"B" Movies, Bad Movies, Good Movies

By John Howard Reid

In the days when cinema audiences insisted that movie programs include two features, plus shorts, plus a newsreel, plus trailers, plus a cartoon, the supporting feature was known in the film trade as a "B". On many occasions, the unheralded "B" movie turned out to be more entertaining than the "A" attraction. Many of Hollywood’s biggest stars, like John Wayne, Clark Gable, Alan Ladd and Carole Lombard, got their start in "B" pictures. Some, like Gene Autry (once voted the tenth most popular star in the world) made "B" movies exclusively. So this book is a celebration of the classic "B" films of yesteryear. Many of them, of course, are still aired on TV. And there are even two huge DVD companies (and several smaller ones) that specialize in vintage "B" mysteries and westerns.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Howard Reid
• Release date: Mar 4, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458164179

John Howard Reid

Author of over 100 full-length books, of which around 60 are currently in print, John Howard Reid is the award-winning, bestselling author of the Merryll Manning series of mystery novels, anthologies of original poetry and short stories, translations from Spanish and Ancient Greek, and especially books of film criticism and movie history. Currently chief judge for three of America's leading literary contests, Reid has also written the textbook, "Write Ways To Win Writing Contests".

Book preview

HOLLYWOOD CLASSICS TWO

B Movies, Bad Movies, Good Movies

by John Howard Reid

Smashwords Copyright 2011 by John Howard Reid

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All rights reserved. Inquiries: [e-mail]

NOTE: At one stage, I was writing reviews for two rival city newspapers, plus the weekly Union Recorder and the monthly Photoplayer magazine. Needless to say, I used pseudonyms, most frequently George Addison and Charles Freeman.

Other Movie Books by John Howard Reid

Hollywood Classics series:

1. New Light on Movie Bests

2. B Movies, Bad Movies, Good Movies

3. Award-Winning Films of the 1930s

4. Movie Westerns: Hollywood Films the Wild, Wild West

5. Memorable Films of the Forties

6. Popular Pictures of the Hollywood 1940s

7. Your Colossal Main Feature Plus Full Support Program

8. Hollywood’s Miracles of Entertainment

9. Hollywood Gold: Films of the Forties and Fifties

10. Hollywood B Movies: A Treasury of Spills, Chills & Thrills

11. Movies Magnificent: 150 Must-See Cinema Classics

12. These Movies Won No Hollywood Awards

13. Movie Mystery & Suspense

14. America’s Best, Britain’s Finest

15. Films Famous, Fanciful, Frolicsome and Fantastic

16. Hollywood Movie Musicals

17. Hollywood Classics Index Books 1-16

18. More Movie Musicals

19. Success in the Cinema

20. Best Western Movies

21. Great Cinema Detectives

22. Great Hollywood Westerns

23. Science Fiction and Fantasy Cinema

24. Hollywood’s Classic Comedies

25. Hollywood Classics Index to All Movies Reviewed in Books 1-24

CinemaScope One: Stupendous in ’Scope

CinemaScope Two: 20th Century Fox

CinemaScope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge

Mystery, Suspense, Film Noir and Detective Movies on DVD

British Movie Entertainments on VHS and DVD

WESTERNS: A Guide to the Best (and Worst) Western Movies on DVD

Silent Films & Early Talkies on DVD

Table of Contents

Abbott and Costello Meet Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Amazon Quest

Angela

The Ape

Before Dawn

Blockade

Block-Heads

The Blue Dahlia

Border Law

Brand of Fear

The Brasher Doubloon

Cadet Girl

Captain Calamity

The Case of the Howling Dog

Charlie Chan at Treasure Island

The Crooked Circle

Dangerous Cargo

Dangerous Corner

Danger Trails

A Date with the Falcon

Dead Reckoning

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

The Dragon Murder Case

The Falcon in Danger

The Falcon Strikes Back

The Far Horizons

Fast and Furious

The Florentine Dagger

From Headquarters

Gordon of Ghost City

The Green Archer

Guest Wife

His Brother’s Ghost

The House of Mystery

How Green Is My Spinach

I Cover the War

I Cover the Waterfront

I Was a Teenage Frankenstein

Jimmy the Gent

The Kennel Murder Case

Lady in the Morgue

The Lightning Warrior

The Lone Defender

The Lost Special

Madam Satan

Make Me a Star

Meet the Mummy

Midnight Phantom

Moby Dick

The Moonstone

Murder in the Clouds

Murder in the Private Car

Murder on a Honeymoon

Murder on the High Seas

My Artistical Temperature

My Tomato

Night Key

Northwest Trail

The Outlaw

Outlaws of the Desert

The Phantom Express

The Phantom of Paris

Posse Cat

Screaming Eagles

The Shanghai Story

Sherlock Junior

Ships with Wings

Sixteen Fathoms Deep

The Sky Dragon

Tarzan and the She-Devil

The Texans

Thirteen Women

Three Texas Steers

Tombstone Canyon

Trader Horn

Under the Pampas Moon

The Vanishing Legion

Wake of the Red Witch

We’re in the Legion Now

When a Man’s a Man

Whirlwind Raiders

The White Cockatoo

The Widow from Chicago

Wild Beauty

Wild Brian Kent

The Wild Dakotas

A Yank at Eton

A Yank in Indo-China

A Yank in Korea

Yaqui Drums

Yellow Cargo

Young Man with a Horn

Young Widow

Yukon Manhunt

Zombies on Broadway

Abbott and Costello Meet Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Bud Abbott (Slim), Lou Costello (Tubby), Boris Karloff (Dr Henry Jekyll), Craig Stevens (Bruce Adams), Helen Westcott (Vicky Edwards), Reginald Denny (inspector), John Dierkes (Batley), Patti McKay, Lucille Lamarr, Betty Tyler (dancers), Herbert Deans (victim), Henry Corden (Javanese actor), Marjorie Bennett (militant woman), Arthur Gould-Porter (bartender), Carmen de Lavallade (Javanese actress), Judith Brian (woman on bike), Clyde Cook, John Rogers (drunks), Gil Perkins (man on bike), Hilda Plowright (nursemaid), Keith Hitchcock (jailer), Harry Cording (fight ringleader), Donald Kerr (chimney sweep), Clive Morgan, Tony Marshe, Michael Hadlow (bobbies), Edwin Parker (Mr Hyde), Jimmy Aubrey (man sleeping in park), Betty Fairfax (suffragette), Susan Randall (girl), Wilson Benge (stage doorman), Ken Terrell, John Daheim (hecklers), Harry Wilson (man asking for match), Duke Johnson (juggler), Isabelle Dwan (Mrs Penprase), Al Ferguson (Watkins), David Sharpe, Ken Terrell, Sailor Vincent, Al Wyatt, John Daheim, Bert LeBaron, Teddy Mangean (stunt pedestrians), Vic Parks (stunt double).

Director: CHARLES LAMONT. Screenplay: Lee Loeb and John Grant. Uncredited script contributor: Howard Dimsdale. Based on screen stories by Sidney Fields and Grant Garrett, suggested by the 1886 novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Photography: George Robinson. Film editor: Russell Schoengarth. Art directors: Bernard Herzbrun and Eric Orbom. Set decorators: Russell A. Gausman and John Austin. Costumes: Rosemary Odell. Make-up: Bud Westmore. Assistant make-up man: Jack Kevan. Special photographic effects: David S. Horsley. Hair styles: Joan St. Oegger. Music director: Joseph Gershenson. Dance director: Kenny Williams. Assistant director: William Holland. Dialogue director: Milt Bronson. Sound recording: Leslie I. Carey and Robert Pritchard. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Howard Christie.

Copyright 26 June 1953 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. A Universal-International picture. No New York opening. U.S. release: August 1953. U.K. release: March 1954. Banned in Australia, the film has never been shown theatrically in that country although, oddly enough, it has frequently been broadcast on TV. 6,884 feet. 76 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Dr Jekyll decides to kill his ward’s lover as he wants to marry her himself.

COMMENT: It’s hard to believe that this wonderfully entertaining spoof received such lukewarm and even negative reviews. The boys are in their element as a couple of earnestly lame-brained bobbies, hilariously blundering their way from one tautly risible situation to the next, finally capping their chucklesome efforts with a delightful climax of doubly mirthful mayhem. Their comic endeavors are appealingly assisted by Reginald Denny—as stupidly choleric a detective inspector as they come—and John Dierkes as a lumbering menace. And there’s a great support cast including Clyde Cook and John Rogers as a couple of argumentative drunks, and Arthur Gould-Porter as a disbelieving bartender. Boris Karloff is deliciously suave as the not-so-good doctor, while Helen Westcott makes a vivaciously pretty heroine. The stunts and special effects are exciting enough for an A feature. We love the sets and atmosphere. And as for the direction with its stylish camera angles and tight compositions, we are amazed to report that it’s a long way above Mr Lamont’s usual more humble standards.

OTHER VIEWS: One of the best A&C features, thanks to a very funny script, slick film editing, superbly low-key photography, excellent acting, marvelous make-up and special effects, and startlingly imaginative direction. All the principal players with the exception of Craig Stevens (who is capable, but not outstanding) are to be especially commended. I found the scene in the wax museum so hilarious, my ribs hurt from alternate laughter and fright. The climax is likewise breathtaking.

–C.F.

In this remarkable adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, Abbott and Costello do much better by the book than Hammer Films were to do in a similar attempt (The Ugly Duckling—1959) to turn it into a musical comedy. For one thing, Abbott and Costello’s scriptwriters have thoughtfully retained the period as well as the milieu, and many of the dramatic incidents are played perfectly straight while the comic potentialities of the central idea are fully exploited.

—G.A.

Amazon Quest

Tom Neal (Tom Dekker), Carole Mathews (Teresa Castanho), Carole Donne (Anna Naarden), Joseph Crehan (DeRuyter), Ralph Graves (Anna’s attorney), Don Zelaya (Lobato), Don Dillaway (clerk in DeRuyter’s office), Jack George (judge), Joe Granby (Mariano), Edward Clark (Handel), Cosmo Sardo (ringleader), Paul Fierro (lieutenant), Frank Lackteen (guide), Lester Shape, Z. Yaconelli (clerks), Julian Rivero (Vasco), René Deltgen (Tom Dekker, senior) and Hans Nielsen, Gustav Diessl.

Director: S.K. Seeley (pseudonym of STEVE SEKELY). Screenplay: Al Martin. Additional dialogue: Louis Stevens. Original story: Irwin Gielgud. Photography: Guy Roe. 2nd unit director: Eduard von Borsody. 2nd unit photography: Willy Winterstein, Edgar Eichhorn. Film editor: Norman Cerf. Art director: Frank Dexter. Set decorator: Elias H. Reif. Costumes: Don Wakeling. Make-up: Harry Ross. Property master: Don Redfern. Camera operator: Thomas C. Morris. Music director: Alexander Laszlo. Stills cameraman: Fred Grossi. Set continuity: Emily Ehrlich. Technical advisor: Z. Yaconelli. Production manager: Arthur Alexander. Assistant director: Lou Perloff. Sound engineer: Ben Winkler. Associate producer: Iren Agay. Producer: Max Alexander. An Agay Production.

Copyright 2 April 1949 by Film Classics, Inc. U.S. release: 1 March 1949. New York opening at the Rialto: 13 May 1949. U.K. release through International: March 1950. Australian release through 20th Century-Fox: 18 August 1954 (sic). 6,764 feet. 75 minutes. Censored to 6,718 feet in the U.K.

U.K. release title: AMAZON.

Re-issue title: WHITE BRIDE OF THE JUNGLE.

SYNOPSIS: A claimant to a share in rich rubber company treks through the Amazon jungle in search of his father.

COMMENT: Although Film Classics publicity claims that Iren Agay spent seven months in the Amazonian jungle making this particular movie, in point of fact it was reportedly shot in Hollywood in six days. The movie incorporates long inserts of location and other footage from the 1938 German film, Green Hell, directed by Eduard von Borsody. In addition to Hans Nielsen and Gustav Diessl (who can be seen quite plainly), the cast included Vera von Lange, René Deltgen and Roma Bahn. Needless to say, the 1938 footage of colorful Brazilian backgrounds and wild animal thrills is much more exciting and expertly executed than its 1949 Hollywood-shot surround. No wonder director Steve Sekely hid his contribution under a pseudonym!

In order to solve the continuity problem, there’s not much actual dialogue, most of the picture being narrated by Tom Neal. All the same, Amazon Quest possesses a certain curiosity fascination for the connoisseur. Average moviegoers will find it entertaining enough on the lower half of a double bill.

Angela

Dennis O’Keefe (Steve Catlett), Mara Lane (Angela Towne), Rossano Brazzi (Nino), Arnoldo Foa (Captain Ambrosi), Galeazzo Benti (Gustavo), Nino Crisman (Bertolati), Enzo Fiermonte (Sergeant Collina), Giovanni Fostini (Tony), Maria Teresa Paliani (beauty shop girl), Francesco Tensi (Doctor Robini), Gorella Gori (nurse), Aldo Pini (doorkeeper), and Yoka Berrety, Luciano Salce.

Directors and screenwriters: DENNIS O’KEEFE, EDUARDO ANTON. Story: Steve Carruthers. Photography: Leonida Barboni. Film editor: Giancarlo Cappelli. Art director: Camillo Del Signore. Music composed and conducted by Mario Nascimbene. Music copyright by Curci—Milano. Miss Lane’s costumes: Schuberth of Rome. Set continuity: Marion Mertes. Production manager: Alessandro Tasca. Sound recording: Vittorio Trentino. Western Electric Sound System. Associate producer: Augusto Fantechi. Producer: Steven Pallos. Filmed at the studios of the Centro Sperimentale, Rome, Italy.

Copyright 1955 by Patria Pictures. U.S. release through 20th Century-Fox: April 1955. New York opening at the Palace: 3 June 1955. U.K. release through Independent/British Lion: 7 November 1955. Australian release through 20th Century-Fox: 21 February 1957. 7,281 feet. 81 minutes. Cut to 73 minutes in Australia.

COMMENT: A neat story, surprisingly competent direction, fine photography by Barboni and a hauntingly atmospheric music score by Nascimbene combine to make an exciting thriller, which, oddly in view of its superb entertainment qualities, seems to have disappeared.

Mara Lane is appropriately seductive as the femme fatale of the title, while both Rossano Brazzi (playing a heavy, would you believe) and Arnoldo Foa make brief but effective appearances.

Looking appropriately dispirited, Dennis O’Keefe holds up the main role with admirable finesse. As co-author (under the pseudonym, Jonathan Rix) of the screenplay, he keeps himself in front of the camera for the entire length of the movie—and he narrates the story off-camera too! As co-director [actually, he is credited as sole director on all English-language prints, whilst Anton receives a similar solo credit on the Italian version], he no doubt directed himself and the other English-speaking players (Lane and Brazzi), and supervised the dubbing of the others. Anton, of course, would have handled the Italian cast and maybe the general mise-en-scène. Certainly natural locations are adroitly utilized throughout. Other credits are equally first-rate.

The Ape

Boris Karloff (Dr Bernard Adrian), Maris Wrixon (Frances Clifford), Dorothy Vaughan (Mrs Clifford), Gene O’Donnell (Danny Foster), Gertrude W. Hoffman (Jane, Dr Adrian’s housekeeper), Henry Hall (Sheriff Jeff Halliday), Selmer Jackson (Dr McNulty), Ray Crash Corrigan (the ape), George Cleveland (Howley, a circus hand), I. Stanford Jolley (trainer), Pauline Drake (young girl), Buddy Swan (young boy), Jack Kennedy (Deputy Tomlin), Philo McCullough (Henry Mason), Mary Field (Mrs Mason), Gibson Gowland (posse member), Donald Kerr (citizen carrying mauled trainer), Harry C. Bradley (Quinn, the druggist), Jessie Arnold (Mrs Brill).

Director: WILLIAM NIGH. Screenplay: Curt Siodmak, Richard Carroll. Adaptation: Curt Siodmak. Based on the stage play The Ape by Adam Hull Shirk. Photography: Harry Neumann. Film editor: Russell Schoengarth. Art director: E.R. Hickson. Music director: Edward J. Kay. Production manager: Charles J. Bigelow. Assistant director: Allen K. Wood. Sound recording: Karl Zint. Associate producer: William T. Lackey. Producer: Scott R. Dunlap.

Copyright 24 September 1940 by Monogram. New York opening at the Rialto: 27 November 1940. U.S. release: 30 September 1940. U.K. release: 23 January 1941. Australian release through Associated-B.E.F.: 16 January 1941. 5,620 feet. 62 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: A research doctor needs spinal fluid to affect a cure for paralysis. When an ape escapes from a circus, the doctor decides…

NOTES: A re-make of Monogram’s The House of Mystery (1934), starring Ed Lowry and Verna Hillie, and featuring Harry C. Bradley and George Cleveland in different roles than they were assigned in The Ape. Both versions were directed by William Nigh.

COMMENT: The last of Karloff’s six films for Monogram, this one is described, somewhat inaccurately, by the contemporary British trade paper Kinematograph Weekly as a spectacular thriller. The Ape is neither. It’s better described as a small-scale study of small town mores. True, some reasonably exciting stock footage of a circus fire has been incorporated into the Poverty Row action and one briefly exciting scene is presented in which Karloff is snarlingly confronted by a furniture-hurtling Crash Corrigan (who vigorously smashes his way into Boris’ poorly equipped lab), but the creature is quickly disposed of, and the action resumes its predictably humdrum course.

Karloff does what he can with his clichéd role, but the real acting honors must be shared among the lovely Maris Wrixon (quite convincing as the paralysed heroine), Henry Hall (a no-nonsense sheriff), and Philo McCullough (a wonderfully hard-nosed villain who has all the script’s best lines). I. Stanford Jolley (whose long cinema career was spent almost exclusively along Poverty Row) also impresses in a brief part as the make-him-mad trainer. (Why the circus would employ such a person and why, having enraged the gorilla, he would then relax with a cigarette so temptingly close to the ape’s cage, are just two of the script’s numerous little inconsistencies).

As in House of Mystery (whose plot bears little resemblance to this), Nigh mostly directs in a competent but thoroughly routine manner, only coming to life sporadically,—especially in a bit of circus footage focusing on George Cleveland (of all people!) in an effective tracking shot as he walks through the grounds after the performance.

Before Dawn

Stuart Erwin (Dwight Wilson), Warner Oland (Dr Paul Cornelius), Dorothy Wilson (Patricia Merrick), Dudley Digges (Horace Merrick), Gertrude W. Hoffman (Mattie), Oscar Apfel (O’Hara), Frank Reicher (Joe Valerie), Jane Darwell (Miss Marble), Stanley Blystone (policeman), and Edward Hearn, Pat O’Malley.

Director: IRVING PICHEL. Screenplay: Garrett Fort. Uncredited script contributors: Marian Dix, Ralph Block. Based on the short story Death Watch by Edgar Wallace. Photography: Lucien Andriot. Film editor: William Hamilton. Music director: Max Steiner. Art directors: Van Nest Polglase, Carroll Clark. Assistant director: Walter Mayo. Sound recording: Philip J. Faulkner, Jr. RCA Sound System. Associate producer: Shirley Burden. Executive producer: Merian C. Cooper.

Copyright 4 August 1933 by RKO-Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Mayfair: 16 October 1933. U.K. release: 10 February 1934. Australian release: December 1933. 6 reels. 60 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Police engage a clairvoyant to help solve the murder of an old lady in a spooky mansion.

NOTES: It looks like Frank Sully, playing the radio patrolman the first time around, but when the car returns it seems to me that a different actor is hiding beneath the uniform.

VIEWER’S GUIDE: Adults.

COMMENT: Wonderfully spooky, old-house melodrama, atmospherically photographed and set, effectively handled by Irving Pichel (making his solo directorial debut). Villainous Warner Oland acquits himself most impressively in the main role, combining menace, charm, naked greed and a mad fixation in generous measure to round out his charismatic portrait of evil on the loose. Though far less experienced, young Dorothy Wilson also contributes a convincingly fascinating study of the clairvoyant in the case. Digges is inclined to be too hammy in his early scenes, whilst Erwin is too mannered a hero for my money, but fortunately he disappears for a nice spell.

Blockade

Henry Fonda (Marco), Madeleine Carroll (Norma), Leo Carillo (Luis), John Halliday (Andre Gallinet), Vladimir Sokoloff (Basil, the father of Norma), Robert Warwick (General Vallejo), Reginald Denny (Edward Grant), Peter Godfrey (Roderigo, the magician), Katherine De Mille (cabaret girl), William B. Davidson (commandant), Carlos de Valdez (Major Del Rio), Lupita Tovar (palm reader), Rosina Galli (waitress), George Houston (café singer), Fred Kohler Sr (Pietro), Nick Thompson (Beppo), Maria De La (baby), Guy D’Ennery (counsellor), Dolores Duran, Roman Ros (dancers), and Arthur Aylesworth, Demetris Emanuel, George Lloyd, John Skins Miller, Belle Mitchell, Evelyn Selbie, Harry Semels, Carl Stockdale, Cecil Weston, Hugh Prosser, Murdock MacQuarrie, Herbert Heywood, Al Ernest Garcia, Mary Foy, Roger Drake, Edward Brady, Paul Bradley, Ricca Allen.

Director: WILLIAM