Not everything can be Epic, sometimes you've gotta head off in the other direction, especially when you're relying on Youtube, so last night we took a stroll down to Poverty Row for a surprisingly good (i.e. decent) WW2 commando flick called "They Raid By Night"(1942). Think "Where Eagles Dare" made on a 500 dollar budget and you're on the right track.
A Norwegian general is being held by the Nazis during their occupation of that country. The Brits want to rescue him, so he can lead the Free Norway resistance from safe haven in England. To do this, they assemble a crack team of Canadian (Lyle Talbot), British (Charley Rogers) and Norwegian (George N. Neise) soldiers, give them false identities, and parachute them into Norway. After landing in the woods, they ditch their gear, and in street clothes they saunter nonchalantly into town, where they impersonate workmen.
Almost immediately, however, a snag appears in the form of Neise's former girlfriend (June Duprez). She recognizes him on the street and invites him back to her apartment. What he doesn't know is that she's a collaborator. She sees right through his blue-collar facade, and - suspecting he's in the Resistance - reports him to the local Gestapo chief right after he leaves. This leads to the discovery of the other members of the team. All three manage to elude capture for a while, as the Nazis try to figure out what their mission is in the first place. Finally, they locate the captive General and set up a rescue attempt, using a staged deception to draw attention away from themselves.
Though you're never gonna confuse it with a big studio war movie, you've gotta appreciate the sincere effort put forth by the folks at Producers Releasing Corporation (aka PRC), who serve up a well thought out plot and all the production design they could afford, when it would've been easy to simply toss off a C-Grade cheapie of the type they were known for. Large blow-ups of photographs are used as backgrounds to depict Norwegian village exteriors. They have a single "snowy set" for the woods. Stock war footage is substituted for firefights and a bombing run, but all of this is done with care and comes off well. Much of the budget was likely spent on uniforms; the Nazis look authentic and their Gestapo chief is played with smiling insincerity by the great Victor Varconi, who we saw as Pontius Pilate in DeMille's "King of Kings" a couple years ago, and whose career goes back to the early Silent era.
Clocking in at 68 minutes, "They Raid by Night" would ordinarily rate Two Regular Thumbs Up because of it's low budget, but I'm gonna boost it up one rating for aspiring beyond it's means. Two Solid Thumbs, then, and watch it for what it is, PRC at it's best, giving it The Old College Try for quality. /////
I've also got another Crime Doctor for ya, but I wanna tell you about Tom Tryon first. It's just an anecdote - nothin' fancy - but have you ever heard of him? Think about it for a minute. This Spring I began watching "The Virginian" after buying Season One on Amazon. It's a great show, not only one of the best Westerns ever produced for television but one of the best dramas, period. The quality of the series is evident not only in it's direction and writing, but in it's acting as well, which becomes even more apparent when you see the guest stars that are featured each week. I'm about 15 episodes in, and we've already had George C. Scott, Lee Marvin and Bette Davis, just to name a few. BTW, the Davis ep is on par with her best movie roles.
All of this brings me to the latest episode I've watched, entitled "The Man from the Sea". The guest star in that ep was an actor named Tom Tryon, playing a sailor who travels to Medicine Bow, Wyoming (the show's setting), in search of a place to settle down. While there, he meets and is attracted to a pair of twin sisters (Shirley Knight and Carol Lynley, more amazing guest stars), who are visiting Judge Garth (Lee J. Cobb) at the Shiloh Ranch. The plot of the episode involves the sailor's showy personality, as he upstages the regular cowboy characters (Doug McClure, James Drury, et al) in his effort to impress the pretty sisters. But the story takes a turn when we see that Carol Lynley is psychologically disturbed, enough to try and kill her twin Shirley Knight. It's an incredible episode, and at 75 minutes it has all the development of a well written movie. I'm telling you, "The Virginian" is as good as TV gets, but let's get back to Tom Tryon.
Sometime around 1971, he quit acting. When you see him in this episode of "The Virginian", you wonder why he did so (if you didn't know already), because he's very talented and handsome, enough to have had a long and successful career had he chosen.
Apparently in 1968 he saw "Rosemary's Baby" and it so affected him that he decided to try his hand at writing. Following that muse, he chose horror as his milieu, and authored a novel that became incredibly popular. It was called "The Other", and was not only a bestseller in 1971 but was made into a movie the very next year. That movie, which I own on dvd, is one of the scariest films ever made. I haven't read the book - which I'm sure is equally terrifying - but in relating my anecdote, even back when it was published, I recall it being promoted with the author's name given equal billing with the title. The advertisements read "Thomas Tryon's 'The Other' ", as if the reader was supposed to know who he was ("Oh.....it's by Thomas Tryon, I'd better buy it"). The movie was also promoted that way, not bad for a first time author, and he'd graduated from "Tom" to the use of his full first name for formal effect.
But here's the thing, and I'm gonna give a major spoiler, so if you haven't seen the movie but plan to, read no further.
Here's the thing : I was watching the aforementioned episode of "The Virginian", in which Tom Tryon guest starred, and I noticed that the plot concerned twins. Afterwards I thought, "wait a minute......one of the twins is insanely jealous of the other and wants her dead, in fact she tries to kill her".
And then I thought, "that's the same basic plot from 'The Other', in which a disturbed boy kills his twin brother, with some supernatural accoutrements added to keep the audience in suspense".
Now don't get me wrong. "The Other" isn't a rip off, nor is it cheap in any way. I haven't read the book, but the movie plumbs the depths of psychological disturbance in a child, one who is certainly a sociopath.
But the thing is, that's exactly what's going on with Carol Lynley's character in "The Virginian", only in the person of a young adult instead of a child.
Long story short, I wonder if Tom Tryon used that "Virginian" plot - consciously or unconsciously ala George Harrison and "My Sweet Lord" - to write "The Other", which very likely made him a millionaire as it sold a truckload of books and movie tickets. More to the point, I wonder if I'm the only person who's noticed it. I've Googled and found no other references.
Well anyhow, no harm is done. Tom Tryon is top notch all around. I've only seen him act in this one TV episode, but he caught my attention, and "The Other" is an all-timer, never to be watched with the lights out.
But I'll bet you a nickle he got the idea from that "Virginian" episode, which is very memorable itself. Watch it, then watch "The Other", and see if you don't agree. For the record, Thomas Tryon built a successful writing career from that first book, and is far more remembered as a novelist than as an actor.
And that's the end of my anecdote. Long live Tom Tryon.
Now where was I? Oh yeah, The Crime Doctor!
The movie was "The Crime Doctor's Strangest Case"(1943). "Jimmy Trotter" (a young Lloyd Bridges) is just out of prison and has come to Dr. Ordway for advice. Should he marry his gal (Lynn Merrick) or is it too soon? "I'm just wondering, Doc, because the town still thinks I'm guilty. I don't want it to rub off on Ellen, so maybe I should wait until I prove myself". The Doc assures him it's okay. "Look Jimmy, you were exonerated at your second trial. You're innocent in the eyes of the law. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks, the evidence showed that you didn't poison your boss. How's your new job going, by the way"?
"Oh, pretty well so far. I'm trying to keep a low profile and I think Mr. Burns likes me".
"That's wonderful, Jimmy. I'd say go ahead and get married, if that's what you want. There's no reason to be self-conscious".
So Jimmy does marry Ellen, but then something bad happens. His new boss is murdered by poison. It's deja vu all over again : someone is trying to frame Jimmy. Crime Doctor to the freakin' rescue!
Sherlock Holmes has nothing on Dr. Ordway, who notices details most other sleuths would miss. When he shows up at the mansion of the late Mr. Burns, for whom Jimmy was working as an assistant, right away he takes note of the cook. She talks funny, using words from the turn of the century. She looks matronly but has youthful eyes and teeth. She also can't cook worth a lick. Why is she pretending to be someone else?
And what about Mr. Burns wife (Rose Hobart)? She's a good 40 years younger than her deceased husband. Did she marry him for his money, as her in-laws suspect? Well, duh. She's obviously first in line to inherit it. She's the prime suspect in the murder, but did she know about Jimmy beforehand? Is that why she used poison - if she did it - to make him appear the culprit?
Have no fear, Crime Doc's got this . He'll nail the killer, but first he'll have to investigate a spooky old nightclub that been's boarded up and gathering cobwebs for ages. He'll also have to deal with a couple of loony pyromaniacs who've got their own interest in the murder. They aren't calling it the Crime Doctor's "strangest case" for nothing. It's safe to say I'm a serious fan of this serial, after only two installments. This one ventures outside the Ten Little Indians box, too, with multiple locations and Crime Doctor psychological profiling techniques on display. I'm highly recommending this movie and all others in the series, even those we haven't watched yet, because we love The Crime Doctor. Yes, you do too! Two Big Thumbs Up. ////
Well, that's all for tonight. Have a wonderful evening and I'll talk to you shortly. Tons of love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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