MAN-TRAP

David Janssen and Jeffrey Hunter

MAN-TRAP (1961 ) Director: Edmond O'Brien.

"Lipstick on your chin is almost a sign of innocence. If he wasn't innocent all the lipstick would have been wiped off."

Matt (Jeffrey Hunter) saves Vince's (David Janssen) life on a Korean battlefield, so Vince tries to repay the favor by cutting him in on a deal. Matt works for his father-in-law and is married to an adulterous borderline shrew, Nina (Stella Stevens), but he is having his own affair with a sympathetic woman named Liz (Elaine Devry), who also works for his father-in-law's firm. Fed up with Nina, and wanting to run off with Liz, Matt agrees to Vince's suggestion to steal a suitcase of money which is supposedly to be used to buy guns for a South American revolution. However, this caper is not nearly as simple as Vince has led him to believe ... Man-Trap is a completely unpredictable thriller with interesting developments and twists and turns throughout its running time. Hunter and Janssen both offer excellent performances, and are at least matched by Steven's [The Mad Room] vital portrayal (making the woman much more dimensional in her way than a lesser actress might have done) and Devry, who gets across all of the conflicted feelings her character has about Matt. Virginia Gregg [Crime in the Streets] is also wonderful as Ruthie, Matt and Nina's housekeeper, and one of the best scenes in the movie is her ugly confrontation with Nina. Another memorable scene has Nina taking a poker to her husband's head and nearly being strangled because of it. The robbery sequence is well-handled and even a bit chilling. Bob Crane and Frank Albertson have smaller roles. Nina and her drunk friends are fond of running around with water pistols full of booze. Actor Edmond O'Brian only directed two films -- the less interesting Shield for Murder was co-directed by Howard W. Koch --  but he does such a good job with this one it's too bad he didn't direct others.

Verdict: Very snappy and absorbing crime thriller with fine performances. ***.

THE MANITOU

Michael Ansara and Tony Curtis confront the Unknown

THE MANITOU (1978). Director: William Girdler.

Fake San Francisco spiritualist Harry Erskine (Tony Curtis) learns that an old girlfriend of his, Karen Tandy (Susan Strasberg), has a little bit of a problem. She has a tumor growing on her back, it's getting larger, and it appears to be a fetus! Erskine discovers that the fetus is the reborn spirit of a nasty Indian medicine man, and enlists the aid of a modern-day equivalent, John Singing Rock (Michael Ansara), to fight the medicine man and the evil gods it conjures. Their only allies are the spirits -- or "manitous" -- of the objects around them. Before long the hospital has become a battle zone as they fight for Karen Tandy's soul amidst corpses turned inside out, frozen, decapitated nurses, and other signs of murder and mayhem. The movie, based on a novel by Graham Masterton, has an interesting cast: Besides the aforementioned actors we've got Ann Sothern (a medium), Stella Stevens, Burgess Meredith (anthropologist Dr, Snow), Lurene Tuttle (a client of Erskine's who takes a tumble) and even Jeanette Nolan. Jon Cedar, who associate-produced and worked on the screenplay, plays Dr. Hughes. Curtis' pants are almost as tight as the ones worn by Robert Conrad in The Wild, Wild West! There are a lot of interesting elements to this movie, and it holds the attention, but somehow it doesn't completely jell. Cedar was also in Girdler's Day of the Animals.

Verdict: Not without interest, but somehow less than the sum of its parts. **1/2.

ADVANCE TO THE REAR

ADVANCE TO THE REAR (1964). Director: George Marshall.

During the civil war, Union brass are so dismayed by a unit of screw-ups headed by Colonel Brackenbury (Melvyn Douglas), that they reassign them to a backwater outpost -- then realize that they made a dreadful error: a consignment of gold is coming and needs to be guarded by the screw-ups. In the meantime rebel spy, Martha Lou William (Stella Stevens), engages in a cat and mouse game with Brackenbury's second-in-command, Captain Jared Heath (Glenn Ford). Can Brackenbury's men manage to keep the gold out of rebel hands? This is a generally amiable if distinctly minor comedy with a few amusing sequences and characters. Douglas, of course, gives the best performance, but the others are good as well, including Jesse Pearson, who played Conrad in Bye, Bye Birdie, as a soldier with an odd attraction for horses. Jim Backus [I Married Joan], Whit Bissell [The Family Secret], Joan Blondell [Nightmare Alley], and Alan Hale Jr. [The Killer is Loose] are also in the cast.

Verdict: If you think the Civil War was funny ... **1/2.