EDGE OF DOOM

Farley Granger and Dana Andrews

EDGE OF DOOM (1950). Director: Mark Robson.

Father Thomas (Dana Andrews) tells a colleague (Robert Karnes)  -- who wants to leave this impoverished parish and go elsewhere -- the story of young Martin Lynn (Farley Granger), and how meeting him helped renew his faith. Martin's father was a criminal who committed suicide, and he hates the church because he was denied a Christian burial. Now Martin needs a raise to send his ill mother out of town, but his boss can't afford it. When the mother dies, Martin insists that old Father Kirkman (Harold Vermilyea of Manhandled) -- the one who denied the burial -- make up for all the money his mother gave to the church by paying for an elaborate funeral. Kirkman objects and things go downhill from there.

Granger with Mala Powers

Edge of Doom doesn't exactly take an intellectual approach to the material -- few "religious" movies ever do -- but it is nevertheless an interesting picture, and not as simple-minded as it might at first sound. An interesting aspect is the depiction of Father Kirkman. While he is not quite an ogre, he is also not the beneficent Bing Crosby-type of priest, being generally grumpy (and not in a cute way) and unpleasant, out of touch with his parishioners -- I wonder what the Catholic church thought of how he was portrayed. It would also be all too easy to dismiss Father Thomas as a bleeding heart who confuses reasons (for a person's behavior) with excuses, but it is easy to see why he has sympathy for Martin despite the young man's actions. Oddly, virtually no sympathy is expressed for the victim, despite his being an elderly priest! But this is typical of movies that focus more on troubled-young-men who become killers than they do on the ones they kill (especially if the killers are handsome).

In deep trouble: Farley Granger

The performances in the film are generally good. Granger at 25 may be a little old for the part but he certainly has affecting moments. Andrews is solid and convincing in an unusual role for him. Mala Powers is sensitive and effective as Martin's girlfriend. There is also good work from Paul Stewart as a neighbor, Robert Keith as a detective, Vermilyea as the older priest, Houseley Stevenson [Dark Passage] as Martin's boss at the flower shop, and Mabel Paige as an old woman who sees the priest killer outside the rectory and becomes a witness. Adele Jergens is a bit unsatisfactory as Stewart's girlfriend, however, especially in a scene she has with Andrews and Granger at the rectory. Douglas Fowley and Ellen Corby have smaller roles. Oddly Joan Evans, who was with Granger in Roseanna McCoy the previous year, receives top billing with him and Andrews but only has a small and relatively unimportant role as Father Kirkman's niece; she has one tiny scene with Granger. NOTE: Apparently the scenes with Andrews telling Martin's story were added after the film's initial release, as some feel the whole point of the movie and the novel it is based on is that the Church really can't do much to solve the problems of its parishioners.

Verdict: Imperfect but interesting crime drama. ***.

DAY THE WORLD ENDED

"You're dimestore, Ruby, you're cheap!" Adele Jergens and "Touch" Connors

DAY THE WORLD ENDED (1955). Produced and directed by Roger Corman.

"He's a mutation, Rick, a freak of this new atomic world of ours."

After nuclear holocaust, a taciturn fellow named Maddison (Paul Birch) holes up in his valley home with his daughter, Louise (Lori Nelson), whose fiance is missing and presumed dead. Unwelcome visitors looking for food and shelter include hoodlum Tony (Mike Connors, billed as "Touch"), his moll and former striptease "artist" Ruby (Adele Jergens), old prospector Pete (Raymond Hatton of The Three Musketeers) and his mule; and the radioactive, supposedly dying Radek (Paul Dubov of Girls' Town), who is developing a taste for raw meat. A more welcome addition is geologist Rick (Richard Denning), who is able to handle Tony and has a mutual attraction for Louise. Meanwhile a strange mutated creature (Paul Blaisdell) roams the grounds as the others wonder if the threatening rainfall will wipe them all out with radiation sickness. Day the World Ended may use some of the same settings as Attack of the Crab Monsters, but it doesn't have that film's cleverness, imaginative touches, and creepy atmosphere. Jergens offers the zestiest performance as the ill-fated Ruby. Like many films of the period, it suggests that a person can't be decent unless he or she is religious. There's a vague twist ending involving the "dead" fiance, but nothing much comes of this. Filmed in widescreen "Superscope."

Verdict: Even mutations can only do so much. **.

RADAR SECRET SERVICE

"Remember me, I'm your boyfriend." Adele Jergens, Tom Neal

RADAR SECRET SERVICE (1950). Director: Sam Newfield.

The "Radar Patrol," which uses radar in its war on crime, is after some uranium which was stolen by Mickey Moran (Tom Neal of Bruce Gentry) and sold to a man named Michael (Tristram Coffin). Hard-boiled blonde Lila (Adele Jergens) is supposedly Mickey's girlfriend, but she's playing up to Michael to help Mickey -- although she may be planning a double-cross just as Michael is. Bill Travis (John Howard) and his partner "Static" (Ralph Byrd) are the agents on the case. Riley Hill is a hood named Blackie; Myrna Dell [Why Men Leave Home] is his girlfriend, a waitress named Marge; and the ever-irritating Sid Melton is "Pill Box," a hypochondriac member of Michael's gang. There's some mild excitement at the climax; a good laugh when Marge makes a comment about how Lila really gets rid of her boyfriends after she sees Michael's corpse; and an inside joke when Ralph Byrd, who played Dick Tracy numerous times, makes a remark about "Dick Tracy's two-way radio." The good guys are called Radar Patrol throughout the movie, and not "Radar Secret Service," possibly because there was a serial called Radar Patrol vs. Spy King two years earlier.

Verdict: Pretty dull cops and robbers, but at least it's less than an hour long. *1/2.

SLIGHTLY FRENCH

Don Ameche and Dorothy Lamour

SLIGHTLY FRENCH (1949). Director: Douglas Sirk.

"Goodbye, John. It's been weird knowing you." -- Mary.

French star Yvonne La Tour (Adele Jergens) proves difficult to handle and there seems to be no way to salvage her film after she's been dismissed, a major problem for borderline has-been director John Gayle (Don Ameche) and his boss Douglas Hyde (Willard Parker of What a Woman). But along comes carnival performer Mary (Dorothy Lamour), who can do a fairly convincing French accent. Mary moves in with John and his sister, Louisa (Janis Carter) and is given lessons in being French by Nicolette (Jeanne Manet). Will she be able to pull it off and star in the movie, saving the careers of John and Douglas, and which man will she ultimately fall for? Slightly French is a trifle with decent performances, but it's ironic that Adele Jergens -- as one fan put it, she was the eternal starlet -- is so much prettier and sexier than Lamour, and does her few scenes with that certain scintillating oomph. Jergens [The Fuller Brush Man] was never really given a chance at genuine stardom. The other cast stand-out is Janis Carter [I Love Trouble], who is very snappy and attractive as Louisa. At one point she says, "the only way I'd be happily married is if I were a widow." I believe the song "Let's Fall in Love" was introduced in this picture. This seems an unusual assignment for Douglas Sirk.

Verdict: Pleasant enough. **1/2.

TREASURE OF MONTE CRISTO

Eternal starlet: Adele Jergens

TREASURE OF MONTE CRISTO (1949). Director: William Berke.

Edmund Dantes (Glenn Langan) is a sailor just off a ship in San Francisco who encounters a sexy blonde named Jean Turner (Adele Jurgens). Jean tells Ed that she is an heiress, and she has escaped from a sanitarium where relatives who want control of her fortune are trying to lock her away. She offers Ed $10,000 if he'll agree to marry her -- which will supposedly prevent the bad guys from stealing her inheritance -- and he complies -- after all, Jean isn't exactly bad-looking. But after the marriage takes place Ed winds up accused of murder, and Jean is nowhere to be seen. When she is finally located, Jean Turner turns out to be an different woman entirely ... Treasure of Monte Cristo is an interesting, if minor, bit of film noir with an absorbing plot line (one angle prefigures a sequence in the later Homicidal). Langan [The Amazing Colossal Man] offers a good performance as a man in serious trouble, while Jergens [The Fuller Brush Man] is a cut below him as the femme fatale in question. Steve Brodie is notable as an associate of Jergens'. The title treasure figures in the convoluted story and the finale, although the movie isn't really about a treasure hunt. Albert Glasser contributed a typically brassy and effective score. Langan and Jergens were wed in real life two years after this film came out and had one of Hollywood's rare long-lasting marriages until his death forty years later.

Verdict: Attention-holding minor-league film noir with some good performances. **1/2 out of 4.

The Midnite Drive-In presents The Film Noir Blogathon. [I wouldn't necessarily consider Sunset Boulevard to be film noir, but it does have a handsome hero whose life is turned upside down by a woman, even if she's hardly a "hot" blonde!

THE CORPSE CAME C.O.D.

George Brent

THE CORPSE CAME C.O.D. (1947). Director: Henry Levin.

Beautiful actress Mona Harrison (Adele Jergens) gets a big crate delivered to her, postage due, and discovers that there's a dead body inside it! The corpse belongs to Hector Rose (Cosmo Sardo), a fashion designer for the studio. As handsome Lt. Wilson (Jim Bannon of Unknown World) tries to solve the case, he is helped and hampered by two rival reporters -- Joe (George Brent) and Rosemary (Joan Blondell) -- who are fighting their attraction to one another. Then there's another murder, and a mysterious cache of diamonds. You want to like The Corpse Came C.O.D., because of its premise and its cast -- Adele Jergens [The Fuller Brush Man] in particular is a Great Old Movies favorite -- but this sinks into tiresome mediocrity almost from the first, although the identity of the killer is a mild surprise. The leads do their best to enliven the somewhat leaden proceedings. Adele looks great -- she puts poor Blondell [We're in the Money] in the shade -- but this is not one of her more memorable performances. Such reliable actors as Una O'Connor and Grant Mitchell do their bit and there are quite a few familiar faces, including famous columnists such as Hedda and Louella, who are featured in a prologue about Hollywood. The producers obviously wanted to hedge their bets by using the columnists/critics in the movie, but it doesn't make the picture any better.

Verdict: Dead nearly on arrival. **.

I LOVE TROUBLE

I LOVE TROUBLE (1948). Director: S. Sylvan Simon.

Private eye Stuart Bailey (Franchot Tone) is hired by a man named Johnston (Tom Powers, the victim in Double Indemnity) to investigate his wife, who has been getting a series of letters threatening to expose her "past," and eventually disappears. Bailey discovers that Mrs. Johnston (Lynn Merrick) was once an entertainer known as Janie Joy, so he pursues that angle via some of her old associates, then gets warned off by a thug, Martin (Donald Curtis) in the employ of John Caprillo (Eduardo Ciannelli). Bailey encounters a young lady, Norma (Janet Blair), who claims that the woman he's after is her sister, even though she doesn't recognize a photograph of her. Then there's sexy "Boots" (Adele Jergens) who sometimes drinks too much; Reno (John Ireland), who runs a nightclub; and his boss, Keller (Steven Geray), all of whom may know more about the missing woman than they're saying. There are a couple of twists, a couple of murders, and a final confrontation in Bailey's apartment. I Love Trouble may not get high marks as a mystery nor film noir, but it's smooth and entertaining, and Tone is excellent, and has a highly adept supporting cast. Raymond Burr and Arthur Space have small roles (as muscle and cop, respectively), and an unrecognizable (perhaps slightly more subdued and older) Glenda Farrell is snappy as Bailey's very efficient secretary. Janis Carter [Night Editor] also is vivid in a pivotal role whose exact nature I won't reveal here. Simon also directed The Fuller Brush Man (which also had Blair and Jergens) and many others.

Verdict: Pleasant time-passer with some good scenes and a modicum of suspense. ***.

THE FULLER BRUSH MAN

Red Skelton succumbs to the charms of Adele Jergens

THE FULLER BRUSH MAN (1948). Director: S. Sylvan Simon.

Red Jones (Red Skelton), who has trouble holding on to a job, to put it mildly, is told by his girlfriend Ann (Janet Blair) that if he doesn't make good at something they're through. He decides to try for a job at the Fuller Brush company where Ann works, but a romantic rival, Mr. Wallick (Don McGuire), who's a top salesman, makes it his business to screw up Red's chances at every turn. Things take a turn for the worse when Red becomes the suspect in the mysterious murder of Commissioner Trist (Nicholas Joy), who fired him from his last assignment. Skelton is in top form in one of his funniest movies, with an inventive script by Frank Tashlin [and Devery Freeman] that is full of so many great sight-gags that the movie is at times a live-action cartoon [typical of Tashlin's work]. A bit in a garden involving bug spray, pruning shears, and legs in weird positions is nearly classic, as is a hilarious sequence wherein Red tries to sell a shower brush to the man-hungry starlet Miss Sharmley (Adele Jergens), who's "brushed off more men than the porter at the Waldorf." In this brief bit sexy Jergens almost walks off with the movie, but there are also very good performances from the rest of the cast, which includes Hillary Brooke as Trist's wife, Sara Franzen as his protege, and Arthur Space as a police lieutenant. Don McGuire scores as the wolfish cad Wallick and Blair is attractive and capable as Skelton's girl.The ending in a factory is also full of clever physical action, all well-handled by director Simon and a variety of stunt people. Verna Felton and Jimmy Hunt [Invaders from Mars] have a funny scene wherein Red tries to sell the former one of his brushes and her not-so-adorable grandson interferes.

Verdict: One of Skelton's best! ***.

ARMORED CAR ROBBERY

ARMORED CAR ROBBERY (1950). Director: Richard Fleischer. 

William Talman, who played Perry Mason's perennial opponent Hamilton Burger on the TV series Perry Mason, is herein cast as bad guy Dave Purvis, who plans an armored car heist and kills off some of the gang members he's supposed to share the loot with. Adele Jergens is cast as club performer Yvonne LeDoux, who's married to a mug named Benny McBride, but has a hankering for the more dynamic -- if not exactly more attractive -- Purvis. Charles McGraw is the tough cop investigating the armored car robbery during which his married partner was murdered. Don McGuire and Gene Evans [of The Giant Behemoth and Park Row) have smaller roles. The picture is minor-league for the most part, but it does boast an exciting and satisfying climax on a runway. NOTE: Armored Car Robbery is one of the films in the new Film Noir Classic Collection Volume 5. 

Verdict: Punchy performances help put this over -- and Jergens is always fun. **1/2.

SHE WOULDN'T SAY YES

SHE WOULDN'T SAY YES (1945). Director: Alexander Hall.

Dr. Susan Lane (Rosalind Russell) is a psychiatrist who has no time for love or marriage. Her father, the other Dr. Lane (Charles Winninger) has his own reasons for wanting her to marry. Michael Kent (Lee Bowman), a cartoonist, becomes one of Susan's patients, but he's more interested in romancing her. And Allura (Adele Jergens), whose lovers all die, is more interested in romancing Michael. Who cares? This presents an outrageous situation in which a man somehow marries a woman without her even knowing she got married! Percy Kilbride, Sara Haden, and Mary Treen all try to liven things up, but this is pretty much a dated dog. Carl "Alfafa" Switzer is a delivery boy. Mantan Moreland is supposed to be in this, too, but I didn't spot him. The lead performances are more than adequate. At one point Haden thinks that Bowman and Winninger are going to marry each other, with the expected reaction. [Did I say this was dated?]

Verdict: Rosalind doesn't need a man but gets one anyway. **.

THE COBWEB

THE COBWEB (1955). Director: Vincente Minelli.

"Van Gogh didn't sell a painting in his lifetime, but now they're worth thirty million. They weren't that bad then and they're not that good now, so who's crazy?"

The patients and staff of a Clinic for Nervous Disorders become embroiled in -- believe it or not -- a fight over which drapes to hang in the library. Some want an attractive if standard pattern, while others, such as Dr. Stewart McIver (Richard Widmark) want to transfer drawings done by a young patient, Stevie (John Kerr), to silk screenings and hang them instead. The complications of the staff's private lives don't help much. Dr. Devanal (Charles Boyer), the former head of the clinic now in a sort of advisory capacity, is an unregenerate skirt-chaser whose secretary (Adele Jergens) is in love with him. Dr. McIver's wife Karen (Gloria Grahame) feels neglected by her husband, who is slowly being drawn to the widowed Activities Director Meg Rinehart (Lauren Bacall). Then there's Miss Inch (Lillian Gish), the prickly, strong-willed spinster with territorial instincts who objects to anyone she sees as threatening to her authority. This is an interesting if overlong melodrama/soap opera with outstanding performances by Gish [great in a mostly unsympathetic part] and Grahame, and very good performances by most of the rest of the cast. The love story between Stevie and fellow patient Sue (Susan Strasberg) is kind of boring, however. Oscar Levant is quite amateurish as a neurotic patient and his scenes should have been cut as they add nothing to the picture. Fay Wray, Myra Marsh [from the operetta episode of I Love Lucy] and Virginia Christine appear in smaller roles. Christine had much bigger roles in The Mummy's Curse, Three Brave Men, and Nightmare (1956). She later became "Mrs. Olsen" of coffee commercial fame.

Verdict: Over-baked but enjoyable for the most part. ***.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN (1951). Director: Charles Lamont.

Recent graduates from detective school, Bud and Lou run into an escaped con, Tommy Nelson (Arthur Franz), who is wanted for murder but claims he was framed. A scientist acquaintance of his girlfriend Helen (Nancy Guild) has John Griffin's formula for invisibility, but warns Nelson that it's too dangerous to take. Naturally, Nelson ignores the warning as the cops close in. Eventually Lou winds up becoming a boxer (with Nelson's invisible fists helping him out) known as Louie the Looper. Adele Jergens adds some spice, as usual, as fight promoter Sheldon Leonard's moll, doing her best to seduce a little-boyish Costello. Leonard is the same as ever, but William Frawley is fun as the detective who's after Nelson. Nancy Guild makes little impression as the "good gal." The special effects by David S. Horsley are as good as John P. Fulton's in Universal's previous "invisible" pictures.

Verdict: Cute, if minor A & C comedy. **1/2.