MASTER OF THE WORLD

Vincent Price

MASTER OF THE WORLD (1961). Director: William Witney.  

In 1868 a man called Robur (Vincent Price) takes off in a heavier-than-air craft, the Albatross, with an international crew and several prisoners, including agent John Strock (Charles Bronson of Crime Wave), munitions manufacturer Prudent (Henry Hull of Werewolf of London), his daughter, Dorothy (Mary Webster), and her fiance Phillip (David Frankham of The Return of the Fly). Robur has decided the only way to create a lasting peace is to bomb war ships and fighting armies. Strock and the others do their best to ground his ship and put him out of action.

Frankham, Webster, Hull, Bronson

Master of the World is loosely based on two late Jules Verne novels. Screenwriter Richard Matheson has turned Robur into a variation of 20,000 Leagues' Captain Nemo. Although Robur may have been a bit crazy in the books, he did not have the same mission as Nemo. Arguably the best thing about this movie is the performance of Vincent Price, who invests the project with a dignity it probably doesn't deserve. Frankham is also good, Bronson is solid, Mary Webster is more decorative than anything else, and Henry Hull is, in a word, awful. Attempting a comic portrayal from the beginning, he is merely annoying. The movie starts out as a light comedy and its transformation into a thriller isn't always convincing. 

the Albatross in flight

William Witney, the great serial director, is at the helm and there are a couple of exciting sequences, most notably when Frankham and Bronson are lowered on ropes from the Albatross and nearly careen into trees and mountain tops. The philosophy of the film is a bit muddled -- no one ever points out the sheer illogic and hypocrisy of Robur's actions. Trying to stop war is an admirable goal but doing it by killing peacetime sailors and blowing up armies is hardly the way to go about it, yet Master tries to turn this idiot into some kind of tragic anti-hero. 

Verdict: Half-baked, modestly entertaining sci fi film actually has little to do with Verne. **1/2. 

BLOODHOUNDS OF BROADWAY (1952)

BLOODHOUNDS OF BROADWAY (1952). Director: Harmon Jones.

Hillbilly and Hood: Mitzi Gaynor; Scott Brady

Bookie "Numbers" Foster (Scott Brady) is temporarily on the lam with his buddy, Harry (Wally Vernon), when they break down on a back road in Georgia. Coming to their rescue is the cute hillbilly gal, Emily (Mitzi Gaynor), who has just presided over the funeral of her grandpappy.  Left alone in the world, and with Numbers thinking she's a mere child, she agrees to go with him back to New York, along with her two adorable bloodhounds, Nip and Tuck. But will Numbers' girlfriend, Yvonne (Marguerite Chapman), who perjured herself on the witness stand for his sake, take kindly to the fact that Emily  -- who is no child -- is now part of his life?

Nip and Tuck

Supposedly inspired by Damon Runyan-like situations, Bloodhounds of Broadway is an amiable musical with winning performances and a very creaky plot line even for the fifties. The digitally remastered DVD, which also includes a lengthy interview with Gaynor, features brilliant Technicolor and fine cinematography by Edward Cronjager [House By the River]. The score consists of some standards like "I Got a Feelin' You're Foolin'," which features some fancy footwork, and a few mediocre new tunes. "Get along home, Cindy" features some sharp dancing from Gaynor and little Sharon Baird, and "Jack of Diamonds" is an inventive and colorful production number.

Richard Allan, Mitzi Gaynor, Mitzi Green

Gaynor and Brady [Mohawk] make a good team, and there's some notable support from Chapman (who has a brief skirmish with Gaynor in a dressing room sequence); Michael O'Shea as a cop; Mitzi Green (formerly the child star "Little Mitzi") as Harry's sister Tessie; and Richard Allan [Niagara] as Charlie -- Green and Allen are also featured dancers and are, as they say, swell. Mary Wickes has a cameo as a woman who can't grasp that a diaper (or "didy") service is only a front for a bookie joint, and Charles Bronson has a few lines as one of Numbers' gunsels. The two bloodhounds nearly steal the picture and are given a very cute final moment as one pooch steals a smooch from the other. Harmon Jones also directed Princess of the Nile.

Verdict: Not much of a script,. but this is easy to take for the most part and nice to look at. ***.

FEDERAL MEN / TREASURY AGENTS IN ACTION

"Have you paid your taxes?" Walter Greaza

FEDERAL MEN (aka Treasury Agents in Action/1950 - 1955.

This long-running fifties crime drama, consisting of 190 half hour episodes, looked at various, supposedly true cases investigated by the Treasury Department, under whose jurisdiction came everything from tax evasion to counterfeiting to smuggling. Each story was introduced by Walter Greaza as the somewhat stern chief, who is out to get you if you dare to cheat on your taxes. (One can see him putting sweet little old ladies in prison for failing to report bingo money!) If this program sounds a little dull, be forewarned that some of the episodes, standard looks at standard crime cases, are just that. But the best episodes of the series (at least the ones I've seen) focus just as much if not more on the human drama as on the crimes involved, looking into the desperate lives of people who sometimes feel they have no other option but to break the law.

"Lonely People:" Frances Rafferty and Skip Homeier

One of the best episodes is "The Case of the Lonely People," in which a father and daughter team ensnare a crippled veteran (Skip Homeier of Stark Fear) in a scheme to cash stolen veteran's checks, a scheme that becomes complicated when the vet and the daughter fall in love. Homeier and Frances Rafferty [Money Madness] give outstanding and sensitive performances. Homeier was also terrific in "The Case of the Princely Pauper," playing a no-good guy from a once-wealthy family who smuggles in cheap rings and other goods, with his clients paying inflated prices when they think they're getting a bargain.

"Buried Treasure:" Byron Foulger

Another excellent episode is "The Case of the Buried Treasure," in which a once-shady man and his wife bury booty they don't wish to declare to the IRS only to find out when they dig it up years later that it's become riddled with mold. Still, they do their damnedest to get rid of it. Byron Foulger [The Black Raven] and Vivi Janis give notable performances in this. There were other memorable episodes as well. In "The Case of the Leather Bags" Joanne Davis nicely plays a washed up cruise singer who helps her boyfriend smuggle heroin. "The Case of the Man Outside" details how some prisoners are actually able to make counterfeit money while inside a penitentiary, and the fate of the head of the shop who only wants to keep his nose clean and get parole.

"Steady Hand:" Gloria Talbott

Gloria Talbott guest-starred in "The Case of the Steady Hand," playing a woman who has trouble accepting that her boyfriend is both a crook and a creep. Douglass Dumbrille plays a theatrical impresario who pretends his books all went up in smoke when the IRS comes a'calling in "The Case of the Slippery Eel." Paul Langton is a married hood and tax dodger who falls hard for a classy opera singer, only to learn she's of common stock herself in "The Case of the Perfect Gentleman." Charles Bronson plays an agent who is ordered to murder a man in "The Case of the Deadly Dilemma."

John Stephenson 

Several different actors portrayed Treasury, IRS and Customs agents over the years depending on the episode's target: Ross Martin, Harry Landers, Harry Lauter, and Richard Travis, among them. John Stephenson played Agent Grant in many episodes, although he did even more voice-over work for cartoons than he did live-action, everything from The Flintstones, The Jetsons and Duck Dodgers to G. I. Joe, X-Men, and Jonny Quest. As for star Walter Greaza, both before and after this series he was mostly cast as judges, cops and psychiatrists.

Verdict: Remember to pay your taxes! **3/4.

THE SHERIFF OF COCHISE / UNITED STATES MARSHALL

John Bromfield

THE SHERIFF OF COCHISE (1956 - 1958)/ UNITED STATES MARSHALL (1958 - 1959).

The Sheriff of Cochise was a modern-day "detective" show that metamorphosed in its second season into United States Marshall [aka U. S. Marshall) when the main character went from being a sheriff in Cochise County, Arizona to a Marshall in Tucson. John Bromfield stars as Frank Morgan, a no-nonsense lawman who was also a veteran of the Korean War. About a dozen or so episodes of the series are available on DVD or on youtube. In "Lynching Party" James Best is accused of murder when he is confronted by his girlfriend, Gloria Talbott's, angry old man. In "Trigger Happy," Martin Milner is accused of murdering the man he was sent to arrest; Jean Allison and Donna Douglas are also in the cast and are notable, as is Milner. Charles Bronson is vivid as a soldier who goes on the warpath in the well-done "Pursuit," with Abbie Shelton and Robert Fuller. "Helldorado" finds the sheriff protecting gambler Robert Horton during an annual celebration week, with Frank Ferguson as an excitable old codger who lost a lot of money. Other guest stars on the show include Joan Taylor, Jack Lord [in a fine turn as a hard-bitten killer], Kathryn Card from I Love Lucy, Michael Landon, Michael Connors, and Ric Vallin. In movies such as Three Bad Sisters and The Big Bluff, handsome star Bromfield was usually a sleazy, sexy character who was busy lovin' up and two-timing the women. In this series he's the good guy, stalwart and brave, and he's fine, but the character is humorless -- and dateless. The producers should have brought in a few femme fatales for Bromfield to fool around with and vice versa -- it might have made the show more interesting and more fun. It's as if the part were created for Broderick Crawford, the homely star of Highway Patrol! The show was produced by Desilu.

Verdict: Standard but reasonably entertaining intrigue. **1/2.  

RICHARD DIAMOND, PRIVATE DETECTIVE Season 1

Janssen as the urbane Richard Diamond

RICHARD DIAMOND, PRIVATE DETECTIVE Season 1. 1957.

In this popular series which lasted four seasons, David Janssen plays a New York City private detective, a former cop, who's a lot more polished and urbane [if somewhat less interesting]  than Mike Hammer. While one can't imagine Hammer fitting in at a society party, that's not the case with Diamond. The first season only had twelve episodes, but they were interesting enough to make the public want more. The best of these episodes were "The Peter Rocco Case" [with Charles Bronson], in which a woman wants Diamond to find her son, an escaped convict who is gunning for Diamond; and "The Venus of Park Avenue," in which a young woman claims that a valuable ancient statue is actually of more recent vintage. The first had very good twists, and the second was very suspenseful. Most of the other episodes, while not as good, were at least a "B' in quality. Regis Toomey plays a police detective in most of the episodes. Diamond was created by Blake Edwards. The theme music is notable, especially the music that plays over the closing credits. Janssen's rather large ears are sometimes a distraction, but he's good in the role.

Verdict: This has possibilities. **1/2.