GUNS GIRLS AND GANGSTERS - Mamie Van Doren - "Meet Me Halfway" (1959)

Can you think of a better way to end 2014 and start 2015 than with some Guns Girls and Gangsters?

One of these days we're going to run out of monster and sci-fi movies to watch! Thank God there's plenty of cool Crime, Detective and Noir movies to keep us going for quite a while, and tonight's New Year's Eve Special Feature "Guns Girls And Gangsters" made in 1959 is certainly no exception!! It's an action packed thriller with an all-star cast?

1959 was an amazing year, especially in Las Vegas! 1959 was the year that Fidel Castro took power in Cuba! Alaska and Hawaii both became states in 1959, and the very first episode of "The Twilight Zone" aired in October of that year, and it was also the year "The Music Died," when Buddy Holley, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper died in that horrific plane crash! It was the year that "Etch-A-Sketch" and the computer modem were invented! In Vegas, business was literally booming!

Even back in 1959, 1.4 million people were unemployed, and if you did have a job, you were lucky to be making five thousand dollars a year, so the thought of pulling off a 2 million dollar heist was pretty enticing!

The Trans-Oceanic 600 series was the final incarnation of Zenith shortwave tube radios! It was produced from 1959-1962, and it  was the last portable vacuum tube radio made in the USA!

Gerald Mohr is two bit hustler ex-con Charles (Chuck) Wheeler, a man with a plan! Here's two good reasons why Gerald is in The Dungeon Hall Of Fame, "Terror In The Haunted House," and "The Angry Red Planet!!"

Welcome to the big time!!

Vi Victor is played by blonde bombshell, the magnificent Mamie Van Doren! In 1959, The San Francisco Giants had a roster of talent that included Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, and Felipe Alou! In 1959, the film world had a quartet of blonde beauty home run hitters, that would never be duplicated again, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren, and Diana Dors!!!!

This was pretty darn racy for 1959! Chuck's here to tell Vi that he used to be her boyfriend's cellmate, and that he has this great plan for robbing an armored truck carrying a bunch of cash from Las Vegas to a bank in L.A., and he needs her help!

The plan consists of Chuck shooting out the tire of the armored truck so that it has to stop right here at the Stagecoach Inn and garage, and then they can take it over, and him and his buddies can drive off with the money! Chuck is a crack shot, and he's already practiced on a couple of cars, and it works perfectly! Vi needs to hang out for a few days to notate the times that cops drop by etc. It's right in between Christmas and New Years!

Everything would probably have been fine, but Vi's no good loser ex-boyfriend, and Chuckie's ex best friend Mike Bennett, busts out of jail two months before his planned release, and is somehow magically hightailing it from San Quentin Prison in California all the way to Las Vegas!

They never quite explain how Mike managed to sneak all the way from San Quentin to Vegas, but if it was one tree at a time like this, I think it would have taken more than a couple of days! Mike is played by one of Hollywood's finest, Mr. Lee Van Cleef!

Here's a colourized version of this shot from the New Year's party at the Stage Coach Inn for you!

Just like Karkoff, Vi is totally misrepresented by the outlandish poster! She has been dragged unwillingly into this whole sordid affair! Her big problem is she falls in love with really bad guys! So they're having the big New Years party at the Stage Coach, and Vi gets talked into singing a song!

Here's the stunning Vi Victor with a swingin' little number called "Meet Me Halfway!" Somebody put a dime in the jukebox!

The cops show up just when Chuck and Mike Bennett are having their big face off over the money and VI, so they decide to ditch the place, and go ahead with the robbery and deal with their relationship later, but it's pretty clear that only one is going to come out alive after it's over!

I couldn't figure out what brand of radio this was, but I like the design!

Here she comes, Big Bertha, for the final standoff! I'll let you figure out what happens! I was surprised to find "Guns Girls And Gangsters" streaming for free on Amazon Prime! If you've got an account, it's worth the effort! It was a fun year, I hope you enjoyed these movies as much as we did! 

 Happy Freakin' New Year!!