[bowers]

 I also mourned the loss of Jim Hutton's "Ellery Queen". John Hillerman's Simon Brimmer was the perfect foil to Hutton's character. Great writing kept that always kept the plot moving. One of my favorite moments came before the reveal when Hutton would break the fourth wall and ask the viewers if they had solved the mystery, sometimes reviewing the clues with us. Definitely deserved another season. Probably cancelled because it made us use our brains, and that's not good for the advertisers! Cheers, Bowers

[profh0011]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think I did see the Jim Hutton pilot, as it was run during the NBC MYSTERY MOVIE schedule (probably when it had moved to Tuesdays).  For whatever reason, the entire 2nd night worth of series all got cancelled at once (all 4 of them), which may be why ELLERY QUEEN became a one-hour weekly.

A similar sort of thing happened-- to a degree-- with QUINCY, M.E., the next-to-last MYSTERY MOVIE series to debut.  NBC actually cancelled the whole MYSTERY MOVIE thing after 5 years (McCLOUD's 6th), but then changed their minds! As a result of this, the writing on McCLOUD got kinda dodgy for the first time when it came back for a 7th season, while McMILLAN AND WIFE became McMILLAN because 3/4ths of the regular cast had all moved on to new series at the same time!  So while Rock Hudson came back... they revealed that Susan St. James' character had gotten KILLED in a plane crash between seasons, along with her baby.  Those B******s!!  (The supreme irony was... I felt the writing on that season got better.  Decades later, I felt the same way about EIGHT SIMPLE RULES after John Ritter actually died in real life-- to me, the show got better.  I know, it's terrible to say that...)

QUINCY started as 6 90-minute movies... but after the first 4, was suddenly YANKED from the MYSTERY MOVIES schedule and moved to Friday nights, where, after the last 2 movies, itb became a one-hour weekly series.  Jack Klugman said he wanted to do a doctor show, NOT a detective show, complained, then walked off the show for one week, until they changed the format.  Damned thing lasted 7 years, but I never liked it as much after they bowed to his demands to make it more of a "doctor" show and less of a "detective" show.  And I grew up watching doctor shows, but I just thought QUINCY got boring halfway thru its 1st season.

After all the other shows were gone, COLUMBO lasted one more year entirely on its own... with each film scheduled whenever the hell NBC felt like putting them on.  Which may explain why I never saw any of them until they turned up in syndication, many years later.  I never knew when it was on!

The identical thing happened when ABC revived it a decade later.  After 2 seasons as part of the ABC MYSTERY MOVIES, COLUMBO continued for around another decade... it's miraculous I only missed one or two of them in all that time.  Of course, I was TAPING them by that point, which always gave me more of an incentive to thoroughly check the TV GUIDEs every week.  Peter Falk took over as executive producer in the 2nd ABC season, and I thought the show improved TREMENDOUSLY.  I'd mostly tolerated COLUMBO all thru the 70s, but in the 90s, it genuinely became one of my favorite series.  (Somebody on FB went on at great length to contradict me on this... I always thing it's the height of rudeness when someone is raving about something they love, and someone else feels compelled to CRAP all over it.)

[profh0011]

THEY CALL IT MURDER     (1969 / 1971)
The D.A. Draws A Circle     ****   (of 10)

HOW many District Attorneys would go out in the field to do their own investigating? At least "J. L. McCabe" had Jake Styles.

Earl Stanley Gardner flipped his own PERRY MASON format with his "Doug Selby" series of novels. After 6 years of trying to get it made, this pilot was finally made in late 1969-early 1970... but NBC let it sit on the shelf for almost 2 years before finally airing it. I can see why, though.

Like "IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT", I feel this is a murder mystery that goes on too long with too many twists to keep straight. Also, not enough quirkiness and character humor to make a successful "NBC Mystery Movie".

What a FABULOUS cast, so many actors I know and like from so many things. But a dull mystery done without any style at all, and convoluted beyond all belief. I LOVE murder mysteries, but I had a hard time sitting throught this.

I like Jim Hutton, but he was SO much better as the "quirky" ELLERY QUEEN 4 years later! Near the end, he pulls his car over and says to himself, "So THAT's how it was done!" Almost a precursor to Ellery turning to the audience.

Jessica Walters was a beautiful lady, but really got typecast as "INTENSE". She's less so in this. She also starred in a SHORT-lived NBC Mystery Movie series, "AMY PRENTISS", which I suspect also didn't have enough humor.

2 funny things I noticed watching this. I've always liked Nita Talbot, but until today, I somehow never noticed she somewhat resembled Polish actress Ingrid Pitt (but with a very-different accent).

The other... Lloyd Bochner always made a specialty of "SLIMY". If he only had a moustache in this (which he does quite often), he'd have been a DEAD RINGER for actor Warren William, who played the mid-30s "SHYSTER" version of PERRY MASON. Earl Stanley Gardner hated those films, and after 6 of them (4 with William), the last being in 1938, PERRY was not seen again on film until Raymond Burr's series. But I find it VERY interesting that Gardner wrote the book this movie was based on-- "The D. A. Draws A Circle"-- in 1939-- one year after that last PERRY movie. I wonder if the slimy defense attorney in this film played by Bochner may have been INSPIRED by the SHYSTER version of PERRY played by Warren William? It would almost be Gardner's way of getting back at Warner Brothers for their refusing to let him act as consultant on their PERRY movies.

[Captain Audio]

An old TV series I liked was "Judd for the Defense".
His motto was "the best defense the law allows". He didn't care how evil or twisted his client might be or if he himself believed the defendent was guilty as sin. He was totally mercenary.
I think the only time he refused a case was when he actually witnessed the murder of a scum bag he had just successfully defended in a double sex murder. He was happy to see his client killed and sympathiezed with the killer but he could not defend someone when he knew for a fact they were guilty, but only because that would jeopardize his objectivity and might result in his losing a case.

[crashryan]

The weirdest Perry Mason fact that I know is that the radio show--which Gardner didn't like and which had little to do with the books--ran for 12 years and was successful enough to be slated to become a daytime TV serial. Gardner didn't like it and pulled his support. The show was rebranded The Edge of Night and ran for three decades! It was one of the first two TV soap operas, the other being As the World Turns.

[profh0011]

Captain Audio:
""Judd for the Defense".  His motto was "the best defense the law allows". He didn't care how evil or twisted his client might be or if he himself believed the defendent was guilty as sin. He was totally mercenary."

Oh, that's wild!  I've heard of that show, but never seen it.


CrashRyan:
"ran for 12 years and was successful enough to be slated to become a daytime TV serial. Gardner didn't like it and pulled his support. The show was rebranded The Edge of Night and ran for three decades! It was one of the first two TV soap operas, the other being As the World Turns."

MORE wild stuff!  I have the feeling there's a lot of strange instances of how some shows got on the air.


I've heard, for example, that AMY PRENTISS began as a backdoor pilot episode of IRONSIDE.  Later, JAKE AND THE FATMAN began as a backdoor pilot on MATLOCK.

From what I read yesterday, the DOUG SELBY pilot was something the company doing PERRY MASON was trying to sell for 6 whole years before it finally got filmed.  But I guess they couldn't do that as a backdoor pilot, as PERRY had ended before they finally got around to filming it.

DOUG SELBY and JACK AND THE FATMAN were both more-or-less instances of a "defense attorney" show trying to spin off a "prosecuting attorney" show.


I'd seen Warren William in a number of things over the years (including a small part in THE WOLF MAN) but it was THE CASE OF THE HOWLING DOG (1934) that really first made me a big fan of his.  So imagine my confusion when the immediate follow-up, THE CASE OF THE CURIOUS BRIDE (1935), which I just re-watched yesterday, seemed to present a COMPLETELY-different version of Perry... even though it was the same actor playing him!

I did an IMDB reveiw of CURIOUS BRIDE back in 2009, and it got multiple "dislikes", apparently from people who enjoyed the film.  So did I... I just couldn't make any sense of it at all.  I actually described it as "the film's cleverness was getting in the way of itself".

Looking at it now, I know EXACTLY what happened:  THE THIN MAN (1934).  That was apparently one of the biggest box-office successes of 1934, and the result was similar to what happened when the Adam West BATMAN hit #1 in the ratings in its first 4 weeks.  "Everybody" decided, "YEAH-- LET'S DO THAT!!!"

So they turned Perry into a COMEDY, had him obsessed with cooking and drinking, and even went so far as to have the resolution of the mystery take place-- NOT in a courtroom-- but at his house, where he held a "cocktail party".  I do think Perry had MORE of an idea who the killer really was than retired, married, full-time ALCOHOLIC Nick Charles did.  Nick told his wife, "I have NO IDEA!" --he was just hoping for luck exposing the killer.

I know that film is extremely popular, but I've seen it 3 times now.  The first 2 times I didn't understand it.  The 3rd time, I understood it-- I just didn't LIKE it.  Geez.  I really wish William Powell had stuck with playing the highly-intelligent PHILO VANCE.  Nobody else ever came close to him in that role... and there were a LOT of actors who followed him.


It really flipped me out today when I connected how much the defense attorney played by Lloyd Bochner reminded me of Warren William's Perry-- well, the SERIOUS version of him, anyway, from "THE HOWLING DOG".  With all the "connections" I've been picking up on between various stories by various writers, it really would not surprise me if the character Bochner played (created in 1939) wasn't created as a DIRECT response to the nonsense Warner Brothers had pulled in their 6 PERRY MASON movies.

It's fun to figure stuff like this out!

[profh0011]

I just looked up JUDD FOR THE DEFENSE.  I see it ran 2 seasons from 1967-69, staring a year after PERRY MASON ended.  Carl Betz starred, following 8 years as the husband on THE DONNA REED SHOW!  Before that, I saw him on an episode of the Darren McGavin MIKE HAMMER show.  (I thought the face looked familiar.)

[profh0011]

THE CASE OF THE CURIOUS BRIDE   (1935)
Perry Mason 2: Too Much Fun?     ******  (of 10)

I just watched THE CASE OF THE CURIOUS BRIDE again, the 2nd Perry Mason film. Once more with Warren William in the lead, but with a different Della, and with Allan Jenkins now playing "Spudsy" Drake instead of a police inspector. Perry now has a virtual army of friends & cronies, all of whom seem to be too happy to be hanging around in his sphere. It's almost like a Doc Savage story, except in this case, "Ham" is the hero! There's also a District Attourney who seems genuinely eager to have Perry brought up on charges of murder, or at the very least, disbarred!

Michael Curtiz, one of the most successful & popular directors in Hollywood history, did this installment, and frankly, it's got SO MUCH style & character & humor-- TOO much, I think, it seems Curtiz is trying to hard too distract the audience, focusing on almost everything EXCEPT the murder mystery. I'm reminded, a bit, of how I heard that when Orson Welles did TOUCH OF EVIL, he wound up taking an "average" crime story and threw his entire repertoire of skills at it in an attempt to turn it into a "work of art". At least in the restored version, I think he succeeded... In the case of ...CURIOUS BRIDE, I've seen this at least 3 times (AND read the book-- the only Earl Stanley Gardner novel I have read to date), and I find it almost impossible to follow the plot of this thing!

From what I remember of the novel, it was much simpler, much more straight-forward, and much easier to follow along with-- much like the 1st film, THE CASE OF THE HOWLING DOG. That was complex-- but complex in a "murder mystery" sort of way. This thing just seems to be getting in its own way trying to be too clever.
     (2-24-2009)

[profh0011]

THE CASE OF THE LUCKY LEGS   (1935)
Perry Mason 3:  UNFORGIVABLE, but HILARIOUS!     *****  (of 10)

Warner Bros.' PERRY MASON series of the 1930s is as schizophrenic as it gets. Across 6 films, they seem to have 6 COMPLETELY-different versions of Perry Mason-- despite one actor, the mezmerizing and manic Warren William, playing him in the first 4!

In HOWLING DOG, he's deadly-serious. In CURIOUS BRIDE, he's having too much fun. But in LUCKY LEGS, he's going way too far into "Nick Charles" territory. When we first see him, a client finds what he believes is a dead body lying on the floor behind Mason's desk. Della finds it's just her boss, passed out from a bender. On his awakening, she says, "Mr. Mason will see you presently." And it goes on like that from there!

Despite this total perversion of the source material, I have to admit, this genuinely IS one of the FUNNIEST mystery-comedies I've ever seen in my life. The pacing and hilarity is fast and non-stop, and I only began to get lost near the end, when to the annoyance of the cops, he spells out the truth of the murder while in the midst of getting a check-up from his equally-crazy doctor.

There were also 5 different Della Streets in these films, and Genevieve Tobin in here, while less pretty than her predecessors, was clearly cast for her comedy talents. She's FUNNY as HELL!

Allen Jenkins makes his 3rd appearance in the series, his 2nd as "Spudsy" Drake, and this time we get to see his disgruntled (and dangerous) wife.

Oddly enough, both Barton MacLane & Olin Howard return from the previous picture, again as cop & doctor, but strangely, MacLane goes from being "Detective Joe Lucas" to "Police Chief Bisonette", while Howard goes from "Coroner Wilber Strong" to "Dr. Croker, the coroner's friend". Since "croak" means to die, I suspect that last name is a JOKE, and Perry's medical examiner friend is really moon-lighting part-time as his physician.

We're now on the series' 3rd District Attorney in 3 films. Henry O'Neill as D. A. Manchester seems less menacing and more reasonable, prefering to let Perry spell out the facts before things ever get to court.

Lyle Talbot is younger than I've ever seen him, and at one point gets punched out by William. When I saw that, I yelled at my TV, "Perry Mason got to punch out Commissioner Gordon!"

PLOT? What's that? Who CARES? Oh, it's there, but I figure every other reviewer has already covered that. Now, I need a refill on my drink.

[profh0011]

THE WESTLAND CASE (1937)

My 2nd-favorite "Pat Chambers", Preston Foster, stars in the first of 3 films where he plays private eye "Bill Crane", a terrific murder mystery where he's trying to save an innocent man who's just 6 days from the electric chair. Featuring a virtual all-star cast of fabulous 1930s character actors! (The print on Youtube is fuzzy as hell AND cut to ribbons... I wonder if anyone has a better print of this on disc?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUWZhohOnGw

[profh0011]

THE PINK PANTHER   (1963)
Jet-Setters and Jewel Thieves     ********   (of 10)

An international jewel thief who poses as a rich aristrocrat, has set his eyes on his latest target, but runs into trouble when be begins to fall for its owner, an exiled Princess. On top of that, his college drop-out nephew shows up and is instantly attracted to his mistress-- the wife of a clueless French police inspector who's determined to catch him!

Clearly inspired by the style of Hitchcock's "TO CATCH A THIEF", Blake Edwards' 1963 film was intended to start a series in the fashion of Louis Joseph Vance's "LONE WOLF" series that centered on the adventures of reformed jewel thief "Michael Lanyard" (NOT his real name). But thing went awry.

Ava Gardner, cast as the policeman's wife, was replaced very late in the game due to chaos going on in her life. As a result of this, Peter Ustinov, who'd been cast as the detective, dropped out on the advice of his wife! Since learning of this, I find myself REALLY wishing I could have seen THAT version of this movie. I feel certain it would have been more consistent, coherent, and even more stylish.

Instead, we got Capucine (who's never "done it" for me in any films I've seen her in), and Peter Sellers, just at the point where he was over-dosing on weight-loss pills, determined to give himself more "handsome leading man" looks. When Edwards & Sellers met before shooting, they INSTANTLY hit it off, Edwards felt for the first time he had an actor who could bring to life his more outragious ideas, and the story was-- to a degree-- DERAILED and CONFUSED by expanding Sellers' role.

I first saw this on TV in the late 60s, when I was about 10 years old. I was captivated from the first, but admitedly confused. The film begins with no less than 4 seemingly-unrelated scenes, taking place in Rome, Los Angeles, Paris, and Cortina. It was only over the course of the first half-hour or more that these 4 threads slowly come together, and you see how things are inter-connected. I had NEVER seen anything like this; that said, this exact sort of storytelling has become quite common over the decades since, imitated by countless other movies.

It took me ages to realize that the REAL main character of the film was "Sir Charles Litton", played with endless style & sophistication by David Niven. He's a criminal, yet he is also by far the MOST likable character in the film! Once I realized this-- and even moreso since I got a widescreen copy off TCM-- my long admiration for this film increased tenfold.

Well... except for the Peter Sellers parts. Specifically, the TWO bedroom scenes that just go on and on and ON forever. I recently read that Edwards & Sellers both felt that "comedy" should be "painful"-- that scenes should be stretched beyond the point where audiences become very uncomfortable watching. I see what they're getting at, but I totally disagree with that sentiment. If it were up to me, those bedroom scenes would have been CUT drastically, dramatically improving the pacing and structure of the film in the process.

My favorite location in the film takes up the middle HALF, Cortina. It was also used in my favorite Roger Moore film, "FOR YOUR EYES ONLY". Both films together might make an unusual but fitting double-feature!

Another interesting double-bill might be this and "DEATH ON THE NILE" (1978), where Niven finally did get to team up with Peter Ustinov, as a far-more intelligent Belgian detective.

Henry Mancini does what might be argued the BEST score of his life here. In addition to the main title (used as Sir Charles' theme song whenever he goes into action as "The Phantom"), there's the romantic theme, "Meglio Stasera". It's played over much of the film, can be heard as a choral vocal during the party scene near the end, but most outstandingly, is performed as a stand-alone "music video" in the middle of film by singer & dancer Fran Jeffries. For many years, I mistook her character for that of the Princess! Only when I learned my error did I begin to notice her small bits elsewhere in the film, where she get NO dialogue at all. But when she's onscreen-- MY GOD!!! Her performance of "Meglio Stasera"-- which stop the film DEAD for 3 minutes-- appears to be there for no other reason than to replace where an intermission might have been in earlier years. Crazy enough-- it's my FAVORITE part of the film. I get emotional every time I see it, or even think about it. And, as some have pointed out, astounding to think it was done in ONE shot with no edits. (I wonder how many times they had to rehearse to get it so completely PERFECT?)

When I learned there was a sequel to this, "A SHOT IN THE DARK", I caught that on TV, and wound up enjoying that even more... most likely because it was more consistent, and didn't have its apparent hero (the police inspector) being cheated on by his wife for the entire story, and then going to jail for a crime he didn't commit at the end. But "THE PINK PANTHER" has grown on me on its own terms. It's a flawed classic, but a classic all the same.

I'm pretty sure Sir Charles failed to get the jewel by the end because of the Production Code, which was still in force in 1963. It would take 20 years before he finally DID get away with it! I'm glad he did, eventually.

[profh0011]

LE DERNIER DES SIX   (1941)
Six Dead Men -- Version 3     ******  (of 10)

Just watched this for the 2nd time.  A really fun, stylish mystery, with what appears a bigger budget than usually given US or UK crime films.   Commissioner Wens steals the movie.  With his sense of humor he'd have been a perfect fit on the NBC Mystery Movies.

Crazy but true: this was the 3rd film version of Steeman's "Six Dead Men", after "A STUDY IN SCARLET" (1933 / US) and "THE RIVERSIDE MURDER" (1935 / UK), a fact someone at the IMDB seems determined to ignore (I've tried adding the info TWICE). It's fun comparing the films, this one seems the most complex. (You didn't even see the underground tunnel in the UK film.)

I find myself wondering if the climax, where the killer sinks into quicksand, was in the novel-- and am trying to remember which version of Doyle's "HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES" first showed that onscreen.

Several reviewers have claimed this (or 1933's "A STUDY IN SCARLET") swiped from Christie's "TEN LITTLE INDIANS"-- but that book wasn't written until 1939, while Steeman's was in 1931! I'm not surprised, I've already seen multiple instances where Christie was swiping from Doyle... and Doyle more than once swiped from Poe!  It goes like that.

I'm looking forward to trackng down any later Steeman-based films I can find.

Multiple sites list the film at 90 minutes; strangely, the "Rare Films And More" DVD-R clocks in at 1:21:39.  I thought the movie seemed to running a bit FAST... tsk!

[profh0011]

THE MYSTERIOUS DR. FU MANCHU   (1929)
The Murderous Dr. Fu Manchu     ******  (of 10)

Just saw this today for the first time, courtesy of Kino Lorber's brand-new 2K master on Blu-Ray. Not quite what I expected-- LOTS of fun!

Apparently, like a number of much-later films involving classic characters (Conan, The Shadow, The Saint), someone in Hollywood decided to tack on an "origin" story that was never in the books.  In this case, they have Fu begin as a humanitarian before his family is killed by army crossfire. At that point, he becomes a diabolical serial killer bent on revenge "to the 3rd generation".  (Imagine if Michael Myers had a brain-- and tended to never shut up, explaining his plans at length, like a Bond villain!)

The image on the new Blu-Ray, while still damaged in spots, is mostly pretty sharp & stunning. Apparently, the film has NEVER looked this good in my lifetime. I wish someone had put in more effort with the sound, which is wildly inconsistent. The 2nd half of the story seems more like a filmed stage play than a movie, but a LOT more fun to watch than, say, the 1931 "DRACULA".

One long sequence takes place at an old mansion perched on top of a very dangerous-looking cliff, while the climax is entirely in a pair of rooms in Fu's hideout in Limehouse. At one moment, Fu points out the similarity to a classic "melodrama", which only emphasizes the sheer ridiculousness of the cat-and-mouse game situation. But I had a big smile on my face the whole time, so, I guess, no real complaints!

It cracked me up to see 2 "Batman" actors in this-- "Alfred" from 1943 and "Gordon" from 1966. Made me think the '66 TV show could have really used an Asian super-villain in its roster!

I've noticed of late that quite a few early Paramount films are only available in TERRIBLE prints, which has led me to believe the studio really doesn't give a damn about their oldies.  I've recently seen 4 "Philo Vance" films that were made by Paramount, and all of them were in dreadful shape.  As 3 of those I rate as extremely-good early talkie murder mysteries, I find myself wishing someone like Kino Lorber would make the effort to restore THOSE films as well.  Silents and early sound films are their own special kind of art form, and I find one really can't appreciate them to their fullest unless you're watching a REALLY CLEAN print.  This one isn't perfect, but I suppose for now, it'll do!

[profh0011]

THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS (1936)
Perry Mason 4: Married, Sober, Sick & Suspected ***** (of 10)

After the disgraceful silliness of THE CASE OF THE LUCKY LEGS, Warren William's Perry Mason seems back on firm ground in a film that takes itself much more serious without forgetting to include healthy doses of character humor. What sets this one apart from the others is Perry & Della getting MARRIED (a development completely forgotten in the follow-up that starred Ricardo Cortez) and Perry being the #1 murder suspect, having been to see the victim moments before he was bumped-- a situation he has all too often had to get his clients out of-- including the woman's husband in this case. She had threatened both Perry and her husband with a gun, and would only NOT be a suspect to anyone watching this because it would just be "too obvious"!!

Of WW's 3 Dellas, my favorite, Claire Dodd returns after having been absent from the previous installment. All 3 Dellas in the first 4 pictures have something to recommend them, I just happen to think Dodd is the most attractive (though Genevieve Tobin's was without a doubt the FUNNIEST). Sadly, Allan Jenkins, who played in cop in ...THE HOWLING DOG and "Spudsy" Drake in eps. 2 & 3, is replaced here by Eddie Acuff, who just doesn't seem to "work". Very oddly, Olin Howard returns as Coroner Wilber Strong from ...THE CURIOUS BRIDE, after having played a different doctor in the previous film! (Did anyone at Warner Brothers care about "continuity" in this series??)

The standard routine of set-up, murder, investigation and courtroom expose so far is limited to ...THE HOWLING DOG. In WW's other 3 films, he solves the murders at a dinner party, in his office during a medical check-up, and at the hang-out of the killer before moving on to the street in front of a hotel. The only time we see the inside of a courtroom in this film is when Perry & Della get hitched-- and when she tries to have it annulled. CRAZY!!

The other point of interest for me was actress Carol Hughes (my favorite "Dale Arden" from 1940's FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE) who is almost completely unrecognizable in here due to bright blonde hair and a southern accent.

I love Warren William's Perry Mason-- I DO! And I wish he'd done a lot more of these. But I also wish he'd done more like the 1st one, where at least, despite the huge differences, I could actually recognize the format and the character of the "real" Perry Mason, instead of this rambling comedic chaos WB kept foisting on audiences!
(3-1-2009)


addendum:
I wrote the above review in 2009.  Recently, re-watching ...THE LUCKY LEGS, I realized Olin Howard WAS playing the same character, but Perry was making a joke at his friend's expense when he called him "Dr. Croaker the coroner's friend".  Wilber Strong has very little screen time in the 4th film, and in one scene, actually winds up responsible for the cops finding where Perry's hiding from them.  Oops!

[profh0011]

THE CASE OF THE BLACK CAT  (1936)
Perry Mason 5: Straight, Slick, Serious & Impenetrable   *****  (of 10)

I really loved Warren Williams' 1st Perry Mason film, THE CASE OF THE HOWLING DOG. As with most viewers my introduction to Perry was Raymond Burr, but despite WW's very different look and behavior, I felt I was still watching the "real" Perry. Not so in the follow-ups, where outrageous comedy all but pushed the murder mysteries to the back.

What a shock it must have been when WB did THE CASE OF THE BLACK CAT with Ricardo Cortez. This film seems designed to be the "anti-WW" Perry Mason movie. Cortez' Perry plays it straight, as does Della; for the first time Paul Drake is actually called "Paul" instead of "Spudsy", and we finally get to see D.A. Hamilton Burger! While much thinner than Burr, Cortez has a vaguely similar look and attitude, and the general format familiar to anyone who's watched the TV series is recognizably present, including the courtroom scenes at the end where Perry solves everything.

It's a very well-made film, but if I have any problems with it it's this: Perry doesn't seem to stand out much, and Della, Paul & Burger do so even less. Also, the mystery is SO complex, after watching it twice uncut, I STILL can't make heads or tails of it! It all comes together at the end, in a very long-winded monologue from Mason. I expect this sort of thing from Hercule Poirot, but wouldn't a courtroom judge insist on a lot further testimony from others to corroborate what Mason says? It's almost a shock when Mason asks for a dismissal and the judge agrees, instead of the guy telling Mason his head's spinning from everything Mason just said!

I suppose the biggest mystery concerning this film must be, WHY did they only do ONE film with Cortez and his supporting cast? (But then, I'm also wondering why WB seemed bent on sabotaging the series after Warren William's excellent debut installment as well.) Maybe Hollywood just didn't like mysteries that were too "intelligent".
     (3-13-2009)

[profh0011]

THE CASE OF THE STUTTERING BISHOP (1937)
Perry Mason 6: Dull, Confusing, but Solid ***** (of 10)

You can often tell when a studio is losing interest in a film series when they start replacing the entire cast. In this instance, they did it twice in 2 films-- and by the time of THE CASE OF THE STUTTERING BISHOP, we'd not only seen 3 Perry Masons in 6 films, but 5 different Della Streets! Donald Woods does his 2nd PM film, having played one of the suspects in ...THE CURIOUS BRIDE, while William Clemens directs his 2nd PM film, having already done the relatively sober ...VELVET CLAWS. Clemens would go onto quite a few series films, including a Torchy Blane, 4 Nancy Drews, a Dead Ends Kids, a Philo Vance, and 3 Falcons. There's nothing especially flashy or stylish about this film, and it starts out very confusing, but it is a solid mystery film, and gets better as it goes.

For example, you have the boastful house detective who Perry winds up hiring part-time, and as the story goes on he proves to be genuinely helpful, rather than "merely" comic relief. It seems the murder takes forever to happen in this one, but once it does, the story FINALLY kicks into gear, and the courtroom sequence at the end is probably the BEST in all 6 films. Unlike when Perry rattled off confusing info nobody but HE knew in the previous installment, the quick stream of witness testimonies actually help to pull all the threads of the story together neatly. And at last, there's the patented "blurted out confession" seen in so many PM stories-- only in this case, NOT from the person being grilled on the stand.

It's been said that sometimes casting actors very accurate to novels can lead to dull films. Some of the most popular versions of characters are quite unlike their literary sources-- good examples being Sean Connery's JAMES BOND and Stacy Keach's MIKE HAMMER. In this case, I find myself wishing Warren William had done more films like this one-- his version of Perry might not be thought of as so much of a joke then.

(3-5-2009)

Additional comments: Donald Woods is too young & not dynamic enough to be Perry. Ann Dvorak is the least-attractive and my least-favorite Della, and as one other reviewer suggested, should have played one of the suspects. Ann Nagel ("Lenore Case" in the GREEN HORNET serials) would have been far better as Della than as the character she did play. The guy playing District Attorney Hamilton Berger (pronounced "Berjer" here) is a non-entity.

The most outstanding, charismatic actor in the film is Joseph Crehen as the film series' most authentic Paul Drake! (He even bears a slight physical resemblance to William Hopper.) He played other characters in "...HOWLING DOG" and "...LUCKY LEGS", but among his countless roles may be best remembered as "Chief Brandon" in the late-40s DICK TRACY features!

I might add the above to my earlier IMDB review, but that website isn't quite working right today.

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WRONG IS RIGHT   (1982)
Complex, Brilliant, Terrifying, Hilarious!     (10 of 10)

In a possible near-future where network news has become pure entertainment, a globe-hopping reporter follows a story that involves an Arab King, a pair of atom bombs, an international terrorist, an arms dealer, the C. I. A., the President of the United States, an INSANE ex-President hoping to be re-elected, a war-mongering General, a black woman VP, human bombs, and other fun stuff.

The day this came out in May of 1982, my best friend and his wife and I were considering going to see CONAN THE BARBARIAN. I convinced them to see this instead. Never regretted it. Especially as it vanished from theatres 7 days later, and over time has become one of my top favorite movies! Rumor had it someone in the Federal Government pulled strings and had it PULLED from theatres. I wouldn't be surprised. It was based on a book written by a former C. I. A. Agent, who clearly knew his stuff. 20 YEARS after it came out, it was shocking to see how accurately it predicted the U. S. using falsified "evidence" to justify to 2nd invasion of Iraq. 20 YEARS AFTER THAT, it became even more uncanny in a "Twilight Zone" way for how it features a skinny President, a BLACK WOMAN Vice President, and an INSANE ex-President trying to get re-elected to a 2nd (non-consecutive) term. I mean, this is just downright SPOOKY, and could be a lot more disturbing than it is... if it wasn't played so damned FUNNY.

What a cast! Sean Connery has one of his best roles ever as reporter "Patrick Hale" (indeed, this eventually became my FAVORITE Connery film). Robert Conrad is "General Wombat", who keeps urging the Pres to shoot first. Katharine Ross is "Sally Blake", a C. I. A. Agent posing as a reporter whose murder sets a lot of the plot in action. G. D. Spradlin is "Philandros", the very devious head of the C. I. A. Who cons the Pres into giving him a direct order to do something he ALREADY did without said authorization. John Saxon has one of my favorite roles of his as "Homer Hubbard", the C. I. A. Trouble-shooter who is mostly likable, but at one point, shows a scary, devious side that leaves you wondering. Henry Silva is "Rafeeq", a scheming and ruthless terrorist who somehow manages to be charming at times. Leslie Nielsen is ex-President "Mallory", who seems based on Donald Trump-- except this was made in 1982! Robert Webber is "Harvey", the news boss who cares more about ratings than mass murder. Rosalind Cash is Vice-President "Mrs. Ford"; I keep thinking of her line "END-- of-- DISCUSSION!" --but that was another 80s movie she did! (She's got more personality than Kamala Harris.) Hardy Kruger is arms dealer "Helmut Unger", who during a sales pitch for a machine-gun, says, "It makes KILLING a PLEASURE!" Dean Stockwell is White House Chief-of-Staff yes-man "Hacker", who almost seems more machine than human. Ron Moody is totally-convincing as Arab King Awad, whose fate is sealed when he listens to "voices in the desert". A very young Jennifer Jason Leigh is a girl who's interviewed on TV about wanting to murder her parents as a fantasy. And Paul Lambert has an almost-invisible cameo as the Defense Secretary; it feels like he must have had a bigger part that somehow got cut down. I always remember him as the main villain in the 6th-season McCLOUD episode, "The Day New York Turned Blue".

The film starts slow and casual, but like a roller-coaster going up the long chain at the start, once it hits the first big drop, it picks up speed and continues to get more chaotic and frantic, at times with fast-paced editing that leaves you gasping for breath and struggling to follow along with what the heck is going on! And there must be almost as many great lines in this as DR. STRANGELOVE, that I'm disappointed so few have been listed on the IMDB so far.

The film appears to have been issued twice on DVD; first in 2004, then again in 2015, but at the moment, the 2004 disc from Columbia-Tristar Home Entertainment seems to be the easiest to find. There's no audio commentary, but weirdly enough, it does appropriately come with 3 trailers for other films: THE BEDFORD INCIDENT, DR. STRANGELOVE and FAIL SAFE!! What I can't figure is, while both the film AND the 3 trailers are in widescreen (thank God for that, I've been putting up with a miserable fullscreen VHS copy I taped off HBO for decades), the menu was clearly designed for fullscreen. Who screws up stuff like that?

And speaking of screw-ups, Columbia-Tristar slapped no less than 3 wraparound pieces of tape on the DVD case, requiring more than 5 careful, tedious minutes for me to remove them just to get the thing open. I'm real glad they don't do CRAP like this anymore! (Since CD and DVD cases are already inside shrink-wrap, there was NEVER any reason for tape to be applied right to the plastic underneath that.)

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TARZAN’S REVENGE   (1938)
ELEANOR and the APE man!     (4 of 10)

A safari collecting animals for a zoo run into trouble when a filthy-rich egomaniac decides he wants young Eleanor Reed as his latest harem member, and doesn't care if she's interested, or not. This poor girl's having bad luck with men, as her current fiance Nevin Potter is a trigger-happy idiot intent on killing every animal that crosses his path, not for food, not for their hides, not even for their heads, just for the sake of killing-- and, he's a wimpy coward to boot. But then along comes a nearly-MUTE Tarzan and his never-named chimpanzee sidekick, who repeatedly rescues her, winds up having fun swimming with her, and after getting her away from a kidnapping, winds up beating the fear of God into her now-ex boyfriend, who really had it coming!

Tarzan also spends a LOT of time rescuing cute animals from captivity, making him a very ecology-minded hero.

MGM's series was never like this!

Sol Lesser made a deal with Edgar Rice Burroughs even before MGM did, which no doubt annoyed MGM greatly. But once MGM was forced to replace the injured Herman Brix with Johnny Weismuller, and HE became such a sensation, Lesser decided on ALL his future ape-man films, to imitate their idea of a NEAR-illiterate Tarzan! What a shame. Lesser's 1st effort, TARZAN THE FEARLESS (1933) had one of the most charismatic actors of Hollywood's golden age, Buster Crabbe, in the lead role-- but he barely had a chance to show what he could do, when his dialogue was reduced to maybe 9 words in the entire feature version of the (now-lost) serial. I'm guessing Crabbe was busy elsewhere when Lesser decided to try again with TARZAN'S REVENGE (1938), as he set his sights on not one but TWO Olympic champion swimmers-- Glenn Morris, and Eleanor Holm. Of the two, SHE had far more charisma, screen-time, and pretty much stole the picture. I can't really say Morris was bad-- but with only 3 words of dialogue in the entire film, he didn't exactly get a chance to show off what he could have done, did he?

C. Henry Gordon, that perpetual baddie, played "Ben Alleu Bey", who has a totally out-of-place castle built deep in the jungle with a large group of dancing girls and a small army of natives at his disposal. This element seems more "authentic" to Burroughs than the MGM series, oh, IF ONLY Morris had played a more authentic TARZAN! (I've been spoiled by the Sy Weintraub films & TV series, and, the newspaper strip stories.)

George Meeker's fiance "Nevin" is such an annoying kill-crazy IDIOT, he reminded me of "Lyle" from GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE (1997), except Lyle was actually FUNNY-stupid, not STUPID-stupid. And that movie, which I consider one of the best things Disney ever did, was really less authentic to the Jay Ward cartoons than it was an actual adaptation of the first 2 TARZAN books! (Really!)

When MGM dropped their series, Sol Lesser was there to pick up the banner. He made 6 more with Weismuller, 5 with Lex Barker, and 4 with Gordon Scott... ALL the while maintaining the "Weismuller"-style illiterate Tarzan. Understand, I LIKE the Weismuller films-- it's just, he's NOT the "real" Tarzan!!! And sadly, neither is this guy.

[profh0011]

Terrific review of the film!

https://www.erbzine.com/mag41/4147.html

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COUNTER-ESPIONAGE   (1942)
NAZI SPIES in London!     (8 of 10)

Sir Stafford Hart of the British War Department has troubles. At the height of the Blitz, he's got top-secret plans in his safe, and suspects one of his aides may be working for the other side. And then, right after his future son-in-law is kidnapped, his safe is burgled by Michael Lanyard, The Lone Wolf, who, soon after, is contacted by a Nazi Spy ring who want to get their hands on those plans. But Lanyard CAN'T be working for the bad guys-- CAN HE?

The mix of mystery & humor had gone completely off the rails 2 films earlier, but I'd have to rank COUNTER-ESPIONAGE as the very best of the Lone Wolf films with Warren William in the lead role-- nearly as good (!!) as FALSE FACES (1919) with Henry B. Walthall or THE LONE WOLF RETURNS (1935) with Melvyn Douglas. Take it from me, this is high praise indeed.

The plot reminds me of a wartime espionage variation on Leslie Charteris' novel "Angels Of Doom". Both involve the hero working IN SECRET for a high-ranking official, a daughter whose father is killed and totally mistrusts the hero, and comic relief (?) in the form of cops who continue to accuse and chase after the hero, despite his having previously proven he's on their side. In this case, the hero's contact and the dead father are combined into one character, which makes things extra difficult, as in the 2nd half of the film, Lanyard has NOBODY who can vouch for his innocence. And the presence of both Inspectors Crane & Dickens has to be the single really contrived and out-of-place element of the film, as they have NO BUSINESS being in this story. At least Charteris, in his SAINT stories, had the sense to keep New York Inspector Fernack and London Inspector Teal in their own separate locales.

What a cast! Stanley Logan is "Sir Stafford Hart", who recruited Lanyard but then was killed off-camera in a traffic accident. I've seen him in THE LOVES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE, THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE, THE SPIDER WOMAN and TARZAN'S PERIL.

Hillary Brooke is "Pamela Hart", whose fiancee goes missing, and really gets on her high horse to an obsessive degree when she confronts Lanyard and accuses him of all the worst possible things, even while he's trying to save HER country! I've seen her in the 1941 DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE, CALLING DR. GILLESPIE, SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VOICE OF TERROR (made back-to-back with this one, they'd make a fitting double-bill), SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH, THE WOMAN IN GREEN and INVADERS FROM MARS.

Morton Lowry is "Kurt Weil", the actual double-agent, who finds out Lanyard was working for Hart. I most remember him as "Stapleton" in the 1939 HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, and have also seen him in TARZAN FINDS A SON!, THE LOVES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, SON OF LASSIE and PURSUIT TO ALGIERS.

Forrest Tucker, one of my favorite actors, is "Anton Schuff", a Nazi spy posing as an air raid warden. Apart from BOSTON BLACKIE GOES HOLLYWOOD, THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN (1957), THE GHOST BUSTERS tv series (1975) and TIMESTALKERS (1987), of course I'll always most think of him as "Sgt. O'Rourke", the star of all 65 episodes of F TROOP (which is on my "wanted" list right now).

Matthew Boulton is "Inspector Stephens", who far-too-easily is convinced by the halfwit American cops of Lanyard's guilt. I mostly remember him as "Inspector Gregson" in THE WOMAN IN GREEN.

Kurt Katch is "Gustav Soessel", the head of the Nazi spy ring. His scenes with Lanyard are really INTENSE and have some of the best and cleverest writing in the film, as Lanyard keeps playing up to him to get more info, and later, when Soessel is bragging in the most maniacal way about the "supreme achievement" of his mission in England, and then diabolically REFUSES to admit that Lanyard was really working for England the whole time, adamant that if HE goes down, Lanyard will as well. Katch was a Polish Jew whose early career was in European films, and later was typecast as Nazis when he escaped to America. It seems the only other films I've seen him in were THE MUMMY'S CURSE and ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY.

Lloyd Bridges does his 2nd LONE WOLF film, this time as a Nazi spy posing as a nightclub waiter.

And finally, Billy Bevan is "George Barrow", an air raid warden whose life Lanyard saves during a bombing, and in return believes he's innocent and chips in to help when things get REALLY dangerous at the climax! Usually "comic relief" in these kinds of films, it was a delight to see him play a more serious and fleshed-out character for once. His career goes back to 1916, though I've only seen a tiny handful of his films, including A STUDY IN SCARLET (1932), DRACULA'S DAUGHTER, MYSTERIOUS MR. MOTO, A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1938), THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS, REBECCA (1940), DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE (1941), THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE, THE PEARL OF DEATH, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, and TERROR BY NIGHT.

I wish all of Warren William's LONE WOLF films had been this good!

OnesMedia's DVD-R has excellent picture & sound, though there's these odd sound gaps here and there. I'm guessing that all the damage seen in the newsreel excerpts were already there when the film was made in 1942!

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THE SAINT IN NEW YORK   (1938)
THE SAINT vs. The Big Fella     (8 of 10)

A crime gang is terrorizing New York City, the police seem helpless, and the head of a "citizens' committee" suggests hiring the services of the infamous outlaw crusader for justice, Simon Templar. Lured away from a potential revolution in South America, he's (secretly!) sworn in by the Police Commissioner and given a free hand (more or less) to track down and eliminate 6 members of the mob, starting with one Jake Irbell, moments after the murder case against him is dismissed due to repeated lack of witnesses showing up. Nobody in the crowd who saw Jake shot noticed that his assassin was dressed as a NUN. One down, five (or more) to go!

Even by the variable standards of Leslie Charteris' original stories, THE SAINT IN NEW YORK was not a normal one! At the time of the novel's release in 1935, it was told as a flashback set around 1932, making it a contemporary of such films as THE PUBLIC ENEMY and SCARFACE. What on Earth possessed RKO to start their series with a film that, from the word go, was destined to be TONED DOWN to get it past the Production Code? And despite how the finished film may well be the single most violent of all the SAINT films ever made for theatres or television, believe me, toned down it WAS!

When I began reading The Saint books in the early 1980s, I was struck by the way Templar's personality in the books had only ever been captured authentically by ONE actor-- LOUIS HAYWARD. There's something very "fantastic" about the way he thinks, talks, acts, that sets him apart from virtually every other literary or film hero ever seen. More than once in the books he jokes about himself as if he's a character in a book. Here he certainly quotes enough literature in between bumping off deserving bad guys. Pretty much EVERY scene he's in, he's totally mesmerizing, his performance raising the level of this unfortunately LOW-budget film far above itself. How much I wish he'd done the rest of the series.

Jonathan Hale is "Inspector Henry Fernack", a tough but frustrated cop whose life Templar saves, and who first admits he could "like" Templar, then winds up agreeing to work with him! "Don't you think the law in its zeal sometimes loses sight of right and wrong?" "It's my job to arrest criminals. Why if an archangel came down to Earth and parked illegally, I'd have to give him a ticket." "Yeah, but a Saint oughta be able to get his ticket FIXED!" I've seen Hale in several Charlie Chan films, and he also played "Mr. Dithers" in the BLONDIE series, but it's Fernack I always remember him for.

The rest of the cast are okay, but most are either flat or cartoony. Charles Halton is "Vincent Nather", the crooked shyster lawyer; Lester Door is Jake Irbell, Templar's 1st victim; Paul Fix is the doorman at the Silver Club, who makes the mistake of letting Templar in; Ben Weldon is "Boots Pappinoff", who is similarly accused of working with Templar and is gunned down in his own car (in a shot I believe was reused in the pilot episode of THE UNTOUCHABLES). Other standouts are Paul Guilfoyle as "Hymie", repeatedly impressed with Templar's eloquence and total lack of fear; Sig Ruman as the German beer-drinking underboss "Hutch Rellin", whose recurring phrase "You was a good boy..." is always a prelude to murder; and Kay Sutton as "Fay Edwards", the mysterious and aloof gun moll who switches sides to Templar for no apparent reason other than her own whims.

It's clear to me that when RKO filmed this, a lot was changed to sneak it past the censors. In the book, Valcross hires AND PAYS Templar to do the killings, completely without the knowledge of the NYC Police Commissioner. (The Commissioner subplot appears to have been borrowed from the earlier novel "Angels Of Doom", where the London Commissioner engages Templar to take down another gang, all the while Inspector Teal has no idea that Templar, who he's chasing, is really working on the same side.) When Templar rescues the kidnapped Violet, he shoots at least 3 men in the living room while coming down the stairs! The kidnapping incident is also played different in the book, as she was apparently snatched not for money, but to send a message to someone who was "getting out of line". Had this film been made 5 years earlier, it might have become a "pre-Code classic", rather than a bizarre anachronism.

I've been reading that it was very popular at the box office. Which makes its current status all the more maddening. It seems no one at the moment is sure of the status of the RKO master, and even when Turner Classic Movies ran it in 2007, they ran a fuzzy 16mm print with VERY LOUD HISSING on the entire soundtrack. It pains me to think that one of my very favorite movies of the last 40 straight years is in such DESPERATE need of a major restoration!

The film can currently be found on DVD from a number of small mail-order outfits, presumably all with prints in the same shape as the one TCM ran. There's also 2 outfits who have box sets of all 9 RKO films-- OnesMediaFilms and Thomas Film Classics. I haven't upgraded to disc yet, but after doing research tonight, I'm not in a great hurry to.

Apart from ...NEW YORK, my personal favorites in the series are ...IN LONDON, ...TAKES OVER, and ...VACATION. Also, the B&W Roger Moore seasons feature what's almost certainly the best acting HE ever did in his entire career, matched with wonderful adaptations of Charteris' short stories. And then there's Vincent Price on the radio-- to me, he doesn't "look" like Templar, but personality-wise, he captures him better than probably anyone ever did!

My other favorite Hayward film is undoubtedly AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, the first and by far the best adaptation of Agatha's Christie's "Ten Little Indians". He's also terrific in THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK and SON OF MONTE CRISTO, where he's pitted against villain George Sanders!! (PERFECT casting if there ever was any.)

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THE SAINT STRIKES BACK   (1939)
Awkward, Confused Jumble   (2 of 10)

After Roger Moore, this was my very first SAINT film with George Sanders. Over the years, he's become one of my favorite actors, and there's quite a few other decent actors in this film. However, this gets my vote for the WORST Saint film ever made-- and let me tell you why.

I sat thru this thing at least 3 times and could not make heads or tails of the plot at all. And then, not long after seeing Louis Hayward in THE SAINT IN NEW YORK, I started reading Leslie Chartis' books. Imagine my surprise and shock when I got to "ANGELS OF DOOM", on which this is VERY loosely based, and not only was it was straight-forward, easy to understand, exciting, entertaining and in places downright hilarious, it also became my favorite novel of all time. It also "explained" to me exactly what was WRONG with this movie!!!

They took a story that by rights should have been done as a 3-hour film (2 at the absolute minimum) and crammed it into just about 60 minutes. Is it any wonder it makes almost no sense at all? Never mind that they also decided to set it in the WRONG country (San Francisco instead of London), they gutted the plot so much that in order to get even the basics across, about 95% of the film is just people standing around talk talk talking.

So the plot structure is awful, the directing is appallingly bad, and half the acting in the film is stiff and lifeless, even from normally very talented actors.

And then of course there's George Sanders, who's COMPLETELY miscast as Simon Templar. I never even really understood the whole aura of "The Saint" until I saw Louis Hayward in action; to date, NOBODY else has ever brought the character to accurate life before (NOT EVEN Roger Moore!! --who usually plays it too SERIOUS, which is mind-boggling when you consider he never took James Bond seriously). The dialog Templar spouts in much of this film would be impossible for ANY actor to deliver credibly, EXCEPT for Louis Hayward, and I doubt even he could have made the story in this one fly. Maybe it wasn't just RKO's low low budget that caused him to depart after only one picture-- maybe he read the script, too.

In all fairness, and despite himself, the next 4 SAINT films all had the dialog tailored specifically to fit Sanders' personality. How else could he have done such an INCREDIBLE job in THE SAINT IN LONDON, or THE SAINT TAKES OVER (the latter of which, an "original" story, is actually a thinly-disguised-- and BETTER-told-- remake of THIS mess! --and with the same 3 actors in the leads!).

Half the actors in this I've seen in other "B" movies from this period, and most of them do far better jobs elsewhere. Truthfully, the only one who comes off unscathed is Jonathan Hale, and you can't help but feel sorry for his Inspector Fernack, for the dizzying way Templar leads him on a confused merry chase, on his way to becoming a "hero" at the end.

As if everything else wasn't so bad, at the end of the film, the "big reveal" as to the true identity of the main villain ALSO is told entirely thru confused dialog, and we find that the baddie got KILLED-- off-screen! I just watched this again today, and the whole time, I wanted to throttle the person who wrote the screenplay!

It's no wonder after 6 RKO films, series creator Leslie Charteris PULLED the plug and took back the rights. Ironically, RKO distributed the 2 British-made films that followed, and simultaneously did THE FALCON series, initially also with Sanders, which was based on a novel that was the subject of a plagiarism lawsuit brought against it by Leslie Charteris! I guess that didn't bother RKO any...

Finally, allow me to recommend much better Simon Templar films...

THE SAINT IN NEW YORK
THE SAINT IN LONDON
THE SAINT TAKES OVER
THE SAINT'S VACATION

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THE SAINT IN LONDON (1939)
The SAINT vs. Bruno Lang (9 of 10)

British Intelligence suspects Bruno Lang of espionage and a plot to run off forged bank notes. Their man Sir Richard Blake recruits Simon Templar to get the goods on Lang and put a stop to it! He's helped by his new American ex-convict sidekick Dugan, rich & beautiful adventuresss Penelope Parker, and even his longtime Scotland Yard nemesis, Inspector Claude Teal, who really is smart enough to know Templar is better off free to round up the real bad guys.

THIS is what happens when a studio actually respects and follows the source material! Following the disastrous ...STRIKES BACK (one of the worst adaptations of any novel I've ever seen), RKO wisely decided to drastically shift gears and adapt a short story, "The Million Pound Day", and actually DO the story with as few changes as possible. The result is something very much akin to the early B&W episodes of THE SAINT tv series 25 years later, only, even MORE authentic! For the first time we get to really see the "world" of Simon Templar-- England, the mews where he has his apartment, the garage with the secret entrance (that allows him to come and go unseen) and the closest we ever got to his on-again-off-again girlfriend Patricia Holm in the form of "Penelope Parker", PERFECTLY played by my #1 favorite SAINT girl, Constance Stevens (alias "Sally Gray")! I've only seen 3 of her films, but I'd love to see more. She returned in THE SAINT'S VACATION (oddly playing a different character) and was most prominent in GREEN FOR DANGER.

Henry Oscar probably gets my vote as the 2nd-best SAINT villain I've ever seen, in the form of "Bruno Lang", a smart, suave, dangerous foreigner, very much the model of a "James Bond" villain 15 years early. I mainly know him from much-later films, including THE BRIDES OF DRACULA, THE LONG SHIPS, MURDER AHOY and WAR-GODS OF THE DEEP.

David Burns is "Dugan", formerly of San Quentin. Early in his literary career, Templar spent time in America dealing with gangsters, and had an affinity for low-end criminals who weren't really bad, just "hungry". He really lights up the story. It's unfortunate we never saw this character again, it seems Burns spent most of his career performing on Broadway.

The other real highlight of the film is Gordon McLeod as "Inspector Claude Teal". Of the many actors who've played the part, McLeod is by far the best. He's smart enough to be a road hazard to Templar's less-than-legal methods, but also smart enough to know when those methods will get the job done more efficiently than sticking to the book. "Inspector Lestrade" he ISN'T. He played Teal 3 times, but ...IN LONDON was the only film that really allowed him to shine.

The rest of the film is crammed with wonderful characters actors, including Athene Seyler as "Mrs. Buckley", who runs the boarding house Simon hides a rescued kidnap victim at and does her wildest to confound Teal; John Abbott (who I mostly remember from both LOST IN SPACE and STAR TREK) as said victim, who unfortunately winds up murdered in an attempt to frame Simon; and Ballad Berkeley as "Blake" of British Intelligence. I knew the name, but he was so young here I didn't recognize that I knew him mostly from FAWLTY TOWERS ("The Major"), TO THE MANOR BORN (Audrey's rich uncle), and 2 60s episodes of SHERLOCK HOLMES ("The Illustrious Client" and "The Hound of the Baskervilles").

I consider this the single BEST "Saint" film EVER made! I'd have given it 10 stars but had to knock one off because of its LEADING man. Yes, that's right! George Sanders is one of my very favorite actors, in so many films and TV shows, he's one of the few people who's highly entertaining in almost anything he does, including, especially villains. But he's just COMPLETELY-miscast as Simon Templar! It's so crazy ironic that RKO briefly had the BEST actor to ever play Templar (Louis Hayward) in only one film, ...IN NEW YORK, but that film was by no means any kind of normal representation of the character or his adventures. However, while the follow-up, ...STRIKES BACK, gets my vote as the single WORST "Saint" film EVER, they really turned things around after that. By the way, see SON OF MONTE CRISTO for perfect casting: Hayward as the hero vs. Sanders as the villain!

THE SAINT IN LONDON is an amazing example of a film that, because it follows the source material, allows a lead actor who's TOTALLY-wrong for the part to shine. Other examples that come to mind would be FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (Sean Connery as James Bond) or the 1982 HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (Tom Baker as Sherlock Holmes). Had Louis Hayward done this film, it would have been PERFECT.

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THE GIRL FROM UNCLE:  The Little John Doe Affair
Mr. Peepers:  Hit-Man For Hire!     (9 of 10)

UNCLE negoaitates with a "freelance" gangster who's been in competition with the Mafia his whole career, for info to take them down in exchange for retirement with security. But first, April has to protect him from being BUMPED OFF by the most unlikely of paid assassins, a quiet, low-key, mild-mannered, happily-married church-going pillar of his community.

YES, too many episodes of MAN and GIRL FROM UNCLE during the 1966-67 season got a little too silly. Actually, that goes for almost every adventure show on the air during that season (with the notable exceptions of the 1st seasons of TARZAN, STAR TREK, and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE). But NOT this one! Mark Slate is in the hospital with a broken foot, being nagged by his boss about it, while, somehow fittingly, the hit-man April is keeping a watch for walks with a limp.

The humor this times comes from the situation, and very likely social commentary, that someone so normal might not be what he seems. On the flip side, the career criminal April is protecting also comes across as a VERY nice guy, who's quite taken with both her beauty and her abilities.

A highlight has to be when a knock-down-drag-out fight erupts between the gangster and a hotel waiter working for the hit man, during which April is passing on a report to Mark, and, racing down a hallway to drop off a bomb in the hit man's room.

Pernell Roberts gets my vote for perhaps the most charming guest-star I've seen on this show so far. It was a shame he left BONANZA the way he did, but, clearly he didn't want to get stuck in such a rut for the rest of the decade, and I'm glad he didn't. I need to see more of his work.

On the other side is none other than Wally Cox, who growing up I mostly knew as the voice of UNDERDOG. (I've also seen him in an episode of LOST IN SPACE from this same season, and, the tv-movie THE NIGHT STRANGLER as the man in charge of the newspaper archive who helps Carl Kolchak track down info going back many decades.)

The hit man's wife looked vaguely familar-- turns out, it was Olive Sturgess, who played Vincent Price's daughter (and a young Jack Nicholson's potential love interest) in the Roger Corman film THE RAVEN.

The longer this season went on, the more competant and confident April Dancer became. Maybe seeing less of handsome, smiling Noel Harrison would have been a GOOD thing? Had we seen more episodes THIS good, the show might have lasted more than one season.

[profh0011]

THE MAN FROM UNCLE:  The My Friend The Gorilla Affair
JUNGLE BOOGIE     (8 of 10)

A mad scientist tries to force the president of an emerging African country to have his people submit to a eugenics-style experiment to turn them into "supermen" who will form an army to do his bidding and take over the entire continent. Meanwhile, a female photographer is searching for her long-missing sister, who, rumors have it, survived the plane crash that killed her parents, and may have been raised by apes. NO, REALLY.

You know, a lot of 3rd-season UNCLE episodes are silly. But this one goes all the way and actually manages to be REALLY F***ING FUNNY! I mean, I was laughing hysterically in a lot of places. Especially when the jungle girl's gorilla friend "Baby" was onscreen. I wound up shouting at my TV-- "It's BOB BURNS!" Well, no, it turns out, I was wrong, it was actually George Barrows (who also performed in a gorilla suit on THE LUCY SHOW and THE RED SKELTON SHOW among others). But I'd swear he was using the same gorilla suit! I was particularly amused when "Girl" told him to "stay", and his gestures clearly showed he was thinking, "Oh, DARN, I wanted to GO!"

I'm just picturing Robert Vaughn-- apparently one of the MOST intelligent people in all of Hollywood-- having to laugh this off, and think to himself, "Can you imagine? I'm actually GETTING PAID to do this?"

The visual difference between indoor studio sets and locations shots were shockingly noticable. How bizarre that THAT, of all things, was what bugged me the most about this story, which was ALMOST (not quite) in 2nd-season LOST IN SPACE territory. How bizarre to think this was done at the same time as Ron Ely's 1st season of TARZAN, one of the few adventure shows that season (along with STAR TREK and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE) that actually did take itself seriously.

What really pushed this over was the guest cast. Arthur Mallet (MARY POPPINS, THE MONKEES, HALLOWEEN, WKRP) was the raving-mad neo-nazi scientist. Percy Rodrigues (STAR TREK: "Court Martial") was the dignified President who absolutely refused to cooperate with the insane doctor. Alan Mowbray (1932's SHERLOCK HOLMES, 1933's A STUDY IN SCARLET and 1946's TERROR BY NIGHT) is a walking British stereotype who's working for the bad guy, tries to murder Ilya and the photographer lady, and yet somehow is allowed to walk away free at the end. Raymond St. Jacques (COTTON COMES TO HARLEM) was Arunda, who I believe was the villain's super-strong henchman (it was hard to tell under the warrior make-up). Joyce Jillson (KOLCHAK: "The Energy Eater") was the photographer, a real sweetie. Vitina Marcus (LOST IN SPACE: "The Girl From The Green Dimension") was "Girl", this story's female version of Johnny Weismuller.

Also outstanding (in a good or bad way, depending on your taste) was composer GERALD FRIED. His score on this varied was very moody to COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS, which is why I actually recognized it was his work. He made this episode feel EVEN SILLIER than it already was!

One had to wonder how Alexander Singer, who had a long, long career of mostly serious TV episodes (including "The Derelict" on LOST IN SPACE) wound up doing what may be the most right-off-the-deep-end UNCLE episode ever made.

Anyway, as I like to say... "FUNNY FORGIVES a world of sins."