Brains!

 

 (The Criterion Collection)

FIEND WITHOUT A FACE-1958-Strange murders occur on and around a US Air Force Base in Canada. Victims have their brains and spinal cords "sucked out". Locals think the cause is the base's radar experiments with atomic energy. Major Cummings (Marshall Thompson) must find the real reason which leads to Prof. Walgate (Kynaston Reeves) and his strange mind experiments. Cummings shows interest in Walgate's assistant Barbara (Kim Parker) but she blames him for everything. In a flashback the professor explains how he created an invisible "thing", a mental vampire. When the power plant is accidentally turned up the creatures become visible brains with long spinal cords. This has an excellent climax and good SFX (some of them rather gruesome for the time). 

Director Arthur Crabtree later made HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM. Screenwriter Herbert J. Leder later made THE FROZEN DEAD. According to star Thompson, he finished directing the film when Crabtree left the production before it was finished. It's based on the short story “The Thought Monster” by Amelia Reynolds Long.

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The Fix Is In

THE BASKETBALL FIX-1951-Alone in a bar, reporter Peter Ferreday (John Ireland) remembers how he helped high school basketball player Johnny Long (Marshall Thompson) get a scholarship with the help of coach Becker (Walter Sande). Mike Taft (William Bishop)), a sleazy bookmaker involves Johnny in a shaving points scheme. Johnny is in a money crunch taking care of his little brother and wants to buy an engagement ring for his girlfriend Pat (Vanessa Brown) (“Can you put glory in the bank?”). He gets in too deep, gets beat up and ruins his whole life. Nobody's learn a thing since....

This low budget film noirish quickie that's very serious and doesn't have a happy ending was directed by Felix E. Feist who a few years later made DONOVAN'S BRAIN and later moved to TV. A year earlier lead actress Vanessa Brown had played Jane to Lex Barker's Tarzan in TARZAN AND THE SLAVE GIRL.

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An American In England

 THE FIRST MAN INTO SPACE-1959-A US astronaut Don Prescott (Bill Edwards) is launched into space. He runs into some problems and crashes back to Earth. His brother Commander Charles Prescott (Marshall Thompson) investigates. He finds the ship but not his brother. It turns out Don, an uptight wise guy beat it out to be with his Italian girlfriend Tia (Marla Landi)! On a second flight, Don hits a meteor shower and disappears. After the mysterious death of cattle and people and the destruction of a blood bank, it becomes obvious that Prescott has come back home a wheezing blood drinking monster! He looks like he's encased in dried mud but that doesn't stop him from driving a car. Tia, who also happens to be a scientist at first blames everything on Charles but later warms to him and helps out. Roger Delgado (the first "master" on the original DOCTOR WHO) plays a Mexican diplomat who's upset because the space crash ruined a bull fight!

Despite it's low budget THE FIRST MAN INTO SPACE is a decent British production partially filmed in the US. It starts off kind of stupidly but gets better when the monster shows up. Two of it's producers Charles Vetter and Richard Gordon had already made two memorable horror films : FIEND WITHOUT A FACE (also with Thompson) and THE HAUNTED STRANGLER with Boris Karloff. Wyatt Ordung is one of the credited writers as his original script was first offered to AIP who turned it down.

Director Robert Day made the previously mentioned Haunted Strangler as well as the usually overlooked CORRIDORS OF BLOOD, also with Karloff. He went on to make the Hammer version of SHE as well as several '60's Tarzan movies and worked on British and American TV.

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Snakes On Everythig

CULT OF THE COBRA-1955-In this Universal horror story, 6 US G.I.s stationed somewhere in Asia and almost ready to return to the states meet a snake charmer (Leonard Strong) who gets them into a secret ceremony where (he says) a human being will change into a snake. They get drunk, put on hooded robes and go see the ritual. Though they were forbidden to take pictures one stupid guy (James Dobson) takes a flash picture. A riot ensues wherein the GIs beat up the cultists and burn the place but not before one of cultists (un-billed Ed Platt!) curses them with death. ("One by one you will die!") The stupid guy runs away with a basket containing the snake and gets bit. He survives but later is killed. The rest return to the states. Marshall Thompson is Tom Markel, a commercial artist who meets the mysterious Lisa Moya (Faith Domergue) who turns out to be a snake! His other pals include his roommate is Paul Able (Richard Long), ladies man Carl Turner (Jack Kelly), bowling alley owner Rico (David Janssen) and Pete (William Reynolds). While Tom falls in love with her, Lisa does away with his friends by turning into a cobra and killing them. Later Lisa realizes she's in love with Tom. It's the age old question: Can a woman who turns into a snake find happiness with the man she loves after killing all of his friends?

Paul figures out what's going on but no one believes him until he and Tom are the only ones left alive. When cobra-Lisa threatens Paul's fiance' (Kathleen Hughes; IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE) Tom uses a coat rack to subdue the deadly reptile as it transforms back into Lisa after it's dead.

CULT isn't a bad little film. It has a good cast and the cobra attacks are ok but it's drawback is it's predictable story. The minute the dark, enigmatic Lisa character shows up you know where it's all going. Director Francis D. Lyon worked in TV and later made the very low budget films DESTINATION INNER SPACE and CASTLE OF EVIL (both starring Scott Brady).

Almost every male star went on to have his own TV show. Star Faith Domergue had a busy year in '55. Besides playing a cobra woman she was in THE ISLAND EARTH, IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA and THE ATOMIC MAN. COTC also features bits by Olan Soule, Myrna Hansen and Bing Russell. A  hot dog vendor in quick scene looks to me like Ben Frommer (he mostly has his back to the camera) who was in Ed Woods' BRIDE OF THE MONSTER the same year....

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