Reviews

One of the best Corman/Price Poe films. A man arrives at an old,deteriorating mansion to visit his fiance, but her odd brother tries to run him off. The man finally gets inside and sees his betrothed, but it's obvious something is going on. Everyone and everything in the house seems ill and dying, but her brother seems willing to do whatever it takes to keep his sister from leaving the ancestral family home.

Many of the themes (and actors and actual footage) are reused by Corman in subsequent Price films, but this is one of the best. Good acting, good cast, good story (albeit unfaithful to the Poe story,) very suspenseful and creepy. 4.5 stars

A crackpot bee expert who becomes obsessed with experimenting with wasps in an attempt to create a serum that stops and even reverses the aging process of meets the aging head of an ailing cosmetics company. That's when things get interesting.

The film is pretty good, a good story with a moral lesson, very good acting, some suspense, and you get 2 prime Corman actresses, Susan Cabot AND Barboura Morris PLUS the stunningly gorgeous Lynn Cartwright! But... as is often the case, a pathetic "monster." But overall, a great flick.

Classic Corman tactic of combining genres. Here we have his nautical horror (sharks,) his on-the-run-from-Johnny-Law (a man who accidentally killed another man,) and sexploitation (girls stuck on a Hawaiian isle with no men.)

Neither the story nor the acting were all that great. The setting was beautiful, and Corman always seemed to do great underwater shooting despite the tight budget and given the technology of the day. The girls were ok, there was a little suspense. Overall, probably one of my least favorite Corman films.

Great film with a cartoonish depiction of beatniks and narcs where sometimes the narcs were more plentiful than the actual patrons of the coffee houses they staked out. Dick Miller is fantastic as the lowly server who dreams of being an artist and impressing his dream girl, similar in concept to Little Shop of Horrors. Barboura Morris is great, and a highlight is Julian Burton who plays a beat poet reminiscent of a Will Ferrell character.

A small troop of U.S. soldiers on skis (was that a thing?) in WWII Germany come across Axis activity & sort of stalk them & devise a plan to blow a bridge to stop the advance. They end up battling a small group of Germans on skis who are trying to stop the Americans from stopping the Germans.

Corman's first attempt at a war movie I believe. Not bad, actually a lot of elements and scenes that are reminiscent of Saving Pvt. Ryan. Not saying that they were originally Corman's ideas, but definitely similar.

Good character sketches and some development. Reasonably good acting and action.

"Every man holds to the old laws the safe way. Each waits for another to dare. No one wants to take the risks that a better life demands. Every woman points to a man other than her own to do the dying. So the ages past, and the clan remains huddled in the same place. There is no more to say. It is the time to act."

A typical tale of a teenage boy questioning authority and its traditions & superstitions. Only this teen is a caveman, er caveboy? Anyway, it's actually a great story that challenges us to question all that we've been told to blindly accept. It also goes far deeper in pointing some of the cultural, political, & religious ills of modern society. Definitely worth watching. And don't worry, they speak perfectly good English without a bunch of distracting grunts & pronoun misuse.

Robert Vaughn plays the teen coming of age in the film on his way to becoming a man... (of UNCLE? Haha) Anyway, Vaughn does a great job, but the rest of the acting is mediocre at best. But there's a great dinosaur fight scene. I don't know if they were actual lizards fighting or what, but it was one of the best scenes in the movie.

Machine-Gun Kelly & his boys, along with his girl Flo, are becoming successful at knocking over banks, but distrust among the ranks leads to double crossing & murder. In addition, Kelly has a particular fear of death that causes him difficulty in performing his jobs to the best of his ability. So soon Kelly scales down his crew & turns to kidnapping.

Charles Bronson, in his first leading role, stands out as a tough lead with secret vulnerabilities, and Susan Cabot is sharp, mouthy, & predictably gorgeous as his girlfriend. The story is good, as you piece together Kelly's persona and his relationship with Flo.

One scientist & a handful of his associates are determined to launch a manned satellite into space. But his plan & the program supporting it is met with much resistance both is space and on Earth. The financial backers in the United Nations are resistant to continue funding the program because 10 manned satellites have all been destroyed by some cosmic force. All lives & money wasted. A message from the aliens informs the UN that the Earth is under quarantine to keep humans from "infecting" the rest of the universe by entering space.

Since the doctor doesn't take the hint, he decides to personally man one last attempt at establishing a manned satellite in space. So the aliens must find more creative ways to deter the human infestation of space.

The story & the acting are mediocre, although Dick Miller is predictably great as his the always stunning Susan Cabot. It was occasionally suspenseful but also occasionally annoying due to the less than stellar space scenes.

Growing up around the mob, Joe turns to the syndicate early in life & quickly gains respect, jobs, & a great deal of money. And despite his mother's & his girlfriend's attempts to persuade him to stay out of organized crime, he works his way up the ladder to the top. But there's bound to be some competition to head the syndicate. Who can you trust?

This is a great early mob film with very good acting, a great story with a beautiful love story built in featuring the stunning Lita Milan. Not terribly suspenseful, but overall a good flick.

A group of warrior women set sail to track down their men who have disappeared on an expedition. They survive an attack by a sea serpent only to be enslaved by barbarians on a distant Island where their men may have also landed. Typical misogyny & sexploitation ensues.

Not a great story, not great acting, not terribly engaging.

A brutally honest loudmouth with a bad case of little man syndrome happens into a troubled bar, run by a troubled bartender, & filled with a host of troubled customers from various walks of life & gives each of them a reality check.

That Guy Dick Miller is brilliant as wisecracking Shorty, Abby Dalton was lovely as the shy songstress Julie, & the comic relief of Al the bartender was fantastic. The one weak point was the hipster band manager's ridiculous lingo ("If I ain't straight, it means I ain't with it; & tonight, baby, I'm with it.") But as usual, She called it as I saw it leaving me satisfied at the end. A funny, fun, & fascinating look at people's inner beings.

Great film! Great rockabilly, funny dialogue.

A man returns from Nepal with the belief that he can, through hypnosis, cause a person to journey back through their past lives & relive them, possibly altering their own future existence. The subject of his experiment, a present-day prostitute, was accused of witchcraft in a previous life, & she is forced to relive the night before her scheduled execution.

Mediocre acting due to choice of using Old English, but a great storyline that causes the viewer to struggle with an intriguing moral dilemma. Beverly Garland is lovely, the female undead dance sequence is hot, & I loved the comic relief by the super sexy Charleston, WV-native & future 50-foot-woman Allison Hayes and her imp ("We witches each have one, you know?") played by the legendary Billy Barty.

A group of scientists & the like are assembled to investigate the disappearance of another group like them who were sent to an island to study the effects of radioactive fallout from one of the first big H-bomb tests. Unfortunately for the crew, one of the effects was creating a giant crab monster (not a spoiler, it's basically the name of the film.) But one of the real mysteries is what happens to those who are attacked by the monster, which by the way is pretty well done in comparison to other early Corman creatures.

Fair acting, Pamela Duncan is lovely but seems to have to cook for the others due to being the only female & despite being a doctor. And yes, that's Russell Johnson, Gilligan's Island's Professor who predictably expresses interest in the girl & spends most of his time being unable to repair the radio to issue a distress signal. Talk about being typecast.

An alien visitor come to Earth in search of a new home & blood that can be used to sustain his dying race on his home planet. He begins by taking the blood of humans & having transfusions to replace his own & checking out the atmosphere to determine if it would make his people a good home. He presumably dupes a doctor, a nurse, & an ex-con into helping him, but his odd demeanor & behaviors raise suspicion.

Decent horror/suspense. Good performances by the cast, especially from the beautiful Beverly Garland & Jonathan Haze who would later play Seymour in Corman's Little Shop of Horrors. Especially engaging is the use of vulnerability in the aliens, something that isn't often explored in big budget films. Especially unengaging are the typically cringe-y Corman creatures.

Good Sci-Fi story, great acting (for a Roger Corman film, standouts include veteran Western actor Lee Van Kleef, Corman staple Beverly Garland, & Peter "You ever seen a grown man naked?" Graves) great message, some suspense, but a pitiful "monster".

One man on Earth becomes the contact with a Venusian traveler who seeks to control Earth and all her inhabitants. The ultimate game of "you are either with us or against us." Carries an important message about humanity that is actually quite spiritual. Better than your average B-movie other than the ridiculous creature.

Aka Swamp Diamonds or Cruel Swamp

Ok story, acting, and suspense. Bad fight scenes due to actors performing their own stunts.

A female police officer goes undercover to help a gang of female jewel thieves escape and recover the diamonds they stole. Along the way, they kidnap an oil prospector played by Touch Connors (awesome name alert!) and his girlfriend. It's a treacherous journey through the swamps and jungles of the bayou, and these women haven't seen a man in quite some time. Trouble ensues. Corman's first real foray into sexploitation.

When a carnival club owner falls in love with his star attraction, he finds it difficult to accept her disinterest in him as well as her interest in a gambling suitor. But what is he willing to do to win her love, and will it be worth the gamble?

Fair acting, story, & suspense. The highlights are some great rockabilly performances & the lovely Susan Cabot.

Good story, great bookends. Reasonably good acting and suspense.

Following a nuclear explosion, 7 survivors struggle to live on provisions for 3. Differing views of survival of the fittest & survival of mankind clash. Lori Nelson is gorgeous, & Paul Birch is great as her father & the group's leader.

Ok story, good acting mostly, not terribly engaging.

A collection of murderers and malcontents is assembled by the Confederacy in a desperate attempt to rob a stagecoach to help fund their final war efforts. The members of the band are predictably uncooperative and untrusting. Trouble ensues.

"She does, but he don't seem like the Jag type."

Great dialogue. Great love story. Good acting. Dorothy Malone is witty and strong. John Ireland, who also directed the film, is rough and tough. Good plot, good action, decent suspense.

A man escapes from prison after being accused of murder. He abducts a woman with a fast car that is entered in a race into Mexico. Is he a murderer or an honorable man? Either way, she attempts to persuade him to turn himself in and face the consequences of his actions.

Ok story and acting. Some suspense. Terribly campy monster.

Legend has it a sea creature in the Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean comes out by the light of a full moon to feed until he is appeased by the sacrifice of the fairest maiden. Unfortunately for our star, she is a blond American and fits the bill perfectly. Her persistence at proving the existence of the mysterious creature, however, sets her up to fulfill what natives may view as her destiny. Meanwhile her marine biologist lover who does not believe in the creature discovers that nuclear testing in the area may actually have created such a monster.

A great story by U.S. Anderse and the legendary Roger Corman! Great plot, good acting & suspense. Wanda Hendrix was lovely & Joan Bennett was her fantastically snooty self.

A returning Korean War vet ends up on the run from Johnny Law after being accused of murdering a woman in Vegas, and his alibi cannot be reached. He is picked up hitchhiking by two women, one of whom actually benefits from the murder. This movie certainly has more twists and turns than the desert roads on which it was filmed.