21 BEACON STREET

Dennis Morgan

21 BEACON STREET (ABC television series/1959). 13 half-hour episodes. 

Before there was Mission Impossible there was 21 Beacon Street, a very short-lived series that had a similar premise. (Filmways, which owned the rights to the series, sued CBS for copyright infringement.) Private eye Dennis Chase (movie star Dennis Morgan of In This Our Life) and his team -- consisting of Joanna (Joanna Barnes), lawyer and former marine Brian (Brian Kelly) and inventor Jim (James Moloney) -- take on dangerous and difficult assignments and use various tricks to achieve their goals. Most of the episodes were solid "B's" but a few were above average. Jean Yarbrough directed "Double Vision," in which a reporter with info on the mob is thrown out of a window. The gang must secretly get a list with incriminating info out of a racketeer's safe. There is a great scene when Dennis is trapped outside on a windy ledge. The clever "Execution" has an innocent man (Ross Elliott of Tarantula) who was convicted of murdering his wife facing death, and the team must uncover the true murderer. "Safety Deposit" has the group trying to get incriminating love letters from a safety deposit box in Mexico to spare a politician's wife embarrassment. The team film a fake movie in the bank, but as they do so the key to the box gets stuck ... 21 Beacon Street definitely had possibilities, but it's a little too low-key. That mistake was not made with Mission: Impossible, which also has a terrific musical score. This series is on DVD and streaming on Tubi. 

Verdict: A few tense moments, but not enough of them. **1/4. 

HAWAIIAN EYE Season One

Connie Stevens, Anthony Eisley, Robert Conrad

HAWAIIAN EYE TV series Season One (1959).

77 Sunset Strip was such a successful private eye show that Warner Brothers producer William Orr decided to use the same formula -- good-looking guys involved with dames and intrigue -- on a series set in Honolulu instead of Los Angeles and the result was Hawaiian Eye. Anthony Eisley and Robert Conrad played the detectives, who have an office complete with bedrooms and swimming pool inside the Hawaiian Village Hotel (which still exists) for which they do security. They also have time to take cases for people who are being threatened or searching for someone who's disappeared etc. 

Douglas Mossman as Moke

There are two other recurring characters, the cab driver and kibitzer Kim (Poncie Ponce), and the singing photographer Cricket Blake (Connie Stevens). Cricket is a petulant, annoying, 12-year-old in a woman's body who has a serious crush on Tracy Steele (Eisner of The Wasp Woman). She not only adds little to the program -- there are plenty of attractive women in the stories -- but her contract obviously gives her the right to sing a song in virtually every episode. This wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that Stevens' whispery so-called singing is pretty mediocre. Actually Poncie Ponce, who like Stevens is afflicted with terminal cuteness, has a much better voice and is a more talented singer. Others who appeared frequently in the first season and afterward include handsome Hawaiian native Douglas Mossman as security officer Moke and Mel Prestidge  as Lt. Danny Quan, another native Hawaiian who was also a real-life sheriff at the time the show was filming. 

Anthony Eisley and Robert Conrad

Hawaiian Eye was a good and entertaining series if not necessarily a great one. It lasted four seasons, however. Notable episodes include "Beach Boy" with Troy Donahue, Faith Domergue and Robert Lowery in a story of a young man who may or may not be the wealthy heir who supposedly drowned ten years earlier. "Secret of the Second Door" features Harry Bartell in a story of a woman who wants Tom Lopaka (Conrad) to find a stolen cache of money. "Dead Ringer" stars an excellent Dianne Foster and Warren Stevens in a tale of a sinister plot that enfolds Lopaka simply because he resembles Foster's husband. "The Kikiki Kid" stars John Gabriel as a nightclub singer with major show biz aspirations who pursues and romances a columnist (Jean Byron) who can help him while neglecting his wife (Myrna Hansen). Kim is accused of stealing a diamond worth half a million dollars in "Cut of Ice" with Robert Clarke and Frank Albertson. 

Verdict: Fun colorful series with interesting leads and guest performers. ***. 

THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE

Henry Daniell

THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE (1959). Director: Edward L. Cahn. Colorized version. 

Jonathan Drake's (Eduard Franz) whole family has been under a curse for generations, a curse that has to do with Jivaro headhunters and revenge down in South America. Drake's ancestor killed a whole host of Indians in retaliation for their beheading an important crew member. Now every male member of the Drake family will die on his 60th birthday and be buried without their heads. After this happens to Jonathan's brother, Kenneth, (Paul Cavanagh), both his daughter, Alison (Valerie French) and Police Lt. Jeff Rowan (Grant Richards of Guns Girls and Gangsters) are afraid Jonathan might be next. 

Valerie French and Grant Richards

The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake is a gruesome hoot, a wild melange of shrunken heads (how they are processed is shown in detail), decapitations by machete, ancient Indians with their lips sewn together wearing moccasins made of human flesh, severed heads boiled in pots, and a centuries-old sinister figure with a white man's head stitched on top of an Indian's body! Skulls and heads show up at unexpected moments. The acting is all satisfactory, with Henry Daniell taking top honors in an underplayed performance as the sinister Dr. Zurich. Grant Richards has a brusque, butch style that works well for his role. 

Verdict: More shrunken heads than you can throw a stick at! ***. 

THE 30 FOOT BRIDE OF CANDY ROCK

Lou Costello and Dorothy Provine

THE 30 FOOT BRIDE OF CANDY ROCK (1959). Director: Sidney Miller.

So somebody got the idea of doing a spoof of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (which came out over a year before this film did), a movie which was already amusing and in fact has a lot more laughs than this atrocious "comedy." It may have seemed a good idea to put Lou Costello in it (appearing without his usual partner, Bud Abbott), but the little guy has such poor material that there's nothing he can do to save it. 

Costello [Blaze of Glory] plays Artie Pinsetter, a small-town junk man and part-time inventor. After an argument, his girlfriend Emily (Dorothy Provine) runs into a cavern and the next thing they know she's grown into a giant. (After taking a shower she grows even larger, about fifty feet or more.) The Army thinks she's a giantess from Mars and her uncle (Gale Gordon), who's running for governor, just wants her to disappear. (He insists that she and Artie get married because he misunderstood what Artie meant when he said his niece had gotten "bigger.") Although Provine could play the blond bimbo with the best of them, in this she sort of plays it straight, which doesn't work at all. The movie has approximately five mild chuckles, although the expected gag at the end is funny. To make matters worse, Gale Gordon -- who could be very clever at times but is not amusing in this -- stinks up the production even more. 

Verdict: This is an effort to sit through. *1/2. 

BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE

pitiful victims of Beast from Haunted Cave

BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE (1959). Directed by Monte Hellman. Produced by Roger Corman.

Handsome ski instructor Gil Jackson (Michael Forest) is unaware that a certain bunch who require his services are actually a gang that needs a place to hide out after stealing gold bars from an office. The head of the gang is Alex (Frank Wolff), who gets increasingly jealous over his girlfriend Gypsy's (Sheila Noonan) attention to Gil. The other thieves are nervous Marty (Richard Sinatra) and the nerdy Byron (Wally Campo). To cause a distraction during the robbery, Byron plants some charges in a nearby mine, inadvertently killing an old man. As the gang hide out in Gil's cabin with his Native housekeeper Small Dove (Kay Jennings), a bizarre, barely seen creature with snagging tentacles comes out of the mine ... 

Michael Forest

Beast from Haunted Cave might have been a more memorable picture if Roger Corman had not just produced but directed, as the film lacks the snappy tension of, say, Attack of the Crab Monsters (which also had a better premise). Charles Griffith's screenplay serves up some moderately interesting but half-baked characters, but it's the acting that makes them come alive, with each member of the cast giving more than the picture is worth. An amusing aspect is that Byron goes into the cave to see if he can save Small Dove after she is carried off by the tentacles, but hero Gil just sort of forgets about her as he tries to run off with Gypsy. Andrew M. Costikyan has contributed some moody and atmospheric photography of the cave and the woods, while Alexander Laszlo's score (Attack of the Giant Leeches) is typically strange but effective. 

Frank Wolff and Sheila Noonan

The squeals of the monster were lifted from Burt Gordon's Earth vs the Spider, and are the sounds of the giant spider. The monster in this, played by Chris Robinson, resembles a hulking, amorphous thingamajig covered in seaweed and webbing and with skinny, pincer-like appendages. It wraps its still-living victims in flimsy cocoons and apparently wants to suck their blood. An unintentionally hilarious scene has Gypsy telling Gil that the gang members are going to kill him, then adding that she intends to "stick around with him" (after he's dead, perhaps?) This movie might have been better if there was more of the monster and less of the gang. Michael Forest, a hunk with talent, appeared in many subsequent productions, as did Wolff. Noonan was also in The Incredible Petrified World but only had a few other credits. 

Verdict: With Corman at the helm this might have been more memorable. **1/4.

ISLAND OF LOST WOMEN

Jeff Richards and John Smith

ISLAND OF LOST WOMEN (1959). Director: Frank Tuttle. Colorized.

Radio commentator Mark Bradley (Jeff Richards) and his pilot Joe Walker (John Smith of Hot Rod Girl) run into engine trouble and make a landing on what appears to be a deserted island. However, there are several occupants, including three beautiful women: Venus (Venetia Stevenson of The Big Night); Urana (Diane Jergens); and Mercuria (June Blair). Their father, Dr. Paul Lujan (Alan Napier of The Mole People) ran away from the world with his now-dead wife and small daughters because he could see what was coming, as he was an associate of Einstein's and an expert in nuclear fission. When the two men discover who he is, Bradley wants to break the story of the missing scientist when he gets back to civilization, only Lujan wants to hold them prisoner. After Lujan destroys their plane with a flame-thrower gun, Mark and Joe concoct a plan to build a raft and leave the island. But then the gals want to go with them ... 

John Smith with the women

Island of Lost Women is a mediocre timewaster with an interesting premise, but not that much is done with it. The performances are all competent, although Richards has been seen to better advantage elsewhere, and the talented Venetia Stevenson is pretty much wasted. John Smith makes a better impression, even if he's getting by mostly on charm. The other gals are cute and Napier does the best he can with an under-written and rather sappy role. This reminds one a bit of Fire Maidens of Outer Space -- a father and daughters in an isolated habitat -- but even that was more fun than this!

Verdict: At least there's a rather good-looking cast! **. 

THE BAT (1959)

The Bat pretends to surrender

THE BAT (1959). Director: Crane Wilbur. Colorized.  

Mystery novelist Cornelia van Gorder (Agnes Moorehead of Dear Dead Delilah) and her companion, Lizzie (Lenita Lane), are currently residing at the Oaks, an estate which is rumored to be haunted. A bigger problem is that a criminal known as the Bat -- who tears out victims' throats with metal claws on his gloves -- is also operating in the area, and wandering around the Oaks. The owner of the estate, John Fleming (Harvey Stephens), has stolen valuable assets from his own bank and pinned the crime on head teller, Bailey (Mike Steele). Dr. Wells (Vincent Price of House of a Thousand Dolls) takes advantage of this situation in his own inimitable style. Bailey's wife, Dale (Elaine Edwards of You Have to Run Fast), hopes to find the missing loot at the Oaks with the help of Fleming's nephew, Mark (John Bryant). Meanwhile the Bat is also hunting for the loot and kills anyone who gets in his way. Lt. Anderson (Gavin Gordon) does what he can to track down the Bat while new butler Warner (John Sutton) skulks about ... 

Moorehead with Price etc. -- WHAT'S with Agnes' dress?   

A remake of The Bat Whispers, this version is fast-paced and much more entertaining, with a highly interesting cast, which includes Darla Hood (from the Our Gang comedies) as the ill-fated Judy. Although not nearly as irritating as Maude Eburne in the earlier film, Lenita Lane, who talks through her nose, is still a bit annoying. Price is smooth and oily and altogether competent, and the other cast members acquit themselves nicely. When the identity of the Bat is revealed, one has to wonder why this character even bothered with the silly disguise, as it would have suited their plans much better to just walk around as themselves! Speaking of silly outfits, at one point Moorehead wears a dress with a balloon bottom that would have to be qualified as a "would you be caught dead in this outfit?" affair. The claws tearing out throats business was not used in the earlier version. The play this was based on was in turn based on the novel "The Circular Staircase" by Mary Roberts Rinehart. The play was filmed four times. 

Verdict: Not at all logical, but a lot of fun anyway. ***.  

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE FROG

The Frog: would you buy a used care from this man?

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE FROG (aka Face of the Frog aka Der Frosch mit der Maske/1959). Director: Harald Reinl. 

London is the locale of a sinister criminal leader known only as the Frog, who has hundreds of cutthroat agents in his employ, and who runs about decked out in a kind of ski cap with bulging bubble eyes. Richard Gordon (Joachim Fuchsberger), the nephew of Scotland Yard's Sir Archibald (Ernst Fritz Furbringer of The Curse of the Hidden Vault), is certain that the Frog is actually the supposedly dead master criminal Harry Lime, but whom is he impersonating when he isn't posing as the Frog? The Frog seems to have an unhealthy interest in the family of John Bennet (Carl Lange of Death in a Red Jaguar), especially his daughter, Ella (Elfie von Kalckreuth), but it's his son, Ray (Walter Wilz), who winds up framed for murder. Then there's the singer, Lolita (Eva Pflug), who seems to be working for the Frog but elicits his wrath in an especially brutal sequence involving a machinegun. Can Ray be saved before he's hanged, and will the Frog ever be unmasked? Inspector Elk (Siegfried Lowitz of The Sinister Monk) has a plan ... 

Matinee Idol: Joachim Fuchsberger

This is the very first of a West German film series based on the novels of Edgar Wallace that would eventually add up to nearly sixty movies (if you also include adaptations of novels written by Wallace's son as well as films clearly influenced by Wallace)! This one, directed by Harald Reinl -- who helmed many of the Jerry Cotton films starring George Nader, as well as Dr. Mabuse movies and The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism -- keeps things moving briskly in this initial entry. Handsome Fuchsberger would appear in many of the subsequent films, generally in a heroic role. Frog is fast-paced, entertaining, and amusing, although the whole business with Ray being arrested and convicted so rapidly seems more than contrived and downright weird. The biggest problem with Frog is that the identity of the master criminal seems obvious, at least to me, almost from the first -- he just sticks out like a sore thumb! Other characters include the cadaverous Maitland, Ray's boss (Fritz Rasp), and his kindly associate Johnson (Jochen Brockmann), as well as Eddi Arent as Gordon's comical butler, James. 

Verdict: Successful enough to engender a whole slew of krimi movies. **3/4.   

THE D.A.'S MAN

John Compton

THE D.A.'S MAN (1959). One season and 26 half-hour episodes.

Shannon (John Compton) is a former private eye who is now working with the district attorney's office in Manhattan as an undercover investigator. He reports to assistant D.A. Al Bonacorsi (Ralph Manza), and often works with another ADA named Ed Carney (Alfred Shelly). Although Compton was almost illegally good-looking, the stories rarely make references to his appearance, -- "a face like a Greek God," a woman says in "The Duke" --  although there are indications that he's a bit of a ladies man. 

"Iron Mike Benedict:" Wm Fawcett; Compton

Among the more memorable episodes: "The Actress" features an excellent Whitney Blake as a junkie waiting for her fix to arrive as an undercover Shannon waits with her and tries to help her. "Manhattan Gigolo" has Shannon "dating" an old woman as part of an investigation into a murderous Park Avenue safecracker (Paul Burke). William Fawcett gives a fine performance as "Iron Mike Benedict," one of the alcoholic victims of Stafford Repp, a bar owner who poisons customers for their insurance money. In the touching conclusion, Mike comes to see Shannon, in disguise as a bowery bum, as the son he never had. 

Alfred Shelly with Compton

Robert Ellenstein grooms young ladies for prostitution in "Mr. Santa Claus." Shannon goes undercover as a boxer to trap men who murder fighters who refuse to take a dive in "Club Fighter." In "Shakedown," in which phony cops and a pretty gal scam lonely out-of-town businessmen, Compton puts on a very convincing hayseed impersonation. In "The Duke" John Hudson heads a gang of fur thieves at a bar-hangout which Shannon infiltrates. Shannon investigates a murder in a small town in "Girls Best Friend."

The D.A.'s Man was an interesting series that was too short-lived to make much of an impression or help Compton's career. Compton's performances were a little uneven, as well, sometimes quite perfunctory, and other times -- especially when he was in character as part of his cover -- much more impressive. All but a couple of the episodes are available on youtube. 

Verdict: Some good stories and a handsome lead actor never hurt. **3/4. 

GUNS GIRLS AND GANGSTERS

Mamie Van Doren goes into her dance

GUNS GIRLS AND GANGSTERS (1959). Director: Edward L. Cahn. Colorized. 

When Chuck Wheeler (Gerald Mohr of Angry Red Planet) gets out of prison, he makes a beeline for Las Vegas and his cellmate Mike's (Lee Van Cleef of Machete) estranged wife, Vi (Mamie Van Doren), who wants nothing to do with either of them. But the sleazy Chuck needs Vi's help in a two million dollar armored car robbery that he's planning, and he also enlists her boss and current lover, Joe Darren (Grant Richards). Everything is going according to plan -- Vi and Chuck are also inexplicably falling in love -- but the whole business is threatened when an angry Mike breaks out of jail three months ahead of schedule. Now it's a question if the robbery can go off and if either Vi or Chuck will survive the jealous Mike's wrath ...  

Grant Richards and Gerald Mohr

The generically-titled Guns Girls and Gangsters is a snappy and well-acted crime thriller that moves at a breathless pace, especially in the final quarter detailing the robbery and its aftermath. Although it's hard to fathom why Vi would ever fall for a cruddy and unattractive character like Chuck, the actors do the best they can to make their romance convincing -- Van Doren is better in this than usual. As the mad dog Mike Lee Van Cleef is a bit disappointing, adding no nuance to his character and just spitting out his lines as if he was fed them five minutes earlier. Richards is effective as Joe and there is a very good fight  scene between him and Van Cleef in an automobile. John Baer and Elaine Edwards are fine as a married couple who run the motel/cabins where Vi stays as she waits for the big day to come and where the armored car will wind up after a bullet strikes its tire, courtesy of Chuck and his rifle. Van Doren proves that she can put over a song in this (although I suspect she's dubbed) and does it twice. The narration threatens to become intrusive but doesn't ruin the film. Edward L. Cahn also directed You Have to Run Fast -- among numerous other films -- which co-starred Richards and Edwards. 

Verdict: Suspenseful, tense, action-packed crime drama. ***. 

THE INCREDIBLE PETRIFIED WORLD

Clarke, Noonan, Coates, Windsor

THE INCREDIBLE PETRIFIED WORLD (1959). Produced and directed by Jerry Warren. Colorized.

Professor Millard Wyman (John Carradine of Female Jungle) has invented a diving bell through which he hopes to reach uncharted depths. Inside the bell on its first dive are Craig Randell (Robert Clark of The Man from Planet X), Paul (Allen Windsor), Lauri (Sheila Noonan), and no-nonsense reporter Dale (Phyllis Coates of Panther Girl of the Kongo), whose fiance has just told her to get lost. Something goes wrong with the bell and the foursome wind up stuck on the ocean bottom, but are able to swim out -- where they somehow find themselves inside empty caverns and discover a grizzled old man (Maurice Bernard) who has been stuck there for fourteen years! With chance of rescue unlikely, will they ever be able to reach the surface? 

Robert Clarke and Allen Windsor

Although Incredible Petrified World is almost universally excoriated, I find the premise intriguing and the film itself, aside from some tedious padded stretches, absorbing. True, this is not a grand adventure film with a big budget, but it has genuine suspense as you wonder how on earth the principals will get out of this depressing predicament. John W. Steiner's script presents characters with some dimension to them (with typical fifties attitudes), although it can't overcome the sheer illogic of the film. There doesn't appear to be an air lock in the diving bell, so it makes no sense that it wouldn't get flooded when the participants emerge. Exactly where in hell the caverns are in  relation to the bell and the surface is never made clear. Why don't they just swim to the surface? (One can only imagine that the diving bell is stuck in some crevice under the caverns, but this is never made clear.) The scene when Craig confesses his love to Lauri and says that they can be happy with each other -- stuck Lord knows where in endless caverns for the rest of eternity! -- hardly comes off as especially realistic. 

John Carradine (behind ladder) with the cast

The actors do the best they can with the material, with Carradine as professional and adept as ever as the professor. Windsor, Noonan, and Bernard had very few other credits, although Clarke and Coates had busy careers. Coates, almost as bitchy in this as her Lois Lane in The Adventures of Superman, makes a good impression in the movie, which she did as a favor to old boyfriend Jerry Warren; she never got paid for it! The film has atmosphere, due to the settings in Tucson Arizona's Colossal Cave, and the colorizing process works well. 

Verdict: Hardly for every taste, but not as awful as its reputation. ***. 

THE LOUISIANA HUSSY

Peter Coe and Nan Peterson

THE LOUISIANA HUSSY (1959). Director: Lee Sholem. A Bon-Air Production. 

In a stretch of the bayou called The Pit, brothers Jacques (Peter Coe) and Pierre (Robert Richards) love the same woman, Lili (Betty Lynn), but she prefers Pierre. On their wedding day a stranger who calls herself Minette (Nan Peterson of The Hideous Sun Demon) shows up in town, and is taken in by the newlyweds. Right away Minette is making passes at Pierre -- which he initially does little to reject -- and then moves in on -- and with -- Jacques. Pierre and Lili are convinced that Minette is bad news so they decide to investigate her past, bringing them to an estate and a drunk, grieving widower named Clay Lanier (Harry Lauter of It Came from Beneath the Sea). 

Betty Lynn, Robert Richards, Harry Lauter

An atmospheric melodrama, The Louisiana Hussy is reasonably absorbing and mildly titillating, although some of the love scenes are kind of intense for a fifties movie. Although Nan Peterson is rather  average-looking to play a femme fatale, with her push-up bra she manages to assert her sexuality in scene after scene. Betty Lynn is best known as Barney Fife's girlfriend on The Andy Griffith Show and she's bland but adequate in this. Richards had only a few credits, Peterson twice as many, and Coe amassed over eighty appearances. Also in the cast, as a doctor, is Tyler McVey of Attack of the Giant Leeches. 

Like many movies from this period and after, the film is hypocritical when it comes to the question of marital affairs. This is one of those films in which the trampy gal who goes after married men is seen as being much, much worse than the husbands who simply don't abstain, and get all moralistic about the mistress while ignoring and justifying their own behavior. Lee Sholem also directed Pharaoh's Curse.

Verdict: Sizzles but never quite boils. **1/4. 

ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES

Yvette Vickers and Michael Emmet

ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES (1959). Director: Bernard L. Kowalski. Executive producer: Roger Corman. Colorized. 

Portly Dave Walker (Bruno VeSota) has a hard time keeping his sexy wife, Liz (Yvette Vickers of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman), under control. She goes off with Dave's alleged friend, the much sexier Cal (Michael Emmet), and Dave discovers the two of them making love in the swamp. As Dave is threatening them with his shotgun and forcing them into the water, they are attacked by two giant leeches -- or leech men, if you prefer. Everyone suspects Dave of murder but then more people start disappearing. Game warden Steve Benton (Ken Clark of Mission Bloody Mary), along with his girlfriend, Nan (Jan Shepard), and her father, Doc Greyson (Tyler McVey of Teenage Thunder), investigate but come into conflict with each other when Doc wants to bomb the swamp ... 

Ken Clark and Jan Shepard

With its backwoods bayou atmosphere, a sleepy score by Alexander Laszlo (also used in Night of the Blood Beast), and some decent acting, Attack of the Giant Leeches may not be a world-beater but at least it holds the attention if you're a devotee of creature features. The color adds a degree of gruesomeness to the scenes in the underground lair of the leeches, and the sequence of dead bodies rising up in the lake has always been kind of creepy. Vickers is as vivid as ever, and VeSota and Emmet are effective and professional. Ken Clark, who showed much more charisma playing a superspy in some eurospy features, is stalwart as the game warden. Although she apparently never appeared in anything that allowed her to make much of an impression, Jan Shepard amassed over eighty credits and had a long career, as did Tyler McVey, who had over 220 credits! Kowalksi also directed Michael Emmet and McVey in Night of the Blood Beast, which is better than Leeches. Art director Daniel Haller went on to better things.  

Verdict: You know it isn't especially wonderful but there's just something about it ... **1/2. 

CALTIKI, THE IMMORTAL MONSTER

Goddess Caltiki goes in pursuit

CALTIKI, THE IMMORTAL MONSTER (aka Caltiki, il mostro immortale/1959). Directors: Riccardo Freda; Mario Bava. Colorized. 

In Mexico an archeological expedition uncovers a tomb and an altar to the Mayan goddess Caltiki. While exploring an underground lake that contains many skeletons, the team are suddenly beset by a blob-like monster that rises to the surface and eats off the arm of Max Gunther (Gerard Herter). Team leader Prof Fielding (John Merivale) manages to stop the creature -- a huge unicellular organism that is twenty million years old -- with a fiery explosion and gets Max to a hospital in Mexico City. There Fielding is able to isolate a part of the creature surrounding Max's arm and brings it to the lab in his home where his wife Ellen (Did Sullivan) and child await. But poor Ellen finds herself beset with dual menaces: Caltiki, who begins to multiply and grow, and Max, who has become maddened by the infection, escapes from the hospital and tries to have his way with Ellen. 

Didi Sullivan, John Merivale, Gerard Herter

Caltiki is a highly interesting and influential Italian horror/sci fi film. An interesting aspect is that it tries to explain the disappearance of the Mayans by tying the appearance of the flesh-eating Caltiki to a radioactive comet that flies across the sky every few centuries, and is now endangering all of Mexico. The monster itself looks like a perambulating, expanding carpet but is still ghoulish in concept. The scenes in the underground tomb with its sinister lake are creepy and atmospheric, and the climax -- with Fielding and his family caught between one blob in the bedroom and another at the base of their escape ladder -- is exciting and suspenseful. The ending with the military and their flame throwers is a bit dragged out, but the film is generally absorbing. Caltiki is enough of a menace that throwing a crazy Max into the mix was actually unnecessary, particularly when you consider that the character is very badly dubbed. Caltiki has an international cast: Merivale was Canadian; Sullivan was Irish; and Herter was German. 

Verdict: Creepy stuff is even better in color. ***. 

NOT FOR HIRE

Ralph Meeker

 NOT FOR HIRE (1959 tv series). 

Sgt. Steve Decker (Ralph Meeker) works as an investigator for the CID, the Criminal Investigations Division of the Army. Meeker, who radiates a certain degree of charm while also making you think he's going to deck someone with extreme nastiness at any second, is perfect for the role. The half-hour series lasted for only one season and 39 episodes. With most of these old forgotten series, especially the ones that don't turn up on DVD, more and more episodes keep turning up on youtube. With Not for Hire, it's just the opposite, as some episodes that were once available on youtube and the internet archive have now disappeared. You are left with three episodes to choose from.

Meeker with Lisabeth Hush

Smuggled Wife has Decker going off to find an AWOL soldier who is desperate to see if he can get his wife out of Hong Kong. She's pregnant and he hopes that his child will be born in the U.S. but authorities suspect the woman of espionage. Nora Hayden guest-stars as a pretty lady -- not said wife -- who is not on the side of the angels. 

In The Fickle Fingers Decker finds himself with a real puzzle. A soldier has been found dead but his corpse has the wrong fingerprints. Decker tries to find out if this was a simple mistake, or if the fellow faked his death and that's somebody else's body in the morgue. 

The Fall Guy has Decker investigating what at first seems to be an open and shut case: a soldier apparently stabbed his girlfriend to death. However Colonel Madge Turner (Lisabeth Hush) is convinced that the man is innocent and starts her own investigation to Decker's initial annoyance. However, charmed by the woman and impressed by her persistence, he takes a hand in the case. Hush is appealing and adept and Barbara Stuart makes an impression as a nasty femme fatale of sorts. 

These three episodes, while not exactly classic television, still whetted my appetite, and one can hope that the full series will one day find itself on DVD. These episodes have also been colorized (!) and can be found on youtube. 

Verdict: Meeker scores in an interesting crime show that is a little different than usual. **1/2. 

THE ANGRY RED PLANET

THE ANGRY RED PLANET (1959). Director: Ib Melchior. 

"Women don't have a monopoly on fear."

Dr. Iris Ryan (Nora Hayden) is one of two surviving members of an expedition to Mars, the other being Colonel O'Bannion (Gerald Mohr of Jungle Girl). O'Bannion is unconscious, his arm being digested by an inexplicable material engulfing it. Drugs are used to stimulate the traumatized Iris' memory, leading to flashbacks that show us what happened on the Red Planet Mars. The astronauts -- who also include Professor Gettell (Les Tremayne of The Monster of Piedras Blancas) and technician Sam Jacobs (Jack Kruschen of Reform School Girl) -- discover a strange airless world where nothing seems to move unless it is directed to. Iris is nearly snared by a gigantic, tentacled carnivorous plant; the whole group battles a humungous bad-rat-spider monster with legs that resemble tree trunks; and after spotting a distant city across a lake full of viscous liquid encounter an enormous amoeba that ingests one of them and starts eating away at O'Bannion's arm. The landscape is depicted in "cinemagic," which bathes everything in a reddish tint. 

Iris )Nora Hayden) sees a Martian

For some reason Amazon Prime Video has two versions of this movie. This is supposed to be the "original" version but scene for scene it is exactly like the other version Amazon offers -- there are no differences at all. Angry Red Planet is talky and slow at first, but once it gets going it is quite entertaining and the various monsters are a lot of fun. The story is actually pretty good but it needed a much better director. Former hoofer Mohr comes off, as usual, like an aging make-out man and his presumptuousness as regards to Iris -- whom he calls "Irish" -- is amazing. Reportedly Hayden thought Mohr was "quite arrogant and nasty." Hayden largely appeared on television, and attempted a comeback in her final 1969 film The Perils of P.K. where she played a stripper hoping to snare a name actor to appear with her in a film. Hayden did get the likes of Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Heatherton, Louise Lasser and others to appear with her, but one viewer described the film as making "Glen or Glenda seem like Citizen Kane."  

Verdict: The wonderful bat-rat-spider -- which once had its own model kit -- is alone worth the price of admission. ***.  

THE UNTOUCHABLES Season One

Robert Stack as Eliot Ness

THE UNTOUCHABLES Season One. 1959 ABC television series. 

I think I may have watched one episode or so of The Untouchables when I was a kid. It was adult material, not for children, and held little interest for me. Even today I find many of the episodes -- one in particular -- disturbing and depressing, although I think it is a good and classic show. Inspired by the memoirs of the late Eliot Ness, who went after prohibition-era gangsters like Al Capone but who ironically wound up a forgotten  alcoholic years later (until the posthumous memoir made him famous again), The Untouchables bounces around in time from the late 20's to the 30's when prohibition ended and bad guys moved in on everything from narcotics to milk!

Stack with Fernandez and Paris; J. Carroll Naish in foreground 

The amazing thing about The Untouchables is how hard-hitting it still is after sixty years, how brutal, with horrible things happening to the innocent as well as the guilty. No, it isn't gore-graphic as the stuff you now see on cable, but it is tough and uncompromising, much like the lead character, Eliot Ness, very well-played by Robert Stack. There is a squad of "untouchables" -- including Jerry Paris, Abel Fernandez, Nicolas Georgiade -- but they are petty much shunted aside in favor or Stack, given less screen time than the gangsters and assorted victims. Anthony George of Checkmate was nearly forty when he joined the series in the first season but was constantly referred to as "the kid" -- he was later killed off. 

White Slavers: Jeremy Brett, Kellin, Paul Langton

The Untouchables received criticism for its depiction of Italian-Americans and for its violence, although many argued that it would be wrong not to show exactly how vicious these gangsters could be. In "The White Slavers" several pretty young Mexican girls who think they are being transported to the U.S. for careers as models (but who are really destined for drug addiction and forced prostitution) are machine -gunned to death -- even up to the last minute you can't believe they won't be saved by Ness or his associates. The scene doesn't occur off-camera, and although you don't see bullets hitting the bodies etc., it is still pretty raw. Later a group of prostitutes begin to tear apart the man (Mike Kellin) who ordered the murders  and the miserable bastard shoots himself in the head. 

Martin Landau guest-stars with Paris and Stack

Other especially memorable first season episodes include: "Ma Barker and Her Boys," with Claire Trevor as the notorious supposed gang leader; "The Jake Lingle Killing" with a shady character (Jack Lord) wanting reward money but Ness isn't certain of his credibility; "Ain't We Got Fun" with Cameron Mitchell as a stand up comic that "Big Jim" (Ted De Corsia) takes a liking to; "The Underground Railway," starring Cliff Robertson in one of his best performances as a disfigured prison escapee who gets a girlfriend (Virginia Vincent) and plastic surgery; the two-part "Unhired Assassin" featuring plots on both the Chicago mayor and President-elect Roosevelt; and "The Frank Nitti Story," in which both Nitti (Bruce Gordon) and Untouchable Cam Allison (the aforementioned Anthony George) go to their final rewards. (Gordon would reappear as Nitti in flashback episodes.) Jerry Paris [Man on the Prowl] also left the series to go on to Michael Shayne where he had more to do. Nelson Riddle's intense theme music grows on you, and Walter Winchell's narration adds immediacy. The Untouchables began life as a two-part episode of Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse which was released to theaters as The Scarface Mob. 

Verdict: Pretty raw at times and quite well-acted by various guest-stars. ***1/4. 

JACK THE RIPPER (1959)

Betty McDowall and Lee Patterson

JACK THE RIPPER (1959). Directed by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman.  Screenplay by Jimmy Sangster. 

Women are being carved up in Whitechapel, London in the late 19th century after an unknown man asks them "Are you Mary Clark?" American reporter Sam Lowry (Lee Patterson) comes to London and meets up with his old friend, Inspector O'Neill (Eddie Byrne), who has been assigned to the case. Among the suspects is Dr. Traner (John Le Mesurier), whose ward, Anne (Betty McDowall) wants a position in his hospital over his objections. Other suspects include the friendly and mute hunchback, Louie (Endre Muller) and the less-friendly Dr. Urquhart (Garard Green), among others. 

Endre Muller and John Le Mesurier

Jack the Ripper does not at all stick to the facts of the true story, using only fictional characters and making the victims dance hall girls and barmaids along with prostitutes (To our knowledge, Jack only killed prostitutes). Nevertheless the film is interesting and has atmosphere, although the musical score is a little too jazzy at times. "Jack" comes to a suitably gruesome and horrifying end at the movie's climax, which briefly goes to color to show the blood. He has also been given a fairly credible motive. The picture is generally well-acted, absorbing, and fast-paced, but it has really nothing to do with the real Jack the Ripper. 

Verdict: Not the real story at all, but not bad on its own terms. ***. 
 

THOSE (MOSTLY) FORGOTTEN OLD COP SHOWS # 1

Lee Marvin of M Squad

THOSE (MOSTLY) FORGOTTEN OLD COP SHOWS # 1.

M Squad (1957 - 1960). In this series, which lasted three seasons, Chicago cop Detective Lt. Frank Ballinger (Lee Marvin) works to solve cases of homicide and so on in the Windy City. In "Pete Loves Mary" a murderer (Mike Connors of Voodoo Woman) breaks out of jail, but the main character is his adoring -- and ultimately disillusioned -- younger brother, played by Bobby Driscoll. In "Lover's Lane Killing," a rich gal's fiance is found dead, with Ruta Lee as guest-star. "The Fight" features Charles Bronson as a boxer who "killed" an opponent and now is facing attempts on his own life. Lee Marvin is terrific and convincing as the cop, and based on the very few episodes I've seen, M Squad looks like a pretty good show. The entire series is now on DVD.

John Compton

The D.A.'s Man (1959) stars Ralph Manza as Assistant District Attorney Al Bonacorsi and John Compton as Shannon, a handsome special investigator. (Not to be confused with the show, Shannon, in which George Nader played an investigator.) I've seen only two episodes of this show, which lasted one season. "Girl's Best Friend" is a mediocre entry about a group of jewel thieves, and the excellent "Witness" has a little boy seeing his (literal) godfather murder a mob rival in his home. This episode has a teleplay by Bruce Geller of Mission: Impossible fame and Jack Webb of Dragnet. Both Manza and Compton are effective in their roles, with Shannon getting beaten up as Bonacorsi shows up to wrap things up neatly at the end. I hope more of these will become available. The show has an interesting theme by Frank Comstock.

Verdict: M Squad: ***. D.A.'s Man: **3/4. 

HERCULES UNCHAINED

Reeves, Koscina, Antonini

HERCULES UNCHAINED (Ercole e la regina di Lidia/1959). Director: Pietro Francisci.

After the events of Hercules, Hercules (Steve Reeves) has returned to his homeland of Greece with his new bride, Iole (Sylva Koscina), and several of his friends, including Ulysses (Gabriele Antonini). The three of them decide to return to Thebes, but Hercules learns that there have been many changes in his absence. Oedipus the King has given his throne to his two sons with the understanding that they each rule a year and trade off, but Etocles (Sergio Fantoni) refuses to leave Thebes while his brother Polinices (Mimmo Palmara) has gathered together an army of ruthless foreigners to help him take over the city. Hercules agrees  to mediate a peace between the two men, but before he can do so he is kidnapped to the island of Lidia after accidentally partaking of the "waters of forgetfulness."

Evil queen: Reeves with Lopez

On Lidia Queen Omphale (Sylvia Lopez) tries to turn Hercules into the latest in her long line of lovers, all of whom have been preserved, quite dead, in a special underground gallery (this reminds one of developments in Jayne Mansfield's Loves of Hercules). The climax of the film actually brings us back to Thebes, where total war has broken out, but in one of the film's best sequences, the two brothers fight a vivid dual to the literal death with swords. 

Sergio Fantoni with Reeves

Hercules Unchained is a notch above Hercules, with a better story and more action. The dubbed performances all seem adept enough, and cinematographer Mario Bava's often garish color schemes -- reminding one more of neon-lit Las Vegas than ancient Greece --  are as wild as ever. Hercules also has an interesting fight with a creep named Anteo, played by boxer-actor-strongman Primo Carnera. The film includes a ballet, and if that weren't enough, a ditty is sung by Iole as Hercules takes a nap in the back of their wagon. Aside from the waters of forgetfulness, the film has no fantastic elements to speak of. 

Verdict: Surprisingly entertaining bit of "peplum." ***.