THE BEST OF MANHUNT

I finished reading THE BEST OF MANHUNT (Stark House Press, July 2019), yesterday and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

The first and greatest crime fiction pulp magazine was the legendary BLACK MASK which ran from 1920 to 1951. It was in the pages of that magazine that American crime fiction masters Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and Raymond Chandler cut their teeth. When BLACK MASK folded, a new publication emerged in 1952, MANHUNT. The magazine ran until 1967 but the '50s were the best period in terms of stories and authors. 

BEST OF MANHUNT collects 39 stories from this era and the list of featured authors reads like a who's who of mid-century American crime writers. Among the authors included in this handsome trade paperback are Ed McBain, Mickey Spillane, Richard S. Prather, Gil Brewer, Helen Nielsen, David Goodis, Lawrence Block, John D. MacDonald, Fredric Brown, Donald Westlake, Harlan Ellison and Harry Whittington. 

Many of the stories are short, swift punches to the gut with didn't-see-it-coming twist endings that would have been right at home in the pages of EC Comics' CRIME SUSPENSTORIES and SHOCK SUSPENSE STORIES (both of which were also published in the 1950s). 

While there's not a bad story in the bunch, my favorite by far was HIT AND RUN by Richard Deming, an author I was completely unfamiliar with. It's one of the longer pieces in the book and the extra length gives Deming plenty of room in which to spin this truly diabolical yarn. 

A second volume of BEST OF MANHUNT is slated for publication later this year and you can bet I'll buy it, read it and enjoy it. 

If you're a fan of hardboiled, vintage crime fiction by some of the masters of the genre, you absolutely must read this book. 

Highest recommendation. 

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945), which I watched for the first time yesterday, is a monster movie. How do I know?

Forry Ackerman told me so.

Oh sure, on the surface PICTURE is a costume drama with elements of the supernatural barely hinted at. It's a lush and lavish production from MGM, a studio not generally known for producing horror/monster movies, especially not in 1945. At that time, horror films were almost strictly the product churned out by smaller, lesser studios. MGM was a prestigious studio, the crown jewel in the Hollywood firmament. Surely they wouldn't stoop so low as to produce a common horror film?

Secondly, it's based on a classic novel by Oscar Wilde, a name that is rarely mentioned when talking about the major authors of the fantastic such as Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. Nevertheless, Wilde is an important figure in Western literature even if PICTURE is his only work with supernatural overtones. 

PICTURE also boasts a first rate cast including George Sanders (one of my all time favorite actors), newcomer Hurd Hatfield in the title role, two luminous beauties, Angela Lansbury and Donna Reed, in supporting roles along with a young Peter Lawford. 

And horror films, as a rule, don't receive Academy Award nominations, of which, PICTURE earned three including Best Supporting Actress (Lansbury), Best Black and White Art Direction and Best Black and White Cinematography (Harry Stradling, winner). 

And would MGM go to the trouble of shooting four color inserts (in three strip Technicolor) of the titular portrait, two showing the young Gray in his innocent prime, the other two, showing Gray riddled with rot and moral corruption. By the way, black and white photos of this horrific portrait regularly graced the pages of FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine when I was a kid. And since the magazine was printed in black and white, I naturally figured that the film must be in black and white also. Imagine my surprise to view these rich, vivid color inserts for the first time. Wow!

For those who came in late, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY is the story of a young man who wishes to remain forever young while his portrait ages and shows the effects of a life spent in sin and debauchery. While Gray's sinful exploits are never explicitly delineated, it's inferred that he spends time with prostitutes and denizens of the London underworld. Several people that get close to Gray end up dead, including the man who painted the picture, Basil Hallward (Lowell Gilmore), who meets his end at the hands of Gray. 

And although Gray professes his love for both Sibyl Vane (Lansbury) and years later, Gladys Hallward (Reed), it's just possible that some of Gray's descents into depravity might have involved homosexual encounters, acts which, in the London of 1886 would have been unspeakable crimes. Given the fact that author Wilde was himself gay, it's possible that he intended this to be a subtext to the work. NOTE: I have not read the novel, I'm merely using the film as my text. 

As the years go by, Gray remains eternally young but emotionally distant while the portrait, which he keeps behind a locked door, becomes more and more horrific. After the death of Sibyl's brother, Gray has had enough. He plunges a knife into the heart of the figure in the portrait, causing the picture to resort to it's original state while Gray's body, especially his face and hands, become ridden with pustules and blood. 

Yep, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY is a monster/horror movie, no doubt. If it wasn't, would Forry have featured the title character on the cover of FAMOUS MONSTERS #60, December 1969? It's a painting by the legendary Basil Gogos showing Gray in all his horrific magnificence. 

If Forry says so, that's good enough for me. 

WESTERN HERITAGE

WESTERN HERITAGE (1948), is the kind of B Western that RKO and other studios cranked out by the hundreds in the '30s, '40s and '50s. There is absolutely nothing remarkable about this formulaic story of good guys vs. bad guys. The good guys in this one are Ross Daggert (Tim Holt) and his Hispanic sidekick Chito Rafferty (Richard Martin). The bad guys are led by Joe Powell (Harry Woods). The plot concerns a fake Spanish land grant which will give the bad guys total control over an Arizona valley. It's up to Daggert and Rafferty to stop them. 

What is interesting about this film is star Tim Holt. Holt made dozens of these types of westerns over his long career. They're all pretty much the same but Holt and his pictures (cheaply and quickly made though they were) proved to be enormously successful and popular. Popular enough to earn Holt his own comic book, entitled TIM HOLT,  from Magazine Enterprises that ran from 1948-1954 and lasted over 40 issues. 

While Holt is best known for his B pictures, he did appear in several A features over the course of his career including John Ford's immortal STAGECOACH (1939), Orson Welles' s sophomore effort THE MAGNIFCENT AMEBERSONS (1942), another classic Ford film, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (1946), John Huston's masterpiece THE TREASUE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948) and the offbeat noir HIS KIND OF WOMAN (1951) with Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell. Fans of '50s science fiction films will recall Holt's appearance in THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD (1957). 

If you're looking for character development, thematic concerns and any trace of an interesting visual style, keep on moving down the trail because those things are not to be found in WESTERN HERITAGE. The more adult, psychological westerns of the '50s were still on the horizon at this point in American film history. But if you're a fan of Holt or B Westerns in general, you can't go wrong with this one. 

TIGER BAY

TIGER BAY (1959) straddles two distinct movements in the history of the cinema. On the one hand, it's a first rate film noir, coming at the tail end of that cycle of films in both the United States and other countries. And on the other hand, it anticipates the rise of the British New Wave which launched a couple of years later with A TASTE OF HONEY (1961). 

Polish sailor home from the sea Bronislav Korchinsky (Horst Buchholz), expects to find his girlfriend Anya (Yvonne Mitchell), in his old rented flat. Instead, he finds a strange young woman. Bronek eventually finds the building where Anya lives but when he confronts her, she says she wants nothing to do with him. There is clear evidence in her flat that she has a new lover. The two quarrel, a gun is drawn and Bronek shoots Anya dead. 

Unknown to the panic stricken sailor, his crime was witnessed by Gillie (Hayley Mills), an orphaned tomboy who lives with her aunt in the same building. She desperately wants Bronek's gun because it would allow her to join in the games of "Cowboys and Indians" that the cap-gun toting neighbor boys engage in. 

Bronek eventually discovers Gillie and rather than kill her to keep her quiet, the two develop an oddly mutual relationship. She sees the troubled young man as a potential father figure while he relishes the unconditional love the mixed up pre-teen offers him. Gillie longs to go with Bronek when he returns to the sea but Bronek wants only to hire on to a ship and sail past the three mile limit where he can't be arrested by British authorities. 

Those authorities are embodied in Police Superintendent Graham (John Mills, real-life father of Hayley). He's doggedly investigating the murder of Anya, a case in which all fingers point to Barclay (Anthony Dawson), the married lover of the dead woman. It was Barclay's gun that was in Anya's flat and Gillie circles the noose a notch tighter when she identities Barclay in a police lineup and gives a blow by blow description of what she saw when she peeked through the mail slot. 

  But a slip up on Gillie's part causes Graham to pivot and go after Bronek, who is already on a Venezuelan freighter headed for international waters. There's a tense climactic showdown at sea before all is resolved. 

Many of the exteriors in TIGER BAY were filmed on location by cinematographer Eric Cross in the actual Tiger Bay district of Cardiff on the English coast. The scenes of street life, the workings of the docks and real pubs, give the film a vibrant and unusual locale.

The entire cast of TIGER BAY is first rate and director J. Lee Thompson does a terrific job in telling a tense crime drama melded with the offbeat but touching relationship between the sailor and the misfit young girl. 

What's equally interesting about TIGER BAY is what happened next to many of the people involved in the production. Young Hayley Mills was spotted by the Walt Disney Studios and cast in POLLYANNA (1960), the first of many films she made for the studio. Mills became a huge star in the '60s thanks to her Disney films.  

Composer Laurie Johnson continued to write music for British films and television series but is perhaps best remembered for the theme to THE AVENGERS, the popular British spy show of the '60s. 

Horst Buchholz went on to play one of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960). He, along with Brad Dexter, are the two team members that everyone consistently forgets. 

Anthony Dawson played a henchman to the title villain in DR. NO (1962), the first James Bond film. 

And director J. Lee Thompson went on to make two great films in the early '60s, THE GUNS OF NAVARRONE (1961) and CAPE FEAR (1962). In addition, Thompson directed the epic Western MCKENNA'S GOLD (1969), two of the original Planet of the Apes films, CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (1972) and BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (1973) and several film starring action icon Charles Bronson including ST. IVES (1976), THE WHITE BUFFALO (1977), 10 TO MIDNIGHT (1983) and THE EVIL THAT MEN DO (1984). 

TIGER BAY is a first rate, compelling little British crime drama that I was unaware of until it ran on TCM recently. I'm glad I took the time to check it out. 

Thumbs up. 

UNDERWORLD U.S.A.

UNDERWORLD U.S.A (1961) is a classic example of genre auteur Samuel Fuller's punch-'em-inna-face style of filmmaking. Although UNDERWORLD falls a couple of years past the end of the first classic cycle of American films noir, it's a hardboiled, two-fisted crime story that is noir to the core. 

Cliff Robertson, playing strongly against type, stars as scar faced Tolly Devlin, who was witness as a youth to his father's beating death at the hands of four mobsters. Vowing revenge, Tolly is struck by a truck carrying radioactive materials. The accident blinds the boy but heightens his other senses...….wait, wrong origin story.

Tolly does indeed swear revenge, no matter how long it takes. He's taken in by Sandy (Beatrice Kay), an older woman who runs a bar and serves as a substitute mother figure for young Devlin. 

Devlin wants revenge so badly he commits a series of petty crimes in order to be arrested and sent to prison where he can get close to one of his father's killers. The killer dies in Tolly's arms, begging for mercy and forgiveness but not before giving up the identities of the other three mobsters. 

 When Tolly is released from prison, he joins the gang in which the remaining killers all serve as heads of different arenas of crime. Devlin is too smart to kill the men outright so he enlists Cuddles (Dolores Dorn), a prostitute who was an eyewitness to a killing executed by the head of the vice racket. Her testimony will put the hood behind bars, so that's two killers down. 

Devlin goes to a crime commission investigating the mob and offers to help investigator John Driscoll (Larry Gates) by setting up the remaining two mob lieutenants. 

After all four men have either been killed or brought to justice, Devlin's vendetta is over. He tells Cuddles that he will marry her and as soon as those words leave his lips, you know he's a doomed man. 

Driscoll pleads with Devlin to help him take down Earl Connors (Robert Emhardt), the kingpin of the destroyed mob. Devlin cares nothing about Connors. He's claimed his pound of flesh. But when he realizes that Connors poses a threat to his future happiness with Cuddles he goes after the man, a move that leads to a brilliantly orchestrated climactic sequence. 

Fuller wrote, produced and directed UNDERWORLD U.S.A. and his go-for-broke maverick style of filmmaking DNA is imprinted on every frame of film. Aided tremendously by cinematographer Hal Mohr (who does great closeups and well staged action scenes), Fuller and Robertson paint a portrait of a man consumed by revenge, who becomes bitter and increasingly sadistic and detached from the two women who desperately want to have peaceful, loving relationships with him. 

 

Fuller's hardboiled saga reverberates with echoes of Nietzsche: sometimes when you stare into the abyss too long, the abyss stares back. 

Highest recommendation. 

WAS THIS SWIM REALLY NECESSARY?

I've watched a lot of movies thus far in this crazy year of 2020 and I'm sure I'll view many more before the year is over. But I can confidently predict that I won't see anything as remotely weird and just plain bad in the next six months as THE SWIMMER (1968), which I watched for the first time yesterday. 

Based on a 12 page short story by John Cheever (remind me to never read anything with his name on it) that appeared in THE NEW YORKER, THE SWIMMER is the story of one Ned Merrill (Burt Lancaster), who walks through the woods of Connecticut on Sunday morning, clad only in swim trunks. He emerges into the back yard of his friends, the Westerhazys. He swims, without their permission, in their pool. Afterwards, Ned gets the idea that he can "swim home" by moving from property to property, all of which have pools, until he reaches his home where his wife and teenage daughters await his arrival. 

Or so he believes. 

What follows is a series of bizarre encounters as Ned traipses through the woods towards the various pools he has identified as part of the "Lucinda River" (Lucinda is his wife). Ned does more walking than actual swimming but I guess calling the movie THE WALKER probably wouldn't have sold as many tickets as THE SWIMMER, but given how truly terrible this film is, you have to wonder just how many tickets THE SWIMMER did sell. But I digress...

Apparently, no one in Connecticut has fences around their property because at each pool, Ned simply appears, uninvited and unexpected for a swim. His encounters with the various neighbors begin to shed some light on the situation but the information parsed out in each meeting is frustratingly scant.  Has Ned been fired from his job? Has he been away in a hospital, prison or vacation? Has he suffered a breakdown? Whey does everyone look at him funny when he talks about his wife and daughters? Has something happened to them? Is this all a  dream? Is it all taking place in Ned's head? Is he a ghost? How much longer does this thing run? 95 minutes! You're joking. 

At one pool, Ned picks up a young girl, Julie (Janet Landgard), who used to babysit for him. She joins him on his odyssey for a short while before he makes a pass at her (in a genuinely creepy scene), causing her to flee. He finds old flames including Kim Hunter and Diana Muldaur, tries to pick up a single woman (Joan Rivers in her film debut) at a party he crashes, meets an elderly pair of nudists (I'm not making this up), teaches a lonely young boy how to swim in an empty pool (another creepy scene), has an extended confrontation with his former mistress, Shirley (Janice Rule), crosses a busy highway , swims in a hideously crowded public pool and finally reaches his home only to find it boarded up and abandoned as a rain storm opens up, drenching Ned while he pounds on his locked front door and screams. 

The End.

WTF?

I cannot imagine how anyone involved in this production, from star Burt Lancaster to producer/director Frank Perry, to screenwriter Eleanor Perry to the many supporting actors and actresses who appear in the film ever thought that what they were making had any commercial potential at all. Nevertheless, the film did get made in 1966. However, one entire scene had to be recast and reshot and the film ultimately wasn't released until 1968. 

THE SWIMMER is one of those late 1960s films that eschews traditional narrative, character motivations, explanations for their actions and a satisfying ending in which all of the viewer's questions are answered. Instead, the film  simply presents the story (such as it is) and leaves it up to the viewer to fill in the blanks and ascribe meaning to the whole thing. 

What does THE SWIMMER ultimately mean? Apparently, whatever you want it to. For me, it means that I've finally seen this weird, strange film and although I like Burt Lancaster as an actor, found the whole affair a hot, steaming mess of a movie. 

Thumbs down.

WHERE THE BOYS ARE

Remarkably tame by 2020 standards, WHERE THE BOYS ARE (1960) nonetheless raised quite a few eyebrows in its' day for daring to even mention pre-marital sex in what was pitched as a typical rom-com. Typical except for the fact that one of the four main characters is raped, suffers an nervous breakdown and attempts suicide by automobile traffic. 

The plot focuses on four young college girls from a midwestern women's college who decide to journey to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for two weeks of spring break. They anticipate fun in the sun and all four have one ultimate objective in mind: land a man of some kind. In the pre-women's liberation days of 1960, these four women, smart and talented as they all are, are not complete without a man. My, how things have changed.

The leader of the quartet is Merritt Andrews (Dolores Hart), an outspoken proponent of pre-marital sex whose progressive world view is put to the test when she meets and falls for Ryder Smith (George Hamilton). Ryder is Ivy League all the way, with his slicked black hair, penetrating blue eyes, dazzling white teeth and perpetual tan. Throw in his parents' spacious villa and small yacht and it's all too much for Merritt to resist. She does, however, stand her ground and demand that if she and Ryder are going to become a couple, it will be on her terms.

Tuggle Carpenter (Paula Prentiss), wants nothing more than to become a man's wife and produce many children. She's set her sights on oddball TV Thompson (Jim Hutton), a kooky intellectual who pontificates about sex while wearing a constantly changing array of goofy hats.

Angie (Connie Francis) is paired up with out-there jazz musician Basil (Frank Gorshin), who spouts impenetrable beatnik lingo. Angie is the least and weakest developed character of the bunch but Francis does get to sing the title tune and one other musical number as compensation. 

Finally, there's Melanie Tolman (Yvette Mimieux), who quickly sends signals to horny college boys that she's easy. She comes home drunk one night and eventually gets passed around by a couple of different frat rats. She ends up being raped in a motel room, after which she wanders out onto the highway in a catatonic state where cars are forced to dodge around her. 

The exteriors where shot on location in Fort Lauderdale among hordes of real spring breakers, every one of whom is white and heterosexual. There's not a black or brown face to be seen anywhere and all of the men look like future TV game show hosts. There's no apparent drug use but alcohol is freely imbibed by all. And for a movie about college kids, none of the featured cast members are remotely believable as being college age. 

However, this being 1960, when the clean cut and well groomed young men and women go out for the evening, the men wear coats and ties while the women dress in skirts and heels. And when the two weeks of fun and drama are over, Tuggle and TV and Angie and Basil head back to college while Merritt and Ryder stay behind to tend to Melanie. 

Shot in Metrocolor and CinemaScope, director Henry Levin serves up a glorious and glamorous postcard from Fort Lauderdale. It's slick and glossy looking and although pitched as a comedy, I found nothing to laugh at or with. But I have to give the film kudos for at least trying to address what everyone knew (but rarely acknowledged) was going on with college kids then (and now). 

WHERE THE BOYS ARE was remade in 1984 and in the '60s, the film served as inspiration for two other MGM films: COME FLY WITH ME and FOLLOW THE BOYS. WHERE also clearly inspired other studios to produce BEACH PARTY and PALM SPRINGS WEEKEND while Prentiss and Hutton had such great onscreen chemistry that they appeared together in three more films: BACHELOR IN PARADISE, THE HONEYMOON MACHINE and THE HORIZONTAL LIEUTENTANT. 

WHERE THE BOYS ARE is worth seeing from a sociological point of few. While it's more times than not a dreadfully antiquated bit of fluff, it does attempt to show that Spring Break, even in 1960, is not all fun and games. 

THE WARPED ONES

I was totally unfamiliar with THE WARPED ONES, a 1960 Japanese film, until it recently showed up on TCM. It sounded interesting so I recorded it and watched it this afternoon. 

Wow.

THE WARPED ONES is a head on collision between the visual styles of the then current French New Wave, with every frame of the film full to bursting with frenetic, hand held camerawork, dizzying, disorienting shots, abrupt jump cuts and edits, freeze frames and more. It's a veritable encyclopedia of mid-century cutting edge, Avant Garde film styles.

What all of those eye popping visuals collide with is an incessant musical score of West Coast American jazz. Jazz music is heard throughout the film, both in a way cool, multi leveled Tokyo jazz club where black American jazz musicians are revered as gods to the soundtrack in general. The few times classical, European music is heard, the effect is jarring, after being sonically assaulted by the propulsive, never-ending jazz. 

The camera and the score become characters in the film which follows the activities of Akira (Tamio Kawachi), a street punk with no future. He's thrown in jail at the beginning of the film due to the interference of a reporter named Kashiwagi (Hiroyuki Nagato). Akira is released from jail in the company of Masaru (Eiji Go), another two-bit hood and the two of them are joined by Akira's prostitute girlfriend Yuki (Yuko Chishiro). 

The unholy trio roams the streets of Tokyo like wild animals on the prowl. They constantly scream and howl in their search for kicks. They steal a car and, while driving on the beach, spot Kashiwagi and his girlfriend Fumiko (Noriko Matsumoto). They kidnap Fumiko, whom Akira then rapes, an act which sets in motion an inevitable downward spiral for all of the characters. 

To detail more would only spoil the surprises, twists and turns to come but suffice it to say that THE WARPED ONES truly lives up to its' name with an ending that is saturated with soul crushing, nihilistic irony.

THE WARPED ONES was part of a cycle in Japanese cinema known as "Sun Tribe" films. They are basically juvenile delinquent stories and while I have yet to see any more of these types of film, I doubt any of them are as deliriously intoxicating as THE WARPED ONES. 

The film was successful in Japan but it didn't' reach American screens until 1963, under the extremely misleading title THE WEIRD LOVEMAKERS. No doubt members of the raincoat brigade who ponied up a couple of bucks to see it in a 42nd  Street grindhouse were extremely disappointed. 

Kudos to director Koreyoshi Kurahara, cinematographer Yoshio Mamiya, composer Toshiro Mayuzumi and the nameless genius who designed the Saul Bass inspired title credits. 

THE WARPED ONES is not a film for everyone. It's populated by unlikeable people doing very bad things and there's' not a glimmer of redemption to be seen. But if you're in the mood for something different, something challenging and daring, THE WARPED ONES is an absolute must see film. 

Highest recommendation.

THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT

THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT is a 1940 film produced by Warner Brothers and directed by Raoul Walsh. Some might call it a film noir. I'm rather doubtful about that appellation, although the narrative does feature a murder. 

THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT is also a 1938 British film about truck drivers with a crime element. Sound familiar? Then there is THEY LIVE BY NIGHT (1948), an American noir directed by Nicholas Ray and CLASH BY NIGHT (1952), another noir, this one directed by Fritz Lang. Those last two have nothing in common but I have been confused more than once by the like sounding titles. Now that I've seen all three films, it should be easier to keep things straight.

While we're on the subject of truck driving movies, the sub genre includes WAGES OF FEAR, the brilliant French film from 1953, remade in America by William Friedkin in 1977 as SORCEROR. There's WHITE LINE FEVER (1975), CONVOY (1978, directed by Sam Peckinpah!) and Steven Spielberg's made-for-television masterpiece DUEL (1971). There are, of course, others but these are the ones that immediately spring to mind. 

THEY LIVE BY NIGHT starts out as a two-fisted adventure film about two brothers, Joe and Paul Fabrini (George Raft and Humphrey Bogart) who work as independent truck drivers in Southern California. They owe money on their truck and are always trying to stay one step ahead of the repo man. 

The second act of the film becomes a routine drama as Joe meets and falls in love with waitress Cassie (Ann Sheridan) and Paul looses an arm in an accident. Joe accepts a job with a big trucking firm owned by his old friend and former trucker Ed Carlsen (Alan Hale). Things become complicated by the fact that Joe once had a fling with Mrs. Lana Carlsen (Ida Lupino), a scheming, conniving woman who wants Joe back at any price.

The third act is where the murder is committed when Lana kills Ed and gets Joe to agree to 50% ownership of the company. She, of course, has the other 50%. But when Joe won't go along with her advances and declares his wedding to Cassie, Lana cracks and implicates Joe in the killing.  All of which sets up a dramatic courtroom finale.

THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT is a solid film with a cast of Warner Brothers contract players. Raft is top billed, Sheridan is second and Bogart (not yet a huge star), is third.  Alan Hale and George Tobias appeared in dozens of Warner Brothers films while Ida Lupino went on to become a noir icon both in front of and behind the camera.

And I can't be the only person who has noted a similarity between these two images:

RADIUM, RADIUM, WHO'S GOT THE RADIUM?

Hard to believe that it took two directors (Bobby Connolly and Crane Wilbur) and three screenwriters (Eugene Solow, Robertson White and Joseph Santley) to adapt Mignon G. Eberhart's mystery novel THE PATIENT IN ROOM 18 for the screen. 

This 1938 mystery/romantic comedy checks all the boxes in this by-the-numbers exercise in sleuthing. Patric Knowles stars as private detective Lance O'Leary. While convalescing in a private hospital, a wealthy donor is murdered and the radium that was used to treat him (by placing a block of radium, about the size of a cigarette case, on his chest), goes missing. The radium is actually hidden in a flower pot until the killer can retrieve it later. The stuff is potent enough to kill a dozen flowers over night. One wonders what it would have done to the old man if someone didn't already kill him. Two more murders are committed by the time the 59 minutes of running time are over.

O'Leary is aided in his investigation by the lovely nurse Sara Keate and there's a bevy of potential suspects. And of course, there's an inept police detective, Inspector Foley (Cliff Clark), who seems unable to solve any crime without O'Leary's help. 

True to the formula for these types of films, all of the suspects are gathered in one room for the big reveal by O'Leary but one of the murder victims appears very much alive and well to bring things to a end. 

Knowles appeared in many films over the course of his career but he's best remembered by genre film fans for his roles in THE WOLF MAN (1941) and FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1943). Sheridan was under contract at Warner Brothers at the time and does well here but better days were ahead for her. 

THE PATIENT IN ROOM 18 isn't a very complicated whodunnit. In fact, I correctly guessed the identity of the killer. Still it's a breezy little murder mystery with a good cast and a quick pace. 

But I still can't figure out why it took five people to write and direct a movie that runs less than hour. 

THE SLAVE

Quick, how many Stanley Kubrick films had a sequel? If you answered only one, you're wrong. Yes, his immortal 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) was followed up by 2010: THE YEAR WE MAKE CONTACT (1984 and reviewed elsewhere on this blog). But another Kubrick film had a sequel, even if it was an "unofficial" one.

While THE SLAVE aka THE SON OF SPARTACUS (1962) is nowhere near as good as it's predecessor, SPARTACUS (1960), it's light yeasr above the last Italian produced "sword and sandal" movie I watched (THE TARTARS, also reviewed elsewhere on this blog). There are two main elements that make THE SLAVE a fairly decent little film.

The first is the presence of American bodybuilder Steve Reeves in the title role. Reeves became an international star thanks to his first two sword and sandal films, HERCULES (1958) and HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959). With his dark good looks, sparkling blue eyes and chiseled, weightlifter physique, Reeves is still, in my opinion, the best version of Hercules ever seen on the silver screen (with Nigel Green's portrayal of the man-god in JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963), a close second). Over the course of ten years, Reeves made a total of sixteen films in Italy, the majority of them sword and sandal features. His last Italian film was A LONG RIDE FROM HELL (1968), a sphagetti western.

In THE SLAVE, Reeves plays Randus, son of Spartacus who led a slave revolt against the "power of Rome" twenty years earlier. Randus doesn't know his true origin until midway in the film and when the secret is revealed, the action really picks up. Randus finds a short sword with a bejeweled hilt, some body armor and a helmet that looks like it's on loan from the DC comics character Dr. Fate. Donning this fabulous gear, the Son of Spartacus becomes a sort of "Zorro" of the ancient world, harrying his main enemy Crassus (who put Spartacus to death on the cross) and leaving behind his mark, a large "S" painted or carved on various doors and walls. 

The other element that makes THE SLAVE enjoyable is the direction of Sergio Corbucci, an Italian genre auteur who made various horror, sword and sandal and western films over the course of his long and illustrious career. Corbucci utilized striking compositions, inventive camera angles and unexpected camera movements all of which, in addition to fairly high production values, makes THE SLAVE a better than average adventure yarn. 

Exteriors were filmed in Egypt while interiors where shot in Rome. Reeves commands the action but he's aided by two beautiful co-stars, the treacherous Claudia (Gianna Maria Canale) and the virtuous Saida (Ombretta Colli). Claudio Gora is great as Crassus, who not only plots to capture and kill the Son of Spartacus, also schemes to challenge Julius Caesar (Ivo Garrani) himself for rule of the empire. 

If you want to see a truly great version of this material, I urge you to seek out Kubrick's SPARTACUS, a truly magnificent epic in every sense of the word. However, if you want to pass a couple of hours on a hot, lazy summer afternoon, give THE SLAVE a try. It's definitely worth seeing if you have any interest in Italian genre cinema. 

WINGS FOR THE EAGLE

 

WINGS FOR THE EAGLE (1942) is a flag-waving piece of Hollywood war time propaganda. It's a drama set in a Lockheed aircraft factory in Burbank, California shortly before the U.S. entry into World War II. The factory manufactures P-38s and Hudson aircraft and employees men and women in the endeavor. 

The story focuses on a romantic triangle comprised of Ann Sheridan (who is top billed), Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson. Morgan is a draft dodger looking for easy work to avoid serving in the military. Carson is his college buddy who can't get a job at the factory and the lovely Sheridan is Carson's wife, whom Morgan is constantly making a play for. 

Supporting players include George Tobias as Jake Hanso who works alongside his son Pete (Russell Arms) at the factory. When Pearl Harbor is attacked on December 7th, 1941, Pete enlists and is eventually killed in action in the Philippines. Morgan finally comes to his senses, realizes that Sheridan and Carson belong together and finally joins the Army. 

It's all very patriotic and stirring, a programmer constructed with one goal in mind: to support the war effort on the home front. As such it succeeds. Morgan and Carson are both good but Sheridan is the standout here as a woman torn between two lovers while also trying to do her part for the war.

You should note that this film was made in 1942 and there are a couple of lines of dialog that reflect the different social mores of the time. At one point, Sheridan is referred to as "free, white and twenty-one", while later she delivers a verbal jab by saying "that's white of you."

Different time, different world my friends. 

If you're a fan of WWII propaganda films, WINGS FOR THE EAGLE is worth checking out. 

YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN

There is a fairly robust sub-genre of films based on the lives of famous twentieth-century musicians. I won't bother to mention them all here but among the best are WITH A SONG IN MY HEART (1952),  THE GLENN MILLER STORY (1954), THE BENNY GOOODMAN STORY (1959), THE GENE KRUPA STORY (1959) and Clint Eastwood's BIRD (1988). 

Although loosely based on the life of trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke, YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN (1950), is a fictional account of a very determined (some would say obsessed) young musician named Rick Martin (Kirk Douglas). YOUNG MAN can be seen in some ways as a precursor to Martin Scorsese's underrated NEW YORK, NEW YORK (1977), which also featured a driven young musician embroiled in a love-hate relationship with a female singer. In fact, YOUNG MAN and NY, NY would make an outstanding double bill. 

Douglas is solid as Martin, who starts out as a young orphan who is mentored by jazzman Art Hazzard (Juano Hernandez). Martin eventually masters the trumpet (all of the trumpet playing is by Harry James) and finds work with a big band where he meets singer Jo Jordan (Doris Day) and piano player Smoke (Hoagy Carmichael). Martin can only relate to life through his music and wants desperately to play music his way. 

Martin joins a prestigious night club orchestra and begins earning good money. But after playing at the upscale club, he journeys to the Village for an after hours jam with Art's band in a lesser joint. Along the way, Martin is introduced by Jo to Amy North (Lauren Bacall), an overly intelligent, hyper neurotic woman. They fall in love and marry only to find that Amy resents Martin because there's one thing that he's really good at while she has failed in a multitude of endeavors. 

Things come to a head with the dissolution of their marriage, the death of Art (Martin wasn't there to tell him goodbye) and Martin's spiral into alcoholism. He wanders the streets of New York, his arm clutching a horn that isn't there. He hits rock bottom and for a second, you think the film is going to end on a down note. But this being a 1950 Hollywood picture, Martin comes to terms with his life and abilities and begins his career anew. 

YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN is greatly enhanced by the noirish cinematography of Ted D. McCord. The cast is uniformly excellent, the screenplay by Carl Foreman and Edmund H. North compelling and the direction by the masterful Michael Curtiz is first rate. 

YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN is a terrific portrait of a talented, self-destructive man and his struggle to express himself with both his music and real human connections 

Thumbs up.

TARTAR SAUCE WITH THAT FISH?

While watching THE TARTARS (1961), any thinking person would have to wonder just how badly did Orson Welles and Victor Mature need the money they were paid to appear in this turkey? It can't have been a large sum of cash (although I suspect Welles probably demanded and got more money than Mature), but still, given the ultra low budget of this picture, it couldn't have been much. Besides, a sizeable portion of said budget probably had to go to booze and food for Welles and extra oily hair gel for Mature.

The exteriors of THE TARTARS were shot in Yugoslavia, with interiors lensed in Rome. The picture plays fast and loose with ancient history in this muddled yarn of Vikings vs. Tartars. Welles is convincing enough as warlord Burundai but Mature is hopelessly miscast as a Viking chieftain. His dark looks and mini-skirted garb stand in marked contrast to the rest of his men who are all clearly Italian extras clad in helmets with immense horns and similar looking long blonde wigs. 

Still, there's material in the screenplay (written by a committee of Italian scenarists) for a fairly decent little sword and sandal adventure. There are plenty of battle sequences with swords, axes, bows and arrows, catapults, battering rams, etc., but all of these scenes are remarkably restrained and produce not a drop of onscreen blood.

And if you look carefully at the big duel scene between Welles and Mature that climaxes the film, you'll note that neither of the men ever appear in the same scene together. Mature is shown in close-up, the film cuts to a close-up of Welles, then a medium shot of what are clearly stand-ins. It's doubtful that the men ever had any real time together off screen during the production of the film. Indeed, the majority of Welles's scenes are all shot on a sound stage, a perk that might have been demanded in his contract. 

I really shouldn't obsess about mistakes in a film such as this but I can't help but call attention to how the Viking "fort" is constructed. Most forts throughout history have consisted of four walls to repel attackers and keep people safe inside. Not this one. 

The Viking fort is constructed of only three sides of wooden posts. Where the fourth wall should be, is a river bank. That's right, the rear of the fort is totally open to attack by any ships that chose to sail down river. In fact, three Tartars attack the fort in just such a manner, swimming across the span to launch a guerilla style raid from the rear. Why didn't the rest of the Tartars employ this strategy, rather than waste men, horses and weapons in a frontal assault?

I know, I know, it's not worth the effort to think about but it made me curious. 

Oh, and if you're wondering where the title for this post comes from, it's from eating many a meal at the legendary Luby's cafeterias, a Texas based chain of eateries that are now almost all gone. Good times at Luby's.

And yes, I did want tartar sauce with my fish. 

 

WOMAN ON THE RUN

It would not have been false advertising to pitch the finale of WOMAN ON THE RUN (1950) as a roller coaster ride of thrills and suspense. That's because the climax of this little jewel of a film noir takes place at a creepy amusement park at night (and why is it that amusement parks are almost always creepier at night? ) with heroine Eleanor Johnson (Ann Sheridan, in her first film after buying out her contract at Warner Brothers), rides a rickety roller coaster while a killer menaces her husband on the pier below.

It's a crackerjack sequence aided tremendously by off kilter camera angles courtesy of cinematographer Hal Mohr and a crazy,  hurdy-gurdy score by Arthur Lange and Emil Newman. The action leading up the exciting finale isn't bad either, in fact, it's top notch. Everyman Frank Johnson (Ross Elliott) happens to witness a gangland shooting while out walking his dog one night. The killer fire a couple of shots at Frank before leaving the scene. The police, let by the doggedly determined Inspector Ferris (Robert Keith) are determined to have Frank testify but he disappears before then can take him in.

The cops turn to his estranged wife, Eleanor, who is one hard bitten, cynical and tough dame. She's quick with a one liner but there's little humor behind her delivery. She doesn't care about Frank and wants nothing to do with the case. But newspaper reporters Daniel Legget (Dennis O'Keefe), wins her over and offers a substantial cash payout if she'll help him find Frank and get an exclusive story for his tabloid rag. 

The two begin a manhunt through the streets of San Francisco, trailed by the police every step of the way. In the course of the search, Eleanor discovers that Frank still loves her and she him and she becomes determined to find him and make an attempt at reconciliation. The identity of the killer is revealed to the audience midway thorough the film but rather than detract from the narrative it only serves to heighten the suspense. 

Produced by Fidelity Pictures Corporation and released through Universal International, WOMAN ON THE RUN is better than it has to be in what could be viewed as a rather routine thriller. Director Norman Foster does a good jo with the material laid down in the script that he co-wrote with Alan Campbell. The cast is first rate and the on-location cinematography adds much to the proceedings. 

The standout in the cast is, of course, Sheridan. While under contract at Warner Brothers the studio promoted her as "The Oomph Girl", a decidedly sexist label that served to typecast the young beauty and limit to certain types of roles. In WOMAN ON THE RUN, she has a chance to show her dramatic abilities to good advantage. 

But there's no denying that she certainly was a very attractive woman.