CRY OF THE CITY

Richard Conte and Victor Mature

CRY OF THE CITY (1948). Director: Robert Siodmak. Colorized. 

Career criminal Martin Rome (Richard Conte) is laid up in the hospital after a bank job -- during which he shot a cop --goes awry. Lt. Candella (Victor Mature) learns that a woman (Debra Paget)  came to see him and is determined to discover her identity. Could Rome have had something to do with a jewel robbery in which an elderly woman was beaten and strangled? Others involved with Rome include shifty lawyer Niles (an excellent Berry Kroeger); Nurse Frances (Betty Garde), who does Rome a big favor; gal pal Brenda (Shelley Winters); and sinister masseuse Rose Given (Hope Emerson). When Rome breaks out of jail there will be more than one death attributed to him.

A lady to watch out for: Emerson and Conte

Richard Conte gives a good performance in this but Victor Mature is even better. One could easily complain that the film is full of cliches -- a hood with an adoring younger brother (Tommy Cook) and heart-broken mother (Mimi Aguglia), for instance -- but the film is so well-written, acted and directed that it just doesn't matter. Everyone is perfectly cast and at the top of their game. This is another film in which those two hefty, homely and gifted actresses Garde and Emerson both appear, although they have no scenes together in this as they do in Caged. Garde is good but Emerson is outstanding in her portrayal of a truly slimy female reptile. Fred Clark and Roland Winters are also notable in smaller roles, as is Walter Baldwin as inmate Orvy. 

Betty Garde deals with Mature while Clark and Conte look on

This unpredictable movie has several memorable scenes: the suspenseful  business when Rome breaks out of his prison hospital cell; a violent confrontation in Nile's office between the lawyer, Rome and an unfortunate secretary who gets too nosy; and the tense subway stand-off between Rome and Candella with Emerson getting in the way. Alfred Newman contributes an exciting score and the film is shot by Lloyd Ahern Sr.

Verdict: Terrific film noir with a great cast. ***1/2. 

PRINCESS OF THE NILE

Debra Paget and Jeffrey Hunter

PRINCESS OF THE NILE (1954). Director: Harmon Jones.

Egypt 1249 A.D. Princess Shalimar (Debra Paget of The River's Edge) is supposedly confined to the palace, but she sneaks out at night via an underwater passageway and becomes the super-sensual dancer, Taura. It is in the tavern where she dances that Shalimar first encounters equally gorgeous Prince Haidi (Jeffrey Hunter of Man-Trap) of Bagdad, as well as the nasty Bedouin, Rana Khan (Michael Rennie). Shalimar's weak father is under the thumb of his shaman (Edgar Barrier), who is in league with Rama Khan and would also like Haidi out of the picture. After all sorts of palace intrigue, Khan tells Shalimar he will spare her loved ones if she will marry him, a fate truly worse than death ... Princess of the Nile offers a starring role for Paget, who gives an authoritative and sexy performance; a hot love couple in Paget and Hunter (who is equally good and quite romantic); two "bodies beautiful" for the price of one; and also boasts solid work from Rennie, Barrier, and Wally Cassell as the good-humored slave, Goghi. Dona Drake [Beyond the Forest] is also on hand as a helpful handmaiden and good friend to Shalimar. (Other handmaidens include Merry Anders and Honey Bruce Friedman of Dance Hall Racket). Billy Curtis plays the lovable little guy, Tut. Princess of the Nile is a minor film, but it is fast-paced and entertaining (and quite short at 70 minutes) and both the locales and attractive leads are very nice to look at in Technicolor. Six years later Paget was cast as Cleopatra's Daughter. Harmon Jones also directed Gorilla at Large. 

Verdict: Two sexy lead actors never hurt. **1/2. 

PRINCE VALIANT

Robert Wagner

PRINCE VALIANT (1954). Director: Henry Hathaway.

Hal Foster's newspaper comic strip Prince Valiant  -- which debuted in the late 1930's and is still published today -- was given lavish treatment by 20th Century-Fox with Technicolor and CinemaScope. Valiant (Robert Wagner of Titanic) is the Viking son of the exiled King Aguar (Donald Crisp). Hoping to restore his father to his throne, Val travels to the court of King Arthur, where he hopes to become a knight. Arthur (Brian Aherne) tells him that he must be a squire first, and he is   assigned to Sir Gawain (Sterling Hayden of The Star). Valiant falls in love at first sight with the beautiful Princess Aleta (Janet Leigh of Psycho), but, alas, Gawain falls instantly in love with her himself even as her sister, Ilene  (Debra Paget) pines for him. An added complication is a sinister and mysterious Black Knight, who has men who are loyal to him and wishes Arthur's throne for himself. Prince Valiant is a beautifully-produced movie which boasts one of Franz Waxman's richest and most  elaborate scores, as well as exquisite cinematography from Lucien Ballard. The performances are fine, and James Mason -- although this is arguably not one of his more memorable roles -- adds a nice touch as Sir Brack, who may have a few secrets (none of which will be surprising to the audience). In its early years the Prince Valiant strip had fantastic elements such as sorcery and monstrous giant beasts, but by the fifties the strip was more realistic and the film adaptation follows suit. There is, however, a well-choreographed and fiery battle scene, and a splendid and protracted sword fight between Val and Sir Brack. Ultimately, how much you enjoy the movie depends on how much you like the time period and the comic strip. Prince Valiant was never my cup of java, but the movie is still impressive in many ways.

Verdict:  Beautiful production values and not a bad story. ***.

DEBRA PAGET, FOR EXAMPLE

DEBRA PAGET, FOR EXAMPLE (2016). Writer/director: Mark Rappaport.

Debra Paget was one of a legion of Hollywood contract players who did star in several movies but never really became stars. This strange documentary looks at her career, and shows clips from her -- and others' -- movies. This short documentary -- if you can call it a documentary -- has no interviews with people who knew or worked with Paget, including Paget herself, who is still living. Instead her alleged thoughts are voiced by an actress throughout the film. Paget's official birth was in 1933, which would have made her only fifteen in her first movie, with the much-older Richard Conte as her love interest (as he would be again in House of Strangers.) Paget looks older in some films, and in others she clearly is a child doing love scenes with older men. Paget was often cast in exotic roles as island princesses and the like, then got to play "bad girls" in B movies such as Most Dangerous Man Alive. She was a good enough actress, and certainly attractive, but not often given the opportunities that might have netted her awards or a bigger career. 

Journey to the Lost City

Debra Paget, For Example says little about  Paget's personal life aside from her marrying a wealthy Asian (after two previous failed marriages) and retiring from films at 29. Not only does this documentary fail to provide titles for some of the movie clips (aside from a list at the end), it doesn't even mention that Paget was the sister of Lisa Gaye, who was a well-known actress herself. Paget's most famous movie is The Ten Commandments, but she was also in such films as Tales of Terror, Les Miserables, Belles on Their Toes, and Fritz Lang's Journey to the Lost City, in which she danced in a remarkably sexy and revealing costume. Paget's leading men included Louis Jourdan, Jimmy Stewart, Robert Wagner, Cornel Wilde, and Elvis Presley, who wanted to date her, and she also worked with Edward G. Robinson, Jeff Chandler, Vincent Price, Michael Rennie, and many others. The documentary is padded with mini bios of other people Paget worked with, such as Lang.

Verdict: Interesting if uneven and incomplete look at Hollywood starlet. **1/2.

HOUSE OF STRANGERS

Tense date: Richard Conte and Susan Hayward

HOUSE OF STRANGERS (1949). Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

Gino Monetti (Edward G. Robinson) is the opera-loving head of a bank and has four sons, one of whom, the lawyer Max (Richard Conte of Thieves' Highway), he seems to love unconditionally. The oldest son, Joe (Luthor Adler) is bitter that Gino treats him with disdain and employs him only as a poorly-paid bank teller. Pietro (Paul Valentine of Love Happy) resents the fact that his father thinks he's stupid. Tony (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) seems more interested in the ladies than in anything else. Although Max has a pretty fiancee named Maria (Debra Paget), he can't help but be attracted to a zesty, very self-confident lady named Irene (Susan Hayward), who comes to him for legal advice and with whom he enters into a sexy if exasperating love-hate affair. Then Gino discovers that his unorthodox approaches to lending have brought him under the scrutiny of bank officials and he may go to jail. Max has a scheme to get his father out of trouble, but he doesn't reckon with Joe's hatred ... House of Strangers is an absorbing, well-acted drama that just misses being really special, but is still quite worthwhile. Although Robinson is miscast as an Italian, he still gives his customary fine performance, and Conte and Hayward make an arresting couple. Luthor Adler almost walks off with the movie with his quietly ferocious portrayal of deceptively steel-hard Joe. Hope Emerson (Peter Gunn) is fun in a small role as Maria's termagant mother, trading verbal and nearly physical blows with Robinson, whom she towers over.

Verdict: Has quite a few memorable and powerful sequences. ***.

LES MISERABLES (1952)

LES MISERABLES (1952). Director: Lewis Milestone.

Victor Hugo's famous novel had already been filmed with Fredric March and Charles Laughton in 1935 when this remake appeared 17 years later. In this version Michael Rennie stars as Jean Valjean, convicted of stealing a loaf of bread, and later coming afoul of policeman Javert (Robert Newton). This version shows us much more of how ex-convict Valjean transformed himself into the eminently respectable Mssr. Madeleine, but it completely cuts out the innkeepers, as well as the business with Javert getting suspicious when he sees Madeleine lift a carriage off of a man, The chase sequence from the first picture has also been eliminated. What this version substitutes is much more of a romance between Marius (Cameron Mitchell) and Cosette (Debra Paget), and unfortunately it's dull; it also intimates that Valjean might be in love with Cosette. The scene in the sewers has been expanded and is rather well-done. Rennie is just as perfunctory in the opening courtroom scenes as March was, but in general he's competent if unexciting. Edmund Gwenn and Sylvia Sidney both make positive impressions as, respectively, Bishop Courbet and Fantine; Elsa Lanchester and James Robertson Justice are also in the cast and are fine. As Javert, Newton is much more low-key than Laughton was, and about one fifth as memorable. Well-directed by Milestone, and with a memorable theme by Alex North.

Verdict: Interesting, but a cut below the 1935 version. **1/2.

BELLES ON THEIR TOES

BELLES ON THEIR TOES (1952). Director: Henry Levin.

Cheaper by the Dozen was so successful that a sequel was inevitable, despite the fact that the main character played by Clifton Webb died at the end of that movie. In Belles Myrna Loy and Jeanne Crain take center stage as the wife and oldest daughter. Loy's Mrs. Gilbreth, who we learn was also a doctor and engineer like her late husband, is sort of reinvented as an early feminist; Loy seems a little more at home playing the woman than she did in the first picture. Much of the movie details the romantic adventures of daughters Ann (Crain). Martha (Debra Paget), and Ernestine (Barbara Bates). The illegally good-looking Jeffrey Hunter plays a doctor who falls for Ann, and Martin Milner [13 Ghosts] has a smaller role as Al Lynch. The weird butler, Tom (Hoagy Carmichael), seems to have wandered in from a different movie! Verna Felton and Edward Arnold also have roles, the latter as a man who reluctantly goes into business with Loy and has romantic aspirations toward her. Little Jimmy Hunt, who was charming in the first movie, is given no dialogue in the sequel.  At one point the movie threatens to turn into a musical when the whole gang sings a forgettable song about, of all things, beans!

Verdict: Where is Clifton Webb when you need him? **1/2.

MOST DANGEROUS MAN ALIVE

Ron Randell on the rampage

MOST DANGEROUS MAN ALIVE (1961). Director: Allan Dwan.

Eddie Candell (Ron Randell of The Girl in Black Stockings) is framed for murder by an associate, Andy Damon (Anthony Caruso), but he has worse problems. After escaping prison, Candell wanders into a bomb testing area and is exposed to cobalt element X, meaning that his flesh gets infused with the surrounding steel of the bunker. This may make him strong and impregnable, but it doesn't do much for his life expectancy. Most Dangerous Man Alive doesn't do much with its premise [such as The Amazing Colossal Man or even Marvel's Hulk character] and becomes fairly tedious, but it does boast some better-than-average acting from its mostly "B movie" cast, including Randell and Debra Paget (The River's Edge) and Elaine Stewart (The Tattered Dress) as the women in Candell's life; Morris Ankrum is fine as a cop. Dwan directs without a trace of style or panache.

Verdict: Not much to this TV-type cheapie but the actors are game. **.

FOURTEEN HOURS

Richard Basehart and Robert Keith

FOURTEEN HOURS (1951). Director: Henry Hathaway.

A troubled and emotionally disturbed man, Robert Cosick (Richard Basehart), climbs out on a ledge of a New York City hotel and refuses to leave. No one -- not his ex-fiancee (Barbara Bel Geddes), mother (Agnes Moorehead), father (Robert Keith), or a traffic cop named Dunnigan (Paul Douglas) -- can coax him to come inside as others try to figure out who he is and what's upsetting him. Fourteen Hours is well-photographed and well-acted -- Douglas is especially outstanding -- but neither its characters nor psychological undertones are developed in any compelling fashion, and as a thriller it only works sporadically. The big climax is disappointing as well. Still, it holds the attention and has some exciting moments even though it fails to sustain the tension of the situation. (Part of the trouble is that you sense Cosick's problems aren't all that severe. Some feel that he is a gay man struggling with his sexuality in a less-enlightened time period, and while that might certainly fit, the film itself doesn't really explore or confirm this.) Grace Kelly plays a woman in a divorce lawyer's office in a building across the way, while Jeffrey Hunter makes time with another woman (Debra Paget?) down in the crowd -- these unnecessary side stories are not well-integrated into the plot. (The lady Hunter is interested in seems to have concern for Cosick, but why would she actually want to be there to see it if he jumped?) Howard Da Silva plays a testy police chief.

Verdict: Okay suspense film with some good performances. **1/2.

TALES OF TERROR

TALES OF TERROR (1962). Director: Roger Corman.

There really isn't much terror in this light adaptation of several stories by Edgar Allan Poe starring Vincent Price. The dead "Morella" (Leona Gage) blames her infant daughter for causing her death, and when the grown woman, Lenora (Maggie Pierce), shows up to see her father (Price) after many years, Morella seizes the opportunity to take over her body. In "The Black Cat," which also incorporates elements from "The Cask of Amontillado," Montresor (Peter Lorre) walls up his wife (Joyce Jameson) and her lover, Fortunato (Price), but is seemingly haunted by their spirits. "The Case of M. Valdemar" has a dying man (Price again) agreeing to allow mesmerist Carmichael (Basil Rathbone) to hypnotize him at the moment of his death, keeping his soul tormented and imprisoned in his dead flesh. Debra Paget and David Frankham play Valdemar's wife and doctor, respectively. It's great fun to watch old pros Price and Lorre (see photo) sparring with each other, especially during a delightful wine-tasting contest between the two, but the movie itself is mediocre and lacks chills. 

Verdict: Watch this, but then read Poe's original stories for the real spirit of the Master. **1/2.

THE RIVER'S EDGE (1957)

THE RIVER'S EDGE (1957). Director: Allan Dwan.

Ben Cameron (Anthony Quinn) is having a lousy day. His wife Meg (Debra Paget) has decided to leave him, runs off with her old boyfriend Nardo (Ray Milland), and now he's forced to help the pair of them escape over the border because Nardo, who's carrying a suitcase of ill-gotten loot, has committed murder. Well-photographed by Harold Lipstein, the film is enlivened by several startling moments of violence, although it never quite comes to a full boil. Quinn and Milland offer reasonably vivid performances, while Paget, in skin-tight chinos, is mostly decorative. Still it's worth sitting through just to see the nifty way in which evil Milland gets his comeuppance, although most of you will be shouting "Get the money, damn it!"

Verdict: Fast-paced fun, if you don't expect too much. **1/2.