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.