Noir Thing

 

THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE-1958-A Kansas City cop Bill Brennon (Rod Cameron) investigates the death of his mobster brother TJ (Don Megowan) in Chicago. Two hit man Hart (Gerald Milton) & Santoni (Richard Karlan) want a package of dope TJ's widow Lyn (Vera Ralston) might have. Nightclub bartender Rak (Mike Mazurki) is also after the stash and is in love with Lyn. There's a plot twist toward the end in this minor film noir crime drama directed by Joseph Kane and written by Richard C. Sarafian. 

Co-star Vera Ralston (sometimes billed as Vera Hruba Ralston) was a former Olympic skater for Czechoslovakia who it's said once insulted Hitler to his face. She retired from acting after this film. 

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The Beat

 

MURDER IS MY BEAT-1955-Cop Ray Patrick (Paul Langton; later in IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE) searches for nightclub singer Eden Lane (Barbara Payton), a suspect in the murder of Frank Dean. He tracks her to a snowbound cabin. He arrests her and after she's convicted he accompanies her to the state pen and she convinces Ray she saw Dean alive on a platform. He helps her escape and investigates but all his leads go cold. He also falls in love with her. Later Eden disappears. This part is actually a flashback told by Ray to his boss (Robert Shayne). Ray convinces his boss to help him. 

There's an interesting conclusion in this little film noir masterpiece by the one and only Edgar Ulmer. 

The film also features un-billed roles by Harry Harvey, William Fawcett and Hank Patterson. 

MURDER was written and produced by Aubrey Wisberg who also did the screenplays for THE NEANDERTHAL MAN (with Robert Shayne) and THE MAN FROM PLANET X. This was the last feature role for the notorious Barbara Payton who was once involved in a violent relationship with actor Tom Neal who ten years earlier had starred in Ulmer's classic DETOUR. A public fight between Neal and actor Franchot Tone in which Payton received a black eye helped sink her sagging career. She drank herself to death and died at age 39 in 1967.

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Bela on TV

  (imdb)

SUSPENSE-THE AUTO-LITE THEATER-1949- "The Cask of Amontillado"-In Nazi Germany an arrogant drunkard General Fortunato (Bela Lugosi in a rare dramatic TV role) visits a once prominent citizen Count Montressor (Romney Brent; later a series regular on TV's “Zorro”) intent on killing him and stealing his faithless wife. At first the count accepts his enviable fate and inviting the general (who once worked for the count and married and murdered his sister) in for a drink but then resolving to kill his nemesis by burying him alive. The only other actors to appear are Ray Walston and Frank Marth, both in uncredited roles. Rex Marshall is the announcer. Robert Stevens directed this rare unusual version of the Edgar Allan Poe classic short story.

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Evil Cult

 

(imdb)

 

THE DEVIL'S HAND-1961-A man named Rick Turner (Robert Alda) has mysterious reoccurring dreams about a beautiful woman. His fiancee Donna (Ariadna Welter) seems supportive until they visit a doll shop and see a doll that resembles his dream girl. The owner Mr. Lamont (Neil Hamilton) says Turner ordered the doll but he denies it. Then they see a doll that resembles Donna. She gets upset. Lamont seems to be practicing voodoo as he sticks a pin in the Donna doll and she winds up in the hospital. Finding out who it's for, Turner delivers the dream girl doll and meets Bianca Milan (Linda Christian), a breathy beauty who knows all about him. "You're evil but fascinating and beautiful…" he says. She belongs to a cult that worships "Gamba, the devil god of evil". Turner falls under her spell and dumps Donna. Although he's pledged his allegiance to Bianca and Gamba, he sneaks into their basement temple one night and removes the pin from the Donna doll. When Lamont finds out, he and Bianca plan to sacrifice Donna to their god (Bianca really just wants her out of the way) but Turner shows who he really cares about in the fiery finale where he saves Donna and frees himself from Bianca's spell...or does he?

 Little black & white supernatural thriller is like an overlong episode of 'Thriller". Not bad but drawn out. Director William Hole Jr. also made THE GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW (1959) and worked mostly in TV. Bruno VeSota and Jeanne Carmen have small roles. Lead actresses Christian (who was once married to Tyrone Power) and Welter were sisters. Screenwriter Jo Heims later wrote PLAY MISTY FOR ME.

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Hammer!

 

 (wikipedia)

CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN-1957-From his death row jail cell Baron Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) tells his tale to a priest and the events leading up to creating his infamous monster. At first he has his friend Paul (Robert Urquhart) helping him bring a dog back to life, but soon Victor becomes obsessed with creating life. Paul gets very concerned when Victor's cousin Elizabeth (Hazel Court) arrives to marry him. Also concerned is the maid (Valerie Gaunt) Victor's having an affair with. Victor succeeds and creates a monster (Christopher Lee) out of dead body parts. It escapes and kills a blind man but Paul shoots it. He thinks it's dead but Victor brings it back to life. The Baron is quite a bastard, killing Prof. Burnstein (Paul Hardtmuth), a brilliant old intellect for his brain and using his creation to dispatch the pregnant maid. He spends lots of time in his lab, neglecting the faithful Elizabeth. He treats the monster terribly and doesn't care about much else. Eventually the monster terrorizes Elizabeth and Victor accidentally shoots her (not fatally). Paul could clear him but refuses. Victor, now considered insane is ushered to the gallows..... 

Shot in color by Terence Fisher with a screenplay by Jimmy Sangster, this film kind of ushered in the new phase of updated classics putting Hammer Pictures on the map. It was followed the next year by REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (also by Fisher and Sangster and starring Cushing).

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The End

 

 (rotten tomatoes)

END OF THE WORLD-1977-A priest (Christopher Lee; in AIRPORT 77 the same year) enters a roadside cafe and asks to use the phone but it explodes and the owner is electrocuted. The priest then goes to church where he's greeted by... himself. After the credits Prof. Andrew Boran (Kirk Scott) picks up some strange signals from outer space. He's so famous there's a banquet in his honor but he's more interested in the signals. His boss (Dean Jagger)) sends him on a lecture tour but before his next lecture he and his wife Sylvia (Sue Lyon; LOLITA) decide to try and track the signals because they seem to be coming from Earth. They visit a nunnery then wander around in the dark. 

They stumble into the underground radio lab of Beckerman (Lew Ayres) who's listening to Russian space talk. Their investigation leads them to St. Catherine's, a church overseen by Father Pergado (Lee). He lets them check around but they don't find anything. Later they return to the place and are captured by Pergado and his nun horde. It turns out they are really aliens who killed Pergado and his nuns and assumed their form. They are stuck on Earth and want to go home. They force Boran to steal a device that will enable them to leave. He gets them the device but they left out one small detail: they are also going to destroy the Earth. Alien Pergado and his phony nuns escape through some kind of transporter. Boran and Sylvia follow. The Earth explodes. The future Sir Chris must have had a free weekend when he agreed to star in this sci-fi bore-fest with a lot of too dark night scenes. Macdonald Carey is the head of security in two quick scenes. 

Director John Hayes had been kicking around low budget cinema for quite awhile when he made END OF THE WORLD. Earlier he made GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE and GARDEN OF EVIL (both 1972). Screenwriter Frank Ray Perilli wrote the soft core takeoff CINDERELLA (with Cheryl Smith in the title role) the same year, which Kirk Scott co-starred in. He also penned LITTLE CIGARS, DRACULA'S DOG and LASTERBLAST.

Sinbad

  

(imdb)

THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD-1958-The famous sailor (Kerwin Matthews) and his crew wind up on a mysterious island also the home of the legendary Cyclops. During their encounter they meet magician Sokurah (Torin Thatcher) who has a magic lamp with a boy genie (Richard Eyer from THE INVISIBLE KID a year earlier) inside. They all escape but Sokurah loses his lamp. Also on board Sinbad's ship is his fiancee the princess of Chandra (Kathryn Grant). Her marriage to Sinbad will prevent a war with Baghdad. However Sokurah wants his lamp back. 

Sinbad refuses to return to the island. At a pre-wedding celebration Sokurah transforms the princess's lady in waiting into a snake woman and shrinks the princess and forces Sinbad and crew to return to Cyclops island for the lamp and also to get a shell from the egg of a giant bird the Roc. After killing the Cyclops Sinbad and his group encounter a dragon and a skeleton warrior. Another cyclops even shows up. All of it courtesy of the great Ray Harryhausen and his “Dynamation” stop motion process.

 Director Nathan Juran had worked with Harryhausen earlier on the classic 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH and must have liked this assignment better than the low budget horror movie he made the same year (ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMEN) as he used a pseudonym (Nathan Hertz) on that one!

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Massacre: Very Popular in the '80's

 (wikipedia)

SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE-1982-Some college bimbos are terrorized by a power tool carrying escaped psycho, Russ Thorn (Michael Villella). Unpopular girl next door Val (Robin Stille), taking care of her younger sister Courtney (Jenifer Meyers) is also later terrorized. Conceived as a parody, it's done as a straight slasher film and though it contains a lot of the usual cliches it has some intentional humor, suspense and is more entertaining than a lot of the crap made around the same time. 

The screenplay is by feminist writer Rita Mae Brown. The director Amy Jones only made three more movies after this and mainly became a screenwriter (MYSTIC PIZZA, THE RELIC). It was also the debut film for future “scream queen” Brinke Stevens. Unfortunately Robin Stille committed suicide in 1996.

Happy Birthday Mom!

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From Chile

 

 (imdb)

ANGEL NEGRO-2000-In Chile, a mortician Gabriel (Alvaro Moreales) investigates the gruesome deaths of some people he went to school with and their connection to Angel (Blanca Lewin), a young woman who died under mysterious circumstances. Some of it is told through a series of video tapes. This was called the first Chilean horror movie and was released on DVD by Troma. It's really nothing special with too much talk and a cliche story and a guessable ending. The writer/director Jorge Olguin went on to make the first Chilean zombie movie DESCENDENTS.

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Lemora!

 

LEMORA: A CHILD'S TALE OF THE SUPERNATURAL-1973-Gangster Alvin Lee (William Whitton) kills his wife and her lover. While escaping he's taken prisoner by the mysterious Lemora (Lesley Gilb in her only film role) and her pale faced followers. Lemora learns that Alvin's daughter  Lila Lee (Cheryl Smith), is "the singin' angel" at a church run by an uptight Reverend (director Richard Blackburn) who is also Lila's guardian. Lemora writes a letter to Lila supposedly on behalf of her father asking Lila to come see her dad as he is dying. Lila kind of runs away and takes a bus driven by a sleazebag (Hy Pyke) who rants about the town Astaroth and it's inhabitants. The bus is attacked by some kind of zombie monsters who kill the driver. Lila is taken prisoner.

 While trying to escape she meets Lemora, obviously a vampire. Later she discovers that Lemora is kind of a vampire queen who drinks the blood of children. Creatures in the woods have some kind of disease that makes them animalistic. They are at war with Lemora's followers. Meanwhile The Reverend searches for his charge. It seems Lemora either wants Lita for her successor, partner or both. 

This movie is very strange, well directed and acted but not perfect right up to the ambiguous final scene. 

Director Blackburn later wrote EATING RAOUL and was the voice for Dr. Zaius in the animated “Return To The Planet Of The Apes” TV show. Unfortunately Lemora portrayer Glib was killed in an automobile accident in 2009. The tragic Cheryl Smith was in CAGED HEAT and THE SWINGING CHEERLEADERS the next year.

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Remake

 

 (imdb)

PHANTOM KILLER-1942-A janitor named Nicodemus (the one and only Mantan Moreland) finds the dead body of an executive after giving the suspected killer a light. He identifies the murderer as John Harrison (John Hamilton), a "society big shot" who also happens to be a deaf mute. (although he talked to Nicodemus). The police captain (J. Farrell MacDonald) and his Sargent (Warren Hymer) give the case to the DA. Prosecutor Clarke (Dick Purcell; two years later he played Captain America in the serial of the same name) believes Harrison is guilty but the DA will have none of it. Even his reporter girlfriend Barbara (Joan Woodbury;KING OF THE ZOMBIES) was with Harrison at a gathering. But Harrison is the killer and is not mute or deaf. Several more victims follow including the captain when he gets too close to Harrison's secret. 

It's pretty obvious what's going on but I liked this low budget crime drama with a twist (it's a remake of THE SPHINX from 1933 which starred Lionel Atwill) because of the big role Hamilton has and that the dumb Sgt. wises up after his boss is murdered. Mantan Moreland is (unfortunately) only in the first 15 minutes.

 “One Shot” William Beaudine was the director of this strange little Monogram picture. Lead actor Purcell died of a heart attack in 1944 at the age of 38. This was one of 14 feature films the legendary Manton Moreland was in in 1942. Of course John Hamilton later memorably portrayed Perry White on TV's “Superman”.

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Tierney As A Good Guy

 

BODYGUARD-1948-Disbarred cop Mike Carter (Lawrence Tierney) is hired by Freddie Dysen (Phillip Reed) to be a sort of bodyguard for his old aunt Gene (Elizabeth Risdon) who's the head of a meat packing plant. No sooner is he on the job when he's framed for the murder of the police Lieutenant who fired him. While evading a manhunt he travels around town trying to figure out who framed him. With the help of his girlfriend Doris (Priscilla Lane) he finds out that the death of a health inspector might not have been an accident but a murder scheme involving pumping meat with water by the plant manager Fenton (Steve Brodie). 

Nice little murder mystery with some comedy directed by Richard Fleischer in his feature film debut (before this he'd only made short films). It also features bits by Ben Frommer, Bobby Barber, Dewey Robinson and Joe Devlin.

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