Kenneth G. Crane Movies

Dr. Bragan (James Craig) is a workaholic rocket scientist with NASA who is coming unglued from the stress. A colleague arranges for him to take a much needed holiday in Japan, and Bragan accepts, hoping to use this free time to pursue his first love, botany. He brings a potted Venus Flytrap with him, with plans to study carnivorous flora and prove his theory that human beings are descended from plants. His Japanese assistant, Noroko, arranges for them to work in seclusion at her father’s abandoned resort hotel, located on a mountain next to an active volcano. They get to work in the greenhouse, toiling night and day to strengthen the Venus Flytrap with the alien Nipponese soil, which causes it to grow to an unusual size. But Bragan is as obsessive and abusive as he was in America, and his constant mood swings cause Noroko to suspect that he is going mad. An experimental graft with a Japanese carnivorous plant succeeds in creating the "Sectovorus," a bizarre, vaguely human creature with vicious flytrap paws, and Bragan knows he is on the right track. Unfortunately, the beast must be fed mice, chickens, puppies and eventually human blood to keep it alive, and the stronger it grows, the more dangerous it becomes. When the Sectovorus learns to uproot itself and venture to a nearby village for victims, Dr. Bragan must decide whether to protect his work of genius, or lure it into the volcano to save mankind. Revenge of Dr. X was scripted by cult filmmaker Edward D. Wood, Jr., and is also known as The Double Garden, The Devil Garden and The Venus Flytrap. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide

The fast-paced world of stock-car racing provides the backdrop for this drama that centers upon a driver who is forced to retire after a blackout causes the death of another driver. He then begins working at a "Thrill Circus" as a stunt driver. There he meets the proprietor's daughter, who also drives there, and her lover. The professional driver is bored by his new job and so begins training the girl's beau to be a professional. The training is good and the young man wins his first race. This causes the banished driver's gold-digging ex-girl friend to try to steal the hot young driver away from the daughter which creates some problems between the younger and the older drivers. They reconcile when they are paired up during a crucial 500-mile race. In the midst of the race, the older pro feels another blackout coming on. By the end of the film, he realizes that the fainting spells are a psychological reaction to a childhood trauma. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Hampered by a quickie conclusion, this routine melodrama by Reginald LeBorg features twin sisters, Sabena and Dara (Marcia Henderson) who are identical in physical appearance but about as alike as night and day. The evil twin learns that her good-hearted sister is about to come into some money and so she plots to get her hands on the lucre instead. What can be so difficult since the two of them look alike? She poses as her angelic counterpart but then runs into a series of problems that lead up to the abrupt ending. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Flight that Disappeared sugars its Vital Message with a sci-fi/fantasy coating. Three nuclear scientists prepare to deliver their report on the potentials of atomic weaponry to the President. En route to Washington, the scientists' plane disappears from view. They awaken to find themselves in the presence of benign aliens, possibly residents of the Afterworld. Before the scientists are permitted to leave, they have been persuaded that their nuclear report will need a healthy dose of anti-bomb rhetoric. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, an Eastern gambler buys a mail-order ranch, heads out to claim it and discovers that the deed is unregistered, the rightful owner is dead, and that the land has been taken over by cattle rustlers. Strapping on the title weapon, the fellow rectifies the situation, but only after proving himself innocent of murder charges. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel I Cover the Waterfront, this uninspired crime melodrama stars Ron Foster as Skip Hanlon, a reporter who inadvertently gets involved in tracking down a criminal operation on the waterfront. Hanlon falls in love with Janey Fowler (Merry Anders) whose father is a sea captain doing some questionable work for the Mafia. When one of the mafiosi gets too hot to stay in the U.S., the elder Fowler (Barry Kelley) ships them out of the country. After the reporter decides to blow the whistle on the sea captain, circumstances lead him closer to danger and farther from the object of his affection. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

To escape arrest, small-time bookie Steve Boland (Charles Bronson) joins the army. Soon he figures that he'd have been better off in jail: an unrepentant foul-up, Boland just can't seem to get in step with military protocol. All this changes when Steve falls in love with level-headed Ilsa (Violet Rensing). In a thoroughly out-of-left-field plot development, Steve becomes a hero when acting upon Ilsa's warning that there's a communist plot afoot to assassinate President Eisenhower! The trade magazine Variety observed that the banality of When Hell Broke Loose could be gauged by the fact that two of the characters are named "Brooklyn" and "Jonesey." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Montgomery stars in Pawnee as Paul, a white man raised by Indians. Upon attaining adulthood, Paul finds himself rejected by both the Pawnee tribe and the white community. He manages to attain a job as a wagon train scout, but even in this position of respect and authority he is treated with hostility and suspicion. When Wise Eagle (Ralph Moody), the Pawnee chief who raised Paul as his own son, dies, the tribe is taken over by Paul's lifelong enemy Crazy Fox (Charles Horvath). Thus, when the wagon train is attacked by Indians, Paul has no qualms about aligning himself with the passengers. Featured in the cast as Dancing Fawn is Charlotte Austin, the cult-favorite star of such horror cheapies as The Man Who Turned to Stone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this suspenseful detective yarn, an insurance investigator finds himself unbearably bored by his routine life and decides to become a criminal. Following the robbery he engineers, he begins to investigate the theft himself. Unfortunately, he is trailed by a determined railroad cop, a dear friend who remains professional despite the mixed emotions he feels. The film is the feature debut of TV actor Jack Klugman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier, didn't become a nationwide craze (and merchandising cash cow) until Disney got hold of him in 1954. In the meantime, however, there was Columbia's Davy Crockett, Indian Scout, which in fact had little to do with the famed frontiersman. George Montgomery stars as Crockett's same-named nephew, a military scout assigned to insure safe passage for wagon trains. Someone has been tipping off the Indians as to the trains' movements, and Crockett wants to find out who before more blood is spilled. Suspicion immediately falls upon Davy's Tonto-like Indian companion Red Hawk (Philip Reed), but the answer lies somewhere else in the supporting cast. Also appearing in Davy Crockett, Indian Scout are Ellen Drew as the mixed-blood heroine, Robert Barrat as a muscular Indian chief and Paul Guilfoyle as a heavily disguised undercover agent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide