Jamboree

 

 (the movie data base)

JAMBOREE-1957-A divorce couple Grace (Kay Medford) and Lew (Robert Pastene) each manage a singer. Grace manages Pete (Paul Carr) and Lew manages Honey (Freda Holliday). They decide to pair the young singers in a duo and they become an overnight sensation with their innocuous love song “What is There To Say”. The managers manipulate both singers until they break up and everyone becomes are miserable. There are performances by Fat Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Bowen, Buddy Knox, the Count Basie Orchestra, Joe Williams, Frankie Avalon, The Teenchords (featuring Louie Lymon), Carl Perkins, Slim Whitman, Connie Francis and others. 

Many real-life disc jockeys appear as themselves including Dick Clark, Jocko Henderson and Dick Whittinghill. Produced in the US by Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky before they formed the British based film company Amicus. One of only 3 full length movies directed by (British born) Roy Lockwood who later work in radio.

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J'Accuse....My Parents

 

I ACCUSE MY PARENTS-1944-Over aged high school student Jimmy Wilson (Robert Lowell) wins an essay contest about this wonderful parents and home life but surprise! Jimmy's mom (Vivienne Osborne) is a lush and his father (John Miljan) is a callous louse who likes to gamble. They fight a lot and have wild cocktail parties. When mom shows up at school drunk Jimmy drops out and gets a job as a shoe salesman. His first customer is Kitty Reed (Mary Beth Hughes), a nightclub singer and it's love at first sight. 

After getting the brush off from his folks he visits Kitty at the club. There she introduces him to her boss Mr. Blake (George Meeker) who is actually sweet on Kitty. They celebrate Jimmy's birthday together. Later Jimmy goes to work for the sleazy Blake making dubious pick ups while romancing Kitty. When Jimmy is driving the getaway car during a robbery/killing, he finds out exactly what he's doing for Blake who tries to eliminate him. 

Jimmy gets away and winds up working in a hamburger joint for nice guy Al (George Lloyd). Meanwhile Kitty sings a sorry ballad (it's one of three tunes she does) and searches for her boo. Jimmy decides to go back and make Blake turn himself in. He and Blake have a tussle over a gun and Blake is killed. Jimmy, telling his story in flashbacks to a judge gets off lightly, wins Kitty and gets to hear his parents lectured by the judge. 

This nutty innocuous morality tale (that's totally entertaining) from PRC was produced by Sam Katzman and directed by the workaholic Sam Newfield who made eleven other features in 1944 including NABONGA and THE MONSTER MAKER.

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Mummy Time!

 

(IMDB)

THE MUMMY'S TOMB-1942-Stephan Banning (Dick Foran in old age makeup) relates his tale from 30 years before of the search for Egyptian princess Ananka (events told in the previous THE MUMMY'S HAND). Also present are his son John (John Hubbard), John's girlfriend Isobel (Elyse Knox) and her mother Mrs. Evans (Virginia Brissac). Banning takes satisfaction in knowing he destroyed the mummy, Kharis. 

However in Egypt Prof. Andoheb (George Zucco) did not die and neither did Kharis. Andoheb clues his new discipline Mehenet (Turhan Bey) in on to how to control the mummy with tana leaves. Mehenet and Kharis head to the US for revenge. The bandaged monster's first victim is Ban-ning. The sheriff invest⁹igates because strange dust marks are found on his throat. Then Babe (Wallace Ford as an old man) arrives but Kharis comes back and kills Banning's elderly sister (Mary Gordon). Babe is the next victim. John finds a torn bandage and takes it to Prof. Norman (Frank Reicher) who confirms it comes from a mummy. Then John gets a draft notice and proposes to Isobel. Mehenet hangs around and clearly desires Isobel. He wants to make her his wife and commands Kharis to kidnap her. The mummy is not happy about it but does it anyway. A posse is formed to find her. Mehenet plans to make himself and Isobel immortal. The posse confronts him and he's shot by the sheriff. Kharis and Isobel are trapped in the burning Banning house but John rescues her (and is almost strangled by Kharis). The poor mummy burns up again and John and Isobel get married.

TOMB is arguably the best of the Lon Chaney Mummy series but did they really have to kill off the characters from the previous entry? Director Harold Young had made THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL with Leslie Howard in 1934 but later on was mostly a B-movie director. In 1945 he worked with Chaney again on one of the “Inner Sanctum” series, THE FROZEN GHOST and made THE JUNGLE CAPTIVE, the last entry into the “Paula, the Ape Woman” series.

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Derek-The Kid From Outer Space

TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE-1959-After two weird astronomers discuss an object in space one of them saw, a dog howls and a flying saucer lands on Earth. After the credits aliens in pajamas like jumpsuits emerge. Their first order of business is to use a ray gun to reduce the dog to a skeleton. The group of young humanoid space beings is led by an arrogant authoritative captain (King Moody). His two standout crew members are the ruthless and pompous Thor (Bryan Grant) and the sensitive caring Derek (David Love). This group has come from their home planet to use Earth as a breeding ground for some monsters called "gargons", a source of food for their race. Derek protests when he reads the dead dog's id tag, deducing that the intelligent inhabitants of Earth don't deserve the fate his unnamed race has in store. He also gets on his soap box saying that their race wasn't always "mechanized slaves". Once there was families and love until "the annihilators" burned everything. The captain overpowers Derek and says he could be tortured and killed when they get home. Just when it looks like they've found grazing land for their gargons it's de-termined Earth's atmosphere is no good. They'll need a new planet. This makes Derek quite happy and he escapes. Thor could have shot him but the captain stops him because Derek is the son of their leader! It also turns out the atmosphere is ok for gargon raising. It was just an initial shock that hit the monster. Though tiny it will grow to gigantic size in time. 

Meanwhile, Derek wanders into town and winds up at the home of Betty Morgan (Dawn Bender) and her Grandpa (Harvey B. Dunn from Ed Wood movies), the owners of the dead dog. They assume he's come to rent the extra room they have and that his spacesuit apparel is some kind of private school uniform! The scowling asshole Thor is dispatched to find Derek. Thus begins the exciting story of an alien invasion! Jolly old Gramps and naive but infatuated Betty practically adopt Derek who says just enough not to let them know he's from out of this world, giving him clothes left behind by brother Bud (who got married and moved away) and letting him stay in their extra room for free until he finds a job! We are also introduced to Betty's boyfriend Joe Rogers (Tom Lock-⁹year aka do it all director Tom Graeff), a newspaper reporter who has to cancel his pool party date with Bets because he has to interview some locals who saw UFOs! Meantime the asshole Thor leaves some skeleton victims around town while looking for Derek. Betty invites him to her friend Alice's pool party but when they get there he tells Betty about her doggie's demise. She insists on seeing where it happened so she and Derek bid Alice adieu. Then Gramps meets Thor and gives away just about everything that's going on. 

Back at the death site Derek explains to Betty what a focusing disintegrator ray does. They decide to visit Prof. Sim-pson so Derek can explain his predicament. After Thor vaporizes Alice he again visits Gramps  who spills the beans a second time. Thor kills the Professor. Betty and Derek go to City Hall where agents with guns are waiting. Derek gets a hold of Gramps again and forces him to drive to the hall. A furious shootout ensues and Gramps has trouble crossing the street. Thor kills two of the agents but is wounded. While Gramps gives Joe (who dis-covered Alice's skeleton in her pool) the lowdown, Thor forces Derek and Betty to drive him to a doctor (Frederic Welsh). Then he forces the doctor to operate on him without anesthesia. Be-fore he passes out Thor tells Derek about the gargons and him being the leader's dad. Derek, Betty and the doc escape but unfortunately the doc's nurse arrives and patches Thor up just before the doc calls to warn her. Thor forces the nurse to drive him to the desert lan-ding area right about the same time Joe and his friend Mac go for a look. Mac goes into the cave where the gorgan is chillin' and becomes dinner. After Thor cracks up the car and is arrested Derek and Betty go looking for Thor's lost ray gun. The two share a kiss then find the ray gun just as a ginormous gargon appears. With the power of the electric company Derek kills the gargon.

Later after a lot of convoluted talk Derek tricks his dad, Thor and Mr. Torture and makes all the invading spaceships crash. 

This is one nutty movie the brainchild of writer/director/co-star Tom Graeff ( he also shot and edited it).

The plot and dialogue are ridiculous but it does hold a certain sense of charm. The giant gargon effect though is one of the worst ever. A lobster superimposed onto the film. For years it was mis-reported that star David Love and director Tom Graeff were the same person but this was an error.To read more about Mr. Graeff check out these sites:

http://gf-productions.com/tomgraeff/

https://www.tomgraeff.org/

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Back On Milligan's Island...

THE WEIRDO-1989-Quiet loner Donnie (Steve Burlingtopn) is bullied and beaten up by some redneck refugees from a Ted Nugent concert. He lives in a shed owned by the kindly elderly Mrs. Martins (Naomi Sherwood) who’s friend’s daughter Lisa (Lynee Angus) is staying with her. “Donnie’s alright. He’s just not all there”. He gets very excited watching Lisa take a bubble bath. Later he has a crazy conversation with a girl named Jenny (Jessica Straus) who walks with a limp. They start to hang out together. On his way to deliver some clothes to a church Donnie is once again beat up by white trash inc. but Jenny shows up to help him. At the church the perverted minister warns Jenny not to hang out with Donnie then puts a move on her but she rejects him and tells him off. While drinking milk the couple kiss but Donnie comes on too strong and Jenny runs. 

Later when she calms down she tells Donnie when she was 14 she was raped by a classmate. After they have sex, Donnie has to visit his mother an alcoholic floozy who insults him and winds up whipping him but Donnie turns the tables and chops off her head with meat cleaver. When a guy with a straitjacket comes to take Donnie away he’s killed by shovel. When the minister’s wife questions Donnie about sex with Jenny, he puts a large cross through her. He strangles and electrocutes the perverted minister. Even kindly Mrs. Martins turns against him and he burns her to death.

The funniest stupidest part is when one female character in a dinner explains about the killings. When a vigilante mob gets together it’s like some modern day inbred brain damaged version of a mob from a Universal horror film! Donnie also cuts the throat of one of his attackers and cuts off his hands. (It's not an Andy Milligan movie if someone doesn't lose a hand) The dysfunctional gang (young, old, a guy in a suit & tie) seem to beat Donnie to death. After finding his body Jenny asks “Why can't people be nice to each other?”. But upon bringing a cop to Donnie’s dead body they only discover his bloody jacket. With a strange smile on her face Jenny wanders off to look for her love.... 

This is by far the best looking of  Andy Milligan’s horror movies. The acting by the two leads is ok but it still suffers from the usual Milligan flaws: bad editing, bad acting, ludicrous script and of course gory but phony looking sfx. Filmed by director/writer Milligan in Los Angeles instead of his usual stomping ground Staten Island. The same year he made another movie SURGIKILL which would be his last. He passed away in 1991.

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Boxing

THE RING-1952-This overlooked tale is about Tommy Cantanios (Lalo Rios) a young Mexican American kid who becomes a fighter to help his family and gain respect from the White community. As “Tommy Kansas” he becomes successful but his father (Martin Garralaga) and girlfriend Lucy (Rita Moreno) give him a hard time. At a party a guy dances with a glass on his head (??). After suffering several losses his trainer (Robert Osterloh) wants him to retire but his manger Pete (Gerald Mohr), doesn't have the heart to tell him. Tommy makes a comeback but to help a cigar chomping promoter (Jack Elam) Peter puts Tommy in a main event against a much better fighter (played by real life boxer Art Aragon) who promises not to hurt the kid. But Tommy double crosses him and then gets ko'd. Seeing his little brother sparring Tommy throws his gloves away and quits boxing, helps his father and gets back with Lucy. Peter Brocco and Robert Shayne have small roles. Novelist Irving Shulman (who'd done the adaptation of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE) adapted the screenplay from his own novel.

German born director Kurt Neuman had made many Tarzan entries before this and ROCKETSHIP X-M. He later directed THE FLY. Mohr who did lots of voice-overs for many films was in THE SNIPER and INVASION USA the same year. Star Rios was later in TOUCH OF EVIL and BIG LEAGUER but died at age 46 in 1973 of liver disease.  

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Life Before Gilligan

THE WARRIOR EMPRESS-1960-Around 600 BC Phaon (Kerwin Matthews) the leader of the people's revolution is wounded when the evil king's minions attack their rebel camp. He seeks sanctuary in the Temple of Aphrodite on the island of Lesbos. Shappo (pre-Gilligan's Island Ginger Tina Louise), a kind of priestess in training hides him in the basement. They fall in love despite Shappo's girlfriends' interference and the fact that she's engaged to another man (Riccardo Garrone who had a role in LA DOLCE VITA the same year). Meanwhile the girls make music and dance. There's some sword fights but it's mostly hokey talky love drama. 

Filmed in Italy, director Pietro Francisci had directed the international hits HERCULES and HERCULES UNCHAINED.  

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Not A Disney Film!

 

 

 

IT'S A SMALL WORLD-1950-Harry (Paul Dale) is a little person (called the now politically incorrect “midget” in this) who doesn't have a very nice childhood. His father (Will Geer) likes him but takes him out of school and keeps him out of sight in their house. His selfish sister (Shirley Mills, the star of CHILD BRIDE) wants him sent away. He does leave home to join a circus but the owner (Thomas Henry) is a jerk and Harry runs away from him. In the city he meets Sam (Todd Karns; George Bailey's brother in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE)), a shoeshine guy who gives Harry a job. Everything is ok until he meets a floozy named Buttons (Lorraine Miller) who gets a black eye from her boyfriend Charlie (Steve Brodie). She seems to like Harry and they hang out but she two times him and lies to him and gets him involved with the giant sized Rose (Nina Koshetz)) who turns him into a pickpocket.

 

Unfortunately Harry gets sweet on Buttons but she only has eyes for Charlie and laughs at him. When he wants to quit fatso Rose threatens him. He turns them all in and (reluctantly) joins the Cole Brothers circus winter headquarters in Florida where he meets the cheery Dolly (Ann Sholter in her only film role), a woman his size who he sings a song to! They get married and live happily ever after....

Henry Corden has an un-credited role as a truck driver. By my count Thomas Henry was in 10 features in 1950.

While not a great movie IT'S A SMALL WORLD was an unusual feature for the time. It tries hard to show Harry's plight in a sympathetic way but sometimes seems a little too obvious. Lead actor Paul Dale was one of the Lollipop Guild in THE WIZARD OF OZ and at the time of this writing he was still alive (another member of the Guild Jerry Maren is also alive). He's good in the role and does a fairly amazing job of playing his Harry character from child to adult despite being 23 at the time!

William Castle (who appears as a cop) directed it but without the flair he'd use in his later “gimmick horror films” (The first of them MACABRE would come 8 year later).

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Raven Mad?

 

 

THE LOVES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE-1942-Eddie Poe (John Sheppard; later known as Sheppard Strudwick) is taken in by The Allens after his mother dies. Mrs. Allen (Mary Howard) is a nice caring woman who loves him but Mr. Allan (Frank Conroy) is a jerk who thinks Edgar is wasting his time writing poems. At school he gambles, gets into debt and drinks a lot. He gets some encouragement from Thomas Jefferson (Gilbert Emery) but Mr. Allen hits the roof when he sees all of Eddie's debts. He also loses his love Elmira (Virginia Gilmore) to another man (but later it is reveal to be a deception devised by his old man). He joins the cavalry and later West Point (and gets thrown out) and goes to live with his aunt (Jane Darwell) in Baltimore where he meets his cousin Virginia (top billed Linda Darnell). He becomes a writer and wins a short story contest. He and Virginia get married and he lands a job as a magazine editor in Richmond but complications arrive when he meets Elmira at a party. He goes on a bender and gets fired for being drunk. The trio go to Philadelphia where he becomes a success and meets Charles Dickens. He works toward a getting a copyright law for writers, gets into an argument with his boss (Morris Ankrum), gets drunk and goes to NYC. Virginia gets sick. He tries hard to sell his new poem “The Raven” to the public and even gives a great reading of it to some printers but fails to sell it. Virginia dies and he goes back to Baltimore to die in poverty. A narrator explains that although it was not recognized in his own life time now “The gods laugh and Poe laughs with them”. Harry Morgan plays his friend Ebenezer.

This is a straight forward fairly accurate portrait of the now legendary poet/writer which provides a lot of sympathy for the main character. Director Harry Lachman had an interesting career although he quit making movies in 1942 the year LOVES was released (he also made DR. RENAULT'S SECRET the same year which featured Sheppard). He made many in the Charlie Chan series and OUR RELATIONS with Laurel & Hardy. It was written and produced by Bryan Foy (THE UNDYING MONSTER, PT 109).

 

 

 

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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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Another Silent

THE DRAGON PAINTER-1919-Tatsu (Sessue Hayakawa) is an eccentric painter who lives alone waiting for the gods to return his princess who they took away from him and turned into a dragon. His work is shown to a famous artist who realizes Tatsu is a genius. One problem. He won t leave his mountain home. The artist s daughter Ume Ko (Tsuru Aoki, Hayakawa's real life wife) dresses up as the princess to lure him out. Then the trouble begins. The two fall in love and Tatsu seems to lose his passion for painting. A nicely made silent film with beautiful photography and a heartfelt story. 

Japanese born Sessue Hayakawa was the first Asian film star(his other famous film is THE CHEAT) and by 1919 was as popular a star as Douglas Fairbanks Sr. The director William Worthington was also an actor.  

Once again thanks to TCM for showing this and thanks for reading!

Dr. Mabuse!

DR. MABUSE'-THE GAMBLER-1922-Fritz Lang's incredible crime drama introduces Dr. Mabuse' (Rudolf Klein-Rogge; later Rotwang in the director's METROPOLIS),an evil doing master of disguise, manipulator of the world market and counterfeiter. He's also a respected doctor of psychoanalysis who gives lectures to a bunch of weird bearded guys. Folks gather at the Petit Casino where he uses hypnotism to win at cards but state prosecutor Wenk (Bernard Goetzke) proves a good match. Meanwhile Mabuse's "hench-woman" Cara (Aud Egede-Nissen) has an affair with a guy named Hull who owes the doctor a large sum of money. Love plays an important role in all the goings on but Mabuse' proclaims: "There is no such thing as love-there is only passion!". No such thing as luck-only the will to gain power!". Once again showing his genius Lang uses 4 short shots to convey the history of one character! It's nearly 4 hours long but usually shown in two parts: The Gambler and Inferno. Novelist Norbert Jacques (who created the Mabuse' character) and Lang's then wife, actress Thea von Harbou wrote the story with Lang, who made two sequels at the beginning of the sound era.

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Pre-Frank Boris

THE GUILTY GENERATION-1931-Architect John Smith (Robert Young) is really the son of mob leader Tony Ricca (pre-FRANKENSTEIN Boris Karloff!). Smith just wants a respectful life free of his father's underworld ties. Ricca's rival is mobster Mike Palmero (Leo Carrillo). His right hand man is his other son. After a lot of threats and gangland violence (mostly shown through newspaper headlines) Palmero goes to Florida to give a big party for his daughter Maria (Constance Cummings). Of course she and Smith accidentally meet and fall in love. Each gang then take turns killing each others family members. Palmero learns Smith's real identity just as he and Maria are ready to elope. Rowland V. Lee directed this very early sound (politically incorrect) film based on Romero & Juliet with neither gangster given much sympathy. It has a kind of surprise ending. Glenn Strange has a small un-billed role.

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Thomasine and Bushrod

THOMASINE & BUSHROD-1974-This neglected blaxploitation film is set in 1911 and follows the exploits of Thomasine (Vonetta McGee from HAMMER and BLACULA), a bounty hunter when she teams with outlaw Bushrod (Screenwriter Max Julien, a year after starring in THE MACK).  They rob banks, dressed in various outfits and make their getaways in a car (and later a motorcycle with a sidecar) stolen from a banker Thomasine killed. They give a lot of their stolen swag to poor folks and are obviously patterned on BONNIE & CLYDE (made by Arthur Penn in 1967). They are pursued by a U.S. Marshall played by George Murdock. After they become infamous "folk heroes" they start to argue a lot about money. When Thomasine is captured and held in an old church Bushrod dresses as a nun to rescue her. Veteran actress Juanita Moore plays a blind Comanche mystic who tells Bushrod: "you don't have much time". Glynn Thurman (J.D.'s REVENGE) shows up toward the end as their weird friend Jomo who plays blues harmonica before he's dropped into a snake pit by the Marshall.

The film isn't bad but the ending could have been better. The one kind of dumb part is when the duo steal the car. At first they look at it with awe, having never seen one before but then they steal it and Bushrod has no trouble operating it! Herb Robins (director of THE WORMS EATERS) is also in it. Arthur Lee & Love perform the theme song which Lee wrote. It was one of only four movies directed by Gordon Parks Jr., made between SUPERFLY and THREE THE HARD WAY. He made one more film AARON LOVES ANGELA before being killed in a plane crash in Kenya in 1975.

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Stanley Before The Bowery

DESTINATION MURDER-1950-Stanley Clements (6 years before replacing Leo Gorcey in The Bowery Boys series) is Jackie Wales, a telegram delivery boy who kills a man for club owner Mr. Armitage (Albert Dekker) who likes to talk in the third person. The dead man's daughter Laura (Joyce MacKenzie) suspects Jackie and begins dating him. Later she gets a job as a cigarette girl in the club where manager Stretch Norton (Hurd Hatfield) puts the moves on her. Armitage's mistress (Myrna Dell) gets Jackie involved in blackmail and eventually his own murder. It turns out Norton is actually the brains of the operation. 

After Jackie's killed (it's not shown; his character seems to have just been written out) it turns into a revenge love story focusing on Laura and her relationship with Norton. 

 Star Joyce MacKenzie played Jane to Lex Barker's Tarzan in TARZAN AND THE SHE DEVIL. James Flavin is a police lieutenant and John Dehner is another suspect. Future star of THE WEREWOLF Steve Ritch has a bit role. 

A great vocal band Steve Gibson's Red Caps plays in the club. You can read about them here: http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/redcaps.html

There's actually a lot of strange twists in this little murder mystery directed by Edward L. Cahn a few years before he made some of the greatest low budget horror and Sci-Fi movies of all time.

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It Would Have Been Better If They'd Met Abbott & Costello!

QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE-1958-It's said that this notorious campy space nonsense started out as a serious science fiction story (the story was by Ben Hecht and the script was written by Charles Beaumont who wrote many classic TWILIGHT ZONE episodes) but I guess when they hired Ben Schwab who produced many of the later BOWERY BOYS entries to produce it and Edward Bernds who directed 3 Stooges shorts to helm it, things got out of control.

Three nutty astronauts (straight laced Eric Fleming, womanizer Patrick Waltz and comic relief Dave Willock) go on a "milk run" to deliver a famous scientist Prof. Konrad (NOT OF THIS EARTH's Paul Birch) to his space satellite. Before they can get here however a mysterious beam destroys the base and sends the ship crash landing on Venus (with Earth gravity and oxygen). It turns out Venus is inhabited by nothing but women lead by the evil masked Queen Ilyana (Laurie Mitchell) who's scarred face makes her hate all men. She also wants to destroy the Earth.

Top billed Zsa Zsa Gabor (some Venusians it seems have Hungarian accents) is Talleah, a scientist and head of a movement to over throw Ilyana ("I hate zat queen!"). The dumb men need women love story seems to be intentional but I think it got out of hand. For an Allied Artists movie it does have Technicolor and Cinemascope which kind of hide the cheesy effects.

Marilyn Buferd (from THE UNEARTHLY) has a small role as a traitor who is vaporized. Joi Lansing and Ralph Gamble have un-credited roles too. Fleming was starring on TV in RAWHIDE at the time. Gabor (still alive at the time of this writing) had a small role in Orson Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL the same year.

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The Restless

THE RESTLESS-2006-In this South Korean action fantasy a bounty hunter Yi Gwak (Woo-sung Jong) is betrayed by the townsfolk who hired him because he is a wanted man and they need the reward money. They drug him and he seems to die. He winds up in "mid-heaven" a place where souls wait to be reborn. However for some reason he is not dead and he's just in time to help battle invading demons. He meets So-hwa (Tae-hee Kim)) leader of the White Reapers who also happens to be this deceased lover (flashbacks show she was burned as a witch). Ban-chu (Jun-ho Heo) is a bad guy who wants "the holy stone" So-hwa has in her possession.

There's some great action scenes with swordplay and characters bursting into flames when they are killed and the crazy out of control finale where Yi takes on a whole evil army by himself is cool but this is essentially a love story so be prepared for some slow parts.

Star Woo was in THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE WEIRD after this. It was the directorial debut of Dong-oh Cho and Dong-oh Jo, a brother team who had previously been assistant directors.

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