GUN GIRLS

Timothy Farrell and Eleise Cameron

GUN GIRLS (1957). Writer/Director: Robert C. Dertano.

"Do you mean we went to all that trouble for a measly fourteen bucks?"

"Why you low-down tramp!"

Dora (Jacqueline Park) has fallen in with a bad crowd, most notably tough blond, Teddy (Jeanne Ferguson), who buys guns and plans a heist with her. Dora's cute boyfriend, Jimmy (Calvin Booth), who happens to be the younger brother of Dora's parole officer, begs her to stop hanging out with Teddy. Joy (Eve Brent of Fade to Black) is importuned by Teddy to help them rob the warehouse where she works, and they prove the most inept gang of robbers on the planet. Joy is pregnant by low-life Joe (Timothy Farrell) who sells the girls guns and seems to have a different woman every hour, including Trixie (Eleise Cameron), of whom he says, "things like her wash up on the beach every night." Can these girls be saved ...? Most of the "girls" in this haven't seen their teenage years in quite a while and in general the acting is so amateurish that the cast read their lines like they're little kids. Timothy Farrell, who had a similar role in Girl Gang, at least has a brusque appeal, and Jacqueline Park has some good moments during a hospital scene towards the end. Calvin Booth isn't bad but George Graham is perhaps overly earnest as his brother. Harry Keaton is a bit more professional than the others as Luke, an associate of Joe's. One of the funniest scenes out of many features a cat fight between Joy and Trixie. Amazingly the psychological explanation for gang activity actually makes sense.

Verdict: Terrible, yet strangely entertaining. **.

FADE TO BLACK

Dennis Christopher and Linda Kerridge

FADE TO BLACK (1980). Writer/director: Vernon Zimmerman.

"I can't imagine the creature who would want to marry you. Who is this unlucky girl?"

A frustrated film buff nerd, Eric (Dennis Christopher), who lives with his monster of an aunt (Eve Brent), dresses up as famous movie characters and kills off his alleged enemies in manners relating to the pictures he loves. Fade to Black has a great premise -- if only it hadn't all been left up to undistinguished writer-director Zimmerman, for the movie is painfully slow-paced with a dull, dragged-out climax; 25 minutes of the film's running time should have been cut. The production is also rather cheapjack. That leaves it to the actors to make the film even remotely entertaining, and Christopher does a good job in the lead. Veteran actors James Luisi and Norman Burton make the best impression as, respectively, a police captain and Eric's boss, but there are also good moments from Immortals' Mickey Rourke (in an early film appearance) and Linda Kerridge, as a Monroe lookalike; she was "introduced" in this picture but only made a few more film appearances. Eve Brent (Forty Guns) overacts horribly as Eric's Aunt Stella.  There's at least one good scene -- a mob-style attack in a barber shop on an unethical producer -- and a Psycho shower scene spoof is slightly amusing. Tim Thomerson is a cokehead idiot psychiatrist named Dr. Moriarity; Gwynne Gilford is a cop named Anne; and Peter Horton is a guy on the make for Kerridge.

Verdict: Fade to Black all right. **.

FORTY GUNS

FORTY GUNS (1957). Director/writer/producer: Samuel Fuller.

Joseph F. Biroc's sweeping, beautiful, CinemaScope photography is one of the major assets of this highly unusual and generally unpredictable western starring Barry Sullivan as a U.S. Marshal named Griff Bonnell. Griff comes to town with his two brothers Wes (Gene Barry) and Chico (Robert Dix), and comes into contact -- and conflict -- with powerful rancher Jessica Drummond (Barbara Stanwyck). John Ericson is Jessica's swaggering, nasty, out of control brother Brockie, who takes a terrible vengeance on the Bonnell boys. There are very good performances in this from all the named principals, but Dean Jagger is especially noteworthy as the sheriff who has an unrequited yen for Jessica. Eve Brent has a nice turn as the gal-- handy with a gun herself -- that Wes falls in love with. There's a terrific scene with a tornado that nearly sweeps Griff and Jessica into the next world, as well as some suspenseful gun battles. Forty Guns just misses being a really great picture; one senses some important scenes were shortened or left on the cutting room floor. Still, it's a pleasant surprise. Barney's (Jidge Carroll) song numbers are okay but a little disconcerting; this was his only film.

Verdict: Flavorful tale of the old west. ***.