MACHETE

Carlos Rivas and Mari Blanchard

MACHETE (1958). Produced, directed and co-written by Kurt Neumann.

Sugar plantation owner Luis Montoya (Albert  Dekker) comes back to Puerto Rico with a young bride in tow, the sexy blonde Jean (Mari Blanchard). Jean, of course, wants some security from this much older man, but when she sees his ward and foreman, Carlos (Carlos Rivas), she also wants him. Carlos tries to resist Jean's charms at first, but the two are caught in a compromising situation. Luis is filled with fury, and the situation isn't helped by Luis' cousin, Miguel (Lee Van Cleef), who has always been jealous of Carlos' place in the family and plots revenge. Then there's the housekeeper, Rita (Ruth Cains), who is in love with Carlos. It's a sure bet things are not going to end well ... 

Albert Dekker

Machete is a melodrama that could have used some steamy overheating. The younger wife falling for the handsome foreman is as old as They Knew What They Wanted, with sugar cane instead of grapes, but there the comparison ends. Mari Blanchard is as vivid and entertaining as ever, but the others just seem to be saying lines, although if this is bad acting, or just an indication that the film was probably shot in two days with little rehearsal time, is hard to say. Blanchard and Rivas make a sexy duo but they aren't allowed to actually do that much together despite an interesting swimming sequence late in the picture. Machete was filmed hastily on an actual sugar plantation, which gives the film some atmosphere, but little else. An interesting aspect of this production is the casting of Black/Latino actor Juano Hernandez, who was born in San Juan, as Dekker's major domo, Bernardo, who seems an adviser to Luis and a member of the family even though he doesn't sit and have dinner with them. Dekker and Blanchard also appeared in Kurt Neumann's similarly-mild She-Devil. 

Verdict:  This flick needs more steam! **. 

TWICE-TOLD TALES

TWICE-TOLD TALES (1963). Director: Sidney Salkow. 

Star Vincent Price appears in three stories freely adapted from the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne. In Heidegger's Experiment Price and Sebastian Cabot play love rivals who discover the dead woman they both loved has been preserved by a natural chemical like a fountain of youth. As portrayed by Mari Blanchard, however, the lovely Sylvia comes off more like a hard-boiled slattern than anything else, but there's no accounting for taste. In Rappaccini's Daughter a young man (Brett Halsey) falls in love with a woman (Joyce Taylor) who has been raised on poison by a jealous father (Price) and whose very touch means instant death. This is the best of the three stories but it isn't well served by the insufficient playing of the lovers. As an actor, Halsey was good-looking and little else. Primarily a TV actress, Taylor was vivid enough in George Pal's Atlantis the Lost Continent but in this she's simply bad. The weakest segment is a poor and loose adaptation of The House of Seven Gables which is somewhat bolstered by the appearance of Beverly Garland and not at all by the unlikely presence of Richard Denning, although he's not terrible. More derivative of other horror films than of Hawthorne. 

Verdict: Has its moments. **1/2.

SHE DEVIL

Mari Blanchard

SHE DEVIL (1957). Director: Kurt Neumann. 

Dr. Dan Scott (Jack Kelly of Cult of the Cobra) is convinced that all animals have the ability to heal themselves, and has come up with a miracle serum derived from fruit flies. His associate and friend Dr. Richard Bach (Albert Dekker of Gammera, the Invincible) warns him against testing it on humans, but they both agree there is no harm in testing it on a hopeless case, a dying woman named Kyra (Mari Blanchard). The serum not only saves Kyra's life, but gives her amazing healing properties as well. To study any further effects of the serum, Kyra agrees to move in with the two men -- the maid Hannah (Marie Blake) will serve as chaperone -- but they soon discover that Kyra has a decidedly ruthless and opportunistic nature. 

Marie Blake displays her opinion of Kyra's painting

She Devil should have been a fun movie, but it lacks energy and real viciousness and never fully exploits its potential. One gets the impression that Kyra -- who has a hard-luck story we never really get to hear -- was a sociopathic personality long, long before Dr. Scott administered his magical elixir, but this never occurs to the scientists. Despite the elixir being derived from fruit flies, Kyra never starts crawling across the ceiling or turning part-bug as The Wasp Woman does -- or as the hero does in The Fly, also directed by Kurt Neumann -- although that certainly might have been amusing. Blanchard plays the sexy hard-boiled, one-dimensional Kyra as well as anyone could, supported by a bland Kelly and an earnest Dekker. Marie Blake, herein billed as "Blossom Rock" as she was later on The Addams Family TV show, has one of her best and biggest roles and is very funny as the disapproving maid Marie, especially when she reacts to a painting of Kyra that she gives cast-off lover Dr. Scott as a wedding present. 

Jack Kelly and Albert Dekker

Two other significant roles in the film are played by John Archer and Fay Baker, the former as Barton Kendall, a wealthy suitor -- and then husband -- of Kyra's and the latter as the former's outraged wife, Evelyn, who is helped into eternity by the actions of the second Mrs. Archer. Although the score by Sawtell and Shefter at times tries to work up some pathos, sympathy, for Kyra (in the hopes that it was the serum that made her evil, as unlikely as that might be), the movie is too junky to really make anything of this. In fact, She Devil would have been a much more worthwhile watch if it was even more lurid and sensational. Paul Cavanagh shows up briefly as a wealthy man Kyra assaults and robs in a dress shop. Kurt Neumann also directed They Were So Young. 

NOTE: The same source material was used for an episode of Science Fiction Theater, "Beyond Return," that aired two years earlier. 

Verdict: Too tame by far. **. 

JUNGLE HEAT

Mari Blanchard and Lex Barker

JUNGLE HEAT (1957). Director: Howard W. Koch.     

Roger McRae (Glenn Langan) and his wife, Ann (Mari Blanchard), arrive in Hawaii and discover that the manager of the plantation where they are to reside has been murdered. Roger takes over, while his unhappy wife becomes friendly with Dr. Jim Ransom (Lex Barker). There is a lot of talk of Japanese fifth columnists in Hawaii during this pre-WW2 period, as well as difficulties with the plantation workers, whom the entitled McRae sees mostly as slaves. Major Dick Grey (Rhodes Reason of the Bus Stop TV series) has a Japanese wife, Kimi-San (Miyoko Sasaki), whom is unfairly suspected of being a fifth columnist. Meanwhile a planter named Mathews (James Westerfield) manipulates things behind the scenes as a worker named Felix Agun (Glenn Dixon) is hunted by the law.

Rhodes Reason and Lex Barker

Jungle Heat tries to add some substance to its melodramatic story but nothing ever really jells. With this cast, one would have hoped for a sexy and lurid romp but the movie only briefly veers in that direction and never goes anywhere. As usual, Barker reads his lines without adding any nuances, although Blanchard, Langan, and Westerfield, as well as the other cast members -- including an intense Dixon -- are more on target. The score by Les Baxter seems to do most of the work, giving the flick an energy it generally lacks. The ironic ending isn't much of a surprise given the time period. Another cheap production from Bel-Air.    

Verdict: Half-baked melodrama with interesting elements that don't quite add up. **.