THE ELECTRONIC MONSTER

Peter Illing and Mary Murphy

THE ELECTRONIC MONSTER (aka Escapement/1958). Director: Montgomery Tully.  

Insurance investigator Jeff Keenan (Rod Cameron of G-Men vs the Black Dragon) is looking into a movie star's strange death, when he comes across a clinic that is doing new work in mental health. Dr, Maxwell (Meredith Edwards) and his wife, Laura (Kay Callard of A Woman Possessed), are helping patients "escape" via a device that plays soothing tapes -- including ballets that seem rather erotic -- directly into the brain. However, Paul Zakon (Peter Illing), who owns a movie studio -- and is engaged to Keenan's former girlfriend Ruth (Mary Murphy of Finger of Guilt) -- as well as the aforementioned clinic, has less benign uses for the Maxwells' experiments. Anyone who takes too close a look at the goings-on at the clinic winds up dead. 

Rod Cameron and Mary Murphy

The Electronic Monster has some interesting ideas in it, but in general the picture lacks suspense and thrills. The presence of lead Rod Cameron makes this British production seem even more like a lackluster TV show. It is very hard to believe that Ruth would have ever gotten engaged to Zakon. Zakon's colleagues include Dr. Hoff, a nasty Nazi (Carl Jaffe), and the nerdy hit man, Blore (Carl Duerling). Montgomery Tully also directed The Third Alibi.  

Verdict: One you can miss **.

G-MEN VS THE BLACK DRAGON (Second view) IN COLOR

Rod Cameron as agent Rex 

G-MEN VS THE BLACK DRAGON (15 chapter Republic serial/1943). Directed by William Witney and Spencer Gordon Bennett. COLORIZED.

Oyama Haruchi (Nino Pipitone), head of the Black Dragon Society, has come to the U.S. as a mummy in suspended animation. When he is revived, he embarks on a campaign of terror and sabotage. Fighting Haruchi are federal agent Rex Bennett (Rod Cameron), Chinese agent Chang Sing (Roland Got), and British agent Vivian Marsh (Constance Worth). Brave and adept as any man, Vivian handles a machine gun with aplomb and can also pilot an airplane. Haruchi's primary assistants are Ranga (Noel Cravat) and Lugo (George J. Lewis) and there is also a crow that attacks people on command after they are unwillingly deposited in an underground chamber via a trapdoor.

Nino Pipitone with pet

Well-directed, briskly-edited and action-packed, with those furious furniture-breaking fisticuffs that Republic serials were famous for, G Men vs the Black Dragon is a highly entertaining and often thrilling serial (and it benefits from being colorized even though the night time sequences are occasionally too dark). An Italian actor, Nino Pipitone played more than one Japanese role, and while you never quite believe he's a true Oriental, he is quite good and effective as Haruchi. The other cast members all play with heroic or villainous enthusiasm, as the case may be. And it's all backed by a rousing musical score by Mort Glickman. 

Vivian (Constance Worth) faces spear death

Highlights of the serial include Vivian tied to a log and nearly being buzz-sawed to death as well as being tied to a chair and almost punctured by a hurtling spear. Rex himself falls from a skyscraper window (saving himself by grabbing a firehose), has a fight in a cockpit and survives more than one plane crash, and is nearly crushed by toppling towers near the endangered Boulder Dam. Constance Worth was an Australian actress who first worked for RKO, then Columbia, then did free-lance work in a variety of B movies. She was married to George Brent for only a few months. In one silly sequence Vivian goes in disguise but doesn't bother to disguise her distinctive voice or accent, but no one is the wiser! 

NOTE: Okay, I already reviewed this serial on this blog about two and a half years ago -- not to mention on my brother blog Great Old Movies -- but discovering a colorized version on youtube made me watch it all over again. Here is my original BMN review, which is actually a little more detailed. 

Verdict: Snappy serial. ***1/2.  

STATE TROOPER

Don Haggerty and Rod Cameron

STATE TROOPER (1956). Half-hour TV series. 

State Trooper starred Rod Cameron as Rod Blake, the chief investigator for the Nevada State Troopers. In some episodes he was advised or assisted by Don Haggerty (of King of the Rocket Men) as Sheriff Elder and Robert Armstrong (of King Kong fame) as Sheriff Andy Anderson. The series lasted for three seasons and amassed 105 episodes, all of which are available on DVD. The stories ranged from chases after escaped convicts to missing persons cases to classic, complicated murder mysteries which sometimes sent Blake way outside of his normal stomping grounds. The show was slick, fast-paced and entertaining. Cameron was perfect as Blake, a strong but sympathetic character who could be as tough as nails when he had to be but also had a soft and fair side to him. If you were going to be arrested, you wanted the arresting officer to be Blake, as he'd ferret out the truth if anyone could. 

Faith Domergue

The most memorable episodes of the series include: "From Here to Molokai" --  a fugitive is accused of murder in Hawaii; "Boulder Joe's Bottle House" -- an old, retired safecracker is forced to do a job (with Jeanne Cooper); "The Last Stage" -- a hotel's prop stage coach is actually robbed (with Doris Packer); "Cinder Jungle" -- a railroad robbery leads to the murder of a sympathetic cop; "Diamonds Come High " -- a series of diamond robberies (with Doris Singleton); "No Blaze of Glory" -- a store owner's wife is caught in a blaze (with Vivi Janis and Frank Ferguson); "Safe on a Boat" -- a robbery of a casino's safe during a honeymoon boat trip; "Fury on Freemont Street" -- an intense woman (Virginia Christine) is supposedly scared of her ex-con ex-husband. 

Constance Ford

A passenger disappears from a charter boat in "The Talking Corpse" with Craig Stevens and Jeanne Cooper (again). Rod goes undercover to investigate thefts of mine ore and finds a nasty foreman and a trampy wife in "The Fancy Dancers of Steptoe Valley." Rod investigates what caused a stampede that killed a blind woman in "The Sound of Death" with Laurie Mitchell. In "Dancing Dowager" a con woman thinks Rod is rich and tries to fleece him. In "Cable Car to Tombstone" a man (Dennis Moore) falls off of the Hoover dam and a cop (Ross Elliott) is accused. In "Sweetheart of Sigmund Kaye" a young woman (Norma Eberhardt) with a fiance (Corey Allen) reports her parents missing after quite a long time. In "The Case of the Happy Dragon" the twenty-year-old corpse of a Chinese woman is stolen from a funeral home and ransomed. In "Stay Lost, Little Girl" an old man hires a private eye to find his missing niece, but she may not want to be found. "And Baby Makes Two" features a wonderful Constance Ford in a dual role of a Vegas showgirl and her lookalike involved in a casino robbery.

Norma Eberhardt and Corey Allen 

Other guest-stars on the show include Bart Burns, Paul Langton, Patrick O'Neal, Walter Reed, Andrea King, Virginia Gregg, Joan Taylor, Angie Dickinson, Joi Lansing, Faith Domergue, Robert Vaughn, Douglas Fowley and even Joan Crawford's brother Hal Le Sueur. State Trooper presented satisfying mini-dramas of good and evil and often featured lively fight scenes, interesting characters, and exciting chases. The episodes rarely went below a B+ in quality. 

Verdict: Good cop show with an excellent, perfectly-cast Cameron. ***. 

G-MEN VS. THE BLACK DRAGON

Nino Pipitone as Haruchi

G-MEN VS. THE BLACK DRAGON (15 chapter Republic serial/1943). Director: William Witney.

Haruchi (Nino Pipitone), the head of a Japanese society called the Black Dragons, is smuggled into the U.S.A. in a mummy case. There, with his deadly black raven at his side, he orders his henchmen. including Ranga (Noel Cravat), to commit various acts of sabotage, including setting fire to ships at sea. Haruchi is fond of sending men through a trapdoor to their doom, which comes at the beak and claws of his poisonous raven. His mission is to destroy the Occidental fools and take over the world for his people.

Rod Cameron as Rex Bennett

Haruchi's mission is imperiled by the brave actions of G-Man Rex Bennett (Rod Cameron), who is assisted by the equally brave British agent Vivian Marsh (Constance Worth) and Chinese agent Chang Sing (Roland Got). Vivian is as rugged and courageous as any man, throwing herself into battle at the drop of a hat and blasting away with a machine gun at one point. She is locked in a cabinet and nearly immolated in a room set on fire, affixed to a log heading towards a buzz saw, and tied to a chair with a huge spear aimed at her! As for Rex, he falls out of a skyscraper window, saving himself with a fire hose, crashes in a stolen robot plane, and nearly goes over a dam in a speedboat (a cliffhanger used repeatedly by Republic ever after). 

Constance Worth and Roland Got

Stalwart Cameron, feisty Worth and energetic Got are all fine in their roles. Nino Pipitone betrays his Italian accent now and then but offers a restrained and dignified -- if unexciting -- portrait of the nasty leader of the Black Dragons, but he is nevertheless effective. There is some astounding "choreography" in this as good guys battle bad guys in furious fights and their whirling dervish-like fisticuffs result in tons of smashed furniture -- nothing is unscathed! Mort Glickman's music score backs up every bit of action -- and there is a lot of it -- in a way that increases the thrills. I am not comparing director William Witney to Hitchcock, but there is a similarity in the brisk tight cutting of the film and a judicious use of close-ups. 

Made during WW2, the film understandably makes the villains either Japanese or Caucasian traitors, but there was a certain courage in having a Chinese-American actor playing one of the good guys. Born in San Francisco, Got appeared in 19 films but died much too young at age 32. Constance Worth was an Australian actress, and this was probably her largest role. The same is true of Nino Pipitone, as most of his roles were uncredited bit parts. The first chapter of this serial is entitled "The Yellow Peril" while chapter six is amusingly called "Death and Destruction!" of which there is plenty. Rod Cameron also played Rex Bennett in the serial Secret Service in Darkest Africa, which is not as good as this. Stuntman Tom Steele is not listed in the credits but he has two small speaking parts in the movie. Other familiar faces are John Hamilton, George J. Lewis, and Ken Terrell [Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman]. 

Verdict: Fast and furious, this is one of the most exciting Republic serials ever. ***1/2.