The Third Alibi - 1961

Last up in my tripleheader was this movie. It was a little over an hour, and I wasn't expecting much. 

Norman is having an affair with his wife, Helen's, half sister. Not only that, but he says he doesn't want to hurt her, yet he treats her like garbage. When the sister, Peggy, becomes pregnant, he can't wait any longer and asks for a divorce. Helen won't give him one, so he's going to have to come up with a murderous alternative.

The interesting thing is that Helen is sick. She has something wrong with her heart that neither Norman nor Peggy know about. Realizing she has little time left has Helen reconsidering until she overhears the plot to take her out of the picture. The question is: what will she do with the information? 

I really liked this movie. The way Helen dealt with the information in the small amount of time she had was impressive, and I liked what she did. Sure, she didn't leave the situation with clean hands, but it was a satisfying ending. Apparently, this was labeled a "B" movie. That means it was made cheaply and the lesser picture of a double feature. I would argue that for what it was, this was really good. And the little forgotten detail coming back at the end? Chef's kiss! I mean, you could have removed the whole unnecessary musical number. That was weird, and I didn't like it, but other than that, Good Movie! for sure!

Strange Illusion - 1945

Next up in my tripleheader was this movie, apparently loosely based on Hamlet.

Paul is a college student dealing with the death of his father. People have tried to tell him it was an accident, but he believes it was murder. He's had a dream about the killer trying to marry his mother. When he returns home, he finds a man hanging around.

At first, I thought this was going to be one of those "he's mentally ill" kind of movies. But I was surprised to find that when things were lining up with Paul's dream, he was finding allies, and more than that, evidence!

It's revealed that his dream was actually a warning. The killer really was hiding in plain sight and trying to marry into the family. I'm not really sure why he killed the father in the first place. I'm guessing because he was a crime fighter-ish person, he was involved in the demise of the criminal. I probably missed that part.

Anyway, I found this movie to be really interesting. I thought Paul was resourceful and bright. I liked how they were using scientific methods to verify what his dream had led him to think and not dismiss him offhand. But then...the end. What the heck happened at the end?

I was watching. I promise. I thought the criminal and the sister were going for a boat ride. But Paul and everyone else find them in the boathouse on a couch? Then, they fight, and Paul hits his head. He then has a dream, much like in the beginning, where his friend takes his mom away and tells her not to look back. Then Paul meets up with a shadow and keeps walking. And unless his dad got a dress and some wavy hair, I'm guessing it's his girlfriend?

What the heck does that mean? His mom wasn't at the boathouse, and is Paul dead? The movie just ends there, so I have no idea. Why did the woman come up and start walking with Paul in the dream? And why is he talking about fog at the train station? Ugh. The end of this sucks, and I have no idea what happened. It was all great until then. The main criminal escapes justice by getting shot, and Paul is dead or alive. Who knows?

Too Late for Tears - 1949

I did a mini movie marathon yesterday where I watched three new noir films. I made sure I hadn't seen them before and settled in for an afternoon black and white bonanza.

First up was this movie. I picked all three movies because of their summaries and knew nothing about them beforehand. This movie was from a story by Roy Huggins, and he wrote the screenplay for it as well, so I suspect the main story is similar. I saw a paperback version of the book, but it said it was published in 2022, and that's just odd. Side note: The poster for this movie is crazy!

A couple is bickering in the car when the woman grabs the wheel. The car begins to swerve around, and it alerts a car coming the other way. A bag of money ends up being thrown into their back seat, and the story begins. The husband wants to turn in the cash, but the wife isn't letting it go. And she'll do anything to keep it. Including murdering anyone who gets in her way.

When her husband goes "missing," one of his old military buddies shows up and offers to help look for him. The husband's sister is all for it, but the wife is feeling a noose tighten around her neck. Will she be able to get away with murder and the money?

I liked this one. The reveal at the end was pretty nifty (the "friend") and I liked the story overall. It wasn't too long, and I liked the little twists and turns along the way. Good Movie!

RIP Alan - you were a good man!

 

Jigsaw - 1962

I thought I'd seen this one, but when I looked back through my reviews, it appeared I was wrong! It's one of those older murder mysteries I like watching, so I settled in and pressed play.

A woman is found murdered in a rented house, but the clues aren't leading anywhere. The body can't even be identified. It takes a lot of digging and finding puzzle pieces to unravel the truth and identify the killer.

This movie was entertaining! I liked the main character, Fred. I was sorry he missed his football (soccer) match, but the plot was interesting. All the little twists and turns were really cool. The movie was almost two hours, which is on the longer side for this era, but I didn't really feel it.

This is based on a book called Sleep Long, My Love by Hillary Waugh. I tried to find the book, but the author's books aren't widely available, and I only saw one available digitally. I'll keep an eye on it, because I'm curious. This one easily earns a Good Movie! review.

The Mummy's Curse - 1944

Next up in the Universal Monster list was this movie. It was connected to the previous movie, The Mummy's Ghost, which is where the problems start.

At the end of the last movie, the mummy and his princess are swallowed by the swamp. I didn't realize it at the time, but they were supposed to be in Massachusetts. Apparently there's a pretty large swamp in Mass. called the Hockomock. It sounds like it has some mystery and superstition surrounding it. Maybe they could've done a movie about that instead. Anyway, let's get back to the "plot."

A group is draining the swamp. The bulldozer runs over the mummy's spot, and now he's out. The princess digs herself out, takes a dip in a pond and is young again. Then she proceeds to use people as shields to protect her from the mummy while she tries to figure out who she is. Eventually, she ends up in her coffin and is old and crusty again. For some reason, the man from the museum instantly recognizes who she is and figures out what happened.

Putting aside the obvious question of how the mummy stayed a mummy when the woman got young, how did we get to the swamp? The previous movie only had the one spot of swamp, and people weren't really Cajun. We went from a little bit of swamp to using boats to travel around. I got the feeling they wanted this one to be in Louisiana, but they definitely were referencing the first movie. Also, are there usually abandoned monasteries in the middle of swamps? 

And I want to mention an especially cringey character - Goobie. This poor African American actor was named Goobie and had all the stupid "massa" speech. We're talking 1944, WWII, the time of the Tuskegee Airmen and other heroes, and this is the best we can do for Napoleon Simpson? No. There was no reason for his character to be like that, and I hated it. Maybe the mummy could've taken out the screenwriter. Although I'm not sure how he kills anyone. You just have to lightly jog to get away from him. He's very slow.

Anyway, this one was real bad. The mummy just got rocks piled on him, so he could come back. The princess was just lying in her sarcophagus, so who knows what will happen. On the flip side of that coin, we only have so many movies left on our list, and at least two or three of them are creature of the Black Lagoon. Here's hoping we're done with the mummy!

WarGames - 1983

I had this one on the DVR for awhile, and since we were suspending YouTubeTV until football season starts back up, I wanted to get it watched. After seeing it, most of it wasn't familiar, but the very end felt like I'd seen it before. I can't be sure.

This movie asks the question of what happens if you take the human element out of big, life or death decisions and replace them with AI. This is 1983, so we're talking about nuclear weapons. The government runs a test to see what would happen if they sent launch codes to missile sites, and the men couldn't get in touch with anyone to verify the orders. Would they blindly follow directions? The answer is...not all of them.

To insure the blind loyalty they want, the ultimate decision is left to a computer called WOPR. The problem arises when a high school kid is able to hack in and play a game with the computer. When it becomes clear the game isn't being played hypothetically, the kid wants to end the game, but the computer is still playing.

The film is pretty cool. I really enjoyed it, and the end made me tense. The animations at the end were impressive, and according to what I read, it took seven months to make those. The setup they used for NORAD were nicer than what they actually had at the time. Poor NORAD! This one earns a Good Movie! review, but I'll pass on the nice game of chess. I'm terrible at chess!