Eddie Parker Movies

This glamorized remake of the 1934 film Imitation of Life bears only a passing resemblance to its source, the best-selling novel by Fannie Hurst. Originally, the heroine was a widowed mother who kept the wolf from the door by setting up a successful pancake business with her black housemaid. In the remake, Lana Turner stars as a would-be actress who is raising her daughter on her own. She chances to meet another single mother at the beach: African-American Juanita Moore. Moore goes to work as Turner's housekeeper, bringing her light-skinned daughter along. As Turner's stage career goes into high gear, Moore is saddled with the responsibility of raising both Turner's daughter and her own. Exposed to the advantages of the white world, Moore's grown-up daughter (Susan Kohner) passes for white, causing her mother a great deal of heartache. Meanwhile, Turner's grown daughter (Sandra Dee), neglected by her mother, seeks comfort in the arms of handsome photographer John Gavin. When Moore dies, her daughter realizes how selfish she's been; simultaneously, Turner awakens to the fact that she hasn't been much of a mother for her own daughter, whose romance has gone down the tubes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dracula straps on a side-arm and goes West in this combination horror-Western movie. After a western town is terrorized by the gunslinging vampire, a brave preacher decides he must destroy him. The vampire has picked out an especially juicy victim, the woman rancher who hired him. The preacher shoots the vampire with a bullet engraved with a cross in the nick of time. The hapless bloodsucker turns into so much dust. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Mole People holds the dubious distinction of being the weakest of the Universal-International horror films. John Agar plays Dr. John Bentley, who leads a Middle Eastern expedition in search of a lost tribe of Sumerians. Bentley and his cohorts follow a tunnel deep, deep, deep below the surface of the earth, eventually coming across a tyrannical tribe of albino Sumerians, who use the semi-human Mole People as slaves. What follows is so dull and plodding that stars John Agar and Hugh Beaumont seem like Mel Gibson and Arnold Schwarzenegger in comparison. Some prints of The Mole People are minus the pre-credits "explanation" by 1950s celebrity egghead Dr. Frank Baxter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This forgettable piece of 1950s sleaze stars Cleo Moore as a voluptuous blonde who becomes a successful commercial photographer. Richard Crenna, making a major break from his TV image as Our Miss Brooks' Walter Denton, plays a reporter who takes a special interest in Moore's career. The beauteous picture taker becomes involved in a blackmail plot when she goes to work for a Confidential-type magazine, nearly losing her life to mobsters. It was the opinion of many contemporary reviewers that the title Over-Exposed referred not to the photographs taken by Moore but to the generous amounts of cleavage displayed by the actress' low cut gowns. Though Cleo Moore has become a "cult" favorite thanks to her appearances in the turgid melodramas directed by Hugo Haas, Over-Exposed demonstrates that her minimal acting talent vanished altogether without Haas' guiding hand. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For reasons that defy logic, the excellent This Island Earth was held up for ridicule as an allegedly bad movie in the film version of TV's Mystery Science Theater. If not the best science-fiction film of the 1950s, Earth is certainly one of the most intelligent and elaborate. The story begins when the image of Exeter (Jeff Morrow), a huge-domed scientific genius from the planet Metaluna, appears on an experimental 3D television screen. Exeter invites several noted scientists from around the world to work on a top-secret project at Exeter's earthly mansion. Among those accepting the invitation are Cal Meacham (Rex Reason) and his ex-fiancee Ruth Adams (Faith Domergue). Soon, Cal and Ruth learn Exeter's true motives; to use the Earth's atomic knowhow in building a defense shield to protect Metaluna against the enemy planet Zahgon. Eventually, Exeter boards his high-tech flying saucer and whisks Cal and Ruth off to his dying planet, where, among other perils, they are menaced by a hideous mutant. Based on a novel by Raymond F. Jones, This Island Earth is one of those rare 1950s speculative films that holds up as well today as it did when first released, despite the comparative quaintness of the special effects and high-tech paraphernalia. Incidentally, the climactic Metalunan scenes were directed by Universal's resident sci-fi specialist, Jack Arnold. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A man with a strangely misshapen face wanders out of the desert near a small town and falls to the ground dead. The county sheriff (Nestor Paiva) tentatively identifies the dead man as Eric Jacobs, a laboratory assistant to Professor Deemer (Leo G. Carroll), a research scientist living a few miles out in the desert. But there's something strange about Jacobs; his facial features and bodily extremities are distorted to a point where he's barely recognizable. The sheriff calls in Dr. Matt Hastings (John Agar), the local physician, who makes a diagnosis of acromegalia, a glandular disorder that affects the body's growth. He also tells the sheriff that it can't possibly be acromegalia, because symptoms as pronounced as those he sees in this case take years to develop, and the man was in perfect health just three months earlier. Hastings refuses to believe the professor's account of Jacobs' rapid deterioration, but the sheriff takes the word of the scientist. Back in his laboratory, Deemer continues his work, going over tests of a chemical on various animals, all of which are jumbo-sized, including guinea pigs the size of rabbits, baby mice the size of full-grown rats, and a tarantula three feet long. Suddenly, the professor is attacked by his assistant (Eddie Parker), whose face and hands are distorted in the same manner as Jacobs, and who injects the helpless scientist with the experimental chemical before collapsing dead. A fire starts during the attack and in the confusion, the tarantula's glass cage is broken and it escapes the burning laboratory, wandering out into the desert. Weeks go by, and a new assistant, Stephanie "Steve" Clayton (Mara Corday), arrives to begin work for the professor. When Hastings gives her a ride to Deemer's home, the scientist explains to the doctor that he's been working on a radioactive nutrient, that, if perfected, could feed the entire world's population. He also says that Eric Jacobs made the mistake of testing the chemical on himself and it caused the disease that killed him. Hastings and Steve begin a romance, unaware that wandering around the desert is the tarantula from Deemer's laboratory, now grown to the size of an automobile and getting bigger with each passing day. Soon livestock and then people begin disappearing, and the sheriff is at a loss to explain any of it, or the one clue left behind in each case: large pools of what seems to be some kind of venom next to the stripped skeletons of the victims. Hastings takes some of the material in for a test; meanwhile, Steve notices that Deemer is going through some bizarre changes. His mood has darkened and his features now appear to be changing, as the acromegalia, caused by the injection, manifests itself. Hastings learns that one of the professor's test animals was a tarantula, which was presumed destroyed. When he learns that the pools near the deaths are composed of spider venom -- equivalent to what it would take many thousands of spiders to generate -- he's certain that the tarantula from the laboratory survived. By this time, the title creature is bigger than a house and ravaging the countryside, killing everything in its path and knocking down power lines and telephone poles as it moves. Hastings arrives just in time to rescue Steve from the attacking creature, which destroys Deemer's house and kills the professor. The sheriff and the highway patrol are unable to slow the creature, now the size of a mountain and moving at 45 miles an hour, even with automatic rifle fire, as it follows the road through the desert toward the town. Even an attempt to blow it up with dynamite fails when the monster walking right through the blast. Finally, the creature is poised to attack the town, when jets scrambled from a nearby Air Force base (led by a young Clint Eastwood, barely recognizable behind an oxygen mask) swoop in. When rockets fail to divert the monster from its path, the jets roar in for a second pass and drop enough napalm to incinerate the creature. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

John Forsythe plays a successful television writer, Don Newell, who works on the "Crime of the Week" anthology series. Newell is being blackmailed by one of the program's actresses (Kathleen Hughes), who threatens to tell his wife of their clandestine affair. Arriving at the actress' apartment for a showdown, Newell discovers that the woman has been murdered. Though the writer is the principal suspect, the real killer is Henry Hayes (Edward G. Robinson), "Crime of the Week"'s research expert, who was also a blackmail victim. The inability of the police to solve the murder becomes the subject of the next "Crime of the Week" program. Hayes tries to deflect attention from himself by building up evidence against Newell, which the writer is compelled to use in his script. But Newelltumbles to Hayes' guilt, and includes this fatal clue in his "Crime of the Week" playlet. Hayes tries to kill Newell during the live broadcast, but the police arrive on the scene and shoot down Hayes. Although The Glass Web was originally released in 3-D, it is surprisingly light on "stereoptic" special effects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Winning of the West was Gene Autry's first western vehicle for 1953. It was also one of Autry's better offerings, with the star cast as a territorial ranger with an uncharacteristically nasty streak. When a local newspaper publisher is slain by an outlaw gang, Gene hesitates to pull his gun because he recognizes his own brother (Richard Crane) as one of the outlaws. As a result, he is relieved of his duties and forced to fend for himself. After a series of hair-raising adventures, Autry is compelled to face his brother in a showdown. Somehow, a happy ending arises from all this, though it wouldn't be fair to tell how. Gene Autry is supported by his usual cohorts Smiley Burnette and Gail Davis; he also offers four musical numbers, of which "Find Me My Trusty .45" is the best. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

By virtue of the popularity of his TV series The Range Rider, Jack (later Jock) Mahoney is afforded almost as much screen time in Hawk of the Wild River as the film's official star Charles Starrett. In fact, since Mahoney doubles for Starrett in certain sequences, it could be argued that his part is larger. This 53-minute "Durango Kid" western finds Starrett adopting his "Durango" disguise to find out who's behind a series of stagecoach holdups. The miscreant turns out to be "The Hawk" (Clayton Moore, the "Lone Ranger" himself!) Mahoney plays a deputy sheriff who helps the Durango Kid bring The Hawk to justice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gene Autry plays a cattle buyer in the better-than-average formula western Barbed Wire. Investigating a paucity of fresh livestock, Autry returns to his home turf of Texas. Here he discovers that powerful ranch owner Steve Ruttledge (Leonard Penn) has been fencing off valuable grazing land, preventing the cattle men from bringing their stock to market. The trouble is, Ruttledge's methods, while underhanded, are well within the limits of the law. This doesn't stop Autry from finding a legal method to thwart Ruttledge's megalomanic dreams--and, incidentally, to clean the villain's clock in the closing reels. Barbed Wire was produced by Armand Schafer, the man in charge of Gene Autry's "Flying A" TV-production empire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Stanley Kramer's production unit at Columbia Pictures was known for its willingness to tackle subject matter that was not necessarily "box office" (much to the dismay, of course, of Columbia head man Harry Cohn!) Adapted by Michael Blankfort from the autobiography by Donald Powell Wilson, My Six Convicts is the true story of a prison psychologist and his efforts to "reach" his incarcerated patients. John Beal plays the Donald Powell Wilson counterpart, herein known simply as Doc. Convinced that psychological rehabilitation is, indeed, an option, Doc overcomes a great deal of opposition -- from both prison officials and prisoners -- to test out his theories. Once he's won the confidence of hardened safecracker James Connie (Millard Mitchell), Doc is able to bring five more convicts into his circle: murderous mobster Punch Pinero (Gilbert Roland); alcoholic, self-sacrificing Blivens Scott (Marshall Thompson); holdup man Clem Randall (Alf Kjellin); psychopathic killer Dawson (Harry Morgan -- yes, that Harry Morgan); and embezzler Steve Kopac (Jay Adler). These six cons learn to make their life behind bars not only tolerable but productive, and in so doing pass on their new outlook on life to their fellow inmates. Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, My Six Convicts is essentially a comedy, with the all-male cast working together in seamless perfection. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this boxing drama, a deaf-mute prizefighter whose career is on the rise falls in love with a gold digging singer who only loves him for his potential earnings. He is also loved by a wholesome journalist who loves him for himself. It is she that helps him get the operation that restores his hearing. Unfortunately, upon finally figuring out that it is she who really loves him, the fighter again loses his hearing during a championship bout. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Wayne Morris and Preston S. Foster go through their patented he-man paces in Columbia's The Big Gusher. Cast as oil-field workers Kenny Blake and Hank Mason, our heroes try their luck as wildcatters. Against their better judgment, they rely upon grizzled Cappy Groves (Paul E. Burns) to locate hidden oil with a divining rod. On the brink of success, the boys fall for the trickery of Betsy Abbott (Dorothy Patrick), who is in cahoots with crooked oil-supply dealer Jim Tolman (Emmett Vogan). It takes a while before the titular gusher solves everyone's problems. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide