The Third Man

The Third Man

1959-1965

TV Series

Michael Rennie

Jonathan Harris

This was a joint British-American production. Rennie starred as Harry Lime, a business tycoon and private eye; he has a shadowy past that included spying during World War II and some art theft. His preferred drink is a whiskey sour with orange peel.

Jonathan Harris played Bradford Whitman, Lime’s assistant. Harris, of course, was Dr. Smith on Lost in Space. (Doing a little research into the show brought on one of those Tex Avery Patented Jaw-Dropping-Moments—Jonathan Harris was born and raised in the Bronx! According to IMDB, Harris studied British movies to learn the accent that he used throughout his career.)

The 26-minute episodes are generally taut and well written; Rennie is always controlled and debonair—his perpetually bemused expression fits the character perfectly. Harris plays Brad more seriously than he would play his next job; Brad is a nervous sort, with the same clipped diction that Dr. Smith would feature, but there is none of the over-the-top silliness of that character.

We forget that we used to get drama in a half-hour format—it’s been decades since TV offered that sort of thing. It might be interesting to see the format again—some modern shows might benefit from less padding.

*

There are ten episodes in this two-disk set from Timeless Media Group. The price was right at $4.99—I would’ve paid more.

Quality is very good—clear with only a few minor scratches and dist specks from time to time. I noticed one spot where we miss a frame or two. There is a TMG logo throughout which is a bit tiresome.

You see the opening sequence only once, before the episode selection screen; each episode begins with the episode title and goes right into the story. Some episodes have closing credits but others don’t—I don’t know why.

I don’t know if these are the ten best of the total of 78 episodes, but I would like to see more.

Racket Squad

Racket Squad

1951-1953

TV

Reed Hadley stars as Captain Braddock of the Racket Squad, tracking down con artists. The show concentrates on scams rather than violent crime.

This is another release from Timeless Media Group. It’s a two-disc set with ten episodes. There are a few defects but the quality is again pretty good. (At least it doesn’t have the TMG logo floating in the bottom right corner like some other sets.)

Guest stars in this set include Hugh Beaumont as a bad guy and Frances Bavier (Aunt Bee) as a potential victim of a scam.

The series ran three seasons from 1951 to 1953, for a total of 98 episodes. The first season was only 13 episodes; the second season was 50 (!) episodes and the third was 35.

Hugh Beaumont shows up in a couple of episodes, once as a crook and once as a victim. Frances Bavier-- Aunt Bea on Andy Griffith-- is a victim in one episode.

It's pretty good-- some scratches and problems with the video but still pretty good; and the stories are not bad, either.

Another Blog

I've been thinking about creating another blog on the subject of old movies-- the fine old Thin Man pictures, the Bogart movies, and the old TV shows that focused on mysteries. I haven't worked out a name yet-- I'm toying with What's That Man Doing in My Drawers?, after the line from Nora in The Thin Man. I haven't decided yet.

The next post or two will be about old mystery series-- TV rather than movies.

The Mole People

This picture is not upcoming on TCM but it is fun. It's on The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection (volume one). It's not the best picture in the set-- it's actually about four of five-- but it is worth a look if you are a fan of the genre.

The Mole People

1956

Universal International

John Agar

Cynthia Patrick

Hugh

Alan Napier

Nestor Paiva

Phil Chambers

Rodd Redwing

Robin Hughes

Written by Laszlo Gorog

Produced by William Alland

Directed by Virgil Vogel

*
The picture begins with a four and a half minute lecture from Dr. Frank Baxter, an English professor at USC. I think he’s the same fellow who did a lot of the educational films we saw in school when I was a kid—he did so many of those I wonder if he had time to do any teaching.

He’s discussing the suggestions by some people about what lies beneath our feet—is the Earth hollow? He cites three crackpot theories before introducing the movie, carefully pointing out that “this is a fiction—science fiction—it’s a fable”.

This is pretty good movie—not a great one, but better than many others. For those of a certain generation, it’s fun to see Hugh Beaumont in a different role. Genre favorites John Agar and Nestor Paiva are good as usual. The story is decent, if a bit clichéd; the biggest problem is the goofy costumes and props—if you can ignore those, you can enjoy the picture.

Alan Napier plays the High Priest—he’s unrecognizable under the white makeup, the long whiskers and silly hat—but it’s the same actor who played Alfred, the butler, on the TV Batman. Napier was quoted as saying that he never read comics so he didn’t know anything about Batman; when his agent told him he had a good chance to get the role, he asked what a Batman was. When his agent told him that it could mean $100,000, Napier replied, “I’m going to be Batman’s butler.”

*

Land of the Spoilers

A group of archeologists is working a dig in Asia; they discover a stone tablet. Dr. Roger Bentley (John Agar) says that the language is Sumerian; he translates a warning that anyone who tampers with the belongings of Sharu, King of Kings, is doomed. Lafarge (Nestor Paiva), Dr. Paul Stewart (Phil Chambers) and Jud Bellamin (Hugh Beaumont) are with him in the tent discussing the tablet when an earthquake hits. It’s not very severe, but it does knock over the camp table on which the tablet rests—the tablet breaks in two. Jud wonders if the Goddess of Istar is expressing displeasure at their moving of the tablet; Lafarge replies that the tablet warned doom to anyone who maliciously took the tablet, and they’re certainly not malicious—just innocent archeologists.

The next morning a native boy brings them an oil lamp in the shape of a boat. They read additional markings—Sharu had a boat built, got his family, his slaves and his animals onto it; they ride out a great flood and land on the mountains of snow. Bentley decides they need to climb the nearby mountain Cuetara.

With Nazar, their guide, the begin the ascent. They arrive on the Cuetara Plateau the second day and are met with an avalanche—they take cover in a cave. After it passes, they find the arm of a marble statue in the snow.

They climb to the summit and find a temple entrance, obviously very old. Stewart is walking around, away from the others—the ground gives way and he falls. The others scramble to the hole—they can’t see the bottom, so they get their gear, drop ropes and rappel down.

After they’ve descended more than 200 feet, Bentley drives another piton into the rock and continues down. He sees the body of Stewart and goes down. Jud follows, then Lafarge. Nazar is preparing to make the final descent when he notices the piton is loose; he hammers it in—and causes a cave-in. A rock strikes him on the head and he falls. The cave-in buries him and closes off the shaft they’d come down.

Bentley, Jud and Lafarge explore, searching for another way out. The find an ancient underground city. They decide to rest—they’ve been on their feet for over 15 hours—so they stretch out on what looks like coarse black sand. Ugly creatures come up from the sand and snatch them underground.

They awaken in a cave. A door opens and two albino guards take them to another, newer underground temple, where they’re presented to the king and his high priest. The high priest asks who they are. Bentley explains that they’re friends who come from the surface. The priest scoffs—above in only heaven, where we once lived. If you are evil spirits, you must be destroyed—and if you are mortals, we cannot feed you, so you must be destroyed.

Guards lead them off to die in the Fire of Istar, but Bentley and Jud decide to fight. They overpower the first few guards and run for a tunnel. Lafarge trails behind; he falls and calls out for help. Bentley turns and shines his flashlight just as the guards are about to kill Lafarge—the light hurts their eyes. They turn and run. The chase reverses direction and the invaders now pursue the guards. They return to the king’s chamber; the flashlight chases the king and the high priest from the room.

Lafarge panics and runs down another tunnel. Bentley and Jud follow; they find a chamber where the Beasts of the Dark are enslaved. One of the Beasts gets away and chases them; it kills Lafarge before Bentley can drive it off with the light.

Bentley and Jud emerge from the tunnel—back where they came from. The priest and the king come out behind them—it is obvious that Bentley and Jud are indeed from Ishtar, for they have the light of Ishtar in their cylinder.

At a banquet to honor the visitors, a slave girl drops a platter of mushrooms (the primary source of food for the underground people); the king orders her whipped. Bentley stops the punishment—the king gives ownership of the woman to Bentley. Her name is Adad (according to the closing credits). She’s not albino and is considered below the ruling class. Bentley tells her that she’s free but she stays with him.

Even as the king promises that the outsiders will be treated well, the high priest begins a campaign among other priests to steal the burning light cylinder and get rid of the visitors.

Bentley and Jud interfere with the rulers several times; finally they are drugged and awaken tied up. The high priest plans to sacrifice them in the Fire of Ishtar. The high priest finally has the burning light cylinder—he feels invulnerable.

Adad goes to the Beasts of the Dark for help. After Bentley and Jud are forced into the chamber of the Fire of Ishtar, the Beasts begin to emerge from the sands around the temple and attack. The high priest tells the king not to worry—after all, he has the cylinder of burning light. Of course, by now the batteries are dead—the flashlight does nothing.

The battle is a rout as the Beasts whip the king’s guards. Adad tries to open the door to the Fire of Ishtar chamber but she can’t; the Beasts see what she’s trying so they force the door. She goes inside, into the sunlight streaming down from above. Bentley comes up to her and embraces her.

Bentley, Adad and Jud return to the surface, find their equipment and get fitted up for the snowy conditions. Another quake hits—Adad runs back toward the temple and is crushed when a column falls and rolls over her.

The end.

*

It’s an abrupt and not totally satisfying end but he story was done—why waste money (which was in short supply on movies such as this) on any more?

Dr. Roger Bentley-- John Agar

Adad-- Cynthia Patrick

Dr. Jud Bellamin-- Hugh Beaumont

Elinu -- Alan Napier

Etienne Lafarge -- Nestor Paiva

Dr Paul Stuart-- Phil Chambers

Nazar-- Rod Redwing

First Officer-- Robin Hughes

It Came from Beneath the Sea

Friday at 8 PM EDT we have It Came From Beneath the Sea on TCM.

Here's a brief review.

It Came From Beneath the Sea

1955

78 minutes

Columbia

Produced by Charles H. Schneer

Directed by Robert Gordon

This is another good sci-fi picture from Sam Katzman and Columbia with the added benefit of Ray Harryhausen’s marvelous effects.

Cmdr. Matthews (Kenneth Tobey) is captain of the US Navy’s newest atomic submarine, out on its shakedown cruise, when something strange appears on sonar. A giant object chases the sub and then stops the sub for several minutes; radiation detectors onboard go wild—reactor room reports no radiation leak inside the boat—the radiation is coming from outside. The sub escapes and surfaces; divers find a strange substance on the bow planes. The substance is taken back to base in Hawaii.

*

Katzman made some wonderful pictures for Columbia, along with a few turkeys (The Giant Claw, for example); this falls in the former category, thanks to the effects by Ray Harryhausen.

*

Kenneth Tobey and Faith Domergue are excellent as usual, even though the script (by George Wothing Yates and Hal Smith) is a bit clunky with their potential romance. As my wife correctly noted, why are they going swimming in waters off a beach on which people have disappeared, in waters with no fish? The reason, of course, is to get Domergue in a bathing suit—not that I’m complaining.

If memory serves me, Ray Harryhausen once said that he’d only animated six tentacles on the octopus because of budget constraints. I noticed on the face of the DVD that the critter has ten tentacles. I wondered if it was really a sextopus or a decapus or just a Hollywoodapus.

*

Proceed only if you’ve seen the picture.

Dr. John Carter (Donald Curtis) and Dr. Leslie Joyce (Faith Domergue) are brought in to study the substance. It takes ten days but they finally determine what it is—a small part of an obviously giant octopus.

The government official’s initial skepticism quickly fades after survivors of a sunken tanker describe the creature (in a long scene that displays Domergue’s sultry charms).

Matthews and Joyce go to the Oregon coast, where a family disappeared, to investigate. It’s here that we have our first on-screen victim, a sheriff’s deputy named Bill—and the story kicks into high gear.

We finally get to the attack on San Francisco, a marvelous Harryhausen sequence.

*

The picture generally has good usage of stock footage, although the selection of a B-47 as the plane to carry Cmdr. Matthews and Dr. Leslie Joyce to Oregon seems a bit off unless our characters were riding in the bomb bay; that plane was strictly three seats—pilot, navigator and bombardier.

*

This a fun movie--enjoy.

I don't mean to suggest that the suspension was due to my political comments, by the way-- it could well be that it was related to the movie review. When I noted that political comments have expiration dates, that meant that I couldn't post political comment on a site that left me sitting for five or six days before what I wrote finally got published.

Isn't one of the important things about blogging the immediacy of the postings?

Hmmm

I started this blog last week, posted a couple of political notes and then a review of a movie. The blog was then suspended for five days because it may have violated terms of agreement.
Tonight it's back and I can post-- should I trust in that? I don't know.

The thing is that I don't what terms of agreement I may or may not have violated-- it would be nice to know, particularly since political comments have a specific freshness date.

I suppose I'll make a few more posts, just to see what happens.

I don't think I'll put my best stuff up yet though.

Ugh!

I can see from the last post that my planned method-- creating stuff in MS Word and then doing a cut and past to get it over here-- isn't going to work. The formating went to hell-- and when I tried to fix it by editing the post, I got no joy. So I got work to do.


But we'll get there.

The Thing From Another World

The Thing from Another World

Winchester Pictures

RKO release

1951

87 minutes

Nikki Margaret Sheridan

Hendry Kenneth Tobey

Carrington Robert Cornthwaite

Scotty Douglas Spencer

Eddie Dykes James Young

Bob Dewey Martin

Lt. Ken Erickson Robert Nichols

Cpl. Barnes William Self

Dr. Stern Eduard Franz

Mrs. Chapman Sally Creighton

The Thing James Arness

Music by Dimitri Tiomkin

Screenplay by Charles Lederer

Based on the story “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell Jr.

Produced by Howard Hawks

Directed by Christian Nyby

*

Captain Pat Hendry (Tobey), a C-47 pilot stationed in Anchorage, is called by the base commander General Fogerty. Dr. Carrington, leader of Polar Expedition 6, has reported the crash of an aircraft nearby and has requested an aircraft and means to investigate. Hendry, his crew and Ned Scott, a newspaperman visiting Anchorage trying to dig up a story, fly to the base to assist in the investigation. With scientists and sled dogs on board, they fly to the crash site and discover something unusual—the crashed craft melted the ice and sank before the ice refroze—and the craft is round! “We finally found one!” They’ve found a flying saucer!

*

The Thing is a wonderful picture—great writing, great acting, great direction, great sets, terrific music—it’s hard to think of any way you could improve it.

Kenneth Tobey is perfect as Captain Hendry—generally easy-going but capable of being quietly commanding, showing great respect and affection for his crew—it’s a wonderful performance. Margaret Sheridan is delightful as Carrington’s secretary and Hendry’s love interest—she has a stronger role than women in most sci-fi pictures of the era. She’s strictly business in dealing with her work—even in the scene where she gets squeamish, she backs up a tiny bit and asks Carrington if he will need her any more; she’s clearly relieved when he dismisses her—but she never screams a single time. And she’s downright sultry as she teases Hendry with a drink and a kiss.

Robert Cornthwaite plays the arrogant Dr. Carrington perfectly from his first scene, where he makes Hendry wait while he finishes what he’s working on—it’s obvious that what he thinks is important outweighs what others think. He also says, “I dislike being vague”, almost sighing at the line (more on Carrington below).

Douglas Spencer, as reporter Ned Scott, gets some of the best lines in a movie full of good lines and provides a little comedy relief—but comedy relief unlike the buffoonish relief in so many movies. When Carrington describes the attributes of the amputated alien arm, Scotty stops him and says, “Please, Doctor, I have to ask—it sounds like you’re describing some sort of super carrot.”

Carrington confirms Scott’s suggestion; Scotty then says, “Dr Carrington, you’re a man who won the Nobel Prize; you’ve received every kind of international kudo a scientist can attain. If you were for sale, I could get a million bucks for you from any foreign government. I’m not, therefore, going to stick my neck out and say you’re stuffed absolutely clean full of wild blueberry muffins—but I promise my readers are gonna think so.”

Dewey Martin is Bob, the crew chief, infinitely creative and resourceful; he frequently approaches Hendry and softly says, “Captain, I have a suggestion.” The suggestions are always good and Hendry always accepts them—and Bob always compliments Hendry on another good idea.

*

The script is a delight, with great dialog and good suspense. The music is very good, too—the movie is one of the first to use a theremin in the score.

*

The special effects are surprisingly good for the time, in part because of the smart decision not to show any of the space ship other than a fin. The monster suit is nothing to write home about but it is better than a lot of other movies. The most noteworthy effects scene is the one where the Air Force crew sets fire to X. These days, we’ve seen plenty of scenes with people on fire, so it may not be all that impressive, but James Cameron, in TCM’s special Watch the Skies!, says that it was the first full-body flame suit, and the first shot with no other lighting than the flames on the stunt man. I haven’t researched that claim—if it’s true, it’s amazing. Even if Cameron’s story isn’t true, the scene is still incredible. And it does appear that there’s no other lighting (to my un-film-educated eye).

Why We're Here

The purpose of this blog is supposed to be old movies-- usually sci-fi movies. My irritation at a political story boiled over to the point that I posted something off-topic last night. I'll try to keep that from happening again--I plan to put up another blog for politics.

We will get started doing what we planned now with a review of the movie that provided the name of this blog.

Good Friday

One of the problems of being unemployed is that you sometimes miss a holiday.

I switched over to CNBC this morning to see what the price of oil was doing-- but they didn't have the usual block of various prices at the top of the screen. They were running a commercial so I figured I'd come back later.

They were doing a show when I went back-- still no prices. Hmm.

It took several seconds before I woke up to the fact that today is a holiday. Great Caesar's Boats!

Oh--Happy Easter.

A Whole New World

Although I've been contemplating blogging for a long time, it's still a little odd to actually do it. I look at the blog and see some little problem and I want to make corrections-- but that defeats the whole purpose of the thing, unless I made an honest mistake and have a correction to make.

I can't go back and clean up the grammar on a blog unless it contributed to a problem with the story. Facts matter-- bad grammar doesn't.

It's All Our Fault

Whites are all personally responsible for racism in the Black Liberation Theology movement; God is on the side of the blacks, because they are the downtrodden; if God is on the side of the whites, God must be killed. Wright is one of the leading theologians in that movement.

I have no idea what percentage of blacks go in for this stuff; I’ve heard and read a few things that imply that a fair number do buy it. Obama himself supports this idea when he says that he doesn’t see anything particularly controversial in the positions of his church.

*
Al Sharpton, on Greta van Susterin’s show, says he won’t defend Wright’s comments without viewing the whole sermon but says he agrees with Rev. Wright in principle—Wright is pointing out historical facts about women and blacks not being true citizens when the country was started.

This is one of those things that sends me up the wall. It’s true that only white males had the vote at the birth of the nation—only those who owned property, as a matter of fact. But who was it that decided slavery was wrong—and fought to bring it to an end? And who amended the Constitution to give women the vote? Uh, I think it might have been—all together now—white males.

Slavery had been practiced by humans since before the birth of civilization. Slavery was accepted as perfectly normal by most of humanity (not including the slaves, of course) for at least ten thousand years. Slavery was abolished roughly seventy years after the birth of this nation—a little earlier in England, a little later in some other countries—until today, there are only isolated pockets left (notably in Africa).

If white males are such oppressive creatures, why did they voluntarily give up their monopoly on the power?

Hillary Slighted

Hillary couldn’t stand being left out, so she released 11,000 pages of her schedules from her White House days. About 5,000 pages have something redacted (let’s use one of the left’s favorite words against the left—hee hee). Her supporters are bragging that she is more open than anyone; when someone complains about the missing information, her supporters say it’s only for privacy reasons—and that the redactions were done by the National Archives. They neglect to mention that the Archive workers are following instructions from Bill Clinton not to release anything dealing with politics, policies or any investigations directed at Hillary or Bill.

One more time now, all together now—what were they thinking?

Karl Rove must really have that mind-control thing cooking.

What Were They Thinking?

I’ve known for a very long time that politicians were no smarter than average people, but this year’s presidential campaign is truly inspiring, as in, ”How stupid can they get?” If you tried to write a novel with characters behaving like the candidates, no one would believe it—and you would be derided as a lousy writer.

Obama knew more than a year ago that his connection with Rev. Wright would be a problem—he withdrew the invitation for Wright to do the invocation before he officially announced his candidacy—so what did he do? He made Wright a member of his religious advisory group—and he apparently continued to attend services at United Church of Christ, at least occasionally. What was he thinking?

Then the church began selling DVD’s of some of Wright’s incendiary sermons earlier this year—what were they thinking?

After ABC News showed clips from the sermons last week, Obama initially denied knowing of Wright’s opinions; that didn’t cool the fires, so he gave a speech Tuesday in which he contradicted his comments of last week. Obama also “threw his grandmother under the bus”—what was he thinking? Particularly because what he said about his grandma in the speech contradicted what he’d written about her in a book several years ago—what was he thinking?

John Fund, on Hannity and Colmes tonight, noted that Oprah had attended United Church of Christ for a while and had quit—and Wright had attacked her. Fund suggested that Obama stayed with Wright to avoid a similar attack that could have potentially cost him votes.

I wonder about Obama’s math skills—he could risk offending that percentage of blacks who agree with Black Liberation Theology (more on that below) by walking out of the church, or he could take the chance of offending a percentage of moderate white voters by going along with Wright’s outrageous statements. I have to wonder which is the larger bloc of voters. What was he thinking?

First Post

First Post

I’ve been contemplating a blog for a long time. I even went so far as to do a kind of pseudo-blog—really a journal—strictly on my hard drive, just to see if I would post frequently enough to make it worth my while to do it, and worth your while to read it.

I tended to post every other day—I wasn’t sure if that was enough but it was fairly regular—some people seem to get away with that. It wouldn’t be a big blog but—if I did post something every other day—there would be at least a little new content pretty frequently.

I still didn’t jump in—I wanted to do something different. I considered various and sundry ideas and finally settled on a blog that concentrated on old movies and, especially, sci-fi movies, with respectful reviews and notes—and only an occasional foray into the world of politics.

This year has been unusually exciting in terms of politics but I still held back—would I stick with it?

Then came the story of the opinions of Obama’s pastor; the various stories and opinions and the whole controversy made me decide to jump off the pier. So here it is. I don’t know if I will sink or swim—I guess we’ll find out together.

I intend to do my job and post frequently but I can’t promise that yet—we’ll have to see.

Thanks.