Turhan Bey Movies

Assembled by film historian Kevin Brownlow and narrated by actor Kenneth Branagh, this 90-minute special celebrates the classic horror films that emanated from Hollywood's Universal Studios. Beginning with such silent classics as The Phantom of the Opera and The Cat and the Canary, Universal went into full gear in the early '30s, launching such valuable properties as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, and (in the 1940s) The Wolf Man, and making stars of the "twin titans of terror," Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. The studio maintained its horror quota well into the 1950s with its Creature From the Black Lagoon series, but the emphasis in this special is on the pre-1948 scare fests. Highlights include interviews with surviving Universal actors and technicians (Gloria Stuart is particularly amusing), and rare clips from Dracula [Spanish-language version]. Universal Horror made its American TV debut on the Turner Classic Movies cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On the verge of death, the Emperor of Centauri (Turhan Bey) hopes to negotiate honorable peace with the Narn. Instead, a power struggle blossoms into an all-out war, with Nondo in the middle. And former B5 Commander Sinclair makes unexpected contact with Garibaldi, delivering a message which could well determine the fate of everyone on the space station. First telecast on February 1, 1995, "The Coming of Shadows" was written by J. Michael Straczynski. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An ex-con becomes a paramedic in this drama that also contains messages about the plight of the elderly. Nickel has just been paroled to a work-release program where he is to work off his final year in an ambulance service at the local hospital in the retirement resort, Seabreeze. He learns to be a paramedic from his cynical trainer Brent who sensitively categorizes his patients as "lizards, sevens, and turkeys" (translated as old folks, corpses, and fakers). During training, he encounters many characters such as Igor Vostovic, a Russian emigre institutionalized against his will. Igor becomes a father figure to Nickel and guides him to the straight and narrow. Nickel also begins to fall for Francie who spends all her time caring for her sickly grandma. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this drama, an Austrian taxi driver dreams of going to the US, but cannot as he has no papers nor identification. One day, an American businessman is waiting for his cab, when another man kills him. The quick-thinking cabbie grabs the dead man's papers and takes over his identity. Later he falls in love with the wife of the killer who thinks that the cab driver is the killer. He finally convinces her that he is innocent, and together they try to flee to America with the killer in hot pursuit. Both the cabby and the killer are captured but the former receives a small sentence. His new love decides to wait for him and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Government agent Richard Hendricks (Michael O'Shea) goes undercover to get goods on a gang responsible for dispensing illegal paroles. Posing as a prisoner, Hendricks links up with the gang's inside man, Barney Rodescu (Turhan Bey). As often happens in real life, several pillars of society are getting rich by manipulating the lives of others. The plot is not always logical, but audience involvement is sustained every step of the way. Parole Inc was one of the "in-between" pictures -- not quite a "B", not expensive enough for "A" -- produced by young-and-hungry Eagle Lion studios in the late 1940s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Unusually lavish for an Eagle-Lion production, The Adventures of Casanova lacks only Technicolor and "star" names. Lensed in Mexico, the film stars Latin American heartthrob Arturo de Cordova in the title role, and MGM expatriate (and future Mexican citizen) Lucille Bremer as the lovely Lady Bianca. Though ample screen time is expended upon Casanova's amorous conquests, most of the film is in the swashbuckler mode, as the hero battles the despotic Austrian rules in 18th century Sicily. The film gets down to basics when Casanova squares off against his bitterest foe, Austrian envoy Count de Brissac John Sutton. Comedy relief is handled by Turhan Bey as Casanova's philosophical sidekick and George Tobias as a spy posing as a monk. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If Grecian storyteller Aesop really did exist, he was most likely a black slave. He wasn't an Austrian actor with an Egyptian name, but that's who played him in A Night in Paradise. Turhan Bey portrays the fable-spouting Aesop, who tries to escape his bondage by disguising himself as an old man. It is at the lavish court of King Croesus that the greyed-up Aesop first meets luscious Grecian princess Merle Oberon. The low-born talespinner is smitten, and determines to win the princess for his very own. Moral: If Universal buys a novel by George S. Hellman titled The Peacock's Feather, transforms it into a picture called A Night in Paradise, and appoints onetime Abbott and Costello cohort Arthur Lubin as director, you know what you're in for. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In another of her series of romantic desert adventures, popular actress Maria Montez is this time Naila, the newly crowned queen of an ancient Egyptian land. Her father the king has just been assassinated and she intends to make those responsible pay for their crime. She sets out into the desert to find the killer herself -- little does Naila know that her "loyal" assistant Horadef (George Zucco) may be working against her, for he has designs on the throne for himself. John Hall plays a secondary role as Merab, an adventurer who shows up in the titular region with his comic-relief pal Nebka (Andy Devine), and the two help Naila, totally unaware that she is the queen. The romantic lead this time out is Herua (Turhan Bey), a rebel leader opposed to the despotic Horadef. The villain has Naila under his evil influence, but this state of affairs comes to an end when she falls in love with the charismatic rebel. The climax, wherein Horadef and his invading hordes are caught in a cleverly rigged death trap, is the film's highlight. As usual, Maria Montez plays her rather ridiculous role in Sudan with the determined seriousness of a Lady Macbeth, which only adds to the giddy fun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Climax was hurriedly and economically filmed on leftover sets from Universal's super-production The Phantom of the Opera. In his Technicolor debut, Boris Karloff plays Dr. Hohner, a brilliant but unstable theatrical physician who murders a beautiful opera star when she rejects him. Ten year later, a beautiful young opera singer named Angela (Susannah Foster) makes her debut at the Royal Opera House. Convinced that Angela is the reincarnation of his murdered sweetheart, Dr. Hohner fiendishly hypnotizes the girl so that she will be unable to sing. The spell is broken by the combined efforts of Angela's boyfriend Franz (Turhan Bey) and an opera-loving "boy king" (Scotty Beckett). As for Hohner, well, what usually happens to Boris Karloff in films of this nature? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two Bowery vaudevillians compete to be the first to produce shows on Broadway. They might be friends were they not so convinced that each has stolen ideas from the others. This bouncy musical chronicles their rivalry and the success they find after they finally team up. Unfortunately the success is short-lived when one of them suddenly departs to work for a beautiful woman. This time the feud erupts with a vengeance. Fortunately, their paths again cross and a happy ending follows. Songs include: "Just Because You Made Dem Goo Goo Eyes at Me", "There'll Always Be a Moon", "Coney Island Waltz", "Yippie-I-Addy-I-Ay", and "Wait Till the Sun Shines Nellie". ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The general perception of the Technicolor costume adventure movies that Maria Montez and Jon Hall made for Universal in the early 1940's is that they were pure escapist entertainment, intended to make people forget for an hour or so about the Second World War and the general world situation. And generally that is true about them -- they were mostly no "about" much more than having fun for 90 minutes or so amid pretty sets with lots of action and some pretty women in exotic outfits. But watching Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, one has to wonder if even here the screenwriter, Edmund L. Hartmann, was able to totally get away from the day-to-day reality around him. The opening Mongol invasion of Bagdad and the murder of the old Caliph (Moroni Olsen) while trying to set up a government-in-exile without thinking of the German and Japanese conquests and occupations of various nations that would have been going on at the time; additionally, the fact that the old Caliph is murdered with the help of a traitor in his own noble ranks -- a "quisling" in the term coined during World War II -- wouldn't have been missed by audiences at the time. Further, the screenplay very specifically paints the forty thieves as heroes who have gone from being criminals to an active resistance force against the occupying Mongols -- indeed, at the denouement, their invasion of the palace is greeted as a day of liberation by the people of Bagdad. The movie walks a strange tightrope, casting about veiled topical references of that sort, even as is otherwise sufficiently tongue-in-cheek to cast Andy Devine as a desert bandit. Obviously, Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves was sold as -- and mostly intended as -- light entertainment, but just below that glitzy Technicolor surface were some fascinating allusions to the real world. None of this stops Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves from being immense fun -- it is, even if the "fun" isn't totally escapist in nature -- and it's great to look at as well, even 60 years on; Universal has apparently kept preservation-quality source materials on this and Hall and Montez's other Technicolor costume romps. And this particular entry in that group of movies also contains one very instructive clue to the morays and censorship of the time in one scene, in which the hero meets the heroine bathing at an oasis -- the makers seem to have been forced to insert a particular shot that is there for no other reason then to make it clear that she is not totally naked when he sees her. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

This frothy fantasy adventure centers upon the exotic romance between a shark fisherman (the sharks he captured are used for the manufacture of vitamin A) and the beautiful princess of Temple Island. They meet when the fisherman asks a young boy with royal connections to introduce him to the princess so he can ask for permission to fish the teeming waters near the island. The boy introduces the hunter to the girl and love immediately blossoms until he makes his request. She believes that he is really only looking for a way to steal the treasure located in the temple pool, and she banishes him. The boy has other plans for them though. At the same time, a crooked treasure-seeking trader conspires to get the booty for himself.. A major confrontation between good guys and bad eventually ensues with wild accusations flying like palm fronds in a hurricane. The shark hunter is accused of murder and imprisoned. Once again, the brave boy comes to his rescue and together they set out to prove his innocence. The story reaches its climax at the great temple that gave the island its name. A terrible earthquake ensures that the villains get their due. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide