FLIGHT TO HONG KONG 1956 (AMAZON PRIME)

Rory Calhoun stars in this interesting and well made crime caper.

Calhoun is Tony Dumont, a syndicate crime under boss located in Macao. He has a good thing going and has a mind for pulling off daring robberies, such as a mid air theft of precious diamonds from an aircraft.

Tony has a girlfriend named Jean Blake (Dolores Donlon) who wants him to stop and live a normal life. On the aircraft in which the diamonds were stolen Tony meets a beautiful author named Pamela Vincent (Barbara Rush).

Tony become infatuated with her and eventually falls in love with her. This makes Tony decide to steal from the mob as he takes the diamonds for himself and flees to San Francisco. It takes him a year to get the job done, but it appears he has outsmarted the mob. He finds Pamela and she brushes him off as an great affair, but nothing permanent.

Tony is devastated and now finds himself hunted by the mob with nowhere to go.

This is a great little crime thriller and I enjoyed the heck out of it. Barbara Rush is lovely as always and Calhoun does a great job as the man who gables everything and loses.

If you like crime films I think you'll enjoy this fine film from director Joseph Newman.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Jocelyn Lane is 82.

CURSE OF THE VAMPIRES 1966 (SEVERIN) BLU-RAY

A damned good film that I reviewed here a while back from Alpha.

This beautiful Blu-ray from Severin puts that version to shame.

Made in 1966 and not released to the US until 1971, the classic Philippine horror film centers around a family that is slowly destroyed by a strange family curse.

Eddie Garcia stars as Eduardo Escudero, a man whose family is cursed. Eduardo and his beautiful sister Leonore (Amalia Fuentes) discover that their mother is a vampire that the father and his assistant keep chained in the basement to keep her from escaping.

Eduardo eventually falls victim to his mother and soon finds himself becoming a vampire and needing blood. He takes a bride and then victimizes her as well as the housekeepers. His sister becomes a victim of the vampire as well. but her lover vows to never let her go.

Eduardo kills her lover but he protects her even from the grave, much to the dislike of Eduardo and his vampire clan. I really enjoyed this film and found it a fascinating take on the vampire legend.

I first saw this on the USA network with Commander USA and then went thru some pretty crappy VHS and DVD copies until this version came out a few weeks ago.

Gerardo de Leon handled the directing chores as he did on many other classic films. If you haven't seen this, I recommend you do. Once you see a beauty like Amalia Fuentes, you never forget her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Kevin Von Erich is 62.

RIP TIM CONWAY 1933-2019

One of the worlds greatest comics is gone.

I doubt there is anyone reading this who does not know who Tim Conway is.

Conway first came to my attention via McHale's Navy which ran on TV from 1962-1966. His portrayal of Ensign Charles Parker was one of the funniest things I had ever seen growing up.

Conway made an even bigger name for himself on "The Carol Burnett Show" and his skits with Harvey Korman are legendary. There was NEVER anything funnier on TV than those two.

Yesterday the world became a little darker what with the death of Doris Day, now today is becomes even less cheerful with the loss of Tim Conway. They just don;t have funny men like him today because everything is PC garbage.

However, those of us who grew up in the good times got a lot of laughs from a genuinely talented person who knew how to deadpan and cut-up at the same time.

Conway died on May 14th,2019 at the age of 85. RIP MR. CONWAY.

PHANTOM OF 42ND STREET 1946 (SINISTER CINEMA)

One of my favorite PRC films.

A mysterious killer is stalking a Broadway acting company and a theater critic named Tony Woolrich (Dave O' Brien) teams up with a detective to solve the crime.

During the course of the investigation Tony falls in love with actress Claudia Moore (Kay Aldridge). She is the prime suspect until later when two more murders occur and she also finds herself the target of a deranged madman.

This is a fast paced and fun little thriller directed by Albert Herman. I hadn't seen it for about 20 years and it was nice to finally get the chance to see it again.

One reason I like this film so well is because of the incredibly sexy Kay Aldridge. This was her last film role as she retired from the screen, but I love everything she is in. She first caught my attention in the serial "Nyoka" from Republic and I just fell head over heels in love with this woman.

O' Brien does a very good job as Tony and makes to role very believable. The rest of the cast includes Frank Jenks, Alan Mowbray, Edythe Elliot and Cyril Delevanti.

Good fun.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

George Lucas is 75, and Yutte Stensgaard is 73.

RIP CESAR BARRON 1968-2019

The great luchador known as Silver King has died.

Cesar began his wrestling career in November of 1985 and while he never received the superstar status here in the USA, he made it big in Japan and Mexico.

He worked in WCW for a while with other stars such as La Parka and Psicosis.

He died of a heart attack in the ring against Juventud Guerrera in England on May 11th, 2019. He was 51. RIP my friend.

SHAKE HANDS WITH MURDER 1944 (SINISTER CINEMA)

Very entertaining PRC comedy/mystery.

Perky and pretty Iris Adrian stars as Patsy Brent one half owner of a bail bonding company along with Eddie Jones (Frank Jenks).

One day Patsy learns that Eddie has invested all of their remaining money in bailing out a man named Steve Morgan (Douglas Fowley) who has been accused of embezzlement. This sends Patsy thru the roof and she is determined to not let Steve out of her sight.

This sets up some great comedy as Patsy finds herself always bumping into Steve somewhere. She tells him so many lies that she forgets which is which and eventually has to come clean with him.

She learns that Steve has been framed and his only witness has been murdered. This films turns into a standard "let's gather the suspects together in an old house" type film, but Adrian and Jenks play off of each other perfectly.

This is a fun little thriller and one that used to play on TV once in a while when I was young. Iris Adrian will always be a favorite of mine. Nobody played a loud blonde like she did.

The rest of the cast includes Herbert Rawlinson, I Stanford Jolley and Gene Roth.

RIP DORIS DAY 1922-2019

The legendary actress and singer has passed away.

What can I possibly say about the wonderful Doris Day. A woman who, to me anyway, was the epitome of what America and American movies was all about.

Her film career started in 1948 and she never looked back. Doris always shined as "the girl next door" and gave her all in any performance. Some of the films I remember her the most from are "Teacher's Pet", "Midnight Lace", "By The Light Of The Silvery Moon" and "That Touch Of Mink", just to name a few.

As a singer she had a huge hit called "Que Sera Sera" which I call her signature song. No other female American entertainer made as much of an impact as Doris, and I can assure you nobody ever will.

The film world has lost a national treasure, and her legacy will outlive us all. Doris Day passed away on May 13th, 2019 shortly after her 97th birthday.

MEN OF SAN QUENTIN 1942 (SINISTER CINEMA)

William Beaudine directed this strange prison drama.

I say strange because there is actual prison footage combined with studio shot scenes and that is something I thought was kind of off the wall.

J. Anthony Hughes stars as Jack Holden, a young prison guard who is trying to fight corruption at the famous prison in San Francisco Bay. The corruption and murder get so out of hand that a guard named Saunderson (Charles Middleton) tries to get in on the action, only to be killed by a prisoner who has nothing to lose.

Holden is framed, but clears his name and the prison board wants to make him Warden after he has told them of all the prison reform he believes in.He easily wins the job and soon puts his plans into motion.

He gets rid of the solitary confinement cells, starts a prison education program and much more. Before you know it, the morale has picked up and the murder rate has gone way down.

Martin Mooney wrote the screenplay and he is the same man who wrote the classic film "Detour" which became PRC Studios best known film. This little PRC film isn't too bad and it's unique to say the least.

I would recommend it to fans of the genre and anyone who wants to see a different kind of prison picture.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Zohra Lampert is 82.

RIP PEGGY LIPTON 1946-2019

One of the most beautiful women of my growing up years has passed away.

Lipton's career ran from 1965 thru 2017.

She made a lot of appearances on TV shows such as "The Invaders" but her main claim to fame was in a TV show called "The Mod Squad".

She played a reformed juvenile delinquent named Julie Barnes for 5 years. I watched the show just for her and has a crush on her for many many years.

Her last role was that of Norma Jennings on the show "Twin Peaks" in 2017. She passed away on May 11th at the age of 72 from cancer.

BLONDE SAVAGE 1947 (SINISTER CINEMA)

Fun little PRC jungle epic.

Two men, Steve Blake (Leif Erickson) and Hoppy Owens (Frank Jenks) crash in the jungle with their cargo plane and are captured by a savage tribe.

Turns out the tribe is ruled over by a beautiful white blonde woman (Veda Ann Borg). It's actually a Tarzan story in reverse as the young woman was raised by the tribe after he parents were killed by a devious hunter.

Her actual name is Connie Harper and Steve sets out to find out who killed her parents. During the process he falls in love with her. This is pretty standard material for PRC, but I just can't help the fact that I enjoyed it.

Of course, anything with Veda is well worth watching, and here she is dressed in skimpy jungle attire. What's not to like? The rest of the cast includes Gale Sherwood, Douglass Dumbrille, Matt Willis and John Dehner.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Millie Perkins is 83, and Bob Burns is 84.