cult film freak: elisha cook jr.

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Written by James M. Tate / 10/12/2025 / No comments / arlene martel , bob kelljan , cop , elisha cook jr. , horror , john hoyt , king moody , mystery , neo noir , sixties , thriller

ARLENE MARTEL IN THE PSYCHO-THRILLER-NOIR 'THE GLASS CAGE'

<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/AVvXsEjNPZB7bqPV1TNSlgK9WH-4t3M4jDBVrxr5SHeM2zeL2vp-5ayBbgLFb-PR-sObqFyLlcn-zq_uPcAAbwNcIw3ySL2jTgSbk9t8KcwVAgYhYZnpe6YxoI8bUUKTHtOMppxR2dRaJO-i6ZLK8nplHBGTlqOMx0waoGPDAu5PExOTtt-5UKBlC6moRakJ9eeA/s1900/Screen%20Shot%202025-10-12%20at%204.23.58%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1038" data-original-width="1900" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNPZB7bqPV1TNSlgK9WH-4t3M4jDBVrxr5SHeM2zeL2vp-5ayBbgLFb-PR-sObqFyLlcn-zq_uPcAAbwNcIw3ySL2jTgSbk9t8KcwVAgYhYZnpe6YxoI8bUUKTHtOMppxR2dRaJO-i6ZLK8nplHBGTlqOMx0waoGPDAu5PExOTtt-5UKBlC6moRakJ9eeA/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-10-12%20at%204.23.58%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: THE GLASS CAGE Year: 1961 Rating: ****</td></tr></tbody></table>Arlene Martel (billed as Arline Sax) is one of the most uniquely beautiful, exotic and intriguing ingenues, able to play nearly any ethnic race and even outer-space Vulcan royalty on STAR TREK in her most important of many television guest spots from THE TWILIGHT ZONE to THE OUTER LIMITS to COLUMBO... But she actually headlined a 1961 low-budget theatrical potboiler that's a unique hybrid of pulpy police procedural, shadowy film noir and the kind of creatively-shot PSYCHO-thriller popularized after the Alfred Hitchock classic...

arlene martel, bob kelljan, cop, elisha cook jr., horror, john hoyt, king moody, mystery, neo noir, sixties, thriller

ARLENE MARTEL IN THE PSYCHO-THRILLER-NOIR 'THE GLASS CAGE'

Title: THE GLASS CAGE Year: 1961 Rating: **** Arlene Martel (billed as Arline Sax) is one of the most uniquely beautiful, exotic and intrigu...

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

<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;">Timothy Carey and Sterling Hayden in THE KILLING Year: 1956 Rating: ****1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>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...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...

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...

LAWRENCE TIERNEY DEAD AS 'DILLINGER' WITH ANNE JEFFREYS

<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/AVvXsEgLoh_hflrUIs4QUgwtgC2PlLHWzUYTEtUVpPUW_JrsbW4JyqOmbNkAdyEwRyUqjUs4hQGXsXRg9U8EyXRrxHpO_tpqXNoenBBcfkjeP5G3hT_9wr5X-4e4bC7LyAZE7rQhmf24eDqqN8Hdb8CpOQQRrUv8ZsHLsdCXgkG2TIMu8XPdUVZQE3pPEr8F349h/s2076/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-29%20at%206.41.48%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1202" data-original-width="2076" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLoh_hflrUIs4QUgwtgC2PlLHWzUYTEtUVpPUW_JrsbW4JyqOmbNkAdyEwRyUqjUs4hQGXsXRg9U8EyXRrxHpO_tpqXNoenBBcfkjeP5G3hT_9wr5X-4e4bC7LyAZE7rQhmf24eDqqN8Hdb8CpOQQRrUv8ZsHLsdCXgkG2TIMu8XPdUVZQE3pPEr8F349h/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-29%20at%206.41.48%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anne Jeffreys and Lawrence Tierney in DILLINGER Year: 1945 Rating: ****1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>In the 1930's through to the 1960's and 1970's, before and after the Hayes Code, movie gangsters and especially bank robbers were usually adventurous anti-heroes, and in-between, the common crooks and petty thieves were desperate and woefully sympathetic, always in dire need of money to feed themselves or their family instead of just robbing for kicks... In other words, the bad guys were good guys forced to do bad things for... understandable reason...So in what's known as The Lawrence Tierney DILLINGER (compared to the historically accurate Warren Oates DILLINGER) there's a touch of Noir since our man starts out a naive dolt: thrown in prison for attempting to knock-off a corner store to buy his shallow date a few more drinks at a fancy restaurant. Then, behind bars, what he learns — especially from Edmund Lowe as a bank robbing mentor named Specs — turns the real life criminal/folk hero into what The Tierney DILLINGER is: a downright formidable monster in his very own proverbial Monster Movie...

anne jeffreys, biopic, constance worth, dewey robinson, eduardo ciannelli, elisha cook jr., film noir or melodrama, forties, heist, lawrence tierney, lou lubin, marc lawrence, max nosseck

LAWRENCE TIERNEY DEAD AS 'DILLINGER' WITH ANNE JEFFREYS

Anne Jeffreys and Lawrence Tierney in DILLINGER Year: 1945 Rating: ****1/2 In the 1930's through to the 1960's and 1970's, befo...

ROBBIE ROBERTSON IN 'CARNY' WITH GARY BUSEY & JODIE FOSTER

<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/AVvXsEjLb3_nuQxdTlVvtYVuEQVlS-Fy6pq_z1tEuzmQJNpVcyufaDiI3q3ZAtnp5fmFB-Rm7bbadMK_yOANWxu-KOo8MsGEA1ZwQrRxwPKA86U3xVPvdZctNjKcht_hsDaBCuyUjEnmxigVwQV_K8tgu-ZljHC891WFr2H4MT9sJVU9gWguR4X8-eXIlAzL7P26/s2048/365839481_1781921938903641_3983541596328265502_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1051" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLb3_nuQxdTlVvtYVuEQVlS-Fy6pq_z1tEuzmQJNpVcyufaDiI3q3ZAtnp5fmFB-Rm7bbadMK_yOANWxu-KOo8MsGEA1ZwQrRxwPKA86U3xVPvdZctNjKcht_hsDaBCuyUjEnmxigVwQV_K8tgu-ZljHC891WFr2H4MT9sJVU9gWguR4X8-eXIlAzL7P26/s16000/365839481_1781921938903641_3983541596328265502_n.jpg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robby Robertson in CARNY Year: 1980 Rating: ***1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>Be prepared for freaks and frolic, white trash marauders and by far one of the strangest romances ever to be filmed… And if you can handle an over five-minute scene with Gary Busey’s crazy clown-faced Frankie sitting in a dunk booth, yelling taunts at anyone and everyone to take a turn throwing a ball to bring him into the water… all for a price, mind you… then you’ll really enjoy CARNY co-starring teenage Jodie Foster as freespirited Donna...Saddled with such an uptight and jerky date (Craig Wasson) that anyone would be a better replacement, she takes to Frankie’s charm right away, and soon joins him in the sack and on the road, into the life of the Carnies managed by The Band guitarist Robbie Robertson as Patch, Frankie’s more serious-minded partner: he's the comparably even-keeled metronome that keeps everything under control, distrusting his buddy’s lustful romance with the teenager, who seems to have cursed the outfit by her presence alone...

circus, craig wasson, drama, eighties, elisha cook jr., ensemble, exploitation, gary busey, jodie foster, kenneth mcmillan, robbie robertson, warner archives

ROBBIE ROBERTSON IN 'CARNY' WITH GARY BUSEY & JODIE FOSTER

Robby Robertson in CARNY Year: 1980 Rating: ***1/2 Be prepared for freaks and frolic, white trash marauders and by far one of the strangest ...

LAWRENCE TIERNEY FORTIES FILM NOIR MELODRAMA 'BORN TO KILL'

<table align="center" 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/AVvXsEiDrhjzL9CuZV-BKc2gyR4SFLUSKqzXqtsKLTyK2MS4H9I41eOfMDFCrgTfGIDL-dmCdnvKbCiJOrLPbhMrOI-KIHgxOQu9xnasA1niLma7pG7eJcG46mNB2jLqIjtKIxts-qin9wu3yTu4LMj9D3tf6NV3glprp-NkLCONegiiK6unF0xnHZnH-Nyomg/s1494/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-28%20at%204.25.13%20AM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1133" data-original-width="1494" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDrhjzL9CuZV-BKc2gyR4SFLUSKqzXqtsKLTyK2MS4H9I41eOfMDFCrgTfGIDL-dmCdnvKbCiJOrLPbhMrOI-KIHgxOQu9xnasA1niLma7pG7eJcG46mNB2jLqIjtKIxts-qin9wu3yTu4LMj9D3tf6NV3glprp-NkLCONegiiK6unF0xnHZnH-Nyomg/w400-h304/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-28%20at%204.25.13%20AM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Year of Release: 1947</td></tr></tbody></table>For better or worse, BORN TO KILL is the epitome of Film Noir. All to love and hate 
about the genre is here: the shadows, the melodrama, the erupting musical 
score, the love-struck, the love-wary, the gross (much too lucky snoop Walter Slezak), the beautiful (Claire Trevor), the hammy (Esther Howard, begging to be killed), the classy (Philip Terry) and, of course, the viciously vile... 
 
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJo2Qy-gRgcr5IRZToMZRUWYToVNzy0ZChDnihv5v0yrZ__xoB1oSNsZdMjF7_UqzHVr7R_OFyLU1hqaNYpt2_vJTMINraXv0o9gPOR7rWFGJE1ZzJrvUJ83bdmWECuCQIAnpXhHIhQzxp/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-04-20+at+10.19.44+PM.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1058" data-original-width="486" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJo2Qy-gRgcr5IRZToMZRUWYToVNzy0ZChDnihv5v0yrZ__xoB1oSNsZdMjF7_UqzHVr7R_OFyLU1hqaNYpt2_vJTMINraXv0o9gPOR7rWFGJE1ZzJrvUJ83bdmWECuCQIAnpXhHIhQzxp/s320/Screen+Shot+2018-04-20+at+10.19.44+PM.png" width="145"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BornToScore: ***</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Enter Lawrence Tierney as a 
killer aptly named Sam Wild — and the only person worthwhile: During scenes as our proverbial shark glides within a goldfish bowl... with actors and actresses brimming with boundless 
stage-like energy... one thing becomes abundantly clear: this man, personifying the 
film's title, isn't messing around. Only there's not enough vent for the 
ventilator... 
 
Tierney, with his usual understated, 
timeless acting style, seems like an intruder on the wrong set: as if 
he's waiting for everyone (except Elisha Cook Jr. as a fellow ex-con) to relax a bit. Perhaps if it were 
made twenty years later, anti-hero-villain Tierney would've had more to
 do (and more to murder). Then again, the handsomely detailed 
time-capsuled aspects of this striking 1940's previously-neglected gem, studiously helmed by former Val Lewton director Robert 
Wise, makes BORN TO KILL, in its own unique way, a plush and cerebral, intoxicating 
journey: But it needed more of the snake and less of the garden.

claire trevor, elisha cook jr., film noir or melodrama, forties, lawrence tierney, romance, thriller, walter zlezak

LAWRENCE TIERNEY FORTIES FILM NOIR MELODRAMA 'BORN TO KILL'

Year of Release: 1947 For better or worse, BORN TO KILL is the epitome of Film Noir. All to love and hate about the genre is here: the shad...

HUBERT CORNFIELD'S TRUCKER HEIST FILM NOIR 'PLUNDER ROAD'

<table align="center" 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/AVvXsEgFDVeiUeDCi8ZN3C_rgEeBgoNJA4Y-8e0whAkUoq3OjrhWkPaRnJMUqEVl8GVRmTumYgRVj0n-N3zMH1T-wEqoIUjeMQXDgfAEqmHGr3N2rGwkdLSU_C9vCuERa6E22h1VqxVjlwBNfVRl-2x-7eXhjqUv2fpnO8rGtP0xRJeHUHo5brnZFqWdAXHong/s878/Screen%20Shot%202021-01-31%20at%202.10.32%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="878" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFDVeiUeDCi8ZN3C_rgEeBgoNJA4Y-8e0whAkUoq3OjrhWkPaRnJMUqEVl8GVRmTumYgRVj0n-N3zMH1T-wEqoIUjeMQXDgfAEqmHGr3N2rGwkdLSU_C9vCuERa6E22h1VqxVjlwBNfVRl-2x-7eXhjqUv2fpnO8rGtP0xRJeHUHo5brnZFqWdAXHong/w400-h296/Screen%20Shot%202021-01-31%20at%202.10.32%20AM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: PLUNDER ROAD Year: 1957 Rating: ****</td></tr></tbody></table>Hubert Cornfield's PLUNDER ROAD is more of a post heist thriller than a heist centered b-movie as the intro has a nifty ten-minute train robbery with three trucks, five men and a load of nitroglycerin: a hybrid of WHITE HEAT and WAGES OF FEAR and during which, each character has their own foreboding self-narration ("If we hit a bump, we're all angels!"): Yet things really kick into gear once the men have that 900 mile slog for the border...  Led by Gene Raymond paired with the least famous but most memorable and effective character, an edgy ex race-car driver played by Steven Ritch (also the writer), whose sullen I could have been a contender style monologue not only sets his own stage but orchestrates their particular ride's cadence, full of jittery nerves, like anything can happen, most likely bad, contrasting with Raymond's cool lead: And truck number two holds the token Noir born-losers in Wayne Morris as a soft-spoken yet ultimately lethal Hollywood stuntman, and a daydreaming "here's what I'll do with my share" Elisha Cook Jr. while the last ride's gum-chewing Stafford Repp is so optimistic and likeable he's just bound to die first...

action, elisha cook jr., fifties, film noir or melodrama, gene raymond, heist, hubert cornfield, jeanne cooper, nora hayden, road movie, stafford repp, steven ritch, thriller, wayne morris

HUBERT CORNFIELD'S TRUCKER HEIST FILM NOIR 'PLUNDER ROAD'

Title: PLUNDER ROAD Year: 1957 Rating: **** Hubert Cornfield's PLUNDER ROAD is more of a post heist thriller than a heist centered b-m...

BRIAN KEITH AND BEVERLY TYLER IN 'CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL'

<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/AVvXsEiQEpn791pxrYkuz-s41CaIJTvulsO8Sr2hgCJQNOFt9jFtibDSu1iQZcjOVhzE4TSDDsTgpAyDcJjWfQxw5tIwZ2_KXAQGY9C-6SERSfo26_gcR3XBNjFERTVy249RkKjLnx5CV1mqtbjMM2xSUjdBREtJWP_jHXBc-1ISOvmVjPOiMAj1e6WVOGVSQA/s1061/0.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="663" data-original-width="1061" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQEpn791pxrYkuz-s41CaIJTvulsO8Sr2hgCJQNOFt9jFtibDSu1iQZcjOVhzE4TSDDsTgpAyDcJjWfQxw5tIwZ2_KXAQGY9C-6SERSfo26_gcR3XBNjFERTVy249RkKjLnx5CV1mqtbjMM2xSUjdBREtJWP_jHXBc-1ISOvmVjPOiMAj1e6WVOGVSQA/s16000/0.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL Shown: Jack Lambert, Beverly Tyler Year: 1957 Rates: ***1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>One of several late-noirs about Union corruption, for a basic seventy-five-minute programmer, CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL has just about everything... From murderous thugs to their sophisticated bosses to courtroom drama involving a wrong man to all heavies eventually being hunted down, Brian Keith stars as a lawyer fighting to get wrongly-accused union leader Dick Foran off the hook from an ON THE WATERFRONT style stool-pigeon murder (care-of usual Noir torpedo Jack Lambert) that happens right off the bat...<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/AVvXsEg1RsPp-pDIHfXPNfEqjP8CSCviQlIlzOAkzlXKXwRSuoRTDah9UOUKYJ2BLHnna2xp4M-lrEMj84uYGNvN7SRysvIKKyqVlZNtScXIovCbyKUCgSk_AvpbTfPUmnUelw3CIW0ESt9yIq0dCOK-VAXKV-hK3dLlq6xj5Eg7iDEelFbIz83z8WmC91RK4fUK/s1817/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="814" data-original-width="1817" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1RsPp-pDIHfXPNfEqjP8CSCviQlIlzOAkzlXKXwRSuoRTDah9UOUKYJ2BLHnna2xp4M-lrEMj84uYGNvN7SRysvIKKyqVlZNtScXIovCbyKUCgSk_AvpbTfPUmnUelw3CIW0ESt9yIq0dCOK-VAXKV-hK3dLlq6xj5Eg7iDEelFbIz83z8WmC91RK4fUK/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Asa Maynor in CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL</td></tr></tbody></table>Giving CONFIDENTIAL a tight, edgy and at the same time breezily entertaining pulse where the best sequences take place beyond expository offices and into the shadowy streets... Or else inside a smoky nightclub that harbors sultry and experienced b-girls led by an equally vulnerable Beverly Tyler (along with cute alcoholic Asa Maynor), stealing scenes not only from Keith's picture-pretty housewife and lead ingenue (Foran's secretary) Beverly Garland, but the men as well.