ONE TOO MANY

Ruth Warrick contemplates her next drink

ONE TOO MANY (1950). Director: Erle C. Kenton.

Helen Mason (Ruth Warrick of Guest in the House) was once a well-known concert pianist who gave it up when she married reporter Bob (Richard Travis of The Man Who Came to Dinner) and had a daughter named Ginger (Ginger Prince). She has substituted booze for her career while Bob is what Dr. Phil would call an "enabler." Helen is convinced she is not an alcoholic and can get off the sauce without going to AA. But in this she is kidding herself. Helen and Bob find their lives spiraling out of control as Helen not only continues to drink but to drive drunk, endangering herself, her daughter, and everyone else on the road ... 

The Harmonaires pad out the running time

One Too Many probably has its heart in the right place although its polemical approach to the material is not as dramatic as intended. Much of the movie has Bob and others arguing that alcoholism is a disease that needs treatment and special hospital wings, dismissing the notion that all addicts are just weak-willed drunks of low character. Unfortunately these sequences turn the movie into a lecture that makes some good points but is not terribly entertaining. Strangely, the movie is padded with a long concert sequence at the end when the black group the Harmonaires do three numbers, and Warrick plays "The Minute Waltz" and a more contemporary number on the piano in a nightclub. 

An enabler? Richard Travis

Warrick gives a good performance in this although she's not the kind of riveting actress who can give an added bite to the picture a la Stanwyck or Crawford. Travis is, as usual, likable and pleasant and laid-back even when his world seems to be falling apart. William Tracy, who plays a photographer, is given a long, tedious sequence -- more padding -- as he waits outside the window in the maternity ward where his wife is having a baby. Ginger Prince is a talented child actress who can also sing and dance. Rhys Williams, Mary Young, Thurston Hall, and Victor Kilian are all good as Sully the bartender and his wife, newspaper publisher Simes, who hates drunks, and Emery, a mayoral candidate who gets caught in an inebriated state in a bar. Larry J. Blake is fine as Helen's old friend, bandleader Walt Williams. Erm Westmore appears briefly to give Warrick a makeover. Little did audiences of 1950 know that the scourge of drugs would almost replace alcoholism as a social ill. Erle C. Kenton also directed Why Men Leave Home, which also has Westmore and Prince in it and is even worse. From Hallmark. 

Verdict: A long commercial for AA -- a cocktail might help. **. 

DR. CYCLOPS

DR. CYCLOPS (1940). Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack. 

"In our very heads, we have the cosmic force of creation itself!" 

Very mad scientist Alexander Thorkel (Albert Dekker) uses radium ore to shrink animals and people to doll size. His victims include Dr. Bulfinch (Charles Halton), mineralogist Bill Stockton (Thomas Coley), Dr. Mary Robinson (Janice Logan), mule owner Steve Baker (Victor Kilian), and houseman Pedro (Frank Yaconelli). The picture features a still-impressive combination of back projection and excellent out-sized props to create a credible illusion as the five shrunken humans try to outwit and stay out of the hands of Thorkel, as well as to avoid becoming victims of now giant-sized cats and alligators. One wishes, however, that the film had a lot more intensity, better actors (although Dekker is fine, and Halton almost as good), more dramatic direction, and a different score. A remake would be in order. Compared to other films with miniaturized humans, this is better than Devil Doll, much better than Attack of the Puppet People (which it clearly inspired), and not as good as Fantastic Voyage or The Incredible Shrinking Man. Kilian also appeared in Unknown World. 

Verdict: Lightweight sci fi, but reasonably entertaining and well-done. ***.

UNKNOWN WORLD

UNKNOWN WORLD (1951). Director: Terry O. Morse.

When fear of atomic warfare reaches an hysterical level, a group of scientists led by Dr. Morley (an uncredited, blacklisted Victor Kilian) decide to search for a place underground where nuclear survivors can rebuild civilization. Newspaper man and spoiled heir Wright Thompson (Bruce Kellogg) finances the expedition but insists on coming along. Using a boring machine known as a "cyclotram," the group descend down to the Earth's core, ultimately discovering a huge cavern with its own sea and artificial light source. Obviously inspired by Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth (which was filmed nine years later), Unknown World is cheap but absorbing, with more than serviceable effects. Filmed in Bronson and Carlsbad Caverns (as was Journey), the movie is atmospheric and never over-lit. Ernest Gold's moody music is a definite asset. Some of the actors, such as Jim Bannon as navigator Andy and Marilyn Nash as the only woman in the party, give decent enough performances, but Kellogg is pretty terrible as Wright. Otto Waldis was also in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.

Verdict: Not bad trip out of the daylight. ***.