JUBILEE TRAIL

JUBILEE TRAIL (1954). Director: Joseph Kane.

A dance hall gal who calls herself Florinda (Vera Ralston) and a "nice" gal named Garnet (Joan Leslie), recently married, develop an unexpected friendship that lasts from 1845 New Orleans to California in the days just before and after it became a state and on the verge of the Gold Rush. The main story of this meandering "epic" from Republic pictures has to do with Garnet's brother-in-law trying to kidnap her young son after her husband's death, and the chaos that results. Along the way there are Indians on the warpath and assorted romantic complications. Richard Webb, Forrest Tucker, Buddy Baer, Barton MacLane and Jim Davis are also in the cast. Pat O'Brien has a notable turn as "Texas," a kind-hearted drunk with a secret. Leslie is okay as Garnet; Vera Ralston is oddly appealing as Florinda. Jubilee Trail isn't awful but it isn't memorable, either.

Verdict: A trail you may not want to wander along. **1/2.

AUNTIE MAME

Rosalind Russell as Auntie Mame

AUNTIE MAME (1958). Director: Morton DaCosta.

In 1928 little Patrick Dennis (Jan Handzlik) enters a whole new world when his father dies and he is turned over to his free-spirited Auntie Mame (Rosalind Russell), who is best friends with dipsomaniac actress Vera Charles (Coral Browne) and believes in unconventional teaching methods. Mame has a love of life and craves new experiences, which she shares with Patrick. But when an older Patrick (Roger Smith) gets engaged to a young lady from a narrow-minded family, will Mame be able to show her nephew the error of his ways? Auntie Mame is a delightful, very well-acted comedy with a message of accepting the unconventional that's delivered without hitting the audience over the head. Russell and Brown take the acting honors -- Russell is especially superb -- and there are also fine performances from little Handzlik, Smith, Forrest Tucker, Peggy Cass as Agnes Gooch, Connie Gilchrist as Mame's housekeeper (who sort of disappears when Gooch arrives), Joanna Barnes [The Parent Trap] as Patrick's weird fiancee, Lee Patrick as her mother, and Pippa Scott [As Young As We Are] as Pegeen, who comes to work for Mame. We also have the versatile Henry Brandon [Babes in Toyland] as Patrick's strange teacher. [Frankly, nowadays most sensible people would have a problem with the school Brandon runs.] In addition to some great dialogue and very funny scenes, the movie has a sub-text of exposing and denouncing prejudice. Based on a very successful stage play, this was turned into the musical, Mame, which was also filmed.

NOTE: Just found out that there may be another remake of this picture with the rather androgynous Tilda Swinton playing Mame [!?].

Verdict: Great and classic comedy. ****.

COUNTERPLOT

Allison Hayes

COUNTERPLOT (1959). Director: Kurt Neumann.

Brock Miller (Forrest Tucker) is hiding out in San Juan after being accused of murdering a man in New York who owed him money. He has befriended a boy named Manuel (Jackie Wayne), and has a girlfriend, a singer, named Connie (Allison Hayes). Fritz Bergmann (Gerald Milton) a portly lawyer and apparent owner of the club where Connie works, has knowledge that might clear Brock, but there's interference from the victim's business partner, Ben Murdock (Richard Verney). Spargo (Miquel Angel Alvarez) tries to play both men against each other for a price. It all comes together for a final shoot-out. Counterplot has some good acting in it, especially from the dynamic Milton, and Allison Hayes, the 50-foot Woman herself, is warmer and more sympathetic than usual. Jackie Wayne is a talented and appealing child actor who appeared in the original stage production of "Damn Yankees;" Counterplot is his only movie credit. Milton was mostly a television actor who also appeared in Unknown Terror. Forrest Tucker [Fresh from Paris] basically plays the same dull "Forrest Tucker" character. Photographed by Karl Struss [Sunrise], who did many films with director Neumann .

Verdict: A melodrama that holds the attention but never quite catches fire. **1/2.

THE CRAWLING EYE/THE TROLLENBERG TERROR

Peekaboo!

THE CRAWLING EYE (aka The Trollenberg Terror/1958). Director: Quentin Lawrence. Screenplay by Jimmy Sangster.

In 1956 British TV presented a six-part sci-fi thriller entitled The Trollenberg Terror, directed by Quentin Lawrence but with a different cast [apparently this TV production is lost]. Two years later a feature-length film of the same title was released, renamed the juicier Crawling Eye for American distribution. Two young ladies who do a mind-reading act, Sarah (Jennifer Jayne) and Anne (Janet Munro) Pilgrim, are heading for Geneva by train, but get off at the small village of Trollenberg due to Anne's compulsion to do so. Another passenger named Alan Brooks (Forrest Tucker) also disembarks and they all go to the hotel, where they learn that there have been a series of terrible mountain-climbing tragedies. High on the Trollenberg mountain there is an observatory that is researching cosmic rays, and has observed a radioactive cloud that moves about as if it were being directed ...  Alan remembers similar incidents in the Andes, and that certain people with psychic abilities, like Anne, could be manipulated by whatever beings there are in the cloud. Speaking of which, said cloud starts moving down towards the hotel, blocking off escape, and the creatures inside reveal themselves ... The Crawling Eye is a suspenseful, creepy movie with some interesting notions (such as corpses being reanimated and going after victims with cleavers), headless bodies, and surprisingly convincing monsters that figure in the climax. The actors are all good, with Laurence Payne particularly effective as the reporter Prescott, and Tucker managing to summon up some energy in his portrayal of the hero; Jayne and especially Munro are also convincing, although Warren Mitchell is perhaps a little too weird as Professor Crevett. The movie has its share of illogical and silly moments, but it's still a superior "creature feature."

Verdict: If it blinks, watch out! ***.

KEEPER OF THE FLAME

Tracy confronts Hepburn

KEEPER OF THE FLAME (1942). Director: George Cukor.

A wooden bridge collapses in a rain storm and famous philanthropist, beloved war hero,  and would-be politician Robert Forrest is killed when his car crashes into the ravine. Journalist Stephen O'Malley (Spencer Tracy) wants to write an admiring biography of the man, but he senses that people in Forrest's inner circle are strangely alarmed by his interest and doing their best to keep secrets from him. He finally gets to meet Forrest's widow, Christine (Katharine Hepburn, who doesn't appear until 25 minutes into the running time), and she at first wants no part of him or of his project. But she relents. But the more O'Malley digs, the more he suspects something strange is going on, and the more he is drawn to the attractive young widow ... Keeper of the Flame is one of the most compelling films to feature the duo of Tracy and Hepburn, and, as usual, they play very well together. Tracy is excellent throughout, and while Hepburn is a touch stagey at times, she also gives a very good, underplayed performance. Also notable are Margaret Wycherly as Forrest's senile and desperate mother; Richard Whorf [later a director] as Kerndon, Forrest's associate; Audrey Christie as Jane, a fellow reporter who's carrying a torch for O'Malley; and Forrest Tucker as Christine's over-protective cousin, Geoffrey. Donald Meek, Frank Craven and Stephen McNally are also first-rate in smaller roles, as is Darryl Hickman as a young boy greatly affected by Forrest's death and befriended by O'Malley. Keeper of the Flame not only works as a first-rate and unusual suspense item but illustrates the dangers of blind hero-worship, and is still interesting enough to have transcended whatever its original political motivations may have been. William Daniels' cinematography is an added bonus. This was Christie's first credit. She was also in Carousel but mostly did work in television.

Verdict: A top triumvirate of Tracy, Hepburn and Cukor. ***.

FRESH FROM PARIS

FRESH FROM PARIS (aka Paris Follies of 1956/1955). Director: Leslie Goodwins.

"If I thought there was any other woman, I'd leave you and the show as flat as yesterday's pancakes."

Dan Bradley (Forrest Tucker) has high hopes for his new supper club, Moulin Rouge in Hollywood, but he has two major problems: First, his lead singer, Margaret (Margaret Whiting) is threatening to walk out if she catches him with another woman and he's just proposed to his lady love, Ruth (Martha Hyer); Second, the fellow who is backing the club (Lloyd Corrigan) is not a wealthy entrepreneur but a loony with no money. Filmed at the actual Moulin Rouge nightclub this film hasn't much plot but it manages to be entertaining in spite of it and has some pleasant song numbers. Tucker, who you wouldn't think would be a good fit for this type of material, is at his most amiable; Hyer is pretty and competent; and Whiting -- although certainly devoid of Hollywood-style beauty -- is a very good singer. Other acts include the Sportsmen and a talented tenor named Frank Parker. Perky Barbara Whiting, Margaret Whiting's sister, also plays her sister in this movie. [The sisters later co-starred on the summer replacement sitcom Those Whiting Girls.] Goodwins directed everything from The Mummy"s Curse to Mexican Spitfire at Sea, one of the best of that series.

Verdict: Not as much fun as Tucker's The Cosmic Monsters, but not terrible. **1/2.

THE COSMIC MONSTERS

THE COSMIC MONSTERS (1958/aka The Strange World of Planet X and The Cosmic Monster.) Director: Gilbert Gunn. 

"Insects! Oh mon dieu -- No!" 

 Gil Graham (Forrest Tucker) and sexy French computer expert Michele Dupont (Gaby Andre) suspect that something is going wrong with an experiment by a colleague who is altering the molecular stability of metals with a field that is expanding far beyond the confines of the laboratory. Boy, are they right! -- which is confirmed by a visitor from outer space (Martin Benson) who warns them of their potential destruction. The field not only drives men mad, but has mutated all manner of yucky insects into slavering, hungry giants! The best scene has Ms. Dupont caught in a giant spider web even as pretty new teacher Miss Forsythe (Patricia Sinclair) is trapped in the school house by crunching, aggressive creepy-crawlies. The Cosmic Monsters is talky at times and very low-budget, but it has a certain unsavory zest in its insect scenes and is generally well-acted. Based on a novel by Rene Ray. 

Verdict: You can't beat those bugs! ***.

BOSTON BLACKIE GOES HOLLYWOOD

BOSTON BLACKIE GOES HOLLYWOOD (1942). Director: Michael Gordon. 

Reformed thief Boston Blackie (Chester Morris) is suspected of stealing a valuable item and winds up going into disguise, with his buddy "The Runt" (George E. Stone), pretending to be a child. A very young Forrest Tucker plays a thug and Lloyd Bridges has a bit. Constance Worth is the dame. The film is well performed, for what it is, but even for a "B" movie it's decidedly on the minor side. Some mildly amusing vignettes and very little real action add up to a programmer that you practically forget even while you're watching it. 

Verdict: At least it doesn't last very long. **.

THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN

THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN (OF THE HIMALAYAS/1957). Director: Val Guest.

Fairly absorbing story about group of men who climb high into the Himalayas to find the mythical creature, the Yeti. Stars Peter Cushing and Forrest Tucker give strong performances, the former as a principled and decent man of science, and the latter as an unprincipled entrepreneur who hopes to exhibit the snowman for profit. The movie has its eerie moments once they encounter the creatures, who are not fully seen until almost the very end. Other good performances are given by Maureen Connell, who plays Cushing's wife, and Arnold Marle as the inscrutable but surprisingly feisty Llama. If there is any problem with the movie it's that it eventually becomes quite talky. Some might also feel that its turning the Yeti from monsters into noble creatures is a tad pretentious. Still, this is not bad at all. Greatly bolstered by Arthur Grant's atmospheric photography and Humphrey Searle's dramatic musical score.

Verdict: Love those Yeti! ***.