THE DEADLY GAME (1954)

Maureen Swanson and Lloyd Bridges

THE DEADLY GAME (aka The Big Deady Game/1954). Director: Daniel Birt.

Composer Philip Graham (Lloyd Bridges of Deadly Dream) is in Spain where he encounters an old Air Force buddy Tony Roscoe (Peter Dyneley of The Manster), who wants him to deliver a certain envelope to someone in London. Philip also meets Marina (Maureen Swanson), the pretty niece of the corpulent Mr. Darius (Finlay Currie). When Philip discovers that Tony has been murdered, he first suspects the very married Mitzi (Simone Silva), who claims that Tony was blackmailing her. Before too long Philip finds himself embroiled in a plot involving smuggled microfilm. The Deadly Game is almost a complete waste of an hour and is like a forgettable episode of a forgettable TV series. Bridges saunters through displaying seedy charm, Swanson is pretty and appealing, Silva adds some limited spice, Currie is fat, the movie is dull, dull, dull. Hard to imagine why anyone thought it would be a good idea to film this lousy script. This is a Hammer noir "thriller" that has absolutely no thrills. Maureen Swanson has a vague Vivien Leigh quality but did not have the same type of career. Lots of stock footage of a fiesta in Spain.

Verdict: The pace is reasonably swift but that's about it. *.

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.

THE MANSTER

Tetsu Nakamura

THE MANSTER (1959). Directors: George P. Breakstone; Kenneth G. Crane.

Dr. Robert Suzuki (Tetsu Nakamura) is a mad scientist who experimented -- with their foolish permission -- on his wife and brother, with hideous results. Now he decides to surreptitiously give a formula to Larry Stanford (Peter Dyneley), a foreign correspondent located near Tokyo. The first thing to change is Larry's attitude, as he cruelly blows off his visiting wife, Linda (Jane Hylton), takes up with Suzuki's sexy assistant Tara (Terri Zimmern), and pretty much turns into a highly disagreeable drunk, much to the consternation of his boss, Ian (Norman Van Hawley). What's worse, one of his hands turns gross and hairy, but in the film's most startling scene, Larry sees an eyeball peeking out of his shoulder! Seems there's another creature growing right inside of Larry's body (shades of The Manitou). This is not a dubbed Japanese film despite the setting and many of the cast members, but an American-Japanese co-production spoken in English (at least in this version). The Manster is also an interesting and atmospheric horror flick with some laughable moments to be sure, but also a fair amount of creepiness and suspense. Dyneley amassed 86 credits and Hylton 75. Nakamura appeared in a number of Japanese horror and monster films, including The H Man. This was the only film credit for both Zimmern and Van Hawley.

Verdict: Watch out for that peeping eyeball! *** out of 4.