Prime Time: Nightmare (1956)

I didn’t mean to watch two film noirs in a row that star Kevin McCarthy, but here we are. It isn’t a problem though, largely because of how much I love Kevin McCarthy, and it helps that he gets to share the lead duties with Edward G. Robinson in this twisty tale.

McCarthy plays Stan Grayson, a musician who has just experienced a very vivid nightmare in which he killed a man. The problem that Stan has is that he isn’t sure it was just a dream. Although he hasn’t experienced any overwhelming urge to kill someone, Stan starts to realise that certain details are pointing towards him having actually committed murder. Fortunately, his brother-in-law (Rene, played by Robinson) is also a police officer, and the two start trying to figure out if any crime has occurred, and how it happened.

Directed by Maxwell Shane, who also adapted the Cornell Woolrich novel into screenplay form (for a second time, having turned it into Fear In The Night about ten years before this), Nightmare is a fun little thriller that feels like some great feature-length TV show episode. There’s no big spectacle, and viewers are welcomed in at the very start with the lure of a mystery due to be solved, but the script is fun, and the cast do well to ensure that it’s never a slog.

McCarthy is constantly nervous and tense, a man struggling to believe the unbelievable as evidence around him starts to mount up. Robinson is a good contrast, confident and curious about where the journey will take them, but always having faith that there is a strange truth to be discovered . . . even if that truth is the guilt of his brother-in-law. Virginia Christine and Connie Russell are the two main women alongside the male leads, although they’re not given too much to do, and Gage Clark comes along just in time to kickstart the chain of events leading to a revelatory finale.

I enjoyed Nightmare, but it doesn’t do enough to save it from feeling just a bit too slight. It’s fun, and thrilling, but far from the best of film noir from this era. McCarthy and Robinson ensure it is always watchable though, and any fans of those actors should give 90 minutes of their time to checking this out. You’ll probably never rewatch it, but viewing it once is recommended. Just.

6/10

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Drive A Crooked Road (1954)

Although a fairly lightweight film noir (which viewers may already suspect is the case when they see Mickey Rooney in a lead role), Drive A Crooked Road is an enjoyable, if predictable, bit of entertainment that benefits from a couple of the main performances being much better than I expected.

Rooney plays Eddie Shannon, a car mechanic/occasional racer who spends a lot of his workday being ribbed by his workmates about his lack of experience with women. That looks set to change when he meets Barbara (Dianne Foster), who seems to take a real liking to him. Barbara then introduces Eddie to one or two others (including Steve, played by Kevin McCarthy) and it isn’t long until Eddie is being invited to assist with a criminal plan that will rely on his outstanding driving skills. 

While it isn’t a big surprise to see that this was directed by Richard Quine (a dependable helmer with a few gems in his filmography), it is slightly more unexpected to see that Quine worked on the screenplay with Blake Edwards, adapting a story by James Benson Nablo. It is also unexpected to realise that the screenplay isn’t very good. This is a film that works because of the main characters, not because of any great plotting or snappy dialogue. I enjoyed it, but it isn’t a classic noir I would rush to recommend to others.

Rooney is fun in his role, a sweet sap you just know is going to be manipulated by those around him. He still feels more like Rooney than a fully-developed character though (a style that suited him well throughout most of his career). Foster does well in the lone central female role, believable as a potential femme fatale or as someone just as manipulated as Eddie, depending on how you view the journey of her character. But it’s McCarthy who lifts the movie, entering the action like a breath of fresh air, believably persuasive and charming before showing himself as equally believable when threatening or mistreating those who try to go against him.

While the runtime is a shade over 80 minutes, I expected this to be even shorter. It’s barely a film, often feeling more like a 4-page comic book storyline, but there’s enough to enjoy for those who aren’t looking for any kind of gold-plated classic. I had fun with it, largely due to the performance of McCarthy, and I suspect other film fans will get some enjoyment from it, even if it’s more disposable and forgettable than many other crime films from the period.

6/10

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Innerspace (1987)

An updated version of Fantastic Voyage, but with some better special effects and a fair amount of comedy added, Innerspace is another film from director Joe Dante made in the middle of a period where he could do no wrong (from the late '70s all the way through to the early '90s) . . . unless you were someone always wanting to see a decent, or indeed any, financial return from his films. Because as beloved as many of them are today, many Joe Dante movies only found a fanbase when they were discovered on VHS. The director himself perhaps views the underwhelming box office performance of this one with particular disappointment, having said that positive test screenings were followed up with a poor marketing campaign that didn't clarify exactly what kind of movie it was. An image of a tiny vehicle, and tiny pilot alongside it, being held between someone's finger and thumb may show the miniaturisation at the heart of the plot, but it doesn't reassure people that they will get a lot of laughs and entertainment.

Dennis Quaid plays Tuck Pendleton, a pilot who has volunteered to take part in a groundbreaking experiment. He will be placed in a small vehicle, miniaturised, and then injected into a bunny rabbit. But there are some villains who want the technology, which leads to some chaos, leading to Tuck actually being injected into the butt of hypochondriac Jack Putter (Martin Short). So now everyone wants the tech that is in Jack, and they’re not too bothered if Jack and Tuck survive the process. Once Tuck figures out where he is, he communicates with Jack and helps him avoid danger, also enlisting the help of Tuck’s on-off girlfriend, Lydia Maxwell (Meg Ryan).

Written by Chip Proser and Jeffrey Boam, Innerspace is a wonderful adventure that makes inventive use of the premise to blend a lot of comedy with many family-friendly thrills. Simply focusing on the voyager inside the human body could have been a showcase for special effects, but may have also become quite dull after the initial excitement died down, so having Tuck able to communicate and help Jack is the masterstroke that elevates this above the film it most closely resembles.

Whether you tend to love or hate the films of Dante, and I fall firmly into the former camp, there’s no denying that he excels at creating films that satisfy a wide audience demographic, with younger viewers impressed by FX work, laughs, and thrills, and older viewers also able to appreciate the many references to the history of cinema, and Loony Tunes cartoons.

The other thing that Dante so often does is cast well, and Innerspace certain benefits from superb casting. Quaid is at his cocky, charming, best as Tuck, and this is one of many fine comedic performances from Martin Short that serve to highlight what a superb actor he is. Ryan is at the start of a run of performances that would mark her out as a female lead that everyone fell in love with for a number of years. Robert Picardo, Kevin McCarthy, and Dick Miller all appear, of course, playing The Cowboy, a main villain, and a taxi driver seen in one scene, respectively, and all are as great as ever, with Picardo having the most fun of the three. Fiona Lewis is also a villain, working in tandem with McCarthy, and Vernon Wells is a menacing “henchman” who could easily be part of any James Bond movie (his fake hand providing one of the more amusingly risqué gags in the film). There are also great little turns from Henry Gibson, Wendy Schaal, and a number of other familiar faces.

Arguably the most straightforward family film from Dante during this period of his career, Innerspace is everything you could want from a polished blockbuster. Lots of fun ideas, a cast of memorable characters, great set-pieces, and an ending that is so enjoyable I end up watching the footage that plays out over the credits every single time. There’s also another great Jerry Goldsmith score, and great use of the song “Twistin’ The Night Away”. The only main issue is the pacing of the first half, which could have been tweaked to get to all the fun stuff a bit quicker. 

Sometimes the best things do come in the smallest packages.

8/10

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The Midnight Hour (1985)

A horror comedy from the mid-1980s, The Midnight Hour has maintained a small, but loyal, fanbase, and with good reason. It's a cracking little movie, and something that would fit perfectly in any Halloween schedule. If you haven't seen it yet then do give it a go. If you have seen it then do your bit to promote it to everyone else.

The plot is quite simple. A bunch of teenagers decide to pretend to raise the dead one Halloween night, and end up actually raising the dead. Of course, they don't know it at the time. The town starts to be overrun by strange ghouls and evil creatures while the teens focus on enjoying a Halloween party. They can't remain oblivious to the situation forever, but will they realise what's going on before too many people are transformed into creatures of the night?

Written by William Bleich, and directed by Jack Bender, this is an atmospheric movie that makes up for a lack of any real frights with a great sense of fun, and that Halloween spirit poured over almost every main scene. It also gets away with a musical moment that's genuinely enjoyable, despite the fact that it should be eye-rollingly cheesy. Bleich may not have written the best dialogue, but he sets everything up quickly enough and allows for a lot of satisfying character moments throughout. Bender takes the material, and boosts it with great visual style, and plenty of dry ice.

The cast is a good mix of great actors and likable folk, with my particular favourites being Dedee Pfeiffer, LeVar Burton, Kurtwood Smith and Kevin McCarthy. Lee Montgomery is the nominal lead, and does okay, while Shari Belafonte and Jonna Lee stand out as two very different young women hoping to make the most of their Halloween night. And the voice of Wolfman Jack bellowing out of the radio is a huge bonus, as is the quite wonderful soundtrack (seriously, this is a soundtrack that I would buy immediately).

If you like the horror movies of Fred Dekker and Joe Dante, and I can't think of too many people who don't, then this is for you. It has a similiar vibe, both in the way it's respectful to the genre conventions while also playing around with them slightly and also in how it shows darkness seeping into an unprepared small town in America.

A perfect film to watch while sitting in the dark, perhaps accompanied by the flickering light of a jack-o-lantern.

8/10

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