The Headless Ghost (1959)

The Headless Ghost (Dir: Peter Graham Scott, 1959). 

The Headless Ghost is a comedy horror with the accent firmly on comedy. 

Three exchange students Americans Ronnie (David Rose) and Bill (Richard Lyon) and Danish Ingrid (Liliane Sottane) spend the night in haunted Ambrose Castle. With the help of the spirit of the 4th Earl of Ambrose (Clive Revill) they must reunite the head and shoulders of Malcolm, the headless ghost of the title. Imagine, if you will, an episode of Scooby Doo Where Are You! sans the Great Dane but with real ghosts and you pretty much have The Headless Ghost in a nutshell. 

US producer Herman Cohen pioneered the teen horror genre with hit low budget exploitation flicks I Was a Teenage Werewolf (Gene Fowler Jr, 1957) and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (Herbert L Stock, 1957). In 1959 he looked to the UK for this co-production released through Anglo Amalgamated at home and by drive-in specialists American International Pictures across the Atlantic. 

Made specifically as a 2nd feature, originally supporting Horrors of the Black Museum (Arthur Crabtree, 1959), The Headless Ghost is likeable B-movie nonsense, competently directed by Peter David Scott; shot in black and white and, unusually, Dyaliscope, a widescreen format originating from France. 

The performances from its leads are blandly appealing and refreshingly the teenagers are not depicted as juvenile delinquents as is often the case for the era. Its slender story is well served by a short 60 minute runtime and there are some genuine chuckles among the unintentional ones. The special effects are modest but do the job. 

The wonderfully exploitative poster art depicts a headless man hurling his noggin at the fleeing teenagers! Unfortunately, this scene never appears in the movie. In fact the ghosts of Ambrose Castle are a pretty benign bunch. There is an ‘erotic’ dance scene performed by a scantily clad 600 year old spectre, if that floats your boat; serving no other narrative purpose than 'titillation', it is as campily funny as it is inappropriate. 

Ultimately, The Headless Ghost is more Children’s Film Foundation than Hammer horror. Let’s be honest, it’s no masterpiece but it was never meant to be. It is an easygoing romp and not the waste of an hour I feared! 

Port of Escape (1956)

Port of Escape (Dir: Tony Young, 1956). 

Noir-ish British B-movie crime flick starring real life husband and wife John McCallum and Googie Withers. Based upon Barbara S Harper’s short story Safe Harbour. 

Having just docked in London, seaman Mitch Gillie (McCallum) accidentally kills a man in a knife fight while protecting his pal Dinty. On the lam and needing an escape route they commander the houseboat of gossip columnist Anne Stirling (Googie Withers). At first fearing the men, Anne, her sister (Wendy Danielli) and their housekeeper (Joan Hickson) eventually try to help the pair when they learn of Dinty’s mental illness. 

There is some potential in the story in Port of Escape and the cast is decent but it never quite manages to overcome the constraints of a low budget second feature. A convoluted narrative doesn’t help. The change of heart by Anne toward her captors seems merely a device to spice up proceedings and capitalise on the real life relationship of its stars. Any real threat to the women posed by the bad guys is severely undermined by such an implausible plot twist. The device used to capture the bad guys is so obvious it may have been announced with a fanfare of trumpets. Although when the moment does arrive it is effective handled, if rather brief. 

On the plus side, the dockside scenes add atmosphere, but unfortunately they are outnumbered by the interior scenes. 

Port of Escape is by no means a bad movie. Predictable and corny yes, but entertaining nonetheless. If you have a taste for vintage British B-movies you will certainly find this worth watching.  

Date with Disaster (1957)

Date with Disaster (Dir: Charles Saunders, 1957). 

A British B-movie from the era of the second feature. Notable for featuring Doctor Who and a future Bond girl among its cast, but little else. 

Date with Disaster is something of a misnomer of a title, seemingly designed to appear more sensational. With no particular date or disaster to be found, the movie concerns two partners of secondhand car dealer Highgrade Autosales, who plan a safe robbery while third partner Miles Harrington (Tom Drake) is out of town. Engaging the help of professional criminal Tracey (William Hartnell) things, as you might expect, do not go according to plan. Mixed up in the dodgy doings is Miles' girl Sue (Shirley Eaton). 

At barely 60 minutes this is a surprisingly slow moving film noir-ish crime drama. Dating from an era when British cinema was associated with realism, this is a wholly incredulous tale from beginning to end. Many of its plot devices are highly convenient and downright laughable. A highlight is an unintentionally comic Thames side punch up. 

An MGM contract player from the 1940s, Tom Drake is the nominal star here. Of more interest to most modern viewers is the supporting cast. Later to don a gilded coat in Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964), Shirley Eaton is little more than eye candy here, but is appealing nonetheless; while future Doctor Who William Hartnell projects a suitable gruffness as an ageing safe cracker. The rest of the second string cast do their best with the very slender material. 

Charles Saunders stodgy direction does little to help this B-picture rise above the expectations of a low budget support feature. Perhaps I am being overly harsh on a movie which was never destined to be a masterpiece. Its shortcomings would be forgivable if the whole thing wasn’t so dull. I wouldn’t even describe it as so bad it’s good. It is merely bad.

Ultimately Date With Disaster is a thriller without the thrills. If you have a particular interest in vintage British cinema you may find it worth a watch. Otherwise, unless you especially want to lose an hour of your life to this tosh, I would give it a miss. 

Let’s Do It Again (1953)

Let’s Do It Again (Dir: Alexander Hall, 1953).

Big screen adaptation of Arthur Richman's 1923 play The Awful Truth.

Stage star Constance Stuart (Jane Wyman) concocts an affair with a friend (Tom Helmore) in an attempt to make her philandering songwriter husband Gary (Ray Milland) jealous. However, her plan works a little too well when it ends in divorce. Desperate to win his wife back he has a rival in uranium millionaire Frank McGraw (Aldo Ray). Despite Frank's attentions and a proposal in marriage Constance still holds a candle for Gary. 

Arthur Richman's play had previously been produced by Columbia Pictures as the screwball comedy The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 1937). Yet, despite the additions of some sparkling Technicolor and a handful of songs, this remake is weaker in all departments when compared to its classic forbearer.

While Jane Wyman and Ray Milland were considerable box office stars, neither of them are a match for Irene Dunne or Cary Grant in the earlier version. To be fair, hardly anyone could fill the shoes of those comedy greats but their performances are notably free of the chemistry and charisma exhibited by Grant and Dunne. Aldo Ray impresses in the small, yet significant, role as the lovable lunkhead who woos Ms Wyman. Yet, even here, the casting works against the narrative, as Ray is far more appealing a suitor than the smug Milland. In spite of which, Ray is the best thing about the movie and it is a pity he was not given more screen time.  

Director Alexander Hall's previous work included the excellent Here Comes Mr Jordan (A Hall, 1941). However, the light comedic touch that he brought to that classic is sadly missing here. Hampered by static direction and archly theatrical staging, this movie is positively leaden in comparison to McCarey's frothy original.   

Although marketed as such, Let's Do It Again is less a musical than a movie with a few songs. Ned Washington had provided lyrics for Walt Disney classics Pinocchio (Hamilton Luske & Ben Sharpsteen, 1940) and Dumbo (Ben Sharpsteen, 1941) but, unfortunately, his work here is nowhere near as memorable. Unlike those integrated musicals, the songs here do little to further the plot and actually seem somewhat out of place. 

If you have never seen The Awful Truth, I would recommend watching that instead of this tired re-hash. Let's Do It Again is by no means a terrible movie and is worth watching for fans of the stars, particularly Aldo Ray. As entertainment, this version just about passes muster, but I am in no particular hurry to do it again. 

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Alice in Wonderland (Dir: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson & Hamilton Luske, 1951).

Long in the public domain, Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has inspired countless movie adaptations. Arguably the most successful screen version is Walt Disney’s feature length animation. Not for being slavishly faithful to the source material. Rather for fashioning an entertaining and distinctive work of art from a largely non-narrative, surrealist text. 

The well known story of Alice... concerns a curious young girl who chases a waistcoat wearing rabbit down a rabbithole into the weird and wonderful Wonderland. Many encounters with assorted freaks later, her adventure concludes with an unusual game of croquet in the court of the Queen of Hearts.   

Complaints about alterations to Carroll's original aside, Alice in Wonderland, is a stunningly realised, extraordinarily imaginative work. It looks beautiful, with bold character design and lush backgrounds showing the influence of colour stylist Mary Blair. With many dazzling set-pieces, from Alice's encounter with a garden of tuneful flowers to the Mad Tea Party, it is one of the most technically accomplished of all Disney features. Highlight for me is the March of the Cards sequence which is an astonishing array of movement and colour; even more impressive when you consider this was produced in a pre-digital, even pre-Xerox era. 

At the core of the movie, Kathryn Beaumont's very English, no-nonsense vocal performance as Alice perfectly contrasts the more 'out-there' lunacy of her co-stars. The voices of Ed Wynn (the Mad Hatter), Sterling Holloway (the Chesire Cat) and Jerry Colonna (the March Hare) were all well known to audience and this is an early example of Disney characters trading on the famous personalities of their voice. While in later movies this proved to be a little distracting, it works well here. 

Alice... also boasts an excellent soundtrack; Oliver Wallace's lush musical score complementing hit songs, such as Sammy Fain and Bob Hillard's I'm Late and  Mack David, Jerry Livingston and Al Hoffman's The Unbirthday Song, which have become standards in their own right.

 

Contemporary critics bemoaned that the characters were more Disney than Carroll. In retrospect this is probably the adaptations greatest asset. Sensing that the book’s highly detailed John Tenniel illustration would be virtually impossible to transfer to animation, the Disney artists streamlined the character appearances, ‘Disney-fying’ them if you will; retaining the essence of Tenniel, but fleshing out the design to be plausible as they move through their animated environs. One could also argue that the movie’s many supporting characters are underdeveloped, or a least underused, as they wander in and out of the narrative having little actual influence on it. However, this argument too, fails to hold water when one considers the enduring popularity of the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts et al to this day.  

Perhaps the only genuine flaw - and it is a minor one - is the episodic nature of the narrative. There is little plot, other than Alice stumbling from one crazy sequence to another in her attempt to go home. Yet the source material itself is episodic and I feel that the balance between producing a faithful version of the book and an original motion picture movie is largely successful. 

After a disappointing performance at the box office Alice... was relegated to screening, in edited form, on the weekly Disneyland anthology TV series. The movie was not seen again in its original length in cinemas until a 1974 reissue, when it’s psychedelic poster art made little attempt to distance itself from it reputation as a ‘head’ film. A quarter of a decade following its original release, Alice in Wonderland finally took its place among the classic Disney animated features; regarded alongside Fantasia (various directors, 1940) and The Three Caballeros (Norman Ferguson, 1944) as a visually stunning piece of proto-psychedelia. 

While it is, perhaps, not a masterpiece of storytelling in the manner of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand, 1937) or Pinocchio (Hamilton Luske & Ben Sharpsteen, 1940), Alice in Wonderland is still an eye popping extravaganza that holds up to the best of Disney. With so much to enjoy and admire in Alice..., repeated visits to Wonderland are essential.

Artemis Fowl (2020)

Artemis Fowl (Dir: Kenneth Branagh, 2020). 

Sci-fi actioner based upon the best selling series of YA books by Eoin Colfer. 

When his criminal mastermind father is kidnapped, 12 year old Artemis Foul (Ferdia Shaw) must secure the Aculos, a magical fairy device of immense power, in order to buy his father's freedom. Along for the ride are butler Dom (Nonso Anozie), fairy cop (Lara McDonnell) and giant dwarf Mulch Diggums (Josh Gad) who has the downright freaky ability of unhinging his jaw, digging with his mouth and shooting the dirt from his backside. Big names in small roles include Colin Farrell as Fowl Sr and Judi Dench as some kind of ancient elf commander in chief. 

Pre-worldwide pandemic, Disney’s big summer hopeful was scheduled for release in May 2020. With movie theatres closed for the duration, it has instead joined other big studio releases DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls World Tour (Walt Dohrn, 2020) and Warner's Scoob! (Tony Cervone, 2020) in bypassing cinemas and heading straight to streaming. Rather than the rental route taken by Trolls and Scoob!, Disney have released Artemis Fowl exclusively to its in-house subscription service Disney+; making its worldwide debut on 12th June. 

A lot of people work hard on a movie and I am sure nobody sets out to do a bad job. Many talented performers, artists and technicians spent many hours bringing Artemis Fowl to the screen and their efforts are to be admired. However, politeness aside for a moment, the movie is a bit of a mess. But it is by no means unwatchable. 

I greatly admire the work of  Kenneth Branagh. From Shakespeare to superheroes he has proved himself a talented, versatile director. Having previously brought to the screen successful tentpole pictures such as Thor (K Branagh, 2011) and Cinderella (K Branagh, 2015), one would expect him to deliver the goods with Artemis Fowl. Indeed the movie looks good, the action rarely flags and it employs some decent performers. Yet as a whole it doesn't really gel. It's likeable enough, but a $125 million budget summer blockbuster, as this was intended to be, should be more than merely likeable.

For those, like myself, unfamiliar with the novels, the mix of fairytale whimsy and sci-fi spectacle will seems frankly odd, while the toing and froing between real world Ireland and fantasy Haven City is somewhat jarring. The tone of the movie is all over the place with evidence of cutting all too apparent. Early trailers offer a glimpse of elaborate visual effects sequences which are nowhere to be seen in the finished film and one suspects that part of the problem may stem from a messy edit. Much of the characterisation is, sadly, rather week. Rather than the more ambiguous anti-hero of the novels, Artemis here is a clean-cut, cool surfer dude. The relationship between father and son is barely established before Dad's disappearance and we never really understand what motivates the bad guy. Were the movie particularly original, some of its faults could be more forgiven. Ultimately, its biggest problem is an overriding atmosphere of seen it before, seen it done better before. 

Of the cast, Ferdia Shaw makes a personable debut as Artemis while Lara McDonnell impresses as fairy Holly Short. The heavyweight adult cast of Judi Dench, Colin Farrel and Josh Gad are a largely underused, although much of their performances likely ended up on the cutting room floor. Standout for me was Nonso Anozie as the Fowls' faithfully servant/bodyguard Dom. Azonie and Shaw share some nice scenes as the butler mentors young Fowl.

It is fair to speculate that Disney were cutting their losses by releasing the movie straight to the home market. With its original release already delayed from summer 2019, I imagine there were legitimate concerns it would suffer the same fate as the studios' other recent ambitious but under performing sci-fi fantasies Tomorrowland (Brad Bird, 2015) and A Wrinkle in Time (Ava DuVernay, 2018). A Disney+ releases both provides the service with exclusive content while distancing the studio from a box office bomb. 

At around 90 minutes Artemis Fowl is a short movie with a narrative that is simultaneously underdeveloped and overly complex. Worth a look if you are already a Disney+ subscriber. But with changes made to the original concept, it is likely to be a movie unsatisfactory for fans of the book and a little overwhelming for newcomers. Clearly designed as a franchise opener, the finale is open-ended. However, I wouldn’t hold my breath for Artemis Fowl 2. 

The Buccaneer (1958)

The Buccaneer (Dir: Anthony Quinn, 1958).

Historical accuracy goes out the window in this less than epic war movie, masquerading as a pirate adventure. 

Famed privateer Jean Lafitte (Yul Brynner) is offloading his ill gotten gains to the good people of Louisiana, much to the chagrin of Governor William Claiborne (E G Marshall), while also romancing the governor's daughter Annette (Inger Stevens). The governor conspires with General Andrew Jackson (Charlton Heston) to put an end to Lafitte's pirating ways but eventually seek his assistance at the Battle of New Orleans. 

The Buccaneer had an interesting journey to the screen which is worth recounting here. A fictionalised account of the real life events of the War of 1812 between the US and the British, it was originally filmed by Paramount Pictures in 1938 by Cecil B DeMille. Having scored a massive hit in 1956 with the remake of his 1923 epic The Ten Commandments, DeMille was set to repeat the trick as director of this. A series of heart attacks forced him to pull out with directing duties passing to his son-in-law, actor Anthony Quinn. This resulted in the unusual screen credit of "Supervised by Cecil B DeMille". DeMille appears on screen in an introductory prologue but appears in ill health. Sadly this was to be the legendary director's final film.

Though its title and accompanying ad campaign would lead you to believe otherwise, The Buccaneer is light on pirate action. Very little swash is actually buckled and aside from an early bit of shipboard action, most of the movie takes place on dry land. Were the movie marketed as a civil war picture this would be less of an issue. Disregarding the misleading title, The Buccaneer is still an underwhelming effort. One major hurdle it fails to overcome is a lack of location footage. The movie is doggedly studio bound, something particularly evident in the swamp settings and final battle sequence. No amount of fake trees or fog can disguise the fact that we are watching actors on a soundstage. Ultimately, this artificiality robs the movie of any scope. 

Quinn’s perfunctory but staid direction doesn’t help. Little attempt is made to fill the VistaVision screen with anything but foreground action, resulting in a spectacle movie in which spectacle is glaringly absent. Granted, the scenes of sailing ships have the requisite grandeur. However I suspect these were achieved using stock footage, especially as a change in film stock is evident. 

In its favour, the movie does have a decent cast. Once you get used to seeing Yul Brynner with hair(!), he certainly cuts a dash as Lafitte. Less well served is Charlton Heston as General Andrew Jackson. Bedecked in a grey wig he seems a little youthful and, oddly for Heston, lacking in authority to really convince as the future president. Further down the cast, look out for a pre-Bonanza Lorne Greene, character star Jack Kruschen and a brief appearance by the great Woody Strode. 

I suspected The Buccaneer seemed a bit of a dinosaur back in ‘58; an example of the dying Hollywood studio system era and a misjudged attempt to win audiences distracted by TV and Rock ‘n’ Roll. Although I enjoyed The Buccaneer, I can’t pretend that it was not a little disappointing. If wonky re-writes of US history are your thing this should be right up your alley. Worth watching for some gorgeous Technicolor photography and a spirited performance from Yul Brynner, but not much else. 

Herbie Rides Again (1974)

Herbie Rides Again (Dir: Robert Stevenson, 1974). 

Released 5 years after Walt Disney Productions' blockbuster The Love Bug (Robert Stevenson, 1969), this first sequel of the Herbie franchise reunited most of the creative team of the original movie. Disney Studios’ star director Robert Stevenson is once again at the helm, with production and screenwriting duties handled by Bill Walsh, from a story by Gordon Buford.

Following the events of The Love Bug, anthropomorphic VW Bug Herbie is now in the care of elderly Mrs Steinmetz (Helen Hayes). Her nephew, mechanic Tennessee Steinmetz, has left the car in his aunt's care while he visits Tibet. Former owner race driver Jim Douglas, meanwhile, is now competing on the European circuit. Sharing Steinmetz's ancient firehouse home is airline flight attendant Nicole (Stephanie Powers) and together with fledgling lawyer Willoughby Whitfield (Ken Berry) they must fight to stop the firehouse from falling into the hands of evil property tycoon Alonzo Hawk (Keenan Wynn). Hawk will stop at nothing, legal or otherwise, to procure the land for his planned skyscraper Hawk Plaza, but meets his match when he comes up  against Herbie.

13 years after directing The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), Robert Stevenson was an old hand at the Disney formula comedy and proves that there is still juice in the tank with this above average effort. Once again the action takes place in San Francisco, achieved with a combination of matte paintings and location footage. The cityscape is put to good use, especially in the many chase sequences, taking in areas such as Market Street and Fisherman's Wharf; the most inventive chase of all sees Herbie crossing the Golden Gate Bridge via its suspension cables! The pre-CGI special effects that allow the Bug to achieve this and other dizzying feats holds up well; landing the car, and those in his pursuit, in some hair-raising situations as thrilling as they are funny. 

With no returning cast members and little racing action, Herbie Rides Again has a distinctly different flavour to the original Love Bug. However, this is no bad thing. Especially considering the next movie in the series Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (Vincent McEveety, 1977) which did return the Bug to racing was a below par affair. While a sequel to a movie about a race car with no racing seems unlikely, it was probably the correct decision as the result is that this movie never feels overly derivative of the first.

Reprising his role from The Absent-Minded Professor and Son of Flubber (Robert Stevenson, 1963), Keenan Wynn gives a deliciously over the top performance as proto-Trumpian corrupt business man Alonzo Hawk. Nicely offsetting Wynn is the always reliable Helen Hayes’ turn as the sweet yet no nonsense grandma Steinmetz. Ken Berry and Stephanie Powers are attractive leads and handle both the chaste romance and the physical comedy with equal skill. However, the car is the star here and the best that anyone else can do is try to not be upstaged by the cute and personable VW. 

While Herbie Rides Again doesn’t quite live up to its near perfect predecessor, it is still a lot of fun. Lacking the subtler humour of the original, the movie still holds plenty of laugh of the broader, slapstick variety. Though not as big a hit as The Love Bug, the movie enjoyed a deservedly healthy run at the box office. Sophisticated it may not be, but its wining mix of laughs and thrills is hard to resist. It is also far superior to the sequels that followed. 

The Million Dollar Duck (1971)

The Million Dollar Duck (Dir: Vincent McEveety, 1971). 

A domestic comedy from Walt Disney Productions. Referred to in publicity as $1,000,000 Duck, the tale is a spin on the Aesop’s Fable of The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs. 

After radiation exposure, dumb duck Charley begins to lay solid gold eggs. Much to the delight of cash strapped research scientist Albert Dooley (Dean Jones) and his dippy missus Katie (Sandy Duncan). Friendly neighbourhood lawyer Fred (Tony Roberts) is in on the act of keeping their discovery from nosy nextdoor US Treasury Department employee Hooper (Joe Flynn).  As gold fever engulfs the household, the generation gap between Albert and his son Jimmy (Lee Montgomery) grows. The kid only wanted a pet duck. At the risk of losing his poultry pal to the government, the pair fly the coop, hitching a ride on a hot-rod and creating crosstown chaos as mom and pop, the money men and the cops join pursuit of boy and bird .

By the end of the decade the Disney brand of formulaic comedy was kinda tired but, happily, The Million Dollar Duck finds the formula in pretty robust form. The familiar 70's Disney mix of cute kids, cuter animals, bungling bureaucrats, car chases and back-projection aided action are all present and correct. Little of the humour is subtle, but if you enter into the silliness of the plot there are plenty of big laughs, while a rooftop rescue climax is pretty hair raising, even if the outcome is a forgone conclusion.

Dean Jones had played essentially the same character in a previous half dozen Disney movies yet enters into the role with his usual good spirits. Nobody played the put upon everyman quite like Jones and his talent for kooky comedy and sheer amiability are put to good use here. Sandy Duncan, in her movie debut, impresses as the scatterbrained housewife who at least has the good sense to value the wellbeing of her son above wealth. So ditzy is Duncan that her character should be annoying, but being Sandy Duncan she instead is rather endearing! (Yes, I have a little bit of a soft spot for Ms Duncan!) With a talent for quirky situation comedy, coupled with an upbeat perky persona, it is a surprise that she only made three further big screen appearances. As usual for Disney movies of its era, The Million Dollar Duck is distinguished by a first class supporting cast. Comedy favourites Joe Flynn and Edward Andrews and character actors James Gregory and Jack Kruschen all make welcome appearances and add a little class to proceedings. 

With its strong cast, decent production values and keen sense of silliness, The Million Dollar Duck is an easy movie to admire. Disney kids of the 60s and 70s will undoubtedly feel pangs of nostalgia while watching, while today's more sophisticated young 'uns should still get a kick out of the goofy, goodnatured humour. Cultured it ain't, but its clean-cut charms are hard to resist. 

Hell Bent for Leather (1960)

Hell Bent for Leather (Dir: George Sherman, 1960).

The Audie Murphy western wagon trundled on with Hell Bent For Leather. Yet, on this occasion the end product is a mite gritter than one would usually expect from a Murphy movie. 

Wandering into homestead Sutterville after having his horse stolen, cattle man Clay Santell (Murphy) is mistaken by the townsfolk for a murderer known as Travers (Jan Merlin). He is pursued by a corrupt Marshall (Stephen McNally) who knows of his innocence but wants the glory of caching 'the killer'. Santell goes on the lam, taking with him hostage Janet Gifford (Felicia Farr), herself a town outcast due to the actions of her late father.  

A psychological western with just a hint of film noir, Hell Bent for Leather might be better considered a 'wrong man' thriller in western apparel than an actual western. Those familiar with post-War noir thrillers will recognise the set-up from countless other movies. Yet, while the premise may not be original, it is executed here with skill. 

Director George Sherman and writer Christopher Knopf deliver a tight suspense with genuine intrigue and enough twists to keep the audience guessing until the final reel. Shot in Eastman Color and Cinemascope, the movie looks terrific! The rugged Alabama Mountains, California locations are beautifully captured  by cinematographer Clifford Stine and provide a unusual backdrop for this moodily atmospheric piece.  

Murphy gives arguably his best performance as the wrongly accused man, as does model turned actress Felicia Farr. As the hostage whose feeling towards her kidnapper turn from antipathy to sympathy, Farr demonstrates how talented a performer she was. Sadly underappreciated by Hollywood, in retrospect Hell Bent for Leather should have consolidated her a status as a leading lady; instead she worked almost exclusively in television in coming years. Stand out in the supporting cast is Stephen McNally; his wildly charismatic turn as bad'un Marshall Deckett is the embodiment of crazed malevolence! Shot by Stine with an array of off-kilter camera angles, it is a delicious helping of the best kind of ham!

My expectations were low for what i expected would be a run-of-the mill B-western. How wrong I was! A short movie, a little over 80 minutes, it was almost certainly destined to play as a double feature. Yet Hell Bent for Leather stands on its own as an exciting fast-moving western/thriller and probably Murphy’s best movie. 

Kansas Raiders (1950)

Kansas Raiders (Dir: Ray Enright, 1950).

A lively western adventure, set against the backdrop of the American Civil War. 

This star vehicle for Universal contract player Audie Murphy, is a highly fictionalised account of the early career of the outlaw Jesse James. Here such historical figures as young Jesse (Audie Murphy) and his brother Frank (Richard Long) team up with Kit Dalton (Tony Curtis) and the Younger brothers under the tutelage of Confederate guerrilla Colonel William Quantrill (Brian Donlevy), in a kinda outlaw equivalent of Avenger Assemble (Josh Whedon, 2012).

Murphy seems much more at ease here than in some of his early pictures and gives a convincing performance at the young Jesse. He is ably supported by co-stars Brian Donlevy and a pre-stardom Tony Curtis. All credit goes to the cast for give better performances than this otherwise underwhelming movie deserves.   

With its fair share of shoot-ups and some surprisingly violent raids, Kansas Raiders is not lacking in action, yet little in the movie rings true. It certainly isn’t awful but, ultimately, there are too many plot holes and conveniences in the narrative for it to be entirely believable.  Another problem from an audience perspective is the difficulty in sympathising with a protagonist who is a villain. Even when he appears to have a crisis of conscious, history, or rather legend, tells us it will only be temporary and he will go on to become a notorious outlaw. The movie also suffers from an uneven tone, at times treating its subject with more levity than it does good taste. An overall more gritty approach would certainly have suited the story better. On the positive side, the somewhat backlot bound production is enlivened by some gorgeous Technicolor.

Oddly reminiscent of the juvenile delinquent flicks of the mid-1950s,  Kansas Raiders could be seen as western precursor of those. As such, it was probably enjoyed most by younger patrons of matinees. 70 years later, it doesn’t really cut it as history lesson or action movie. It is worth a watch for Audie Murphy’s performance but, outside of Murphy fans and vintage western aficionados, its appeal is limited.

Hello Down There (1969)

Hello Down There (Dir: Jack Arnold, 1969). 

Frank Miller (Tony Randall) and his family must spend 30 days in a prototype house located 90 feet below the surface of the ocean, or Frank loses his job. In tow are his daughter's fiance and brother who along with the Miller kids make up the bubblegum pop quartet Harold and the Hang-Ups.

As a boy I was always intrigued with the idea of living underwater. Science fiction movies such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Richard Fleischer, 1954) and City Beneath the Sea (Irwin Allen, 1971) were firm favourites. While there are sci-fi elements to the concept of a family living in an experimental undersea home, they go sadly unexplored. Instead the movie’s focus is on cosy domesticity and generation-gap gags. This gives the movie the air of a 1960s US TV sitcom, unsurprising perhaps, as director Jack Arnold was responsible for multiple episodes of Gilligan's Island (1964-1967) and The Brady Bunch (1969-1974). More surprising is that Arnold was also the man who gave the world the sci-fi masterpieces It Came from Outer Space (J. Arnold, 1953) and The Incredible Shrinking Man (J. Arnold, 1957). Little of the ingenuity and originally of those classics is evident here. 

Even the efforts of a very talented cast amount to little in a comedy where more jokes miss than hit. The subtle comic talents of Tony Randall are wasted in this broadest of comedies. As the water phobic Mrs Miller, little is asked of Janet Leigh other than to accidentally fall into the ocean and scream a lot. Accomplished comedy players Jim Backus, Ken Berry and Roddy McDowall offer solid support but the material is just not up to standard. The movie provides an early role for Richard Dreyfuss as Harold, the lead singer and guitarist with the Hang-Ups. To his credit, he makes the best with what he has to work with, but this is really lacklustre stuff. Hang in there Richard, American Graffiti is only four years away...

As you would expect from Flipper creator Ivan Tors, the are plenty of antics with friendly dolphins and a pet sea lion. For thrills there is a shark attack and potentially deadly hurricane. However, the audience never feels the family are in real danger, such is the movie's lightweight tone.

Until about a week ago I was blissfully unaware of the existence of Hello Down There. It seems largely forgotten now and probably with good reason, in spite of the presence an A list cast and a talented director. The movie does, admittedly, have a fun concept, but unfortunately nobody involved in production bothered to make it funny.

I would hesitate to say I didn’t enjoy Hello Down There. While it is not especially good, it is odd enough to be oddly entertaining! Possibly I am being over critical of something meant as lighthearted entertainment. But considering the talent involved it is hard to view it as anything but a disappointment. 

Sierra (1950)

Sierra (Dir: Anthony E Green, 1950).

A Technicolor western drama from Universal. Based upon Stuart Hardy's 1937 novel The Mountains Are My Kingdom and previously filmed as Forbidden Valley (Wyndham Gittens, 1938). 

Ring Hassard (Audie Murphy) and his father Jeff (Dean Jagger) have been holed up in the mountains for 15 years after Jeff was wrongly accused of murder. With the aid of lawyer Riley Martin (Wanda Hendrix) they attempt to clear his name, but most townsfolk would rather see Ring and Jeff hanged.

Achieving national hero status as the most decorated US soldier in World War II, Audie Murphy was still fairly new to movies. In this, his 5th screen appearance he receives second billing to then real-life Mrs Murphy, Wanda Hendrix. The pair are fine in the leads, although there is, perhaps, a surprising lack of chemistry between the two. Tellingly, the couple's short lived marriage was over by the time the movie was released. Bedridden for much of the movie, talented character actor Dean Jagger has little to do, yet is effective in his role as the falsely accused man. The standout performance is that of singer turned actor Burl Ives as amiable hermit Lonesome. Lending his beautiful voice to a handful of folk ballads, it is a solid performance from Ives and an early indication of his tremendous talent, later given full rein in star character roles such as The Big Country (William Wyler, 1958) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Richard Brooks, 1958). Sierra also offered early roles for future stars Tony (here billed as Anthony) Curtis and James (billed as Jim) Arness. 

It is a fairly modest movie and a little lacking in elaborate action set-pieces, yet, at less than 90 minutes, the pace rarely flags. What distinguishes the movie most is Russell Metty's vivid colour cinematography. This, along with its rugged Utah locations help give the movie a larger scope than was afforded the average studio oater. 

Sierra is not quite a classic of the western genre but is a decent movie nonetheless. Lightweight, enjoyable matinee fodder, enlivened by Metty's striking Technicolor photography and the mellifluous vocal talent of Mr Burl Ives.