High Society (1956)

A dumb guy who works at a service station becomes an unwitting accomplice … wait, no. Socialite Tracy Lord (Grace Kelly) is getting remarried and is worried that her ex-husband C.K. Dexter-Haven (Bing Crosby), in town for the Newport Jazz Festival, might spoil the mood. Additionally, Spy magazine sends a writer (Frank Sinatra) and photographer (Celeste Holm) to cover the event in return for not publishing a scandalous story about her father’s affair.

High Society is a remake to The Philadelphia Story (1940) and bares no resemblance to High Society (1955). The major beats of the story are more or less intact as is most of the memorable dialog. The biggest difference is VistaVision color and musical numbers padding the film to just under two hours. Also, much of the subtext that was revealed in the first act of the original is spelled out on the outset.

Changes were made from the original story, and I don’t take issue with any of them. The biggest change is the music, which works for some people. The star power is every bit the 1940 version, but the script was uniquely Kathrine Hepburn’s. Kelly, as wonderful as she was, feels miscast. Hepburn’s dialog coming out of Kelly’s mouth simply doesn’t land the same.

Lydia Reed was almost as charming as Virginia Weidler was as Tracy’s little sister, no small feat. It’s curious they didn’t have her sing “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady”. That feels like a missed opportunity. Louis Armstrong and his orchestra appear briefly. This was Kelly’s last film, as was Louis Calhern’s. He died on the set of his next film.

The Philadelphia story is widely regarded as the better film. Still, High Society was a box office success and not hard to watch. Still, I wish Kelly could have ended her Hollywood career on a higher note. AMRU 3.

…And God Created Woman (1954)

Orphan Juliete (Brigitte Bardot) is a wild child, both shamed and coveted equally in her village. One admirer is an old rich guy who wants to buy a shipyard so he can build a casino. Also in the mix is handsome Antoine, who is returning to St. Tropez to run his family shipyard.

Cowritten and directed by Bardot’s then husband, Roger Vadim, the film made her an international sex symbol. It was a mixed victory for Vadim as she had an affair with her costar. Their marriage would shortly come to an end. He would direct a remake in 1988 with Rebecca De Morney, to lesser success.

Isabelle Corey, hot off her introduction in Bob le Flambeur, has a small role as Juliete’s friend. Old rich guy was played by Gurd Jurgens who at the time of filming was … forty one? Jesus!

And thus France's answer to Marilyn Monroe was unleashed on the world. Typical of non-Hollywood films, the elements mentioned above don’t play out as expected. And there are elements that will be problematic for those who forget this is 1950’s France. Take it for what it is. Brigitte Bardot is absolutely unforgettable, but unfortunately the story is. AMRU 3.

While the City Sleeps (1956)

Pretty women are being murdered and the new head of a newspaper (Vincent Price) uses the story to fuel a competition to select the new Editor in Chief. Dana Andrews’ Ed Mobley isn’t interested.

The three competitors are George Sanders, Thomas Mitchell, and James Craig. Sanders plays the high class charmer rather than the magnificent cad he is so adept at. Some may know Mitchell as a fantastic character actor with a knack of appearing in some great films, including Stagecoach, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), It’s a Wonderful Life, and Gone With the Wind. Craig also appeared in films. His character has an inside track on the position.

Ida Lupino is something of a free agent, offering assistance to Sanders but for her own reasons. John Drew Barrymore is our villain, more famous as John’s son and Drew’s dad, although apparently not much of one. Silent film star Mae Marsh makes an appearance. She has a ton of screen credits.

Typical of Fritz Lang, there’s a whole lot going on here. Hero Dana is dealing with his relationship with pretty Nancy while schooling the police and reporters on how to investigate a crime. The murders sometimes seem to be of secondary importance.

While the City Sleeps is a pretty good crime drama. While lacking in mystery, it’s an interesting watch from start to finish. It should be noted that not a whole lot of action seems to happen while the city is sleeping. AMRU 3.5.

The Bad Seed (1956)

With her husband on deployment, a mother begins to suspect that her perfect eight year old daughter is a cold blooded murderer.

Based on a play based on a book, the movie brought in the stage cast, who brought their stage annunciation. Set almost entirely in the Penmark residence, it feels every bit like a stage adaptation. Bad Seed herself Patty McCormack, two or three years older than when she originated the role, was given oversized dresses and props to make her look younger. And the illusion worked.

The question openly asked here is of Nature vs. Nurture. Is evil inborn or a product of a person’s environment? I believe social science has put that debate to rest, but at the time of the film it was still an open question.

Many character actors populate the periphery. Jesse White has a sizable role. Folks might remember him as the egg and onion sandwich guy from Harvey, but he will forever be the Maytag repairman to me. Frank Cady has appeared in too much to list. He was Sam Drucker in three different series. Frances Bavier (Andy Taylor’s Aunt Bee) is in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene. Also Shelley Fabares is one of Evil Rhoda’s classmates.

The Bad Seed is surprisingly creepy, mostly due to McCormack’s performance. It was quite impressive. I’m surprised she didn’t go on to a bigger career in film. The theme has become a cultural touchstone and is referenced widely across pop culture. The biggest barrier to a rewatch is the stage acting and vocal projection. It was quite exhausting. But in the end it earns it. AMRU 4.

Anastasia (1956)

A former Russian general (Yul Brynner) leads a team searching for the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, or at least someone they can pass off as her. The royal family was executed ten years earlier and if a survivor could be found, ten million pounds would be in play. And maybe something more.

The film is based on the story of Anna Anderson, one of many pseudonyms of a troubled woman who claimed to be the Grand Duchess in the early 1920’s. While some details from her story are depicted here, the movie is mostly fictitious. Interestingly, during production the filmmakers learned that Anna Anderson was still alive and rushed to get her consent. In the end, no one remotely close to the Romanovs even considered Anna's claim (see quote), the body of the real Anastasia was positively identified, and DNA analysis finally proved Anna was not related. But back to the film.

This was Ingrid Bergman’s big return to Hollywood, so to speak. I touched on this when I covered Indiscreet and will once again recommend the video. Furthermore, she never set foot in the US as the entire production was produced in Europe. She was forty one playing the 27 year old Anna, and while that wasn’t a problem, it was noticeable. Yul Brynner played the Yul Brynner part. He would also star in The King and I and The Ten Commandments the same year and his career was off with a bang.

Here's an amusing side story: Actress Helen Haye played Ansatasia's grandmother in a BBC television adaptation and the producer instructed casting to hire her. They assumed a typo and instead hired the better known and less age appropriate Helen Hayes.

Hints are dropped throughout that Begman’s Anna truly is the Grand Duchess, but also of the problems with her claim. Or his claim, as she is a mostly unwilling (or at least resisting) participant in the General’s plan. And the ending provides some ambiguity on this matter. But for the most part, Anastasia provides the pomp and pageantry one would expect from a 1950’s 'A' picture from a major studio. Lavish sets, costumes, and an excellent supporting cast (including Mrs. Howell eight years before casting off). It holds your interest but I don’t expect it to stick in my memory. AMRU 3.

"I claim categorically that she is not Anastasia Nicolaievna, but just an adventuress, a sick hysteric and a frightful playactress. I simply cannot understand how anyone can be in doubt of this. If you had seen her, I am convinced that you would recoil in horror at the thought that this frightful creature could be a daughter of our Tsar."

Bob le flambeur (1956)

Bob is a gambler with a checkered past and a heart of gold. After a run of bad luck, an opportunity too good to pass up convinces him to try one last caper. Things don’t go as planned.

Influenced by John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle, it bears structural similarity to Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing as well. In fact, Kubrick stopped making crime films because, he thought, the best one had now been made.

Young model Isabelle Corey was cast in her first role. While quite beautiful, at sixteen she wasn’t much of an actress. And she would never become one as her career ended after five years. This was a pretty provocative role for a middle teen, but this is France we are talking about. Roger Duchesne had a more interesting story. After a fair number of forgettable films, his career was cut short when he was jailed for collaborating with the Nazis. This was a return after thirteen years, but would do only one more film. He was pitch perfect as the older, somewhat wiser gambler.

Bob le flanbeur is on the short list of a large number of famous filmmakers and critics favorite films. While enjoyable, I found it short of the two caper films mentioned above. But subtitled films with complex stories can be hard to fully take in. The text draws your attention away from the cinematography and performances, and the nuances that go along. I give it a 3.5 but I will rewatch it. There are things I missed.

Man Beast (1956)

For purposes of the plot pretty Connie travels to the Himalayas to find her brother, Jim. She brings along her wet blanket boyfriend. It seems Jim is on an expedition to capture an abominable snowman, what the natives call the Yeti. They team up with a random hunky guy and start searching. They first meet up with Jim’s associate Dr. Erickson, then the mysterious Varga, who served as Jim’s guide. And, apparently, the only survivor of his expedition. Sorry, Jim.

Here is the lowest of low budget films and the directorial debut of schlockmeister Jerry Warren. I will not ding it for the obvious flaws. The long shots don’t match the close-ups, there is no snow on Everest much of the time, and continuity errors galore. But give him credit, this is his first go with no budget, sets, or even experienced actors, and he got a watchable film into the can. And make no mistake, it is watchable. Borderline enjoyable.

This was pretty Asa Maynor’s first screen appearance, so therefore they got her name wrong. She was once married to Vince Fontaine. Kookie. They also got hunky Lloyd Nelson’s name wrong in the credits. This was also Rock Madison’s film debut and they DID get his name right. Didn’t matter, though, because he doesn’t exist.

The Amazon Prime copy is several minutes shorter than what IMDb lists, and I suspect that explains the two abrupt jump cuts. One came at a particularly critical moment. I wonder if there were more I didn’t notice.

I don’t normally make these accommodations but I feel it’s warranted here. The budget is plain to see on every frame. I’ve seen worse. Man Beast was short and managed to hold my interest, plus had a little mystery to it. I’m curious to watch Warren’s other films. I understand they are terrible. AMRU 2.5.

The Killing (1956)

Ex-con Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) is getting together a team to rob a racetrack. They could put you away just as fast for a $10 heist as they can for a million dollar job. So might as well go big.

The Killing is a pure heist movie. Cool and in command, we watch Johnny plan, organize, and execute the heist in almost documentary style. Few details are revealed until the job begins. We just see the pieces put into place. There is voice over narration that reads like a police blotter.

Many characters are introduced over the first act. Elisha Cook Jr. is here of course, ex-wrestler Kola Kwariani needed subtitles to be understood, Rodney Dangerfield is visible in a crowd scene, but most bizarre is the performance of Timothy Carey. Carey had a strange career. A method actor, he would improvise to a ridiculous degree. I’m surprised that Kubrick used him twice considering his reputation for control. A little later in his career there were directors who were afraid of him. Here he has a small role, hired to shoot a horse. He smooth-talks a parking lot attendant who starts hanging around. His line delivery is nothing short of confounding.

I struggled with this film for the first act. The storytelling and performances were odd and not very noir-like. There are many moving pieces with little explanation. The cuts from stock footage to the sets were jarring and took me out of the movie. Also the narration was distracting. But as the film progressed and the caper became clear, I became interested.

The influence of this film on directors like Quentin Tarantino is very apparent. The lunch table scene from Reservoir Dogs is taken almost verbatim. The gun hidden in the bathroom is also familiar. Here Sterling Hayden’s character gets it and in The Godfather Sterling Hayden’s character “gets it”.

I must give Kubrick some slack. The film was fairly low budget without much studio support, and the dragnet-esque narration was a studio demand. In the end, it’s a strange, complex, and interesting film, and totally worth watching again. However, maybe because of the more conventional tone, I liked The Killers a smidge better. AMRU 4.

“You'd be killing a horse - that's not first degree murder, in fact it's not murder at all, in fact I don't know what it is.”

Lust for Life (1956)

Young Vincent Van Gogh (Kirk Douglas) washes out as a pastor, is lonely, takes up painting, mooches off his brother, is lonely, cuts off his ear, then kills himself. And everyone lives happily ever after.

This expressive if sanitized version of Van Gogh’s life is visually impressive. Director Vincent Minnelli spray painted a field so that the colors would match Van Gogh’s pallet. The main beats of his life are touched upon but let’s face facts. The life of Van Gogh isn’t all that uplifting. He struggled with mental illness, was never appreciated during his time, was lonely, lived in poverty, and finally committed suicide. Did I mention he was lonely? No matter, the film covers that point. Maybe it says more about modern audiences that the tortured genius needs to have that moment of redemption, ala A Beautiful Mind, but the film ends up reading as “bad stuff happens to guy we care about”.

I’ve seen few Kirk Douglas films, and frequently I’ve confused him for Charlton Heston, but I wanted to give this legend his due. Upon his recent passing I looked for one of his films to watch. I couldn’t easily get my hands on Paths of Glory (for free) but TCM was running Lust for Life. It was a natural choice. The Bad and the Beautiful wasn’t going to happen.

I wanted to love Lust for Life, but couldn't. As mentioned it is a great looking film, and Douglas’ performance was impressive, if a little one-note, but I wasn’t drawn in. The story plodded along at times and characters entered and exited the story before we got to know them. Van Gogh was not a heroic character. We don't see a flawed character overcome his obstacles, and it was too sanitized to be a compelling biopic. AMRU 3.

World Without End (1956)

Four astronauts are on a mission to Mars when they lose contact with Mission Control. They’re fine, it’s just that Martian magnetic field. But on their return trip they enter a time warp and return to Earth over five hundred years in the future, after a great nuclear war.

Boy, the science here is a mess. I don’t want to get into it but I pause when our hero says things like if Mars has grass, then there’s no reason why it can’t also have life. Really, people? And our heroes act absolutely stupid sometimes. They get excited when finding a cave (because, you know, caves!) and explore it. There they find a six foot spider web, so one of the men starts plucking at it. You’d think that’d be something they would cover in astronaut training. Wow, imagine the spider that created that! Don’t imagine too long because soon they are attacked. By spiders ABOUT THE SAME SIZE AS THE WEB!

The H.G. Wells estate sued the producers because they thought the story too closely resembled The Time Machine, and to be fair it has some superficial similarities. Our heroes travel in Time in a Machine to find a post-apocalyptic Earth where the surface is dominated by brutes, or “Mutates”, and there exists a society of timid normals. Here they are hiding in a high tech underground bunker. Oddly, four years later The Time Machine was made into a movie, also starring Rod Taylor.

The men in the underground are weak, unimpressive, middle aged men, while the women are vivacious beauties in their early to mid-20’s who are anxious to get some twentieth century manly-man action. Our heroes try to convince the leaders to go on adventures to retake the surface, but they are just frightfully fearful old men and refuse to help. How can a few womanizing, gun loving manly-men convince an entire population to risk everything to impose their version of right and wrong on them? Only time will tell. 80 minutes, to be precise.

World Without End is shallow, provincial, and low budget, but not without its charm. Their adventures, silly as they can be, do keep your attention. If you overlook the 50’s attitude, you can enjoy yourself. But there are better films of the genre from the era. AMRU 2.5.

“Our women seem to have lagged behind in their evolution into reasonable creatures. They actually admire these reckless and brutal men.”

The Wrong Man (1956)

Broke Musician Manny (Henry Fonda) tries to borrow against his wife’s life insurance policy to pay for her dental work and is mistakenly identified as an armed robber. Other eyewitnesses positively identify him as the assailant and his handwriting matches the notes. His world swirls down the crapper while his hot wife (Vera Miles) goes off the rails.

Manny is an aw shucks nice and honest man. Kind to his mother, patient to his wife and child. We know this because Hitch beats us over the head with it. Repeatedly and to the point that it felt longer than the hour forty five run time. Also, have I pointed out that he was THE WRONG MAN? Oh, we did? Good. Sometimes suspense comes at the expense of subtly.

Not one of Hitchcock’s top films, in fact I judge it pretty low on his list. Maybe lowest if his post war work, be he had done so many it’s hard to say. Not that it is tragically flawed. Not compared to Rope and Strangers on a Train, which were less boring. Fonda’s Manny is two dimensional and uninteresting. Also at 50 he was 24 years older than wife Vera Miles. Creepier still, they had an eight year old boy. Maybe the most interesting part is Miles’ performance in the third act. She played the standard dutiful wife up to that point before the stress really takes its toll.

Only Hitchcock film for Fonda but Vera will also star in Psycho. Least interesting of the post-war Hitchcock (so far), but still manages an AMRU 3.

The Man who Knew Too Much (1956)

A vacationing couple (Stewart and Day) and their son have a chance encounter with a strange french man in Morocco. Soon he is murdered but delivers a critical message to husband Benjamin. The authorities want to know the message, but the baddies have his little boy. So, the befuddled doctor husband and hottie singer-wife run around amateur sleuthing to save the day, and their boy.

Those familiar with Hitch’s 1934 film of the same name pretty much know the story. Bits were added and things were given to the wife to do, but the basic story line is intact. While the original was somewhat unpolished and suffered from poor audio and video quality, this version suffered from pacing issues and too familiar of a story. I think I’d have liked it better had I not seen the original.

Hitch called the first Man the work of a talented amateur, but preferred it over this, the higher budget and more polished version. My issue here however has to do with certain scenes being dragged out way too long. We see the thing, we understand what might happen, we hear the music build, then stare at my watch. Building suspense, Hitch would say. Just get on with it! I would.

What worked was Doris Day, who is utterly charming in every scene. Her signature song Que Sera, Sera came from here, which Day initially wasn’t very fond of. What didn’t work was Stewart, who is very Jekyll and Hyde with me. Love him in some movies, not so much in others. This one not so much. It's not that he's a poor actor, it's just that he can be so one-note. In so many films he plays exactly the same character in different circumstances, and I don't find it charming.

The Man Who Knew Too Much is a serviceable film, but brought little original to the table. Much more watchable than the 1934 version, but simply not that interesting. Especially compared to the other films Hitch was making at the time. AMRU 3.

“If you ever get hungry, our garden back home is full of snails. We tried everything to get rid of them. We never thought of a Frenchman!”

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

A flying saucer buzzes a scientist and his hot young wife on the way to work, and delivers a critical message. That message was that space aliens want to take over the Earth, but are tired of the whole "lay waste to society" business, so wouldn't it be much better if you give up before we start? Tragically, Dr. Marvin (Hugh Marlowe) doesn't understand the message.

Well, Dr. Marvin's day job involves sending up rockets all day long even though some mysterious force keeps shooting them down. He should ask the saucer people if they've seen anything suspicious.

Meanwhile, back at the top secret military base, a saucer lands thinking it was expected. The soldiers do the predictable and shoot at the space men, which angers our benevolent overlords. They proceed to destroy the base. Except for Dr. Marvin and his hot wife (Joan Taylor), who for some reason are deep underground. They are flown to Washington DC to explain their silly Flying Saucer theory. I guess no videotape survived.

Earth resists, saucers appear invulnerable, secret weapon developed, climax, conclusion, roll credits. 100% pure 50's Sci-Fi fun! But lets discuss the man of the week: Ray Harryhausen.

I watched EvtFS two days before I learned of his death, so when NPR said "Today we remember a pioneer in stop motion animation" I didn't think to myself "I wonder who that could be?" All of the extras on the DVD except maybe the one about the blacklisted and uncredited screenwriter gave extensive praise to Ray. Not only were the saucers his work, but when they would destroy the library of congress or the Washington monument, he was there too. Apparently he was cheaper than a four foot model and a small explosive charge.

Harryhausen apparently called this the least favorite of his films, and I am guessing he was referring to the buildings. Stop motion works for alien creatures and space ships, but the capitol dome blowing up looked more than a little cheesy. Only a guess. I'll see if my library has his book.

A quick word about the leads: Marlowe was the douche-bag boyfriend five years prior in The Day the Earth Stood Still, but now he gets to be the Hero-Scientist. Hottie Taylor also starred in my next Harryhausen movie: 20 Million Miles to Earth. I presume she'll be just as hot. Well written, well acted, excellent pacing, this is a winner in the genre. And when compared to the extremely similar Invisible Invaders made three years later, the latter is revealed as even more of a stinker. AMRU 4.

I'm going with two quotes. One from the movie, one from our pinko-commie screenwriter. See if you can't figure out which is which.

"When an armed and threatening power lands uninvited in our capitol, we don't meet him with tea and cookies!"

"The action by the guild [restoring some of his writing credits] comes about 40 years too late to help my Hollywood career. I sure am angry at the way I was treated by all the major studios. They blacklisted me, and I couldn't get any work in this damn town."

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is a crazy man with a crazy story. They send in psychiatrists to check him out. Seems he is a small town doctor who discovered that some townsfolk started to believe their loved ones are not who they seem.

Seems that there are these pods showing up, and after a while, human-like creatures emerge from them with indistinct features. Slowly over time, they take on someones likeness and take their place.

I knew the story. I saw the remake when I was young. It's had the lowest of low tech special effects, but still, I was on the edge of my seat. It came as a very pleasant surprise.

McCarthy not only lived to appear in the remake 22 years later, but continued to work, even appearing a movie that came out this year. All despite dying about a year and a half ago (96 years old). I saw him recently in Matinee, a movie I had to see before Netflix took it away from me. He played a character in the movie that John Goodman's character was promoting.

His hottie girlfriend was played by Dana Wynter. Interestingly, the good doctor's grade school girlfriend was sixteen years younger than him. She passed on about a year ago. Oh, yea. And her character was married.

As much as I really enjoyed the Body Snatchers, there was one plot hole that bothered me. So, giving proper respect, SPOILER ALERT - SPOILER ALERT - SPOILER ALERT:

Pods are creating human replicas. We never find out what happens to the original person, which is fine. However, later in the movie hottie girlfriend is "transformed" when she falls asleep for just a moment. There are no replicants around to replace her and she tries to convince Miles not to be afraid. Why the second method of replacing people?

Anyhow, this classic was a pleasant surprise. Drama, good acting, excellent pacing, creepy story. It has earned it's place in the realm of great sci-fi. AMRU 4.

"They're here already! You're next! You're next, You're next...!"

The Red Balloon (1956)

It's an old story. Boy meets Balloon. Boy loses Balloon. Gang attacks Balloon and pops it's cherry-redness. Boy drowns his sorrows in the company of many anonymous balloons. We've heard it a thousand times before.

In a book I am reading (overdue) on film appreciation, it mentions that most American's have been introduced to french cinema with this movie when it was played in schools. Vaguely, I remember watching a film having something to do with balloons that had very little dialogue. I wondered what nostalgic memories it would evoke.

So, the story is thus (ignore that crap I wrote earlier): A boy walking to school finds an unusual red balloon. He can't bring it into school so he tells it to wait for him, and it does. The balloon becomes his friend and follows him where he goes. They have some adventures, but the balloon is threatened by a gang of kids.

What's really interesting about this is the control the director seemed to have over the balloon. Clearly it was rigged, and in one place you can see how, but mostly the effect was excellent. Also, the cinematography was stellar. The city (Paris, I'm guessing) was showcased expertly. Interestingly, it won the Academy Award for best original screenplay even though the entire script could fit on a post-it note.

Winning that, and the Cannes award for short subjects, didn't seem to totally launch career of the young Albert Lamorisse. He did a couple more shots, one feature film, then died in a helicopter crash in Iran. Eight years later, the film he was making was released. His legacy as a filmmaker may be overshadowed by another accomplishment: he invented the board game Risk.

The Red Balloon is charming, visually interesting, and brief (34 minutes). Had I seen it as a child I may be giving it a higher score, but apparently I didn't. AMRU 3.5.

The Black Sleep (1956)

Doctor Ramsey (Herbert Rudley) is condemned to die for a murder he did not commit. He is visited by his old medical school professor, Sir Cadman (Basil Rathbone), who gives him a drug to make the final execution painless. Painless, indeed!

Ramsey dies of an apparent heart attack and the body is delivered to Cadman, who gives him an antidote to wake the dead doctor up. Odd way to recruit assistants, but who am I to judge?

Well, the good Doctor Cadman brings the good doctor Ramsey to his eerie castle to perform horrible brain experiments on anonymous "volunteers". Things are going well until the troublesome hottie Laurie (Patricia Blair) interferes. It seems the evil Mungo (Lon Cheney Jr.) who is always trying to kill her, is her father. He got that way after Cadman experimented with his brain. Spoil sport.

Not a bad movie, on the whole. Low budget and not terribly original, but worth the time spent watching it. This was Bela Lugosi's last film (Plan 9 does not count) and he looked mostly dead as the mute butler. John Carradine had a small but memorable role and Creighton was serviceable as the mute brute. What Tor Johnson was doing in the film, I have no idea. I don't think he had more that 30 seconds of screen time. I guess they wanted to get as many famous horror names in as possible. Karloff had more sense, but what was Basil's excuse?

Akim Tamiroff had a memorable role as a gypsy who retrieves the volunteers for Rathbone's experiments. The role was offered to Peter Lorre, but he asked for too much money. I can totally see him in the role, but Tamiroff was diabolically excellent. I'll keep an eye out for more of his work.

All in all, vaguely creepy, nice atmosphere, and nice to see all the familiar faces. Totally unoriginal and lacking a little punch, but better than some I've given a 3.0 to.

"Mungo only pawn in game of life."

No, wait. that was a different movie.

The Mole People (1956)

The next film is called The Mole People, but it's not really about them. It's about some archaeologists doing field research in the remote village of "Asia". When they learn of ancient artifacts found high up on a mountain plateau, they climb to the top and find the ruins of a long lost Sumerian civilization.

When one in their group falls into a deep hole, they repel down to take a look. After a predictable cave in, they find themselves trapped and at the mercy of ... ancient Sumerians. There are mole people, but they play a much smaller role than what the title would imply. They are simple mushroom farmers fully content with their lot in life. Fully.

The ancient Sumerians mistake the archaeologists for prophets of Ishtar because they harness the secret power of the "flashlight". They would have been heralded as gods had they also known the power of the "cigarette lighter".

So, our fearless heroes remain a house guests of the ancients while spending time searching for an exit and pondering what to do with this hot slave girl they gave him. I had a few hints. Alfred the Butler becomes suspicious and plots to steal flashy.

A few things struck me about this movie. First, the dramatic underground fight scenes would have been much more dramatic if I could actually see them. I don't think the blame lies with my copy. The overall quality was very good. Another was that the movie would have benefited from a slightly faster pace.

On the plus side, it was cool to see Hugh Beaumont as one of the archaeologists. He would later star in The Curse of the Beaver Child (1957). Also interesting is that two actors from Tarantula return. John Agar is once again our star, and Nestor Paiva is his sidekick. Now, I'm no technical climbing expert, but the technique displayed did look about right. And while all B movies that deal with science or history get beaten up for all of the stuff they get wrong, I felt Mole People failed less than I expected. Say what you will about low expectations, but I was quite impressed.

It held my interest and I'm glad I watched it. Well acted, well written, and excepting the sometimes painfully slow pace, well made. One additional thing to quibble about: the final scene was absolutely stupid. AMRU 3.

Indestructible Man (1956)

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane. No, it's Indestructible Man!

Enough quality entertainment, time to revert to garbage! Indestructible is something of a retelling of Frankenstein as a 50's detective story. Lon Chaney Jr. is Butcher Benton, one bad dude. He gets the electric chair for his crimes but his cohorts, who turned states evidence against him, get off scot free. Here's the twist: only Benton knows where the 60 Gs are located. Butch takes that information to the grave. Well, almost.

Insert mad scientist. Well, not actually mad. He wants to do cancer research and needs the body of the recently dead, so he steals one. Butch will do. Funny thing, though. His experiments did two things. It brought butch back from the dead, and it transformed him into Indestructible Man!

Butch can no longer talk because the experiments burned out his vocal cords. That's just fine. Monsters can't talk anyhow. His anger and hatred is expressed by poorly edited closeups of his ugly face. So Butch goes about his business of finding and killing his lawyer and accomplices, plus anybody handy. Into the mix are Butch's girlfriend who works at a burlesque house, and detective Dick, hot on his trail.

More like hot on her tail. Detective Dick is clueless to what is going on and how to proceed. But he does know this hot blond should be ready to move on any moment, now.

Indestructible Man looks like a made for TV movie. TV level acting, script, and overall production. A scene would start and the actors appeared to be waiting for the cameras. Nothing too bad but nothing to distinguish it.

This was a Lon Chaney Jr. vehicle. For those who don't know, that's Creighton Chaney, the bastard son of one of the greatest silent film stars. After Lon's death (age 47, lung cancer - cigarettes are harmless, boys and girls!) he changed his name to Lon Jr to boost his career. They looked nothing alike. Jr was five inches taller than dead 'oll dad. Eventually Creighton dropped the Jr altogether hoping people would confuse him with pop.

Come the middle 1950's, Junior's career was winding down. The big man liked the bottle. He would do a lot of television and low budget crap. This is my first Lon Jr. movie, so I will hold off disparaging his career until I've seen more of it. Can't wait.

This movie had no major flaws. It simply was uninspired and unoriginal. It was narrated by Detective Dick doing a Jack Webb impersonation. I'm glad I saw a Lon Jr. movie. I'm not glad it was this one. AMRU 2.5. Watch it here.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)

Back in the day I would come home from school and turn on channel 56 (WLVI Boston) to watch Creature Double Feature. This is where I got my love of old B horror movies. There is where I learned to love Godzilla. This is the film that started it all, in America, at least.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! is an edited version of the 1954 film Gojira. Ok, go ahead. I know you want to. Take a moment and point at the crown molding and say "Gojira" in an accelerated, fake Japanese accent. I'll wait.

Are we done? Good. So, we're all familiar with the giant, long-armed, fire breathing tyrannosaurus with a penchant for noshing on Tokyo. For it's American release, they edited out the parts blaming us for the monster (that's right, it's all our fault) and inserts an American as a witness/narrator.

Raymond Burr is Steve Martin, a decidedly unwild and non-crazy newspaper reporter who just happens to be in Tokyo. Despite not speaking the language and having no official status, he leads Japanese officials around to witness first hand each plot point. There he watches with detached concern as toy trains and cardboard buildings are chomped, squashed, and set ablaze.

The Japanese characters are a white-hair scientist, his hot daughter, his enigmatic, one-eyed assistant who is engaged to the hot daughter by arrangement, and another guy who the hot daughter actually loves. Their story may have been interesting, but it was radically watered down for the American release. US audiences apparently would rather see Burr relight his pipe and look on with vague disinterest than watch a love-triangle sub plot.

It wasn't hard to determine which scenes came from Japan and which were added later. The Japanese film was rather thin with poor contrast and noticeably more scratches. The American parts had much sharper detail. Using the visual clues, you can see where when Burr/Martin talks to a major character it's with their back to the camera. When they do face the camera, Burr is not in view.

IMDb tells me that Burr's scenes were shot in a 24 marathon session because he could only work on the film for one day, per some contract. No, that doesn't make sense to me either. Also, the beast was supposed to be 400 feet tall. I suppose that means the high tension wires in Tokyo are about 400 feet high. I understand Gojira was much shorter in the Japanese version.

I won't be watching this film again, but I would consider the Japanese version. It was clear that a lot more was going on with the Japanese characters than we were led to know. I had the boys watch, but they weren't very interested when the monster wasn't on screen. And it wasn't on screen much. The movie makers were masters of not showing the action. Many times we saw lengthy reaction shots before we saw what they were looking at. Man, that was annoying. AMRU 3.

The Searchers (1956)

Rated the best western by AFI's 10 Top 10 list. I chose this movie based entirely on that fact. I'm not a fan of westerns, but I keep seeing pieces of Clint Eastwood movies and my interest was piqued.

John Wayne returns from the civil war, three years late. The indians lead a diversion to bring our hero away from the homestead, then attack Wayne's brother and his family. Wayne's (Ethan, actually) family is slaughtered, except for his two nieces (a young Natalie Wood playing one), who are captured. Ethan becomes obsessed with rescuing them.

The scenery is great. The plot is surprisingly complex. Ethan's motivation is a mystery at first. There are details that only the most careful viewer will pick up on. I watched this with my 12 year old son. He had the same reaction I had. Interesting, but this is the best western? Ever? Wayne, while being the "hero", isn't really a hero character. Some of the acting was fairly poor (I'm looking at you, Jeffrey Hunter!)

Still, it was worth watching. 3 AMRUs.