SEVEN WERE SAVED

Richard Denning and Catherine Craig

SEVEN WERE SAVED (1947). Director: William H. Pine. Colorized version. 

Captain Jim Wilson (Russell Hayden of Lost City of the Jungle) is looking forward to a future with Lt. Susan Briscoe (Catherine Craig of The Pretender), but their plans hit a snag when she finds out he wants to stay in the service and she wants out. Although engaged, they don't really know each other that well. Later Susan is flying as a nurse in a plane that not only carries her patient and others, but a Japanese prisoner, Colonel Yamura (Richard Loo). Yamura tries to get the pilots to fly him to an island, and the plane winds up hitting the ditch. Now the lifeboat is filled to the brim with, among others, the Hartleys (John Eldredge and Ann Doran), and the amnesiac Smith (Keith Richards), who turns out to have a highly surprising connection to Mrs. Hartley. As various problems confront the castaways hoping for rescue, chief among them Captain Danton (Richard Denning), Captain Wilson is on a desperate search for the woman he loves, but a bout of malaria may prevent this. 

Russell Hayden and Don Castle

Seven Were Saved begins with a tip of the hat to the Air and Sea Rescue Service, for which this might be considered an advertisement. Although the movie is by no means in the same league as such films as Lifeboat and similar adventures, there is an attempt to create interest with a couple of intriguing characters and situations. The film might have had more impact with a more stellar cast, but a bigger problem is the cutting back and forth between the inflatable lifeboat and the attempts to find it, and there are too many tedious stretches. However, there is some decent acting in this, and a few nice touches. Star Russell Hayden later directed When the Girls Take Over. 

Verdict: Rather minor sea crash melodrama. **1/2. 

THE GLASS KEY

Alan Ladd

THE GLASS KEY (1942). Director: Stuart Heisler. 

Politician Paul Madvig (Brian Donlevy), essentially a crook, is trying to clean up his reputation for re-election by going after hood Nick Varna (Joseph Calleia). Paul has formed an alliance with wealthy Ralph Henry (Moroni Olsen), and also fallen in love with Henry's daughter, Janet (Veronica Lake). Meanwhile Paul's sister, Opal (Bonita Granville), is head over heels for Janet's brother, Taylor (Richard Denning), a gambling addict with serious debts. Paul's associate and best friend, Ed Beaumont (Alan Ladd), stumbles across Taylor's dead body, and wonders if Paul, who hated Taylor and his influence over his sister, could possibly be responsible. Apparently both Opal and Janet think that he is. The truth may be a little more complicated.

Ladd and Lake

Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett, The Glass Key is a reasonably absorbing but rather unpleasant bit of film noir. For one thing, there isn't a single really likable major character; even the hero played by Ladd is a creep. Ladd is as swell at the hardboiled routine as anyone, but he never quite comes off as a real person. He's handsome, but almost as bland and artificial as a Ken doll. Brian Donlevy is as good and forceful as ever, but it's a typically brusque and bristling Donlevy performance like he gives in virtually every movie, including The Creeping Unknown. Similarly Joseph Calleia is excellent in his very familiar gangster role. Veronica Lake has been seen to better advantage in other movies (such as I Married a Witch). 

"Let's have a drink." William Bendix with Ladd

Part of the problem is that the characters in this are mostly one-dimensional and the actors can't do enough to flesh them out. One exception is William Bendix, who honestly steals the movie as the sadistic gunsel who nearly beats Ed to death. Bendix also has a splendid scene, again with Ladd, when they sort of share a drink together as a semi-drunken Bendix tells Ladd what horrible things he's going to do to him. It's not in the script, but Bendix makes this miserable character come alive and almost makes your flesh crawl. (Why Ed would want to be anywhere near the psychopath who put him in the hospital is another question.) Before he became the lovable hero of TV's Life of Riley, Bendix frequently played distinctly malevolent characters and played them superbly.

Tramp and Dickhead: Margaret Hayes and Ladd

A tip of the hat also must go to Margaret Hayes, who briefly plays Eloise Matthews, the trampy wife of a newspaper publisher who makes a play for Ladd right in front of the man after she learns her hubby is flat broke. A true gentleman -- not -- Ladd fervently responds to her sexual entreaties. Again, even with this character being played by the pleasant and inoffensive- looking Ladd it can't disguise what an utter dickhead Ed is! Others in the cast include Frances Gifford as a friendly nurse; Donald MacBride as the easily-influenced district attorney; and Billy Benedict as an office boy. Bonita Granville does a nice job as the grieving girlfriend of the dead Denning.

Verdict: If ever a "hero" didn't deserve a happy ending! **1/4. 

DOUBLE DEAL

Richard Denning and Marie Windsor

DOUBLE DEAL (1950). Director: Abby Berlin.

Buzz Doyle (Richard Denning), a new arrival in town, almost immediately winds up embroiled with two warring women. Terry (Marie Windsor) wants Buzz to work with her and her friend Reno (Carleton Young) on an oil well that she hopes will turn into a gusher. Meanwhile, Reno's sister, Lily (Fay Baker), who hates her brother because she feels he was responsible for her lover's death, tries to lure Buzz over to her side and work against the others. Then there's a murder or two, and the surprise unveiling of the killer. Double Deal is distinctly minor, but it features some likable players, and there's especially zesty work from Baker [The Star], Taylor Holmes [Caged] as the drunken if helpful, "Corpus" and James Griffith [The Amazing Transparent Man] as the slimy Walter Karnes, Lily's plaything. Thomas Browne Henry plays the cop on the case.

Verdict: Ho hum meller that doesn't even have a decent "cat fight" between the ladies. **.

I SAILED TO TAHITI WITH AN ALL GIRL CREW

Gardner McKay

I SAILED TO TAHITI WITH AN ALL GIRL CREW (1968). Written, produced, and directed by Richard L. Bare.

When he's drunk, Terry O'Brien (Gardner McKay of Adventures in Paradise) makes a bet that he can sail to Tahiti with an all-girl crew and arrive before his opponent, Josh (Fred Clark). If he loses, he has to give Josh his boat, the Samaran. His international crew consists of Liz (Diane McBain); sexy ex-stripper Marilyn (Edy Williams of The Naked Kiss); Monique (Jeanne Rainer); the cook and aspiring dancer Tamaya (Bebe Louie); and Janet (Arlene James). One of these women has viciously stabbed a man and is on the run, and there's a stowaway named Jimsy (Mary O'Brien), a tomboy who wants to join the crew and has a crush on Terry. If the movie weren't bad enough, we also have irritating Pat Buttram as a lawman on the hunt for the aforementioned stabber. Richard Denning [The Black Scorpion] plays a commodore who decides to choose the winner with a photo finish. The gals are pretty; glib if charming McKay is as handsome as ever; there are some nice yachts and pretty blue water; and one clever bit, when Tamaya keeps eggs from rolling off the counter by putting them in her bra cups. There's maybe one other laugh in what seems like a not-very-expensive home movie. I guess McKay beat Elvis to the punch because you can just see Presley warbling tunes and romancing women on the way to Tahiti -- I mean, this was an irresistible plot for the "Pelvis." I Sailed to Tahiti has no songs, but there is an Hawaiian dance number.

Verdict: I kept expecting Sonny and Cher to show up any minute and do the frug. *1/2.

DAY THE WORLD ENDED

"You're dimestore, Ruby, you're cheap!" Adele Jergens and "Touch" Connors

DAY THE WORLD ENDED (1955). Produced and directed by Roger Corman.

"He's a mutation, Rick, a freak of this new atomic world of ours."

After nuclear holocaust, a taciturn fellow named Maddison (Paul Birch) holes up in his valley home with his daughter, Louise (Lori Nelson), whose fiance is missing and presumed dead. Unwelcome visitors looking for food and shelter include hoodlum Tony (Mike Connors, billed as "Touch"), his moll and former striptease "artist" Ruby (Adele Jergens), old prospector Pete (Raymond Hatton of The Three Musketeers) and his mule; and the radioactive, supposedly dying Radek (Paul Dubov of Girls' Town), who is developing a taste for raw meat. A more welcome addition is geologist Rick (Richard Denning), who is able to handle Tony and has a mutual attraction for Louise. Meanwhile a strange mutated creature (Paul Blaisdell) roams the grounds as the others wonder if the threatening rainfall will wipe them all out with radiation sickness. Day the World Ended may use some of the same settings as Attack of the Crab Monsters, but it doesn't have that film's cleverness, imaginative touches, and creepy atmosphere. Jergens offers the zestiest performance as the ill-fated Ruby. Like many films of the period, it suggests that a person can't be decent unless he or she is religious. There's a vague twist ending involving the "dead" fiance, but nothing much comes of this. Filmed in widescreen "Superscope."

Verdict: Even mutations can only do so much. **.

WHY MEN LEAVE HOME

Gross: The Fat Twins --  Zoe and Chloe Borden

WHY MEN LEAVE HOME (aka Secrets of Beauty/1951). Director: Erle C. Kenton.

In this oddball theatrical film from Hallmark, Dr. John Waldron (Richard Denning) is put out because his wife, Ruth (Julie Bishop of Lady Gangster) won't, well, put out. He thinks she puts too much effort into her housekeeping and not enough into keeping herself lovely and satisfying his needs. [In one scene it is very obvious that John is hoping for and expecting some bedroom action until Ruth puts curlers in her hair and smears cold cream on her face.] The couple have a little daughter, Ginger (Ginger Prince), who is sent out to Hollywood for a screen test along with other youngsters, such as the Fat Twins. [Not only are these gals corpulent and plain, they have absolutely no talent and should not be seen on an empty stomach -- or a full one! Four years later, blond but still disgusting, they appeared on one of the least memorable I Love Lucy episodes with Tennessee Ernie Ford]. Then the movie turns into an ad for Ern Westmore of the famous make-up family, who demonstrates beauty tricks on different ladies as his wife, Betty (actually actress Virginia Merrick) stands by and urges him to lose weight. [Betty Westmore was a sometime actress herself, but for some reason doesn't play herself in this movie.] Meanwhile Ruth mistakenly believes that John is carrying on with his sexy nurse, Kay (Myrna Dell), who is in love with him, while she's in Hollywood with Ginger and the Westmores. (At one point John actually spies on Kay as she's changing her clothing  -- talk about unprofessional, even sleazy, behavior!) Should this couple divorce, or will tubby Ern Westmore pull some tricks out of his hat and turn Ruth once again into a ravishing beauty? The movie stops dead now and then while Ern and other "experts" deliver lectures. Poor Albert Glasser [Monster from Green Hell] wrote the score for this. Erle C. Kenton also directed many Universal horror flicks, a few Abbott and Costello comedies, and Search for Beauty in 1934. It's unlikely he ever made a worse movie than this, however.

Verdict: Why people leave the theater. Atrocious! *.

THE CROOKED WEB

Lovejoy, Blanchard and Denning on the road

THE CROOKED WEB (1955). Director: Nathan Juran.

Joanie (Mari Blanchard) works for boyfriend Stanley (Frank Lovejoy) in his drive-in. Along comes her ne'er-do-well brother Frank (Richard Denning) who knows a way they can all make a lot of money if Stanley is willing to kick in. Thus begins a saga that eventually lands the trio in post-war Germany. The best thing about The Crooked Web is the first half hour which has more than one twist that turns bad guys into good guys and vice versa. [Warning: the imdb.com synopsis gives the twist away, as it often does.] The rest is a fairly routine crime melodrama that has a modicum of suspense but is comparatively flat. The three lead performances are all quite good, however, with Blanchard especially zesty as the gal who's looking for "security" any way she can get it. Harry Lauter [Trader Tom of the China Seas] is an Army sergeant, and Roy Gordon [War of the Colossal Beast] plays the father of a murdered M.P.

Verdict: If only the twists had kept coming ... **1/2.

TARGET EARTH

TARGET EARTH (1954). Director: Sherman A. Rose.

A young lady. Nora (Kathleen Crowley), who was in deep sleep wakes up to discover that there is no one in her apartment building, and indeed the streets of the unnamed city she resides in are completely deserted -- until she encounters businessman Frank (Richard Denning) and they meet up with Vicki (Virginia Grey) and her boyfriend Jim (Richard Reeves) swilling champagne in a bar. Seems this motley group was left behind for one reason or another when the city was evacuated due to the invasion of steel electromagnetic robots from Venus. With a plot like that it sounds as if Target Earth would at least be entertaining, but while the opening scenes showing Nora exploring the city are quite striking and good at getting across her sense of isolation, the picture doesn't develop in a particularly interesting fashion. Even introducing a killer with a gun (Richard Roark), doesn't help much, nor does the fact that there is some decent attempts at characterization. The ladies in the cast are much, much better than the men, with the exception of Roark. Denning is as blandly amiable as ever, and Reeves is similarly lightweight. Arthur Space (Panther Girl of the Kongo) and Whit Bissell (Creature from the Black Lagoon) play Army men trying to deal with the outer space menace in separate sequences. The best thing you can say about the movie, aside from the opening sequences and some of the performances and a couple of interesting directorial touches, is that it's moderately better than the decade-later The Earth Dies Screaming, which had a very similar plot line. Rose only directed three movies and mostly did television work.

Verdict: Throughout the movie you only see one robot. **.

THE BLACK SCORPION

THE BLACK SCORPION (1957). Director: Edward Ludwig.

"I'll not protect him from the devil just by lighting candles."

If the residents of Mexico didn't have enough problems with a massive earthquake and subsequent lava flow, things get even worse when a crack in the earth unleashes once-dormant prehistoric -- and man-eating -- scorpions of enormous size from a fissure.Willis O'Brien of King Kong fame supervised the special effects, and Pete Peterson did some splendid animation, creating scuttling, fast-moving, fluid horrors like something out of a nightmare. There's a harrowing sequence set in an underground cavern full of giant scorpions and other monsters, as well as an effectively grotesque scene when the scorpions attack a train. The biggest scorpion -- "the granddaddy of them all" -- then kills off all of the smaller ones and rampages through Mexico city for a climax in a bullring. In a movie like this the actors hardly matter, but Richard Denning [Michael Shayne] and Mara Corday [Girls on the Loose] are the nominal stars as, respectively, a geologist and a ranch owner. Carlos Rivas [Dr. Ramos], Pascal Garcia Pena [Dr. de la Cruz], and Mario Navarro [little Juanito] also appeared in The Beast of Hollow Mountain the previous year. NOTE: For more about this and similar films, see Creature Features: Nature Turned Nasty in the Movies.

Verdict: Crude at times but undeniably exciting. ***.

CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN

CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN (1955). Director Edward L. Cahn.

With the aid of Dr. Wilhelm Steigg (Gregory Gaye), bitter gangster Frank Buchanan (Michael Granger) revivifies corpses, attaches mind-control circuits to their heads, and sends them out to kill off everyone he wants to have revenge upon. Irradiated with radioactivity, the "creatures" have super-strength and can shrug off bullets. Police doctor Chet Walker (Richard Denning) heads the investigation, which also embroils the D.A. (Tristram Coffin of King of the Rocket Men and The Night the World Exploded), the mayor (Pierre Watkin of a zillion items) and Walker's colleague, Captain Harris (S. John Launer). Scripted by  Curt Siodmak, Creature with the Atom Brian boasts an interesting and creepy premise, fast, adroit direction from Cahn, and players who are at the very least professional.

Verdict: Fun movie with a nifty idea. ***. 

MR. AND MRS. NORTH TV SHOW

MR. AND MRS. NORTH 1952 television series.

This comedy-mystery television series ran for two seasons and starred Richard Denning as publisher Gerald North and Barbara Britton as his mystery-sniffing wife, Pamela with Francis De Sales as the cop they called upon for help and vice versa. Guest-stars on the show included Cathy Downs, Edgar Barrier [as a butler lover-boy!], Lee Patrick, Carolyn Jones and Jean Willes. Few of the episodes were especially outstanding but among the more memorable were "Beauty Contest," in which Pamela substitutes for a lookalike contestant who is murdered, and "Unfaithful Wife" [aka "Mask of Hate"], which pits a presumably paralyzed man against his wife and her lover with Pam getting caught in the middle. Denning was center stage in "Target," in which he's mistaken for an Army traitor by the man who wants to kill him, but generally he was along for the ride, and seen to better advantage in his solo turn as Michael Shayne a few years later. Based on the novels by Frances and Richard Lockridge.

Verdict: Pleasant, but over all minor. **.

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954). Director: Jack Arnold.

Deep in the Amazon an expedition searches for a fossil but discovers a living gill man who can do without their intrusion into his territory. In short order the bad-tempered creature nearly wipes out the entire party, and blocks off their exit from the lagoon as well. The "B" variety actors are more or less solid, the creature design is quite good, and the film has a certain degree of suspense and tension. Of the cast Richard Denning and Whit Bissell come off best, although Julie/Julia Adams, Richard Carlson, the ever-reliable Nestor Paiva, and Antonio Moreno as the man who found another gill man's fossilized claw are more than acceptable. The creature's underground lair is well-designed, and the brassy, jangling score [used in many other Universal films including the sequels to Creature] is effective. The erotic underwater "ballet" between the creature and Adams is a stand-out sequence. Although the creature is generally seen as a victim of sorts, hunted by interlopers, an early scene shows him slaughtering two innocent natives even before the expedition arrives. Followed by Revenge of the Creature. 

Verdict: Memorable monster movie -- and monster. ***

THE 49TH MAN

THE 49TH MAN (1953). Director: Fred F. Sears.

Government agents (played by Richard Denning and John Ireland) discover that parts of atom bombs are being smuggled into the country by using racing teenagers and others as out-of-the-loop couriers. Ireland travels to Marseilles, where he thinks the enemy spy ring has originated, and discovers that it has links all the way back to Washington, D.C. Suzanne Delbert plays a sexy member of the Marseilles group, and Peter Marshall (who later hosted Hollywood Squares) plays enemy agent Leo Wayne. There's a reasonably taut finish as the men race to stop a bomb from wiping out a major city. No, this isn't exactly 24 (although it does have a cheap TV feel to it) but it does hold the attention and is briskly directed by Fred F. Sears.

Verdict: Okay timepasser. **1/2.