DANCE HALL RACKET

Lenny Bruce

DANCE HALL RACKET (1953). Director: Phil Tucker. Screenplay by Lenny Bruce.

An undercover cop hangs out at a certain dance emporium whose owner he suspects of trafficking in shady deals and murder. The owner is Umberto Scalli (Timothy Farrell of Jail Bait) and his rather psychopathic right hand man is Vincent (Lenny Bruce), who stabs people right and left without hesitation. Scalli's secretary, Rose (Honey Bruce Friedman), is Vincent's chief girlfriend (Friedman was married to Lenny Bruce at the time). The two men are marking time until the arrival of fresh-out-of-the pen Victor Pappas, from whom they hope to learn the whereabouts of his stolen loot. This ultra low-budget, oddball movie, barely clocking in at an hour, was scripted by the controversial comic, and his performance as a sleazy if good-looking hood is personality-driven and competent. Farrell is a professional but uninteresting performer, and the rest of the cast veers from the broadly amateurish to the perfectly capable. The names of many of the cast members have been lost to history, but "Maxine" is noteworthy as Scalli's middle-aged former girlfriend, and she does a mean Charleston, too. The main plot, such as it is, is interrupted by supposedly comic intervals, and there's a terrible Swedish funny man (not!) portrayed by an annoying Bernie Jones. Phil Tucker also directed Robot Monster and Lenny Bruce also scripted Rocket Man.

Verdict: Now this is definitely a curiosity if nothing else. **.

GIRL GANG

Timothy Farrell, Lou Monson, and the Girl Gang

GIRL GANG (1954). Director: Robert C. Dertano.

Joe (Timothy Farrell) runs a gang whose members induce others to join so they can get hooked on weed and stronger stuff and participate in crimes to raise drug money. Sexy June (Joanne Arnold|) entices Wanda (Mary Lou O'Connor) and her boyfriend, Bill (uncredited), into the gang, where Mary is told she must have sex with five boys as part of her initiation. Joe's chief assistant is Jack (Lou Monson), and his girl pal is Daisy (Mildred Kilke). When Wanda is shot during a gas station robbery, Doc Bradford (Harry Keaton) operates on her as the cops close in ... Had Girl Gang been better directed it might have amounted to s snappy B movie as it has all the ingredients of a successful exploitation film. Unfortunately, the pic isn't well-produced (to put it mildly), some scenes have obvious over-dubbing because something went wrong with the soundtrack, the acting is often amateurish, and one dance sequence -- all in one long continuous shot -- goes on at such length while the story stops dead that it's positively comical. Farrell and Arnold are at least vivid in their portrayals, and Norman Stanley is professional as June's horny boss, Mr. Brown. There's a not bad cat-fight for those who stick around until the end. Keaton and Farrell were both in Gun Girls, which was also directed by Dertano.

Verdict: Just misses being a sleazy camp classic. *1/2.

JAIL BAIT

Steve Reeves and Lyle Talbot

JAIL BAIT (1954). Director: Edward D. Wood Jr.

"Stay here, he says. Where does he suppose I'd go dressed in this?" -- Loretta in a negligee.

Don Gregor (Clancy Malone), the son of a respected plastic surgeon, Dr. Gregor (Herbert Rawlinson of King of the Royal Mounted), is pulled into a box office robbery by his slimy buddy, Vic Brady (Timothy Farrell of Gun Girls). When Don shoots and kills a night watchman, his father convinces him to turn himself in, but not before he confronts Brady, with tragic results. Brady forces the doctor to make him a new face, but the doc has an ironic scheme in mind. Jail Bait, directed by the notorious Ed Wood, really isn't much worse than a lot of low-budget C movies, although one can't say it's directed with any flair. Apparently Wood couldn't afford an orchestra so the score is played entirely on guitar and is rarely appropriate. Homely Delores Fuller, who appeared in a number of Wood's pictures, is typically poor as Don's concerned sister, Marilyn, but Mona McKinnon is better as a witness to the robbery, as is Tedi Thurman as Brady's saucy moll, Loretta. At one point Loretta complains, "I don't like dead men cluttering up my place." When she sees others looking around her apartment, she asks "Does this place look cheap to you?" -- yes, it does. Lyle Talbot, who apparently would appear in just about anything, plays the Inspector on the case, and compared to some of the actors seems like Laurence Olivier. Despite his good looks and physique, Steve Reeves [Athena] makes little impression as Lt. Bob Lawrence, although he would go on to better things, more or less. Clancy Malone gives a rather good performance in this but it was his only movie. Rawlinson amassed nearly 400 credits! The climax of the film is surprisingly suspenseful and has a clever denouement, even if the business with the surgery is completely absurd. Oddly watchable -- once. A cheap TV-style production.

Verdict: Sadly. Wood made much worse movies. **1/2.

GUN GIRLS

Timothy Farrell and Eleise Cameron

GUN GIRLS (1957). Writer/Director: Robert C. Dertano.

"Do you mean we went to all that trouble for a measly fourteen bucks?"

"Why you low-down tramp!"

Dora (Jacqueline Park) has fallen in with a bad crowd, most notably tough blond, Teddy (Jeanne Ferguson), who buys guns and plans a heist with her. Dora's cute boyfriend, Jimmy (Calvin Booth), who happens to be the younger brother of Dora's parole officer, begs her to stop hanging out with Teddy. Joy (Eve Brent of Fade to Black) is importuned by Teddy to help them rob the warehouse where she works, and they prove the most inept gang of robbers on the planet. Joy is pregnant by low-life Joe (Timothy Farrell) who sells the girls guns and seems to have a different woman every hour, including Trixie (Eleise Cameron), of whom he says, "things like her wash up on the beach every night." Can these girls be saved ...? Most of the "girls" in this haven't seen their teenage years in quite a while and in general the acting is so amateurish that the cast read their lines like they're little kids. Timothy Farrell, who had a similar role in Girl Gang, at least has a brusque appeal, and Jacqueline Park has some good moments during a hospital scene towards the end. Calvin Booth isn't bad but George Graham is perhaps overly earnest as his brother. Harry Keaton is a bit more professional than the others as Luke, an associate of Joe's. One of the funniest scenes out of many features a cat fight between Joy and Trixie. Amazingly the psychological explanation for gang activity actually makes sense.

Verdict: Terrible, yet strangely entertaining. **.