HOME  |  HOTEL INFO MEMBERSHIPS  |  TABLES  |  SCHEDULE  |  NEWS  |  CONTACTS | AUCTION  |  FILMS
 

MOVIES

Each and every year, Ed Hulse has done a marvelous job in securing wonderful 16mm prints of vintage motion pictures written or based on stories by pulp authors.  2010 is shaping up to be one of the best!

2010 Windy City Film Program

In keeping with the theme of this year's convention, all daytime movies — with one exception, noted below — are based on stories that originally appeared in the "Dean of the Pulps," Adventure. Just like the magazine itself, this selection of films offers plenty of variety: Western action, historical swashbucklers, South Seas intrigue, Foreign Legion escapades, and Far East exploits.

Friday:

12:00 — The Red Rider (1934), Chapters 1-7. Adapted from W. C. Tuttle's "The Redhead from Sun Dog" (March 1—April 1, 1929), this action-packed serial finds cowboy star Buck Jones playing Brick Davidson, a two-fisted lawman determined to prove that his pal, Silent Slade (Grant Withers), has been framed for murder. Marion Shilling and Walter Miller (as a marijuana-smoking heavy) round out the principal players.

02:00 — Captain Calamity (1936). Adapted from Gordon Young's "Cap'n Calamity" (September 1, 1934), this seafaring saga stars erstwhile opera singer George Houston as Cap'n Bill Jones, just about the fightin'-est swab what ever sailed the South Seas. We showed a black-and-white 16mm print of this film in our first Windy City film program, but this year we're running the extremely rare color version, mastered from the only surviving 35mm print.

03:15 — Sabatini Silents: Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk (both 1924). Rafael Sabatini's classic swashbucklers made their American debuts in the pages of Adventure, with "Captain Blood" running in 1921 as a series of connected novelettes from June 3 to October 20, and "The Sea Hawk" as a five-part serial from October 20 to November 30, 1922. Unfortunately, the first film version of Captain Blood does not survive in its entirety, but we're proud to present a compilation of scenes that maintains the basic narrative in a fast-moving half-hour. Nickelodeon-era matinee idol J. Warren Kerrigan plays Peter Blood. The Sea Hawk has been magnificently restored and is one of the silent screen's most impressive films. Milton Sills plays the title role. Both films have musical accompaniment; The Sea Hawk features a newly recorded performance of the original 1924 organ score.

05:20 — Pulp Fiction: The Golden Age of Sci Fi, Fantasy & Adventure (2010) – this is a new documentary on the pulps

Following Friday-Night Auction — Durango Valley Raiders (1938). Adapted from the Harry F. Olmsted novelette of the same title in the June 1936 issue of Star Western. Battlin' Bob Steele tangles with a mysterious outlaw known as, believe it or not, The Shadow. There's action a-plenty in this fast-paced Republic "B" Western.

Saturday:

09:00 — The Red Rider (1934), Chapters 8-15. The second half of this wild-and-woolly Universal serial finds Davidson drawing ever closer to the murdering outlaw he's sworn to capture. Our guess is he'll get `er done before that fifteenth chapter fades out.

12:00 — We're in the Legion Now (aka Rest Cure, 1936). J. D. Newsom wrote many of the best Foreign Legion stories published in the pulps. The one on which this movie is based, "Rest Cure," appeared in Adventure's April 1934 issue. Reginald Denny and Vince Barnett play ex-racketeers who join the Legion in a bid to escape rival mobsters who have orders to rub them out. A trio of comely females—Esther Ralston, Claudia Dell, and Eleanor Hunt—lends able support in this breezy action-comedy. Turned out by the same man who made Captain Calamity, Legion also was produced in color, and we're showing a DVD mastered from the sole-surviving print.

01:30 — The Man from Painted Post (1917). Adapted from Jackson Gregory's "Silver Slippers," which ran in Adventure's November 1916 issue, this breezy Western is an early outing for Douglas Fairbanks, whose cheery personality and unbridled athleticism makes him perfect in the role of a cattle detective who poses as a dude to investigate rustling on a big ranch. With musical accompaniment.

03:00 — The Black Watch (1929). This is the cheat we referred to above. But it's not that much of a cheat. Black Watch is a John Ford-directed early talkie adaptation of Talbot Mundy's "King, of the Khyber Rifles," which was serialized in Adventure's sister magazine, Everybody's, from May 1916 to January 1917. But as Mundy is closely associated with Adventure and this story's leading characters subsequently appeared in its pages as well, we figured you wouldn't mind. Besides, Black Watch is an incredibly rare film, never made available on TV, pay cable, or home video. Unfortunately, the sole surviving print is a poor one, and our DVD transfer leaves much to be desired. But it was this or nothing, so we chose to give you the opportunity of seeing the film for what may very well be its last public screening. Victor McLaglen plays King, and a young Myrna Loy co-stars as the alluring Yasmini.

Following Saturday-Night Auction — Torchy Blane in Chinatown (1939). Warner Brothers' Torchy Blane mysteries ostensibly adapted the MacBride-Kennedy series written by Frederick Nebel for Black Mask. The first entry, Smart Blonde, stuck pretty close to Nebel's "No Hard Feelings" but replaced Kennedy with a female reporter, Torchy Blane. Thereafter Warner Brothers quit adapting Nebel's pulp yarns. This late entry, the last to co-star Glenda Farrell as Torchy and Barton MacLane as Steve MacBride, is actually based on "The Purple Cipher," a Murray Leinster mystery published in the March 1, 1920 issue of Snappy Stories. Amazingly, this was the third cinematic go-round for Leinster's yarn, first adapted to the screen in 1920 under its original title, and then in 1930 as Murder Will Out. The 1939 version is the only one that survives, and although it was heavily reworked to accommodate the Torchy Blane format, it's a very entertaining little movie—fast and funny, just what you'll want to see after what promises to be a long auction.

 

2009 Windy City Film Highlights

Friday:

12:00 pm — The Mark of Zorro (1920). The first Zorro film is also the most faithful adaptation of Johnston McCulley’s “The Curse of Capistrano,” serialized in All-Story Weekly during August and September of 1919. Dashing Douglas Fairbanks was already a popular leading man when he essayed the role of Don Diego Vega, but Mark of Zorro’s surprise success turned him into one of the cinema’s first true superstars. Although this film has always been available in one form or another, we’re showing the most recently restored version, which was mastered from archival film elements deriving from the original negative and boasts a newly recorded orchestral score. If you think of silent films as hopelessly creaky, sit in on Mark of Zorro. You just might be surprised.

02:00 pm — Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective (aka The Raven Red Kiss-Off, 1990). This year our convention celebrates the Diamond Anniversary of the Spicy pulp line, and this made-for-TV movie was the second of only two films we’ve identified as having been adapted from Spicy yarns. Based on a Robert Leslie Bellem story and scripted by regular Windy City attendee John Wooley, this fast-paced mystery is a bit too campy but great fun for pulp fans nonetheless. Note: We’re showing the seldom-seen Fries Entertainment home-video cut, which contains a few shots of partial nudity that weren’t in the original broadcast version.

04:00 pm — The Return of Wild Bill (1940). This above-average “B” Western, directed by cult favorite Joseph H. Lewis, was adapted from Walt Coburn’s “The Block K Rides Tonight,” which appeared in the July 1939 issue of Star Western. Popular cowboy star Gordon “Wild Bill” Elliott plays the two-fisted lawman who avenges the murder of his father. Lovely Iris Meredith, who played Nita Van Sloan in the Spider serial we showed last year, assumes leading-lady chores. We ran an old 16mm print of Return of Wild Bill at our 2003 convention, but this DVD has been specially mastered for us from a 35mm archival print.

Following Friday Night Auction — Bombay Mail (1934). An extremely rare film, never made available on home video or to cable movie channels, this nifty programmer combines high adventure and murder mystery. It was adapted from a Lawrence G. Blochman novel of the same name, which originally appeared in the August 15, 1933 issue of Complete Stories. The first of several Blochman yarns featuring Detective Inspector Leonidas Prike (renamed Dyke for this movie), Bombay Mail revolves around the murder of a British official aboard a Calcutta-Bombay train. The suspects include a Maharajah, a Russian opera singer, several Americans, and anti-British rebels. Edmund Lowe plays Dyke; the supporting cast includes Shirley Grey, Ralph Forbes, Onslow Stevens, and Hedda Hopper. Pieces from the evocative musical score by Heinz Roemheld were reused in part many times in subsequent years, most notably in the Flash Gordon serials.


Saturday:

09:00 am — Blackmail (1947). This fast-paced, action-packed Republic Pictures whodunit was the first Dan Turner film and, therefore, the first adapted from a Spicy pulp story. William Marshall, a blond “himbo” who Republic desperately tried to make a star, plays the hard-boiled private eye, called to investigate the blackmailing of a famous movie director (former matinee idol Ricardo Cortez). Luscious blonde Adele Mara and haughty brunette Stephanie Bachelor are the femmes fatale, and Grant Withers appears as Dan’s foil, Police Inspector Donaldson. Fans of Robert Leslie Bellem’s yarns will get a kick out of hearing the author’s wacky dialogue spouted by these colorful characters, their verbal exchanges alternating with fistfights and car chases galore.

10:15 am — Blue, White and Perfect (1942). An entry in 20th Century-Fox’s Michael Shayne series, this polished whodunit was actually adapted from a Borden Chase novel featuring “Smooth Kyle.” Chase’s yarn, bearing the same title, was serialized in Argosy during September and October of 1937. Fox’s screenwriter Samuel G. Engel simply appropriated the pulpster’s plot and substituted Shayne for Kyle. One of the suspects is played by TV’s future Superman, George Reeves. Fast-moving and fun, Blue, White and Perfect is among the two or three best entries in the entire Michael Shayne series.

12:00 pm — Saturday Matinee: The Ivory-Handled Gun (1935) plus selected short subjects. We’re replicating a complete program that any American kid might have seen at his neighborhood theater on a Saturday afternoon in the mid ‘30s: coming-attractions trailer, cartoon, newsreel, serial episode (Chapter Two of Gordon of Ghost City, a 1933 chapter play loosely adapted from a Peter B. Kyne story), and feature film. The main attraction is The Ivory-Handled Gun, a Buck Jones Western adapted from the Charles E. Barnes novel of the same title published in the Second October 1930 issue of Ace-High. It’s one of Buck’s best starring vehicles of this period.

02:00 pm — I Wouldn’t Be in Your Shoes (1948). No Windy City film program would be complete without a movie taken from one of Cornell Woolrich’s pulp yarns, and this year we’ve dug up one of the scarcest. Based on the novelette of the same title published in the March 12, 1938 issue of Detective Fiction Weekly, this Monogram “B” stars Don Castle, Elyse Knox, and Regis Toomey in an adaptation scripted by former pulp writer Steve Fisher. It’s an exercise in low-budget film noir revolving around the familiar Woolrich situation of an ordinary guy framed for a murder he didn’t commit. Afraid that Woolrich’s ambiguous denouement wouldn’t make a satisfactory ending for the movie version, Fisher actually called his fellow pulpster for advice. Woolrich suggested that Fisher graft onto Shoes the ending from one of his famous stories—but you’ll have to see the film here to find out which Fisher tale was thus cannibalized.

03:30 pm — Private Detective (1938). Perky Jane Wyman stars in this minor but zippy little “B” from Warner Brothers, based on Kay Krause’s “Invitation to Murder,” published in the May 1937 issue of Pocket Detective. A seemingly routine child-custody hearing leads to murder, and female detective Myrna “Jinx” Winslow cracks the case with timely assistance from police lieutenant Jim Rickey (Dick Foran). Clearly fashioned after Warner’s popular Torchy Blane series (adapted from Frederick Nebel’s MacBride-Kennedy stories in Black Mask), Private Detective sports a supporting cast that’s practically a Who’s Who of popular ‘30s character actors.

Following Saturday Night Auction — The Law of the Forty-Fives (1935). An obscure little Poverty Row horse opera forgotten by all but the most rabid Western-movie fans, this is the first screen adaptation of a “Three Mesquiteers” novel by prolific pulpster William Colt MacDonald. The movie only features two of the three heroes, however; in his novel of the same title (serialized in Quick-Trigger Western from December 1929 to April 1930 and published in hard covers in 1933), MacDonald focused on his already-established twin protagonists, Tucson Smith and Stony Brooke. A deputy sheriff, Lullaby Joslin, joins them at story’s end and becomes the third Mesquiteer. This movie, which stars Guinn “Big Boy” Williams as Tucson and silent-screen comedian Al St. John as Stony, doesn’t give a name to the deputy character (played by Curley Baldwin). But let’s not quibble. The film is great cornball fun, with the numerous shortcomings—most owing to a minuscule budget and truncated shooting schedule—adding to its charm. And you won’t see it anywhere but here.

 

 

2008 Film festival included:

FRIDAY

 

11:30 am:  The Bat Whispers (1930).  Based on the novel by Mary Roberts Rinehart (from the play by Rinehart and Avery Hopwood), originally serialized in Flynn’s Magazine during July and August of 1926.  This marvelously creepy old-dark-house chiller features a grotesque costumed villain that, reportedly, was one of Bob Kane’s inspirations for Batman. Chester Morris, later to gain fame as Boston Blackie, plays a no-nonsense detective sent to an abandoned country estate in search of the Bat, who covets a fortune in embezzled money secreted in the mansion by a crooked banker who turns up dead. This groundbreaking early talkie was shot in both conventional 35mm and 65mm widescreen versions.  We’re showing the rarely seen widescreen version.

 

01:00 pm: The Spider’s Web (1938).  Chapters One through Three.  The Master of Men leaped from the pages of his Popular Publications pulp magazine to the silver screen in this fast-paced 1938 serial, a non-stop orgy of gun-blazing action.  We’re running all 15 pulse-pounding episodes this weekend.  Wealthy criminologist Richard Wentworth (played by Warren Hull) disguises himself as both the Spider and underworld habitué Blinky McQuade while attempting to foil the Octopus, a ruthless criminal mastermind whose campaign of terrorization and destruction is aimed at bending the entire country to his will!  With the lovely Iris Meredith as Wentworth’s sweetheart, Nita Van Sloan. 

 

02:15 pm: Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975).  Like the Spider, Doc Savage made his first appearance on the nation’s newsstands in 1933.  As part of our 75th-birthday tribute to this pulp-fiction superstar, we’re showing not one but two versions of the 1975 George Pal production starring former Tarzan Ron Ely as Lester Dent’s Man of Bronze. This afternoon we’re running the original theatrical version; tomorrow you can see an unauthorized revision reportedly edited by a Doc fan to remove scenes deemed objectionable or irritating.

 

04:00 pm: The Spider’s Web.  Chapters Four through Six.

 

05:00 pm: Savage Fury (1956).  Feature-length version of a 1935 serial, Call of the Savage, adapted from Otis Adelbert Kline’s “Jan of the Jungle,” originally serialized in Argosy during April and May of 1931. Noah Beery Jr. stars as Jan, the jungle boy who grows up wearing a wristband on which, unbeknownst to him, is inscribed a formula that will cure infantile paralysis. The formula is coveted by two unscrupulous scientists (Walter Miller and Frederic MacKaye), who plan to collect a half-million dollar grant offered for its development. They follow Jan and his companions, Mona (Dorothy Short) and Borno (Harry Woods) to the lost city of Mu, where perilous adventures await them!  Great fun, but not to be taken seriously.

 

09:00 pm: Phantom Lady* (1944). Based on the masterpiece of suspense written by “William Irish” (Cornell Woolrich) and serialized as “Phantom Alibi” in Flynn’s Detective Fiction during 1942, prior to publication in hardcover as Phantom Lady. Unhappily married Scott Henderson (Alan Curtis) goes out for a night on the town with an unnamed woman he meets in a bar. He returns home to find his wife slain, and the police arrest him for murder. Scott’s inability to produce or even name his anonymous pick-up renders his alibi useless, so he’s convicted and sentenced to death. It remains for his loyal secretary (Ella Raines) and best friend (Franchot Tone) to find the phantom lady before the sentence is carried out. This movie, brilliantly photographed by Woody Bredell, established many of the visual conventions of film noir, a sub-genre made to order for the doom-laden fever dreams committed to pulp paper by the haunted Woolrich. A not-to-be-missed classic, not available on DVD and unseen on TV for many years.

 

10:30 pm: Outlaws of the Prairie* (1938). Based on Harry F. Olmsted’s “Trigger Fingers,” a novelette published in the June 1934 issue of Dime Western. As a boy, Dart Collins witnesses his father’s murder at the hands of cruel rancher Bill Lupton. When the lad swears to get revenge, Lupton cuts off Dart’s trigger fingers. The boy grows up to become a Texas Ranger (played by Charles Starrett) and learns how to “fan” a six-gun, constantly practicing in anticipation of the day his trail crosses that of his father’s killer. This grim little “B” Western also features the Sons of the Pioneers and introduces several songs that became cowboy-music classics: “Song of the Bandit,” “Open Range Ahead,” “My Saddle Pal and I,” and the haunting “Blue Prairie.” Briefly made available to TV in the mid ‘50s, this entertaining little horse opera disappeared from view nearly a half-century ago.

 

 

SATURDAY

 

10:00 am: The Maltese Falcon (1931). The first film version of Dashiell Hammett’s genre-transcending whodunit, serialized in Black Mask during 1929 and 1930 prior to its publication in hardcover by Knopf.  Ricardo Cortez, a Latin-lover type, is slightly miscast but appropriately hard-boiled as private eye Sam Spade. Silent-screen star Bebe Daniels plays Brigid O’Shaughnessy, with character actor Dudley Digges as Casper Gutman and Dwight Frye as Wilmer. If you’ve only seen the Humphrey Bogart version of Falcon, you owe it to yourself to give this earlier adaptation. Although not as perfectly cast or executed as the highly regarded 1941 remake, it’s a darn good little movie in its own right.

 

11:30 am: The Spider’s Web. Chapters Seven through Nine.

 

12:30 pm: Doc Savage. This is the aforementioned “fan edit” of the film. It’s not all that much shorter than the theatrical version, but the cuts and alterations make a significant difference, as you’ll see.

 

02:15 pm: The Spider’s Web. Chapters Ten through Twelve.

 

03:15 pm: We’re in the Legion Now (1936). Based on J. D. Newsom’s “The Rest Cure,” published in the April 1934 issue of Adventure. Reginald Denny and Vince Barnett play small-time gangsters on the run. Winding up in Morocco, they join the French Foreign Legion in a misguided attempt to avoid danger. Silent-screen star Esther Ralston lends her patrician beauty to this odd little movie, a modestly budgeted comedy-adventure. To enhance the film’s marketability, producer George Hirliman had Legion shot and printed in “Hirlicolor,” his personal version of a limited-palette color process employed by some studios before Technicolor became the industry standard. Later 16mm prints, struck for rental libraries and TV stations, were printed in black & white. We’re running a DVD mastered from the sole surviving 35mm color print, which shows some wear and signs of deterioration.

 

04:15 pm: The Spider’s Web. Chapters Thirteen through Fifteen.

 

11:00 pm (time approximate, pending completion of the Auction): The Ringer* (1952). Based on Edgar Wallace’s novel (serialized in Detective Story Magazine during April and May of 1925, prior to hardcover publication) and the play he adapted from it. One of Wallace’s most enduring characters, the Ringer was a master of disguise who dispensed vigilante justice while always keeping one step ahead of Scotland Yard. This film, the third British-made adaptation, stars Herbert Lom as the crooked lawyer responsible for the suicide of the Ringer’s sister—and the vigilante’s next target! A Windy City exclusive: This film was shot with two different endings—one intended for the U. S. market and one for the U. K.  For the first time in this country, The Ringer will be seen with both endings!

 


 

Schedule: From 2007

16mm FILM FESTIVAL

* NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN - This is the feature-length version of the 1935 serial produced by ERB himself.


* HI-YO SILVER - This is the feature version of the long-lost 1938 LONE RANGER serial.

* PANIC ON THE AIR - 1936 adaptation of a 1935 BLACK MASK story by Ted Tinsley, "Five Spot."

DVD FILM FESTIVAL (Showing throughout the day.)

* CALL OF CTHULHU - an incredibly faithful adaptation of the Lovecraft story made a couple years ago in silent-movie style (but accompanied by a great musical score). Financed by the HPL Society and made with lots of TLC.

* FIEND WITHOUT A FACE - based on an Amelia Reynolds Long story ("The Thought Monster") from the 3/30 issue.

* WEIRD WOMAN - based on Fritz Leiber's "Conjure Wife" in UNKNOWN.

* PIGEONS FROM HELL - Robert E. Howard drama from THRILLER.

 




Here is what we watched at the Windy City Pulp and Paperback Convention 2006:

BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY (1934).  This ultra-rare short subject

marks the first appearance of Buck Rogers on film.  Produced solely for

exhibition at the 1934 Chicago World's Fair, the ten-minute featurette

used the comic strip's "Tiger Men of Mars" continuity as a jumping-off

point.  Buck was played by John Dille, Jr., son of the man who

syndicated the strip.  The pulp connection, obviously, is Philip Francis

Nowlan's "Armageddon 2419 A.D." and its sequel, "The Airlords of Han,"

which were published in late '20s issues of AMAZING STORIES and presaged

the character's appearances in other media.  We can categorically state

that you've never seen anything quite like this insane little movie, and

we predict you'll remember it for a long time to come.  (10 minutes)



THE PHANTOM PRESIDENT (1932).  Another rarity!  Based on the George F. 

Worts novel of the same name, serialized in BLUE BOOK from late 1931

through early 1932, this endearingly bizarre film was a vehicle for

legendary Broadway actor/writer/producer George M. Cohan. His leading

lady was Claudette Colbert, at that time still climbing the ladder to

stardom.  Cohan plays a dual role, that of stodgy Presidential candidate

Theodore K. Blair and his much livelier double, Peter "Doc" 

Varney, who impersonates Blair and uses his own charisma to persuade the

public to vote for him!  Director Norman Taurog turns Worts' story into

a musical comedy that sports songs written by Cohan and the famous team

of Rodgers and Hart.  (80 minutes.)



SWIFTY (1935).  Based on the story "Tracks," from the March 17, 1928

issue of WEST.  Hoot Gibson, one of the "Big Five" Western stars of

silent and early-talkie cinema, plays wandering waddy Swifty Wade, who

comes upon a big rancher just moments before the man is shot down from

ambush. Accused of the murder, Swifty narrowly escapes being lynched and

goes on the run in an attempt to clear his name.  (60 minutes)





THE SHADOW STRIKES (1937).  The first feature-length film featuring

Walter B. Gibson's Master of Darkness, this Poverty Row indie casts

silent-screen star Rod La Rocque-in an ill-fated comeback bid-as Lamont

Cranston (misspelled "Granston" in the credits).  Based on "The Ghost of

the Manor," from the June 15, 1933 issue of THE SHADOW MAGAZINE, this

mystery revolves around the murder of millionaire Caleb Delthern, slain

moments after changing his will.  Before The Shadow finds the killer

several potential heirs will lose their lives.  (60 minutes)



THE SHADOW (1940).  We're running Chapter Two of this Columbia serial

starring a more aptly cast Victor Jory as a peripatetic Shadow.  

Fast-paced and campy, the chapterplay depicts The Shadow's efforts to

apprehend a mystery villain known as "the Black Tiger," who has the

power to make himself invisible.  Hokey as all get out, but lots of fun.

(20 minutes)



THE MISSING LADY (1946).  Last of three 1946 Monogram B-movies starring

Kane Richmond as The Shadow.  (We ran the first two at previous Windy

City cons.)  This time around Lamont Cranston disguises himself as a bum

and visits a Bowery flophouse in search of "the missing lady" - someone,

or something, that has the underworld in an uproar.  Like the other

films in this cheaply made series, MISSING LADY is at times slow moving

and insufficiently suspenseful, but it employs clever lighting 

effects to have the hero appear as a disembodied shadow.   (55 minutes)

Here is what we watched at the Windy City Pulp and Paperback Convention 2005:

THE BLACK DOLL (1938). From the novel of the same name, published in a 1936 issue of ACE-HIGH DETECTIVE and later as a Doubleday Crime Club hardcover. Starring Donald Woods, Nan Grey, C. Henry Gordon, and William Lundigan. Directed by Otis Garrett. An eerie whodunit that crams into 65 minutes virtually every cliche in the genre: creaky old house, stormy night, disappearing bodies, wisecracking detective, damsel in distress, and dopey cops. Great fun, with atmospheric cinematography by future Oscar winner Stanley Cortez and a genuinely offbeat denouement.


THE PRESCOTT KID (1934). From Claude Rister's novelette "Wolves of Catclaw," published in a 1933 issue of RANGELAND LOVE STORIES. Starring Tim McCoy, Shiela Mannors, Alden Chase, and Joseph Sauers (Sawyer). Directed by David Selman. A superior B-western starring Tim McCoy, one of the most popular cowboy stars of the '20s and '30s. He plays a drifter mistaken for a sheriff and targeted for murder. Stronger on plot than action, this relatively mature horse opera is more stylishly directed than most films of its type. Takes liberties with Claude Rister's original story but is quite meritorious in its own right.

 

MARK OF THE WHISTLER (1944). From Cornell Woolrich's novelette "Dormant Account," published in the May 1942 issue of BLACK MASK. Starring Richard Dix, Janis Carter, Porter Hall, and Paul Guilfoyle. Directed by William Castle. This Woolrich adaptation is one of the best entries in the "Whistler" series: tense, nightmarish, and very noirish. Dix plays a down-and-out drifter who impersonates the missing owner of a dormant bank account, only to find himself targeted by the maniac who has sworn vengeance on the money's true owner.

 

UNDER PRESSURE (1935). From Borden Chase's novel "East River," serialized in ARGOSY during 1934. Starring Edmund Lowe, Victor McLaglen, Florence Rice, and Charles Bickford. Directed by Raoul Walsh. Well-mounted adaptation of one of Chase's "sandhog" yarns about hard-boiled tunnel builders. McLaglen plays a rugged boss whose men are digging under New York City's East River to facilitate construction of a new subway line connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan. His enemies sabotage the already-dangerous project and try to foment dissension among the workers.

 

STORMY (1935). From Cherry Wilson's novel "Stormy Dorn," serialized in WESTERN STORY MAGAZINE during 1929. Starring Noah Beery Jr., Jean Rogers, J. Farrell MacDonald, and Fred Kohler. Directed by Louis Freidlander (Lew Landers). A romantic, picturesque western; not a stereotypical Saturday matinee shoot-'em-up. Beery plays a teenage stable boy who raises a thoroughbred's colt sired by a wild horse. He winds up on a large Arizona ranch owned by feuding brothers. Beautiful location photography and a stirring musical score help make this a very entertaining film, and it includes remarkable footage of a real-life roundup in which thousands of wild horses were driven across the Arizona desert.

 

MICHAEL SHAYNE, PRIVATE DETECTIVE (1940). From Brett Halliday's novel "The Private Practice of Michael Shayne," serialized in DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY during 1940 as "Death Rides a Winner." Starring Lloyd Nolan, Marjorie Weaver, Walter Abel, Joan Valerie. Directed by Eugene Forde. First and best of the Shayne films starring Lloyd Nolan--most of which were adapted from non-Shayne whodunits written by authors other than "Halliday" (Davis Dresser). This film was originally scheduled for last year's show but had to be canceled at the last minute. We promise you it's worth the wait!
 

Copyright © 2007-2009 Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention, LLC
Privacy Statement