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. ***. 

COMMANDO CODY: SKY MARSHAL OF THE UNIVERSE

Judd Holdren  and Aline Towne

COMMANDO CODY: SKY MARSHAL OF THE UNIVERSE  (12 episode Republic series/1953). Directors: Harry Keller; Fred C. Brannon; Franklin Adreon.

In the near-future Commando Cody (Judd Holdren of Zombies of the Stratosphere) whose identity "must" be hidden behind a mask "for security reasons," and his team are up against, the Ruler (Gregory Gaye of Dodsworth), an outer space despot who is out to take over the earth, as he has other planets, or destroy it. The Ruler creates weather changes that lead to tidal waves, destroys atomic research stations, employs germ warfare, alternately freezes the earth than causes super-high temperatures via twin suns, then tries to tilt the earth using a magnetic field. In each episode the Commando and his assistants foil the Ruler's plans, taking off to such places as the moon and Mercury when they need to in the Commando's rocketship (he also uses a jet pack to fly). There has always been a debate over whether Commando Cody is a serial or a TV show. Apparently it was originally conceived as a TV series, but for some reason was shown in theaters first as a series of short films (the episodes don't end with cliffhangers as serials usually do, but are more or less self-contained). The series was then shown on television. In any case, Commando Cody is a lot of fun, with adequate acting and more than serviceable special effects. Along with the colorless Aline Towne, William Schallert [The Man from Planet X] and Richard Crane play Cody's associates, Lyle Talbot is cast as an equally colorless earth guy working with the Ruler, and Rick Vallin plays Captain Duron. Gloria Pall is the space babe who answers messages for the Ruler; she is decorative and little else.

Verdict:  You either love this stuff or you just hate it! ***.

THE LOST PLANET

Michael Fox vs. Judd Holdren in Lost Planet

THE LOST PLANET (15 chapter Columbia serial/1953). Director: Spencer Gordon Bennet.

"What has he to offer a great scientist like me?"

Reporter Rex Barrow (Judd Holdren) and his photographer friend, Tim (Ted Thorpe), stumble into the mountain hide-out of the megalomaniac Dr. Grood (Michael Fox of Riders to the Stars), who is forcing Professor Dorn (Forrest Taylor of The Iron Claw) to enslave the inhabitants of another planet, Ergro, in order to take over Earth. Grood is assisted by the groveling Jarva (Jack George), who is like something out of the Three Stooges, on earth, and by portly Reckov (Gene Roth), on the alien world, while Dorn's daughter, Ella (Vivian Mason), travels to Ergro with the others. Grood is able to mind-control anyone he chooses, and has other weapons as well, and employs spaceships that take everyone from Earth to Ergro in a very fast and highly unscientific manner. There's also a cosmo jet, and a cartoon flying saucer. Late in the serial some earth men of rather ill repute try to take over Grood's operation, briefly join with him, and then switch sides again. Holdren is perfectly bland and adequate, and Fox is rather good as Grood, yet somehow he doesn't make the kind of memorable serial villain that, say, Charles Middleton does as Ming in Flash Gordon. Holdren and Roth were also in Captain Video, Master of the Stratosphere and the former starred in Zombies of the Stratosphere as well.

Verdict: Acceptable, silly sci fi serial. **.

ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE

ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE (1952). Director: Fred C. Brannon.

The third and last of the rocket man serials replaces Commando Cody of the second serial (Radar Men from the Moon) with Larry Martin (Judd Holdren). Those pesky martians are at it again and trying to take over the Earth. The “zombies” of the title are simply the drone martians who work under Marex (Lane Bradford), the bad guy from Mars. (One of the zombies, Naran, is played by Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek fame. Marex blackmails Dr. Harding (Stanley Waxman), a scientist who's been selling atomic secrets into helping him. Working against Harding and the men from Mars are Larry and his associate Bob (Wilson Wood). [Aline Towne as get-the-coffee Sue has virtually nothing to do.] The slick production features some good cliffhanger situations, such as a thrilling train wreck in chapter one and a boat going over a dam in chapter two. There's also a kind of tin can robot and a larger, more impressive model that actually seems dangerous. The martians hide out in a cavern that has a underwater section through which they gain access to the main cave deep within. The performances are good, and the movie is fun.

Verdict: The Rocket Man Rules. ***.

CAPTAIN VIDEO, MASTER OF THE STRATOSPHERE

CAPTAIN VIDEO, MASTER OF THE STRATOSPHERE (1951). 15 chapter Columbia serial. Directed by Wallace A. Grisell and Spencer Bennet.

Captain Video (Judd Holdren) and his Video ranger (Larry Stewart) are up against Vultura (Gene Roth), the tyrannical ruler of Atoma, who not only wants to conquer the planet Theros but the Earth as well. A renowned earth scientist named Tobor (George Eldredge) is assisting him and trying to thwart or destroy the good Captain at every turn. Our heroes dodge a mass of cosmic debris, are frozen stiff as a board, thrown out of flying platforms (to land delicately on Earth due to a sonic air cushion), defeat a spreading radioactive liquid called planenite, and have to deal with some very fast moving mechanical men. The spaceships are just cartoon animation; the planet Atoma is tinted red while Theros is tinted green (Earth is in the usual sepia). There is no love interest or supporting female character. Holdren and Stewart are adequate as the good guys, but they have little humor and virtually no personality. Stewart and Roth (with his big belly comically clad in a tight uniform) are dull villains – Vultura is certainly no Ming the Merciless – and Roth is a particularly poor actor [at least in this; he was fine in Earth vs. the Spider and other films], not even on the same planet as Ming’s Charles Middleton. Tobor’s cackling sinister assistant is more on the mark.

Verdict: This is not a great serial, but it is fun in a minor fashion. **1/2.