SPIN A DARK WEB

Sister and brother: Domergue and Benson 

SPIN A DARK WEB (1956). Director: Vernon Sewell. 

Jim Bankley (Lee Patterson) hopes to get a start in the fight game, but is willing to take anything. His friend, Buddy (Robert Arden), arranges for Jim to meet his boss, Rico Francesi (Martin Benson), but he particularly ignites the interest of Rico's sexy sister, Bella (Faith Domergue of Where Danger Lives). One of Rico's flunkies, McLeod (Bernard Fox), is told to pay a relatively benign call on a boxer, Bill (Peter Hammond), who refused to take a dive, but violence ensues, and Bill is killed. Jim is also involved with Bill's sister, Betty (Rona Anderson), who is appalled that he is now working for Rico. Things begin spiraling downward from there, with Jim regretting that he ever got involved with this mob, and Bella determined to hold on to him -- at any cost. 

Lee Patterson and Rona Anderson 

Spin a Dark Web is the kind of British thriller I would normally review on my brother blog B Movie Nightmare, but this picture is a little bit different. The main difference is a highly interesting cast. Lee Patterson was a Canadian actor who had quite a list of credits in British "B"s before landing a gig in the American private eye show Surfside Six and doing US TV work and soap operas thereafter. He gives a solid performance in this as a man a bit on the shady side who still has some principles. Faith Domergue [Dah-mure], a Howard Hughes discovery (and more) in her teens, became a cult figure due to appearances in such films as It Came from Beneath the Sea and This Island Earth. She gives a good performance in this although one might have wished she came on a lot stronger in certain sequences, but Joan Crawford she wasn't. Martin Benson was in everything from The Cosmic Monsters to Gorgo to Goldfinger and always fit the bill. Robert Arden was the leading man in Orson Welle's Mr Arkadin/Confidential Agent, and he scores in this supporting part as well. Pleasant and pretty, Rona Anderson appeared in numerous UK movies. 

Spin a Dark Web has a good (if familiar) story and is generally well-paced, although with better and tighter editing and more use of close-ups the climax could have been a real nail-biter. Domergue and Patterson play well together.

Verdict: Domergue is not so "dah mure" in this! ***.

WHERE DANGER LIVES

 Robert Mitchum, Faith Domergue, Claude Rains

WHERE DANGER LIVES (1950). Director: John Farrow. Screenplay by Charles Bennett.

"Oh, Jeff, what's going to become of us?"

Jeff Cameron (Robert Mitchum) is a young, compassionate doctor who is called upon one evening to treat a woman who has attempted suicide. Margo Lannington (Faith Domergue of It Came from Beneath the Sea) seems to have everything to live for -- beauty, wealth, a luxurious home -- but the man she calls father (Claude Rains of The Passionate Friends) seems a little too dominating. Although Jeff already has a girlfriend in nurse Julie (Maureen O'Sullivan), he soon falls under the spell of sexy Margo, and wants to run away with her. But he discovers there's a major complication and that Margo hasn't exactly informed him of everything ... Before long they're taking a wild journey to Mexico.

Domergue and Mitchum 

Where Danger Lives, with a script by Hitchcock collaborator Charles Bennett, is unpredictable, so I won't reveal any of the plot twists that will keep the viewer completely absorbed for the film's relatively short length -- but the movie plays. Mitchum and Domergue both offer extremely competent Hollywood-style performances, meaning they are good but often perfunctory, not adding the shadings or nuances that other actors might have. Claude Rains, with only one scene, pretty much takes the acting honors, but that is to be expected. O'Sullivan, who was married to director John Farrow, has a small and thankless role. This is one of many, many movies in which  an essentially decent man (or what is at least meant to be) leaves a good woman flat to run off with a sexier female. Mitchum also appeared in the more famous film noir Out of the Past, but this is the better picture.

Verdict: Zesty film noir with sexy Domergue not having to share billing with a giant octopus. ***. 

THIS IS MY LOVE

Linda Darnell and Rick Jason

THIS IS MY LOVE (1954). Director: Stuart Heisler.

Vida Dove (Linda Darnell) lives with her sister, Evelyn (Fatih Domergue) and brother-in-law, Murray (Dan Duryea), and their two small and adorable children.  Vida was originally Murray's girlfriend, but he married Evelyn instead and the two formed a dance team until Murray was in a car crash. Now a bitter and often nasty paraplegic, Murray owns a coffee shop where the two sisters are waitresses. Vida has been engaged for several years to a likable lunkhead named Eddie (Hal Baylor), but one day Eddie brings a handsome friend, Glenn (Rick Jason) into the restaurant with him. Suddenly all of Vida's romantic fantasies center on Glenn, but she may have to contend with her own sister's desires just as she had once before, all leading up to one unspeakable act ... The fascinating and unfairly forgotten This Is My Love combines seriously dysfunctional families, unrequited love triangles, sibling rivalry, twisted passions, extreme loneliness and jealousy, and even cold-blooded murder into an absorbing and unpredictable 90 minutes of melodrama. The movie and the performances are on occasion more overwrought than they need to be, but given the situations and the raw emotions they engender that can certainly be forgiven. Linda Darnell gives an excellent performance, and a highlight is an absolute meltdown she has when she realizes she may again have to take a back seat to her sister. Although comparatively inexperienced next to Darnell, Rick Jason (of TV's Combat) not only looks swell but is right up there with his more famous co-star in the scenes they have together. (I confess that while |I watched this movie, I was convinced that Glenn was being played by serial star Judd Holdren, who is also in the movie, and who greatly resembles Rick Jason. Apparently Holdren has the very small role of a doctor; I blinked and missed him.)  Domergue [Young Widow] is also very effective as the not necessarily bad but clueless sister, and Dan Duryea almost walks off with the movie as the crippled man who loves his wife desperately but is also so terrified of losing her that he takes it out on everyone around him. Hal Baylor makes the most of his role as nice guy Eddie, whose only crime is that he's just not the romantic figure of Vida's dreams. William Hopper of Perry Mason fame shows up briefly as a district attorney, and the little boy is played by Jerry Mathers of Leave It to Beaver fame. Franz Waxman's score features an excellent opening theme that underscores Vida's romantic thoughts and is nicely warbled at one point by Connie Russell [Nightmare].

Verdict: While many things are left unsaid and unexplored -- let's not forget there are children involved -- and this is not exactly Clifford Odets, it is still a highly interesting and worthwhile picture. ***. 

ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER/ PERVERSION STORY

Jean Sorel

ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER (aka Una sull'altra/Perversion Story/1969). Writer/director: Lucio Fulci.

Dr. George Dumurrier (Jean Sorel) runs a clinic, and is looking after his ill and neurotic wife, Susan (Marisa Mell). After her death, George and his mistress, Jane (Elsa Martinelli), arrive at a nightclub to see a performer named Monica (also Marisa Mell), who could be the twin of the late Susan. George and Jane. through various subterfuges, try to find out if Monica and the supposedly deceased Susan are indeed one and the same. But the police are certain that Susan is really dead -- and that George murdered her. One On Top of the Other is a twisty, far-fetched suspense tale that has an interesting idea (the type of thing that British screenwriter Jimmy Sangster might have come up with) but mediocre execution. The movie features interesting performers but it needs a different musical score and much more tightness in both the direction and editing. Still, there is some tension at the very end. Handsome Sorel [A View from the Bridge] is a good actor who deserved much better assignments than this. Alberto de Mendoza also gives a good performance as George's brother, Henry. John  Ireland [Raw Deal] shows up now and then as a San Francisco police inspector, and a (deliberately) haggard-looking Faith Domergue is cast -- and appears even more briefly -- as George's grieving sister-in-law. Domergue and Ireland both appeared in The House of Seven Corpses five years later, in which Domerque was allowed to look much more attractive than in this.

Verdict: The plot and Sorel keep this going. **1/2.

HALLOWEEN HORROR 2016

Scream for Your Life!

HALLOWEEN HORROR 2016

Well, we've got a huge crop of horror movies for this year's installment of Halloween Horror. There are movies from the forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties, as well as a couple of more recent vintage. Jason Voorhees is back in two installments of Friday the 13th, and we've even got the 2009 gay slasher flick, Hellbent. Plus two movies about Jack the Ripper, one British, one German, and two films about The Town that Dreaded Sundown. You'll also meet The Creeper and the people of Haunts and The House of Seven Corpses. And news about my latest horror epub!

Have fun!

THE HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES

Faith Domergue and John Ireland

THE HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES (1974). Director/co-writer: Paul Harrison.

"Not exactly the Beverly Hilton, is it?" -- Gayle.

Seven murders or suicides took place in an old house where a filmmaker, Eric Hartman (John Ireland of Raw Deal), has come with his cast and crew to make a movie about these events. David (Jerry Strickler) finds a copy of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and star Gayle Dorian (Faith Domergue) reads incantations from it in  the character of a witch. Unfortunately, these incantations get something stirring underneath the ground in the cemetery ... The House of Seven Corpses has a not-bad screenplay but its execution is mediocre. Domergue [Cult of the Cobra] offers the best performance as the likable diva whose career, like Domergue's, is on the downslide. John Carradine [Munster, Go Home!] plays the caretaker of the estate, and Charles Macaulay is vivid as the male lead, Christopher Millan. (He amassed 82 credits and later played both a judge and a district attorney on some of the Perry Mason telefilms.) Carole Wells plays the ingenue, Anne, who is David's girlfriend. Ron Foreman, the make up man and art designer, was drafted to basically play himself. The movie has atmosphere and a few lively moments, but at times it's disjointed and confusing, and the lighting schemes can cause eyestrain. Some amusing dialogue helps. This was filmed at the Utah State Historical Society in Salt Lake City, who probably hoped something a bit better might have come of it. This was the only film directed by Harrison.

Verdict: Watchable but inferior horror flick. **1/2.

CULT OF THE COBRA

CULT OF THE COBRA (1955). Director: Francis D. Lyon. 

In 1945 Asia a group of servicemen observe a secret ceremony of a cult whose women can turn into snakes, and are targeted for death when they return to the states. The architect of their demise is a beautiful woman, Lisa (Faith Domergue, who's not exactly Asian), who seems uncertain if she's doing the right thing -- but does it anyway. The victims are played by such familiar genre actors as Marshall Thompson (Fiend without a Face), Richard Long (House on Haunted Hill), William Reynolds (The Thing that Couldn't Die), as well as David Janssen. Domergue gets across the conflicted feelings of her character even if she's a little too cool at times. Ed Platt of Get Smart appears briefly as one of the cult members. Kathleen Hughes plays Long's love interest, Julia. Cult of the Cobra holds the attention, and while not a horror classic by any means [and not especially horrific in any case], it does have its moments. 

Verdict: More entertaining than it has any right to be. ***.

VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET

VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET (1965). Writer/director: John Sebastian. (Direction of added American scenes by Curtis Harrington). 

AIP took a Russian science fiction movie and made two new movies out of it by adding scenes with American actors: Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet was the first of the two. As astronauts in 2020 explore the planet Venus, Basil Rathbone [yes, Sherlock Holmes!] and Faith Domergue [of It Came from Beneath the Sea fame] communicate with them from HQ and another ship. [Rathbone and Domergue have no scenes together. Rathbone is filmed with two young actors, while Domergue -- with an unflattering beehive hairdo -- is all by her lonesome.] The astronauts encounter a tentacled killer plant, funny hopping rubber lizards [men in costumes], a mechanical brontosaurus, and a phony flying reptile. [There's also a quick shot of a squiggling underwater creature]. One of the astronauts hears a woman's voice as well as music, and they find a statue, shaped like a reptile, that proves Venus had once had a flourishing civilization -- and, the strangely poetic ending would indicate, still does. There's also a big robot -- and a hilarious scene with reel to reel tape [in 2020]! Composer Ronald Stein effectively reuses his music from Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Rathbone and Domergue actually give good performances in their added sequences. However, they can't disguise the fact that the original movie, while not entirely terrible, was probably no world-beater. Followed by Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women. 

Verdict: Rathbone and Domergue deserved better. **.

THIS ISLAND EARTH

THIS ISLAND EARTH (1955). Director: Joseph M. Newman. 

"Ruth, don't tell me that, as a woman, you're not curious about our destination?" 

Scientist Cal Meacham (Rex Reason) is sent instructions on how to build an "interocitor," an amazing machine through which he is contacted by an odd, white-haired man named Exeter (Jeff Morrow). Apparently Meacham has passed a test just by being able to build the machine, and before long he's being flown through fog to an isolated mansion where he finds other scientists working on behalf of Exeter, including Dr. Ruth Adams (Faith Domergue). It will probably come as no surprise to anyone that Exeter is from another planet, Metaluna, in fact, where the climax of the film takes place [as well as in outer space]. While the movie never rises above a comic book level in all matters, on that level it is very entertaining and fast-moving. The scenic design of Metaluna is still quite effective, and it's a neat touch that the planet's cities are located beneath a layer of upper crust. The big insectoid mutants with their grappling hook hands are also neat. Reason is competent, Domergue is lively and sexy as usual, and Morrow, although one could call him hammy at times, plays the material with just the right note. A fifties sensibility to be sure, but colorful and fun. Newman's direction is serviceable but little more. 

Verdict: All systems go! ***.

YOUNG WIDOW

YOUNG WIDOW (1946). Director: Edwin L. Marin.

The very American hotsy totsy Jane Russell teamed in a romantic pairing with the veddy British and veddy cultured Louis Hayward? You wouldn't think of these two together, but somehow it works. Part of the reason is that this film features a more subdued, much less hard-bitten Russell, who gives a very nice performance as Joan Kenwood, who is dealing with her grief over losing her beloved husband in the war. She and an equally effective Hayward play quite well together, despite their obvious differences. But there are even more cast surprises in this film. Penny Singleton of Blondie fame plays a friend and roommate's of Joan's, but she's not the dingbat -- her other roommate Marie Wilson (My Friend Irma) takes that role, and Singleton is sensible! Kent Taylor of The Day Mars Invaded Earth is Joan's boss and Faith Domergue of It Came from Beneath the Sea is another colleague who is afraid to marry a serviceman. Norman Lloyd of Hitchcock's Saboteur [he falls from the Statue of Liberty at the end] is another serviceman, and Gerald Mohr of Angry Red Planet and Funny Girl is another reporter. Also in the cast are Louise Beavers, Connie Gilchrist, Cora Witherspoon, and James Burke, who plays a motorcycle cop in a funny sequence and was also in the classic "The Diner" episode of I Love Lucy. A bizarre moment occurs in a hospital room full of expectant dads where a middle-aged man tells of how he and his wife were trying for twenty years to have a baby. Their luck finally changed when a young serviceman took a room in their place. Hmmm.

Verdict: Entertaining drama has laughs and poignancy in equal measure. ***.

SISTERS-IN-LAW

SISTERS-IN-LAW (1968). Director: Armand DiAntoni.

Filmed in Italy, this surprisingly effective and poignant shocker teams Bette Davis and Faith (It Came from Beneath the Sea) Domergue [pictured] as two women trying to come to terms with each other as they live together in a crumbling mansion a la Baby Jane. But the plot line is very different. Davis was married to Domergue's brother, whose death has always been shrouded in mystery. Many believe that he was murdered by Davis, but her sister-in-law has always maintained that her brother committed suicide. She has other issues with Davis, however, especially her jealousy of Davis' relationship with a handsome, aging gigolo played by Gregor Tanese. Davis is more restrained than usual, turning the histrionics over to Domergue, who is not only credible but fascinating. There are two grisly murders, and a very surprising denouement. To say any more would be criminal.

Verdict: Grand Guignol galore. ***.

IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA

IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (1955). Director: Robert Gordon.

The true star of this movie is special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen and his stupendous stop-motion giant octopus, which attacks ships, snatches people off the shore, destroys the Golden Gate Bridge, and smashes unstoppably through San Francisco in search of squiggling and screaming human food. Flawed by its minuscule budget, the movie nevertheless holds the attention and has some splendid sequences, particularly those shots of soldiers using flame throwers to push back the gargantuan tentacles of the sea beast as they snake through the city. Faith Domergue is fun and sexy as a more liberated kind of lady scientist than usual, while Ken Tobey and Donald Curtis are more or less solid support as, respectively, a Navy sub commander/romantic interest and a colleague of Domergue's. Lots of creepy fun. The DVD, which has an excellent print, also features a documentary on Harryhausen and other extras.

Verdict: Great fun! ***.