Howard Hoffman Movies
In this chilling blood-tale in "Psycho" style, Robert Bloch modernizes the Lizzy Borden story. A wife (Joan Crawford) literally axes her cheating husband and his lover, witnessed by her three-year-old daughter. Mom is packed off to the insane asylum for 20 years before reuniting with the daughter (Diane Baker). From this point, the axe murders continue along a contrived plot intended to lead the audience astray until the mystery is solved. Crawford's strong performance and the excellently constructed suspense are the best elements of the film -- and the chopping saves the show when the plot tends to slow. ~ Lucinda Ramsey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Crawford, Diane Baker, (more)
- 1962
David White, better known to the TV Generation as neurotic adman Larry Tate on Bewitched, is here seen in the radically different role of Tom Carey, former army scout and notorious gunslinger. Now the marshal of a small town, Carey has also become a tin-pot dictator, prompting the citizens to hire Paladin (Richard Boone) to rid the community of the martinet marshal. Only two problems: Paladin and Tom are old friends...and Paladin knows all too well that Tom is much quicker on the draw than he. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1959
Jo Ann Blanchard (Patricia Hardy) seeks the help of Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) in reclaimed her ranch and her prize stallion, both of which have been claimed in a foreclosure by neighboring rancher John Brant (Trevor Bardette). Subsequently, Brant is killed, and at first it appears as though the horse kicked him to death. But murder will out, and Jo Ann is charged with the crime--whereupon Perry really begins to earn his retainer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The Jorgensons are a wealthy family spending the summer on a resort island. Ken (Richard Egan), Helen (Constance Ford) and daughter Molly (Sandra Dee) settle in to a beach house on the island where Ken was a young lifeguard twenty years ago. He rediscovers Sylvia (Dorothy McGuire), with whom he had an earlier affair before she married Bart Hunter (Arthur Kennedy). The Hunter's son Johnny (Troy Donahue) and Molly fall in love, much to the objection of her mother, a cold and cynical woman. When Ken and Sylvia start another torrid affair, the exposure of the liaison leads to the divorce of both married couples. After Johnny and Molly are stranded overnight on a beach, Molly is forced by her heartless mistrusting mother to undergo a physical examination and a pregnancy test. Tests results are negative, but more negative is the mother-daughter relationship. Ken and Sylvia get married and Molly gets pregnant. The newlyweds then compassionately guide unwed couple to marriage. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Egan, Dorothy McGuire, (more)
A perennial favorite of the "Shock Theatre" TV circuit, House on Haunted Hill stars Vincent Price as sinister gent (you're surprised?) Frederick Loren, who resides in a sinister mansion on a sinister hill, where seven murders have occurred. He makes a proposal to several strangers, offtering $10,000 to anyone who can last the entire night. Loren festively gives each of his guests a tiny coffin containing a loaded handgun, designed to protect them from the spooks that emerge in the house over the course of the night. The picture hinges on its surprise ending, which packs in several by-now-familiar twists. When originally released to theaters, House on Haunted Hill was accompanied by one of those gimmicks so beloved of producer/director William Castle: the gimmick was "Emergo," and it involved a prop skeleton that "emerged" from the side of the screen at a crucial moment to frighten the audience. Like most of Castle's best films, House didn't really need the gimmick, but its presence added to the fun -- especially when second- and third-time viewers responded to "Emergo" by bombarding the skeleton with popcorn and empty soda bottles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, (more)
- 1958
Largely filmed in Canada, The Littlest Hobo was the result of a brainstorming session between Dorrell and Stuart McGowan, the same sibling production team responsible for TV's Death Valley Days. Hobo is a homeless German shepherd, whose adventures begin when he hops off a freight train in a strange town. Naturally drawn to down-and-outers, Hobo rescues a lamb that is slated for the slaughterhouse. The rest of the film concerns the dog and lamb's many trials and tribulations as they elude the authorities. Ideal for kiddie-matinee showings, Littlest Hobo also has much to offer for adult moviegoers. The film spawned a 1963 TV series, also assembled by the McGowan brothers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buddy Hart, Wendy Stuart, (more)
- 1958
This first "gimmick" outing from horror producer William Castle is mainly distinguished by the clever ad campaign promising $1000 insurance for each patron (from Lloyds of London, no less!) against the possibility that they may die of fright during a screening of the film. (A similar gimmick would later be employed by the producers of the less imaginative thriller The Screaming Skull, who promised patrons an all-expense-paid funeral.) Castle certainly had nothing to worry about, since there is nary a moment of heart-stopping terror to be found in Macabre. That said, the plot is consistently entertaining, involving small-town doctor Rod Barrett (William Prince) racing the clock to locate his missing daughter after she is buried alive in the town cemetery by the same psychopathic killer who murdered his wife and her sister. It's clear that Castle had not yet honed his talents as a huckster of cheap thrills -- which reached their cheesy apex in The Tingler -- but there is definitely a spark of mischief here. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Prince, Jim Backus, (more)
This powerfully tense, fast-paced suspense drama also yields a grim social message about racial prejudice. Spencer Tracy is John J. MacReedy, a one-armed stranger who comes to the tiny town of Black Rock one hot summer day in 1945, the first time the train has stopped there in years. He looks for both a hotel room and a local Japanese farmer named Komoko, but his inquiries are greeted at first with open hostility, then with blunt threats and harassment, and finally with escalating violence. MacReedy soon realizes that he will not be allowed to leave Black Rock; town boss Reno Smith (Robert Ryan), who had Komoko killed because of his hatred of the Japanese, has also marked MacReedy for death. MacReedy must battle town thugs, a treacherous local woman (Anne Francis), and finally Smith himself to stay alive. The entire cast is flawless, especially Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin as the mean-spirited town bullies, and the relentlessly paced action never eclipses the film's sobering themes. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, (more)
- 1955
At the insistence of Ricky (Desi Arnaz), Little Ricky (Joseph A. Mayer and Michael Mayer) spends his first day at nursery school -- and Lucy (Lucille Ball) is as nervous as a mother hen. Much to her relief, the boy adapts well to school, but close proximity to other children causes him to develop a slight cold. Lucy takes Little Ricky to the doctor, who diagnoses tonsillitis, necessitating a minor operation. Determined to spend the night with Little Ricky in his hospital room, Lucy disguises herself as a nurse -- and the medical profession will never be the same. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olan Soule, Jesslyn Fax, (more)
- 1955
I Died a Thousand Times is a scene-by-scene remake of the 1941 crime-drama classic High Sierra. Jack Palance steps into the old Humphrey Bogart role as Roy "Mad Dog" Earle, the ageing bank robber who intends to pull off one last heist before retiring. Sprung from prison by likeable crime boss Big Mac (Lon Chaney Jr.), Earle is commissioned to mastermind the robbery of a resort hotel. His partners in crime include the hotheaded, immature Babe (Lee Marvin) and Red (Earl Holliman), as well as "inside man" Mendoza (Perry Lopez). Also along for the ride is Marie (Shelley Winters), a dance-hall girl whom Babe has picked up. Marie falls in love with Earle, but he has eyes only for Velma (Lori Nelson), the club-footed daughter of a farmer (Ralph Moody) whom Earle had earlier befriended. Intending to use his share of the loot to finance Velma's operation, Earle goes through with the robbery, only to be thwarted by the ineptitude of his partners, the treachery of the late Big Mac's successors, and, finally, the fickle Velma. With the faithful Marie by his side, Earle makes a desperate escape into the High Sierras, but fate is still against him. Essentially an itinerary of what has previously "clicked" in High Sierra, I Died a Thousand Times makes a few concessions to changing tastes and mores; the stereotype comedy-relief character played by black actor Willie Best in the original film, for example, has been replaced by the more "acceptable" (at least by 1950s terms) stereotyped Mexican played by Gonzales-Gonzales. While the 1955 film cannot match the excellence of its 1941 role model, I Died a Thousand Times works pretty well on its own terms. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Palance, Shelley Winters, (more)
