RAILROADED

Hugh Beaumont

RAILROADED (1947). Director: Anthony Mann. 

Steve Ryan (Ed Kelly) is falsely accused of robbery and the murder of a police officer when the real culprit is nasty hood Duke Martin (John Ireland). Duke's hard-as-a-hooker girlfriend, Clara (Jane Randolph), fingers poor Steve, but even she begins to develop a conscience when other witnesses wind up murdered. Sgt. Mickey Ferguson (Hugh Beaumont), a cop from the old neighborhood, has to arrest Steve, incurring the wrath of Steve's feisty sister, Rosie (Sheila Ryan), who begins a relationship with Duke to ferret out information. Meanwhile Mickey hopes he can get a love-sick but frightened Clara to turn on her boyfriend and tell the truth. 

John Ireland and Jane Randolph

Railroaded is an absorbing if minor entry in the film noir genre, bolstered by some good performances. Although best known as a kind of bland father on Leave It to Beaver, Beaumont was generally good playing cops, private eyes, and especially bad guys in low-budget melodramas like this one. Randolph and Ryan, who have a fairly zesty cat-fight at one point, are both effective as the ladies in the story, and Ireland makes a convincing villain. Steve Ryan is fine as the decent guy accused of a terrible crime, but he only appeared in two other pictures. Keefe Braselle plays another guy who took part in the robbery, and Roy Gordon [Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman] is a mob boss who gives Duke his orders; both are good. From PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation). 

Verdict: Lower case film noir with some interesting performers. **1/2. 

THE WASP WOMAN

Susan Cabot

THE WASP WOMAN (1959). Produced and directed by Roger Corman. 

Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot), the head of a once-flourishing cosmetics company, has a problem. Now hitting forty, she uses younger models in her ad campaigns, but now the sales are falling off because these models don't have an image that registers with consumers as she does. She realizes that she might not only save her company but look young again when she is contacted by Dr. Zinthrop (Michael Mark), who tells her he's developed an enzyme from wasps that has remarkable properties. Alas, it also has a deadly side effect, and before long people in the building start disappearing. A hideous woman with a freakish wasp-like face is on the loose! 

The Wasp Woman on the rampage!

The wasp paralyzes and devours her victims while they're still alive. This last aspect is sort of glossed over (one can imagine it would take Janice quite some time to completely consume the hefty watchman played by Bruno Ve Sota), and there isn't much real on-screen bloodshed in the movie. The pic isn't that well-paced, either, but its last quarter has some exciting sequences, such as when the Wasp Woman attacks a nurse and drags her off for dinner. Susan Cabot is very good in the lead, although one never knows exactly how much she remembers of her exploits once she's turned into the buzzing, hungry horror. Barboura (sic) Morris is a secretary, and the board members include Anthony Eisley, Roy Gordon [Attack of the 50 Foot Woman], and William Roerick. Leo Gordon's screenplay has its amusing elements and some good dialogue to go with it. Fred Katz's brassy score is unusual, but I'm not certain it's the best kind of score for this kind of horror flick. This is one of those movies that you can't take seriously but nevertheless has its depressing aspects because the characters are in such an utterly hopeless situation. 

Verdict: Cute little Corman horror film. **1/2. 

ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN

Allison Hayes after she grows to fifty feet

ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN (1958). Director: Nathan Hertz (Nathan Juran). 

"It's a sure thing it wasn't a Japanese gardener." -- The sheriff studying some giant footprints. 

Nancy Archer (Allison Hayes) has a number of serious problems. Being married to the unfaithful "Handsome" Harry (William Hudson) has turned her into a raging dipsomaniac. She has particularly been affected by Harry's affair with Honey Parker (Yvette Vickers), whom he's got stashed in to the local hotel. 

Yvette Vickers and William Hudson

But poor Nancy has a much bigger problem. Driving away in a huff from her husband, who's been eyeing Honey at the bar, she comes across a spherical UFO in the highway. A huge giant man (Michael Ross, who also plays a bartender) steps out of the UFO and makes a grab for her fabulous diamond, the Star of India. Later on Nancy again encounters the giant, with brave Harry leaving her to the big guy's tender mercies. Nancy is later found on top of her mansion's pool house. 

"Something's happened to Mrs. Archer!" Eileen Stevens

If that weren't bad enough, during the night poor Nancy grows into a giantess, almost throwing her hysterical (in every sense of the word) nurse (Eileen Stevens) into conniptions. Then comes the titular "attack," with Nancy bursting out of her elephant chains, tearing the roof off of her mansion, and strutting into town to take care of her husband and "Honey." Has Handsome Harry finally met his match? 

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is a hoot. It is very clear that the filmmakers, everyone involved in the production, did this with their tongues in their cheeks, and were having fun with the whole concept and all of the characters as well. Playing it straight, more or less, just makes the flick more entertaining. Considering that Nancy is not only rich but rather sexy in her way, one wonders why Harry wants to bother with that tramp, Honey Parker, although it's a possibility that his wife's neurotic qualities might have driven anyone to distraction. Hayes is effectively angst-ridden as Nancy, Hudson is fine as the cold-blooded Harry, and Yvette Vickers nearly walks off with the movie as Honey. After Harry implies that he will murder Nancy so he can run off with Honey, he tells her to "read the papers." Unfortunately, his murderous mission is interrupted by Nancy's abrupt change in size. When Honey next sees Harry, she scornfully states "I read the papers." Vickers is an amusing. sexy vixen who knows her way about a line. Another funny scene (of many) is when Nancy throws her drink at a TV set when the announcer (Dale Tate) intones: "Come now, Mrs. Archer -- A man may ignore a million dollars, but fifty!"

The effects of the movie are catch as catch can. You can see through the giant and the giant-sized Mrs. Archer, but the space man's huge prop hand isn't bad. The movie never tells us what happens to Nancy's bedroom after she "blows up like a balloon," but one can imagine that her expanding body knocked down a few walls and she has to lie on the floor wrapped in sheets. Roy Gordon and Otto Waldis are fun as Nancy's doctors, Frank Chase is a delight as Deputy Charlie, who also has a yen for Honey, Ken Terrell makes a convincing manservant, Jess, and George Douglas is solid as the sheriff. Ronald Stein's evocative score is a decided asset. A 1993 TV remake completely missed the mark because it went for out and out comedy. 

Verdict: Great fun, and a virtual catalog of 1950's Americana. ***.