THE HOUSE OF HAMMER--VOLUME ONE

 

The current Hammer Films company has been churning out plenty of product in the last few years--so much product that you'd have to be Elon Musk to buy it all. I've been very carefully picking & choosing when it comes to the latest Hammer home video box sets, but I took the plunge with THE HOUSE OF HAMMER--VOLUME ONE. It is a two-disc region free Blu-ray set that also includes a 120-page booklet. 

The discs and the booklet contain a number of programs, documentaries, and articles that examine not only various facets of Hammer history, but the entire English Gothic genre overall. 

Some online have commented that this set is a group of extras looking for a feature, while others have suggested that the release should have been called THE HOUSE OF NON-HAMMER. (As you can see in the photo of the front of the set case above, Vincent Price takes prominence, and yes, I'm well aware he never appeared in a Hammer film.) I've actually watched all the programs on both discs, and I've read the entire booklet, and I will say that there is plenty of material here relating to Hammer. 

The highlight on Disc One is a nearly two-hour documentary on American-International Pictures--and this is just part one of the entire program. Titled MASQUES, MONSTERS AND MADMEN, the program covers the beginnings of AIP, how it took advantage of the entertainment industry conditions of the 1950s, and the company's relationship with filmmaker Roger Corman. The documentary mostly focuses on the British horror and sci-fi films AIP was involved in or at least distributed in the U.S. (It doesn't cover the Beach Party movies.) It goes up to about the end of the 1960s. Overall it is an extensive examination of some of the most famous horror films made in the 1950s and 60s. 

Disc One also contains an entertaining look at the life and acting career of Michael Gough by Jonathan Rigby, which runs about 45 minutes. There's also a program discussing the connection between Cornwall (an area of southwest England) and Birtish horror, which actually spends a lot of time talking about movies that don't have anything to do with Cornwall. 

Filling out Disc One is a short film made by Hammer in 1959 called TICKET TO HAPPINESS. Running about a half an hour, this is a lighthearted tale involving an industrialist trying to obtain land in a small British town. This short is so obscure, it's not even listed on IMDB! The most notable thing about it are the names involved in it that will be familiar to Hammer fans, such as director Peter Bryan, cinematographer Michael Reed, and actors Michael Goodliffe, Jeremy Longhurst, and Charles Lloyd Pack. 

Disc Two contains a feature documentary called DEEP CUTS, which examines the history of censorship in American and British cinema, and a program on makeup artists Lou and Dave Elsey, two full-on Hammer fans who have made their mark in plenty of big-time movie franchises. There's also a deep examination of various Hammer music soundtracks by David Huckvale, who is the ultimate expert in such matters. 

Disc Two also has footage of Roger Corman from a 1995 Festival of Fantastic Films convention, and, finally, a Q & A held after the premier screening of the 4K restoration of THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN in London in October 2025. The panelists include Kim Newman, Wayne Kinsey, Lucy Bolton, David Pirie, and actor Melvyn Hayes, the last surviving member of the COF cast, who steals the show. 

Now....I have to talk about the booklet!! That contains a look at the making of the AIP British film CRY OF THE BANSHEE, written by English Gothic expert John Hamilton. There's also articles on the British companies other than Hammer that delved into horror features, an appreciation of AIP's Edgar Allen Poe series, a look at Caralan, the production company that made DOCTOR BLOOD'S COFFIN and THE SNAKE WOMAN, and an essay by Wayne Kinsey showcasing the non-horror films made by Hammer. 

One article I need to point out is Dick Klemensen's look back at the beginnings of his fantastic magazine LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS, a publication which has played a major part in Hammer history. In that article Mr. K points out that no other film company has had nearly every aspect of its history as thoroughly examined as that of Hammer Films--and he's absolutely right, with this set being a perfect example. 

Needless to say, this set is jam-packed with material, and it comes in a slipcase with impressively-designed packaging. The booklet is well-illustrated, and the documentaries contain plenty of talking heads that are true Hammer and English Gothic experts, such as John Hamilton, Jonathan Rigby, David Pirie, John Logan, Wayne Kinsey, and Richard Klemensen. 

This is a hardcore set for hardcore fans. You'll certainly learn about Hammer and English Gothic history, but if you are not a major fan of the subject to begin with, you're going to be a bit lost. I personally loved it--there are some times in the programs where things jump about a bit, and the focus wavers, but all in all there's plenty of entertaining and informative material here, and this is a set that is made specifically for English Gothic enthusiasts. I've no doubt there will be multiple volumes of THE HOUSE OF HAMMER in the future, and I can only wonder what will be contained in them. (By the way, if Hammer and John Gore want to talk to someone who has spent some time with some of the Hammer ladies, I do know a guy....) 

THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU

 

I finally saw this movie last night. The immediate reaction to it has been underwhelming, but I have to say that I found it to be a good, solid, enjoyable action-packed adventure. 

Taking place in the post-RETURN OF THE JEDI Star Wars Universe, THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU presents the title characters dealing with various warlords and coming to the rescue of Rotta the Hutt. Rotta (voiced by Jeremy Allen White) is the son of the notorious Jabba the Hutt, and his fate causes Mando (Pedro Pascal) to go against his New Republic employers to do what he feels is the right thing. 

THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU starts out with a very well-executed action sequence, and things don't slow down very much from there. Along with disposing of several ex-Imperial operatives and goons, Mando also fights off a menagerie of CGI monsters. The numerous battle scenes might be repetitive to some, but director/co-writer Jon Favreau stages them skillfully and efficiently, and let's face it, this is a summer blockbuster popcorn movie, so....what else would you expect? 

I was worried that the Rotta the Hutt subplot would turn out silly, but it actually comes off very well, even though it is a bit disconcerting to hear a Hutt speak perfect Galactic Standard. 

There's nothing in this story that makes a major impact on the Star Wars Universe, which to my mind is a good thing. Mando still has his quiet swagger and deadpan sense of humor, while Grogu still eats a lot and does cute things. (The green tyke even gets a chance to save Mando during the film's latter moments.) 

THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU might have made a bigger impact in the marketplace if it had been released about five years ago, during the height of Grogunmania. Nevertheless, it's an enjoyable and fun romp that more than delivers the goods action-wise. 

THE RINGER (1952)

 

For the last few years, I've been writing plenty of posts on German Krimi films based on the writings of British author Edgar Wallace. Here's a Wallace movie adaptation that was actually made in England. It is THE RINGER, made in 1952, and included in Kino's BRIT NOIR COLLECTION I set. 

THE RINGER is one of Edgar Wallace's most famous works. First written in novel form, the story was later adapted into a successful play, and it was made into a film several times. In this version "The Ringer" is Henry Milton, a notorious vigilante who supposedly fled to Australia and died there. The Ringer comes back into the news when it is rumored that he is threatening corrupt lawyer Maurice Meister (Herbert Lom). The Ringer's sister worked for Meister before apparently committing suicide. Scotland Yard tries to protect Meister, but no one knows what the Ringer looks like, not even his wife, who hasn't seen her husband in years. Plenty of suspects crop up, but it's the threat of the Ringer that causes more consternation than the man himself. 

Once again I need to point out that even though this movie appears in a Blu-ray set labeled "Noir', there isn't really all that much connected to that genre showing up in the feature. The 1952 THE RINGER has a lighthearted air about it, and most of the film takes place inside Meister's upscale house--there's no mean rain-slicked streets here. The movie offers up a number of enjoyably broad performances by the likes of Donald Wolfit (BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE), William Hartnell (the very first actor to play Doctor Who), and Greta Gynt as The Ringer's acerbic, glamorous wife. (Gynt had already starred in another famous Edgar Wallace movie adaptation: THE HUMAN MONSTER, with Bela Lugosi.) The cast also features a very young Denholm Elliott and Mai Zetterling. 

Earlier this year I had viewed DER HEXXER, the 1964 German Krimi version of THE RINGER, so I was familiar with most of the aspects of the plot....but the 1952 version still provided some surprises. This film is dialogue-heavy, and it does betray its stage origins, but director Guy Hamilton (whose debut film this was) keeps things barreling along almost like a screwball comedy. THE RINGER is a very different product from the 1960s German Krimis, but it's very entertaining in its own right. 

As for the entire BRIT NOIR COLLECTION I, I would call it very impressive overall. I had never seen the three films included in it, and although one can debate whether or not they are truly "noir", all the movies are very well made, and they look outstanding for their age. (All three are in black & white, and the only one in widescreen is THE FRIGHTENED CITY, with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio.) Each film in this set has a brand new audio commentary (I have not yet been able to listen to any of them yet). I would rate THE FRIGHTENED CITY the best movie in the set, with THE RINGER just behind, and the heavy-handed CAGE OF GOLD in the tail position. 

Kino might be taking advantage of the popularity of the "noir" label to package a random set of British crime dramas, but these are movies very few Americans know about, let alone have seen, and any company giving rare films a home video debut is a plus. Kino has two more Brit Noir Collections coming out this year, and I'm already planning on purchasing them. 

CAGE OF GOLD

 

CAGE OF GOLD is one of the three films contained in Kino's BRIT NOIR COLLECTION I Blu-ray set. It is a 1950 film from Ealing Studios that is more of a soap opera-style melodrama than what I would call a true noir. 

Set in post-WWII London, the story concerns young Judith (Jean Simmons), who one day encounters former flame Bill Glennan (David Farrar). During the war Judith's family lived near an RAF base, and she had a huge crush on Glennan, who was a fighter pilot. Glennan once again sweeps Judith off her feet, causing her to reject her decent, upstanding doctor boyfriend Alan (James Donald). Judith gets pregnant, and she and Bill marry.....but he leaves her on their wedding night, and later Judith receives word that Bill has died in a plane crash. Judith marries Alan, and they raise her child with Bill as their own.....but Bill is still alive, and he returns to London to harass and blackmail the family. 

CAGE OF GOLD is one of those "Good woman gets involved with a bad relationship" stories that has some very predictable aspects to it. The movie is well-acted, and it is directed by the very capable Basil Dearden, but it lacks a certain spark that would make it very memorable. The main issue for me was David Farrar. He's not bad in the role of Bill, but the character is supposed to be a cad and a bounder who causes all women he meets to throw all caution to the winds, and Farrar seems too stolid and plain to be a conniving bad-boy and untrustworthy ladies man. 

A large amount of the running time of this picture involves Bill's shady doings in a Parisian nightclub (the establishment's name provides the film's title), with Madeleine Lebeau (CASABLANCA) as a nightclub singer who is another of Bill's conquests, and Herbert Lom as the mysterious fellow who runs the place. Lom gives off plenty of Peter Lorre-type vibes in his too-small role, but the nightclub scenes seem just a diversion from Jean Simmons' situation. 

The ending of this film wraps things up way too neatly, but the climax at least has Bernard Lee as a stalwart police inspector. One can't help but feel that if CAGE OF GOLD were made by Americans, the movie would have had more excitement to it. If this movie qualifies as a noir, it is a very mild-mannered, very British example of the genre. 

THE FRIGHTENED CITY

 

Kino Lorber has just released the BRIT NOIR COLLECTION I, a two-disc set containing a trio of British crime thrillers made in the 50s and 60s. The movie I chose to view first was THE FRIGHTENED CITY, a 1961 mob tale starring a pre-Bond Sean Connery. 

The plot of THE FRIGHTENED CITY revolves around corrupt accountant Waldo Zhernikov (Herbert Lom), who comes up with the idea to convince the leaders of six different London criminal gangs to merge all of their protection rackets. To help make sure the blackmail money is collected properly, petty thief Paddy Damion (Sean Connery) is hired, due to the fact that he is tough, but smart. Zhernikov and his shady associates start to rake in the dough, but the accountant gets even more ambitious. Zhernikov uses one of the crime bosses (played by Alfred Marks) to partake in a scheme to put the squeeze on some of London's major companies, which causes consternation among the other mob leaders. The scheme also causes Paddy to question whether his activities are worth doing. 

THE FRIGHTENED CITY is a movie I was not aware of, even though I'm a big Sean Connery fan. It's a decent crime story, with efficient black & white photography by Desmond Dickinson and a jazzy music score by Norrie Paramor (the movie's main theme was successfully covered by The Shadows). The film doesn't have as much action as one would think, and what action there is has a ragged feel to it. This factor does make the story come off as more realistic, even though despite the title, the viewer doesn't believe that London is in a panic mode. (If the production had more of a budget, no doubt we would have seen more criminal violence.) 

I have no idea whether James Bond producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman saw THE FRIGHTENED CITY, but the movie is a great showcase for the talents of a pre-007 Sean Connery. Connery's Paddy isn't a swaggering, brutish enforcer.....he has a quiet self-assurance while still maintaining a "Don't mess with me" vibe. Paddy isn't so much an out-and-out criminal as he is an anti-hero. Paddy also has a belief in "honor among thieves", and his experiences with Zhernikov make him realize that he's working for the wrong people. Paddy also develops a relationship with Zhernikov's nightclub singer mistress (Yvonne Monlaur). As always Monlaur looks stunning, and she and Connery project some major heat together. 

Connery is actually billed behind Herbert Lom and John Gregson, who plays the world-weary Inspector Sayers, a police official determined to find who is behind the city-wide protection scheme. Despite his billing Lom doesn't have all that much screen time--his Zhernikov is a clever (and shady) upper-class type who would rather control things behind the scenes instead of being upfront and getting his hands dirty. Like just about every British film made in the 50s and 60s, THE FRIGHTENED CITY has a fine supporting cast, with the likes of Alfred Marks, George Pastell, and Kenneth Griffiths. 

John Lemont co-wrote and directed THE FRIGHTENED CITY, which may shock some people, since Lemont is probably best known today for making KONGA! Despite the low budget Lemont keeps THE FRIGHTENED CITY rolling along, and he knows enough to keep the focus on Sean Connery. I wouldn't call this movie a hard-boiled noir, but it is an effective and entertaining crime story that proves even before he became James Bond Sean Connery could carry a feature. 

I plan on writing blog posts on the other two films included in this set. Kino also has two other Brit Noir Collections set for release this year. Whether all the movies that will be in them actually qualify as "noir" is debatable, but at least Kino is releasing a number of titles that most Americans (such as myself) have not been exposed to. 

SATURDAY NIGHT OUT

 

I'm currently reading BEASTS IN THE CELLAR: THE EXPLOITATION FILM CAREER OF TONY TENSER, written by John Hamilton. The book takes a deep, insightful dive into the movies produced by British showman-impresario Tony Tenser. Tenser made a number of provocative genre films during the 1960s-early 70s that are now regarded as cult classics. Tenser wasn't interested in gaining critical plaudits or mainstream respect--his specialty was making movies that got attention and drew audiences. 

SATURDAY NIGHT OUT (1964) was one of the films Tenser made in partnership with Michael Klinger for their Compton production company. The story--five sailors and one passenger looking for excitement during a night in London while their ship is docked there--has all sorts of exploitative possibilities, but the movie looks quite tame today. The London presented in SATURDAY NIGHT OUT is a black & white, dreary, unfriendly, working-class place, and none of the men on shore leave experience what they expect (except for one of the sailors who literally has a girl in every port, and who happens to spend the entire night with her in bed). The intertwined stories of the men have an air of sadness, loneliness, and frustration about them--there's no sense of a mod Swinging London here. 

SATURDAY NIGHT OUT is actually more notable for its cast than anything else. The various ladies that the men meet in the film are played by such actresses as Heather Sears (from Hammer's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA), Erika Remberg (CIRCUS OF HORRORS), Francesca Annis (Polanski's MACBETH), Vera Day (QUATERMASS II), Toni Gilpin (THE GORGON), and Margaret Nolan (GOLDFINGER). Martine Beswicke is in this film too, even though you barely get a glimpse of her, and on the male side there's Bernard Lee (the original "M" of the James Bond films) and Nigel Green (ZULU). The pop group The Searchers also show up to perform a couple of numbers, although their appearance seems forced into the proceedings. 

The women who get the most screen time are Heather Sears as a kooky chatterbox who falls for one of the sailors, and Francesca Annis (who I'll always think of as Agatha Christie's Tuppence in the British PARTNERS IN CRIME TV series) as a vulnerable orphan who forms a bond with the youngest and most innocent of the men on leave. 

SATURDAY NIGHT OUT was directed by Robert Hartford-Davies, who at times tries to bring a documentary-like tone to the various happenings. The movie was written by brothers Donald and Derek Ford, and they and Hartford-Davies would work with Tony Tenser numerous times. According to John Hamilton, the movie didn't make as much of a splash as Compton's other "slice of life" melodramas, and one can understand why after viewing it. None of the characters are particularly interesting or charismatic, and the men on leave seem far too willing to walk right into trouble (or just too naive to begin with). SATURDAY NIGHT OUT is very much a product of its time, but it does rate attention from film geeks and fans of 1960s British genre cinema. 

A Few Words About Joseph Cotten

 

Last weekend I wrote a blog post about the Euro Western WHITE COMANCHE, in which Joseph Cotten received top billing in the credits. It got me thinking about the films that Cotten appeared in over his long acting career--a list of movies that defines the word "eclectic". 

Consider this group of films that Cotten starred in: 

CITIZEN KANE (Directed by Orson Welles)                                                                                

GASLIGHT (Directed by George Cukor)

SHADOW OF A DOUBT (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock) 

DUEL IN THE SUN (Produced by David O. Selznick) 

THE THIRD MAN (Directed by Carol Reed) 

In this collection of movies Cotten worked with some of the most acclaimed filmmakers of all time. Now consider this list: 

THE HELLBENDERS (Directed by Sergio Corbucci)

LATITUDE ZERO (Directed by Ishiro Honda)

THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES (Directed by Robert Fuest)

LADY FRANKENSTEIN (Directed by Mel Welles)

BARON BLOOD (Directed by Mario Bava) 

The second list is a collection filled by either all-time cult directors or all-time cult movies.....and I'd venture to say that some film geeks (like myself) might be more impressed with the second list rather than the first. 

Just think about the names of the directors on these lists. If you had tried to work with all these various men on purpose, you probably wouldn't have been able to pull it off. I'm sure Mr. Cotten would have been more inclined to have not worked on most of the movies of the second list, but to be able to have worked with all these filmmakers is an impressive feat. 

Consider also that Cotten appeared in AIRPORT '77 and HEAVEN'S GATE, and he had several television credits as well....he even showed up on an episode of THE LOVE BOAT. There's no doubt that monetary decisions played a part in a lot of Cotten's acting roles in the 60s and 70s....actors have bills to pay just like anyone else. 

However you look at it, Joseph Cotten had an incredible filmography.....although I have a feeling he might have described it in another way. 

WHITE COMANCHE

 

WHITE COMANCHE is a 1967 Euro Western starring--of all people--William Shatner, who made the film during a break in his STAR TREK schedule. What's more, Shatner plays twin brothers, sons of an American father and a Comanche mother. Johnny Moon is a decent man who has chosen to live in the white world, while his brother Notah is a murdering renegade. 

Shatner was one of the many 1960s American male actors who traveled to Europe hoping to emulate Clint Eastwood's success with Spaghetti Westerns. If Shatner thought his time on the plains of Spain would give him some big-screen clout, he was sadly mistaken. 

Johnny Moon is constantly being mistaken for his brother Notah, and constantly blamed for the latter's crimes. This is such a problem that one wonders why Johnny just doesn't go ahead and kill Notah when they confront each other at the beginning of the film (of course if he did, the movie would be only five minutes long). Instead Johnny challenges Notah to meet him in the nearby town of Rio Hondo in a few days. Until then Notah continues his depredations, while Johnny gains the trust of Rio Hondo's Sheriff Logan (Joseph Cotten). 

The situation of William Shatner playing twin brothers, with one of them in Native American garb, calls to mind the STAR TREK episodes "The Enemy Within" (where a transporter malfunction creates a good Kirk and a bad one) and "The Paradise Syndrome", in which the Captain loses his memory on an unexplored planet and is assimilated into an indigenous tribe. Shatner does quite well as the tight-lipped Johnny. He's proficient in the action sequences and he rides a horse very well (which will be no surprise to anyone who knows about the actor's personal hobbies). When it comes to the role of Notah, Shatner just can't cut it. Notah is a peyote taking, crazed savage, and the whiter-than-white clean-cut Shatner looks ridiculous trying to emulate him. (It's easy to tell the brothers apart--Johnny wears a shirt, while Notah doesn't.) 

The lackluster production didn't do Shatner any favors. The movie has a cheap feel to it, with choppy editing, strange camera setups, and mediocre music. The version I watched of this film had an English-language soundtrack, and while Shatner and Joseph Cotten provided their own voices, the rest of the cast sounds flat (and it doesn't help that at times the sound of gun shots are not properly aligned with weapons being fired in the scenes). You can't really call WHITE COMANCHE a true Spaghetti Western, since it was a Spanish-American production, with a Spanish director named Jose Briz Mendez, who is credited as Gilbert Lee Kay in the main titles. One of the producers of the film was Sam White, who was the brother of long-time Three Stooges associate Jules White. 

Rosanna Yanni, an actress who would later work with the likes of Paul Naschy and Jess Franco, plays saloon girl Kelly, who is raped by Notah and later falls in love with Johnny. Yanni has screen presence but it's a bit of a stretch to think her character would have feelings for the identical twin of the man who viciously assaulted her. Joseph Cotten doesn't have much to do as Sheriff Logan, even though he gets top billing above even Shatner. No one else in the cast particularly stands out. 

Much of the plot seems an excuse just to kill time before the final confrontation between Johnny and Notah--a confrontation that winds up being very underwhelming. William Shatner probably assumed that getting a dual role in a European Western would give him a chance to show off his acting chops, but it didn't do much for his career. (I've been an original STAR TREK fan for most of my life, and I barely knew anything about this movie, and hadn't even seen it.) For those who enjoy the camp aspects of William Shatner's performances, WHITE COMANCHE might be of interest, but overall it's a below average Euro Western that might have had a lower budget than the average STAR TREK episode. 

HATE FOR HATE

 

This is a 1967 Euro Western that I was not aware of (its original title is ODIO PER ODIO). It turned up on Turner Classic Movies earlier this week. 

The movie stars Antonio Sabato as Miguel, a poor Mexican prospector who is trying to raise enough money to move to New York and become an artist, and John Ireland as James Cooper, a bandit who is hoping that after one last robbery he can go back to his wife and daughter, who he has not seen in years. Circumstances bring Miguel and Cooper together--the bank that Cooper and his backstabbing partner Moxon (Mirko Ellis) broke into happened to hold Miguel's life savings. After some misunderstandings, the duo join forces to go after Moxon and his gang. 

Despite its title, HATE FOR HATE has a jaunty air about it at times. The charismatic Miguel always has a big grin on his face, and John Ireland lacks the intensity that most vengeance-obsessed Spaghetti Western protagonists have. The pairing of a cocky youngster and a middle-aged gunman is a common one in Euro Westerns, and the element of Cooper's wife and daughter adds some drama, although the situation isn't explored properly. 

HATE FOR HATE is a decent enough production, but there isn't much in it to make it stand out. There is a brief shootout in a rainstorm, and Cooper happens to be dying of malaria that he contracted while in prison, but the movie overall lacks style and energy. Spaghetti Western veteran Fernando Sancho makes an appearance, and honestly he would have made a much better main villain than Mirko Ellis. 

One Domenico Paolella directed this film, and among the multiple screenwriters are such Euro Cult names as Fernando Di Leo and Bruno Corbucci. The best thing about HATE FOR HATE is the engaging lead performance by Antonio Sabato. 

IMPACT (1963)

 

This is an effective, if low-budget, black & white British crime drama lasting only about an hour that I discovered on Tubi. The main reason that it caught my interest was that the film stars George Pastell, who played a number of exotic ethnic types in various movies for Hammer. The Cyprus-born Pastell also showed up in such mainstream fare as John Huston's MOULIN ROUGE, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, and KHARTOUM. 

This time Pastell gets a major role as Sebastian "The Duke" Dukelow, a Soho nightclub owner who also happens to be an underworld kingpin. Dukelow always manages to avoid the law, but a newspaper reporter named Jack Moir (Conrad Phillips) has been writing a number of articles about his criminal activities. Dukelow decides to get Moir out of his hair by framing the reporter for a mail robbery. Moir is convicted, and he winds up serving 20 months in prison. While behind bars Moir comes up with a plan to get revenge on Dukelow. After his release, the reporter sets the plot in motion, with the help of his former cellmate Charlie (John Rees), a fellow who works at a meat-packing plant that has a number of large walk-in freezers. 

IMPACT is a very straightforward tale that barely has any flab on it (both Moir and Dukelow have girlfriends, but the ladies don't have much to do). Moir's plan for revenge is actually quite believable, since it doesn't involve a major action sequence. 

Conrad Phillips (best known for playing the lead role in the WILLIAM TELL TV series) shows plenty of understandable bitterness as the put-upon Moir. (Phillips co-wrote the script for IMPACT with its director, Peter Maxwell.) George Pastell gets the better role as the Duke, and the actor plays him as a disarmingly charming man with plenty of self-assurance. The Duke is so confident that his scheme to frame Moir will work, he even donates 1,000 pounds toward the reporter's attorney fund. 

IMPACT is the type of movie that is best watched late at night when sleep is elusive. Despite its title, the impact it makes is rather low-key.....but Hammer fans will enjoy seeing George Pastell as the lead bad guy. 

THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1969)

 

This is not the 1963 film with the same title directed by Mario Bava. This is a 1969 crime drama that I picked up on DVD at a very cheap price from Edward R. Hamilton, due to the fact that it stars Adam West, one of my childhood heroes due to his portrayal of Batman in the classic TV series. 

This movie was made after the end of West's time as the Caped Crusader, and he no doubt thought THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH would give him a much needed change of pace. West plays Johnny Cain, a former adventurer and intelligence operative who has settled down to become the owner of a nightclub. Cain lives on a luxury boat and zips about in a sports car, and he's also a ladies man. His swinging bachelor lifestyle is interrupted by an accident one night at his club. A garbage truck happens to smash into the wall of the establishment, killing the man sitting in front of the wall--a man who happens to be a powerful crime boss. Cain's former girlfriend Rebel (Nancy Kwan) was the crime boss's mistress, and the syndicate thinks Johnny has something to do with the killing. Cain becomes drawn into an intricate plot involving the mob, communists, the CIA, and a Tibetan statue. 

THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH attempts to be an action-packed adventure, but it falls way short. The plot is convoluted and confusing, and the too-few fight scenes are very basic (and they're not helped by Adam West having a stunt double that looks nothing like him). West spends most of his time either talking to someone or traveling to one location after another, and the pacing is hurt with the insertion of a performance by an exotic dancer and two mediocre songs by the lounge singer who works at Cain's club. The Tibetan statue is a very weak MacGuffin--it doesn't even wind up being all that important. 

Nancy Kwan is actually the title character, but she doesn't have all that much screen time, and she doesn't even provide all that much helpful knowledge to Cain. The supporting cast includes familiar types such as Nehemiah Persoff and Robert Alda, but there are none of the quirky minor characters that most above-average noir/crime/adventure films feature. 

Francis D. Lyon directed THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, and the movie at times feels more like the pilot for a TV series instead of a true theatrical film. The character of Johnny Cain is a promising one, and Adam West does his best with it. Unfortunately the story just never gets going, and Cain's quest for answers doesn't seem to be all that important. This is a movie that will mainly appeal to Adam West fans. 

STRANGE CONFESSION

 

In my post yesterday about THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD I forgot to mention that Universal remade the film in 1945 as STRANGE CONFESSION. The remake was part of Universal's "Inner Sanctum" series, a group of weird mystery movies based on a famed radio show/short story series. 

The Inner Sanctum movies had almost nothing to do with the mystery series it was supposedly based on. The films were low-budget features--they each lasted about an hour--and they all starred Lon Chaney Jr. Universal may have felt they were giving Lon Jr. a chance to stretch his acting chops in the Inner Sanctum series, but Chaney wound up playing a number of brooding, brainy characters that he wasn't really suited for. Lon Jr. spent most of his time on the Inner Sanctum series looking glum and depressed, and the roles that he enacted were not very charismatic. 

Chaney gets a lot of blame for the mediocrity of the Inner Sanctum series, but Universal gave the movies (six in all) journeyman directors, scripts that weren't all that thrilling, and a dull, overall look. I have the entire Inner Sanctum series on DVD, and I hadn't pulled it out in years before I did so last night to view STRANGE CONFESSION. Universal horror fans don't give much respect to the Inner Sanctum series, and even Lon Chaney Jr. fans find the movies underwhelming. 

STRANGE CONFESSION for the most part follows the story pattern of THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD, but there are some major deviations. THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD takes place in World War One-era France, while STRANGE CONFESSION takes place in contemporary America (even though no mention is made of World War II). In the original film Claude Rains is a pacifist writer whose work is credited to publisher Lionel Atwill, while in the remake Lon Chaney Jr. is a chemist working for devious boss J. Carrol Naish. (A pacifist character probably wouldn't have worked too well in a 1945 American film.) 

Lon's chemist, Jeff Carter, comes up with a number of medicines that Naish's Roger Graham, the head of the company, takes credit for. Jeff quits over this but he comes back to make life better for his wife (Brenda Joyce) and their young son. Graham is pushing Jeff to finish up a new medicine, but the chemist wants to make 100% sure it is effective. Graham sends Jeff off to South America on a research trip, so he can take Carter's notes and rush out the new medicine. Graham also wants to put the moves on Jeff's wife. While Jeff is stuck in South America, Graham rushes out the new medicine during an influenza epidemic, but the product doesn't work, causing a tragedy that drives Carter to attempt to retrieve his "mind". 

STRANGE CONFESSION, like all the other Inner Sanctum films, has a decent premise but its drab, no frills attitude doesn't take advantage of it. The movie spends a lot of time trying to establish Lon Jr.'s Jeff as a good family man, but Chaney still looks uncomfortable in such a role. J. Carrol Naish is much more low-key than Lionel Atwill in THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD, and the result is that Naish doesn't come off as a major threat. 

The supporting cast has plenty of familiar faces, including Milburn Stone, Lloyd Bridges, Mary Gordon, and Ian Wolfe. The movie was directed by John Hoffman, not exactly a household name, and while STRANGE CONFESSION isn't terrible, there's nothing in it that makes it stand out, other than its leading man and its Inner Sanctum connection. 

I don't think up to this point I have ever written a blog post on any of the Inner Sanctum titles. They are films that I don't revisit very often. If you happen to be a Universal Monsters fan and you haven't watched the Inner Sanctum series, I would suggest that you do check them out, just to see Lon Jr. and plenty of other cult actors. Just don't expect too much out of them. 

THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD On Blu-ray From Kino

 

Kino provides another rare early 1930s Universal production with a home video release. THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD (1934) has been branded as a "sort of" horror thriller, but it's really a melodrama set during World War One that details how one man's earnest creativity can be used for nefarious ends. 

The Man of the title is Paul Verin (Claude Rains). Paul is a French pacifist writer and a social misfit who takes up penning editorials and articles for publisher Henri Dumont (Lionel Atwill) in order to improve his family's financial standing. The articles go out under Dumont's name, which doesn't bother Paul, who believes the more socially-connected publisher will be able to influence public opinion and help shape a better world. When World War One breaks out, the ambitious Dumont is convinced by a group of powerful arms dealers to change his tune. The resultant rush to war sweeps Verin into the army, while Dumont attempts to seduce the writer's beautiful wife Adele (a very young and blonde Joan Bennett). The various crises cause Verin to go past the breaking point and leave the front in order to retrieve his "mind". 

The main story of THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD is told in flashback by a distraught Paul. This flashback takes up the rest of the film. Claude Rains gives another of his outstanding performances as the lead character, although the audience's sympathy for Paul is tempered by the fact that he's too modest and committed to his beliefs to realize he's being used. (One also wonders how a person like Paul was able to marry the much younger and attractive Adele.) 

The number one reason to see this movie is to watch greats like Rains and Lionel Atwill act opposite one another. Atwill's Dumont isn't so much an out and out villain as he is a clever, suave opportunist. One can even understand why Adele might be swayed by the outwardly charming Dumont. It's intriguing to think of an alternate version of this film where Rains and Atwill switched roles. 

Universal horror fans will recognize such supporting actors as Lawrence Grant, Gilbert Emery, Edward Van Sloan, and Harry Cording. (Valerie Hobson is also in this as well, but you'll have to really pay attention to get a glimpse of her.) Director Edward Ludwig and cinematographer Merritt Gerstad provide a number of expressive sequences and shots. 

Kino's Blu-ray of THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD looks and sounds great, with a very nice black & white transfer. Two new audio commentaries are provided. One features Troy Howarth, and he gives plenty of detail and interesting analysis about every aspect of the film. The other commentary is by David Del Valle, which I haven't listened to. 

I had never actually seen THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD before, but I had certainly read about it over the years. Despite having plenty of Universal Monster-style elements, it is definitely not a horror film, and I wouldn't even call it very thrilling. It is a well-done drama, a bit heavy-handed at times, and it is worth seeing mainly for Claude Rains and Lionel Atwill alone. Kino has thankfully released a number of early 1930s Universal films that have seemingly fallen through the cracks, and hopefully they have more on the way in the future. 

TREASURE ISLAND (1990)

 

This is another DVD I purchased at a discount from Edward R. Hamilton. This version of Robert Louis Stevenson's venerable story was first shown on the American TNT TV cable network in January 1990. I remember seeing commercials for it, but for whatever reason I didn't catch its original broadcast, and I never saw it until last night. 

One would assume that since this TREASURE ISLAND stars Charlton Heston and was written, produced and directed by his son Fraser C. Heston, it is nothing more than a vanity project. That's far from the case, however--it is a well-mounted production that was released in theaters overseas. Some reviews I've read online state that it is the best overall version of the classic adventure story. 

The 1990 TREASURE ISLAND gets off to a rousing start with the likes of Oliver Reed as a supremely rugged Billy Bones and Christopher Lee as a particularly loathsome Blind Pew. A teenage Christian Bale is Jim Hawkins, and even at this early stage in his career the actor is showing his "Look how intense I am" performance style (this Jim is not a wide-eyed youngster). 

Charlton Heston was in his sixties when he played Long John Silver here, but he puts his all into the role, and he seems to be enjoying himself immensely. He also makes Silver a decidedly nasty fellow who isn't as likable as other versions of the character. As a matter of fact, this TREASURE ISLAND is a bit darker and more realistic than other adaptations, with a group of cutthroats and scalawags who are much more brutal than quirky or entertaining. 

The supporting cast is a fine one, with Julian Glover as Dr. Livesey and Richard Johnson as Squire Trelawney. (Isla Blair, Julian Glover's real-life wife, plays Jim Hawkins' mother.) The art direction and production design is very impressive, and the movie is helped immeasurably by location shooting on the coast of England, and Jamaica. 

This technically may have been a Cable-TV movie, but it feels and looks like a theatrical feature, and it is better than most films made around this period. My favorite TREASURE ISLAND is still the Disney live-action version, but the Hestons should have been proud of what they accomplished with their adaptation. 

THE MERCILESS TRAP

 

This is a 1961 noir film made by Japan's Toho Studios. I discovered it on the Internet Archive, in an English-dubbed version with English main titles. Very few non-Kaiju Toho films were given the status of an English-language version. I assume THE MERCILESS TRAP got this distinction due to its being very much like the gritty low-budget American crime films of the 40s and 50s. (The original Japanese title of this movie is NASAKA MUYO NO WANA.) 

Makato Sato plays Ninomiya, an ex-con who makes his living driving a dump truck. Ninomiya is under suspicion of having murdered the call girl he was with the night before. A sympathetic inspector (Ichiro Nakatani) takes Ninomiya to the morgue and shows him the woman's corpse, but the truck driver is shocked to find that it is not who he spent the night with. Ninomiya knows that the police will doubt his story, so he goes off to find the actual woman (Kumi Mizuno)--a woman he happens to be infatuated with, even though he knows almost nothing about her. That woman, named Masako, happens to have plenty of troubles of her own....and both she and Ninomiya are pawns in a criminal game they know nothing about. 

THE MERCILESS TRAP has plenty of noir-like features, with its grimy, working-class settings, stark black & white photography, ex-con protagonist suspected of a crime he didn't commit, and a mysterious woman who holds the protagonist's fate in her hands. Toho giant monster fans will appreciate THE MERCILESS TRAP for its acting lineup of Kaiju veterans, such as Akihiko Hirata playing the role of Ninomiya's boss and Mie Hama in a small role. Director Jun Fukuda would go on to helm many Godzilla adventures himself. 

Makato Sato also showed up in plenty of Kaiju features, usually as a gangster or a bad guy. Here he gets the lead role, and I must say he's rather over-exuberant in it. One can understand why he's so emotional, but if anything it makes his character look even more guilty. Cult legend Kumi Mizuno gives a great performance as Masako, a young woman who has important reasons for being mysterious. 

Watching THE MERCILESS TRAP makes one realize how easily film noir could be transferred to another country. This is a Japanese film, but it has an urban feel and plenty of characters trying to get through life the best way they can. The jazzy, soulful music score by Kenjiro Hirose adds to the atmosphere. 

Noir and Kaiju fans will appreciate THE MERCILESS TRAP. It is a fine showcase for Kumi Mizuno, proving that she could hold her own in a mainstream drama that didn't have any genre elements. 

KRONOS

 

The 1957 science fiction film KRONOS stands out for its title "monster", a giant metallic machine from outer space that accumulates massive amounts of energy and is invulnerable to man-made weapons. 

The giant machine grows out of a flying saucer that lands in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico. The saucer is believed to be an asteroid, but Dr. Leslie Gaskell (Jeff Morrow) has his doubts. Gaskell works at a scientific research center called LabCentral along with his girlfriend-lab assistant Vera (Barbara Lawrence) and buddy-co-worker Dr. Arnold Culver (George O'Hanlon). The trio go to Mexico to investigate the strange craft, while an alien intelligence has taken over the mind of Dr. Hubbell Eliot (John Emery), the head of LabCentral. As the giant Kronos machine makes its way up the West Coast, Gaskell tries to figure out how to stop it, while fending off the possessed Dr. Eliot's devious intentions. 

KRONOS certainly has a novel premise--the title character is the true star of the film, and its design is unique and intriguing. (It is not a robot, by the way.) One wishes that the production had a bigger budget to make more of such a premise. It's no coincidence that the giant machine pops up next to a desolate stretch of Mexico (no major cities or landmarks to deal with). It appears that Gaskell and his two companions are the only people investigating the landing of the strange object, and they also appear to be the only scientists that are trying to come up with a plan to destroy Kronos. (Gaskell gives the giant machine its moniker after a character in Greek mythology.) 

The movie starts out much like a Jack Arnold-Universal sci-fi movie (I'm sure this wasn't a coincidence either). A working-class guy is driving a pickup on a lonely stretch of desert highway when he sees the strange object land and emit a beam that possesses him. The man then drives to LabCentral, forces his way in, and the alien force transfers itself to Dr. Eliot. We then are introduced to the other main characters at the base. It's a nice way to start off the story, but it takes a while for Kronos to get going and do his thing. 

One positive aspect of KRONOS is the fact that its lead character is played by Jeff Morrow. Morrow was in a number of 50s sci-fi movies, and he always elevated them by his steady presence, no matter how the rest of the film's elements turned out. Barbara Lawrence gets stuck with the girlfriend of the hero role, and the script manages to get her into a swimsuit and gives her a chance to scream. George O'Hanlon is the comic relief buddy, and he would later go on to provide the voice of George Jetson (every time O'Hanlon said a line of dialogue, I couldn't help but think of that cartoon). Genre veteran Morris Ankrum also appears, but this time as a doctor instead of a military official. 

KRONOS was produced and directed by Kurt Neumann, who made the original THE FLY, and the widescreen photography was provided by Karl Struss. The movie comes off fairly well, and the special effects are decent for the most part. At various times Kronos can move about by the use of giant piston-like legs, an animated effect that thankfully isn't used too much. 

I'm certainly no fan of remakes and reboots, but the premise of KRONOS is one that could easily be expanded upon. Just imagine an entire army of Kronos machines landing on Earth, and the global war that would result. What if Toho Studios had made their own version of KRONOS, with their expertise in miniatures and giant monsters?? Or how about a KRONOS set in today's world, with an all-star cast and multiple locations?? Knowing how the present-day entertainment conglomerates operate, they'd still find a way to screw it up. 

DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1973)

 

In my last blog post, I mentioned that I had finished reading FROM THE MOMENT THEY MET IT WAS MURDER: DOUBLE INDEMNITY AND THE RISE OF FILM NOIR by Alain Silver and James Ursini. The book discusses an actual official remake of DOUBLE INDEMNITY that was produced by Universal for the ABC television network and first shown on TV in 1973. 

I had almost forgotten that I had this TV remake on home video. Earlier in this century I purchased a two-disc DVD special edition of the original DOUBLE INDEMNITY. The second disc contained the TV remake--and I had never watched it. I thought at the time, "How can a 1970s TV movie in any way compare with one of the greatest film noirs??" The very idea of remaking DOUBLE INDEMNITY seemed ridiculous to me. (Of course, that's how I feel about nearly every remake and reboot that comes down the pike.) 

After finishing Silver & Ursini's book, I decided to dig out the DOUBLE INDEMNITY DVD and finally view the TV remake. I was a kid in the 70s, and I spent plenty of time watching TV from that era, including many movies made for TV. The TV DOUBLE INDEMNITY was about what I expected (which wasn't much.) 

The 1973 DOUBLE INDEMNITY is an almost exact remake of its renowned predecessor, but it does not take place in 1938, as the movie does. It is contemporary all the way--and that includes the costumes and the interior design (if you were around in the 1970s, you won't be surprised that the dominant colors are brown and tan). Instead of the original's black & white heavy atmosphere, the TV version has a flat, dull, overly bright generic look common to American television at the time. 

The TV version is only 73 minutes long (it was made to fit into a 90-minute time slot with commercials), but at times it feels lengthier than the original 107 minute version. The pacing is slow, especially during the many dialogue scenes. One of Billy Wilder's greatest strengths as a director was how he handled snappy dialogue sequences (and it was he himself that was responsible for most of that dialogue in his movies). The '73 version uses much of Wilder's and Raymond Chandler's dialogue from the original film, but the timing of it is off, and it doesn't have the effect that is intended. 

Richard Crenna plays Walter Neff in the TV version. Fred MacMurray's original Neff had a cynical, hard-bitten quality about him that made you believe he'd get hooked up with a devious dame in a murder plot. Crenna's Neff drives around in a Mercedes convertible, lives in a fancy apartment that looks down on a marina, and he also wears fashionable suits. One doubts that this Neff would get involved with a shady lady and wind up killing someone. Crenna was a consummate pro as an actor but his Neff is too normal. 

Barbara Stanwyck created one of the most iconic roles of all time when she played Phyllis Dietrichson in the original DOUBLE INDEMNITY. Any actress would have trouble living up to Stanwyck's indelible portrayal. Samantha Eggar had the thankless job of playing Phyllis in the TV remake. Eggar is certainly attractive, but her Phyllis is much more low-key--she lacks Stanwyck's cold deviousness. Eggar's Phyllis is also much more anxious and nervous, and she doesn't get a lot of screen time (in the main credits Eggar is listed as "guest starring"). 

Samantha Eggar and Richard Crenna in the 1973 TV version of DOUBLE INDEMNITY

Lee J. Cobb takes over Edward G. Robinson's role as claims manager Barton Keyes. Cobb is about the best thing in the remake, but he's still competing with a performance that should have gotten Robinson a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. 

The '73 DOUBLE INDEMNITY was directed by Jack Smight and written by Steven Bochco, both long-time industry veterans. As mentioned before, much of the dialogue from the original film is used, but it mostly falls flat. "Flat" would be an apt description for the entire production--the setup, story, and characters are there, but there's no life or spark to them. 

Taking one of the ultimate 1940s film noirs and putting it in a generic 1970s setting was a terrible idea (as was remaking the movie in the first place). The best film noirs have a timeless quality, mainly because they are set in their own "universe", much like a Gothic horror film or a classic Western. Almost nothing has aged as badly as 1970s fashions and culture--this remake took DOUBLE INDEMNITY and turned it into a mediocre Murder Mystery of the Week. The TV version of DOUBLE INDEMNITY is a curiosity, nothing more. 

APOLOGY FOR MURDER

 

I recently finished reading a book titled FROM THE MOMENT THEY MET IT WAS MURDER: DOUBLE INDEMNITY AND THE RISE OF FILM NOIR by Alain Silver and James Ursini. The book carries the Turner Classic Movies label, and it takes a deep dive into the making of DOUBLE INDEMNITY, the talent involved in it, and the history and use of the term "film noir". 

One subject the book covers is a 1945 film made by the Poverty Row company PRC called APOLOGY FOR MURDER. Authors Silver and Ursini state that the PRC production is an unofficial remake of DOUBLE INDEMNITY. I had no idea that APOLOGY FOR MURDER even existed, so I decided to track it down and see for myself (APOLOGY FOR MURDER can be found on YouTube and the Internet Archive). 

Without doubt APOLOGY FOR MURDER is a cheap knockoff of DOUBLE INDEMNITY. It uses nearly every element of Billy Wilder's classic film, but it makes slight variations on the material. It's almost fascinating from a film geeks standpoint to watch DOUBLE INDEMNITY and APOLOGY FOR MURDER one after the other to see how PRC pulled this off, and avoided getting sued in the bargain. (Apparently PRC was planning to call their film SINGLE INDEMNITY--I find it hard to believe that even they would have gone that far. Maybe they should have called the film APOLOGY TO PARAMOUNT.) 

In APOLOGY FOR MURDER, the two scheming lovers are played by Hugh Beaumont and Ann Savage. Beaumont's Kenny Blake is a newspaper reporter, and he meets Savage's Toni Kirkland when he goes to interview her husband Harvey Kirkland (Russell Hicks), a rich businessman who is much older than his wife. In literally just a few minutes, Kenny and Toni start up an affair, and it isn't much longer than that when Toni brings up the idea to murder her husband before he divorces her and leaves her with nothing. Kenny is first shocked by the idea, but he's so obsessed with Toni he goes ahead with it, sealing the couple's ultimate doom. 

Needless to say, APOLOGY FOR MURDER can't in any way compete with DOUBLE INDEMNITY. APOLOGY doesn't have anywhere near the budget, talent, or the running time (it lasts just a little over an hour). There's no subtlety or nuance in APOLOGY. In DOUBLE INDEMNITY Fred MacMurray is a cynical guy with a chip on shoulder, while Hugh Beaumont comes off as a dope way over his head. Ann Savage's Toni doesn't have the layers of villainous complexity that Barbara Stanwyck had in the Wilder classic. Toni is just plain greedy. 

In DOUBLE INDEMNITY the killing of the lead female's husband is carried out at night, and a stretch of lonely railroad track is used to dump the body. In APOLOGY FOR MURDER the killing happens in broad daylight, at the side of a dirt road out in the country. The seedy atmosphere of ordinary Los Angeles locations prevalent in DOUBLE INDEMNITY is nowhere to be found in APOLOGY FOR MURDER. 

APOLOGY FOR MURDER's equivalent of the Edward G. Robinson character in DOUBLE INDEMNITY is Ward McKee (Charles D. Brown), the editor at Kenny's newspaper. Like Robinson in the earlier film, McKee has a sixth sense that Harvey Kirkland was murdered, and he has a running gag with Kenny concerning them lighting the other's smokes. Brown isn't as ingratiating as Robinson is, but to be fair, the script doesn't allow him to be. 

Low budget maven Sam Newfield directed APOLOGY FOR MURDER. Newfield certainly wasn't in Billy Wilder's class (although he did wind up making hundreds of films and TV shows). APOLOGY does come off a bit better than the usual PRC product (which isn't saying much), but if it didn't have the DOUBLE INDEMNITY rip-off tag, it wouldn't generate any interest whatsoever. Many Poverty Row features from the 1940s have fallen off the face of the earth, and I now wonder what other "remakes" PRC and similar companies whipped up that I have no knowledge of. 

THIS IS THE NIGHT On Blu-ray From Universal

 

The very lighthearted 1932 romantic comedy THIS IS THE NIGHT has been released on Blu-ray by Universal. (The film was made by Paramount, but Universal owns the rights to it.) Cary Grant made his feature film debut in this production. 

Grant and Thelma Todd are featured on the cover of the Blu-ray disc case, along with their names, but they are not the main stars of the film. The story concerns the amorous adventures of one Gerald Gray (Roland Young), a man of means living in Paris who is having an affair with the gorgeous (but married) Claire Mathewson (Thelma Todd). Claire orders two train tickets to Venice so she and Gerald can have a romantic getaway, but her husband Stephen (Cary Grant) finds out about the scheme. To avert suspicion, Gerald's best friend Bunny (Charles Ruggles) tells Stephen that Gerald is married--but Stephen decides to accompany his wife to Venice anyway. Bunny hires an out-of-work actress who calls herself Chou-Chou (Lili Damita) to pose as Gerald's "wife". Gerald isn't happy about this situation, especially when upon arriving at Venice, the personable Chou-Chou makes Claire jealous, while both Stephen and Bunny are attracted to Chou-Chou as well. Gerald himself starts to fall for Chou-Chou, while the young woman is tired of playing a wife instead of having a real relationship. 

THIS IS THE NIGHT has a very heavy Ernst Lubitsch influence, with all the romantic complications and misunderstandings, European locations, and wealthy main characters who are usually decked out in tuxedos and evening gowns. There's not a trace of the Depression in this movie. It has very little to do with real life, especially when one considers that the two main characters are a couple of anxious-looking, fussy, fidgety middle-aged men played by Roland Young and Charles Ruggles. 

One must remember that this was Cary Grant's movie debut, so he wasn't going to get the lead role, but I'm sure even audiences back in 1932 must have wondered why the two main women in the story were more interested in Roland Young than Grant. Cary acquits himself very well despite his inexperience, and already he's much more charismatic onscreen than Young and Ruggles are. 

As for Thelma Todd, once again she's the "other woman" who is a rival to the leading ladies' affections. Thelma does happen to be the main focus of the opening sequence, in which her dress is caught in a car door by Gerald's befuddled servant (Irving Bacon) and is ripped off. The result is a song called "Madame Has Lost Her Dress", which various Paris residents recite in glee as the camera shows one amused onlooker after another. There's a couple other sequences in the film where the music is synchronized to what is happening onscreen. It's a cute effect, and one that probably should have been used a bit more. 

Thelma gets her wardrobe torn off multiple times in the story after this (and this would happen to her throughout her too short movie career). Those with a 21st Century mindset might look upon this as an indignity, but this is a Pre-Code film, after all, and even Lili Damita at one point starts to disrobe when Gerald believes that she's not alluring enough to be his wife. (Damita is very cute here, but I must admit my preference leans toward Thelma by far). 

Needless to say, the nebbishy Gerald isn't the most perceptive guy in the world (one has to assume that he inherited all his money--there's no way a guy like him would have been able to earn it). The most frustrating aspect of watching THIS IS THE NIGHT from today's standpoint is that the most of the screen time is taken up by the very underwhelming Gerald and Bunny, while Thelma Todd and Cary Grant are pushed off to the side. One expects Cary to take off with both Thelma and Lili Damita and leave Young and Ruggles to themselves. (If this movie was made just a few years later, the casting would have been radically different.)

THIS IS THE NIGHT was directed by Frank Tuttle, who, of course, wasn't Lubitsch. The movie makes great use of the Paramount version of upper-class Europe, but from today's perspective it is Cary Grant and Thelma Todd that the viewer is interested in. 

The Blu-ray of THIS IS THE NIGHT looks fantastic, with very sharp picture quality. There are two options for viewing the film--one option is to watch the tinted version, which has a number of night scenes tinted a deep blue, a rather striking effect that gives the film an extra kick. The other option is a straight black & white version. 

There are no extras--if Kino had released this, they probably would have added an audio commentary by a classic film expert. Nevertheless, film geeks should be happy that Universal has released THIS IS THE NIGHT on Blu-ray, and that they made Cary Grant and Thelma Todd the prominent focus of the disc case, even though they're not the major stars of the film. 

MACHINE-GUN KELLY

 

Another Roger Corman mobster tale, this time based on a real criminal. Charles Bronson stars as the title character in MACHINE-GUN KELLY, released by American-International Pictures in 1958. 

Roger Corman was drawn to the story of 1930s hood George Kelly by the way he was captured by authorities. Kelly didn't go down with his gun blazing--he promptly gave up because he knew he'd probably get killed if he resisted. Corman liked the idea of a gangster movie ending so unexpectedly, and he gave the big screen Kelly some other unique traits as well. 

In this film George Kelly is a moody, temperamental cuss--but he also has a phobia about death, and it affects him so much he has a tendency to freeze up when confronted by reminders of his own mortality. He also has a very complicated relationship with his girlfriend Flo (Susan Cabot). Flo is just as cold and callous as Kelly is, and she is the one who has pushed George into attempting to be a big-time gangster (something the not very bright fellow is not really made out for). 

The movie opens with a finely-honed dialogue free five minute bank robbery sequence, one of the best moments of Roger Corman's directorial career. Kelly has gained his "Machine-Gun" reputation due to a series of bank jobs, but he screws one up when he gets flustered by seeing a coffin. After dealing with the rest of his former gang, Kelly and Flo decide there's more money to be made by kidnapping. The devious duo snatch the preteen daughter of an oil executive, but George's mental hangups and Flo's nasty nature cause that plan to fall apart fast, leading to Kelly accepting defeat instead of death. 

MACHINE-GUN KELLY is a lively film, proving that Roger Corman could deal with any type of genre. As Corman did in all his gangster pictures, he doesn't try to make the audience feel sympathy for the lead hood, or try to "understand" him. Corman presents these gangsters just as they are. George Kelly isn't someone the audience can relate to, especially during the kidnapping part of the story when he reveals that he will kill his very young captive if he feels it is necessary. 

The role of George Kelly provided Charles Bronson with his first lead in a theatrical production. Kelly is a bit more chatty than the usual Bronson character, and the actor is able to show that the man has some major mental issues without going overboard with this aspect. Bronson is ably matched by Susan Cabot, whose Flo is in some ways more dangerous than her gangster boyfriend. Way too many film geeks have read way too many things into Roger Corman's pictures, but it has to be pointed out that Corman's work always featured strong, interesting female characters, and MACHINE-GUN KELLY is a prime example of this. 

Bronson and Cabot overshadow the rest of the small cast, but I do need to mention Morey Amsterdam, who has a supporting role as a weasely associate of Kelly's who is crippled by him. Mention must also be made of Gerald Fried's frenetic score, which constantly drives the narrative forward. 

MACHINE-GUN KELLY got Roger Corman some attention among European film critics, and it still holds up as a low-budget no frills gangster flick that goes against the grain. It also shows that despite his minimalist acting style, Charles Bronson still had enough of a strong, rugged screen presence to carry a film on his own. 

I, MOBSTER

 

Sunday will be the 100th anniversary of the birth of filmmaker Roger Corman. I decided to mark this occasion by viewing a movie directed by Corman that I had never seen before--I, MOBSTER, a gangland tale from 1958. 

It would have been much easier to discuss one of Corman's more famous horror or science fiction features, but I've always thought obscurity is the better part of valor. Some might be surprised that Corman made a movie like I, MOBSTER, but the low-budget maven directed a number of gangster tales. Corman did screen biopics of such real-life hoods as Machine Gun Kelly, Al Capone, and Ma Barker (albeit in a very fictional manner). I, MOBSTER isn't based on any real person, but it is much more straightforward and low-key than most "authentic" gangland sagas. 

The main character of I, MOBSTER is Joe Sante (Steve Cochran), the son of Italian immigrants. The movie begins with Joe testifying before a Senate committee in Washington investigating organized crime, bringing to mind the Kefauver hearings. As Joe takes the fifth over and over again, he starts to reminisce about his life, from when he was an 11 year old working for a numbers runner through his rise in the gangster hierarchy. 

The main characters in gangster pictures are usually brash and larger than life, but Steve Cochran's Joe Sante is cool and calculating. Sante rarely shows emotion, and he doesn't go off the rails. Some might say this is due to Cochran's tight-lipped matter of fact acting style (a style some may call boring), but I think Roger Corman wanted to get away from the James Cagney--Edward G. Robinson tough guy type. Joe Sante is embarrassed by his working-class upbringing, and he certainly doesn't want to be poor, but even when he finds success as a gangster he doesn't have an extravagant lifestyle. He's more like a hard-edged businessman than a hood kingpin. There's very little actual violence in I, MOBSTER. 

Joe Sante's true love is a nice girl from his neighborhood named Teresa (Lita Milan). Teresa is attracted to Joe, but not to his choice of profession. Because of this she doesn't enter into a relationship with him, until ironically Joe kills her loser brother in self-defense (Joe had given the kid a start in the rackets). It's after this incident that Joe and Teresa become an actual couple. This is another plot element that makes I, MOBSTER stand apart. 

The supporting cast includes Robert Strauss as Joe's gangster mentor, Celia Lovsky as Joe's mother and conscience, and Yvette Vickers as a dame who tries to seduce Joe in order for him to forget about her drug debt. (Vickers is in only one small sequence, but she all but steals the picture). Burlesque performer Lili St. Cyr gets a chance to strut around during a nightclub scene, but this just seems to have been a way to pad the running time. 

I, MOBSTER may not be on the same level as GOODFELLAS, but it's still a proficient and well-moving story. (Actually I, MOBSTER and GOODFELLAS have a lot more in common than you would think.) I've always felt that Roger Corman may not have been a great director, but he was certainly an efficient and inventive one who at times showed a quite creative bent. He was in some way responsible for hundreds of films that still entertain audiences to this day. Like Terence Fisher, Corman gets either too much or not enough credit from film geeks, but no matter how you may personally feel about his cinematic talents, there's no doubt that Roger Corman left a major mark in film history. 

SPACEWAYS

 

This 1953 Hammer Films attempt at science fiction was made after the company's FOUR SIDED TRIANGLE. Both movies were directed by Terence Fisher. Of the two films, SPACEWAYS is the more lackluster. 

Dr. Stephen Mitchell (Howard Duff) is an American rocket scientist working at a top-secret military base in England. Mitchell is determined to get a vehicle into orbit, and to get humans into space as well, but he's burdened by his embittered wife Vanessa (Cecile Chevreau), who is annoyed by the security restrictions of having to live on the base and Stephen's workaholic nature. Vanessa is also having an affair with Dr. Crenshaw (Andrew Osborn), one of the men assigned to Stephen's project. An important test flight does get a ship into orbit, but it doesn't reach the altitude that it was supposed to. While Stephen tries to figure out what went wrong, he learns that Vanessa and Dr. Crenshaw have disappeared. An official from military intelligence named Smith (Alan Wheatley) arrives on the base to investigate, and he comes to the rather fantastic conclusion that Stephen killed his wife and Crenshaw, and hid their bodies on the test rocket before it was shot into space. Stephen believes the only way to prove his innocence is to go up into space himself and bring back the test rocket. Project mathematician Lisa Frank (Eva Bartok) takes it upon herself to accompany Stephen, since she herself is in love with Mitchell. 

SPACEWAYS is another 1950s sci-fi feature that bites off more than it can chew. A glance at the poster above makes one assume there will be space stations and multiple spaceships on hand, but there isn't. Most of the story is decidedly down to earth (pun intended). Howard Duff is very dry here, to the point that one understands why his character's wife would want a new life. On the other hand, it's hard to see why Eva Bartok's Lisa would be so smitten with Mitchell, and why she would risk herself by sneaking aboard a spaceship to go into space with him. 

The whole main idea of Stephen becoming the first man into space just so he can defend himself against a ridiculous murder charge is a weird one, even for low-budget 1950s sci-fi. Every other character in the film seems to accept this idea right away, and there's no type of discussion over whether such a historic event should be attempted over a very personal issue. 

Stephen and Lisa do manage to get up into space, but it's a very short ride, and it is also an unnecessary one, since back on Earth Smith has come to his senses and figures out that Crenshaw and Vanessa are still very much alive, and Crenshaw is actually a spy. The mixture of love triangle, noir espionage, and early rocketry doesn't come off too well--the movie would have been much better if it had stuck to just one main element and played that all the way through. 

Terence Fisher does what he can to move the story along, using a lot more closeups than would be usual for him, and having a lot more cuts than most movies of this type would have. The big problem with SPACEWAYS is that it is a character-driven story, and those characters have very little life to them. The only figure of interest is that of Smith, a quirky fellow who appears to have his own agenda in accusing Mitchell of murder. Smith is the type of role that one could easily see Peter Cushing playing if Hammer had made this movie a few years later. 

SPACEWAYS was a co-production with American Robert Lippert's company, and a few effects shots from Lippert's ROCKETSHIP X-M were used. As expected there is also the obligatory stock footage, but SPACEWAYS does have a few decent mattes. Overall the movie doesn't look as threadbare as other low-budget space flicks, but considering its title, and the way it was advertised, one expects way more out of it. 

This film is part of the current Hammer Films series of high-end 4K home video releases. I haven't ordered the new SPACEWAYS 4K/Blu-ray....I'm sure Hammer has attached all sorts of bells & whistles to it, but I'll save my money for something more worthy. Besides, Tubi has a very nice full-length print of SPACEWAYS available on its streaming channel. 

TARGET EARTH

 

TARGET EARTH (1954) is another 1950s sci-fi flick that takes a novel premise and tries to dramatize it as cheaply as possible.

The movie starts out intriguingly, with a young woman waking up in her bedroom to the sound of a ticking clock. (A shot of a half-empty bottle of sleeping pills lets us know the woman has some issues.) The woman, Nora King (Kathleen Crowley) precedes to dress and walk about her boarding house searching for the other tenants, who are missing. Nora goes outside and quickly realizes her town is deserted. After a few minutes of her wandering around trying to find anyone, she stumbles upon a dead body, and a very live man named Frank Brooks (Richard Denning). Frank explains he was knocked out by muggers and left in an alley the night before, and he and Nora try to find out what has happened. The duo hear music from a bar, and they discover a wisecracking couple (Richard Reeves and Virginia Grey) who also have no idea what is going on. The four discover a jittery milquetoast and a strange shadow, and the group runs into a hotel, where from newspapers they are informed of an invasion of mysterious robots. This is why the town was evacuated, and now the group is in the crossfire between the military and the robots. 

The main plot of TARGET EARTH--small group of people wandering around a deserted city trying to figure out what has happened--has been used for all sorts of science fiction movies and TV episodes, usually as a way to save on the budget. TARGET EARTH is one of the lesser examples of this genre element. Its group of survivors holes up in a generic hotel suite, debating the situation, while the story cutaways to scenes of military officers discussing how to defeat the robot threat. The military has discovered an inert robot, and it is examined at a lab that appears to be located in someone's basement (the main scientist is played by the ubiquitous Whit Bissell). Of course, the military figures out a way to overcome the robot army at the last minute, and the story comes to an abrupt end. 

What hurts TARGET EARTH the most is the fact that we only see one of the robot "army" at a time--due to the fact that the production only had one robot to use. The robot itself is as clunky as it gets--I'm sure even back in the Fifties it got laughs. For some reason a number of characters believe that the robot army is from Venus, although there's no evidence presented to back this up. (it would have been much better if it had been revealed at the climax that the robots were created by a foreign power.) As expected, there's plenty of stock military footage, but even this is used in a lackadaisical manner. 

What TARGET EARTH mostly consists of is a group of people with various personal issues sitting around a hotel suite. This static setup is helped greatly by true pros such as Richard Denning and Virginia Grey, but it isn't enough to make a viewer stop wishing a bunch of robots would show up. Near the climax an armed hoodlum appears to threaten the group, but this is just another distraction from the main story. This movie was directed by Sherman A. Rose and produced by Herman Cohen, whose later use of teenagers mixed up with mad middle-aged men would have been very welcome here. 

While watching TARGET EARTH last night (for the very first time, I must point out), I came to the realization that the movie was sort-of remade as THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING in England in 1964. Both films deal with a small group of survivors trying to figure out why the local area is totally deserted,  they both have an army of robots as antagonists, and even the method to defeat the invaders is very similar.  The main difference is that THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING is set in an English village instead of a large American city, and that movie was directed by the much more capable Terence Fisher. 

TARGET EARTH is very reminiscent of several other science fiction movies and TV episodes, but it isn't as good as the ones that come to mind. It also doesn't do justice to genre legend Richard Denning.