PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Shed No Tears 1948

Shed No Tears 1948 Based on Shed No Tears by Don Martin, screenplay by Brown Holmes and Virginia M Cooke, directed by Jean Yarbrough.

Wallace Ford's wife convinces him to fake his death so she can collect $50,000. He goes along with it, not knowing that she's got a lover on the side, a lover she plans to run off with, leaving Wallace cashless.

Wallace had a son in a previous marriage, the son is convinced that the wife killed Wallace. The son hires a private eye and things fall apart. It doesn't go well for this misbehavin' family, the lucky ones go to jail in this story.

I enjoyed it. I watched the DVD. There's a copy on YouTube., link above. It's a bit low budget but watchable.

The Red House 1947

The Red House 1947 Based on the 1945 novel The Red House by George Agnew Chamberlain, screenplay by Delmar Davies and an uncredited Albert Maltz, directed by Delmar Davies. Delmar is probably best known for the 1957 western 3:10 To Yuma.

The Wikipedia calls The Red House a thriller and the IMDb gives it three categories: drama, film-noir and mystery. I thought it was mostly drama with some romance and an old murder mystery. There's lots going on but it's kind of predictable. There's plenty of guilt too.

It's got a good cast, Edward G Robinson, Lon McCallister, Judith Anderson, Rory Calhoun, Allene Roberts, Julie London, Ona Munson, Harry Shannon and Arthur Space. The script is alright but it's not the sort of thing I'm that keen on. Doubtful I would watch it again. I'll keep the Alpha Video DVD anyway. You can see a decent copy on YouTube.

13 Lead Soldiers 1948

13 Lead Soldiers 1948 Written by Herman C McNeile and Irving Elman, directed by Frank McDonald. Part of the Bulldog Drummond series with Tom Conway playing Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond.

A doctor is murdered and two lead soldiers are stolen. A friend of Hugh's says he's got a couple of those lead figures and he's had threats encouraging him to sell the figures. Hugh plants a newspaper story saying he's bought the figures from his pal. A man called Vane is trying to buy the figures. He steals the two figures Drummond has and Bulldog is on his trail.

I have enjoyed the series on average and this is about average for the lot. There's a fair bit of running about and a good body count. You can see it on YouTube.

Paper Orchid 1949

Paper Orchid 1949 Based on the novel Paper Orchid by Arthur La Bern, screenplay by Val Guest, directed by Roy Ward Baker.

I'm always on the search for Sid James movies, there's still a few of his earlier films I've not seen. Sid still gets some love in the UK, they're still making documentaries about him nearly half a century after he died. I first started seeing Sid in the 60s on British TV shows and the Carry On films. Some might remember him from The Lavender Hill Mob with Alex Guinness. He's in one of my favorite films Hell Drivers. It's got a great cast beside Stanley Baker and Sid, Herbert Lom, Peggy Cummins, Patrick McGoohan, William Hartnell, Sean Connery and Alfie Bass.

That Hugh Williams and Sid, Hugh is the editor of a newspaper and Sid's a reporter. The owner of the paper dies and his wife takes over. Some of the staff leave and some are driven out, Hugh in the latter lot. He gets a job on a rival paper that's in the midst of change too.

There's a certain level of humorous friction until the sculpture guy gets his throat cut. The crime investigation is over shadowed by the newspaper story and that's OK, it's those people that are interesting. I found it entertaining and enjoyed Sid quite a bit.  You can check it out on YouTube, sadly the copy is fuzzy. I still watched it.

The Scar 1948

The Scar 1948 Based on the 1946 novel Hollow Triumph by Daniels Fuchs, screenplay by Daniel Fuchs, directed by Steve Sekely.

 

The movie titled started as The Man Who Murdered Himself, released under Hollow Triumph and reissued as The Scar. I bought it on DVD as part of a two film set from VCI. I'd seen The Limping Man on YouTube and liked it. Nice to have a better copy.

Paul Henreid is a robber, he takes part in a casino heist that goes wrong. He hides out in another town where he discovers a psychiatrist that is almost his double. The doc has a scar on his cheek. Paul decides to take over the man's life, even cutting a scar into his face with the help of a photo he snapped. Trouble is, the guy that printed the picture flopped the negative and Paul's scar is on the wrong cheek.

No one notices the change except his cleaning woman. She thinks something is up but Paul manages to convince her she's just imagining it. Joan Bennett plays the doctor's secretary. Paul asks her out before he takes over the doc's life. Leslie Brooks plays the doctor's girlfriend, one the doc liked to hit the casino with, the doc was a big loser at the club and he owes $90,000 to the house. Joan realizes Paul's killed the doctor and runs off to Hawaii. Paul follows her to the dock and gets stopped by some casino thugs. They think he's running off and they put an end to Paul. Ha ha.

It's got a fairly decent script and a cast that does a good job. Fun to watch and a nice payoff for a scumbag.

The Amazing Mr X 1948

The Amazing Mr X 1948 Original story by Crane Wilbur, screenplay by Muriel Roy Bolton and Ian McLellen Hunter, directed by Bernard Vorhaus. Another film shot by John Alton, he uses a lot of shadows here too. The film was re-released under the title of The Spiritualist.

Turhan Bey is a spiritualist called Alexis, Lynn Bari is Christine, she's lost her husband and she's hearing his voice and favorite music. That's Lynn on the right, the other lady is Cathy O'Donnell, she plays Christine's sister Janet. Richard Carlson plays Christine's fiance Martin.

Christine starts consulting Alexis about her dead husband, she gets some comfort at first. Unbeknownst to her Alexis is doing all sorts of tricks to make her husband's voice audible. The police are snooping around Alexis but they've got nothing to go on.

Things take a deadly turn when Christine's dead husband Paul shows up in the flesh. He'd faked his death, sizing up the current situation he creates a complicated plan to marry Alexis to Christine's younger sister Janet and then killing Christine so Janet and Alexis get the inheritance that he's expecting a cut from. That all falls apart as the movie plays out.

A nice tight story that looks pretty darn good despite the low budget and short 3 week shooting time. I've seen it a couple of times and it holds up better each time. There's a good commentary with plenty of info by Jay Fenton.

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.

The Gentleman From Nowhere 1948

The Gentleman From Nowhere 1948 Written by Edward Anhalt and directed by William Castle. I'm big William Castle fan, I'll always take a chance on one of his films. Edward was no slouch in the writing department he won Oscars for his scripts of Panic In The Streets and Beckett. He also wrote scripts to The Boston Strangler, The Madwoman Of Chaillot, The Satan Bug and Girls! Girls! Girls!.

Warner Baxter is a security guard at a fur coat warehouse. He shot in the leg during a robbery and despite that the cops are wondering if he's the inside man. Turns out that Warner has a past he's trying to cover up.

A good crime film with a good script and cast. You can check it out on The Internet Archive.

Bury Me Dead 1947

Bury Me Dead 1947  Based on the radio drama of the same name by Irene Winston, screenplay by Dwight V Babcock and Karen DeWolf, directed by Bernard Vorhaus. The second film on The Chase DVD from VCI.

June Lockhart plays a dead woman called Barbara and Hugh Beaumont plays her wealthy family's lawyer Michael. When we meet Barbara she's riding in a cab to her funeral. She watches the thing go on, then meets Michael, he doesn't recognize her with the heavy veil. He offers her a lift and gets a big surprise. Barbara was out of town when the barn fire happened. She thinks someone tried to kill her, Michael tries to get her to go to the police but Barbara delays going, wanting to find out who it was. She does tell the police, the rest of her family and the servants she's alive.

So who's the dead body that got buried. They fear it was her step-sister but no she eventually turn up alive. There's a few suspects, Mark Daniels as June's cheating husband Rod, Cathy O'Donnell as the step-sister Rusty, Greg McClure as the dimwitted boxer George, Sonia Darrin as George's assistant Helen.

Sonia had a fairly short career, 1941 to 1950 and she wasn't in many movies, only a dozen. Her most famous has to be The Big Sleep where she played Agnes Lozelle who worked in Arthur Geiger's bookstore. Sonia was in Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman. She's the mother of Mason Reese, a child star in the 70s.

Detective Archer is played by Cliff Clark, he doesn't suspect the housekeeper played by Virginia Farmer or the butler played by Milton Parsons. Milton has 169 credits on the IMDb. I've seen him is so many films and TV shows over his long career, he started in 1939 and his last credit was in 1977.

It's soon clear that the victim is Helen, she was a conniving gold digger who doesn't mind breaking hearts to gets some cash. There's a lot of cheating on one another, Rusty and George, Barbara and George, Helen and Rod, Rusty and Rod, all lubed up with a bit of jealousy and extortion. June was going to divorce Rod and Rusty's a minor on top of that.

It all plays out fairly well in the 68 min run time. It's brisk and there's a fairly good pay off at the end of the film. It's got a sense of humor and you need it with that lot. I was glad to have seen it. You can check it out on YouTube, link above.

The commentary by Jay Fenton was informative and the DVD has the 25 minute version of the movie that was cut for a syndicated TV mystery anthology program in early 50s.

The Chase 1946

The Chase 1946 Based on Cornell Woolrich's novel The Black Path Of Fear, screenplay by Philip Yordan, directed by Arthur D Ripley. I watched this on a two film DVD from VCI with commentary by film historian Jay Fenton. The movie is also available in HD from Kino Lorber with a commentary by Guy Maddin. 

Robert Cummings is a WW2 veteran named Chuck, he's had some PSD problems. Chuck's broke when he finds Eddie Roman's wallet, Eddie is a gangster who's played by Steve Cochran. Michèle Morgan plays his wife Lorna. She's a kept woman who's locked in her bedroom at night. Peter Lorre plays Eddie's main henchman Gino. He likes to kill for Eddie. Eddie likes having people being killed when they won't do what he says. Eddie and Gino are quite a pair of scumbags and Mrs Eddie isn't too happy with her lot.

Chuck takes Eddie's wallet to him and winds up with a job as chauffeur. Lorna takes a evening drive out to the beach. She offers Chuck $1000 if he'll buy tickets to Cuba and get her there. He buys the tickets and they escape to Havana where Eddie has them murdered. Chuck wakes up from his nightmare and the movie continues on.

 

I'm not always a fan of the dream sequence but this works because it doesn't come at the end of the movie. It initially confuses but becomes clearer as the rest of the movie plays out. There's not many movies that deal with the mental effects on the soldiers from that era.

I thought it was a nice little noir with a good cast and a good script. It looks good and moves along at a nice pace. You can watch it on YouTube, you might like it. I also liked the commentary by Jay Fenton, he's a bit dry but he's passes along a good bit of information. I'd be curious to hear the Guy Maddin commentary but I'm not a fan of his film work and know little about him.