Cameron, Cuba, Cahn

 

 (imdb)

PIER 5 HAVANA-1959-Steve Daggert (Cameron Mitchell; in FACE OF FIRE the same year) goes to Cuba (but this was filmed in LA) soon after Castro takes over, looking for his alcoholic friend Miller (Logan Field; a TV actor). Right away the chief of police (Michael Granger) has him picked up and they meet Mrs. Miller (Allison Hayes; ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN the year before) who separated from Miller before he disappeared. She's a singer in a club and has a rich boyfriend Fernando (Eduardo Noriega). Later a guy named Schluss (Otto Waldis) wants to get rid of Daggert. It seems Miller's disappearance may be tied to a plan by Schluss and his boss Lopez (Nestor Paiva) to put Battista back in power. Miller is presumed dead but shows up later to warn Daggett that Battista's supporters plan to bomb Havana! 

Ok political espionage with good acting from the leads in a low budget production by director Edward L. Cahn who made INVISIBLE INVADERS and THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE the same year. Co-producer/co-scripter Robert Kent worked on most of Cahn's '50's output.

 Mitchel, Granger, Hayes, Paiva and Waldis had all worked with Cahn before.

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Shoot!

 

 (imdb)

SHOOT TO KILL-1947-Larry Langdon is going to become the new DA, but the night before he's killed in a car accident that leaves his wife Marion Susan (Luana Anders) incapacitated. Also killed is a gangster. Reporter George Mitchell (Russell Wade) tells the old DA John Forsythe (Charles Trowbridge) about how he heard Forsythe and Langdon fighting. Mitchell seems to intimate that Forsythe killed Langdon. Later Marion relates the whole story about the conviction of a gangster named Dixie (Robert Kent using the name Dennis Blackley), the involvement of a mob boss Gus Miller (Nestor Paiva) (who had Langdon in his pocket), the killing of a janitor (Vince Barnett), her marriage and the revelation that Marion isn't as innocent as she seems. After Dixie escapes custody, we find out a lot more in this low budget film noir quickie with a twist ending. Edmond McDonald and Joe Devlin are also in. 

The direction by producer William Berke is very good but some of the dialogue is hokey. The highlight though is a scene with Jazz pianist Gene Rodgers performing.

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Brooklyn

 

 (imdb)

THE CASE AGAINST BROOKLYN-1958-A rookie cop (Darren McGavin) goes undercover to help break the borough's illegal gambling racket protected by some corrupt police officers. He romances a widow (Margret Hayes)) who's husband (Joe DeSantis) committed suicide. He runs afoul of thug henchman Rudi Franklin (Warren Stevens) who works for the big bosses (Nestor Paiva and Thomas B. Henry). Tragedy follows but he eventually succeeds. Emile Meyer is a police captain and Joe Turkel is another thug. 

This was the second film directed by Paul Wendkos after THE BURGLAR in 1957. He went on to make other films (GIDGET (1959) (and some sequels), BECAUSE THEY'RE YOUNG (1960) and THE METHISTO WALTZ (1971) but his major output was on TV.

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Moles

 

 (imdb)

THE MOLE PEOPLE-1956-The oddball introduction to this film is done by Frank Baxter, a college English teacher who sometimes appeared on TV as “Mr. Research”. He talks about the hollow Earth theory. Then a group of archaeologists journey to a sacred Asian mountain after finding some unusual Sumerian artifacts. They find the ruins of a city and one guy (Phil Chambers) falls through the floor and is killed. That leaves Dr. Bentley (John Agar in his only horror/sci-fi role in 1956)), Dr. Bellamin (Hugh Beaumont), Prof. LaFarge (Nestor Paiva) and their guide (Rodd Redwing) to descend into the Earth in a rather long scene. An avalanche kills the guide and traps them underground. They discover that the Sumerians created their own “ark” just before the Great Flood. Then they are attacked by the big-eyed reptilians of the title (I know, I know. Moles aren't reptiles...). They are sort of rescued by a pasty-faced tribe who use the mole people as slaves. The trio are condemned to death, to die in “the fires of Ishtar”. They escape but LaFarge is killed. A flashlight saves the surviving duo, and they are revered as gods. Bentley falls for Adad (Cynthia Patrick), the only blond-haired woman. The high priest Elinu (Alan Napier) stirs up trouble and bad influence with the wimpy king. The guys are put in the “fire” but it's just ordinary sunlight. The moles revolt and kill everyone except Bentley and Bellamin who escape with Adad but she's killed in another earthquake when they reach the surface. Robin Hughes (THE THING THAT WOULDN'T DIE) has a small role as a guard. The next year co-star Hugh Beaumont played Mr. Cleaver on the long running TV show “Leave It to Beaver”.

This low budget Sci-Fi fantasy was directed by Virgil Vogel in his debut. He does the best with what he's got. He went on to work on many TV shows. Screenwriter Lazlo Gorog wrote mostly for TV but also did the screenplay for the ultra-cheapy THE LAND UNKNOWN (which Vogel directed) the next year. William Alland was the producer.

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Revenge in The Sunshine State

REVENGE OF THE CREATURE-1955-In the this first sequel to THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, Captain Lucas (Nestor Paiva) once again takes an expedition to the Amazon to try and find "The Gill Man". Two guys are looking to bring him/it back to the States. After one of the guys Joe Hayes (John Bromfield) is almost killed underwater, they use dynamite to stun the creature and take him back to an aquarium in Florida. Dr. Clete Ferguson (John Agar) goes to study it. At first The Gill Man is in a coma but when he comes out of it the trouble starts. He/It nearly takes Joe out again but he's held in check by a chain fastened to the bottom of  his tank-prison and put on display with barracudas and sharks. Ferguson meets Helen Dobson (Lori Nelson, in THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED the same year) who's doing her thesis on fish. While their romance booms, the two do reflex experiments on the the creature and he/it seems to take a shine to Helen who feels sorry for the monster. "I pity him sometimes. He's so alone". Eventually the scaly one, in a hormonal rage breaks out of the tank, kills Joe and terrorizes customers. He takes to the country looking for Helen. Locating her briefly he watches her undress and kills her dog. He stalks Helen and Ferguson while they're out dancing and invades the club kidnapping his beloved. He finds having a relationship with an oxygen breathing female a little difficult and when they both need air he falls prey to the Florida police. It looks like he's killed in a hail of bullets and drifts lifelessly away (but we know better). The two air breathing lovers are reunited.

REVENGE's plot of  "The Gill Man in civilization" isn't bad for a sequel especially since the original took place entirely in the jungle. There are some lapses in logic. The aquarium seems to handle the situation all wrong just asking for mayhem. And since the creature was plucked from his natural habitat and placed in a tank to be probed and prodded by "men of science" couldn't they have had a little more sympathy for the green guy? Ok, it was the Fifties....

It was nice to see original director Jack Arnold back for part 2 and this really help avoid some of the pitfalls sequels sometime have. His scenes of the creature prowling around at night are excellent.

Two men portray the creature in this film. Ricou Browning plays him underwater and Tom Hennesy played him on land. Both have cameo roles in the production. Of course Clint Eastwood has one small scene with Agar as a lab tech who can't find a mouse.

Jack Arnold directed both Agar and Paiva in TARANTULA the same year.

THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US would follow...

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The Creature From The Black Lagoon

THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON-1954-This “creature classic” from Universal-International (originally filmed in 3-D) takes place in the Upper Amazon (after a brief intro on how the world began) where the fossilized remains of an over sized claw are found. Two researchers, David Reed (Richard Carlson) a serious level headed science guy and Mark Williams (Richard Denning), a crabby hard nose who's more concerned with financial success, head an expedition to check out the find. They bring along Reed's fiancee Kay (Julie Adams) too. Nestor Paiva is Lucas, the guy who steers their “barge”.Whit Bissell is Dr. Thompson, another victim, I mean researcher. Little do they suspect that the creature who's remains they are looking for is still alive and has killed two local native helpers. 

Their first dig doesn't turn out so good so Reed has a plan to visit the uncharted “Black Lagoon”. After only seeing a scaly claw for a few scenes, The Creature finally emerges when Reed and Williams go scuba diving. When Kay goes for a swim, the creature checks her out. On another scuba dive, the duo have a closer encounter with “the gill man” where Williams spears him. Later, after it's obvious his intentions lay with Kay, they use a native drug to capture him and put him in a bamboo cage. That doesn't last long and he breaks out and does some plastic surgery on Thompson. When they try to leave the creature blocks their path. In their efforts to clear a path Williams is killed. Just when it looks like they'll escape the creature grabs Kay and takes her back to his pad, I mean cave. Before he can do in Reed the Gill Man dies in a hail of bullets...or does he? 

TCFTBL is one of the great monster movies of the '50's. The creature itself deserves to be right up there with all the other “famous monsters” like Frankenstein & Dracula. The year before this director Jack Arnold made another movie in 3-D the Sci-Fi themed IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (also starring Carlson). Producer William Alland was a former member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater. He played the reporter trying to find out the meaning of “rosebud” in CITIZEN KANE. He'd also produced IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and produced later Arnold efforts including the sequel THE REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, TARANTULA and THE SPACE CHILDREN. Co-screenwriter Harry Essex had penned IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and later worked a lot in TV. In 1971 he made his own version of an undersea creature, the whacked out OCTO-MAN. Ricou Browning portrayed the creature underwater, while Ben Chapman was the creature on land. The same year as CREATURE star Carlson directed his own Sci-Fi movie RIDER TO THE STARS. There's a also a memorable musical score by the un-credited trio of Hans Salter, Herman Stein and Henry Mancini.

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Actually There's No Party..

THE WILD PARTY-1956-Anthony Quinn stars in this grim melodrama the same year he played Quasimodo in the French production of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. Here he plays Ton Kuphen, a loony ex-football player-loser reduced to petty crime. His pals include fruity con-man Gage (Jay Robinson), broke jazz pianist Kicks (Nehemiah Persoff who narrates) and Honey (Kathryn Grant), Tom's spacey semi-innocent girlfriend. They terrorize a society couple, a Navy lieutenant (Arthur Franz) and his rich fiancee (Carol Ohmart, later Vincent Price's wife on HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL)) who Kuphen becomes obsessed with. The four "beats" talk annoying jive in this lurid and racy (I guess for the time) drama with a disappointing finale. Paul Stewart and Barbara Nichols appear in one scene together and Nestor Paiva has a small role.

The jazz score is by Buddy Bregman and Barney Kessell. Maynard Ferguson and Bud Shank appear in an un-credited on-screen band. Director Harry Horner had made RED PLANET MARS and BEWARE, MY LOVELY and was also production designer on many films.

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Hail Atlantis

ATLANTIS THE LOST CONTINENT-1961-While out plying their trade a Greek fisherman Demetrius (Anthony Hall aka Sal Ponti)) and his father rescue Antilla (Joyce Meadows) a bitchy princess ( "Don't touch me. You smell of fish").

Eventually she convinces the superstitious and easily deceived young man to take her back to her home beyond "the pillars of Hercules" which of course turns out to be the legendary Atlantis before it became lost. Somehow they fall in love. After they are picked up by an Atlantean submarine Demetrius is made a slave. Edgar Stehli is Antilla's weak kneed father/king and Ed Platt is the high priest who knows that doomsday is near. Though technically and scientifically advanced (they have a death ray and make human slaves into animal people sort of like in ISLAND OF LOST SOULS) it's an evil and despotic empire. Demetrious battles a giant in the ridiculous ordeal of fire and water to win his freedom and is visited by a blue skinned Neptune in a dream sequence. The scheming Zaran (John Dall) plots with Sonoy the astrologer (Frank DeKova with eye patch and earring) to attack the rest of the world. Demetrious leads a slave uprising just as Atlantis is destroyed but he and his love get away. Berry Kroeger is a scientist ("Why do they always take my best specimens away?" ) and Gene Roth has an un-billed role (and if you had to wear the embarrassing head gear he wears you'd want to be un-billed too!).

William Smith, Jay Novello and Nestor Paiva are also in it with Paul Frees narrating. This George Pal directed fantasy is very entertaining and imaginative but not nearly on the budget of his previous effort THE TIME MACHINE. Some action scenes were lifted from Pal produced THE NAKED JUNGLE and QUO VADIS. It's based on an English play.

Thanks to my pal Tony for getting me this and thanks for reading!