Author Archives: cinemashrew

Other castles would follow but this was the best one. Ghost breakers is a wonderful movie. To this day I think it is probably one of the best dark house movies I have ever seen and this was a movie I have appreciated and watched many times ever since I was a young child andContinue reading “Ghost breakers (1940)”

Bela Lugosi stars in this movie about a crazy scientist who makes a large bat to have revenge against some people who ripped him off when he came up with a pretty great perfume for women. The bat is wonderful. It is very large and swoops down on several people to kill them. It makesContinue reading “Devil Bat (1940)”

This is kind of a strange movie, but it’s not really that surprising considering the series it is from was always known as a second string movie series behind mystery contemporaries such as Sherlock Holmes and Thin Man. The beginning of the movie might actually be the best part. We get a pretty well stagedContinue reading “Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum (1940)”

Bela Lugosi demonstrates the mantra of Strike Fast Strike Hard against the Ritz Brothers… This is not a good movie. Actually, it is pretty dumb but every movie I am blogging about I have seen at least once and appreciated. There are some things to like about this movie. For one thing it is probablyContinue reading “The Gorilla (1939)”

This is the third movie in the Thin Man series and it is also my favorite one of the series for a couple of different reasons. For one thing who ever the director was for the movie did a couple of things right. First off they always had something interesting going on including small detailsContinue reading “Another Thin Man (1939)”

Actual picture of the gorilla counting the money after the first week for At the Circus. The Marx Brothers are in a movie about a circus. This leads to all kinds of interesting things such as a guy in a gorilla suit and a great finale in a circus tent. During the finale Margaret Dumont,Continue reading “At the Circus (1939)”

James Cagney stars in what I consider to be his best movie, the Roaring Twenties, but there are a couple of other pretty good actors in this movie, too, such as an early performance from Humphrey Bogart before Bogart became the star in most of his movies. This movie not only does a good jobContinue reading “Roaring Twenties (1939)”

The second in the highly exciting Sherlock Holmes series, Rathbone and Bruce go up against Prof. Moriarity when Moriarity attempts to steal the crown jewels of England. In some ways this movie is better than the other Holmes movie to come out the same year. For one thing, Holmes is center of the action thisContinue reading “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)”

We really start to get some movies with good action in them with this one, the first of fourteen movies in the Rathbone and Bruce series. It’s easy to see why there would be so many sequels to this movie, too. This is probably along with a few other series one of the most versatileContinue reading “Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)”

This was an O.K. mystery movie with Bob Hope. The next year another movie would come out with a similar idea and the same two main actors, too. This movie takes place in pretty much just one house which apparently is in a swamp in Louisianna. It’s an atmospheric movie and has a good castContinue reading “Cat and the Canary (1939)”