I MOBSTER

Steve Cochran

I MOBSTER (1959). Produced and directed by Roger Corman.

I Mobster traces the rise and fall of gangster Joe Sante (Steve Cochran of The Big Operator), whose father virtually disowns him and whose mother (Celia Lovsky) eventually follows suit. As a boy (played by an uncredited but talented youngster), Joey was taken under the wing of Black Frankie (Robert Strauss), and later also works for crime boss Paul Moran (Grant Withers of the Jungle Jim serial). Joe takes up with a nice neighborhood gal named Teresa (Lita Milan), who is at first highly disapproving of his activities but ultimately there's no arguing with love. But Joe's ambitions and high-risk lifestyle may become his undoing ...

Saucy Yvette Vickers 

I Mobster is an absorbing crime drama with a fine and charismatic lead performance by the always-under-rated Steve Cochran, who is perfect as Joe. Celia Lovsky does her usual hand-wringing turn as the heartbroken mother; Strauss is quite good as his mentor and associate; and Lita Milan [Never Love a Stranger] turns in a very nice performance as Teresa. Grant Withers also scores as the big boss, and there is a very nice bit by Yvette Vickers as a saucy blond who tries to pay off her gambling debt by coming on to Joe -- fat chance! Ed Nelson, Robert Shayne, Thomas Browne Henry and Bruno VeSota have smaller  parts, and stripper Lili St. Cyr (who is much more attractive than the rather horse-faced Gypsy Rose Lee) does her cameo on stage in a bath tub.

In the long run, however, I Mobster doesn't really rise above all of the hoodlum cliches -- sobbing mother, worried, conflicted girlfriend, rivals and hits -- but the darn thing is too entertaining and well-played for that to matter much. As for Cochran, a hell-raising lover boy off-screen, he died at only 48 under very mysterious circumstances.

Verdict: Fast-paced Corman melodrama with a well-chosen cast. ***. 

HUD

Three generations: Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Brandon De Wilde

HUD (1963). Director: Martin Ritt.

"You live just for yourself, and that makes you not fit to live with." -- Homer regarding Hud.

Homer Bannon (Melvyn Douglas) has been a cattle rancher all of his life, but a crisis develops when he learns that his stock may have hoof and mouth disease and could have to be destroyed. His surviving son, Hud (Paul Newman) is an immoral cad who suggests they sell off the cattle to an unsuspecting buyer. Hud's young nephew, Lon (Brandon De Wilde), looks up to his uncle in a way, but his values are more in line with his grandfather's. Hud has always assumed his father hated him because he blamed him for his brother's death, but it runs deeper than that. As stubborn as his son is irresponsible, Homer is bound to butt heads with Hud. Then there's the housekeeper, Alma (Patricia Neal) -- an underwritten role --  and the sexual tension that exists between her and Hud. All these factors will come to a boil ... Hud is an interesting picture that casts a certain spell, but one suspects it is due less to the story and actors than to the superb cinematography of James Wong Howe, who seems to imbue every shot with added resonance. Hud is also well-directed by Martin Ritt, although he is perhaps less successful in getting his cast to completely cross over that fourth wall that leads to total veracity -- the emoting is technically proficient but all on the surface. This is not to say that the acting is bad -- Newman, Douglas, and Neal all won Oscars (as did Howe and Ritt, the two most deserving) -- but Newman is miscast despite the fact that he manages to work up some effective swagger for an actor who was never that good at swaggering. One has to remember that these aren't the most communicative or openly emotional of people, so there really aren't any dramatic fireworks as such, But the strikingly moody film, a study of a dying way of life and all that it implies, has its own quiet power and is well worth watching. Yvette Vickers [Attack of the Giant Leeches] gets one line as a married woman who dallies with Hud in a coffee shop sequence, and John Ashley [Frankenstein's Daughter] is a cowboy. I have not read the Larry McMurtry novel this is based on, but I have a feeling the film is a rather sanitized version. Amoral characters like Hud are very, very commonplace today in movies and on television. Martin Ritt also worked with Newman and Howe on The Outrage.

Verdict: One imagines that Hud eventually turned into J. R. Ewing. ***1/2.

SHORT CUT TO HELL

Robert Ivers and Georgann Johnson

SHORT CUT TO HELL (1957). Director: James Cagney.

This is the only film ever directed by James Cagney. Kyle Niles (Robert Ivers) is a hit man hired to kill a builder and his secretary. His contact, Bahrwell (Jacques Aubuchon of Twenty Plus Two), makes the mistake of giving Niles marked money in the hopes he'll be arrested. As Ivers makes his way to Bahrwell and his employer, a man known only as A.T. (Richard Hale), he encounters Glory Hamilton (Georgann Johnson), whose boyfriend, Stan, is a cop (William Bishop of Harriet Craig). Glory winds up as Niles' not necessarily unwilling hostage, although her supposed motives are to save Stan's life. The acting is solid in this picture, which is distinguished only in the fact that Cagney directed it -- it is not an auspicious directorial debut. Both Ivers and Johnson were trumpeted as bright new stars in Cagney's introduction to the film, although both, especially Johnson, had several previous credits. They were talented actors but neither became a star. Johnson's rather pudgy face lacked true beauty, but she wound up a well-recognized character actress with many credits. Ivers did mostly television work; he looked like a cross between Jack Kelly and Richard Widmark. The character of Bahrwell is obviously meant to be homosexual, with snide references throughout the film. Hale offers his usual portrait of an absolutely hateful old man; he had a great many credits. Yvette Vickers [What's the Matter with Helen?] offers her typically vivid portrayal of the landlord's daughter in Niles' apartment house. The script has some stupid and psychologically dubious moments given what we know about sociopaths, and Glory's behavior is often ridiculous.

Verdict: Cagney wisely stuck to acting after this. **1/2.

THE BARBARA STANWYCK SHOW VOLUME 1

THE BARBARA STANWYCK SHOW. Volume 1. 1960.

When she was 53, Barbara Stanwyck did one season of a half hour anthology show in which she starred in most of the compelling mini-dramas. The show was a class production, with a nice dramatic theme and a moderately expensive look. While there were a few mediocre episodes, in general the stories were good and some could have been expanded into feature-length. Among the more memorable were: "The Miraculous Journey of Tadpole Chan," in which Babs is a woman in Hong Kong who helps a little boy get to the United States;"The Secret of Mrs. Randall," in which Stanwyck is a widow in a war with her mother-in-law [a superb Doris Packer] over an ex-con who may have stolen a payroll; "Size 10," in which she plays the head of a fashion house who has to question her loyalties when one of her top designs is stolen; "Big Career," in which she is a businesswoman with a philandering husband and a disapproving mother-in-law [Elizabeth Patterson, "Mrs. Trumble" of I Love Lucy, in an excellent turn]; and "Confession," in which she's teamed romantically with -- of all people -- Lee Marvin as a lawyer who helps her get even with her jealous husband. Guest-stars on the show included everyone from Yvette Vickers to Ralph Bellamy to Anna May Wong to Gene Raymond. An excellent actress, Stanwyck is outstanding in virtually every episode aside from "Shock," in which she plays a mother who is traumatized by the death of her little daughter. She doesn't quite get a grip on the more dramatic moments, a very rare occurrence for this gifted woman.

Verdict: Good classic television. ***.

SUNSET BOULEVARD

"I'm ready for my close-up."

SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950). Director: Billy Wilder.

A down-on-his-luck screenwriter, Joe Gillis (William Holden), meets and moves into a mansion with silent screen star, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Together the pair intend to fashion a major screenplay that will give Norma an opportunity for her comeback. But Joe eventually feels trapped by Norma and her cobwebs, and figures her project is utterly hopeless in any case. But will Norma let Joe go before she's through with him ...? So how well does Sunset Boulevard hold up after 58 years? Pretty well. Okay, maybe it's not an out and out masterpiece, but it undeniably exudes a certain fascination. If I had one problem with the movie it's that I feel there's way too much narration. Although Joe's narration is well-written, it's describing (albeit poetically) things that we can already see. Swanson gives a terrific performance (her "over-acting" at times is appropriate given the flamboyant, emotionally disturbed nature of Norma Desmond) and Holden isn't bad as Joe, although there's no doubt that the first actor cast in the part, Montgomery Clift. would have brought a lot more to the role. Better than Holden is Nancy Olsen, who gives a lovely and often passionate performance as the young lady who falls in love with him. The scene when Norma returns to her studio to see DeMille is touching. Hedda Hopper and Buster Keaton are among the more interesting bit players, as well as an uncredited Yvette Vickers of Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman and Attack of the Giant Leeches fame -- yes, that's her as the girl on the telephone during the New Year's Eve party scene. Less a drama than a weird black comedy, Sunset Boulevard always threatens to go over the top but never quite gets there.

Verdict: Certainly unique. ***.

ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN

ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN (1958). Director: Nathan Juran (Nathan Herz).

Blond floozies hanging around hotel bars, a neurotic, dipsomaniac multi-millionairess who clings to an unloving husband, bald giants from space, and the biggest boob fetish of all time combine in a microcosm of 1950's Americana such as has never been seen before or since. Seriously, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is a hoot! Rich Nancy Archer (Allison Hayes) has a run-in with a giant man (Michael Ross) from outer space who is after her diamond (he uses the gems to power his satellite) and becomes infected, growing to giant-size. As a giantess she tears out of her (rather unimpressive) mansion and takes off for town where her hubby Harry (William Hudson) is hanging out with his honey, a tramp named, well, Honey (Yvette Vickers). The "attack" doesn't last long but it's as much fun as everything else in this highly-entertaining tongue-in-cheek sci-fi flick. You can see through the giant people and the 50 foot woman's prop hand isn't very convincing, but it's all drenched in dramatic, attractive music by Ronald Stein, and the acting of the two ladies is very vivid if a trifle overwrought at times. Very fast-paced. Written by Mark Hanna, who also did the screenplay for the more serious Amazing Colossal Man (which also featured actor William Hudson). That same year director Nathan Herz had a big, technicolor hit with The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, which he directed under his own name, Nathan Juran; "Nathan Herz" was no more. Otto Waldis and Roy Gordon play Mrs. Archer's doctors. 

Verdict: Not to be missed if you're in a silly mood and love "big people" movies. ***.

ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES

ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES (1959). Director: Bernard L. Kowalski.

A stiff, by- the-book game warden (Ken Clark) gets in dutch with his girlfriend (Jan Shepard) when they argue over how best to deal with a possibly deadly new species infesting the preserve: giant, blood-sucking leeches. Attack of the Giant Leeches isn't really a very good picture -- and rather slow in spots – but it has a certain atmospheric charm and weird authenticity. Bruno VeSota is the colossal husband of the trampy Yvette Vickers, who dallies with the hunky Cal (Michael Emmet). When Vesota forces them into the swamp at the point of his rifle, the leeches appear to grab them and drag them away, with the result that Vesota is arrested for their murders. The giant leeches – or rather leech men -- are played by stunt divers in costume and look creepy without being convincing. The actors are probably better than the picture deserves; Vickers is, as always, extremely vivid.

Verdict: Somehow the darn thing casts a certain cheesy spell. **1/2.