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. 

THE BIG CHASE

THE BIG CHASE (1954). Director: Arthur Hilton. 

Peter Grayson (Glenn Langan of The Amazing Colossal Man) is a new police officer and his wife, Doris (Adele Jergens of Blonde Dynamite) is expecting their first baby and fears complications to her pregnancy. Pete's buddy, Lt. Ned Taggert (Douglas Kennedy of Rockabilly Baby), hopes that his pal will try to become a detective but he has other plans. Meanwhile Brad Bellows (Jim Davis) is planning a payroll robbery before he even gets out of prison. When the day comes for the attack on an armored car, Bellows is accompanied by his wife (uncredited), Kip (Lon Chaney Jr.), and others. Just as Doris goes on the operating table, Pete and his partner are off in pursuit of Bellows and his confederates. This results in a chase sequence that is certainly not as exciting as the film's poster would indicate (someone jumps out of a copter at one point, but no one falls to their death). 

The Big Chase looks cobbled together from TV outtakes, and the two storylines -- Peter and his wife, and the robbery -- never quite jell. The acting is fine, however, and the pace is swift enough so that the running time -- less than an hour! -- doesn't seem padded. Lon Chaney hasn't a line of dialogue and his scenes -- along with half of this movie -- were lifted from an earlier film, a color 3D short entitled Bandit Island. Joe Flynn, the exasperated commander from McHale's Navy, plays a reporter to whom Kennedy tells the story. Langan and Jergens were married for many years in real life. 

Verdict: Not much to recommend in this soggy suspenser. *1/2.