HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL -- IN COLOR!

Who's the bigger bitch? Vincent Price and Carol Ohmart

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (colorized/1959). Produced and directed by William Castle.

Annabelle Loring (Carol Ohmart of The Scarlet Hour) has conceived of the idea of holding a party in a supposedly haunted house and having the guests arrive in hearses. Unfortunately, her husband, Frederick (Vincent Price), has his own ideas, and chooses the guests himself, offering all of them $10,000 if they stay locked in the house all night. There's no love lost between Frederick and Annabelle, whom her husband sees as nothing more than an amoral gold-digger. The guests -- test pilot Lance (Richard Long); gambling columnist Ruth (Julie Mitchum); psychiatrist David (Alan Marshal of Lydia); Loring's employee Nora (Carolyn Craig of Giant); and the house's weird owner Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cook Jr.)  -- can only wonder what, if anything, the Lorings are up to. Then somebody is found hanging ...

Carolyn Craig and Richard Long

Discovering that House on Haunted Hill had been colorized gave me an excuse to watch this guilty pleasure all over again and despite its lack of logic and its kind of clunkiness, it is a pleasure. Chief among the delights is the interplay between Price and Ohmart, who are wonderful as the combative and sneaky spouses. We mustn't forget the creepy and melodramatic score by Van Alexander which works beautifully with this kind of pseudo-scary and definitely amusing material. A scene late in the picture with a skeleton rising out of a pool of acid in the house's basement  undoubtedly had all the kids in 1959 screaming their heads off with delight. Hokey it may be, but the flick is a lot of fun.

As to the colorization, which is well done, I have to wonder if it really adds anything to the picture. At least the addition of color doesn't strip the film of atmosphere, thank goodness, which it has in abundance despite its often silly but always-macabre tone. Julie Mitchum was the older sister of Robert Mitchum; this was the last of her eight credits.

Verdict: Perfect Halloween viewing. ***. 

THE SCARLET HOUR

Thomas Tryon and Carol Ohmart

THE SCARLET HOUR (1956). Produced and directed by Michael Curtiz.

"If I were dead, you don't take me to the morgue."

E. V. "Marsh" Marshall (Thomas Tryon) works for real estate developer Ralph Nevins (James Gregory) and is having an affair with Nevins' sexy wife, Pauline (Carol Ohmart). The lovers overhear a plot to rob a mansion while the owners are out of town, and Pauline cooks up a scheme to steal the booty from the robbers so she and Marsh can run away together. After an initial wariness, Marsh consents to the plan, but there are all sorts of complications and developments the night this double-cross is to take place, and someone winds up dying ... The Scarlet Hour is by no means on the level of such superior Curtiz films as, say, Mildred Pierce, but it is a snappy and absorbing crime drama whose interesting twists and turns keep you watching even as you wish there was some more character development and a better script.

This was the first movie for both Tryon and Ohmart, who were "introduced" in this picture, and they deliver, especially Ohmart. Ohmart [Caxambu!] was quite talented and distinctive with her sexy, breathy voice but she never quite ascended from B movie cult status. Tryon {The Unholy Wife] later became a very successful author [Crowned Heads]. Gregory is fine as the husband, and there's good work from Elaine Stritch [Monster-in-Law] as Pauline's pal,  Phyllis; Jody Lawrence as Kathy, Nevins' secretary, who has a crush on Marsh; and especially David Lewis as the owner of the robbed mansion, who turns out to be one of the most interesting characters in the movie. A sequence involving some incriminating evidence on an audio tape could have been handled with much more suspense. A strangely amusing scene has Marsh encountering a cop played by E. G.Marshall, and telling the cop "I am E. V. Marshall." Nat King Cole sings "Never Let Me Go" in a nightclub sequence. This cries out for a much better score than the one offered by Leith Stevens. Marsh's sanctimonious tone towards Pauline is hypocritical to say the least, but movies like this tend to let the man off the hook and put most of the blame on the woman.

Verdict: "A" director Curtiz helms a "B" movie but it mostly works. ***.

NAKED YOUTH

John Goddard and Carol Ohmart

NAKED YOUTH (aka Wild Youth/1960). Director: John Schreyer.

Frankie (Robert Arthur of September Affair) and "Switch" (Steve Rowland) run off from the State Boys Honor Farm and hook up with Frankie's girlfriend, Donna (Jan Brooks). On the road they run into a couple who have rapidly exited Mexico with thousands of dollars worth of heroin secreted in a doll. Rivas (John Goddard) is a drug dealer and causal murderer and Madge (Carol Ohmart) is his junkie girlfriend, who undoubtedly got hooked on the stuff by the not-so-loving Rivas. In the meantime, a Treasury agent named Maddo (Robert Hutton) is trailing after Rivas. Eventually everyone intersects in an isolated warehouse where the final battle ensues. Naked Youth is not really a study of juvenile delinquency; "Switch" may be a creep, but the other kids are pretty decent, as is the pathetic Madge. The picture is a standard crime drama with a few minor suspenseful moments, and it manages to hold the attention without being riveting. Ohmart  [House on Haunted Hill] gives her usual adept performance, and the other actors are more than satisfactory. Goddard was "introduced" in this film even though it was his 39th credit, and he had many more roles afterward. Hutton [Hollywood Canteen] is top-billed with Omhart but he has little to do in the film. Steve Rowland makes a pretty good impression as the resident junior bad boy. The musical score is an odd hodge podge that even rips off Vertigo at certain points.

Verdict: An effective Ohmart and some other good performances help a bit. **.

CAXAMBU!

CAXAMBU! (1967). Director: W. Lee Wilder.

"Back, Peggy!"

Vince Neff (John Ireland) and his cronies have stolen a bunch of diamonds but need Emil Garrett (Keith Larsen), a diamond cutter from Antwerp, to make them salable. The honest Garrett is appalled by their criminal intentions and tries to take over the plane they're on with the help of his wife, a trained nurse named Peggy (Carol Ohmart). Unfortunately, the result is that they all crash-land in the jungle in an area near Caxambu where headhunters prowl, and where it soon becomes obvious that there is little honor among thieves. The first thing you notice about Caxambu! is that it has a very low budget even for a W. Lee Wilder film. The "sky" in which the plane flies is just a back drop, and when the aircraft crashes it is not a miniature but a literal toy. There are several other unintentionally comical scenes, such as when Peggy gets hysterical when she sees a crocodile that is just minding its own business and Emil needs to club it to death as if it were just about to clamp its jaws on his wife, who is many feet away. But the shame of Caxambu! is that it has a good script, interesting situations, and with a little more effort and directorial finesse this might have really amounted to something. Ireland [Queen Bee] and Larsen are okay, Ohmart [House on Haunted Hill] is excellent (in a role much less sensual than what she usually plays), and Gordon Blackman is rather effective as nasty Simon, who is willing to sacrifice virtually anyone for the diamonds -- the actor never appeared in another film, however. Wilder directed movies of variable entertainment value, but he really socked one out of the ballpark with his excellent Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons.

Verdict: After a bad start this develops into a fairly entertaining movie with a good story. **1/2.

BORN RECKLESS

Mamie Van Doren, Arthur Hunnicutt, Jeff Richards

BORN RECKLESS (1958). Director: Howard W. Koch.

Trick rodeo rider and singer Jackie Adams (Mamie Van Doren) meets up with cowboy Kelly Cobb (Jeff Richards) when the latter pulls a masher off of her and gets into a fight. Kelly is buddies with the older "Cool Man" (Arthur Hunnicutt), a former rodeo rider who seems to serve as his manager, right hand or surrogate father (anything else the movie does not explore). As they travel around appearing in different rodeos, a romance between Jackie and Kelly doesn't quite develop, but this doesn't stop Jackie from developing a proprietary attitude toward the man when he dallies too long with wealthy sophisticate, Liz (Carol Ohmart). Will Kelly ever realize that Jackie is the girl of his dreams? Hardly anyone who sits through this generally tedious film will give a damn about the outcome, as the under-written and under-acted characters are of little interest to anyone despite the actors' sex appeal. Van Doren and Richards are okay and look good, but neither exactly set the screen on fire, and seem uninterested in each other almost throughout the entire movie, although Jackie eventually displays a hankering for Kelly. Hunnicutt makes the best impression in the film after Ohmart, who exhibits the same smoky sensuality that radiates from her in such films as House on Haunted Hill and others; when she appears you instantly forget about Van Doren, just as Kelly does. Van Doren [High School Confidential] sings several songs throughout the movie, including a nice unrequited love ballad entitled "It Takes a Little Longer" and a band does a good job with "Lovable You." If that's Van Doren's real voice, she isn't a bad singer. Richards was a good-looking actor whose most famous role was as "Buck Winston," the only male to appear in The Opposite Sex, the musical remake of The Women. He also did a lot of television work, was in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and starred as Jefferson Drum in that series. Koch also directed Van Doren in The Girl in Black Stockings. A prospective "cat fight" between Van Doren and Ohmart doesn't really amount to much, for shame.

Verdict: A Mamie Van Doren musical? *1/2.

CORONADO 9

Dan Adams (Rod Cameron ) questions a suspect

CORONADO 9 TV series. 1960.

Rod Cameron starred in this well-made and entertaining detective series that lasted one season. Cameron plays Dan Adams, a private dick who used to work for Naval Intelligence and works out of San Diego with a Coronado address. Many of the episodes were directed by movie serial master William Witney, who helmed G-Men vs the Black Dragon, in which Cameron played agent Rex Bennett [reprising the role in Secret Service in Darkest Africa]. Cameron may have been stone-faced as Bennett, but he's much, much better as the tough but human and compassionate Adams, who gets involved in some very intriguing cases, and has a solid core of law and order values. Some of the best episodes include: "Doomtown," in which the village geek is accused of a murder he didn't commit; "Remember the Alamo," in which it isn't certain if a man's (David White from Bewitched) younger wife has been kidnapped or not, but his secretary (Beverly Garland) may hold the answer; "Gone With Thy Loot," which has a lot of skulduggery over some stolen jewels; "Blonde Herring," a shipboard adventure with a sizzling Carol Ohmart, and an effective Sue Ann Langdon and Harry Lauter in supporting parts; and "They Met in Honolulu" in which Hayden Rourke's much younger bride simply disappears right after the ceremony. The best episodes are: "Run, Shep, Run" with Jay Novello giving another amazing character turn as a Southern doctor in a swampland chase and mystery; "Sincerely Yours, Napoleon," in which a married, middle-aged man tells his wife (Virginia Christine) that he spent their life savings on certain letters but there's a honey (Sue Ann Langdon, again) in the pot; and "Flight to La Paz," in which Adams is aboard a plane that crash lands in an isolated area and a suitcase of money ignites all kinds of passion in the passengers; Harry Bartell and Laurie Mitchell [Queen of Outer Space] are both excellent in this. [Bartell was the process server who pretended to be a big fan of Ricky's on the I Love Lucy courtoom episode.] Out of 39 episodes there isn't a real stinker in the bunch.Other notable guest-stars include Mary LaRoche, Patricia Medina, Norma Varden, and Coleen Gray [The Leech Woman], who is excellent as a conflicted woman who tries to help the sick mobster father that she's been estranged from for many years in "The Anxious Mariner."

Verdict: Very entertaining and well-done mystery series. ***.

THE WILD PARTY (1956)

THE WILD PARTY (1956). Director: Harry Horner.

Anthony Quinn, Carol Ohmart (Vincent Price's bitchy wife in House on Haunted Hill), Arthur Franz of Atomic Submarine and The Sniper, Nestor Paiva of Tarantula, Kathryn Grant of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Paul Stewart and Nehemiah Persoff all in the same movie -- too bad it's a nearly unwatchable stinker. It's even more of a shame that virtually everyone in the cast gives a good performance, especially Carol Ohmart, who mostly did TV work. She plays Erica, who is seeing boyfriend Franz on his last night before going overseas, and is kidnapped by a crazy, desperate Quinn. Jay Robinson plays an even crazier pal of Quinn's, Gage. Persoff's hippie character, "Kicks," is incredibly annoying, although Persoff plays him well (too well). A lot of bad dialogue and under-developed characters.

Verdict: Fairly pitiful, with a cast that deserves better. *.

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959). Director: William Castle. 

"Would you like to see one of those heads? Well come and see!" 

Perverse Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) and his pretty, unloving wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart) throw a party in a supposedly haunted house where several murders took place. Instead of inviting friends as Annabelle wanted, Loren instead invites several people who are in need of money and agrees to pay them $10,000 apiece if they spend -- and survive -- the night locked in the house. Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cook) was the brother of one of the victims and explains how his sister-in-law hacked up his brother and her sister and that the police found many body parts but never found their heads. Nora Manning (Carolyn Craig) has a large family to support, and Ruth Bridgers (Julie Mitchum, sister of Robert Mitchum) has gambling debts. The group is completed with Lance Schroder (Richard Long) and Dr. David Trent (Alan Marshall), not to mention the spooky caretakers, especially Mrs. Slydes (Leona Anderson), who makes a sudden, very creepy if hilarious appearance in a dark basement room [see photo]. The dialogue by screenwriter Robb White is amusing, especially the bitchy banter between Loren and his wife. It's interesting that the house is not some Gothic structure a la Psycho, but a modern bit of architecture that resembles a museum. There are several "impossible" moments in the story, but the whole thing is still a lot of fun, with Price seemingly enjoying himself immensely. Carolyn Craig did a lot of TV work, as did Carol Ohmart. Marshall appeared in a few notable films, but this was the last of Julie Mitchum's seven credits. 

Verdict: Much, much better than the remake. ***.