PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 748

Up first a 1945 British horror movie called Dead Of Night. It's an Ealing Studio anthology film about a man arriving at a country house only to find he's been there in a dream. He tells the other guests about his dream and they discuss dreams, psychology and the supernatural in the framing story. Five of the guests tell their own stories in flashback scenes. There are 4 directors, Basil Dearden, Alberto Cavalcanti, Robert Hamer, Charles Crichton, with Angus MacPhail and John Baines writing the screenplay. Basil Dearden directed the framing story, Mervyn Johns plays the visiting man, others in the cast I knew include Roland Culver, Sally Ann Howes, Miles Malleson and Googie Withers.

The Hearse Driver is directed by Basil Dearden and it's based on a 1906 story called The Bus-Conductor by E F Benson. A race car driver has a dream about a hearse driver calling to him, telling him that there's room for one more on his hearse. Awake, he sees the same hearse driver conducting a bus, he avoids the bus only to see it crash.

The Christmas Party is directed by Albert Cavalcanti and based on a story by Angus MacPhail. Right after this Angus penned the 1945 Hitchcock film Spellbound. He also penned some Will Hay movies. Sally Ann Howes tells the story of a ghostly encounter at a children's Christmas party. This story was cut from the original US release. What dicks distributors are, huh. Lucky for us it has been restored for the Kino Lorber Blu-ray.

The Haunted Mirror is directed by Richard Hamer and based on a story by John Baines. A woman buys a haunted mirror for her husband. He's almost destroyed by it but she saves him.

The Golfer's Story is directed by Charles Crichton and based on the H G Wells story The Story Of The Inexperienced Ghost. It stars Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, that's them above, playing characters much like their Charters and Caldicott characters from Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes. Besides the three other films they appeared in as C & C, the actors played similar characters in several other films over the years. It's a bit of a silly tale about two golfers. When one loses a game, he drowns himself in the club's lake, he then comes back to haunt the other golfer. This story was also cut from the original US release but it too has been restored.

The Ventriloquist's Dummy is directed by Alberto Cavalcanti and the story was written by John Baines. Michael Redgrave is a ventriloquist who is as crazy as he seems in the picture above. Stories about ventriloquist dummies hardly ever end well and this one is no different.

I enjoyed the movie and was glad to have picked it up. The film looks pretty good, not great, there are a few flaws that weren't fixed in the 4K restoration, at least it's complete. I'm looking forward to the Tim Lucas commentary and the 75 minute documentary Remembering Dead Of Night.

Our second feature is the 1989 horror film The Dead Pit. Brett Leonard is the director, he wrote the screenplay with Gimel Everett. It's Brett's first film, he would go on to direct The Lawnmower Man, Virtuosity, Man-Thing and a handful more. I've seen all three but don't have copies of any of them.

An evil and murderous doctor is killed by his co-worker who them covers it all up by sealing up the pit filled with dead bodies in the basement. Twenty years later the co-worker is head of the mental hospital. A young woman comes to stay at there just as there's an earthquake. It releases the evil doc and he starts killing again. That poor young woman has no memory and a connection to the evil doc. She joins with another patient and the head doctor to kill the crazy old evil twat.

There's plenty of running about and murdering, nothing really original in the story, and I was glad to get to the end. I wouldn't need to get me a copy.

Headline 1943

Headline is a 1943 thriller from The British Film series. It's based on the novel Reporter by Ken Attiwill, that was adapted by Ralph Gilbert Bettison, the screenplay is by Maise Sherman, and it's directed by John Harlow.

That's David Farrar and William Hartnell, they're rival newspaper reporters. David has a lady friend, a reporter played by Anne Crawford, but he's more wrapped up in his work. John Stuart plays the newspaper editor and Antoinette Cellier plays his wife. She visits a male friend, played by Anthony Hawtrey, and their visit gets interrupted by his old girlfriend. She pulls a gun, he takes it from her and shoots her dead. They run off but are seen by a witness. John puts David on the trail of the unknown woman little knowing it's his wife. William is on the same trail. Who's going to get there first? You can easily guess, I  bet.

It's a nice tight story that moves along briskly. It's only 75 minutes long so they don't waste any time. There's a nice mix of comedy and drama, the acting is good and I liked the characters. Glad to have seen it and another I'd plan to watch again.

Forgotten Noir Volume 8

Mr District Attorney came out in 1947, Robert B Sinclair is the director and it was written by Ian McLellan Hunter, Phillips Lord, Ben Markson and Sidney Marshall. The cast includes Dennis O'Keefe, Adolphe Menjou, Marguerite Chapman, Michael O'Shea, George Coulouris and Ralph Morgan.

Adolphe hires Dennis as an assistant DA. Dennis precedes to get involved with Marguerite who works for a crook. That's Dennis and Marguerite in the picture above. She really gets close to Steve so she can get hold of the evidence on her boss. The boss is her real love. While Dennis is out of country on assignment for a couple of months she marries her boss. Dennis quits and goes to work for the boss. Things get worse and worse before Steve realizes what an ass he turned out to be. Adolphe will give him a hand and things turn out much better for Steve than he deserves. Decent story with a fairly good cast. Nothing too special but still entertaining.

 

Ringside is a 1949 boxing film that falls short of noir for me. It's a boxing drama with some romance tossed in. Frank McDonald is the director, Daniel B Ullman wrote the story and Ron Ormond adapted it. Don "Red" Barry, Tom Brown, Sheila Ryan and Lyle Talbot are in the cast. Don is pianist who becomes a boxer to get money for an operation on the eyes of his young brother who was blinded boxing. It's mostly boxing, not that interesting to me. It wouldn't be one I'd bother with in the future. That'll save me 68 minutes.

Hi-Jacked is a 1950 trucking movie that was directed by Sam Newfield and written by Orville H Hampton, Fred Myton and Raymond L Schrock.

That's Jim Davis in the dark jacket, he's a truck driver who get hi-jacked on night. The trucking company supports him but the insurance guy is thinking Jim's criminal past might not be all in the past. Soon after he's set up by the crooks to haul some stolen goods. He's got to work pretty hard to save his ass. It's a pretty good story and I like Jim here. The only thing I got tired of was Sid Melton, he turns up in a lot of Robert Lippert pictures and often he's just annoying. Over all a fairly enjoyable picture I'd watch again.

Forgotten Noir Volume 5

Two OK movies in Forbidden Noir Volume 5, the first up on the disc is F.B.I. Girl. It's a 1951 crime film that was written by Dwight V Babcock and Richard Landau with William Berke directing. Dwight wrote original stories or screenplays for 2 dozen movies and over 3 dozen TV episodes. You might have seen The Mummy's Curse, House Of Dracula, House Of Horrors, The Brute Man or She-Wolf Of London. Not all great films but entertaining. Richard has a few less movies and even more TV scripts than Dwight. I know I've seen Secret Of The Whistler, Spaceways, The Quatermass Xperiment, The Black Hole and Lost Continent. I know I've seen even more of his TV writing. William directed 86 movies and I've seen a few of them.

A sad story of a governor who murdered a man twenty years ago. Raymond Greenleaf plays the governor and he's managed to keep the secret so far. He fears a crime crackdown might lead to his getting fingerprinted and exposed. His pal, or sorts, Raymond Burr is a sleazy scumbag who is helping the gov get his fingerprints out of the FBI. He had a gal all primed and she fails, unfortunately Burr finds out after his goons have killed the woman. Since the woman worked for the FBI they take notice and put Cesar Romero on the job.

Audrey Trotter plays another woman at the FBI, Cesar uses her to get evidence on Burr. She's rumbled in the act and it's touch and go there. A nice solid story that moves along well. There's a good cast and they do the script right. A bit of film on a TV had a bit of the comedy styling by Tommy Noonan and Peter Marshall. Peter would do himself right and get out of comedy and get into hosting Hollywood Squares. All in all a nice entertaining film.

Tough Assignment is the second feature and it came out in 1949. Don "Red" Berry and Marjorie Steele are a newly married couple, they've just returned home from their honeymoon. They stop off to get some groceries only to find the man at the butcher's has been attacked by hoodlums. They inadvertently snap a pic of the thugs as they leave and the thugs follow them home to get the film. A bit of rough and tumble leaves the couple alive but annoyed.

Don gets the idea that there's something fishy at the butchers and he's thinking protection racket. None of the butcher's in town will talk to him but he finds out that the problem is a gang has been forcing the butcher's to buy their illegally harvested beef products. The rustler's have a ranch and a meat factory. Quite a set up and they aren't none too happy to have the newspapers doing a story on stolen beef. They send some thugs after the couple but they manage to get away in time. The rest of the movie has the reporters going undercover at the ranch. Don maneuvers the crooks right from the get go.

There's a bit of jeopardy and some fun characters. I liked Don and Marjorie, too bad she only made four films. Marc Lawrence, Steve Brody and Sid Melton are among the crooks. Fun to watch. Glad to have it.

Forgotten Noir Volume 2

Loan Shark 1952 Directed by Seymour Friedman with a Eugene Ling screenplay adapted from a story by Martin Rackin.

I'm not much of a George Raft fan, not for any reason, just I guy I never had much interest in. He's alright here as an ex-con who goes undercover for the cops. His brother-in-law is killed by loan sharks and he gets involved for some payback. George seems to old for the part but that's the way things go. Decent story and good cast. Worth seeing.

Arson Inc 1949 Arthur Caesar wrote the story which was adapted for the screenplay by Maurice Tombragel and William Berke directed.

Another undercover plot, this time a fireman goes undercover to investigate an arson ring. Good story and good actors. I liked it more than the other film but I would watch both of them again someday.

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.

The Many Faces Of Sherlock Holmes

I went looking for a cover shot of The Many Faces Of Sherlock Holmes and found The Many Faces Of Sherlock Holmes. The first is the Mill Creek Entertainment 3 DVD set that you see the cover to above. The second is a 47 minute documentary, narrated by Christopher Lee, about the various actors who've played the detective. I watched the first 10 minutes and it seems interesting enough. I'll finish it while I type this.

I bought the DVD set because it had two Sherlock Holmes TV productions on it that I hadn't seen. So, I thought. When I went to put it away with the rest of the Holmes stuff I found I had gotten a different DVD and watched it 3 years ago. Totally forgot about it. I even posted a blog post about it.

Sherlock Holmes & the Leading Lady 1992 Written by Bob Shane and H R F Keating, with Peter Sasdy directing. Mycroft asks Holmes to investigate the theft of stolen plans for a bomb detonator. Holmes and Watson travel to Vienna where they run into Irene Adler. Irene is played by Morgan Fairchild and Vienna is played by Luxembourg.

Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls 1992 Written by Bob Shane and Gerry O'Hara, directed by Bill Corcoran. This time they filmed in Victoria Falls as well as Luxembourg. The King asks Sherlock to protect the Star Of Africa on a trip to Cape Town. There's lots of outdoor travel and plenty of killing. Jenny Seagrove plays Lilly Langtry and Claude Akins plays Theodore Roosevelt.

Both are a bit stodgy but they're fine. Lee and Macnee do a fine job. I gave them both a 6 when I saw them the first time and I still stick by that now.

The second disc contains the 1965 feature A Study In Terror with John Neville. I had just gotten this on a Blu-ray that looks so much nicer. The rest of that disc has 5 episodes of the 1950s TV show The Adventures OF Sherlock Holmes with Ronald Howard. I already have them in a DVD set that I got ages ago. The series is in the public domain and there are several sets out there, often mixed with other PD Holmes material. Just like this set. You can see them all on YouTube.

The third disc has 5 older films that are all in the Public Domain.

A Study In Scarlet 1933 Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes in a fairly good film. Warburton Gamble is Watson and Anna May Wong co-stars.

The Sign Of Four 1932 Another fairly good film with Arthur Wontner as Holmes and Ian Hunter as Watson.

Murder At The Baskervilles 1937 Another film with Arthur Wontner as Homes. This time Watson is played by Ian Fleming. Not the James Bond guy. It's an OK film.

Dressed To Kill 1946 This Holmes film is in the Public Domain, as is the one below. Basil Rathbone plays Holmes and Nigel Bruce plays Dr Watson. Better than all the others here by far. You can find better copies of the whole lot of the Rathbone and Bruce films on DVD. I recently bought the Blu-Ray set and was mighty pleased.

Terror By Night 1946 Another good one with Nigel and Basil.

Here's another production I found while looking for other Holmes material. I hadn't seen before. Now that I've watched it, it's pretty poor in every way. Patrick Macnee plays Sherlock Holmes, making him one of 4 actors to play both Holmes and Watson. Sadly, he's part of the pretty poor formula. One of the worst Holmes films ever is based on a play by some Canadian bloke. He wrote the screenplay and it's also pretty poor. Just everything about it reeks. Have a look.

Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of London 1993

Here's a documentary called Sherlock Holmes The Great Detective.

Power Of The Press 1943

Sam Fuller wrote the story for Power Of The Press, a 1943 film set in the newspaper world. Robert Hardy Andrews wrote the screenplay and Lew Landers is the director. Lew is noted as a prolific director, often compared to cinematic workhorses, Sam Newfield and William Beaudine. I'd just seen one of his early films, The Raven, the other day. POTP was his first feature length film, his 5 previous efforts were all serials. He's got 175 credits on the IMDb and a lot of the later ones are TV listings with multiple episodes. If he hadn't died in 1962, at age 61, he might have had an even longer listing.

Guy Kibbee is a small town newspaper editor who inherits a newspaper in a big city. The previous owner was murdered when he said he was going to start using the newspaper to support the war effort. Guy steps in and immediately has trouble with Otto Kruger. Otto's a scum bucket of the more heinous kind. He's power mad and an isolationist, he has people killed when it suits him. He framed a man for the killing of the newspaper owner and covers for the real killer. Joining Guy in the good fight is Gloria Dickson who had been the owner's assistant. It's a tough fight as Otto cheats and schemes to stay in control of the paper.

Otto will get his in the end but it's touch and go there for a while. A good solid story that I found entertaining. It's totally something we've got going on today. They even mention fake news.

The Mystery Of The 13th Guest 1943

I found a copy of The Mystery Of The 13th Guest on YouTube today. I hadn't seen it before and after watching a few minutes I decided to continue to the end. It's directed by one of my favorite directors, William Beaudine, and the screenplay is by Tim Ryan, Charles R Marion and Arthur Hoerl. It's based on a novel by Armitage Trail called The 13th Guest. The book was adapted in 1932 as The Thirteenth Guest with Ginger Rogers. I've seen that and it was OK. Trail also wrote the novel Scarface.

In the 1943 movie the Morgan family meets at the bequest of the rich patriarch. They all sit at a table with 13 chairs but there are only 12 of them. Morgan shows the 8 year old granddaughter an envelope and says she will see it again in 13 years, when she's twenty one. Only then will the rest of the family know who gets the cash. Thirteen years later the girl is a young woman, played by Helen Parrish, and on her birthday she's given the envelope. She's supposed to go to the closed up Morgan mansion to open the envelope. She does and some weird things happen. Later she's found dead and the police arrive. Tim Ryan and Frank Faylen play Lt Burke and his dopey sidekick. Dick Purcell plays Johnny Smith, a detective hired by one of the Morgan family. More suspicious stuff starts happening, the family lawyer is found electrocuted and Helen comes back from the dead.

There's a bit of mystery, some creepy old house stuff, and a good bit of humor. It's just about an hour and it moves along quickly, no wasted time there. I enjoyed the thing and would recommend it to those that like that sort of thing. It's pretty much a B programmer but it was fun and I'd be happy seeing it again someday.

Moontide 1942

Moontide is a 1942 romantic crime drama, some say an early noir, starring French actor Jean Gabin and English actor Ida Lupino. It's based on a book by actor Willard Robertson but the story has been tamed by the censors of the day. Willard has 145 credits as an actor on the IMDb, he started in films in 1924 and stopped when he died in 1948 at the age of 62. I've seen some of the films on his list but I don't have any recollection of him in them. Even his picture on the IMDb doesn't look familiar. The screenplay was written by John O'Hara and an uncredited Nunnally Johnson. Fritz Lang started directing lasted less than three weeks and left. Archie Mayo took over and finished the picture.

I had recently seen Jean Gabin in a couple of Inspector Maigret movies from 1958 and 1959. I really enjoyed those. He's 38 when he plays Bobo, the world weary Frenchman who's somehow wound up in this small southern California fishing village. Gabin is good int he role, and he's working with several good character actors. Thomas Mitchell plays Tiny, Bobo's pal, a weak man and a man who's trouble. He has a bit of a hold over Bobo and that's going to smash things up a bit before the end of the movie. Claude Rains plays Nutsy, he checks doors and hangs around the bar. He turns out to be the best pal Bobo ever had. The two are walking back from the bar when they hear some yelling down by the beach. A woman has walked into the sea. Jerome Cowan, Ralph Byrd and Victor Sen Yung were names I knew.

Bobo rescues Ida Lupino and saves her from being arrested by lying to the police. Ida was 24 at the time and she'd appeared in several British films before coming to America. She made a big hit with the public in the 1940 Raoul Walsh film They Drive By Night. That's a movie with Humphrey Bogart and George Raft as a pair of truck driving brothers. I should have a look for it. I don't think I've seen it, it's not on My Watched Movie List, but who knows.

Bobo brings her to the place he's staying, the Live Bait shop along the break water, and she winds up staying there. The pair start an odd relationship and there's one hurdle after another. That picture above is a screen cap from the film. I love the look of the place. Strictly from afar though, not a place I would want to live.

The Wikipedia says the movie didn't do too well, that's also repeated on the commentary, but I really enjoyed it. In more recent years critics have been more kind to the movie. I liked the story, the script is pretty good and the characters interesting. Often it takes a while for the public to catch up to a film. Sometimes a lot of people have to die.

I listened to the commentary right after the film was over and then watched the 26 minute making of. All time well spent. I'd recommend it.