Mean Johnny

 

MEAN JOHNNY BARROWS-1975-Johnny Barrows (Fred Williamson) is dishonorably discharged from the army for hitting an officer. He arrives in LA and is mugged and beaten. Some racist cops arrest him thinking he's a drunk. A Sargent recognizes him as a college football player and war hero. After turning down a job offer from obvious gangster Mario Racconi (Stuart Whitman), he combs the city for a job but to no avail and sleeps in a doorway. Then he meets the Professor (Elliot Gould) and gets a job cleaning up in a gas station for the racist owner Richard (RG Armstrong). At a pow-wow mob boss Da Vince (Anthony Caruso) has his sons (Roddy McDowell and Mike Henry) kill Mario and his dad (Luther Adler) but Mario survives. When Richard cheats Johnny out of his pay Johnny tries to get it by force and is beaten up by white cops again and arrested. He gets out and Mario hires him to kill the Da Vince family. He kills both sons then has a terrible fight with an assassin who looks like Tiny Tim. Unfortunately Tony Da Vince and Mario's girlfriend Nancy (Jenny Sherman) were conspiring against both families so when Johnny tries to put the moves on her she shoots him but Johnny rigged a mine that she steps on and is blown up. 

This drawn out low budget crime drama is terrible with director/star Williamson  sleepwalking through most of the film and hardly involved in the mob family war till the last half hour.

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Color Remake

PHANTOM OF THE RUE MORGUE-1954-Color/3-D remake of Edgar Allen Poe's MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (brilliantly executed by Robert Florey and Bela Lugosi in 1932).

 After several grisly murders of women, Ivan (Paul Richard), a knife thrower is accused of killing the latest victim. A police inspector (Claude Dauphin) thinks Ivan has the ears of a killer (?) but has to let him go. He interviews folks at The Sorbonne where he meets Prof. Daupin (Steve Forrest), a psychologist who profiles the killer for the inspector. Daupin also introduces Dr. Morais (Karl Malden), a zoologist with a red herring servant (Anthony Caruso), a belligerent eye patch wearing goon. Daupin becomes a suspect when his (stolen) brooch is found on a victim. Later another detective arrests him after a victim is stuffed up his chimney. The inspector goes out of his way to proof (frame?) Daupin even though it's obvious he couldn't be the murderer. Jeannet (Patricia Medina), Daupin's assistant/fiance tries to help. Of course Morais is the actual villain who's pet gorilla (Charles Gemora) is doing all the murders. He framed Daupin because he's sweet on Jeannet and his wife committed suicide. But mostly he's plain crazy. The ape is attracted to bells on a bracelet each victim wore. Unfortunately after Moray whips the hairy killer, it goes ape (no pun intended!) and kills again. Witnesses see Morais and his pal so it exonerates Daupin. When the police come to get Moray he sets a lion loose. The ape climbs a tree with Jeannet in tow. Before its death by shooting it kills its master.

Director Roy Del Ruth started his career with Max Sennett and later directed the original version of THE MALTESE FALCON in 1931. He made TOPPER RETURNS, THE BABE RUTH STORY and many other mid and low budget programmers. One of his last was THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE (1959).

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Dwan's Last Stand

THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN ALIVE-1961-Gangster Eddie Candell (Ron Randell) escapes his death row prison cell to seek revenge against Damon (Anthony Curuso), a mob boss who double crossed him. While wandering in the desert Candell is caught in the fallout of a cobalt bomb blast. He (and a watermelon) turns into a literal "man of steel" as his body is fused with metal. Bullets can't hurt him. Two police officers (Gregg Palmer & Morris Ankrum) investigate. Debra Paget (who co-starred with Elvis in LOVE ME TENDER in better times) is his ex-girlfriend who testified against him. He takes her hostage and drives around in a truck full of dynamite. Another ex-girlfriend, Carla (Elaine Stewart) is more cooperative. A big manhunt ensues and Damon tries to kill Candell several times and fails. In the end he throws Damon off a cliff and is reduced to dust by flame throwers. This disjointed very low budget Sci-Fi drama, the last by screen director legend Allan Dwan seems like a TV movie missing a scene or two. The story was co-written by actor Michael Pate.

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Jail Busters

JAIL BUSTERS-1955-For some reason in this Bowery Boys entry, Chuck (David Gorcey) has become a newspaper reporter. His paper sends him undercover to the state pen to check out charges of corruption. He gets beaten up pretty badly and Slip (Leo Gorcey) vows revenge! 

He, Sach (Huntz Hall) and Butch (Bennie Bartlett) devise a plot to be put in jail to find out who's responsible. They think they are getting help from another reporter (Lyle Talbott; I've lost count how many of the series he's been in) but he just wants them to rob a jewelry store so he can pay off his gambling debts with the stolen goods. Of course this means "the boys" are sent to prison for real but don't realize it. Anthony Caruso is a jailed mobster, weasel voiced Percy Helton is the warden and Barton McLane is a corrupt prison guard. John Harmon, Fritz Feld, Henry Kulky and Emil Sitka all have un-billed roles. Bernard Gorcey as Louie is in it but only has a few scenes. Written by Edward Bernds and Ellwood Ullman. Directed by William Beaudine.

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The Crime Doctor

THE CRIME DOCTOR'S COURAGE-1945-Warner Baxter starred in a series of 10 features (from 1943-49) playing Dr. Robert Ordway, "the crime doctor", formerly a criminal who suffers amnesia and turns good. It began life on radio and unlike many of these "whodunnit" series at the same time Ordway isn't usually a suspect in the investigation. 

In "Courage" Ordway investigates the murder of a man who's two previous wives died under mysterious circumstances. Hilary Brooke plays almost wife #3. Two Spanish dancers seem to be vampires. The man is played by usual tough guy Anthony Curuso and his wife is played by Lupita Tovar (who was in the 1931 Spanish version of DRACULA; still alive at the time of this writing).


Baxter is engaging as the doc and it's a well done as far as "quickies" are concerned but a final shootout where two characters fire point blank at each other and miss several times is pretty dumb. Jerome Cowan is on hand to help out. Emory Parnell is a police inspector. Director George Sherman started out doing westerns and made THE LADY AND THE MONSTER in 1944 (the first version of "Donovan's Brain"). He made many more low budget films before going into TV.

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The Fur Flies

WHO KILLED DOC ROBBIN?-(1948)-This is a Technicolor haunted house mystery produced by Hal Roach and starring a bunch of "Little Rascals" wannabes. There's a freckled face coward, a smart guy, the tough leader, 2 girls and two younger black kids "affectionally" called Dis & Dat which takes ethnic stereotyping to new heights (or depths). "The Gang" spends a lot of time in the haunted home of a dead scientist, where they are terrorized by an ape (guy in a costume ), trap doors and other nonsense. In a flashback we learn "Doc" is a suspicious doctor (George Zucco) who wants the invention of an old man who is a friend of the brats. Although it is dated 1948 some "war time" references to Japan seem to say it might have been made earlier.

If you want to see low budget color mysteries watch SCARED TO DEATH instead. Not only does it have Zucco but it's Bela Lugosi's only color film...and it's narrated by a dead woman!!!!

CATMAN OF PARIS-(1946)-Republic Studios was best known for their low budget westerns and serials but occasionally ventured into adventure, action or like this entry, horror.

Carl Esmond (a US actor born in Austria who had a short Hollywood career) plays author Charles Rene who may turn into a catman due to a bout with tropical fever. Douglas Dumbrille plays his friend. Lenore Aubert (later in ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN) is his fiance'. He has bouts of amnesia and can't remember where he was when a murder occurs (so you know right away he ain't the killer!).

He has a wild fight in a cafe with four guys (including Anthony Caruso and John Dehner). It turns out that the cat like creature appears every once in the while when the planets are aligned a certain way. Massacre of Christians, Middle East wars and the victims of Ivan The Terrible are all blamed on him! The wild police team of Gerald Mohr and Fritz Feld try to figure it all out.

A creature does show up at the end ("It really is a catman" declares Mohr) with furry face, fangs and pointy finger nails. Everyone has terrible French accents. Director Lesley Selander was an assistant director from 1925 to 1936 before he directed his first film. He made over 130 movies until his retirement in 1968. Star Esmond was later in low budget stuff like FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON and AGENT OF H.A.R.M. Douglas Dumbrille usually played villains or corrupt officials several times against The Marx Bros. and Abbott & Costello. Gerald Mohr was an actor and narrator who voiced "Reed Richards" in the first FANTASTIC FOUR cartoon show in the '60's.

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