Tonight's Wild Wednesday feature is a 1956 film directed by Lee "Rollem" Sholem entitled "Crime Against Joe." Lee Sholem had a reputation for having a no nonsense, let's just get this done, attitude! For example, "Crime Against Joe" was scheduled to be shot over the course of seven days. Lee Sholem finished the shoot in five days, hence the nickname "Rollem."
This poster is an amazing piece of exploitation art, and has almost nothing at all to do with the picture. To me the poster projects Julie London as the victim, when she is really the hero, and is just wrong in it's entirety!
This poster is an amazing piece of exploitation art, and has almost nothing at all to do with the picture. To me the poster projects Julie London as the victim, when she is really the hero, and is just wrong in it's entirety!
One of the greatest things about watching movies from the 50's is you get killer shots like this!
Manly man John Bromfield is Joe Manning. If you like jungle horror films, then John is the man. He starred in "Manfish," "Revenge Of The Creature" and "Curucu, Beast Of The Amazon." Like cowboy TV shows? John was also the star in 78 episodes of "The Man From Cochise."
A depressed Korean war veteran, and wannabe artiste, Joe Manning lives at his Mom's house!
Out of frustration he just tossed some red paint on this painting!
Joe's Mom supports him, and he calls her by her first name Nora, not Mother or Mom.
Nora Manning is played by Frances (The Lost Missile, The Night Of The Hunter) Morris.
Joe just might have a bit of a drinking problem!
Filmed entirely in Tucson, Arizona, this was Duke's Drive-In circa 1956!
This is Duke's Drive-In today!
Joe really shouldn't be driving!
A couple of months ago, I told you all about Julie London, and her role in "Nabonga!"
In "Crime Against Joe," Julie plays a carhop named Frances "Slacks" Bennett! It's kind of surprising that they didn't film another Jungle movie with John and Julie instead!
Welcome to the world famous Pago-Pago Lounge, a tiki bar in a Tucson, Arizona.
In this movie it's called the Pango-Pango Club, because that is the proper pronunciation of Pago-Pago.
The Pago-Pago is no longer open, and at one point turned into the Aku-Aku, and then the Ports O Call. No longer a lounge or restaurant, I read that it is scheduled for restoration!
The singer in the bar is Alika Louis as Irene Crescent in her sole acting performance! She performs the cool tune "Looking For A Man."
There are a lot of jealous people in this story! The barkeep doesn't like Joe hitting on Irene so he punches his lights out in front of the bar. This cowboy, an old schoolmate of Joe's, witnesses the whole thing!
Joe is wandering around in the middle of the night in a drunken stupor when he stumbles on this pretty gal out sleepwalking. Joe tells the concerned Father, and is given a cordial but brisk thank-you!
So while Joe's out stumbling around town, somebody murders Irene Crescent, and she was found with this high school pin clutched in her hand that Joe and all his classmates received upon graduating.
All Joe has to do is produce his own, and he's in the clear, but who knows where it might be? It's been a few years since he's seen his, and isn't real clear where it's at.
Besides Slacks, Joe's only got one friend who believes in him, Henry Calvin as the cab driver Red Teller! There's only one problem, even though Joe and Slacks aren't an item, Red's still a little jealous just because he's been in love with her for years.
For all you "Zorro" fans, Henry was Sgt. Demetrio Lopez Garcia in 81 episodes of that show!
Looking through the high school yearbook for clues! At this point, almost any of these guys seem like they might be murderers! Besides the cowboy, there's a politician named Ralph Corey, and a lawyer who are also possible suspects.
George Niles seems like a good candidate, especially after he tries to run Slacks over with his car!
The Father of the sleepwalking girl will not substantiate Joe's story because he thinks it would be too embarrassing for his daughter. She's tired of his overbearing jealousy, and gives him both barrels!
The daughter was played by Patricia (The Black Sleep) Blair. Patricia was also Rebecca Boone in 118 episodes of the "Daniel Boone" TV series!
Slacks and Joe go to the high school reunion dance for the class of 1945, and while they are at the school, they sneak off to the records office to see if the records show any aberrant anti-social behavior in any of Joe's classmates.
Uh, Oh, the jig is up, and not only are Joe and Slacks going to finally find out who the killer is, the viewer is about to find out at the same time, but........
.......I think this movie is short enough,
and good enough, that you should just find out on your own!
Moral of the story....Don't drink and drive!!!
3 comments:
Duke's Drive-In was a major social spot for Tucson's black community. Back in the day, most white Tucsonans probably didn't even know there was a black community.
Thanks for turning me and your other devoted readers on to this previously unknown (at least by me) flick!
Oh, and about the "Tuscon" typo: even the august New York Times makes that error quite often.
If you like hour-long, filmed-in-Arizona, retro low-budget crime drama gems, check out SQUAD CAR (1960) sometime, filmed in and around Phoenix and Scottsdale.
Freakin' OOPS! Thanx Mickey! Since I kind of pride myself in getting things right, that Tuscon typo slipped right be me! What a maroon!
....and KD, I'll have to check out "Squad Car" when I can! Sounds vaguely familiar to me.
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