The Panther's Claw (1942)
Overview
The police arrest a man climbing over the wall of a cemetery after midnight. He claims that he is being blackmailed and is following instructions he received by mail to leave $1000 on a certain grave. It turns out that he's not the only one who got a blackmail letter from the same person--calling himself "The Black Panther"--and it also turns out that all the recipients are connected to an opera company.
Cast
Sidney Blackmer
Police Commissioner Thatcher Colt
Rick Vallin
Anthony 'Tony' Abbot (as Ricki Vallin)
Byron Foulger
Everett P. Digberry
Herbert Rawlinson
District Attorney Bill Dougherty
Barry Bernard
Capt. Edgar Walters / Frank Galloway
John Ince
Police Captain Mike Flynn
Martin Ashe
Officer Murphy
Frank Darien
Samuel Wilkins
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- Reviews
CinemaSerf
As cheap and cheerful B-features go, this is actually quite quickly paced and entertaining. It all centres around wig-maker "Digberry" (Byron Foulger) who is apprehended up to no good in a cemetery after hours. His explanation makes little sense to the police officer - he is being blackmailed by the mysterious "Panther" into leaving $1000 on the graveyard of one of his aunts. Turns out that he is not the only recipient of such a letter - many of his friends have also, and this leaves Police Commissioner "Thatch" (Sidney Blackmer), and his sidekick "Abbott" (Rick Vallin) to try to get to the bottom of things. The story is a bit far-fetched, but Foulger is on quite good form as the plot offers intrigues from the operatic to a bit of skull-wiggery, and it passes 70 minutes effortlessly. The ending is a bit obvious, but still - it shows what can be done with a tiny budget if the story is decent and the performances are too.
