DRAGONWYCK

Gene Tierney and Vincent Price

DRAGONWYCK (1946). Written for the screen and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Colorized. 

In the mid-19th century Miranda Wells (Gene Tierney) is sent for by her sort-of cousin, Nicholas Van Ryn (Vincent Price), who invites her to live at his Catskills estate Dragonwyck with his wife, Johanna (Vivienne Osborne) and daughter, Katrine (Connie Marshall of Wake Up and Dream). Katrin's parents hardly pay attention to the lonely child, but there's an attractive doctor named Jeff Turner (Glenn Langan) who is kind to both the girl and her companion, Miranda. Unfortunately Miranda falls not for the doctor but for Nicholas, and it isn't too long before Mrs. Van Ryn falls ill ...  Miranda discovers it is all too true to "be careful what you wish for." 

Vincent Price and Glenn Langan

Based on an old-fashioned gothic novel by Anya Seton, Dragonwyck is an earnest if sometimes silly melodrama that is bolstered by some very good acting and, especially, an outstanding score by Alfred Newman that richly embellishes every sequence (although some may fell the film is over-scored). As the haughty patroon who lords it over the resentful tenant farmers (including Harry Morgan in a good turn) Price gives a good if theatrical performance that is full of dramatic flavor but isn't always convincing. Tierney is excellent throughout, and Glenn Langan make his mark as the good doctor. Langan was talented enough that he shouldn't have wound up in The Amazing Colossal Man (although it mut be said that he gave a strong performance in that). Walter Huston and Anne Revere score as Miranda's simple Connecticut parents, and Spring Byington has an unusual role as a somewhat sinister and gossipy maid named Magda. Jessica Tandy [A Woman's Vengeance] is fine as Miranda's crippled maid, Peggy, who comes in for Nicholas' cruel scorn. The picture is beautifully colorized. 

Verdict: Well-acted, entertaining, and with a great score. ***.

TREASURE OF MONTE CRISTO

Eternal starlet: Adele Jergens

TREASURE OF MONTE CRISTO (1949). Director: William Berke.

Edmund Dantes (Glenn Langan) is a sailor just off a ship in San Francisco who encounters a sexy blonde named Jean Turner (Adele Jurgens). Jean tells Ed that she is an heiress, and she has escaped from a sanitarium where relatives who want control of her fortune are trying to lock her away. She offers Ed $10,000 if he'll agree to marry her -- which will supposedly prevent the bad guys from stealing her inheritance -- and he complies -- after all, Jean isn't exactly bad-looking. But after the marriage takes place Ed winds up accused of murder, and Jean is nowhere to be seen. When she is finally located, Jean Turner turns out to be an different woman entirely ... Treasure of Monte Cristo is an interesting, if minor, bit of film noir with an absorbing plot line (one angle prefigures a sequence in the later Homicidal). Langan [The Amazing Colossal Man] offers a good performance as a man in serious trouble, while Jergens [The Fuller Brush Man] is a cut below him as the femme fatale in question. Steve Brodie is notable as an associate of Jergens'. The title treasure figures in the convoluted story and the finale, although the movie isn't really about a treasure hunt. Albert Glasser contributed a typically brassy and effective score. Langan and Jergens were wed in real life two years after this film came out and had one of Hollywood's rare long-lasting marriages until his death forty years later.

Verdict: Attention-holding minor-league film noir with some good performances. **1/2 out of 4.

The Midnite Drive-In presents The Film Noir Blogathon. [I wouldn't necessarily consider Sunset Boulevard to be film noir, but it does have a handsome hero whose life is turned upside down by a woman, even if she's hardly a "hot" blonde!

THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN

"It's growing!" Kate Reid and Arthur Hill

THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1971). Director: Robert Wise.

Project Scoop, which collects organisms in space, crashes to earth  in a small town in New Mexico. Everyone is killed by a plague from an organism inside the scoop aside from an old man and a baby, both of whom are taken to a secret Nevada base known as "Wildfire," which was created to contain deadly biological alien entities. Inside the base several scientists try to figure out why these two particular humans survived, and to determine the exact nature of the organism that killed everyone else, and how it was transmitted. It is decided to wipe out the town with a bomb, but will that be such a good idea ...? The Andromeda Strain, based on a novel by Michael Crichton ["Micro"], was one of the first of the technological sci fi/medical thrillers, and it's a pip, well-directed by Wise and very suspenseful. [The movie Alien owes a lot to Andromeda's climax with its destruct mechanism that only allows a short time to cancel it]. Arthur Hill as the head of the team offers his usual competent if bland performance; James Olson, David Wayne and Paula Kelly are a bit more flavorful; and Kate Reid [A Delicate Balance] is simply outstanding as the grouchy, dyspeptic Dr. Ruth Leavitt -- she's a a real asset to the movie. Glenn Langan [The Amazing Colossal Man] has a small role as a politician and is fine. Remade as an A&E mini-series in 2008.

Verdict: Taut, creepy, and fascinating. ***1/2.

99 RIVER STREET

Evelyn Keyes and John Payne

99 RIVER STREET (1953). Director: Phil Karlson.

Ernie Driscoll (John Payne) is a bitter prize-fighter and current cab driver whose career ended when he received a serious injury to his eye. Driscoll also discovers that his unsatisfied wife, Pauline (Peggie Castle), is having an affair with a diamond thief named Victor (Brad Dexter). Then an aspiring actress he knows, Linda (Evelyn Keyes), tells him that she's in trouble, leading to the movie's best scene, which is, unfortunately, only midway through the movie. One clever if unlikely sequence isn't enough to save this standard potboiler, where Driscoll has to settle accounts with Victor while dodging police because of an incident with Linda -- and worse. Payne and Keyes are okay, as is Frank Faylen as Driscoll's buddy, but Castle [Beginning of the End] makes a better impression and Dexter is terrific as a smiling homicidal reptile, matched by Jay Adler as the man who engineered the diamond heist but now won't pay off. Michael Ross, the space giant and bartender in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, appears as a cabbie and Glenn Langan [The Amazing Colossal Man] is a theatrical producer. Keyes made a better impression in The Killer that Stalked New York but Dexter is much more vital in this than he was in Macao.

Verdict: Unimpressive film noir despite some decent moments and one surprise. **.

ONE GIRL'S CONFESSION

ONE GIRL'S CONFESSION (1953). Writer/producer/director: Hugo Haas.

Waitress Mary Adams (Cleo Moore) steals money from her guardian-employer, whom she feels cheated her late father, confesses the crime [without giving up where the money is] and goes to jail. When she gets out she gets another job as a waitress, this time working for Mr. Damitrof (Hugo Haas). When the latter gets into serious financial trouble, she tells him where the stolen loot is, leading to some very ironic complications. This is one of seven films Haas directed that starred Cleo Moore, who was not his wife but was obviously one of his favorite co-stars. Moore is okay, but let's just say she's no Barbara Stanwyck and leave it at that. Haas proves to be a better actor than he was a writer or director, although this picture is at least unpredictable and entertaining. Glenn Langan [The Amazing Colossal Man] plays a fisherman Mary dallies with, and Mari Lea is snappy as Damitrof's girlfriend "Smooch."

Verdict:  Perfectly okay B movie melodrama. **1/2.

WOMEN OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET

WOMEN OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET (1966 ) Writer/director: Arthur Pierce.

"My superior officer asked for volunteers for an important expedition -- I thought he said exhibition."

When Cosmos 3, the sister ship of Cosmos 1, crash lands on the planet Solarius, Admiral King (Wendell Corey) disobeys orders and lands on Solarius to search for survivors. Not to be confused with Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet or Queen of Outer Space (not to mention Prehistoric Women and Untamed Women, for that matter, and other space movies with sexy long-legged aliens), there are no savage groups of space babes or cave gals in the movie. Instead some characters search the planet while encountering assorted dangers -- including a pitiful gecko that is supposed to be a monster [but is at least referred to as a "giant lizard" instead of a dinosaur], and a toy tarantula about the size of a dinner plate -- while in the meantime pretty Linda (Irene Tsu) encounters Tang (Robert Ito) and begins a romance that has a mild touch of charming lyricism to it (as well as a cute chimpanzee). You feel sorry for the actors because the entire cast gives the film a lot more than it deserves. Wendell Corey of Desert Fury certainly deserves a better fate, as does Paul Gilbert, who basically plays the same girl-crazy comedy relief that he did in So This is Paris. "I've been on a diet for seven days and so far all I've lost is a week," he says. John Agar is cast as Dr. Farrell and Glenn Langan of The Amazing Colossal Man appears briefly as the captain of the crashing ship. Keith Larsen is Commander Scott, who doesn't trust Centaurians such as Linda. The music is lifted from a variety of Universal's science fiction films and others. The ending employs the absolutely hoariest of science fiction cliches.

Verdict: Like a bad episode of sixties Star Trek. *1/2.

HANGOVER SQUARE

HANGOVER SQUARE (1945). Director: John Brahm.

George Harvey Bone (Laird Cregar in his last film appearance) is a composer in late 19th century London who is distracted from working on his serious music by his infatuation with a pretty singer, Netta (Linda Darnell), who pressures him with kisses to write songs for her. But Bone has a bigger problem -- in that loud sounds send him into a psychotic trance and lead him into violence (which is made clear in the very first scene). Although it is not a mystery in the classic sense, Hangover Square is undeniably a well-crafted suspense film that holds the attention and rarely telegraphs what's coming next. One outstanding sequence has Bone hauling a dead body up to the top of a Guy Fawkes day bonfire (Brahm put a similar sequence in The Mad Magician in 1954 but it was not as effective). The climax of the film features Bone's concerto (actually composed by Bernard Herrmann, whose score for the film is excellent), a striking and unusual work, as "modern" as it is "romantic." Linda Darnell looks great and gives a saucy, fine performance as Netta. Cregar is, frankly, a bit disappointing, lacking the passion -- for both his music and Netta -- that the part requires. George Sanders scores, as usual, as a police psychiatrist. Glenn Langan of The Amazing Colossal Man fame has little to do as Netta's suitor, but does it well. Faye Marlowe is lovely and more than competent as a student of Bone's who loves and fears for him. With a stronger lead performance and some extra touches this might have emerged a masterpiece. Very well photographed by Joseph LaShelle.

Verdict: Fascinating and macabre. ***1/2.

THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN

THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (1957). Director: Bert I. Gordon. Written by Gordon and Mark Hanna.

AIP rushed out Gordon's Amazing Colossal Man to take advantage of the success of the superior Incredible Shrinking Man, but on its own terms, Colossal is a creditable effort. Glenn Langan plays Colonel Glen Manning, who is observing a plutonium bomb test from a safe distance when a small plane crashes in the vicinity. Manning bravely rushes in to see if the pilot is alive, and gets caught in the full force of the blast. (Stan Lee essentially lifted this sequence to create an origin for The Hulk.) This makes his cells go out of whack – he heals with great rapidity but his cells keep on growing, until he becomes a literal giant. Eventually he loses his mind, rampages through downtown Las Vegas, and is (presumably) killed near Boulder Dam. Despite some ludicrous detours, this is an “intelligent” B movie with excellent performances from Langan and Cathy Downs as his heartsick fiancee. Langan had played romantic leads and second-leads in such films as Dragonwyck with Vincent Price and Margie but his career was on the downslide (he didn't make a film for eight years after Colossal and had to go to Italy to do so), and it isn't improbable to wonder if he used his anguish over faded career opportunities to empower his performance as the tormented Manning. (“What sin could a man commit in a single lifetime to bring this upon himself?” Manning wonders.) Unlike those who are crippled or disfigured, Manning couldn't possibly reenter society in any realistic manner. Gordon's low-rent FX work features a see-through colossus, but there is an effective moment involving a giant hypodermic needle.

NOTE: Continued in the review of the sequel, War of the Colossal Beast.

Verdict: Not bad at all. ***.