Happy Birthday, William Beaudine.

William Washington Beaudine
(January 15, 1892 – March 18, 1970)

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Director William Beaudine was born 132 years ago today. Here he is (in the visor) directing John Carradine and Claudia Drake in Monogram’s Face Of Marble (1946).

Beaudine’s story is fascinating (and somewhat tragic), with fate taking him from Hollywood’s A-list to Poverty Row in a flash. Of course, around here we love us some Poverty Row, so the big studios’ loss is our gain. From Bela Lugosi’s “Monogram Nine” to Charlie Chan to The Bowery Boys, Beaudine’s junk movies are usually a lot of fun. And before his professional downturn, he directed the great W.C. Fields in the hysterical The Old-Fashioned Way (1934).

Happy Thanksgiving!

There’s not a Thanksgiving movie experience around this year that could ever top this one — but have a nice holiday anyway.

Elvis, Sam Katzman, Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, Ghidrah — the more ya think about this, the better it gets!

Blu-Ray News #361: Rock Around The Clock (1956).

Directed by Fred F. Sears
Produced by Sam Katzman
Starring Bill Haley & His Comets, Alan Freed, The Platters, Tony Martinez & His Band, Freddie Bell & His Bellboys

Was sure stoked to see this this morning. Sony has announced an October Blu-Ray release for Sam Katzman’s Rock Around The Clock (1956). 

Katzman could smell a trend a mile away and he pounced on Bill Haley and His Comets after his tune in Blackboard Jungle (1955) became a sensation. This picture concocts a pretty phony story about the origin of Rock N Roll music.

Katzman and director Fred F. Sears, along with Haley and Alan Freed, would be back in theaters soon with Don’t Knock The Rock (1956). That one has a slight edge since it adds the great Little Richard to the mix — he does “Long Tall Sally” and “Tutti-Frutti.”

A Sam Katzman picture making its way to Blu-Ray is always something to celebrate. This one’s highly, highly recommended.

Teen-Age Crime Wave (1955).

Directed by Fred F. Sears
Produced by Sam Katzman
Screenplay by Ray Buffum & Harry Essex
Story by Ray Buffum
Director Of Photography: Henry Freulich
Film Editor: Jerome Thoms
Music by Mischa Bakaleinikoff

Cast: Tommy Cook (Mike Denton), Molly McCart (Terry Marsh), Sue England (Jane Koberly), Frank Griffin (Benjamin David ‘Ben’ Grant), James Bell (Thomas Paul Grant), Kay Riehl (Sarah Wayne Grant), Guy Kingsford (Mr. Koberly), Larry Blake (State Police Sgt. Connors)

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Following up on the July 7th birthday of both Sam Katzman and Fred F. Sears, let’s take a look at Teen Age Crime Wave (1955).

You can say what you want about Katzman’s movies, but it’s hard to knock his eye for a trend, his gift for cashing in on something topical or newsworthy, or his ability to get a movie on the screen in record time. With Teen Age Crime Wave, he built a picture around the rising problem of juvenile delinquency (“ripped from the headlines!”) in the mid-1950s.

Teen Age Crime Wave was clearly inspired by the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency — the folks who decided comic books lead to criminality on the part of America’s youth. (Remember the whole Seduction Of The Innocent thing?) That was just too good for Katzman to pass it up.

The falsely-convicted Jane (Sue England, above, on the bed) finds herself headed to juvie after she’s railroaded by a couple of wayward teenagers — Mike Denton (Tommy Cook) and Terry Marsh (Molly McCart). Miles springs Terry while she’s being transferred to prison  — killing the driver and taking Jane with them at gunpoint. 

Holding up in the farmhouse of the kindly Grant family, about 45 minutes outside LA, we end up with a bit of a Desperate Hours kind of thing as the delinquents hide from the cops while they wait for a friend to aide their escape. Denton is desperate and volatile, and you expect something to go dreadfully wrong at any minute. 

Oh, and it’s the day before Thanksgiving, and the Grants’ son arrives from college for the holiday — and Terry takes a shine to him.

Jane Koberly (Sue England): “You’re dirt, Terry. He’d never touch you!”

The police, aided by Jane’s dad (Guy Kingsford), figure out where the gang’s hiding out, leading to a chase and fight atop the Griffith Observatory.

Made on the cheap, and very quickly, Teen Age Crime Wave is probably a better movie than it ought to be. The performances are solid across the board, with the prize going to Molly McCart, who brings plenty of pathos to her role as the never-had-a-chance Terry.

The lovely Sue England appeared in two Elvis movies: Loving You (1957) and Clambake (1967). As usual, the “teens” appear to be at least in their mid-20s.

Fred F. Sears (pointing, in cap) on location at Griffith Observatory.

Fred F. Sears’ direction is solid and assured, and he builds the tension very well over the picture’s 76 minutes — with the help of editor Jerome Thoms. Sears was an A-worthy director who never got out of the B’s. (His untimely death is a well-covered tragedy around here.)

Katzman’s films from this period really benefit from the producer’s arrangement with Columbia, which put big-studio resources (including leftover sets from much bigger films) to work on small-studio product. It’s a perfect combination that died when the studios ditched B pictures in favor of television. 

To some, Teen Age Crime Wave ain’t much, and I can understand that. But as a huge fan of Katzman’s sizable output — and as someone convinced that Sears “could’ve been a contender,” this little picture is an overlooked, maligned little gem. My only complaint is that these two guys didn’t make 27 more movies just like it.

Let’s Go To The Drive-In!

In February of 1967, San Bernardino was the place to be.

Happy Birthday, Sam Katzman.

Sam Katzman
(July 7, 1901 – August 4, 1973)

The great B-movie producer Sam Katzman was born 122 years ago today. This photo appeared in Life magazine in 1953. Sam is surrounded by Billy Curtis, Julie Newmar and Zan Murray — and Tamba, the chimp from the Jungle Jim movies. Not sure who’s in the gorilla suit.

Today’s also Fred F. Sears’ birthday. He was one of the directors in Katzman’s unit at Columbia. 

Blu-Ray News #345: Jack Armstrong, The All-American Boy (1947).

Directed by Wallace Fox
Produced by Sam Katzman
Starring John Hart, Rosemary LaPlanche, Claire James, Joe Brown, Jr., Charles Middleton, Jack Ingram

I was so happy to find out about this one! VCI is bringing the 15-chapter Columbia serial Jack Armstrong (1947) to Blu-Ray in August.

Based on the radio show, it stars John Hart as Jack Armstrong. Made not too long after Sam Katzman took over Columbia’s serials, it’s got secret island hideouts, radiation and natives. Can’t wait to see this in high definition.

Making Movies.

Lon Chaney Jr. checks out the angle on the Universal backlot while making one of the later Mummy movies.

Johnny Weissmuller and Tamba working on one of the Jungle Jim pictures. Maybe Sam Katzman was trying to cut the budget by letting Tamba serve as DP.

Dean Martin and Angie Dickinson in Old Tucson for Rio Bravo (1959).

Elvis and the Vistavision camera on the set of his second film, Loving You (1957).

Today’s Vocabulary Lesson.

Here’s a chance to brush up on your Captain Video lingo. This was done to promote the Columbia serial Captain Video: Master Of The Stratosphere (1951). Produced  by Sam Katzman, the 15-chapter “Super-Serial” was based on the TV show Captain Video And His Video Rangers.

DVD Review: Junge Manhunt (1951).

Directed by Lew Landers
Produced by Sam Katzman
Written for the Screen by Samuel Newman
Director Of Photography: William Whitley
Film Editor: Henry Batista
Musical Director: Mischa Bakaleinikoff

Cast: Johnny Weissmuller (Jungle Jim), Bob Waterfield (Bob Miller), Sheila Ryan (Anna Lawrence), Rick Vallin (Matusa Chief Bono), Lyle Talbot (Dr. Mitchell Heller), Tamba

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Jungle Manhunt (1951) is one of my favorites of the Jungle Jim movies. It seems to have everything you need for a picture like this: “deadly skeleton men,” lizards pretending to be dinosaurs, copious amounts of stock footage, Lyle Talbot, LA Rams quarterback Bob Waterfield, the lovely Sheila Ryan, Johnny Weissmuller in Corriganville’s Jungle Jim Pool and, of course, Tamba doing flips.

When Jungle Jim (Weissmuller) plucks photographer Sheila Ryan out of the river, he gets involved in her search for missing football star and war hero Bob Miller (Waterfield) — the “man who throws thunder with his hands.” Meanwhile, Jim is trying to get to the bottom of a series of attacks on friendly villages, with a “renegade white man” (Lyle Talbot) and a group of skeleton men leading an army of hostile natives.

Weissmuller, Ryan and Waterfield head deep into the jungle. First, they discover dinosaurs — thanks to footage lifted from 1940’s One Million BC (which Weissmuller had already encountered in Tarzan’s Desert Mystery back in 1943).

Then they find out what’s going on with the skeleton men. Lyle Talbot is using igneous rocks, magma and sugar to create synthetic diamonds. The raw materials are radioactive so the natives he sends into the mines eventually get sick and die. Therefore, the attacks and kidnappings are part of his recruitment plan to keep the diamond makings flowing. Jim can’t let such civil rights violations continue.

It’s a shame the scene with Jungle Jim duking it out with a small dinosaur (above) was cut — there’s a second or two of it in the trailer and it turns up in stills and posters. While it doesn’t appear too convincing, I’d love to see it — the 10-year-old me would’ve probably proclaimed it amongst the coolest things ever. (Don’t hold your breath waiting for a Director’s Cut.)

Sam Katzman’s team on this one — director Lew Landers, DP William Whitley and editor Henry Batista — churned out another fun way to spend 63 minutes. 


One of the things that really makes the Jungle Jim movies are the actresses that turn up in them. Weissmuller got to wander around the jungle (or at least Corrigan Ranch) with some of the coolest ladies to grace the B Movies of the 50s — Virginia Grey, Ann Savage, Lita Baron, Karin Booth and Angela Stevens. This time, it’s Sheila Ryan. She had been a contract player at 20th Century Fox, where she did Cisco Kid, Charlie Chan and Laurel & Hardy pictures. Leaving Fox, she was in a steady stream of B movies, from Song Of Texas (1943) with Roy Rogers and four Gene Autry movies to Gold Raiders (1951) with George O’Brien and The Three Stooges. She married Pat Buttram in 1951 and pretty much gave up on the movies.

Bob Waterfield was an LA Rams quarterback, producer, sometimes actor — and the husband of Jane Russell. In Jungle Manhunt, he shows why it’s a good thing he focused on producing. And for a man who’s been lost in the jungle for years, his t-shirt sure is white.

Katzman fave Rick Vallin plays a native chief here. Vallin came to the US from Russia and ended up appearing in dozens and dozens of Sam Katzman movies. Now that’s my idea of the American Dream, folks!

Jungle Manhunt is one of the six films in The Jungle Jim Movie Collection from Critics’ Choice Collection. They all look terrific and the price is right. This one’s so, so easy to recommend! I’d love for Critics’ Choice to complete the series. There’s 10 movies left.