Category: 1950s

Released the same year as Rear Window, this simpler and similar version of the story has Barbara Stanwyck as a woman who witnesses George Sanders murder another woman across the street from her window. Everyone, especially the cops, paints her as a stupid, delusional woman and things are made worse when the killer begins to torment her. Despite a bit of real hokeyness at the end, Stanwyck and Sanders are fantastic, especially in their scenes together.    

When the first manned rocket ship to Mars lands back on Earth, the only surviving and conscious member of the crew recounts what happened on their journey. The glowing red surface is covered in jungles filled with carnivorous plants and giant creatures, most impressively the enormous bat-spider, who have no interest in visits from earthlings. Life on Mars is delightfully monstrous here and all scenes filmed on the surface are cast in an entirely red light. There’s some forward thinking casting here as one of the four astronauts is female that is until it is shown that her main purpose as a scientist is to prepare meals and be sexually harassed by the rest of the crew. 

When the woman who has hitched a ride with him is murdered, detective Mike Hammer, played by Ralph Meeker, decides to investigate with the help of his girlfriend/secretary Maxine Cooper. The pair soon find themselves mixed in a conspiracy involving top secret governmental experiments. I enjoy the settings, especially Hammer’s swinging bachelor pad and various Los Angeles locales such as Angels Flight. I always like a good MacGuffin, here in the form of a hot suitcase that leads to an explosive ending. The film is notable for featuring the debut of an unrecognizable to me Cloris Leachman. What I didn’t like in the film was the entire character of Hammer. I’ve never read any of the Mickey Spillane books, but the detective here is a hyper-masculine wreck who treats women and friends like easily discarded trash.  

While one of the last films in the series, this is my first experience watching one of the Hope-Crosby Road to films. While it’s definitely not without its charms, it also didn’t make me feel like I need to make sure I watch the entire series. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby are a song and dance team where both members need to flee Australia because of ill advised marriage proposals. They wind up on their way to Indonesia to work for a prince and end up both falling for his cousin. The plot isn’t really the point of these films. It’s the in-jokes, hijinks, gags, and chemistry between the two lead to seven of these films being made. It’s interestingly the only one in Technicolor. The type of loud humor seems almost necessary to be paired with bright colors. One other notable bit about this entry is the various cameos from other celebrities such as Martin and Lewis, Jane Russell, and Humphrey Bogart by way of a cut from The African Queen.  

Richard Widmark is an American conman living in London looking for his next big score. He finds it in the form of a veteran Greek wrestler though he has to contend with the wrestler’s son who effectively controls wrestling throughout London. It’s a somewhat convoluted plot where Widmark must manipulate his associates to get the permissions and the money that he needs to pull the scheme off, but that doesn’t detract from dark desperation that Widmark soon finds himself in. The extras on the Criterion DVD include a comparison of the British and American versions of the film which goes a long way to explaining how much a score can change the tone of a film.