Peter Brocco Movies

George Montgomery both produced and starred in the psychological western Black Patch. Written by character actor Leo Gordon (who also appears on screen), the story revolves around one-eyed marshal Clay "Black Patch" Morgan (Montgomery). The marshal is delighted to find out that his old buddy Hank Danner (Leo Gordon) is riding into town, but less than thrilled to learn that Danner is now a wanted outlaw. Reluctantly throwing his friend into jail, Morgan sets off a chain reaction of terror, beginning with a jailbreak engineered by crooked saloonkeeper Frenchy De Vere (a particularly vicious performance by Sebastian Cabot) and culminating in a showdown between the marshal and Danner's young protégé Flytrap (Tom Pittman). This is the sort of film in which a rape is represented by the symbolic opening and closing of a screen door. Black Patch seems pretentious when seen today, but in 1957 a western never lost money at the box-office. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Even though it's Thanksgiving Week, all days off at the LAPD are cancelled in hopes of capturing a brutal holdup man who preys upon helpless women. Knowing that the perpetrator has been haunting the streetcar routes and bus stops, the department assigns several policewomen decoys throughout the city--with each female cop backed up by two males. Meanwhile, Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) are kept busy following up a number of false leads. Ultimately, the criminal is put out of business permanantly...but success comes at a terrible price for young police officer Barney Swanson (Norman Bartold). Adapted from the Dragnet radio broadcast of May 20, 1954, this classic black and white episode is readily available on a multitude of public-domain VHS and DVD collections. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mario Orsatti (Jay Novello), who had been the Ricardos and the Mertzes' gondolier in Venice, arrives in New York to visit his brother Dominic (Peter Brocco). Unable to locate his brother, Mario turns to Lucy (Lucille Ball) for help. She determines that Dominic is actually in San Francisco, and decides to raise the necessary bus fare by securing a job for Mario in a local pizza parlor. But when the immigration officials come calling, Lucy is forced to take Mario's place. You guessed it: Lucy plus pizza equals a dough-splattered disaster! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If Hot Blood is remembered at all today, it is for its ludicrous advertising blurb "Jane Russell shakes her tambourines and drives Cornel Wilde!" Set in the gypsy community of contemporary Los Angeles, the film stars Wilde as aspiring dancer Stephen Torino, who is tricked by his brother Marco Luther Adler into an arranged marriage with tempestuous Annie Caldash Jane Russell. Annie is willing to give the union a go, but Torino wants none of it. Several risque complications and lively musical numbers later, Torino changes his mind. Nicholas Ray imbues Hot Blood with the same erotic/neurotic energy he brought to such earlier cult favorites as Johnny Guitar and Rebel without a Cause, but the magic just isn't there this time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Susan Hayward pulls out all the stops, and then some, in this cinemadaptation of singer Lillian Roth's autobiography I'll Cry Tomorrow. In as harshly realistic a manner as possible in the still censor-dominated Hollywood of 1955, the film recounts Roth's rise to fame, her precipitous fall and her tearful comeback. The fact that Roth loves not wisely but too well is only part of the problem (only two of her eight husbands are portrayed in the film); contributing factors to her self-destruction also included her witchlike "stage mother" (Jo Van Fleet) and the pressures of fame and fortune. The principal reason for Roth's fall from the height of fame to the depths of squalor and despair is booze -- at least until she begins to pull herself together with the help of Alcoholics-Anonymous representative Burt McGuire (Eddie Albert). The story concludes with a testimonial staged in Roth's honor on the TV series This is Your Life (the original of which still exists in kinescope form). Having been personally coached by the real Lillian Roth, Susan Hayward does an excellent job of copying the singer's unique style. Though Hayward did not win an Oscar for her performance, she did cop the "Best Actress" prize at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this action war drama, set in the African desert during WW II, a civilian is hired to deliver tanks to the British soldiers at the front. Trouble ensues when he gets trapped at an oasis being used as a fuel dump by the Afrika Korps with a small band of men. Together, they keep the Germans at bay until help arrives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Atomic Kid strives mightily to wring laughs from the otherwise humorless topic of atomic radiation. Mickey Rooney (who also produced the film) and Robert Strauss play a couple of brainless prospectors who stumble upon a A-bomb testing site. Led to believe that the area is rich with uranium, Strauss goes off to stake a claim, while Rooney relaxes in a "test" house. Before long, a bomb is dropped, a mushroom cloud sprouts in the desert. . .and Rooney emerges from the rubble unharmed. Later on, however, our hero discovers that he's so full of radiation that he glows in the dark, which makes him both dangerous and world-famous. The plot then veers into Cold War territory as Rooney routs a nest of Soviet spies, led by Robert Emmet Keane. The leading lady of the proceedings is Elaine Davis, Mickey Rooney's then-wife (her marital status, transitory though it may have been, was emphasized in the film's opening credits) Believe it or not, this monumentally unfunny comedy was based on a story by Blake Edwards. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Duffy of San Quentin is an Allied Artists low-budgeter based on the life of the warden who first introduced reforms in the infamous California penal institution. Appalled by conditions in San Quentin, the grey-haired Duffy inaugurates a series of improvements. He also sets up an honor system, which brings him under fire from conservative law enforcement agencies. The lumpy, episodic continuity of Duffy of San Quentin is due to the fact that the film is comprised of an hour-long TV pilot film, padded out with hastily assembled new footage. While Duffy was consigned to TV within two years of its release, the film did well enough to engender a sequel, The Steel Cage (likewise a pilot film). Ironically, Paul Kelly, who stars as Duffy in both films, served a prison sentence for manslaughter in the 1920s. The British title of Duffy of San Quentin is Men Behind Bars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This anthology film tells three stories of love involving the passengers of an ocean liner at sea. In the first, "The Jealous Lover," James Mason plays Charles Coudray, a well-known ballet director. When someone asks Coudray why he staged his masterpiece, "Astarte," only once, he tells the story of Paula Woodward (Moira Shearer), a superb dancer he found practicing in his theater. He was awestruck by her technique and her beauty, but he discovered that she had a secret -- due to a cardiac condition, she has been forbidden to dance too strenuously, as it could tax her heart and eventually kill her. Charles urges Paula to perform for him, so he may use her movements to choreograph his next great work; she agrees, but the exertion proves too much for her and she dies. He arranges for the work she inspired to be performed only once, in hopes that she will somehow see it from on high. In the second segment, "Mademoiselle," Tommy (Ricky Nelson) is a 12-year-old boy travelling with his French governess and tutor (Leslie Caron); she's tired of spending her days watching over a child, and he'd like to get away from Teacher for a while. Mrs. Pennicott (Ethel Barrymore), a older woman who happens to be a witch, hears Tommy wishing he could be a grown-up, and she grants his request: suddenly Tommy is a grown man (played by Farley Granger), but only for the next four hours. The Governess meets the mysterious stranger Tommy has become, and soon they fall in love. In the final segment, "Equilibrium," Kirk Douglas plays Pierre Narval, a high-wire artist who retired from performing after his partner died while performing a trapeze act, an accident Pierre blames on himself. He begins to reconsider his decision when he saves the life of Nina (Pier Angeli), a woman who attempted to drown herself; her husband died in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, and she feels she is to blame for his death. Their shared fatalism equals fearlessness in Pierre's eyes, and he teaches Nina the art of the trapeze; however, when he begins to fall in love with her, he's no longer so certain that he wants her to risk her life. "The Jealous Lover" and "Equilibrium" were directed by Gottfried Reinhardt, while "Mademoiselle" was directed by Vincente Minnelli. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Insane doctor H.L. Orr (Peter Brocco) is convinced that he can control Superman (George Reeves) with a mind-altering drug. Before long, Orr and his henchman Rausch (Larry Blake) have kidnapped Lois Lane (Phyllis Coates) and Jimmy Olsen (Jack Larson) to lure Superman into a trap. Once he is "captured", the Man of Steel appears to be totally at the mercy of Orr's demon drug! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cripple Creek is an excellent example of Columbia's "A-minus/B-plus" Technicolor westerns of the 1950s. Government agent Bret Ivers (George Montgomery) goes undercover to infiltrate a gang of gold smugglers. Ivers and his two partners (Jerome Courtland and Richard Egan) face exposure and sudden death at every turn; indeed, one of the federal agents meets his demise before the film is a third over. The villains are the erudite-but-deadly Denver Jones (John Dehner) and the just-plain-deadly Silver Kirby (William Bishop). With so much already in its favor, Cripple Creek hardly needs a romantic interest, but Columbia had to keep contract actress Karin Booth busy, thus she shows up briefly as a flashy saloon gal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Ring was directed by Kurt Neumann in a style best described as Hollywood neorealist. Based on a novel by Irving Shulman, the film focuses on a Mexican-American youth named Tommy (Lalo Rios). Unable to make any headway in a prejudicial, white-dominated society, Tommy turns to boxing, where he makes quite a name for himself. Just when he thinks he's gained the respect of the "Anglos," however, he discovers that they're only interested in his reputation, and still consider him an outsider because of his ancestry and skin color. Even the two white men who treat him decently -- his manager Pete (Gerald Mohr) and trainer Freddy (Robert Osterloh) -- have a vested interest. In danger of ending up a disillusioned, punch-drunk bum, Tommy is rescued by the unconditional love of his girl Lucy (Rita Moreno). Filmed entirely on location in greater Los Angeles, The Ring is for the most part an uncompromising glimpse at institutionalized bigotry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide