Reviews (22)

GREAT FILM WITH A HOLLYWOOD ENDING
I call this a "Hollywood ending" not in the sense that it is a happy ening, but one which seems to be contrived to follow the production code of the day which stated that all wrongdoers must be brought to justice. Bette Davis, in one of her great performances, is killed off by Gale Sondergaard who herself is arrested by the police at the end. I really don't know if this ending is in the novel but it does not ring right with me. After all, Leslie Crosby was cleared of the crime and could have gone on living even with the torture memory of the lover she murdered in cold blood although I doubt if she would have remained faithful to wimpy Herbart Marshall for long. Gail Sondergaard, the dragon lady wife of the knocked off husband, just seems to be unable to get enough revenge. The 10 grand she got for selling the incriminating letter to Bette apparently was not enough to satisfy her. I especially liked the scene where Leslie tells her husband how much she still loves her vengefully slain adulterer.

Getting Away with Murder
Who else could get away with murder and still get the approval of the audience but Bette Davis? Based on Somerset Maugham's story, THE LETTER relates the murder of a rubber-plantation owner (Herbert Marshall) in Malaya by his wife (Bette Davis). It is interesting how Davis approaches this part. She gives a brilliant study of a cold yet proper woman who intoxicates her society friends and authorities through a pretense of female sexual virtue. She deliriously illustrates the passion of a woman who would kill a man for attempting to leave her and in doing so entices the audience on her behalf. Davis is so brilliant at conveying such a cold woman who my in effect really need the warmth and passion of a desperate soul, that even she may not realize her actions are a desperate attempt to realize her own desires. Is her behavior a pretense or not? This was very erotic stuff for its time. This film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards. Carl Jules Weyl's Art Designs combined with Tony Gaudio's Cinematography made a very provocative setting for the images. However the only fault I found with this film was Max Steiner's score. Max Steiner is one of my favorite film composers but I found his score too full of that heavy-handed Warner Bros. sound and not sensitive to the nature of the main character or the film.

seven well-deserved Oscar nominations
"The Letter" is a superb adapation of the Somerset Maugham tale set in Malaysia. Bette Davis is at the top of her form in her role as a deceitful, anguished wife caught up in an illicit love affair. Her pleasant, steady, unexciting husband, a rubber plantation manager, is played exceptionally well by Herbert Marshall. James Stephenson, in the role of her defense attorney, turns in an admirably understated yet vital performance.

William Wyler's masterful direction, employing exotic settings and mysterious minor characters, make this spellbinding tale of passion and murder a can't-miss for all Davis fans.

"The Letter" deserves the highest recommendation!

Exciting exotic thriller from the colonial age
Pistol shots bang through the starlit night in the malayan jungle and rubber planter Robert Crosbie (Herbert Marshall) is stupefied to learn that his own wife, Leslie Crosbie (Bette Davis) has bumped off his best friend, Jeff Hammond. "He tried to rape me, so I shot him" she tells her husband - and we know from the start that she is lying. Hammond's body is riddled with bullets, her magazine empty. Some shots were fired when he was already lying on the ground.

While her credulous husband coddles her, she gives her lawyer, Howard Joyce (James Stephenson) her version of the story - only interrupted by crocodile tears and a simulated fainting-fit. Joyce is really considerate: he even commends her on her courage. So good is her mood when she regales the police with a dinner that she is surprised to learn that she could face a murder charge. Robert, haggard from lack of sleep tries to convince himself that everything is O.K: "She shot the man like a rabid dog". But Hammond was so dashing, charming, a real ladies man - hard to believe that he was capable of such a thing...

Robert has every reason to be worried: Joyce is informed by his asian counsellor that a certain letter exists: written by Leslie on the last day of Hammond's life, inviting him to come and see her...This letter is in the hands of his eurasian widow (Gale Sondergaard) who runs a gambling house. Leslie's smiling self-confidence dissolves under Joyce's interrogation. She denies everything, she rages, but her lawyer is not dumb: "I dont't want to hear more from you than is necessary to save your head". He feels nothing but contempt for the woman who implores him to get her the letter, but he feels compassion for her husband. The price for the letter is 10.000 Pounds - the exact amount of Robert's bank deposit - and Mrs. Hammond made it a condition that she should bring the money personally. Leslie tries to hide behind a veil, but it doesn't help her: after letting her wait for nearly one hour in an opium-den, the widow demands to see her face - and throws the letter before her feet with disdain. A male jury acquits the virtuous lady of her indictment, but there is more trouble brewing: Her husband wants to leave for Sumatra, become independent and buy his own plantation. He does not realize that his money is gone...

This exciting thriller contains one of Bette Davis' most famous performances. Herbert Marshall is equally brilliant in the role of her gullible husband, especially in the final scenes. He must have been the most often cuckolded husband on screen: Greta Garbo deceived him in THE PAINTED VEIL, and Marlene Dietrich in BLONDE VENUS and the delightful, underrated ANGEL. Perhaps he was beyond help, because he did not learn from his faults: His next film was THE LITTLE FOXES where he played Bette's victim again.

Sondergaard looks spectacular, but is psychologically wrong: Men usually fall in love with little Miss Butterfly - not with the empress of China. Bette Davis was universally praised. A very intelligent actress, she was on the right track: She wears glasses, she concentrates on her embroidery with great patience - needle-work and sex-appeal don't exclude each other, but there must have been a reason why her lover became tired of her...I think that she lacked the boldness to steep herself completely in Leslie Crosbie's true character. This type of woman ("One is getting so lazy here, the boys do everything" she says) has survived until recently in South Africa: she has no goal, no funcion, and my guess is that she was growing fat...Leslie Crosbie was porridge - and Bette plays her like caviar! W. Somerset Maugham, like Agatha Christie, is very good to read to this day: They were not dishonest authors, just one-sided: they nurture a nostalgia for the "glorious" age of colonialism, which existed only for a small part of mankind.

A great deal
It is a real crime story. Only at the end of this story you experience what happened in this special night. It is hard to feel how this nice beautiful woman can be a murderer.I was surprised that a lawyer does such a great deal (with that letter) to save the life of his client who is guilty. At the end you are in doubt if it is a fair end or not. The book is interesting to read. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

The iceman cometh
THE HUNTERS is a good war movie saddled with a lame and unconvincing romantic subplot. Robert Mitchum plays Major Cleve Saville, a little long in the tooth fighter pilot newly arrived in Korea to lead a squadron of F-86 Sabre jets. While stationed in Tokyo awaiting assignment he meets weak little 1st Lieut. Carl Abbott (Lee Philips) and his cute little wife Kris (May Britt), as well as slang spewing rookie pilot Lieut. Ed Pell (Robert Wagner.)
As an action picture THE HUNTERS is incredibly entertaining, especially the filming of the jet dogfights. Unfortunately, there's a rather substantial romantic subplot involving a sour little triangle whose points are Carl and Kris and Cleve. Every romantic scene sucks the life right out of this movie. May Britt may be beautiful but her "affair" with Saville borders on the melodramatic and is pretty unconvincing. How often do you tell a married woman after your second platonic visit that you love her? The only reason for the romance is to establish tension between Saville and wing man Abbott, anyway.
Mitchum teamed with director Dick Powell a year earlier on THE ENEMY BELOW, one of the best WWII movies available. With that movie in mind, it's doubly disappointing to see him fall back on cliched characters, like the cocky rookie Ed Pell, and a trite and time consuming love story.
There's more to like than dislike in THE HUNTERS, but not nearly as much as I expected when I popped this dvd into the player. I liked this movie a bit less than I wanted to. Make sure to play both sides of this double-sided disk, as there are a different set of 'Special Features' on each side.

The Citizen Kane of modern air/space combat movies!
When I was 11 years old, I saw this movie when it was released. In its air combat sequences, The Hunters is the Citizen Kane of all modern air/space combat movies, as revolutionary for its time as Star Wars later was to be for its time. While prior air combat movies had been on the square screens, usually in B&W, The Hunters was filmed in state-of-the art CinemaScope (widescreen) and Technicolor. Its air combat sequences -- twisting jets on each other's tails soaring in mountainous clouds, then diving and roaring a treetop level through valleys -- were brilliantly conceived and breathtakingly executed -- unlike anything that had been seen before. They still hold up with the best ever filmed, although they've been copied so much (by movies such as Top Gun and Star Wars) that they no longer have the knock-your-socks-off novelty that they originally did. Unfortunately, the feel-good screenplay, with a distracting romantic subplot, bears no resemblance to the gritty, macho novel on which it was based. In James Salter's best-selling novel, the Robert Michum character, Cleve Saville, is a WWII veteran fighter jock who can't get a kill to save his soul, then has no witness when his first-and-only kill (before he himself dies) is the legendary enemy ace. Hence, The Hunters movie is really a first-rate action-hero fantasy set in wartime. (...)

Jet-Propelled Action !
"The Hunters" is a well-made, exciting Korean war drama, with the accent on aviation. It has an above-average plot for this type of film, and the whole movie, particularly the aerial sequences, is expertly directed by Dick Powell. If you are interested in combat aircraft, there are many scenes of F-86 Sabre Jets engaging MIGs in dogfight battles to the death.

While the planes are great to watch, this film is primarily about human beings caught up in war. It stars Robert Mitchum, and he is terrific--his fighter pilot character is a born leader, yet he also suspects there is something important missing in his life. He enters into a guilt-ridden relationship with the wife of another pilot, played by lovely May Britt. When there's a war on though, the feelings of two people aren't worth--as someone once said--"a hill of beans". Mr. Mitchum's main job is to lead a fighter squadron, and satisfy his boss on the ground--Richard Egan in a strong performance, knowing that every day he may be sending a man to his death.

Just to make things even more interesting for Mr. Mitchum, his squadron includes Ms. Britt's husband ( a paranoid, self-doubting Lee Philips ) and a cocky, young "hotshot" who doesn't like "rules" ( a young, excellent Robert Wagner ). It would be unfair to reveal more of the plot, but the film is consistently interesting and exciting.

The DVD is full screen on one side, and wide-screen on the other. The colour is very good for a 46-year old film. It does not have "surround sound", of course, unlike that 1986 aviation hit, "Top Gun"--then again, "Top Gun" didn't have Robert Mitchum ! Tom Cruise has a nice smile--but, for leadership and grit, I'd follow Robert Mitchum through the gates of hell !

Actually, I'll give "The Hunters" 4 1/2 stars. Action--suspense--romance--Sabre Jets--Robert Mitchum--what more do you want ? Thanks, Fox--a very nice disc !

The Hunters--Fighter Pilot's Attitude
The HUNTERS catches the atttitude of the Fighter Pilot Ace. Great performances by Robert Mitchum, the WWII veteran who won't fly a desk and Robert Wagner as the kid "hotshot" pilot.
Additionally great work by Richard Egan who is Mitchum's commander and flew with him in WWII. The scenes between Egan and Mitchum are the highlight of great acting in the movie. Perhaps Egan's best work ever.

Definitely an Ace
"The Hunters" (1958) and "The Enemy Below" (1957) are 2 war movies produced by Dick Powell for 20th Century Fox filmed in Cinemascope both with Robert Mitchum in the leading role.

Major Cleve Saville (Robert Mitchum), the squadron commander, is a famous ace and veteran fighter pilot of World War II. He is a career man whose world was his squadron and the men who flew with him. Lt. Pell (Robert Wagner), in the early part of the movie, is a reckless but eventually courageous young jet ace to whom Saville owe his life. Lt. Abbott (Lee Phillips) is the confused husband of Kris (May Britt) whom Saville falls in love with although their acknowledged desires are never to be fulfilled.

The picture is based on the novel "The Hunters" by James Salter who is himself a jet ace in the Korean conflict. In the late 50's long before the development of CGI technology, real fighter jets F-86 Sabrejet and F-84 Thunderjets (painted gray with a red star to simulate MIG-15) were flown in the aerial battle sequence which made it the more realistic than Pearl Harbor (2001).

I have kept like a treasure a copy of "The Hunters" VHS tape and it is pretty worn out by now from years of repeated viewings. Thank you Fox for putting it on DVD...46 years after its theatrical release. ... Read more

Description

An American merchant marine captain ferries a group of = Chinese refugess down the Yangtze River to escape the Communists. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Ferryboat to Hong Kong
"Blood Alley" is a big, sprawling, grandly mounted and sumptuously photographed adventure story starring John Wayne and Lauren Bacall that tells the tale of a merchant sea captain (Wayne) who has had his freighter stopped and boarded illegally in international waters by the Red Chinese, and who has been imprisoned by them for some time since. A village downriver from the prison where Wayne has been kept antes up a bribe to the prison guards and gets Wayne sprung. Taken downriver by his "contact", big Mike Mazurski made up to look oriental, Duke is informed that the entire village wants to escape to Hong Kong and they want him, Duke, to captain them all down the Formosa Straits ("Blood Alley") to Hong Kong and freedom...and they want this to be done on a leaky, creaky, pokey-slow and prone-to-breakdown stern-wheeled ferryboat. With no charts.
Wayne mulls this and decides he has no choice in the matter. He makes a homemade chart from memory and sets about to put the escape plan in motion, taking everyone with him, including the headstrong daughter (Bacall) of a medical missionary, and an entire family of loyal communists who can't be left behind because their masters would kill them as "responsible" for this flight.
Down the straits goes the ferry boat, dodging commie gunboats day and night and slipping into forests of reeds for camouflage when their pursuers draw too near.

The telling of the story of this journey is so well done that the viewer tends to be detoured away from the story's great glaring logical pothole. This escape is set in the mid-1950s and NOT the EIGHTEEN fifties. Decades earlier it COULD have happened the way it is shown, but NOT in its supposed time period. The reason? Airplanes. In the mid-1950s Communist Chinese forces would have aircraft up and down the Formosa Straits LOOKING for this ferry and they WOULD find it. Yet there is never a mention of aircraft here and no aircraft ever shows up anywhere in the movie. Its almost as though there is no such thing as a search plane in existance...or any kind of plane at all!!!

Very Strange. Yet, it is only later that you realize this. Throughout the film the movie-makers keep you so involved with the dangers and rigors of the journey that you don't even THINK about planes while you're watching it. Very clever diversion.

There is good chemistry with Wayne and Bacall and they go through the typical "difficult" time with each other before becoming hard-breathers as they enter Hong Kong Harbour together.

Aside from some minor silliness (Duke perpetually talks to an "imaginary friend" named "Baby"....which happened to be Bogart's pet name for Bacall) and the aforementioned mysteriously missing aircraft, this William Wellman-directed story hangs together well and delivers the goods on excitement and interest.

Good movie overall.

Now...WHEN are they EVER going to release one of Wayne's all time masterpieces? WHEN are we EVER going to see "The High And The Mighty"???????

Let me get it correct for everyone
First off, you can't beat the Duke in just about any movie. Blood Alley and The Sea Chase were a departure from his typical westerns and WWII movies, but he handled them in his true dominating fashion.

Now, I noticed that in other reviews, there was some discussion about how many movies John Wayne died in. Let me give you the complete list of those from 1939 onward. I don't know how many he may have died in during the 1930s, if any, because I haven't seen that many of his B westerns.

1. The Shootist (1976)
2. The Cowboys (1972)
3. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). He is dead at the start of the movie, and the entire story is told in a flashback.
4. The Alamo (1960)
5. The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)
6. Wake of the Red Witch (1948)
7. The Fighting Seabees (1944)
8. Reap the Wild Wind (1942)

Great John Wayne Flick
I saw this a couple of times on TV. It's a fine action movie.
One review here suggests to get it on DVD-wisescreen, but I can't find where any such version was made. VHS is the only choice.

also WAKE OF THE RED WITCH
Last saw Blood Alley on tv long, long, ago. I didn't even know it was available on video, but I will pick this up soon to add to my library. A good action movie.
I THINK John Wayne also died in Wake of the Red Witch.Can we say that he 'died' in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"?
3/10/2004 JULY 2003? time sure flies.Just got the VHS (was looking for DVD, can't find).Great, better than I remember from tv.Not just action, there's commentary, and some of the Chinese characters are sooo stereo typed.Note the Chief Engineer is Nisei (2nd gen Japanese American, see GO FOR BROKE i think).

He has died in 4
John Wayne also died in the Fighting Seabies ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

James Caan and Robert Duvall star as a pair of CIA operatives in the Bay Area; when Duvall sells out Caan, he cripples him instead of killing him. But Caan fights back, working himself back into shape and back into service to protect a visiting dignitary who is targeted for assassination. It all leads to a solid shootout and martial-arts battle aboard the mothballed fleet in the North Bay. Economic and spare, this is one of director Sam Peckinpah's lesser efforts, but still features his skillful direction of action scenes. An intriguing cast includes Arthur Hill, Mako, and Bo Hopkins; this may be the only film that features both Burt Young and Gig Young. --Marshall Fine ... Read more

Reviews (13)

"Give me the gun. I'm gonna shoot him anyway."
This was a good action movie with plenty of bullits and some martial arts mixed in. Caan gave a good performance. Two things kept me from giving this 5 stars. First a scene where Gig Young keeps a nervous Arthur Hill in the office doing paper work is moronic, and second, this movie screamed for a expanded role for a female character. The actress who played Caan's love interest was unattractive and void of talent. When you watch a movie like this you almost have to have some nudity and gratuitous sex to give you a reason to watch it a again and again. Oh well. What did work was the team of Caan, Burt Young, and Bo Hopkins...no one was Rambo but no one was an idiot either.

THE KILLER ELITE
A warped genius of a director sleepwalks this half decent action thriller. You can tell Peckinpah had no enthusiasm making this film, it still boasts some good cheographed action scenes.
For example a great sequence of a botched assaination attempt, mixed with some slow motion martial arts. James Caan and Robert Duval are playing there roles purely for laughs. Watchable but no Straw Dogs.

Easily one of the worst movies ever
If you ever wonder why James Caan, despite being an amazing actor, hasn't had that great a career, this meltdown is a great place to start. Keeping with that theme, Robert Duvall's seems to have survived because he's only actually in about four scenes in the entire movie. I have to hand it to whoever wrote the great blurb on the back of the DVD, because the dubious title alone makes it easy to take a pass on it.

Pass I should have done. Really, the whole idea of this was bad to begin with. The opening credits encompass the guys placing a bomb with children playing in the background, and yet when the thing goes off, the building is actually in a light industrial area with no children around to speak of. Very weird. The purpose of blowing the place seems to be to spirit away some defector with a bad accent, which doesn't make any sense either. The first ten minutes the sound was really badly mixed, so it was hard to tell what they were saying . . . and it got worse from there. Caan gets shot up, then obligatory "invalid recovery" sequence begins, through which I fast-forwarded zestfully. And then I gave up for a couple of days, never intending to finish it, but one gets bored.

Protecting some generically Asian guy was the focus of the rest of the plot, which allowed for some generic ninjas to be introduced into the mix. The ludicrous scenes of ninjas stupidly charging into Uzi fire ensues after a lot of FAST-PACED, BREAK-NECK (yeah right) car chasing and lots of conversation. The heroes even start laughing at the stupidity it at one part, along with the audience.

Bad editing, direction, script, acting, concept, music, etc. Many reasons why nobody's ever hear of it. I wish my local video store would be more discriminating in their selection. This is easily one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Avoid.

Skip This And Watch STRAW DOGS Again
This wretched, utterly boring ninjas-on-the-loose fiasco has all the markings of a lowbudget mid-70's drive-in cheapie--ugly cinematography, incoherent plotting, large body count and comically inept slow motion action set pieces. There are plenty of movies from this era every bit as bad as THE KILLER ELITE but what makes this particular title stand out from the rest of the lowly bunch is that it was directed by Sam Peckinpah, one of America's greatest film artists.

Peckinpah had managed to work a great deal of magic out of similarly banal thriller material a few years before in THE GETAWAY, thanks to his trademark rapid fire editing of some furiously violent suspense sequences; that film also benefited from a typically cool performance from the charismatic Steve McQueen. With ELITE, the director clearly didn't care at all and shot everything as quickly and perfunctorily as possible. He appears to have forgotten even his most rudimentary of cinematic skills, clunkily filming everything with a generic, TV-Movie obviousness. Peckinpah isn't helped at all by James Caan and Robert Duvall, two normally fine and powerful actors who, undoubtedly due to their vaguely defined characters, give frankly dull performances that completely fail to draw us into the proceedings. The end result is a film that is easily tied with CONVOY as Peckinpah's most infuriatingly awful effort; its truly sad seeing such a major talent waste himself away on such utterly substandard rubbish.

Its a real shame that this film would inexplicably get a proper DVD release while absolute masterpieces like THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE, BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA, CROSS OF IRON and PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID continue to languish in the vaults.

Confusing Action Melodrama
It's hard to tell who is after who in this badly edited mess! The only saving grace in this espionage "thriller" about the CIA trying to guard Asian political-exiles are the stars (especially James Caan. If it wasn't for him, I'd give this film only one star!) The dialogue is good, but then, good lines should enhance the story. (What story? This movie is mixed up about it's plot!)

And where did Sam Pekinpah get the ridiculous idea that ninjas would come right out in the open & charge gun-wielding killers, with swords in hand?!! First, if ninjas were still in operational existence, they'd update themselves. (See "You Only Live Twice." This James Bond film has ninjas, with machine guns!) The historical ninjas used guns. (When the Portugese introduced firearms to Japan, ninjas quickly included muskets into their arsenal.) Lastly, ninjas are notorious for ambushing their opponents. (That's why they wear black! It's so they can't be seen at night!) Peckinpah showed Mexican revolutionaries armed with machetes getting the jump on gun-armed, but sleeping, professional killers in "The Wild Bunch." Well, that's how ninjas in historical times would have done it & if Peckinpah had any respect for martial-arts, that's how he should have featured the ninjas: Gun-armed & ambushing, not out in the open & charging!

This was touted as a martial-arts extravaganza, but it's really Peckinpah's sarcastic answer to the '70's martial-arts movie boom. Martial-arts weren't meant to go up against guns, any more than boxing is. Nobody says that boxing is useless! I think Peckinpah was just too drunk to get his research right!

"The Wild Bunch" & "Villa Rides!" are my favorites, but "Killer Elite" is just a waste of time! ... Read more

Reviews (8)

OK Evening's Entertainment
Fun to see Mike Mazurky, Henry Wilcoxon, and George Raft in bit parts. Fun to see Robert Saachi do a spot-on impersonation of Bogart. The best unplanned fun is viewing the cheesy 70s TV-movie values that add to the nostalgia of the film.

This is bogart BUT the plot is silly and at times perverted
5 stars to the actor playing bogie,he has the voice,look, manors and style PERFECT. however the golden age of movies did not have curse words & naked women and i really doubt the real bogie would have lowered himself to this stupid script. If you are the ultimate bogart fan,like me, you can apprechiate just how good this actor plays him and at times there are a few funny sceenes like a car crash resulting from seeing bogie back from the dead.nice hearing the this actor relate everything to the "old days" as he visits certain streets and area's in this film where previous old movies were shot naming the stars who were in them, you can kind of picture it in B&W in your head if you saw the films. it is also kind of neat seeing a cameo by george raft an actor who played with bogie way back when in some of the classics but this is NOT a child safe movie. You can take most of the golden age movies and watch them with a family but not this trashy comedy too many uneeded sex implied scenario's that just dont fit with the real humphrey bogart films.

Enjoyable and lightweight...
Andy Fenaday's scipt follows self-employed detective (Scacchi, who's incredible) as he gets wrapped up in a MALTESE FALCON-type mystery. Heavy doses of amusing dialog, crammed with old movie references, this movie is better than FLETCH. A lot of fun and worth repeated viewings. A must for movie buffs. Good family viewing, with older kids. Rated PG for profanity, violence, and mild sexual innuendo.

A sweet bit of noir
Robert Sacchi attained minor celebrity in the 70's and 80's for his uncanny resemblance to Bogie and parlayed it into a career in TV commercials and cameo movie roles, most notably in Woody Allen's PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM. This vehicle is built around his unique "gift." It's an unremarkable but highly likable send-up of the great private eye flicks from the 30's and 40's - its most obvious inspiration being THE MALTESE FALCON, but there are allusions to THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI and other classics as well.It is chock full of hard-boiled banter and shadowy frames and shadowy characters and probably would have been better shot in black and white to capture the true ambience and ambiguities of the originals it seeks to imitate.

Same Marlowe is hired to find "the eyes of Alexander", sapphire replicas of Alexander the Great's eyes used in a bust of the conqueror, and during the search he runs into a snag of competing interests, all played by well-known character actors, Victor Buono and Herbert Lom among them. The plot, however, is superfluous, as it almost always is in detective films. The real point of the movie is to pay tribute to old time movie magic, and part of its fun is in the cameos. Apart from bit parts by the likes of George Raft, watch out for appearances by famed Hollywood reporters James Bacon and Robert Osborne as well (the latter now the host of cable's Turner Classic Movies).

Wonderful Spoof
Sacchi is the best Bogart impersonator ever... dry and droll as Sam Marlowe! The music from award winning composer George Duning [From Here To Eternity, Picnic, The World of Suzie Wong], the cinematography of perfect locations [including the famous Ambassador Hotel] are all right on target as famous tv director Robert Day [Kojak, Streets of San Francisco, The Avengers] guides the most endearing group of well-known character actors through a spoof of every dark detective film every made. See this if you loved all the old serious flicks... this one will make you howl. ... Read more

Description

A hurricane, island castaways, dancing native girls, female monsters, Nazis, a mad scientist, weird surgical experiments and a volcano--all prime ingredients for horror exploitation films. Or, in the case of "She Demons," one horror exploitation film. This lively, lurid shocker from writer/director Richard E. Cunha managed the remarkable feat of cramming all of these plot elements into its 76-minute running time. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Everything a cult B movie should be
She Demons turned out to be a much better film that I expected it to be. While there is absolutely nothing original about the plot, the film manages to retain one's interest from start to finish. Native girls, a mad Nazi scientist, atavistic she demons, bombs, volcanic eruptions ' what's not to like?

The film opens sort of strangely, with a news report about a recent hurricane followed by a plea for information from some rich guy whose daughter's boat is missing. Then we cut to our shipwreck survivors: poor little spoiled rich girl Jerrie Turner (stalwart blonde Irish McCalla, whom some may recognize as Sheena, Queen of the Jungle), scientist Tod Maklin (Tod Griffin), comic-relief sidekick Sammy Ching (Victor Sen Yung), and a native captain who doesn't even survive long enough to witness the big native girl dance scene. And what a native girl dance scene it is. These aren't your run-of-the-mill natives; these girls, made up of the Diana Nellis Dancers, include some real beauties. Unfortunately, beauty can be fleeting on this island. You see, twelve years ago the Fuehrer sent Colonel Osler (aka the Butcher), played quite smarmily by Rudolph Anders, to this uncharted island to continue his experiments on the exploitation of lava for the generation of electricity. The doggoned evil scientist has actually figured out the secret of perpetual motion, but this sort of plays second fiddle to his continued experiments to turn scar tissue back into healthy skin (the Fuehrer didn't want any of his master race soldiers baring scars when they came back from the war). In an unfortunate accident several years earlier, Osler's wife Mona was severely burned, and the Colonel is attempting to restore her beauty by extracting "character X" from the faces of attractive native females (whom his crack staff of clueless soldiers have somehow managed to capture) and injecting it into his wife's skin (underneath all those bandages). Unfortunately, the medical procedure tends to turn these hot island girls into grotesque monsters so ugly that they have to sneak up on the dipper just to get a drink of water. The special effects makeup is rather pathetic, but the girls definitely do look ugly after their visits to the lab.

Well, our heroes get captured, the scientist and the rich girl fall in love, Osler does the whole evil madman shtick, etc. You know. Surprisingly, it all ends up being pretty darned entertaining, and the big "reveal" scene at the end is something not to be missed. I do have to mention these soldiers on the island, though; these guys make Sgt. Schultz look like a prize German soldier. Hiding from them is no trouble whatsoever; they wouldn't even recognize Hitler if he came up and kicked them in the shins. Okay, I also have to admit that some of the dialogue is pretty cheesy, but it makes for some good laughs. The only real complaint I have with this film is the fact that the gorgeous native girls (in their pre-She Demon forms, of course) were not featured nearly enough for my liking. When all is said and done, though, She Demons is everything a 1950s B movie should be.

"...Where's my powder blue cashmere shortie?"
...So proclaims statuesque Irish McCalla (she was TV's "Sheena, Queen of the Jungle" in the 1950s, as well as a famous pin-up model) in this campy horror film. McCalla plays Jerri Turner, a spoiled rich girl who is marooned on an island with bland hero Tod Griffin, Victor Sen Yung as wisecracking "Sammy Ching", and faithful servant "Chris", portrayed by an actor whose name escapes me. On this uncharted island, they encounter Nazis who have been hiding out since the end of World War II, and the "She Demons"-native girls who are being used as guinea pigs in mad scientist Rudolph Anders' twisted experiments to try and restore his disfigured wife's features. "She Demons" is so broad in its characterizations and situations, that it very closely resembles a comic book on film. The ridiculous dialogue, cheesy sets and laughable horror makeups only add to the fun in this enjoyable little flick. There is also a "specialty dance" performed by the Diana Nellis dancers, which will appeal to the horn-dog in many men. I may add that "She Demons" is the first film I remember seeing. I believe it was on TV's "Chiller Theater" in the early 1960s. I fell in love with the gorgeous Irish McCalla, who appealed to me with her spunky toughness, as well as her dazzling looks. She was my first screen heroine! "She Demons" defies any kind of detrimental criticism because it is so tongue-in-cheek (you KNOW they weren't taking this too seriously!),and just plain FUN. It is also charmingly sweet in its naivete-it is not mean-spirited at all. The guy gets the girl, the evil Nazis get theirs, and the audience gets a good laugh!

Jungle Fever...
On a remote, uncharted island in the south pacific, strange things are happening. Nazis have set up camp, kidnapping a troupe of dancers (The Diana Nellis Dancers to be exact) and subjecting them to diabolical experiments at the hands of an evil SS officer / scientist named Osler (aka: The Butcher)! Enter 4 castaways, Gerri (Irish McCalla) and 3 guys to whom I paid little attention (when you see Ms. McCalla you'll understand why). Gerri's a rich, spoiled brat. Her zillionaire father footed the bill for the expedition which landed her and her cohorts on the island. Well, our heroine and friends soon encounter the lost dancing girls, and we are treated to a fairly good little jungle-hoochy-koo number! Then, those mean old nazi-boogers show up, pooping all over the party! It's a battle between the forces of good and evil, as Osler tries to get Gerri to be more than a friend! Unfortunately for Hitler jr., Gerri does befriend his wife, who's badly burned face is the reason behind Osler's experiments. The actual SHE DEMONS themselves (dancing girls turned icky through Osler's serum) don't do a whole lot, except for exterminating the worst of their nazi tormentors! The rest is pretty standard fair, but Irish McCalla makes it all seem worthwhile somehow! Check her out in her black evening dress! Wowzers...

The Wicked World of Wade Williams
I was pissed off recently when I picked up a copy of SHE DEMONS,(from the 'Wade Williams Collection'). If the guy owns the damn film, why couldn't he wait until he locates a decent print before rushing it to DVD?

In the film there's a scene where a bevy of not-as-yet demonic beauties does a ritual dance before the camera; as each woman dances before the camera she has her moment when the camera gets a chance to focus on her face close up. Someone, probably long ago, had clipped out the crucial frames for each woman's close up in front of the camera. You may have seen other films where this "clipping" has been done, I know I have. What's up with that? Are they making prints to sell or something? This clipping of frames is not the kind of thing a casual observer will notice, but for me it mars the film horribly.

I remember watching BATMAN (was it 1985?) at the Grand in Oakland. It was a few days after the movie had been released, but damn if someone had not already snagged crucial frames, like the shot where Joker kills his TV.

Seems like the picture I'm getting of one Wade Williams is he doesn't really care about these films except as money makers. He has no love for the genre, and therefore does not really care about video collectors either.

Bob Burns
S.F.

Ricard Cunha's Lasting Memorial to Cheese
First off, let me say that "She Demons" is a favorite Z picture of mine. As a kid I always looked forward to the times it played on "Chiller Theater." I mean, where else could you get mad scientists, Nazis, disfigured go-go dancers (with the phoniest make-up), paper mache scenery, AND Irish McCalla?

To be fair, the film has a few scares at the end, especially when the mad scientist's wife discloses all too clearly her reason for not leaving with the heroes and the death of Mr. Nazi Mad Scientist himself. The DVD transfer is excellent, and though this is not the sort of picture in Ed Wood's league, it is still enough fun for inviting a few friends over and doing your own version of "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

And the best reason for owning it? Where can you get such sublime awfulness... ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Men in War - Cult War Classic and Psycho-Drama
"Men in War" may just be the best pschological study of combat ever made and should be considered a cult classic (and probably is) even if it is a cult of one. Anyone who claims this is a "Standard war film set in Korea" might also claim "The God Father" was a standard gangster movie or "The Wizard of OZ" was a standard children's flick. "Men in War" is a concise, classic study of combat that just happens to be set in the Korean War. Anthony Mann's direction impacts every aspect of humanity subjected to sustained combat. Amid the horror we see from the all-but-doomed patrol kindness, depravity, valor, self-interest, despair, hope, and, finally, relief without joy. In short we see how desperation exponentializes human emotion. The unusual camera angles give it a Film Noir "look" that highlights the conflicts and tragedies played out by the forlorn platoon. Robert Ryan and Aldo Ray are the perfect dueling co-protagonists who show that our toughest fights are not always with the ones defined as the enemy. The movie is all very real, all real personal, and all very difficult to watch sometimes because of the graphic truths, not the least of which is the insight into the final thoughts of several doomed souls. There is no going back with this film. Once you watch it you are hooked. It would be best for some esteemed critics to actually watch it once before reviewing it.

Best War film of the '50s?
Anthony Mann's "Men in War," along with Sam Fuller's "Steel Helmet," is the most realistic, tough-as-nails war film made in the '50s.

This is ANTYTHING BUT your standard Hollywood treatment. "Men in War," along with Mann's famous Westerns is a demonstration model of the 'vulgar subtlety' with which Mann subverts Hollywood convention to craft a masterpiece.

And what can you say about Robert Ryan? Easily one of the greatest actors of all time, and one of the coolest. Ryan OWNS this film like he owned Ophuls' Noir film "Caught," (even outshining James Mason in that one) and Aldo Ray steps up to Ryan's challenge with a truly phenomenal performance. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

A Stark, Unflinching War Drama
"Men in War" makes one wish Anthony Mann had directed more war films. This is an excellent, character-driven story. It is a prime example of the mature, unflinching kind of war film that began to appear after the Korean conflict. Undeservedly neglected, this picture ranks with Lewis Milestone's "Pork Chop Hill" and Robert Aldrich's "Attack". And it is the progenitor of "Platoon" and "The Thin Red Line". with their complex characters and situations.

Every actor seems to give his best, with exceptional moments from Robert Ryan, Aldo Ray and Robert Keith, as a shell-shocked Colonel. And it is always good to see the admirable Pine, Morrow, Persoff and Edwards. The film has a stark, yet pleasing black & white look which is appropriate for the bare bones conflicts the story sets forth. Moreover, "Men in War" features a very fine score by Elmer Bernstein, utilizing an authentic Korean folk song.

Men in War
This has to be one of the most underrated war flicks of all time. Next to Pork Chop Hill with Gregory Peck, this is the best Korean War film I've seen. Robert Ryan was the perfect cast as the war weary Lieutenant trying to lead his platoon back to battalion HQ. Those who rate this movie average must be fans of Rat Patrol. This movie is a must see.

Men in War
Excellent,all the cast perform their parts well, great action sequences and some amazingly tense scenes.The film begins with the troops hiding in a large hollow ,surrounded by tall grass. Wrecked vehicles lie strewn across the area and only the sound of the wind can be heard.Probably the most climactic scenes I will ever see. This is one of my all time favourites. ... Read more

Reviews (31)

An Ahead-Of-Its-Time Musical
Based on the novel by C.Y.Lee,it is probably the most ambitious of all R and H shows,and did have one of the shortest Broadway runs (600 performances,which is roughly a year)

People tend to class their shows as follows-

The Hits-South Pacific,Sound Of Music,Carousel,Oklahoma!,and The King And I.

The Flops-Allegro,Me And Juliet.

The In Betweens-Cinderella and Flower Drum Song.

Nancy Kwan is great as Linda Low,although she was used as the 'marquee name' to draw the crowds.Broadway's Pat Suzuki would have made a bigger splash in the film.

The charming Miyoshi Umeki is charming in her Broadway role,and Juanita Hall also scores big in the film.

R and H really had their opus with the lilting and sad ballad,'Love Look Away'. It should be counted as one of the best,if not THE best,songs they wrote.

An uneven mixture redeemed by Umeki and some great songs
This may be the most frustrating of all the Rodgers and Hammerstein's adaptations because its the most uneven. On Broadway, FLOWER DRUM SONG was anchored very firmly by twin star performances by Miyoshi Umeki as Mei-Li and Pat Suzuki as Linda Low. The film version wisely retained Umeki (and even allowed her more lines--and to sing almost the entirety of her great first song, "A Hundfred Million Miracles" by herself), but cast as Linda Nancy Kwan, who is paradisiacally beautifully and a fine dancer but who just does not have Suzuki's sock-it-to-me charisma. Nor did the singer who dubs Kwan: as a result, some of the more mediocre songs that Suzuki hit out of the ballpark on Broadway (like "Grant Avenue") just don't make it here.

While it was extremely rare for a Hollywood film with not only a plotline concerning Asian-American themes but also mostly Asian-American actors, the director, Henry Koster, seems to have approached San Francisco's Chinatown as if it were a magical mythic kingdom like Munchkinland, and a little of this goes a long way. (You feel sorry for the actors forced to say things like "See ya Pop--don't take any wooden chopsticks!") On the other hand, the strength of many of the performances carry the day, and the score has some exceptionally beautiful songs, particularly the famous "Love, Look Away," lipsynced here by Reiko Sato (very fine in a difficult role) for Marilyn Horne's voice.

Sharing the thoughts of many others
I cannot believe this is not on DVD yet. There is a song by Kwan that is presented in widescreen on the VHS, but the scene of the boy dancing in the baseball uniform is pan and scan. Horrible to take away the scenery and perspective.
PLEASE MAKE A WIDESCREEN DVD!!
I consider this movie to be one of the top three musicals in my heart.

I was nine when I first saw this movie in Boston with my
mother. She always picked the really good movies. This was when the movie theatres were elaborate and there were matrons in the ladies rooms. And the theatre carpet didn't smell like feet. I fell in love with James Sigata and I thought Nancy Kwan was the most beautiful woman. When I got home I got my little paper fan and pretended I was Nancy singing "I enjoy being a girl" to my mirror. I'm glad that I bought the CD and I hope they put this movie on DVD or reissue it on VHS. I'd love to have it. And a little trivia-Miyoshi Umeki was Mrs. Livingston on the TV series The Courtship of Eddie's Father.

Without widescreen it's a disappointment!
Producer Ross Hunter lavished some pretty expensive-looking production values and some very capable talent on this film and, as was almost de rigueur back then, mounted it in Panavision and, of course, color. Let's have a DVD with the original ratio preserved, please! Hermes Pan's dance numbers especially (one of this enjoyable film's chief assets) cannot be fully appreciated unless they're seen on the widescreen (or its video equivalent). A panned-and-scanned VHS tape just doesn't do justice to a film which was a fine example of Hollywood professionals working their magic. I saw it first-run, way back when, and despite some reservations, thought it was pretty slick entertainment and would add a properly presented DVD version to my library without any hesitation. ... Read more