Carmen D'Antonio Movies

Bringing Buffy (Anissa Jones) along on a business trip to Puerto Rico, Bill promises to spend all his free time with his niece. Of course, this puts a crimp on his social life in general and his romance with former flame Gail (Sue Casey) in particular, but Bill is doggedly determined to keep his word. It is up to Buffy to figure out that Bill is having a miserable time, and to do something about it. Gregg Fedderson, soon to join the cast in the recurring role of Cissy's boyfriend Gregg Bartlett, appears in this episode as "Marvin". ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Released just in time for Easter on April 27, 1962, this Rod Serling-scripted Twilight Zone episode is widely regarded as the series' low point. A ham-handed Christ parable, the story is set in a backward Mexican village, where the arrival of a mysterious stranger named Williams (Geoffrey Horne) brings out the superstitious worst in the local citizenry. Only little Pedro (Edmund Vargas) and the town's doctor (Nico Minardos) refuse to regard Williams as a threat, but they are shouted down by a hostile mob, leading to a painfully obvious climax that wouldn't have gotten past "Creative Writing 101." The sole redeeming virtue of "The Gift" was its classical guitar score by the great Laurindo Almeida. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Maracaibo was actor Cornel Wilde's second directorial effort. Wilde casts himself as troubleshooting oil man Vic Scott, who has arrived in Venezuela to help put out a fire at an offshore well. It's a ticklish situation: if Scott fails, not only will he die in the blaze, but all of Maracaibo will likely be destroyed. When he isn't risking his life, Scott romantically pursues ice-princess journalist Laura Kingsley (played by Jean Wallace, at the time Mrs. Cornel Wilde). Joe E. Ross of Car 54 Where are You fame provides a few welcome laughs as a Brooklynese oil rigger. Filmed partially on location, Maracaibo was based on a novel by Stirling Silliphant. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

World for Ransom is an unofficial extension of the popular 1950s TV series China Smith. Most of the Smith personnel, including star Dan Duryea, director Robert Aldrich and cinematographer Joseph Biroc, are on hand for this inexpensive but well-mounted melodrama. Duryea plays a mercenary adventurer who gets mixed up in a scheme by foreign spies (who wear baggy suits and speak with Slavic accents) to kidnap a nuclear scientist. Actually it isn't the whole world that's held for ransom--only the city of Singapore, which the spies threaten with nuclear annihilation. World for Ransom star Dan Duryea is solidly supported by old pros Gene Lockhart, Patric Knowles, Reginald Denny and Nigel Bruce. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Steel Lady in this crazy-quilt actioner is the armored tank commandeered by star Rod Cameron. Marooned in the Sahara desert, airplane pilot Mike Monohan (Cameron) and his melting-pot crew (including a young Tab Hunter) come across a deserted Afrika Korps tank. As they roll across the burning sands in search of civilization, the crew is unaware that hidden within the tank is a fortune in diamonds. But villainous sheik Mustapha El Melek (John Abbott) does know, and he manages to enlist Monohan's drunken co-pilot Barlow (John Dehner) in his scheme to claim the gems for himself. Also released as Treasure of Kalifa, The Steel Lady is an unsteady mixture of war drama and Arabian-Nights escapism. The film was directed by E. A. Dupont, who in his salad days was responsible for the silent German classic Variety. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

On the eve of her wedding to Ramu (Jon Hall), the beautiful Tollea (Maria Montez) is spirited away from her tranquil South Sea island to the mysterious, forbidden place of her birth, Cobra Island. Ramu follows and, with help from his young-but-not-too-bright friend Kado (Sabu) and their chimp Coco, manages to land on the island and avoid capture, which would mean death. It turns out that Tollea is the rightful high priestess of Cobra Island, the first born of two twin daughters of the earlier priestess. Tollea was not immune to the venom of the king cobra, however, so she was spirited away from the island as an infant to avoid her unnecessary death. Now her grandmother, the Queen (Mary Nash), has secured her return. Tollea's twin sister, Naja (also played by Montez), has turned cruel, greedy, and ambitious, and is killing, torturing, and tormenting her people and perverting their religion; Naja must be deposed, hopefully before the volcano on the far side of the island registers too loud an objection to her blasphemies. But Naja -- who is wanton enough to want Ramu for her own pleasure -- and her confederate, the evil, ambitious Martok (Edgar Barrier), don't plan on leaving quietly.

Meanwhile, Ramu has to keep himself and Kado alive and decide if he's willing to give up the woman that he loves so that she can save her people; Tollea must choose between love and duty, fate and her birthright. One of the most ridiculously and unselfconsciously campy costume adventure movies of its era, Cobra Woman was apparently a lot of fun to work on and a relief from the reality of the Second World War for audiences in 1944. The script, co-authored by Richard Brooks a long time before he wrote The Brick Foxhole, much less directed Blackboard Jungle or made In Cold Blood or Lord Jim, is incredibly sloppy, the mix of harem dancers and ridiculous prop snakes is bizarre, and some of the worst choreography of its era doesn't help -- and yet it all hangs together, somehow, as entertainment. Director Robert Siodmak reportedly liked it, and as a refugee from the Nazis, working on it still beat the fate he'd fled in Germany. The movie is also alleged to be the primary inspiration for Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures -- which starred female impersonator Mario Montez -- and looking at it in the 21st century, one wonders if it was ever seen by Edward D. Wood Jr.; not only does the production sort of anticipate (albeit on a much higher level and budget) his work in the adventure genre, but the script seems to contain the essence of inept moments that he would elevate to an art of sorts. And one can just imagine Wood, as a young marine recruit, watching Cobra Woman eagerly and "learning" all the wrong lessons from its writing and production. But, like the best of Wood's movies -- only more so -- Cobra Woman is still great fun of the "guilty pleasure" sort. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Zachary Scott made his screen debut in this clever bit of film noir that has gained a cult reputation in recent years. Dutch mystery novelist Cornelius Leyden (Peter Lorre) is travelling through Istanbul when he meets Col. Haki (Kurt Katch), head of the secret police and a big fan of Leyden's work. He offers to tell Leyden about Dimitrios Makropoulos (Zachary Scott), a notorious criminal whose body was just found washed up on the beach. It seems that Makropoulos was involved in nearly every sort of lawless act imaginable, from murder and blackmail to espionage and political assassination. Fascinated, Leyden decides that Makropoulos would be a fine subject for his next book, and he begins researching his life, beginning with Haki's dossier on the criminal. Leyden's research takes him through much of Europe; while en route by rail to Sofia, he meets a large man with an ingratiating chuckle, Mr. Peters (Sydney Greenstreet), who informs Leyden that "There is not enough kindness in the world," and tells him of a good hotel in town. Grateful for the advice, Leyden checks in, only to later find Peters ransacking his room and holding him at gunpoint; it seems that Peters had business with Makropoulos, and he isn't entirely convinced that the master criminal is dead -- especially since his body was found with shabby clothes and no money, and the police in Istanbul had never actually seen a photo of Makropoulos. Based on a novel by Eric Ambler, The Mask of Dimitrios also features Faye Emerson, who was in the news at the time, as she had just wed the son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In a harem in a Middle Eastern palace, the guardian leads the women he protects in telling the tale of Halroun-Al-Raschid (Jon Hall), the Caliph of Bagdad, who found himself an enemy close to home in the form of his half-brother Kamar (Leif Erickson), who was ineligible for the throne because of his mother's having been a slave. Halroun and his followers initially put down Kamar's attempt at usurpation, until Halroun's ambitious vizier Nadan (Edgar Barrier) changes sides. In the confusion of the ensuing battle, Halroun is wounded -- spotted by the young acrobat Ali (Sabu), he is sheltered by a group of traveling players led by Ahmad (Billy Gilbert), whose ranks also include a player and storyteller (and, if he is to be believed, former sailor) named Sinbad (Shemp Howard) and a man named Aladdin (John Qualen) who is searching for a magic lamp -- and a dancer named Scheherazade (Maria Montez), who had beguiled Kamar and welcomes his ascent to the throne, because she has been told that she is destined to marry a king. She loves the wounded man in her care, whose identity she doesn't know, but is intent on marrying Kamar, now that he is Caliph. But her plans are thwarted by Nadan, who wants no competition from her in his sway over Kamar, and has arranged to have her killed; but when an avaricious officer (Turhan Bey)instead sells her and the entire performing troup to a dishonest slave trader (Thomas Gomez). From that moment, complications ensue for all concerned, as the new Caliph goes after his beloved, the deposed king Halroun tries to protect her and regain his throne, and Nadan hopes to come out sitting on the throne himself. Treachery and narrow escapes, and even a few thwarted plans ensue on all sides as the hero Haroun has to watch out for Scheherazade and himself from several sides at once, all while keeping his identity from her. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

John Ford welded four of Eugene O'Neill's one-act plays about the sea, Bound East for Cardiff, The Long Voyage Home, The Zone, and Moon of the Caribees, into this melancholy film about wayfaring seamen, changing the setting from the turn of the century to WWII. This was O'Neill's favorite of the films based on his work, and he watched it often enough to eventually wear out his print. After a night of revelry in the West Indies, the crew of the SS Glencairn return to the tramp steamer and set sail for Baltimore. They're a varied lot, from middle-aged Irishman Driscoll (Thomas Mitchell), to the young Swedish ex-farmer Ole Olsen (John Wayne), to the brooding Lord Jim-like Englishman Smitty (Ian Hunter). After the ship picks up a load of dynamite in Baltimore, the rough seas they encounter become especially nerve-racking to the crew, who are also concerned that Smitty might be a German spy. ~ Michael Costello, Rovi

The story goes that such stars as Fred MacMurray, Jack Oakie and Burns & Allen had turned down The Road to Singapore before the leading roles went to Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. More conventionally structured than future "Road" efforts, the film casts Crosby as Josh Mallon, the irresponsible son of shipping magnate Joshua Mallon IV (Charles Coburn). Though the elder Mallon wants his son to enter the family business and marry longtime fiancee Gloria Wycott (Judith Barrett), Josh would rather pal around with his carefree sailor buddy Ace Lannigan (Bob Hope). On the eve of his wedding, Josh escapes with Ace to Singapore, where the two of them cook up a get-rich-quick scheme involving a highly unreliable spot remover. The boys' friendship is strained when they both fall in love with cabaret dancer Mima (Dorothy Lamour), who is on the lam from her jealous partner Caesar (Anthony Quinn). Hiding out from the authorities, the three protagonists wind up in the midst of a native ceremony, where Ace and Mima rescue Josh from a hasty marriage to a local temptress. When Gloria shows up to drag Josh back to the altar, Mima nobly gives him up, pretending to be in love with Ace. Eventually, however, big-hearted Ace realizes that Mima belongs with Josh, and thus concocts another scheme to lure his pal back to the Far East. Though many of the earmarks of the "Road" series are evident in Road to Singapore (the "patty-cake" bit, the presence of such guest stars as Hope's radio stooge Jerry Colonna, etc.), the film lacks the spontaneous quality of the later Hope-Crosby-Lamour starrers. Even so, it's an awful lot of fun, especially when Bob and Bing team up on the novelty number "Captain Custard" and Dorothy croons her requisite "moon and stars" romantic ballads. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi