AROUND THE WORLD UNDER THE SEA

Wynn, Eaton, Kelly, McCallum, Bridges and Thompson

AROUND THE WORLD UNDER THE SEA (1966). Produced and directed by Andrew Marton.  Produced by Ivan Tors. 

An increasing danger of undersea quakes that could endanger millions on land causes scientists to decide to implant special sensors in various places on the sea bottom, providing a sort of early warning system. To achieve this Doug Standish (Lloyd Bridges) and Craig Mosby (Brian Kelly) gather a team to occupy their sub, the Hydronaut, and voyage around the world. The team members consist of Hank Stahl (Keenan Wynn), Dr. Orin Hillyard (Marshall Thompson), Dr. Maggie Hanford (Shirley Eaton), and Philip Volker (David McCallum), who agrees to help only if they go on a salvage operation that could net millions once all the sensors are planted. But this operation is interrupted by an eruption, and the crew of the Hydronaut may find themselves in really hot water ... 

Shirley Eaton and Brian Kelly

Around the World Under the Sea may have been intended as producer Ivan Tors' answer to Irwin Allen's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, but it certainly falls short of providing the same entertainment value. Although there is much talk of the ever-present danger of quakes and the necessity of planting the sensors, there is no sense of urgency and no real suspense until, perhaps, the final sequence. The actors are competent enough for the most part, but not quite up to the challenge in their most intense scenes. 

Lloyd Bridges and Brian Kelly

Tors filled the movie with such TV stars as Bridges from Sea Hunt, Kelly from Flipper, Thompson from Daktari, McCallum from The Man from U.N.C.L.E., who affects the same accent he used as Ilya in that series, and then throws in the irascible Keenan Wynn and the sexy Shirley Eaton to cause some minor tension among the boys. Eaton and Thompson seem to be romantically involved at the beginning of the movie, but halfway through she shifts her attention to Kelly, but there's no major reaction from Thompson. Although one could argue that this avoids a cliche -- although there are plenty in this movie -- it also strips the movie of any melodrama, which it could have used. We do get a gigantic eel that shows up and sniffs around the sub, but the problem with this is that it doesn't really seem to be endangering it or the people aboard. (I thought I spotted a few moments of 3D animation during this sequence and stop-motion expert Jim Danson is listed in the credits.)

David McCallum appeals to Shirley Eaton

The science of the film is suspect as well. At the climax, the water around the sub should have been boiling from the heat, and other things don't make much sense. However, some viewers might enjoy that Shirley Eaton loses the top of her bathing suit at one point where it floats outside of a porthole (or whatever they call it on a sub), and Harry Sukman's score has its effective moments. The screenplay is not well-constructed and hardly takes advantage of a very workable premise. There is no real characterization to speak of. 

Verdict: By no means dreadful, but too blah to be memorable. **1/4. 

GOOD MORNING, MISS DOVE

Prune-face: Jennifer Jones as Miss Dove

GOOD-MORNING, MISS DOVE (1955). Director: Henry Koster.

55-year-old geography teacher Miss Dove (Jennifer Jones) has to go into the hospital for tests, and uses the time to reflect upon her life and her influence upon her students. Known as "the terrible Miss Dove" by certain townspeople, she is a rather grim and completely humorless, outwardly unemotional old maid, but despite her demeanor she can be kind to her pupils, especially a young boy named William who grows up to become a cop (Chuck Connors). Both her nurse (Peggy Knudsen) and doctor (Robert Stack) and his wife (Kipp Hamilton of War of the Gargantuas), as well as the town priest (Biff Elliot) are also former students.

Chuck Connors with Jones

There are several moving sequences in Good Morning, Miss Dove, but while I generally admire sentiment in old movies, this picture becomes a bit too unrealistic. With her unpleasant personality it's hard to believe that that many townspeople would care that much about this persnickety, disapproving and prune-faced spinster, giving this an ending that is pure Hollywood. Jones, who realistically ages from about twenty to middle-age, gives a very good performance, but there are huge gaps that fail to explain exactly why she's become the way she is. An early sequence shows her regretfully turning down a suitor's (Marshall Thompson) proposal as she has a family obligation that forces her to work and repay a debt, but we never learn why there were apparently no other suitors during her youth. There is also some bad sitcom-like nonsense about a student who grows up to become a petty crook and escapes from jail.

Priest and doctor: Biff Elliot and Robert Stack

In addition to Jones, most of the cast members (including some marvelous child actors) acquit themselves nicely, with Thompson notable in his one sequence with Jones, and there's also good work from Connors [South Sea Woman] , Stack, etc. and especially Peggy Knudsen [Hilda Crane] as the nurse Billie Jean, who had a child out of wedlock. Leigh Harline has contributed a pleasant and soapy score that is effective for the picture. Good Morning, Miss Dove is quite similar to the 1941 movie Cheers for Miss Bishop, which also examines a small town and the life of a teacher, but is a much, much better movie.

Verdict: Good night, Miss Dove. **1/2. 

WORDS AND MUSIC

Mickey as Lorenz Hart and Judy as herself

WORDS AND MUSIC (1948). Director: Norman Taurog.

"... strange places with strange people ..."

Richard Rodgers (Tom Drake) and Lorenz Hart (Mickey Rooney) become a highly popular song-writing duo and a theatrical force to be reckoned with. This is a heavily fictionalized biography that completely suppresses Hart's homosexuality and alcoholism, and instead makes the man unlucky in love. The highlights of the film are the musical interludes: Judy Garland, playing herself, singing "I Wish I Were In Love Again" with Mickey; and doing a solo on "Johnny One-Note." Lena Horne scores with "Where or When? " and "The Lady is a Tramp,"  and Mel Torme does "Blue Moon." Then there's the excellent "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" from On Your Toes with Gene Kelly at the top of his game. Rooney is as superb as ever, Drake [Betrayed Women] is fine as Rodgers, and Marshall Thompson plays associate Herbert Fields. Perry Como plays a fictional character in the film, and while his acting isn't bad, his singing style (at that time) apes Bing Crosby shamelessly. Janet Leigh has a nice turn as Rodgers' wife, as does Ann Sothern as Joyce, but the best one can say about Betty Garrett is that she's utterly unexciting. The picture is very handsomely produced, but the narration is unnecessary. To cap it all off we've got "With a Song in My Heart," one of Rodgers most beautiful melodies.

Verdict: Not the real story but colorful and entertaining. ***.

LURE OF THE SWAMP

Joan Vohs and Marshall Thompson

LURE OF THE SWAMP (1957). Director: Hubert Cornfield.

Simon Lewt (Marshall Thompson), who takes people out for boat rides in the swamp, is suddenly meeting all sorts of strangers. There's Lister (Willard Parker), who takes a suitcase into the swamp with him and later turns up dead; Steggins (Leo Gordon), who is looking for Lister; Henry Bliss (Jack Elam), a creepy type who wants Simon to help him find loot from a robbery; and Cora (Joan Vohs), who claims to be a photographer doing a story on the swamp. Then we've got Simon's nutty gal pal, Evie (Joan Lora), who is fond of taking shots at him when she's upset -- no wonder he wants to get out of the swamp! Lure of the Swamp is an odd low-budget affair (in Regalscope) that seems to exist in another universe. The performances are professional, with a vivid and interesting Jack Elam [The Girl in Lover's Lane] and Willard Parker [What a Woman] taking top honors. Former model Vohs mostly did television work; ditto for Lora. As usual, Thompson [Fiend without a Face] is an appealing performer.

Verdict: Ersatz film noir set in a swamp. **1/2.

IT THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE

Peekaboo! The Martian monster on the loose

IT, THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (1958). Director: Edward L. Cahn. Screenplay by Jerome Bixby.

An expedition to Mars picks up the sole survivor, Lt. Carruthers (Marshall Thompson), of the first team to reach the planet. Carruthers is suspected of murdering his team mates so the food would last longer, but he insists they were actually decimated by a ferocious monster [but what about that bullet hole in a skull? everyone wonders]. Said monster becomes a stowaway on  the voyage back to Earth, and pretty soon this new crew discovers Carruthers was telling the truth. The creature absorbs all of the bodily fluids from his victims via osmosis, and is amazingly strong as well. It, an obvious forerunner of Alien, is a taut, adroit little B movie that builds up suspense as the surviving crew members do everything they can think of to stay alive and destroy the monster. Bixby wrote the classic horror story "It's a Good Life" that was adapted by The Twilight Zone. The competent cast members [who sometimes seem to be holding back laughter]  include Shawn Smith [The Land Unknown], Ann Doran, Kim Spalding as the captain, and Dabbs Greer [The Vampire] as a science officer. Thompson appeared in First Man Into Space and many other films of various genres. Cahn directed 125 movies; Bixby wrote a lot for television but did only a few full-length screenplays.

Verdict: Lively, low-budget sci fi horror. ***.

FIEND WITHOUT A FACE

FIEND WITHOUT A FACE (1958). Director: Arthur Crabtree.

In and around a U.S. Air Force base in Manitoba, mysterious things are happening. Strange sloshing sounds are heard and people are suddenly killed by a weird invisible presence. Corpses are found missing their brains and spinal cords. Major Cummings (Marshall Thompson) investigates and comes across an old professor (Kynaston Reeves), and his pretty secretary Barbara (Kim Parker), the former of whom may know more than he realizes about the deaths. This movie may seem to borrow certain concepts from Forbidden Planet, but it was based on a story that pre-dates that great sci fi film. The stop-motion effects to bring the unusual monsters to life at the climax aren't bad at all, although some of the process work is clumsy; the sound effects are great. Kim Parker, who also appeared in Fire Maidens of Outer Space and a few other films, played another secretary in one more film and then was gone from the screen; she is not bad in Fiend. Crabtree also directed the nifty Horrors of the Black Museum. Thompson was "introduced" in Blonde Fever, although it was not his first movie. He did a number of genre items such as First Man into Space. Fiend without a Face takes its place beside The Brain from Planet Arous as a great brain movie. NOTE: You can read more about this movie and others like it in Creature Features: Nature Turned Nasty in the Movies.

Verdict: You can't beat those brains! ***.

DIAL 1119

DIAL 1119 (1950). Director: Gerald Mayer.

"You'd better leave God out of it. God's got other fish to fry besides you."

Gunther Wyckoff (Marshall Thompson) escapes from a mental institution, murders some people, and winds up in a bar where he holds several customers and staff members hostage. These include the blonde barfly, "Freddie" (Virginia Field), the obnoxious bartender, Chuckles (William Conrad), handsome waiter Skip (Keefe Braselle), Helen (Andrea King), who wants to make changes in her life, and married Earl (Leon Ames), who hopes to be one of those changes. There's also a reporter, Harry (James Bell), who thinks he's finally on top -- literally -- of a great breaking story. Sam Levene plays Gunther's psychiatrist, Dr. Faron, who goes in to talk to the man against the advice of the police [although it's never explained why they at least don't give him a bullet-proof vest]. Thompson is okay, but Field and Conrad give the most memorable performances. Taut and absorbing for the most part, Dial 1119 is still strictly minor-league. This film is included in the Film Noir Classics Collection Volume 5.

Verdict: Not bad for what it is. **1/2.

FIRST MAN INTO SPACE

FIRST MAN INTO SPACE (1959). Director: Robert Day.

"-- The first picture that takes you into space."

Commander Charles Prescott (Marshall Thompson) has a problematic relationship with his test pilot brother Lt. Dan Prescott (Bill Edwards), who resents that he has to follow his more responsible sibling's orders. Dan winds up flying higher than anyone has gone before and is forced to eject, but a bigger problem is that he has been covered with a kind of metallic space dust that causes him to mutate into a blood-drinking monster that terrorizes New Mexico. First Man into Space is pretty much a mediocre rip-off of The Quatermass Xperiment [aka Creeping Unknown] with little to recommend it. The picture is slow, stints on the horror for the most part, and has only adequate acting. Marla Landi plays brother Dan's love interest.

Verdict: Neither space nor Earth should be quite this boring. **.

CULT OF THE COBRA

CULT OF THE COBRA (1955). Director: Francis D. Lyon. 

In 1945 Asia a group of servicemen observe a secret ceremony of a cult whose women can turn into snakes, and are targeted for death when they return to the states. The architect of their demise is a beautiful woman, Lisa (Faith Domergue, who's not exactly Asian), who seems uncertain if she's doing the right thing -- but does it anyway. The victims are played by such familiar genre actors as Marshall Thompson (Fiend without a Face), Richard Long (House on Haunted Hill), William Reynolds (The Thing that Couldn't Die), as well as David Janssen. Domergue gets across the conflicted feelings of her character even if she's a little too cool at times. Ed Platt of Get Smart appears briefly as one of the cult members. Kathleen Hughes plays Long's love interest, Julia. Cult of the Cobra holds the attention, and while not a horror classic by any means [and not especially horrific in any case], it does have its moments. 

Verdict: More entertaining than it has any right to be. ***.

BLONDE FEVER

BLONDE FEVER (1944). Director: Richard Whorf.

"I've learned the difference between loving someone and wanting someone."

Peter Donay (Philip Dorn) is a successful restaurateur with an attractive wife, Delilah (Mary Astor) who finds himself becoming infatuated with a pretty blond waitress, Sally (Gloria Grahame), who already has a young boyfriend (Marshall Thompson). This is based on a farce by Ferenc Molnar, but Hollywood screenwriter Patricia Coleman has stripped it of all fun and humor -- there is not a single laugh in the picture [and make no mistake, this is supposed to be a comedy, not a drama or even comedy-drama]. Although each had appeared in small, sometimes uncredited roles in previous pictures, Grahame and Thompson were "introduced" in this picture, and both give good performances. Dorn does his best, but the material defeats him, and even the great Mary Astor has a struggle to breath life into a lifeless movie. The actors are all superior to the material, and Astor should never have been put in such junk in the first place. Felix Bressart, as Johnny the bartender, and Elisabeth Risdon as a friend and customer, are also wasted in this picture.

Verdict: Virtually worthless but for some fine actors who all deserve better. *.

THE SHOW-OFF (1946)

THE SHOW-OFF (1946): Director: Harry Beaumont.

One of several versions of a play about an overbearing know-it-all and braggart who drives his in-laws to distraction but is loved by his wife, who recognizes his essential good heart and that he means well. Skelton is very well-cast in the part of Aubrey Piper, and as his gal, Marilyn Maxwell is more subdued and pleasing than usual. But the picture is nearly stolen by Marjorie Main as Skelton's exasperated mother-in-law. Marshall Thompson is Skelton's young brother-in-law, and Leon Ames is married to Maxwell's sister, Clara (Jacqueline White). Virginia O'Brien is Maxwell's girlfriend, who arranges a double-date wth Skelton. Eddie "Rochester" Anderson also appears briefly. Good supporting cast and a typically winning performance by Skelton makes this a pleasant, amusing, if somewhat minor comedy-drama.

Verdict: Fast-moving and entertaining. **1/2.