It's Like Beat, Man

THE REBEL SET-1959-Mr. Tucker (Ed Platt), the too sure of himself phony hip owner of a beat club hires 3 losers to help him and his partner Sidney (Ned Glass) rob an armored car. Down on his luck actor Johnny (Gregg Palmer; ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU), law breaking spoiled rich kid George Leland (Don Sullivan) who's mother is a movie star and deadbeat writer Ray Miller (John Lupton; a busy TV actor at the time). His plan involves the fact that there is a 4 hour layover in Chicago while taking the train from LA to NY. They all agree and board a train. Johnny has no choice but to bring his wife Jeanne (Kathleen Crowley; in CURSE OF THE UNDEAD the same year) which doesn't go over well with the others. The robbery goes as planned and the trio re-board the train with Tucker now dressed as a priest. First Leland goes a little nuts and wants to keep the 5 mil to himself. Johnny knocks him out. Later Leland winds up shot in the head. Then Tucker kills Ray and throws his body off the train. Guilt ridden Johnny confesses to Jeanne that he helped in the robbery and plans to give himself up. He tells the police chief in charge (Robert Shayne) about the money but Tucker has already absconded with it. Johnny escapes the police and gives chase. He and Tucker have several fights and chases until Tucker is electrocuted leading to the macabre ironic ending featuring Leland’s mom. Gene Roth is also featured as the train conductor and I. Stanford Jolley is a beat poet. 

This is a moody kind of film norish little drama with a beatnik backdrop by director Gene Fowler Jr. a year after he made I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE. It was a big year for co-star Sullivan who was also in two ultra cool low budget horror classics :THE GIANT GILA MONSTER and THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS. Oh yeah..and the not so cool TEENAGE ZOMBIES. You dig?

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Hypnotism Gone Bad

THE HYPNOTIC EYE-1960-This weird shit begins with a woman having her hair set on fire. She also suffers facial burns (“Will I be a monster?”). She seems to have mistaken an open oven flame for a sink. It turns out she is the 12th victim in a series of bizarre mutilations. Detective Dave Kennedy (Joe Patridge) takes his girlfriend Marcia (Marcia Henderson) to see the stage show of a hypnotist much to the chagrin of Dr. Hecht (Guy Prescott). The hypnotist Desmond (Jacques Bergerac) does the usual tricks making subjects think they are in the desert, etc. He also selects three women from the audience to participate in a floating woman stunt. One woman Dodie (Merry Anders) is a friend of Dave and Marcia's and Dave remains unconvinced as to Desmond's powers. Later instead of face cream Dodie uses acid on her face. At another act Marcia volunteers. After she's hypnotized she's wined and dined by Desmond at a beatnik club where a guy reads a beat poem called “Confessions of a Movie Addict” which mentions Clara Bow and THE THING FROM OUTER SPACE. Meanwhile Dave keeps an eye on them. 

When it seems like they have gone back to his apartment for some hi-jinx Desmond's assistant Justine (Allison Hayes; ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN) interrupts and seems to be controlling Marcia through hypnotism. She almost makes Marcia stick her face under a red hot shower but Dave's interference saves her. It seems every woman Desmond has come in contact with has suffered some deformity of the face (but none of them can remember being hypnotized). After he performs his act several times it's revealed that Justine is actually horribly disfigured and taking her revenge out on any beautiful woman Desmond encounters. After Desmond is shot and Justine falls to her death, Dave rescues Marcia and the doctor addresses the audience about being hypnotized. 

This sleazy campy melodrama was filmed in “HypnoVision” by George Blair who also directed several episodes of TV's THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN. 

 THE HYPNOTIC EYE also features the only known film role for Fred Demara who's life story was told in THE GREAT IMPOSTER. Former child star Jimmy Lydon appears as a ambulance attendent.  

Co-scripter William Read Woodfield was also a photographer who gained fame later on for taking pictures of Marilyn Monroe on the set of her last (and unfinished) film. He also co-wrote many early episodes of TV's MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE. 

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Miller and Corman

A BUCKET OF BLOOD-1959-Nebbish busboy Walter Paisley (Dick Miler) works in a beatnik club and  wants to be a sculptor but everyone just puts him down. Only Carla (Barboura Morris) is nice to him. One night frustrated by his lack of inspiration, he accidentally kills his landlady's cat. A voice tells him what to do. He encases the dead feline in clay and passes it off as his newest creation called "dead cat".  All the Beats go wild over it especially Maxwell Brock (Julian Burton) a pompous poet who says lines like "I will talk to you about art because there's nothing else to talk about" while Paul Horn plays the sax behind him. Later Walter accidentally kills an undercover cop (future game show host Burt Convy) who tries to arrest him for heroin possession (a waitress gave it to him). He then covers the corpse with clay and presents "murdered man" as his latest work of art. Meanwhile Walter's boss Mr. de Santis (Anthony Carbone) discovers his secret and is aghast but when an art collector (Bruno VeSota) offers him 600 dollars for the cat he relents turning Walter in (he also tries to dissuade Walter from sculpting).

Later Walter dons a beret, ascot and cigarette holder but while being praised by Brock, a stuck up model (Judy Bamber) pisses him off and later he strangles her and makes her his latest sculpture. Brock throws a party for Walter where he becomes very drunk and despondent ("I've gotta do something before they forget") so he decapitates a guy working with a buzz saw. The next day he shows de Santis his newest creation: a severed head. Eventually his guilt ridden boss has an exhibition for Walter who proposes to Carla but she rejects him. When she discovers a real finger under under some of the clay Walter decides to make her "immortal" like the rest of his victims. After a dark chase scene Walter (who hears the voices of his victims) goes back to his apartment and hangs himself. This causes Brock to remark "I suppose he would have called it "hanging man". His greatest work.". Ed Nelson (who died on August 9th at age 85) plays an undercover cop.

A BUCKET OF BLOOD  was Roger Corman's first (intentional) comedy. It's a dark satire on the beatnik hip but  nihilistic  viewpoint, very in vogue at the time. It's obviously done on the usual money saving Corman schedule (sources say 5 days on $50,000 budget) but he holds it together fairly well. The one glaring point for me is that it seems at the end Walter wants to encase himself in clay before committing suicide but that doesn't really happen. There's lots of funny dialogue and Dick Miller is great in the lead. He'd have a co-starring role in 1960 in Corman's next horror comedy THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (which BUCKET screenplay writer Charles Griffith would write).

Barboura Morris had already been in several Corman productions (SORORITY GIRL, TEENAGE CAVEMAN) and would appear in a few more (THE WASP WOMAN, X:THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES). Unfortunately she died in 1975 at the age of 43. Anthony Carbone would be in a few more for Corman (including THE BEAST FROM THE HAUNTED SEA) and then go into TV.

A BUCKET OF BLOOD  is cheap quick entertaining and a good companion piece for THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORROS (although not nearly as well known...).

English folk singer Ewan MacColl (father of singer Kristy MacColl) appears un-credited and sings two songs.

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Actually There's No Party..

THE WILD PARTY-1956-Anthony Quinn stars in this grim melodrama the same year he played Quasimodo in the French production of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. Here he plays Ton Kuphen, a loony ex-football player-loser reduced to petty crime. His pals include fruity con-man Gage (Jay Robinson), broke jazz pianist Kicks (Nehemiah Persoff who narrates) and Honey (Kathryn Grant), Tom's spacey semi-innocent girlfriend. They terrorize a society couple, a Navy lieutenant (Arthur Franz) and his rich fiancee (Carol Ohmart, later Vincent Price's wife on HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL)) who Kuphen becomes obsessed with. The four "beats" talk annoying jive in this lurid and racy (I guess for the time) drama with a disappointing finale. Paul Stewart and Barbara Nichols appear in one scene together and Nestor Paiva has a small role.

The jazz score is by Buddy Bregman and Barney Kessell. Maynard Ferguson and Bud Shank appear in an un-credited on-screen band. Director Harry Horner had made RED PLANET MARS and BEWARE, MY LOVELY and was also production designer on many films.

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