PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Assignment Redhead 1956

Assignment Redhead 1956 Written and directed by Maclean Rogers. A British film that was released in the US as Million Dollar Manhunt.

Richard Denning is Major Keen, he working with British Intelligence. Carole Matthews plays Hedy the redhead, sadly the film is in B&W so there's no way to tell is she's really a redhead.

Ronald Adam plays the villain Dumetrius and Danny Green plays his henchman Yotti. Dumetrius is a document forger, counterfeiter and part time murderer. He takes a trip to the UK in disguise as a Major in the British Army. Demetrius kills the real major and frames another soldier for the job. The framed guy hides with the help of a cigarette girl from a nightclub.

 

Richard falls for Hedy who turns out to be involved with Dumetrius. That's a doomed relationship for sure.

There's nothing much special about it. Strictly average. You can see it on YouTube.

Torment 1950

Torment 1950 Written and directed by John Guillermin. It was John's first solo directing job. It was released in the US with the title Paper Gallows.

Twin brothers, Cliff and Jim Brandon, are murder mystery writers. They're both interested in their secretary Joan but she's only got eyes for one of them. The unwanted brother kills someone and frames Joan for the murder. The good brother has to keep her off the gallows and marry her before the end of the movie.

Dermot Walsh plays Cliff, Rona Anderson plays Joan and John Bentley plays Jim. It's an OK movie but not much above average. It's short and quickly paced, I was entertained.

Das Mädchen Mit Den Katzenaugen 1958

Das Mädchen Mit Den Katzenaugen 1958 Story and screenplay by Werner P Zibaso, directed by Eugen York. A German film called The Girl With The Cat Eyes.

The German police are investigating a stolen car ring. Gert Fröbe is the owner of a garage the crooks are using to process the stolen cars for resale. He's not happy when his daughter shows up unannounced. He's even more upset when he has to run over a police detective with his truck. He's got no choice, the baddies will kill him if he doesn't.

Joachim Fuchsberger plays the next detective to go undercover. It takes him a while to get the goods on the baddies but he does a OK job of it. He even gets the girl. I enjoyed it, except for the fact I was watching a rather poor copy from YouTube. You can see it by clicking the link above. Here's a rather nice Italian poster for the movie.

Deadly Nightshade 1953

Deadly Nightshade 1953 Screenplay by Lawrence Huntington, directed by John Gilling, produced by Robert S Baker and Monty Berman.

Emrys Jones plays two parts, a convict on the run and a landscape painter. The convict kills the painter and tries to take over the man's life. It doesn't go so well when the painter's past catches up to him.

It's short, only 61 mins, and pretty much average. I did like it's sense of humor. I was happy enough to see it and I'd probably watch it again someday. I got the DVD cheap somewhere and finally watched it. I've been pulling the classic British films out of the To Be Watched pile and I've watched a few now. 

The Big Chance 1957

The Big Chance 1957 Based on the novel The Big Chance by Pamela Barrington, screenplay by Barbara S Harper and Peter Graham Scott, directed by Peter Graham Scott.

William Russell is a travel agent, he's not a happy guy, he doesn't care much for his job, he's not happy at home. He gets a chance to steal a big pile of cash and a ticket to South America. The flight get delayed and William meets a woman, they have a fling.

The ending is a bit weak but the film is good on average. I'd watch it again but not for a while.

Stormy Crossing 1958

Stormy Crossing 1958 Based on the story Black Tide by Sid Harris and Lou Dyer, screenplay by Brock Williams, directed by C M Pennington-Richards, produced by Monty Berman. The film was released in the US under the title Black Tide.

John Ireland is training his brother to swim the English Channel, Sheldon Lawrence plays the brother. Joy Webster is also swimming the channel, she's having an affair with a married man played by Derek Bond. On the big day someone comes along in a speedboat, attacking Sheldon and killing Joy. It's believed to be an accident but Sheldon turns up and the killer is revealed.

I found a copy on YouTube. I thought it was a decent story but there was way too much swimming for me.

Dublin Nightmares 1958

Dublin Nightmare 1958 Based on the Robin Estridge novel, screenplay by John Tully, directed by John Pomeroy.

A guy gets involved in a robbery to fund the IRA. The robbery goes wrong and the money disappears and one of the robbers winds up dead. William Sylvester is a photographer who comes to the UK only to find his friend is the dead man. He starts investigating on his own.

A fairly good story and cast.

Miss Tulip Stays The Night 1955

Miss Tulip Stays The Night 1955 Based on the radio play by Nan Marriott-Watson, screenplay by John O Douglas with uncredited help from Jack Hulbert and Bill Luckwell, directed by Leslie Arliss.

Patrick Holt and Diana Dors are Andrew and Katie Dax. Andrew's a mystery writer and Katie has rented a cottage in the country to give him a break from the distractions of London life so he can finish his new book.

 

The first night they're settling into the cottage when an annoying woman called Miss Tulip comes along with a story about threatening letters and someone coming to kill her. She bullies the couple into letting her stay the night. Next morning, there's Miss Tulip, shot through the head, in a chair, in the sitting room.

The local constable shows up to inquire about Miss Tulip's car abandoned in the middle of the lane. He calls Inspector Thorne and right away poor Andrew is a suspect. Now he's got to use his detecting abilities to keep ahead of the Inspector. Diana gives him a hand and things get wrapped up in a silly way.

I thought it was entertaining while still being about average for a crime comedy. There are a few gags and Diana is charming. The story moves along quick enough that it makes the 68 min breeze by. I picked up the DVD for a couple of bucks at MVDs recent clearance sale. Worth the price for sure. You can see a nice 1080p copy on YouTube for nothing. Link above.

The Thief 1952

The Thief 1952 Screenplay by Clarence Greene and Russell Rouse and directed by Russell Rouse. A spy thriller with no dialog. It follows Ray Milland's decent into despair.

Ray Milland is a nuclear physicist who's selling secrets to some foreign agents. We spend a good bit of time with him as he goes about his spying duties. Ray grows more and more worried and apprehensive after an agent in the ring is killed and the microfilm recovered. He's moved to a safe house and given a ticket on a ship out of the country. He kills an FBI agent while collecting some money and a fake passport. Life isn't going good for Ray, he should have left the spying to professionals.

It's kind of interesting and you can infer most of what's going on by everyone's actions. Occasionally some info is passed on via some gimmick, like a telegram. Ray works his face a lot, watching that helps pass some of the time but it is a bit pokey.  It looks and sounds good and it wasn't hard to get through. Nice interesting change.

The Good Humor Man 1950

The Good Humor Man 1950 Based on Appointment With Fear by Roy Huggins, screenplay by Frank Tashlin, directed by Lloyd Bacon. Frank had a varied career, he's been an animator, cartoonist, children's writer, illustrator, screenwriter and film director. He worked on a lot of Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes for Warner Brothers. He also wrote and directed some entertaining live action films for The Three Stooges, Red Skeleton and Jerry Lewis. You can read more about Frank on the Wikipedia.

During the day Jack Carson is a Good Humor Man. He drives around in the iconic Good Humor Truck of the time and sells ice cream to kids and adults. After work Jack drops in to the local Captain Marvel Fan Club. He's the club's biggest member. The local club has their own club house.

Nice, huh. We had an old unused garage in our back yard that served as a gathering place for the local kids. We weren't a club but we had a good time on occasion. It would have been nice to have solved some crimes but we never did.

Jack gets involved in a crime. The lady with the red hat is Lola Albright, she's Jack's girlfriend. George Reeves plays her boss, he's a private eye. The lady with the gun is Jean Wallace. Jack meets her when she's being chased by some baddies. She asks him to stay over in her house for protection. In the morning he finds her dead, while he's getting the police her body disappears.

Jack spends the rest of the show in or out of trouble or falling down on his ass. The comedy relies heavily on slapstick. It's kind of fun but making Jack a clumsy dummy so much of the time got annoying at times. I'd get really tired of his antics if I had to experience them in every day real life. There's plenty of running about and shouting. Despite Jack chewing his way through the sets I enjoyed the movie. I watched it on YouTube.