He Walked by Night (1948) [Film Noir] [Thriller]



On a Los Angeles street, Officer Hollis, a patrolman on his way home from work, stops a man he suspects of being a burglar and is shot and mortally wounded. The minor clues lead nowhere. Two police detectives, Sergeants Marty Brennan (Brady) and Chuck Jones (Cardwell), are assigned to catch the killer, Roy Morgan (Basehart), a brilliant mystery man with no known criminal past, who is hiding in a Hollywood bungalow and listening to police calls on his custom radio in an attempt to avoid capture. His only relationship is with his little dog.

Roy consigns burgled electronic equipment to Paul Reeves (Whit Bissell), and on his fifth sale is nearly caught when he shows up to collect on his property. Reeves tells police that the suspect is a mystery man named Roy Martin. The case crosses the paths of Brennan and Jones, who stake out Reeves’ office to arrest and question Roy. He suspects a trap, however, and in a brief shootout shoots and paralyzes Jones. Jones wounds Roy, who performs surgery on himself to remove the bullet and avoid going to a hospital, where his gunshot wound would be reported to the police.
With his knowledge of police procedures, Roy changes his modus operandi and becomes an armed robber. During one robbery he fires his semi-automatic pistol, and the police recover the ejected casing. Lee (Jack Webb), a forensics specialist, matches the ejector marks on the casing to those recovered in the killing of Officer Rawlins and the wounding of Sgt. Jones, connecting all three shootings to one suspect.

Captain Breen (Roy Roberts) uses this break to gather all of the witnesses to the robberies. They assist Lee in building a composite photo of the killer. Reeves then identifies Roy from the composite. However, Roy hides in Reeves’ car and attempts to intimidate him into revealing details of the police investigation. He barely eludes a stakeout of Reeves’ house.
Because the police do not realize that Roy has inside knowledge of their work, the case goes nowhere. Breen takes Brennan off the case in an attempt to shake him up. Jones convinces his partner to stop viewing the case personally and to use his head.

Plodding, methodical follow-up by Brennan, using the composite photograph, results in information that Roy, whose actual name is Roy Morgan, worked for a local police department as a civilian radio dispatcher before being drafted into the Army. Brennan tracks him down through post office mail carriers and disguises himself as a milkman to get a close look at Morgan and his apartment.

The police surround and raid the apartment that night, but Morgan, forewarned by the barking of his dog, escapes through the attic and uses the Los Angeles sewer system as a means of escape. The film continues with a dragnet and chase through the sewers. Roy is finally cornered by the police in a passage blocked by the wheel of a police car. As the police shoot tear gas at Roy, he staggers and attempts to fire at them. He is then shot down and killed. The final scene is notable for its resemblance to the final scene in The Third Man in which Orson Welles is chased through the sewers of Vienna. No known connection between the films has been established.

Directed by Alfred L. Werker and Anthony Mann, produced by Bryan Foy and Robert Kane, story by Crane Wilbur, screenplay by John C. Higgins and Crane Wilbur, starring Richard Basehart as Roy Martin/Roy Morgan, Scott Brady as Sgt. Marty Brennan, Roy Roberts as Captain Breen, Whit Bissell as Paul Reeves an electronics dealer, James Cardwell as Sgt. Chuck Jones and Jack Webb as Lee.

Source: “He Walked by Night” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 26 August 2013. Web. 26 August 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_Walked_By_Night.

source

Queen of the Amazons (1947) JUNGLE ADVENTURE



Stars: Robert Lowery, Patricia Morison, J. Edward Bromberg
Director: Edward Finney
Writer: Roger Merton (original story and screenplay)

A woman’s husband has disappeared on an expedition into the jungle. She hires a guide to take her into the jungle to find him. However, they discover that he has been captured by a savage female tribe.

source

The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935) JUNGLE ADVENTURE



Stars: Bruce Bennett, Ula Holt, Ashton Dearholt
Directors: Edward A. Kull, Wilbur McGaugh
Writers: Edgar Rice Burroughs (novel)

Tarzan goes to Guatemala to find his lost friend, D’Arnot. On the way he helps Major Matling search Mayan ruins for hidden jewels and an idol containing the formula for a powerful explosive. D’Arnot and the idol are rescued, but the idol falls into the clutches of the explorer Raglan.

source

Motive For Revenge (1935) CRIME-THRILLER



Stars: Donald Cook, Irene Hervey, Doris Lloyd
Director: Burt P. Lynwood
Writer: Stuart Anthony

Bank teller Barry Webster is driven to stealing bank funds by his mother-in-law who continually nags him about forcing her daughter Muriel to live in poverty. He is caught and sent to prison and, while there, the mother forces Muriel to divorce him and marry a wealthy industrialist. After serving his term and being released, the new husband catches Barry and Muriel together. A shot is heard, the husband is killed and Barry and Muriel are accused of the murder!

source

Eyes in the Night (1942) [Crime] [Mystery]



Captain Duncan “Mac” Maclain is a formidable private detective who happens to be blind; but his other senses are sharper than average. He copes with his sight deficiency by being accompanied by a dog named Friday and a human assistant named Marty.
Mac is asked by his friend Norma to break up a romantic relationship between her seventeen-year-old step-daughter Barbara and a fifty-year-old actor. Mac finds the lover has been murdered and detects his body has been removed from the scene of the crime. The murder leads him to an Axis spy ring.

Directed by Fred Zinnemann, produced by Jack Chertok, written by Baynard Kendrick (book The Odor of Violets), Guy Trosper (screenplay) and Howard Emmett Rogers (screenplay), starring Edward Arnold as Duncan “Mac” Maclain, Ann Harding as Norma Lawry, Donna Reed as Barbara Lawry, Stephen McNally as Gabriel Hoffman, Katherine Emery as Cheli Scott, Allen Jenkins as Marty, Stanley Ridges as Hansen, Lawry’s butler, Reginald Denny as Stephen Lawry, John Emery as Paul Gerente, Rosemary DeCamp as Vera Hoffman, Lawry’s maid, Erik Rolf as Boyd, Barry Nelson as Mr. Busch, Reginald Sheffield as Victor, Steven Geray as Mr. Anderson, Mantan Moreland as Alistair, Duncan’s butler and Friday as Friday the dog.

Source: “Eyes in the Night” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 3 July 2013. Web. 16 August 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyes_in_the_Night.

source