Killer Dragon?

 

 (imdb)

THE DRAGON MURDER CASE-1934-When a soon to be married man (George Meeker) goes swimming and disappears, Philo Vance (Warren William) is called in to help DA Markam (Robert McWade) and Sgt. Heath (Eugene Pallette) solve the case. After the body is found, it looks like the murder was committed by a dragon! 

Fun if preposterous murder mystery with the underrated William great in the lead role. This was his first of 4 four Vance crime dramas (he took the role over from William Powell). The Vance character was created by S.S. Van Dyne who wrote 12 novels featuring the detective. Also with Lyle Talbott and Margaret Lindsey. 

Director B. Bruce Humberstone later made a few Charlie Chan mysteries and PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES with Laurel & Hardy.

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Red Herring Bela Again

 

 (imdb)

ONE BODY TOO MANY-1944-Insurance agent Albert L. Tuttle (Jack Haley) gets involved with the reading of a millionaire's will and his greedy relatives when he visits the dead guy's home (he doesn't know about the death). The butler Merkle (Bela Lugosi) and the maid (Blanche Yurka) think about poisoning everyone. The relatives mistake Tuttle for a private investigator. The running gag is no one wants to drink their poisoned coffee. Relatives include Lyle Talbott, Douglas Fowley, Dorothy Granger and Lucien Littlefield. The one nice relative is the dead guy's niece (Jean Parker). Meanwhile, Prof. Hilton (William Edmunds) fools around with a telescope in the observatory. A clutching hand threatens Tuttle who manages to wind up in the millionaire's coffin underwater! Later he roams around in the dark with just a towel on. 

Not half bad comedy/horror/murder mystery although once again Lugosi is wasted in a red herring role. Director Frank McDonald also made another murder mystery with Haley called SCARED STIFF (1945).

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Wood Bait

 

 (imdb)

JAILBAIT-1954-Weird guitar & piano music is the only soundtrack. Police arrest Don Gregor (Clancy Malone, a former delivery boy in his one and only movie) for carrying an unlicensed gun. His sister Marilyn (Dolores Fuller) bails him out and defends him against the warnings of Inspector Johns (Lyle Talbot) and Lt. Lawrence (Steve Reeves). "How can a great doctor have such a jerk for a son?". Their father is Dr. Gregor (Herbert Rawlinson), a famous plastic surgeon, who doesn't seem too concerned despite knowing sonny is involved with gangster Vic Brady (Timothy Farrell). He does get upset when he finds Don has taken his gun. Later Don and Brady rob a movie theater for its payroll and Don kills the night watchman (Bud Osbourne) while Brady shoots a female employee (Mona McKinnon). Later the dumb but deadly duo hideout at the home of Loretta (Tedi Thurman), Brady's girlfriend. Don's conscience gets the best of him and he confesses everything to dad and promises to give himself up. After Brady kills Don he sort of forces the doctor to give him a new face which he does. One that ensures he'll be captured by the police. 

Wood regulars Don Nagel and Conrad Brooks have small roles but Timothy Farrell steals the show as the sleazy Brady who says thing like “You're a dumb dame” and “Shut up you”. Herbert Rawlinson was suffering from advanced lung cancer during the production and died just a few days after it's completion. The flamenco guitar and piano soundtrack was taken from MESA OF LOST WOMEN (1953). Some versions feature a black face routine dance number also from another film.

Ed Wood's next film would be BRIDE OF THE MONSTER!

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Bungle With Jungle Jim

JUNGLE MANHUNT-1951-In a strange African jungle where all the natives look like a combination of American Indians and Polynesians, a happy tribe is attacked and their village burned down by another tribe lead by some guys in skeleton costumes. The chief however is shot by a mysterious white gunman. We then learn this is another entry in the “Jungle Jim” series of low budget films, because Jim (Johnny Weissmuller) is watching some boat men while his annoying pet chimp Tamba fishes. In a flash Jim is in the water to save a lady reporter Ann Lawrence (Sheila Ryan) when her boat overturns. She looking for a missing quarterback/war hero Bob Miller who disappeared into the jungle years before. Jim and Ann investigate with the help of Bono (Rick Vallin), a local chieftain. After escaping when another village is attacked the trio meets the elusive Miller (real life football player Bob Waterfield) who throws a loaded football at the bad guys! It seems Miller is now leading a tribe himself so they go deeper into the jungle and encounter stock footage giant lizards (from 2 MILLION YEARS BC). Later we learn that the evil tribe is run by bad white guy Dr. Heller (Lyle Talbott) who's using kidnapped natives as slave labor to dig up igneous rock to make phony diamonds. 

This Sam Katzman production is just another typical episode in this now very formulaic series. It was directed with speed by Lew Landers and unfortunate to say but it only clocks in at 66 minutes yet seems much longer!

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Lyle Talbot!

SHRIEK IN THE NIGHT-1933-Two reporters from rival newspapers Pat Morgan (Ginger Rogers) and Ted Rand (Lyle Talbot) investigate the death of a well known millionaire after his accidental fall from a high rise apartment is ruled a homicide. After Rand gets Morgan accidentally fired they two team up. It turns out the victim was connected to a mobster and other murders occur. There's some weird characters like a serious police inspector (Purnell Pratt) with a clumsy comical assistant named Wilfred (Arthur Hoyt), an always frightened dumb maid and Louise Beavers in a degrading, stereotypical role as an hysterical cleaning lady. It's a little slow going and has the usual stilted "stage" acting common to early talkies (although there is some clever dialogue and the fate of the murderer is a little different) but Talbot is great as the wise talking reporter. Harvey Clark is a suspicious janitor.

This low budget comedy-mystery is in the public domain and used to play a lot on various TV stations in the 1990's. The year before director Albert Ray (who made many silent shorts) made THE THIRTEENTH GUEST also starring Rogers and Talbot. Rogers would team with Fred Astaire for the first time the same year in FLYIN' DOWN TO RIO and achieve stardom soon after (she's win an Academy Award in 1940).

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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Feudin' Fools

FEUDIN' FOOLS-1952-The Bowery Boys go south! Sach (Huntz Hall) inherits a plantation (it looks like the house Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor lived in on TV's GREEN ACRES). He's of course joined by bossy Slip (Leo Gorcey) and Chuck (David Gorcey) and Butch (Bennie Bartlett). They get embroiled in a feud between hillbillies named Smith and Jones (Sach's full name is Horace Debussy Jones). Like Curly Howard did in a couple of 3 Stooges shorts instead of a coonskin cap Sach wears skunk! All goes well for a while and a female hillbilly (Dorothy Ford who was in JACK AND THE BEANSTALK with Abbott & Costello) falls for Sach. 

Naturally when things start to get dull little Louie Dumbrowsky (Bernard Gorcey) shows up and is mistaken for a revenuer ("In the Civil War I was neutral".) After a lot of tired gags and Sach's mugging Lyle Talbott shows up as a bank robber wounded during a robbery. Louie has to pretend he's a doctor and then the gangsters shoot it out with The Smiths (kind of like in NEXT OF KIN....not!).

Some of the Hillbillies are played by Oliver Blake, perennial hillbilly portrayer Robert Easton (who was also the dialect coach) and Paul Wexler (later the scary Indian headhunter in THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE). Fuzzy Knight is Traps and Arthur Space is a banker. Screenwriter Tim Ryan (who penned a few others in the series) was also an actor. William Beaudine directed again. 

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Lucky Losers

LUCKY LOSERS-1950-After the mysterious suicide of a popular banker Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall) and the rest of the boys (Billy Bennedict, Buddy Gorman and David Gorcey) help their reporter/friend Gabe (Gabriel Dell) investigate. To get jobs at a crooked casino run by Lyle Talbott the boys get tutored by a street con artist named Buffer (Harry Tyler). Hillary Brooke is Countess Margo who works at the casino. Little Louie (Bernard Gorcey) winds up impersonating a Texas gambler in the funniest scenes. Also with Joe Turkel and Selmer Jackson.

Although this is a typical BB comedy it does have some serious overtones. As with the previous entry BLONDE DYNAMITE, William Beaudine directs from a screenplay by Charles Marion.

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Western Stooges!

GOLD RAIDERS-1951-In this B-western former silent screen star George O'Brien plays a former US marshal turned insurance salesman named George O'Brien who comes to the town of Red Mesa to protect gold shipments from unscrupulous saloon owner Lyle Talbott. And he is assisted by The Three Stooges! Yes, Moe, Larry & Shemp co-star in this comedy drama which features lots of shoot-outs and face slapping. A sub-plot involves O'Brien's secretary (Sheila Ryan) and her drunken former doctor grandfather (Clem Bevans).

The Stooges are very funny but when they aren't around it's just another low budget western. The saloon shootout at the end is kind of ridiculous and Talbott's stand-in during the final fist fight is very bad. This is the only Stooges full length movie appearance until their first comeback film (HAVE ROCKET WILL TRAVEL) in 1959. It sort of reminded me of Ed Woods' CROSSROAD AVENGER made two years later and featuring Talbott as the villain.

Harry Thomas did the make-up. Fuzzy Knight has a small role as the do nothing sheriff and Monte Blue is also in it. Stooge vet Edward Bernds directed. Thanks to my friend Tony for giving me this!

Larry: Firecrackers?

Moe: That's shooting you, ignoramus. The men out here are rough and tough and love battles.

Larry: Well, I'm weak and soft and I love the Bronx!

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Ed Wood on TV?

It's usually interesting to see un-aired TV pilots especially if they were made for a series that later made it to one of the networks. GILLIGAN'S ISLAND and THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW were two that featured different cast members but were never shown. The pilot for LOST IN SPACE was never aired but scenes were incorporated into an early episode after the series began.

But then there are TV pilots, some aired, some not, whose story was never sold. What happens to them? Well, thanks to modern age video tape, DVDs and e-Bay many of these unseen shows are surfacing. Most have at least something to offer: an unusual plot, one or two known (or soon to be known) actors, a future director, whatever....

Ed Wood made a TV Western pilot (in color) called CROSSROAD AVENGER in 1953. It featured former cowboy star Tom Keene as "The Tucson Kid", an Old West insurance investigator who is framed for the murder of a local sheriff by a corrupt saloon owner (Wood regular Lyle Talbot). The whole production is pretty sub-par with the actors spouting typical Wood dialogue while guided by Ed's lackluster "get it done quick" direction. A stand out scene is when "The Kid" and a prospector are caught in a night ambush. Instead of taking cover they stand out in plain sight in front of the bad guys and return fire until the prospector is shot dead!

Another ex-cowboy star Tom Tyler (who also played the banaged lead in 1940's THE MUMMY'S HAND) is the not so hip deputy. It would be his last role as he died the following year. He kind of looks like Patrick Stewart to me!

Several other "Wood veterans" are on hand: the always entertaining Harvey B. Dunn (he plays the police chief in BRIDE OF THE MONSTER) plays the talkitive prospector and Keene Duncan and Bud Osbourne round out the cast. Wood even gives himself the small role as a Pony Express rider at the begining....

Supposedly Wood filmed a sequel and combined the two into an hour adventure. Some feel if this had sold Wood's no budget "classics" would never had been made...

CROSSROADS AVENGER isn't much unless you're an Ed Wood completist but it looks like a masterpiece compared to the next "lost" pilot.......

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