The Black Raven (1943)

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It is a dark and stormy night . . .
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US / 61 minutes / bw / Sigmund Neufeld Productions, PRC Dir: Sam Newfield Pr: Sigmund Neufeld Scr: Fred Myton Cine: Robert Cline Cast: George Zucco, Noel Madison, Byron Foulger, Robert Middlemass, Charlie Middleton, Robt. Randall, Wanda McKay, Glenn Strange, I. Stanford Jolley.

Years ago Amos Bradford (Zucco) was a criminal mastermind known as The Black Raven. Now he runs a remote inn, also called The Black Raven, somewhere near the border with Canada. Tonight a stranger arrives, Whitey Cole (Jolley)—although he’s no stranger to Amos, but the partner he left to carry the can when he evaded the cops one final time before assuming the mantle of respectability. Whitey’s escaped from the pen with ten years of his sentence still to go. Now he wants to settle up with Amos one last time . . .

Whitey Cole (I. Stanford Jolley) arrives on the scene.

But then Amos’s dimwit handyman, Andy (Strange), bursts in out of the howling gale, and between the two of them Amos and Andy (yes, really) subdue Whitey:

Andy: “What was the matter? Didn’t he like the service?”
Amos: “He’s suffering from rabid delusions aggravated by a moronic mentality.”
Andy: “Is that bad?”

Other guests arrive seeking shelter from the storm, all of them in one way or another relying on the inn’s reputation as the last stopping point on the way to refuge in Canada. First to arrive is gangster Mike Bardoni (Madison)—his name spelled “Baroni” in a newspaper headline we see, but that’s B-movies for you. He knows of Amos’s past as The Black Raven and wants his aid in

Violent Years, The (1956)

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From the master pen of Ed Wood Jr, a taut exploitationer promoting hot babes and, um, Christian family values?
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US / 61 minutes / bw / Headliner, Dél Dir: Wm. M. Morgan Pr: Roy Reid Scr: Edward D. Wood Jr Cine: Wm. C. Thompson Cast: Jean Moorhead, Barbara Weeks, Arthur Millan, Theresa Hancock, Joanne Cangi, Gloria Farr, Glen Corbett (i.e., Glenn Corbett), Lee Constant, I. Stanford Jolley, Timothy Farell (i.e., Timothy Farrell), F. Chan McClure, Bruno Metsa, Harry Keaton.

We know this is going to be a somber movie centered on earnest social comment because, as four lovely young women take turns walking dismissively in front of a chalkboard that bears the words

Good Citizenship—
—Self Restraint—
—Politeness—
—Loyalty—

there’s a portentous voiceover spelling out just the kind of moral lesson we should draw from the piece:

“This is a story of violence, of violence born of the uncontrolled passions of adolescent youth and

Criminals Within (1943)

US / 67 minutes / bw / PRC Dir: Joseph Lewis (i.e., Joseph H. Lewis) Pr: E.B. Derr Scr: Edward Bennett Story: Arthur Hoerl Cine: Arthur Martinelli Cast: Eric Linden, Ben Alexander, Don Curtis, Ann Doran, Constance Worth, Dudley Dickerson, Bernice Pilot, I. Stanford Jolley, George Lynn, Robert Frazer, Boyd Irwin, Dennis Moore.

Professor Carroll (Lynn) is one of a number of scientists working on a new high explosive for Military Intelligence. When he’s murdered, attention turns to his brother Greg (Linden), a trickster corporal at Army base Camp Madison. The base appears to be riddled with spies, among them Alma Barton (Worth), who runs the commissary and who sneaks messages out to Fifth Columnists via crooked cobbler Carl Flegler (Jolley) in the trick heel of one of her shoes. (Although it’s nowhere stated which country the spies work for, by implication they’re Nazis.)

A list of the names and addresses of the scientists who’ve been working on the explosive goes missing from the office of Captain Bryant (Frazer), and Greg’s put in the guardhouse on suspicion of having stolen it; he breaks out and, when Bryant’s found dead, it’s assumed Greg’s the killer. With the help of his good buddy Sergeant Paul (Alexander), Greg escapes the base, finds Alma murdered, hooks up with reporter Linda (Doran), exposes the nest of vipers, dodges death and bullets, and discovers his “good buddy” isn’t everything he seems.

Director Lewis would of course go on to helm some of noir’s classics, like MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS (1945), GUN CRAZY 1949), CRY OF THE HUNTED (1953) and The BIG COMBO (1955). This is a barebones production with a clumsy script and some mediocre acting, and it seems Lewis’s heart wasn’t really in it (there have even been suggestions that, despite the screen credit, he did not in fact direct it — that it was a different Joseph Lewis). Dickerson and Pilot play, respectively, Camp Madison’s gofer Sam Dillingham and Linda’s housemaid Mamie, Sam’s girlfriend; in the offensive stereotyping Hollywood then thought was comical, they’re portrayed as simple-minded but good-hearted buffoons. Linden’s fairly good and Doran turns in a highly appealing performance, while Worth’s sizzle is timeless. In one odd scripting moment, Linda refers to Greg as “about six feet tall” when it’s perfectly obvious to all that Greg/Linden is actually quite slight.

The movie was made in 1941 but held back for two years, presumably—as with a few others of its era—for fear of offending any Nazi sympathizers in the audience.

On Amazon.com: Criminals Within