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. 

DOOMSDAY MACHINE

Grant Williams and Bobby Van 

DOOMSDAY MACHINE (1976). Directors: Harry Hope; Lee Sholem. 

Several astronauts, including Colonel Price (Denny Miller), Major Mason (Grant Williams of The Leech Woman), and Danny (Bobby Van), are about to take off for a flight to Venus when they are told some of the other men must leave to make way for three women: Dr. Turner (Ruta Lee), Lt. Carlson (Lorri Scott), and Russian Major Bronski (Mala Powers of The Unknown Terror). Some of the men are appalled with this development, while others leer. Halfway or so through the journey, they discover that a nuclear chain reaction has completely obliterated the earth. Will the group manage to reach Venus, who will pair off with whom, and will Mason manage to restrain himself before he has his way with Carlson? Wise old Dr. Perry (Henry Wilcoxon) might have all the answers. 

Ruta Lee and Mala Powers

Doomsday Machine sat on the shelf for years because there was no money to finish the picture. Even when it was finally released it was never quite finished, as the ending --which drags and drags -- features two different actors and different voices as Danny and the Russian major wind up in a lost Soviet spaceship. The shame is that while Doomsday Machine is very, very low-budget, it boasts some very good performances and an interesting story that keeps you watching. The shape of the spaceship they are traveling in keeps changing, there are all kinds of technical errors, and the crew, although initially shocked, never have any real reaction to the loss of loved ones back on earth. 

Grant Williams

As the kind of sleazy Captain Mason, Williams probably gives the best performance in the film, but the others are all very credible. Casey Kasem plays a mission control officer back on earth and James Craig of The Cyclops is Dr. Haines. There is a creepy, uncredited score that borrows a bit from Forbidden Planet but certainly adds to the atmosphere. Lee Sholem also directed Pharaoh's Curse. 

Verdict: Interesting casting and storyline help cope with a miniscule budget and other problems. **1/2. 

PHARAOH'S CURSE

Mark Dana and Ziva Rhodann

PHARAOH'S CURSE (1957). Director: Lee Sholem. 

"It was never Robert's fate that he should meet a peaceful death." 

In 1902 Egypt Captain Storm (Mark Dana) travels with a woman named Sylvia Quentin (Diane Brewster) to her husband's archaeological site in the Valley of the Kings. Native uprisings against the Crown have necessitated a bodyguard for Mrs. Quentin and Storm is elected. Along the way they encounter a mysterious female named Simira (Ziva Rhodann), whose brother, Numar (Alvaro Guillot), is working at the dig. Sylvia basically wants a divorce from her husband, Robert (George N. Neise), but bigger problems develop when they open the tomb of King Rahotep, and there is a transfer of souls from the mummy into Numar, who instantly ages and even turns into a blood-drinking vampire. 

A vampire that looks most unwell

Pharaoh's Curse has some atmosphere and isn't badly acted but it never develops into a truly memorable horror film. In his vampire form, Numar manages to drain every ounce of blood from both animals and humans, but he does it in such a record-breaking amount of time that it's almost comical -- one can imagine him slurping up a person's entire blood supply in a matter of seconds. The fact that he hardly seems animated or energetic enough to do much of anything makes it even funnier. George N. Neise seemed to make a specialty of playing immoral and weasel-like characters. This was the first film credit (after one TV appearance) of Ziva Rhodann, an Israeli actress who was first billed as Ziva Shapir in this film and others; she did mostly  television work. From those fine folk at Bel-Air Studios. 

Verdict: Mediocre vampire-mummy movie. **1/4.