ATLANTIS THE LOST CONTINENT

Joyce Taylor and Sal Ponti (Anthony Hall) 

ATLANTIS THE LOST CONTINENT (1961). Produced and directed by George Pal. 

Greek fisherman Demetrios (Sal Ponti, here billed as "Anthony Hall") finds a woman floating in the sea and discovers she is supposedly Princess Antillia (Joyce Taylor) of Atlantis. Demetrios and his father, Petros (Wolfe Barzell), think she must be out of her head, but she eventually importunes Demetrios to set sail beyond the Pillars of Hercules and on to Atlantis. There Demetrios thinks he will be showered with riches and marry Antillia, but instead -- unbeknownst to the princess -- he winds up a slave, as do all foreigners. Demetrios can win his freedom if he survives the Ordeal of Fire and Water, but even if he does he will have to contend with evil Zaren (John Dall), the true power behind the throne, who wants to wage war on other countries with his laser canon. Then there's that pesky volcano that keeps trembling in the background ... 

Atlantis sinks!

I first saw Atlantis the Lost Continent when I was a kid, loved it, have seen it several times since, and still get a kick out of it every time I watch it. The film has been utterly excoriated in many circles as the worst film George Pal ever made, which I personally find ridiculous. The film is fun, colorful, entertaining, well-acted by the leads (neither Taylor or Ponti may ever have been tapped to do Shakespeare, but they are perfect for this picture) and most of the supporting cast, the FX work is quite good for the time, and there's a bang-up finish involving the volcano and that runaway laser cannon. Not to mention the exciting Ordeal of Fire and Water in which Demetrios must face a bull of a man in a pit in an arena which is first full of fire and then flooded with water. 

 John Dall and Frank DeKova

John Dall (in his last film, only appearing on Perry Mason thereafter) practically steals the movie as Zaran, with the man's smiles being even more lethal than his sneers, his every utterance a treacherous double entendre. Berry (sic) Kroeger is nastiness personified as the surgeon who turns men into animal-human hybrids, and Jay Novello [Soldiers of Fortune] once again exhibits his amazing versatility as the Greek slave, Xandros, who is slowly metamorphosing into a bull. However, Frank DeKova, who plays Sonoy, the astrologer, sounds about as "Atlantean" as Fanny Brice! Edward Platt is given the thankless role of the pious priest, Azor, another in a long line of characters who point out the evils of Paganism while never acknowledging that Christianity has its own set of  negative aspects. William Smith plays the Captain of the Guard but isn't given enough time or close-ups to really register. Paul Frees not only does the narration but dubbed three of the actors. 

Berry Kroeger sizes up Sal Ponti

MGM didn't give George Pal a huge budget, so there's some stock footage and short cuts in the movie, but that's not exactly an unusual avenue to take. I love the beast men attacking Berry Kroeger, the priest taking care of Zaren, the disintegrater beam that atomizes some people and merely skeletonizes others, the metal submarine that sneaks up on the couple in their boat, the impressive destruction of Atlantis, Demetrios flinging mud at the princess, and the princess telling off Zaren, who has stolen power from her father: "You would think you wore his crown!" Say what you will, for me this is a neat picture.

Verdict: A hoot! ***. 

FIRE MAIDENS OF OUTER SPACE

The "fire maidens" try to dance 

FIRE MAIDENS OF OUTER SPACE (1956). Written and directed by Cy Roth. 

A British-American team of astronauts head for the 13th moon of Jupiter, which they feel has an atmosphere similar to Earth's and may even hold  human life. It sure does! An old man and a bevy of beauties occupy a domicile inside an enclosure, outside of which a tall, hideous monster lurks trying to get in. Luther Blair (Anthony Dexter), who heads the expedition, and Captain Larson (Paul Carpenter) manage to meet up with the elderly Prasus (Owen Berry), who claims all of the young ladies are his daughters and that they somehow managed to make it all the way from the lost continent of Atlantis on Earth to the 13th moon of Jupiter! There is no talk of spaceships, the ladies' mothers, exactly what happened to Atlantis, who or what the dark humanoid creature roaming outside may be, or much of anything aside from the fact that Prasus wants "New Atlantis" to be repopulated. 

the crew prepare to land

Fire Maidens of Outer Space operates on the level of a child's comic book from years ago with its severe lapses in both continuity and logic. Oddly, it also has the quality of a fairy tale, and the monster is fairly creepy in long shot. Harry Fowler and Sidney Tafler are the other members of the crew -- who register absolutely no surprise or even much interest when they hear a man's voice calling them from Jupiter's moon (!) -- and the friendly daughter, Hestia, is played by Susan Shaw, while her bitchy older sister, Duessa, is played by Jacqueline Curtis. Shaw had quite a few credits but Curtis not too many. Richard Walter was given the thankless role of "the creature." 

the creepy creature

The "fire maidens" in the movie are given to dancing ballet -- or what passes for ballet in movies like this -- at the drop of a hat. Generally they dance to music from Borodin's "Prince Igor," popularized as "Stranger in Paradise" in Kismet. No one on Broadway or in the world of real ballet had anything to fear from these gals. Aside from this film and one TV episode, Cy Roth only directed two poorly-received war films. With some time and effort, a bigger budget, and a little actual thought, the picture might have amounted to something -- although I'm not certain what. Still, it's honestly not utterly awful. Anthony Dexter made a very good Valentino in that biopic of the silent film star. 

Verdict: Don't say you weren't warned. **1/4.

THEY WERE SO YOUNG

Johanna Matz and Scott Brady

THEY WERE SO YOUNG (aka Mannequins fur rio/1954). Written and directed by Kurt Neumann. 

In a prologue, a young woman's body is found washed up on the beach. Then we meet Eve Ullmann (Johanna Matz), who has emigrated from Germany to South America, and winds up working for a fashion house in Rio. It isn't long, however, before she realizes that she and the other women will have to do "favors" for male clients, and that they won't be able to leave their employ no matter what. After an initial disagreement with mining engineer Richard Lanning (Scott Brady), Eve comes to him in desperation for help. Richard takes Eve to the estate of Jaime Coltos (Raymond Burr of Bride of the Gorilla), for whom he works, for safekeeping, but later Lanning discovers that he may have tossed Eve out of the frying pan and into the fire ... 

Raymond Burr and Scott Brady

They Were So Young downplays the prostitution angle but makes it pretty clear that the bad guys in this are running a white slavery racket. The lead actress Johanna Matz, was Viennese and made virtually all of her movies in Germany, including Otto Preminger's German-language version of The Moon is Blue, in which she played Maggie McNamara's role. Matz is cute and charming in this, and plays well with Scott Brady, who offers one of his most winning and charismatic performances. Unfortunately, although the film has a modicum of suspense, the promised climax never quite materializes, and the story is wrapped up quickly and without much excitement. Burr was saved from movies like this by being signed to star in Perry Mason, but he plays Coltos with just the right amount of restrained menace. The premiere of this film did not lead to Matz having any kind of American career, but as the film was released by bargain basement Lippert Pictures, it probably was never intended to. Gert Frobe plays a henchman in this but I didn't spot him, probably because his signature title role in Goldfinger was ten years later. 

Verdict: Low-budget film noir of sorts has an interesting cast but never really catches fire. **1/4. 

DEATH CAR ON THE FREEWAY

Shelley Hack

DEATH CAR ON THE FREEWAY (1979 telefilm). Director|: Hal Needham. 

Jan (Shelley Hack) is a newswoman who learns of two incidents where women were targeted and nearly killed by a man in a dark van on the freeway. Jan is convinced the two incidents are related, but has trouble convincing her boss (Frank Gorshin of Hot Rod Girl) until there are more incidents, resulting in the deaths of several woman. Jan's husband, Ray (George Hamilton), who wants her back even though he treats her like a child and she insists she needs her independence, is scared that the creep on the freeway will now target her. Although Lt. Haller (Peter Graves) wants Jan to back off, she decides to initiate her own investigation, which she may come to regret.

Peter Graves: Where;s my team? 

Death Car on the Freeway certainly has an interesting cast, in addition to Hamilton, Gorshin and Graves. Dinah Shore is cast as a tennis pro who is nearly forced off the road by the psycho, Harriet Nelson of Ozzie and Harriet fame is a landlady, and Barbara Rush is an older colleague of Jan's. As for Shelley Hack, she's cute, but one gets the sense that she was told how to say each and every line before she stepped in front of a camera. Former stunt man and crash coordinator Hal Needham directed the film with his usual lack of panache, and he also plays a guy who teaches Jan about defensive driving. The movie is modestly entertaining, but although there are a few suspects as to whom the psycho driver is, you wait for a twist that never comes. The feminist sub-text is interesting and very typical of the period. 

Verdict: Watch Duel instead. **1/2. 

THE SILENT SCREAM

Barbara Steele

THE SILENT SCREAM (1979). Director: Denny Harris.

College student "Scotty" Parker (Rebecca Balding) takes a room in a mansion owned by the strange Mrs. Engels (Yvonne De Carlo) and run by her slightly weird son, Mason (Brad Rearden). Scotty becomes friends with her housemates John (Peter Ransom), Doris (Juli Andelman), and especially Jack (Steve Doubet). But who is the strange figure watching, watching from a room in the attic, and what happens when this person gets out of confinement ...

Steve Doubet and Rebecca Balding

The Silent Scream is an early slasher film that probably got more attention than it deserves thanks to the participation of Barbara Steele, who plays Victoria Engels. Although the final section of the film does have some suspense and excitement, for the most part the direction is too routine to make this much more than a time waster. Rebecca Balding, who has one of the worst names in show business, is cute and adept, and the other actors are okay -- especially Cameron Mitchell as a cop -- but Yvonne De Carlo really sinks to the level of the material. Avery Schreiber, much better known as a comedian, has a straight part as a police sergeant and there's little he can do with it. 

Yvonne De Carlo

Because of the creepy mansion it mostly takes place in, The Silent Scream has some atmosphere, but attempts to create a Psycho-like ambiance through music cues and the like fall flat. The stabbing sequences are portrayed without any particular panache. Some revelations about the inter-relationships between members of the Engels family have no real resonance and add nothing to the movie. This is a barely acceptable post-Psycho pastiche but little else. 

Verdict: Steele is always fun to watch but this is hardly one of her more memorable roles. **1/4. 

GAMBLING DAUGHTERS

Cecelia Parker and Gale Storm

GAMBLING DAUGHTERS (1941). Director: Max Nosseck. 

Katherine (Janet Shaw), Diana (Cecelia Parker), and Lillian (Gale Storm) are students in an exclusive girls' school. One night they follow their French professor (Sig Arno) to an establishment called the Angel's Roost. This place, which has a casino in the basement, is managed by a creep named -- wouldn't you know it? -- Chance (Roger Pryor), and owned by an unseen, mysterious figure called "the Boss." Lillian begins dropping tons of money at the casino and before long is in serious debt. She is told to pay up or else. So she resorts to stealing the family jewels while her parents are out of the country.

Robert Baldwin

Then there's the comedy relief insurance investigator Jimmy Parker (Robert Baldwin), who pretends to be a gym instructor at the school and makes a mess of it. Jimmy and Diana, whose father turns out to be broke, are drawn to one another, while Lillian's situation gets more and more desperate. Chance blackmails her with some letters that she wrote to him, so her friends concoct a scheme to get them from a confederate. One thing I'll say for Gambling Daughters -- it has a fast pace. Gale Storm is typically exuberant, but she still manages to be effective when she's facing disaster. Aside from Storm, there are no real cast stand-outs but the players are all professional. Sidney Sheldon wrote the story treatment for this flick but did not do the screenplay. Cecelia Parker is best-known for playing Mickey Rooney's older sister in the Andy Hardy films. Baldwin had only a few credits and this was his last featured role in a motion picture. 

Verdict: Fun if distinctly minor pic from PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation), which is one step below Monogram. **1/2. 

URANIUM BOOM

Wm Talman, Dennis Morgan, Philip Van Zandt

URANIUM BOOM (1956). Director: William Castle. 

During a uranium boom in Colorado where everyone hopes to strike it rich, Brad Collins (Dennis Morgan) and Grady Mathews (William Talman) come to blows over a hotel room, but then decide to strike out together to make a killing. The two men find what they're looking for with the help of Navajo Charlie (Philip Van Zandt), and Brad goes back to town to stake their claim. In town Brad meets up and falls in love with Jean Williams (Patricia Medina), not realizing that Jean is the very woman Grady is hoping to spend his life with ... 

Ladies Meet: Tina Carver, Patricia Medina

Uranium Boom is a low-budget version of the rags-to-riches, two-rivals-fighting-over-the-same business-and-woman movies that in former years would have starred the likes of Clark Gable or Spencer Tracy. Morgan, best-known as a song and dance man, is perfectly adept, however, and Talman, best-known as the prosecutor on Perry Mason, is also very good. Van Zandt is mildly amusing as the inscrutable Indian, and Medina adds some class as the woman that both men love. Tina Carver, a TV actress most famous for her role in From Hell It Came, is not quite as sexy as everyone seems to think, but she's okay as another woman who tries to throw a monkey wrench in Collins' plans. William Henry and S. John Launer, who frequently played a judge on Perry Mason, have smaller roles and are effective.  Talman and Morgan have a lively fight scene, but the two ladies never come to blows, alas. 

Verdict: Strangely entertaining. **1/4. 

WHEN A STRANGER CALLS BACK

Carol Kane 

WHEN A STRANGER CALLS BACK (made-for-cable telefilm/1993). Co-writer/director: Fred Walton. 

A babysitter named Julia (Jill Schoelen) is watching her two charges when a man comes to the door and tells her his car has broken down. Julia is smart enough not to let him inside, but when she offers to phone for assistance, she discovers the phone is out of order. Afraid to tell him this, she lies and says she's made the call. Then things get much worse. The suspenseful prologue of this film possibly out-creeps the prologue in the first film, When a Stranger Calls. 

Jill Schoelen

As in the first movie, the scene then shifts five years into the future, when Julia fears she is being stalked by that man outside the house, who disappeared along with the children. Two people who believe her story and come to her aid are Jill Johnson (Carol Kane,) who has her own babysitting horror story to tell, and private eye John Clifford (Charles Durning), who came to Jill's assistance in When a Stranger Calls. Jill is convinced that every weird thing that's happened to Julia is real, but John is a little more skeptical. Both agree, however, that the man or men who terrorized her five years before have to be tracked down. But is this mysterious figure tracking them down as well?

Gene Lythgow

When a Stranger Calls Back is arguably better than, and certainly just as good, as the original. Walton doesn't just replay the prologue of the first film, but comes up with some new twists, and the storyline that follows is also different from the original movie. The sequel is a bit slow at times, but it is atmospheric and never shakes its sense of dread. One scene in a hospital is especially creepy, and the exciting climax is also noteworthy. The performances are good -- this includes Gene Lythgow in an important role --  but as in the first film, I wish the characters had been better developed. Although Kane had a husband and children in the first film, they are not even referred to in passing in the sequel -- she even uses her maiden name -- and we never learn all that much about Julia or her stalker. There are also some annoying loose ends. However, the film is still entertaining and suspenseful, and the eeriness is abetted by the photography of David Geddes and the score by Dana Kaproff.

Verdict: Worthwhile sequel is creepy and disquieting. ***. 

FOUR OF A KIND

Louise Siverson

FOUR OF A KIND (2008). Director: Fiona Cochran. 

In Melbourne Detective Gina Sturrick (Leverne McDonnell) interviews Anne (Louise Siverson), when her husband's supposed mistress is found stabbed to death in a park. Gina then goes to see her therapist, Glenda (Gail Watson), and she confesses something quite startling to her shrink. Meanwhile the shrink goes to see her best friend Susan (Nina Landis), and discovers that she, too, is holding back a terrible secret. In the final segment, Gina is back in a police interview room after there's another murder. Just who is guilty of what? 

Leverne McDonnell

I won't say much more about the plot of Four of a Kind, as it's the type of movie that should reveal its secrets to the viewer as the film goes along, but I will say that its main strength is the superb performances from a talented ensemble cast.  The screenplay by Helen Collins (I'd be surprised if this wasn't originally written for the stage) intelligently examines and dissects these four interesting women, making this a fascinating character study. Each segment is broken up by a brief performance by the rock-jazz group Joe Camilleri and the Black Sorrows, which is less distracting than you might imagine (their music is catchy, for one thing). Four of a Kind reminds me of one of Woody Allen's better pictures with its incisive characterization and its intermingling of what may seem like separate story lines. Although some may be put off by the somewhat ambiguous if insinuating ending, this is a worthwhile and unusual movie made in Australia. 

Verdict: If you're in the mood for something different, you may find this absorbing. ***. 

THE PRODIGY

Jackson Robert Scott

THE PRODIGY (2019). Director: Nicholas McCarthy.

Sarah (Taylor Schilling) and John Blume (Peter Mooney) are raising a young boy, Miles (Jackson Robert Scott), who seems extremely smart and a bit different from his schoolmates. None of that is especially disturbing, until Miles starts committing decidedly anti-social acts, playing a cruel trick on a babysitter and killing the family dog. Under the influence of a man named Arthur Jacobson (Colm Feore), Sarah becomes convinced that her son is the reincarnation of a notorious serial killer, Edward Skarka (Paul Fauteux), who died the day that Miles was born, and worse, that the killer is slowly taking over Miles' consciousness. Sarah figures that Skarka has come back because he wants to finally kill Margaret St. James (Brittany Allen), the only one of his victims to get away from him. But how far will Sarah go to protect her child? 

Taylor Schilling

It's a bit surprising that The Prodigy deals with reincarnation, as it is a concept that was much more popular many years ago, with such movies as The Search for Bridey Murphy (based on a true if discredited case), Audrey Rose, and The Reincarnation of Peter Proud. I wish that the movie had, perhaps, added a few twists to the formula, but on its own terms it is well-acted, suspenseful, and well-made. Young Jackson Robert Scott gives an outstanding performance as the affected child. You don't have to believe in reincarnation to enjoy the movie. 

Verdict: Absorbing and ultimately quite depressing horror-thriller. ***.