Category Archives: 1955

One Way Ticket to Hell (AKA “Teenage Devil Dolls”)
Directed by Bamlet Lawrence Price Jr.
Written by Bamlet Lawrence Price Jr.
1955/USA
Bamlet Price’s master’s thesis at UCLA
First viewing/Amazon Instant

“KNOW YOUR DOPE FIEND. YOUR LIFE MAY DEPEND ON IT! You will not be able to see his eyes because of the Tea-Shades, but his knuckles will be white from inner tension …. He will stagger and babble when questioned. He will not respect your badge. The Dope Fiend fears nothing. He will attack, for no reason, with every weapon at his command-including yours. BEWARE. Any officer apprehending a suspected marijuana addict should use all necessary force immediately. One stitch in time (on him) will usually save nine on you. Good luck. -The Chief” — Hunter S. Thompson

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a good “bad” drug exploitation movie.  This one filled the bill nicely.

The story is told in flashback and relates the saga of Cassandra Leigh.  We watch her go from troubled teen to motorcycle gang member to pothead to unhappy wife to prescription drug abuser to heroin addict to pusher and on to yet another stint in jail.  Her life is suitably lurid and punctuated by harrowing withdrawal scenes.  Poor Cassandra.

This was the director’s film school project and was made for $11,000.  Budget constraints meant that the movie was dialogue free.  The whole tale is told via voice-over narration from a narcotics detective with some post-synchronized Foley sound effects and rudimentary music.  All considered, it kept my interest for its 60-minute running time.  I didn’t think it was too terrible for what it was.

Trivia:  The director was married to contract actress Anne Francis at the time.

No clip but the entire film is on YouTube.

Conquest of Space
Directed by Byron Haskin
Written by James O’Hanlon, Philip Yordan, Barré Lyndon, and George Worthing Yates from a book by Chesley Bonestell and Willy Ley
1955/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Sergeant Imoto: Some years ago, my country chose to fight a terrible war. It was bad, I do not defend it, but there were reasons. Somehow those reasons are never spoken of. To the Western world at that time, Japan was a fairybook nation: little people living in a strange land of rice-paper houses… people who had almost no furniture, who sat on the floor and ate with chopsticks. The quaint houses of rice paper, sir: they were made of paper because there was no other material available. And the winters in Japan are as cold as they are in Boston. And the chopsticks: there was no metal for forks and knives and spoons, but slivers of wood could suffice. So it was with the little people of Japan, little as I am now, because for countless generations we have not been able to produce the food to make us bigger. Japan’s yesterday will be the world’s tomorrow: too many people and too little land. That is why I say, sir, there is urgent reason for us to reach Mars: to provide the resources the human race will need if they are to survive. That is also why I am most grateful to be found acceptable, sir. I volunteer.

General Samuel T. Merritt: Thank you, Sergeant Imoto. You’re not a little man.[/box]

This George Pal space extravaganza would be the definition of mediocre if it were not so strange.

It is the contemporary future and a unit of the International Space Agency works on a space station constructing a space ship.  Its commander is Col. Sam Merritt, who designed the space station.  Merritt is a no-nonsense guy to say the least, having commandeered his son Barney for involuntary work there and taking no flak whatsoever from any of his men.  We learn early on that prolonged stays on the station can cause “space fatigue” which manifests itself in different forms.  One of the astronauts who was selected for the initial expedition experiences temporary paralysis and is booted out of the program.  Col. Merritt is secretly experiencing severe headaches and insomnia.

An official from earth comes to deliver new orders sending the spaceship to Mars, rather than the moon as had been expected.  Here is where the colonel begins to wig out.  He calls for volunteers and his son tears up his transfer orders to become second in command in the craft.  Once launched the colonel, now promoted to general, spends much of his time reading his bible.  He begins to view landing on Mars as the ultimate blasphemy.  Can the ship and crew survive its commander’s hysteria?

The special effects are rudimentary even compared to earlier science fiction films produced by George Pal.  The story is a little reminiscent of Moby Dick with the General as Ahab.  It’s heavy on the melodrama with some not-too-comic relief from the resident Brooklynite and Irishman.  Yet I watched it all in a single sitting.  The biblical prophesies piqued my interest.  I really could not figure out whether the filmmakers meant them as a warning until the end.

Trailer

Rififi (Du rififi chez les hommes)
Directed by Jules Dassin
Written by Jules Dassin, Rene Wheeler, and Auguste de Breton from a novel by Le Breton
1955/France
Pathé Consortium Cinema/Indusfilms, Societe Nouvelle Pathe Cinema/Primafilm
Repeat viewing/Netflix

[box] Mario Ferrati: [to Tony about Cesar] For a job with you he’ll come. Cesar! There’s not a safe that can resist Cesar and not a woman that Cesar can resist.[/box]

This excellent heist film never loses its fascination.

Jewel thief Tony le Stephánois (Jean Servais) is released from prison looking old and ill with a persistent cough.  His first stop is the home his young friend Jo shares with his new wife and young son, also named Tony.  Another associate proposes that Tony lead a daylight robbery of a jewelry store show window.  Tony refuses the offer.  His prime goal at the moment is to get revenge on his lover Mado, who took up with evil nightclub owner Grutter while Tony was in prison.

This accomplished, Tony is ready for another job.  On his terms of course.  He has in mind a complex scheme to rob the jeweler’s safe.  His old gang is game and one of them calls on an Italian safecracker friend of his named Cesar (Jules Dassin under the name “Perlo Vita”).

We follow the gang’s preparations and then get 32-minutes of thrilling dialogue and music-free footage of the actual heist.  Can the gang sustain its plan until the bitter end?

The heist sequence of this film has never been topped.  It is so completely spell-binding that one does not even notice the absence of any sound other than the dull tapping of the mallets and muffled whirr of drills.  The rest of the movie is not quite on that level but Dassin shoots Paris lovingly, the acting is very good, and the jazzy score is a treat.  I really can’t figure out how it missed the 1001 Movies list.  Recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9j_K3awuJA

Clip – the song “Rififi” (no subtitles)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i049c2NGGY4

American Trailer – dubbed (I watched a subtitled version)

Godzilla Raids Again
Directed by Motoyoshi Oda
Written by Takeo Murata and Shigeake Hidaka; story by Shigeru Kayama
1955/Japan
Toho Company
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] [last line; Japanese version] Shoichi Tsukioka: Kobayashi… we beat Godzilla for you.[/box]

The quaint language used in the English dub wrecked this otherwise worthy first Godzilla sequel for me.

Kobayashi is forced to crash land his plane on a remote island.  His pilot friend Tsukioka comes to rescue him.  This is when the men witness a resurrected relative of Godzilla battling the Angilas monster.  They report when they come home and a high-level meeting is called.  Dr. Yamane (Takashi Shimura) from the first movie tells the crowd that, now that the oxygen destroyer and its creator have perished, Japan is doomed.

The two monsters set off toward Osaka.  For a while, authorities are successful in attracting the beasts off shore through the use of bright lights.  Unfortunately, some escaped convicts manage to set a refinery on fire and the battle is on in downtown Osaka.  The rest of the film follows the all-out effort to defeat the monster.

Rumor has it that the original Japanese version of this movie is up there with the original Gojira.  The only one available to me though was dubbed in English.  This might not have been so bad except that the characters were made to speak in a very old-fashioned and slightly ridiculous lingo as when a crowd is said to be “making merry” in a night club.  The character of Kobayashi, played by one of the Seven Samurai, comes off as comic and mentally slow, when in fact he is the hero.

American Trailer

Joe Dante on the film – Trailers from Hell

The Court Jester
Directed by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama
Written by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank
1955/USA
Dena Enterprises
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Hawkins: But did you put the pellet with the poison in the vessel with the pestle?

Griselda: No! The pellet with the poison’s in the flagon with the dragon! The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true![/box]

This musical send-up of “Robin Hood” features what is probably Danny Kaye’s best performance.  As a bonus, it reunites us with Basil Rathbone, who even does some fencing.

Hubert Hawkins (Kaye) entertains the rebel band headed by the Black Fox and is often assigned to care for the infant heir to the throne of England.  He is in love with Maid Jean (Glynnis Johns), one of the rebel soldiers.  Evil King Roderick I, who has usurped the throne receives news that the infant lives.  Hawkins and Jean are assigned to move the boy to a hidden sanctuary.

On the way, they run into Giacomo, who is on his way to become jester to the King.  This looks to be the ideal way to infiltrate the palace and Hawkins takes his place.

Once Hawkins arrives, there are any number of mishaps before the fairy tale ending.  One of the most amusing of these is when a witch (Mildred Natwick) hypnotizes Hawkins to woo the Princess Gwendolyn (Angela Lansbury).

I’m not the world’s greatest Danny Kaye fan but he keeps his shtick under control here and is entertaining.  Rathbone has aged a lot by 1955 but he’s still a very good villain and a graceful fencer.

Clip

The Beast with a Million Eyes
Directed by David Kramarsky and Roger Corman (uncredited)
Written by Tom Filer
1955/USA
San Mateo Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Carol Kelley: Yes. I’m not easy to get along with am I? Oh, I don’t know. I think I could stand it, except for … [looking at the horizon]  out there… all that wasteland and mountains. We might as well be on another planet. Oh, Alan without Sandy I don’t know what would happen to me. It’d be just you and me and… Him [/box]

IMDb users have rated this film lower than Ed Wood’s Bride of the Monster, which came out the same year. There are several reasons for that but it’s also bizarrely fascinating if you have the patience.

The film begins with portentous voice-over narration from the Beast.  The Kelley family, and their mute and creepy handyman “Him”, live on a date farm in the middle of nowhere. Mother Kelley is bored beyond distraction and has turned very, very mean, especially toward her teenage daughter Sandy.  Soon a UFO’s high pitched drone breaks all of Mother Kelley’s prized glassware, putting her into an even worse mood.

Then assorted animals including the family dog, a cow, chickens, and a flock of pigeons attack.  At some point Mother begins to see the light and realize the error of her ways.  We learn that Love is stronger than the Beast.  Spoiler Alert:  The Beast is revealed to be what looks like a modified tea kettle with a superimposed hand puppet.

This is from early in the career of schlock-master Roger Corman and was made near where I live for a budget of $30,000.  It looks like virtually the entire budget was spent on the poster art.  The acting is godawful. The story makes no sense and of course zero was spent on special effects.  And yet it kept my interest despite the very slow pace.  It was all so bizarre that I kept wondering what would happen next.

Montage of clips