FOUR GIRLS IN TOWN

Grant Williams and George Nader

FOUR GIRLS IN TOWN (1957). Written and directed by Jack Sher.  

A Hollywood studio wants to make a biblical epic about Esther, but their biggest star (whose face we never see) wants 50% of the profits. Therefore it is decided to find a new star and bring in four gals to do a screen test: American Kathy (Julie Adams), whose mother (Mabel Albertson) is pushing her to perform; Viennese Ina (Marianne Koch of The Monster of London City), whose husband recently died in a road accident; Italian Maria (Elsa Martinelli of One on Top of the Other), who appears to be a good-time girl who loves the men, especially the ones with money; and French Vicki (Gia Scala of The Big Boodle), who is trying to hide the fact that she has a husband and small son. 

John Gavin comes on to one of the "girls" 

Mike Snowden (George Nader) will helm the young ladies' screen tests, even though he'd much rather direct the picture itself. His best friend, Johnny (Sydney Chaplin) is a film composer nursing a broken heart and many hangovers. Mike is also friends with wealthy playboy Spencer Farrington Jr. (Grant Williams), who pursues women and does little else but attend parties with that end in mind. Tom Grant (John Gavin) is an actor who is chosen to appear in the tests with each of the ladies. Naturally these four men get involved in varying degrees with the "four girls in town." 

Nader with Gavin

I wish I could report that Four Girls in Town is a trenchant drama about Hollywood or at the very least a real trash wallow, but it's neither, although I can't say I ever found it boring. The acting is generally more than professional -- although none of the cast members really stand out -- and the picture has a good pace, but it just never quite comes alive. Maybe it just needed a few sensationalistic scenes to perk up the viewers' interest. An odd sequence has Mike taking some of the ladies and gents on a nighttime grunion hunt, a sequence that was a little more entertaining in Piranha 2: the Spawning, of all things. Jack Sher also directed The 3 Worlds of Gulliver. 

Verdict: At least it has a very attractive cast! **3/4. 

THE LOOTERS

Danton, Faylen, Adams, Calhoun

THE LOOTERS (1955). Director: Abner Biberman.

"I haven't had this much fun since I was kicked out of the Campfire Girls." -- Sheryl.

Jesse Hill (Rory Calhoun of That Hagen Girl), a loner and mountain climber who lives in the Rockies, gets a visit from a shady ex-army buddy, Peter Corder (Ray Danton of Code Name: Jaguar). When a commercial plane crashes in the mountains, the two decide to climb towards the wreckage, but with very different motives. Jesse wants to look for survivors, while Pete is more interested in salvaging what he can, which turns out to be a trunk full of loot. Pete's true nature is revealed pretty quickly, and he stakes his claim while threatening everyone else. Before long the two men start a tense descent back down the mountain along with three survivors, a former cheesecake model named Sheryl (Julie Adams), a captain named Leppich (Frank Faylen of The Mystery of the 13th Guest). and a wannabee big shot named Parkinson (Thomas Gomez). Who will get to keep the loot and who will survive?

Ray Danton as sneaky Pete

The Looters has a very good premise and could have been turned into a nail-biting and memorable suspense film. Instead it's a mediocre and often hokey time-waster that isn't good enough for the audience to ignore its many implausible aspects. Now, the plane crashed on top of a mountain, but it isn't in a nearly impassable area as the plane was in Three Secrets, so it seems to me that even if there were no survivors, arrangements would be made to get the victims' bodies back to their loved ones. But when the military, who is playing war games in the area, discovers that no one is at the plane, they start bombing the whole area -- say what? Admittedly, this adds some excitement to the climax, but it doesn't make much sense, as if the military's attitude would be "let's just blow up the bodies of the crash victims without even finding out what caused the crash!"

Of course one reason for this silliness is that it may fool viewers into not scratching their heads when one survivor expresses the hope that everyone will think he died in the crash. Another problem is that no one seems to act as if this was the scene of a tragedy, that there are several dead bodies (never shown) lying just out of view for much of the film's length. Then you have to wonder why Sheryl and Jesse would want to make out when neither has brushed their teeth for at least several days. Gomez makes his mark as the weaselly Parkinson, Danton is typically vivid, Adams is reasonably adept and sexy, giving the film no more than it deserves, and Calhoun is adequately stolid and heroic. But this is one flight you may not want to book. After meeting on this film, Adams and Danton were married. Abner Biberman was originally an actor, playing a great many Asian roles, before switching to directing.

Verdict: Another reason to avoid the Rockies. **. 

HOLLYWOOD STORY

HOLLYWOOD STORY (1951). Director: William Castle.

Larry O'Brien (Richard Conte) is a producer who becomes fascinated by an old Hollywood mystery, the still-unsolved 1929 murder of silent film director Franklin Farrara. Larry decides to make a film about the murder, and hires an old screenwriter named Vincent St. Clair (Henry Hull of Werewolf of London), who once worked with the victim.  When someone takes a shot at Larry, he realizes the killer is still alive and doesn't want even a chance of the truth coming out. Richard Egan is cast as a police lieutenant, and Jim Backus is Larry's agent, Mitch. An uncredited Paul Cavanaugh [he's not even listed in the cast on imdb.com] plays aging actor Roland Paul, who was always one of the suspects, along with Sam Collyer (Fred Clark). William Farnum, Francis X. Bushman [The Phantom Planet], and Joel McCrea play themselves in cameos. The best performance is given by Julia/Julie Adams, who apparently knows more than she's saying and may have some unknown connection to the crime. This movie is of interest primarily because it was directed by William Castle [Strait-Jacket], but even with that distinction it has still been forgotten. The trouble is that it has very little suspense, a dull mystery, and plays like nothing so much as a TV pilot. However, the cast may hold your attention.

Verdict: One mystery that doesn't need solving. **.