The She-Creature (1956)

Starring Chester Morris, Tom Conway, Cathy Downs, Lance Fuller, Marla English
Directed by Edward L. Cahn
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A mentalist runs a sideshow attraction in which he mentally regresses a young woman to her past lives, but one of those is a prehistoric monster that commits murders in the seaside community.

We have here one of the early films distributed by American Releasing/American International Pictures and notably one in which Roger Corman was not involved, but plenty of his past and future collaborators were.  It also is worthy of attention for starring Chester Morris, a familiar 1930s and 1940s leading man in a slew of detective pictures.  I read that producer Alex Gordon had wanted to get John Carradine for the role, and Carradine would have been excellent, and an improvement on Morris, but Morris is capable enough playing the role with a creepy visage highlighted by bags under his eyes and a sinister mustache.  Paul Blaisdell provides and acts in the monster outfit, which is structurally similar to several of his other monster costumes, but has some unique twists.  The picture's certainly low-budget, but I think it has a number of problems beyond financial limitations, starting with Fuller's extremely low key leading man, whose romance with English is relegated to scenes of them talking with the sound removed, and several unexplained developments in the script, including why Morris is using English to kill in the first place.  Still, the movie's not unwatchable, and it's fun to spot all the familiar 1950s actors in the cast.

12 To The Moon (1960)

Starring Ken Clark, Michi Kobi, Tom Conway, Tony Dexter, John Wengraf
Directed by David Bradley
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

An international crew of scientists take off on a rocket ship to land on and investigate the moon, which they discover is a dangerous world with a hidden civilization.

Writer/producer Fred Gebhardt offers a science fiction tale with low-grade special effects, but the quality of the actors and some excitement in the script made this an enjoyable programmer for me.  Starring Ken Clark as the American commander, Tom Conway as a Russian geologist, John Wengraf as the German designer of the spacecraft, and Michi Kobi and Anna-Lisa as the ladies aboard, there's a number of interesting personalities to pay attention to.  Cory Devlin, as the Nigerian navigator, was especially interesting to me, allowed to showcase his intelligence and spirituality, without a sign of stereotype, and treated by his shipmates and the screenplay with respect.  A subplot involving Wengraf's shame of his father, and Richard Weber's hatred of that man, seems unnecessary but makes up what little conflict there is among the crew.  As our crew traipses out upon the moon, the perils are low-tech but believable enough, and Michael Andersen's score brings some eeriness and tension to those scenes.  The film is far from a great science fiction entry, and may not even be as good as Gebhardt's followup, The Phantom Planet, which reuses some of the costumes and opticals.  I found it to be enjoyable enough however, and worth my time.

The Atomic Submarine (1959)

Starring Arthur Franz, Dick Foran, Brett Halsey, Tom Conway, Paul Dubov
Directed by Spencer G. Bennet
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

The crew of an atomic submarine are tasked with patrolling the Arctic Circle, and stopping an unknown adversary that's been destroying vessels, which they discover is not from this Earth.

One of a number of films in the 1950s produced by special effects artists Irving Block, Jack Rabin, and Louis DeWitt, this is one of their most impressive looking, despite having to combine their visuals with a large amount of stock footage.  The alien ship is effectively designed and smartly shrouded in darkness for much of the picture, and its unique occupant is appropriately striking and fearsome.  Orville Hampton's script is also well-composed, although a subplot creating conflict between Franz and Halsey is while topical a bit too familiar a trope.  The ensemble cast however is most welcome, with Franz a familiar sci-fi headliner, Foran good to see as the sub's determined commander, Conway memorable as a thoughtful scientist, and veteran screen cowboy Bob Steele enjoyable as the sub's grizzled chief petty officer.  The eerie electronic music score by Alexander Laszlo helps create a suspenseful mood throughout and combined with the visuals and the experienced cast makes this an entertaining picture on what had to have been a limited budget.

Bride Of The Gorilla (1951)

Starring Barbara Payton, Lon Chaney Jr., Raymond Burr, Tom Conway, Paul Cavanagh
Directed by Curt Siodmak
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

The foreman of a jungle plantation murders the owner in order to have his attractive young wife, but is then cursed by a native servant into becoming something far from human.

Written and directed by Curt Siodmak, who wrote several screenplays for the classic Universal horror films of the 1940s, the picture has been compared by film historian Tom Weaver to The Wolf Man, which Siodmak also scripted, as I recall from a commentary where he noted a number of interesting parallels between the two productions.  This movie is not in the same league as that film, but Burr has a brutish presence that works for his character, and although Chaney is not ideally cast as a native police commissioner, he approaches the role seriously and pulls it off with distinction.  Payton as the film's star is lovely to look at but her performance didn't make much of an impact on me- I thought she was a bit better in Four Sided Triangle.  For my money, Siodmak wasn't as talented a director as he was a writer, and that may hurt this film a bit, which drags here and there, but thought he was successful in creating a memorable jungle setting and atmosphere.

I Walked With A Zombie (1943)

Starring James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway, Edith Barrett, James Bell
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A nurse travels to an island in the West Indies to take over the care of a plantation owner's invalid wife, and wonders if the voodoo-practicing natives might be able to cure her.

One of Val Lewton's best films, and although for me it doesn't have quite the same impact as Cat People, what it does have is wonderful direction from Tourneur, excellent photography and editing, and a memorable song commenting on the film from calypso singer Sir Lancelot.  The romance between Dee and Conway isn't quite successfully realized, and the picture's a bit too brief to delve deeply enough into the native rituals and the estranged relationship between Conway and Ellison's characters.  Nevertheless, I'd still rank it as a horror classic and worthwhile viewing.

Cat People (1942)

Starring Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Jack Holt
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A ship designer falls for an exotic Serbian sketch artist, but although they agree to marry, she is tormented by a fear that she is descended from the evil cat people of her village.

Producer Val Lewton's first in a series of horror films for RKO Pictures that aimed to build terror through shadow and suggestion rather than with onscreen frights, it's my favorite of his pictures, and arguably the best of the bunch.  Very well scripted by DeWitt Bodeen, and effectively staged by director Tourneur, it's a genuine classic with a fine performance by Simon and some wonderfully suspenseful scenes including Simon's silent stalking of Randolph on a dark street at night and in an unoccupied swimming pool.  Although the integration of Simon with a real-life panther could have been handled better in my opinion, there's not much else to criticize, except that Lewton's follow-ups never quite had the same impact as this film.

Voodoo Woman (1957)

Starring Marla English, Tom Conway, Touch Connors, Lance Fuller, Mary Ellen Kay
Directed by Edward L. Cahn
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A greedy woman in search of a fortune in the African jungle stops at nothing, while a mad scientist schemes to create a powerful monster.

Perhaps most notable for actor Russ Bender's work on the screenplay, he doesn't exactly distinguish himself in this rather preposterous jungle thriller, although it's bizarreness helps it to qualify as a guilty pleasure.  A definite low point in refined actor Conway's career, which has him don a ludicrous native headress in order to collaborate with the voodoo practicing natives, but English gets the most attention as a tough talking murderous femme whose character development doesn't get beyond a line revealing she grew up in the slums of Pittsburgh.  The production would make an interesting double-bill with English's previous feature, The She-Creature, which also featured a female monster.

The Seventh Victim (1943)

Starring Tom Conway, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell, Kim Hunter, Evelyn Brent
Directed by Mark Robson
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

After her sister disappears, a young woman travels to New York to find her, and fears she is in danger when she encounters characters who don't want her to be found.

Not quite a mystery, and not quite a horror film, although with elements of each, this picture is still enjoyable, although it might have been better off committing to one genre or the other.  Part of producer Val Lewton's series of films meant to induce terror through suggestion by leaving anything horrific offscreen, it does has some memorable scenes, including a murder committed in the dark and a memorable chase near the film's climax.  Still, a greater emphasis on twists and turns in the mystery, or greater focus on the nefarious activities of the film's villains, might have elevated this to something even better.  The film's casting is notable, with Tom Conway reprising his role from the unrelated Lewton picture Cat People, Hugh Beaumont of TV's "Leave It To Beaver," and future Oscar-winner* Kim Hunter in her film debut.

*Per IMDB, Kim Hunter won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in A Streetcar Named Desire