THE SNORKEL - Francis Chagrin - "Dirty Bastard" (1958)

Here's the real shocker! I followed a link from one of our brethren blogs 3 days ago to get some music, and it was either Media Fire, Sharebee, or Mega Upload where I got a dirty bastard of a virus called something like TDSS.d!mem that verily destroyed my computer, and because I had to do what Swamp Dogg would call "Total Destruction To The Mind" of my computer, and I got in a hurry, I lost some files, so I only have one movie ready to go, and that's the reason why tonight's feature is called "The Snorkel"!!!!

The good news is, that for right now, the computer is running like new, I've just had to do 129 updates, but I did lose all my bookmarks, which is kind of a bummer!

"The Snorkel" is an odd movie, at best, that starts right off with Peter van Eyck, as another dirty bastard, Paul Decker getting ready to kill his wife, and he's got quite the devious, but well thought out plan!

As she soundly sleeps because he drugged her milk, he seals off the room, and blows out the flames to the lamps, so the whole room is filled with noxious toxic gas!

He then hides in a hidden compartment under the floor, and has air coming in from the outside via some hoses, and the notorious snorkel of the title, so the whole thing looks like a suicide, and then he can come out later, because to everybody else's knowledge, he is out of town!

The 15 year old Mandy Miller as Candy Brown, turns in another strong female lead role as Peter's stepdaughter. Candy doesn't believe it was suicide, because she knows that Peter also drowned her real Father, but nobody, including the authorities, will listen to her, because she is just a distraught little girl!

Candy's dog Toto is on to something, but nobody pays any attention to it either! Toto was played a by a dog named Flush, in it's only film outing!

The whole thing takes place in the lovely Italian hamlet of Pismo Beach!

Candy sees this big scuba diving poster, and for some reason, it just makes her kind of wonder!

Toto is a curious as a cat, and after doing some sniffing around, plays a fetchlike retrieval game, and brings Peter the snorkel he had hiding in the closet! Just to put an accent on what a ruthless creep he really is, Peter kills the dog!

The music for "The Snorkel" was composed by Francis Chagrin who also wrote the music for "The Monster Of Highgate Ponds," 3 episodes of "The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre," and the 1949 feature "Helter Skelter," among a host of other work!(And you thought it was The Beatles who came up with the title "Helter Skelter!")

"The Snorkel" is very well made, and easy to watch because it's another early thriller from the Carreras-Sangster-Hammer machine!

At the beach with her Governess Jean Edwards played by Betta St. John, and the evil stepfather, Candy steps over the verbal line of accusation a little too far!!

Peter repays the favor by trying to save her from drowning!

Well, the whole situation is just not working out for Peter, so it's time for Candy to become so flustered that she must commit suicide herself, so being the loving stepfather that he is, he's more than willing to give her a helping hand, of course!

So Peter calls Candy in and gives her some nice soothing warm milk, and reads to her from the blank piece of paper that was her Mother's suicide note, that he had been hanging onto, because it was just too sad to share before!

Now it wouldn't be much of a thriller if I gave away the ending, so I hope I've left you in enough suspense to want to find out for yourself. In the meantime, I've still got lots of work here to catch up on! Be careful where you tread!