Showing posts with label 1960. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1960. Show all posts
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| Luana Patten and Ron Foster |
"The crumbs are the easiest kind of guys to knock off."
In 1920s Bronx, Larry Shaw (Ron Foster) is so ambitious for the good life and money that he goes to work as an enforcer for mob boss Chesty Miller (Grant Richards of The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake). His wife, Margaret (Luana Patten), and priest (Dayton Lummis), are dismayed by the kinds of people who pay a call at their home, but Larry is so determined to "make good" that he becomes the head of Miller's murder-for-hire squad. Shaw then hits on the idea of kidnapping Miller and other hoodlums for ransom, making him the target of all the bad guys in the Bronx. The Music Box Kid, said to be inspired by the life of "Dutch" Schultz, would be a fairly standard crime drama were it not uplifted by a terrific lead performance from the talented Foster [Cage of Evil]. Handsome, gifted, and charismatic, Foster had some very good roles but in the wrong, minor movies; he also did a lot of TV work. The "music box" of the title is a tommy gun.
Verdict: Foster is the whole show. **1/2.
Theseus (Bob Mathias) saves the life of a banished princess, Ariadne (Rosanna Schiaffino), whose own wicked sister, Princess Fedra (also Schiaffino), wants to kill her, seeing her as a rival and a threat to her power. Fedra is aided in her evil by the nasty Chirone (Alberto Lupo), who tries to manipulate her father, King Minosse (Carlo Tamberlani). Theseus has Demetrios (Rick Battaglia) on his side, as well as others who are secretly working against bitchy Fedra. When Ariadne is sacrificed along with a batch of virgins to the monstrous minotaur in its cavern, Theseus makes his way into the rocky maze to deal once and for all with the horrible creature. While deliberately-paced, The Minotaur is not a bad Italian fantasy film, and the shaggy, fanged minotaur itself is not too shabby. If you're expecting something along the lines of a Ray Harryhausen fantasy film, however, look elsewhere. California-born Mathias won medals in the Olympics, was a former marine, and after his brief acting career wound up became director of Selective Service and a congressman. His performance is okay, and Schiaffino is similarly vivid.
Verdict: Entertaining muscle man-monster movie. ***.
CAGE OF EVIL (1960). Director: Edward L. Cahn.Detective Scott Harper (Ron Foster) is bitter because he's been passed over again for a promotion, but the higher-ups feel the man is too free with his fists. Sexy blond showgirl Holly Taylor (Pat Blair) comes upon Harper in his disgruntled state, and cooks up a scheme for the two of them involving stolen diamonds and betrayal. The movie has a good script by Orville H. Hampton (although the narration is unnecessary), but what really puts it over is two very good lead performances from Foster and Blair [City of Fear]. Cahn's direction is typically undynamic. Robert Shayne [The Neanderthal Man], Henry Darrow, and Ted Knight are also in the cast.
Verdict: Rather absorbing low-budget crime drama with good performances. ***.
In Majorca Joe Balfour (Mark Stevens of The Dark Corner) and his buddy Ernie (Robert Strauss of Here Come the Girls) hope that model Anne Traymore (Joanne Dru) will use her feminine charm to convince handsome young Manuel Montoya (Asher Dann) to let them use his boat to find some lost treasure of doubloons. They don't realize that Manuel only pretends to be a wealthy playboy and the boat is really owned by his employer, LeClerc (Jean-Pierre Kerien). A bigger problem is that Ernie may not really be the buddy that Joe thinks he is. September Storm is okay enough, but is much too leisurely-paced to build up much suspense, and is rather slipshod all told. Dru is odd casting. Supposedly this was shot in 3D, but you'd never know it. This was charming Dann's first movie; his other four credits were in television. Kerien made mostly French films.
Verdict: Not even three dimensions could save this. **.
Tough gal Carol Hudson (Mamie Van Doren) is importuned to help her sugar daddy Vince Malone (Brad Dexter of Macao) frame vice cop Sgt. Whitey Brandon (Richard Coogan), who is threatening his modeling agency/call girl rackets. But then Carol's innocent, sweet sister, Louise (Carol Nugent) comes to town ... The best performance in this mediocre crime drama is from Barry Atwater as the sinister, kind of sexy Phil, who goes after the sister when he can't get Carol. Van Doren [High School Confidential] is competent, but she isn't riveting, and in this at least lacks that X factor that makes a big star. The other performances are at least professional. Nestor Paiva [Tarantula] has a small role.
Verdict: Low-grade melodrama with mostly minor-league performances. *1/2.
Race car driver Alan Colby (Ronald Lewis of Scream of Fear) is still recovering from a very serious highway accident and is on vacation with his wife, Denise (Diane Cilento of The Third Secret). Alan loves Denise, but has recurring feelings that he may harm or even kill her due to a neurotic nature he can't control. Denise seeks help from slimy psychiatrist David Prade (Claude Dauphin), whom most people wouldn't buy a used car from or anything else. Can Prade get to the root of Alan's psychological problems before disaster occurs? Stop Me Before I Kill! features a fine lead performance from Lewis, and a notable supporting performance from Francoise Rosay [September Affair] as David's mother -- the others are not bad, either -- but it's slowww, long, stagy and talky, and would have been better off as a half hour TV episode, although the "twist" in this can be seen coming practically from the first. An honest-to-goodness plot never really develops.
Verdict: A Hammer thriller that bores much more than it thrills. **.
Major William Allison (Robert Clarke) flies his plane on a test run and somehow manages to cross the time barrier, winding up in a dismal world 64 years in the future. Due to a cosmic plague from space travel, the inhabitants of the underground city he is taken to are mostly sterile deaf mutes, and there are mutants -- with very wrinkled bald pates -- groveling in a prison pit. People who have escaped the plague are contemptuously referred to as "Scapes." Both the Captain (Boyd "Red" Morgan) and Supreme (Vladimir Sokoloff), who are the rulers, suspect Allison of being a spy, although it's hard to imagine why anyone would want to spy on this pathetic "civilization." Other "spies," whose aircraft or spacecraft also crossed the time barrier in later years than Allison's, include General Kruse (Stephen Bekassy of Black Magic), Dr. Bourman (John Van Dreelen of The Leech Woman) and Captain Markova (Arianne Arden Ulmer, the director's daughter). The most sympathetic person in this futuristic world is Trirene (Darlene Tompkins), who seems to have some psychic power and is hoping to repopulate the world with Major Allison. The other "spies" want to help Allison get back to his time so he can prevent the plague, but perhaps they have something more sinister up their sleeves ... Clarke [The Hideous Sun Demon], who also produced, gives a good performance in this, but the movie is old comic book-level sci fi schlock: dying future societies with horrible mutants were nothing new even in 1960, and a couple of interesting ideas are not well-developed. The acting is generally good, with Arianne Ulmer, who had few other credits, credibly bitchy, and the expressive Tompkins, who was introduced in this picture, poor gal, getting things across with no dialogue; she had a few more credits than Ms. Ulmer. Both Sokoloff and Boyd, who wears a ridiculously long and pointy beard in this, had a great many credits. The ending is rather downbeat, especially given that the Major is a pretty decent guy.
Verdict: Could have used a few monsters to liven things up; Clarke deserved better. **.
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| Marla Ryan and Gary Clarke |
Sue (Marla Ryan) is in love with Danny (Gary Clarke), a boy of whom her parents disapprove, even though he certainly seems nice enough. A nasty character named Brad (Dick Gering) thinks of Sue as his personal property, and sics his older brother Nico, a drug dealer, against Danny. This doesn't stop Sue and Danny from eloping, and their wedding night scene is rather well-played. Gary Clarke appeared in Missile to the Moon and other movies, and Steve Inhat, in a smaller role, was mostly a busy television actor. Marla Ryan was also known as Marlo-with-an-O Ryan but she had few credits, whatever the spelling. This super-cheap melodrama doesn't have much to recommend it, although some of the acting isn't terrible, and Clarke and Ryan prove competent and reasonably appealing. O'Dale Ireland also directed High School Ceasar.
Verdict: Save it for a rainy Sunday and then watch something else. *1/2.
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| Barbara Steele in satanic mode |
BLACK SUNDAY (aka The Mask of Satan/La maschera del demonio/1960.) Director: Mario Bava.
This is the first film for which Bava was credited as director. The witch Asa (Barbara Steele) has a spiked mask hammered into her face and is entombed, but many years later some blood drips onto the mask and the witch is revived to get revenge on the descendants of those who destroyed her. Asa would also love to possess the mind and body of her lookalike, Katia (Steele, of course). Katia's brother Constantine (Enrico Olivieri) and doctor (John Richardson) do their best to foil the plans of the hateful and vampiric Asa. Although Black Sunday is a famous and influential movie it's still pretty mediocre, but is bolstered by the appearance of Steele with her distinctive, expressive and sensual face [but, who, sadly, is dubbed throughout] and by Bava's excellent cinematography. Like most of Bava's movies, Black Sunday is rich in atmosphere and has excellent settings, especially the castle where most of the action takes place, but it lacks tension and impact. Bava also directed The Whip and the Body/What three years later, but his best film is arguably Blood and Black Lace.
Verdict: Everything Barbara Steele is in is interesting. **1/2.
Bix Dugan (Brett Halsey of Return of the Fly), riding the rails from town to town, encounters a young runaway named Danny (Lowell Brown) who has just been mugged by a gang. The two disembark in a small town where they run into waitress Carrie (Joyce Meadows of The Brain from Planet Arous), her friend Peggie (Selette Cole), and the truly creepy Jesse (Jack Elam), who has a crush on Carrie, a situation that develops into tragedy. There's an interesting scene in a whorehouse, and Bix and Carrie become quite attracted to one another. This has very underwritten characters and a mediocre script, and the acting is merely serviceable, although an uncredited actress makes a slight impression as the hooker, Sadie. Del Monroe, "Kowalski" on the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea TV show, plays one of the muggers.
Verdict: Skip this and go to Lover's Lane instead. *1/2.
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| Dan Adams (Rod Cameron ) questions a suspect |
Rod Cameron starred in this well-made and entertaining detective series that lasted one season. Cameron plays Dan Adams, a private dick who used to work for Naval Intelligence and works out of San Diego with a Coronado address. Many of the episodes were directed by movie serial master William Witney, who helmed G-Men vs the Black Dragon, in which Cameron played agent Rex Bennett [reprising the role in Secret Service in Darkest Africa]. Cameron may have been stone-faced as Bennett, but he's much, much better as the tough but human and compassionate Adams, who gets involved in some very intriguing cases, and has a solid core of law and order values. Some of the best episodes include: "Doomtown," in which the village geek is accused of a murder he didn't commit; "Remember the Alamo," in which it isn't certain if a man's (David White from Bewitched) younger wife has been kidnapped or not, but his secretary (Beverly Garland) may hold the answer; "Gone With Thy Loot," which has a lot of skulduggery over some stolen jewels; "Blonde Herring," a shipboard adventure with a sizzling Carol Ohmart, and an effective Sue Ann Langdon and Harry Lauter in supporting parts; and "They Met in Honolulu" in which Hayden Rourke's much younger bride simply disappears right after the ceremony. The best episodes are: "Run, Shep, Run" with Jay Novello giving another amazing character turn as a Southern doctor in a swampland chase and mystery; "Sincerely Yours, Napoleon," in which a married, middle-aged man tells his wife (Virginia Christine) that he spent their life savings on certain letters but there's a honey (Sue Ann Langdon, again) in the pot; and "Flight to La Paz," in which Adams is aboard a plane that crash lands in an isolated area and a suitcase of money ignites all kinds of passion in the passengers; Harry Bartell and Laurie Mitchell [Queen of Outer Space] are both excellent in this. [Bartell was the process server who pretended to be a big fan of Ricky's on the I Love Lucy courtoom episode.] Out of 39 episodes there isn't a real stinker in the bunch.Other notable guest-stars include Mary LaRoche, Patricia Medina, Norma Varden, and Coleen Gray [The Leech Woman], who is excellent as a conflicted woman who tries to help the sick mobster father that she's been estranged from for many years in "The Anxious Mariner."
Verdict: Very entertaining and well-done mystery series. ***.
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| Craig Stevens as Peter Gunn |
The third and final season of the popular private eye program was unexceptional but entertaining. "Mother" is gone, and Peter's girlfriend, Edie (Lola Albright) opens her own restaurant-club, and hires a maitre'd, Leslie (James Lanphier), after the man's own restaurant is bombed. Although well-played by Lanphier, the character did little more than interrupt Edie and Peter (Craig Stevens) to tell the latter that he had a phone call. Edie herself only appeared sporadically [giving Gunn a girlfriend never made much sense, as it would have been more fun to have him involved with a different "dame" each week, which only happened on occasion]. Hershel Bernardi as Lt. Jacoby appeared in virtually every episode, again functioning practically as Gunn's partner. Late in the season four episodes in a row took place in Acapulco, to which Peter flew for one case and remained for several more. It seems clear that Gunn must have been a wealthy man slumming as a private dick because he rarely makes a lot of money and is always giving away very large bills to his informants. The most memorable episodes this season include: "A Kill and a Half," in which a midget hit man pretends to be a trick or treater; "A Matter of Policy" involving an insurance scheme and a bomb on an airliner; and "Than a Serpent's Tooth," in which Pamela Britton [DOA] is notable as a woman who is carrying a secret in regards to her husband's death. The final episode -- although it has a standard plot of a millionaire wanting Peter to deal with a blackmailing female -- is very entertaining and features Peter Gunn director (and actor) Robert Gist and the show's executive producer Gordon Oliver in main roles, and both are excellent. Guest-stars for the third season include John Fieldler, Tommy Rettig, Jack Lalanne (who proves to be a terrible actor although he looks fit), Regis Toomey (in a very good turn as a desperate, aging P.I.), Ann Robinson, Kent Taylor [The Day Mars Invaded Earth], Hayden Rourke, Virginia Grey, and Patric Knowles. Robert Altman [That Cold Day in the Park] directed a couple of energetic episodes.
Verdict: Not a true classic, perhaps, but it has its moments. **1/2.