THE MAGNETIC MONSTER

THE MAGNETIC MONSTER (1953). Director: Curt Siodmak. Produced and co-written by Siodmak and Ivan Tors. 

Dr. Jeffrey Stewart (Richard Carlson) is an "A-Man" or investigator for the Office of Scientific Investigation (OSI). He and his partner Dan Forbes (King Donovan of Invasion of the Body Snatchers) are called in when a store owner (Byron Foulger) complains about weird magnetic disturbances terrifying his salespeople. The magnetic disruption is traced to an office upstairs where a dead man is found. Stewart discovers that scientist Harold Decker (Leonard Mudie) has somehow created a strange new element that needs massive amounts of electricity to keep it from imploding, causing mass destruction. Stewart manages to get the element from a dying Decker and off of an airplane before it can cause it to crash, but just when he thinks the danger is over there is a disaster at the facility where it is being stored. Growing in size (although never to gigantic proportions) the element will implode every eleven hours, eventually changing the earth's very orbit and boiling away the seas. Can anything destroy this "monster" before it destroys the world? 

The Magnetic Monster may not have giant spiders munching on mankind but it's horrifying enough in its own way, adeptly building up tension and suspense until the final nail-biting moments in a cyclotron deep in a mineshaft. Richard Carlson is the perfect lead for this kind of picture, radiating efficiency and concern in equal measure, and he gets good support from Donovan and Jean Byron as his wife. Others in the cast include Michael Fox as Dr. Semy, who consults with Stewart, and Kathleen Freeman, of all people, as a switchboard operator at the OSI. Billy Benedict of Blonde Dynamite is amusing, as usual, as one of the salesclerks in Foulger's store, and Foulger himself always strikes the right note. Siodmak directs at a swift pace. He was also responsible, unfortunately, for Bride of the Gorilla. 

Verdict: Surprisingly creepy and absorbing, and not a dull moment. ***1/4. 

BLONDE DYNAMITE

Gabriel Dell and Adele Jergens

BLONDE DYNAMITE (1950). Director: William Beaudine. 

Gabe Moreno (Gabriel Dell) has a job as a messenger in a bank, and also has a new girlfriend named Joan (Adele Jergens). Joan manages to steal $5000 from Gabe and give it to head operator Champ Fallon (Harry Lewis), who tells Gabe that he'll get the money back if he gives them the combination to the safe. While this is going on, Louie Dumbroski (Bernard Gorcey) is importuned to take a vacation, after which Slip Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) opens up an escort service in his Sweet Shoppe which employs Sach (Huntz Hall) and the other Bowery Boys as unlikely dates for lonely ladies. Then Champ hits on the scheme of breaking into the bank by digging through the floor of little Louie's shop. 

Escorts? 

Believe it or not, Blonde Dynamite has some genuine laughs in it as the zany story proceeds. A scene with Sach and Whitey (Billy Benedict) taking two older ladies to the opera is a scream, and there's also a funny sequence when Joan hires all of the boys as  escorts to a party to get them out of the way and plans to give them all a mickey. The screenplay makes good use of the comic talents of Slip and his gang, and Gabriel Dell exudes a certain likable charm of his own. Adele Jergens is saucy and vivid as usual as the bad girl who drives the action. Handsome Harry Lewis did mostly television work in the fifties and afterwards and offers a smooth performance in this. 

Verdict: Cute Bowery Boys picture with spirited players. ***.