M2

 

 (letterboxd.com)

M-1951-Los Angeles is terrorized by a child murderer (David Wayne). The police are baffled. Things get so bad, innocent people are attacked. Two cops (Howard DeSilva and Steve Brodie) investigate as the mayor (Jim Backus) blows his top. The killing of a councilman's granddaughter stirs things up. Mobster Charlie Marshall (Martin Gabel), who's gang includes Raymond Burr, Walter Burke and Norman Lloyd, hatches a plot with a drunken lawyer Langley (Luther Adler) to find the killer themselves because the cops are too close to their operations. They hire bums and other street denizens to comb the streets while the cops interrogate recently released mental patients (William Schallert plays one of them). The pathetic whistling killer collects kids' shoes and plays the flute. His problems seem to stem from his mother. When the killer gets himself trapped in a warehouse with a little girl, the gang goes in and gets him (a kind of ridiculous scene). 

The finale is an interesting mock trial where Langley turns the tables on Marshall. Not a bad remake of the classic German thriller (from 1931) with solid acting, by Jospeh Losey (THE BOY WITH THE GREEN HAIR (1948)) who was soon after blacklisted and fled to England.

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Jerry Warren's Frankenstein

 

 (wikipedia)

FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND-1981-4 balloonists, Curtis Ryand (Tain Bodkin), Dr. Paul Hadley (Robert Clarke), Mark Eden (Robert Christopher; a co-producer) and Dino (Patrick O'Neil) crash on an island. After going through a cave (where a familiar face watches them) they find a woman bound and then meet a whole tribe of scantily clad "native" women who take the men back to their cave. While the men have dinner, the women do a dance. The next day we learn the bound woman was being initiated into the group. A strange force surrounds their camp and the women seem "deep into witchcraft". Then two loonies Jocko (Steve Brodie) and Angus (Richard Banks) show up. They lead the small group to a laboratory complex where they find Jason (Cameron Mitchell), a sea captain held prisoner for 17 years. (his short soliloquy is pretty funny). After he's sedated the group meet Shelia Frankenstein-Van Helsing (Katherine Victor), the great granddaughter of the infamous doctor who created the island and despite being dead still controls it. Her husband Dr. Von Helsing, is a bed ridden old man who has to be jolted into consciousness to babble about the Frankenstein monster being chained to a reef. There are also a bunch of zombie like servants in sunglasses and wool hats. The girls dance some more. The real Dr. Frankenstein (John Carradine) shows up occasionally as a hologram to say things like "The power! The power!". Hadley (under some drug) winds up helping Shelia experiment on the girls (who are the offspring of aliens) to help her senile husband. When the rest of the guys revolt Shelia calls on great granddad who summons his monster (obviously trying to imitate Bela in FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN). 

The ridiculous final fight is very reminiscent of the one in "THE WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN", but it's easy to see why. Both were directed by the usually incompetent Jerry Warren. In fact FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND was Warren's first film in 15 years after making “Batwoman” in 1966! (with Victor and Brodie). In the end the men escape and tell a colonel (Andrew Duggan) about the island but when they return everything has vanished (??). 

It seems based on another Jerry Warren movie TEENAGE ZOMBIES. This was the third Jerry Warren movie Robert Clarke (THE HIDEOUS SUN DEMON) starred in. Warren threatened a sequel but it was never made. He died 1988.

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Tierney As A Good Guy

 

BODYGUARD-1948-Disbarred cop Mike Carter (Lawrence Tierney) is hired by Freddie Dysen (Phillip Reed) to be a sort of bodyguard for his old aunt Gene (Elizabeth Risdon) who's the head of a meat packing plant. No sooner is he on the job when he's framed for the murder of the police Lieutenant who fired him. While evading a manhunt he travels around town trying to figure out who framed him. With the help of his girlfriend Doris (Priscilla Lane) he finds out that the death of a health inspector might not have been an accident but a murder scheme involving pumping meat with water by the plant manager Fenton (Steve Brodie). 

Nice little murder mystery with some comedy directed by Richard Fleischer in his feature film debut (before this he'd only made short films). It also features bits by Ben Frommer, Bobby Barber, Dewey Robinson and Joe Devlin.

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Not A Disney Film!

 

 

 

IT'S A SMALL WORLD-1950-Harry (Paul Dale) is a little person (called the now politically incorrect “midget” in this) who doesn't have a very nice childhood. His father (Will Geer) likes him but takes him out of school and keeps him out of sight in their house. His selfish sister (Shirley Mills, the star of CHILD BRIDE) wants him sent away. He does leave home to join a circus but the owner (Thomas Henry) is a jerk and Harry runs away from him. In the city he meets Sam (Todd Karns; George Bailey's brother in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE)), a shoeshine guy who gives Harry a job. Everything is ok until he meets a floozy named Buttons (Lorraine Miller) who gets a black eye from her boyfriend Charlie (Steve Brodie). She seems to like Harry and they hang out but she two times him and lies to him and gets him involved with the giant sized Rose (Nina Koshetz)) who turns him into a pickpocket.

 

Unfortunately Harry gets sweet on Buttons but she only has eyes for Charlie and laughs at him. When he wants to quit fatso Rose threatens him. He turns them all in and (reluctantly) joins the Cole Brothers circus winter headquarters in Florida where he meets the cheery Dolly (Ann Sholter in her only film role), a woman his size who he sings a song to! They get married and live happily ever after....

Henry Corden has an un-credited role as a truck driver. By my count Thomas Henry was in 10 features in 1950.

While not a great movie IT'S A SMALL WORLD was an unusual feature for the time. It tries hard to show Harry's plight in a sympathetic way but sometimes seems a little too obvious. Lead actor Paul Dale was one of the Lollipop Guild in THE WIZARD OF OZ and at the time of this writing he was still alive (another member of the Guild Jerry Maren is also alive). He's good in the role and does a fairly amazing job of playing his Harry character from child to adult despite being 23 at the time!

William Castle (who appears as a cop) directed it but without the flair he'd use in his later “gimmick horror films” (The first of them MACABRE would come 8 year later).

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