Michael Fox Movies

The 15-episode Columbia serial Blackhawk was based on the comic book created by Reed Crandall and Charles Cuidera. The title character is played by Kirk Alyn, previously the leading man in Columbia's Superman serial. Also returning from Superman is Carol Forman, here cast as slinky Soviet spy Laska. Together with his cohorts Olaf (Don Harvey), Andre (Larry Stewart) and Chop Chop (Weaver Levy), Blackhawk does his best to keep a revolutionary new death-ray from falling into the wrong hands. The film borrows a page from the 1937 Dick Tracy serial by having one of Blackhawk's freedom-fighters (Rick Vallin) replaced by his evil twin brother. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this lively adventure, an American ambassador arrives in India as it prepares to fight a civil war. He soon learns that it is his old friend who has been insighting the conflict. Unfortunately, the troublemaker is killed, but before he expires, he tells the diplomat that a trainload of explosives is set to blow up another train carrying an important Indian prince. The assassins know the diplomat knows of the plot and he becomes their next target. At the same time, he is also accused of his pal's murder. The brave ambassador then goes on to risk his own life to save that of the prince. He does, his name is cleared, and the war is stopped. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comical sci-fi adventure, two brave heroes take on a mad scientist and his legion of wicked aliens from the planet Ergo. Thanks to the efforts of the two brave fighters, Earth is saved again. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Curt Siodmak's The Magnetic Monster (1953) is a truly novel science fiction film, in terms of its rather cerebral plot and low-key, quietly intense execution. As much a mystery and, in its first half, a manhunt, as it is a sci-fi-thriller, the movie pushed lots of suspense buttons for viewers in 1953 and still holds up more than a half century later. Richard Carlson (who also co-produced) plays Dr. Jeff Stewart, an agent for the Office of Scientific Investigation. Stewart and his colleague, Dr. Dan Forbes (King Donovan), begin searching for a dangerously radioactive element, which they have good reason to believe is somewhere in the Los Angeles area. They soon learn that this is no ordinary investigation -- among its other attributes, the unknown element generates enough radiation to kill, and also manifests a powerful magnetic field. The trail leads them to Dr. Howard Denker (Leonard Mudie), a rogue scientist who, working on his own, has created a new isotope of an element called serranium, which proves to be not only highly radioactive, but dangerously unstable in ways that science has never seen before. Every 11 hours, the serranium mass enters a growth cycle requiring massive amounts of energy, which it obtains by absorbing the energy from the atomic structure of any matter around it, releasing huge amounts of radiation in the process. The serranium mass doubles in size with each cycle, doubling its energy needs in the process, as well as the potential destructiveness of the next cycle. The danger lies not only in the potential for destruction in the serranium's rapidly increasing energy absorbtion, but its ever-increasing mass, which, at some point, will threaten to unbalance the Earth itself, in its rotation and orbit. Long before that, however, the resulting radiation is going to start killing large numbers of people, and the destructive force accompanying it will threaten to split the Earth's surface apart. Stewart and Forbes soon recognize that the only hope they have of stopping the process is to get ahead of it, by bombarding the serranium with enough energy to force it to divide into two relatively stable elements. The only possible source of sufficient energy is the world's largest cyclotron, which has been built by the Canadian government in Nove Scotia -- but is even it powerful enough to do the job, and can they get the deadly isotope there in time? ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Filmed on sets left over from the Columbia superfeature Salome (and also using generous chunks of stock footage from that film), Serpent of the Nile is a quickie retelling of the Cleopatra-Mark Antony story. The Queen of Egypt is played by Rhonda Fleming, while Antony is essayed by Raymond Burr. Much of the crucial plot information is conveyed by dialogue (we never see Caesar's assassination, for example). As for the Cleopatra-Antony scenes, she is clearly the aggressor, while he comes off as a namby-pamby alcoholic who succumbs all too easily to Cleopatra's synthetic charms. Listed at the bottom of the cast is one "Julie Newmeyer" as a gold-painted exotic dancer: she later gained famed as Julie Newmar. Serpent of the Nile enjoyed a great deal of TV play in 1963, when the Elizabeth Taylor version of Cleopatra was all the rage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Everyone involved with Siren of Bagdad decided early on that this adventure could never be taken seriously; thus it's played strictly for laughs, and actually earns a few. Paul Henried stars as an Arabian-Nights magician who becomes involved with a passel of harem girls and an usurping sultan. We know what to expect from the rest of the film when, in the very first scene, Henried burlesques his Now Voyager role by smoking two hookahs, then handing one to a lady friend ("Nine out of ten Arabian doctors recommend this brand"). As Henried's comic sidekick, Hans Conried is forced to deliver such lines as "Excuse me, sir; I know they haven't been invented yet, but have you got a match?" Hardly a gut-buster, Siren of Bagdad is fitfully amusing if you're willing to go along for the ride. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this vintage sci-fi adventure, a team of scientists is studying meteors and is baffled by how and why they are often destroyed when they enter the Earth's atmosphere. In a desire to better understand this process, three astronauts with a background in research -- Richard Stanton (William Lundigan), Jerry Lockwood (Richard Carlson), and Walter Gordon (Robert Karnes) -- are sent into space in a specially designed spaceship to capture a meteor and bring it back safe and sound. Richard Carlson, who played Lockwood, also directed Riders to the Stars; noted sci-fi scribe Curt Siodmak wrote the screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

When two scientists at a top-secret government installation devoted to space research are killed -- in their own test chamber, seemingly by an experiment gone awry -- Dr. David Sheppard (Richard Egan) is sent out from Washington to investigate. Sheppard mixes easily enough with the somewhat eccentric team of scientists, though he always seems in danger of being distracted by the presence of Joanne Merritt (Constance Dowling), who serves as the aide to the project director Dr. Van Ness (Herbert Marshall) but is, in reality, another security agent. Sheppard is as puzzled as anyone else by the seemingly inexplicable series of events overtaking the installation -- properly operating equipment suddenly undergoing lethal malfunctions, and the radar tracking aircraft that aren't there -- until he puts it together with the operations of NOVAC (Nuclear Operated Variable Automatic Computer), the central brain of the complex. But the mystery deepens when he discovers that NOVAC was shut down during one of the "accidents" -- and even the computer's operators can't account fully for the whereabouts of GOG and MAGOG, the two robots under the computer's control. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

One of the earliest examples of the hot rod/juvenile delinquency flick, Running Wild featured William Campbell as a rookie cop infiltrating a gang of teenagers that are stealing cars for Ken Osanger (Keenan Wynn), a nasty type who uses a gas station as a front for his nefarious purposes. Going undercover as a teenage rebel, Ralph Barclay (Campbell) not only saves pretty Leta Novak (Kathleen Case) from being ravaged by Osanger, but wins the love of voluptuous Irma Bean (Mamie van Doren), the former girlfriend of teenage gang leader Scotty Cluett (Jan Merlin). John Saxon, Walter Coy, and teen flick regular Kenny Miller also appeared in this highly exploitative crime drama from Universal directed by character actor Abner Biberman. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The infamous Benedict Arnold affair is the basis of the lively MGM costumer The Scarlet Coat. Arnold is played with suitably subtle menace by Robert Douglas, while his principal co-conspirator, Major John Andre, is essayed by Michael Wilding. The largely speculative storyline concerns the efforts of one Major John Boulton (Cornel Wilde), a colonial counterspy, to foil Arnold's plans. Thanks to some deft scriptwriting, the much-abused Major Andre emerges as the most sympathetic character in the film, if only because he is willing to face the consequences for his actions. Less sympathetic is George Sanders in another of his patented "cad" roles, while Anne Francis is the spunky (if unnecessary) heroine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When their car breaks down, honeymooning couple Ray and Meg Loomis (Biff McGuire, Mary Scott) accept the courtesy of a brash middle-aged man named Mr. Moon (Robert Emhardt). Unfortunately, while trying to fix the car, Mr. Moon ruins his new suit -- whereupon he goes berserk, threatening dire consequences to both Ray and Meg. Before long, it is obvious that the Loomises are unable to escape the wrathful Mr. Moon -- but as things turn out, this temperamental gentleman is not the villain of the piece. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This gritty crime drama is based on the true story of a Mexican news reporter who single-handedly takes on a crime syndicate. The journalist begins by publishing the names of several prominent, corrupt politicians. The syndicate retaliates and the journalist is killed. The locals rebel and the reporter's son takes up his father's cause. By uniting, the community routs the crooks from their home. The story is narrated by the actual journalist. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Zsa Zsa Gabor plays twin sisters in this campy Red Scare espionage thriller from the late 1950s. She plays the nurse to Joseph Stalin, who didn't die in 1953 after all. The death was all a nefarious scam in which the leader faked his death, had his face surgically rearranged and then moved to Greece with a fortune in Soviet currency. Nurse Zsa Zsa, who is also Stalin's lover. Unfortunately, she told no one where she was going. When her twin discovers her missing, she worries and hires an ex O.S.S. agent to find her. After much searching and danger, the agent finds the wicked dictator and sees that he this time his reign of terror is permanently ended. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide