Mixed Bag
Stephen A. Kallis, Jr. | Tampa, Florida | 01/06/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"In the days of little or no television, the usual behavior was to go to the movie theater once or twice a week while gaining one's majority of entertainment with what's now called old-time radio (OTR). Usually, there was a new film each week, so besides the blockbusters, there was a steady stream of films coming from"Hollywood."
Many of these films were good, but not great. This is a collection of some of such films. One of the films, Roaring City, is modeled very closely on the radio show of the time, Pat Novak For Hire, but without Jack Webb's delivery on pulp-fiction similies. The Treasure of Monte Cristo is a fairly clever story of a man frame d for a murder, following a strange marriage of convenience. A couple of the films were derived directly from OTR programs, Mr. District Attorney (from the show of the same name) and Counterspy Meets Scotland Yard (from the program known first as Counterspy, then David Harding, Counterspy). "Counterspy" was a sequel for another David Harding film, and the title is a little misleading, since one of the characters is a Scotland Yard agent, a friend of Harding's, who coincidentally is working on the same case as the Counterspies. Another film, Sky Liner, involvs a killing aboard an airliner, the venerable Constellation, where victim and suspects are conveniently isolated aboveground for a lot of the film.
Many of these films are entertaining, though none is really an A film. One could do far worse than in this collection."
B-Movie Heaven
W. ShipmanJr | Cleveland Ohio USA | 04/11/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Hokey,for the most part (in a good,B-Movie way}yet there are a couple of gems hidden inside.Mickey Knox's intense performance as the amoral,murderous hobo in Western Pacific Agent steals the movie.And,for fans of the great character actors of old,Highway 13 is an especial treat,with real surprises in the casting.No Oscars here,just three discs of good old second feature adventure."