Earth Vs. The Spider (1958)

Starring Ed Kemmer, June Kenney, Gene Persson, Gene Roth, Hal Torey
Directed by Bert I. Gordon
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A young woman and her boyfriend go in search of her missing father, and find his remains in a cavern inhabited by a giant spider, which soon threatens their small town.

Although it's not quite the equal of the other giant spider film of the 1950s, Tarantula, this is a fun outing by Gordon and crew, with an appealing cast, and a convincing portrait of small-town America.    Not all of the special effects hold up well, but the spider scenes that probably come off best are the sequences filmed in Carlsbad Caverns, with its eerie craggy scenery making a proper home for the giant insect, where it can easily trap its human prey.  Kemmer, the likable protagonist of Edward Cunha's Giant From The Unknown, who also brings along his love interest Sally Fraser from that film, is again likable, and fills a perfect need in the story as the believable scientific expert who devises the spider's downfall.  Familiar '50s character actor Gene Roth is welcome as the local sheriff who laughs at the notion of a giant spider at first, but soon receives his comeuppance.  Albert Glasser provides the proper notes of menace in his music score, according to IMDB, including the decade's ubiquitous theremin instrument among his orchestra.  As for Gordon's direction, it keeps things moving along well enough, making this I think one of his better films.

The Saga Of The Viking Women And Their Voyage To The Waters Of The Great Sea Serpent (1957)

Starring Abby Dalton, Susan Cabot, Brad Jackson, June Kenney, Richard Devon
Directed by Roger Corman
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

After their men don't return from a voyage, a tribe of Viking women build a ship and head after them, finding the men have been captured by a band of savages after a battle with a sea serpent.

Although the story's pretty thin, there's still elements to enjoy in another cheap adventure from Corman, with Dalton a strong and compelling female lead.  The other ladies in the cast unfortunately don't have much to do, other than Cabot's duplicitous Enger, who'd be even more interesting if she didn't have to have a change of heart in the last act.  Devon and the other men playing savages pitted against the Vikings are pretty pale villains, and rather surprisingly, Jackson, cast as the leader of the Vikings, comes off pretty bland, with Jonathan Haze's Ottar much more daring and heroic in comparison.  Yet Albert Glasser's score adds much needed punch and Nordic flavor to the narrative, and the sea serpent looks pretty decent, when we get to see something of it.  It's shoestring filmmaking from Corman, but he did it better than anyone.

Bloodlust! (1961)

Starring Wilton Graff, June Kenney, Walter Brooke, Robert Reed, Gene Persson
Directed by Ralph Brooke
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

Young people on a boating vacation decide to explore a mysterious island, and become the captives of a madman who has turned to hunting human beings for his own amusement.

Although not credited as being based on Richard Connell's famous story, The Most Dangerous Game, the movie obviously is and can't compare to the classic 1932 film adaptation.  That doesn't mean it's not fun however, and while Graff is not as memorable as Leslie Banks was in the previous film, he does give a believable performance as the deadly serious hunter.  Robert Reed, the future patriarch of TV's The Brady Bunch, leads the quartet of young people who would seem to be playing teenagers but were actually all in their late 20s or early 30s when this was filmed.  The film was photographed by Richard Cunha, and it fits in well with the four sci-fi/horror shockers he made in the late 1950s, with some grisly scenes of Graff's victims and dark atmospheric music.  Per IMDB, Walter Brooke, who plays another resident of the island trying to escape, would go on to utter the immortal "Plastics" line in The Graduate.

Attack Of The Puppet People (1958)

Starring John Agar, John Hoyt, June Kenney, Susan Gordon, Michael Mark
Directed by Bert I. Gordon
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A young woman goes to work for a dollmaker, and soon begins to suspect that the life-like dolls on display in his factory may be real people who've mysteriously gone missing.

Released on the heels of the similar-themed but better regarded The Incredible Shrinking Man, and compared to that sci-fi classic, this film has an inferior storyline and lesser special effects, but it's still a lot of fun.  Hoyt makes a fine sympathetic villain, and Gordon and crew make good use of believable oversized sets and props for their "shrunken" cast to interact with.  Albert Glasser adds the right notes of menace when appropriate in his music score, and Agar and Kenney are appealing as the romantic leads.  On the minus side, there's more than a few plot holes in the script, but they can easily be dismissed for those in the mood for an entertaining B-movie experience.