The Cyclops (1957)

A young woman (Gloria Talbott) hires a crew to sneak her into the mountainous forbidden zone in Mexico to search for her fiance who crashed there several years ago. Soon we learn that each crew member has their own reasons for going on the trip.

Writer/Director/Producer Bert I. Gordon made a bunch of films in the second half of the 1950s usually depicting creatures of unusual size. Here our heroes discover huge creatures and later a giant deformed man. I wonder …

Lon Chaney Jr. was squarely in the “take any job” segment of his career. Five years earlier he impressed in a small role in High Noon (1952) but would never repeat that success. Pretty Gloria Talbott had a long career in low budget genre pictures, starting when she was just four years old. Years ago I saw her interviewed for the underwhelming 100 Years of Horror (1996) and it was clear time was not good to her. She passed a couple years later at the age of 69.

Considering the humble budget, the effects for Cyclops aren’t that bad. Occasionally the monster would be transparent, but otherwise effective. Mr. BIG would again explore the giant man trope later the same year with The Amazing Colossal Man, which got a sequel the following. Oddly, the only cast member in common between the three films is Duncan 'Dean' Parkin, who played today’s Cyclops and Colonel Manning from the Colossal Man sequel.

The Cyclops almost feels like a proof of concept for Gordon’s later Giant movies. It’s the shortest of the three and while not without good story elements, the conclusion feels a little rushed. But it holds your interest and doesn’t overstay its welcome. AMRU 3.

Spellbound (1945)

The surprisingly young psychologist (Gregory Peck) arrives to be the new director of a sanitarium, but his troubling behavior leads to suspicion that he is not who he says he is. Will love bloom?

Ingrid Bergman plays the psychologist with the heart of gold and Leo G. Carroll is the kindly outgoing Dr. Murchison. Also here is old friend Norman Lloyd as an inmate and Wallace Ford (Freaks) as a creep in a hotel lobby. There are a few interesting background characters that could have had more screen time, something screenwriter Ben Hecht was adept at creating.

The psychobabble, and there is a lot of it, doesn’t distract much from the story. Peck’s Ballantyne is in serious trouble and on the run, and Bergman’s Dr. Petersen believes in him despite having no reason to. Grant’s understated performance, while disappointing Hitch, was eerily appropriate for the amnesiac.

Spellbound takes some unexpected turns and features a pretty trippy dream sequence. This is classic Hitchcock. Maybe not a top five Hitch, but definitely top ten. AMRU 4.

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

Retiring Captain Brittles (John Wayne) goes on one last patrol, this time to evacuate the women-folk. Oh, and one of them wears a yellow ribbon. It’s unimportant.

The ribbon signifies that the woman (Joanne Dru) is officially going steady. Between two young officers, she chooses the rich pretty-boy over the one with a promising military career ahead of him. I struggled to follow this sub plot and I needn't. It was very uninteresting.

A young John Agar appears as Brittles right hand. He was married to Shirley Temple at this time. Also here is Harry Carey Jr, not to be confused with Harry Caray. And also is Ben Johnson whom we recently saw in Shane.

The 41 year old Wayne was surprisingly believable as the 60 year old captain, impressing long time collaborator John Ford, who said he "didn't know the big son of a bitch could act!" I haven’t seen too many of Wayne from his young and fit years and he didn’t much resemble himself from his El Dorado years, which is a good thing.

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon has a few strange elements, like Wayne getting a man thrown in the brig for some reason. Also, there is the element of Wayne trying to avoid hostilities with the natives rather than the more familiar narrative. Pointless love triangle aside, the major theme explores a man dealing with his obsolescence. Who is he if not the gruff captain the others look to for leadership. This is a theme I can relate to. AMRU 3.5.

Scarlet Street (1945)

Humdrum bank employee Chris (Edward G. Robinson) comes to the aid of a woman (Joan Bennett), and they strike up a friendship. Under the mistaken belief that he is a famous and fabulously wealthy artist, she and her abusive boyfriend (Dan Duryea) plot to scam him.

On today’s internet this would be called a romance scam, but back then the scammer was required to interact with the victim in real time. Oh, and actually be a pretty woman. Fritz Lang directed the 1944 noir The Woman in the Window also staring Robinson, Bennett, and Duryea, and featured a very similar plot (“A reserved professor meets a model and gets mixed up in murder.”)

I thought I had seen Joan Bennett before (outside of Suspiria, that is) but it was her sister Constance that appeared in What Price Hollywood? and Topper. There was also a sister Barbara who appeared in only five films and lived a troubled life. I shan’t go into detail.

Dan Duryea seems to always play the same character. A joyously hateful scoundrel. Here is no different. Robinson plays the hapless victim to perfection, led down the path like a lamb to the slaughter. But Robinson was capable of adding depth and complexity to the otherwise two-dimensional role. A subtle glance can express wonders.

The Big Heat is the standard bearer of later career Lang but Scarlet Street is a close second. Nothing compares to Lang's early work, but these latter films can be quite surprising. It's a solid story and Robinson's performance is fantastic. AMRU 4.

The Producers (1967)

Broadway has-been (Zero Mostel) realizes that if he sells more than 100% of the shares in a musical, and it fails catastrophically, investors won’t be looking for their money, and he can keep everything. So, he gets the wrong play, and hires the wrong director and actors. What could possibly go right?

The Producers features many exceptional, over the top comedic performances. Specifically Kenneth Mars as the Nazi playwright (I outrank you!), Dick Shawn as the on-stage Hitler, and of course Gene Wilder and Zero. But don’t forget about the secondary characters from the elderly, love-struck investors to the go-go dancing secretary.

The movie rose from relative obscurity when it was adapted into an actual Broadway musical then remade as a film. This is how Mel managed to earn an EGOT, which is pretty good for a man who can’t read music. I have not seen the latter film.

The movie’s many hilarious scenes are facilitated by the brilliant, almost plausible premise. The very broad, and very dated humor may be off putting for some, but for me The Producers is a delightful romp. Mel Brooks is a national treasure and I loved every minute of this film. AMRU 4.5.

“Hitler, there was a painter. He could paint an entire apartment in one afternoon! Two coats!”

The Woman in White (1948)

A painter (Gig Young) is hired to give art lessons to a young woman (Eleanor Parker). On his way to their country estate he meets a mysterious woman in white. He soon learns that this family has many secrets.

John Abbott plays Frederick Fairlie, the Roderick Usher-adjacent head of the household, but it’s Count Bosco (Sidney Greenstreet) that runs things. Anita Sharp-Bolster appears as, I suppose, a housekeeper. I’ve seen her in quite a few films but I don’t ever remember her.

Gig Young stole his screen name from his character in The Gay Sisters. He seems familiar to me, particularly his IMDb photo. I saw him in the forgettable Desk Set, but I feel I recognize him in his later days, but I am wholly unfamiliar with the last decade of his career. Maybe he resembles John Forsyth, who, because of his drinking, replaced him in Charlie’s Angels. In fact he had to be replaced as The Waco Kid in Blazing Saddles because his DTs were so bad. Three weeks after marrying his fifth wife, thirty three years his junior, he killed her then himself.

Based on Wilkie Collins’ book of the same name, it has been remade for film and television many times. His later book The Moonstone is considered the first modern detective/mystery novel. That story too has been adapted several times.

The Woman in White falls in the drama/mystery genre, but dips its toe into romance and supernatural themes. As hinted it does have Fall of the House of Usher vibes, but it stands on its own as a fine Victorian mystery. Perhaps not super memorable, but worth watching. AMRU 3.

The Queen of Spades (1949)

Herman (Anton Walbrook), a 19th century Russian army captain, has ambitions of greatness. He discovers that an elderly countess had sold her soul to learn the secret to win at card games, so he plots to learn her secret.

Recommended by a youtube channel, I found it streaming and gave it a watch. He liked it better than me. Walbrook’s performance was great, but the slow burn made it something of an endurance test.

Pretty Yvonne Mitchell plays a would-be love interest. She had a fairly successful career in film. Married to film critic Derek Monsey, they would divorce, then remarry in 1978 only for him to die the following year. One month later, Yvonne herself would die of cancer. And so it goes. The elderly countess would outlive both her and Walbrook.

A bit slow as I mentioned, but The Queen of Spades has great atmosphere and cinematography, excellent performances, features some unique storytelling, and they totally stick the landing. It’s not for everyone, and I don’t think I would rush to rewatch it, but I am glad I saw it. AMRU 3.5.