Manfish 1956 Loosely based on two Edgar Allan Poe stories The Gold Bug and The Tell Tale Heart, screenplay by Myles Wilder and Joel Murcott, directed by W Lee Wilder. Myles is W Lee's son and W Lee is Billy Wilder's brother. W Lee had his own film company in the 1950s, they produced a few low budget films, some of which I've seen. W Lee produced and directed The Snow Creature, Killers From Space, Phantom From Space, all of which were written by Myles.
I'll give anything with Lon Cheney Jr in it a chance and that's knowing he's in a lot of so-so films. This is kind of on the slight side, an adventure in the south seas with romance, treasure hunting and betrayal. People go cray-cray for the doubloons. The story told is mostly a flashback, told by a Jamaican Police Inspector to his counterpart in Scotland Yard.
The man from Scotland Yard learns of the recent adventures of Captain Brannigan, Swede and the Professor. The later is the the man he's interested in, a man suspected of being a war criminal. Brannigan is the owner of a fishing boat called Manfish, one that he'd won in a poker game, John Bromfield plays Brannigan, a guy with limited imagination and intelligence. Swede is his first mate, Swede is played by Lon Chaney Jr, he's a big lumbering simple guy with a love of the fishing boat called Manfish. Serious mental illness kind of love.
The Professor is played by Victor Jory and he's pretty darn entertaining. He's a good solid character actor who's turned in good work for decades. Brannigan comes across a half a map and a skull and crossbones ring, when he first meets the Professor he notices the man has the same ring. The Professor has the other half of the map and the brains to figure out the cypher's that lead to the treasure.
The pair team up but it's one of those relationships that you can see is going to end with someone dead at best. Tossing the Professor's treasure hungry lady friend Alita into the mix is like throwing ammunition in a fire, it's just a matter of when things are going to go off. Tessa Pendergast plays Tessa, Tessa was an actress between 1952 and 1954, this is her last film of four. She became a fashion designer in the late 1950s and had her own clothing business in Jamaica. She created the white bikini worn by Ursula Andress in Dr No.
Despite the good story ideas the film is just barely average to me. I gave it a generous 5 on the IMDb where it scores a 4.6 with 245 votes. You can watch it on YouTube. You might like it or not but you'd probably like Victor Jory and Lon Chaney Jr.
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