cult film freak: MARA CORDAY BOWLING FOR 'PETER GUNN' IN 'KEEP SMILING'

Written by James M. Tate / 10/15/2025 / No comments / blake edwards , con man , craig stevens , crime , film noir or melodrama , jack arnold , jackie coogan , mara corday , tv series

MARA CORDAY BOWLING FOR 'PETER GUNN' IN 'KEEP SMILING'

10/15/2025 | No comment

Mara Corday on PETER GUNN: KEEP SMILING Year: 1959 Grade: B+

With a plot right out of the James Cagney flick LADY KILLER, a group of con-artists use a beautiful dame to hook lonely (in this case) bowling alley frequents, take them to an apartment and then rob 'em blind... wherein the usually jazzy-cool titular gumshoe Craig Stevens's PETER GUNN plays the awkward nebbish to vulnerably hook the girl...

But once at the hot spot, he's made by one of the baddies... making this episode a kind of twenty-minute b-movie, and the gorgeous dame's played by fitfully hot b-movie starlet Mara Corday...

Craig Stevens and Mara Corday on PETER GUNN: KEEP SMILING

Who's usually screaming in creature-features like TARANTULA, ironically working here for the same director, Jack Arnold... as she initially slinks to Henry Mancini's smooth vibes before the famous spy-genre score begins...

Overall stealing the episode KEEP SMILING that's all her own, and, without equally gorgeous contrasting blonde regular Lola Albright (who also had sultry pursed lips), there was obviously only room for one knockout bombshell.

Mara Corday on PETER GUNN: KEEP SMILING

Opening from PETER GUNN: KEEP SMILING

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Tags : blake edwards , con man , craig stevens , crime , film noir or melodrama , jack arnold , jackie coogan , mara corday , tv series

James M. Tate

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