The Film Detective

Gold fever! It made men insane. David Wayne stars as Tracy Powell, an Indiana farmer who heads for California during the 1849 gold rush. What he finds is that greed can lead a man down some dark roads, and make him behave in ways he would not have imagined. With a stellar cast that includes Keenan Wynn and James Barton, plus an absolutely scene stealing turn by Jim Backus, this Allied Artists drama shows the long term effects of one man's hunger for gold..

Michael O'Shea stars as one of America's great authors, Jack London. With a screenplay inspired by a memoir by London's second wife Charmion, director Alfred Santell takes on us on a tour of London's early life, highlighted by London's coverage of the Russo Japanese War in 1904. Also starring Susan Hayward, Virginia Mayo, Ralph Morgan, and Regis Toomey, this biopic from Samuel Bronston Productions (King of Kings, El Cid) is an exciting look at the true adventures of a rugged and remarkable...

An unfaithful wife and her lover scheme to kill her husband, but things are turned upside down when the lover is unintentionally killed instead! Then, in the best noir tradition, the husband goes into hiding and lets his wife take the rap! With a stellar cast that includes Brian Donlevy, Ella Raines, and Anna Mae Wong, this little noir gem from director Arthur Lubin (The Spider Woman Strikes Back) takes us into the lives of people who are only one kiss away from murder!

This hilarious wild and sexy ride from prolific soft-core director Chuck Vincent follows a group of rowdy teenagers as they pack their van full of beer and hit the road in search of sexual adventures. Campy and breezy, "Blue Summer" is a naughty romp straight out of the sexploitation scene of the 1970s.

Edgar Rice Burroughs' jungle swinger finds himself in Guatemala, searching for a friend whose plane crashed near a great lost city. While there, he becomes involved in the search for an important totem which allegedly holds an ancient formula for a super explosive! Culled from a 12 chapter serial, this feature starred US Olympic shot putter Herman Brix (aka Bruce Bennet) as Tarzan, and is the only Tarzan film between the silent era and the 1960s to present the character as Burroughs meant him...

Maybe they're just dogs wearing fake snouts and tails, in a low budget movie filmed in Texas by the same group that gave us The Giant Gila Monster. But suspend your disbelief, and they'll become mutant, killer shrews, created by a mad scientist. Starring James Best (TV's The Dukes of Hazzard), this howler has some good things going for it, namely a creepy musical score by Harry Bluestone and Emil Cadkin, and some solid direction by Ray Kellogg. If nothing else, this slice of schlock heaven may...

Out of the night creeps a shadow, striking terror into the heart of Chinatown! Bela Lugosi plays a power mad psychopath in this thriller from Monogram Pictures. William Nigh directs a tale of kidnapping and intrigue, with a cast that includes Wallace Ford (Freaks, Shadow of a Doubt) as a wiseguy reporter who falls into the diabolical clutches of the sinister Wong, a madman who believes he will one day rule China!

In this installment of the Why We Fight propaganda film series, we see Nazi Germany's acts of international aggression, leading up to the invasion of Poland in September 1939. In the year 2000, the United States Library of Congress mandated that the seven documentaries in Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" series were "culturally significant" and chose them for preservation in the National Film Registry.

SEE desperate men fighting to the death over spoils that mean wealth to the victors! George O'Brien and Ray Whitley star in this tale of men involved in a tug of war over a tungsten mine in this RKO feature from director David Howard (Daniel Boone, The Mystery Squadron). Laraine Day (Foreign Correspondent, The High and the Mighty) also stars as a woman who has her own interests in the mine. Also, look for silent screen villain Fred Kohler (The Iron Horse, Hell's Heroes) in another of his...

Buster Keaton stars in this comic romp about a shy fellow who pretends to be a ladies man. Jeffrey Haywood (Reginald Denny) wants to marry Virginia (Sally Eilers), but Virginia won't get married unless her sister (Dorothy Christy) is married off first. Hence, Jeff enlists the unsuspecting Reginald Irving (Buster, in one of his first talkies) to pretend to be a Casanova! The film, based on a popular Broadway play, and directed by longtime Keaton collaborator Edward Sedgwick (The Cameraman,...

Director Norman Z McLeod was best known for wild comedies starring the likes of Bob Hope and the Marx Brothers, but he showed his more serious side with Little Men, Louisa May Alcott's sequel to Little Women. Jo (Kay Francis) is grown and married, teaching at the financially strapped Plumfield School for boys. Can two local con men keep the school from going under! Also, look for the screen debut of Elsie the Cow, best known for her ads for the Borden Milk Co. As Buttercup, Elsie showed she...

In the film that many consider the best of the series, The East Side Kids find a young girl in the apartment of a murdered man. Believing her to be innocent, they hide her in their clubhouse while they try to find the real killer. But why is the murder weapon covered in the fingerprints of one of the gang? Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, and "Sunshine" Sammy Morrison star as the screen's rowdiest rascals, taking on crime and terror in the seething shadows of New York's famous landmark!