THE NAME OF THE GAME IS KILL

THE NAME OF THE GAME IS KILL (1968). Director: Gunnar Hellstrom.

A Hungarian named Symcha Lipa (Jack Lord) comes to a sleepy desert town and encounters a strange woman (T. C. Jones) and her three daughters, Nan (Tisha Sterling of Betrayal), Diz (Collin Wilcox Paxton), and Mickey (Susan Strasberg), all of whom seem to be keeping secrets. Symcha and Mickey seem to fall in love, but will they get the chance to get out of town and start a new life? The dialogue in Gary Crutcher's screenplay isn't bad, but this is one of those weird "psycho-thrillers" (another with an obvious nod to Psycho) that may have you scratching your head at the end trying to figure out the motivations of the demented characters. The acting is decent -- Lord and Paxton are fine, with Strasberg, and especially Sterling taking top honors. Mort Mills is as professional as ever as the sheriff, but Marc Desmond is poor as the doctor; he had few succeeding credits. T.C. Jones isn't bad either, although many will prefer his Alfred Hitchcock Hour vehicle "An Unlocked Window." Strasberg starred in the more memorable thriller Scream of Fear.

Verdict: This isn't terrible, just half-baked. **1/2. 

MIDNIGHT LACE

Doris Day in jeopardy

MIDNIGHT LACE (1960). Director: David Miller.

Heiress Kit Preston (Doris Day) has never had a difficult day in her life, so the perky but somewhat neurotic lady is unprepared when she starts to get death threats from a sinister, cartoon-like voice in the London fog and over the telephone. Kit recently wed businessman Anthony Preston (Rex Harrison), and while he is concerned, neither he nor Inspector Byrnes (John Williams) are absolutely certain that Kit has been hearing anything. She is suspicious of everyone she encounters, including her maid's nephew (Roddy McDowall of Dead Man's Island); a hunky contractor working on a house next door (John Gavin); and an odd fellow who keeps following her (Anthony Dawson). Then someone pushes her in front of a bus ...

Day, Harrison, Williams, Gavin, Loy

Midnight Lace is a smooth and entertaining suspense film with a host of good actors, including those mentioned and Myrna Loy as Kit's aunt and Herbert Marshall (of Gog) as Anthony's business associate. Natasha Parry [The Dark Man] and Hermione Baddeley are also notable. As for Day, she gives a convincing if borderline comical performance of a incredibly overwrought woman who is admittedly in a tense situation but has no clue as to how to handle it without getting hysterical -- and I do mean hysterical. One has to witness her incredible meltdown on the staircase to believe it! The picture is fun however. It has some structural similarities to another film directed by David Miller, Sudden Fear. (In that film Joan Crawford handles things with much more vigor than Day does). 

Verdict: Unless you really hate Day you should enjoy this. ***. 

TORMENTED

Richard Carlson and Lugene Sanders

TORMENTED (1960). Director: Bert I. Gordon. Colorized.  

Artist Tom Stewart (Richard Carlson) wants to marry into a wealthy family and has gotten engaged to Meg Hubbard (Lugene Sanders). But what to do about his girlfriend, Vi (Juli Reding of Why Must I Die?), who objects to his plans and tries to blackmail him? Fortunately for him the railing gives way on the balcony outside of an abandoned lighthouse where they have secret rendezvous, and Vi finds herself falling to the rocks below. Tom could have reached out and saved her, but chooses not to. Soon Tom is seeing images of the dead woman and hearing her voice everywhere he goes. Her ghost is determined to keep him from going through with the wedding plans ... 

Carlson at the lighthouse

Bert Gordon didn't just direct movies about big people and creatures, but also helmed a few thrillers of varying types. While the premise may not be terribly original, Tormented has a good plot, more than decent performances -- Carlson is especially good -- and is quite entertaining. One especially good sequence has Carlson's blind landlady (Lillian Adams) trying to communicate with the ghost -- which she definitely believes in -- in the aforementioned spooky lighthouse. A bit with the ghost's disembodied head showing up isn't quite as effective. This was the last credit (of four) for Hubbard, who is not classically beautiful but is nevertheless appealing and talented. Susan Gordon, who plays her younger sister, was the director's daughter, and is fine. Another notable cast member is Joe Turkel, who plays a sleazy blackmailer. As usual, the contributions of composer Albert Glasser and cinematographer Ernest Laszlo are not to be discounted. 

Verdict: No giant monsters but the flick is still fun. ***. 

FIRE MAIDENS OF OUTER SPACE

The Fire Maidens go into their dance

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

A space ship heads for the 13th moon of Jupiter and discovers a hidden city called New Atlantis -- it's like a medieval castle inside -- presided over by an old man named Prasus (Owen Berry), who is the figurative father of a bevy of dancing beauties. Outside New Atlantis a tall dark humanoid creature -- a skinny guy dressed in black and wearing a kind of voodoo mask -- stalks anyone who dares to step outside the enclave. Astronauts led by Luthor Blair (Anthony Dexter) enter the city and aren't quite certain that the inhabitants are friendly, especially when they are put into a drugged sleep via Prasus' refreshments ...

The monster goes after the maidens as astronauts watch

Prasus does not offer any explanations for the weird goings-on in Fire Maidens. We never learn how the occupants of doomed Atlantis managed to get from Earth all the way to Jupiter. Where are the parents of all the young ladies? Who or what exactly is "the creature" that roams about outside? The whole thing is like something out of an old comic book or cliffhanger serial, only even more illogical. The ladies start dancing to the strains of Borodin at the drop of a hat. Kim Parker of Fiend Without a Face is one of the fire maidens. 

Verdict: The only space babes movie which is worse is the execrable Queen of Outer Space. **1/4. 

CANADIAN MOUNTIES VS ATOMIC INVADERS

William Henry and Susan Morrow

CANADIAN MOUNTIES VS ATOMIC INVADERS (12-chapter Republic serial/1953). Director: Franklin Adreon.  Colorized.

A group of foreign agents in Canada want to build bases from which they can launch rockets to destroy key American cites. Sgt. Don Roberts (William Henry of Uranium Boom) is unaware of this dastardly plot but wonders why some desperadoes are trying so hard to keep homesteaders from settling in a certain area. Don and reporter Kay Conway (Susan Morrow of Cat-Women of the Moon) face avalanches, overturned boards with spikes in them, trucks going over cliffs, cracking ice floes, and exploding boats before they figure out what's going on, and that a folksy, simple-minded tradesman in town is secretly a sinister agent named Marlof (Arthur Space of The Crimson Key). There are also appearances by Harry Lauter, Pierre Watkin, Hank Patterson, and Tom Steele, not to mention a couple of cute, mischievous bear cubs. 

Verdict: Acceptable if unspectacular cliffhanger serial. **3/4. 

DEMENTIA 13

DEMENTIA 13 (1963). Director: Francis [Ford] Coppola.

When Louise Haloran's (Luana Anders) husband John has a fatal heart attack, she decides to cover up his death and pretend he's gone on a trip so she can still inherit from his mother. (Apparently it doesn't occur to her that a widow might still come into a share of the estate.) But this is only one of the secrets at the spooky and stately Castle Haloran in Ireland, where a barely seen figure with an axe roams about hacking and beheading his victims, and each year the family reenacts the funeral of the young daughter, Kathleen, who drowned seven years before. (None of the characters seem to realize the terrible impact the child's death would have had on Kathleen's mother, who is a bit "off.") 

ax attack on Louise

This early film from the director of The Godfather trilogy is modeled on Psycho in that we at first follow a blond character who is then brutally dispatched a la Janet Leigh nearly forty minutes into the film. Anders is very vital as Louise, as are Bart Patton as her brother-in-law, Billy; Ethne Dunn as Lady Haloran; and Patrick Magee as the family's creepy and tactless physician. William Campbell is Billy's brother, Richard, and Mary Mitchel is his oddly-named girlfriend, Kane. The film is atmospheric, has an effective score by Ronald Stein, and boasts a very well-handled and suspenseful sequence in which Simon, a poacher (Karl Schanzer), is stalked and decapitated. Bart Patton did mostly television work; Luana Anders, who also appeared in The Pit and the Pendulum with Vincent Price, was a busy actress up until her death in 1996.

Verdict: Odd, confusing at times, but strangely compelling and vivid! ***.

BLACK ZOO

BLACK ZOO (1963). Director: Robert Gordon. 

This long-unseen horror thriller is one of three films producer Herman Cohen did with star Michael Gough (the other two are Konga and Horrors of the Black Museum). Like the others, Black Zoo is lurid, somewhat campy fun. Gough is owner of a zoo as well as member of a weird cult of animal worshipers. Threatened with losing the zoo and his beloved tigers and lions -- who lie around his living room like treasured and pampered guests -- Gough sics his pets on anyone who dares to get in his way. His wife Edna (Jeanne Cooper) has a trained chimp act and wishes that hubby were kinder to the handsome mute boy Carl (Rod Lauren) who helps him with the murders. Gough is florid and easily enraged, but as an actor he puts on a lively, energetic show, and Cooper is excellent and equally energetic. The interesting cast also includes Virginia Grey as a booking agent, Jerome Cowan as an entrepreneur, Elisha Cook, Jr. as a zoo worker, and even Ed Platt ("the chief" on Get Smart) as a detective. One of the most interesting scenes is an funeral for the dead tiger Baron that takes place in a misty forest by night. Cooper and Gough have a great, lively dinner scene that ends in an hysterical (in more ways than one) fight. Cooper played Katherine Chancellor on The Young and the Restless; one of her co-stars on that show was Jerry Douglas, who plays a police lab man in Black Zoo. (He's not very good at his job, however, as he thinks a gorilla is "a member of the chimp family!") What's most surprising about this entertaining picture isn't the final revelation as much as how moving it is. Rod Lauren (of The Young Swingers) hasn't a word of dialogue but his expressive face says volumes. (Ironically, the actor-singer was accused years later of hiring someone to murder his wife.) Script by Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel. Robert Gordon also directed It Came from Beneath the Sea. 

Verdict: Lions and tigers and apes, oh my! ***.

EARTH VS. THE SPIDER

EARTH VS. THE SPIDER (aka The Spider/1958). Director: Bert I. Gordon. Colorized. 

For inexplicable reasons a gargantuan bird spider which has been snacking on luckless spelunkers decides to come out of its cave and kill the father of high school student Carol Flynn (June Kenney). Science teacher Art Kingman (Ed Kemmer) instructs the authorities, including laconic Sheriff Cagle (Gene Roth), to fill the cavern with gas. Thinking the huge arachnid is dead, the group takes the creature to the high school, where it  is put on display and wakes up during band practice! As it goes on a rampage, Carol and her boyfriend Mike (Eugene Persson) go into the cave to see if they can find a gift that Carol's late father bought for her birthday. Naturally the monster comes back. Now it's a question if the teens, lost in the cave, will die of starvation or become instant bug food! 

There's something oddly likable about The Spider, Bert I. Gordon's imitation of the superior Tarantula, although one could certainly point to plenty of dumb moments and glaring imperfections. The movie could have been a nail-biter but never achieves that level of tension. The cast generally plays it straight, which always helps, and June Kenney is rather good as Carol. Still the actors have to take a back seat to that spider. Its rampage is quite limited, and the last quarter of the film is a bit on the slower side, but the flick is still entertaining if you like creature features. The color, as usual, adds a new dimension. Albert Glasser's score is effective as well. 

Verdict: A fun big bug movie. **3/4.

THE FOX WITH THE VELVET TAIL

Husband (Kendall), wife (Gade), lover (Sorel)

THE FOX WITH THE VELVET TAIL (aka In the Eye of the Hurricane/1971). Director: Jose Maria Forque. 

Wealthy Ruth (Analia Gade of The Murder Mansion) is bored with her husband, Miguel (Tony Kendall of Kommissar X: Kill Panther Kill), and tells him she's filing for divorce. She takes off for her gorgeous summer place with her equally attractive new boyfriend, Paul (Jean Sorel of Paranoia). Things are going great for the couple until Ruth nearly dies in a couple of accidents, and then Miguel shows up. She wonders if Miguel was somehow responsible for her near-death incidents, but Paul poo poos. A beautiful woman named Danielle (Rosanna Yanni) observes everything from a distance, and then Ruth overhears the two men in her life having a very strange conversation ... 

Jean Sorel

Bolstered by beautiful locations and some adept players, as well as a stylish and romantic aura, The Fox with the Velvet Tail is an intriguing if basically bloodless suspense tale. Analia Gade offers a comparatively perfunctory performance, but the two men are better, and the whole production is smooth and well-paced. The scene when Ruth's brakes fail is thrilling, and a completely silent attempted murder scene late in the picture is very well-shot and edited. Of course, as in most of these movies, there is a slight touch of lesbianism. Viewers expecting a gory giallo film will have to look elsewhere, but this somehow works despite the lack of gruesome killings. 

Verdict: Sorel makes a convincing lover boy. ***. 

THE NANNY

THE NANNY (1965). Director: Seth Holt. Screenplay by Jimmy Sangster.

A ten-year-old boy, Joey Fane (William Dix), suspected of being responsible for the drowning death of his younger sister, comes home from an institution and gets into a battle of wits with the middle-aged nanny (Bette Davis) -- in the process testing the patience of his stern father (James Villiers) and fragile, emotionally-devastated mother (Wendy Craig). But does his hatred of the nanny perhaps have a basis in reality? This very suspenseful movie keeps you guessing nearly until the end, and Davis' excellent performance (for once her latter-day affected style works to her advantage) doesn't give it away. Little Dix, a remarkably confident and talented child actor, is more than a match for Davis, and the other performances, including that of Jill Bennett as his aunt with a weak heart, are all very effective. Pamela Franklin is also good as a young upstairs neighbor who wonders if it's nanny or little Joey who's nuts. Very interesting story with a moving finale. Dix later appeared in Doctor Doolittle but his career did not continue into adulthood. 

Verdict: This is one of Hammer studios' best pictures. ***.