Pulp Action from the Wild West through the Dirty 30s and More.
Walter Craig disappears and the worst is assumed. Wise-cracking ex-detective Nick Trayne (James Dunn) is hired in to investigate. A short time later Walter Craig shows up with part of his brain “paralyzed” making a zombie of sorts. Now Nick must find out who is responsible and why. A fun little who-done-it.
When Leo Grainer (George Zucco) is released from his 5 year stint in prison for fraud, he plans to avenge himself and find the killer of his wife, by inviting his former associates to his home on “fog island” where they expect to find the loot they claim he stole. Once they arrive each is given a clue, luring them into his elaborate trap.
Continue reading “Fog Island, 1945”
Between 2010 and 2012 Moonstone publishing produced three books; The Green Hornet Chronicles, The Green Hornet Casefiles and The Green Hornet Still At Large. These three volumes are chock full of short stories written by various authors. Though I haven’t read through them all yet, the stories have been well done and have kept with the spirit of the original characters. The Chronicles features a forward by non other than The Green Hornet himself, Van Williams. That volume also has an Afterward by Dean Jeffries, the designer of the Black Beauty
Grim Death and Bill the Electrocuted Criminal, by Mike Mignola & Thomas E. Sniegoski. 261 pages.
Death was his mistress now, and a harsh one to boot.
I recently found this novel on the bargain shelf at Books-a-Million.
Bentley, as a child, was not a well. Desperate to cure him, his parents searched out far and wide for a cure. They found a “cure” but the experiment cost his parents their lives. Now Death has a job for Bentley to do. Taking on a mask that belonged to his father, he becomes Grim Death, and avenges the sprints of those who come to him for justice.
It was a fun, quick, pulpy read.
This 4 disk collector’s edition brings both The Green Hornet (1939) and The Green Hornet Strikes Again (1940) together in one set. VCI Worked with Universal to remaster the original serials, and the results were wonderful. All the episodes were crisp and clean with the exception of the last half of episode 9 (I think), as the original had deteriorated to the point where they were unable to clean it, so the quality suffers a bit. If you are new to the Green Hornet Serials, they are black and white and each episode runs about 25 minutes.
In addition to the serials there are a few extras including 4 radio episodes (The Parking Lot Racket [10/31/39], The Highway that Graft Wrote [10/3/40], Paroles for Sale [8/16/41], The Corpse that wasn’t there[2/28/43]), “I AM… The Green Hornet” (a “bio” of the Green Hornet) , before and after restoration, and a photo gallery. The quality is a giant step up from the Super Hero Classics DVD from Pacific Entertainment I had previously, but then again I only paid a dollar for that one. (and don’t get me started about the abomination that was the 2011 remake, don’t they even bother to look at the source material before “basing” a movie off of something?)
To order go to www.vcient.com or amazon.com
