BORN TO KILL-1947-Interesting low budget film noir with Lawrence Tierney in a standout performance as a psycho killer. He becomes involved with a divorced socialite (Claire Trevor) after he murders his girlfriend and her new lover.
Tierney winds up marrying her rich half sister (Audrey Long) and no one ends up happy. Elisha Cook Jr. is his friend who unsuccessfully tries to keep him in check. Walter Slezak is a private detective investigating the double murders. Also with Phillip Terry and Esther Howard.
This was the 6th feature by director Robert Wise (who died 2005) and it’s violent and dark but Tierney really carries the film despite the fact that he’s not the hero. It’s based on the novel “Deadlier Than The Male” by James Gunn. Tierney, who made THE DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE the same year later had headline making clashes with law and wound up in many Z movie productions before having a mini-comeback in RESERVOIR DOGS.
ROUJIN Z-1991-Scientists create an experimental robotic bed designed to take care of sickly bed-ridden old people. Their human guinea pig test run goes awry however and the robot bed goes on an uncontrollable rampage. A young nurse recruits several “dirty old men” patients to help stop the mayhem. This anime from AKIRA creator Katsuhiro Otomo is a funny (and sometimes deranged) satire on aging and care of the aged. Satoshi Kon who later directed PERFECT BLUE did work on it too.
DICK TRACY-1937-This is the first film adaptation of Chester Gould’s famous comic strip detective. It’s actually a 15-chapter serial that was later condensed and re-released as a feature in the early ‘40’s. Ralph Byrd isn’t bad as the square jawed detective, trying to find out who’s behind “The Spider Murders” but most of the “classic” supporting characters from the strip are left out. He’s assisted by Fred Hamilton as Steve Lockwood, Smiley Burnette as Mike McGurk, Kay Hughes as Gwen Andrews and Lee Van Atta as Junior.
The villainous Spider (who’s identity is kept secret till the final chapter) keeps Dick busy trying kill him, blow up bridges and even turning Tracy’s own brother against him and into a hypnotized slave! Like most serials it’s very far fetched and some of the acting is very bad. Former silent matinee idol Francis X Bushman appears as Chief Anderson. John Picorri is the hunchbacked mad scientist Moloch and Byron Foulger, Ray Bancroft and William Hopper also have roles.
Two more serials followed: DICK TRACY RETURNS and DICK TRACY’S G-MEN (both with Byrd, a busy character actor in other films until is untimely death in 1951 after filming a Dick Tracy TV series).
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