I SAW WHAT YOU DID (1965)

A drink before death: John Ireland; Joan Crawford

I SAW WHAT YOU DID (1965). Produced and directed by William Castle. Colorized.  

Two teenage girls -- Libby (Andi Garrett) and Kit (Sara Lane), plus Libby's younger sister, Tess (Sharyl Locke) -- play a foolish phone game where they either call up and pretend to be a man's mistress (a rather cruel thing to do to the wife) or say "I saw what you did and I know who you are." This causes consternation in one Steve Marak (John Ireland), who has just finished slaughtering his wife, Judith (Joyce Meadows of The Girl in Lover's Lane). The girls drive by Steve's house to see what he looks like, whereupon Libby is violently accosted by Steve's jealous neighbor, Amy (Joan Crawford), who has a hankering for Steve that stays just as strong even after she figures out what he did. Steve discovers that killing is easy for him, and decides to see just what Libby knows about what happened. Just as she's convinced him that she really knows nothing, the truth comes out and the murderous chase is on ... 

Joyce Meadows standing in for Janet Leigh

I Saw What You Did, while not one of Castle's best films, is still better than I remembered it. Despite the fact that the film seems geared for teens, the most interesting sequence is when Castle attempts to duplicate the Psycho shower murder -- which he didn't even do in his Psycho rip-off Homicidal -- when Marak murders Judith. Judith approaches the shower stall where Steven is apparently showering, then he suddenly opens the door, pulls her in, and stabs her repeatedly, finally pushing her out through -- and shattering -- the glass shower door. This is all effective enough, but hardly as cinematic as the scene in Psycho -- Castle's shower murder has only 24 shots. 

Lane, Locke, and Garrett

Crawford gives her customary authoritative performance in this, and one suspects her character was probably not in the novel the film was based on, but was inserted to give Crawford some marquee value. Although Ireland gives one of his better performances, he radiates little actual menace. (Crawford and Ireland also appeared together in Queen Bee, in which the former also lusted for the latter.) Lane and Garrett, introduced in this film, give good performances, and little Sharyl Locke is adorable as Tess. (None of the three went on to have long careers, however.) Others in the cast include Patricia Breslin of Homicidal and Leif Erickson of Strait-Jacket as Libby's parents, and John Archer of Destination Moon as Kit's father. Russ Bender has a bit as a police sergeant. I Saw What You Did is entertaining and fast-moving enough, but it's also a bit "cutesy" and Van Alexander's terrible score is absolutely no help. 

Verdict: Crawford gives it a touch of class. **3/4. 

QUEEN BEE

Joan as Eva Phillips

QUEEN BEE (1955). Written and directed by Ranald MacDougall. Colorized version.      

"Really that Dr. Pearson is absurd. He actually trembles when he talks to me. You'd think he'd never seen a beautiful woman before." -- Eva. 

Although dating Jud Prentiss (John Ireland of The Ceremony), the Yankee Eva (Joan Crawford) sets her cap for Jud's boss, Avery Phillips (Barry Sullivan of Pyro), a wealthy Southern gentleman, and follows him home. Eva lies and tells Avery that she's pregnant, and the "gentleman" literally leaves his fiancee, Sue (Fay Wray), at the church door to run off with Eva. Years later the two are trapped in a miserable, dysfunctional marriage with Avery spending most of his time in his bedroom getting drunk. Ironically, Avery is nicknamed "Beauty" but now has a large scar on his face due to a drunken driving accident. Meanwhile the aforementioned Jud has fallen for Avery's sister, Carol (Betsy Palmer), who positively loathes Eva. Into this miasma of Southern rage and scandal comes Eva's sweet cousin, Jennifer (Lucy Marlow of He Laughed Last), who is moving into the mansion completely unaware of the goings-on. When Eva, who never lets go of a man, finds out that Jud and Carol are engaged, things in the household will get even tenser, if such is possible ... 

Mrs. Vorhees meets Lucy Harbin

Queen Bee is certainly not a perfect movie, but it is a strangely compelling melodrama with a lot going on in the background. Joan Crawford dominates the picture, of course, as she should, and gives a highly effective performance as a rather nasty character who admits what she is but still can't help making excuses for her behavior. If you don't quite believe her when she's showing vulnerability, it's because you can't quite imagine Eva ever being vulnerable in any real sense, although she is not above playing on people's sympathies. 

Cocktails and savagery at the Phillips

As for the rest of the cast, Betsy Palmer stands out as Carol, standing up to Eva/Joan on occasion even as you realize she is just no match for her strong-willed, highly neurotic sister-in-law. Lucy Marlow, with her odd square face, has a couple of unconvincing moments but is basically solid as the ultimately disillusioned Jennifer. (You're not quite certain how or why she falls for the dissolute Avery, and any actress might have a hard time making that convincing.) Fay Wray has one scene as Sue, the jilted fiancee, who seems to have lost herself in never-got-over-it vagueness. Wray is good, but it's hard to imagine that she would ever want anything to do with this couple, let alone have cocktails with them in their drawing room. 

Barry Sullivan with Crawford

The men don't fare as well. John Ireland and Barry Sullivan give rather stilted, rushed line readings as compared to the ladies. William Leslie makes an impression, however, as the handsome and charming Ty, and Jennifer seems demented in preferring Avery, on the verge of cirrhosis of the liver, over this hunk. Katherine Anderson is suitably hard and unpleasant as the nurse who takes pleasure in being nasty to the little boy (Tim Hovey) who suffers nightmares, until the little guy knows "how [the nightmare] ends" at the violent climax. Hovey is as adorable and adept as ever. (A sobering postscript is that the fellow committed suicide at only 44.) Willa Pearl Curtis, as a maid, has a nice vignette when she expresses sympathy to Jennifer over being dumped and muses about her own romantic missteps. Years later Crawford and Palmer both played deranged murderesses, Crawford in Strait-Jacket (at the opening) and Palmer in Friday the 13th. Handsomely shot by Charles Lang. 

Verdict: Crawford in a compelling portrait of a woman who deservedly hates herself. ***. 

THE CEREMONY

Laurence Harvey

THE CEREMONY (1963). Produced and directed by Laurence Harvey. NOTE: Some plot points are revealed in this review.

In Tangier Sean McKenna (Laurence Harvey of Butterfield 8) is being held in prison and and is being prepped for execution. McKenna participated in a bank robbery in which a guard was killed, although he did not fire the shot and apparently tried to stop it. The warden (John Ireland of No Place to Land) and prosecutor (Ross Martin) want McKenna to tell them where the money is, but he refuses. Meanwhile his brother, Dominic (Robert Walker Jr.),  hatches a plot to spring Sean from prison by replacing Father O'Brien (Jack MacGowran) when he comes to give Sean the last rites. But Sean doesn't realize that he must pay a price for his brother's assistance, a price that concerns Sean's girlfriend, Catherine (Sarah Miles).

Sarah Miles and Laurence Harvey

Produced and directed by and starring Laurence Harvey, The Ceremony is, sadly, a mess. What might have been a thrilling picture -- and it does have a couple of exciting sequences -- has been turned into a pretentious allegory, a painfully obvious anti-capital punishment tract whose one-dimensional characters fail to get a grip on the audience. We learn so little about Sean that it's hard to have any sympathy for a bank robber, and since -- whoever fired the shot -- the guard was killed during the commission of a robbery, it's hard to understand why one of the prison staff is so upset at the thought of his demise -- in a completely ridiculous scene all the members of the firing squad refuse to shoot him (or at least the person they think it is). 

John Ireland and Ross Martin

Harvey gives a decent but not great performance. Poor Ross Martin, generally a fine actor, is forced to play the cliche of the "evil" prosecutor who takes extreme pleasure in someone being executed -- he never even comes off as a real person. John Ireland does what he can with another underwritten role, that of the prison warden. Jack MacGowran is incredibly irritating as the fussy and dithering priest who seems half-senile and who continuously talks to himself while saying nothing remotely interesting. Sarah Miles does her best but is unable to bring Catherine, torn between two brothers, to believable life. Lee Patterson [Spin a Dark Web], who appears briefly as a friend of Sean's and Dominick's who helps the former escape, is relatively unscathed. The sensitive, uncredited young actor who plays the prison guard disturbed at the thought of Sean being executed probably comes off best, although his character is also undeveloped. 

Verdict: Interesting cast in rather dull movie sunk by its own pretensions. **.  

WAKE UP AND DREAM

Jun Haver and John Payne

WAKE UP AND DREAM (1946). Director: Lloyd Bacon. 

Jeff Cairn (John Payne) lives with his little sister, Nella (Connie Marshall), on a farm during WW2. Although he could get a deferment, he enlists in the Navy and says good-bye to his sort of sweetheart, waitress Jenny (June Haver). Then a notice comes saying that Jeff is Missing in Action. Nella and Jenny, in convoluted fashion that never quite makes sense, wind up on a drydocked boat built by the old curmudgeon, Henry Pecket (Clem Bevans). With the aid of Howard Williams (John Ireland), Peckett is able to set sail (sans permit or any special plan) and Jenny, Nella and Howard go with him. Nella is hoping they will sail to some beautiful island where she will be reunited with her brother, but instead they wind up literally stuck in the mud. 

Haver with John Ireland 

Say one thing for Wake Up and Dream, one of the oddest musicals I've ever seen, it is unpredictable. Oh it's no great surprise that Jeff turns up alive after missing most of the movie (a pretty much wasted role for Payne),  but other events are not so certain. Payne introduces the song "Give Me the Simple Life" early in the picture, and Haver warbles the pretty "I Wish I Could Tell You" but then in a much later sequence a chorus starts singing "We're Off to See the Wizard" [!] as the group trek into the swamp after a hermit that Nella has discovered. One could argue that the movie offers a message of hope, but when you consider that most men listed as missing in action were actually dead, it's perhaps not in the best of taste. In any case, all of the performances are quite good, including Charlotte Greenwood as a widow who takes in boarders and Irving Bacon as a toll gate attendant. Lee Patrick is in the picture but I must have blinked and completely missed her. Based on a novel by Robert Nathan, this has all the earmarks of a screenplay that was cut and pasted together. Some good dialogue, however. 

Verdict: 20th Century-Fox was no MGM when it came to (semi) musicals. **1/2. 

VENGEANCE VALLEY

Robert Walker and Burt Lancaster 

VENGEANCE VALLEY (1951). Director: Richard Thorpe.

Owen Daybright (Burt Lancaster) was taken in by cattle man Arch Strobie (Ray Collins), when he was a boy, and he grew up with Arch's son, Lee (Robert Walker). Owen has often had to cover for Lee, who can be irresponsible. Lee impregnated Lily (Sally Forrest) --  apparently before he married his wife, Jen (Joanne Dru) -- but Owen has to front for him. This causes Lily's two brothers, Hub (John Ireland) and Dick (Hugh O'Brian), to assume he is the baby's father, and they start gunning for him. Fearing the truth may come out, Owen tells Lee that he should take his wife and make a fresh start elsewhere, but Lee has other plans.

Out for blood: Hugh O'Brian and John Ireland

Vengeance Valley is strange. While this isn't technically a "B" movie, it has all the appearances of one, and aside from the business with the pregnancy,  it plays like something Roy Rogers could have starred in. The acting is all good, although Ray Collins, best-known as the detective on Perry Mason, sometimes seems disinterested. Carleton Carpenter is also in the cast as Hewie, a cowpoke who has a crush on Lily, and he's fine. Ted de Corsia also scores as another rancher who comes afoul of Owen. Director Richard Thorpe doesn't make the most of the film's dramatic moments, but the story is nothing special and doesn't live up to its title. This was Lancaster's first western.

Verdict: So-so western with a very good cast. **1/2. 

ANNA LUCASTA (1949)

Wickes, Goddard, Crawford, and a sleeping Homolka

ANNA LUCASTA (1949), Director: Irving Rapper.

The Lucasta family of Mayberry, PA. consists of daughter Stella (Mary Wickes); her husband, Frank (Broderick Crawford); her brother, Stanley (Whit Bissell); his wife, Katie (Gale Page); the mother, Theresa (Lisa Golm); and her husband, Joe (Oscar Homolka), a rather nasty alcoholic. When Frank discovers that Rudolf Strobel (William Bishop), the son of Joe's old friend, is coming to town to look for a wife and has money to burn, he and Stella come up with the idea of marrying him off to Stella's sister, Anna (Paulette Goddard), who was thrown out of the house because of a simple kiss with a date. Joe is violently importuned to go to Brooklyn to get his daughter back to Pennsylvania, so she leaves her sort-of boyfriend, sailor Danny (John Ireland), and comes back to the crowded suburban home. Just when things seem to be going well between her and Rudolf, whom she genuinely loves, Danny shows up, and her father shows his daughter just how utterly loathsome he can really be.

Anna Lucasta was based on a play of the same name that was originally about a Polish-American family, but which was turned into a play about a black family before its Broadway debut. (Playwright Philip Yordan, who co-wrote the screenplay with Arthur Laurents, was himself Polish-American). It was inspired by O'Neill's Anna Christie in many ways. (It also has some similarities to Miller's later A View from the Bridge.) A London production reinstated the Caucasian family and Paulette Goddard played Anna as she does in the film. Almost a decade after the movie version was released, there was a superior remake with a black cast starring Eartha Kitt.

This version is more of a comedy-drama than the subsequent film. Goddard offers an okay Hollywood-style performance but she can't compare to Kitt who really lives and feels the part. It is made very clear that Anna has become a streetwalker even in this earlier version. If anything, her father's probably incestuous feelings for his daughter seem more overt than in the remake.

The supporting performances are the film's saving grace. You wouldn't think that Broderick Crawford and Mary Wickes would make a convincing husband and wife, but they sure do. Oscar Homolka is outstanding as the father, and there is fine work from Golm as his long-suffering wife. Gale Page makes a perfect, understanding sister-in-law to Anna. Two smaller roles are also of note: Dennie Moore [These Glamour Girls] in a marvelous turn as the bar waitress Blanche; and Grayce Hampton doing a wonderful dignified drunk routine as the soused patron, Queenie.

Verdict: Imperfect if interestingly-cast study of a clearly dysfunctional family. **1/2,

ALL THE KING'S MEN (1949)

Broderick Crawford, Mercedes McCambridge, John Ireland

ALL THE KING'S MEN (1949). Director: Robert Rossen.

All the King's Men traces the parallel rise and fall of Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford of Scandal Sheet) and a reporter, Jack Burden (John Ireland), who's covering his story as he goes up against seemingly impossible odds to become governor. Just as Stark wants to prove himself to the public and his cronies, Jack needs to prove himself to his fiancee, Anne (Joanne Dru), who has been raised by her presumably incorruptible uncle, Judge Stanton (Raymond Greenleaf of Over-Exposed). Stark, however, is certainly not incorruptible, as power goes to his head and his path leads inexorably to tragedy. Others in his orbit include his wife (Anne Seymour); his mistress-associate, Sadie (Mercedes McCambridge); his son, Tom (John Derek); and Anne's brother, Adam (Shepperd Strudwick of Three Husbands). All the King's Men is an absorbing and well-acted film, although none of the players. including Crawford, are especially outstanding (although Crawford and McCambridge won Oscars, along with the picture itself). Ralph Dumke and Walter Burke have smaller roles. The score is by Louis Gruenberg, and Burnett Guffey is director of photography. A similar plot was used for the later A Lion is in the Streets, in which James Cagney also played a Willie Stark-type. Remade in 2006.

Verdict: Solid drama with an interesting cast. ***.

ROUGHSHOD

Gloria Grahame and Robert Sterling

ROUGHSHOD (1949). Director: Mark Robson.

Four ladies of ill repute have been thrown out of Aspen when they encounter Clay Phillips (Robert Sterling) and his younger brother, Steve (Claude Jarman, Jr.) on the road after their wagon breaks down. Clay agrees to take the ladies part of the way, but has to concentrate on taking some horses to his ranch in Sonora. Adding to Clay's woes is the fact that an enemy named Lednov (John Ireland) has escaped from prison with two pals and is gunning for him. Clay also can't quite disguise his disapproval of Mary (Gloria Grahame) and the rest of her companions. Roughshod is an engaging and entertaining picture with some fine performances, especially from Grahame and young Jarman, Jr., both of whom share top billing with Sterling [Bunco Squad], most famous for the TV show Topper, who gives a better performance than expected. (Sterling was handsome and talented enough to have been developed into a major movie star, but his primary credits were on television; maybe he just lacked that certain oomph.) Grahame is as delightful and adept as ever, and Jarman [Intruder in the Dust] proves to be one of the most talented child actors in Hollywood. Ireland offers a chilling portrait of the determined killer, Lednov, and there's nice work from Myrna Dell, Jeff Donnell, and Martha Hyer as the three other "show girls" in the group. Sara Haden, James Bell [Back from the Dead], and Jeff Corey score in smaller roles. There are many affecting scenes in the movie, and a highly satisfying wind-up. Joseph Biroc's cinematography is typically outstanding, and there's a flavorful score by Roy Webb.

Verdict: An  unheralded gem with some fine performances. ***.

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.

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.

CAXAMBU!

CAXAMBU! (1967). Director: W. Lee Wilder.

"Back, Peggy!"

Vince Neff (John Ireland) and his cronies have stolen a bunch of diamonds but need Emil Garrett (Keith Larsen), a diamond cutter from Antwerp, to make them salable. The honest Garrett is appalled by their criminal intentions and tries to take over the plane they're on with the help of his wife, a trained nurse named Peggy (Carol Ohmart). Unfortunately, the result is that they all crash-land in the jungle in an area near Caxambu where headhunters prowl, and where it soon becomes obvious that there is little honor among thieves. The first thing you notice about Caxambu! is that it has a very low budget even for a W. Lee Wilder film. The "sky" in which the plane flies is just a back drop, and when the aircraft crashes it is not a miniature but a literal toy. There are several other unintentionally comical scenes, such as when Peggy gets hysterical when she sees a crocodile that is just minding its own business and Emil needs to club it to death as if it were just about to clamp its jaws on his wife, who is many feet away. But the shame of Caxambu! is that it has a good script, interesting situations, and with a little more effort and directorial finesse this might have really amounted to something. Ireland [Queen Bee] and Larsen are okay, Ohmart [House on Haunted Hill] is excellent (in a role much less sensual than what she usually plays), and Gordon Blackman is rather effective as nasty Simon, who is willing to sacrifice virtually anyone for the diamonds -- the actor never appeared in another film, however. Wilder directed movies of variable entertainment value, but he really socked one out of the ballpark with his excellent Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons.

Verdict: After a bad start this develops into a fairly entertaining movie with a good story. **1/2.

NO PLACE TO LAND

John Ireland and Mari Blanchard

NO PLACE TO LAND (1958). Director: Albert C. Gannaway.

"Come over and give daddy a big goodbye kiss." -- Buck

"I don't want to spoil my breakfast." -- Iris

Super-tramp Iris (Mari Blanchard) is married to the portly and dangerous Buck (Robert Middleton), but she has a thing for a crop-duster named Jonas (John Ireland) and won't give him up. In her schemes to get him she uses other men as her pawns, employing both her body and blackmail to get her ends. Meanwhile, Jonas and his pal Swede (Jackie Coogan) go to work for a drunk named Roy (Douglas Henderson) and Jonas and Roy's wife, Lynn (Gail Russell), who is not a tramp, wind up falling for one another. Then things get even more complicated ... No Place to Land has an interesting plot with lots of possibilities, but the execution is strictly mediocre, although Blanchard [The Crooked Web] offers a zesty performance and Middleton is excellent. Robert Griffin [Monster from Green Hell] is fine as a grocer who admires Iris a little too much, and both Bill Ward and Burt Topper make an impression as two lover boys that Iris beds for her own purposes. Ireland looks disinterested most of the time, but Coogan has his moments. William Peter Blatty, who later wrote "The Exorcist," plays a cop. Burt Topper later directed The Strangler.

Verdict: Simmers but never quite smolders. **.

MR. SOFT TOUCH

Glenn Ford and Evelyn Keyes

MR. SOFT TOUCH (1949). Directors: Gordon Douglas; Henry Levin.

A man with the unlikely moniker of Joe Miracle (Glenn Ford) returns from service and discovers that hoods have taken over his nightclub and murdered his partner. We never actually see Miracle learning about this -- we're introduced to him after he steals money (his money rightfully, he feels) from the nightclub safe and is on the run from the police. He eventually winds up befriended by a do-gooder named Jenny Jones (Evelyn Keyes), who works for a settlement house where there are numerous cute youngsters and the comparatively stern but warm-hearted Mrs. Hangale (Beulah Bondi), not to mention a handyman played by Percy Kilbride (The Egg and I). John Ireland (Raw Deal) is cast against type as a bespectacled reporter who wants to get info from Miracle. The trouble with Mr. Soft Touch is that it tries for equal amounts of sentiment, comedy, and action, but these elements simply never jell. Ford's character is so unlikable for the most part that the actor gives one of his few charmless performances. Keyes and Bondi come off better, but the movie just doesn't work, and you find yourself not only not caring for anyone but even for what happens. It seems to take forever to just end.

Verdict: A misfire on virtually all levels, deservedly forgotten. **.

RAW DEAL

Dennis O'Keefe will have to deal with John Ireland

RAW DEAL (1948). Director: Anthony Mann.

Lawyer Ann Martin (Marsha Hunt of Smash Up) visits Joe Sullivan (Dennis O'Keefe of Hold That Kiss) in jail to talk about parole, but she's as attracted to him as he is to her. Joe took the rap for a big wheel named Rick (Raymond Burr) who promised him big money if he served his sentence. But Joe's faithful girlfriend, Pat (Claire Trevor of Crossroads), somehow breaks Joe out of jail in a million to one chance (the exact details are completely glossed over!), and the big lug brings her to -- Ann's apartment. In an interesting development, Joe forces Ann to go along with him and Pat as they drive past police blockades and try to get out of the city, which doesn't exactly sit well with the jealous Pat. Ann at first grows to hate the man she is attracted to, but then ... Yes, this is the type of movie in which the protagonist is a complete loser, but gets away with a lot because he's passably good-looking and has a slight -- very slight -- modicum of sensitivity. Raw Deal should have been more interesting than it is -- although it does pose a heart-rending moral question for Pat at the very end -- but the characters are unsympathetic (although one almost feels sorry for Pat) and the movie never quite rises above its second-rate film noir atmosphere. Hunt and Trevor are excellent, however, and O'Keefe got one of the best roles of his career and runs with it. Raymond Burr is also fine as Rick, who is so sadistic that he throws a flaming food dish in a woman's face because she accidentally spilled a drink on his jacket. John Ireland is a nasty henchman of Rick's who is sent to kill Joe, and Regis Toomey is the cop in pursuit of him. The versatile Whit Bissell has a memorable cameo as a murderer being chased by a posse who just happens to make his way to the same place that Joe and company are hiding out in. John Alton's moody cinematography doesn't hurt. Mann also directed the excellent Furies with Barbara Stanwyck.

Verdict: Very good showcase for O'Keefe with some interesting situations. **1/2.

I LOVE TROUBLE

I LOVE TROUBLE (1948). Director: S. Sylvan Simon.

Private eye Stuart Bailey (Franchot Tone) is hired by a man named Johnston (Tom Powers, the victim in Double Indemnity) to investigate his wife, who has been getting a series of letters threatening to expose her "past," and eventually disappears. Bailey discovers that Mrs. Johnston (Lynn Merrick) was once an entertainer known as Janie Joy, so he pursues that angle via some of her old associates, then gets warned off by a thug, Martin (Donald Curtis) in the employ of John Caprillo (Eduardo Ciannelli). Bailey encounters a young lady, Norma (Janet Blair), who claims that the woman he's after is her sister, even though she doesn't recognize a photograph of her. Then there's sexy "Boots" (Adele Jergens) who sometimes drinks too much; Reno (John Ireland), who runs a nightclub; and his boss, Keller (Steven Geray), all of whom may know more about the missing woman than they're saying. There are a couple of twists, a couple of murders, and a final confrontation in Bailey's apartment. I Love Trouble may not get high marks as a mystery nor film noir, but it's smooth and entertaining, and Tone is excellent, and has a highly adept supporting cast. Raymond Burr and Arthur Space have small roles (as muscle and cop, respectively), and an unrecognizable (perhaps slightly more subdued and older) Glenda Farrell is snappy as Bailey's very efficient secretary. Janis Carter [Night Editor] also is vivid in a pivotal role whose exact nature I won't reveal here. Simon also directed The Fuller Brush Man (which also had Blair and Jergens) and many others.

Verdict: Pleasant time-passer with some good scenes and a modicum of suspense. ***.

THE GLASS TOMB

John Ireland

THE GLASS TOMB (1955). Director: Montgomery Tully.

"Now turn around and watch the man starve like a good boy."

It's impossible to understand why anyone on earth would have wanted to actually film this hopeless screenplay, nor why anyone wanted to adapt the novel it was based on in the first place. Get this: Pel Pelham (John Ireland) is a promoter who has one act, a "starving man" who won't eat for several weeks. While one can imagine some morbid people lining up to see this guy in the final stages of starvation, why would anyone pay good money to see him at the start of his campaign? A young woman, Rena (Tonia Bern), who was blackmailing a friend of Pel's, is found murdered, and Pel suspects the friend, Tony (Sidney James), of doing the deed. The audience knows he's wrong, because we see the actual murderer dispatching Rena about twenty minutes into the picture, meaning the movie has absolutely no suspense or surprises.The performances by Ireland, Honor Blackman as his wife, and others are good, but they have absolutely no decent material to work with. The movie is only about an hour long but seems longer. This is one of Hammer studios B mystery films released in the U.S. by Lippert.

Verdict: Staggeringly stupid and pointless. *.

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 VOLUME 6

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 VOLUME 6. Gunslinger (1956). Director: Roger Corman.

I confess I was never a fan of Mystery Science Theater, in which a nerdy guy and two silly robots sit in front of a screen [cutting off the bottom third of the movie] and make sophomoric comments about the "bad" B movies they're watching. True, some of the movies were pretty bad, but not every old low-budget black and white movie is automatically a stinker. Another problem is that the people behind MST weren't especially talented, and the comments they make during the movie aren't much funnier than what you'd hear from someone if you watch one of these movies with a group of friends. [In fact, most of the jokes are pretty predictable.] There's also the fact that comments during movies (when not completely annoying) are funnier when they're made by people you know about people you know. Still, MST was a success of sorts with intellectually-challenged high schoolers and college "kids" of all ages. [We won't even talk about the lame "sketches," enacted by dufus amateurs, that are interspersed with the movies.]

This volume features Attack of the Giant Leeches [no world-beater, but fun enough on its own without added comments, especially when you can come up with better ones on your own], the genuinely abysmal Teenagers from Outer Space, and Roger Corman's Gunslinger with John Ireland, Beverly Garland and everybody's favorite 50 Foot Woman, Allison Hayes. Gunslinger, on its own terms, is a perfectly entertaining little B western with generally good performances from its cast, and would have been a lot more fun without the MST crew piping in with their annoying and mostly unfunny comments. Garland becomes sheriff after her husband is killed, and gets into a war with saloon and dance hall owner Hayes -- the two have a pretty zesty "cat-fight" at one point -- then falls for a gunslinger (Ireland) that Hayes hired to kill Garland. Bruno Ve Sota of Leeches and Jonathan Haze of Little Shop of Horrors are also in the cast.

Verdict: Gunslinger: **1/2.
Mystery Science Theater 0 stars.

QUEEN BEE

QUEEN BEE (1955). Director [and screenplay]: Ranald MacDougall. From a novel by Edna L. Lee.

"Never come between me and my liquor. You might get knocked down." -- Avery.

"You can't imagine the things they've made me do trying to protect myself." -- Eva.

Well ... what to make of this picture? We have a bitter Eva Phillips (Joan Crawford), who is still smarting over the way her southern in-laws treated her when she came from Chicago; her heavy-drinking husband, Avery (Barry Sullivan) who has a big scar on his cheek from a car accident and is nicknamed "Beauty;" cousin Lucy (Jennifer Stewart), who comes for a lengthy stay and is caught between neurotic factions; sister Carol (Betsy Palmer), who only wants to marry Eva's cast-off lover Jud (John Ireland), but is tempting fate; and poor batty Sue (Fay Wray), who was literally left at the altar on her wedding day when Avery ran off with Eva. This is the kind of over-baked melodrama in which characters stand around and talk about the problems that define them at the drop of a hat. To say it lacks subtlety is a massive understatement. At the same time it's quite entertaining and oddly riveting, and works itself up to a dramatically horrifying climax. Everyone in the film seems to have studied at the School of Unnatural Acting, but most are effective, with Crawford being quite authoritative and giving her fans a good show. She is wise enough to show the vulnerability beneath her character's bitchiness. After her, Betsy Palmer comes off best, but both Ireland and Sullivan have their moments, and Katherine Anderson makes a mean nurse in Miss Breen. Years later Palmer played deranged maniac Mrs. Voorhees in the original Friday the 13th.

Verdict: Not exactly Tennessee Williams, but strangely compelling. ***.

THE 49TH MAN

THE 49TH MAN (1953). Director: Fred F. Sears.

Government agents (played by Richard Denning and John Ireland) discover that parts of atom bombs are being smuggled into the country by using racing teenagers and others as out-of-the-loop couriers. Ireland travels to Marseilles, where he thinks the enemy spy ring has originated, and discovers that it has links all the way back to Washington, D.C. Suzanne Delbert plays a sexy member of the Marseilles group, and Peter Marshall (who later hosted Hollywood Squares) plays enemy agent Leo Wayne. There's a reasonably taut finish as the men race to stop a bomb from wiping out a major city. No, this isn't exactly 24 (although it does have a cheap TV feel to it) but it does hold the attention and is briskly directed by Fred F. Sears.

Verdict: Okay timepasser. **1/2.