HOUSE OF SECRETS (1956)

Larry Ellis is a handsome, affable young sailor in Marseilles for a 24 hour furlough. While sitting at a sidewalk cafe, a man approaches him, mistaking him for someone named Steve, gives him a shoebox and runs off. When Larry opens the box, hundreds of pound notes go flying in the air. (The first totally unrealistic thing that happens here is that his fellow diners collect the money and give it back to him.) When Larry takes the money to the police, Col. Burleigh of an international police agency realizes that Larry is an exact double of Steve, a smuggler who was recently killed in a car crash, and he asks Larry to work for them, impersonating Steve and infiltrating the counterfeiting gang that Steve worked for. Larry goes through voice and mannerism training and gets to know Steve's girlfriend Judy who already works for the cops. The two most visible members of the gang are Lauderbach and Pindar, but they want Larry to uncover the unknown head of the group. They suspect the group is readying a shipment of paper from overseas with which to print a scad of forged money that is difficult to identify as such. And, because the money in the shoebox was real, Burleigh thinks that Steve may have been involved in a double-cross operation. Larry/Steve pulls off his impersonation and meets the rich and eccentric Madame Ballu, who gives the gang orders but may not actually be the person at the top, and her showgirl niece Diane. From here on out, the movie becomes a series of nicely done scenes of violent fisticuffs resulting in an occasional death, but the connective material concerning who is doing what to whom is not so clear. Suffice to say that in the end, our hero and the bad guys wind up in a Hitchcockian scene in an airplane in which, though none of the passengers know it, a bomb is set to go off very soon.

Some critics see this as a forerunner of the secret agent movies of the 1960s, though I found it more like a subset of that genre, in which an average Joe gets drawn more or less against his will into becoming a spy. Much of this has a fairly light tone, though it never comes off as a spoof or satire like many of those later movies do, and the stakes are indeed deadly for many of the characters. I never really bought Larry's quick and efficient transformation into a steely infiltrator, and the later plot machinations got confusing. But I very much enjoyed Michael Craig as Larry (called Steve for most of the movie); he's attractive and has a rough charm that feels appropriate to his character. He’s generally cool and calm, though his occasional moments of expressing a kind of "what the hell's happening now?" feeling ring true. Barbara Bates (Phoebe in All About Eve) is quite good as the girlfriend, as are Geoffrey Keen as the main cop, Anton Differing as one of the chief villains, and Brenda de Banzie as Madame Ballu. The revelation of the identity of the big boss is disappointing, but the plane climax is great, and the last scene in the film is carried off in an unusual way, ending just moments before the baddie gets his comeuppance. Some viewers of this film think that Craig would have made a good James Bond and I agree. I sure do love me some Michael Craig movies. Thanks, YouTube algorithm. The title is meaningless; the American title, Triple Deception, is more accurate. At top right, Craig; at left, Craig and Bates. [YouTube]

KISS ME DEADLY (1955)

Private eye Mike Hammer drives down a road at night and encounters a woman in a trenchcoat, running down the middle of the road, forcing him to stop to pick her up. She pants and grunts, trying to catch her breath, and we discover that she is a runway from a nearby asylum. Her name is Christina, named, she says, after the poet Christina Rossetti, and she asks Mike to take her to a bus stop, saying that if she never makes it to the bus, "remember me." When he stops for gas, she addresses and stamps a letter to Hammer and asks the attendant to mail it for her. They are set upon by thugs; Mike is beaten unconscious, she is tortured to death, and both are put in his car which is pushed off a cliff. Days later, Mike wakes up in a hospital, his secretary (and lover) Velda with him, along with a cop, Murphy, who calls Mike a "bedroom dick," someone who plots with his clients to win divorce cases. For some reason, the feds are interested in what happened to Mike, so despite being warned away (Murphy goes so far as to revoke Mike's PI license and gun permit), Mike decides to investigate the dead mystery woman and gets caught up in a case that is way too big for him. 

This is one of the best film noirs ever made. It has almost very element that a noir should have: a conflicted hero (or antihero), a femme fatale or two, a long-suffering mistress/sidekick, ambiguous criminal motives, a trail of dead bodies, beatings and fisticuffs, nighttime city streets, and amorality galore. The visuals, rendered largely in high-contrast black & white, are effective, with several scenes shot from quirky angles. Mike Hammer was a creation of novelist Mickey Spillane and was pretty much the archetypal hard-boiled private eye, described by some as sociopathic, verging on psychotic. Ralph Meeker, who plays him here, is maybe a bit too babyfaced compared to someone like Bogart or Robert Mitchum (or craggy-faced Robert Bray who played Hammer in a later movie) but for my money, he's absolutely right for the part, his softer looks hiding his steely determination which makes people misjudge him. He can be likable, as in his scenes with car repairman Nick, or gruff with bad guys, or sexy with Velda and later with Lily, Christina’s roommate who becomes a major player in the events leading to the climax. Maxine Cooper (Velda) didn't have a long movie career, but she makes a great secretary and lover for Hammer; she’s sexy, horny, smart and energetic, and though she vanishes from a chunk of the story during the last half, you have no doubt that she could keep up with him if needed. Gaby Rodgers gives a very modern-feeling performance as Lily, Christina's innocent roommate who is hiding some secrets. A young Cloris Leachman (Christina) is only around for the first fifteen minutes or so, but leaves an indelible impression. The movie is filled with familiar faces in small roles: Strother Martin, Jack Elam, Wesley Addy, Paul Stewart, Fortunio Bonanova, Percy Helton, and Albert Dekker.

Now for the SPOILERS. The McGuffin of this movie is a goddamned doozy. It takes nearly half the movie to find out that what everyone's after—Velda calls it "the great what's-it"—is a box. The phrases "Manhattan Project" and "Los Alamos" are mentioned by Murphy, and it turns out that the box contains something on the science-fiction side, a small atomic pile that, when the box is opened, will set off a nuclear chain reaction. It's never explained where it came from or how Christina was involved with it. But almost everyone who had it or was looking for it winds up dead. In the famous climax, at a beach house at night, Lily shoots Mike in the gut (though improbably he survives) and opens the box, leading to a truly horrific scene in which she is spontaneously set on fire, screaming the whole time. The box itself makes a terrible screaming noise of its own. Mike and Velda manage to escape into the surf as the house blows up. The ending is often called apocalyptic, and indeed if we were to follow the scene to its logical conclusion, Mike and Velda would certainly die, if for no other reason than radiation poisoning (Mike gets a radiation burn on his hand earlier when he pries the box open just a bit), and perhaps much of Malibu would be destroyed. But let's not get technical; the sci-fi (or even fantasy) ending works spectacularly well and shouldn't be examined too closely. The first time I saw this, the ending was so out of the blue, I was actually a little disappointed. But when you're prepared for this, the movie becomes, as I've noted, one of the best film noirs of all time. Pictured at top right are Meeker and Cooper; at left, Meeker. [DVD]

SAMSON IN THE WAX MUSEUM (1963)

This is not a movie about the legendary Biblical hero, or the muscleman hero from Italian peplum films. Samson is actually Santo, a wildly popular Mexican masked wrestler playing himself, pictured at right—the original title is, of course, SANTO IN THE WAX MUSEUM. His name is anglicized for the English dub, although when crowds chant his name in the film, we hear "Santo!" loud and clear. So I have now seen my first luchador movie. You can Google that term, but it basically refers to a series of Mexican films which starred masked wrestlers (playing themselves) who moonlighted as crimefighters. If you take out the wrestling sequences, you have a low-rent superhero movie. I see this, perhaps the first masked wrestler movie to be seen in the States, as a missing link between the classic era serials and the 1966 Batman feature film with Adam West. Rights to produce an English language version of the Mexican film were bought by producer K. Gordon Murray. This doesn't seem to have gotten a theatrical release but I did find evidence of TV showings as early as 1965. Luchador films were tossed into the mix of Chiller Theater movies, and later MST3K riffed a Santo film. Based on their cheesy reputation, I have avoided watching one, but when this cropped up on my YouTube algorithm, I assumed it was a muscleman horror film, so I watched it, and was surprisingly engrossed in it.

Dr. Karol runs a wax museum which features mainstream celebrities (Gary Cooper, Gandhi) but in the cellar, inspired by "the hidden passions in men’s souls," Karol has a chamber of horrors featuring the Frankenstein monster, the Phantom of the Opera, and other bestial figures in the shadowy background. Photojournalist Susan Mendoza snaps some pics for a story, and is invited back by Karol for an in-depth interview that evening. However, she is attacked by a mustached thug and carted back to Karol’s place where we discover that he is a bit of a raving madman. In the war, he was interned, tortured and disfigured at Auschwitz (later, he says Dachau) and now he has invented a process by which he covers living people in a wax-like substance. It paralyzes them during the day when they are the shadowy museum figures but they can be brought to life at night to do Karol's bidding. Because of his damaged face, he hates beauty and plans to subject Susan to both torture and the wax process. When Susan's sister Gloria and her boyfriend Charles realize she's gone missing after visiting the museum, the police are brought in—this is the third mysterious disappearance associated with Karol's museum. Karol convinces them that he is being targeted by some unknown enemy who has sent threatening letters, and Karol gets a friend to bring in Santo, the famous wrestler hero, known for his desire to "wipe out injustice and crime." Between wrestling matches (we see three of them), Santo is on the case, digging up info about Karol and kicking the asses of thugs, the whole time shirtless and shiny-chested, dressed in only his silver mask, his glittery cape, and snug tights. Just as Susan is about to be waxed up and transformed into a panther girl, Santo saves the day.

As I hinted above, without the wrestling scenes (which were, I suspect, the whole reason for these movies existing in the first place), this is an entertaining and engrossing superhero movie—Santo doesn't have actual super powers but neither does Batman. The villain, well played by Claudio Brook, has almost as much screen time as Santo, and his character is fairly well developed. Roxana Bellini (Susan), Norma Mora (Gloria) and Ruben Rojo (Charles) are attractive good guys who wind up with not much to do. Because Santo is masked, we can’t read his facial features so his acting is mostly done with his body. He’s commanding in the ring (I was going to skip through the matches but wound up fascinated by them, especially the third one with the blond dandy who sort of skips across the ring, pictured above left), and his fisticuff scenes are largely carried out with wrestling moves. Others have noted that the plot combines elements of House of Wax and The Island of Dr. Moreau, and the scenes at the climax showing the waxed beasts coming to life are quite effective. It's a little strange that, after learning about Karol's disfigurement, we don’t get a climactic unmasking scene, and, of course, we never see Santo unmasked either. I liked this enough to think about watching another Santo movie someday, though I have heard most of the rest aren't as good as this one. [YouTube]

THE GEORGE RAFT STORY (1961)

This fictionalized version of the life of actor George Raft, based in part on a series of articles he co-wrote, begins with a young George making a living as a tap dancer at the Dreamland Casino where he has already perfected his casual coin-tossing tic that became part of his onscreen persona. When a gangster assaults his dance partner, Raft punches him out. Soon he's working for some bootlegging racketeers, takes up with Shelia, a singer, and when she hints at marriage, breaks up with her—in the aftermath, he says, "I didn't ditch you, I just eased you out." He works with famous club owner Texas Guinan and takes up with Margo, a sexy blonde, and is the target of a streetside assassination attempt. Following Guinan out west, George comes to the attention of Hollywood gangsters and producers (his next girlfriend June tells him he has a Valentino vibe) where he gets cast in small roles in movies, with his big break coming through a supporting part in Scarface which is a big hit. He gets in a fight with a guy named Sam who ends up becoming his friend and agent. Called before Al Capone who is angry that the character who represents him in the movie gets killed, Raft explains that it was the Hays code that was at fault for insisting that bad guys get punished. For a while, Raft lives the high life, getting lots of acting roles, becoming friendly with gangsters (including Bugsy Siegel), and latching on to busty blonde actress Lisa Lang. But soon, tired of being typecast as a thug, he starts turning down roles and has a falling out with Sam. He becomes part-owner of a Havana casino but loses it when Castro comes to power. In the final scene, he reconciles with Sam who gets him his comeback role in Some Like It Hot, even though he's in a gangster role again.

I have never much liked George Raft. Always a little stiff and artificial, I think of him as a second-rate Humphrey Bogart (or Alan Ladd or John Garfield). It's a Hollywood legend that he turned down important parts, many of which went to Bogart, and he was relegated to supporting roles and B-movies by the 1940s, though Some Like It Hot did lead to a bit of a comeback in the 60s and 70s. He was short and gruff looking, but Ray Danton, who plays him here, is the opposite: tall and slickly handsome. Still, after just a few minutes, I got used to Danton and he does a good job playing at least the surface persona of Raft. He’s paired up with some very attractive women, most notably Julie London (Shelia), Barrie Chase (June), and Margo Moore (Ruth), most of whom only get a handful of scenes. The least effective pairing is with Jayne Mansfield (Lisa), and the problem is more the writing than her acting (which itself is only so-so). The character is set up to be important to Raft's story—it's rumored that she's based on Betty Grable—but she gets short shrift and barely makes an impression. There are some decent musical performances, and Danton, who was not a trained dancer, more than holds his own. One of the best numbers is "You’ve Got to See Mama Every Night," performed by Barbara Nichols playing Texas Guinan, another female who gets only a few minutes in the spotlight. Raft's most important relationships seem to be with the gangsters who befriend him, but even they only get their few minutes in the plot and then vanish, except for Brad Dexter as Bugsy Siegel. It's Ray Denton's movie all the way and he holds it just fine. As a low-A, high-B production, the period details are spotty; sometimes good, sometimes not. The comedy team of Tony Reese and Pepper Davis are given an interminable eight minutes for a mediocre nightclub bit. Giving good support are Frank Gorshin, Herschel Bernardi, Robert Strauss, and Neville Brand (in a short scene as Capone). I had avoided this because of my feelings about Raft, but it proved well worth watching. [TCM]

THUNDER IN THE PINES (1948)

Jeff (George Reeves) and Boomer (Ralph Byrd) are war buddies who are now in the logging business together. We first see them play-fighting in a logging camp bar as Jeff has Boomer in a headlock until they are interrupted by the arrival of the buxom Pearl (Marion Martin) who has come to visit her lover Nick (Lyle Talbot), owner of the Skyline Bar. Nick, new to the logging business, hires the two friends with separate contracts and pits them against each other to see who can deliver the most logs by the spring thaw. The winner will get a cash bonus. The winner will also get Yvette (Denise Darcel), a gold digging French woman whom Jeff and Boomer met during the war. They both invited her to come to the States, so she decides she will marry the winning logger. As the men go off to their camps, Yvette takes a job at the Skyline and starts flirting with Nick, which doesn’t sit well with Pearl. The mostly friendly race, which makes the local front page, is on. Boomer is at an advantage at his spot on the river, but Nick evens things out with some sabotage when he sends someone to Boomer's camp to empty out the dynamite charges needed to break up a log jam. Boomer eventually wins the race, but the real climax involves a card game between Jeff and Nick, during which Nick cheats by looking at a mirror behind Jeff. However, a woman scorned (Pearl, who finds out that Nick has married Yvette in secret) manages to pull off her own trick, leading to Jeff winning not just the game but all of Nick's businesses. In the last scene, Jeff again has Boomer in a headlock in the bar when they're interrupted by another fancy lady.

This movie was not on my radar until it came up on the YouTube recommendation algorithm after I watched JUNGLE GODDESS which also starred Reeves and Byrd. I quite enjoyed this well-paced buddy adventure; Reeves and Byrd have a solid chemistry which could imply more than friendship—the last note I wrote while watching, as Reeves and Byrd were headlocking each other, was "The boys are in love again." They seem like a B-movie version of James Cagney and Pat O'Brien (as in 1938's BOY MEETS GIRL). The producer planned other films pairing the two, but they were never made. The screenplay is not particularly witty but a nice comic touch is present throughout. At one point, Boomer says, "There’s more to life than drinking, fighting, and chasing around," but that Jeff wouldn't understand. Jeff calls Boomer "Babyface" throughout, but when another bar patron does it, Jeff socks him in the jaw, then turns to Boomer and says, "Let’s go, Babyface!" Reeves is better looking and has a more carefree charisma than Byrd, but Byrd is awfully appealing as well. Darcel is fairly flat as the gold digger, but Marion Martin, described on IMDb as a cross between Marilyn Monroe and Mae West, and whom I know from 1938's SINNERS IN PARADISE, is quite good as Pearl, especially in the card game climax. The very busy Lyle Talbot gives one of his better mid-career performances here. Also with nice supporting bits from Michael Whelan, Greg McClure and Roscoe Ates. During the train station scene when Jeff and Boomer go to meet Yvette and realize she's meeting both of them, I thought briefly that this might turn into a roughneck DESIGN FOR LIVING. Another scene I liked has Pearl mixing up some "champagne" at the bar for a pretentious woman: bourbon, gin, vodka ("Not vodka!" warns the other bartender), bitters, ginger ale, grenadine and beer. I wish I was brave enough to try that drink. One weird thing: it was shot in sepia (like the opening of The Wizard of Oz) so all the background greenery of the forest looks a sickly brown. Still, this movie was a nice surprise that I recommend. [DVD]

PETER IBBETSON (1935)

On a rural estate in 19th century Paris, two children, Mimsey and Gogo, are arguing from their adjacent yards about sharing pieces of wood; she's making a dollhouse and he's repairing a wagon. Beneath the arguing, however, the two actually share a strong bond of togetherness. Gogo is considered by the adults to be a strange, overly sensitive child, and when his mother dies, his uncle takes him away to England, changing his name to Peter, and he and Mimsey suffer through a traumatic parting. Years later, Peter is a successful young architect; his buddies like to relax by going out on the town for "gin, bitters and barmaids," but Peter, though well liked, is still considered a little strange and doesn't share their enthusiasms. His boss, fearing Peter is suffering from overwork, sends him on a vacation to Paris. He is flirted with by goodtime girl Agnes, but has more interest in seeing his old home which sparks vague childhood memories. Later, on a visit to Yorkshire to work on some horse stable remodeling for the Duke of Towers, he is vetted by Mary, the Duchess; they clash on ideas for the project (she wants new, modern designs, and he wants the stables to retain an antique feeling), and he threatens to turn down the job. But a spark is starting to catch between them and she gives into his wishes. While living at the estate as he works, he becomes even closer to Mary, and one night they both have the same dream about a storm. Before long, they realize that Peter was Gogo and Mary was Mimsey, and not only are they in love with each other but that they share, through their dreams, a possibly supernatural link. The Duke figures things out and threatens Peter with a gun; during a scuffle, Peter kills the Duke and is sentenced to life in prison. Emaciated and in tatters, Peter gets in a fight with a guard; his back is broken and he is expected to die soon. But Mary visits him in his dreams and assures him that they can live together happily in this dream world. They do for years, meeting in idyllic settings, both looking young and healthy even as they both age in real life. They reach the end of their lives at the same time, and Mary tells him they will be together even in death.

I first encountered this fantasy many years ago in the first blush of my love affair with classic films. It had a solid reputation with some critics as an example of accessible surrealism, an expression of the unconscious with little regard for rationality, with emotion trumping logic. I don't see what I think of as surreal elements in this movie (I'm thinking imagery from Dali or Magritte), but it certainly has a delicate otherworldly tone right from the beginning, and emotion certainly wins out over logic. The cinematography by Charles Lang, especially in the last half-hour, is dreamy and gorgeous even in the scenes depicting Peter languishing in prison. I watched it again a few years later and was less taken by it. But with this viewing, I have settled on liking it quite a bit, for various reasons. As a supernatural romantic fantasy, it's just as good if not better than films like Portrait of Jennie, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, A Guy Named Joe, or Somewhere in Time. Gary Cooper (above right) gives a performance unlike any of his others. He is very handsome, as he was in his early films. Later he was known for his down-to-earth performances, but here he is very gentle, intelligent, expressive and emotional without getting sentimental or overwrought. He almost disappears into his part, something you can't say about him in his later roles. Ann Harding, as Mary (pictured with Cooper at left), matches him quite well, loosening out of the boring routine of her life with the Duke to the lush tenderness of what becomes her dream self. As I've noted, the movie's visuals are beautiful from beginning to end; there's an almost ghostly glow to most everything, even people's faces. You may fight the fantastical elements of the narrative, but most viewers will probably give in to the pull of the illogical and emotional. Supporting actors of note include Donald Meek as Peter's boss, a blind man who perhaps can see some things better than Peter can; Ida Lupino as Agnes; John Halliday as the Duke, who remains somewhat sympathetic; Virginia Weidler and Dickie Moore as the the young Mimsey and Gogo. You may spot Harry Cording and Leonid Kinsey in small roles in the prison scenes. The effect of Mary's first visit to Peter, as her dream self slips through the prison bars, is very effective. The idea that a pre-adolescent attraction that was forgotten about for many years could retain such power over reality doesn't bear a lot of thought. Directed by Henry Hathaway, better known for adventure and crime films. Worth seeing, if only as a novelty. [DVD]

IL GRIDO (1957)

In an Italian village, Irma receives news that her husband, who left her and moved to Australia years ago, has died. For seven years, Irma has kept house with Aldo, a worker at a sugar refinery, and they have a young daughter, Rosina. Aldo thinks this is good news as the two can finally get married, but Irma tells him that some months ago, "something changed"; she met and fell in love with another man. After slapping the shit out of Irma in public, Aldo leaves with Rosina and goes on the road. Their first stop is at the home of Aldo's former lover Elvia, but though there are still feelings on both sides, Aldo is too gutted by Irma's rejection to successfully rekindle the relationship. After catching a ride with a trucker, Aldo and Rosina wind up at an isolated roadside gas station run by Virginia, an attractive widow who is caring for her senile father. After an awkward beginning, Aldo and Virginia become lovers, though when Rosina sees the two making out in the dirt, she tries to run away. Soon, Virginia puts her father in a nursing home and Aldo puts Rosina on a bus back to Irma, but the two still can't get settled, so Aldo leaves, trying to find a job at a riverside fishing village where he falls in with Andreina, a prostitute. Still restless, and not able to forget Irma, Aldo goes back home only to find the town in the midst of a strike action protesting the coming of a military base next to the sugar refinery. [Spoiler!] Finding that Irma has settled down and has another child, Aldo wanders to the refinery, empty due to the strike, and climbs to the top of a tower. Irma follows him and waves to him from below. Aldo waves back but then falls to his death.

This fairly early film by Michelangelo Antonioni is like a dry run for his later, more famous 60s films about alienation: from nature, from society, from lovers, of the bourgeoisie, though here the focus is on the working class—there are no sleek well-dressed beautiful people, only rough and earthy folks who are barely getting by. Antonioni is known for his use of landscapes with interesting architecture, but here the landscapes are natural (fields and beaches) or industrial (the gas station, the refinery). The alienation being focused on is that of the working class man who can only channel his feelings of disappointment and depression into violence or apathy toward the women whom he thinks should save him. American actor Steve Cochran, who specialized in inarticulate but sexy tough guys, is excellent here, keeping Aldo just this side of sympathetic despite the poor choices he makes, though I don't think Aldo sees his situations as the results of his own choices. Alida Valli is just as good as Irma who is not a one-dimensional villain. Her reason for not marrying Aldo is not explained terribly well, but we see that her choice was not easy for her, and she retains a connection to Aldo right to the end. Dorian Gray is fine as Virginia. American actor Betsy Blair seems a little too artificially perky as Elvia, and never quite seems credible as a past lover of Aldo's. Though a fairly grim movie, there are a couple of moments of humor, including when Virginia's father teaches Rosina the Marseillaise, singing, wild-eyed, "Dynamite the mansions, stab the cowardly bourgeoisie!" which is actually close in spirit to the actual lyrics. As for the climax, some reviews refer to Aldo committing suicide, but it seems clear to me that he falls in a moment of vertigo, swaying a bit before plummeting. One theory I read is that he just doesn't have the will to stop himself, which seems about right. Also known as The Outcry. Pictured are Blair and Cochran. [Criterion Channel]

THE DEATH RAY OF DR. MABUSE (1964)

This the sixth and last of the German Mabuse movies from the 1960s, and as with the rest, a vague attempt is made at connecting this film with the previous one, SCOTLAND YARD HUNTS DR. MABUSE, so this begins like the last one ended, with Prof. Pohland in an asylum muttering about the mysterious (and supposedly dead) Dr. Mabuse having possessed him. He also mentions a death ray, assumed by the police to be a part of Mabuse's infamous "testament," a number of nefarious plans to be carried out by whomever Mabuse is currently controlling. Pohland escapes and, because a Prof. Larsen is known to be experimenting with his own death ray in his laboratory on Malta, the cops (or the secret service or the spies, whatever they are), led by Major Anders, are sent to investigate and to protect, if necessary, Larsen from Pohland. Calling his project Operation Archimedes, the ray is a large mirror device that can concentrate light rays into one strong destructive ray, as Archimedes may have done during the Siege of Syracuse in 212 B.C.E. Larsen has the ray locked up securely and only he knows the code. The film quickly takes on the feel of a James Bond movie with Anders set up as a ladies man who in fact gets to flirt with at least three different Bond girls, er…, Andrers girls: Judy, one of his regular mistresses whom he talks into becoming a spy (and who winds up ensconced in a local brothel for protection); Gilda, the daughter of Prof. Larsen; and Mercedes, the exotic Eurasian secretary of the local museum keeper Botani. There are red herrings everywhere, and practically every character, even Larsen, is at some point suspected of being in league with Mabuse. There are two brothers, Mario and Jason Monta, and I was never quite sure what they had to do with the story, though the mustachioed Mario (played by Gustavo Rojo) is nice eye candy. The death ray itself is never used, but the climactic James Bondian battle plays out mostly underwater between two small armies of frogmen.

I took a lot of plot summary notes while watching, as the movie is cluttered with incident, but ultimately with all the characters, some rather illogical plot points, and few actual clues to follow, it's best just to surrender to the nonsense. Peter van Eyck (pictured above left) reappears from the last film as the hero; technically he has a different name but it doesn't matter. As in SCOTLAND YARD, he's a bit too old (he was 53 and looked every year of it) and too low energy for the role but he acquits himself nicely in a wild fisticuffs scene in a belltower. I like the running gag that, despite trying to keep his mission a secret, everyone on the island knows who he is and what he's doing. All three women are good with Rika Dialyna the standout as the perky Judy (we are led to believe that she did not have to actually do sex work at the brothel, but the possibility that she may have is in the air). Yvonne Furneaux (Gilda) and Yoko Tani (Mercedes) are also fine. Robert Beatty is Anders' boss and Leo Genn is Beatty's boss—he gets a nice scene near the end. The movie ends with the unmasked villain mindlessly repeating, "It wasn’t me, it was Mabuse," but another film was not made. The 90-minute German print is the standard version, but the disc includes an Italian dub that is twenty minutes longer. It does clarify a couple of plot points, but I also felt it dragged a bit. Overall it's fun but it has little in common with the earlier Mabuse films in terms of style or tone. Aka The Secret of Dr. Mabuse. Pictured at right are van Eyck and Gustavo Rojo. [Blu-ray]

THE SQUALL (1929)

At a farmhouse in Hungary, the Lajos family is celebrating the wedding anniversary of Josef and Maria, and the upcoming wedding of their college student son Paul to the sweet and innocent Irma. We meet Peter, a farmhand; Lena, the cook who has been saving money so she can marry Peter; Aunt Anna, a busybody, and Uncle Daniel. During dinner, a storm arrives, and Daniel says that maybe the Lord sends "the squall so we may learn the beauty of a limpid sky," just as he sends "sorrow so that we may know joy." In the middle of the storm, as a gypsy caravan has stopped outside, sexy gypsy girl Nubi shows up at their door seeking refuge from her cruel master El Moro. The family agrees to take her in and let her stay if she'll do chores around the farm. It's not long before Nubi has begun to bewitch the menfolk, starting with Peter who starts to ignore Lena and sings to his horse of his love for Nubi. Next it's Paul who starts to ignore Irma, fails his exams, and eventually steals Lena's money to buy trinkets for Nubi. Even Josef can't completely resist her charms, as Anna notices and reports back to Maria. Finally as dysfunction threatens to completely tear the Lajos family apart, the gypsy caravan returns, El Moro reclaims his woman, and the family seems to be on the verge of healing.

This melodrama displays many of the problems of early talkies: stagy setups (most every scene takes place in the big family kitchen), overblown acting, awkward enunciating from actors not used to having their voices recorded. Some viewers consider this something of a camp classic, probably due to the histrionics of Myrna Loy (pictured) as Nubi. It's true that Loy goes gleefully over the top with her dialogue ("Me good girl! Nubi do nothing wrong!") and looks sexy as hell in her darkened skin and tousled black hair—she looks like a cross between Elizabeth Taylor and Joan Collins—and she is the main reason to watch the movie, but I'm not sure that camp is the appropriate label, as little else about the movie is campy. The rest of the cast is pretty tamped down compared to Loy. Carroll Nye, as Paul, feels a bit at sea, more mopey than excited by his misbehavior. Loretta Young (Irma) is terribly artificial in her looks and delivery, and it was difficult to work up much sympathy for her—I was actually hoping for a time that Paul would go off with Nubi, though she'd have certainly tired of him quickly. Richard Tucker (Josef), Alice Joyce (Maria) and Harry Cording (Peter) are fine, and ZaSu Pitts as Lena is even better. The storm effect looks a bit like the twister in The Wizard of Oz (this is an MGM movie). There is undistinguished direction from Alexander Korda who would become legendary as a British producer. Favorite line: Josef trying to explain to his wife about why their son is acting strange: “If it isn't love that’s bothering him, it’s sex.” [TCM]

WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR? (1965)

Under the opening credits, we see the torsos of two nearly naked people as they make out very slowly in a bedroom. A little girl carrying a teddy bear looks in from the hallway, is shocked at what she sees, and runs and trips down the stairs, her bear being torn in two in the process. Next disjointed scene: a man in underwear wakes up, a pornographic novel next to him. As he caresses his body, he makes the latest in a series of obscene phone calls to Norah (Juliet Prowse), a young woman who works as a discotheque DJ in Times Square; she hangs up on him. At the small and sparsely decorated club (it looks more like a good-sized suburban living room) we meet her butch lesbian boss Marian (Elaine Stritch), Carlo, a beefy mute bouncer (Daniel J. Travanti), and a young waiter named Larry (Sal Mineo, at right). We see a drunk try to assault Norah get tossed out by Carlo, though he winds up with some knife wounds. This sets up, or adds to, an aura of potential sexual violence, added to even more when Norah calls the cops about the phone caller. Lt. Dave Madden (Jan Murray), whose wife was raped and killed, has focused unhealthily on sex crimes and, despite the presence of his young daughter in his small apartment, spends evenings listening over and over to tapes of police interviews of sex criminals. For a while, we're not sure who the caller is—even the overly intense Madden is a plausible suspect—but when Norah finds a decapitated teddy bear in her apartment one night, we learn that the caller, and the guy in the opening two scenes, is Larry. With both of his parents dead, he is the sole support of his sister, emotionally and psychologically stunted due to witnessing her brother having sex. Norah likes Larry who seems sweet and innocent, though we see him spending many nighttime hours trawling Times Square porn shops and getting upset when his sister Edie starts dressing, as he sees it, like a whore. After the teddy bear incident, Marian offers to stay with Norah, but when Norah mistakes a calming hug for a pass, Marian leaves and is strangled to death on the street by Larry, who thinks she's Norah. The climax involves a rape, a nighttime street chase, and a death. 

Most reviewers point out the lurid tone of this movie, and it is true that one might feel the need for a shower after watching this. But for me, the thing that stands out most is how much time is spent with the camera focused on Sal Mineo's body. The objectification of the female body, the basis of film studies theories of the "male gaze," is baked into the classic Hollywood movie formula, but here the male gaze is aimed at a man. In real life Mineo was a relatively open bisexual and something of a gay icon, but his character here is not presented as gay. Perhaps the director, Joseph Cates (father of Phoebe Cates), assumed that the novelty of seeing a man in tight white underwear, and an even tighter speedo in a pool scene, would help the movie stand out. Even today, a scene with Mineo, in his underwear, masturbating by grinding against a mattress, is a bit shocking. The psychological underpinnings of the movie seem suspect. There is no examination of the trauma suffered by Larry and Edie. It didn't make sense to me that Larry kills Marian when he thinks she is Norah, but doesn't try to kill Norah later when he has the chance. But this is basically pulp fiction, not a realistic case study.

Mineo is very good, convincing both as a sweet buddy to Norah and as a perverted stalker. Prowse and Stritch are equally fine, and though I had my doubts at first about Borscht Belt comic Jan Murray in a straight role, he's OK, though at times I felt as if he was just dying to bust out with a Jewish mother joke or two. Margot Bennett (Edie) was married at the time to Keir Dullea and later married Malcolm McDowell. Daniel J. Travanti (above left) is surprisingly handsome and effective in his small role. There are several location shots of Manhattan streets, the Central Park zoo, and the tawdry Times Square neighborhood that are historically interesting. There isn't much humor here, but I chuckled at a shot of a porn store window which pans across three titles: Sex Crimes in History, Fanny Hill, and a Webster's dictionary. This has the look and feel of a fairly cheap but arty grindhouse movie, but with A-ish level actors—Mineo was an Oscar nominee and Stritch later won Emmys and a Tony. Most reviews use words like lurid, unsavory, sweaty, perverted and kinky, and they all fit, but it’s also interesting and kinkily entertaining. [TCM]

THE FOURTH VICTIM (1971)

The wealthy English playboy Arthur Anderson comes home to find his wife Gladys floating face down, dead in their pool. He and his faithful housekeeper Felicity take her out of the pool and dress her before calling the police (an odd move that seems designed to signal to us something important, but it never comes to fruition except that Felicity lies on the stand to throw any possible suspicion away from her boss). This is the third wife of Anderson's to die an untimely death and the third one who has left him a big chunk of insurance money. He is found innocent (the verdict is accidental barbiturate overdose) but Inspector Dunphy is convinced that he's guilty and will slip up eventually. One night at midnight, Arthur finds a young blonde woman swimming in his pool; she's an American named Julie Spencer and she claims to be a neighbor who assumed the house was empty.  He's taken off guard by her, but she seems to be all sweetness and light, and soon the two are married. But who is that other blonde woman in a cape suspiciously lurking about both Julie's previous house and now Arthur's? On their wedding night, Julie accuses him of murdering Gladys and locks him in the attic. Later, Arthur finds out that Julie has spent time in an asylum after killing her first husband, but when he starts investigating, he finds that Julie has other secrets as well, and when the mysterious blonde woman shows up again, things get even more off-kilter.

This Italian-Spanish thriller is related to the giallo genre, though it doesn’t have the sex or gore or interesting visual style that giallo fans will expect. What it does have is a slow-burn plot that gets nicely twisty in the last 20 minutes. It also has the expected plotholes of a giallo film. The opening, with Arthur and Felicity moving Gladys' body, is not explained. Nor is it explained why she lies on the stand for him. In general, their relationship is inconsistently portrayed. Arthur's past is not gone into at all, except the very little bit that is covered at the trial It seems a minor detail, but we never see how Arthur gets out of the attic on his wedding night. It's not exactly an ugly movie but the settings (interior and exterior) don't stand out. The acting is a bit unbalanced. Michael Craig plays Arthur in a flat, almost affectless style, which does keep his character mysterious, but it also keeps him at a remove from the viewer. Carroll Baker does the opposite, playing Julie in a perky fashion that seems at odds with what we know about her. Still, I liked the two leads, and Miranda Campa as Felicity who seems to be doing what the director, Eugenio Martin, told her to do without worrying about character. Marina Malfati is the skulking blonde who is barely a character at all. So, while it's fairly colorless, a bit sluggish at times, has sloppy writing, and has acting all over the map, the ending is good and I enjoyed this. Pictured are Baker and Craig. [Blu-ray]

GASOLINE ALLEY (1951) / CORKY OF GASOLINE ALLEY (1951)

Gasoline Alley is a comic strip focusing on the Wallets, a suburban family consisting of patriarch Walt, his wife Phyllis, and his children Skeezix (a foundling that Walt adopted before he got married), Corky and Judy. It began in 1918 and is still running. It's known partly for its gentle vision of small town America, and also known for letting some of the characters age to some degree. Columbia produced two B-films based on the strip, probably hoping for a 1950s Andy Hardy series which didn't materialize. In the first film, we get a little background about Walt before we catch up to him in the present day. Skeezix (Jimmy Lydon) is married to Nina and runs the Fix-It Shop, an auto repair service. Judy is in high school and still lives at home. Corky (Scotty Beckett, at left) is away at college and surprises his folks by bringing home a new wife, Hope, and breaking the news that he's left college and wants to find a job in town. While living with Mom and Dad, Corky tries a number of what Walt considers to be menial jobs, including as an underwear model, a job which introduces the flirty female model Carol as a possible temptation to Corky. Finally Corky settles into a dishwasher job at a restaurant, but when he discovers that a nearby rundown diner can be leased, he talks the restaurant chef Pudge into quitting with him and revamping the diner. Walt is, again, judgmental about his career, but when Skeezix finds out that Pudge is a former soldier friend, he agrees to put money in the place. Hope joins Corky at work, they clean the place up, rename it Corky's Diner, and it slowly becomes a success. There are, of course, complications. One slimy regular customer flirts with Hope even as Carol re-enters the picture by trying to hang out with Corky. When they're about to lose the diner to investors who want to buy the property and tear the diner down, an customer named Haven, who is interested in developing a parking lot on the diner's property, steps in with some money to save the day.

The second film, despite being named after Corky, is equally concerned with Skeezix's auto shop. While Skeezix was on a long vacation, his business partner started including TV sales and repairs in their advertising, then was called away for National Guard duty, leaving no one at the shop who knows the first thing about televisions. Meanwhile, Hope's black sheep cousin Ellwood shows up. He's friendly but has no visible means of support. Invited by Walt to stay indefinitely, even though Hope warns the family about him, Ellwood proves to be a know-nothing blowhard who manipulates all around him. He lies about being a football star, an engineer, and a restaurant chain manager. Feeling sorry for him, Corky gives him a job at the diner; he promptly manages to blow up an oven. When Ellwood claims to know all about cars and TVs, Skeezix lets him work at the auto shop, but when he uses a fuel "power pill" he's developed to give a car extra power, more explosions and damage occur. He fakes a back injury in order to keep staying at Walt's house, but when Corky and Judy find out, they plan a stunt to get him out once and for all. 

These are cute little B-films and I'm a bit sorry the series didn't continue. Had they been made in the 1940s, they probably would have, but by the 50s, these movies were very much like the family sitcoms people could see for free on television. Scotty Beckett is boyishly appealing and natural as Corky. He was a prolific child actor in the 30s and 40s (he was in many of the Our Gang shorts) but by the late 40s he had gained a reputation as a drinker and carouser, and by 1957 his career was over—he wasn't yet 30—and he died before he hit 40. IMDb has more information about his tragic life. I've always liked him (NANCY GOES TO RIO, A DATE WITH JUDY, and as the sidekick Winky in the Rocky Jones sci-fi TV series) and he's good here as a B-lead. Jimmy Lydon had a long career as a juvenile, and kept acting into the 1980s. He pairs well with Beckett as the more serious but still likable brother. Gordon Jones as Ellwood is a bit too effective; I intensely disliked his character which I guess means Jones did a good acting job, but Ellwood is so obnoxious, I was hoping he would be killed in one of his explosions. Don Beddoe as Walt is almost unlikable in the first movie, as he constantly undercuts Corky's ambitions, and his character is less crucial to the second film. Standouts include Dick Wessel as Pudge, Byron Foulger as Haven, and John Dehner as a participant in Corky's climatic scheme in the second movie. The various wives mostly fade into the background, leaving Virginia Toland as Carol as the femme standout. There’s a shot from the Kirk Alyn Superman serial (also a Columbia production) on TV in a repair shop scene. I'm glad that the YouTube algorithm suggested these to me. Pictured above right are Beckett and Lydon. [YouTube]

HERCULES THE INVINCIBLE (1964)

Roaming through the countryside as he is wont to do, the bare-chested Hercules saves Telca from attack by a (rather tired-looking) lion. It turns out that Telca is the daughter of King Tedeo. The king offers Telca as a wife to Hercules if he will destroy the dreaded dragon of the mountains and bring back one of its teeth, which will become a magical amulet, though its power can only be used once. Hercules kills the dragon but when he returns to Telca's tribe, he finds the village in ruins, most of its people, including Telca, carted off by the warriors of the underground city of Deimos. (Hint as to the film’s climax: Deimos is underneath a volcano.) Babar, a comic relief doofus sidekick, tells Hercules that the Deimosians engage in human sacrifice, drinking the blood and eating the flesh of their victims in order to retain their strength and bravery (and for the women, beauty). They have a wicked and ruthless queen, Ella, who relies on her military leader Kabol for advice. Melissa, Kabol's daughter, resents Ella for usurping what she thinks should be her position, and for a while, it seems like she will be an ally to the captured Telca. Soon Hercules is captured and sentenced to be pulled to death between two elephants, but he withstands the torture and even saves the life of Ella when the elephants go on a rampage. Herc becomes an object of lust for Ella, but Melissa soon kills Ella, blames Telca, and basically takes the throne for herself, with Telca to be bled slowly to death. Herc discovers a way to set off the volcano, leading to a big free-for-all fight as lava flows (looking like strawberry jam the consistency of blood) threaten everyone. 

Very often, the effectiveness of the strongman hero is what determines the effectiveness of a peplum movie. Dan Vadis, as Hercules, pictured, has a decent build and does sweating and straining pretty well, especially in the elephant scene, but he has a flat frat boy face and a wispy Amish-looking beard that is several shades lighter than the hair on his head—he looks a bit better without the beard in THE TRIUMPH OF HERCULES made the same year. Though Vadis appeared in several sword-and-sandal films in the 60s, I would place him in the second tier of shirtless hero stars. This movie's bland title works against it; Hercules vs. the Cannibal Women would have been more exciting and actually accurate. Overall, it feels like everyone involved was working at half-speed. The storyline involving the flesh-eating and blood-drinking people of Deimos had lots of potential, but it's not developed much at all. Ken Clark, a tall, blonde, fuzzy, often shirtless hunk who is normally an asset in European films of the 1960s, plays Kabol with dark hair, a Fu Manchu mustache, and fully clothed, and he has little to do—such a disappointment. Jon Simons is completely ineffectual as Babar. The trio of main female characters are not bad but only Carla Calo as Ella stands out. Speaking of which, it's a bit weird to have characters named Ella and Melissa in ancient times, though I assume that this is the fault of the English dub. In the States, this went directly to television (as Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness) in the Sons of Hercules series. Best experienced on a lazy summer day with beer and pretzels. [YouTube]

BOMBAY CLIPPER (1941)

In Bombay (current day Mumbai), roaming reporter Jim Montgomery (William Gargan) is excited to get back to the hotel room of his fiancée Frankie (Irene Hervey), but she's pissed off that he has stood her up twice and she's planning on going back to San Francisco by herself. Jim arranges with his boss to take a desk job back in the States in exchange for following one more story: track a package of diamonds belonging to a maharajah that is secretly being taken out of India to Manila on the Bombay Clipper, a passenger plane which is laid out like a train, with overnight compartments and a lounge area. We discover that the jewels are being sent as a gift to Great Britain to be used in the war effort, but there may be spies on the plane (i.e., Nazis) trying to intercept them for their own nefarious use. Among several others on the plane: the Landers, a pleasant married couple; Mrs. MacPherson, a jolly older Scottish lady; Tom Hare, a disgraced pilot accused of cowardice in a newspaper story written by Jim; Capt. Chundra, the possibly sinister radio officer whom we saw earlier attack Jim in his hotel room; a steward named Paul; and George Lewis, the courier with the jewels. The jewels are stolen by an armed man named Lamb, and Paul shoots him dead. For safe keeping, Jim puts the jewels on Lamb's body which, when they land for a stop in Singapore, winds up in a morgue, and negotiates with Lewis for an exclusive story when they get to Manila. The passengers are all questioned by the police and put up for the night in a hotel. Lewis, who has obtained the jewels, drinks poisoned coffee and dies, but manages to slip Jim the jewels. Then it's on to Manila as the bad guys get down to business, with Jim at one point shoved out of the plane and saved by Chundra, who it turns out is an agent for the Indian government. Finally, the bad guys hijack the plane and Jim enlists Tom, the disgraced pilot, to help. At not quite one hour, this little B-spy film is diverting enough, though one might wish for a tighter script—there are loopholes and unexplained bits. The movie's action is limited to a couple of hotels and the fairly spacious plane, giving it the feel of a train movie. Gargan is his usual spunky and irreverent B-hero self, and though Hervey plays second fiddle, she's fine. The good supporting cast includes future star Maria Montez as Mrs. Landers, Mary Gordon (Mrs. Hudson in the Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies) as the Scot, Turhan Bey as Chundra, Phillip Trent as Hare and Lloyd Corrigan as Lewis. The cinematographer, Stanley Cortez, was later nominated for two Oscars. Pictured are Gargan and Trent. [YouTube]

MYSTERIOUS DOCTOR SATAN (1940 serial)

At night, a noted criminologist is shot dead on a city street as he arrives to visit Governor Bronson with information about the mysterious Doctor Satan, the man behind a major crime wave. Later that night, Bob Wayne visits Bronson who had been his guardian and mentor. For the first time, Bronson tells Wayne the story of his late father, a cowboy named Smith who became a masked vigilante called the Copperhead; he wore a chain mail hood and fought against criminals who had slipped through the justice system (pictured at left). Bronson gives him the Copperhead mask, and moments after Bob leaves, a man named Corbet arrives with a threatening note for Bronson. The note bursts into flames and Corbet shoots the governor dead. Bob reenters the office and kicks Corbet's ass as the police arrive, with reporters Speed Martin and Lois Scott. They discover that Corbet is wearing a device strapped to his chest (a "control disc") that allows Dr. Satan to see his every move and communicate with him. It also allows Satan to electrocute Corbet before he can tell all. What we discover by the end of the first chapter is that Dr. Satan is constructing an army of robots, but needs a new remote control cell that has been invented by Lois Scott's father, an inventor. For the serial's fifteen chapters, the narrative throughline involves Satan forcing Prof. Scott to make new remote control cells to install in a large robot that will do Satan's bidding, with Bob (as himself and as The Copperhead) and Speed and Lois—and occasionally Prof. Scott's spunky secretary Alice—hot on his trail. 

Film historians often point to this as a turning point in the development of the serial. With a few exceptions, notably 1936's Flash Gordon, most serials to this point were straightforward westerns or adventures. Here, something of a superhero element came into play. The script, for Republic Pictures, was begun as a Superman serial but when Republic lost the rights, it was turned into a masked hero story with echoes of Batman, whose first stories were published just six months before this serial began filming. The hero's last name, Wayne, is the same as Batman's Bruce and his first name may have been inspired by Bob Kane, the creator of Batman (whereas it's possible that reporter Lois' name was a leftover from Superman's Lois Lane). It’s not completely clear to me why Bob feels the need to have two identities since he doesn't change clothes (just takes off his jacket) and doesn't try to hide his voice. The mask does eventually strike fear, or at least discomfort, in the heart of Dr. Satan's thugs. In the serial’s final minutes, Bob reveals to his friends that he is The Copperhead, though there is no indication that he intends to continue in his life of crimefighting—we never find out what it is that Wayne does for a living.

There are several elements here that put this serial a notch above average. The villain actually is physically involved in the events that play out (kidnappings, car chases, fist fights) instead of just wearing a sparkly robe and giving out orders from a hidden location, though he still does plenty of controlling and observing from afar. There is a wide range of situations and cliffhangers on varied sets—sometimes in rooms, sometimes outside, once in an underwater diving chamber, in cars and trucks, and in secret passages. There is even a room with walls that push together, as used in Star Wars. The best cliffhanger plays out on the tall scaffolding of an oil refinery, bringing to mind the climax of White Heat. Speed gets a control disc strapped to him; if he tries to take it off, he'll blow up, and a clever if wildly far-fetched solution occurs to Bob. The robot is clunky but fairly effective. It can crush people to death in its dangly arms, though it’s fairly slow moving and I kept wondering why people didn’t just dart past it. Nicknamed the water heater robot by some critics, you can see it again (sometimes in the exact same footage) in other Republic serials such as Zombies of the Stratosphere.

Busy character actor Eduardo Ciannelli gets rare top billing here as Doctor Satan (no other name is ever given for the character) and he's good if a bit one-note in his mustache-twirling (metaphorically) villainy. Robert Wilcox (pictured at right) is a bit problematic as Bob Wayne. He's handsome and often broody looking, which works, but he also tends to deliver his lines in a flat tone as though he's trying hard to remember them. After the first chapter, he doesn't get to develop much of a character beyond his single-minded but low-energy drive to avenge Bronson. (Remember him? He’s rarely brought up again.) In her scenes as Lois, Ella Neal looks like an amateur desperately trying to please the directors, the prolific team of William Witney and John English. Alice, who comes and goes, is played in her only movie appearance by Dorothy Herbert who was a stunt horsewoman in rodeos; her biggest scene here involves an escape on a horse which is quite impressive. William Newell as Speed has a goofy comic-relief face but is usually serious and on task. Charles Trowbridge, always a welcome face in 1940's films, is Bronson and sadly only in the first chapter. The stunt work is always dynamic, making the fisticuff scenes in each chapter something to look forward to. Two fairly famous stuntmen appear with their faces hidden: Dave Sharpe is the hooded Copperhead during stunt scenes, and Tom Steele is the robot (he's also briefly seen as a henchman). At 15 chapters and four and a half hours, this is one of the longer serials, but watched over the period of several days, it held my interest, and the last chapter is particularly good with a well shot climax in which Satan gets his punishment. There is a 100 minute condensed version made for 1960s television called Doctor Satan's Robot, but so much material is missing and the editing is so choppy that I don’t recommend it. [Blu-ray]

THE WALLS CAME TUMBLING DOWN (1946)

Father Walsh has been troubled about an affair involving two antique Bibles and a rare da Vinci painting called The Walls of Jericho. He calls Manhattan newspaper columnist Gilbert Archer, an old friend, for advice, but when Archer arrives at the church, he finds Walsh’s sister Catherine in tears as she has just found Walsh dead in the rectory, apparently having hung himself. Archer is sure that he would not have killed himself and as the police investigate, so does Archer. The first suspicious figure is Patricia Foster who had claimed she was supposed to meet with Walsh that night to pass along greetings from old friends in San Francisco, but Archer soon catches her in a lie and she is revealed to be Laura Browning who has a family tie to the da Vinci painting. Other interested parties include Bishop Martin, who knew that Walsh was troubled; the Stokers, a married couple who are interested in the two Bibles; and Helms, a book collector. It turns out the Bibles are supposed to have clues as to the whereabouts of the painting. Another murder complicates things, as does a romantic attraction between Archer and Laura. The exhumation of a long-dead body provides a final push toward the solution to the death of Walsh. This is a solid low-key murder mystery with a good B-movie cast. The story is easy to follow and the pace is quick, with Lee Bowman providing a nice light touch as Archer; the character is likable and competent, and it's too bad that other Gilbert Archer movies didn't follow. Marguerite Chapman (Laura) is fairly bland, upstaged by old pro supporting players like George Macready, Lee Patrick, J. Edward Bromberg, Miles Mander, Edgar Buchanan, and Jonathan Hale. At least one online critic compares Bowman unfavorably to Bogart as Sam Spade, but that's hardly a valid point; Archer is nothing like Spade, even though Lee Patrick, who played Bogie's secretary in MALTESE FALCON also plays Bowman's secretary (and, of course, Archer's name is the same as Spade's dead partner). I enjoyed this as a rare example of a 40s mystery that makes no stab at all at trying to be a film noir. Pictured are Buchanan and Bowman. [YouTube/DVD]

UNTAMED YOUTH (1957)

Near a small town in Texas, young sisters Penny (Mamie Van Doren) and Jane (Lori Nelson), who are hitchhiking their way to Los Angeles with dreams of becoming famous singers, are caught skinny-dipping in a river by Sheriff Mitch and arrested, for that and for being vagrants. Cecilia, the local judge, offers them and other juvenile offenders the opportunity to pick cotton for a month at a local farm run by Russ Tropp. They’re paid for their work and they get to rock and roll in the evening in their barracks, with songs provided by Penny and by a guitarist named Bong (the rock singer Eddie Cochran). We soon discover that the judge is secretly married to Tropp, hence this arrangement, and during a labor shortage, he gets away with having cheap juvenile workers (cheaper even than migrants), making the kids work hours in the hot sun, giving them shabby living conditions, and not conducting required medical checks. We also see that Tropp has a live-in mistress, Lilibet, but when she displeases him, he boots her out to pick cotton. When the judge’s son Bob arrives home from his Army service, Tropp gives him a job, and soon Bob is flirting with Jane and, at the instigation of Penny and Lilibet, digging into Tropp's dastardly ways. Bob discovers that Tropp has been feeding the kids dog food on occasion, and one day, a sickly girl named Baby faints in the sun. Bob, ignoring Tropp's orders, takes her to the hospital where she dies and it's discovered that she was five months pregnant. Tropp offers to get Penny an audition at a local TV station, but he wants sexual favors in return which Penny won't deliver. Eventually Jane and Bob both tell the judge what's going on. Will she do the right thing and put an end to Tropp's misdeeds or will lust blind her to the situation?

In the realm of sexy teenage melodramas of the 1950s, this is OK. Mamie plays Mamie here and that's not all bad. She's got skimpy clothes, attitude in spades, and her songs are not unpleasant—one has a verse that goes, "You’re as slimy as a salamander." In another, she sings, "I get the jiggles / Everything wiggles!" Lori Nelson, as the more innocent sister, sort of fades into the background but manages to pep up when called upon to in the last third of the film. Eddie Cochran, who had a top 10 hit, "Summertime Blues" (a song most of us know now from the The Who's cover in the 70s), was killed in a car crash in 1960. His one song, "Cottonpicker," is fun, done as a mini-production number out in the fields. The very busy Lurene Tuttle (with almost 200 acting credits on IMDB, including playing the sheriff's wife in Psycho) is adequate as Judge Cecilia, though the way she ignores the goings-on in her courtroom when her son comes bouncing in is very unprofessional (and maybe indicates some mother-son issues?). Though it's hard to take your eyes off of Mamie, I was pleasantly distracted by the two darned good-looking male leads. John Russell (Tropp) has an intense and sexy gaze, making Cecila's interest understandable despite his sleazy behavior. Don Burnett (Bob) is young and handsome and charismatic but didn't have a long career—I know him from DAMON AND PYTHIAS. His character is a little slow on the uptake but is properly heroic in the end. The score by the prolific Les Baxter is appropriately loud and sexy. Jered Barclay is amusing as an aloof beatnik; in one scene, a dancing girl brushes her head against his hand and he's careful to wipe his hand on his shirt afterward. I liked this movie, but I can only recommend it to Mamie fans, or fans of 50s teenage camp, or, ya know, fans of handsome B-movie actors. At top right, Russell and Van Doren; at left, Burnett and Nelson. [YouTube]

THE INDIAN TOMB (1921)

Prince Ayan, the Majarajah of Eschnapur in India, unearths and awakens the buried yogi Ramigami, who is in a deliberate trance-like state of near death, to do his bidding. He wants to commission a British architect, Herbert Rowland, to build a magnificent tomb, "the tomb of a great love," he says, to compare with the Taj Mahal. Ramagami can transport himself across time and space in an instant, and so appears in Herbert's living room and convinces him to travel to India to take on the project. Herbert leaves a letter telling his fiancée Irene where he's gone, but some time later, the disembodied hand of the yogi appears in the room and takes the letter. Still, Irene manages to piece together where he's gone and goes after him. In Eschnapur, the prince is courtly but a bit mysterious, and we soon get some backstory that Herbert doesn't learn until later: the Princess Savitri is not yet dead. Ayan caught her having an affair with a British officer and has imprisoned her and plans on using the tomb to bury her alive, even as his soldiers are out hunting for her lover, MacAllen. Irene arrives but worried her presence will distract Herbert, Ayan doesn't let them meet. Other complications arise—Ramigami, though forced to help the prince, warns him that nothing good will come of his revenge plans; Savitri's loyal servant Mirrjha gets involved asking Herbert for help; the prince is impressed by Irene's selfless love for Herbert and seems to be attracted to her; MacAllen hides in a hut which soldiers set on fire, but manages to escape; Herbert wanders into the Pit of Penitents, actually a prison for lepers, and contracts leprosy himself. At this point, we’re only halfway through the four-hour movie and, though the pace does slow considerably, there is still plenty of action left before the climax, a chase which ends on a rope bridge over a deep gorge.

This silent movie, directed by Joe May from a screenplay by Fritz Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou (based on a novel she wrote the year before), is the first of three German films based on this material. All three movies are roughly four hours long and were presented in their original runs as two separate films, released a month or so apart. I haven’t seen the 1938 version, but Fritz Lang’s 1959 remake deviates from the core material in several ways, primarily by making the architect the princess's lover. The silent version gives the Ramigami character supernatural powers, putting the movie fully into the fantasy genre. This isn't as much fun as the Lang film, but it is spectacularly made with huge sets, elaborate costumes, romance, hissable villainy, and, allowing for the silent era acting, good performances. Three leading men take the honors. Conrad Veidt (Major Strasser in Casablanca), at top right, is utterly compelling as the prince, coming off as a good and civilized man twisted by jealousy. Bernhard Goetzke is just as good as Ramigami, an interesting character who doesn't get as much screen time as Veidt but is almost as memorable. Paul Richter, later to play the heroic Seigfrid in Lang's epic film Die Nibelungen, pictured at left, gets short shrift as MacAllen, but has a couple of good scenes. I’m shallow enough to wish that Herbert and Irene had been played by younger prettier people. Olaf Fonss and Mia May are OK as Herbert and Irene; both engage in silent movie overacting, but both are energetic enough in action scenes. Lya De Putti (namechecked by Sally Bowles in Cabaret) is sexy as the doomed servant, and Erna Morena has little to do as the princess.

Among the interesting setpieces: two scenes set in a tiger pit, one of which features tigers munching on a dead body; a dance that ends in death by snake bite; the creepy leper pit featuring a man hanging upside down and another one buried to his neck in the dirt floor—the lepers are called penitents so I assume that their disease is thought to caused by sinfulness. The large sets are effective, and the costumes are occasionally dazzling, especially one with a very elaborate headdress worn by Veidt. At four hours, both halves could have been trimmed but still, I quite enjoyed both this and the Lang version. The Blu-ray from Kino has a largely ineffective minimalist score, seemingly composed of blocks of music dropped into sequences without much regard to appropriateness, but the print looks good. Just before I watched this, I read the novel, newly translated into English just a few years ago. Given the long movies made from it, it's fairly short, basically providing seed material for the filmmakers, and the ending is ridiculous, like Von Harbou hit a deadline and stopped. I don’t recommend the book but I do highly recommend both the 1921 and the 1959 films. [Blu-ray]

THE TIGER OF ESCHNAPUR / THE INDIAN TOMB (1959)

Originally released as separate films, these two Fritz Lang works are actually one long narrative which has been unofficially referred to as Fritz Lang’s Indian Epic. Put together, it feels like a 3-1/2 hour serial, which is meant as a compliment. German architect Harald Berger has come to the Indian kingdom of Eschnapur at the behest of Maharajah Chandra to build schools and hospitals and make improvements to his palace. En route, Berger saves a servant girl from harassment and is thanked by her mistress, the lovely dancing girl Seetha, who is headed to the palace to become a temple dancer for Chandra. The next day, Berger saves Seetha from an attacking tiger and the two form a bond which grows into a romance. Her origins are supposedly “obscure and shadowy,” but when she recognizes an old Irish folk song that Berger sings, she realizes that she is indeed half-European on her father's side. The situation at the palace is fraught. Chandra’s wife died and he has sent for Seetha as a possible replacement, angering the dead maharani’s brother, Padhu. Meanwhile, Chandra’s brother Ramigani has been plotting to overthrow Chandra and gets Padhu on his side, hoping the people will rebel if Chandra picks a commoner to be his bride. We meet Asagara, an Indian engineer who is assigned to assist Berger and who will, as sides in the conflict develop, be torn between loyalty to Chandra and being a friend to Berger. Irene, Berger’s sister, and her engineer husband Walter are on their way to assist Berger. After performing a remarkably sexy temple dance, Chandra puts Seetha up in the palace and asks for her hand. She claims to feel like a bird in a gilded cage, like the real one in her room, but the civilized Chandra insists he has no wish to force her into a quick decision, saying “haste is a European vice.” Padhu kidnaps Seetha and plans to rape her, but Chandra saves her. Now both Chandra and Berger have been her rescuers and she feels beholden to both. After escaping a tiger in an arena, Berger and Seetha go on the run with Chandra’s men racing after them. A final title card says, “For the miraculous rescue of the lovers, see the sequel.”

You can see the serial story beats in the above summary. and I didn’t even mention the fakir rope trick act which ends with the death of Seetha’s servant girl. TIGER is paced quickly, but the second film slows things down a bit. The action largely shifts to Irene and Walter who arrive in Eschnapur and slowly suspect that Chandra’s story of Berger being off on a hunting trip is hiding something sinister. Chandra tells Walter he is to oversee the construction of a magnificent tomb for his dead love, which turns out not to be the late maharani but Seetha who will be entombed alive. Ramigani and Padhu collaborate on fomenting an uprising, with the high priest Yama brought in on the plans, though he may be a wild card. Berger spends much of the second film out of commission and Irene becomes a focus of the story. It isn’t really a spoiler to note that in the end, Berger and Seetha wind up together, but Chandra, who has been presented as somewhat sympathetic throughout, gets his own unexpected and rather moving redemption. 

Many devout Fritz Lang fans dismiss this film as empty campy spectacle without the interesting visuals and themes that are present in his more well-known films. Other fans interpret the story as being about ethnic identity, tradition, and colonialism. However, taken on its own terms, this is a very entertaining adventure. It’s quite colorful and the interior sets are spectacular; most of the exteriors were shot on location in Udaipur in India. The most talked-about scenes are two dances by Seetha (Debra Paget); the one in THE INDIAN TOMB, which involves a dangerous snake, is incredibly sexy with Paget practically naked, and in both, we can see the male viewers becoming uncomfortably aroused. Paget, probably known more for her looks than her acting, is quite good and basically carries the movie. She upstages Paul Hubschmid (aka Paul Christian) who is fine as the hero, if not as physically commanding as a typical action hero of the era. Walther Reyer is very good as Chandra at expressing his inner conflict—he likes Berger and respects him for saving Seetha from the tiger, but he’s also a royal ruler and is used to getting his way. The special effects involving the tigers and the snake are cheap and artificial but we suspend our disbelief. The original 1921 silent version, co-written by Lang but not directed by him, is on deck for watching next and is apparently more faithful to the novel written by Lang’s wife at the time, Thea von Harbou, which is on my bedstand. Highly recommended, but avoid the American version, Journey to the Lost City, which cuts the two films down to 90 minutes and, of course, is dubbed. Pictured top right are Paget and Hubschmid; at left is Paget dancing. [Blu-ray]