THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN

Michael Fox and Lex Barker

THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN (1957). Director: Russell Birdwell.

Joseph Stalin (Maurice Manson) has faked his death with a lookalike corpse, changed his face via plastic surgery, and is hiding out in Greece with associate and assassin Igor Smetka (Michael Fox of The Lost Planet) and his nurse Miss Gresenko (Zsa Zsa Gabor). This woman is the twin of Lily Gresenko (also Gabor) -- the two women were separated and one was taken to Moscow some years before. Lily desperately wants to find her sister, and hires callous private eye Steve Anderson (Lex Barker of Tarzan's Savage Fury) for the job until he deems it too impossible to finish. Importuned by Lily to continue, he teams up with an old friend, a one-armed agent named Mischa (Jeffrey Stone of Money, Women, and Guns). Learning that the monster Stalin may be alive, and that Lily's sister may be with him, the hunt is on. But others are aware of this search, and are going to do their best to stop it, by murder and kidnapping if necessary. 

Zsa Zsa gives two mediocre performances

The Girl in a Kremlin is a lurid melodrama that is caught somewhere between being a serious, if far-fetched, spy thriller and a wild, rather absurd Man from UNCLE episode. Zsa Zsa Gabor, never much of an actress although they kept giving her parts, is slightly better as the Stalin associate than she is as the concerned Lily, but that's not saying much. Lex Barker doesn't put himself out too much, playing the role in a flippant style that makes you wonder why his character bothers doing anything. Jeffrey Stone, the model for Disney's Prince Charming, is much better as the attractive and very appealing Mischa. Perennial supporting player Michael Fox has a good role as an assassin who carries a bullet-firing umbrella, and Maurice Manson is effective as Stalin, and even more so in his new identity, which I won't reveal here. 

Jeffrey Stone and Lex Barker

William Schallert also gives a good performance as Stalin's son, Yakov, who somehow survived his death in a German concentration camp after his father sent him to the front and refused a prisoner exchange that would have brought him home! Norbert Schiller (of The Return of Dracula) scores as Brubov, who is told he must kill Steve if he wants to see his wife and boys again, and dresses up as a nun to carry out his assignment. Elena Da Vinci makes a sinister, whip-wielding Olga, Smetka's wife, and Phillipa Fallon sneers competently as her associate, Nina. At one point Steve is whipped by Olga. Meanwhile Zsa Zsa has a cat fight with herself. 

Natalie Daryll gets her head shaved

One cast member you can only feel pity for is Natalie Daryll, who plays Russian prisoner, Dasha. In an early, protracted sequence, she has her locks shorn and head shaved in almost pornographic detail, right down to the use of a straight razor and shaving cream. This whole business is not faked and one can only hope the poor woman was well paid for this disturbing exhibition. This was her first and last movie; and she had only two TV credits afterwards. The whole sequence is rather pointless aside from illustrating Stalin's weird tastes and cruelty. As for the movie, it is strangely compelling and entertaining if impossible to take entirely seriously. DeWitt Bodeen was one of the screenwriters. No composer is credited, but the score, presumably stock music, really helps put the movie over.

Verdict: Here's a strange one! ***.  

THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM

THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM (aka Die Schlagengruber und das Pendel/1967). Director: Harald Reinl. 

35 years ago Count Regula (Christopher Lee) murdered 12 virgins in an attempt to gain immortality. For his trouble, he was drawn and quartered as his two chief accusers stood watching. Now the descendants of these people, Roger Mont Elise (Lex Barker) and Baroness Lillian (Karin Dor), have received an invitation to the crumbling old Castle Regula, both unaware of what transpired in the past. Accompanying them by coach are Lillian's maid Babette (Christiane Rucker) and the rather shady Father Fabian (Vladimir Medar). 

The first half of the film is a protracted journey through a creepy forest in which trees have limbs growing out of them and skeletons are hanging from nooses. At the castle the group run into the long-dead Anatol (Carl Lange), the count's major domo, who plans to bring the count back to life. Wanting his revenge, the revived count places Roger under a slowly descending pendulum even as Lillian is nearly thrown into a pit full of writhing snakes. Yes, this is a very loose adaptation of Poe's classic The Pit and the Pendulum. 

Pitiful victim of "Dr. Sadism"

Although one could certainly quibble with some aspects of the screenplay, Torture Chamber not only holds the attention but has some classy and macabre art direction and is colorful in every sense of the word. Lex Barker appeared in several West German films and eurospy movies after he wrapped up his run as Tarzan. Karin Dor was a German actress who appeared with Barker more than once and was also in You Only Live Twice. Christopher Lee only appears in the prologue and at the very end and probably did all of his scenes in a couple of days  -- he appears to be the only actor who isn't dubbed. Carl Lange certainly makes an impression as Anatol.

Verdict: Fun horror film from West Germany that has some of the qualities of Italian horror features. ***. 

THE PRICE OF FEAR

Merle Oberon and Lex Barker

THE PRICE OF FEAR (1956). Director: Abner Biberman.

Jessica Warren (Merle Oberon) is driving carefree and a little drunk when she runs over an elderly man. Does she call for an ambulance? No, she keeps driving. Her temporary crisis of conscience fades when she sees dog track owner Dave Barrett (Lex Barker) "borrow" her car and figures if she reports the vehicle as stolen he will be accused of the hit and run, not she. Complicating matters for Dave -- who took Jessica's car because he was being followed by hoods who want a piece of his track -- is the fact that the same time the elderly man was run over, an enemy of Dave's was shot to death. Barrett is going to be convicted of one crime or the other, but he gets close to Jessica to find out what he can. But is she really falling in love with him or does she have her own agenda?

Warren Stevens and Merle Oberon

The Price of Fear has more than one interesting situation and the relationship between Jessica and Dave with their conflicting goals but obvious attraction to one another adds to the film's compelling quality. This was one of Oberon's last starring roles -- it's a bit surprising to see her in this kind of film noir -- and she gives an excellent performance that keeps the audience guessing as to exactly what's on Jessica's mind and what she is ultimately planning to do. Barker gives it the old college try, and his line readings are certainly not terrible, but next to Oberon he's a bit of a wooden Indian. Warren Stevens gives one of his all-time best performances as the shady character Frankie Edare, who's responsible for a lot of Dave's problems; he and Oberon play especially well together.

Lex Barker

There are also good performances from Gia Scala [The Garment Jungle] as the heartbroken daughter of the elderly man; Charles Drake [It Came from Outer Space] as the police sergeant assigned to the case; and Stafford Repp [Batman: The Black Widow Strikes Again] and Mary Field as a tippling cab driver and his unloving wife. With a little added depth and characterization, The Price of Fear would have made an even more memorable picture, but it's quite absorbing as it is. It has a tense climax and an uncompromising wind-up. Abner Biberman was primarily a television director.

Verdict: Another one of those movies that is so good you wish it were just a bit better. ***. 

TARZAN REDUX!

The cast of Tarzan Finds a Son

TARZAN REDUX!

Having exhausted all of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan features -- just type in his name in the search bar above to read reviews of all of those films -- it's time for another round-up of Tarzan movies starring other actors. We've got Herman Brix (aka Bruce Bennett) in the serial New Adventures of Tarzan; Glenn Morris in Tarzan's Revenge; Lex Barker in Tarzan and the Slave Girl and Tarzan's Peril; Gordon Scott in Tarzan and the Lost Safari; and -- last and least -- poor Christopher Lambert in the absolutely dreadful Greystoke. We also look at a new book, Tarzan On Film.

Here's to the Ape Man!

TARZAN AND THE SLAVE GIRL

Vanessa Brown and Lex Barker

TARZAN AND THE SLAVE GIRL (1950). Director: Lee Sholem.

When people start dropping from an unknown sickness, Tarzan (Lex Barker) leads an expedition headed by Dr. Campbell (Arthur Shields of Daughter of Dr. Jekyll) to find its origins. Meanwhile Jane (Vanessa Brown) and Campbell's nurse, a saucy lady named Lola (Denise Darcel) who is lustful for the ape man, wind up kidnapped with other women by the cult of the Lionians. The women are placed in a harem for their prince (Hurd Hatfield of The Picture of Dorian Gray), whose young son is also dying of the illness. Will Tarzan and party be able to rescue Jane and Lola, save the little boy, and keep everyone from being thrown to the lions? What do you think?  The Lionians camouflage themselves with foliage to sneak up on their enemies, and use blow guns with poisoned darts. As Jane, Vanessa Brown is cute and almost child-like; she has an amusing, if brief, cat fight with Lola over Tarzan. Denise Darcel is a little too plump in this and in some shots resembles a man in drag, although her performance is spirited. Tarzan and Jane rub noses like Eskimos, and the adorable Cheetah gets several good scenes, such as when he (or she?) gets drunk on hooch. Tarzan can put up with a lot of things, but he doesn't like it when Lola picks up a needle and tries to give him an injection. In a thankless role, Robert Alda [The Beast with Five Fingers] plays a colleague of Dr. Campbell's. This was Brown's only appearance as Jane.

Verdict: Kind of ho hum Tarzan adventure, even if Tarzan meets Dorian Gray -- sort of. **.

TARZAN'S PERIL

Dorothy Dandrige

TARZAN'S PERIL (1951). Director: Byron Haskin.

Radjeck (George Macready), a bad guy who escaped from jail, is up to no good with his less bloodthirsty companions, Trask (Douglas Fowley) and Andrews (Glenn Anders). One of Radjeck's victims is Commissioner Peters (Alan Napier). Before realizing what a crumb he was, Jane (Virginia Huston) had befriended Radject, but now Tarzan (Lex Barker) is out to snare him. Radjeck wants to sell weapons to a nasty native tribe; Queen Melmendi (Dorothy Dandridge) represents a tribe of friendlier natives. Tarzan's Peril is a poor Tarzan entry, badly directed by Haskin, who fails to give the film any kind of pacing or suspense. (This is strange, as Haskin also directed The War of the Worlds and Too Late for Tears, among others, both excellent movies.) Dandridge [Change of Heart] is as criminally wasted as she usually was, even after her Oscar nomination some years later for Carmen Jones. Macready is strangely subdued (for him) as the villain throughout most of the running time. There's a mechanical snake that nearly eats Cheetah (who has little to do in the pic), and man-eating plants that ensnare both Tarzan and a baby elephant with their vines. Jane looks like she'd be more at home on Park Avenue than in the jungle!

Verdict: Not Tarzan's finest hour. **.

THE INVISIBLE DR. MABUSE

Evil Clown (Werner Peters)

THE INVISIBLE DR. MABUSE (aka Die unsichtbaren Krallen des Dr. Mabuse/1962. Director: Harald Reinl.

Director Harald Reinl of The Return of Dr. Mabuse brings back Lex Barker [Tarzan's Magic Foutain] as FBI agent Joe Como, and replaces Gert Frobe's Inspector Lohmann with Inspector Brahm (Siegfried Lowitz). Como feels that Dr. Mabuse (again Wolfgang Preiss) is still alive and that his evil force has something to do with a theater presenting a bizarre ballet/operetta, while Brahm is just as sure that Mabuse is dead. An invisible man seems to be stalking the star, Liane Martin (Karin Dor of You Only Live Twice), but he may not be Dr. Mabuse. In the meantime, there is skulduggery afoot on a project known as "Operation X," which monitors satellites. The head of the project, Professor Erasmus (Rudolph Fernau), never comes out of his vault and has his own secrets. As usual, everyone who knows too much is conveniently knocked off by assorted henchman, including an evil clown (Werner Peters) who also appears in the theater's production. By this time the Mabuse movies were beginning to resemble Eurospy features, but then the villains in Ian Fleming's James Bond novels were always in the tradition of older characters like Mabuse (The first Bond movie, Dr. No, actually came out the same year). The Invisible Dr. Mabuse has atmosphere and interesting settings, and a few lively sequences, and the acting is generally good, with Preiss playing a dual role and actually killing "himself" at one point.

Verdict: Nothing stops that Mabuse. **1/2.

THE RETURN OF DR. MABUSE

Daliah Lavi and Lex Barker 

THE RETURN OF DR. MABUSE (aka Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse/1961). Director: Harald Reinl.

Commissioner Lohmann (Gert Frobe) is alerted to the murder of an operative, an event which might be of major importance, and cancels his vacation. As the mysterious masked Dr. Mabuse slays his enemies second-hand and plots an attack on a power plant, Lohmann is aided by FBI agent Joe Como (Lex Barker), who may actually be a representative of the syndicate from Chicago. The syndicate wants to work with Mabuse, but he needs to show off the efficacy of his will-sapping drug. Como romances photo-journalist Maria (Daliah Lavi), whose father has been imprisoned by Mabuse and has developed the aforementioned gas. Lohmann suspects that Mabuse is operating out of a prison this time, and presumes Warden Wolf (Fausto Tozzi of Constantine and the Cross) is the master criminal, but there are unexpected developments. Other possible suspects include prison employee Bohmler (Werner Peters of Phantom of Soho); Father Briefenstien (Rudolph Fernau); and even Lohmann's assistant, Detective Voss (Joachim Mock). This is sort of a sequel to The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, although Fritz Lang did not work on this film, and Frobe's name has been changed back to Lohmann after "Kras" was his surname in the previous picture. There's an assassin with a wooden leg, and a truck that shoots flames out of its side and roasts to ashes another female Syndicate operative. The score and dubbing are poor, with no one using their own voices, an especial problem for Daliah Lavi [Some Girls Do] who isn't much of a sex bomb without that husky voice and her bosom draped. As usual in these dubbed Mabuse pictures the man's name is pronounced "Ma-booze" when it should be "Ma-boo-suh." This picture repeats the bit with the couple trapped in a room filling with water that was used in Lang's Testament of Dr. Mabuse, but it's not as effective. Wolfgang Preiss again plays Mabuse but he doesn't actually show up until the end, after he removes another character's mask. Mabuse would return more than once.

Verdict: Some interesting stuff but perhaps not enough. **1/2.

CODE 7 VICTIM 5!

Lex Barker

CODE 7 VICTIM 5! ((1964). Director: Robert Lynn.

Private detective Steve Martin (Lex Barker) comes to Capetown at the request of Wexler (Walter Rilla of The Terror of Dr. Mabuse), who owns many copper mines in South Africa. Wexler's butler has been murdered, but Martin has to find out for himself that there have also been other victims. Wexler, who has his own secrets to hide, is sure he is next on the list. While investigating, and exploring the South African scenery, Martin dallies with Wexler's secretary, Helga (Ann Smyrner), and his step-daughter, Gina (Veronique Vendell). He allies himself with Inspector Lean (Ronald Fraser of The Flight of the Phoenix), and meets Wexler's doctor, Paul (Dietmar Schonherr of The Monster of London City), and mine manager, Anderson (Percy Sieff). Barker is okay as the private dick, and the story is not without interest, but this leisurely-paced movie serves chiefly to showcase some interesting Capetown settings, such as during a gun battle inside huge, impressive caverns. A cliff side finale is not as taut as it ought to be, and the wrong person is in danger. However, any movie that features an ostrich stampede (!) can't be all bad. Nicholas Roeg was the cinematographer for this travelogue with spurts of action.

Verdict: Movie 5, Audience 0. **.

TARZAN AND HIS PALS

Cheetah and girlfriend -- or is it the other way around? 

TARZAN AND HIS PALS.

This week we look at some more movies featuring not just Tarzan, but other jungle adventurers such as Bomba and Jungle Jim. We've got several Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films, as well as some with Lex Barker, Gordon Scott, and Mike Henry playing the role. When Johnny Weissmuller andd Johnny Sheffield, who played Boy, got too old for their roles, they each got their own series, Jungle Jim (with Weissmuller) for Columbia and Bomba, the Jungle Boy (with Sheffield) for Monogram. These comparatively cheap series ran concurrently with the Lex Barker and Jock Mahoney Tarzan's, and there were quite a few entries in each series.

Weissmuller's interpretation of the role did not especially match the character as originally described in Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan of the Apes. Gradually, the character began to display the intelligence and sophistication that went along with Tarzan's undeniable savagery. After awhile, the more savage aspects of the character were pretty much dropped altogether.

As for the Tarzan series, which had a great many installments, it wasn't long before Cheetah (or Cheeta or Cheta), whose sex kept changing, became the true star of the series, especially in the later Weissmuller features.

NOTE: As I've done a double-load of posts this week, Great Old Movies may take a vacation along with me next week.

TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN

Lex Baker took over the role of Tarzan

TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN (1949). Director: Lee Sholem.

Aviatrix Gloria James (Evelyn Ankers of The Pearl of Death) disappeared twenty years before but her plane and diary are found by Tarzan. Since James' testimony is required to free a jailed man, Tarzan goes to a hidden city -- full of what could best be described as white Aztec-Romans -- to bring Gloria back, and discovers she hasn't aged a day in all those years. Naturally there are unscrupulous people who hope to discover the Fountain of Youth, such as Trask (Albert Dekker) and Dodd (Charles Drake). In a development that borrows from Lost Horizon, Gloria ages as soon as she gets home, and returns to Africa with her husband, Douglas (Alan Napier), where the two hope that Tarzan will guide them back to the Blue Valley where she lived all of those years. But Tarzan is opposed to the plan, and some nasty residents of the hidden city -- against the orders of their leader, the High One (David Bond) -- do their best to kill him and anyone else who knows of the pathway to their valley. Tarzan's Magic Fountain was Lex Barker's first appearance as Tarzan, and he's fine, playing it in the nearly monosyllabic mode popularized by Johnny Weissmuller. Brenda Joyce, who replaced Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane in the last Weissmuller movies, returns as Barker's Jane, but this was her last appearance in the role -- and her last picture, as she promptly retired from the movie business. Johnny Sheffield as Boy had already left the series and turned into Bomba, and he was not replaced in the role. Tarzan's Magic Fountain has an interesting premise, but not a lot is done with it, and the screenplay is mediocre, as is the direction; Lee Sholem mostly directed TV episodes. The ever-versatile Henry Brandon plays one of the Blue Valley natives who wants to kill Tarzan for allegedly giving away the secret location of their city; Rick Vallin is another one of those natives. Elmo Lincoln, one of the first Tarzan's, supposedly plays a fisherman, but he is not credited. Cheetah's cutest scene of many is her encounter with bubble gum. When she regains her youth at the end of the movie, she turns into a different species of ape! Albert Dekker and Charles Drake also appeared together in The Pretender.

Verdict: Barker is fine, but it's an inauspicious debut for him. **1/2.

TARZAN AND THE SHE-DEVIL

Tom Conway, Monique van Vooren, Raymond Burr

TARZAN AND THE SHE-DEVIL (1953). Director: Kurt Neumann.

Three characters named Vargo (Raymond Burr), Fidel (Tom Conway) and Lyra (Monique van Vooren) -- who I believe is never referred to as a "she-devil" in the film -- conspire to round up a herd of elephants for their ivory. Since they are entering dangerous territory and the beasts may be difficult to handle, the trio decide to get Tarzan's (Lex Barker) help by kidnapping Jane (Joyce Mackenzie). When the villains think Jane has been killed in a fire, a despondent Tarzan barely has the strength to fight back when he is made captive. Tarzan and the She-Devil certainly has an interesting cast: Barker makes a fine Tarzan; Mackenzie [Destination Murder] is more than adequate as his mate; Burr [Pitfall] is very good in a villainous role; and Tom Conway [A Night of Adventure] saunters through with as little energy as possible. A big problem with the film is that while van Vooren is pretty (she somewhat resembles Hedy Lamarr), and is an adequate in her role, she lacks that certain something that would really make her a "she-devil." If only Mari Blanchard or Marie Windsor had been cast in the part! There's a fairly exciting elephant stampede at the end in which the bad guys get a fitting comeuppance. Still, this is not one of the better Tarzan movies. This was Lex Barker's last appearance as Tarzan. All of the natives in the movie are white!

Verdict: Jane never even gives Lyra a whack in the face! **.

STRANGE AWAKENING aka FEMALE FIENDS

STRANGE AWAKENING (aka Female Fiends/1958). Director: Montgomery Tully.

"When she was in college she was voted the girl most likely to exceed."

Peter Chance (Lex Barker of Tarzan's Savage Fury) kisses his wife, Iris (Monica Grey) goodbye, drives off, gets in an accident, and winds up waylaid by strangers who take him to their mansion and insist he is really the son of a wealthy man who just died. Having amnesia, Peter isn't certain what to believe, but he meets the ladies in "his" life: His mother, Mrs. Friend (Nora Swinburne); his sister, Marny (Lisa Gastoni); and his wife, Selena (Carole Mathews of The Monster and the Ape). Then there's the attractive maid, Isabella (Malou Pantera), and Dr. Rene Norman (Peter Dyneley of The Manster), the family physician who seems to know a lot more about what's going on than he's saying. Since we know from the first that Peter is not the man everyone is telling him he is, the only suspense is from figuring out the purpose of the deception, which of course has to do with wills, inheritances, and lots of money. As it draws to its not entirely predictable conclusion, there is a little more tension, and the film is well-acted by everyone. This is based on "Puzzle for Fiends" by the prolific Patrick Quentin (Hugh Wheeler). Montgomery Tully also directed Paid to Kill.

Verdict: Hardly classic film noir, but entertaining. **1/2.

GOTTA LOVE THAT TARZAN!

Alexander Skarsgard as Tarzan

GOTTA LOVE THAT TARZAN!

It's amazing that Edgar Rice Burroughs' early twentieth century creation is still going strong over one hundred years later. Next summer Alexander Skarsgard is the latest actor to play the Ape Man, and in a blockbuster summer movie, no less. Let's face it, Tarzan is a product of a simpler time, a thoroughly racist and absurd concoction in a highly fictional "Africa" that nevertheless captured the imaginations of millions of readers -- and filmgoers. More recent films have done away with the condescension towards black natives, added black characters, and done their best to counteract the tone of the early movies, although in the novels Tarzan was never that disrespectful of native Africans.

This week we look at Burroughs' first Tarzan novel, as well as selected films in which Tarzan is portrayed by various actors, beginning with Johnny Weissmuller and going on to Lex Barker, Gordon Scott, Jock Mahoney, and Mike Henry.

TARZAN'S SAVAGE FURY

Lex Barker and Tommy Carlton

TARZAN'S SAVAGE FURY (1952). Director: Cy Endfield.

Tarzan (Lex Barker) gets a son when he and Jane (Dorothy Hart) find a little orphaned boy named Joey (Tommy Carlton), although the couple don't seem all that sympathetic to his plight in the beginning. Trouble develops when Jane's alleged cousin, actually an impostor named Edwards (Patric Knowles) shows up along with a Russian spy named Rokov (Charles Korvin). The two importune Tarzan and the others to lead them to some diamonds (in one ridiculous scene Tarzan says he doesn't know what a diamond is!), unaware that their purposes are not at all benign. The group encounter cannibals, and one exciting scene takes place on a river when a raft is overturned by a hippo and hungry gators move in for the attack [possibly stock footage]. In this film Tarzan seems to have known his father years ago, although in Burroughs' novel Tarzan's father died in the boy's infancy. Lex Barker [The Girl in Black Stockings] inherited the role from Johnny Weissmuller, who went on to the Jungle Jim series, and speaks in the same dumb monosyllables, but is otherwise okay and looks good. Dorothy Hart, playing Jane with teased hair and lipstick, isn't bad, and little Tommy Carlton is excellent as Joey; this was his only film. The best performance is from Korvin [The Killer That Stalked New York] as the agent and magician, whose tricks awe the natives and others; Knowles [The Wolf Man] is also good. Photographed by Karl Struss and with a nice score by Paul Sawtell. The main problem with the movie is that we never really see any of Tarzan's "savage fury" and in fact the film is relatively tame.

Verdict: Okay Tarzan entry. **1/2.

TARZAN OF THE MOVIES

TARZAN OF THE MOVIES: A Pictorial History of More than Fifty Years of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Legendary Hero. Gabe Essoe. Cadillac Publishing; 1968.

In this heavily illustrated book packed with movie stills and behind-the-scenes shots, Essoe covers dozens of Tarzan features from the silent period up to the Tarzan TV show with Ron Ely. As well, Essoe relates the careers, private lives and subsequent fates of the various actors who played the "Ape Man:" Elmo Lincoln; Johnny Weissmuller; Herman Brix (Bruce Bennett); Buster Crabbe; Gordon Scott; Mike Henry; Lex Barker; Jock Mahoney; and others. There are details on the sound serial The New Adventures of Tarzan; the disastrous Tarzan of the Apes remake with Denny Miller; the color features that were actually filmed in Africa and other exotic locations; and the terrible truth about Cheetah and the various, rather nasty chimps who played him. You'll also learn how Tarzan Escapes was deemed too gruesome and re-shot, with a sequence involving big bat monsters being excised, not to mention the Tarzan/big-crocodile fight that was used over and over and over again in Tarzan and probably other jungle movies.

Verdict: Good, informative read with great pictures. ***.

THE VELVET TOUCH

Sydney Greenstreet and Rosalind Russell

THE VELVET TOUCH (1948). Director: John Gage (Jack Gage).

"You've produced so many bad plays you're beginning to believe them."

Broadway actress Valerie Stanton (Rosalind Russell) wants to break away from her usual producer, Gordon Dunning (Leon Ames) and the treacle he has her appear in, and try "Hedda Gabler," but he only laughs at her. Dunning, who refuses to let her go and is carrying a torch for her as well,  threatens her, and during a struggle Valerie bops him on the head and kills him. This is followed by a long flashback during which Valerie meets new love Michael Morrell (Leo Genn of Personal Affair), who is not only unimpressed by her status but is positively condescending -- and unattractive to boot; nevertheless Valerie falls for him. The third part of the film brings in Sydney Greenstreet as the corpulent Captain Danbury, who is a fan of Val's and is investigating the murder. The front runner in suspects is not Val but Marian Webster (Claire Trevor), who has been pining for Dunning for years, hates Val, and is incredibly bitter. Will Valerie come clean about what happened, or let Marian take the rap? The Velvet Touch is no All About Eve -- made two years later -- but it is a very entertaining backstage drama with an outstanding performance by Russell and fine support from Trevor [The High and the Mighty], Ames, and Greenstreet. Irving Bacon scores as a chatty waiter at Sardi's, and Lex Barker is also in the cast as a young actor.

Verdict: Strangely compelling. ***.