Hubert Cornfield Movies
Hubert Cornfield was born in Istanbul while his father, a movie-studio sales executive, was in Turkey on business. Attracted to the creative end of the film industry, Cornfield was given his first directorial opportunity with the 1955 second feature Sudden Danger. Getting the most out of the little he was handed in such "B"s as Lure of the Swamp (1957) and Thunder Road (1957), Cornfield attracted the attention of the small, specialized cinema magazines of the 1960s. He began in the 1960s with Angel Baby, a slightly hallucinatory exposé of the faith-healing racket which Cornfield co-directed with TV veteran Paul Wendkos. Cornfield's best film was 1962's Pressure Point, a fictionalized case history of an anti-Semitic murderer (extremely well played by singer Bobby Darin). After directing the bizarre Marlon Brando vehicle Night of the Following Day (1969), Hubert Cornfield moved to France, where he directed and co-wrote Les Grandes Moyens (1976). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1976
The sweet elderly aunt and her two nieces survive the vendetta killing of their whole family because they are out picking flowers at the time. Undaunted, the aunt, a tough old Corsican, tracks down and kills all but one of the men who wiped out her kinfolk. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hélene Dieudonné, Yvette Maurech, (more)
- 1969
- R
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A pair of desperate men plan to kidnap a wealthy heiress upon her arrival in France. Bud (Marlon Brando) and Leer (Richard Boone) grab the gorgeous girl (Pamela Franklin) at the airport in Paris. The limousine is driven down a deserted country road where the airplane's stewardess Vi (Rita Moreno) is in on the plan and helps the criminals switch cars. The quartet heads to a remote beach house where the girl's father is contacted with instructions for the payoff. When the girl tries to escape, Bud helps her from being roughed up by Leer, which makes the heroine junkie Vi jealous. Vi's brother Wally (Jess Hahn) goes with to the saloon where the drop-off is scheduled, but Wally is wounded in a gun battle with the bartender. He escapes and gives the money to Leer, who is finished having his sadistic carnal way with the kidnap victim. Bud once again tries to help the girl, and Leer tries to shoot everyone who stands in his way. The feature ends with a hard-to-fathom surprise in this violent story of murder, greed and love of money. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marlon Brando, Richard Boone, (more)
Unable to get through to a particularly hostile patient, psychiatrist Peter Falk goes to gray-haired senior shrink Sidney Poitier for advice. This prompts Poitier to recall his experiences during World War II. While working on behalf of the government, Poitier was assigned the case of psycho Nazi sympathizer Bobby Darin. A complex flashback structure reveals the various influences that led to Darin's warped state of mind and to his life of crime. Poitier perceives that Darin is potentially dangerous, and insists that he needs further treatment. The government sees things differently, and allows Darin, who on the surface shows signs of recovery, to leave the hospital. The horrible results of this decision serve to convince Poitier to follow his own gut feelings no matter what his fellow "experts" might advise, and to continue probing even the most recalcitrant or deceptively "cured" of patients. Essentially a conformist psychological melodrama, Pressure Point truly comes to life whenever Bobby Darin is on the screen. His performance was outstanding, far better than his Oscar-nominated turn in 1963's Captain Newman MD. Unfortunately, the critics were aligned against Darin, possibly because of the singer/actor's well-publicized arrogance; Judith Crist went so far as to compare Darin to Dr. Samuel Johnson's walking dog, quipping that the most remarkable aspect of Darin's performance was not that he did it well, but that he did it at all. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sidney Poitier, Bobby Darin, (more)
- 1961
Based on Jenny Angel, a novel by Elise Oaks Barber, Angel Baby is a gloves-off study of the faith-healing racket. The title character, played by Salome Jens, is a mute whose speech is ostensibly restored by Bible-thumper George Hamilton. Angel Baby is then exploited on the evangelical circuit by crooked promoter Burt Reynolds (in his feature film debut). She becomes disillusioned, but her faith is restored when she apparently heals a crippled child. Any opportunity to see stage actress Salome Jens in one of her rare movie roles is always to be treasured; in this instance, Ms. Jens is backed up by an equally stellar supporting cast, including Mercedes McCambridge, Joan Blondell, and Henry Jones. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Hamilton, Mercedes McCambridge, (more)
- 1960
Hubert Cornfield wrote, directed, and co-produced this standard suspense story about two people who commit both murder and fraud -- out of revenge on the one hand and materialistic gain on the other. Marian Forbes (Laraine Day) has been having an affair with her boss and when he drops her for another woman she sees green -- jealousy and greed take over. She convinces an acquaintance (Edmond O'Brien) to murder her former lover and then impersonate him just long enough to get their hands on a large sum of money. Everything comes off as she plans, but then as the two cover up their crime, the danger of being discovered looms larger at every turn. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmond O'Brien, Julie London, (more)
- 1957
Based on a novel by Gil Brewer, Lure of the Swamp top-bills Marshall Thompson as a Florida swamp guide. Thompson is hired by mysterious stranger Willard Parker, who intends to a hide a large sum of money somewhere in the deepest recesses of the swamp. It later turns out that Parker is a bank robber, and that he has double-crossed his three cohorts. After murdering Parker, the robber's confederates try to beat Thompson to the location where the money is secreted. Inevitably, their greed overwhelms them, and finally destroys them. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Not to be confused with the film noir classic Thunder Road, Plunder Road is nonetheless a fine little thriller on its own. Gene Raymond stars as the head of a robbery gang, whose latest caper involves the heist of a gold shipment from a US Mint train. To throw the cops off the track, the gang splits up and goes off in three directions. Two of the gang's gold-laden trucks are captured by the police, but the third makes it all the way to LA. At this point, Raymond melts down the gold and disguises it as fittings for his luxury car. On the verge of getting away scot-free, Raymond is involved in a freeway accident. Cast as Gene Raymond's gun moll is soap-opera favorite Jeanne Cooper (the mother of actor Corbin Bernsen). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Raymond, Jeanne Cooper, (more)
- 1955
Having forsaken westerns for detective melodramas in Dial Red O, William "Wild Bill" Ellliot continues in this vein in Sudden Danger. Elliot is cast as detective lieutenant Doyle, who at present is investigating the alleged suicide of a clothing manufacturer. Doyle suspects that the victim was murdered, and that the perpetrator was the dead man's blind son, Curtis (Tom Drake). Hoping to clear himself, Curtis begins searching for clues on his own, and by fadeout time he and Doyle have cornered the actual killer. Though obviously made in a hurry, Sudden Danger is elevated by better-than-usual scripting and a well-chosen supporting cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Drake, Beverly Garland, (more)
