The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on July 15, 2024

THE KING AND THE CHORUS GIRL is a 1937 romantic comedy from Warner Bros., directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Fernand Gravet & Joan Blondell. The movie was written by Norman Krasna and none other than Groucho Marx. Alfred (Fernand Gravet) is an ex-king of an unnamed European country who...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on July 14, 2024

In August of 1959 Christopher Lee worked on two different films with very similar plots. Both movies dealt with the tawdry world of London strip joints. The first, BEAT GIRL, is a picture I wrote a blog post about a couple years ago. The second, TOO HOT TO HANDLE (titled...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on July 13, 2024

One of the many impressive things about the SCRIPTS FOR THE CRYPT: THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN book is that it contains a reproduction of an entire early script for the film, written by Eric Taylor. (Taylor is credited on THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN for the original story.) This script is...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on July 4, 2024

Included on Kino's SCI-FI CHILLERS Blu-ray release is the 1966 underwater adventure DESTINATION INNER SPACE. The story takes place in a sea lab resting on the ocean floor, crewed by scientists and civilians. The lab has picked up a strange underwater signal, and a Naval Commander named Wayne (Scott   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on June 30, 2024

The 16th volume in the SCRIPTS FROM THE CRYPT series from Bear Manor Media focuses on THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN, Universal's 1942 follow-up to SON OF FRANKENSTEIN. What makes this book particularly noteworthy is that it's nearly 400 pages, a treasure trove of facts, trivia, commentary, analysis, st   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on June 22, 2024

THE UNKNOWN TERROR (1957) was previously unknown to me. The movie is included in Kino's SCI-FI CHILLERS COLLECTION, a two-disc set containing three films. Rich explorer Dan Matthews (John Howard) intends to go searching for the mysterious "Cave of Death", a place where his wife's brother never retu   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on June 16, 2024

The final film in the Kino Philo Vance Collection Blu-ray release is THE BENSON MURDER CASE (1930). It was the third Vance film made by Paramount starring William Powell, but it was based on the very first Vance novel written by S.S. Van Dine. After the Wall Street crash of...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on June 15, 2024

DEATH ON THE DIAMOND is a 1934 MGM mystery-comedy that stands out for mixing murder with Major League Baseball. The story follows the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, which is fighting for the National League pennant. The team's fortunes are of great concern to the manager/owner, Pop Clark (David   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on June 9, 2024

LONG LIVE YOUR DEATH! is a 1971 Euro Western starring Franco Nero and Eli Wallach, and directed by Duccio Tessari, the man behind the original Ringo films. The movie's Italian title is VIVA LA MUERTE...TUA! and it is also known as DON"T TURN THE OTHER CHEEK! The movie is part...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on June 8, 2024

THE PHANTOM SPEAKS (1945) is one of four films included in Kino's two-disc Blu-ray REPUBLIC PICTURES HORROR COLLECTION set. Two of the films--THE LADY AND THE MONSTER and VALLEY OF THE ZOMBIES--I've written blog posts about in the past few years. I covered THE CATMAN OF PARIS a few days...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on June 5, 2024

THE CATMAN OF PARIS (1946) is included on Kino's REPUBLIC PICTURES HORROR COLLECTION Blu-ray set. I plan on eventually writing a blog on the overall set, but as of right now I'm just going to focus on this particular movie, one I had never seen before. The most notable thing...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on June 2, 2024

About ten years ago, Kino Lorber came out with a special edition of one of my favorite movies, Mario Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES. I thought so much of this release that I believe I even put it on my Top 5 Blu-rays of the Year list. So why did...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on June 1, 2024

THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK (1958) is included in a three-film Blu-ray set from Kino entitled SCI-FI CHILLERS. The black & white movie produced by Paramount involves many genre veterans: Otto Kruger (DRACULA'S DAUGHTER), Robert Hutton (THEY CAME FROM BEYOND SPACE), Ross Martin (THE WILD, WILD WEST   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on May 27, 2024

The second film on Kino's PHILO VANCE COLLECTION Blu-ray is THE GREENE MURDER CASE, made in 1929. THE GREENE MURDER CASE was the third Vance novel written by S. S. Van Dine (I have not read this one). The film adaptation is a combination of an old dark house thriller...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on May 26, 2024

There have been a number of films titled THE SQUEEZE. This one is an Italian-German co-production, made in 1978 and filmed mostly in America. The movie was directed by the prolific Antonio Margheriti, under his pen name Anthony M. Dawson. Lee Van Cleef plays Chris Gretchko, an expert safe cracker...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on May 25, 2024

Kino Lorber has released on a single Blu-ray disc all three of the Philo Vance movies William Powell starred in for Paramount during the early sound era of Hollywood. Today I'll be discussing the first film made and released of the group, 1929's THE CANARY MURDER CASE. THE CANARY MURDER...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on May 19, 2024

This is another Tubi discovery, a very low-budget 1960s sci-fi film that I had never heard of. It was written & directed by Hugo Grimaldi & Arthur C. Pierce, and executive produced by the Woolner Brothers. (Grimaldi, Pierce, and the Woolners were involved in plenty of cheap sci-fi/horror fl   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on May 18, 2024

ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE, a documentary from Severin Films, is a fun, fast-paced look at one of the weirdest and wildest cinematic sub-genres. One of the saddest things about Bruce Lee's shocking death in 1973 was that it happened right when the martial arts master was on the verge...   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on May 11, 2024

The Warner Archive unleashes on Blu-ray one of the wildest, wickedest Pre-Code thrillers--the 1932 MGM production of THE MASK OF FU MANCHU. During the heady days of classic Hollywood, MGM was considered the studio of class and distinction, but in the early 1930s they made some of the more outlandis   read more

The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog Posted by Dan Day, Jr. on May 9, 2024

The 1970 documentary LET IT BE is now available, in a restored edition, on the Disney+ streaming channel. The film covers the Beatles' attempts to record a brand new album and plan a concert around it in early 1969--but as fans of The Fab Four know all too well, things...   read more