DRAGSTRIP RIOT

Gary Clarke and Fay Wray

DRAGSTRIP RIOT (1958). Director: David Bradley.

Rick Martin (Gary Clarke) was once in trouble with the law and his mother (Fay Wray!) and grandfather (Ted Wedderspoon) are forever afraid he'll do something stupid. Rick innocently ignites the ire of Bart Thorson (Bob Turnbull) because the latter covets the former's girlfriend, Janet (Yvonne Lime of I Was a Teenage Werewolf). To get even with Rick, Bart falls in with a motorcycle gang of toughs who also have a grudge against Rick, leading to a dangerous game of chicken involving two cars and an onrushing train; a death dive off a cliff; and a free-for-all rumble on the beach where the true bad guys are finally routed. None of this is as exciting as it sounds due to a slow pace -- even a race is kind of dull. Affecting a Jean Harlow  "platinum blond" hair color, Clarke makes a sensitive enough hero; Wray, light-years from King Kong, is fine as his mother; and there are more than acceptable performances from Turnbull, Lime, John Garwood as Silva, leader of the gang, and others. Connie Stevens [Hawaiian Eye] plays Marge, one of Janet's pals, who gets in a "cat fight" with Silva's brunette moll at one point; and Steve Inhat is cast as "Dutch," another biker, but is given little to do; he was also in Date Bait with Clarke. Connie also sings a song and there's another musical number as well. In one unintentionally hilarious scene, Rick looks around the beach for Janet as if she's nowhere in sight when a subsequent shot shows her not only just a few yards away but screaming her head off! It's equally humorous that the rumble, which supposedly takes place in an isolated spot, turns out to be happening right near the kids' hot spot, "Mom's."

Verdict: Slightly more entertaining than watching paint dry. *1/2.

DATE BAIT

Marla Ryan and Gary Clarke

DATE BAIT (1960). Director: O'Dale Ireland.

Sue (Marla Ryan) is in love with Danny (Gary Clarke), a boy of whom her parents disapprove, even though he certainly seems nice enough. A nasty character named Brad (Dick Gering) thinks of Sue as his personal property, and sics his older brother Nico, a drug dealer, against Danny. This doesn't stop Sue and Danny from eloping, and their wedding night scene is rather well-played. Gary Clarke appeared in Missile to the Moon and other movies, and Steve Inhat, in a smaller role, was mostly a busy television actor. Marla Ryan was also known as Marlo-with-an-O Ryan but she had few credits, whatever the spelling. This super-cheap melodrama doesn't have much to recommend it, although some of the acting isn't terrible, and Clarke and Ryan prove competent and reasonably appealing. O'Dale Ireland also directed High School Ceasar.

Verdict: Save it for a rainy Sunday and then watch something else. *1/2.

HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER

HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER (1958). Director: Herbert L. Strock.

"An artist must have no fear."

When make up artist Pete Dumond (Robert H. Harris) is let go by the studio because new executives claim horror films aren't making any money, he hypnotizes the actors playing a teenage Frankenstein (Gary Conway of Burke's Law) and werewolf (Gary Clarke of Missile to the Moon and Michael Shayne) into murdering his bosses. Dumond metamorphoses from a kindly professional into a nasty maniac who slaughters anyone who gets in his way. Robert Shayne plays an agent; Morris Ankrum is a cop; Malcolm Atterbury is a security guard; and Thomas Browne Henry plays a director. John Ashley plays himself in a brief musical guest appearance. The last ten minutes, which are in color, feature a lot of Paul Blaisdell creations hanging in Dumond's workshop as examples of his art. In his only starring role in movies, Harris -- a busy television actor of the period --  is excellent, and Paul Brinegar is fine as his cowering assistant Rivero. As you would expect, the make ups are great.

Verdict: Fun primarily because Harris delivers. ***.

MISSILE TO THE MOON

MISSILE TO THE MOON (1959). Director: Richard Cunha. 

Missile to the Moon is one of a series of astronauts-encounter-beautiful-women-on-a-sinister-planet films of the fifties, which include Queen of Outer Space, Fire Maidens of Outer Space, and Cat-Women of the Moon (of which Missile is a loose remake). None of these would be considered great movies, but they are fun to watch if taken in the right spirit. For one thing, many critics over the years seem to have ignored the fact that these films – certainly Missile to the Moon – were made for juvenile audiences. Some critics, such as Bill Warren in his entertaining “Keep Watching the Skies!,” rant about the ineptitudes of the film and its dumb science, which seems besides the point when you consider that it is clearly a fantasy “comic book” movie geared for children. Missile is actually entertaining in its own dopey way, far more so than its model Cat-Women of the Moon. We have a collection of gorgeous women trapped in an oxygen-rich cavern inside the moon; a giant spider “dark monster” that eats sacrifices; rock monsters that blend in with cliff walls and then pull away to clunk after their victims; a cat-fight between the heroine and the moon bitch who has her eye on the hero; and the enormous bosom of said bitch Nina Bara, who stabs her leader (or “Lido”) in the back so that she can be ruler of the dying (all the men are gone) little moon community. Years before he made this film Richard Travis co-starred with Bette Davis in The Man Who Came to Dinner; his career went on a downslide that never quit (at least Jim Davis, who had been with Bette in Winter Meeting, eventually wound up on TV's Dallas). In Missile Travis plays a scientist who inadvertently goes along with his girlfriend (Cathy Downs), their colleague who built the rocketship, and two escaped convicts on a trip to the moon. Tommy Cook is fairly vivid as the nasty little Gary, and Gary Clarke is competent as his fellow jailbird, Lon. Laurie Mitchell, who played the Queen of Outer Space, has a small role in this and gets eaten by the unconvincing, wiggly prop spider and Marjorie Hellen, another one of the moon gals, betrays some sensitive acting skills that are generally unappreciated in movies like this. (Later she changed her name and became better known as Leslie Parrish.) Nina Bara chews up the scenery (some might say she acts with her breasts) but she's undeniably vital if not downright operatic. Travis merely proves that he really wasn't much of an actor. Several alleged beauty contest winners were chosen to fill out the cast but they are merely decorative; not one of them gets to say a line. Cathy Downs gets the best dialogue: Looking around at the gorgeous moon women, she says “ If I'd known there was going to be this kind of competition I'd have undressed for the occasion.” {DVD available from Image Entertainment. Includes some interesting publicity and backstage shots in a photo gallery extra.} 

Verdict: Entertaining nonsense. **1/2.