Edward Mann Movies
- 1988
- PG
In this drama, young Phoebe (Alexandra Johnes) is sent to live with her wealthy grandmother (Glynis Johns) after both of her parents are tragically killed. As Phoebe attempts to accustom herself to her new life with her stern grandmother, she becomes very attached to her governess, Zelly (Isabella Rossellini). However, when her jealous grandmother discovers that her granddaughter has grown closer to the hired help than with her own flesh and blood, she fires all of the employees, much to Phoebe's dismay. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Isabella Rossellini, Glynis Johns, (more)
The Freakmaker is a creepy horror film about a mad scientist who abducts college students for the subjects he needs in his attempts to crossbreed plants with humans. His failures are turned over to a dwarf who runs a circus freakshow. This film is also known by the title The Mutations. ~ All Movie Guide
This Western presents a fictionalized account of the ways in which the Gatling gun was created. Also chronicled are its tremendous effects on the great frontier. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1971
"Broad" is right. This gloriously overacted TV movie stars Richard Boone as a movie star who suffers an accident, leaving him totally blind. Boone's wife (Suzanne Pleshette) takes advantage of hubby's infirmity to plot an illicit romance with a local stud (Fred Beir). But remember that Boone's an actor, and as such has heightened senses. He can feel that his wife is scheming right under his nose (literally!), and cooks up his own murderous revenge. The plan is contingent upon Boone's ability to convince witnesses that he can actually see. In Broad Daylight may be florid stuff, but it works beautifully with an audience. Scripter Larry Cohen would later apply his ability to hold the crowd's attention despite the most ludicrous of set-ups in such later films as It's Alive and Q. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Hard Frame is the syndication title for the made-for-TV film Hunters Are for Killing. Burt Reynolds plays a man who returns home after serving six years in prison for manslaughter. Reynolds knows that he was framed; so does someone else in town. The most nervous citizens are Burt's father (Melvyn Douglas), his ex-girlfriend (Suzanne Pleshette) who is now chief of police, and the man (Martin Balsam) whose testimony cinched Reynolds' conviction. The film was shot on location in the wine country of Northern California. Under its original title, this 2-hour actioner first aired on March 12, 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
- PG
Jason Higgs (Sidney Poitier) is an angry black man who plans to rob a factory payroll. With the help of his accomplices Dennis (Al Freeman Jr.) and his white girlfriend Cathy (Joanna Shimkus), a racially motivated demonstration diverts attention from the crooks while they rob the safe. Jason is somewhat of a modern-day Robin Hood who wishes to use the money to help the children of incarcerated soul brothers. He only places his hope in the youth who have not been sullied or scalded by the hatred of racial prejudice. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Also known as Cauldron of Blood, Blind Man's Bluff is a Spanish-made horror film long on gore but short on logic. Several beautiful models have disappeared, and the prime suspect is blind sculptor Boris Karloff, a surly and secretive sort who produces skeletal statues. Lovely model Rosanda Monteros tries to get to the bottom of the mystery, and of course nearly winds up a victim herself. The killer is not Karloff but his wife Viveca Lindfors, who hopes to sustain her husband's reputation by providing fresh skeletons for his artwork. Lindfors ends up hoisted on her own petard when she accidentally dips her arm in a vat of acid. Yeccch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1967
This little aberration of the Sixties was originally released to theaters as The Hallucination Generation. Star George Montgomery does a Timothy Leary act as a charismatic LSD guru (one wonders if Montgomery offers woodworking hints between drug trips). Juvenile lead Danny Stone, upset at his mom, joins Montgomery's cult in Spain and turns on-tunes in-drops out in a biiiiigggg way. Eventually, Stone gets involved in murder--and let that be a lesson to all you other long-haired hippie freaks. Though most of Hallucination was filmed in black and white, the LSD scenes were lensed in color. Oh, wow...red, blue...orange.... ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Montgomery, Danny Stone, (more)
- 1967
- G
A joint U.S.-Swiss production in the waning days of the 35-year-old Tarzan series, this film stars Mike Henry in the second of his three film appearances as the jungle king. The film is set in South America, where one of Tarzan's friends is murdered at Tarzan's favorite zoo. The culprits are the Leopard Men, a group of tribal humans dressed and behaving like jungle animals. They are headed by Chief Barcuna (Rafer Johnson). Tarzan recruits Captain Sam Bishop (Jan Murray) and some animal friends to help defeat Barcuna, who is planning on leading a revolt of his Leopard Men against peaceful tribal leaders. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mike Henry, Jan Murray, (more)
- 1963
In this grim drama, an angry young juvenile delinquent blames his absent father for his woes. He, his buddy and his girl friend are hanging out at the beach one day when they encounter a hobo. For some reason, something about the transient reminds the youth of his estranged father. later that night the drifter breaks into the troubled boy's home and spends the night dancing and boozing it up. This clinches it for the youth who is convinced that only his dead-beat dad would behave in such an unseemly manner. Trouble increases when the vagabond attempts to rape the best friend's girl. The young man becomes so enraged that he attacks the older man. Fortunately his best pal stops them before something terrible happens. As the drifter wanders away, the confused protagonist still wonders if the man really was his dad after all. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1963
This exploitative morality tale from cult director Herschell Gordon Lewis tells the story of Kim (Vickie Miles), a naive high-school girl lured into a pornography ring by photographer Harmon (Thomas Wood) and aging model Sandra (Sandra Sinclair). Kim is told that she can earn money for college by doing "glamour shots," but when Kim's classmate Larry (Mal Arnold) gets incriminating pictures of her, she is blackmailed into posing for increasingly explicit photos. The most amusing character is the ring's sleazy boss, Mr. Lang, who plays with toy monkeys and cackles a great deal, barking lines like "you're damaged merchandise..." and "this is a fire sale!" as the camera zooms in on his rotting teeth. Rapes, beatings, and various crime-film cliches ensue, until Kim is freed from her misery by a most unlikely hero. Unintentionally funny and poorly photographed, this film certainly has its moments for connoisseurs of bad cinema, but others will find it tawdry and dull. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Although it never quite escapes the pitfalls of pretension, this film was Kirk Douglas's bid for the affections of the art house crowd, and it remains one of his best efforts. The star plays unreconstructed "rugged individual" Jack Burns, who rides throughout the modern west knocking down man-made fences. Visiting his equally rebellious friend Paul Bondi (Michael Kane), Burns deliberately gets himself thrown in jail to be nearer his pal. Frustrated that Bondi doesn't want to join Burns on the road, Burns breaks out of jail, thereby becoming a fugitive. His trail is dogged by Sheriff Johnson (Walter Matthau), a frustrated frontiersman who secretly admires the freewheeling Burns. Meanwhile, a truck driver (Carroll O'Connor) is ominously driving down the highway with a truckload of toilets. If you think there's supposed to be some symbolism in this seemingly peripheral character, you're absolutely right. Bill Raisch, a genuine amputee who played the one-armed man on TV's The Fugitive, is Douglas' surly opponent in the café brawl sequence. Filmed on location in New Mexico, Lonely are the Brave was adapted by Dalton Trumbo from Edward Abbey's novel Brave Cowboy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands, (more)
In this film based on a true story, Burt Lancaster plays Robert Stroud, a withdrawn prison inmate who cures a sick bird that flies into his cell and eventually becomes a world-renowned ornithologist -- all while serving a life sentence. An overbearing warden (Karl Malden) eventually transfers Stroud to the notoriously brutal prison on Alcatraz, but he is able to continue his research, abort a riot, start a romance, and eventually get his story out through a determined reporter (Edmond O'Brien). Directed with his usual solid craftsmanship by John Frankenheimer, Birdman Of Alcatraz tells a quietly moving tale for which Lancaster, Telly Savalas (as one of Stroud's fellow inmates), and Thelma Ritter (as Stroud's mother) all received Oscar nominations. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, (more)
- 1961
Scripted by Dalton Trumbo and directed by Robert Aldrich, this off-beat, almost eclectic film could be hailed as a thinking person's western. It is the dark cat-and-mouse tale of a sherrif's hunt for a philosophy-spouting criminal in the midst of a great cattle drive. The outlaw killed the sherrif's brother-in-law. During his flight, the outlaw pauses long enough to drop by the ranch where his former lover lives with her husband and 16-year-old daughter. While there, the rancher hires him to lead a cattle drive to Texas. The sheriff soon catches up, but he decides to help the killer with the drive before bringing him in. Along the way, the two men gain a grudging respect for one another. Also the sheriff begins to fall in love with the rancher's wife, while the crook finds himself drawn to her lovely daughter. The rancher ends up killed during the trip and this allows the romances to bloom until the widow tells the outlaw an awful secret about the young woman he loves. Grecian-style tragedy ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Kirk Douglas, (more)
- 1960
Bumping along over several flaws, this is an odd sci-fi film directed by David Bradley, best known for his incredibly vast private film library rather than his stints in the director's chair. A very motley crew is winging its way through space with the moon as its objective. On board the spaceship are a dozen scientists, engineers, and researchers from the U.S., Sweden, Russia, Israel, Germany, and even Turkey. The flight captain has not only a variety of nationalities to juggle but must also contend with the dissension between the German and Israeli due to a certain holocaust tragedy in World War II. The romance between the magnificent Swedish chemist and the Turkish biologist is also heating up. But the worst is yet to come. After landing on the moon, the crew discovers that underneath the lunar surface is a whole civilization of peace-loving moon-beings who never asked for visitors. Their reaction is rather chilling. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michi Kobi, Tom Conway, (more)
- 1960
One of the busiest directors of westerns at this time, Edward L. Cahn helms this uninspired saddle saga about love and betrayal. Kip (Buster Crabbe) is a gunslinger with a score to settle. Seth (Barton MacLane), a villainous land baron, frames Kip's brother for a crime he never committed and using his supposed guilt as an excuse, he carries through his murderous intentions by lynching him. It seems the unfortunate man backed the ranchers in their claims against Seth. As Kip gets ready to avenge his brother's death and clear his name, Alice (Judith Ames) finds herself in an uncomfortable position. She is Seth's daughter, was engaged to Kip's dead brother, and now finds herself attracted to Kip. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barton MacLane, Judith Ames, (more)
- 1959
An angry head-shrinker (not a psychiatrist) puts a curse upon a family of white traders in this well-wrought low-budget horror film. It must have been a doozy for 200 years later it is still going strong. The story opens as the eldest male descendant of the cursed Drake family finds himself on the brink of losing his head at the hands of a strange witch doctor and his spooky-looking servant. Fortunately his daughter and a detective show up in time to save his noggin from a fate too horrible to disclose here. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eduard Franz, Valerie French, (more)
- 1959
Conflicting views on how to handle juvenile delinquents are not convincingly brought across in this teen melodrama by Edward Cahn. Colonel Walton (John Hoyt) is the repressive head of an institution for young male juvenile delinquents. Responsibility for the deaths of two teens is indirectly laid on Walton's doorstep, and he is replaced by liberal-minded Dr. Paul Furman (Jerome Thor). Furman throws out the old rule book when he decides to change the attitude to the young men by housing female delinquents in the prison. Although warned against this action by a matron and the former warden, Furman goes ahead with his plan. The result is friction between two of the young men over two of the women, and an attempted rape, putting Furman's views and control in jeopardy. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerome Thor, Marcia Henderson, (more)
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman may well be one of the worst science-fiction films of all time, but that's not to say that it isn't thoroughly enjoyable. Allison Hayes achieved screen immortality as Nancy Archer, the wealthy, dipsomaniac wife of shameless philanderer Harry Archer (William Hudson). When she witnesses the crash landing of a alien spaceship -- whose occupant is a 30-foot giant, dressed in the manner of a medieval Frenchmen! -- Nancy goes to the local sheriff (George Douglas) with her story, only to be laughed off as a drunken crank. Even the local TV anchorman makes cruel fun of Nancy on his nightly newscast. Meanwhile, hubby Harry is making whoopee at a roadhouse with his latest tootsie, Honey Parker (Yvette Vickers). Not long afterward, Nancy, who's been exposed to the radiation of the spaceship, begins to feel queasy. Within a few days, she has grown to the height of 50 feet and is lumbering around the countryside clad only in a gigantic towel, smashing houses and trees in search of her faithless husband ("HARRY-HARRY!!!") Hilarious in its ineptitude (the special effects are particularly shoddy), Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is impossible to dislike, which cannot be said of its slicker but less entertaining 1993 cable-TV remake (with Darryl Hannah in the title role). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Allison Hayes, William Hudson, (more)
- 1958
Will Rogers Jr. follows in the cinematic footsteps of his famous father in the evenly-paced western Wild Heritage. Rogers is cast as a frontier judge, given to his own special, down-to-earth brand of jurisprudence. In truth, however, Will Jr's role is a subordinate one; most of the film's running time concerns two families heading westward by covered wagon. When rustlers attack, it is the sons of the respective families who emerge as the heroes. One of the "good guys" is portrayed by Rod McKuen, long before he became Poet Laureate of the flower-child generation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Jr., Maureen O'Sullivan, (more)
- 1958
Director Edward L. Cahn always knew how to make lemonade from a lemon; his B pictures of the late 1950s displayed a raw energy that many of his higher-budgeted films of the 1930s lacked. Hong Kong Confidential is a backlot cheapie starring Gene Barry and second-feature stalwarts Beverly Tyler and Allison Hayes. Barry plays a secret agent, in Hong Kong to rescue an Arabian prince from his kidnappers. The villains, of course, are Soviet spies, easily recognizable by their baggy suits and flabby accents. Also in the cast of Hong Kong Confidential is Ed Kemmer, who'd once starred in that baby-boomer favorite Space Patrol. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Barry, Beverly Tyler, (more)
- 1956
Taking shaky aim at Tinseltown scandal sheets, this murder mystery centers on an actor who is accused of murdering the reporter who recently smeared his name. As a result of the accusation, the actor loses his studio contract. Fortunately, all is not lost for another is working to prove his innocence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Hutton, Paul Richards, (more)
- 1956
Several low-budget films came out in the 1950s "exposing" such scandal magazines as Confidential. Most of them came off as sleazy as the publications they were targetting. Republic's Scandal, Inc. is one of the more subdued examples of this genre; in fact, it's so low-key that at times it induces slumber. His good name sullied by a tell-all rag, movie star Robert Hutton threatens dire consequences to the reporter responsible. When that reporter turns up murdered, Hutton is naturally the prime suspect. Attorney Paul Richards takes on Hutton's cause, simultaneously clearing him of the murder charge and the earlier scandal that ruined him in Hollywood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
