fought it out on television, this movie stepped up to the plate. A big hit in Japan (sort of) you can watch this movie and then go and play with your own big machines. Starring Dean West, Meredith Orr, David Alan Smith. Don’t run out of gas!
German Commissioner Lohmann is planning his holidays when an unexpected phone call calls him back to work. A member of Interpol has been murdered. The head of an organization wants to come into contact with the gangster organization of Chicago. But who is this? Mysterious murders happen and all trails lead to a penitentiary. But there is Joe Como, FBI agent, who is helping commissioner Lohmann. But soon Lohmann doubts Comos' identity. When Lohmann sees the name of Dr. Mabuse mentioned in a book found by a victim he believes that Dr. Mabuse is the mind behind the crimes. Starsring Gert Fröbe, Lex Barker, Daliah Lavi. Before the James Bond 007 movie Goldfinger, Gert Fröbe made two British-German movies featuring the diabolic mad scientist Doctor Mabuse and his nemesis, Commissioner Lohmann.
Dr. Jeremiah Morley becomes convinced that the world is headed to an inevitable worldwide nuclear war. He organizes an expedition made up of a team of expert scientists and an atomic-powered rock-boring vehicle called a "cyclotram" to find a subterranean environment where holocaust survivors could live indefinitely. When funding falls through, independently rich adventurer Wright Thompson underwrites the project under the condition that he be allowed to go. As the group goes deeper beneath the Earth's crust, personalities clash, tempers flare, and the dangerous journey claims the lives of several expedition members. Then they come upon an enormous underground expanse with its own ocean and phosphorescent light. Starring Bruce Kellogg, Otto Waldis, and Jim Bannon. Look out Hollow Earth, here we come! The movie that started the Hollow Earth craze!
Rick Turner is engaged of Donna Trent and is having nightmares with a beautiful blonde woman dancing in the sky. One night, he is mysteriously driven to a doll shop, and in the next morning he returns to the place with Donna. He finds a doll that resembles his fiancé, but the owner Francis Lamont delivers another doll to him, with the face of the woman of his dreams, Bianca Milan. Rick looks for Bianca and is seduced and convinced by her to join a sect that worships the diabolic Camba, while the health of Donna is threatened by Francis and Bianca. Starring Linda Christian, Robert Alda, and Ariadne Welter. Best not to go into those weird doll shops… a creepy, sexy horror movie.
Investigating the mysterious deaths of a number of farm animals, vet Rack Hansen discovers that his town lies in the path of hoards of migrating tarantulas. Before he can take action, the streets are overrun by killer spiders, trapping a small group of towns folk in a remote hotel in rural Arizona. Yowks! Starring William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling, and Woody Strode. A great look at the Sedona area in the 1970s starring Captain Kirk from Star Trek!
Dr. Bernard Adrian is a kindly mad scientist who seeks to cure a young woman's polio. He needs spinal fluid from a human to complete the formula for his experimental serum. Meanwhile, a vicious circus ape has broken out of its cage, and is terrorizing towns people. Strange things get even stranger. Starring Boris Karloff, Maris Wrixon, and Gene O'Donnell. Is it a gorilla, bigfoot or a mad scientist? A great retro-bigfoot-gorilla film!
Conducting weird scientific experiments, mad scientist Dr. James Brewster, aided by his colleague Dr. Randall, has managed to transform himself into a hairy, stooped-over ape-man. Desperately seeking a cure, Brewster believes only an injection of recently-drawn human spinal fluid will prove effective. With Randall refusing to help him, it falls to Brewster and his captive gorilla to find appropriate donors. Starring Bela Lugosi, Louise Currie, and Wallace Ford. Is it a gorilla, bigfoot or a mad scientist? A great retro-bigfoot-ape-man film!
The Master Key-1945-Part 1. Set in 1938 with Nazi agents kidnapping scientist Professor Ellwood Henderson in order to get his Orotron machine that can extract gold from seawater. Operating under the secret leadership of “The Master Key,” with the operatives headed by a German agent posing as a private investigator named Garrett Donovan, the gang is trailed by Federal agent Tom Brant, aided by police detective Lieutenant Jack Ryan and newspaper reporter Janet Lowe. Also aiding in the quest is Police Chief William J. O'Brien and his secretary Dorothy Arnold. Starring Milburn Stone, Jan Wiley, and Dennis Moore. One of the great WWII spy serials!
Mystery writer Cornelia Van Gorder has rented a country house called "The Oaks", which not long ago had been the scene of some murders committed by a strange and violent criminal known as "The Bat". Meanwhile, the house's owner, bank president John Fleming, has recently embezzled one million dollars in securities, and has hidden the proceeds in the house, but he is killed before he can retrieve the money. Thus the lonely country house soon becomes the site of many mysterious and dangerous activities. Starring Vincent Price, Agnes Moorehead, and Gavin Gordon. A great 50s haunted house movie!
Crafty underworld leader “The Wasp” will stop at nothing to steal Professor Houston's radium-energy machine. The Wasp wreaks havoc on a radio station, a dam, and a power plant in his attempts to get the invention, but luckily master Magician Mandrake is there every step of the way to right the wrongs. The star of Colorful King Features newspaper comic strip, brought to life in twelve magical episodes. With Warren Hull and Betty Houston. Sometimes mad scientists and magicians need to mix it up!
In Singapore, two Marine Lieutenants, Tom Grayson and Frank Corby, uncover the threat of a masked terrorist called The Lightning, who uses an arsenal of powerful lightning-based weaponry in his bid for world conquest. These electrical fireballs are similar to the Foo Fighters that appeared during WWII. The battle becomes personal when The Lightning annihilates the officers’ unit and later kills Lt. Grayson’s father as he was helping the investigation of the weapon. Now, the marines have dedicated themselves to stopping The Lightning and bringing him to justice… This movie is famous for its main villain, The Lightning—the very first costumed supervillain. There is some speculation that George Lucas used The Lightning as a template for Darth Vader. Starring Lee Powell, Bruce Bennett, and Eleanor Stewart. A great action serial!
Set in Earth's distant future, this serial tracks the adventures of a group of fighters for truth and justice, known as The Video Rangers. They are led by Captain Video (no first name ever was mentioned). The Video Rangers operated from a secret base on a mountaintop whose location was unspecified. The Captain received his orders from “The Commissioner of Public Safety” (surname Carey), whose responsibilities took in the entire solar system as well as human colonies on planets around other stars. A great early 50s serial with a cool secret base for the Video Rangers, this was tremendously popular in the early 50s, the start of a new future and the race into space!
On a neutral island in the Pacific called Shadow Island run by American gangster Lucky Kamber, both sides in World War II attempt to control the secret of Element 722, which can be used to create synthetic aviation fuel. The U.S. sends in Secret Agent X-9 to foil the plot. Chinese agent Ah Fong becomes X-9's partner. A Japanese submarine is standing by to take a surgically altered spy to America. A French couple, Hotel owners Papa and Mama Pierre also figure in the plot. A mysterious figure known only as Solo spends most of the picture playing tiddley winks on Kamber's bar. Double crosses and triple crosses abound as X-9 tries to gain the secret of “Element 722". Staring Lloyd Bridges as Phil Corrigan aka Secret Agent X-9; Keye Luke as Ah Fong, Chinese agent; Jan Wiley as Lynn Moore, Australian agent; Victoria Horne as Nabura, villainous Japanese agent; and Samuel S. Hinds as Solo. Before there was James Bond there was Secret Agent X-9. Before Element 115, there was Element 722! An action-packed movie!
A breakthrough scientific device will revolutionize the world's energy usage if the kidnapped creator can be found. To rescue her father, Claire Forrest enlists the help of private detective, Lance Reardon. Clues lead them to a remote Pacific isle known only as Mystery Island, where the two confront sinister and astonishing forces.
Starring Vincent Price and Lynn Bari. This is the first movie to show the effects of the powerful mind-control drug scopolamine. Scopolamine was used in Nazi Germany as an interrogation tool and is widely used by intelligence agencies around the world. Lynn Bari is an anxious housewife who witnesses a murder and turns to a psychiatrist to help her mental anxiety. Unfortunately the psychiatrist is also the murderer and begins to drive the unfortunate woman insane with scopolamine. A great film noir on the dangers of mind-control drugs.
The Phantom is a 1943 Columbia Pictures 15 chapter black-and-white cliffhanger superhero serial, produced by Rudolph C. Flothow, directed B. Reeves Eason, and starring Tom Tyler in the title role. It is based on Lee Falk's comic strip The Phantom, first syndicated to newspapers in 1936 by King Features Syndicate. The serial also features Jeanne Bates as the Phantom's girlfriend Diana Palmer, and Ace the Wonder Dog as the Phantom's trusty German shepherd Devil (who is a wolf in the original comic strip).
A newspaper publisher and his Korean servant fight crime as vigilantes who pose as a notorious masked gangster and his aide. Wealthy publisher Britt Reid and his trusted Korean valet and sidekick disguise themselves as the crime fighting vigilantes, The Green Hornet and Kato. They battle the growing power of a ruthless crime lord "Boss" Crogan and his varied rackets across the city, all of which have strong links to unfriendly foreign powers... With Warren Hull, Wade Boteler and Keye Luke. Look out Bruce Lee, here come Keye Luke as Kato.
John Hart stars as Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy, who battles the evil Dr. Grood, who has placed a death ray aboard his spaceship orbiting Earth. In this exciting serial, Jack Armstrong and his friends attempt to rescue a renowned scientist, the inventor of a revolutionary atomic engine, from the clutches an arch-villain bent on world-dominion by means of a death ray place on board a aircraft capable of flying into the ionosphere. Their quest takes the adventurers to a remote island where they must not only contend with the criminal mastermind's henchmen, but a fierce tribe who have their own reasons for thwarting our heroes. One of the great radio shows and exciting serials of the 1940s.
Secret Service Major Steel (Joseph W. Girard), is one of the few men in America aware of the fact that Captain Albright (Dave O'Brien) is also Captain Midnight, daring masked aviator dedicated to fighting gangsters and enemies of America. When murderous bombing attacks are made on West Coast munitions plants, Steel sends for Albright and asks him to track down the mysterious Ivan Shark (James Craven), the foreign agent mastermind behind the attacks. Shark has learned about an ingenious range finder, invented by John Edwards (Bryant Washburn, and makes plans to obtain a model of the invention. Edwards instructs his daughter, Joyce (Dorothy Short), to bring the model to Albright for safekeeping in his mountain laboratory. Shark takes Edwards prisoner by Albright assures Joyce that her father will be saved and an end put to Shark's reign of terror. Dressing as Captain Midnight and enlisting the aid of his friends, Chuck (Sam Edwards) and Ichabod Mudd (Guy Wilkerson), Captain Midnight delivers on his promises fourteen chapters later. An action-packed serial!
Starring Buster Crabbe, as a famous detective who sets out to discover who stole $2 million in bonds. The plot soon evolves into a game of “Bonds, Bonds, Who Has the Bonds?,” it has so many groups, and their armies of henchmen, acquiring and re-acquiring the bonds that, in a chapter or two, the people who have the bonds don't appear to know they are the current holders. Wing Fu, brings the bonds to the USA to buy war planes for an unnamed county, and quickly loses them to Quong Lee, a Eurasian underworld chief, but they are re-taken in chapter two by Red Barry. Ballet dancer Natacha, representing a ruthless group of Russians, acquires them in chapter three, but Barry gets them back in chapter four. In action-packed scene after scene the race to control the valuable War Bonds continues over 13 chapters of cliff-hanging adventure of conspiracy and murder!
