BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1962)

Joyce Taylor and Mark Damon

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1962). Diretor: Edward L. Cahn.

Althea (Joyce Taylor) travels with her father, Count Roderick (Dayton Lummis), to a kingdom presided over by the young and recently coronated King Eduardo ( Mark Damon of The Young Racers). Althea, who is affianced to Eduardo, expects a warm greeting but discovers that her fiance is "indisposed" and there is hardly any staff in the castle aside from his chief aide Orsini (Eduard Franz). Althea sees the handsome Eduardo in the morning, but he tells her that their wedding may have to be postponed. It's worse than that -- a curse was placed upon Eduardo by a alchemist who was sentenced to death by Eduardo's father when he refused to share his secrets. Now each night Eduardo grows fur, claws and fangs and becomes a benign if tormented werewolf (of sorts). If Eduardo's nasty Uncle Bruno (Michael Pate) finds out, his regime may come to a decidedly violent conclusion.

Anders, Pate and Burrke

Beauty and the Beast is a rarity in that it's probably the only TechniColor film directed by B Movie maestro Edward L. Cahn. (This was Cahn's last film, as he died the following year.) Mercilessly skewered for its low-budget and a comparison to Cocteau's 1946 film of the same name, on its own terms Beauty and the Beast is a minor but entertaining film that probably works best for young viewers. Taylor and Damon, especially the latter, give good enough performances; Pate and Merry Anders as his gal pal, Sybil, are fine; Franz and Lummis are credible; and Walter Burke gives the most notable performance as the slimy and scheming Grimaldi, servant to Bruno.

Mark Damon. 

The werewolf design is by Ernie Young and the famous Jack P. Pierce. It doesn't look bad, although an unfortunate side effect of the big teeth is that it comically affects Damon's speech. Hugo Friedhofer's musical score is a plus, especially the theme music. A former pop singer and Howard Hughes discovery, Joyce Taylor appeared in Atlantis the Lost Continent and other genre films; her last feature was in 1971. Mark Damon starred in Roger Corman's House of Usher, did many films overseas, and became a producer. Merry Anders was in Hear Me Good and Ib Melchior's The Time Travelers, among others. Beauty and the Beast has a notable climax when the couple race to get married with Bruno's hate-filled followers in rabid pursuit. Edward L. Cahn directed Zombies of Mora Tau and about a zillion others.

Verdict: More than acceptable children's fantasy film. ***. 

THE GAS HOUSE KIDS IN HOLLYWOOD

Wissler, Bartlett, Bond, and Switzer

THE GAS HOUSE KIDS IN HOLLYWOOD (1947). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

In the third and last "Gas House Kids" film the boys drive all the way out to Hollywood to meet their idol, movie detective Lance Carter (Michael Whalen of Blonde Ice). Along the way they encounter the weird Professor Crawford (the equally weird Milton Parsons), who seems to have some plan to revive his deceased associate in his basement. While the boys -- Alfie/Alfalfa (Carl Switzer), Scat (Rudy Wissler), Chimp (Tommy Bond of Hot Rod), and Orvie (Benny Bartlett) -- bunk with the professor, a couple of crooks are looking for loot in Crawford's creepy old house. The Kids importune Lance Carter to help them solve the case when a body turns up in the swimming pool. The Gas House Kids in Hollywood reminds one of the East Side Kids movies as well as the Bowery Boys films -- indeed Bartlett later played Butch in that series -- and is about on the same level if not worse. The one and only highlight of the film is when Rudy Wissler sings the memorable romantic ballad "I'm So in Love with You." The boys' performances are fine, and they get excellent support from James Burke [Body and Soul] as a police lieutenant, among others, but the movie is almost an effort to sit through.

Verdict: Might give you gas! *1/2.

SHAKE, RATTLE & ROCK

Holloway, Dumbrille, Dumont and Helton

SHAKE, RATTLE & ROCK (1956). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

"Rock 'n' Roll is destroying the youth of our nation."

DJ Gary Nelson (Mike "Touch" Connors) is the host of a teen rock and roll program which inspires the ire of a group of old fogies who are offended by its alleged vulgarity. They form the Society for the Prevention of Rock and Roll and the Corruption of American Youth or SPRACAY. The most interesting thing about the movie is that the members of this group include no less than Margaret Dumont [Little Giant], Douglass Dumbrille, and Percy Helton [The Crooked Way], all of whom are marvelous (Dumbrille is especially wonderful in his comic portrayal, but the others score as well). Unfortunately, while these veterans are aware that they are in a comedy, the same cannot be said for Mike Connors and Lisa Gaye as his girlfriend, who display little skill at humor. As Connor's good right hand, Sterling Holloway [Wild Boys of the Road] is pure camp as an early "Maynard G. Krebs" type. Shake, Rattle & Roll tries to have it both ways by trying to be "serious" at times, but it certainly doesn't work in this picture. The movie displays its own prejudices when it introduces a lisping nerd as the voice of classical music (although even he ends up "rockin'" at the end). Some rock and "swing" movies (from an earlier decade) respected classical and operatic music while celebrating the new type of sounds, while others got defensive and put down classical stuff the same way others derided rock 'n' roll; this is in the latter category. Raymond Hatton is fun as Dumont's hen-pecked but eventually liberated husband, Clarence Kolb plays a judge, and Fats Domino sings a couple of numbers. Much more screen time should have been given to Dumont, who can be very, very funny.

Verdict: Very amusing at times, but the fun eventually peters out and a lot of opportunities for great comedy are muffed. **1/2.

PIER 5 HAVANA

Allison Hayes

PIER 5 HAVANA (1959). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

Steve Daggett (Cameron Mitchell) comes to Havana -- right after Castro has taken over -- to look for his missing friend, Hank Miller (Logan Field). Hank is married to an ex-girlfriend of Steve's named Monica (Allison Hayes), who is now keeping company with a character named Fernando Ricardo (Eduardo Noriega of The Beast of Hollow Mountain). Steve's trail leads to Schluss (Otti Waldis of Unknown World), whose warehouse is inexplicably stocking guns. Steve contacts Lt. Garcia (Michael Granger of Creature with the Atom Brain), but he has nothing to pin on Schluss. Then Garcia tells Steve they have found Hank Miller's body -- or have they? Steve discovers that there's a plot afoot to put Batista back in power, and to bomb Havana. The performances are all solid in this cheap melodrama, which is more like an expanded television episode than a movie. Vincent Padula, Rick Vallin, and Ken Terrell all have small roles.

Verdict: It's always fun to see the 50 Foot Woman herself, Allison Hayes. **.

DESTINATION MURDER

Stanley Clements and Myrna Dell

DESTINATION MURDER (1950). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

Jackie Wales (Stanley Clements) is hired by club owner and mob boss Armitage (Albert Dekker) to murder a man named Mansfield. His daughter Laura (Joyce Mackenzie) witnesses the hit, recognizes the shooter, and tries to get more on him for the police by working at Armitage's club as a cigarette girl. Meanwhile Wales thinks nothing of dating the daughter of the man he murdered in cold blood. Wales and Armitage's girlfriend, Alice (Myrna Dell), who actually has a hankering for the club manager Stretch Norton (Hurd Hatfield), have cooked up a very dangerous blackmail scheme. Destination Murder is a snappy and happily unpredictable B crime thriller that just misses being really special. There are good performances by Clements, Hatfield and Dekker [Middle of the Night]; John Dehner as a suspect and potential victim; James Flavin as the Inspector on the case; and especially Myrna Dell [The Lost Tribe] as the calculating and hard-hearted Alice. Dekker takes a belt to Clements' face at one point, and there are other interesting sequences. Hatfield of The Picture of Dorian Gray is quite effective as a gangster type.

Verdict: Absorbing crime thriller with some good and unexpected twists. *** out of 4.

BETRAYED WOMEN

Esther Dale and Beverly Michaels

BETRAYED WOMEN (1955). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

"He'd whack me and I'd belt 'im back. I ain't complainin' -- he was the only guy I ever loved."

Honey Blake (Beverly Michaels) is arrested after her gangster boyfriend, the unseen "Baby Face," is shot down by cops. Honey winds up in a woman's prison which the producers of this film admit is more like Devil's Island than reality. Head Matron Ballard (Esther Dale) is a tough cookie for an old dame, but the real sadist in the bunch is the head guard, Darcy, played by -- of all people -- Sara Haden, or Andy Hardy's sweet old aunt Milly. Other inmates include Nora Collins (Peggy Knudsen) whose boyfriend, Jeff Darrell (Tom Drake), was also her lawyer, only he wouldn't commit perjury to get her off; and Kate Morrison (Carole Mathews), who hid $50,000 for her boyfriend only to learn that he's gone and married another woman. Kate is determined to break out of jail with Honey and grab the loot, but Honey has also sets her sights on all that moolah. There's a prison break, hostages, a run for the swamps, betrayal, and lots of shooting. Betrayed Women is a snappy "B" movie that moves swiftly, isn't completely predictable, and is quite well-acted by the entire cast. Dale is terrific, Drake [The Cyclops] appealing and sympathetic, Haden makes her mark as the nasty Darcy, Knudsen [Hilda Crane]  and Mathews [The Man with My Face] are more than competent, and Beverly Michaels, always vivid and watchable, is especially outstanding in this. This gal should have had a much bigger career, but she left behind some vital and entertaining portrayals. Part of her problem was that she was generally taller than her leading men.

Verdict: Nifty and suspenseful B with some excellent performances. ***.

REDHEAD (1941)

REDHEAD (1941). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

"Somebody must have been fond of children to let you grow up."

T. H. Brown (Frank Jaquet of Meeting at Midnight) wants his son Ted (Johnny Downs) to make his own way in the world, which not only doesn't agree with him but angers a woman he only married in hopes they could get daddy's loot. Instead of getting paid off by her stepfather, however, bride Dale (June Lang) finds herself living with Ted in a hovel, and struggling to make a living as a short order cook while he heads off to a factory. Servant Digby (Eric Blore) went off with the two on their alleged honeymoon and sticks around. Downs [So Red the Rose] is a likable lead, Lang has a lovely moment when she tells Ted she loves him, and Blore and an adorable St. Bernard almost steal the picture. Overall Redhead just doesn't amount to much, though. The very prolific Cahn is probably best known for It, the Terror from Beyond Space. June Lang played oldest daughter Bonnie in what is considered the first Jones Family film, Every Saturday Night. NOTE: This is a remake of a 1934 film of the same title that is believed to be lost.

Verdict: If you like big dogs ... **.

THE MUSIC BOX KID

Luana Patten and Ron Foster

THE MUSIC BOX KID (1960). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

"The crumbs are the easiest kind of guys to knock off."

In 1920s Bronx, Larry Shaw (Ron Foster) is so ambitious for the good life and money that he goes to work as an enforcer for mob boss Chesty Miller (Grant Richards of The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake). His wife, Margaret (Luana Patten), and priest (Dayton Lummis), are dismayed by the kinds of people who pay a call at their home, but Larry is so determined to "make good" that he becomes the head of Miller's murder-for-hire squad. Shaw then hits on the idea of kidnapping Miller and other hoodlums for ransom, making him the target of all the bad guys in the Bronx. The Music Box Kid, said to be inspired by the life of "Dutch" Schultz, would be a fairly standard crime drama were it not uplifted by a terrific lead performance from the talented Foster [Cage of Evil]. Handsome, gifted, and charismatic, Foster had some very good roles but in the wrong, minor movies; he also did a lot of TV work. The "music box" of the title is a tommy gun.

Verdict: Foster is the whole show. **1/2.

CAGE OF EVIL

CAGE OF EVIL (1960). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

Detective Scott Harper (Ron Foster) is bitter because he's been passed over again for a promotion, but the higher-ups feel the man is too free with his fists. Sexy blond showgirl Holly Taylor (Pat Blair) comes upon Harper in his disgruntled state, and cooks up a scheme for the two of them involving stolen diamonds and betrayal. The movie has a good script by Orville H. Hampton (although the narration is unnecessary), but what really puts it over is two very good lead performances from Foster and Blair [City of Fear]. Cahn's direction is typically undynamic. Robert Shayne [The Neanderthal Man], Henry Darrow, and Ted Knight are also in the cast.

Verdict: Rather absorbing low-budget crime drama with good performances. ***.

VICE RAID

VICE RAID (1960). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

Tough gal Carol Hudson (Mamie Van Doren) is importuned to help her sugar daddy Vince Malone (Brad Dexter of Macao) frame vice cop Sgt. Whitey Brandon (Richard Coogan), who is threatening his modeling agency/call girl rackets. But then Carol's innocent, sweet sister, Louise (Carol Nugent) comes to town ... The best performance in this mediocre crime drama is from Barry Atwater as the sinister, kind of sexy Phil, who goes after the sister when he can't get Carol. Van Doren [High School Confidential] is competent, but she isn't riveting, and in this at least lacks that X factor that makes a big star. The other performances are at least professional. Nestor Paiva [Tarantula] has a small role.

Verdict: Low-grade melodrama with mostly minor-league performances. *1/2.

HONG KONG CONFIDENTIAL

HONG KONG CONFIDENTIAL (1958). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

Special Agent Casey Reed (Gene Barry of The War of the Worlds) works in a nightclub in Hong Kong as a singer as his cover. He is told that the Russians have kidnapped the young son, Abdul, of Thamen's King Faid, to force his cooperation in a deal that is also important to the U.S.. Reed is assigned to find the boy, and along the way pretends to be a crook who wants an alliance with Macao gold smuggler Elena Martine (Allison Hayes of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman) and her associates, Chung (Philip Ahn) and Owen Howard (Noel Drayton). Casey's pretty accompanist, Fay (Beverly Tyler) is brought to Macao via subterfuge to put pressure on Reed. Hong Kong Confidential has obtrusive narration that tells us what we're seeing, and is on the level of a cheap TV production, but it does boast a tense scene when Reed, still pretending to be a crook, is told to prove his loyalty by killing the British agent John Blanchard (Michael Pate); the climax is also suspenseful and the movie is fast-paced. The performances are okay, although Hayes, without much of a character to play, seems a trifle bored at times. Ed Kemmer also appears as an old flame of Fay's. When Barry goes into his song and dance routine it looks as if he's doing a parody! Cahn directed a number of cheapie-creepies, some of which, like Voodoo Woman, were a lot of fun.

Verdict: Amos Burke meets the 50 Foot Woman. **1/2.

IT THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE

Peekaboo! The Martian monster on the loose

IT, THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (1958). Director: Edward L. Cahn. Screenplay by Jerome Bixby.

An expedition to Mars picks up the sole survivor, Lt. Carruthers (Marshall Thompson), of the first team to reach the planet. Carruthers is suspected of murdering his team mates so the food would last longer, but he insists they were actually decimated by a ferocious monster [but what about that bullet hole in a skull? everyone wonders]. Said monster becomes a stowaway on  the voyage back to Earth, and pretty soon this new crew discovers Carruthers was telling the truth. The creature absorbs all of the bodily fluids from his victims via osmosis, and is amazingly strong as well. It, an obvious forerunner of Alien, is a taut, adroit little B movie that builds up suspense as the surviving crew members do everything they can think of to stay alive and destroy the monster. Bixby wrote the classic horror story "It's a Good Life" that was adapted by The Twilight Zone. The competent cast members [who sometimes seem to be holding back laughter]  include Shawn Smith [The Land Unknown], Ann Doran, Kim Spalding as the captain, and Dabbs Greer [The Vampire] as a science officer. Thompson appeared in First Man Into Space and many other films of various genres. Cahn directed 125 movies; Bixby wrote a lot for television but did only a few full-length screenplays.

Verdict: Lively, low-budget sci fi horror. ***.

VOODOO WOMAN

VOODOO WOMAN (1957). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

"We're going into the jungle to bring back a secret recipe for borscht -- there's millions in it, ha, ha, ha!"

For reasons that are never quite delineated, Dr. Roland Gerard (Tom Conway) is trying to make a grotesque, super-strong gorilla-like monster (Paul Blaisdell) out of a pretty native girl, Zuranda (Jean Davis) in the jungle; his wife, Susan (Mary Ellen Kay), has come to realize that her husband is seriously disturbed. In the meantime, a cold-blooded woman named Marilyn (Marla English) has enlisted a guide, Ted (Mike Connors) to take her deep into the jungle looking for treasure -- and a fateful meeting with Dr. Gerard. This is an utterly absurd, but highly entertaining horror flick featuring a vivid Marla English, who also starred in Cahn's The She-Creature and the Bel-Air production Three Bad Sisters. This would be a perfect double-bill with Voodoo Island.

Verdict: Lively, fast-paced, and a lot of fun. ***.

CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN

CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN (1955). Director Edward L. Cahn.

With the aid of Dr. Wilhelm Steigg (Gregory Gaye), bitter gangster Frank Buchanan (Michael Granger) revivifies corpses, attaches mind-control circuits to their heads, and sends them out to kill off everyone he wants to have revenge upon. Irradiated with radioactivity, the "creatures" have super-strength and can shrug off bullets. Police doctor Chet Walker (Richard Denning) heads the investigation, which also embroils the D.A. (Tristram Coffin of King of the Rocket Men and The Night the World Exploded), the mayor (Pierre Watkin of a zillion items) and Walker's colleague, Captain Harris (S. John Launer). Scripted by  Curt Siodmak, Creature with the Atom Brian boasts an interesting and creepy premise, fast, adroit direction from Cahn, and players who are at the very least professional.

Verdict: Fun movie with a nifty idea. ***. 

THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE

THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE (1959). Director: Edward L. Cahn. 

This gleefully and surprisingly gruesome old movie is a melange of boiled heads, sandals made of human skin, fingertips that have skulls branded on them, ancient Jivaro Indian curses, and 200 year-old men whose blood is mixed with the poison curare. Ever since an ancestor wiped out a tribe of Jivaro Indians after they beheaded an associate (the witch doctor escaped, however) the men in the Drake family have been dropping dead around their 60th birthday. Although their deaths are attributed to heart failure, their heads are always missing when they go into the family crypt. Jonathan Drake (Eduard Franz) is the last surviving male member of the family, and his daughter Alison (Valerie French) and policeman Jeff Rowan (Grant Richards) try to find out what's going on, as does the family doctor, Bradford (Howard Wendell). Meanwhile Dr. Emil Zurich (an absolutely splendid Henry Daniell), a family friend, offers tea and sympathy -- and more? You might wonder why the curse lets its victims live 60 long years instead of killing the men off in their twenties. Orville H. Hampton, who wrote the screenplay, also did the script for Atomic Submarine and many others. French co-starred with Glenn Ford in Jubal and with Gene Barry in The 27th Day. She also had a smaller role in The Garment Jungle. Paul Cavanagh appears briefly as Drake's brother. The effectively blaring score is by Paul Dunlap. 

Verdict: Heads you'll like it. ***.

THE SHE-CREATURE

THE SHE-CREATURE (1956). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

AIP certainly collected an unusual group of actors for this weird little movie. Chester Morris (who gives a very good performance) is the mentalist Carlo Lombardi, who claims that he can regress his beautiful assistant Andrea (Marla English of Three Bad Sisters) three hundred years into a past life. For reasons that are never made clear Lombardi also regresses her back even further in a -- as he puts it -- "transmigration of the soul of a living woman into her first life body." Apparently her soul first inhabited a female prehistoric sea creature of some kind (at least it keeps coming out of the sea) that is alternately invisible, transparent, and finally very much solid and homicidal, leaving many battered corpses in the movie's best scenes. Timothy Chappel (Tom Conway), whose wife (Frieda Inescort) is a fan of the occult, teams up with Lombardi to make him a household name and both of them rich even as the murders of the she-creature continue. Cathy Downs, the wife of The Amazing Colossal Man, plays Chappel's daughter Dorothy, who is dating Dr. Erickson (Lance Fuller, who was in This Island Earth), another doubting Thomas. Rounding out the cast, Ron Randell is a police lieutenant, Frank Jenks is a sergeant, Jack Mulhall is a lawyer, and William Hudson (from Colossal Man and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman) is a snickering party guest. Paul Blaisdell both designed and plays the she-creature; her appearance is amusing and scary at the same time. This oddly likable movie has atmosphere and some creepy scenes, even if it doesn't make much sense.

Verdict: For monster/horror/B movie aficionados only. **1/2.

CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN

CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN (1958). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

This was one half of a double bill of two films directed by Cahn and written by Jerome Bixby (most famous for the short story "It's a Good Life," adapted on The Twilight Zone in 1961.) The other, much more successful feature was It! The Terror from Beyond Space, but Faceless Man is not without interest. Taking his cue from old Mummy movies, Bixby fashioned a story wherein an encrusted slave, Quintillus Aurelius, buried during the eruption of Vesuvius in Pompeii is unearthed and brought to a museum in the city (he is not actually a mummy but rather is covered with crusted mud). Radiation from the earth and from an X-ray machine bring the slave back to life, and - wouldn't you know it? -- the reincarnation of the woman he once loved (Elaine Edwards) is conveniently nearby, the fiancee of Dr. Paul Mallon (Richard Anderson). Also involved in the action -- what there is of it -- are Mallon's old girlfriend Maria (Adele Mara), her new boyfriend Dr. Ricci (Gar Moore) and her father Dr. Fiorillo (Luis Van Rooten), among others. The picture isn't terrible, but a lot of it isn't that well-staged, and it never quite comes to a full boil. The storyline is interesting, however, the acting sufficient, and Gerald Fried's music adds some excitement now and then.

Verdict: Disappointing but not awful cheapie creepie. **1/2.

ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU

ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU (1957). Director Edward L. Cahn.

This cheapie creepy has a interesting premise. An old woman (Marjorie Eaton) lives in an isolated area of Africa where she has been told her husband has been seen walking about as one of the "living dead." He was only one of many over the years who tried to acquire an underwater treasure – diamonds – that is guarded by a whole slew of zombies. The woman not only hopes to find the man, but also to help his restless spirit move on by destroying the diamonds. Other characters include the old lady’s granddaughter (Autumn Russell), who has come for a visit, and an expedition of several people who hope to find the treasure. These individuals include Morris Ankrum and Alllison Hayes of Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman fame. Although in Woman Hayes displayed a fair amount of acting ability that made you wonder what else she could do, in Zombies her distinctly limited performance makes you understand why she wound up in movies like Woman – and Zombies. Still, she’s reasonably vivid as the trampy wife of the expedition’s leader (George Harrison), who she’s married to, but who doesn’t mind if she gives associate Gregg Palmer a passionate kiss right in front of him. Palmer is suitably beefy as the nominal hero. "You old hag!" Hayes shouts at Eaton, "You’re dead already and you don’t have sense enough to know it!" The production values are on a cheap TV show level, and one wishes that there had been some attempt to make the zombies a bit more horrific-looking, but they manage to provide enough suspenseful menace in the final scenes.

Verdict: Worth a look if you’re not expecting too much. **.