AIR CADET

Upper classman Rock Hudson gives those cadets their orders

AIR CADET (1951). Director: Joseph Pevney.

Three men room together in the Air Force academy with the hopes of becoming top-notch pilots: Russ (Richard Long), Walter (Robert Arthur), and Joe (Alex Nicol), who was a sergeant in the Army but now finds he has to start proving himself all over again. An unnamed upper classman (Rock Hudson) seems to delight in making life miserable for them, especially Walter. But the real trouble begins when Russ becomes sweet on Janet (Gail Russell), who is separated from her husband Major Jack Page (Stephen McNally). And Page is one of the men who decides if Russ and the others make the grade or will be given the heave-ho.

Alex Nicol and Robert Arthur

There is an attempt to present some interesting drama in this story of the three cadets -- James Best plays a fourth cadet who is ousted from the program early on -- but it never really amounts to much. More interesting than the mild triangle business with Page, Janet, and Russ, is the sub-plot with Russ coming to partially blame Page for his brother's suicide (due to what today we would call post-traumatic stress disorder). Frankly, both men behave like assholes. There is, however, some terrific aerial shots, especially when the boys fly in formation with their planes only 18 feet apart throughout and one begins hurtling towards the ground. 

Gail Russell and Stephen McNally

Rock Hudson actually has little to do in the movie, but he does it very adeptly. McNally and Russell [The Uninvited] are top-billed and are more than satisfactory in their roles, while Richard Long gives one of his best performances as the troubled Russ. Alex Nicol [Heatwave] is professional, even if his character is somehow unlikable, but Robert Arthur [September Affair] is charming and appealing as the plucky "little guy" that most of the audience will be rooting for. Charles Drake is fine as another flying instructor, and Peggie Castle adds some "femme appeal" as a lady who can't seem to make up her mind between Nicol and Arthur.


Verdict: Acceptable aviation film with decent players and some good aerial shots. **1/4. 

INVASION U.S.A.

INVASION U.S.A. (1952). Director: Alfred E. Green.

A group of people in a bar, including Vince Potter (Gerald Mohr of Redhead from Manhattan), Carla Sanford (Peggie Castle), and George Sylvester (Robert Bice of The Big Bluff), are horrified to learn on television that a foreign power has invaded the United States. There's talk of an A bomb hurtling towards Manhattan! Via hypnotism, a mysterious man named "Mr. Ohman" (Daniel O'Herlihy)-- get it? -- offers the patrons a cautionary tale of what might happen if the U.S. should succumb ... Red-Baiter Hedda Hopper loved this film (see poster) because it was anti-communist, but that's about all anybody could love about this very minor and routine picture. O'Herlihy offers the best performance, although Castle isn't bad, and Mohr is his usual lounge-lizard self. Interesting cast members in small roles include both "Lois Lanes" -- Phyllis Coates and Noel Neill -- and Edward G. Robinson, Jr. Green also directed Housewife with Bette Davis, among others.

Verdict: Worth sleeping through. *1/2.

BACK FROM THE DEAD

Otto Reichow and Peggie Castle

BACK FROM THE DEAD (1957). Director: Charles Marquis Warren.

Dick Anthony (Arthur Franz of Monster on the Campus) stupidly decides to bring his new wife, Mandy (Peggie Castle of I, the Jury), to the home he once shared with his first wife, although he claims he was "compelled" to do so. Maybe that's the case, because it isn't long before both Arthur and his sister-in-law Kate (Marsha Hunt) are baffled by Mandy's insistence that she is really Arthur's drowned wife, Felicia. Has Mandy's mind and body been taken over by the consciousness of the dead Felicia, or is something else going on? Almost from the very first it seems clear that this is a genuine case of demonic possession, with Arthur and Kate hoping to free Mandy, and others -- such as Felicia's batty mother, Ada (Helen Wallace) and sinister spiritualist Renault (Otto Reichow) -- trying to keep Felicia on the more or less mortal plane. All of this sounds interesting, and the acting isn't bad, but Back From the Dead is only sporadically entertaining and has very little suspense. James Bell is especially good as Felicia's horrified father. The music by Raoul Kraushaar is (deliberately one hopes) atrocious. Warren also directed Unknown Terror, which was better than this.

Verdict: This one should have stayed dead. **.

I, THE JURY

Peggie Castle and Biff Elliott

I, THE JURY (1953). Writer/director: Harry Essex.

"No one should belong to someone so completely that it blocks out the rest of the world, because if something should happen, you're lost." -- Dr. Charlotte Manning.

"From now on no one cuts me so deep I can't close the wounds." --Myrna Devlin

"You're not gettin' the heebie jeebies, are ya, baby?" -- Mike Hammer

Mike Hammer (Biff Elliot) is so outraged that someone murdered a friend, Jack, who saved his life during the war, that he vows to take care of the guilty party himself, being judge, jury and executioner. His friend, Captain Pat Chambers (Preston Foster) hopes to find the killer first. There are numerous suspects: art dealer George Kalecki (Alan Reed), who may be up to shady business; alleged college student Hal Kines (Bob Cunningham), who may be Kalecki's "playmate," among other things; the flirtatious Bellamy twins, Esther and Mary (Tani Guthire and Dran Hamilton); and a host of toughs and other nasty characters. Jack's girlfriend Myrna (Frances Osborne) has been seeing the sophisticated and wealthy shrink Dr. Charlotte Manning (Peggie Castle), with whom Mike becomes involved during the investigation. Then there are more murders, and Mike becomes more frustrated and violent. Who the hell is shooting all of these people, and why? I, the Jury, based on Mickey Spillane's first Mike Hammer novel, is an absorbing and well-acted thriller, with Biff Elliot, the first and arguably best Mike Hammer, playing the pants off of the role; he's just perfect as Hammer, with his good looks, sensitivity and sex appeal playing well off his brusque, rude and two-fisted manner. Castle [Beginning of the End] gives one of her more memorable performances, and there is fine work from the others mentioned, as well as from Mary Anderson [Chicago Calling] as Eileen Vickers. Margaret Sheridan [The Thing from Another World] makes a more than creditable Velma, Hammer's helpful secretary. Franz Waxman contributed an interesting jazz score. The story is the usual twisting Spillane concoction, watered down from the novel, and with the usual soupcon of misogyny underlining the whole story. When Kalecki breaks down into tears when he hears news of Hal's death, it seems clear the film is hinting that he was in love with him, but otherwise this is not explored. Some good dialogue sprinkled throughout. Elisha Cook Jr. and Nestor Paiva have smaller roles. This was remade with Armand Assante as Hammer about thirty years later.

Verdict: Highly interesting Mike Hammer picture. ***.

THE WHITE ORCHID

THE WHITE ORCHID (1954). Director: Reginald Le Borg.

Archaeologist Robert Burton (William Lundigan, in a Richard Denning-type role) plans to hunt for the remains of a lost Mexican civilization. His magazine sends him a female photographer,  Kathryn Williams (Peggie Castle), which brings out his not-so-latent chauvinism. Kathryn is not above using her sex appeal to get the very handsome rancher Juan Cervantes (Armando Silvestre) to guide them to the ruins. Cervantes owns a vanilla bean plantation that also boasts white orchids, and it isn't long before he's forsaking his lady love Lupita (Rosenda Monteros) and declaring undying devotion to Kathryn as an annoyed Burton looks on. During a fiesta scene, there's some business with men flying around a tall pole on ropes that is cleverly-edited, but the movie doesn't lead to anything too exciting, and doesn't amount to much, despite the heavy breathing. Silvestre was born in San Diego, and was a busy actor, mostly in Mexican productions. Lundigan was also in The Case of the Black Parrot and many others, and Castle starred in Beginning of the End. Le Borg also directed Voodoo Island, which was more interesting than this.

Verdict: Good-looking cast with little to do. **.

99 RIVER STREET

Evelyn Keyes and John Payne

99 RIVER STREET (1953). Director: Phil Karlson.

Ernie Driscoll (John Payne) is a bitter prize-fighter and current cab driver whose career ended when he received a serious injury to his eye. Driscoll also discovers that his unsatisfied wife, Pauline (Peggie Castle), is having an affair with a diamond thief named Victor (Brad Dexter). Then an aspiring actress he knows, Linda (Evelyn Keyes), tells him that she's in trouble, leading to the movie's best scene, which is, unfortunately, only midway through the movie. One clever if unlikely sequence isn't enough to save this standard potboiler, where Driscoll has to settle accounts with Victor while dodging police because of an incident with Linda -- and worse. Payne and Keyes are okay, as is Frank Faylen as Driscoll's buddy, but Castle [Beginning of the End] makes a better impression and Dexter is terrific as a smiling homicidal reptile, matched by Jay Adler as the man who engineered the diamond heist but now won't pay off. Michael Ross, the space giant and bartender in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, appears as a cabbie and Glenn Langan [The Amazing Colossal Man] is a theatrical producer. Keyes made a better impression in The Killer that Stalked New York but Dexter is much more vital in this than he was in Macao.

Verdict: Unimpressive film noir despite some decent moments and one surprise. **.

MIRACLE IN THE RAIN

MIRACLE IN THE RAIN (1956). Director: Rudolph Mate.

Ruth Wood (Jane Wyman) lives with her mother (Josephine Hutchinson), and hasn't seen her father (William Gargan), who walked out on the family for another woman, in many years. One day she meets a soldier, Arthur (Van Johnson) on leave, and the two begin dating, but Ruth's mother is wary of all men since her divorce and is afraid her daughter will be hurt. Instead Ruth and Art fall in love, even as Ruth's father, who works in a restaurant the couple dine at, tries to build up his courage to get in touch with the daughter he hasn't spoken to in years. Then Art is called back to service ... While the extreme religiosity of the picture may be a turn-off to many, Miracle in the Rain works quite well as a romance, and boasts excellent performances, especially from a wonderful Wyman. Although the story line has some silly digressions, the movie has interesting elements, including the sub-plot with the father, and the New York City locations are well-served by Russell Metty's crisp cinematography. Franz Waxman turned in a superlative score as well. Barbara Nichols and Alan King play honeymooners in the park; Eileen Heckart scores as Ruth's co-worker and friend; and Fred Clark and Peggie Castle (Beginning of the End) are fine as Ruth's boss and an employee he is having an affair with. Arte Johnson is nice as another sympathetic co-worker of Ruth's. The church sequences go on a bit too long and the ending seems a mite dragged out. Whether you buy the "miracle" of the storyline or not, the picture is poignant and you can't help but pity poor Ruth.

Verdict: Well-mounted romance with a superior cast. ***.

BEGINNING OF THE END

BEGINNING OF THE END (1957). Director: Bert I. Gordon.

Reporter Audrey Aimes (Peggie Castle) is surprised to learn that the town of Ludlow has been wiped out overnight and all of its 150 inhabitants have disappeared. [Nobody ever suggests a tornado might be responsible even though that is what the damage resembles in stock footage.] No, in a grotesque development Audrey learns that irradiated food worked on by entomologist Ed Wainwright (Peter Graves) has been accidentally eaten by grasshoppers and has turned them into humongous giants that have devoured everyone in town [bones included]! Before long General Hanson (Morris Ankrum) and Colonel Sturgeon (Thomas B. Henry) are leading a desperate battle against the ravenous plague of locusts as Wainwright tries to come up with the solution to destroying them. The climax has Wainwright and Aimes working in a skyscraper in Chicago as the grasshoppers converge en masse ... This is a cheap but entertaining entry in the "big bug" cycle, zippily directed by Gordon, and not badly acted by the enthusiastic cast. Beginning of the End is fast-paced fun but it's not a classic a la Them, its obvious model, nor is it as good as Tarantula. [Gordon also directed Earth vs. The Spider, among many others.]

NOTE: There is a scene in this movie when the Army first encounters the giant grasshoppers but find they are more than they can manage. As a truck pulls away from the forest where the mutants are congregated, one grasshopper suddenly rushes after the truck and nearly catches up with it. However, on the only DVD of this picture currently available, there is a fade out just before the monster appears, stripping the movie of one of its more exciting sequences. Reportedly, the DVD has cut three minutes of footage from the movie. This makes absolutely no sense. The whole point of DVDs with their special features and widescreen format is to show the complete movie as it was intended to be seen. It could be argued that some cuts tighten the movie or remove bad FX work, but fans of this genre want to see the whole movie as it was originally presented, no matter how good the video quality. [ For more on this and similar films see Creature Features: Nature Turned Nasty in the Movies.]

Verdict: Movie: **1/2. DVD: *1/2.