Yikes! Tony Musante and Martin Sheen as Psychos in "The Incident", and "Good-Time Girl" with Jean Kent

Wow and yikes. I'm afraid we're gonna have a couple of difficult reviews this time. I'm just gonna dive into the first one so I can dispense with it. The movie was "The Incident"(1967), which I found after another hour long search on Youtube. The release year should've set off an alarm bell. Late '60s realism is rarely gonna be a good thing (and maybe never). I used to think the 1960s was the worst decade ever for films, but then I remembered all the great big budget epics from that decade, some of which we've watched this year, and do you know what? It turns out that the 60s was one of the best decades ever.......for Studio Films. Big widescreen epics to be specific.

But it was also when independent filmmaking began, and I'm not talking low budget B-movies made by guys like Roger Corman, but producers and directors (and screenwriters) who subscribed to the Auteur Theory, where the movie is entirely the director's vision. I'd like to jump in to say there's a reason the studios were so successful. From the Silent days to the mid-1960s, they gave us stylised filmmaking, which made the stories and the characters larger than life, and also removed them from real life. Studio execs knew that folks have enough trouble of their own, hence if they were gonna go buy a ticket for a crime film, say, they wanted to see Bogie play a tailor made Hollywood tough guy. Hollywood romanticized all it's characters, that was the studio bosses' genius. Why see "real" real life on the screen when it's depressing and you can walk down the street to see it? This was especially true during the Depression years, which coincided with the rise of sound era cinema. It was a wonderful formula, the Hollywood Studio style of the Golden Era, and as we've seen, it produced thousands of memorable pictures.

But then came the mid-60s, when the counterculture changed the world. So called "independent" filmmakers filled the void when the studio system broke down. This ultimately led to auteurs like Martin Scorcese, who some say is the greatest American director. I say he's not even close, not even in the top twenty, though he did make one all-time great film, "Taxi Driver". I mention all of this in my preamble, because somewhere along the line, in nouvelle cinema's effort to "get real", they decided to do away with all pretense to the prior (and freaking great) tradition of stylised Hollywood moviemaking, and simply Go For The Throat. Shove gritty stories in the audience's face. Rub their noses in the street.

"Let's break taboos", was the unofficial motto. Usually however, because most early "independent" filmmakers were inept, they gave us what now look like dated, hippie era "psychodrama" flicks. Once in a while, though, a talented crew produced a film that was real to the point of extreme. This was what led to the Scorsese's of the future. Such a film was "The Incident", which against my better judgement I sat all the way through. It was extremely well acted, to the point where you are watching real life. The director is in your face, because he wants you to face up to what is happening. The film is notable as the debut of Martin Sheen and Tony Musante. Beau Bridges is tremendous in his role and is part of a well known ensemble cast.

The problem is that it may be the ugliest film ever made, unless your idea of a good time is watching two psychos (as realistic as in real life) terrorize a car load of subway riders for an hour, and that's after we see Sheen and Musante mug a man at the beginning of the film, and then watch the subways passengers "converge on each other's lives" (ala "Crash") while they bicker at one another in their own little familial dramas. 

Have you ever seen "Last House on the Left"? You may have thought that was cool when you were 17, but now you know it's not cool, and not just for cancel culture PC reasons, right? It's not cool anymore because there are certain scenes that are just too real, and there's no reason to watch the movie because why would you want to watch what is happening? (I won't even describe the scene in "Last House" if you don't know it). The same is true of "The Incident". It was made with a skill way beyond the level of Wes Craven's movie, which makes it even more nauseating (or horrifying) to sit through. The acting, again, is as if you're watching real life, only why in the hell would you want to watch such torment? Tony Musante and Martin Sheen should have gone to prison for their performances.

I'm gonna shut up now, and give "The Incident" Two Gigantic Thumbs Down, while also calling it perhaps the most effective film of it's kind. The problem is that it will just make you sick. 

My review in a nutshell : "Where's Bernard Goetz when you need him"? ///// 

The previous night's movie was "Good-Time Girl"(1948), and man oh man, I've gotta add a warning to this one also. Though made in the traditional style of the old days, in this case by a British studio called "Triton", it's nevertheless an exploitation picture, by which I mean a "public warning" for young girls against a life of crime. The subject is a sixteen year old (Jean Kent) who leaves home after repeated beatings from her drunken father. I have to jump in again to say "sorry about this folks". I search and search on Youtube, and I try to avoid depressing fare. If it was just the opening scene of the movie, which then went on into an intriguing Film Noir plot, that would be one thing and whatever happened to the protagonist might be okay in the end, and you'd have an entertaining movie. But when the filmmakers are on a mission - as they were in "The Incident" to shove extreme violence down your throat - then I think you as the viewer have to consider whether you should sit through such a movie. Because "Good-Time Girl" is made in the studio style, it's easier to watch (though not by very much), but the problem is that you know the trajectory from the get-go.

This is because Jean Kent's story is being told to another troubled teen (Diana Dors) by a counselor (Flora Robson), and you can see quite clearly that it's a Warning Tale, so you know as it proceeds that it won't have a happy ending. Thus, it's telegraphed and the only question is how will it resolve? Meanwhile, you're subjected to the unfair and brutal premature demise of a teenage girl who, through no real fault of her own, has been buried under her life's circumstances. It's a head on collision of a plot, and while it's a heck of a lot more interesting than "The Incident" (because it actually has a story), it's no less demoralising. Jean Kent is terrific as the abused girl "Gwen Rawlings", and I suppose I could give this one a recommendation along with Two Thumbs Up (to whatever degree you choose), but it's still a major downer because we know what is going to happen to Gwen from the outset. She's gonna go down the tubes.

That's why I like real, Golden Age Hollywood Stories over "warning" movies and in your face "independent" filmmaking. Sure, some of those filmmakers have talent. But why do they want to lay us in the gutter when they could be lifting us up, or simply telling a story where we don't know the outcome from the start?

Oh well, screw it. I won't be making these viewing mistakes again. Do watch "Good Time Girl" for Jean Kent's performance. As a movie it gets Two Big Thumbs Up. As a story, fuggeddabout the whole thing. ////

That's all I've got for tonight. I finished "Billy Summers", which I thought was one of Stephen King's best. It's a crime story rather than horror, but filled with the kind of deep insight into the human condition that only SK can deliver. And.........it includes the Overlook Hotel in a surprise cameo! Give it a read, it's a non-stop page turner. I hope you're enjoying your weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)    

Glenn Ford and Rod Taylor in "Fate is the Hunter", and "Passing Clouds", a British film about Spiritualism

Last night we watched an aviation disaster movie called "Fate is the Hunter"(1964), featuring Glenn Ford as "Sam McBane", a former pilot-turned-executive at Consolidated Airlines. As the movie opens he's in the main office, bantering with a co-worker about an upcoming promotion while Captain Rod Taylor prepares for takeoff in on the runway at LAX. The jet is a DC-8 with 53 passengers and crew. Five minutes into the flight, the right engine catches fire. Taylor shuts it down and prepares to return to the airport, compensating with the remaining left engine. Then all hell breaks loose. The left engine's alarm goes off. Taylor figures it's been blown out too and shuts it down. He tries to contact the control tower but the radio's gone dead. With no options left, he tells stewardess Suzanne Pleshette to alert the passengers for a crash landing.

Taylor manages to steady the unpowered jet and aims for a spot on the beach. He brings it in as smoothly as you could hope for, and it looks like they just might make it until..........until a rickety old pier comes into view in the headlights. OMG. Ka-BLAMMO! Everyone aboard is killed.

The first clue that something is up is that Rod Taylor is killed in the first ten minutes. You don't hire a star of that magnitude for such a short stint, unless it was a cameo in the middle of a movie. The second clue is the all star cast, and although most of them have yet to make an appearance, the fact that you've seen them in the credits lets you know that they're all going to play Characters That Have Their Own Stories. Which leads you to the third clue, which is that "this isn't gonna be a plane crash movie after all, but a big budget human interest story, in this case about the honor of the pilot.

I wish I could tell you it was an Epic Human Interest Disaster Flick like "The Freaking Poseidon Adventure", where Shelly Winters is so memorably afraid to swim. The problem with this flick is that it doesn't know what it is. For the first 45 minutes, it looks like an interesting procedural, where an investigation is conducted and everyone but Glenn Ford tries to pin the crash on pilot error. Rod Taylor is painted as a drunken playboy. But Ford defends Taylor, who he's known since the war, and this leads to the middle section of the film, which is 35 minutes of flashbacks. The flashbacks are about The Rod Taylor Ford Knew. He seeks out current witnesses, including ex-fiancees and girlfriends, who remember the same Taylor he did, a devil-may-care ladies man without doubt, but a pilot of great skill who would never endanger his passengers.

Um....er......does anyone remember an infamous review by Robert Hilburn of a Genesis concert in the mid-1980s? This was at the peak of their Phil Collins incarnation when they'd gone from the heights of creative prog to commercial apathy. There was a phrase in Hilburn's review that I never forgot. He said at one point the concert "ground to a halt", as if it slowly ran out of gas. Not that it stopped all at once, mind you. Just that the energy ebbed away until there was nothing left and the performance simply shut down, like a faulty airplane engine.

Apply Hilburn's phrase to the middle section of "Fate is the Hunter" and you have an apt description. The flashbacks begin as Ford ruminates on his war experiences with Taylor, who is portrayed at that time as so carefree a pilot, so sure of his skills, that he belts out off-key renditions of a song called "Blue Moon" while absent mindedly steering the military plane he and Ford are flying. He's then shown calling for a crew member to bring him an accordion so he can accompany himself on a repeat performance, this time over the onboard radio (ostensibly so he can be heard on the ground). Rod Taylor as an actor plays this part so ridiculously that it looks like he's trying for caricature. You're amazed that the director didn't rein him in.

Then we switch to the flashbacks of the former ladies in his life, as Ford makes the rounds to talk to them. First up is Dorothy Malone as his ex-fiancee. Did we mention the all star cast? Well here they come, and everyone is gonna get their "turn" in. Malone, normally a very good actress, is all glitter and glam here, in a role that's basically for nothing as she recounts her failed engagement to the libidinous Mr. Taylor. It's a part straight out of "Dynasty" fifteen plus years later. There's little reason for giving Malone such an elaborate role other than that her contract may have demanded it. Then there's Jane Russell in a prominent wartime cameo, as a USO singer who gives out "dates" as a prize for soldiers who catch a hankie at her concerts. Because she was a big star formerly promoted by Howard Hughes (who was by now wearing Kleenex box shoes), her song gets a full play which takes three minutes, an eternity when trying to maintain plot interest. By now, in addition to what has passed in the flashback diversion from the story, you're wondering "what the Hell is going on? What happened to our disaster plot"? Then comes the Nancy Kwan segement. She plays a oceanographer who was also romanced by Taylor. We've changed locations from a war setting to Marineland in Long Beach. Kwan's reminiscence of her time with Taylor is delivered so lacadasically, by the numbers and without passion that you can almost see her stepping on her duct-taped marks. Her voice lulls you into Snoozeville, and if just before her appearance you were wondering What The Hell Is Going On?,  now you are about to fall asleep..... 

The movie regains some traction in the third act, when Glenn Ford locates a man who is said to have been with Taylor in a bar, just hours before his fatal flight. Lawyers for the aircraft company are trying to pin the crash on pilot error, meaning Taylor, who they claim was drunk. It turns out he was indeed in the bar, but not for the reasons you think. In this sense the plot pays off, and the payoff is big, but you'll have to wade through that middle section, which feels like it's from a different movie. The fans at IMDB love this flick, and I guess I can see why. It does have the nostalgic feel that goes along with Irwin Allen disaster movies where everyone has a personal story. The problem is that is wasn't made by Irwin Allen. It also has a great early 60s look, and co-stars Suzanne Pleshette, who is inextricably linked with that era. Every boy in America had a crush on her back then, and she was also an excellent actress. Her role is key here, as Glenn Ford decides to solve the case by re-creating Taylor's flight. She was the stewardess in the cockpit when the engines failed. Maybe she'll recall some detail that could have caused it.

I'm gonna be fair and give this movie Two Solid Thumbs Up. Depending on your point of view, it could rate anywhere from Two Huge to Two Thumbs Down, or anywhere in between. Again, the fans love it. You might too, and it's recommended because it's definitely worth seeing. Just be forewarned about the flashbacks. The picture is Cinemascope and razor sharp. ////

The previous night we saw a British ghost story called "Passing Clouds"(1941). It was released under two other titles, the first being "Spellbound", which later conflicted with an Alfred Hitchcock film, so when it was sold for TV it was first changed to "The Spell of Amy Nugent", and then again to the more bland, in my opinion, "Passing Clouds" and here we are. It's the story of a young English lad named "Laurie Baxter" (Laurie being short for Laurence). He's in love with a local shop girl named Amy Nugent. Laurie's mother is well-to-do. She wants him to court the tall, beautiful "Diana Hilton" (Vera Lindsey), who seems to be a boarder at the Baxter estate, home from college. I must step in to note that it was difficult for me to make out Diana's exact relation to the Baxter family. I think she was a boarder, but the soundtrack on Youtube was rough, and the Britspeak is so thick in places that some of the dialogue was unclear. At any rate, Laurie likes Diana just fine, but he adores Amy Nugent and plans to marry her, despite his mother's protestations. "A shop girl? What are you thinking, Laurie"? He doesn't care. They're going to be wed, but then comes the awful news that Amy has taken ill. She's a fragile girl to begin with, and it looks like she won't recover.

Amy does die, and Laurie of course is heartbroken. Diana tries to comfort him, and means well, but Laurie can't get his mind off his true love. One day, a friend of his mother comes to visit. By chance she leaves behind a book on Spiritualism, which includes a section on contacting the dead. Laurie is fascinated with what he reads and tries a few of the methods himself, with minor success. The book is written by a famous English spiritualist named Cathcart whom his mother's friend happens to know. Laurie visits the woman to ask if he can meet the man. "Why yes, he's coming over for a seance tomorrow night". "Would it be okay for me to attend"?, Laurie asks. "I don't see why not". She knows he recently lost Amy and assumes that's the reason for his interest.

Laurie returns the next night for the seance but at first he isn't impressed. He wants immediate proof that Mr. Cathcart is legitimate. "Show me something concrete", he insists. In his own attempts to contact Amy, he thought he caught a glimpse, but it was too brief and vague. It did make him yearn to see more, however, and he's hounding Cathcart as soon as he arrives. "Okay, Mr. Baxter", says the Spiritualist. "I'll show you something if you'll just sit down over there". Laurie sits and Cathcart begins talking. The lady and her friend are sitting at the table as well. Finally, Cathcart asks Laurie to look at his watch. "Why do you ask that? I've been listening to you for the last five minutes". "Just look at your watch", he repeats. Laurie looks. "My God, it's eight o' clock"! Two hours have passed. "Did I fall asleep"? "Not sleep, Master Laurie. You've been in a trance". That's all the convincing Laurie needs. The seance begins shortly thereafter.

During the course of it, Amy Nugent is contacted. Mr. Cathcart talks in her voice. Laurie is spellbound (to quote the original title). She says she's fine, and happy, that she didn't die but just changed form. She asks Laurie to stop grieving because "I want you to be happy for me too". But, she adds, "I don't know if I can contact you again". This last causes Laurie great anguish. When the seance is over, he begs the Spiritualist for another try. "I'd like to actually see her, Mr. Cathcart". Cathcart hesitates. "I don't recommend materialisations for a neophyte like yourself, but if you'll stick to my rules, we can attempt one tomorrow night". Laurie agrees to his terms and awaits the second seance with bated breath.

Meanwhile, another man has entered the fray. He is "Mr. Vincent" (Fredrick Leister), a former student of Cathcart's who's turned against him in a big way. Mr. Vincent hears about Laurie's involment from a friend of his mother's. He contacts Laurie and begs him to stop. "It's evil what Cathcart is doing", Vincent says. "Not that it's fake, as many people claim, but because it's all too real! It's wrong to try and contact the deceased! Worse is materialisation! That's a certain path to Hell, Master Laurie. I beseech you not to go through with it"! But Laurie's already made up his mind.

I'll give you one final plot point. One of Mr. Cathcart's rules at the second seance is that if a materialisation of Amy is achieved, Laurie must not try to touch her. "That could lead to a break in the veil", Cathcart tells him. What he means is that an evil spirit could get through.

In contrast to the love shown for our first film by the fans at IMDB, most of the folks commenting on "Passing Clouds" seem to hate it. I think that's not so much due to the movie itself, which I found hypnotic and suspenseful (not to mention disquieting in the extreme), but because of the subject matter, which is presented as a treatise against spiritual contact. In this day and age, many people see no harm in trying to stay "in touch" with lost loved ones. Most don't practice seances (which along with Ouija boards I'd stay away from), but to just make contact in a beautiful way, by yourself or through someone like James Van Prog Rock, who seems legit, is okay as far as I'm concerned. My point is that you shouldn't pay attention to the fan reviews on that basis. Incidentally, I expected "Passing Clouds" to be more of a purely spiritualistic movie, ala "Portrait of Jennie" and focusing on the romance. As it turns out, the emphasis is on horror. It's good either way and gets Two Big Thumbs Up from me. As noted, the soundtrack is somewhat damaged in places, so listen with headphones and you'll be okay. The picture is soft, too, but good enough to be watchable. Don't miss "Passing Clouds", it's highly recommended.  ////

That's all I've got for tonight and now we're all caught up. I wish you a nice evening and I send you Tons of Love as always.   xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

William Bendix in "Crashout", and a great Heist Flick : "Plunder Road" with Gene Raymond

Last night we found a prison break flick that turned into an Epic Melodrama. "Crashout"(1955), stars William Bendix as the leader of six convicts who survive the mass breakout that's depicted at the beginning of the movie. The inmates start a riot in the prison yard and in the chaos, dozens run for the gates, trying to overwhelm the guards. Only the six make it out alive. Besides Bendix (most famous for playing Babe Ruth), they are the legendary Arthur Kennedy, William Talman (of "The Hitch-Hiker" fame), Gene Evans, Luther Adler, and sci-fi hero Marshall Thompson. After bailing out of The Big House, the gang scramble over the Santa Susana Mountains and down into a cave, where Bendix orders them to spend the next three days. "No one's leavin' till I say so".

After that, they embark on a cross-country journey, first by train, to recover 180 Gees in hidden loot stashed by Bendix following his last bank job. Their unity begins to fray when a young lady (Gloria Talbott), friendly and pretty, sits down next to handsome Marshall Thompson. She strikes up a conversation, and instead of politely giving her the brush off, Thompson chats her up. Bendix is none to happy when he sees this. Though the men are all dressed in stolen suits, their pictures have been in the newspaper. The next thing you know, Thompson joins Gloria on the outside "porch" of their train car. She's already told him she's getting off at the next stop. Now he wants to know what her hometown is like and if she'll take him with her. He wants out of the prison gang and doesn't care about the money. Talbott says yes, but just as they're escaping (after she gets off first), William Talman sees them. Besides being a religious fanatic known as "The Reverend", he's also an expert knife thrower. Talman takes aim and lands a blade in the middle of Thompson's back. Now the gang are five. The train leaves again and the men continue to their destination.

It's that kind of movie, where the jailbirds are eliminated one by one, each one dying at a critical point in their journey in accordance with their karmic destiny. In another town, the remaining gang members pull a stickup and take hostages, including a woman (Beverly Michaels) and her son. In a plot twist that asks you to really suspend disbelief, she ends up falling for Arthur Kennedy after he protects her from Bendix's wrath. You might imagine she's be grateful for his intervention, but suddenly she's ready to shield him from the law. This is where the melodrama comes in. "Crashout", for all it's tough guy conflict, is more about the longings of the more emotionally developed men in the gang (Thompson and Kennedy), to break away from the prison mentality and start life anew. Both crave a straight life with love and family, but William Bendix has a hold on them. It's as much a saga as it is a straight-up crime film, but it's stlll an exciting ride and the acting is what takes it over the top. I give "Crashout" Two Big Thumbs Up and recommend it. The picture is widescreen in addition to being razor sharp.  ////

If it is an undiluted nailbiter you're looking for, our second film will be right up your alley. The previous night we were lucky to find another top notch Heist Movie : "Plunder Road"(1957), in which five guys rob a train carrying gold from the U.S. Mint. There's no fooling around here, not even a short preamble like we saw in "A Prize of Arms". From the first frame the job's in progress. The movie opens with a shot of a wavering center divider line. The driver of a semi is having trouble staying in his lane because rain is pouring down in buckets. He's got a passenger with him, a serious looking gent whose thoughts are made audible to the viewer through voiceover. "We're seven minutes late. Now he's driving with a lead foot on the brake". We get the driver's thoughts, too. "I didn't know there was gonna be a rainstorm". Inside the back of the truck are two more men. One of them is Elisha Cook, so you know these guys are hinky. Usually he plays the quintessential Squealer. Sometimes he's even a Chiseler. This time he's playing a demolition expert. Set up in the truck's cargo space is a cable-and-spring apparatus, holding a steel vial in the middle. It's a shock absorber system for an ounce of nitroglycerine, which will be used to blow the lock off a freight car.

Intercut with the truck we see a train rushing down the tracks. It's on a collision course with armed robbery if the men can make up for lost time. There's also a second truck on the highway, following behind the semi. It's a phone company rig with a cherry picker on the back. A fifth man is driving it. As he watches the truck weave and shudder in the rain, his thoughts are audible too : "One bump and we'll all become angels". He's thinking of the nitroglycerin.

This is the high-tension setup for the heist that's about to be pulled. Needless to say, it comes off as planned (or we wouldn't have a movie). The men in this gang also have trouble staying on the same page, but in this case versus "Crashout", it's not because of the lure of going straight but because they're nervous wrecks. Despite all their planning, unexpected circumstances arise. Because they've stolen gold from the U.S. Mint, the Treasury Department is involved. The cops respond like lightning and set up roadblocks at every possible exit. Only Gene Raymond, the serious older man who planned the heist, is able to keep his cool. The guy driving the phone truck slips up at one of these mandatory stops and gives himself away, making it even harder for Raymond and the others to continue to travel unnoticed. If they can make it to Los Angeles, they've got an accomplice waiting. She's Raymond's wife (Jeanne Cooper), who owns a foundry. They plan to melt down the gold and turn it into.........what? I can't tell you that cause it'll spoil the ending. Let's just say that they're going to leave the country, and the gold, in it's new shape, will help them to do just that.

There are a couple of plot points that stuck out for me because they didn't make sense. One is that a third truck is brought in to the scheme at a hideout. It's painted with the logo of a coffee company. The men repackage the gold in boxes also labeled "coffee", but don't stop to consider the excess weight (gold weighs a ton). When they come to a weigh station on the highway, they're of course over the limit. This causes the station official to ask to search their cargo. Because Gene Raymond has previously thought of every contingency, it's hard to believe he'd slip up on something as obvious as the weight of gold, but we can let this go because it makes for a tension filled scene when the truck is being searched. Will they be caught or allowed to travel on with just a ticket? The one other thing that stands out, in my opinion, is what they do with the gold after melting it down. That's the thing I can't reveal, but it seems to me that in it's new context it stands out like a sore thumb. You'd think they would've painted it or done something to make it look less........well, gold. That's another thing you can't believe would slip by Gene Raymond, or any of the remaining heisters, for that matter.

It's not a huge deal, however, when taken with the movie as a whole. Like "Prize of Arms" and all the best heist flicks, the action and the tension never stop. The characters each have their own level of cool (or loss of cool), and the acting is varied accordingly. Some freak out while others maintain their equlibrium, much like the nitro in the spring contraption. I was reminded just a bit of "The Wages of Fear", and while "Plunder Road" is not a masterpiece like that film, it's still worthy of Two Big Thumbs Up, and it must be especially noted that the black and white photography is exceptional. If you like your crime films taken straight with no chaser, just pure 100 proof, don't miss "Plunder Road". It's very highly recommended!

That's all I've got for tonight. Sorry about being a day late (and hopefully not a dollar short). I'm adjusting to being back in my boxlike apartment after spending the past sixteen days at Pearl's. I was really in my Writing Zone there, and I was also working on the book, which has almost sixty pages completed so far. I'll keep at it, though, and get the blog back on track. Losing Pearl has been difficult to say the least, but the writing continues to be magic, like an elixir that keeps me going. I hope you have a nice evening and I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)

Jeffrey Lynn in "Strange Bargain", and "Chicago Syndicate" starring Dennis O'Keefe and Allison Hayes

Last night's movie was "Strange Bargain"(1949), another Noir with an unlikely plot. Jeffery Lynn stars as "Sam Wilson", head of a classic 1950s household. He seems to have it all : a pretty wife, two precocious kids (a boy and a girl), a nice suburban house, and a job as the assistant bookkeeper at a bank. But looks are deceiving. His son wants a bike. Sam tells him they can't afford it. At dinner, his wife looks over the electric bill. "I can't believe it's the first of the month and we're already in the hole". The Wilsons are broke. Later that night, wife Georgia (Martha Scott) makes Sam promise he'll ask his boss for a raise. "You're worth it and you've been with the bank for twelve years.

The next morning, Sam steels himself to go in and talk to his boss. But it turns out the boss was waiting for him. "Sam, I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you. I have to let you go. The bank is insolvent. We're going to have to close down". Holy smokes. Things have just gone from bad to worse for Sam. Instead of the hoped-for raise, he's just been given his pink slip. However, and this is one of those howevers that must be stretched out and pronounced Howww-ev-er.......Sam's boss has another piece of news to deliver that includes a proposition. "Sam, the bank isn't the only thing that's out of money. I'm broke too. I took out a loan to cover our losses. I can't pay it back, and....." He states the next bit matter-of-factly. ".....I'm going to commit suicide". Sam looks at him like he didn't hear him correctly. "What? But Mr. Jarvis (Richard Gaines), you can't do that! You shouldn't do that. What about your wife and son"? "They're the ones I'm doing it for. You see Sam, when the bank started to default, I purchased a life insurance policy that's worth 250,000 dollars. This way I can provide for my family. Now, it doesn't pay out on a suicide, but if it was made to look like a murder, my wife would collect the money".

"This all sounds so crazy", Sam declares. "Mr. Jarvis, are you serious? And why on Earth are you telling me all this"? "Because Sam, I need your help. You've been with the company for twelve years and I trust you. In fact you're the only one I trust. I mentioned my suicide must look like murder; that's where you come in".

"What?! Mr. Jarvis....I won't....I can't.....you shouldn't....". Jarvis cuts him off. "No, no Sam. That's not what I had in mind. I'm not asking you to actually murder me, just to be there after the fact to set up the scene. I'll shoot myself like I've told you. What I need you to do is wipe my prints, take the gun outside and shoot it through the window. Put a couple of bullets into the wall, as if the killer fired several shots. Then drop it in the bushes, where the police are sure to find it. They'll call it murder, my wife will collect the insurance money. And, for your trouble I'll pay you ten thousand dollars".

Sam's jaw in on the floor. He can't believe what he's hearing. But he needs money and his kid wants that bike. Still, it's wrong and he knows it. It's against all of his core beliefs. "No, Mr. Jarvis. I'm sorry but I can't help you". "Don't say no just yet, Sam. I want you to go home and think about it. Now I'm asking you to think of my wife and son. This is the only way they'll be out from under my debt. With the money they can pay off my loan and have enough left over to live on for a long long time, maybe for the rest of their lives. So please go home and think about it. I'm going to call you later tonight with a coded message". He gives the code word to Sam. "When I call and you hear that word, it means I'm about to carry out my plan. If you decide to help me you'll be doing my family a heroic favor. If you decide you don't want to, I'll understand, but I'm going through with it one way or the other, and there's ten thousand dollars in it for you".

Oh my goodness, all Sam wanted was a raise. Just enough to pay the bills and buy his son that bike. Now his boss is leaning on him to fake a murder, the boss's own. Good grief, what's a decent family man to do? Later that night the phone rings. Sam's wife has gone out and the kids are asleep. He answers it. It's his boss, with the code word. Sam hangs up. He fidgets and fumbles. Then he gets in his car and drives. Next stop, the boss's house. Sam's not going to help him, but to try and prevent him from killing himself.

Is that a good setup or what? Yes, it's implausible as already noted, but it's fast moving and there's never a dull moment. I don't want to tell you what happens when Sam gets to Mr. Jarvis's house, but I can reveal that, despite his initial good intentions, he gets into a jam he'll need a lot of luck to get out of.

Jeffrey Lynn is one of those actors you've seen a million times but can't place. He's very handsome. I thought he was a TV Dad from one of those '50s shows like "Leave It To Beaver", but IMDB says he mainly worked in film. He's first rate as the nervous, unwilling accomplice to his boss's sacrificial plan. Our old pal Harry Morgan also has a substantial role as a detective. For once he's not playing a troublemaker. As with many of our recent films, there's some great location footage, once again in late '40s L.A. I was caught up in "Strange Bargain" from the opening scene, where the Wilson family sits down to dinner. The plot begins there and it builds to the very end. I give the movie Two Big Thumbs Up and highly recommend it. We've had good luck with the prints lately - the picture is once again razor sharp.  ////

The previous night, we saw a documentary-style crime flick called "Chicago Syndicate"(1955), in which an accountant (Dennis O'Keefe) is asked by the Chi-town aldermen and a newspaper editor to infiltrate the Mob, or what's become of the Mob in Chicago. A narrator explains that after Capone went to prison, the rest of the Mafia big shots ate each other up like sharks, trying to fill Al's shoes. The result was that a nationwide organisation took over, a crime corporation known as the Syndicate. They ran things efficiently, without all the bloodshed. The name of the game was money and more money. The Syndicate usurped every Mafia racket and added new ones, like drugs and laundromats. The Mayor wants O'Keefe because besides being an accountant, the position he's going undercover to fill, he's also a decorated WW2 hero. He's fearless in other words.

They send him to cozy up to a Syndicate honcho named "Arnold Valent" (Paul Stewart), who runs a corrupt insurance business. Here we go again with the "Legitimate Businessman" routine. That's what they always pose as, right? Valent has just murdered his former accountant, because the guy was gonna rat him out. The problem is the cops can't prove it because Valent is an expert at covering his tracks. That's the thing about The Syndicate. Unlike the Mafia, they don't leave a mess in their wake. Dennis O'Keefe's job is to pretend to be an accountant-for-hire, a crook who can cook the books. He's supposed to get in Valent's good graces, then get the goods on him and turn the evidence over to the district attorney.

The problem for him is that there's two dames involved. One is Valent's girlfriend, a sultry nightclub singer (Abbe Lane), the other is the murdered accountant's daughter (50 Foot Woman Allison Hayes). Allison wants Arnold Valent dead. She falls in love with O'Keefe. Abbe Lane is a Si-a-mese Cat! of-a-girl, who, tired of being Under Valent's Thumb (see what I did there?), throws herself at O'Keefe too, and is jealous when he sticks with Hayes.

I have to warn you, there's a scene toward the end that I wish they had left on the cutting room floor. I mean, even for me, Mr. Non-Squeamish, there's a limit to what should be shown. I won't tell you what it includes, but it's there to reveal to you the real Arnold Valent, not the faux-humble "honest businessman" who loves his mother and still knows all the playground kids from the old days. The you-are-there narration interrupts the action at intermittent points throughout the movie, giving it a newsreel edge. The only downside for me was that the direction was a little flat, maybe due to that documentary presentation. The chronology of the story thus had a "he did this, then he did that" feel to it, instead of the dramatic removal of a Noir, which takes you into a stylised criminal fantasy world via Hollywood. This one felt like a Study Film (remember those?) about The Syndicate, and while it still gets Two Big Thumbs Up, and is recommended, it coulda been epic with a better director.

Having said that, you should still see it. For one thing, you should see everything Allison Hayes was ever in, and besides that, it's a good movie. I'm only disappointed cause it could've been great. (the picture is razor sharp which goes without saying in recent days.) ////

And that is all I have for you this evening. It's late on Sunday night. The Rams got creamed today. I hope that's not indicative of who they really are, but we'll see, because before today they looked like legit Super Bowl contenders. Ah well, it's only sports. I'll see you in the morning and I send you Tons and Tons of Love, as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)  

Donald Berry and Ann Savage in "The Last Crooked Mile", and "Step by Step" with Lawrence Tierney and Anne Jeffreys

Last night we watched "The Last Crooked Mile"(1946), a Noir starring Donald "Red" Barry as an insurance investigator looking for the loot from a bank robbery. The crooks made off with 300 Large but died in an ensuing car crash. The dough wasn't on scene; where the heck is it? The car itself has been bought by the owner of a carnival side show. "Come See The Bank Robbers' Death Car"!, reads the sign. Barry checks it out. What could've happened to the money? A tip leads him to the girlfriend of one of the robbers. She's "Sheila Kennedy", a nightclub singer. Because she's played by the great Ann Savage (of "Detour" fame), Barry should be careful who he's messing with.

Barry and Sheila hit if off, which doesn't sit well with "Bonnie", his sometime girlfriend. The last time Barry had a gal pal, Bonnie didn't see him for a year. She's loyal though, and fatalistic about the situation. Barry tells her about the payoff : "when I find the dough they're gonna pay me ten percent. That's thirty grand. We can go away to Costa Rica or anywhere you want". That keeps Bonnie happy. "And Sheila means nothing to me", he adds, but she doesn't believe him.

Two hoodlums are also in the hunt for the missing loot. One is tall and sharp (Sheldon Leonard), the other is a mook (Ben Welden). Barry figures they're connected to the dead robbers but that might not be all. At one point, they jump Barry and knock him out, but then both wind up dead. "Who hired those guys", Barry wonders. Through many plot twists, we'll find out. The movie features a lot of banter, mostly from Donald Barry who throws a Cagney-ish persona at all comers but saves his best barbs for Bonnie, his long suffering lady. Adele Mara, who plays her, has the bubbly blonde spirit for this kind of repartee. She gives as good as she gets, but the real star of the picture is of course Ann Savage, who you might already know. She's one of those performers who you can't take your eyes off of. Besides being a knockout, she has a dual vulnerable/tough quality. The toughness you've seen in spades, in"Detour", where she took on Hollywood Hard Guy Tom Neal and kicked his butt. In "Crooked Mile", she shows a softer side that's highly appealing. But she's always dangerous, so Red Barry watch out. I loved this movie, which has some great location shooting in what I assume is 1946 Los Angeles. Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Last Crooked Mile". The picture is razor sharp. ////

In a similar vein, the previous night's flick was another Noir with light comic touches. "Step by Step"(also 1946) stars Lawrence Tierney and Anne Jeffreys as couple on the run from German spies in Malibu. They meet on the beach by chance. As the movie opens, Jeffreys has just been hired as the new secretary for "Senator Remmy", who we assume represents California, though it's never stated. The Senator seems to be involved with top secret work. Jeffreys answers the phone on her first day and the man on the other end talks gibberish. It's a coded message, so the Senator takes over the call. When he hangs up, he sends Anne out of the room. "Why don't you go down to the beach and take a swim? There's bathing suits downstairs in the closet".

The next we see Anne, she's diving off a cliff into the ocean. Who should come along at this time but beach bum Lawrence Tierney. We've all seen him as "Joe Cabot", the leader of the robbery gang in "Reservoir Dogs", where he was old, stocky and shaven headed, but if yooooouuu can be-lieve it, to quote David Lynch, he was once young, handsome and as physically fit as an athlete. He also possessed an ability for rom-com repartee like Red Barry, except Tierney is nonchalant if you can believe it. He walks around in a swimsuit for half the flick to show off his physique, but it's no big deal cause he's so low key. He drives a Woody and he's got a little dog named Bazooka. You've gotta love Tierny when he was young. He's not a gruff curmudgeon like he became later on.

What happens is that Anne Jeffreys emerges from the waves. Tierney tries a few pick up lines and she brushes him off. "Sorry but I've gotta get back to work". He watches her walk back up the bluff to the Senator's house on the hill. Not one to give up after the first try, Tierney follows her up there with Bazooka alongside. He talks his way past a butler, and finds "Evelyn Smith" (Jefferys' character) in an office. But it's not the Evelyn Smith he just met. This gal's a taciturn type with her hair in a wraparound braid. The Senator appears and asks, "Can I help you, Sir". "Yeah, I'm here to see Evelyn Smith and that's not her". "That's the only Miss Smith we've got". "Well she ain't the one I just met on the beach, and who I followed to this house. I just saw her walk in the door". "Uh, Sir? My butler tells me you're a Marine? And you just got back from Iwo Jima"? "Yeah that's what I told him. Nosy guy, wanted my life story". "Excuse me for asking, Sir, but is it possible you're........uh"..... "What're you sayin', that I'm suffering from shellshock? You think I'm crazy? I'm tellin' ya I just followed Evelyn Smith up here. That one in the other room is an impostor"! 

What we the audience know but Tierney doesn't, is that the Senator is an impostor too! Yepperino, Mr. Shortino. He ain't the guy we saw with the real Evelyn Smith. So what in The Wide, Wide World of Sports is-a goin' on? Well, while Smith was at the beach with Tierney, a gang of Nazi spies snuck in to the house and replaced the real Senator Remmy. They've got him tied up in the basement, and when Evelyn comes back to the house they tie her up too. Then they gaslight Lawrence Tierney, or they try to but he calls the cops. Trouble is, they've already branded him as crazy from the war. The cops don't believe his story. The Nazis are gonna get away with their scheme.

But what is it they're trying to achieve? Well, they're looking for a list of German spies that has their names on it. That was the Senator's secret mission : i.e. to round up every Nazi who remained in America after World War Two. It's explained at the beginning of the movie that, for the Reich, the war never ended. The surviving Nazis just went underground. The Senator's job was to rout them out and arrest them. Now they've got him captive but they still can't find the list. That's because Tierney has it! He decided to get dressed while he was in the house (keep in mind when he got there he was only wearing swim trunks), and he borrowed some of the Senator's clothes. Sewed into the lining of his coat is the list of Nazi spies.

If all that sounds far-fetched, well.......it's supposed to be. The charm of this movie is it's offhand implausibility. Tierney's a typical beach dude, too casual to lose his cool or even notice the bigger picture at first. He's only upset because, a) he knows the "Senator" and his staff are giving him the runaround about Evelyn Smith, and b) because they have the nerve to suggest he's off his rocker. His mild outrage is reflected by Bazooka, who runs around the house looking for Evelyn, and......that's all I can tell you.

As with "The Last Crooked Mile", I enjoyed the combination of Noir and rom-com sassafrass. Like Ann Savage, Anne Jeffreys has a singular screen persona, replacing Savage's tough chick brass with a savvy, sweet resilience. Also like "Crooked", "Step by Step" has great lost Los Angeles locations. A long gone motel called "Fisherman's Village" (or something like that) is featured prominently. The movie gets Two Big Thumbs Up, and in this case I heartily recommend a double feature as the total running time for both movies is just 127 minutes. These are Noirs for Fun, there's a lot of it, and the picture for "Step by Step is also razor sharp. /////

And that's all I know for tonight. I hope you're enjoying the start of your weekend, and I send you Tons of Love as always!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

Boris Karloff in Howard Hawk's "The Criminal Code", and "Swamp Water" by Jean Renoir, with Dana Andrews

Last night we watched a prison movie called "The Criminal Code"(1930), directed by Howard Hawks and co-starring Boris Karloff as a convict seeking revenge against a squealer who broke his parole. Phillips Holmes stars as "Robert Graham", a young man celebrating his twentieth birthday in a big city. He's new in town, alone and looking for someone to dance with. "Gertrude Williams" (Mary Doran) happens by and they go to a nightclub. While dancing, another man accosts Gertrude. Robert is drunk and reacts by smashing him over the head with a glass bottle. The man dies and Robert is arrested. At his trial, he pleads self defense. "I thought he had a gun". From what we've seen, his claim is legit, but the D.A. (Walter Houston) is playing hardball. Robert is found guilty of second degree murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In the slam, Robert is quickly worn down. After six years, he's a shell of his former self, half-crazy and counting the hours of each day. If he has to work one more minute in the prison's polluted jute factory, he's gonna jump out of his skin. A shrink is sent to talk to him. He finds Robert to be remorseful and self aware. "He accepts responsibility for his victim's death, but he's not a killer and I believe he told the truth at his trial".

Walter Houston has now become the prison warden. As the former D.A., he's responsible for putting many of the men in there. They hate him, and stage a protest his very first day on the job, by setting a time to chant and yell in the prison yard. Houston hears them and knows he needs to make peace. One of the things he does is to call on the staff psychiatrist who examined Robert Graham. "He's typical of the way they're treated", the doc reports. "Monotonous work, in a workshop with safety hazards. No sunlight. They never see a female. The guards break the rules and treat them roughly without cause". Houston decides to do something about these conditions. He interviews Graham and offers him a job as his driver. Graham slowly comes back to life. He can see the light at the end of the tunnel. "I have three years left to serve", he tells a cellmate. "But I know I can do it now". Conditions are improved across the board. Family visits are increased. But Houston can't control everything. Some of his guards still get away with harsh treatment. One is particularly brutal.

Graham has another cellmate named "Galloway" (Karloff). He's got his eye on "Captain Gleason" (DeWitt Jennings), the brutal guard. "He's the reason I got sent back here". It seems that Boris got paroled, and one night went out for a beer. "I slipped up. Alcohol is forbidden for parolees. Wouldn't you know it? Gleason was in that bar. He saw me and reported me to my parole officer. Now I've got eight more years to do, but he's gonna pay the price, you can count on it". Boris is waiting for the right moment to catch Gleason alone. Then he's gonna kill him. Graham's other cellmate is planning to escape. Graham just wants to do his time and go free, but now he's gotta keep silent about his cellies. That's "The Criminal Code" of the title. When Karloff does kill the guard, Graham's in an extremely difficult position because he was in the next room when it happened. Warden Houston doesn't believe him when he says he saw nothing. "How could you have missed it? There's only one door in and out"! Graham maintains his silence and gets sent to The Hole, where he reverts to his former state. Broken again, he's near collapse after thirty days. But during the course of the movie, when he was the Warden's valet, he had the occasion to drive his daughter "Mary" (Constance Cummings) around. She fell in love with him and is horrified with what her father has done. She returns from a trip, sees what's happened to Graham, and demands that Dad set him free.

It's an epic story, combining Robert Graham's trajectory with a commentary on prison conditions. Because it was made in the early days of sound, the absence of even incidental music and silence between dialogue indicates, to me at least, that the filmmakers were still adjusting to the new technology. At times, it sounds like the actors are reciting their lines in a vacuum. Howard Hawks, of course, was a legend and he does show a grasp for grand-scale storytelling. I give "The Criminal Code" Two Big Thumbs Up. It almost rates Two Huge. Some of the fans at IMDB call it the greatest prison movie ever made. Watch it yourself and decide. It's very, very highly recommended. One final note : apparently, James Whale saw the film and Karloff's performance as the ruthless "Galloway" convinced him to cast Boris as "Frankenstein". The rest is freakin' history. /////

The previous night we were back in the swamp, with "Swamp Water"(1941), a Swamp Opera/Melodrama about a man who goes looking for his dog in the Okefenokee and gets more of a morass than he bargained for. Dana Andrews stars as "Ben", the adult son of hard-bitten "Thursday Ragan" (Walter Houston again), a shack dweller who lives at water's edge with his young wife "Hannah" (Mary Howard). Ben wants to become a trapper. Dad Thursday forbids it, because it entails going into the swamp. It's a dangerous place, full of gators and cottonmouth snakes. But when Ben's dog "Trouble" (Fleeter) runs off after a deer, he wants to go find him. "All right", Dad relents. "But swear you'll be back in two days".  

Ben heads out with his canoe and pole and finds a small patch of solid ground on which to spend the night. He builds a fire and tries to stay awake (gotta be vigilant against them gators), but sleep takes him over and the next morning he arises tied to a tree. An interloper has skulked into his camp during the wee hours. "Tom Keefer" (Walter Brennan, not the guy from Cinderella) is a fugitive on the run from a framed-up murder rap. He's been living in the Okefenokee for many moons. The joint is 700 square miles of quagmire and critters. Some you can catch and eat, others are beasts that will eat you. Keefer's a survival expert. That's how he snuck up on young Ben and bound him to a tupelo tree, but after some tussling and a trade of information they become allies. It turns out Ben knows Tom's daughter, a  squatter scruff named "Julie" (Anne Baxter), who's lot in life is tied to her Dad's (donald)-trumped up conviction.

Now, there's another gal in Shacksville who's got the hots for Ben. "Mabel MacKenzie" (Virginia Gilmore) is oversexed and overwrought. She thinks her feelings are mutual, so when she sees Ben at the Saturday night dance with Julie Keefer, she becomes A Woman Scorned. Hell hath no fury like Mabel, who starts spreading the news that Julie is Tom's daughter - which everyone already knew, but - much more importantly - that it must be the reason Ben has a sudden interest in her, and why he's spending so much time in the swamp. "Tom Keefer's gotta be hiding in there and Ben's helping him, bringing him food"!

Two local trappers bend an ear. "What?! That murderer"?, says one (Ward Bond). "If he's in there we oughta go in and get 'im"!

"Dang tootin'"!, says the other (Big Boy McGuinn). "No tellin' how many others he'll kill if we leave him out there to hunt us".

"He's not out there"!, Ben states emphatically, but he doth protest too much and the trappers don't believe him. Neither do the rest of the residents of swampland, who think Tom Keefer's guilty and want him on the end of a rope. Then one day Ben learns a secret. Bond and Big Boy have a side business in addition to their fur trapping. By night they're a couple of hog thieves. This revelation first leads them to stalk and threaten Ben, but when he gets the Sheriff on his side, they back off and leave him alone. The trappers are the ones who lead the charge against Tom, because they're in cahoots with a local goon named "Jesse Wick" (John Carradine), who knows about their secret thievery. They know something about Wick, too, so it's a mutually assured standoff. Honor among thieves causes the bad guys to stick together and railroad Tom Keefer, a trapper himself but an honest one.

It's a gumbo-pot boiler of a story, part 'Lil Abner and part "Southern Comfort" Backwoodserism. "Swamp Water" is directed by Jean Renoir, of all people, he of " La Grande Illusion" and "Rules of the Game", which Roger Ebert called the greatest film ever made (I don't agree). For Renoir to canoe down the Okefenokee strikes some critics as "he's slumming it", but I don't agree with that assessment either. There's nothing wrong with a French director goin' South by way of Hollywood. The production values are good and he used the real swamp on location. Dana Andrews is likeable as always, Walter Brennan is sympathetic, and Walter Houston is tough and excellent in both movies reviewed herein. I give "Swamp Water" Two Big Thumbs Up. Watch it with a big plate of Jumbo Shramp....er, Shrimp?.....no, Shramp. Just like Bubba Gump says in the movie. ////

That's all I've got for the moment. I hope you had a nice day. I send you Tons of Love as always!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Two Gems from PRC : "Strangler of the Swamp" and "Devil Bat's Daughter", both starring Rosemary LaPlanche

 Had a real find a couple nights ago. I've mentioned that it's getting more difficult each time for me to uncover any horror movies I haven't seen. I'm talking mostly about black and white ones made before 1963. After that, you start entering the "psyched-out" period of low budget horror and it looks dated and exploitative. And don't even get me started on Italian or Spanish horror from the mid-60s. "Blood and Boobs" is an apt description, Big Hair too. But the films are terrible. Anyhow, as far as finding watchable horror movies, meaning more or less black and white flicks from 1930-62, lately I've had to search and search on Youtube, trying all kinds of keyword combinations, and I'm dealing with the law of diminishing returns. I was able to find Peter Lorre's "The Lost One" that way, and a couple others, but the point is that the searching process is getting lengthy. Tonight I searched for almost an hour. But boy was I rewarded when I found a flick from PRC. You know those guys : Producers Releasing Corporation, the quintessential Poverty Row studio.

The movie I found was called "Strangler of the Swamp". With a title like that, you'd be a fool not to click "play" (after checking it's IMDB rating of course. "Trust but verify" to quote Ronald Reagan). I saw it was PRC, so I wasn't expecting Universal production values. I just hoped they wouldn't be bottom of the barrel with a static camera and rote dialogue. The inclusion of "Swamp" in the title was a hopeful sign. Usually a swamp indicates atmosphere. And when you throw in a "Strangler" (and boy we've had a lot of those lately), it sounds like you may have yourself a major spooker.

Rosemary LaPlanche stars as "Maria", a young woman who takes over as the ferryman (ferrywoman?) of a Southern swamp after the previous ferryman is found dead. The locals warn her not to take the job. There's said to be a strangler on the loose. Murders have occurred, but the townsfolk chalk them up to a ghost. Maria is from the big city and doesn't believe in such nonsense. What they don't tell her is that the strangler is her deceased grandfather. Years earlier he was hanged for a murder he didn't commit. Some folks still think he was guilty. The previous ferryman strung a hangman's noose on the pier at the end of his run. It's still in place now, and serves as a talisman to warn away the grandfather's strangly spirit. But the thing is, he really was wrongly accused. That doesn't mean he isn't pissed about getting strung up, however.

A new guy arrives in town. He's "Chris Sanders" (the one and only Blake Edwards, young and handsome). Chris is the son of the man who orchestrated the hanging. The ghostly Grandpa Strangler knows who he is, and decides to strangle him, since Chris's pa is not available (he's already dead). But the thing is, Maria falls in love with Chris. Now she's in a conundrum. She doesn't wanna be disloyal to her Ghostly Gramps, whose history she's by now aware of, but she doesn't want him to throttle Chris, either. What is Maria to do?

I was caught up in this movie from the first frame, and surprised because it exudes atmosphere, something you don't expect from PRC. They went all-out to build a great swamp set, replete with a barge-like wooden ferry that runs on a track between ropes. The ropes are pulled by the ferrywoman to make the crossing. They must have spent a small fortune on fog machines because the swamp is thick with the stuff.

Have you ever heard of Rosemary LaPlanche? I had not. She was Miss America 1941, and Miss California twice before that. You might not expect a beauty queen to be a good actress, but she is very good and carries the picture. Two small things to note : the pace is a tad slow (just a tad), and the theme is as much romance as it is horror. But it's well acted and the story is unusual. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Strangler of the Swamp", a well-done job by PRC. The picture is on the soft side, not razor sharp but not mush either. Absolutely don't miss this one! Highly recommended.  ////

Last night on Halloween, I looked for more films with Rosemary LaPlanche, and I found another one from PRC, the intriguingly titled "Devil Bat's Daughter". According to Wiki, it's a sequel to the PRC/Lugosi vehicle, "The Devil Bat"(1940). This time, Rosemary stars as "Nina", the daughter of a Mad Scientist named Dr. McCarron. As the movie opens, she's in the hospital with amnesia. The cops are puzzled because she appeared in town out of nowhere, took a cab to the old McCarron place and passed out when she got there. Now she remembers nothing of her visit. A psychiatrist, "Dr. Elliot" (Nolan Leary), works to restore Nina's memory. But Dr. Elliot is a gaslighter. He's got an ulterior motive for telling her nothing happened at the house. Now he's drugging her to make her appear crazy. Nina sees bats fly through the windows of her room. Her head is spinning and her vision's blurred. Then her mother is killed. Dr. Elliot convinces her she did it. He tells her she killed her boyfriend's dog, too.

If that sounds like some weird stuff, it is. The movie is not the Halloween Horror Flick I thought it would be, however. It's more of a whodunit in a psychologically disturbing context. Like "Man in the Attic" two nights ago, the villain is unfortunately telegraphed. Dr. Elliot has a reason for wanting his wife dead. He tells Nina she has a genetic "compulsion to kill" inherited from her father, a murderer who was dubbed "The Devil Bat" by the press, because of his tendency to drink the blood of his victims, like a vampire. "It's not your fault you killed her", the evil Doctor says, absolving Nina of her guilt (yeah right) while pinning the blame in her impressionable mind. "I'll stand up for you in court if it comes to that". Gee, thanks Doc. Nina is convinced she killed his wife, and her boyfriend's dog too, but her boyfriend (John James) believes no such thing. "There isn't a genetic predisposition to murder", he says. Doc Elliot is good at hiding his motivation, but James eventually uncovers info, and a stash of hypnotic drugs, that leads him to suspect the deceptive Doctor.

"Devil Bat's Daughter" features some schpooky schpecial effectchs, like when the camera goes out of focus and the room spins and the bats come. This indicates Nina is going crazy. Rosemary LaPlanche gives another strong performance as the trusting, vulnerable patsy of Doctor Elliot's murder scheme, but the direction isn't as taut as it is in "Strangler of the Swamp". The story is clever and involving but it really isn't a horror movie, which was a little disappointing on Halloween night. It's still a good thriller though, and you'll be an instant LaPlanche fan after watching "Strangler". That means you'll certainly wanna see her again, so give "Devil Bat's Daughter" a view. I give it Two Solid Thumbs Up. Though the rating is one lower than "Strangler", it's just as highly recommended. They just don't make movies like these old PRC classics, so you've gotta see them both. Watch 'em as a Double Feechum or on consecutive nights. ////

And there you have it. We're lucky to still be unearthing such gems after mining the horror vein for so long. I hope you had a great Halloween. Mine was pretty good. This was the first time I didn't hand out candy since 2008, but I had a nice walk to see the decorated houses, and I watched The Great Pumpkin and Ichabod Crane in addition to the aforementioned movie. That's all I know for now. Have a nice night and a great day tomorrow. I send you Tons of Love as always!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo