THE OUTLAWS IS COMING

Adam West and the Stooges: DeRitas, Howard and Fine

THE OUTLAWS IS COMING (1965). Director: Norman Maurer.

In 1871 a group of outlaws want to slaughter the buffalo to send the Indians on the warpath for their own nefarious purposes. Kenneth Cabot (Adam West of Batman) is sent out to Wyoming with three associates (Larry Fine, Moe Howard, and Joe DeRita) to save the Buffalo from extinction. There they run into Annie Oakley (Nancy Kovack of Diary of a Madman), who actually does the shootin' attributed to Kenneth, as well as bad guys Rance Rodan (Don Lamond) and Trigger Mortis (Mort Mills of The Name of the Game is Kill), who make Kenneth the sheriff and the Stooges his deputies -- with the average life expectancy of about a day. The Outlaws is Coming is pretty silly stuff, geared primarily to children despite its violence and gun play, but it does have some inspired moments. There's the bit when the Stooges are forced to drink a Tarantula Fizz (Tiny Brauer is amusing as their bartender), and a clever business when the boys pour glue into the guns and holsters of all of the outlaws as they sleep, hoping to head off their own slaughter. DeRita and Fine make comical drag queens when they accidentally enter the room of some show gals instead of the outlaws. Annie Oakley has a cat fight with Calamity Jane, and Henry Gibson plays an Indian, but he isn't especially funny, no surprise there. Emil Sitka is also not funny as an Indian chief. At 88 minutes the picture is too long.

Verdict: Elvis the skunk is in this too! **.

CRY VENGEANCE

CRY VENGEANCE (1954). Director: Mark Stevens.

Former cop Vic Barron (Mark Sevens) comes to Alaska in search of mobster Tino Morelli (Douglas Kennedy), whom Barron feels is responsible for the death of his wife and child as well as his own facial disfigurement. Searching for the man and plotting his revenge, he encounters bar owner Peggy Harding (Martha Hyer) and old girlfriend, Lily (Joan Vohs). Barron is so understandably intent on getting even that he even contemplates harming Morelli's little girl, Marie (Cheryl Callaway). But before he can get to Morelli, he has to deal with a nasty blond hit man named Roxey (Skip Homeier). Homeier [Stark Fear], Hyer and Vohs [Lure of the Swamp] give the best performances in this; striving for a depiction of single-minded intensity, Stevens, who also directed, plays it all in one note. Mort Mills, the cop in Psycho, has a small role, as does Richard Deacon [The Birds] as a bartender.

Verdict: Acceptable if minor-league film noir. **1/2.