Impact Zone

 

 (themoviedatabase.org)

IMPACT-1949-Irene (Helen Walker), the wife of industrialist Walter Williams (Brian Donlevy) plots with her boyfriend to murder her husband. Things go wrong. The boyfriend clouts Williams with a jack and throws his body into a ravine. He's promptly killed in a fiery crash. Now everyone (including Irene)) thinks he's dead. The boyfriend hinted that he and Irene were in cahoots and after a phone call Williams knows she is behind it. A police officer Quincey (Charles Colburn) investigates and suspects Irene of murder. Meanwhile, in Idaho, Williams meets female mechanic Marsha (Ella Raines). He fixes cars while Irene is arrested for his murder. Later he goes back to San Francisco and admits he is still alive. Bad move. He winds up on trial for murder. His housekeeper is Anna May Wong and her uncle is Phillips Ahn. Also with Art Baker, William Wright, Mae Marsh, Jason Robards Sr., Erskine Sanford, Ben Welden, Joe Kirk, Thomas B. Henry and gossip columnist Sheilah Graham as herself. 

The story is good up to a point but when Williams returns and reveals himself it kind of goes downhill to a unsatisfying conclusion. Director Arthur Lubin had directed Abbott & Costello's first 5 movies, then the big color remake of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1943) and later THE SPIDER WOMAN STRIKES (1946). After IMPACT, he directed most of the “Francis, The Talking Mule” series.

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Foghorn

 

 (imdb)

THE ROCKET MAN-1954-Timmy (George “Foghorn” Winslow), an imaginative little orphan is given a special space gun by a weird looking alien. When he shoots it, it makes moving things stop. It also makes people tell the truth. He's taken in by Amelia Brown (Spring Byington), the local judge and her daughter June (Anne Francis two years before FORBIDDEN PLANET). Amelia wants to put the local corrupt politico Big Bill Watkins (Emory Parnell) in jail. Mayor Ed Johnson (Charles Colburn) is sweet on Amelia but he's in Big Bill's pocket. Enter Tom Baxter (John Agar; in Hugo Haas' BAIT the same year), a parolee sent by a warden to get reformed under the Judge's wing. A couple Bob (future “Bowery Boy” Stanley Clements) and Ludine (Beverly Garland) come to get married, and it turns out Bob is the parolee not Tom. In fact, Tom is actually a lawyer hired by Watkins to close the orphanage. Timmy uses the gun to save the orphanage and help June and Tom fall in love. 

This is a whimsical little love story comedy with a great cast but a so-so script dripping with sentimentality. It was co-written by future comedian Lenny Bruce. 

Director Oscar Rudolph worked mainly in TV but he also made the features TWIST AROUND THE CLOCK (1961) and DON'T KNOCK THE TWIST (1962). He was the father of future director Alan Rudolph. Child actor George Winslow was also known for his earlier in the musical comedy GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953) (also with Charles Coburn) and made his last movie in 1958.

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Lured

LURED-1947-Interesting overlooked murder mystery directed by Douglas Sirk (later known for his glossy Hollywood tearjerkers).

Lucille Ball stars as an American dancer in London who's recruited by a Scotland Yard inspector (Charles Coburn) to be a decoy to help capture a killer who meets his victims via personal ads. Costar George Sanders is his usual suave self and a chief suspect. George Zucco is great as the crossword puzzle solving detective who helps out. Boris Karloff has a one scene in a stand out role as a crazy dress designer/red herring! Other suspects include Alan Mowbray, Cedric Hardwick and Joseph Calleia. Alan Napier is Coburn's assistant.

It's a remake of a French film "Pieges" (PERSONAL COLUMN; LURED's original working title) made in 1939 by Roberet Siodmak with Erich Von Stroheim in the Karloff role. Earlier Von Stroheim was Karloff's immediate successor for the role of Jonathan Brewster in ARSENIC AND OLD LACE on Broadway.

For some reason LURED was not easy to find for a long time but TCM has showed it several times in recent years and Kino finally released it on DVD.

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