Beach Follow Up

 

 (imdb)

WILD ON THE BEACH-1965-Adam (Frankie Randall) and Lee (Sherry Jackson) both rent the same beach house. Oodles of funny things happen in this pretty unfunny rip-off of AIP's Beach movies. Sonny & Cher, The Astronauts and Sandy Nelson provide the music and Russ Bender as a college professor/record producer even croons a tune! Booth Colman is a college dean and Justin Smith is his bumbling assistant.

This was Maury Dexter's follow up to SURF PARTY and it was co-written by his usual screenwriter Harry Spauding. Lead Frankie Randall hosted a summer replacement show for Dean Martin and his cover of The Who's “I Can See For Miles” is featured on “Golden Throats: The Great American Sing Off” from Rhino records.

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Before Purple Rain There Was....

 

 (tmdb)

THE PURPLE HILLS-1961-A drifter named Sheppard (Gene Nelson) shoots Beaumont, a wanted criminal for the bounty but he has to shoot his own horse and can't carry the body back. He buries the body and walks to town. Meanwhile Beaumont's partners in crime Johnny (Kent Taylor) and Chito (Danny Zapien) wait for him but become suspicious when they see vultures. They find his body and plan on collecting the bounty but they are in Apache territory and the tribe liked Beaumont for all the wrong reasons (he sold them guns, booze, etc.). To get the body back Johnny leaves Chito with the Indians and goes looking for Sheppard. Both claim the reward. To settle things the deputy marshal (co-writer Russ Bender) goes with them to the grave but they are accompanied by Amy Carter (Joanna Barnes) and her young charge Martin (Jerry Summers), revenge seeking younger brother of the deceased Beaumont. 

This modest little 60-minute western is actually a remake of a 1915 silent film. This was third film produced and directed by Maury Dexter (THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH (1962); also with Kent Taylor).

Glen Was 60 Feet Tall...

 

 (moriareviews.com)

WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST-1958-In this sequel Glen Manning, THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, didn't die in the original. Instead, he survived and wound up in Mexico, a deformed, one eyed, deranged monster (now played by Dean Parkin) stealing food trucks and scaring locals. His sister Joyce (Sally Fraser) hears reports and contacts Mr. Swanson (George Becwar), whose truck disappeared and Major Baird (Roger Pace), useless army brass who advises sis to give up her quest. She visits Mexico to see a young boy Miguel who's in shock from an encounter with a monster and meets helpful Sgt. Murillo (Rico Alaniz). Later Baird and Dr. Carmichael (Russ Bender) come to investigate. They find a colossal footprint. ("That is a very big footprint") Baird wants to call in the military but Joyce says they should reason with Glen. After seeing the scarred giant, they decide to capture him. They drug him with some bread but have trouble finding a place to put him in the US. Finally, they tie him up in an airport hangar and we get a flashback to the original. Then he escapes but is recaptured. It's determined that Glen has irreversible brain damage and the army decides to send him to an isolated island but he escapes before they can move him. They trap him in Griffith Park but he terrorizes a bus load of school kids. Joyce's plea makes him put the bus down and commit suicide in the color finale. 

Who else but Bert I. Gordon (who passed away at age 100 in March) would be behind such giant shenanigans? It's low budget for sure with some sub-par sfx but the giant's “new look” is pretty cool.

Sally Fraser was in Mr. BIG's other “giant” movie in 1958, EARTH VS. THE SPIDER. Dean Parkin cut his teeth for this role by playing the “huge” title creature on Gordon's THE CYCLOPS the year before. Russ Bender has the distinction of playing two different characters in each film and getting killed in both!

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Crime Drama

 

 (imdb)

AIR PATROL-1962-This is a little murder mystery that seems more like a condensed version of a TV show, a crazy whodunit about the theft of an expensive painting using a helicopter as a getaway car. 

Mona Whitney (Merry Anders) gets conked on the head but is also a suspect because she once hit a cop. Grouchy police Lt. Taylor (Williard Parker; THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING (1964)) and Sgt. Kurnitz (Russ Bender) investigate and call in Sgt. Bill Castle (Robert Dix) from the police air patrol, who also narrates. Murcott (John Holland), the owner of the painting, is mad and having financial troubles. Insurance investigator Howie Franklin (George Eldredge) helps out. A faded actor (Douglas Dumbrille) also figures into the plot. Mona is forced to be the drop off and Castle follows her by chopper. Ray Dannis (THE UNDERTAKER AND HIS PALS (1966)) is a security guard. 

AIR PATROL was directed Maury Dexter, who made THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH the same year. It's not very interesting but it's short!

Thanks for reading!  RIP Terry Funk....

Wet Crime Drama

RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA-1964-Bill (Ken Scott), a scuba diver hatches a plot to rob a bank on Catalina Island. He enlists his ex-friend Tucker (Russ Bender) to help him. Bill plans to scuba over from the main island to where the money is kept. Meanwhile his deadbeat brother Buddy (Garth Benton) spies on Bill's wife Dottie (Merry Anders) while she undresses. Somehow Buddy and a trouble maker named Perdy (Booth Colman) nozzle in on the caper. However before the big heist Bill catches Buddy putting the moves on Dottie and nearly kills him. They pull off the robbery but Tucker dies and then complications set in resulting in Bill being killed and Perdy and Buddy being arrested. Dolly watches the whole thing from afar. 

Director Maury Dexter (THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH) had been making low budget crime dramas (and westerns) for a while. After this he went on to make MARYJANE and HELL'S BELLES and a few others before going into TV (namely THE LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE). It's pretty boring but has cool “Telstar” like music.

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Ring of Fire/The Strangler

RING OF FIRE-(1961)-David Janssen (2 years before THE FUGITIVE TV show) stars as a sheriff kidnapped by three bank robbers (future "Riddler" Frank Gorshin, Joyce Taylor, James Johnson) and forced to lead them through the Oregon forest. It's ok at this point. One of the thugs falls off a cliff and Gorshin and Taylor are captured by a huge posse but an errant cigarette sets the woods ablaze. Janssen has to save the day and romance Taylor.

The forest fire SFX are very well done and bring the movie up an notch.

RING OF FIRE was produced by the husband and wife team of Andrew and Virginia Stone. Andrew directed and Virginia edited (a key to the whole climax). Their previous film had been a disaster epic THE LAST VOYAGE where they actually sank a real ocean liner!



THE STRANGLER-1963-This black & white thriller stars Victor Buono as a lab technician driven to strangling young nurses by his nagging, domineering wheelchair bound mother (future Grandma Walton Ellen Corby). A milk drinking detective trys to catch him while Russ Bender portraying a psychiatrist explains what a fetish is. 

Buono (an underrated actor) gives an intense performance as the cool headed killer. Also with Wally Campos and James B. Sikking. Director Burt Topper later made SOUL HUSTER with Nai Bonet and Fabian.

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War! What Is It Good For?

SUICIDE BATTALION-AIP-1958 -B-movie genius Edward L. Cahn stikes again with this strange comedy drama set in the Pacific during WW2.

Hardnose Mike Conners leads the title squad which includes John Ashley and Russ Bender. Much of the film concerns the exploits of the troop while partying at a local watering hole (including Ashley courting a native girl). War is fun!!

Stock footage (of both US and Japanese armies, some of it quite graphic) abounds. When the mission finally gets underway the squad has a woman reporter (Jewell Lain) with them too! A lot of the usual soul searching ensues before they must destroy a captured base and retrieve some secret files. Connors (who starred in his first TV show TIGHTROPE the next year) even has time to fight a rival Lieutenant (Bing “Father Of Kurt” Russell) for the reporter’s affections. It’s fairly violent for the time and of course nearly everyone (except the leads) dies.

A narrator tells of a “cunning and savage enemy” and “the power crazed Japanese”, so obviously by ’58, the wounds of WW 2 still hadn’t closed.

SB was written by AIP vet Lou Rusoff (see CAT GIRL entry) and produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff. Music by Ronald Stein. Also starring Scott Peters, Walter Maslow, John McNamara and Sammee Tong.
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Low, Very Low

DESTINATION: INNER SPACE-United Pictures- 1966- Navy commander Scott Brady investigates the source of some mysterious radar blips in an undersea lab head up by scientist Gary Merrill. Brady tries to make time with oceanographer Sherri North and contend with a cowardly diver (future voice over actor Mike Road). Others on board include: John Howard (who was a regular on MY 3 SONS at the time), Wende Wagner (ROSEMARY’S BABY) and Biff Elliot (who was in NAVY VS. THE NIGHT MONSTERS and TRACK OF THE VAMPIRE the same year! ). It turns out the blip is really an invading spaceship and when a metal canister is brought aboard it unleashes a giant scaly man fish (with a red tail fin and claws) bent on destroying humankind!

The whole feel of this movie is like a long episode of TV’s VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA (where Merrill once subbed for Richard Basehart...) with toy models, an outrageous but cheap monster and claustrophobic sets yet despite this (and Merrill’s zombie like performance) the underwater scenes are quite well done. James Hong has a few scenes as a broken English-speaking cook and ‘40’s serial regular Ray Bancroft plays a boat skipper.

Director Francis Lyon and writer Arthur C. Pierce had both been around and would collaborate again in 1968 for THE DESTRUCTORS (which featured Howard). Lyon, a former film editor, made CASTLE OF EVIL with Brady the same year. Music by Paul Dunlop.

SPACE PROBE TAURUS-A.I.P.-1964-Better known as SPACE MONSTER this weird, boring space drama has the scientists of Spaceship Hope 1 investigating a UFO and encountering a strange alien who communicates (?) by sticking out it’s tongue!

Francine York (CURSE OF THE SWAMP CREATURE) plays the lady scientist who’s looked down on by the commander (James Brown). AIP vet Russ Bender is also one of the astro-eggheads. They kill the alien and blow up it’s ship. That’s progress for ya! After much talk, the crew lands on a planet and is menaced by giant crabs. A “ crab-man “ with fangs (who also looks like something out of VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA!) kills one of them. The “ giant crabs “ are actually little ones attacking a toy ship. I’ve been told this “ could have influenced “ STAR TREK (2 years later) and 2001 ( 4 years later ) but it looks more influenced by Bert I. Gordon!!

Writer-director Leonard Katzman overcame toy models and produced such hit TV shows as THE WILD WILD WEST, HAWAII 5-0 and DALLAS!

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