Last night we found an outstanding black and white Science Fiction movie called "Kronos"(1957). Jeff Morrow stars as "Dr. Leslie Gaskell", a physicist at a Top Secret defense installation called "Lab Central". As the movie opens, a man is driving his pickup truck through the desert at night. He sees a spinning object in the sky, about the size and shape of a lemon. Before you can say "Holy Richard Dreyfuss in CE3K"!, his engine dies from an EMP, and he's stranded in the middle of nowhere. The spinning object lands, and shoots him in the eye with a beam. After that, he's compelled to drive to "Lab Central", which is just down the road. After conking the guard with a pipe wrench, he moseys on into the lab, where he confronts "Dr. Hubbell Eliot" (John Emery), the research scientist in charge. The truck driver then shoots the beam from his eyes into Eliot's. Now Eliot is infected with whatever-it-is. The trucker's served his purpose, so he dies.
Two other scientists, Gaskell and Dr. Culver (George O'Hanlon) are tracking what they believe is an asteroid. However, it's orbit deviates in an unnatural way, causing them to think it's intelligent. It's interesting that they never think it's a UFO. They go straight to "intelligent life form". And now it's headed straight for Earth. They inform Dr. Eliot. "Sir, we need to call the Pentagon". They want to destroy it with nuclear weapons. Eliot isn't thrilled with this idea, because he's now a surrogate for the life form. But he has to go along with the plan, or the other two will suspect him of collusion. So he agrees to have the Pentagon send up four nukes. But they don't do any damage. The life form absorbs them. Eliot is secretly thrilled. Gaskell and Culver are dumbfounded. Then they figure it out. "The intelligence", they explain, "comes from another world, in which energy can be transformed into matter. It's the flip side of the coin of our atomic know-how. We turn matter into energy with the splitting of the atom. They can do the opposite. But it's caused them to run out of power, which they've come here in search of. Instead of destroying the entity, those warheads made it stronger. We've got to figure out a way to stop it".
The entity, which they've dubbed "Kronos", has now crashed into the gulf of Mexico and is using the extra power it absorbed to manifest a giant robot. It rises out of the sea and stomps all over the Mexican countryside. The villagers run for the hills. Then it heads for Los Angeles, to take over the Naval Base at Point Mugu, a major storage dump for the nation's atomic weapons. Gaskell and Culver use a helicopter to land on it's head, which has two antennas protruding. Culver figures out that if they can reverse the polarity "we can send a stream of gamma particles that will cause it to destroy itself"! Well, alrighty then. A specially equipped F-100 is sent up to bombard the robot with ions. But back at Lab Central, the possessed Dr. Eliot makes a last ditch attempt to destroy the computer system. If he succeeds, it's Good Night, Irene. The robot will take over the world.
I loved "Kronos", and was surprised I'd never heard of it. For a b-movie, it has excellent special effects. Fans at IMDB, who were kids when it played in the theater, say it scared the bejeezus out of them, and they never forgot the giant robot. Lab Central has an incredibly complex looking computer room. There's also a lot of stock footage of actual Air Force planes in flight. The scenes with the B-52 bomber and the F-100 are the real deal. For me, it's as good as "The Day the Earth Stood Still". Two Big Thumbs Up. It's very highly recommended. The picture is widescreen and razor sharp. ////
The previous night, we saw another Noir starring Hugh Beaumont of "Leave It to Beaver" fame. He's really good at playing tough talking sons-of-bees. In "Roaring City"(1951) he plays "Denny O'Brien", a boat rental operator who doubles as a private eye. You've gotta love the opening line, spoken by a narrator : "San Francisco is a conservative city.....". That's where the movie takes place. O'Brien gets hired by a boxing manager to place a bet on his fighter. He finds it strange; who hires a detective to make a wager? But he's getting paid, so the reason's good enough. But then the boxer gets killed. O'Brien finds out he was supposed to take a dive in the first round, but for some reason he kept plugging into the seventh. He took one punch too many and keeled over. Turns out he had a brain aneurysm waiting to explode. The manager knew this and wanted to cash in. Now O'Brien's pissed. He doesn't like being had. But is the manager the one who screwed him, or someone else?
There's a second story in which he's hired to pose as the husband of a mob-connected woman. Each plot is 30 minutes, the movie's an hour long. The star of the show, besides Beaumont, is our old pal Edward Brophy. We just mentioned him the other day, can't remember the film but we noted his famous dressing room scene in Buster Keaton's "The Cameraman". The thing with Ed Brophy (I'm sure you've seen him before) was that he always played stooges. He was the quintessential Mook. Just a couple nights ago, when we saw Ben Weldon playing a knucklehead health nut in "Bullet Scars", he was doing a version of Ed Brophy. So Brophy is the original, and you figure he always played idiots. But here, in "Roaring City", he's Hugh Beaumont's roommate, a former professor of English literature. Though tipsy, he recites volumes of articulated dialogue as if he's a Shakespearean actor. If you're already a Brophy fan, you're amazed at his talent. You had no idea he had it in him. I checked when the movie was over to see if he had a stage background, but no. He started as a prop master at MGM (for Keaton), and worked his way up to become an actor. He's so great in this movie that you absolutely have to see him. The other point of note is the banter. Whoever wrote the script made an effort to create the hardest-ball comebacks to every possible film noir cliche.
No matter who's threatening him, or how dire his plight, Hugh Beaumont has a retort that one-ups his enemies. It's winner take all by dialogue. The script therefore outshines the plot (which isn't bad itself), and because the hard guy style is taken to caricature, you find yourself enjoying the film for it's dedication to the genre. I was wishing they made a whole series featuring the O'Brien character, with Edward Brophy along for the ride. I checked, but as it is, there's only this one film. "Roaring City" exists in a world of it's own. It's all about Noir for Noir's sake, and for that reason it's a must-see. "San Francisco is a conservative city"...I tell ya, you've gotta love it. Two Big Thumbs Up. (the thing is, it really is a conservative city, it just fools you). Well anyway, the picture is razor sharp. ////
That's all I know for tonight. I was sorry to read that David Lee Roth canceled his Las Vegas concerts. They were supposed to be his farewell, and while I would not have attended even if I lived in Vegas, because DLR the performer is a shadow of his former self, I remember - as you do - the greatness of the Mighty Van Halen, and how awesome Dave was, in his prime, as the ultimate PT Barnum Showman. God Bless Van Halen, do you know what I'm sayin'? How much joy did they put into the world? For me, it's incalculable.
I send you Tons of Love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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