PORTLAND EXPOSE

Edward Binns, unidentified player, Frank Gorshin

PORTLAND EXPOSE (1957). Director: Harold D. Schuster.  Colorized. 

Tavern owner George Madison (Edward Binns) lives with his wife (Virginia Gregg) and two children, including daughter Ruth (Carolyn Craig), in Portland, Oregon. Sleazy criminal elements have moved into the city, and Madison is threatened if he doesn't agree to put in a certain party's juke boxes and slot machines. Fearing for his family's safety, Madison goes along with this, but when one of the creeps (Frank Gorshin of Invasion of the Saucer Men) tries to rape his daughter, he agrees to help the authorities take the whole group down. But what happens if they find out what he's doing? 

Binns with Russ Conway

Portland Expose is an absorbing enough B movie with some good performances. The showiest role goes to Gorshin, who delivers as a psychopathic creep who comes to a bad end on the railway tracks when even his buddies are disgusted by him. Jeanne Carmen (of The Monster of Piedras Blancas) plays a sexy gal who makes a play for George, and is the one who figures out that he's on the side of the angels and isn't really playing ball with them. Russ Conway (of Trapped) is the head bad guy, Phil Jackman, and never chews the scenery, instead exuding quiet menace. Joe Flynn of McHale's Navy and The Big Chase has a small role as one of the good guys working on the case. Carolyn Craig is best-known for her role in House on Haunted Hill. The climax where George and Ruth nearly get acid thrown in their faces is tense and suspenseful. 

Verdict: For something set in Oregon, this isn't too bad. **3/4. 

RUNAWAY DAUGHTERS

Kay, English and Castillo

RUNAWAY DAUGHTERS (1956). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

"Some men are kids at thirty. Some kids are men at twenty." 

Three young ladies have their problems at home. Audrey (Marla English) has overly permissive parents, Ruth (Anna Sten of Let's Live a Little) and George (John Litel). Mary (Mary Ellen Kay) lives with her father (Jay Adler), who fears she will become like her tramp mother who left home, and objects to her wanting to marry her boyfriend, Bobby (Steven Terrell). Angela (Gloria Castillo) is ignored by her unseen mother and has to make do with her horrible brother, Tony (Lance Fuller), who has his eye on Audrey. Fed up with life and parents, the three gals take off in a stolen car and get in a wreck, then decide to go to work at a dance hall run by Tony's gal pal Dixie (Adele Jergens). But can there possibly be a happy ending for any of these young ladies?

Adele Jergens and Lance Fuller

Although her part is not huge, Adele Jergens probably gives the best and most vivid performance in the movie, and she is a lot of fun as she verbally spars with Angela in more than one sequence. English makes a better impression in this than she did in her starring role in Voodoo Woman. Mary Ellen Kay is also a bit better than usual, and Castillo is probably the best actress of the three. Lance Fuller scores as Tony, herein given one of his best roles, and John  Litel makes an amiably clueless and borderline alcoholic father. Steven Terrell, who also appeared with  Castillo in Invasion of the Saucer Men, is adept and appealing. Frank Gorshin also makes an appearance as a teen, as does Nicky Blair as dopey Joe. Edward L. Cahn directed in haste. 

Verdict: You might need to runaway from this often silly melodrama. **1/4. 

INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN

Steven Terrell and Gloria Castillo

INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN (1957). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

"I bet you killed one of my price heifers!" -- Farmer Larkin

Out near Lover's Lane in the town of Hicksville, two teens who plan to get married -- Johnny (Steven Terrell) and Joan (Gloria Castillo) -- run over a little green man who came out of a spaceship. Bedeviled by the creature's severed but animated claw, they contact the police, only to be accused of killing a huckster named Joe (Frank Gorshin of Hot Rod Girl) who hoped to cash in on the alien's body. As the military close in on the spaceship and ultimately destroy it, Johnny and Joan decide to find the little green man's corpse for themselves, and do the sensible thing -- by fleeing the police station and stealing a patrol car! They enlist the aid of Joe's roommate, Artie (Lyn Osborn), who doesn't seem the slightest bit concerned or even that curious about his supposed friend's demise. Since the adults won't listen to them, Johnny and Joan gather up the necking teenagers and decide to take care of the alien invaders -- if that's what they even are -- themselves. 

aliens on the loose!

Invasion of the Saucer Men is not a very good movie, but it's not an out and out parody, although it comes close at times. The aliens, who are short but have big, membranous and ugly heads, appear only briefly, although one of them has a fight with a bull, injecting the animal with alcohol (as it did Joe) via needles at the end of its fingers. As for the cast, Steven Terrell was a regular on the sitcom Life with Father, and played a lot of "teen" roles, although he was actually 28 when he appeared in Saucer Men. Gloria Castillo was 24 and also played a number of teen roles, mostly on television. 

Because they're young? Terrell and Castillo

Raymond Hatton nearly steals the movie with his blustery and amusing portrayal of Farmer Larkin, who is always afraid some one will steal or kill one of his price heifers.  Douglas Henderson, who plays Lt. Wilkins of the U.S. Air Force,  was in Bert I. Gordon's King Dinosaur and amassed quite a few credits. Frank Gorshin, who later achieved a measure of fame playing the Riddler on Batman, is fine as the ill-fated Joe and seems to be having fun. Ronald Stein contributed a quirky musical score which is still creepy when it needs to be. The constant references to how the teens just won't be believed about the aliens because they're young, and how clueless those pesky adults can be, gets "old" very quickly.

Verdict: See it once and never again. **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. 

HOT ROD GIRL

Chuck Connors and John Smith

HOT ROD GIRL (1956). Director: Leslie H. Martinson. 

Mechanic Jeff Northrup (John Smith of Legacy of Blood) goes into a funk after his younger brother, Steve (Del Erickson), is killed after being goaded into racing in his hot rod. Although Jeff, who was in the car with his brother, tried to stop him, he loses his license and loses an interest in racing. His girlfriend, Lisa (Lori Nelson), tries to help him get over his depression, along with sympathetic cop Ben Merrill (Chuck Connors). Later, Jeff resists getting into a race with an out of town hotshot, Bronc (Mark Andrews), but tragedy results anyway. Now it's a question of who is responsible for a boy's death -- Jeff or Bronc?

Lori Nelson and Mark Andrews

Hot Rod Girls is an acceptable time-passer that might have amounted to something with a better script. The acting is generally competent, with John Smith giving a very good portrayal of a decent guy caught up in circumstances beyond his control.  Frank Gorshin of Batman fame scores as Flat Top, a flippant friend of Jeff's. Although he had very few credits, Mark Andrews makes his mark as the sinister and unpleasant Bronc. Roxanne Arlen is cast as the dippy blonde, L. B., and Dabbs Greer owns the auto shop where Jeff is employed. There's a fairly exciting sequence when Bronc and Flat Top play "chicken" in their cars, as well as a chase at the climax. Like most of these movies, the teens in this are played by actors in their thirties or thereabouts. Although Lisa is shown to be a racer herself in the movie's opening scene, this aspect of the film -- women racers -- is completely ignored despite the title. 

Verdict: Won't make your pulse race, but entertaining enough on its own terms. **1/2.