PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Reign Of Terror 1949

Reign Of Terror 1949  Story and screenplay by Philip Yordan and Æneas MacKenzie, directed by Anthony Mann. The film's working title was The Black Book but changed before release, later that same year the title was changed back to The Black Book. I first saw it under TBB on an old Alpha Video DVD a few years ago. This VCI DVD looks much better than that.

The movie was the work of cinematographer John Alton, he also shot the other movie on the Classic Noir Volume 3 disc, The Amazing Mr X. I've seen several of his films, most of them in the noir genre, He Walked By Night, Lady And The Monster, I, The Jury, Bury Me Dead and The Big Combo. John won an Oscar for the ballet scene in An American In Paris. Reign Of Terror was a really low budget film and mostly shot with lights on the floor. That produces a lot of shadows to play with and it's quicker to set up than over head lighting. John has a reputation of being able to quickly light a set and that speeds up production.

It's 1794 France and Robert Cummings plays Charles D'Aubigny, Richard Basehart plays Maximillen Robespierre and Arlene Dahl plays Madelon. It's the last days of Robespierre and his Reign of Terror. Charles kills and impersonates prosecutor Duval who's been summoned to Paris by Robespierre to recover his Black Book. It's got the names of those Robespierre wants to denounce and have executed. It's not something he wants to be made public.

There's plenty of intrigue and double crossing going on. There's plenty of punching and sword fighting, horse riding and yelling. Madelon helps the fake Duval escape and there's a bit of romance going on too.

It's an entertaining film that looks great despite the lack of a budget. Production designer William Cameron Menzies does a great job on the sets, many of which are simple one and two wall designs. They were also able to use some sets left over from the 1948 film Joan Of Arc. The DVD has an interesting and informative commentary by Alan Rode with clips from his interview with Arlene Dahl.

Noose 1948

Noose 1948 Based on a play by Richard Llewellyn, he also wrote the screenplay, directed by Edmond T Gréville. A British film that was called The Silk Noose in the US.

 

That's Derek Farr and Carole Landis in the photo. Derek is Captain Jumbo Hyde, he's back in London after the war. Carole is his ex-fiance and she's called Linda Medbury, she's an American reporter. The guy with the droopy mustache in the poster is Joseph Calleia, he's a baddie called Sugiani. He runs some rackets and nightclub. Linda sets her sights on him and his organization. She gets too close for comfort and Sugiani pushes back. The local police are pretty corrupt so Jumbo rallies the guys at his gym and they keep an eye on Linda. They also smash up some of Sugiani's rackets and battle his henchmen.

The characters are interesting and I liked the story well enough. There's a bit of humor and plenty of rough housing. I liked the vigilantes from the gym and I enjoyed the movie. I'd watch it again. There's a copy or two on YouTube, link in the title above.

Burma Convoy 1941

Burma Convoy 1941 Original story and screenplay by Stanley Rubin and Roy Chanslor, directed by Noel M Smith.

A trucking story set on the dangerous Burma Road during the war. Charles Bickford plays the head truck driver. He's got to move the goods while dealing with spies and enemy attacks. There's a few punch up, some gun fights, an airplane attack and plenty of truck driving. Evelyn Ankers plays the romantic interest and she's joined by Frank Albertson, Cecil Kellaway, Willie Fung, Keye Luke, Turhan Bey and Truman Bradley.

Not overly interesting but watchable enough to get to the end. You can see it on YouTube, link in the usual place.

Convoy 1940

Convoy 1940 Written by Patrick Kirwan and Pen Tennyson, directed by Pen Tennyson. Pat was the great-grandson of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Sadly Pat died in 1941, he was killed in an airplane crash while he was serving in the Royal Navy. Another selection from The British Film library from Network.

A mix of romantic melodrama and WWII naval activities. Clive Brook is the commander of a Royal Navy cruiser that's been assigned to meet a convoy in the North Sea and escort it to Britain. They run into a spot of bother from Jerry's battleships. One of the ships in the convoy had fallen behind and it's captured by the Germans.

On board the lagging ship is Clive's ex-wife, the German's use her as bait, they send a fake message about the ship sinking to try to lure English ships into an attack. It almost works when the former lover tries the divert the ship he's on to help. Clive bungs him in the brig for that. Later the guy dies being a hero. Lucky for Clive's ex a British battleship shows up and turns the German sub into an oily smudge.

I thought it was quite decent despite the romantic angle. It's a good look at the life of the men who protected the ships during the war. Lots of them were lost at sea. Some of the Navy footage was shot under real war time conditions. Good cast and nice production values. Glad I've seen it, might not get back to this one so soon.

Jungle Man 1941

Jungle Man 1941 Story and screenplay by Rita Douglas, directed by Harry L Fraser.

Buster Crabbe is awash with stock footage in this less than adequate adventure film. Sadly, a lot of the stock footage is so poor it's hard to see what going on. He's a doctor-scientist who's developed a serum to defeat the local fever. The serum is on a ship coming from the US, the ship has been suck by a German sub, the locals are in jeopardy. Lucky for them Buster is a great swimmer and the sunken ship isn't that far down anyway. They pad out the story with visits from outsiders and trouble makers. Footage of Angkor Wat stands in for the City of the Dead, it's where the outsiders are headed. It's below average but I speeded it up a bit and it only took about 45 minutes, instead of an hour. You can see it on YouTube in the link above.

The Gorilla Man 1943

The Gorilla Man 1943 Screenplay by Anthony Coldeway, direction by D Ross Lederman. Anthony has a 153 credits on his IMDb page, he started in 1911 and the last one listed is in 1957. A couple of titles from the sound era are familiar. D Ross started a bit later, 1925, and he still has a respectable 150 plus credits on the IMDb. He directed features pretty much from the get go through 1950, the last 7 years of his career were in TV. I know I've seen Tarzan's Revenge, Adventure In Sahara, a couple of Lone Wolf movies and a Boston Blackie, and The Return Of The Whistler.

The guy in the middle is John Loder and he's Captain Killian, the man the newspapers have dubbed the Gorilla Man for his climbing ability. The other two are Paul Cavanagh as Dr Dorn and John Abbott as Dr Ferris. The two doctors are Nazi spies, they hear of the daring raid that Killian lead on a German instillation in France. Killian was hurt in a grenade blast during the raid and he's being brought to the UK in a ship that lands near where Dorn has a clinic overlooking the sea. Ferris is a wanted murderer and he likes to experiment on people, experiments that kill them if they're lucky.

Dorn arranges to have Killian taken to his sanitarium by having Ferris be on hand when the small rowboat carrying Killian lands on the beach near the sanitarium. Handy, huh. No matter, the doc's trick everyone into believing that Killian is a bit out of his mind to discredit the info Killian has on a German raid planned a couple of weeks later.

Killian is on to their tricks so the Nazi scum raise the stakes and have Killian framed for the murder of the wife of one of his men. He had been to the apartment to see her that evening, he delivered a letter to her from her dead hubby. The letter, Ferris lying about not seeing Killian leave the building and an open 2nd floor window are evidence the police detective can understand. Killian is arrested and charged but he escapes and the man hunt is on.

It's a nice tight little spy thriller, there's only 64 mins and they move along at a nice clip. There's more murders and plenty of running about. There's a bit of goofy romance near the end but nothing I can do about that. I enjoyed it and would watch it over again. Lucky for me, I bought the Warner Archives DVDr. I couldn't find the movie on YouTube, there's a bit of clip in the link above.

Best Of British Classics Double Feature Vol 1

   

Tomorrow We Live 1943 Released in the US as At Dawn We Die, which I find sounds hopeless, that's the opposite of what the movie is about. It's WW2 and the German's have occupied France, John Clements is a Frenchman who has some intel on the German's U-Boat base to give to the British. The resistance operates in the town and they set up an escape to England.

The Nazis are harsh masters, fining the village for violations, abusing and killing the citizens for minor infractions. It gets worse once the SS get there. There's a whole subplot devoted to collaborators. The things people had to do to stay alive, didn't always pan out. A lot of people died.

Not a happy story but a hopeful one. Dorothy Hope wrote the original story, Anatole de Grunwald wrote the screenplay and George King directed. A good solid film that has interesting characters and a nice bit of danger. You can see it on YouTube. I've linked to it in the title above.

Inquest 1939 Elizabeth Allan is accused of murder and Hay Petrie plays the KC that defends her at the inquest. It's a nice complicated story that's based on a play by Michael Barringer, he adapted his own play with Francis Miller, the director is Roy Boulting. There's a good bit of humor, despite the hangman looking over Elizabeth's shoulder. Hay works to find out what happened and comes through a champion. Well worth seeing.

Friday Night Movies 789

The First Of The Few is a 1942 British film that was called Spitfire in the US. I couldn't find any good poster images for the British title, I had to settle for the one on the left. The original story is by Henry C James and Katherine Strueby, the screenplay is by Miles Malleson and Anatole de Grunwald, the director is Leslie Howard. It was Leslie's last role as an actor, he died the following year, the plane he was in was shot down by the German Luftwaffe.

Leslie is RJ Mitchell, the man who designed the Spitfire fighter plane. He'd been designing planes since the early 20s and they won a lot of speed records. He was first guy to use one wing instead of the two that were popular at the time. The company he worked at didn't agree and he left them. They hired him back later and then they were bought out by a bigger company who wanted Mitchell as their head designer. The head of that company knew that the future needed men like Mitchell.

David Niven plays RJ's test pilot and Rosamund John plays RJ's wife. The trio visit Germany just after Hitler has taken control, the pro-war rhetoric convinces RJ he must build a war plane that's better than anything. He works too hard, gets sick and dies. It's all melodramatic in the movie, it's like he worked himself to death for the sake of the country.

In real life RJ got cancer in 1934, he slowed down some and totally stopped working in 1936, he died the following year. They don't even mention cancer in the film. Still, good work out of Leslie, David and the rest of the cast. I liked most of the film, a little too much melodrama mixed in with scientist working to solve a problem, but I was still glad to see it. I'd prefer a film like The Dam Busters to this.

Berlin Express is a 1948 American film that was partially shot in the ruins of Frankfort and Berlin in 1948. Curt Siodmak wrote the story, Harold Medford wrote the screenplay and Jacques Tourneur directed.

Robert Ryan is an American agricultural expert, Paul Lukas is a German peace activist Dr Bernhardt, Merle Oberon is a French woman who's Bernhardt's secretary, Charles Korvin is a Frenchman, Robert Coote is a British teacher and Roman Toporow is a Russian officer. They all meet on a train from Frankfort to Berlin. Bernhardt is blown up on the train but we find out it's really an agent who was killed, Bernhardt is in disguise. Bernhardt is only safe for a few minutes, he's kidnapped by the Nazi underground after the train arrives in Berlin.

Merle convinces Robert, Charles, Robert and Roman to help her find Bernhardt. They set out to find the guy. We know he's being held by a fanatical brew-master who wants the Reich to rise again. The investigation takes them around the city, there's an incredible amount of rubble and destruction, yet people continue on. A good few of them are still looking backward to the glorious Nazi past that's slipped out of their fingers. You can't be sure who to trust.

It's a bit pseudo-documentary style with a narrator filling us in on what we are seeing. The cast is great, the script is great, the rubble is great. Happy to add this to the small pile of Jacques Tourneur films I would want to watch again.

The Flying Squad 1940

The 1940 film The Flying Squad is the third adaptation of the Edgar Wallace novel, there were films in 1929 and 1932. The British Film series has a fair number of Edgar Wallace films in their collection. The screenplay was written by Doreen Montgomery and the director is Herbert Brenon.

Doreen Montgomery wrote a good number of films, sadly I'm not familiar with them, on the other hand, I'm sort of familiar with some of her TV work. She wrote scripts for Hawkeye And The Last Of The Mohicans, William Tell, HG Wells' The Invisible Man, Danger Man, Sir Frances Drake and The Avengers. I hope to run into more of her films.

This was the last film for Herbert Brenon, he mostly directed silent films, over 50 shorts and over 50 features. The Wikipedia tells me that he directed the first adaptations of Peter Pan and Beau Geste. He directed Sorrell And Son and got an Oscar nomination at the first Oscars. Of his 120 plus films all I've seen is the 1928 Lon Chaney film Laugh, Clown, Laugh. Good film but not something I'm likely to get back to any time soon.

Sebastian Shaw is Inspector Bradley, Jack Hawkins is Mark McGill, Phyllis Brooks is Ann Perryman. Those are the main three characters. Mark runs smuggling ring and he killed Ann's brother. The brother had been in the ring but he's been having second thoughts and wanted to leave. Mark killed him and tossed him in the river. Mark also killed an old man who saw him killing the brother.

The Inspector want to catch the crooks but he's having a hard time getting any solid evidence. Ann comes to town and Mark convinces her that her brother was killed by the police. She quickly joins the gang for her own mad reasons. She's not a clever girl, easily swayed by a scumbag. On her first run she has a car accident, the Inspector helps her out without telling her he's on her case, he lets her go to see who she contacts.

It's a fair decent story, the film is only 59 minutes, sometimes it seems like it's missing scenes. It does move along nice and briskly, I like that. It's got a nice sense of humor too. My favorite scene is one where the Inspector introduces Mark to a man at the courthouse, he tells Mark he'll be meeting the man again sometime. The other detective tells Mark that he'll be meeting him "professionally." Marks asks if the man is a policeman and the Inspector says "No, he's the public hangman." Made me laugh out loud. What a guy, that Inspector. Glad to have seen it, I'll watch it again someday, I'll bet I laugh when the hangman shows up.

Night Boat To Dublin 1946

I picked up a copy of Night Boat To Dublin just because it's got Robert Newton in it and he's not playing a pirate. I haven't seen many of the movies he made when he wasn't playing Long John Silver. He's in the 1939 Hitchcock film Jamaica Inn. Robert's career started in 1924 and ended in 1956 when he passed away at age 50. He's in 41 movies and only 2 were Long John films. He died just after making the TV series The Adventures Of Long John Silver. I used to watch that series when I was a kid and grew to love the rascally Long John.

Night Boat To Dublin came out in 1946 and the screenplay was written by Lawrence Huntington and Robert Hall with Lawrence directing. Lawrence directed over 30 films but I think I've only seen one other. It's hard to find these older British films over here. The DVD of Night Boat To Dublin is from the UK. There's no edition out in the US.

Robert plays Captain David Grant, he's a spy who's on the trail of a traitor. The villain has kidnapped a Swedish atomic scientist. The fellow on the right is Captain Toby Hunter who's being played by Guy Middleton. They've got a lead on the villain called Faber and Captain Grant has a plan to infiltrate Faber's organization. He gets a clerk job in Faber's law office. Faber gets tricked into believing Grant is a AWOL soldier who stole some plans and he takes him on to help in his criminal activity. His first job for Grant is marry a young German woman. That's her below, holding Robert's hand. Don't worry, he'll be A-OK.

It all goes well until Faber's henchman fumbles onto Grant's deception. It's touch and go there for a while. I liked the script, the characters and the general production. I was glad to have picked it up. I'll want to watch it again.