1941

Man-Made Monster 1941 DVD

While Man-Made Monster is not one of the all-time great horror films like many of its thirties and forties Universal Pictures celluloid brethren, it is not without certain merits; in particular, it can be viewed historically as the proving ground for one of Universal's undisputed classics, The Wolf Man. Both filmed in 1941, Man-Made Monster first teamed many of the people who would later collaborate on The Wolf Man. Star Lon Chaney Jr., and director George Waggner are well known to have gone on to make the furry opus, but many of the other talents that reunited for the Wolf Man included some of Universal's stable of technicians and artists like special effects wizard John P. Fulton (Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Ten Commandments), makeup magician Jack Pierce (Frankenstein, The Mummy), musical director Hans Salter (The Mummy's Hand, Ghost of Frankenstein) and costumer Vera West (The Man Who Laughs, Son of Frankenstein).

The Black cat 1941 DVD

Elderly Henrietta Winslow lives in an isolated mansion with her housekeeper and beloved cats. As her health fails, her greedy relatives gather in anticipation of her death.

The Bride came C.O.D. 1941 DVD
The Bride Came C.O.D. is a 1941 Warner Bros. screwball romantic comedy starring James Cagney as a pilot and Bette Davis as a runaway heiress. Although the film was publicized as the first movie pairing of Warner Bros.' two biggest stars, they had actually made Jimmy the Gent together in 1934.
The movie was written by Kenneth Earl, M. M. Musselman, and twins Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein, and directed by William Keighley.Pilot Steve Collins (James Cagney) agrees to help bandleader Alan Brice (Jack Carson) and heiress Joan Winfield (Bette Davis) elope. Steve then contacts her father Lucius (Eugene Pallette), offering to prevent the marriage and deliver her to him in return for enough money to get out of debt.



King of the Zombies 1941 DVD
During World War 2, a small plane off the south coast of America is low on fuel and blown off course by a storm. Guided by a faint radio signal, they crashland on an island. The passenger, his manservant and the pilot take refuge in a mansion owned by a doctor. The easily-spooked manservant soon becomes convinced the mansion is haunted by zombies and ghosts. Exploring, the 3 find a voodoo ritual in the cellar, where the doctor is trying to acquire war intelligence by transferring personalities into his zombies. But the interruption causes the zombies to turn on their creator.


Invisible Ghost 1941 DVD
Starring Bela Lugosi. THE PHANTOM KILLER STRIKES! Only a terrified woman knows the secret of this ghostly murderer...who strikes in the night and leaves no clues---but his victims! The town's leading citizen becomes a homocidal maniac after his wife deserts him.



The Wolf Man 1941 DVD
Upon the death of his brother, Larry Talbot returns from America to his ancestral home in Wales. He visits a gypsy camp with village girl Jenny Williams, who is attacked by Bela, a gypsy who has turned into a werewolf. Larry kills the werewolf but is bitten during the fight. Bela's mother tells him that this will cause him to become a werewolf at each full moon. Larry confesses his plight to his unbelieving father, Sir John, who then joins the villagers in a hunt for the wolf. Larry, transformed by the full moon, heads for the forest and a fateful meeting with both Sir John and Gwen.




Hold that Ghost 1941 Laserdisc
Hold That Ghost is a film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. On August 1, 1941, Abbott and Costello performed a live version of the film for radio audiences on Louella Parsons' Hollywood Premiere.
Chuck Murray (Bud Abbott) and Ferdie Jones (Lou Costello) work at a gas station, but long to move up to waiting tables at Chez Glamour, a high-class nightclub.

Opportunity comes their way and they find themselves working there. But on their very first night, they cause a disturbance and are fired, only to wind up working again at the gas station, when a gangster named "Moose" Matson (William Davidson) brings in his car for servicing. Chuck and Ferdie happen to be inside the vehicle when the gangster speeds off to escape police, who are searching for him. During the chase, the gangster is killed by gunfire, and through a strange clause in his will, Chuck and Ferdie inherit his tavern, 'Forrester's Club'.

The lawyer in charge of the will arranges a private bus (actually just a large car) to take them to the rural tavern, where they arrive during a heavy thunderstorm, but the driver abandons them and the other passengers there and takes off with everyone's luggage, a scheme that is known as the "wildcat bus racket". Unbeknownst to everyone, one of the passengers, Charlie Smith (Marc Lawrence) is a member of Moose's gang, and wants to search the tavern for a hidden money stash. (Moose did give one rather cryptic clue as to the money's location, by stating that he always kept his money "in his head").

As the night progresses, strange things begin to happen, they discover a hidden room full of old gambling equipment, and the tavern appears to be haunted. More gangsters arrive to search for the money and unsuccessfully attempt to scare off the guests. In an especially funny scene, Ferdie stammers and shakes as he nervously describes to his disbelieving friends how a lit candle moves back and forth by itself on a table. Ferdie eventually finds the treasure hidden inside the head of a stuffed moose; he and Chuck use the money to transform the tavern into a health resort. They hire Ted Lewis and His Orchestra, along with The Andrews Sisters, to headline.



Keep em Flying 1941 Laserdisc
Jinx Roberts (Dick Foran) is a stunt pilot and his assistants are Blackie (Bud Abbott) and Heathcliffe (Lou Costello). All three are fired from the carnival and air show that they work for after a disagreement. Jinx decides that he should join the Army Air Force, so they go to a nightclub to party one last time. While there Jinx falls for the club's singer, Linda Joyce (Carol Bruce). Coincidentally, she becomes a USO hostess at the same Academy that Jinx and her brother, Jimmy (Charles Lang) are enrolled at. It turns out that Jinx's instructor, Craig Morrison (William Gargan), was his co-pilot on a commercial airplane years earlier, and the two still hold animosity for each other. Meanwhile, Blackie and Heathcliffe join the air corps as ground crewman and fall in love with twin USO hostesses (Martha Raye in a dual role).

Jinx attempts to help Jimmy solo, nearly getting him killed. For his efforts, Jinx is hated by Linda for nearly killing her brother and is dishonorably discharged from the corps, along with his assistants Blackie and Heathcliffe (who were discharged for their own mishaps). As they are leaving, Craig gets his parachute caught on the tail end of the plane that he just jumped out of. Jinx confiscates a plane and comes to his rescue. For his heroic actions, he is allowed back into the corps and got back Linda.

1940

The Fighting 69th 1940 DVD
The Fighting 69th (1940) is an American war film starring James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, and George Brent. The plot is based upon the actual exploits of New York's 69th Infantry Regiment during the First World War. The regiment was first given that nickname by opposing General Robert E. Lee during the American Civil War.
The plot centers on misfit Jerry Plunkett, played by Cagney, and his inability to fit into the unit due to a mixture of bravado and cowardice. O'Brien plays Father Francis P. Duffy, a military chaplain who attempts to reform Plunkett. "Wild Bill" Donovan, played by Brent, is the regimental commander, who ultimately orders Plunkett to be court-martialed. One of the characters portrayed in this film is Sgt Joyce Kilmer, the poet. Alan Hale, Sr. plays Sgt Wynn, who loses both his brothers due to Cagney's blunders. While Jerry Plunkett was a fictional character, Father Duffy, Colonel Donovan and Joyce Kilmer were all part of the actual regiment.



City for Conquest 1940 DVD
City for Conquest is a 1940 drama-film noir starring James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, and Arthur Kennedy, based on the novel of the same name by Aben Kandel. Cagney plays a truck driver named Danny Kenny, who starts as a New York boxing contender. Ann Sheridan plays his girlfriend, Peggy. Being successful as a boxer, Danny decides to financially help his brother Eddie (Arthur Kennedy) to become a professional musician. Peggy on the other hand, loses her heart to Murray Burns (Anthony Quinn), a professional dancer, and she turns down Danny's proposal in order to go for a dancing career. Embittered by Peggy's refusal, Danny continues to work as a boxer and eventually gets blinded by his opponent during a fight, who has placed some rosin dust onto his gloves. Now partly blind, Danny works as a newspaper stand operator, while Peggy is seized with remorse after her career as a dancer had not come true. The movie ends with Eddie being a successful composer who dedicates his first major symphony at Carnegie Hall to his brother, who is listening to the concert on the radio from his newsstand.

BEFORE I HANG 1940 DVD
A physician (Boris Karloff) on death row for a mercy killing is allowed to experiment on a serum using a criminals' blood, but secretly tests it on himself. He gets a pardon, but finds out he's become a Jekyll-&-Hyde.




BLACK FRIDAY 1940 DVD
When his friend Professor Kingsely (Ridges) is at deaths door, brain surgeon Dr. Sovac (Karloff) saves his life by means of an illegal operation that transplants part of injured gangster Red Cannon's brain. Unfortunately, the operation has a disasterous Jeckll and Hyde side effect and under certain conditions the persona of Cannon emerges. Sovac soon learns of the duel personality and of half a million dollars the gangster has hidden away. He attempts to find the money through the manipulation of his friend, an attempt that brings Kingsley closer to madness as he alternates between a meek professor of english and a brutal gangster out for murderous revenge on those who tried to kill him.



The Fatal Hour 1940 DVD
Starring Boris Karloff. When Captain Street's best friend Dan O'Grady is murdered, Street enlists the help of Chinese detective James Lee Wong. Mr. Wong uncovers a smuggling ring on the waterfront of San Francisco and unmasks the killer, though not until several more murders occur.


Doomed to Die 1940 DVD
Starring Boris Karloff. Only the possibility of avoiding a Tong War, plus persuasion by reporter Bobbie Logan leads the famous detective James Lee Wong to enter the Wentworth case. A million and a half dollars in bonds was taken from one of Cyrus P. Wentworth's ship before it was mysteriously sunk and, shortly afterward, Wentworth was found murdered. The police, led by Detective Captain Bill Street, suspect Dick Fleming, fiancée of Wentworth's daughter Cynthia. Wong clears Dick but has difficulty in finding the trail of the mysterious killer.



Phantom of Chinatown 1940 DVD
In the middle of a pictorial lecture on his recent expedition to the Mongolian Desert, Dr. John Benton (Charles Miller) the famous explorer, drinks from the water bottle on his lecture table, collapses and dies. His last words "Eternal Fire" are the only clue Chinese detective Jimmy Wong (Keye Luke) and Captain Street (Grant Withers) of the police department have to work on. Win Len (Lotus Long), Benton's secretary, reveals the doctor's dying words refer to a scroll which tells the location of rich oil deposits. Wong and Street then begin the search for the killer among Benton's associates.


The Door with Seven Locks (AKA Chamber of Horrors) 1940 DVD
Screwball horror yarn loosely based on Edgar Wallace's novel 'The Door With Seven Locks', it was the second Wallace adaptation by producer John Argyle following The Dark Eyes of London (1939). This low-budget B-Picture is dripping in atmosphere, adding all our favourite trappings - fog, torture chambers, rats, coffins and more into a good old-fashioned murder mystery.

The Devil Bat 1940 DVD
Starring Bela Lugosi. Dr. Carruthers feels bitter at being betrayed by his employers, Heath and Morton, when they became rich as a result of a product he devised. He gains revenge by electrically enlarging bats and sending them out to kill his employers' family members by instilling in the bats a hatred for a particular perfume he has discovered, which he gets his victims to apply before going outdoors. Johnny Layton, a reporter, finally figures out Carruthers is the killer and, after putting the perfume on himself, douses it on Carruthers in the hopes it will get him to give himself away. One of the two is attacked as the giant bat makes one of its screaming, swooping power dives.



The Ape 1940 DVD
Horror film made for Monogram Pictures, co-written by Curt Siodmak and starring Boris Karloff. Dr. Bernard Adrian is a kindly mad scientist who seeks to cure a young woman's polio. He needs spinal fluid from a human to complete the formula for his experimental serum. Meanwhile, a vicious circus ape has broken out of its cage, and is terrorizing towns people.

British Intelligence 1940 DVD
Starring Boris Karloff. During WWI pretty German master spy Helene von Lorbeer is sent undercover to London to live with the family of a high-placed British official where she is to rendezvous with the butler Valdar, also a spy, and help him transmit secret war plans back to Germany.

The Mummy's Hand 1940 DVD
A couple of comical, out-of-work archaeologists (Dick Foran and Wallace Ford) in Egypt discover evidence of the burial place of the ancient Egyptian princess Ananka. After receiving funding from an eccentric magician (Cecil Kellaway) and his beautiful daughter (Peggy Moran), they set out into the desert only to be terrorized by a sinister high priest (George Zucco) and the living mummy Kharis (Tom Tyler) who are the guardians of Ananka's tomb.



The Invisible Man returns 1940 DVD
Geoffrey Radcliffe, the wealthy owner of a coal mining operation, is running out of time. In two hours, he is set to be executed for the murder of his brother, a murder he did not commit. His fiancée, Helen Manson, is frantic. Geoffrey's cousin, Richard Cobb, tells her that he has done everything he can. Geoffrey's only hope is his friend, Dr. Frank Griffin. Griffin's late brother once discovered a secret drug that makes a human being invisible. The only trouble is, it also turns its subject mad. But now Geoffrey, Helen and Dr. Griffin have no other choice. Griffin visits Geoffrey at the prison and administers the drug. Soon Geoffrey, made invisible, is able to escape. As the wily Inspector Sampson of Scotland Yard searches for the escaped convict, Griffin frantically searches for an antidote and Geoffrey frantically searches for the real killer. Time is short. Geoffrey is slowly but surely going insane.


The Invisible Woman 1940 DVD
The eccentric Professor Gibbs puts an ad in the newspaper: "WANTED: A human being willing to become invisible. No remuneration. Box P19." But Gibbs is no crackpot. He really did invent an invisibility machine, and he really does need his first human guinea pig. He's rather surprised when the K. Carroll who answers his ad turns out to be a woman: Kitty Carroll, a dress model with an oppressive boss. And that boss is the real reason she wants to be invisible. The beleaguered model wants to revenge herself on him and thus win one for the working girl. Meanwhile, the loony scientist's patron, the wealthy playboy Richard Russell, learns he has just squandered every penny of the family fortune on girls who sue. His long suffering manservant keeps threatening to resign. But if that invisibility machine works, Richard will have it made - again. Unfortunately, the machine has attracted the interest of some thugs whose boss is stuck in Mexico unable to cross the border. Invisibility is just what he needs to get past the checkpoint.


Torrid Zone 1940 DVD
Torrid Zone is a 1940 adventure film starring James Cagney, Ann Sheridan and Pat O'Brien. Steve Case (Pat O'Brien) has to deal with trouble at his tropical fruit company's Central American banana plantation. A revolutionary, Rosario La Mata (George Tobias), is stirring up unrest among the workers, and the only man who can handle the situation, foreman Nick Butler (James Cagney), has just quit. Steve manages to persuade Nick to stick around (for a big bonus). Adding to the complications is Lee Donley (Ann Sheridan), a woman who Steve has ordered out of the region for causing a different kind of trouble among the men.