THE FOREVER WAR

Published in 1974, Joe Haldeman's Hugo and Nebula Awards winning novel, THE FOREVER WAR, is a science fiction version of CATCH-22 set in deep space. It's also a not-so-thinly veiled allegory for the about-to-come-to-an-end Vietnam War. 

THE FOREVER WAR is the story of one William Mandella, who begins his journey into combat as a private and ends up, some two thousand years later, as a major. Two thousand years? Yep, because the war between the Terrans (Earth military forces) and the alien Taurans takes place many light years away from Earth. The planets upon which war is waged between the two armies can only be reached by the use of colapsars, wormholes in space that can transport ships from one place in space to another in a matter of less than a second. But real time passes outside of the collapsars so while Private Mandella ages at a normal rate, hundreds of years pass on Earth. 

The war is pointless. The Taurans pose no threat whatsoever to Earth. And they have nothing of any discernible value to Earth forces, no natural resources, planets, technology, nothing that could be of use to humans. The war was started by mistake, by a lack of communication between man and alien but regardless of the cause, Mandella is forced to fight and fight and fight. 

He and his lover, Marygay (the space forces are co-ed), return to Earth after their first tour of duty to find a society so radically changed that there's no place for them to fit in. They re-enlist expecting to be assigned to a desk job but instead are thrust into combat again. When Mandella loses a leg and Marygay an arm in a skirmish with the Taurans, they both think they've received the "million dollar wound" that will send them back home for good. Instead, they're outfitted with bio-mechanical artificial limbs and sent back into combat after their convalescence period on a planet called "Heaven". 

Finally, Mandella finds himself promoted to the rank of major with a squadron of space troopers under his command. By this time the military forces are made up entirely of homosexuals, both men and women, while Mandella, the lone heterosexual in the unit, finds himself increasingly out of touch. Mandella leads his men and women into a furious climactic battle with the Taurans and when the battle is over, he learns that the war is officially over, with his just competed battle the last confrontation of the years long war. When he's mustered out of service, Mandela finds a happy, hopeful and optimistic future awaiting him.

THE FOREVER WAR is a solid story mixing the absurdities of command and military red tape with the harsh realities of combat and the desperate feeling that the fighting, no matter how pointless, will never end. The book deserved to win both the Hugo and Nebula awards and stands as a military sf classic. 

Highly recommended. 

THE COUCH

Following the overwhelming success of Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO (1960), psychological thrillers were all the rage with every major (and many minor) studios rushing to capitalize on the trend while it was still hot by producing as many "psycho" like films as possible in a relatively short period of time. And while Alfred Hitchcock wasn't about to do another "psycho" film, the author who wrote the original novel on which Hitchcock's masterpiece was based, was suddenly in high demand. 

Robert Bloch labored in the pulp magazine jungle for years writing many classic horror, science fiction and fantasy yarns for many years before striking it rich when Hitchcock purchased the movie rights to PSYCHO. Although Bloch continued to write fiction in the 1960s and 1970s, it was as a screenwriter that his work reached the widest audience and for which the horror writer became a household name. 

After PSYCHO, Bloch wrote the screenplays for the following films: THE COUCH (1962), THE CABINET OF CALIGARI (1962), STRAIT JACKET (1964), THE NIGHT WALKER (1964), THE SKULL (1965), PSYCHOPATH (1966), THE DEADLY BEES (1967), TORTURE GARDEN (1967), THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD (1971) and ASYLUM (1972). 

THE COUCH is the story of Charles Campbell (Grant Williams), a disturbed young man undergoing psychoanalysis under the care of Dr. Janz (Onslow Stevens). Campbell is in love with Dr. Janz's niece, Terry Ames (Shirley Knight) but he presents an entirely false persona to the young woman. In reality, Campbell is a psycho killer who calls the police every night to announce his next murder, crimes which always occur in a crowd of Los Angeles citizens at precisely 7:00 p.m. 

As Janz gets closer to the truth about Campbell, he becomes the next victim of "The Stabber" but Campbell's initial attempt only results in the doctor being gravely wounded, leading to a tense finale in a hospital as Campbell stalks his prey in and out of surgery. 

THE COUCH is crisply lensed by cinematographer Harold E. Stine and features several sequences shot on the night time streets of Los Angeles. The supporting cast includes two actors who were regulars on THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW: Hal (Otis Campbell) Smith and Hope (Clara) Summers. 

Grant Williams is good as Campbell. His other genre credits include THE MONOLITH MONSTERS (1957), THE LEECH WOMAN (1960) and his best know film,Jack Arnold's masterpiece, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957). Onslow Stevens appeared in such genre classics as THE MONSTER AND THE GIRL (1941), HOUSE OF DRACULA (1945) and THEM! (1954). 

THE COUCH is nothing earth shattering but it is a well produced little thriller from the typewriter of the legendary Robert Bloch, which makes it well worth watching for horror fans. 

ATTACK !

Based on Norman Brooks' 1954 play, FRAGILE FOX, Robert Aldrich's ATTACK! (1956) is a superb WWII film featuring an absolutely outstanding cast. 

Eddie Albert stars as the cowardly Captain Cooney, a man who has gained rank due to political connections. He's afraid to actually engage the enemy in the field but is happy to send platoon after platoon of doomed men into the line of fire. Lt. Woodruff (William Smithers) knows Cooney is a coward and wants to see him relieved of command while Lt. Col. Bartlett (Lee Marvin), believes in not rocking the boat until Cooney's cowardice becomes unavoidable in the last act of the film. 

But it's Lt. Costa (Jack Palance) and his men that suffer the most under Cooney. They are the ones that have to carry out his suicidal attack plans. Costa's platoon consists of Bernstein (Robert Strauss), Snowden (Richard Jaeckel), Tolliver (Buddy Ebsen) and Ingersol (blink and you'll miss him Strother Martin). Costa becomes so frustrated by Cooney's cowardice that he threatens to take matters into his own hands and kill the man (who suffers a breakdown when faced with the results of his decisions). 

Aldrich and screenwriter James Poe do much to open up the action of the play and do their best to minimize the stagy, set bound talky sequences by including some well staged action sequences. The cast is top notch and the whole thing resembles a practice run for Aldrich's masterpiece THE DIRTY DOZEN ( 19567). 

 ATTACK! is a cynical, hard boiled look at combat and the men who are forced to carry out the orders of their commanding officers, even when those orders spell death. Tough and unflinching this is one helluva great war film. 

Highly recommended. 

ATTACK ON THE IRON COAST

Several years ago, I read an article in WWII HISTORY magazine about the St. Nazaire Raid. The action occurred in the Normandie port in March of 1942. It was a joint effort of the Royal Navy and British Commandos and it was no ordinary raid. The port of St. Nazaire was one of the largest Nazi held ports on the British Channel. It was capable of docking the largest ships in the German navy, including massive battleships. The plan was to load the hold of the decommissioned British destroyer, the HMS Campbelltown with timed explosives. Then the Campbelltown, along with 18 smaller ships carrying commandos, was literally rammed into the port under cover of night with the clock ticking on it's explosive payload. 

Needless to say, the plan worked. Although British lives were lost in the effort, the operation struck a Major blow to the German navy, effectively shutting down one of their major sea ports for the duration of the war. As I read the article, I kept thinking, "boy, this story would make one helluva movie."

Little did I know at the time that such a film was made in 1968 but given it's meager budget, ATTACK ON THE IRON COAST really doesn't do the subject matter justice. I don't recall ever seeing this film playing in any Austin area theaters at the time of release so I've remained unaware of it for 50 years. The St. Nazaire Raid is deserving of a much larger canvas, more star power and much better lensed special effects and action sequences. 

Instead we get a low budget British produced film with the only star in the cast being American actor Lloyd Bridges. Although Bridges enjoyed a long career in films and on television, he was seldom cast in the lead. The running time, also mandated by the studio, is a meager ninety-minutes. This was deliberately done in order to be able to release the film as the bottom half of a double bill in the UK where it was paired with, believe it or not, The Beatles animated feature film YELLOW SUBMARINE. 

The special effects feature entirely unconvincing and poorly lighted miniature ship models and the climactic raid (also poorly lighted) takes place at night where it is often times hard to figure out who is a German soldier and who is a Brit commando. 

In fact, the entire film has a cheap, murky look. And oddly enough, nowhere in the film is it ever acknowledged that the screenplay is based on a true story. Either the producers figured that 1968 audiences (both British and American) would be aware of the St. Nazaire Raid or thought it just didn't matter. 

And of course, it goes without saying, that the movie poster pictured above is far and away better than anything that appears on screen. 

I maintain that there is still a first rate film to be made about this legendary, daring raid. Until then, go read about it in the history books. It's a far more exciting and compelling true story than what you'll find in ATTACK ON THE IRON COAST. 

PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET

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I've been watching quite a few classic film noirs on TCM lately, some of which I've seen before, while others I've experienced for the first time. I hope to cover as many of these films as possible in the days to come but yesterday, I had the pleasure of viewing PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (1953) for the first time.

Wow. 

Richard Widmark stars as Skip McCoy, a New York City pick pocket, just out of prison and already practicing the art of the "cannon" on the NYC subway system. His pigeon of choice is the luscious prostitute Candy (Jean Peters). Skip skillfully lifts an item out of her purse while on a speeding subway train, an item that will launch a desperate manhunt through the Manhattan underworld.

Turns out the item stolen by Skip is a strip of micro-film containing top secret chemical formulae. Peters was supposed to deliver the film to Joey (Richard Kiley), a communist stooge who would then pass the information on to his superiors (one of which is played by Parley (THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW) Baer). Government agents who were trailing Candy know the film strip has been stolen and it's a race against time between the Feds and the Reds, to track down Skip and recover the film. 

Caught in the middle of this growing crisis is Moe Williams (Thelma Ritter), a street grifter who sells information about "cannons" to the law in order to bolster her meager living from selling men's ties out of a suitcase. 

Candy attempts to seduce Skip to get the film but of course, ends up falling in love with him. Skip, knowing what he has is extremely valuable to both parties, ups his asking price. When Candy ultimately steals the film from Skip, she doesn't know that he's kept a single frame for himself. 

Candy is savagely beaten and shot by Joey (he's already killed Moe), before Skip confronts him in a violent subway battle. 

Tough and unflinching from start to finish, with dialogue you could strike a match on , PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET is a double barreled winner for Samuel Fulller who wrote and directed the film for 20th Century Fox. It was his first assignment for a big studio and he used the larger budget, longer shooting schedule and big name stars to great advantage. Even though shot in Los Angeles and back lot locations, Fuller imbues PICKUP with a gritty sense of the New York City streets and the lower rung criminals and hustlers who populate them. 

Fox contract player Betty Grable was originally considered for the part of Candy but when Grable read the script and realized she'd be playing a prostitute, she turned it down. Star-in-the-making Marilyn Monroe was also briefly up for the part but when Fuller spotted Peters in the studio commissary one day, he hired her on the spot. And what a great decision that turned out to be. Peters brings a smoldering sexuality to the part of a streetwise operator who knows how the many underworld games are played. 

The entire cast is perfect. Look close and you'll spot Milburn (GUNSMOKE) Stone in one scene as a police detective. The standout performance goes to Ritter, who's simply terrific as the world weary Moe, a battered and bone tired woman just trying to survive on the mean streets. Ritter received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her work. 

With PICKUP UP ON SOUTH STREET, Samuel Fuller fully realized the dazzling potential he had previously displayed in such low budget classics as THE BARON OF ARIZONA (1950) and STEEL HELMET (1951). Fuller went on to enjoy a long and illustrious career, continuing to make films in his own uncompromising way, which led to him becoming one of the most important directors in the post war American cinema. 

PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET is one of the great film noirs. It's absolutely essential viewing for fans of the genre and movie buffs in general.

Highly recommended.

YOU HAD ME AT FILM NOTES

When I was a student at the University of Texas, I took a film history class as an elective the spring semester of my freshman year. We were required to attend one film screening a week for the class. These screenings were held at the Jester Dormitory auditorium. Remember, this was in 1975, so there were no such things as VHS tapes, DVDs, Blu-Rays or streaming services. In order to see the assigned films, we all had to be in that auditorium on any given night to watch the films.The films were 16mm rental copies and the quality of the prints varied. 

The required films were only part of a semester long program of screenings of classic films (American and foreign) that was sponsored by an organization called CinemaTexas. They offered a season pass that allowed the holder to see as many films as they desired for one low, low price. I purchased one of the passes and used it regularly to gain admittance to not only the films that were assigned for my class, but as many other films as my schedule and study demands allowed. It was my first real exposure to any kind of film culture whatsoever. 

One of the most important aspects of the CinemaTexas film series was the stellar film notes that were available for free at each screening. These notes, written by undergraduate and graduate film students, were well written, thoughtful essays about the films I was seeing. I treasured those film notes, keeping many of them for many, many years. To write a series of film notes quickly became one of my secret dreams, a fantastic ambition that, at that point in time, I had no idea how to make happen. I wasn't a film major, I didn't know anyone in the film department, I wasn't even a writer of any merit at the time. But I nevertheless filed these mimeographed gems away for safe keeping and nourished the dream which I kept within the film theater of my heart.

In the summer of 1994, I was part of a team of volunteers (horror movie fans one and all), that helped put on the first (and to date, only) Drive-In Double Feature Film Festival, held at the now long gone Dobie Theater in Dobie Mall, adjacent to the UT campus. During one of many planning sessions held at the venerable campus area watering hole, Posse East, my cohorts and I decided that what this film festival needed to set it apart (beside the outstanding line-up of classic '50s and '60s drive-in schlock movies), were film notes. We all agreed that it was a great idea and divied up the fourteen featured films among us. The writers included myself, Kelly Greene, Lisa Franklin, Steve Blackburn and Bruce Wright. We had a blast writing the notes and for me, it was a chance to make my twenty-year old dream about being a film writer come true. Note: I have a much longer and more detailed story about the Drive-In Double Feature Film Festival which I'll try to post here sometime in the near future. 

The next summer, I saw several films as part of the Summer Classic Film Series at Austin's legendary and historic Paramount Theatre. When the season was over, I drafted a letter to programming director Paul Beutel thanking him for such a great lineup of movies. I included some suggestions for the next year's line up and closed my missive with a pitch for providing film notes for future series. Along with my letter, I included a copy of some of the film notes I had written for the Drive-In Double Feature event. 

I heard back from Paul in record time. He told me that having film notes was something he had always wanted to have for the Paramount but he simply didn't have the time to write them. If I was willing to do so for a small fee (along with free movie passes), he was willing to take a chance on me. 

We met in March of 1996 to discuss the selections for the upcoming summer. Paul liked many of my suggestions but film programing in those days depended upon what the studios (and other rental agencies) had available, how good the prints were, how long it had been since a film had previously screened at the Paramount and how well they did), etc. The only sure things that Paul programmed every year was the opener (CASABLANCA) and closer (GONE WITH THE WIND). In between, it was up to us to put together a program that audiences would like and would be profitable.  As soon as Paul started confirming availability of prints and locking in screening dates, he would send me a list of what he had booked. As soon as I received that list, I started writing because this was one writing gig in which I absolutely could not get behind on. 

Writing those film notes was sheer bliss for me. I did a good enough job that first year that Paul allowed me to continue to write the notes for almost twenty years. Oh, he would occasionally write some when one of his favorite films was on the schedule but by and the large, the bulk of those notes were written by me. If you attended a screening at the Paramount's Summer Classic Film series anytime between 1996 and 2016 and an usher handed you some film notes, odds are I wrote them.

I have stacks of physical copies of my notes from various years piled up in the comic book room of the man cave along with many drafts saved on my computer. I don't know if anyone was ever film geek/nerd enough to save my notes as I did those CinemaTexas treasures from years ago (I hope someone did), but I do know that my notes caught the attention of Patrick Caldwell, a writer for the Austin American-Statesman in the summer of 2009. He contacted me and arranged to come out to the house of a lengthy interview. His article was published in August of that year and a fine write up it was indeed. Caldwell called me "one of Austin's most widely read entertainment writers you've never heard of." I'll take that.

In addition to writing film notes for the Summer Classic Film Series, I was privileged to introduce several screenings, meet and visit with legendary director Peter Bogdanovich and introduce and do a Q&A with Adam West on stage in front of a sold out crowd (1,200 people) before a screening of the classic 1966 BATMAN film (which had it's world premiere at the Paramount in August 1966 and I was there). Paul (now retired), became a good friend and even when new programmers stepped in, I continued to contribute notes, albeit on a much more limited basis. 

I no longer write for the Paramount. I did some film notes and introduced the opening night feature (THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS) at the Hippodrome Theater in Waco when it reopened in 2014 but my contact there was fired shortly after the theater opened and my services were no longer needed. 

But the bottom line is this. The Summer Classic Film series is a long and venerable tradition that began long before I got involved with it and it continues to be a first rate film event to this day. But a big part of that tradition, a key part of that wonderful summer ritual, are the film notes that were written by myself, Paul and other programmers. Those sheets of paper didn't exist until I asked for the opportunity to create them and was generously given the green light. Paul took a chance on an unknown film writer and together we created something that has added just that little bit more to what is already a first rate film going experience. 

All of which brings me, at long last, to FLICKER, Theodore Roszak's epic 1991 novel in which film notes play a small, but important part in a narrative that takes a very, very deep dive into film culture in general and horror films in particular. 

FLICKER is the story of Jonathan Gates, a young film fan in Los Angeles in the 1950s where a small, basement theater called The Classic, runs foreign and vintage American films to a small but loyal crowd of cinema devotees. It's there that Jonathan makes the acquaintance of Sharkey, the perpetually stoned projectionist (and co-owner) and Clare, the real driving force behind The Classic. Clare, a want-to-be film writer, provides film notes for the screenings and recruits Gates as her student to learn the craft. Clare later becomes a film writer by the name of Clarissa Swan in New York (a not-so-subtle analog of the legendary Pauline Kael). 

While learning the film ropes from Clare (and enjoying a passionate sexual relationship), Gates discovers the low budget, poverty row horror films of the mysterious and long dead (he was lost at sea in 1941) Max Castle. Gates becomes obsessed with Caste's films and the more he watches them, the more he becomes aware of something going on underneath the surface of the film, subliminal images of brutal violence and unheard of sexual practices. 

Gates, now a film student at UCLA, decides to make Castle and his films, the subject of his graduate studies and he starts out to find and interview anyone and everyone still living who had any knowledge of Castle, along with acquiring more unseen and unknown Castle films, films which contain even more dark secrets.  

Gates is soon down a celluloid rabbit hole, a journey across Southern California, New York City and Europe which takes him deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness. He encounters a variety of offbeat characters, some real, some fictitious, along his quest. For instance, Gates meets Orson Welles in one chapter in which Welles relates his relationship with Castle. The fictional characters include Zip Lipsky, Castle's cinematographer who, among other things, is a dwarf, a former serial jungle queen, years beyond her prime, who was a primal erotic fantasy for young Jonathan, avant garde underground film makers totally devoid of talent, a yammering French cineaste who goes on and on about semiotics, a recluse Dutch beauty who teaches Jonathan about one of Castle's forbidden sexual practices and others. 

At the heart of the quest is a mysterious, ancient cult that believes the world is controlled by not one true God but two gods, one of light and one of dark. This cult has been grooming film makers for years using secret editing techniques to embed their work with cultic images and messages. It's all end-of-the-world stuff, Apocalypse-coming-soon (2014 according to prophecy) brought to you by films and soon, television. 

Gates gets sucked deeper and deeper into this labyrinthine maze of movies and madmen before a last reel (if you will), that brings him face to face with...…

FLICKER is a novelistic version of CITIZEN KANE, with Gates playing the reporter who gathers bits and pieces about his elusive subject as he goes along. Some have described it as SUNSET BLVD. meets THE DA VINCI CODE. It's over 600 pages in length but it's a, believe it or not, fairly quick read. Granted, there are parts here and there could stand to be trimmed but overall, this book grabbed me from the very beginning and pulled me in. My thanks to my buddy at work, J. Aaron, for loaning me his copy and turning me on to this book, one which I had never heard of before.

Make no mistake, FLICKER isn't for everyone. But it's the kind of book film buffs will love. It's a valentine to a lost era of film culture (the last date given in the book is 1976) and acknowledgement of the incredible power of motion pictures to take up permanent residence in the deepest parts of our beings. The more you know about movies, the more you'll like this book. And those readers who are into classic horror films will eat it up.

Highly recommended.

'BROADSWORD CALLING DANNY BOY'

There's an old joke about Ernie Bushmiller's long running comic strip, NANCY. The strip, you may recall, was four panels every day, with the first three panels setting up the payoff gag that the fourth panel contained. It was utterly banal, but it took a mere fraction of a second to read, so minimal were the art, characters and humor. The joke is that it took longer to decide not to read NANCY than it did to actually read it. 

It doesn't take much time to read Geoff Dyer's very slim new book, 'BROADSWORD CALLING DANNY BOY': WATCHING WHERE EAGLES DARE. The book is only 121 pages long and you could easily get through it multiple times in the time it would take to watch the film (which runs two hours and thirty-eight minutes). And at a cover price of $22.00, you've got to be one helluva fan of WHERE EAGLES DARE to spend that much on so little. Note: I bought it on sale at 40% off.  

But while the price is steep and the page count small, this little book is a delight to read from start to finish. WHERE EAGLES DARE, while far from a great film (although Dyer does claim that it's a better film than Wim Wenders UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD) , the WWII action epic  holds a special place in Dyer's heart.  It's one of the seminal films of his childhood, one he first encountered at exactly the right time and age to make it an indelible part of his life.

 In 121 pages, Dyer takes us through the entire film, commenting at length about various aspects of the film. It's not the kind of commentary you'd find on a Blu-Ray. Those usually deal with more technical matters, more behind-the-scenes, "making of" information. Here, Dyer delivers an almost stream of consciousness narrative that runs from insightful to hilarious. It's clear that he absolutely loves this film (and '60s and '70s war films in general), and while he can find plenty of faults and inconsistencies in the 1968 adventure classic, none of the blemishes are enough to make him fall out of love. 

In fact, the only really critical analysis he delivers is in regards to the novels of British adventure king Alistair MacLean. Dyer states that he read all of the MacLean bibliography when he was a youngster but now finds most of MacLean's stuff unreadable. In fact, he uses this word to describe the novel version of WHERE EAGLES DARE which is, in fact, a novelization of MacLean's original screenplay. 

I too read almost all of Alistair MacLean's thrillers when I was in junior high and high school. Loved 'em all at the time. I started re-reading MacLean a few years back and found that while his earlier material (GUNS OF NAVARONE, et. al), still hold up, some of his later works are just plain bad. Trouble is, he was wildly inconsistent in the '70s and beyond. I read BEAR ISLAND not long ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. But ATHABASCA was a painful read. Had the master really lost his touch or is it, as Dyer theorizes in his book, that you need to be a youngster to read and really enjoy the kind of boys' own adventure novels that MacLean is known for. 

Whatever the case, I loved 'BROADSWORD' and can enthusiastically recommend it to any and all movie buffs. 

 It got me to thinking about which seminal films from my childhood I might possibly write about in an extended format has Dyer has done. The films that immediately spring to mind are JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, THE GREAT ESCAPE and, of course, GOLDFINGER.

 Stay tuned dear readers. You never know what might be coming.

NORA PRENTISS

NORA PRENTISS (1947), falls squarely into the sub-genre of "women's noir" films of the '40s and '50s. Like such other entries as MILDRED PIERCE (1945), DAISY KENYON (1947) and HARRIET CRAIG (1950), NORA PRENTISS is a first rate little noir that features the oh-so-sexy Ann Sheridan in the title role. 

Nora is a singer in a San Francisco nightclub. She has a chance meeting with respectable Dr. Talbot (Kent Smith), after a slight automobile accident outside of his office. Talbot is soon madly in love with Nora and she does nothing to dissuade his interest. Trouble is, he's a family man with a wife and two children (a boy and a girl). But the affair continues with Talbot desperate to find some way to leave his wife and flee San Francisco with Nora to start a new life in some other city.

The way out drops (literally) into his office one night when one of his terminally ill patients stumbles into Talbot's office seeking help. Talbot is too late the save the man who, as fate (and the screenplay) would have it, is a near perfect physical double for Talbot. Talbot stages a fiery automobile accident that leaves the dead man burned beyond recognition but not before Talbot sprinkles the death scene with some of his personal belongings. 

The result? Talbot is officially dead and he and Nora head to New York City for their new life together. But things don't go as planned and a wicked third act plot twist sends Talbot spiraling into a deadly web of his own making, while Nora stands by him, faithful to the end. 

Directed by Vincent Sherman and shot by the legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe, NORA PRENTISS looks great. Sheridan, in a bit of a comeback role, commands the film from start to finish, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was more than just a pretty face. She's no femme fatale however, in fact, none of the characters in the film are really evil, it's only Talbot who makes a series of very wrong choices. Smith, who also starred in THE CAT PEOPLE (1942) and CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (1944), does a fine job as a decent man who finds himself caught in a never ending nightmare. Bruce (ALLIGATOR PEOPLE) Bennett, adds support as Talbot's medical partner while Robert Alda (father of Alan), is a sympathetic night club owner who carries a torch for Nora.

Don't let the title fool you. NORA PRENTISS is not a generic "women's picture" It's a full bore film noir from start to finish.

Highly recommended.

  

THE WALKING DEAD (NO, NOT THAT ONE, THIS ONE)

The most interesting things about the routine horror film THE WALKING DEAD (1936), are the two main talents involved in the production and where this film fits into their respective filmographies. 

Director Michael Curtiz had already dabbled in horror for Warner Brothers with DOCTOR X (1932) and MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933), two early Technicolor fright fests that are both superior to WALKING DEAD. Before cranking out WALKING (a studio quickie if ever there was one), Curtiz helmed the classic swashbuckler CAPTAIN BLOOD (1935) and he followed WALKING with another Errol Flynn adventure, THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE (1936). 

Karloff, already a major horror star, did the far superior INVISIBLE RAY at Universal in early 1936 and after WALKING, he went to Great Britain for the mystery/thriller JUGGERNAUT (also 1936). 

The storyline of WALKING deals with a criminal cabal who plots to murder a judge. Karloff is a newly released convict, sentenced by said judge and he's set up to take the fall for the planned murder. The murder takes place, Karloff is framed and receives the death penalty.

A young couple who witnessed the judge's murder come forward at the 11th hour to exonerate Karloff, but it's too late, the switch has been thrown. Rather than bury Karloff's electrified body, the corpse is sent to the laboratory of mad doctor Edmund Gwenn. The doctor implants an artificial heart into Karloff, which resurrects him, minus any memory of who was responsible for his frame up. 

Karloff stalks the guilty, with each man meeting a grisly death before Karloff himself is gunned down. 

The similarities to FRANKENSTEIN (1931) are many. The laboratory features equipment that looks a lot like what Colin Clive used in both FRANKENSTEIN and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935). The resurrected Karloff has a white streak in his hair (shades of BRIDE!), a gaunt, drawn look and very little dialogue. 

In short, both Karloff and Curtiz did far better work in their careers both before and after WALKING DEAD. Still, it's an interesting little film (running time 66 minutes), that Golden Age horror fans should definitely check out.