By Robin E. Simmons
BEHAVE YOURSELF (1951)
Former Palm Springs resident the late Farley Granger (the poor man’s Cary Grant), a popular Palm Springs resident is hooks up with Shelly Winters who tries her hand at plying or rather being a good girl in this surprising unexpected comedy about a clueless couple unwittingly caught between two rival gangs squabbling over money and the equally clueless and unwitting cops.
This 70 year-old movie shot in downtown Los Angeles is much better than you might guess. In fact, this vintage is a piece of cinematic fluff it’s a madcap gem that’s an uplifting screwball comedy with numerous hearty laughs triggered by the garish cops and robbers characters. RKO/Netflix.
Granger’s well-meaning husband adopts a stray pet named Fletcher for his wife’s anniversary present – but when it turns out the dog is on the lam – the canine is a courier for the mob. With a trail of murders behind it, this clever canine is now the cops’ only lead to a gang of Hollywood counterfeiters. Farley Granger and a young Shelley Winters star in this funny tale of “puppy” love written and directed by George Beck. You can find it on TCM archives or Netflix.
MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL (1956)
From the era of giant bugs and atomic testing comes this surprisingly well-crafted howler about gigantic mutant wasps. When scientist try to understand the effects of radiation on earth’s creatures, the result brings them to an area of Africa known as “Green Hell,” where have mutated into monsters as big as whales.
Jim Davis, who would go one to star in the TV series “DALLAS,” plays Dr. Quent Brady, the scientist who starts the whole mess. The film also stars Vladimir Sokoloff (“The Life of Emile Zola”) as the skeptical Dr. Lorentz, and Joel Fluellen (“Raisin in the Sun”), as Arobi, who warns Brady to beware of the African location because the locals don’t call it “Green Hell” for nothing!
Much of the black and white jungle footage is stock footage from MGM’s “Stanley & Livingston.” And the giant wasps are practical props of enormous size. There’s not a pixel of CGI to be found anywhere.
Special features include:
“Missouri Born: The Films of Jim Davis,” an all-new career retrospective with author/film historian, C. Courtney Joyner.
“The Men Behinds the Monsters,” an interesting essay by author Don Stradeley featured in an included full color booklet.
A highly informed, detailed and very engaging commentary with comic book artist/author and movie historian Stephen. Bissette,
The disc is a 4K transfer with the original final minutes (the volcano footage) in color. The fiery lava scenes reminded me of similar scenes in “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings.”
Film Detective. Blu-ray.
I want to hear from you especially if you have had any bad experiences at local theaters by rude managers or employees. Do you have a favorite theater besides your living room? I want to hear about why.
