FEDERAL OPERATOR 99

Marten  Lamont and Helen Talbot

FEDERAL OPERATOR 99 (12 chapter Republic serial/1945). Directors: Spencer Gordon Bennet; Wallace Grissell; Yakima Canutt.

Master criminal Jim Belmont (George J. Lewis) who loves classical music but only seems to play "Moonlight Sonata," has a number of decidedly anti-social money-making schemes in which people are kidnapped, threatened, and even tortured for information. (The owner of a Stradivarius is told he'll have his fingers crushed if he doesn't hand it over!)  Fortunately special federal operative 99, Jerry Blake (Marten Lamont), is out to stop Belmont any way he can. In this he is assisted by the gun-carrying Joyce Kingston (Helen Talbot,) who is far more than a mere "secretary." Belmont also has a female helpmate, a sadistic creature named Rita (Lorna Gray of Exposed), not to mention a chief assistant named Matt Farrell (Hal Taliaferro). Jay Novello [Atlantis the Lost Continent], "Mr. Versatile," plays a crooked jeweler.

Joyce and Rita have at each other! 

In addition to some great fight scenes, the serial boasts some splendid cliffhangers: Joyce is nearly incinerated when she is locked in a cabinet; a car crashes through a high floor with Jerry out on a ledge; Joyce goes over a cliff in a runaway laundry basket etc. The best and most horrifying cliffhanger has Joyce tied up in an aircraft factory while a huge propeller moves inexorably down a track directly towards her. Rita is broken out of jail in a clever fashion, and has a cat-fight with Joyce, who simply throws her out of a truck! At one point nasty Rita even threatens a countess by holding a cigarette lighter near her face. What a witch! Of the players, British Lamont is appealing and plays well with the feisty Talbot. George J. Lewis plays with restraint but there are times you wish he was a little over-the-top; Lorna Gray is more on the mark. 

Verdict: Federal Operator 99 is a remarkably entertaining serial with lots of action and interesting incidents throughout. ***1/2. 

WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS

WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS (1994). Written and directed by Michael Cohn.

Captain Swaggert (Martin Sheen) investigates when the severed hands of several children are found by police. Swaggert brings in Special Investigator Audrey Macleah (Ally Walker) to help with profiling the perpetrator, but the trail leads instead to a mute young man, Jordan (Tara Subkoff), who is in an institution and seems to have some connection to the hands. As the police follow different leads, Audrey discovers that Jordan has a twin, Jennifer (also played by Subkoff), and that things in the past -- and an old, seemingly abandoned house -- may unravel the answers that Audrey seeks, if she survives that long ... 

Ally Walker

When the Bough Breaks plays a bit like a TV show, but that may be because former Clairol girl Ally Walker also played a profiler, and the lead, in the series Profiler (1996 - 1999) -- she probably got the part because of her performance in this movie. While she is by no means terrible, and has some good moments, I'm not completely sold on her, either. Another problem is that some of the sequences between Audrey and Jordan border on the inappropriate and seem a mite ridiculous. Martin Sheen isn't given an especially interesting part in this although Ron Perlman makes more of an impression as the twins' father. There is a creepy and violent climactic confrontation in a basement, but otherwise this is just too ordinary to recommend. As I watched I kept thinking Dario Argento could have turned this plot into a very satisfying giallo film, but no such luck.   

Verdict: Just not good enough on any level. **1/2. 

ACCOUNT RENDERED

John Van Eyssen and Ursula Howells

ACCOUNT RENDERED (1957). Director: Peter Graham Scott. 

Robert Ainsworth (Griffith Jones of Hidden Homicide) is unhappily married to the faithless Lucille (Ursula Howells), who is carrying on with a man, Clive Franklyn (John Van Eyssen), who is painting her portrait. Said portrait reflects the ugliness of her soul beneath the alleged beauty. Robert follows his wife after her assignation with Clive, and sees her arguing with a fellow in a park. He trips, hits his head, falls unconscious, and later finds out that during this time Ursula was strangled. Robert is, of course, the main suspect, but there is also Clive, as well as Sarah (Honor Blackman), who is secretly in love with Robert. Ursula was also dallying with John (Philip Gilbert), who is married to the neurotic Nella (Mary Jones) -- could one of them have done the deed? Robert's friend Gilbert Morgan, (Carl Bernard), provides an alibi for Robert but does he have secrets of his own?

Griffith Jones

Account Rendered is another very short, very minor British murder mystery which makes no attempt at cleverness a la Agatha Christie. The killer should come as no great surprise to anyone. In an attempt to avoid suspicion, Robert keeps silent about what he saw in the park, even though the fellow with his wife could have been the murderer! There is absolutely nothing to distinguish this film from dozens of others, although the acting is more than adequate and Van Eyssen is quite effective as the artist. This later turned up as an episode of the American anthology series Kraft Mystery Theater!

Verdict: Minor British melodrama. **.  

BERSERK

Joan Crawford and Ty Hardin

BERSERK (1967). Director: Jim O'Connolly.

Tough broad Monica Rivers (Joan Crawford) is at first not too concerned -- to say the least -- when one of her high-wire performers is killed in an accident as she feels it will attract the ghoulish to her circus in droves, which it does. When her business partner Albert (Michael Gough of Horrors of the Black Museum) gets a rivet pounded into the back of his head, Monica is free to do what she chooses -- and the murders continue. Monica begins an affair with the hunky new high-wire artist Frank Hawkins (Ty Hardin) who wants a piece of the circus action for himself. Two other women cause issues: Matilda (Diana Dors), who does a saw-the-lady-in-half act with her husband and can't keep her hands off Frank; and Monica's daughter Angela (Judy Geeson), who gets thrown out of school and insists on joining the troupe. Who will be the next to die?  

Diana Dors with Hardin

Berserk is a very entertaining film that manages to work up significant suspense even as it shows us some amazing acts from the real-life Billy Smart Circus -- trained elephants, horses, and poodles, not to mention the lions. Crawford plays with her customary authority although at times she just seems to be reading her lines the way she would at a rehearsal. Ty Hardin, better-known for his beefcake status than for his acting, is actually quite good in this and even manages to do love scenes with the much-older Crawford with conviction-- they are unlikely lovers, however. Dors is her usual vivid and zoftig self and there is also good work from Geeson, Gough, George Claydon as the little person Bruno, and others. The circus performers do an amusing number called "It Might Be Me." The Billy Smart Circus was also featured in the earlier film Circus of Horrors. 

Verdict: Genuinely suspenseful and a lot of fun. ***. 

BLAIR WITCH (2016)

BLAIR WITCH (2016). Director: Adam Wingard. 

In this second sequel (after Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2) to The Blair Witch Project, James (James Allen McCune), goes with friends to see if he can find his long-missing sister, Heather, who disappeared 15 years ago in the woods supposedly haunted by the Blair Witch, who was murdered there many, many years before. The group, which includes Peter (Brandon Scott) and Ashley (Corbin Reid), hooks up with two locals, Lane (Wes Robinson) and  Talia (Valorie Curry), who are more familiar with the area. These last two fake a little evidence at first to get the group intrigued, but eventually when weird things begin to happen it is clear that they couldn't be behind the mysterious and frightening happenings. James is determined to find the spooky house that appeared in the original found footage (that forms the first movie) and he does -- more's the pity. 

the talented cast of Blair Witch

As found footage movies go, Blair Witch is better than most, and while the film engendered some serious hate, I found it much better and more professional than the original. If I recall correctly, the 1999 movie meandered along and was somewhat boring with only a creepy final few minutes, but Blair Witch manages to sustain the eerie atmosphere and tension almost throughout the entire movie. The climax, especially the discovery and exploration of the horrible old house, not to mention a bit when Lisa (Callie Hernandez) crawls her way through a narrow underground tunnel to, hopefully, escape and you get the disquieting feeling that you're down there with her, is marvelously effective and chilling (excruciating for claustrophobes). All of the actors are on top of things. The movie includes a drone camera that can fly over the woods to give the group some aerial views, but this doesn't add too much to the movie, and there's a little gore as well. 

Verdict: Atmospheric and suspenseful and for my money much better than the original film. ***. 

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL

Tom Tyler crashes through!

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL/12 chapter Republic serial/1941). Directed by John English and William Witney. 

Very young reporter Billy Batson (Frank Coghlan Jr.) accompanies some scientists to the Valley of the Tombs in Siam. There they uncover some secret chambers,  one of which holds ancient lenses that could be used to create a devastating weapon. In another chamber Billy meets the old wizard Shazam, who imbues him with special powers based on the gods of legend. All he has to do is utter the magic word "Shazam!" and he instantly transforms into the powerful hero, Captaim Marvel (Tom Tyler)!

The sinister Scorpion wants those lenses!

Back in the States, both nerdy Billy and the super-butch captain will need their wits about them because they have an adversary, a masked man who calls himself the Scorpion and who is secretly one of the scientists on the expedition.  The lenses have been divided up among the other men and the Scorpion will stop at nothing to get them so that he can create a "Solar Atom Smasher." Billy, CM, and secretary Betty (Louise Currie) all find themselves in doom-traps thanks to the Scorpion and his equally evil henchmen. These include a guillotine, a bomb in Billy's plane, a machine gun safe trap, and a car with Betty inside careening floor by floor down a parking garage, among others.   

Captain Marvel takes to the air

"Junior" Coghlan is boyishly earnest and although older than the character in the Captain Marvel comic book this is based on, he manages to come off as a juvenile even though he was 25-years-old at the time. Former cowboy hero Tom Tyler has limited dialogue but he makes an impressive Captain Marvel, and the flying sequences and other FX are well-done by the Lydecker brothers. Captain Marvel is a tough character who takes no prisoners, tossing crooks around like tenpins, and even throws one guy off the roof of a building to his death in chapter five, in which he also gets trapped by a river of molten ore. 

Frank (Junior) Coghlan Jr. as Billy Batson 

Among the supporting cast, the best impressions are made by Reed Hadley [Public Defender] as Rahman Bar, who is working with the Scorpion, and John Davidson as the Indian Tal Chotali, who is also a suspect. An unseen Gerald Mohr is the voice of the Scorpion and apparently plays the part while masked, but when the villain is unmasked he is revealed as someone else entirely. An exciting scene in chapter ten has the gang trapped on a floundering ship, and Billy suggests they use a breeches buoy to get everyone off of it before it sinks. It's a suspenseful sequence, but one can't help but think that Captain Marvel could have simply flown everyone off the ship in a quarter of the time. Nevertheless, this is a very entertaining serial. 

Verdict: More entertaining than the comic books, frankly. ***.                                                              

AMERICAN PREDATOR

AMERICAN PREDATOR. Maureen Callahan. Viking; 2019. 

While you've heard of Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, you may not have heard of serial killer Israel Keyes, whose career was ended after he kidnapped a young woman from a coffee kiosk in Alaska before murdering her. After Keyes was caught, it developed that he had been responsible for other deaths and disappearances in previous years, including a middle-aged couple that he raped (both of them) and slaughtered. Author Callahan looks at the investigation into Keyes activities, focusing on how a prosecutor named Feldis insisted on doing the interviewing of Keyes even though this was a serious breach of professional conduct and that he was not very adept at it.

Two portraits of Israel Keyes

Callahan looks into the bisexual (as he described himself) Keyes' background, as well as into his bizarre early family life, which might have driven anyone crazy (not that his actions were in any way justified). Keyes had a relationship and a child with a woman named Tammie, then became engaged and lived with another woman who had no idea of what he was up to. He kept "kill kits" hidden in various places that he might use when the proper circumstances and victims presented themselves and he was in a sadistic mood. Callahan suggests that Keyes might have been allowed to kill himself in prison. 

Verdict: Horrifying story of one sick individual, but somehow this is not a classic true crime book and probably not the last word on Keyes. **1/2. 

WHERE HAVE ALL THE PEOPLE GONE?

Kathleen Quinlan and Peter Graves

WHERE HAVE ALL THE PEOPLE GONE? (1974 telefilm). Director: John Llewellyn Moxey. Teleplay by Lewis John Carlino. 

Steven Anders (Peter Graves of Beginning of the End) and his children David (George O'Hanlon Jr.) and Deborah (Kathleen Quinlan) are out camping when they investigate a cave and discover something bizarre has happened while they were inside. Their friend Clancy (Noble Willingham), who was not inside the cave, becomes very sick and eventually dies while they are taking him to civilization. What's weirder, his body disappears. Back in town the Anders discover that somehow solar flares (and, ironically, a virus) have killed off most of the populace, turning their bodies into dust. In addition there are no phones or electricity. Steven's wife did not go camping and now his primary focus is to fight off both animal and human predators and make his way back to his spouse. 

Verna Bloom as Jenny

Where Have All the People Gone? is a compelling and suspenseful story that at times comes off like an eerie Roger Corman movie. The characters, including a woman survivor named Jenny (Verna Bloom) whose husband disintegrated and whose children were attacked and killed by maddened dogs (a side effect of the solar flares), are well-developed and the acting is quite good -- with the exception of lead Peter Graves, who rarely works up the consternation and emotion Steven would be feeling. Steven eventually finds his wife, but it is not a happy moment. It might have been good if the script offered some more detail as to what's happened, but it works as a nominal end-of-the-world scenario that is not without hope for the future. 

Verdict: Depressing but quite good doomsday telefilm. ***.

JUNGLE GIRL

Acuff, Gifford, Neal

JUNGLE GIRL (15 chapter Republic serial/1941). Directed by William Witney and John English. 

Nyoka (Frances Gifford) lives in the jungle with her father, Dr. John Meredith (Trevor Bardette). Nyoka has never been told that her faher has an evil twin brother, Bradley, who shamed the family with his criminal actions and jail time. With the help of an associate, Latimer (Gerald Mohr of The Catman of Paris), Bradley traps his brother, murders him, and takes his place. The two men are after diamonds that belong to John and are hidden in caves guarded by natives. Then there's the problem of the wicked witch doctor, Shamba (Frank Lackteen), who wants to get rid of Nyoka and her pals -- including pilot Jack Stanton (Tom Neal) and his buddy Curly (Eddie Acuff) -- so he can be the most powerful man in the place. For this reason he also covets a sacred lion amulet.

Trevor Bardette and Gerald Mohr

Jungle Girl is an excellent serial that particularly percolates in the second half when the stakes are raised and the good guys -- and gal -- seem in increasingly frightening danger.  While one certainly can't rave about Ms. Gifford's acting skills, the character she plays is admirably strong, brave, and resourceful; the same can be said of little Kimbu, (Tommy Cook), the jungle boy who comes to everyone's assistance on several occasions, along with his adorable monkey. The other cast members are all satisfactory, and Gerald Mohr as the slimy Latimer easily takes the acting honors. In addition to some exciting cliffhangers, there are other thrilling moments throughout the serial. 

Don't buy a used car from this man: Frank Lackteen

Nyoka and her buddies wind up trapped in a pit with a hungry lion; on a rope bridge overhanging a stream full of gators; dealing with an outraged and very strong gorilla, and caught in a fire-spear trap, among others. The best sequences have to do with Nyoka trying to pull Jack out of quicksand while natives lob arrows at Curly; a scene when the trio are trapped inside a stone chamber as the floor slides into the wall to reveal a very deep and deadly drop; and especially a classic bit when Jack is placed on a conveyor belt with his body being pulled towards a huge, crushing block of stone that may crash down on top of him at any moment. The climax features Jack hanging to the bottom of his plane as Latimer takes off, but one of them comes to a pretty grim ending. 

Little Kimbu (Tommy Cook) and his pet monkey

Ken Terrell [Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman] who appeared in many of these serials, has a larger part than usual as the native, Mananga. Things get confusing at times because Mananga seems to switch sides in each chapter, and more than one extra looks an awful lot like the actor, as if he put his relatives to work. Little Tommy Cook, who gives a boyishly earnest performance, grew up to appear in such films as Missile to the Moon. The African natives are all played by Caucasian actors. Briskly edited and directed, Jungle Girl is one of the best serials ever made by Republic or any other studio. 

Verdict: How do you think Indiana Jones and James Bond got up to their own stunts? ***1/2. 

CIRCUS OF HORRORS

Anton Diffring

CIRCUS OF HORRORS (1960). Director: Sidney Hayers. 

A plastic surgeon flees England after a job on a woman's face goes wrong -- although he claims she didn't follow his instructions -- and winds up in France, where he re-invents himself as Dr. Schuler (Anton Diffring) and takes over a circus once owned by Vanet (Donald Pleasence). Ten years go by and Schuler has filled the circus with criminals whose faces he has changed and who have somehow developed abilities as performers. The late Vanet's daughter, Nicole (Yvonne Monlaur), thinks of Schuler as her uncle and is grateful that he healed her childhood scars. 

Griffith, Hylton, and Diffring

Schuler may seem like a hero to Nicole, but in reality he becomes very possessive of the women he remodels, and a number of them die in "accidents" while they are performing. The police and a reporter are suspicious, but there's nothing they can pin on Schuler. His latest acquisition is a woman named Melina (Yvonne Romain), who is cast as Helen of Troy and apparently trained as a lion tamer! Schuler's associates Martin (Kenneth Griffith) and his sister, Angela (Jane Hylton), who is in love with Schuler, are starting to get antsy. And we mustn't forget the lady back in England, who still has a horribly scarred face ... 

Donald Pleasence

Anton Diffring gives another winning performance in Circus of Horrors, and there is also good work from Donald Pleasence, Griffith, Hylton, and some of the ladies. The script, written by George Baxt, has to be taken with a grain of salt, as Schuler finds it incredibly easy to turn crooks, whores and so on into skilled circus performers, the deaths of so many women should have brought in the authorities much sooner, and it's especially hard to believe anyone, such as trapeze headliner Elissa (Erika Remberg),  would actually do their dangerous act after trying to blackmail the even more dangerous Schuler. Still, the movie is absorbing and at times delightfully lurid if never distastefully graphic.  Hayers also directed Burn, Witch, Burn. 

Verdict: Zesty British horror film. ***. 

ELEVATION Stephen King

ELEVATION. Stephen King. Scribner; 2018.

In this interesting if unremarkable novella by King -- a homage to Richard Matheson (to whom the book is dedicated) in general and his novel The Shrinking Man in particular -- hero Scott Carey (the name of the hero of Matheson's novel) discovers something very strange is happening to him. According to his scale he is losing weight rapidly, but his appearance isn't changing at all. His doctor is utterly baffled, but Carey is afraid that sooner or later his complete lack of mass -- despite what he looks like, a pot-bellied middle-aged man -- will send him soaring into the heavens. Carey's neighbors are a lesbian couple who are trying to run a restaurant in King's fictional Castle Rock but encountering difficulties due to prejudice. It's not just that they're a gay couple but that they're married. Carey makes it his business to help them, even though one of the women comes off like a stereotypical man-hater with a chip on her shoulder. In this testament to how friendship can overcome all barriers, the two women eventually become concerned friends of Carey's.

While the gay aspects of the book, however well-meaning (especially after King's nasty depiction of a gay male couple in Needful Things), are a bit awkward, his heart seems to be in the right place. The book is as well-written as anything by King, but some readers might be a little put off by the ending, which is somewhat moving but also a little comical and inexplicable. It's a good, fast read, but by no means a King classic.

Verdict: Worth an hour of your time if you don't expect too much. **3/4. 

X MARKS THE SPOT

Damian O'Flynn

X MARKS THE SPOT (1942). Director: George Sherman. 

Eddie Delaney (Damian O'Flynn of The Hidden City) is a private eye who is about to go into the Army. His father, Timothy (Robert Homans), is a beat cop who is shot to death when he confronts some suspicious characters at a warehouse. Eddie is determined to find out who murdered his dad, but he is warned by Police Lt. Bill Decker (Dick Purcell) that he can't become a vigilante no matter how he feels. When a suspect named Marty Clark (Jack La Rue) is shot and killed in his own nightclub, Bill arrests Eddie for the crime. In tried and true PI fashion, Eddie slugs Bill and takes off to solve the crime on his own. He has help from his "dream gal," Linda (Helen Parrish), a woman whose voice he has only heard when he asks for a song on the jukebox but who got involved in the murder when someone asked her to say there was a black-out and she tells everyone to turn out the lights. 

Helen Parrish and Damian O'Flynn

X Marks the Spot is a standard WW2 private eye melodrama that doesn't boast too many surprises. Not as rugged as other private dicks, O'Flynn still makes a reasonably appealing protagonist, and Dick Purcell is also good as the head cop on the case. Helen Parrish is acceptable as Linda but there are more interesting females in the movie, such as Lulu (Anne Jeffreys), who dallies with Marty, and Billie (Edna Harris), Linda's amusing older co-worker. The only other well-known cast member in the movie is Neil Hamilton, who plays a man who hires Eddie to find out who stole two empty trucks that belonged to his company.

O'Flynn with Dick Purcell

The motive behind everything may seem strange today but we have to remember that during WW2 rubber was a hot commodity. This is another movie that takes advantage of the fact that decades before the jukeboxes with which we are familiar, people in clubs could get tunes by calling up an exchange wherein the "d.j" would play records at a central location and pipe them out to different establishments (or something like that; it's a bit confusing, frankly). George Sherman also directed The Lady and the Monster. 

Verdict: Acceptable PI meller. **1/2. 

GENERAL ELECTRIC THEATER: BLAZE OF GLORY

Lurene Tuttle and Lou Costello

 "BLAZE OF GLORY." General Electric Theater. 1958.

This was the first episode for the seventh season of General Electric Theater, hosted by has-been and future president Ronald Reagan. Lou Costello plays Neal Andrews, a plumber who gets a phone call from a woman needing emergency service. His wife, Ginny (Lureme Tuttle) isn't bothered so much by the fact that the client is female as that the whole thing sounds suspicious: Lou will be picked up by a man and must wear a suit and tie instead of his plumber's outfit. Driven to a hotel by guys who seem like thugs he learns that he has been taken off by a gang of jewel thieves. 

Joe Corey and Jonathan Harris 

At the hotel, Neal meets the head of the gang, an elegant man named Favier (Jonathan Harris). A diamond has apparently dropped down the sink and Neal is required to obtain it -- or else. But with the help of a dissatisfied gun moll, Gladys (Joyce Jameson), he just might be able to outwit the thieves. Well, when they were talking about "the golden age of television," I doubt they meant this mediocre, if well-acted, episode, which isn't much different from the type of stuff Costello did in the movies minus the slapstick. A cast stand-out is Harris, who downplays the campiness he displayed on Lost in Space and delivers a fine performance as the oily and rather sinister Favier. 

Verdict: Costello is as amiable as ever even if the material is trite. **.

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.

THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS

 

THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS (1946). Director: Robert Florey.

 Another fascinating -- if familiar -- Peter Lorre characterization is the cornerstone of this highly entertaining mystery/horror film, directed with style and suspense by Robert Florey, who also directed Lorre in The Face Behind the Mask. When crippled pianist Francis Ingram (Victor Francen) dies, relatives descend upon his Italian villa, which is already occupied by his nurse Julie (Andrea King), the scholarly Hilary (Peter Lorre) and mysterious hanger-on Bruce Conrad (Robert Alda). J. Carroll Naish is the police commissioner who investigates when more bodies turn up, the murders strangely attributed to a severed and disembodied hand. Charles Dingle is Ingram's brother-in-law, who is determined to steal the estate away from Julie. An interesting aspect to the movie is that you may find yourself liking the bad guys, and disliking the kind of cold and sleazy romantic couple played by Alda and the strangely sinister King. The film works well and is even eerie for most of its length, although the filmmakers couldn't resist having a last comical wink at the audience at the end.

Verdict: Worth viewing. ***.

THE SHUTTERED ROOM

 

THE SHUTTERED ROOM (1967). Director: David Greene. 

This is an oddball adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story that basically removes the supernatural element! Mike Kelton (Gig Young) brings his young bride Susannah (Carol Lynley) back to the island off New England and the mill house she grew up in and inherited. But there's a sinister lurking presence waiting in the house ... Actually more menace is generated by Oliver Reed and his gang of inbred laughing thugs than by anything else. A scene when they tie up Young, leave him on the roadside, and repeatedly race up to his body in their car and stop just short of smashing him is harrowing and well-executed. Reed gives the most vivid performance, but the others are fine, including Flora Robson as Aunt Agatha. This is one of those movies where if everyone just acted logically there would be no danger and no plot. There are eerie scenes and Greene's direction has its good points -- some people found it "arty" -- but this could not be classified as one of the better or more faithful Lovecraft adaptations were it not for the fact that so many others were much worse. The jazzy background score is no help at all. 

Verdict: Despite flaws it holds the attention and has its moments but it's only minimal Lovecraft. **1/2.

TORSO

 

TORSO (1973/Italy). Director: Sergio Martino. 

While this Italian giallo film lacks the style, finesse and classy art direction of the best of Mario Bava and Dario Argento, it does manage to work up some suspense and chills in the final quarter. Young women are being stalked, murdered and dismembered in Rome. The suspects include a professor, a love-sick student, a handsome doctor, a co-ed's uncle, the "village idiot" and others. The heroine, Jane, (Suzy Kendall) retreats with three friends to a house in the country high atop a cliff, but finds she can not escape the killer. The movie begins inauspiciously and promises to be a pretty dull item, but it sustains interest until an excellent sequence when Jane hides from the maniac as he begins to dismember her friends. Later there is a very taut, chilling sequence when he goes through her room in search of her and nearly finds her. If the whole movie had been on the level of these tense scenes it really might have amounted to something. As it is, horror fans may find it worthwhile. The professor, Franz, is played by John Richardson, who co-starred with Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C. (1967) and did little else of note. The script throws in a lesbian love-making scene for no apparent reason other than to presumably add some extra titillation. None of the killer's many victims, either male or female, ever seem to fight back. At one point he manages to dispatch three women (off-screen) at the same time! 

Verdict: Not great, but of interest to fans of psycho-shockers. **1/2.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

 

HAVE A SAFE HALLOWEEN EVERYONE! (save some candy for me, LOL!)

THE MIGHTY GORGA

THE MIGHTY GORGA (1969.) Director David L. Hewitt.

Anthony Eisley of The Wasp Woman plays a circus owner who teams up with a female animal trapper (Megan Timothy) to find a mythical giant ape in the supposed jungles of Africa. (This section of the jungle is referred to as "Green Hell" and is supposed to be an area where no white man has ever gone -- even though the natives are all played by white guys!) Climbing to the top of the plateau (shades of The Lost Continent with Cesar Romero), the couple encounter a hilarious forced perspective T Rex with a flapping bottom jaw, as well as a kind of cave lizard or dragon brought to life by a few seconds of crude stop motion animation (the only time it's employed in the film). 

Gorga turns out to be man in an ape suit and a mask with immobile eyes. Miniature props are used to make the ape seem giant-sized. Director Hewitt's script is an affectionate homage to great and not-so-great old monster movies like King Kong (giant ape), The Lost World (plateau with dinosaurs), Monster from Green Hell, and so on, but the film lacks the budget and imagination to make it work and the whole thing comes off like an ambitious home movie. This is a cheapjack, ultra low-budget film devoid of pacing, style or suspense. The actors aren't bad at all, and give the film more than it deserves. Kent Taylor and Scott Brady are also in the cast. Even if you think you love monster movies you should probably skip this one. 

Verdict. 1/2* for the creditable acting.

WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST

The Colossal Man makes an entrance

WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST (1958). Director: Bert I. Gordon. 

In this sequel to The Amazing Colossal Man, there are reports that Glenn Manning may be alive down in Mexico. His sister, Joyce (Sally Fraser) -- his fiancee from the first film is out of the picture, literally and figuratively -- tries to convince the authorities, especially Major Baird (Roger Pace), that her brother is subsisting on food from trucks that he snatches off the roads. Joyce and Baird find the wrecked trucks, and Manning -- now played by Duncan Parkin and with his face horribly disfigured -- does put in a startling appearance. Can Glenn be captured and brought to some island where he can live out his days in peace? 

Baird and others hide from the giant 

Despite its grim premise, War of the Colossal Beast is a fun movie, and the Colossal Man makes a lively monster. There's a terrific scene when the giant pursues a truck in the hopes he'll eat some of the doctored food inside of it and fall asleep, which he does after trying to grab the men and crushing one poor sheriff as he topples. Glenn also escapes from captivity in an airplane hanger more than once, grabbing a bus full of screaming children at the Griffith Observatory in L.A. at the finale, although it's incredible that no one spots the big guy until then.

Peek a boo! 

The acting in this is serviceable. Sally Fraser comes off like a talented high school student as opposed to a professional actress, although it's not her fault that Joyce seems delusional and stupid, desperate to keep her brother alive when he would probably rather be dead. War of the Colossal Beast uses a lot of footage from the previous film, but new footage includes Glenn's tug of war involving some soldiers and a rope; his brief rampage when he gets loose in the airport and terrifies a woman in the control tower; and a black comedy bit when one agency after another tries to pass on their responsibility as far as the out-sized Manning is concerned.  Typically for Gordon, the FX are uneven but generally effective.

Verdict: Despite its absurdities and its amusing veneer, and not to be pretentious, but the tragedy of the decent Manning's fate is always there under the surface.. ***. 

NEVER SEND FLOWERS: JAMES BOND

NEVER SEND FLOWERS. John Gardner. Putman's/Berkley/1993. 

This James Bond adventure was promoted as "007 hunts a serial killer!", serial killers being very much in vogue at the time in popular fiction. While the ultimate villain in this -- a deranged actor named David Dragonpol -- does kill several people, the only real "serial killer," a murdered woman's brother, is out of the picture when the story begins. Bond meets and works with a Swiss agent named Flicka von Grusse, whom he eventually develops deep feelings for. Dragonpol has built a museum inside his mansion which recreates different periods in history via the use of holograms and animatronics, so it's no wonder that his ultimate goal is to kill Princess Diana and her boys when they take a trip to EuroDisney in Paris. 

Although most of Gardner's Bond novels seem well-thought out and well-constructed, this time Gardner seems to have written the book on the cuff, with little pre-planning, giving the whole thing a haphazard and perfunctory feel. It is the weirdest James Bond novel ever written, culminating in an utterly ridiculous scene when Bond fails to spot Dragonpol at a key moment, making 007 seem incompetent.  Never Send Flowers is still entertaining and has some suspenseful moments, but if you want to sample Gardner's Bond, this is not the novel to start with. Read License Renewed instead. 

Verdict: 007 treading water. **1/2. 

ZORRO RIDES AGAIN

Zorro about to spring into action

ZORRO RIDES AGAIN (12 chapter Republic serial/1937). Directors: John English; William Witney. 

An evil man named Marsden (Noah Beery) wants to take over the Califronia-Yucatan Railroad and doesn't care who gets hurt in the process. He is opposed by minority stockholders Phillip Andrews (Reed Howes) and his sister, Joyce (Helen Christian). The principal stockholder in the Railroad is James Vega (John Carroll), who seems utterly disinterested in the railroad or much of anything else. Only his friend, Renaldo (Duncan Renaldo), knows that Vega is actually the new Zorro, the great-grandson of the original. Using his whip and other skills, and riding his horse "El Rey," Zorro mounts a one-man campaign against Marsden and his nasty lieutenant, Brad Dace, also known as "El Lobo" (Richard Alexander).

John Carroll as Zorro/James Vega

Zorro Rides Again is an early Republic chapterplay and the first of several to feature the Zorro character and his descendants. This serial takes place in "modern" times. There are plenty of horses and cowboys, but also cars, trucks, planes and skyscrapers, one of which Zorro nearly falls off after he raids Marsden's Manhattan office. In other cliffhangers, Zorro and pals are on a train that is bombed by El Lobo's pilot; has to deal with a ticking time bomb in the railroad supply warehouse; and is sent hurtling down a mine track toward imminent destruction. In the best cliffhanger, Zorro winds up with his foot caught by a derailing switch just as an express train comes barreling towards him!

Helen Christian and Reed Howes

The villains in this are especially ruthless. In the first chapter they murder both the father trying to protect his little boy but the child as well. A surprising bit shows blood coming out of the mouth of a cowboy who's been shot -- you rarely if ever saw blood in one of these old serials or westerns. Zorro hangs out in a kind of "bat cave" which can be accessed by a secret tunnel behind a painting. Frankly it doesn't make much sense that Vega wouldn't simply tell Phillip and Joyce that he was Zorro, and it seems incredible that they were fooled even for an instant. One of the most satisfying scenes shows Zorro literally whipping El Lobo onto his ass in a nightclub, although the deaths of the bad guys in this are not nearly terrible enough. There are some good chases and fight scenes in this serial, but the kind of incredible choreographed fisticuffs that Republic could boast did not quite develop until a later period. John Carroll makes a likable hero and looks the part. 

Verdict:  Entertaining early Republic cliffhanger with some exciting and suspenseful sequences. ***. 

FROM HELL IT CAME

Tabanga carries off unfaithful widow

FROM HELL IT CAME (1957). Director: Dan Milner. 

Because an atomic bomb was detonated 1500 miles from a Pacific atoll, followed by a "freak typhoon" which may have blown fall-out towards the island, a scientific team has been called in to investigate. They find that a plague is decimating the island, but that radioactivity is negligible -- so there are no giant intelligent crabs as in Attack of the Crab Monsters -- but the team have other problems. The witch doctor Tano (Robert Swan) still blames the natives' sickness on "Devil Dust" from the sky. Chief Maranka (Baynes Barron)  orders the death of Kima (Gregg Palmer of The Rebel Set) because he covets Kima's unfaithful wife, Korey (Suzanne Ridgway). Dead and buried, Kima comes back as the legendary "creature of revenge," the Tabanga. 

Tod Andrews, Tina Carver, Jon McNamara

Apparently some of the "Devil Dust" did make its way to the island -- although one native suggests that Kima is not the first Tabanga, eliminating fall-out as a cause of this mutation -- because, confusingly, Tabanga registers an alarming amount of radioactivity. This aspect is dropped as the team -- Dr. Bill Arnold (Tod Andrews), Professor Clark (John McNamara), helpful Eddie (Mark Sheeler), and Dr. Terry Mason (Tina Carver of Uranium Boom) -- dig up the tree stump that has risen over Kima's grave and bring it back to their headquarters. They don't seem surprised when overnight the stump has turned into an eight-foot-tall tree with facial features and a heartbeat. The tree also oozes a green blood-like substance. As it revives and escapes the lab, it resembles nothing so much as a malignant Gumby on a bender! Stumbling around in a comical manner, Tabanga manages to kill off several people. 

Andrews and Carver

The screenplay for From Hell It Came is workable, but the film itself is nearly done in by a ludicrous monster. The actors are professional enough, although at times the male scientists seem about as enthused about things as shipping clerks on a coffee break, and other times at least one of them seems slightly drunk. Terry Mason is depicted as an independent woman who isn't interested in marrying Bill Arnold (although this changes by the film's end) yet when she's carried off by the tree-monster this feisty lady faints and becomes helpless. The film is greatly abetted by the score by Darrell Calker, who includes a love theme for Terry and Bill but also adds excitement to the otherwise not very exciting scenes with Tabanga. In fact, the music is better than the picture deserves. Korey has a "catfight" with her rival for the Chief's affections, Naomi (Tani Marsh), at one point, but Tabanga intervenes. One disappointing aspect to the story is that the annoying British lady who works at a trading post, Mrs. Kilgore (Linda Watkins) isn't killed off by Tabanga. Although Watkins got an "introducing" credit in the film, she had actually starred in a series of now forgotten films in the thirties -- she was off the screen for 17 years, but had quite a few credits afterwards. 

Verdict: Trees don't make the most interesting of monsters. **.