cult film freak: albert dekker

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Written by James M. Tate / 4/09/2026 / No comments / albert dekker , cloris leachman , fifties , film noir or melodrama , gumshoe , jack elam , jack lambert , leigh snowden , marian carr , maxine cooper , paul stewart , ralph meeker , robert aldrich , wesley addy

RALPH MEEKER HAMMERS ROBERT ALDRICH'S 'KISS ME DEADLY'

<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/AVvXsEh08pO4qc5MbAoDeqi7Gs1-mYufr0mg4QOavoNUgEz7pTVCrLhnbPhjCSm1bVn5L5WxpmLMJ9RGys4laeryoZQbhHtjm5Ukln2fqy6LSUErWjwO5MH17WO4ay8C2JB5d6NemC-SEQdNa3UmZ7KBXFQtfyTJ717QzGXXkkbWK1l68tV1noQwuMQfyIehMOxe/s2570/Screen%20Shot%202026-04-09%20at%2011.45.51%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1320" data-original-width="2570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh08pO4qc5MbAoDeqi7Gs1-mYufr0mg4QOavoNUgEz7pTVCrLhnbPhjCSm1bVn5L5WxpmLMJ9RGys4laeryoZQbhHtjm5Ukln2fqy6LSUErWjwO5MH17WO4ay8C2JB5d6NemC-SEQdNa3UmZ7KBXFQtfyTJ717QzGXXkkbWK1l68tV1noQwuMQfyIehMOxe/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202026-04-09%20at%2011.45.51%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wesley Addy & Ralph Meeker in KISS ME DEADLY Year: 1955 Rating: *****</td></tr></tbody></table>When
 hitchhiking damsel-in-distress Cloris Leachman is picked up by 
convertible driving private-eye rogue Mike Hammer in Robert Aldrich's noir classic 
KISS ME DEADLY, actor Ralph Meeker epitomizes the role without 
uttering a single word... After she asks if he likes poetry, his manly/glib shrug speaks volumes in what's a gumshoe thriller that plays out like a tapestry of vignettes... thrust into a cautionary tale
involving the most important of three ingenues that Meeker's Hammer uses 
to figure out what/who killed first-girl Leachman, and why...

albert dekker, cloris leachman, fifties, film noir or melodrama, gumshoe, jack elam, jack lambert, leigh snowden, marian carr, maxine cooper, paul stewart, ralph meeker, robert aldrich, wesley addy

RALPH MEEKER HAMMERS ROBERT ALDRICH'S 'KISS ME DEADLY'

Wesley Addy & Ralph Meeker in KISS ME DEADLY Year: 1955 Rating: ***** When hitchhiking damsel-in-distress Cloris Leachman is picked up ...

MEMORIAL POST OF ROBERT DUVALL IN 'ROUTE 66: THE NEWBORN'

<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/AVvXsEj883IzC-EiXGj4ZzV7YyjpxTJcteW9oIncE51x1ddnxlzKmiFkYcztvb8f1Ob6NwsIwnOwzejzoH8CahLGPIL0ULBAW7Vn3RwQb_0YgrFK7LXrJnnp3fgra5SagkrhXDdSBK8F_eQD7lKpKgFcQ6o1aQp22BNZEGPr4DbzEUn6D5oXFsFS0gFNL7CniBK4/s2472/Screen%20Shot%202026-02-21%20at%206.54.12%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1534" data-original-width="2472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj883IzC-EiXGj4ZzV7YyjpxTJcteW9oIncE51x1ddnxlzKmiFkYcztvb8f1Ob6NwsIwnOwzejzoH8CahLGPIL0ULBAW7Vn3RwQb_0YgrFK7LXrJnnp3fgra5SagkrhXDdSBK8F_eQD7lKpKgFcQ6o1aQp22BNZEGPr4DbzEUn6D5oXFsFS0gFNL7CniBK4/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202026-02-21%20at%206.54.12%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert Duvall in ROUTE 66: THE NEWBORN Year: 1961 Rating: **1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>In two episodes of ROUTE 66 featuring Robert Duvall that starred both lead actors Martin Milner and George Maharis, someone winds up very physically ill and the boys have to stick around to help... The episode where Duvall's most known is BIRDCAGE ON MY FOOT, as a heroin addict suffering violent withdrawals, using his intense method-acting realism that'd become his signature legacy... supported in a dingy apartment mainly by Maharis, who, a bad boy from the slums of New York, knows not only about addiction but the consequences...

albert dekker, george maharis, martin milner, memorial, robert duvall, sixties, tv series, western

MEMORIAL POST OF ROBERT DUVALL IN 'ROUTE 66: THE NEWBORN'

Robert Duvall in ROUTE 66: THE NEWBORN Year: 1961 Rating: **1/2 In two episodes of ROUTE 66 featuring Robert Duvall that starred both lead a...

BURT LANCASTER IN HEMINGWAY'S PULP FICTION 'THE KILLERS'

<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/AVvXsEi15dEgwX5yFIl5fXt0Jn_Ymd82iLvH6ROnOXhGBBjrPWvu-m6UyDBiiEvyjnU7w37XEAoGIbOIahzeWPoFDGy1yX7-OY_4sz1JNNoaVZoxCdF2NmDuR8FBZtzSPOt5Usf_zNizEHgj9srS2heR_pvKxDkVeQGJbOFVx1jlqJW5zue8ofXGwEi8tu7FE7Hq/s1795/0%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1089" data-original-width="1795" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi15dEgwX5yFIl5fXt0Jn_Ymd82iLvH6ROnOXhGBBjrPWvu-m6UyDBiiEvyjnU7w37XEAoGIbOIahzeWPoFDGy1yX7-OY_4sz1JNNoaVZoxCdF2NmDuR8FBZtzSPOt5Usf_zNizEHgj9srS2heR_pvKxDkVeQGJbOFVx1jlqJW5zue8ofXGwEi8tu7FE7Hq/s16000/0%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: THE KILLERS Year: 1946 Rating: ****</td></tr></tbody></table>Little did Ernest Hemingway know, when he created the very short short-story THE KILLERS, that he was writing a first act of what would become two movies... the <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2018/10/Killers2.html">second</a> a year after his death and beginning with the same-titled film noir introducing Burt Lancaster, who winds up telling young Nick Adams (Hemingway's autobiographical doppelganger) that he doesn't mind if two hit-men murder him... This happens after a wiseguy duo get information in a small town diner while progressively taking it over, learning where Lancaster's The Swede is hiding out and, as the titular villains, William Conrad and Charles McGraw seem ready to villainize the entire picture... but they'd have to wait until a climactic encore as Jeff Corey and Jack Lambert help fill the backstory-hoodlum roles in-between...

albert dekker, ava gardner, burt lancaster, edmond o'brien, ernest hemingway, film noir or melodrama, forties, jack lambert, jeff corey, phil brown, post-heist, thriller

BURT LANCASTER IN HEMINGWAY'S PULP FICTION 'THE KILLERS'

Title: THE KILLERS Year: 1946 Rating: **** Little did Ernest Hemingway know, when he created the very short short-story THE KILLERS, that he...

FRANK TUTTLE DIRECTS BARRY SULLIVAN & BELITA IN 'SUSPENSE'

<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/a/AVvXsEhDwgzFCXWWwHdzo8imGd7GV_IuTr_NeKJQkIURtwMcjlp6ftgHRy2Mn8HytSzkrN8uU4HABNXljO4mr0uwBiXveo0jZ8JR8UO8HZADRBpjEwhlW8xpTbz5yWn5NZeZlDTnMEmnq3jpGpmLZh31pH4c7SlaQ8pMZ8v1dtT5BicrOLe65_ap898zCF19gg=s1168" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="784" data-original-width="1168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhDwgzFCXWWwHdzo8imGd7GV_IuTr_NeKJQkIURtwMcjlp6ftgHRy2Mn8HytSzkrN8uU4HABNXljO4mr0uwBiXveo0jZ8JR8UO8HZADRBpjEwhlW8xpTbz5yWn5NZeZlDTnMEmnq3jpGpmLZh31pH4c7SlaQ8pMZ8v1dtT5BicrOLe65_ap898zCF19gg=s16000"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Belita and Barry Sullivan in SUSPENSE Year: 1946 Rating: ***1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>It's hard living up to such a broad yet existential title as SUSPENSE; but the very beginning does it perfectly... albeit lasting only several seconds as an armed woman, flanked by two goons, aims her pistol at a ratty-looking fella, and then fires... hitting a target and winning the teddy bear prize, handed over by her "victim" working the stand...Who then gives homeless-looking loser Barry Sullivan's Joe Morgan directions to an ice skating rink/auditorium... and what follows are the best sequences as Sullivan talks his way from being a popcorn vendor to security guard to practically running the show by making it more dangerous and thus... suspenseful...

albert dekker, barry sullivan, belita, bonita granville, circus, con man, dewey robinson, eugene pallette, film noir or melodrama, forties, nestor paiva, sport, warner archives

FRANK TUTTLE DIRECTS BARRY SULLIVAN & BELITA IN 'SUSPENSE'

Belita and Barry Sullivan in SUSPENSE Year: 1946 Rating: ***1/2 It's hard living up to such a broad yet existential title as SUSPENSE; b...

LEX BARKER & BRENDA JOYCE IN 'TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN'

<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/a/AVvXsEiyvaxXCIJUVg3jrb16SxAV7EVVl8JHkZ57JCf2nrnjnSoSMh031mUvQ0n5eF1iWtLwxPFNIYMcVuRtYEL3RY5LYPC0Q52abhof-V0XEiE61qdCqizoL_LJDU7UNUzoDD6a5_tHQssh_qCc4OtqUyi5FLoInCQTr_JDJEnhmBSYinHlCIoHwoi5dIK1LQ=s774" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="774" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiyvaxXCIJUVg3jrb16SxAV7EVVl8JHkZ57JCf2nrnjnSoSMh031mUvQ0n5eF1iWtLwxPFNIYMcVuRtYEL3RY5LYPC0Q52abhof-V0XEiE61qdCqizoL_LJDU7UNUzoDD6a5_tHQssh_qCc4OtqUyi5FLoInCQTr_JDJEnhmBSYinHlCIoHwoi5dIK1LQ=s16000"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN Year: 1949 Rating: **1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>Johnny Weissmuller's replacement was Lex Barker, and his first turn as the King of the Jungle, TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN, is a sleight-of-hand, keeping the same actress for Jane, who was a replacement for Maureen O'Sullivan in a wide-smiled Brenda Joyce, so the viewer could close their eyes and imagine Johnny's still in the role...However Lex was a good fit despite MAGIC FOUNTAIN dragging after the most intriguing aspects in the first half, where a female aviator turns up after having vanished for decades, and is still a beautiful twenty instead of fifty...