Unknown Island (1948)

Starring Virginia Grey, Phillip Reed, Richard Denning, Barton MacLane, Dick Wessel
Directed by Jack Bernhard
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A scientist, who once sighted a giant dinosaur on an island, and his fiancee hire an unscrupulous captain to take them there, but only their guide, who knows the island's dangers, seems to care for the lady's safety.

Although the special effects are pretty primitive, this is the first film I can think of to feature dinosaurs played by men in rubber suits or others controlling puppets, instead of using footage of lizards projected to giant size, and deserves some credit for that reason, and some forgiveness of its failings.  And when the tyrannosauri begin to stalk the human visitors to the island, although they don't have much mobility, their portrayers shake their heads and show off their sharp teeth in memorable closeups.  Another strong asset is Richard Denning, the perfect hero for this type of picture, who talks plain sense and stands up to those willing to waste human lives in their expedition.  The prime offender is MacLane as the immoral Captain Tarnowski, familiar for a long career playing tough guys on both sides of the law, who's eager to seize Grey for his vile purposes, and has a greed that will keep everyone on the island longer than they want to be.  The independent film is lensed in CineColor, which I've found never looked all that great compared to more expensive processes, but it's nice to see Grey's long red hair shine, and a savage gorilla (per IMDB, played by suit actor Ray Corrigan) later in the film, with its own crimson sheen, definitely makes a colorful impact of its own.

Day The World Ended (1955)

Starring Richard Denning, Lori Nelson, Adele Jergens, Touch Connors, Paul Birch
Directed by Roger Corman
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

Atomic fallout brings seven lone survivors together in a shielded house, but with limited food and the threat of rain that will irradiate them, they face an uncertain future.

This early Roger Corman production has a screenplay that borrows character types and tropes from numerous past films, but it still has some worthwhile ideas and is fronted by a good cast, particularly Denning and Birch, whose serious performances make the more fantastic elements believable.  Birch in particular as a former military captain who prepared his home for the end of the world but not for all the strangers that ended coming his way, anchors the picture, asserting his control with a stentorian tone and manner.  Connors' violent thug who provides the chief conflict among the characters is little more than a stereotype, as is Jergens as his boozy moll, who could have both stepped right out of Key Largo, but Paul Dubov's irradiated victim who mysteriously survives his apparent death is an intriguing addition, setting up the story's logical development of men mutated into monsters.  Ronald Stein provides an effective score, and Paul Blaisdell's creature suit is cheap but still has a fearsome countenance.  I enjoyed the picture for what it was, an early attempt by Corman to mine thrills on a low budget, and think it works on that level.    

Creature With The Atom Brain (1955)

Starring Richard Denning, Angela Stevens, S. John Launer, Michael Granger, Gregory Gaye
Directed by Edward L. Cahn
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A gangster plots revenge on those that put him in exile with the aid of a scientist who can reanimate the dead, but the local head of the police lab is soon on to them.

We have here a fun sci-fi thriller from Columbia, one of their very first in this era, with some notable personalities in the cast and Cahn staging things entertainingly on what had to be a low budget.  Denning, carrying a pipe in his mouth to crime scenes, is charming and a noble protagonist.  His scenes with Launer, playing his captain and superior, are wonderful as the two actors have a great rapport with each other and have a convincing on-screen friendship, making the tragic climax to come for one of them even more heartfelt.  Stevens unfortunately doesn't have much to do except play the neglected but devoted wife to Denning, and you have to cringe a bit when the men "dismiss" her, although she picks up enough to unknowingly expose their schemes to gangster Granger later on.  Although the zombies in the film don't have distinctive makeups, Cahn does a fine job of staging their attacks, intercutting long shots of the men involved with creepy closeups of the creatures' faces.  Cahn should also be credited with integrating the large amount of stock footage in the film so it feels brief and doesn't take you out of the story.

Target Earth (1954)

Starring Richard Denning, Kathleen Crowley, Virginia Grey, Richard Reeves, Robert Roark
Directed by Sherman A. Rose
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

Four strangers find themselves in an evacuated city with no way to flee it, and soon discover that an alien army has taken it over and is stalking them. 

A low-budget but effective chiller from producer Herman Cohen, made before his cycle of teen horror films, I've been fond of the picture for a number of years, due to its compelling story, and appealing cast of characters.  Denning, Crowley, Grey, and Reeves, as the four principals, are easy to root for, and their plight is well-accentuated by Paul Dunlap's effective score.  Although budgetary limitations require some still frames of the empty city and the use of military stock footage, and the likely use of one alien construct to stand in for hundreds, the human drama is suspensefully paced and well-directed, making it easy to see why elements of the story made it into later films like Day The World Ended and The Earth Dies Screaming.

Twice-Told Tales (1963)

Starring Vincent Price, Sebastian Cabot, Brett Halsey, Beverly Garland, Richard Denning
Directed by Sidney Salkow
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

Vincent Price stars in three horror tales from the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, involving a fountain of youth, a young woman made poisonous by her father, and a house cursed by an accused warlock.

Following the horror anthology Tales Of Terror which also starred Price in three tales of terror from the works of Edgar Allan Poe, albeit for a different studio, this film's not a bad follow-up, although per Wikipedia, Hawthorne's tales were considerably changed to up the horror quotient, notably in the adaptation of The House Of Seven Gables, which features blood spurting from cracks in the ceiling.  A definite plus is the fine supporting cast, including Cabot, Garland, Denning, Abraham Sofaer, Joyce Taylor, and Jacqueline deWit.  Although the film doesn't have the reputation that Tales Of Terror and Price's other Poe films enjoy today and the budget shows, it's still a lot of fun.

Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954)

Starring Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, Nestor Paiva
Directed by Jack Arnold
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

An expedition on the Amazon river in search of an ancient fossil comes across a missing link between man and fish whose attacks turn deadly.

One of Universal Picture's "classic monsters," although he came decades after Dracula, Frankenstein, and the rest, the Creature From The Black Lagoon makes a memorable debut in this picture, well-directed by Arnold.  The highlight of the film is the impressive creature makeup which looks great whether the beast is swimming underwater or stalking its victims on land, but the production also boasts a strong cast, and impressive underwater photography.  It's a genuine sci-fi classic which proved popular enough to spawn two sequels.

The Black Scorpion (1957)

Starring Richard Denning, Mara Corday, Carlos Rivas, Mario Navarro, Carlos Muzquiz

Directed by Edward Ludwig
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A pair of geologists in Mexico trace savage killings in the wake of a volcanic eruption and earthquake to a horde of giant scorpions, freed from their subterranean lair by the disaster.

Another of the giant insect movies of the 1950s, this one boasts excellent stop-motion animation effects overseen by Willis O'Brien, who pioneered creature effects of this kind in the classic King Kong.  This film doesn't compare to that masterpiece, but remains a fun effort, much in the same vein as 1954's Them!, with Denning and Rivas tracing the beasts back to their underground nest and attempting to re-trap them inside.  Although O'Brien and his team supplement the animation with effectively grotesque mockups of the scorpions' heads, these aren't integrated too well in the film, and according to Wikipedia, a number of scenes where we only see the scorpions' silhouettes represent unfinished work by O'Brien's unit because they ran out of money.  Nevertheless, I've found this to be one of the more enjoyable monster pictures of the 1950s, and one well worth revisiting to experience and appreciate O'Brien's wizardry.