Hey_Sweden

Mickey Rooney delivers a creditable dramatic performance in this solid little crime drama from screenwriter Blake Edwards and director Richard Quine. Rooney plays Eddie Shannon, an unassuming garage mechanic and competitive racer in his spare time. He develops an intense interest in lovely customer Barbara Mathews (Dianne Foster), and then gets recruited by criminals Steve Norris (Kevin McCarthy) and Harold Baker (Jack Kelly) to be the getaway driver for a bank robbery; his driving skills will be put to a big test.

Films like this prove that Rooney's dramatic abilities *can* be under-valued; he is truly sympathetic as the poor sap drawn in by his love for this femme fatale. (However, Barbara is not as "fatale" as some of them; she has an actual conscience, and feels genuinely bad about stringing him along.). Quine directs the film with an admirable amount of restraint & subtlety, as well as quiet menace, although of course it *is* given more energy during its stunt driving sequences.

Well shot, by Charles Lawton Jr., and deliberately paced, this tells an entertaining and very character-"driven" story. Edwards may be best known for his contributions to comedy, but efforts like this as well as his directorial outings like "Experiment in Terror" and "The Carey Treatment" show that he could take himself seriously just as capably.

Seven out of 10.

Based on a Saturday Evening Post novel by Ernest Haycox, "Canyon Passage" is a solid, engrossing Technicolor Western with a generous array of interesting characters. The story is set in mid-19th century Oregon, where successful businessman Logan Stuart (Dana Andrews), a fairly restless type, is romantically interested in *two* gorgeous women (played by Susan Hayward and Patricia Roc). He buys trouble for himself when he decides to help out old friend George Camrose (Brian Donlevy), whose gambling fever has gotten him into a big mess.

Directed with flair by Jacques Tourneur ("Cat People", "Out of the Past"), this is good entertainment that benefits greatly from a lot of engaging characters and a cast stacked with familiar faces: Hoagy Carmichael (who also pleasantly sings a few songs), Fay Holden, Stanley Ridges, Lloyd Bridges, Andy Devine (whose real-life kids play his characters' children), Rose Hobart, Halliwell Hobbes, Onslow Stevens, etc. Ward Bond steals every scene he's in as trouble-making local Honey Bragg.

Part of the story involves tensions with the local Indians, who have to watch as their territory is steadily being taken from them. Things come to a head once Bragg does something despicable enough to incur their wrath.

Both the music & the color photography are beautiful in a likeable (if undeniably brutal at times) little Western that has become somewhat forgotten over the decades.

Seven out of 10.

The title object is launched into space, only to come crashing back down to Earth somewhere in the Antarctic Ocean. Jameson tasks Peter and another Daily Bugle employee, Penny Jones, with flying down there and getting the scoop first.

Well, the Daily Bugle plane crashes itself, on an uncharted island where various cavemen and various silly monsters exist. The cavemen find the nose cone, and abduct Penny, intending to throw both into an active volcano to appease their gods!

Neptunes' Nose Cone is typical engaging, colorful Spider-Man nonsense with Peter / Spidey facing almost constant challenges & peril. Of course, there are some things that the viewer can just laugh at, such as the cavemen leaders' perfect English. Best of all is when Spidey enters an enormous cavern stocked with idols and some of those creatures. Another of my favorite bits shows Peter getting visibly angry with Jameson. And the ending is hilarious!

Although I don't take the series at all seriously nowadays, you can bet that when I was a kid I found some of this stuff plenty spooky.

Seven out of 10.