Ben Bengal Movies
- 1949
Quickie producer Sam Katzman gathered together a few leftover costumes, sets and props from past Columbia "A" pictures, and the result was The Mutineers. First Mate Nick Shaw (Jon Hall) stumbles across the murdered body of his captain (Lyle Talbot). The evidence indicates that the culprits are members of a vicious counterfeiting ring. Shaw's situation becomes precarious when it develops that practically every passenger aboard his ship is in cahoots with his gang. Future "Superman" George Reeves turns in an effectively villainous characterization, while Adele Jergens goes through her usual paces as a "bad" girl who may not be as bad as she seems. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adele Jergens, George Reeves, (more)
- 1949
Long before he became producer/director of The Tonight Show, Fred DeCordova helmed the Universal meller Illegal Entry. Howard Duff, who later worked with DeCordova on the TV series Mr. Adams and Eve, stars as Bert Powers, an undercover agent for the U.S. Department of Immigration. While attempting to bring a vicious gang of alien smugglers to justice, Powers falls in love with Anna Duvak (Marta Toren), a gang member who is Not What She Seems. The film leaves no cliché unturned, not even the familiar scene wherein the airborne smugglers dispose of their human cargo by way of a handy lever which causes the bottom of the plane's passenger section to drop out. Illegal Entry is staged in semi-documentary fashion, maintaining the then-prevalent tradition of such popular films as House on 92nd Street and Call Northside 777. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Howard Duff, Märta Torén, (more)
- 1946
- NR
Art critic and forgery expert George Steele (Pat O'Brien) is apprehended by the police as he desperately tries to break into the Manhattan Museum in the opening scene of Crack-Up, a noir mystery directed by Irving Reis. Steele does not understand his own bizarre actions, but explains that he was in a train wreck and had to get back to the museum. Questioned by Lt. Cochrane (Wallace Ford), who tells him there have been no train wrecks in months, Steele relates, in flashback, the events leading up to the incident. Earlier in the day the head of the museum had suspended him for alienating wealthy patrons by criticizing "art snobs" in a lecture. He then received a phone call informing him that his mother was sick, and caught the train to the hospital, but never got there. Though suspicious of Steele, Cochrane is persuaded by the shadowy Mr. Traybin (Herbert Marshall) to release him so he can follow Steele. The next day Steele retraces his steps and discovers that someone had set him up to be discredited, though he knows neither who nor why. Following the murder of a friend who was trying to help him, he discovers that forgeries of some very famous paintings are at the heart of the matter, but getting to the culprit is a more difficult task. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Claire Trevor, (more)
