Gordon Barnes Movies

American-International's Suicide Battalion was filmed virtually simultaneously with the studio's Jet Attack; both films were originally released on a double bill. Michael Connors plays Lt. Matt McCormick, who leads the eponymous battalion on a suicide mission in the Philippines during WW II. Their objective: to destroy valuable American documents, left behind when the area was evacuated just before the Japanese takeover. Before long, only two of the volunteers are left alive to complete the mission -- and they're none too fond of each other. Hawaiian entertainer Hilo Hattie unexpectedly shows up as the proprietress of a native saloon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Daniel Mainwaring took this story right out of the headlines of the day, penning this true story of a mass murderer who was eventually executed in San Quentin's gas chamber. Released during McCarthy's witch-hunt, Mainwaring was not given credit because Howard R. Hughes, who produced it under RKO, refused to give credit to any "radicals." The story is that of two men on a fishing trip who pick up a hitchhiker. He turns out to be a sadistic psychopath who has committed multiple murders, a sociopath who hates humanity because of his own abuse as a child. He also has an affliction which terrifies these two men: an eye which is permanently open, thereby never allowing them to know if he is really asleep or just faking it--something which he does with regularity to scare them...letting them take off and then meeting up with them just as they feel they have escaped from him. A tense thriller skillfully directed by the only female director of the time, Ida Lupino, it is a suspenseful tale of terror on the highways. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide