Al Martin Movies

The Eye Creatures don't really attack anybody, but are attacked by a band of hostile teenagers. It all begins when the creatures, acting out of self-preservation, try to pin the blame for an accidental killing on an innocent Earthling. Star John Ashley sagaciously retreated to the Philippines shortly after appearing in this one. The Eye Creatures was one of a group of cheap color remakes of earlier American-International productions; all were made to pad out AIP's TV package, and all were produced and directed by Larry Buchanan. This one was a remake of 1957's Invasion of the Saucer Men, minus the earlier film's clever monster designs by the resourceful Paul Blaisdell. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Angling for a promotion, Tim (Bill Bixby) invites his boss Mr. Burns (J. Pat O'Malley) home for dinner. The chef for the occasion is Uncle Martin (Ray Walston), who whips up a batch of his special "Martian stew." Unfortunately, the meal has a profound cooling effect on Mr. Burns--or more specifically, it transforms the man into a statue! And as if this wasn't enough of a crisis, who should suddenly show up at Tim's doorstep but Burns' obnoxious nephew Freddie Carson (Kip King). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Mrs. Brown (Pamela Britton) becomes snoopier than usual after taking a mail-order detective course. To practice her sleuthing skills, Mrs. Brown immediately places Uncle Martin under secret surveillance. In so doing, the would-be gumshoe takes a picture of Martin's flight log, and mails it to her correspondence-school teacher J. Nathaniel Pierce (Cliff Norton)--and Martin must now retrieve the "evidence", lest he be revealed as a Martian (or at the very least, suspected of being a foreign spy!) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A pre-That Girl Marlo Thomas guest stars as Paula, the highly intelligent--and highly insecure--niece of landlady Mrs. Brown (Pamela Britton). To prevent Paula from figuring out his true identity, Martin (Ray Walston) tries to distract her by asking Tim (Bill Bixby) to take the girl out. Unfortunately, Paula is so obsessed with her self-described "plain" appearance that she turns Tim off--whereupon Martin performs a bit of Martian magic to spiritually transform the duckling into a swan. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This is the very last entry in the long-running Bowery Boys saga. This time the gang gets involved with English diamond smugglers after they are hired to safely escort a valuable poodle on a Transatlantic voyage. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Bantam-weight Stanley Clements is Army Bound in this breezy Monogram programmer. Clements plays midget-car driver Frank Cermak, who upon being drafted discovers that his C.O., Lt. Peters (John Fontaine), is a rival racer, and not a particularly friendly one at that. Complicating matters is the fact that Cermak has just fallen in love with Jane Harris (Karen Sharpe), and of course romance is "off limits" to trainees. The climax finds Cermak overcoming his dislike of Peters during a life-or-death situation. At the time Army Bound was put into release, Monogram was in the process of matriculating into Allied Artists, and as such the studio was making noises about dropping its "B"-picture manifest and concentrating only on "A"s: as the subsequent Allied Artists "Bowery Boys" entries proved, this isn't quite what happened. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Yards and yards of stock footage from the old German jungle actioner Green Hell were used to pad out the 1949 programmer Amazon Quest. Tom Neal stars as a Dutchman who journeys into the wilds of Brazil to find his father. Neal hopes to clear the name of his dad, who has been accused of deserting his family and friends for a native girl but who was actually on a secret mission on behalf of a major rubber-manufacturing concern. As he ventures deeper into a studio-built forest, Neal finds romance in the shape of Amazonian Carole Mathews. The stock footage is rather clumsily matched with the newly-shot scenes, but director S.K. Seeley manages to keep things moving fast enough to deflect the audience's attention from the film's flaws. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Years before she played Dennis Mitchell's mom in TV's Dennis the Menace, Gloria Henry was a B-picture ingenue at Columbia. In Racing Luck, Gloria is top-billed as Phyllis Warren, sister of headstrong jockey Boots Warren (Stanley Clements). There's plenty of stock racetrack footage, intermingled with newly-lensed sequences of staged races. The plot is the usual "disgraced jockey redeems himself" folderol, told with speed if not freshness. Of special interest is the presence in the supporting cast of Dooley Wilson, who as we all know portrayed the legendary "Sam" in Casablanca (1942). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Blondie Knows Best was writer/director Edward Bernds' first entry in the long-running "Blondie" series, and arguably his funniest. The story contrives to have Dagwood Bumstead (Arthur Lake) pose as his boss Mr. Dithers (Jonathan Hale) so that a big business deal can be consummated while Dithers avoids nearsighted process server Jim Gray (Shemp Howard). The upshot of all this is that Dagwood ends up in a lunatic asylum, forcing Blondie (Penny Singleton) to come to the rescue. Ed Bernds was a big fan of comedian Shemp Howard (whom he'd directed in several Columbia 2-reelers) and accordingly he gives Shemp free reign in his scenes, resulting in some hystericially funny moments. Blondie Knows Best represented Jonathan Hale's farewell to the series; in the next entry, Blondie's Big Moment, he would be replaced by Jerome Cowan as Mr. Radcliffe. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Just when it didn't seem possible that Columbia had any room left for another B-picture series, along came The Adventures of Rusty. The title character is a German police dog, trained to be a vicious killer. Lonlely little Danny Mitchell (Ted Donaldson) believes that there's still some kindness left in Rusty, and tries to retrain the dog. In a parallel development, Danny's new stepmother (Margaret Lindsay) attempts to befriend the sullen youngster. The part of Rusty is played by Ace the Wonder Dog, who made the rounds of the B-picture mills throughout the late 1940s. The Adventures of Rusty proved popular enough to warrant several sequels. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In his final starring film, bandleader Kay Kyser is cast as bandleader Kay Kyser. Picking up where Kyser's previous RKO Radio film Around the World left off, Columbia's Carolina Blues finds Kay and his band returning to America after a worldwide USO tour. Phineas J. Carver (Victor Moore), the woebegone "black sheep"scion of a powerful family of industrialists, poses as one of his wealthier relatives to persuade Kyser to perform at a defense plant. When Kyser's regular vocalist Georgia Carroll quits the band to get married, Carver's talented daughter Julie (Ann Miller) steps in as replacement. Naturally, Julie is a hit, and equally naturally, she lands Kyser as a husband. Outside of the expected musical numbers (which, in addtion to Kyser's aggregation, feature such artists as The Step Brothers and the Nicholas Brothers) Carolina Blues is highlighted by the bravura performance of Victor Moore, who essays five roles in all. Ironically, singer Georgia Carroll did retire from show business in real life to get married-to Kay Kyser! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this musical comedy, a vaudevillian father, wanting a better life for his son, fires the youth from their act. The deeply angry young man's devoted and creative gal, a hat-check girl, helps him land a job with a big band. But despite his resulting success, he remains estranged from his heart-broken father, until the girl friend uses her creative writing skills to effect a reunion. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi