YOUNG AND DANGEROUS

Good-looking couple: Mark Damon and Lili Gentle

YOUNG AND DANGEROUS (1957). Producer/director: William F. Claxton.

19-year-old Tommy Price (Mark Damon) is considered a "bad boy" who spends all of his time chasing bad girls for "all-night petting parties" and showing no signs of doing anything with his life, to the consternation of his father, Dr. Price (Edward Binns). But when Tommy goes on a date with 17-year-old Rosemary (Lili Gentle) -- which initially goes badly -- she brings out some of the inner sensitivity that was always inside of him. But can they convince his parents that he's changed? This mis-titled film sounds like a typical juvenile delinquent-jukebox melodrama, but while it's certainly no East of Eden, it is a well-done and quite well-acted romance. Damon and Gentle not only play together beautifully, but they are very good actors. Gentle married Richard D. Zanuck (son of Darryl) the following year -- their marriage lasted a decade -- and only made two more movies before retiring. Damon made some other teen movies, appeared with Vincent Price in House of Usher and with Boris Karloff in Black Sabbath -- he made several films in Italy -- and is now a successful producer. Handsome and with considerable acting ability, Damon was geared for a major stardom that never quite materialized. Dabbs Greer and Ann Doran offer strong support as Rosemary's parents, and Binns is fine as Tommy's father. One very long sequence, filmed in one shot without cutting, shows Tommy's friends "Weasel" (George Brenlin) and Roscoe (uncredited) in a phone booth trying to make a date with an "old reliable" girlfriend. Meant to be comedy relief, it just stops the picture dead. Produced in widescreen for Regal pictures, this was released by Twentieth Century-Fox.William F. Claxton later directed the lovably notorious creature feature Night of the Lepus.

Verdict: Not bad light drama with very appealing leads. ***.

NIGHT OF THE LEPUS

NIGHT OF THE LEPUS (1972). Director: William F. Claxton.

"Attention! Attention! There is a herd of killer rabbits heading this way!"

Roy (Stuart Whitman) and Gerry Bennett (Janet Leigh) are scientists who come to Arizona to deal with an explosion in the rabbit population and the dangers this represents to the ecosystem. Trying to curb the rabbits', ahem, appetites, their experiments only result in rabbits that are much larger and astonishingly ferocious. Supposedly remaining vegetarians, they nonetheless go around attacking people, leaving mutilated corpses in their wake. Now, it would have been one thing if the special effects department had come up with some fearsomely mutated rodents with large fangs and grotesque appearances, but all they did was use real cute bunny rabbits stuffed into miniature sets and interacting with people via process shots. Some of these sequences aren't badly done, but the sound effects are what make the cuddly bunnies seem so horrible. The best scene is the climax when Leigh tries to keep the surrounding rabbits away from her and her little daughter after their camper gets a flat tire at night. Rory Calhoun plays a rancher and DeForest Kelley, almost fresh from Star Trek, is a friend of the Bennetts. Played completely straight, the movie is completely absurd but somehow amusing and entertaining, if strictly for monster movie devotees.

Verdict: Stupid, but a lot of fun in spite of it. **1/2.

DESIRE IN THE DUST

DESIRE IN THE DUST (1960). Director: William F. Claxton.

Lonnie Wilson (Ken Scott) gets out of prison after six years and comes home to find out the woman who promised to wait for him -- for a very good reason -- Melinda Marquand (Martha Hyer), has gotten married in the meantime. That doesn't stop her from fooling around with Wilson (see photo), but the latter tells her husband (Brett Halsey) what she's up to when he finds out about the marriage, and Melinda suddenly cries "Rape!" Then there's Melinda's father, Colonel Ben (Raymond Burr) who wants to run for governor, and her mother (Joan Bennett) who became unhinged after her little boy David was supposedly run over by Lonnie and thinks the child is still alive. And why does Melinda call her father by his first name? Hints of incest, anyone?

This is example of what happens when much less talented people try to take on a kind of Tennessee Williams "twisted" Southern family plot but lack the great playwright's brilliance, sensitivity and poetic feeling. With a better script, better acting and certainly better direction, Desire in the Dust might have amounted to some powerful stuff, but it wears out its welcome long before the not-so-melodramatic wind-up. When it comes to playing overbearing patriarchs, Raymond Burr proves no Burl Ives, and Joan Bennett doesn't seem at all sure of what she's doing. Ken Scott is beefy and sexy enough for the role of Lonnie, but while he isn't bad, he generally seems too reigned in throughout the movie. There are some effective enough character turns but the two actors who make the most impression are Douglas Fowley as Lonnie's aged father, and -- surprise -- Martha Hyer as the lamentable, slutty Melinda.

Verdict: Not half as entertaining as Claxton's giant killer bunny rabbit movie Night of the Lepus. **.