Hugo Haas

ONE GIRL'S CONFESSION-1953-Mary Adams (Cleo Moore), curvy, platinum blonde waitress at a greasy spoon gets revenge on her boss (because he cheated her father) by stealing 25 thousand dollars from him. She confesses to the crime (but won't tell where she hid the money) and goes to jail. After she's paroled she gets a job working for cheerful gambling saloon owner Dragomie Damitrof (director Hugo Haas). She meets fisherman Johnny (pre-Amazing Colossal Man Glen Langan) and they fall in love. She debates using the the hidden money to help finance Johnny's fishing business (so they can live happily ever after). Although he's a lucky gambler somehow Damitrof loses his whole business in one night. Mary decides to help her boss by having him dig up the money and giving him 5 thou to save his hide. Unfortunately he doesn't find it. He throws her out. Later it turns out Damitrof still owns his saloon and has lots of cash. Hmmmm? Could this be a double cross? Did Damitrof actually find Mary's money and have the audacity to lie to her and keep it? With the door to his apartment left conveniently open Mary confronts her double crossing boss (in a drunken stupor) and winds up bopping him on the head and killing him! Bad move! Seems Damitrof wasn't using Mary's money. He got lucky in a card game and won everything back! She finds her money, gives it to an orphanage and turns herself in. The End....Well, not really. In the twist ending (like many Haas dramas), Damitrof didn't die, Mary gave her ill gained booty away but she probably lives happily ever after with Johnny.

Czech born actor/director Hugo Haas began his Hollywood acting career in the middle '40's and in 1951 directed his first of 20 B-movies. Many of them are moralistic melodramas sometimes using the premise of an older man (usually Haas) involved with a younger woman.

ONE GIRL'S CONFESSION's female lead Cleo Moore starred in seven Haas directed dramas. She was once groomed as Columbia Pictures' "new Marilyn Monroe" but despite her looks and decent acting skills her career never panned out and she retired in 1957, the same year co-star Glenn Langan would go down in B-movie history starring in Bert I. Gordon's THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN!

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Exit Bomba!

THE LORD OF THE JUNGLE-1955-Johnny Sheffield plays Bomba the jungle boy for the last time. He'd played the character in 11 prior movies.

In the convoluted storyline a rogue elephant leads his pachyderm pals on a killing spree wrecking villages and squashing natives. A hunter sent by the government (usual B western star Wayne Morris) wants to kill the whole herd and Bomba must come up with a solution despite interference from Commissioner Barnes (series regular Leonard Mudie) and his niece (Nancy Gale). Bomba fights rear projection elephants and swings on vines while getting help from his animal friends. Paul Picerni (HOUSE OF WAX) and William Phipps (FIVE) are other white hunters.

B-movie vet Ford Beebe directed most entries in the series.

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Bad Girls

SO YOUNG SO BAD-1950-CASABLANCA's Paul Henreid stars as Dr. Jason, a psychiatrist sent to a girls reform school to help out. He runs into a lot of bureaucracy and is hindered in his progress to help the troubled girls by the uncaring staff. Catherine McLeod plays Ruth, a social worker who resents Jason's presence. He and Ruth have a heated debate on a moving merry go round! Mike Kellin has a few brief shots as the operator and some seem to think a guy selling balloons looks a lot like Phil Silvers! Jason tries to expose the sweat shop like conditions and ignorance of Mr. Riggs, the idiot who’s in charge. At one point, the girls sneak a rabbit into the school and a matron stomps it to death! The girls then riot and set fire to the school. As punishment some of the girls are hosed down like Charlton Heston in PLANET OF THE APES! Later Jason kind of blackmails Riggs into letting him run the school his way. He does do a lot of good but when the evil matron punishes one of the girls by cutting her hair, suicide, deception and an inquiry that could lead to Jason's dismissal follow.

It’s an earnest low budget little movie but the most interesting thing about it really is that it introduces three actresses who went on to famous careers: Anne Jackson, Ann Francis and Rita Moreno! Director Bernard Vorhaus also made THE AMAZING DR. X.

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Go Directly To Jail

GIRLS IN CHAINS-1943-Arline Judge (with a weird too big hair-do) is the sister in law of gangster Johnny Moon (Allen Byron) who has a hard time keeping a job because of this connection. She winds up being a psychologist at a girls reform school. A policeman (Roger Clark) investigates the corruption at the school and tries to nail Moon.

This movie is badly made despite being helmed by the great Edgar Ulmer who usually managed to inject surprising scenes into his low budget output (he made DETOUR in ‘45). I think he must have edited it on his lunch hour from another film! There’s a real surprising lapse of continuity involving Sid Melton (as Moon’s henchman). Emmett Lynn portrays a timid guy who becomes a drunk and helps out in the end. Barbara Pepper (later Mrs. Ziffel on TV's GREEN ACRES) plays an inmate.

Star Judge spend most of her career in low budget films and was more well known for having been married 8 times! Her last film appearance was in the horror quickie THE CRAWLING HAND. She died in 1974.

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