PETER LORRE & ROCHELLE HUDSON IN 'ISLAND OF DOOMED MEN'

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilrLSuVJ5oed-dg6ms4BeoymgjTLCMwBu6f-0IAiYXs2yO0WVD_YTlxMx1sqQtc_qo8yQihO9p-60TJL6sv4w0_-s9Jf0ZyxppPgr7a7HWSGHOM7m2OpcfgYpynMWYs2gc4lEdfSZKrcDYJWa8wuDdjQBQHoYee09fzUMDYTAl0xtioT-iRtfYSDPEMIVm/s1688/Screen%20Shot%202026-05-12%20at%203.29.34%20AM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1026" data-original-width="1688" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilrLSuVJ5oed-dg6ms4BeoymgjTLCMwBu6f-0IAiYXs2yO0WVD_YTlxMx1sqQtc_qo8yQihO9p-60TJL6sv4w0_-s9Jf0ZyxppPgr7a7HWSGHOM7m2OpcfgYpynMWYs2gc4lEdfSZKrcDYJWa8wuDdjQBQHoYee09fzUMDYTAl0xtioT-iRtfYSDPEMIVm/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202026-05-12%20at%203.29.34%20AM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Peter Lorre and Rochelle Hudson in ISLAND OF DOOMED MEN Year: 1940 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The pulpy tagline to the 1940 thriller ISLAND OF DOOMED MEN is "Women shuddering at his cruel caress" despite the fact only one woman, the wife of evil slave-master Peter Lorre, is on the titular island: and within their balmy plantation villa interior, he hardly touches or even speaks to her at all...<br><br>As classic beauty Rochelle Hudson quickly and understandably falls for handsome, dark-haired buried-lead Robert Wilcox, whose initial wrong-man story-line fits more into a deliberately-complicated film-noir beyond what's often mistaken as a horror flick (the plot heavily infused into Lawrence Tierney's jungle-traipsing <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/06/KOBK.html">KILL OR BE KILLED</a>)... <br></p><p><span></span></p>

forties, george e. stone, kenneth macdonald, peter lorre, prison, robert wilcox, rochelle hudson, thriller

PETER LORRE & ROCHELLE HUDSON IN 'ISLAND OF DOOMED MEN'

Peter Lorre and Rochelle Hudson in ISLAND OF DOOMED MEN Year: 1940 Rating: ***1/2 The pulpy tagline to the 1940 thriller ISLAND OF DOOMED ME...

PETER LORRE IN 'MR. MOTTO'S GAMBLE' WITH DOUGLAS FOWLEY

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjef5umb5u2DRFwFj2Tgcgz-jYvAhWo3XaZsIMrmKltwsIGMW17vq2fPhnA5cJeIaTiEhXbWkORiJ8Wo1YbytJrTeu5kKYSNGZHEGKA5aVl1ipzacFE7IYW2Oq5JsBzfTCvXbwGNSQFdKErTEr_hgaxnMNFTy9eHI6tL1yuNWxvfkO-xIg5Y0TlBXe0Ixgf/s1898/0%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1154" data-original-width="1898" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjef5umb5u2DRFwFj2Tgcgz-jYvAhWo3XaZsIMrmKltwsIGMW17vq2fPhnA5cJeIaTiEhXbWkORiJ8Wo1YbytJrTeu5kKYSNGZHEGKA5aVl1ipzacFE7IYW2Oq5JsBzfTCvXbwGNSQFdKErTEr_hgaxnMNFTy9eHI6tL1yuNWxvfkO-xIg5Y0TlBXe0Ixgf/s16000/0%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year: 1938 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The third MR. MOTO film, which was a franchise starring Peter Lorre as a Chinese secret agent/crime-fighter, wasn't directed by Norman Foster, and had a noirish potboiler plot that was supposed to be inserted into a Charlie Chan picture, involving the always crooked and mysterious boxing syndicate...<br><br>Motto sporadically investigates a heavyweight contender's enigmatic death while teaching a class on crime, the case involves various thuggy gangsters straight from the previous decade including Douglas Fowley and George S. Stone, MR. MOTO'S GAMBLE is one of the more conventional MOTO programmers: despite the titular character seeming more like a special guest star throughout.  <br></p><p><span></span></p>

classic gangster, crime, douglas fowley, franchise, george e. stone, jayne regan, lynn bari, mr moto, peter lorre, thirties, ward bond

PETER LORRE IN 'MR. MOTTO'S GAMBLE' WITH DOUGLAS FOWLEY

Year: 1938 Rating: ***1/2 The third MR. MOTO film, which was a franchise starring Peter Lorre as a Chinese secret agent/crime-fighter, wasn...

JAMES CAGNEY IN 'FRISCO KID' WITH MARGARET LINDSAY

<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj-52KXpD3y8osOJ2sVhnho3EH5Ora_MwqV0r9cy7K6LOQ8ct7iup3uohpts314obzljRlqXYL4aLWOLZTjf0qTDRaQZaGsxpehViwxwq_OS_ZB07BUWNrF2Hv3BufkmPjNNJHE4JBS-yhT9vFY9QJIafm83wQbKYbZ4EYgtZxXRA1R8A5N7-emZHMvcQ=s746" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="506" data-original-width="746" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj-52KXpD3y8osOJ2sVhnho3EH5Ora_MwqV0r9cy7K6LOQ8ct7iup3uohpts314obzljRlqXYL4aLWOLZTjf0qTDRaQZaGsxpehViwxwq_OS_ZB07BUWNrF2Hv3BufkmPjNNJHE4JBS-yhT9vFY9QJIafm83wQbKYbZ4EYgtZxXRA1R8A5N7-emZHMvcQ=w400-h271" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year: 1935 Rating: ***1/2</u><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p>One of the more severe early James Cagney features features Cagney as a character with a name so tough, once he's almost shanghaied in San Fransisco's 19th Century cutthroat/bar-brawling territory, you just know that new-guy-in-town "Bat Morgan" will get his revenge, and then some...</p><p></p><p>And that <i>some</i> is the kind of "let's band together to make one unbreakable monopolizing outfit" that occurs in just about every gangster flick that FRISCO KID is a time-period version of... </p><p>With either extremely shady or friendly characters surrounding our initially sympathetic turned determined casino-owner, from big boss Barton MacClane's hook-hand henchman The Shanghai Duck to gambler Ricardo Cortez as Cagney's backstabbing second to an affable sidekick to classy ingenue Margaret Lindsay flanked by token idealist Donald Woods (foreshadowing THE ROARING TWENTIES Paul Kelly, Humphrey Bogart, Frank McHugh, Patricia Lane and Jeffrey Lynn respectively); the latter a newspaperman ready to stomp the unlawful shenanigans that Cagney's Morgan is only partially responsible for, providing yet another "crime doesn't pay" plot-line that needed more levity climbing to that inevitably unsteady pinnacle... only this time it's all pretty serious business.  </p><p><span></span></p>

action, classic gangster, donald woods, george e. stone, james cagney, margaret lindsay, ricordo cortez, thirties, time period

JAMES CAGNEY IN 'FRISCO KID' WITH MARGARET LINDSAY

Year: 1935 Rating: ***1/2 One of the more severe early James Cagney features features Cagney as a character with a name so tough, once he...

JAMES CAGNEY'S NO DIRTY RAT IN THE BRISK MELODRAMA 'TAXI'

<p></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgIWRoAtFQG5JGJW8gg3Bkk-lRThX8RRBfwlk5sw2IwfdIi3PUKIOGbOgFTeVdb5cCUm8I-8xWjhi3gFkepjkfLPdSA1sA0Hpn1TwpywZXWUlDPHVvql0Xd1t2LNXoImKBr50ZNN1MQM0YvvbSSWczhncYcmQmuKue1yQmUnR2Y7vry9tVV9TRGHLzg8A=s745" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="745" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgIWRoAtFQG5JGJW8gg3Bkk-lRThX8RRBfwlk5sw2IwfdIi3PUKIOGbOgFTeVdb5cCUm8I-8xWjhi3gFkepjkfLPdSA1sA0Hpn1TwpywZXWUlDPHVvql0Xd1t2LNXoImKBr50ZNN1MQM0YvvbSSWczhncYcmQmuKue1yQmUnR2Y7vry9tVV9TRGHLzg8A=w400-h251" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: TAXI Year: 1931 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Begins as a predictable, cliché melodrama dealing with the haves… a monopolizing consortium cab company… against the have-nots: independent cabbies trying to make it on their own without getting whacked in the process...</p><p></p><p>But soon the message peels into involving crime fare with James Cagney as Matt Nolan, who... along with future <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/12/shanghaiduck.html">FRISCO KID</a> sidekick George E. Stone... never actually says "You dirty rat" but barks something similar to best girl Loretta Young...<br></p><p></p><p>The movie gets better as the more stress enters Nolan's life: various thugs from the consortium move in, and every dame... from the one good to the several bad/untrusting... annoy the hell out of him: providing the cocky firebrand the usual classic tantrums, and so, Matt Nolan is like most of Cagney’s early-era tough guys, only with a real cause he's extra ticked-off and super edgy. Fighting the good fight you'll back him all the way, so much so the other characters seem nonexistent whether he's on, or off, the screen.</p><p><span></span></p>

action, crime, george e. stone, james cagney, loretta young, melodrama, thirties, union, warner archives

JAMES CAGNEY'S NO DIRTY RAT IN THE BRISK MELODRAMA 'TAXI'

Title: TAXI Year: 1931 Rating: *** Begins as a predictable, cliché melodrama dealing with the haves… a monopolizing consortium cab company… ...