THE SPIDER'S WEB

The Spider goes into action!

THE SPIDER'S WEB (15-chapter Columbia serial/1938). Directors: James W. Horne; Ray Taylor. Colorized. 

Criminologist Richard Wentworth (Warren Hull of A Bride for Henry) leads a dual life as the Spider, a take-no-prisoners crime-fighter. His colleagues are girlfriend, Nita (Iris Meredith), Jackson (Richard Fiske of Flying G-Men), and Ram Singh (Kenne Duncan of The Crimson Ghost). He has two main opponents: the masked Octopus, who is out to take over all of the power companies for his own illicit gain and who may be a member of the board of the Bureau of Power and Light; and Commissioner Kirk (Forbes Murray), who is a friend of Wentworth's but is always out to unmask him as the vigilante Spider. 

Ram Singh and Nita in a deadly water trap!

The Spider's Web is based on a whole slew of pulp novels featuring the character, and does not make many changes to the hero in the transition from page to screen. Hull makes a convincing hero, and is particularly good when he is in disguise as low-level criminal Blinky McQuaid. The other performers play with enthusiasm, especially Marc Lawrence as the hired gun, Steve Harmon. At one point the devilish Octopus uses a deadly ray gun to knock airplanes out of the sky. Cliffhangers include a deadly water trap, a plunging elevator, a trap with hot steam, and a bit when some dangling wires are cut, almost dooming our hero. 

The Octopus!

Although Wentworth is solicitous to a paper boy who is run over by escaping gunsels, it's odd that a young man named Charlie (Dick Durrell) and who helps the Spider, is pretty much forgotten after he is murdered by a confederate of the Octopus. The Spider's Web is an exciting and fast-paced serial with lots of action, its only deficits being a kind of hokey musical score, and a disappointing climax that is much too brief. As well, it perhaps doesn't create enough suspense over the identity of the Octopus as it could have. Ann Doran, Byron Foulger, Gloria Blondell, Nestor Paiva, and Tom Steele, have smaller roles. 

Verdict: As much fun and excitement as the famous pulp novels! ***. 

QUIET PLEASE: MURDER

George Sanders

QUIET PLEASE: MURDER (1942). Director: John Francis Larkin. 

"We're really a couple of walking horror stories." -- Myra. 

Jim Fleg (George Sanders of Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons) is a murderous and completely immoral reprobate who steals a priceless manuscript from the public library and tries to sell off copies of it to unsuspecting and unscrupulous collectors. His partner is the equally reprehensible and dangerous Myra (Gail Patrick). Private eye Hal McByrne (Richard Denning of The Black Scorpion) romances Myra to try to get to the ringleader of this illicit operation. Everyone winds up at the library, where Fleg pretends to be a phony detective so he can rip off the place some more, placing Hal and librarian Kay (Lynne Roberts) in danger. Will the real police get there in time? Quiet Please: Murder is a minor crime meller with an expectedly notable lead performance from Sanders, who is always fun to watch, although others in the cast -- including Sidney Blackmer, Byron Foulger [The Magnetic Monster], Arthur Space and the ones already mentioned -- are all on top of things. 

Verdict: Stay out of the library! **3/4. 

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. 

SENSATION HUNTERS (1945)

Doris Merrick and Robert Lowery

SENSATION HUNTERS (aka Club Paradise/1945). Director: Christy Cabanne.

Julie Rogers (Doris Merrick) has an unpleasant home situation with a grumpy father (Byron Foulger), drunk brother, pregnant sister-in-law and so on, but she does have a sympathetic boyfriend in aspiring musician Ray (Eddie Quillan). But things go awry when Ray takes her gambling and the joint is raided, resulting in Julie being thrown out of the house. She goes to work as a dancer at a dumpy gin mill called the Paradise Club. As Ray rises in the world and gets his own band, Julie becomes hung up on a good-for-nothing heel and gambler named Danny Burke (Robert Lowery), but this relationship may only lead to tragedy. 

Constance Worth and Lowery

Sensation Hunters could easily be sub-titled "When Good Girls Go Bad Due to Bad Guys." At 62 minutes the film certainly moves fast, but it could have used a lot more character development. Lowery is okay in the thankless and generic role of the good-looking creep who essentially lives off of women and has little back story. Doris Merrick's part is also under-written, but she does get across the confusion and desperation of her character. Constance Worth of G-Men vs the Black Dragon is excellent as Irene, the lady who runs the Paradise Club and is also carrying a torch for Danny. Wanda McKay of Roaring City scores as Helen, Julie's alleged friend who romances Ray and then goes after Danny herself. Isabel Jewell plays a singer at the Paradise who has seen better days, and Nestor Paiva is a loan shark who is after Danny for money. This is the second of two films that Monogram Studios released with the title of Sensation Hunters. Robert Lowery was the second screen Batman. 

Verdict: Not as sensational as you might hope. **. 

MA BARKER'S KILLER BROOD

Family portrait

MA BARKER'S KILLER BROOD (1960). Director: Bill Karn. 

Ma Barker (Lurene Tuttle) is a no-nonsense, vulgar, cop-hating termagant who wants the best for her boys -- and for herself. Against her weaker husband's wishes, she encourages her boys to go out and commit jobs at an early age. She has no patience with young Herman (Don Grady), who would prefer to play his fiddle like a "sissy." Herman is the first of the gang to come to a bad end. Before long, Ma is involved with the likes of Machine Gun Kelly, Pretty Boy Floyd, and John Dillinger. After robberies, murders and kidnappings, she holds off the Feds in an hours-long battle at her farmhouse, but crime does not pay ... 

Tuttle with Ron Foster

This low-budget film probably came about because of the success of the TV show The Untouchables, which in its first season had an episode on Ma Barker played by Claire Trevor. Tuttle is just as good and as tough as Trevor, but Killer Brood is not as good as that TV episode, although both vehicles are similarly brutal. Nowadays people claim that Ma Barker was at worst an accessory, that she knew her boys were criminals but took no part in their crimes and certainly didn't plan them. Whatever the case, she has entered folklore as "the most murderous mother of them all." (Shelley Winters also played the part in Bloody Mama.) Other cast members include Ron Foster as handsome son "Doc," and Byron Foulger as a crooked physician who comes afoul of nasty Ma. Tristram Coffin has a good if small role as Barker's second husband, and he is given a notable death scene. The film follows the basic facts along with much embellishing, and has an exciting enough climax. 

Verdict: Lurid, low-budget, and really not very good despite an effective turn by Tuttle. **. 

THE REBEL SET

Kathleen Crowley and Gregg Palmer

THE REBEL SET (1959). Director: Gene Fowler, Jr. 

Mr. Tucker (Edward Platt of Atlantis the Lost Continent) owns a coffee shop but he has a sideline: he plans heists for lots of money. He enlists the participation of three men whom he clearly thinks of as losers: struggling actor John (Gregg Palmer); failed novelist Ray (John Lupton); and George (Don Sullivan), the screw-up son of a famous movie star. Tucker actually plans his caper very well, and the heist of an armored car goes off without a hitch, until everyone makes their escape on a train and a murder or two occurs ... 

John Lupton and Don Sullivan

The Rebel Set was packaged as some kind of "beatnik" movie, but while there are appearances by stereotypical beatniks in the film, the main characters don't fit into that category and the film has little to do with them. The screenplay for this is not that bad, but the performances are a little too laid-back to give the pic the tension it requires. Don Sullivan essays a very different character from the one he plays in The Giant Gila Monster, but he's versatile enough to pull it off although he, too, underplays too much. Poor Ed Platt walks through the movie as if it were a rehearsal and he didn't know the cameras were filming -- his high water mark really was Get Smart.  Kathleen Crowley with her trademark whiskey voice gives the best performance as actor John's very worried wife, who thinks he's going to appear in a play instead of a robbery. Others in the cast include Robert Shayne, Byron Foulger, and Gene Roth [Earth vs the Spider]. The film was shot by Karl Struss. Probably influenced by films like The Killing and The Asphalt Jungle, it's not in their league.

Verdict: Just misses. **1/2. 

THE HIDDEN EYE

Edward Arnold

THE HIDDEN EYE (1945). Director: Richard Whorf. 

Jean Hamptom (Frances Rafferty of Public Defender) is engaged to Barry Gifford (Paul Langton), but their marriage may be delayed by murders in the family. Now you would think two murders would be enough for Jean to seek the help of blind friend Duncan Maclain (Edward Arnold), who happens to be a private eye, but she waits until three of her relatives -- elderly uncles in general -- are gone before she goes to see him. Each body is found with the same note, and the room is full of the same perfume. Naturally Barry is under suspicion as a potential fortune hunter, but there is one other suspect, lawyer Phillip Treadway (Ray Collins). When his antagonist realizes that Maclain is on the right track, his seeing eye German Shepherd, Friday, is kidnapped. 

Rafferty, Collins, Langton

This is the second of two MGM films starring Arnold as Maclain, and it's nearly as bad as the first one, Eyes in the Night. This sequel is at least more of a nominal murder mystery, but as there's only one serious suspect one can't say this has much suspense to it. The culprit is revealed halfway through the running time and the rest is a lot of uninteresting running around. At least Maclain gets involved in a rather ferocious fist fight at the very end that temporarily wakes the viewer up from their stupor. The cast is game, and Arnold, always an excellent actor, proves as charismatic as ever, but this material is way beneath him. Byron Foulger [Lady in the Death House], Morris Amkrum [Earth vs. the Flying Saucers] and Arthur Space are also in the cast. 

Verdict: This short-lived detective series was done in by very poor scripts. **. 

LADY IN THE DEATH HOUSE

Jean Parker

LADY IN THE DEATH HOUSE (1944). 

Director: Steve Sekely. 

Psychologist Charles Finch (Lionel Atwill) tells a group of associates the story of Mary Kirk (Jean Parker), who was fated to die in the death house. Finch had originally encountered Mary at a nightclub, when her dress accidentally caught on fire and Finch assisted her, along with Dr. Dwight Bradford (Douglas Fowley), with whom she becomes romantically involved. When a man who knows that her father was a criminal tries to blackmail her, he winds up dead and Mary is accused. Even after she is convicted and as the time of her execution draws very near, Finch suspects that her younger sister, Suzy (Marcia Mae Jones) may know more than she's telling. Will the real killer be discovered before it's too late? 

Douglas Fowley, Lionel Atwill, Jean Parker

The most interesting -- if very contrived -- aspect of the story is that Dr. Bradford, who wants to 
marry Mary, is employed as the executioner at the prison, and when she gets to death row, will get the job of killing her, even though he could easily refuse considering the circumstances. Early in the movie Bradford explains to Finch that he only works at the prison so that he can continue his research into reviving dead animals. But if you're hoping Bradford will kill Mary and then revive her, that whole aspect of the story is completely forgotten, making one wonder why it was ever brought up in the first place.

Although there is an attempt to create some suspense at the climax, Lady in the Death House is less than nail-biting. It's padded and dull and its running time of less than an hour seems twice as long. Atwill is fine but completely wasted, while Parker makes a competent leading lady. Byron Foulger and Cy Kendall have small roles and I believe I heard the voice of Lyle Talbot as a radio announcer. Director Steve Sekely's best-known feature is probably Day of the Triffids. 

Verdict: A very cheap P. R. C. production with little to recommend it. *.