Jody Fair Movies
- 1961
The Young Savages is what used to be called a "thinking man's picture" about a potentially lurid subject: urban juvenile delinquency. A blind Puerto Rican boy is knifed to death in Spanish Harlem, and three teenage gang members are accused of the crime. Politically ambitious assistant DA Burt Lancaster initially presses for the conviction of all three boys. But as he gets deeper into the case, he realizes that what appears cut-and-dried on the surface is tortuously complex: for starters, the murder victim was hardly the paragon of virtue that the prosecution claims. Despite pressure from his superiors and from members of the accused boys' gang (who at one point threaten Lancaster's wife Dina Merrill with a switchblade,) Lancaster nonetheless sees to it that justice is properly administered. The defendants are portrayed with varying degrees of Brando/Dean "method" by John Davis Chandler, Neil Nephew and Stanley Kristien; more believable, less affected performances are rendered by Shelley Winters, Pilar Seurat and Telly Savalas. Filmed on location in New York, The Young Savages was based on the Evan Hunter novel A Matter of Conviction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Dina Merrill, (more)
- 1960
Curvaceous Mamie Van Doren plays a super-genius who finds herself in charge of a college science department. Mamie would like to be appreciated for her intellect alone, but her male students (and most of the faculty) are preoccupied by her monumental breasts. The science department is virtually controlled by a huge robot called Thinko, which plays bets on horses. Gangsters Mickey Shaughnessy and Allan Drake try to neutralize Thinko, who's been right once too often. Strongarming their way on campus, the two crooks recognize Mamie as a former striptease artist. Forced to resign, she marries professor Martin Milner, who has loved her pure and chaste from afar. One expects to see such people as Jackie Coogan, John Carradine and Louis Nye in garbage like this-but how did Tuesday Weld get talked into participating? And wait till you see that nightclub number performed by Conway Twitty. Beauty and the Robot played in many markets under the step-right-up-folks title Sex Kittens Go to College. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1959
This goofy cult classic incorporates the most entertaining elements of AIP's drive-in favorites from the '50s and '60s by taking hot-rodding teen gangs and plunking them down in a haunted-house horror scenario, with a sizable splash of beach blanket antics, pajama parties, and plenty of good old Rock & Roll... not to mention some of the lamest attempts at "hip" comic shtick ever committed to film. The story is incidental, but it allows ample opportunity to showcase the aforementioned ingredients, along with appearances by B-movie veteran Russ Bender, AIP musical fave Jimmie Madden, and future real-life hot-rodder "TV" Tommy Ivo. There's even an appearance from the tennis-shoe-sporting She Creature from the film of the same name... but apparently it's a "He Creature" this time, since the filmmakers have removed the monster's humongous armor-plated breasts. Also known as The Haunted Hot-Rod. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jody Fair, Martin Braddock, (more)
- 1959
This sexually explicit, low-budget film makes no pretensions about being anything other than offensive. There is no plot since none is especially necessary. Director Charles Haas (his last film was the following year), opens with a scene of sexually active men and women at a party. Then one of these women, Silver Morgan (Mamie Van Doren), is mistakenly accused of a crime and sent to an institution, run by Catholic nuns, for wayward young women. As it turns out, the inmates in the institution actually run it through sadistic means. One of them is even more seriously mentally disturbed than the others, and so the nuns welcome her as a novitiate, making even a non-Catholic viewer grimace. The content of this story, such as it is, is made all the worse by an accompanying disregard of the craft of filmmaking. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mamie van Doren, Mel Tormé, (more)
- 1958
In this youthful drama, a young nephew is forced to live a highly restricted lifestyle by his two spinster aunts who will only bequeath him their fortune if he behaves like a proper gentleman. His aunts would have apoplexy if they new that their "perfect gentleman" had created a hot-rod club behind their backs. To make matters worse, he bankrolls his hobby by singing (in disguise) in Vincent's rock'n'roll band. He takes the money he earns to enter his car in a national race. Songs include: "Dance in the Street," "Dance to the Bop," "Baby Blue," and "Lovely Loretta." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ashley, Jody Fair, (more)
- 1958
When a mysterious cone, 50-feet tall by 50-feet across at its base, is discovered sticking out of the ground near the town or Riverdale, IL, a group of investigators from Washington, D.C., are sent in to determine its origins. They discover that various townspeople have been murdered, while others, including the mayor, have disappeared; and when they reappear, they're under some form of outside control. The interior of the cone seems to violate every known law of physics and, from somewhere inside, there emerges a horde of hideous, insect-like creatures that attach themselves to human bodies for purposes of taking control. The team soon finds itself overwhelmed by thane increasing number of humans under alien control, and not even close to finding out what these creatures want or why they're here. The Brain Eaters was adapted without permission -- or the knowledge of distributor American International Pictures -- from Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Puppet Masters, and the makers were later forced to pay a settlement. The movie vanished from theaters but found a second life on television during the 1960s. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ed Nelson, Alan Frost, (more)
Producer Albert Zugsmith serves up another all-star exposé with High School Confidential. Delivering a superb performance under the circumstances, Russ Tamblyn heads the cast as "typical" high schooler Tony Baker. Usually seen in the company of his voluptuous "aunt" Gwen Dulaine (the truly impressive Mamie Van Doren), Tony convinces one and all that he's looking for kicks of the controlled-substance kind. In truth, however, our hero is really an undercover narcotics agent named Mike Wilson, bound and determined to smash the operation of drug lord Mr. A. (Jackie Coogan). The once-in-a-lifetime cast includes such worthies as John Drew Barrymore (Drew Barrymore's daddy), Ray Anthony (then married to Mamie Van Doren), Charles Chaplin Jr., Michael Landon, and Jerry Lee Lewis as "himself." This updated Reefer Madness is not to be missed! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jan Sterling, John Drew Barrymore, (more)
