Foghorn

 

 (imdb)

THE ROCKET MAN-1954-Timmy (George “Foghorn” Winslow), an imaginative little orphan is given a special space gun by a weird looking alien. When he shoots it, it makes moving things stop. It also makes people tell the truth. He's taken in by Amelia Brown (Spring Byington), the local judge and her daughter June (Anne Francis two years before FORBIDDEN PLANET). Amelia wants to put the local corrupt politico Big Bill Watkins (Emory Parnell) in jail. Mayor Ed Johnson (Charles Colburn) is sweet on Amelia but he's in Big Bill's pocket. Enter Tom Baxter (John Agar; in Hugo Haas' BAIT the same year), a parolee sent by a warden to get reformed under the Judge's wing. A couple Bob (future “Bowery Boy” Stanley Clements) and Ludine (Beverly Garland) come to get married, and it turns out Bob is the parolee not Tom. In fact, Tom is actually a lawyer hired by Watkins to close the orphanage. Timmy uses the gun to save the orphanage and help June and Tom fall in love. 

This is a whimsical little love story comedy with a great cast but a so-so script dripping with sentimentality. It was co-written by future comedian Lenny Bruce. 

Director Oscar Rudolph worked mainly in TV but he also made the features TWIST AROUND THE CLOCK (1961) and DON'T KNOCK THE TWIST (1962). He was the father of future director Alan Rudolph. Child actor George Winslow was also known for his earlier in the musical comedy GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953) (also with Charles Coburn) and made his last movie in 1958.

Thanks for reading!

Harryhausen

  (imdb)

EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS-1956-Dr. Russell Marvin (Hugh Marlowe) and his wife Carol (Joan Taylor) have a UFO encounter. Later while overseeing Project Sky Hook, Marvin's father-in-law General Hanley (Morris Ankrum) advises him to cancel a scheduled rocket take off. Aliens land and metal robots cause some destruction. It seems their original message was misunderstood so they attacked. Later Martin and Carol, Major Huglin (Donald Curtis) and a police officer (Larry Blake) are taken aboard a saucer. There they see Hanley has been abducted and become the aliens' unwilling spokesman. They want to make Earth their new home as their world is dying. Martin and Prof. Kanter (John Zaremba) invent a sonic gun to kill the aliens. While it's being built, the aliens create some explosions on the moon and saucers attack DC. One is shot down and crashes into The Potomac. The Washington Monument and The Capital are among the buildings destroyed. Mostly caused by the shot down UFOs. 

The SFX (by the master Ray Harryhausen, who goes uncredited!) are the real highlight of this black and white science fiction film directed by the unheralded super-fast Fred Sears who made 8 other movies in 1956 including ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK and THE WEREWOLF. Thomas B. Henry is an admiral and Paul Frees is the voice of an alien. One of the screenwriters was Curt Siodmak.

Thanks for reading!

Friend of the Devil?

 

 (imdb)

THE DEVIL'S PARTNER-1960-An old man is killed when sacrificing a goat in a supernatural ritual. Then Nick Richards (Ed Nelson) comes to a small town looking for his uncle Pete. He's informed by the sheriff (Spencer Carlisle) that his uncle is dead and it could be murder. Local girl Nell (Jean Allison) befriends him. Her boyfriend David (Richard Crane) owns a gas station and her father (Edgar Buchanan) is the town doctor. Later Frank, another local drinks goat's milk and dies. Nick seems nice but he obviously has a sinister ulterior motive. At night Nick, using a pentagram his uncle made, makes David's dog turn on him. He survives by killing the dog and hires Nick to run the station while he recovers. Later Nick kills the plastic surgeon who's coming to check out David's scars by making his car crash. For some reason Nick pays the town drunk Papers (Byron Foulger) to help him in another ritual where Nick transforms into his uncle Pete! Papers runs away and is trampled by a mysterious black horse. Later Nick turns into a snake and tries to kill David but is shot. He turns into the black horse but is shot and killed by the Sheriff. The horse turns into Nick who turns into Uncle Pete. 

There seems to be a few holes in this story or the version I saw was edited. This is only one of two feature length films made by busy TV director Charles Rondeau and both in 1960 (the other was the dreary THE GIRL IN LOVER'S LANE). The screenplay was co-written by ex-Bowery Boys actor Stanley Clements.

Thanks for reading!

Eden?

 

(tmdb)

ATOMIC EDEN-2015-An annoying mercenary Stoker (Fred Williamson) assembles a group from his past to go to Chernobyl to find "the ultimate weapon" left behind by The Nazis. Meanwhile a mysterious army of people in radiation suits are outside attacking. Almost everyone gets killed. It's very violent and the dialogue is pretty bad. To top it all off Lorenzo Lamas shows up near the end as a villainous scenery chewer. 

Many questions are left unanswered and the end sets up a sequel though one was never made. German action star (and the film's co-producer) Mike Moller has several fights and there's a female samurai (Hazuki Kato). Director Nico Sentner plays a sniper.

Thanks for reading!

Book Club

 

 

 (imdb)

MADAME YANELOVA'S FINE LITERATURE CLUB-2017-I didn't know what to expect from this Israeli production with Hebrew dialogue. It's interesting but nothing special. Librarian Sophie belongs to a secret book club. Once a week she must attend a reading party accompanied by a man she picks up. All the other members must do the same. After the reading the men are bound and examined. The woman who brings the best man is given an award. Then the men are killed and made into hot dogs and sold nearby. If Sophie gets one more win, she will have hundred awards and be elevated to an upper echelon of the club. It's getting more difficult to achieve this as she gets older. She also has competition from the younger stuck up snob Lola. When her friend Hannah, a cleaning woman at the club, runs away, Sophie is put under surveillance by Reiza, one of the older decrepit women in charge. At the library one day Sophie meets Joseph who is interested in the works of Agnon on who Sophie is an expert. Eventually they seem to fall in love but all isn't as it seems. 

This seems like it would turn into a real horror movie but never does. It's more like some Kafkaesque mystery romance. It's alright but I was disappointed with the direction it took and the resolution. This was the debut film of Venezuelan born director Guilhad Emilio Schenker.

Thanks for reading!

Who Doesn"t?

 

 (imdb)

I LOVE TROUBLE-1948-PI Stuart Bailey (Franchot Tone) investigates the past of the wife named Jane (Lyn Merrick) of a "public figure" (Tom Powers). It leads to a night club run by Keller (Stephan Geray) & Reno (John Ireland). After he's threatened and slugged, Bailey meets a woman (Janet Blair) who says she's Jane's sister. This leads Jim to Caprlllo (Eduardo Ciannelli) and young wife Ligia (Janis Carter) and their shady chauffeur Martin (Donald Curtis). Later he's beaten up by Reno and his henchman (Raymond Burr). Bailey escapes their clutches and suspects Jane of murdering an ex-con cook (Sid Tomack). Glenda Farrell is his secretary and Adele Jergens is a helpful showgirl. 

OK typical film noir with Tone giving a good performance as the cool PI. Screenwriter Roy Huggins later created the TV show “77 Sunset Strip”. This is one of the last movies made by director S. Sylvan Simon (ABBOTT & COSTELLO IN HOLLYWOOD (1945)) who died suddenly of a heart attack in 1951.

Thanks for reading!

Short Crime Drama

 

 (imdb)

SQUAD CAR-1960-Lt. Beck (Paul Bryar) investigates the murder of an airplane mechanic involved in a counterfeiting ring. A crop duster operator Jay Rinehart (Don Marlowe) is Beck's prime suspect. He's doing some smuggling for Mr. Stahl (Jack Harris) who makes threats against Jeannie (Lynn Moore), Rinehart's girlfriend. Also involved is Cameo Kincaide (Vici Raaf), a nightclub singer, who was dating the dead guy. A narrator (Art Gilmore) helps move the plot along. Even though Stahl tries to kill Cameo they wind up teaming together and sharing the phony loot but after Cameo shoots Jeannie, Rinehart helps Beck nail the guilty party.

This is like a pilot for a TV crime drama with a cliched script and the Beck character reminding me of Broderick Crawford's role in the TV series “Highway Patrol”. It's the only feature film credit for director Ed Leftwich. 

Star Marlowe managed Bela Lugosi for a short while (around the time of ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN). He claimed to have negotiated the role for the actor but details are sketchy. He often said (even in his autobiography) that he portrayed Porky in the “Our Gang” comedies but this has been proven false. Years after Lugosi's death he hawked some memorabilia related to Lugosi in various movie magazines.

Thanks for reading!