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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Chan

 

 (imdb)

CRIME STORY-1993-A police inspector Eddie Chan (Jackie Chan), who may be suffering post trauma, becomes involved in the kidnapping of a real estate magnate (Kar-Ling Law) and his ailing wife (Auyeung Pui San), planned by Detective Hung (Kent Cheng), a corrupt cop. 

There are some incredible stunts and sfx, especially in the finale but this is much more serious than Chan's usual serio-comedy outings. Directed by Kirk Wong (with an assist by Chan).

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Rookie

 

 (youtube)

POLICE ROOKIE-1940-Criminal "The Dutch Man" gets off again. Veteran cop Mike Hannigan (Richard Homans) goes undercover to find "the big boss" who's running things. He finds some evidence in a warehouse and is shot but chases off the gunmen. Back home, with his wife (Mary Gordon; Mrs. Hudson in the Universal Sherlock Holmes series), and their son Stevie (Gordon Jones), they have a fight over Stevie not wanting to go to the police academy. Stevie's friend Joe Kelly (Craig Reynolds) stops by and Mike is killed when a bomb blows up his car. Stevie and Joe decide to join the police department and catch Mike's killer. Mike passes the exam but Joe fails. 

Mike gets into hot water with his boss later on while investigating on his own. Following a lead to a nightclub, he meets a talkative floozy (Veda Ann Borg) while Joe kind of romances Mike's girl (Joyce Compton). Mike eventually discovers his dad's killer but almost makes a big mistake. It ends kind of tragically. 

This low budget crime drama was directed with speed by the super-fast Sam Newfield. One of 14 movies he directed in 1940! PRC (Newfield's brother Sigmund Neufeld produced most of their films) originally released POLICE ROOKIE as I TAKE THIS OATH. The title was changed upon a re-release. Of course, star Gordon Jones later played “Mike the cop” on the Abbott & Costello TV show. A few well-known character actors appear: Keene Duncan, Arthur O'Connell and Harry Harvey.

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Indonesia

 

 (imdb)

THE RAID: REDEMPTION-2011-An elite group of law officers invade the criminal stronghold (kind of an apartment house for scum) of a powerful (and weird looking) drug lord Tama (Ray Sahetapy). All goes well for a short time until a kid is killed and the gang is alerted. For some stupid reason, the old Lieutenant didn't tell anyone they were coming so they are cut off from reinforcements. One guy Rama (Iko Uwals) meets his brother there, one of Tama's right hand men. It's just one big battle for survival with the drug lord monitoring the whole thing via closed circuit TVs. 

Very violent, brutal and graphic with some wild bloody fights. This Indonesia production was written and directed by the Welsh born Gareth Evans who made a sequel THE RAID 2 IN 2015.

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It's A Jungle Out There

 

 (imdb)

FEMALE JUNGLE-1955-Police investigate the murder of a Hollywood actress Monica Madison (Jean Lewis aka Eve Brent). Meanwhile Al (Burt Kaiser) and Peggy (Patricia Crowley) are having marital problems. He's a bitter boozing caricaturist and she's an unhappy nightclub waitress. An alcoholic police Sgt. Jack Stevens (Lawrence Tierney) also investigates the killing as it seems he could be the murderer. 

Peggy gets involved with the mysterious Claude Almstead (John Carradine) who says he wants a caricature but has some other motive. Although Al is having an affair with the floozy Candy (Jayne Mansfield in her movie debut) he really gets concerned when he can't find Peggy and gives Candy the brush off. The real killer is revealed in the talky finale of this low budget sleazy crime drama directed by Bruno Ve Soto, who also has a small role. Connie Cezon from 3 Stooges shorts is also in it.

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Noir Thing

 

THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE-1958-A Kansas City cop Bill Brennon (Rod Cameron) investigates the death of his mobster brother TJ (Don Megowan) in Chicago. Two hit man Hart (Gerald Milton) & Santoni (Richard Karlan) want a package of dope TJ's widow Lyn (Vera Ralston) might have. Nightclub bartender Rak (Mike Mazurki) is also after the stash and is in love with Lyn. There's a plot twist toward the end in this minor film noir crime drama directed by Joseph Kane and written by Richard C. Sarafian. 

Co-star Vera Ralston (sometimes billed as Vera Hruba Ralston) was a former Olympic skater for Czechoslovakia who it's said once insulted Hitler to his face. She retired from acting after this film. 

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Stray

 

STRAY-2019-Murphy (Christine Woods), a female police officer coming back to her job after the death of her child, investigates the mysterious burning death of a woman who later appears to be 1000 years old. Murphy meets the woman's daughter Nori (Karen Fukuhara) who seems to have some special power. A guy (Japanese guitarist-singer Miyavi) who might be Nori's brother hangs around. This weird supernatural tale has very good acting and direction but might be a little too dark.

 This is the only feature film (so far) by director Joe Sill who before and after made video shorts, commercials and music videos.

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Crime In Italy

SHOOT FIRST, DIE LATER-(IL POLIZIOTTO E MARCIO)-1974-Violent Italian crime drama with a corrupt cop Domenico (Luc Merenda; also in LE MANS & TORSO) working for the mob. He roughs up drug dealers who try to horn in on The Mob's territory and mostly ignores their crimes. It kind of pisses off the gangsters (one of them is American actor Richard Conte, who had been feature in THE GODFATHER two years before) because he doesn't want to be involved in the new enterprise of gun running and wants more money from them. Two weird looking thugs kill a witness and his pet cat and one other goon is a drag queen. All goes well, until his father (also a kind of police commissioner) learns of his son's deceitful ways when Domenico wants him to turn over some evidence. He gives sonny the report but is killed anyway. Then Domenico's girlfriend is brutally beaten and strangled. He gets revenge on the killers but in the end is shot in the head by another corrupt cop. There's too much talk, car chases and running around to distinguish this from anything thing else. Director Fernando Di Leo also made THE ITALIAN CONNECTION and a few other crime dramas.

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Korea

HOWLING-2012-After a drug addict is burned to death by a bomb planted in his belt, a male detective (Kang-ho Song from THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD) and his female partner (Na-yeong Lee) investigate. Naturally he's a jaded chauvinist. When he finds out it's a homicide he wants to solve it all by himself and get all the credit. Later a man is attacked and killed by a wolf (the first victim had a wolf bite on his leg). Both victims seem to have ties to drugs, prostitution and porn. When he gets in trouble for withholding info the two learn to work together...sort of. After several screw-ups (most of the other detectives are assholes) the investigation leads to illegal dog fighting, a hybrid wolf-dog and a former police K-9 dog trainer seeking revenge.

There's an exciting but ultimately sad finale in this Korean production directed by Ha Yoo (A DIRTY CARNIVAL).

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Merry Christmas

RACKET SQUAD-THE CHRISTMAS CAPER-1952-This is a Christmas episode of the long running TV crime drama that based it's stories about "bunco" artists and con men on true events. Reed Hadley stars as Captain John Braddock who works for the San Francisco police department. In this seasonal story a nice old man Charles Dooley (Lloyd Corrigan) promises some kids a lot of Christmas toys, so to make money he gets a job as a Santa Claus collecting for a charity which is actually a front for some con men (future Uncle Fester Jackie Coogan and familiar TV actor Alan Dexter). Willie Best shows up in one scene as a janitor who actually explains the whole caper to Dooley! After the two bad guys are arrested Dooley takes the stolen money that he was suppose to deliver to his fraudulent bosses and spends it on presents for some needy kids (including a cripple girl) while of course dressed as Santa Claus. Braddock's hot headed detective (John Phillips) wants to arrest Dooley but Braddock relents and they give some of their own money to help the kids. Argentina Brunetti and William Fawcett are also featured.

This episode was directed by Earl C. Kenton who in the forties had made several Abbott & Costello comedies and THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN. It was written by Arthur E. Orloff, who wrote many TV episodes around this time. I just wanted to mention that because his last name is Orloff. Ironically, strangely, coincidentally (?) Santa portrayer Corrigan also played a guy impersonating Santa in a episode of WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE that I recently saw!

Merry Christmas and thanks for reading!

Ultra Crap

ULTRA-COP 2000-1995-This crazy comedy/fantasy/action film from the Philippines is very hard to follow! A special police team tries to infiltrate a gang called the Black Dragons. Meanwhile 2 Martians (?) have a couple of sword fights. Two cops one male (Ricky Davao) one female (Yukari Oshima aka  Cynthia Luster) search for a drug dealer named Wong. In a very weird comical scene a suicidal gay guy comes on to one of the Martians. He later explains his story to the duo but the male cop says "Maybe he was just the same like you, a queer!". The Martians seem to be sucking the life force from helpless Earthlings. There's several gun battles and a car chase (with explosions) but the movie really descents into stupidity with jokes about the gay character they are trying to protect. The two Martians later fight it out in an airline hangar while the police shoot it out with the drug dealers.

Fortunately it all seems to be a dream. Some movies are based/inspired/ripped off from other movies ULTRA-COP 2000's only inspiration is stupidity. The direction, dubbing and fights are terrible. Director Phillip Ho may have once been married to lead actress Oshima.

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