SLIGHTLY SCARLET

Rhonda Fleming and John Payne

SLIGHTLY SCARLET (1956). Director: Allan Dawn.

June Lyons (Rhonda Fleeming), who is secretary and more to mayoral candidate Frank Jansen (Kent Taylor), brings her sister, Dorothy (Arlene Dahl) home after the latter gets out of prison. Both women get involved with Ben Grace (John Payne), who is the brains behind a criminal outfit run by Solly Caspar (Ted de Corsia), who has had to take it on the lam. Now Ben tries to take over and get all his ducks in a row, including Jansen, the police chief, and the two attractive ladies -- although things get a bit dicey when Solly suddenly returns from Mexico ...

Such devoted sisters? Dahl and Fleming

Slightly Scarlet is entertaining enough but it has a script that goes all over the place, and Allan Dwan's direction is not strong enough to make up for it. What we're left with is some vivid emoting from Payne, going through his bad guy (but not that bad) film noir phase, a solid Fleming, a vivacious and sluttish Dahl making the most of her scenes, and de Corsia also making an impression as the decidedly nasty and nearly psychopathic Solly. Although Payne does a good job in playing Ben, the screenplay never seems to get a true handle on the guy, so there doesn't really seem to be anyone to root for in this mess. Kent Taylor has a few scenes as the man who becomes mayor but he isn't developed enough to be much of a factor. June seems overly devoted to her sister, a trampy shoplifter and worse who doesn't even seem to care when Solly makes it clear that he's going to murder June.

Payne and Dahl at that beach house

Other players include Ellen Corby as June's very pleasant housekeeper, Roy Gordon [War of the Colossal Beast] as a crusader against Solly who meets a horrible fate, George Wallace [Radar Men from the Moon] as a sullen member of Solly's gang, and Myron Healey [Hot Rod] as another colleague who tries to ventilate Ben to his regret. Solly owns a beach house that can best be described as "fabulous." This is based on as novel by James M. Cain. An RKO-Radio production, it was filmed in "Superscope."

Verdict: Not as much fun as the plot might suggest, but fun enough if you're in an undemanding mood. **1/2. 

MA AND PA KETTLE AT WAIKIKI

Percy Kilbride and Marjorie Main

MA AND PA KETTLE AT WAIKIKI (1953). Director: Lee Sholem.

Pa Kettle's (Percy Kilbride) cousin, Rodney (Loring Smith of Shadow of the Thin Man), who once hoped to marry Ma (Marjorie Main) but instead stayed in Hawaii to run a pineapple business, has been told to take it easy by his doctor. Rodney and his associates decide to importune Pa -- whom they wrongly think is rich and successful -- to temporarily run the pineapple business in Honolulu until Rodney's health improves. They also think Pa's brilliance will put the company on the fast track again. Against all odds, the ever-lazy Pa seems to come up with schemes that enrich the firm's coffers. But then he's kidnapped and taken to an island where he thinks there's buried treasure.

Percy Kilbride as the lazy Pa Kettle

Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki starts out well with several amusing sequences revolving both around Pa's efforts at the pineapple plant and Ma's encounters with the snobby bank president's wife, Teresa Andrews (Mabel Albertson of The House That Would Not Die) and her condescending lady friends. Unfortunately, the flick falls apart in the second half with the introduction of the thoroughly uninteresting kidnappers (including Russell Johnson and Myron Healey) and the whole dull business with the treasure hunt. Even the insertion of a Hawaiian version of Ma and Pa and their huge brood doesn't help, but leads to even more tedious sequences when these characters attempt to rescue Pa with Ma's super-butch assistance and a lot of coconuts. Okay, there's a cute business with a crab but that's about it.

Lori Nelson returns as the Kettle's grown daughter, Rosie, and goes to Hawaii with them, and her new love interest is Bob Baxter (Byron Palmer), who works for Rodney Kettle. Birdie Hicks (Esther Dale) returns briefly and is back to hating Ma again, leading into a funny sequence involving an air-conditioner that doesn't work the way Pa intended. This script has Ma seeming much more stupid than usual.

Verdict: Some fun, but otherwise a disappointment. **1/4. 

JUNGLE MOON MEN

Helene Stanton as High Priestess Oma

JUNGLE MOON MEN  (1955). Director: Charles S. Gould.

In this "Johnny Weissmuller" (formerly Jungle Jim) adventure, Johnny (Weissmuller, of course) encounters a lady anthropologist named Ellen (Jean Byron) and her boyfriend, Bob (William Henry of The Thin Man). Naturally there are bad guys afoot, personified by Myron  Healey as Mark Santo, leader of a group of men who are after some diamonds. Good guys and bad guys alike come afoul of a tribe of midget "moon men" (presumably they worship the moon) armed with poisonous blow darts. It develops that these moon men are the subjects of one Oma, (Helene Stanton), their beautiful High Priestess, who lives in a cavern with a not-so-hidden entrance -- along with diamonds and a host of ravenous lions. In the movie's best scene, Oma has virtually all of the characters tied up and left in a chamber where lions are going to be released to feed upon them. The cute chimp Kimba sort of comes to their rescue. Like something out of Lost Horizon, Oma is apparently centuries old and comes to an expected end. Helene Stanton's talent (aside from her sex appeal) is obvious even in this cheapie, and that same year she was seen to better advantage in the excellent Cornel Wilde thriller The Big Combo. Unfortunately, her movie career only lasted two more years. Unlike in the previous non-Jungle Jim film, Weissmuller's last name is used more than once.

Verdict: A variety of elements thrown together to make a fairly entertaining jungle "epic." **1/2.

HOT ROD

Jimmy Lydon, Art Baker, Myron Healey

HOT ROD (1950). Director: Lewis D. Collins.

"Parents, be grateful you're attending a hearing today instead of a funeral. -- Judge Langham.

David Langham, a kind of mopey "youngster" (Jimmy Lydon, billed as James Lydon), is in love with hot rods and wants to build a super-charged one to impress his sometime girl, Janie (Gloria Winters), Janie is more taken with obnoxious Jack (Tommy Bond), who gets David in trouble when he "borrows" his vehicle and gets into an accident. David's older brother, Joe (Myron Healey of Panther Girl of the Kongo), is a cop and their father is Judge Langham (Art Baker), who takes a dim view of hot rods and the lives cost by dangerous amateur racing. David feels that lives might be saved if the town opened a legal racing strip so the kids wouldn't have to race illegally and get into trouble. Seventy years ago hot rods and racing were a big issue, and lots of movies, mostly "B" films, dealt with it, along with juvenile delinquency. Lydon, who so winningly played Henry Aldrich in a series of comedies, gives a good performance in this, but the film is mediocre, like an expanded "Leave It To Beaver" episode with a heavy-handed (if appropriate) moral tone. Gil Stratton is weird as David's geeky pal, Swifty. Serial stars Marshall Reed and Dennis Moore both have small roles in Hot Rod, with the former playing a guy whose car is hit by David's jalopy, and the latter as a motorcycle patrolman. Those hoping to see some amazing souped up and sexy hot rods in this picture will have to look elsewhere. Lewis D. Collins co-directed many serials (generally with Ray Taylor) and also helmed The Spanish Cape Mystery.

Verdict: Despite a high speed chase at the end, this has little zzzooom. **.

ELEPHANT STAMPEDE

Johnny Sheffield as Bomba and Donna Martell as Lola

ELEPHANT STAMPEDE (1951). Writer/director: Ford Beebe.

"If I was thinking of myself, I wouldn't have come to Africa." -- Miss Banks

Some evil men have come to Africa to, naturally, get some ivory, and, also naturally, don't care who gets hurt as they take after some tusks. Bob Warren (John Kellogg) and Joe Collins (Myron Healey of Varan the Unbelievable) murder Deputy Commissioner Mark Phillips (Guy Kingsford), with Warren pretending to be the dead man so he can ingratiate himself with some villagers and their white teacher, Miss Banks (Edith Evanson of Life with Henry). The villagers know of a secret cache of ivory that can pay for their continued schooling, but the bad guys have other plans. Enter the almost mythical Bomba (Johnny Sheffield), who routs the villains, saves the ivory, and breaks the heart of pretty little native girl, Lola (Donna Martell of Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff), who teachers Bomba how to read but gets swimming lessons in return instead of kisses. Dumb Bomba! Leonard Mudie is back as the official, Andy Barnes, and Martin Wilkins plays Chief Nagala. The elephants create a minor ruckus at the end of the film,. but it can't really be called a "stampede" -- the budget for this Monogram cheapie was too low. The film has a kind of bittersweet coda involving the non-lovers.

Verdict: Sheffield and Martell make an appealing almost-couple. **1/2.

VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE

VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE aka Daikaiju Baran Japanese version/1958. Director: Ishiro Honda.

Two scholarly students looking for a rare species of butterfly in the "Tibet of Japan," are found dead after coming upon a monstrous something. Yuriko (Ayumi Sonoda), the journalist sister of one of the scholars, goes to investigate the region with handsome Kenji (Kozo Nomura) and a buddy. The natives fear a god named Baradgi, but their problems are actually caused by a species of prehistoric creature known as varanpodi that rises out of a bucolic lake to cause death and destruction. Varan has a more interesting design than Godzilla, and is a fairly lively "suitmation" creature. The opening scenes are creepy, and the photography is moody and atmospheric. All told, this is no world-beater but it isn't totally terrible, either. Four years later footage was added with Myron Healey as an Army officer with a sub-plot involving both U.S. and Japanese forces experimenting on salt water. Oddly this version is five minutes shorter than the original. Ishiro Honda also directed Gojira (Godzilla) and Rodan, both of which were better than this.

Verdict: One of the better Japanese monster movies, which may not be saying too much. **1/2.