COSTA AZZURRA aka WILDCATS ON THE BEACH (1959)

The literal translation of this Italian title is azure (blue) coast, and is idiomatic for the French names Cote D’Azur or the French Riviera. It was apparently never released theatrically in the United States, but the English title given to this Italian film for television showings in 1967 is WILDCATS ON THE BEACH which leads one to think this will be an entry in the teen beach comedy genre. It is not. It is a romantic comedy of sorts, but not a lot of time is spent on beaches with people in bikinis or with muscles. It's concerned with the misadventures of four grown-up couples visiting the French Riviera. In lieu of a detailed plot summary, a roster of characters will suffice. 1) Rita is an American movie star who is in the middle of getting a divorce while her longtime lover Maurizio is leaving his wife for her, though he grows irritated when she asks him to stay out of sight during her constant encounters with the paparazzi. 2) Adelina is with her wildly jealous husband Leopoldo, a short guy with a big chip on his shoulders, always taking offense to anything that happens around him. The handsome Nicola, whose sister is friends with Adelina, flirts a bit with her, not particularly threatened by her ineffective husband. 3) Giovanna and Alberto are fruit vendors on the beach; she decides to try and get an audition with a famous director, only referred to as the Maestro though her husband is sure she won’t get it. They are both surprised when the director becomes interested in signing Alberto for a small part in the film, saying he looks like a young Jean Gabin—neither seems to notice that the director's constant companion is a young bleach-blond man who is always in a bikini. 4) The rich Carsoli (who may be an arms dealer) is having troubles with his wife Doriana, and Gino, a reporter assigned to do a story on Carsoli, flirts with her; eventually, Carsoli seems to agree to let her go, but there are strings attached to his offer.

Though there are times when the proceedings slow to a crawl, this is basically a fun comedy of sexual matters, though don’t expect any onscreen sex. There are some bodies in bikinis in the background, and at a strip club, we see a skinny drag queen named Bambi tease the audience. Despite the titillation we get in each story, traditional morality wins out in the end for all the couples. Things remain light, with the story of Rita and Maurizio being the most serious. The highlight of the film was watching the totally clueless Alberto (well known Italian comedy actor Alberto Sordi) get courted by the older, overweight gay director. The story manages to play out without getting too homophobic. The American actress Rita Gam (Rita), a familiar face in 70s TV shows, is quite good, as is Georges Marchal (Maurizio), whom I mostly know from peplum movies like SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR though in his youth he was very fetching in LUMIERE D’ETE. Franco Fabrizi is charming as ever as Nicola. I should also mention Elsa Martinelli, who made a number of Hollywood movies in the 60s, who is fine as Doriana, and Tiberio Murgia who is successful at making Leopoldo obnoxiously unlikable yet also a little sympathetic. Not as fizzy as its American title would have it, but not as melodramatic as it could have turned out. But with good looking people, colorful costumes, and the Riviera setting, it's fun. Pictured are Marchal and Gam. [YouTube]

THIRTY DAY PRINCESS (1934)

In the kingdom of Taronia, American banker Richard Gresham has a chance meeting with King Anatol XII at a mud bath. Anatol is searching for a solution to the country's economic woes. Gresham agrees to set up a $50 million bond loan, but he says the country needs to initiate a major public relations campaign in the United States to get enthusiastic backing. Anatol sends his daughter Princess Zizzi who is happy to leave the country for a while as she is engaged to Prince Nicholaus, a man she doesn't love. Upon her arrival in the States, shepherded by Gresham, Zizzi faints while being introduced to the press. Gresham says she is exhausted, but it turns out she has the mumps and can't travel. A small team of investigators is sent out on the streets of New York to hunt for a young woman who resembles Zizzi to take her place on the PR tour. Meanwhile, penniless actress Nancy Lane, who looks exactly like the princess, steals a sandwich from an automat. When she is accosted by two men, she thinks they're police but they are really Gresham's men. Gresham offers her $10,000 to pose as the princess for a month, and a bonus if she can pull off one extra twist. Newspaper publisher Porter Madison III has been running stories opposing the bond loan, so Nancy is expected to do some extracurricular work and charm Madison into backing the loan. The tour is a success as is Nancy's charm offensive with Porter. Meanwhile, complications pile up. An actor who knows Nancy recognizes her as Zizzi; Nancy's landlord suspects that Nancy has been kidnapped; the drippy Nicholaus shows up in the States, catches on to the ruse, and plants suspicions in Porter's mind. This being a forerunner to the screwball comedy genre, we know happy endings are in store.

Sylvia Sidney, not known for comedy, is the reason to watch this. She is charismatic and energetic in the dual role of Zizzi and Nancy (pictured above in both roles). Edward Arnold does a fine job as Gresham; given his persona in other films and the fact that he's playing a banker during the Depression, we might expect him to be unlikable (he tells Anatol, "We don't boast about being bankers these days; we're all in the doghouse!") but he's almost as appealing as Sidney. Reliable character actor Henry Stephenson is fun in the small role of the King (he does get to reappear briefly at the end) and Vince Barnett is fine as Nicholaus. The script is fairly solid and the repartee fun. The only minus is, surprisingly, Cary Grant as Porter. His character is one-dimensional—we don't even know why he is against the loan—and Grant seems uncomfortable in the role, never quite finding his footing. This was still early in his career, and he was apparently not happy to take the part in the first place and I think that shows a bit. There is a very amusing scene at a party where a slightly drunken Sidney starts toasting the past kings of Taronia, leading the partygoers to smash drinking glasses with each toast. An amusing trifle which Sidney makes worth watching. [TCM]

CHARLIE CHAN IN THE SECRET SERVICE (1944)

Detective Charlie Chan is currently in Washington D.C, engaged in wartime service for the government. Melton, an inventor working on a bomb that will be effective against German U-boats, opens a closet door during a cocktail party and drops dead, and his plans go missing. A secretive master spy named Manlich is suspected and Chan is on the case. Among the suspects: a wealthy matron, a war refugee, an unpopular economist, and a brother and sister pair; he uses a wheelchair but we discover that he can get around without it if need be. Two Secret Service agents are also present, as are Chan's son Tommy and daughter Iris who want to help out but, as usual, are mostly in Dad's way, despite extolling themselves as "hip cats of the younger generation." It's discovered that Melton was killed by a set-up that electrocuted him when he grabbed the closet light chain. But who did it and where are the plans?  Though the title promises adventure, this is basically an old dark house mystery set in a house that is not dark enough to generate much atmosphere.

This is the first in a series of seventeen Charlie Chan films made by Poverty Row studio Monogram Pictures after 20th Century Fox ended their series. The phrase Poverty Row is a bit misleading. Basically, these studios made low budget B-films which often wound up as second features to A-films from bigger studios. The films are not necessarily poor in quality, as the word "poverty" might imply, but their cheaper budgets are in evidence. In this film, the bland sets, the stark lighting, the haphazard plotting, and a lack of star talent are all marks of a Monogram production. However, there is still Sidney Toler as Chan to help make the movie worth watching, though I also think this is the beginning of Toler's decline. For the first time, Chan seemed to be getting old. Toler turned 70 the year this film was released—his pace is slower and he seems less invested in the role, understandably perhaps as this is his twelfth outing as Chan. (It's noted in this movie that Chan has 14 children which could be a reason for the character's weariness.) Benson Fong made his first of six appearances in the series as Tommy. One other character is introduced who would appear in most of the Chan films that followed: the Black chauffeur Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland, pictured with Toler above). Here, he works for the wealthy matron; in his next film, he's Chan’s taxi driver, and later, Chan would hire him as a valet. The comic relief antics of Birmingham, usually in conjunction with whatever Chan son was present, are high points of the films. He introduces his trademark "Good gracious me!" remark here, often uttered almost directly to the camera. I admit the identity of the killer was a surprise to me. No one in the lackluster supporting cast is worth pointing out. [DVD]

COMMANDO CODY: SKY MARSHAL OF THE UNIVERSE (1953 serial)

Mr. Henderson, government official "in charge of all operations in outer space," is at Commando Cody's office and meets Cody's new assistants Ted and Joan, who have been hired to work on a top secret project: an atomic powered rocket ship capable of reaching any planet in the solar system. (I was pleased to see more security here than in the previous Cody serial RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON; in fact, Cody now wears a domino mask to hide his identity. Also, who the hell appointed Cody "sky marshal of the universe," which seems to be an official title?) When missiles were being fired at Earth from outer space, Cody developed a "radioactive cosmic dust layer" which was put in place above our planet to burn up any object heading toward Earth. As we later learn, a robed villain called The Ruler is creating this havoc from his headquarters on Venus, with some help from a band of henchmen on Earth. Cody has created a dispersal ray that allows his rocket to pass through the dust layer, and the bulk of this serial involves the Ruler's attempts to get his ships through the dust to invade. Over the twelve chapters, Cody and his team have to face an earth-melting ray (using footage from KING OF THE ROCKET MEN), destructive floods, germ warfare weapons, a lumbering robot, explosions intended to knock the moon out of its orbit, climate changes, hydrogen hurricanes, and a trip to visit the Queen of Mercury (!) before their final showdown with the Ruler. 

First, let's deal with the Cody character problem. Though the same Rocket Man suit is used in four Republic serials (ROCKET MEN, RADAR MEN, ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE, and this one), only this and RADAR have a hero named Commando Cody, and he's played by two different actors. Here, he’s Judd Holdren who played Rocket Man Larry Martin in ZOMBIES. I like to think of all of them as Cody, but technically they're not, or depending on your viewpoint, technically they are. Next, there's the definition problem: is this really a serial? It was shot to be a 12-episode television show, but contractual problems obligated Republic to release it in theaters as a serial first. Later, it was shown on television during the summer of 1955. Some serials fans maintain that this is not really a serial, mostly because there are no cliffhangers—each episode is more or less self-contained, though there is an overarching arc story. (And the last two episodes are more directly linked.) My opinion: of course it's a serial. It was one long narrative shown in weekly chapters in theaters; the chapters are numbered and titled, though the word 'chapter' is not used onscreen. 

How does it stand up to the other Rocket Man serials? Even though I sometimes complain about cliffhangers—their predictability, their cheating visuals—I admit I miss their presence here. There are cliffhanger moments at the ends of some chapters, continuing characters, and plenty of fistfights. The sets are pretty much the same as in the other films, as is, of course, Cody's flight suit. Judd Holdren is at a bit of a disadvantage in the domino mask but I guess he's heroic enough. Aline Towne (Joan) was in three of the other serials and, as always, has little to do. Willam Schallert as Ted is surprisingly tentative and low energy. After a break in filming between chapters 3 and 4 (to film ZOMBIES), he was replaced by Richard Crane (as Dick, pictured at top left with Towne and Holdren), handsome and energetic, and well versed at decent comic relief (he played space ranger Rocky Jones in a 1954 TV show). Many episodes end with a sort of punch line delivered by Crane, my favorite being one in which he fantasizes about using the Ruler as a houseboy and having him whipped. Crane is definitely a plus. Gregory Gaye (The Ruler) has little to do except give orders to his thugs. He's pictured at right with Gloria Pall, credited only as The Moon Girl.

Our heroes have to face some interesting situations. One involves a second sun appearing in the sky (then a third and a fourth), causing Earth temperatures to skyrocket. In the following chapter, the Ruler puts our planet into a tilt, aligned with Saturn, causing the threat of a new Ice Age in the Northern Hemisphere. In addition to the Venus HQ (the same sets used by the villains in the other serials), the moon, Saturn and Mercury are involved in plotlines. The good guys use "insignia radios" pinned to their outfits to communicate. The bad guys use a huge machine which decodes secret messages from the Ruler to the chief Earth baddie (Lyle Talbot in a thankless and repetitive role). Of the three Rocket Man actors, I think I still like George Wallace (RADAR MEN) the best. I did miss the rough-and-ready feel of the other Republic serials—to call this production glossy is misleading, but it is on the shiny and clean side—but it’s fun to watch. [Blu-ray]

PLAYING AROUND (1930)

On his ship, Blackbeard the pirate is about to engage in a fight with a rival when a chorus line appears, a woman begins singing, and the camera pulls back to reveal that we are watching an elaborate production number called "You're My Captain Kidd" in a nightclub called the Pirate's Den. At a side table, low-level gangster Nickey Solomon (Chester Morris) is asked by the club's owner to judge a women's leg contest called the Pageant of Knees just as young Jack (William Bakewell) brings his long-time gal Sheba (Alice White) in for dinner. Jack is shocked at the prices—for a drink, he wants her to order buttermilk because it's the cheapest thing on the menu—and wants to leave, but Sheba enters the Pageant. Nickey chooses her as the winner and instead of giving a speech, she sings a song. Jack, a soda jerk who works for her father at a tobacco store, remains irritated the entire evening, but Nickey decides he's going to get her attention, and when the couple leaves, Sheba is impressed by Nickey's fancy car (with a goofy air-horn sounding horn that Nickey uses frequently and obnoxiously). The next day as Sheba tries to hail a taxi, Nickey pulls up and she hops right in. Angry at Jack partly because he hasn't asked for a raise, she starts going around Nickey, and doesn't care what Jack thinks about it. One night Nickey takes her out for a spaghetti dinner. Despite his fine clothes and lounge lizard manner, Nickey doesn't have the three dollars to pay for their meal, so he finagles it out of the diner owner, and even gets a hundred extra bucks to take Sheba out to see George White's Scandals on Broadway. Jack is waiting at her dad's apartment (where Sheba lives) to talk to her, but midnight rolls around and she is still out, giving Jack the occasion for the movie's best line, "Midnight doesn't mean anything to Sheba since she started skating around with this new sheik!" Eventually Jack is all washed up with Sheba, who accepts a proposal of marriage from Nickey, but needing more money, Nickey robs the cigar store and shoots the employee who is, unknown to Nickey, Sheba's dad. Jack witnesses the shooting and though he didn't see Nickey's face, he heard Nickey's car horn right afterward. Now can he get the police to believe that Nickey is guilty?

This very early talkie, shot in 1929, highlights the best and worst of that short era. There are some impressively fluid camera shots, including the opening pull-back into the club and a later scene when Sheba goes running for a taxi, but the acting is stiff with actors still not comfortable with sound. (A silent version was produced but may not have been distributed widely.) Worst is the leading lady, Alice White, who doesn't deliver a single line with anything like depth or meaning. William Bakewell, playing a sort of juvenile role as the innocent pup who is always in the middle of a mild hissy fit, is only slightly better, but as peeved is his default emotion, he got on my nerves by the halfway point of the movie. Chester Morris, who was in his heyday (he was nominated for an Oscar for ALIBI that same year), is much better, but he doesn't display the slightly oily charm that would serve him well in other early talkies, and it's difficult to see what Sheba sees in him besides his nice clothes and slicked-back hair. The only other substantial part is Sheba's father, played competently by Richard Carlyle. A couple of other fun lines: Jack to Sheba, when she expresses sorrow that she failed to see through Nickey's facade: "Women can't be expected to judge human nature like us men"; Sheba referring to herself as "becoming a big league girl"; Sheba's insult to Jack, "Don't be an eggnog!" (I'm dying to use that one myself). Directed a bit unevenly by Mervyn LeRoy who would go on to a long career at MGM. Pictured are White and Bakewell. [TCM]

THE TROJAN HORSE (1961)

We're nine years into the fabled Trojan War, nine years after Paris from Troy abducted Helen from Sparta, and the Geeks have held Troy under siege since then. The Greek hero Achilles (I'll be including place name adjectives just to keep things clear for myself) has killed the Trojan hero Hector and disrespectfully dragged the body in the dirt behind his chariot. Aeneas, who has brought a wounded soldier back to Troy, believes that this war over Helen has dragged on far too long. When he is told that Helen is a symbol of Troy's prestige and glory, he replies "Helen is our gravedigger," which is hard to dispute. King Priam learns that Hector's body is to be left for the vultures, and decides to go to the Greeks to ask for the body. Aeneas plans to join him, but Paris, a bit of a passive jerk, is jealous of the respect that Aeneas has built up in Troy, so he orders Aeneas not to go, but Priam insists. At the Greek camp, Priam is given Hector's body, but in order to get Hector's weapons to give to his widow Andromache, Aeneas has to fight the Greek strongman Ajax. Aeneas wins, a victory which just adds to Paris's jealousy. Paris sends Aeneas off to build up an army, then sends his sister Creusa, pregnant by Aeneas, to Greece as a hostage to be held for a temporary truce. The Greek king Agamemnon also asks for chariots, gold, and a large quantity of wood for building purposes. If you've read Virgil (or have seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail), you know what's coming. Aeneas and his troops battle the Greeks, with Paris shooting an arrow into the Achilles' heel, killing him. The Greeks retreat, leaving behind a giant wooden horse, supposedly built to honor the god Poseidon. Priam's daughter Cassandra, known as a seer, warns that the horse contains the seeds of Troy's destruction, but it is brought into the walled city anyway. As we know, inside the horse is a group of Greek warriors, led by Menelaus (the legit husband of Helen), who, late at night, break out of the horse, set fire to the city, open the gates, and let in the Greek troops who wreak total destruction.

Despite having read some Virgil and Homer in my youth, I've never been clear about the Trojan War, but this adventure film presents its climax in a way that is easy to understand, even as it leaves out any mention of the meddling Greek gods. The budget for this peplum must have been higher than average, with spectacular sets, decent battle scenes, and huge numbers of extras—you often see the phrase "a cast of thousands" used in publicity for these kinds of films, and in this case, I'd believe it. The director, Giorgio Ferroni, made several sword-and-sandal movies (though his real classic is the small scale horror film MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN. He is clearly in his element here. Barry Atkinson, peplum expert, considers this film to be superior to the Brad Pitt TROY from 2004. The horse is impressive and the climactic fall of Troy is particularly well handled. Acting, rarely a strong area in peplum films, is adequate here. It's a little strange to have muscled hero Steve Reeves playing a character who doesn't prevail (Aeneas), though he does escape the destruction at the end and goes off with others to help found Rome. Actually, except for Paris, there really are no traditional peplum heroes and villains—there is good and bad in the actions of both populations. John Drew Barrymore has the relatively small role of Ulysses; Mimmo Palmara makes an impression in his few minutes as Ajax. For the record, Edy Vessel is Helen and Warner Bentivegna is Paris. The print I watched on YouTube is widescreen and in pretty good shape. Pictured are Palmara and Reeves. [YouTube]

CHARLIE CHAN AT MONTE CARLO (1937)

Detective Charlie Chan and his oldest son Lee are in Monte Carlo on their way to Paris where Lee is exhibiting a painting. French policeman Joubert is happy to (literally) run into them and takes them to the casino where he points out Savarin and Karnoff, bitter enemies in business as well as gambling. Gordon Chase, secretary to Karnoff, reveals to Joan, Gordon’s sister and Karnoff’s wife, that $25,000 of metallurgic bonds (the movie's MacGuffins) are missing, and he knows she took them to get out of some trouble. The problem is that Karnoff is sending his bonds by messenger to Paris in a deal to dump them and wreck Savarin. That night, the messenger is found dead in his car on the way to the airport, the bonds gone. Evelyn, Savarin's mistress, was seen near the car and falls under suspicion as does Savarin and, eventually, Al Rogers, a bartender at the casino to whom Joan was selling the bonds. Al also happens to be Joan's secret husband, separated but never divorced. Joubert gets Chan to help him track down the killer. This is the last Chan movie starring Warner Oland, who passed away just months after its release, and it's par for the course. The business with the bonds gets convoluted but the supporting actors make it fun to stick with. Oland and Keye Luke (as Lee) are the central attraction, of course, but just as good are Harold Huber, giving a pleasantly light-toned performance as Joubert, and Sidney Blackmer as Karnoff who walks a nice line between likable and suspicious. Robert Kent is handsome but bland as Gordon; George Lynn as Al is a standout, displaying a bit more personality than Kent in a smaller but important role. Virginia Field as Evelyn and Kay Linaker as Joan are almost interchangeable but they both give adequate performances. Sometimes the reveal of the killer is disappointing if it's a minor character with little screen time but here the reveal is surprising and satisfying. Pictured are Lynn and Linaker. [DVD]

MERRILY WE GO TO HELL (1932)

At a cocktail party, Joan (Sylvia Sidney), a young heiress who escapes to the balcony to avoid a masher, meets Jerry (Fredric March), a drunk reporter who really wants to write plays and who is still not quite over his previous relationship. They hit it off and she invites him to a party at her home the next day, but he arrives so late that everyone else has left. Joan’s father isn’t impressed with Jerry, and when he proposes to Joan, Dad offers Jerry $50,000 to leave her alone. The bribe doesn’t work, and at the engagement party, Jerry shows up late and very drunk. Despite the warning signs, the wedding occurs. For a time, Jerry gives up drinking and manages to write a play. It is accepted for production, but the leading lady is Jerry’s ex, Claire. On opening night, Jerry flirts a bit with Claire, gets very drunk, and back home as he passes out, calls Joan Claire. Her father calls Joan a doormat, and indeed Jerry puts the onus on Joan for stopping him from having an affair with Claire. Joan starts doing a fair amount of drinking herself, and surprisingly, at a party, Joan announces that they should have a modern marriage: “Single lives, twin beds, and triple bromides in the morning,” and she leaves with Charlie, a friend of the couple. The rest of the film is predictably melodramatic, with separation, a pregnancy, and a rushed and ambiguous ending that can be read as either hopeful or depressing.

The "modern marriage" aspect of this film seems to have been at least partly inspired by 1930's THE DIVORCEE in which Norma Shearer suggests a similar arrangement, though she goes farther by kicking her husband out of her love life. But this pre-Code romantic melodrama adds the complication of alcoholism, and at one point, it feels like it's anticipating the 1950s DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES about a couple who both fall into drink. That plot strand is dropped when Joan discovers she's pregnant and stops drinking. If you're familiar with domestic melodramas of the 1930s, there will be few surprises in how this plot plays out, though the ending is not exactly straightforwardly "happy." [Spoiler: while separated, Joan has the baby—Jerry hears about it from a newspaper column—but there are complications that leave the baby dead and Joan very ill. Jerry shows up demanding to see her, and in her delirium she has been calling for him. They are reconciled in the hospital room, but we are not necessarily confident that enough has changed for them to work things out.] The lead actors, as directed by Dorothy Arzner, are very good. Sidney does not, in fact, act like a doormat most of the time; despite her petite frame, she is strong and solid. March is especially good at being both charming and (sometimes) repellent, and his drunk scenes are not overdone, possibly thanks to Arzner's direction. The supporting cast is adequate, though no one is given the opportunity to shine. Skeets Gallagher is fine as a peppy pal of Jerry's and Cary Grant, in a very early role, has the small part of Charlie. Given the focus on drinking and extramarital sex, this could not have been made after the Production Code went into effect in 1934. The title comes from a snarky farewell greeting of Jerry's that grows more ominous throughout the movie. Pictured are March and Sidney. [TCM]

ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE (1952 serial)

Larry Martin is an inventor and scientist who has a jetpack that allows him to fly through the air (and therefore, according to the government, he's an expert on interplanetary affairs). G-man Steele asks him and his assistants Bob and Sue to investigate the appearance in the skies of an alien spacecraft. We see it land and Martians (with pale skin and tight sparkly jumpsuits) disembark. With help from some hired earthling thugs, they transport materials to the home of Prof. Harding who is being blackmailed to help the Martians. The population of Mars is dying off due to the thinning of the atmosphere, so the Martian plan is to set off an H-bomb explosion strong enough to send Earth spinning out of its orbit and allow Mars to take its place closer to the sun. But the Martians, led by Marex and his underling Narab, still need to get their hands on materials to finish building the bomb. In the way of Republic serials, most of the twelve chapters feature attempts at robbery (of both uranium and cash to get more uranium) and mayhem that Larry and Bob—and Sue in the unlikely event that she's around—try to thwart. Marex has a headquarters in a cave that can only be accessed by an underwater passage from another cave, so get ready for lots of scenes of Martians and humans going slowly back and forth underwater from one ladder to another, and at least one underwater fight scene. A remote control robot is used by the bad guys to pull off a bank robbery and to threaten our heroes, but nothing can keep the heroic Larry down for long.

This is the third of Republic's four Rocket Man serials. All the heroes have the same rocket suit (and the same plain office with an electronic grid along one wall so at least once in each serial someone will fall against it and get fried, or nearly so) but most have different names. The first was Jeff King (KING OF THE ROCKET MEN), and this movie came after RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON which featured George Wallace as Commando Cody; here, it's Judd Holdren as Larry Martin, but he's Cody in all but name. The generally accepted reason: ZOMBIES was planned as a Cody serial, but when Republic signed up to produce a Cody TV show, they had to change this guy's name, picking the blandest name possible. Holdren does get to be an official Commando Cody for the TV show which also became the fourth serial. Despite a great title, this is the least of the four serials in quality. Part of it might be that the shots of the Rocket Man leaping in the air, flying, and landing, which were very effective in the first movie, are used over and over again in each succeeding serial and come to feel tired. Judd Holdren is more emphatically heroic than Wallace was, but I miss Wallace's somewhat quirkier personality. The always drab and interchangeable sidekicks are particularly drab here: Aline Judge, who was Joan in RADAR, is Sue; Wilson Wood, who had a small part in RADAR, is upgraded to play Bob. Lane Bradford is oddly mild-mannered as Marex but his performance works; Leonard Nimoy, the future Mr. Spock, is in many scenes as Narab but only has a few lines of dialogue, though he gets to shine (sort of) in the final chapter. John Crawford is a standout as Roth, one of the main thugs, and he even gets a chapter heading summary card to himself (see right). One cliffhanger involves a runaway coal car which may have influenced the similar scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. In another cliffhanger, everyone's guns run out of bullets at the same time.  The fight scenes are, as par for the course for Republic and their stable of stunt men, pretty good. There is a lot of stock footage used from earlier serials (even from a western). Despite being watchable, this was still a disappointment for me as it just didn't live up to the cool title. The 70 minute condensed version is reviewed here. Pictured at top left are Nimoy and Bradford. [Blu-ray]

HERCULES AND THE TYRANTS OF BABYLON (1964)

3000 years ago, Babylon was ruled by a triumvirate of three siblings: Salman Osar is the bald, goateed sinister-looking brother; Azzur is the older, bearded, and slightly wiser brother; Taneal is the sexy sister who looks out only for herself. They build up their state laborers by having their army capture citizens of surrounding lands to be slaves, and among a batch of newly acquired female slaves is rumored to be Esperia, Queen of the Hellenes, though she hasn't yet been identified. The brutal Salman Osar just wants to have his way with her; Azzur wants to marry her for diplomatic reasons; Taneal wants her dead, seeing her as a threat. Then Phaleg, the king of Assyria, presents himself to the Babylonian rulers and gives them heaps of riches in exchange for all their female slaves. He claims to want them to repopulate Assyria but he really just wants Esperia. But the rulers are upset by reports that one man is acting as a protector to vulnerable folks in the region. Sure enough, legendary muscle man Hercules is doing said protecting, and we see him single-handedly stop a raiding party by tossing huge boulders at the soldiers from the hills. But Hercules is also on a personal mission: to save Esperia, who is apparently his mistress, from both slavery and forced marriage. 

Despite its lackluster title, this is one of the better sword and sandal movies of the peplum era. It has a strong and clear narrative, decent acting, a muscular lead, attractive women, and a couple of nice battle scenes. Hercules is played by Peter Lupus (pictured), a bodybuilder and actor best known for his role in the original Mission Impossible TV series (and credited here as Rock Stevens). He has a very impressive body and his acting is a notch above most other muscleman actors; he's good in most of the fight scenes as well (he kicks ass and takes names), though no one could have brought any sense of realism to the silly boulder-tossing scenes—he's better when tossing people and using weapons. Helga Liné is very good as Taneal; Anna Maria Poloni, as Esperia, is attractive but remains a flat character, and Taneal's role is stronger. Two scenes stand out. One, a riff on the famous "I am Spartacus!" scene has the female slaves tied to stakes in the boiling sun, and when asked which one is the queen, they all start yelling, "I am the queen!" The other is a battle between Hercules and three champions which is supposed to be for show until Herc discovers that one of the champion's clubs is actually a spiked mace. Finally, a point I've touched on in previous posts. It is difficult to separate the relative worth of a movie (in terms of recommending it to others) from the experience of watching it. This, like so many peplum films, was shot in widescreen but is generally only available in a pan-and-scan print (or, even worse, a squeezed distorted print), and it's usually not in very good shape. This one is good enough for me to consider watching it again if it shows up in a clean, widescreen presentation. [DVD]