Richard Carlson

  • Cy Endfield – Try and Get Me AKA The Sound of Fury (1950)

    Cy Endfield1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsCrimeFilm NoirUSA

    Todd Wiener writes:
    In 1947, novelist and B-movie screenwriter Jo Pagano published his third novel titled The Condemned. The novel was based upon the 1933 kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart in San Jose, California, and the subsequent lynching of two suspects by a hysterical mob fueled by a frenzied media. Considered the only public lynching covered with such media scrutiny, The New York Times stated the event “was an outburst characterized by hysteria and ribaldry.” Pagano would adapt his novel into the screenplay The Sound of Fury (Fritz Lang’s film Fury (1936) is based on the same shocking event).Read More »

  • Compton Bennett & Andrew Marton – King Solomon’s Mines (1950)

    Andrew Marton1941-1950ActionAdventureCompton BennettUSA

    Allan Quartermain leads an expedition into uncharted African territory in an effort to locate Elizabeth Curtis’ husband Henry, who was searching for King Solomon’s legendary treasure. Along the way they encounter a variety of wild animals including snakes, a leopard and a rhino. Quartermain isn’t keen on having a woman on the expedition and he and Elizabeth quarrel regularly. Elizabeth and her husband were not very fond of one another and her expedition is driven by her own guilt. She and Quatermain fall in love but survival becomes their goal when they meet dangerous tribesmen.Read More »

  • Jack Arnold – It Came from Outer Space (1953)

    1951-1960ClassicsJack ArnoldSci-FiUSA

    Quote:
    This thoughtful, prototypical film was Universals initial foray into science fiction during the 1950s. While technically not the first sci-fi movie to explore the theme of benevolent aliens threatened by the ignorant, knee-jerk hostility of humans, it more or less set the standard for those that followed. Most of the credit for this belongs to a story treatment by SF legend Ray Bradbury, the sure-handed direction of Jack Arnold (who would go on to helm most of Universal’s top drawer genre flicks of the decade), and a fine performance by lead Richard Carlson… It Came From Outer Space remains the real deal, a genuine genre classic. It’s easily one of the best science fiction films of the 1950s.Read More »

  • Richard Carlson – The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958)

    1951-1960Richard CarlsonUSAWestern

    Plot:
    Ex-army sergeant Jed Givens and his gang rob an army payroll shipment led by Lt. Hemp Brown. Givens kills a civilian woman and all the soldiers, leaving Brown alive to face a military tribunal in which he is branded a coward, stripped of all insignia and drummed out of the army. Brown sets out to track down Givens in an effort to clear his name.
    Meets and gets help from a showgirl (Beverly Garland) in tracking down the killer (John Larch).Read More »

  • Jack Arnold – Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

    1951-1960HorrorJack ArnoldSci-FiUSA

    A strange prehistoric beast lurks in the depths of the Amazonian jungle. A group of scientists try to capture the animal and bring it back to civilization for study.Read More »

  • Frank Lloyd – The Last Command (1955)

    1951-1960Frank LloydUSAWestern

    It’s 1834. Texas is being strangled by the tyrannical military rule of General Santa Anna (J. Carrol Naish, Canadian Pacific), Mexico’s power-mad president. When frontier hero Jim Bowie (Sterling Hayden, Naked Alibi) returns to his besieged homeland, he finds the embittered Texans plotting rebellion against his old friend Santa Anna. When Santa Anna’s cruel grip tightens around his fellow Texans, Bowie soon realizes he must side against the Mexican despot. Commanding a ragtag regiment of frontier fighters, Bowie prepares to make a final stand at the famed Fort Alamo against superior forces. Though they are all doomed to die, the outnumbered Texan defenders fight heroically for freedom in one of the fiercest and bloodiest battles in American history.Read More »

  • George Marshall – A Millionaire for Christy (1951)

    1951-1960ComedyGeorge MarshallRomanceScrewball ComedyUSA

    This hilarious screwball comedy gave Fred MacMurray a chance to show his brilliant comedic chops as Peter, a radio personality who is told he’s just inherited two million dollars by a gold-digging secretary (Eleanor Parker as Christy) who is determined to snag him for herself. Though he never quite believes she’s telling the truth about his inheritance, circumstances continue to bring Peter together with Christy, infuriating both his fiancée, June (Kay Buckley), and his pal, Dr. Cook (Richard Carlson), who secretly loves June himself. It’s not long before Christy and Dr. Cook join forces and cook up some shenanigans to help them win the lovers they want.Read More »

  • William Cameron Menzies – The Maze (1953)

    1951-1960HorrorSci-FiUSAWilliam Cameron Menzies

    Synopsis:
    The hero of The Maze turns out to be (-spoiler removed-), but that’s hardly the most unbelievable aspect of this one-of-a-kind melodrama. It all begins when Scotsman Gerald McTeam (Richard Carlson) is called away to his ancestral mansion just before his marriage to Kitty (Veronica Hurst). Several weeks pass before it dawns on Kitty and her aunt Mrs. Murray (Katherine Emery, who narrates the film) that Gerald may not be coming back. The two women head to the mansion, where Gerald refuses to see them. Read More »

  • Budd Boetticher – Behind Locked Doors (1948)

    1941-1950Budd BoetticherFilm NoirUSA

    Obscure Hollywood writes:
    Kathy Lawrence (Bremer), a reporter, has evidence that fugitive judge Finlay Drake (Hayes) is hiding in La Siesta Sanitarium. She hires private investigator Ross Stewart (Carlson) to pose as her mentally unbalanced husband and enter the sanitarium to search for Drake. Kathy gives Ross a picture of the judge. If he finds the fugitive, she will have an important story, and they can split the $10,000 reward offered for Drake’s capture.Read More »

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