STANLEY KUBRICK'S NOIR 'THE KILLING' WITH STERLING HAYDEN

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYJ9oCKTJQYqzHTI2vpYzGijLUAWW7iQ9TwuWy0kBCREdMyv2ExusMVcm9BVXLGOUtzBfPS5fIznhAsD9NCruEIAnnY_c8EGu8Ry5-rCvLEyw4oDkS8vkmwbUGfxx63W4ur7aEqhyphenhyphenitUyJmCnTl-FYDnqvxlw_-RG7oOgKQ8T4aRHvCQoyFmvGR3uREvTn/s2008/649767142_1631825585130436_5272890901219944308_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1076" data-original-width="2008" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYJ9oCKTJQYqzHTI2vpYzGijLUAWW7iQ9TwuWy0kBCREdMyv2ExusMVcm9BVXLGOUtzBfPS5fIznhAsD9NCruEIAnnY_c8EGu8Ry5-rCvLEyw4oDkS8vkmwbUGfxx63W4ur7aEqhyphenhyphenitUyJmCnTl-FYDnqvxlw_-RG7oOgKQ8T4aRHvCQoyFmvGR3uREvTn/s16000/649767142_1631825585130436_5272890901219944308_n.jpg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Timothy Carey and Sterling Hayden in THE KILLING Year: 1956 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Following what's more an art-house crime melodrama in <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2018/03/KKiss.html">KILLER'S KISS</a>, young photographer turned director Stanley Kubrick created a more polished, genuine film noir that — using a then-rare, non-linear structure — is also far more complicated... so much that the studio forced one of those docudrama-style narrations throughout...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Working best to map-out the ensemble of criminals who are otherwise everyday workers at the targeted racetrack along with a crooked cop, a wrestler and last but not least, a bonafide hoodlum to shoot a running horse...<br></p><p><span></span></p>

coleen gray, elisha cook jr., film noir or melodrama, heist, joe sawyer, joe turkel, marie windsor, stanley kubrick, sterling hayden, ted decorsia, timothy carey, vince edwards

STANLEY KUBRICK'S NOIR 'THE KILLING' WITH STERLING HAYDEN

Timothy Carey and Sterling Hayden in THE KILLING Year: 1956 Rating: ****1/2 Following what's more an art-house crime melodrama in KILLER...

VICTOR MATURE 'KISS OF DEATH' INTRODUCING RICHARD WIDMARK

<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0HWIIQGIeQA7VODaWI4fF08k0PUDvhHy2IMwSFcaCs3AUgS1rYYPfhCrS0YZRXT4MmgZQCcF9TC1JT44I7SaGYx8FCjUK8PKxxiOn2YgCUKQ3ur4mTTMCKnUwZ6l97JToCk5IpUbXHMhduLL1e3IlOupJx27Z9FUeogsMDcfT5z30KSQl7wwbSJhG1Iwt/s1732/Screen%20Shot%202025-12-26%20at%201.26.10%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1732" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0HWIIQGIeQA7VODaWI4fF08k0PUDvhHy2IMwSFcaCs3AUgS1rYYPfhCrS0YZRXT4MmgZQCcF9TC1JT44I7SaGYx8FCjUK8PKxxiOn2YgCUKQ3ur4mTTMCKnUwZ6l97JToCk5IpUbXHMhduLL1e3IlOupJx27Z9FUeogsMDcfT5z30KSQl7wwbSJhG1Iwt/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-12-26%20at%201.26.10%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Richard Widmark and Victor Mature in KISS OF DEATH Year: 1947 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The original KISS OF DEATH is several movies in one, beginning as a tension-filled heist flick that quickly leads to a prison melodrama involving the husband/father crook going to jail (refusing to rat on his criminal partners)... and then becomes a thriller about one thing and one thing only  — fear...</p><p></p><p></p><p>And it's no coincidence that this part sets up when central lead Victor Mature meets extremely talky and psychotic gangster Tommy Udo, played by cinema newcomer Richard Widmark... thus kicking into <i>full fear</i> gear during the second and third act, after Mature's failed attempt of turning Udo over to dogged moral conscience D.A. Brian Donlevy...</p><span></span>

brian donlevy, coleen gray, film noir or melodrama, forties, heist, karl malden, richard widmark, suspense, thriller, victor mature

VICTOR MATURE 'KISS OF DEATH' INTRODUCING RICHARD WIDMARK

Richard Widmark and Victor Mature in KISS OF DEATH Year: 1947 Rating: **** The original KISS OF DEATH is several movies in one, beginning as...

DANA ANDREWS & FALLEN ANGEL BRUCE CABOT IN 'TOWN TAMER'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqrJc7-YCJHZ3oy_yKWWNrIACWCEJGtWR3NcZUg8l6X9T-C4sz0_ufETN5dJl6Cac-pbVFpwgG4xXwviH7T_aJi3w5SqejZQXQfnzQ9ERcnUWFCQhpBwc-NeA8gCku9tvUDDyLJPjJpcuU/s400/11.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="378" data-original-width="400" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqrJc7-YCJHZ3oy_yKWWNrIACWCEJGtWR3NcZUg8l6X9T-C4sz0_ufETN5dJl6Cac-pbVFpwgG4xXwviH7T_aJi3w5SqejZQXQfnzQ9ERcnUWFCQhpBwc-NeA8gCku9tvUDDyLJPjJpcuU/w400-h378/11.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dana Andrews TOWN TAMER Year: 1965 Rates: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>In the Sixties, A.C. Lyles produced a cram-session of "Old Fogey Westerns" using aged movie stars as newly-revived leading men... </p><p>And it's D<a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/dana%20andrews">ana Andrews</a> turn as vengeful gunman TOWN TAMER reignited after wife Coleen Gray's gunshot death that was meant for him...</p><p>Which was orchestrated by a casino-owning villain lording over another TOWN, using local loser DeForest Kelley to thwart Dana's mission to rid his decades-earlier <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2018/08/FallenAngel.html">FALLEN ANGEL</a> Linda Darnell rival Bruce Cabot: yet the real scene-stealer is the hired gun played by enigmatic rogue Lyle Bettger... </p><p>As the guilt-ridden wife-slayer, Bettger (posing as a Marshal) becomes a confidant to an oblivious Andrews, unaware who's on his side... <br></p><p>Except Terry Moore, providing a cocky love interest more interesting than most, along with familiar faces Barton MacClane (who hires Dana), Richard Arlen (doctor), Richard Jaekel (corrupt deputy), Lon Chaney Jr. (stable manager), James Brown (tough local), Pat O'Brien (crooked judge), Roger Torrey (a giant baddie providing the best fist-fight), all aptly directed by Lesley Selander, and, while not the existential, ultra-violent Spaghetti Western the genre had morphed into, TOWN TAMER — with sudden deaths and a mob-gathered gunfire finale — definitely isn't tame.  </p><p><span></span></p>

a.c. lyles, action, bruce cabot, coleen gray, dana andrews, deforest kelley, jeanne cagney, lesley selander, lyle bettger, michael landon, revenge, richard jaekal, roger torrey, sixties, terry moore, western

DANA ANDREWS & FALLEN ANGEL BRUCE CABOT IN 'TOWN TAMER'

Dana Andrews TOWN TAMER Year: 1965 Rates: **** In the Sixties, A.C. Lyles produced a cram-session of "Old Fogey Westerns" using ag...

DOLORES FAITH & COLEEN GRAY ARE HOT IN 'THE PHANTOM PLANET'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiosk3E9SS7L_FTLr6B4SGiAxEiPfEwxWvZ7viWTrWK9O0NJFaPx3T9dISsoLeRZk9FX1RdXQo2hNUDKXpWkEgO9i2dVw3naWKRRKPK8KhrS2dbFD0FoeSJbbf-8W1bCPbncQPtgBePhWEu/s1600/f5a3cff1457994785c92059b11457368.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1100" data-original-width="1600" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiosk3E9SS7L_FTLr6B4SGiAxEiPfEwxWvZ7viWTrWK9O0NJFaPx3T9dISsoLeRZk9FX1RdXQo2hNUDKXpWkEgO9i2dVw3naWKRRKPK8KhrS2dbFD0FoeSJbbf-8W1bCPbncQPtgBePhWEu/s400/f5a3cff1457994785c92059b11457368.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Poster for The Phantom Planet introducing Dolores Faith YEAR: 1961</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Another "bad space movie" that's not so bad, held back by a meager budget that also provides its charm: centering on an astronaut shot not from the Earth to the Moon but, in this particular future, 1980 viewed from 1961, the moon's space station into deeper space where another rocket had already vanished. When Captain Chapman lands from a magnetic pull, he finds a world hybrid of a Biblical Epic and B-Western...<br> <br> The inhabitants are miniaturized, which means nothing since we mostly see Dean Fredericks the same size among them: a square-jawed, high cheek-boned, dyed-blond-haired actor best known as television's really white STEVE CANYON, he also played a score of Native Americans, which, ironically, the leaders of this planet share the same cinematic wisdom of: with technology far beyond our own, they still choose to live in a primal setting, leading to a man-to-man fight between our hero and the only other virile young man around (this scene and their overall anti-chemistry's reminiscent of Sam Jones and Timothy Dalton in FLASH GORDON years later)... <br>

adventure, coleen gray, cult, dean fredericks, dolores faith, science-fiction, sixties

DOLORES FAITH & COLEEN GRAY ARE HOT IN 'THE PHANTOM PLANET'

Poster for The Phantom Planet introducing Dolores Faith YEAR: 1961 Another "bad space movie" that's not so bad, held back ...

DEFENDING THE NOIR-HORROR CAMP OF 'THE LEECH WOMAN'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirF4HExRwda2Ufr1T3h-M33968rBvPanCen5ONhftp68xDEhyLxg2X0vJE-Y_tG1J1BYqxl1eCzWnjkyw2H8mX7NgkQN8J7SZNowlQCijcW_v_LQJGoYkp7nwvetGMC_dB0DnI7brfGCQ/s1600/the-leech-woman-horror-film-1960-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirF4HExRwda2Ufr1T3h-M33968rBvPanCen5ONhftp68xDEhyLxg2X0vJE-Y_tG1J1BYqxl1eCzWnjkyw2H8mX7NgkQN8J7SZNowlQCijcW_v_LQJGoYkp7nwvetGMC_dB0DnI7brfGCQ/s400/the-leech-woman-horror-film-1960-poster.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Part of the Universal Science Fiction Collection YEAR: 1960</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> While it's rare, Mystery Science Theater (or what they've become, Riff-Trax) can be a misleading device in which to discover or uncover vintage b-movies, and while the "b" technically stands for the production value, or lack of, and the lower spot given on the marquee, it usually refers to a movie being just plain "bad."<br> <br> That's not always the case – THE LEECH WOMAN, one of many victims of the MSTK-3000 treatment, should also be called a C-movie, for Creative: What it lacks in budget, it makes up for in... other ways, like how the title character, an aged, formerly attractive wife of a doctor seeking an impossible cure for aging, winds up on a killing spree. The first act plays out economically inside two interior locations, the most important being the Doctor's Office where Coleen Gray's bitter June Talbot verbally tears into her husband, Dr. Paul Talbot, played by BORN TO KILL stiff-suit Philip Terry...<br>

coleen gray, cult, exploitation, gloria talbott, horror, jazz score, kim hamilton, philip terry, science-fiction, sixties

DEFENDING THE NOIR-HORROR CAMP OF 'THE LEECH WOMAN'

Part of the Universal Science Fiction Collection YEAR: 1960 While it's rare, Mystery Science Theater (or what they've become, Ri...