Richard Denning Movies

It's silliness on the high seas as two sneaky sailors race across the South Pacific in this fast-paced and campy comedy. The fun begins when one bets the other $20,000 that he, with an all girl crew, be the first to Tahiti in a sailboat race. The other, not to be outdone, has a few monkeyshines up his sleeve and actually wins the race. The beaten bettor then makes the claim, that he can beat the victor to the mainland using a crew comprised of baboons. That is too much to resist for the other and the race is on. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This three part horror story is taken from the writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Vincent Price stars in all three tales starting with Dr. Heidegger's Experiment". Heidegger (Sebastian Cabot) attempts to restore the youth of four elderly friends. In a ghastly and ghoulish scene, a bride in her wedding gown returns to life after being dead for forty years. Although her spirit is alive, her body is ravaged by forty years of grave rot. "Rappaccini's Daughter" finds Price as a demented, overprotective father inoculating his daughter with poison so she may never leave her garden of poisonous plants. Part three, "The House of the Seven Gables" has Beverly Garland, Richard Denning, and Jacqueline de Wit accompanying Price, who retains his horror hero status that alternates between villain and victim. The characters portrayed by Price are a natural continuation of the Edgar Allen Poe stories produced by Roger Cormam. Sidney Sallow directed this feature in which the cinematic apple falls far from the literary tree. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This melodrama tells the tale of a great battle between the French Foreign Legion and the rebellious Arab tribe, the Tuaregs, who fight it out upon the blistering Sahara sands. Just before the Legionnaires embark upon their dangerous mission, the commander discovers that he is being cuckolded by his lieutenant. Because the mission is urgent, there is no time to fight over the commander's wife. Unfortunately, as they travel, the tension between the two mounts and they begin squabbling over how to plan the attack. Their inability to work together results in tragedy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Filmed in Mexico, The Black Scorpion was the last theatrical feature to bear the imprimatur of special-effects maven Willis O'Brien. Allegedly an outgrowth of a ten-minute "test" film, the story is set in motion by a volcanic eruption which releases dozens of giant scorpions from a cave. American geologist Richard Denning and his cohorts try to drive the scorpions back into their lair, but the huge arachnids are soon at large in civilization, munching on innocent bystanders as they go their merry way. The authorities are able to destroy all but one scorpion, who unfortunately is the nastiest of the bunch. The climax takes place in a Mexico City bullring, where the scorpion does battle with a fleet of military helicopters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The British Assignment Redhead stars Hollywood's Richard Denning as a devil-may-care secret agent. The blonde Denning is, of course, not the redhead of the title: that honor goes to luscious nightclub vocalist Carole Mathews. The girl is up to her pretty neck in intrigue, thanks to a $12 million robbery masterminded by chameleon-like criminal Ronald Adam. When she has the chance to ice Denning, Carole refuses to do so, throwing her lot with him to foil the villains. Based on a novel by Al Bocca, Assignment Redhead was released in the US (in a radically chopped-up version) as Million Dollar Manhunt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An Affair to Remember, director Leo McCarey's scene-for-scene remake of his own 1939 film Love Affair, isn't really an improvement on the original, but it's equally as enjoyable. Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, high-profile types both engaged to be married to other people, meet and fall in love during an ocean voyage. To test the depth of their commitment to each other, Grant and Kerr promise that, if they're still in love at the end of six months, they will meet again at the top of the Empire State Building. Clips from An Affair to Remember were used as "reference points" throughout the 1993 romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle, which likewise concluded atop the Empire State Building. Disproving the theory that "Third Time's the Charm," Warren Beatty attempted to remake Affair to Remember, again titled Love Affair, in 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Day the World Ended was filmmaker Roger Corman's modest entree into the realm of science fiction. The film begins at "The End"--or rather, the years following an all-out atomic war. A group of survivors find refuge in a well-protected valley owned by Maddison (Paul Birch) and his daughter Louise (Lori Nelson). Conflicts of a romantic nature erupt among Louise and her two erstwhile suitors, gun-wielding Tony (Touch--later Mike--Connors) and geologist Rick (Richard Denning), but these are shunted aside when it develops that the valley is infested with mutated, radioactive animals. Before long, a few similarly mutated human beings begin wandering into view (one of these is played by Jonathan Haze, the future star of Corman's Little Shop of Horrors). Carefully staying within its limited budget, The Day the World Ended is a well-crafted, thought-provoking apocalyptic fable. The film was inadequately remade in 1966 as Year 2889. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Gun That Won the West was, of course, the Springfield Rifle, the "central character" in this inexpensive Columbia western. The plot concerns the efforts of the War Department to build up a chain of defense posts to protect railroad workers from Indian attacks. Dennis Morgan stars as real-life frontier scout Jim Bridger, who guides the Army through Sioux Territory. Though Bridger is a friend of Sioux chief Red Cloud (Robert Bice), there's no telling what might happen should the railroad men be left at the mercy of Red Cloud's duplicitous second-in-command, an Indian brave known as Afraid-of-Horses (Michael Morgan). With the aid of the newly developed Springfield, Bridger and his cohort Jack Gaines (Richard Denning) are able to keep the peace. In the tradition of previous Sam Katzman productions, a goodly portion of The Gun That Won the West is comprised of stock footage from previous westerns. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, an American soldier finds himself by two private eyes hired by the wealthy German father of the man he wrongly killed eight years ago. The female detective begins working at the killer's drive-in; eventually she seduces him into marrying her. At that point the other private eye appears claiming to be her estranged brother. He gets the couple interested in a scheme whereby they all might split $200,000 in Berlin. The killer goes for the ruse, returns to Germany and finds himself prosecuted for the murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A gangster is killed by a big man who pays no attention to bullets, and who leaves glowing fingerprints. Police scientist Chet Walker (Richard Denning) discovers that the fingerprints are radioactive -- as well as those of a dead man. We soon learn that this walking corpse was created by Dr. Wilhelm Steigg (Gregory Gaye); he's allowing secretly-returned deported gangster Buchanan (Michael Granger) to get revenge on those who were responsible for his conviction. Steigg removes part of the brains of recently-dead men, and replaces them with a device that allows them to control the body from a distance, like a robot; they can even see through the creature's eyes via television. Another atomic zombie kills the district attorney who convicted Buchanan, which leads Chet and his homicide detective friend Dave Harris (S. John Launer) to deduce that the killings are connected to the Buchanan case. Warnings are issued to other possible targets, but they're unable to prevent another death. The last two go into hiding. The movie concludes with a headline: "Creatures with the Atomic Brains Destroyed." This entertaining but cheesy little movie is completely unpretentious. Broad, surprisingly gruesome and well-paced, it's obviously aimed straight at the juvenile market -- and it hits it, too. A sterling artifact of its time: brisk, efficient and entertaining, even if it is awfully silly. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

Universal Pictures introduced audiences to yet another classic movie monster with this superbly crafted film, originally presented in 3-D. The story involves the members of a fossil-hunting expedition down a dark tributary of the mist-shrouded Amazon, where they enter the domain of a prehistoric, amphibious "Gill Man" -- possibly the last of a species of fanged, clawed humanoids who may have evolved entirely underwater. Tranquilized, captured, and brought aboard, the creature still manages to revive and escape -- slaughtering several members of the team -- and abducts their sole female member (Julie Adams), spiriting her off to his mist-shrouded lair. This sparks the surviving crewmen to action -- particularly those who fancy carrying the girl off themselves. Director Jack Arnold makes excellent use of the tropical location, employing heavy mists and eerie jungle noises to create an atmosphere of nearly constant menace. The film's most effective element is certainly the monster itself, with his pulsating gills and fearsome webbed talons. The creature was played on land by stuntman Ben Chapman and underwater by champion swimmer Ricou Browning -- who was forced to hold his breath during long takes because the suit did not allow room for scuba gear. The end result was certainly worth the effort, proven in the famous scene where the Gill Man swims effortlessly beneath his female quarry in an eerie ballet -- a scene echoed much later by Steven Spielberg in the opening of Jaws. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Target Earth was adapted from Paul W. Fairman's short story Deadly City. Set in, of all places, Chicago, this sci-fier concentrates on four people who've congregated in the deserted city after a sudden and mysterious evacuation. The ill-matched foursome are Vicki Harris (Virginia Grey), a flashy, trashy blonde; Nora King (Kathleen Crowley), a young widow; Frank Brooks (Richard Denning), a handsome fellow with a questionable past; and Jim Wilson (Dick Reeves), a brutish transient. Though they don't get along at first, the four strangers are compelled to unite against a common enemy: an invading Venusian army, using huge robots to do their dirty work. Nothing spectacular, Target Earth works well within its modest limitations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide