TERROR STREET

Dan Duryea

TERROR STREET (1953). Director: Montgomery Tully.

At the end of WW2 American Major Bill Rogers (Dan Duryea) falls in love with pretty Katie (Elsie Albiin). They get married, but shortly afterward Bill takes off for the U.S. to teach a course that will last three months; for some reason he can't take her with him. Three months stretches into a year, and Katie quite sensibly moves out and into her own apartment, where she falls in with the wrong crowd. When she is murdered, Bill goes on the run, getting help from a rather stupid mission lady named Jenny (Gudrun Ure). Then there's this business with smuggled diamonds and blackmail, none of which is very interesting. There is no suspense whatsoever since the real killer is revealed right during the scene when Katie is murdered. The  mis-titled Terror Street features an utterly unsympathetic lead character, and the script is quite poor, even for a Hammer film noir. Duryea [Chicago Calling] gives a comparatively indifferent performance, although he does have a nice moment when he goes over the mementos of their brief married life that Katie kept in a safety deposit box. The supporting performances are okay, with Kenneth Griffith a stand out as the very nervous Henry Slosson, whose uncle (Eric Pohlmann of The Gambler and the Lady) is an antique dealer with a decidedly dubious sideline. John Chandos is cast as Orville Hart, a crook who masquerades as a customs official. Harold Lang (not to be confused with the American actor) makes his mark as a room clerk who loves to listen in to other people's phone conversations.  Montgomery Tully also directed Battle Beneath the Earth.

Verdict: Dull, dull, dull with only a couple of bright spots. *1/2.

BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH

Martin Benson as General Chan Lu

BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH (1967). Director: Montgomery Tully.

Commander Jonathan Shaw (Kerwin Mathews), and his old Korean War buddy, scientist Arnold Kramer (Peter Arne), discover that the Chinese have come up with a horrendously diabolical plot. Using laser drills on tank-like vehicles, they have burrowed tunnels under U. S. space centers, military bases, and large population areas, and plan on using atomic bombs to wipe out the whole country. A geologist, Tila Yung (Vivienne Ventura), helps the others discover the tunnel under the sea where the Chinese forces have made their way to America. Can they stop their plan in time? Battle Beneath the Earth somewhat reminds one of Crack in the World in that its interesting (if absurd) situation is undermined by a very low-budget, although there is one marvelous shot showing the sea pouring into the Chinese tunnel. Another highlight is a suspenseful business involving the disarming of a bomb. Mathews has little opportunity to display the derring do of, say, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, but Peter Arne offers a flavorful performance as Kramer, Ventura is very pretty, and Martin Benson [The Cosmic Monsters] steals the show as General Chan Lu, the leader of the assault. Robert Ayres [Black Widow] makes a very intense Admiral Hillebrand. This is like a TV production, and might have been enlivened by the appearance of some underground man-eating monsters, but no such luck. Montgomery Tully directed several thrillers, such as Strange Awakening; this was his last credit.

Verdict: In some ways it's like a poor man's James Bond. ** out of 4.

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.

PAID TO KILL

Dane Clark

PAID TO KILL (1954). Director: Montgomery Tully.

In a variation of the old plot about a man hiring someone to kill him and then wanting to call it off, James Neville (Dane Clark) is convinced that a business deal gone south will not only ruin him but the company he heads, so he blackmails an associate, Paul (Paul Kirby) into killing him so his wife can collect the insurance money. But then the deal is back on again, and Neville is saved, only someone is still trying to kill him -- and it doesn't appear to be Paul. Suspects include his apparently loving secretary, Joan (Cecile Chevreau), his wife, Andrea (Thea Gregory), and his friend, Peter (Anthony Forwood), among others. Paid to Kill is well-acted and suspenseful, and with a little more care might have really amounted to something; as it is it's entertaining. Clark gives a very good performance as the not terribly likable Neville, and the others in the cast are good as well.

Verdict: Not bad Hammer mystery film. ***.

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. *.