Destination Moon (1950)

Starring John Archer, Warner Anderson, Tom Powers, Dick Wesson, Erin O'Brien-Moore
Directed by Irving Pichel
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

Unable to launch a successful space rocket through a military program, a determined general gets private industry to fund a manned rocket to the moon, although the project becomes beset by a number of problems.

Producer George Pal's first science fiction film is notable for its prescient script and art direction which foresees pretty accurately what a voyage to the moon and the lunar conditions would be like.  Noted sci-fi author Robert A. Heinlein contributed to the script, and veteran art director Ernst Fegte created the rocky lunar surface, enhanced by matte paintings by Chesley Bonestell.  Leith Steven's majestic score is just about perfect for the film, and the cast is all fine, with Wesson standing out as the first of many cinematic Brooklynites who make it into space.  The film also showcases a Woody Woodpecker animated sequence, presented to investors to explain the science behind the rocket, which may have influenced a similar sequence in 1993's Jurassic Park.  The friendship between Pal and Woody's creator Walter Lantz would lead to future cameos by the cartoon character in a number of Pal's films.

Torture Ship (1939)

Starring Lyle Talbot, Irving Pichel, Jacqueline Wells, Sheila Bromley, Anthony Averill
Directed by Victor Halperin
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A scientist trying to correct criminal tendencies in human beings lures a group of hardened criminals aboard a yacht as test subjects, before telling them they may not survive his experiments.

An interesting low budget suspenser from Halperin (director of White Zombie), with an enjoyable cast, the picture definitely entertained me, and I thought Halperin balanced the action, performances, and thrills admirably.  There's lots of familiar faces among the actors, with Pichel playing the unscrupulous doctor, Talbot his straight-arrow nephew captaining the ship, Wells (from The Black Cat) playing a convicted woman who may be an innocent victim or may not, Wheeler Oakman as the chief criminal, and the always creepy Skelton Knaggs as another felon.  The script, which IMDB credits to Harvey Huntley & George Wallace Sayre, based on a Jack London story, is at times overly simplistic, but also delivers its share of surprises and balances roles for the large cast very well.

Before Dawn (1933)

Starring Stuart Erwin, Dorothy Wilson, Warner Oland, Dudley Digges, Gertrude Hoffman
Directed by Irving Pichel
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A detective arrests a psychic medium and her father for fraud, but he becomes convinced her abilities are real, and recruits her help in an unsolved murder.

A fun mystery with Erwin an unusually soft-spoken and compassionate detective compared to the usual hard-boiled or wisecracking leads in these films, but what really makes the picture memorable is some creepy imagery near the climax of the film, including the eerie face of a ghost and the revelation of a secret passage and staircase leading to where a fortune may be buried.  There's better written thrillers, but this is a hidden gem of a movie well worth discovering.

The Most Dangerous Game (1932)

Starring Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Leslie Banks, Noble Johnson
Directed by Irving Pichel & Ernest B. Schoedsack

A big-game hunter is stranded on a jungle island owned by a mad Russian count, who hunts human beings for sport, and displays their carcasses in his trophy room.

Perhaps my very favorite among the films I've seen, I've always loved this adaptation of Richard Connell's famous short story, although it's lesser known than the film it shares much of the same cast and crew with, the famed King Kong.  According to Wikipedia, this adventure was filmed concurrently with Kong on the same sets, and while it lacks that film's stop-motion special effects, it's a horror classic in its own right.  Featuring a driving musical score by Max Steiner, a memorable sinister portrayal of the villainous Zaroff by British actor Leslie Banks, great direction, and a wonderfully staged culminating chase, together all these elements contribute to making this one of the most exciting films of the early 1930s.

She (1935)

Starring Helen Gahagan, Randolph Scott, Helen Mack, Nigel Bruce, Gustav von Seyffertitz
Directed by Irving Pichel & Lansing Holden
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

The descendant of an explorer who purportedly found a fountain of youth in the Arctic follows his ancestor's trail and discovers a lost civilization ruled over by a queen who's lived for centuries.

H. Rider Haggard's classic adventure story is adapted by the producers of King Kong, who deliver fantastic sets, interestingly choreographed rituals, and special effects that still hold up well.  Although there's an overemphasis on flowery dialogue, and not enough chemistry between Gahagan and Scott to make their ages-old romance believable, it's still a distinctive picture.