Gregg Martell Movies

Steve McQueen stars as the Cincinnati Kid, a crackerjack New Orleans stud poker player. Tired of chicken feed, the Kid decides to challenge The Man (Edward G. Robinson), the reigning poker champ, who is in town for a private game. The Shooter (Karl Malden), another gambling pro, arranges a game between the Kid and the Man, with the Shooter dealing. The game is compromised by the intervention of Slade (Rip Torn), an old foe of the Man's who tries to fix the outcome. The Kid finds out about this and tells Slade to get lost, preferring to win fair and square. The outcome is in the cagey hands of The Man, who is smart enough to do (as one reviewer put it) the wrong thing at the right time. The Cincinnati Kid was based on the novel by Richard Jessup. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Larry, Moe and Curly Joe work in a pharmacy where a young professor works on a time machine. When the machine is sabotaged by foil Ralph Dimsal (George N. Neise), the Three Stooges, the professor and beautiful Diane (Vicki Trickett) are transported back in time to ancient Greece. The group lands in the middle of a fierce battle between rival armies. Meeting up with the might Hercules, they soon discover their appearance in the battle helped turn the tide in favor of the wrong side. A series of mishaps and a stint as galley slaves plague their efforts to correct historical accuracy. They battle mythological monsters and the evil General Odius (Neise) to set the historical record straight. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Making a rare TV appearance after falling victim to the 1950s Hollywood Blacklist, Larry Parks guest stars as minor hoodlum George "Blackie" Dallas, a character obviously inspired by real-life outlaw "Machine Gun" Kelly. Egged on by his ambitious wife Lily (Norma Crane), Dallas kidnaps millionaire Thomas Randall (Dabbs Greer) and holds him for ransom. Though he is unable to save Randall's life, Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) still holds out hope that he can bring Blackie and Lily to justice--and to do this, he exploits the couple's personal problems with their young daughter Arlene (Judy Strangis). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Scott Harper (Ron Foster) is frustrated and angry as a police detective because he keeps getting passed over for a promotion to lieutenant. Meanwhile, he is assigned to gain the confidence of Holly Taylor (Patricia Blair), the girlfriend of a suspect in a robbery/homicide. Predictably, the two fall in love, conspire to kill Holly's boyfriend, and plan to run off with the proceeds. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide

This sequel to Kurt Neumann's The Fly (1958) is peculiar, to say the least. Producer/director Neumann had passed away during the summer of 1958, and the studio needed a sequel. The resulting film, Return of the Fly, was directed by Edward L. Bernds, a filmmaker (and former sound man at Columbia Pictures) most closely associated with the Three Stooges, but who had lately moved successfully into popular science fiction, with movies such as World Without End, Space Master X-7, and Queen of Outer Space to his credit -- not that this last, in particular, seemed to qualify him for anything but tongue-in-cheek satire. Curse of the Fly was shot in CinemaScope but in black-and-white, an unusual combination that is usually associated with artier movies, as a compromise for discriminating directors who can't avoid the widescreen format but want to present something serious; in this particular case, however, it was purely a budgetary decision. Vincent Price is the nominal star as Francois Delambre, the brother of Andre Delambre, who died as a result of his experiments with a matter transmitting device in The Fly. It is now a dozen years later, and Andre's son, Philippe (Brett Halsey), has just laid his mother to rest, having witnessed the final years of her life blighted by the memory of the horror of Andre's death. He convinces Francois to tell him what happened and of the device that destroyed his parents' happy life together. Philippe vows to perfect the matter transmitter, so that all of the heartache and sacrifice by his parents will not have been in vain. He employs as his assistant a scientist friend, Alan Hinds (David Frankham), who, unbeknownst to him, has shady business connections and a dark secret in his own past. Alan conspires to steal the secret of the matter transmitter, but first he must dispose of a detective who has come to arrest him for an earlier crime, and then eliminate Philippe, who doesn't know what Alan has done, only that he's hiding something. Thus, the same disaster that befell Philippe's father now occurs again, to him -- his body parts are transposed with those of a house-fly. The human-sized fly, even nastier looking than the monster in the original film, goes on a rampage, trying to catch Alan and get revenge for what has happened to him, using what faculties he has. Meanwhile, Francois gets help from the surviving detective on his brother's case, who knows the truth, and the two try to trap the monster alive and also find the fly-sized creature with Philippe's head and features, so they can try and unscramble the atoms of both. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

This Disney adventure differed from many films of its era in that it depicted an unusually humanistic view of Native Americans as it tells the story of a young Sioux who finds a wild horse, captures the magnificent animal, names him Tonka, and patiently gentles him. According to custom, he is supposed to give it to his elder cousin, a despicable and cruel fellow who takes pleasure in beating Tonka and who eventually sells him to the cavalry. A kindly cavalry captain buys Tonka and names him Comanche. Meanwhile, the grieving youth, decides he must be with his horse and so sneaks into the fort where he is promptly captured. Fortunately, the captain, who has come to love his horse as much as the boy does, understands the youth. Later the captain rides the horse into the fateful battle at Little Big Horn and in the end, Tonka is the only survivor. The youth takes his horse and is later made an honorary member of the cavalry. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A rare comedy effort by director Robert Wise, This Could Be the Night is based on a series of short stories Cordelia Baird Gross. Jean Simmons stars as Anne Leeds, a prim, proper and very level-headed grade-school teacher who takes a night job as secretary to rough-and-tumble nightclub owner Rocco (Paul Douglas). Despite his raffish exterior, Rocco has a heart of gold, and he does is best to protect Anne from Broadway predators in general and ladies'-man Tony Armotti (Anthony Franciosa) in particular. As she struggles to put Rocco's questionable business practices in order, Anne also encourages the efforts of immigrant busboy Hussein (Rafael Campos) to earn his American citizenship, and helps sexy chorine Ivy (Neile Adams) realize her dream of becoming a famous chef. Several veteran thespians add spice to the proceedings, including J. Carroll Naish, Joan Blondell, Murvyn Vye and ZaSu Pitts, while music is provided by the Ray Anthony Orchestra. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Circus ringmaster Haley (Thomas Jackson) posts a $10,000 reward for the return of his main attraction, Suzie the Elephant. Meanwhile, the two crooks who stolen Suzie hide the pachyderm in a barn owned by impoverished Mrs. Wilson (Eve McVeigh) and her son Johnny (Gregory Moffat). When the boy stumbles upon Suzie, he is overjoyed, thinking that the elephant is his birthday present! It is up to Superman (George Reeves) to foil the crooks, recover Suzie, and prevent the impressionable Johnny from having his heart broken. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Long before he devoted his life to gimmicky horror epics, director William Castle turned out a series of compact westerns for Columbia. One of the best of the batch was Masterson of Kansas, starring George Montgomery as dandified gunslinger Bat Masterson. The screenplay, by future Maverick mainstay Douglas Heyes, contrives to unite Masterson, Wyatt Earp (Bruce Cowling) and Doc Holliday (James Griffith) together in a common cause. The three protagonists intend to protect an impending land exchange between honest rancher Merrick (John Maxwell) and peace-seeking Indian chief Yellow Hawk (Jay Silverheels) against the crooked chicanery of land baron Clay Bennett (David Bruce). The most interesting characterization is provided by James Griffith, who portrays Doc Holliday as a borderline psychotic with a death wish. Nancy Gates provides the feminine angle as Merrick's daughter Amy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

RKO Radio's second 3D production, Devil's Canyon is a combination western and jail-break picture. The scene is Arizona Territorial Prison, wherein 500 desperate men are incarcerated. The inmates become even more desperate when female outlaw Abby Nixon (Virginia Mayo) is likewise locked up. As the prisoners draw up plans to escape, Abby is attracted to handsome but psychotic ringleader Jessie Gorman (Stephen McNally)--and to U.S. marshal Billy Reynolds (Dale Robertson), who is serving time for manslaughter. The climactic bust-out threatens to get out of hand until the marshal calms things down with a Gatling gun. Available for many years only in washed-out black-and-white prints, the original color version of Devil's Canyon was finally telecast over the American Movie Classics cable service in the late 1980s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romantic spy thriller, a nightclub performer plys her trade in her husband's Trinidad bar. He is murdered by a notorious spy. Soon afterward, the police ask the widow to try to get close to the killer and gather information. Her work is nearly thwarted when her bumbling brother-in-law appears, looking to bring the killer to justice himself. This film marked the return of bombshell Rita Hayworth who had retired from movies during her marriage to Prince Aly Khan. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The second of Universal's "Ma and Pa Kettle" series, Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town stars, as ever, Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride. This time, the Kettles win a letter-writing contest, which offers as first prize an all-expense-paid trip to New York City. Once in Manhattan, the huge Kettle brood raises all sorts of Holy Ned, culminating in an episode involving stolen bank money. Somehow this all ends with a riotous, slapstick-laden square dance. The film's romantic subplot is handled by Richard Long as oldest son Tom Kettle and Meg Randall as his high-society wife Kim. Also carried over from the first Kettle entry are Ray Collins and Barbara Brown as the Kettle's wealthy in-laws. A winner at the box-office, Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town helped pay for many of Universal's "prestige" releases of 1950. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide