Remake (again)

 

 (imdb)

VICKI-1953-Against the wishes of his boss (uncredited John Denher), burned out obsessed police Lt. Cornell (Richard Boone) takes on the murder case of famous model Vicki Lin (Jean Peters). Suspects include PR man Steve Christopher (Elliot Reid) who made Vicki famous, colum-nist Larry Evans (Casey Adams, who wrote the theme song), actor Robin Ray (Alex D'Arcy) and switchboard operator Harry (Aaron Spelling). The story is mostly told in flashbacks by the suspects and Vicki's sister Jill (Jeanne Crain) who was suspicious of the whole thing. Though there are a lot of suspects it seems obvious who's the guilty party but there's a twist. 

Cops include Carl Betz, Russ Conway, Paul Gerstle and Parley Baer. Bits by Billy Nelson, Richard Garland and Burt Mustin as a bell boy! (He was still old!). This film noir remake of I WAKE UP SCREAMING (1941) was directed by Harry Horner (RED PLANET MARS (1952), BEWARE, MY LOVELY (1952)). A few years later, Richard Boone would star in the TV western HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, which John Denher had starred in on radio. It's also been noted that the blacklisted writer Leo Townsend worked on the screenplay with no credit. He later wrote BEACH BLANKET BINGO (1963) and FIREBALL 500 (1965).

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Whip Rewrite

 

(imdb)

THE WHIP HAND-1951-Matt Corbin (Elliot Reid) is fishing when he hits his head. He seeks help from Dr. Keller (Edgar Barrier) who doesn't think there is anything wrong. The hotel owner (Raymond Burr) and his wife (Lurene Tuttle) seem sus-picious. Eventually, Corbin discovers neo-Nazis/communists doing experiments with the help of a mad scientist (Otto Waldis). Nice, exciting ending.

THE WHIP HAND was planned by director William Cameron Menzies to have been quite different than the finished product. In the original, Adolf Hitler himself, who survived WW2, was to have been the leader of the new Reich. But executive producer Howard Hughes decided communism was more of a threat and ordered extensive re-shoots. Also with Peter Brocco, Carla Balenda, George Chandler and George Barrows.

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