PERRY MASON: THE CASE OF THE GRINNING GORILLA

Raymond Burr with special guest-star

PERRY MASON: THE CASE OF THE GRINNING GORILLA. Season 8, episode 28. 1965. Director: Jesse Hibbs.  

Now here's a weird one. Della Street (Barbara Hale) buys the diary at auction of a woman -- the secretary of an eccentric millionaire who keeps various kinds of apes in his home -- who died while at sea during a storm. Della wants her boss, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr), to somehow get involved, but he winds up giving advice to Josephine Kempton (Lurene Tuttle), a housekeeper who is suing her former employer -- said millionaire -- for slander after he fired her for stealing. Perry is able to find out who actually stole the items in dispute, but has to defend the peppery and difficult Miss Kempton when she's accused of murder. Did she stab somebody with scissors or was it the "grinning gorilla?"

Perry confers with his client, Lurene Tuttle

Jackson Gillis' script for this twisty and entertaining episode has some strange elements, foremost being that Perry and Della occasionally act out of character. I mean, Della has tripped over plenty of dead bodies accompanying Perry, so it seems strange for her to get hysterical when she sees a gorilla far in the distance, or to worry unduly about Perry going into the millionaire's mansion to meet Josephine. Perry seems very impatient with his secretary throughout most of the episode as well. However, Lurene Tuttle of Psycho fame gives an excellent performance in this, and we've also got Gavin MacLeod from the Mary Tyler Moore Show and Victor Buono from What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, along with Robert Colbert as a DA and Janos Prohaska as a gorilla. Yes, Perry faces a gorilla-on-the-loose at one point!

Suspects in Grinning Gorilla

There have been better episodes of Perry Mason than Grinning Gorilla, but it is fun and suspenseful and has some clever twists. Perry does not appear in a courtroom at all in this episode, and the whole business is resolved before there even is a trial, something that did not happen too often on the show. Raymond Burr appeared in more than one gorilla-oriented movie, such as Gorilla at Large with Anne Bancroft and Bride of the Gorilla with Barbara Payton, but he was also in such classics as Hitchcock's Rear Window. 

Verdict: Perry has more than one encounter with an adorable chimp! ***

PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES

Angel Aranda and Barry Sullivan

PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES (aka Terrore nello spazio/1965). Director: Mario Bava.

Two spaceships, the Argos and the Galleon, led respectively by Mark (Barry Sullivan of Pyro) and his brother, Toby (Alberto Cevenini), respond to a distress signal from an isolated planet. When the Argos lands, the crew members inexplicably begin attacking each other, and the crew of the Galleon, which already landed, are eventually found dead. Regaining control of their minds, Mark, crewmembers Wes (Angel Aranda), Sonya (Norma Bengell), Tiona ((Evi Marandi), and others, are baffled and terrified when some of the dead appear to them, seemingly alive. Something on this planet is a decided enemy of theirs ...

Trapped with the giant alien skeleton

The highly influential Planet of the Vampires is as colorful and entertaining as an E.C. sci fi comic book of the fifties. Perhaps the best scene has Mark and Sonya trapped inside an alien spaceship -- which also responded to a distress call centuries ago -- inside which is the skeleton of a creature three times their size. Something starts sucking the air out of the chamber as the two try desperately to find a way out. But their true enemy is more or less invisible and that much more dangerous. 

the crew of the Argos

Planet of the Vampires, along with It, the Terror from Beyond Space,  undoubtedly stirred the imaginations of the creators of Alien. The similarities are numerous: in both films the protagonists respond to a distress signal; the shape of the spaceships, including orifice-like exits; the derelict spaceship and the huge alien skeleton found inside. One could argue that its sequences in which colleagues and loved ones come back from the dead are reminiscent of the later Night of the Living Dead, as well. 

Angel Aranda

Director Mario Bava cleverly expands a small budget with his trademark attractive, even garish color schemes, the use of shadows and fog, and camera angles that add to the eerie atmosphere. The spacemen wear black leather outfits that come off as perhaps a little too stylish. Barry Sullivan, whose real voice is heard in this Italian production, is professional although the role is not really a good fit for him. He shows little reaction when he finds out his brother is dead -- or "alive." The other actors all seem adept. Angel Aranda reminds one of Mark Damon of House of Usher. The downbeat "surprise" ending is also typical of fifties sci fi comics. 

Verdict: Very interesting sixties science fiction. ***. 

LIBIDO

Giancarlo Giannini in his screen debut

LIBIDO (1965). Directed by Julian Berry Storff (Ernesto Gastaldi and Vittorio Salerno). 

As a young boy, Christian came across a mirrored room where his father brutalized and murdered women. Now an adult, Christian (Giancarlo Giannini of Black Belly of the Tarantula) returns to his father's beautiful mansion  after the man's death with his wife, Helene (Dominique Boschero), estate trustee Paul (Luciano Pigozzi), and Paul's dizzy blond wife, Brigitte (Mara Maryl). Christian has three months before he will come into complete control of his father's assets, but for now Paul is in charge. Christian is terribly afraid that he has inherited his father's malevolent tendencies, or that one or more of the others are conspiring against him. He also is afraid that his father may still be alive ... 

Dominique Boschero and Mara Maryl

With a wonderful location and some interesting actors -- Giannini in his first picture (in the lead role no less) is especially compelling -- Libido should have emerged a memorable picture but despite a (not entirely unexpected) final twist, it is a real disappointment. The movie is too slow to be suspenseful and we're kept in the dark about much of the back story. On the plus side it has to be said that the movie is unpredictable and the dubbing job is first-class. With his excellent performance in this, it is no surprise that Giannini eventually became an internationally famous actor.

Verdict: Any movie that begins with a quote from Sigmund Freud can't be all bad -- or that good! **1/4. 

THE MONEY TRAP

Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford

THE MONEY TRAP (1965). Director: Burt Kennedy. 

Cop Joe Baron (Glenn Ford) is married to Lisa (Elke Sommer), and they have serious money troubles. When Dr. Horace Van Tilden (Joseph Cotten) shoots a burglar in his house, it turns out that the burglar's wife is Baron's old girlfriend, Rosalie (Rita Hayworth). Then there's Baron's partner, Pete (Ricardo Montalban), who would also like to get his hands on some green. I won't give away any of the twists or plot developments because that's about all this picture has going for it. Despite the gun play, love scenes, and so on, this is remarkably dull. Elke Sommer is as inadequate as ever, but the rest of the cast, especially Hayworth, is fine. This just never really comes to life. 

Verdict: A waste of money. *1/2.

TEN LITTLE INDIANS (1965)

Hugh O'Brian and Shirley Eaton

TEN LITTLE INDIANS (1965). Director: George Pollock. 

Ten people, including two servants, are given invitations to work or play at an isolated estate located high atop a mountain and accessible only by cable car. They discover the strange nursery rhyme about "ten little Indians" in each of their rooms The mysterious voice (Christopher Lee) of their unseen host declares that they have each gotten away with killing someone, and now it is time to pay the piper. The first to go is singer Mike Raven (Fabian), who ran over two people and barely got a slap on the wrist -- he dies by arsenic -- and then more murders occur, somehow each corresponding to the method of death mentioned in the rhyme. Will anyone be left alive? 

Leon Genn and most of the group

George Pollock had previously directed four Agatha Christie "Miss Marple" adaptations, and he does a good job adapting her "And Then There Were None/Ten Little Indians" to the screen. While I might have preferred a little more tension, this is not quite as "cutesy" -- for lack of a better word -- as the forties film And Then There Were None. Hugh O'Brian pretty much smirks his way through the movie, as if he were above it all (which he isn't), but his performance is adequate, although the other cast members are more on target. Stanley Holloway, Shirley Eaton, Dennis Price, Leo Genn, and Mario Adorf (as the houseman) deliver adept performances, while Fabian gets an "A" for effort and Wilfrid Hyde White seems to think he's back in that forties adaptation and can best be described as annoyingly impish. Surprisingly Daliah Lavi has a very good turn as the high-maintenance actress Ilona Bergen, and comes through in her scene when she admits all about her past. As the cook and housekeeper Marianne Hoppe is, perhaps, a bit too hysterical. 

Dennis Price and Wilfrid Hyde White

This version transplants the story from an island to a mountaintop and two of the murders center on falls from great heights, one in a cable car whose cable snaps, and the other while a character attempts a climb down the mountain to get help; these are well-handled, and the film has genuine suspense. O'Brian and Eaton are given a love scene that seems a bit out of place. Malcolm Lockyer's jazzy score does little for the picture, but the lensing is sharp thanks to cinematographer Ernest Stewart. This was George Pollock's last theatrical feature. 

Verdict: Very entertaining Christie picture with some fine performances. ***, 

SPY IN YOUR EYE

Dana Andrews

SPY IN YOUR EYE (aka Berlino appuntamento per le spie/1965). Director: Vittorio Sala.

Colonel Lancaster (Dana Andrews) assigns two of his men --  Bert Morris (Brett Halsey) and Willie (Mario Valdemarin) -- to rescue Paula Krauss (Pier Angeli), the daughter of a deceased scientist who has invented a "super death ray." Both the Russians and Chinese want Paula in the hopes that she knows her father's secret formula. As the woman is shuttled back and forth from spy to spy and country to country, Colonel Lancaster has his missing left eye surgically replaced with a micro-telecamera that looks like a human eye. Lancaster thinks that only he can see out of his mechanical eye and doesn't realize that enemy agents are seeing and hearing everything that he does, and therefore have full knowledge of his agents' plans. 

Brett Halsey

This last aspect of the story is really the only point of interest in the movie, but little is done with it. Because Dana Andrews was still a name, and Brett Halsey a recognizable "B" actor, American filmgoers were fooled by a major ad campaign and saturation bookings into thinking they were seeing some kind of James Bond-type adventure. Instead they got a mediocre eurospy film  Aside from the fake eye, the movie is pretty low-tech, with Bert using special dehydration pills to get two bad guys to talk, and another bad guy employing a supposedly devastating weapon to shoot down a bird. 

Consultation: Halsey and Andrews

There is some mild excitement at the climax, in which the walls of a clinic move back and forth, creating new rooms to fool secret agents, a femme fatale is crushed, and the heroes and villains shoot it out amidst the melee.  The real voices of Halsey [Return of the Fly] and Andrews [Night of the Demon] are used, while the Italian actors are generally dubbed. Both actors had many, many more credits after this film was released, although this was not one of the better films that either performer appeared in. 

Verdict: Better than some eurospy movies but not great. **1/4. 

THE VIOLIN CASE MURDERS

Sylvia Pascal and George Nader

THE VIOLIN CASE MURDERS (aka Schüsse aus dem Geigenkasten/1965). Director: Fritz Umgelter. 

FBI agent Jerry Cotton (George Nader) is called in, along with his partner, Phil Decker (Heinz Weiss), by their boss, Mr. High (Richard Munch) to investigate what becomes known as the "Bowling Gang,' due to the location of their hide-out. The gang seems to be run by Christallo (Hands E. Schons) but he takes his orders from the nasty Dr. Kilborne (Franz Rudnick). These fellows, including a man named Percy (Helmut Fornbacher), carry weapons in violin cases (like something out of the forties) and think nothing of murdering without mercy anyone who gets in their way. Pretending to be a drunk who witnessed the group's activities and wants to join up, Jerry infiltrates the gang and discovers that they plan to blow up a school to create a distraction for their latest caper. 

Jerry and Percy (Helmut Fornbacher) after a fight

"Jerry Cotton" was a character as popular in Germany and Finland as James Bond was in the US or UK. He appeared in a huge series of novels over many decades, written by a variety of authors. When it was decided to make a film of his exploits, an American actor was chosen to play the U.S. agent, and many sequences were filmed on American locations, such as New York City, where that bowling alley HQ is located. George Nader, who had previously played the insurance investigator on the TV show Shannon, is fine as Jerry, and there are a host of excellent German supporting actors. Sylvia Pascal is cast as Christallo's girlfriend, and Heidi Luplot is her ill-fated sister, Mary. Nader uses his real voice in this English version while the other actors are dubbed.

Nader with Heinz Weiss

The Violin Case Murders is a treat, a fast-paced, very well-directed, and skillfully edited action-suspense film with some taut and beautifully choreographed fight scenes. There's also a clever bit with the bad guys using rolling oil cans, set on fire, to try and trap Phil Decker. One problem with the movie, however, is the music with its martial Jerry Cotton theme (which Jerry even whistles at one point) and jazzy carnival-like rifts that threaten to dissipate the exciting atmosphere at any moment. One can imagine how good this might have been with a different, more suspenseful score. Nader appeared in several more Jerry Cotton movies. 

Verdict: Despite the music, this plays. ***.  

THE SATAN BUG

George Maharis and Anne Francis

THE SATAN BUG (1965). Director: John Sturges.

Lee Barrett (George Maharis of Sylvia) is called in when several vials are stolen from a government lab. Some of these vials contain a deadly virus that can cause many deaths but will eventually die out itself. But one of the vials contains what scientists have termed "the Satan bug," an airborne, self-perpetuating, basically indestructible virus that can wipe out all of humanity within the space of two months! Barrett learns that a wealthy and mysterious man named Ainsley may be behind the theft after he makes certain demands, but he also fears that this mastermind may have a confederate in the lab. To show he means business Ainsley unleashes the "less" deadly virus on Florida, killing many innocent inhabitants. Now Barrett has to find the flasks and get them away from Ainsley and his associates before the worst can happen.

John Clarke, George Maharis, Simon Oakland

I had wanted to see The Satan Bug for years (although this was probably not the best time to finally take a look at it). It's a strange picture. It has many interesting elements and a few very suspenseful scenes, especially towards the end, but for much of its length the movie just sort of meanders under John Sturge's somewhat stodgy direction and this is its primary problem. The plot of the movie should have had the audience on the edge of its seat biting its nails, but aside from one or two scenes, it never develops that level of tension. George Marahis' role is ill-defined, which is also true of Anne Francis as his sort-of girlfriend and Dana Andrews as her father. The large supporting cast includes everyone from Richard Basehart (who is excellent) as a scientist to Edward Asner as a bad guy to Harry Lauter as a phony FBI agent to James Doohan as a real agent of some kind, and many others.

The film does have its moments. There's a tense business when Barrett enters a lab with a mouse with the realization that if the little creature dies he will have to be shot moments later to protect everyone else. There's the black and white footage the characters watch as a helicopter flies over the corpses all over the ground in Florida. Then there's a wild fight in a careening helicopter. But much of the suspense is minimized by poor pacing and sequences that don't add to the excitement but seem to detract from it. Still, The Satan Bug is undeniably creepy and generally absorbing. Sturges also directed Jeopardy.  A much better film on a somewhat similar theme is the excellent Andromeda Strain.

Verdict: Just misses being a really top-notch thriller. **3/4. 

BUS RILEY'S BACK IN TOWN

BUS RILEY'S BACK IN TOWN (1965). Director: Harvey Hart. Screenplay by William Inge, writing as "Walter Gage."

Bus Riley (Michael Parks of Kill Bill) has spent three years as a sailor and now has come back to his small town and his family, which consists of his mother (Jocelyn Brando) and two sisters, worshipful Gussie (Kim Darby) and disdainful Paula (Mimsy Farmer of Four Flies on Grey Velvet). Also in the household is a boarder named Carlotta (Brett Somers), who objects to Bus' noisy presence. Bus discovers that his old sweetheart Laurel (Ann-Margret) is married to a wealthy older man, but bored and childish, she won't leave him alone. Bus had planned for a career as an assistant mortician, but that doesn't work out when lonely and middle-aged Spencer (Crahan Denton) -- who runs the funeral parlor with his no-nonsense mother (Ethel Griffies) -- wants Bus to move in with him and all that implies. Bus gets a job selling a house disinfectant device to lonely housewives while dallying with Laurel, but a neighbor girl named Judy (Janet Margolin) also catches his attention, especially after a tragedy in her family. But will Bus have the strength to cut all ties with selfish Laurel?

Michael Parks

Bus Riley's Back in Town started out as a short play by William Inge, who turned it into a screenplay, then was dismayed when changes to the script were made to accommodate Ann-Margret (who later claimed that she didn't care for the changes either). So dissatisfied was Inge that he used the name "Walter Gage" instead of his own. I don't know what the screenplay was like before it was changed, but Bus Riley comes off mostly like warmed-over Inge, with snatches of Picnic and other plays,  For instance, in both movies we've got a widow with two daughters who takes in boarders, one of whom is a neurotic spinster, not to mention a handsome hero who ignites sexual interest in many.

Ann-Margret

As for the actors, most of them are so good that you wish they had been given better material. This includes Brett Somers, whose part seems to have been cut to the bone; Kim Darby, whose feelings for her brother seem to border on the incestuous; Griffies and Denton as mother and son; Alice Pearce as a potential customer; and Janet Margolin in a sensitive turn as Judy, among others. As for Ann-Margaret, her appearance does not really unbalance the movie as some have suggested, and I happen to think that she's excellent in the film. Her sex-kitten mode is completely appropriate for her part, and she runs with it, out-acting Parks, whose James Dean impressions do little to suggest that the chief reason for casting him wasn't his considerable sex appeal. Both he and Ann-Margret are, in a word, voluptuous.

Margolin, Parks and Denton

An interesting aspect to the film is its pre-Stonewall treatment of homosexuality. One could argue that mortician Spencer is almost guilty of a form of harassment when he makes his suggestion to Bus (although he places his hands nowhere besides Bus' knee), but the man comes off as more desperate and pathetic than anything else. Bus doesn't get angry, but he is clearly disillusioned and simply walks out of the room. Later, at a minor character's funeral, he is friendly to Spencer and vice versa but it is, of course, awkward, and he excuses himself quickly. Inge himself was a deeply closeted homosexual man.

Michael Parks

For a time the star build-up certainly worked for Ann-Margret, but Parks' period of movie stardom was very brief, with him returning to television where he started with Then Came Bronson. He managed to amass 145 credits, however, and had a successful career by any standard, although mega-stardom eluded him. As for Bus Riley it got a surprisingly good review from the New York Times at the time of the film's release, but other reviews were mixed. It is probably the weakest of the films inspired by Inge's work. Harvey Hart also directed Dark Intruder.

Verdict: Inge Lite. **1/2. 

BLACK SPURS

Rory Calhoun and Linda Darnell

BLACK SPURS (1965). Director: R. G. Springsteen.

In Texas in 1885 Santee (Rory Calhoun of Night of the Lepus) is engaged to pretty Anna (Terry Moore) but he wants to wait to marry until he's made his fortune. He bids adieu to Anna and sets off to capture or kill the notorious bandit, El Pescadore (Robert Carricart), something he succeeds at. After this Santee becomes a full-time bounty hunter with many kills to his credit. Many. many months later he returns to his lady love only to learn that she has understandably married another, Sheriff Ralph Elkins (James Best) of Lash, Kansas. An embittered Santee decides to help a certain entrepreneur named Gus Kile (Lon Chaney Jr.) bring gambling and loose ladies to Lash no matter who gets hurt, but does the man have a chance at redemption?

Lon Chaney Jr. and Rory Calhoun

Black Spurs certainly has an interesting cast. Although Calhoun mostly shows the emotion of a rock, his co-players tend to be better, and this includes Linda Darnell in a small role as a madame. Darnell is a bit zaftig but not unattractive. She died in a fire before the film was released. Scott Brady plays, of all things, a priest, Richard Arlen owns the local saloon, and Bruce Cabot is an enforcer who zestily throws people out of town with a sneer or a heave. Patricia Owens and Jerome Courtland [Kiss and Tell] play lovers who aren't really married, and there is a brief appearance by pre-Star Trek DeForest Kelley as another sheriff.  Handsome Joseph Hoover has a rare (if small) speaking role as another one of Arlen's associates. Manuel Padilla Jr. [Tarzan and the Valley of Gold[ is cute as the little boy, Manuel, who loves to sing and eventually becomes disenchanted with his hero, Santee.

Black Spurs is by no means a great western but it features a basically sound storyline (albeit probably one that has been used in different variations many, many times over) and has some flavorful performances. Courtland and Owens each had one more theatrical film before doing some TV work; Courtland became a director. Calhoun and Moore had a great many more credits, and the latter is still acting today. Director R. G. Springsteen amassed nearly 100 film and TV credits, mostly working on westerns.

Verdict: Okay western for devotees. **1/2. 

HOW TO MURDER YOUR WIFE

Jack Lemmon and Terry Thomas

HOW TO MURDER YOUR WIFE (1965). Director: Richard Quine.

Confirmed bachelor Stanley Ford (Jack Lemmon), the very successful writer-artist of a popular newspaper strip, Brash Brannigan -- Secret Agent, lives in a fabulous Manhattan townhouse with his devoted butler/houseman Charles (Terry-Thomas of The Vault of Horror). One night at a bachelor party for a friend, Stanley gets drunk and wakes up in the morning married to a stranger (Virna Lisi) who speaks only Italian and turns out to be the gal who jumped out of the cake. With the help of his lawyer Harold (Eddie Mayehoff of Off-Limits) and his wife, Edna (Claire Trevor of The Velvet Touch), Mrs. Ford begins taking over the house, the kitchen, and threatens to fly her mother in from Italy. When Charles quits in disgust, Stanley decides it's time to take action. But when he kills off Brash's wife in the comic strip and the real Mrs. Ford disappears, he finds himself in very hot water ...

Jack Lemmon and Eddie Mayehoff

The first thing that must be said about How to Murder Your Wife is that in the style of many films of the sixties it is outrageously misogynistic. Sure there are men who resent their wives' interference in their lives and miss their bachelor days, but the thesis of George Axlerod's incredibly sexist screenplay is that all men hate married life, every wife is a battle axe (despite the fact that Mrs. Ford seems like an ideal spouse in many ways) and if men could only push a button to get rid of them they would all do so with glee. The film not only ignores all the men who are perfectly happy with their spouses, but all the women who have had to put up with horrible husbands, not to mention the sexism many women have had to endure even before the days of #metoo.  True, How to Murder Your Wife is not supposed to be taken seriously, but even so! A courtroom scene is staggeringly -- even shockingly -- chauvinistic.

Mary Wickes, Lemmon, Claire Trevor

On the other hand, despite this major problem, the movie is often very funny, bolstered by fine performances from the entire cast. Mary Wickes even manages to practically steal a scene when she's playing Harold's secretary and gets drunk on champagne. Sidney Blackmer is also notable as the drunken Judge Blackstone, as is Jack Albertson as Stanley's doctor. One might wonder why Stanley almost seems to cringe whenever his sexy wife gets affectionate, even if the ending suggests that it is sex -- certainly not love -- that makes him decide that he may prefer to stay married. In other words, the only way to enjoy this movie -- and it is enjoyable -- is to recognize its dated qualities and take it on its own terms. The funny thing about misogynous males is that they want women for sex and nothing else, but develop the screaming mimis if anyone dares suggest they might prefer the more-than-company of other guys, but then there's always been a link between sexism and homophobia.

Verdict: Women-hatred at its worst, but with a few chuckles and adept performances. **3/4. 

SHIP OF FOOLS

Oskar Werner and Simone Signoret

SHIP OF FOOLS (1965). Produced and directed by Stanley Kramer. Based on the novel by Katherine Anne Porter. 

"There are over a million Jews in Germany. What are they going to do -- kill all of us?" -- Lowenthal. 

"I've met women like you. You're 46-years-old and still think you're a coquette." 

"I didn't even see a Jew until I was fifteen." -- Tenny. "Maybe you were too busy lynching Negroes to take time for the Jews." -- Mary. 

In 1933 an ocean liner sets sail from Mexico to Germany with a motley group of crew and passengers. Dr. Wilhelm Schumann (Oskar Werner) is the ship's doctor, a married man with a heart condition who develops a romantic relationship with La Condesa (Simone Signoret), a woman who faces prison in Cuba because she spoke out against the oppressive government. David (George Segal) is an American "starving artist" who loves his girlfriend Jenny (Elizabeth Ashley), but fears she is too "modern" for him even as she fears he can only settle for the traditional wife who has no life or career of her own. Karl Glocken (Michael Dunn) is a dwarf who is not invited to the Captain's Table, any more than Lowenthal (Heinz Ruhmann), who is Jewish, but the two sit together and become friends. Bill Tenny (Lee Marvin) is a washed-up baseball player, and Mary Treadwell (Vivien Leigh) an aging and desperately lonely divorcee, who eventually have a distinctly unpleasant encounter. 

Vivien Leigh

Ship of Fools is not on the level of Stanley Kramer's masterpiece Judgment at Nuremberg, because even though it deals with matters German and (in part) with anti-Semitism, it doesn't have as good nor as powerful a story line. There are also some odd casting choices in this. Jose Ferrer as a Nazi? Simone Signoret as a Spanish noblewoman? Nonetheless Signoret did get a Best Actress Oscar nod, and Werner was also nominated as Best Actor. Both give good performances, although their love story isn't entirely convincing because one can't see any real on-screen chemistry between them, although they play well together. Poor Vivien Leigh is given the utterly thankless role of yet another desperate and aging woman to follow Blanche Dubois of Streetcar and Mrs. Stone of The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone -- Still attractive, she must have gotten awfully sick of it. Leigh was fifty-two at the time, playing forty-six, although she holds up better than Signoret, who was forty-four playing forty-two. The irony is that Mary Treadwell acts as if she's all washed up when down the hall La Condesa is getting action with the handsome ship's doctor! Leigh's performance is fine but her portrayal is dated.  

Lee Marvin and Michael Dunn

Michael Dunn, infamous as the evil Dr. Loveless on The Wild, Wild West TV program gives a notable performance, but although Lee Marvin has his moments, he seems to have wandered in from a different movie. Liz Ashley, in her pre-sex pot phase, is more than credible as Jenny, as is George Segal as her painter boyfriend. Charles Korvin is appealing as Captain Thiele. Jose Ferrer is completely miscast and not very good in the film, but there is fine work from two lesser-known actors: Alf Kjellin [Madame Bovary] is wonderful as Freytag, who is forced to leave the Captain's table because he is married to a Jewish woman, but suffers from great guilt because he abandoned her for his career; and Charles De Vries makes an impression as young Johann, whose elderly father is a miser. Werner Klemperer has some nice moments as a crew member who hopes to initiate a relationship with Mrs. Treadwell and is rather cruel to her when he is rejected. 

Ernest Gold's score is effective and Ernest Laszlo's cinematography deservedly won an Oscar. (The film also won as Best Picture, and the art direction also received a statue.) Abby Mann's screenplay, however, just doesn't delve deep enough into the characters, of which there are too many (the character of the ball player doesn't even belong in the movie). The film can't be said to be boring, as such, but it is never riveting the way the far superior Judgment at Nuremberg is. Still, it has memorable scenes, such as the sad one when Dunn observes that Lowenthal is a "fool", because he just isn't able to believe the dire and hopeless future for the Jews in Germany. 

Verdict: Despite many good moments, this should have been a much more absorbing and powerful picture. **3/4. 

THE SLEEPING CAR MURDER

Yves Montand and Jean-Louis Trintignant

THE SLEEPING CAR MURDER (aka Compatiment tueurs.1965). Director: Costa-Gavras.

When a train traveling from Marseilles pulls into Paris, a young woman is found strangled to death in a sleeper compartment. Inspector Graziani (Yves Montand of The Wages of Fear) and his partner Jean-Lou Gabert (Claude Mann) investigate the murder and to their astonishment discover that someone else is reaching the witnesses, the other passengers in the murder car who disembarked in Paris, first, and shooting them! The witnesses include the actress Eliane Darres (Simone Signoret of Games), who has a younger lover,  Eric (Jean-Louis Trintignant); Rene Cabourg (Michel Piccoli of Danger: Diabolik), who is resentful that women generally snub him, as did the victim; Daniel (Jacques Perrin), a young runaway who rides the train without a ticket; Bambi (Catherine Allegret), a young lady who takes him to her apartment for sex and sustenance; and others. The Sleeping Car Murder is suspenseful and has some good actors in it, but despite some intriguing developments, it's a bit of a let-down once you realize that the basic premise is pretty much lifted from Agatha  Christie -- not Murder on the Orient Express, but "The Alphabet Murders," which was also filmed that same year. At least this has different plot developments and an unexpected final twist as well as some homoerotic elements (Eric pours through a muscle man magazine in front of an oblivious Eliane in an early scene; the identity of his male lover comes as quite a surprise.) The picture drags a bit after the final revelation and the film's score is lousy, but Sleeping Car is still an attention-holder. With a mysterious killer wandering around in a black raincoat killing people, the movie almost reminds one of an Italian giallo film, but the murders are neither gruesome nor graphic. Signoret, Trintignant, Piccoli, Mann and the others are all quite effective, but Montand looks pretty bored throughout. He was married to Signoret at the time, from 1951 until his death in 1984. Catherine Allegret is Signoret's daughter by her first husband.

Verdict: Interesting French thriller .. with reservations. **1/2.

WHEN THE BOYS MEET THE GIRLS

Harve Preesnell surveys the scene

WHEN THE BOYS MEET THE GIRLS (1965). Director: Alvin Ganzer.

Playboy Danny Churchill (Harve Presnell) is sent by his lawyer to an obscure college so he can avoid the clutches of a gold-digging dame, Tess (Sue Ane Langdon), threatening a breach of promise lawsuit. Danny and his buddy, Sam (Joby Baker of Girl Happy), run into Ginger (Connie Francis), whose property is falling into disrepair because her father (Frank Faylen of The Mystery of the 13th Guest), is a gambleholic. But somebody gets the bright idea of converting their property into a ranch-resort near Reno where ladies who want divorces and others can congregate. But will Danny's passion for Ginger hit a snag when Tess shows up in town? The trouble with the picture is that "when the boys meet the girls" not much happens that hasn't been seen -- and seen and seen -- many times before. You may not recognize this as a remake of the Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland starrer Girl Crazy, although some of the Gershwin tunes have been happily preserved. Both Francis and Presnell do creditable versions of "Embraceable You" as well as "I've Got Rhythm," a bouncy classic that it's hard to ruin. Presnell has an appealing personality and a very nice voice, and Francis -- playing the leading lady for the second and last time (after Looking for Love) -- is fine, but Presnell is so pleasant and mild in his role that her aggressive anger towards him makes her seem like a real bitch at times, and it's hard to see what he sees in her. Langdon does her usual fair-to middling sexpot bit, and we have guest appearances by Herman (Peter Noone)  and the Hermits (singing "Listen People"), Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, and Liberace (!) doing his 'Liberace Aruba" mambo. An unfunny bit with a moronic boxer named Canvasback Davis (mercifully uncredited) goes on forever and nearly kills the picture.

Verdict: Nice Gershwin tunes and good performances save this from total schlock. **.

WHAT'S NEW, PUSSYCAT?

Woody Allen is analyzed by Peter Sellers

WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT? (1965). Director: Clive Donner. Screenplay by Woody Allen.

Dr. Frtiz Fassbender (Peter Sellers) is a very weird psychoanalyst with a jealous, Wagnerian wife (Eddra Gale). Most of Fassbender's clients are in serious need of help, including Michael James (Peter O'Toole), who has a fiancee, Carol (Romy Schneider of Sissi), but who just can't keep away from admiring women. Fassbender has the hots for another client, Renee (Capucine of The Pink Panther), but she, too, prefers Michael. Then there's Victor (Woody Allen in his film debut), who supposedly has a girlfriend but who winds up in a dalliance with Carol. And we mustn't forget Liz (Paula Prentiss of Follow the Boys), who decides she wants to marry Michael after a one-night-stand and keeps trying to commit suicide. All of these characters and more wind up at a trysting place where there are rooms named after great lovers ("We've put two cheating men in the Don Juan room." says the proprietor.) If What's New, Pussycat? sounds riotous be warned that it's often more frenetic than funny and that the treatment is a bit smarmy and silly instead of sophisticated. Sellers is wonderful and most of the cast are at least enthusiastic. The opening with Fassbender and his wife is rather hilarious, however, and there are amusing moments throughout. The film's frankness was probably refreshing in this period. At one point Sellers/Fassbender analyzes Victor/Allen. Ultimately, Sellers is the more versatile and brilliant comedian; Woody developed his nebbish persona (from his stand-up act) in this movie and has never veered from it one iota.The title tune is warbled by the then-very popular Tom Jones, who used to get panties thrown at him by the ladies in the audience during his live shows.

Verdict: Silly stuff, but very popular in its day -- Allen's first movie and first hit. **1/2.

THE OUTLAWS IS COMING

Adam West and the Stooges: DeRitas, Howard and Fine

THE OUTLAWS IS COMING (1965). Director: Norman Maurer.

In 1871 a group of outlaws want to slaughter the buffalo to send the Indians on the warpath for their own nefarious purposes. Kenneth Cabot (Adam West of Batman) is sent out to Wyoming with three associates (Larry Fine, Moe Howard, and Joe DeRita) to save the Buffalo from extinction. There they run into Annie Oakley (Nancy Kovack of Diary of a Madman), who actually does the shootin' attributed to Kenneth, as well as bad guys Rance Rodan (Don Lamond) and Trigger Mortis (Mort Mills of The Name of the Game is Kill), who make Kenneth the sheriff and the Stooges his deputies -- with the average life expectancy of about a day. The Outlaws is Coming is pretty silly stuff, geared primarily to children despite its violence and gun play, but it does have some inspired moments. There's the bit when the Stooges are forced to drink a Tarantula Fizz (Tiny Brauer is amusing as their bartender), and a clever business when the boys pour glue into the guns and holsters of all of the outlaws as they sleep, hoping to head off their own slaughter. DeRita and Fine make comical drag queens when they accidentally enter the room of some show gals instead of the outlaws. Annie Oakley has a cat fight with Calamity Jane, and Henry Gibson plays an Indian, but he isn't especially funny, no surprise there. Emil Sitka is also not funny as an Indian chief. At 88 minutes the picture is too long.

Verdict: Elvis the skunk is in this too! **.

THE FACE OF FU MANCHU

Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu: check out those nails!

THE FACE OF FU MANCHU (1965). Director: Don Sharp.

A number of bodies turn up dead in the Thames, and Sir Denis Nayland Smith (Nigel Green) of Scotland Yard figures his old adversary, Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee), is responsible.  Fu has developed a poison from the Black Hill poppy, a holy flower in Tibet, and uses it to kill off the entire population of a town. (This has an effective scene when two likable soldiers in the town suddenly drop dead.) This is just a demonstration of what he is capable of. In his HQ near the Thames Fu has a "drowning chamber" where he places people he wishes to kill or extract information from. His daughter, now called Lin Tang (she was Fah Lo Suee in the novels) and played by Tsai Chin, is arguably nastier than he is, and seems anxious to whip any employee who disobeys her or her father's orders. Other characters include Professor Muller (Walter Rilla of the Dr. Mabuse films) who works on the poppy formula; his daughter, Maria (Karin Dor of You Only Live Twice); her boyfriend Carl Janssen (Joachim Fuchsberger of Dead Eyes of London); Dr. Petrie (Howard Marion-Crawford); and a museum director (James Robertson Justice, less irritating than usual), who insists that his establishment is impregnable, even to Fu Manchu; of course he's wrong. As usual, Sax Rohmer's famous character is less dimensional than in the novels, and Christopher Lee, oddly, makes absolutely no attempt to play him as an actual Oriental. At the very beginning of the film, Fu Manchu escapes justice by substituting someone else to be beheaded, a notion carried over from Fantomas. Whatever its flaws, The Face of Fu Manchu is fast-paced and entertaining, and has the correct period setting. Lee is suitably creepy, and the versatile Nigel Green makes an excellent Nayland Smith. The movie doesn't quite capture that certain fiendish atmosphere of the books. This was the first of five Fu Manchu/Lee films produced by Harry Alan Towers. Followed by The Brides of Fu Manchu.

Verdict: Reasonably suspenseful fun. ***.

SANDRA

Michael Craig and Claudia Cardinale

SANDRA (aka Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa/1965). Director: Luchino Visconti.

"Your book could be a weapon in the hands of our enemies." -- Sandra to Gianni.

Jean Sorel

Sandra (Claudia Cardinale of The Pink Panther) and her husband, Andrew (Michael Craig of Doctor in Love), travel to her hometown and rundown palatial estate where they encounter her brother, the budding novelist Gianni (Jean Sorel of A View From the Bridge), from whom she has been separated for some years. Their father was a Jew who was executed by the Nazis, and their mother is a now-demented concert pianist who has remarried Mr. Gilardini (Renzo Ricci), who does not get along with his stepchildren. Everything comes to a boil as the day approaches for a ceremony to honor  their father, and Gianni reveals the controversial storyline of his novel. He can no longer control his romantic and sexual obsession for his own sister. Obviously, things aren't going to end well. Sandra has all the elements that might add up to a penetrating and outre erotic drama, but somehow it never quite gets off the ground despite the emotionalism of the last ten minutes or so. This is a well-done English-dubbed version (Cardinale did her own dubbing), but the performances, while hard to judge because of the dubbing, seem more than adequate, with Sorel especially passionate if not quite as pitiable as he might have been. The soundtrack is heavy with classical music that only adds to the general lugubriousness, and the occasional pop tune is grating.

Verdict: Intriguing but insufficient. **1/2.

GIRL HAPPY

Shelley Fabares and Elvis Presley

GIRL HAPPY (1965). Director: Boris Sagal.

Club owner Big Frank (Harold J. Stone) is afraid of what might happen if his 21-year-old daughter, Valerie (Shelley Fabares), goes to Fort Lauderdale for vacation, so he hires singer Rusty Wells (Elvis Presley) to be her secret chaperone. In the meantime, Rusty does his best to romance the more voluptuous Deena (Mary Ann Mobley), but his burgeoning feelings for Valerie get in the way. Girl Happy seems inspired by Where the Boys Are, made five years earlier, which had similar hijinks occurring in Fort Lauderdale. Cliche follows cliche as Elvis and his combo -- Joby Baker [Looking for Love], Gary Crosby [Mardi Gras], and Jimmy Hawkins -- warble some pleasant if minor songs, the snappiest of which is "Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce." Nita Talbot shows up briefly as a sexy dancer, Jackie Coogan is a cop, and Fabrizio Mioni romances both Valerie and Deena as an Italian exchange student. This is another in a long line of crappy Elvis Presley musicals that are often indistinguishable from one another. Presley performs nicely, but his character is rather negative. At first thinking that Valerie is unattractive, he immediately pronounces her a "loser." Fabares has a nice enough figure, but she was clearly told: "shoulders back, chest thrust forward." Peter Brooks [The Girls on the Beach] offers some fun as the intellectual Brentwood Von Durgenfeld, who in movies like this only elicits scorn, especially regarding his preference for brains over beauty. His scene with Nita Talbot provides the movie's only laugh, however.

Verdict: Elvis schlock with a couple of decent tunes. *1/2.

BEACH BALL

Call her Miss Ross

BEACH BALL (1965). Director: Lennie Weinrib.

"Wriggle, wriggle. Dr. Tickle, Dr. Tickle, Right now." -- lyrics.

Dick Martin (Edd Byrnes) tries to raise money to pay for instruments for his band, the Wrigglers, by getting grant money for college under false pretenses. When Susan (Chris Noel). the gal who hands out the grants, discovers the truth. she and her intellectual lady friends put on bikinis and try to get Dick and the guys to stay in school. This is the plot -- I wouldn't kid you. Five minutes into the flick The Four Seasons appear to sing the catchy "Dawn," but, unfortunately, they are never seen again. There are appearances by the Righteous Brothers, the Hondells, and the Supremes, each of whom are given one number except for the last group, who are forced to sing a couple of bad, inappropriate "surfer" songs, although the second one, the title tune, is somewhat less awful than the first. Desperately playing college boys are Aaron Kincaid and Robert Logan, the latter of which appeared with Byrnes on 77 Sunset Strip. Even the worst episode of that series would have been better than sitting through this excruciatingly boring and completely unfunny farce, although the actors are at least enthusiastic. The songs sung by the "Wrigglers" are mostly dreadful, although "Candy, Baby," is perhaps the least dreadful. Rock movies in the fifties generally spent more time on the special guest-stars than the plot -- if only that had been the case with Beach Ball, whose acts have limited running time. If they'd just let Frankie Valli and the fellows sing one number after another, you might not be reaching for that fast forward button. The fellows dress in drag for their final number, and a gag is lifted from Some Like It Hot. A guy asks Logan, still wearing his wig, for a date. Logan removes the wig and says "It wouldn't work out between us." The guy replies, "Yeah, you're taller than I am." He then turns to Kincaid, "what about you, honey?" This little bit of gay humor. albeit unoriginal, is handled with perfect amiability. The movie, alas, is too stupid to ever really amount to anything. Dick Miller has a small role as a cop and is fine. James Wellman, who plays Bernard Wolf, the man who wants the money for the band instruments, is pretty bad.

Verdict: This imitation of the AIP Beach party movies from Paramount is even worse than the originals. *1/2.