How To Murder A Rich Uncle - 1957 - UK

How To Murder A Rich Uncle - 1957 - 6/10 

 
Henry has done his best, but repairs and Inland Revenue have decimated the family fortunes.
Salvation may be coming in the form of his Uncle George, family blacksheep.
Who decamped ages earlier to American, bought worthless land, that had oil underneath!
Now George wants to return, and Henry ponders an inheritance.
Especially if something untoward were to happen to dear old uncle.
Oh, the best laid plans of mice and Englishmen.
Mischievous black comedy of traps and murder, and Fate laughing up her sleeve.

Man On The Prowl - 1957 - USA

Man On The Prowl - 1957 - 6/10

 
Doug’s mom wasn’t the best.  Maybe the best drunk.
Worse, she was lazy.  Maybe why she sent him to a mental institution as a child.
Couldn’t be bothered.  Wasn’t her fault Doug turned out the way he did.
Understand, he liked the ladies well enough.
Until they said “No”.  Or, “I’m not that kind of girl.”
Refusing him, reminding him of Mom.  Reason enough to kill.
Then – look for another.  There were plenty of girls.
Cheapie B-Noir of a serial killer.
Actors are all pretty good, but this is James Best’s film, as the smiling, agreeable headcase.

Account Rendered - 1957 - UK

Account Rendered - 1957 - 6/10

 
Money is a for spending, darling.  What use is it in a bank account?
So declares Lucille, who spends, flirts, cheats, coerces, and winds up dead.
Police have a surplus of suspects, including husband Robert and friend Sarah.
At less than an hour, this has no character development, just a brisk pace.
Suspects, motives, false trails and red herrings.
Solid B-film mystery.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3369085

She Played With Fire - 1957 - UK

She Played With Fire - 1957 - 6/10  
AKA - Fortune Is A Woman

 
Fortunately, the family caught the fire in time.
Only a section of the hall and an expensive painting were burned.
For insurance adjuster, Oliver, a routine accident.
Save for running into an old flame, Sarah, now wed to the rich owner.
Oliver is soon torn between temptation and his instinct for fraud.
Good Brit-Noir bolstered with Gothic lighting and eerie dream sequences.
Well-plotted, rarely steering into assumed directions.

Plan 9 From Outer Space - 1957 - USA

Plan 9 From Outer Space - 1957 - 4/10

 
What an enjoyable disaster.
Aliens revive the recent dead to show stupid, stupid Earthlings who’s going to call the shots.
Mind you, they reckon not with hot-tempered fists.
Cheap sets, inept SFX, poor dialogue, bad acting, mindless editing, no narrative.
I rewatch periodically with fondness, as I realize this was a game attempt by one with limited talent.
Hardly the worst film, in that it is never boring.  Confused, yes.
Give me a bad film with heart over formula dreck any day of the week.

Appointment With A Shadow - 1957 - USA

Appointment With A Shadow - 1957 - 6/10

 
Journalist Baxter is a washed up lush.
As seen above, never saw a bottle that didn’t call his name.
Then he’s given an exclusive: a notorious fugitive is to be arrested.
Baxter will be the sole journalist;  the scoop could land him work again.
If he can only stay sober long enough.
Middling Noir, awash with alcohol, makes for difficult viewing the first half.
Second half gets down to crime business and is worth waiting for.

Your Past Is Showing - 1957 - UK

Your Past Is Showing - 1957 - 6/10

 
He publishes a monthly tabloid, you see?
Nothing but dirt and the juicy stuff.
Unless the “profiles” pay £10,000 to quash the issue.
Oh, please, don’t call it blackmail.  That’s so … squalid.
Terry Thomas, Peter Sellers, Peggy Mount, Shirley Eaton.
Broad comedy gathers momentum until it bores full throttle into screwball,
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3359854

The Incredible Shrinking Man - 1957 - USA

The Incredible Shrinking Man - 1957 - 7/10  

 
Out fishing, Scott encounters a thick fog, probably radioactive.
In time, he begins to shrink.  There is no cure, and no foretelling how much he will diminish.
One can watch this for the terror angles, and some of the encounters are life and death.
Then there is the existential horror of losing your identity, recalibrating, then losing more identity.
This plays out with his wife Louise, and later a carnival worker, Clarice.
Boys will relish the battles, men will grasp the loss of stature (masculinity).
Women may possibly say, “Oh, look at the cute cat!”

Curse Of The Aztec Mummy - 1957 - Mexico

Curse Of The Aztec Mummy - 1957 - 5/10
AKA - La Maldición de la Momia Azteca

 
Sequel to the Aztec Mummy incorporates flashbacks, plucky boy, and Angel, masked hero.
Can you say luchador?  Well, there are no arena bouts, and in fact, El Ángel gets his ass kicked,
No matter, the Bat and his resourceful gang are going to get that Aztec loot!
And how about that mummy?  Of course it’s there.
Utterly predictable, with long patches of tedium.
Wait!  Another sequel?  Yes, producers filmed the trilogy back to back to back.

The Aztec Mummy - 1957 - Mexico

The Aztec Mummy - 1957 - 6/10
AKA - La Momia Azteca

 
Professor Almada explains to reporters, and the world (and underworld boss, The Bat).
About hypnotic regression, pushing subjects back to a previous life.  Reincarnation.
Scoffers pounce.  For proof, Almada regresses his fiancé Flor.
Turns out, she was an Aztec priestess, with knowledge of hidden treasure!
“Treasure?  Did someone say treasure?”  and master criminal Bat swings into action.
Routine adventure saga perks up considerably with all the Aztec story.
Costumes, drums, pyramids, doomed lovers.
Sequel follows.

Beginning Of The End - 1957 - USA

Beginning Of The End - 1957 - 4/10

 
Saints preserve us!  It’s a humongous grasshopper!  And it has the munchies!
Do-gooder scientists try to ease world hunger, not by stemming population growth, but by making veggies bigger.
How?  Radiation, folks!  Yep, carrots the size of a truck, and radioactive!  How cool is that?
Hold on, locusts have chowed down on radioactive grain and are now gigantic.
Had the same happened to humans … the possibilities for porn boggle.
As boys, my brother and I heckled this mercilessly. “Get Raid!  Big can of Raid!”
The US military’s solution was even more asinine, but I won’t spoil for you curiosity hounds.
Dreadfully bad film, although it has its admirers.

Lust Of The Vampire - 1957 - Italy

Lust Of The Vampire - 1957 - 6/10
AKA - I Vampiri

 
Not what you would anticipate.
Young women are being found in Paris drained of blood and the press dubs the killer.
As the camera tracks showgirls and college debs, you see the targets.
There is an inquiring journalist, a young duchess who flirts with him, and the besieged police.
Not to overlook the stately manor, a Gothic overload better suited to the house of Dracula.
A young Mario Bava is the DP, who makes full use of shadows, cellars, tunnels, and subliminal gems.

 

 

Despite Bava, despite the vampire, despite the gloomy trappings, this is closer to a Krimi.
And this is a lot ongoing.  Mad scientist, grasping aristocrat, kidnappings, murders, even a kitten!

She Devil - 1957 - USA

She Devil - 1957 - 5/10

You do love me, don’t you Dan?
Yes, I have killed a couple of people, but so what.
I want what I want, and that includes you.

 
Kyra had been near death, incurable, until the doctors tried an experimental, insect based serum on her.
Now, she heals immediately, even from fatal accidents.
Worse, she has lost her humanity, empathy, and is moving up the predator food chain.
Straight instead of campy.  Not enough SciFi, nor enough Horror, not enough murders!
Mari Blanchard a real force as the driven fatale, while menfolk are roadkill.

Funny Face - 1957 - USA

Funny Face - 1957 - 7/10

 
The fashion magazine arrives in a trendy bookshop (Greenwich Village).
Models amidst “intellect” (books).  Recall Playmates wanting to be engineers or rocket scientists.
Afterward, the photographer stays behind to assist employee Jo repair the shambles.
Sparks generate, then a song, then off to fashion center of the world – Paris.
Gershwin numbers, dancing by a superlative Audrey Hepburn, amidst haute couture.
Splashy Hollywood romance is an enjoyable spectacle.
If – IF – you can overlook the Fred Astaire / Audrey Hepburn age discrepancy.

Invasion Of The Saucer Men - 1957 - USA

Invasion Of The Saucer Men - 1957 - 3/10

 
Horny teenagers run over an extraterrestrial out in the backwoods.
While they go to alert the cops, a cheap chiseler arrives and opts to exploit the corpse.
Except more aliens arrive and snuff him.
SciFi / Horror / Comedy mix is barely watchable. (One of my brother’s faves, I have suffered it often.)
Cheap sets, ridiculous big-headed aliens, and can-do teenagers.
Spare yourself.

El Vampiro - 1957 - Mexico

El Vampiro - 1957 - 6/10

 
Marta arrives at the hacienda of her aunts and uncle.
It is near ruins, dust, cobwebs, seeping fog.
Most villagers and servants have fled following a series of inexplicable deaths.
Only the newcomer, the caped count chooses to remain.  Indeed, he want to buy the property.
Outstanding Mexican horror boasts great photography, great sets, a fine score.
Restrained direction helps, too.
Those who pine for the Golden Age of Universal horror, this is a wonderful homage.

The Tattered Dress - 1957 - USA

The Tattered Dress - 1957 - 6/10

 
Blonde bait, Charleen, is having a fling with the hamlet’s ex-football star.
After a night of rough play, she and her husband screech into town and shoot the man down.
Middle of the street, witnesses, cold blood.
They are rich enough to afford an expensive, hotshot New York defense counselor.
Who takes the case, does well, but underestimates the town hicks.
Solid desert Noir has the makings of a classic.
Except it spends waaaaay too much time in the courtroom.
Philip Reed and Elaine Stewart (the rich swells) underutilized.
Two conflicting narratives, and the courtroom won out.  Too bad.
My copy had a dull commentary by a pedantic academic.

From Hell It Came - 1957 - USA

From Hell It Came - 1957 - 4/10

 
No, not one of your in-laws.
Kimo is accused of murdering his father, king of the island.
He vows revenge on the true evildoers, before he is killed, then stuffed into a tree trunk.
Is Kimo dead?  Hold on, friend.  This South Seas island has been receiving radioactive fallout.
You guessed it.  The tree trunk starts shuffling forth, seeking revenge.
El cheapo jungle horror is laughably bad.
A killer tree stump.  Really?  Who ponied up the cash for this one?

The Monolith Monsters - 1957 - USA

The Monolith Monsters - 1957 - 6/10

 
Meteorite fragments smash into the desert – then the pieces start to grow!
Doom disaster of towering rocks?  Toppling into chunks, then growing again.
Half intelligent SciFi replaces alien malevolence with something closer to a plague.
Luckily, the small town has a scientist who attempts to stop the rocks.
Add a thoughtful, no-nonsense sheriff, and desert temps that don’t appear to be 120°.
Once a mainstay of late nite Chiller theater, this is still  better than any teen monster flick.

The Big Boodle - 1957 - USA

The Big Boodle - 1957 - 6/10

 
Ned, Havana blackjack dealer, is passed a fistful of counterfeit bills.
Next, everyone is after his hide: Cuban police, criminals, T-men, the original counterfeiters.  Ladies.
Yes, there are females.  This is an Errol Flynn vehicle.  No longer a star, he still exudes grace and charm.
Noirish story moves along.  Local cast is fine, Flynn solid as the borderline soul.
Real attraction here is the Batista era Cuba.  Paradise for the rich.
Time capsule of a place that would shatter within a year.