(1951)
Dir - Arch Oboler
Overall: MEH
Made independently on a meager $75,000 by Chicago-born filmmaker Arch Oboler, Five is a bare-bones post-apocalyptic film with, unfortunately, very little to say. As the title would properly suggest, it focuses on five character, (all played by lesser known actors of the time), who cross paths at an isolated hillside house and try to set about conducting themselves respectfully in the now extinct world that they live in. Well, all but one of the characters try and do such a thing; a foreign mountain climber who washes up on the beach and proceeds to just be an asshole for no reason. On only a surface level, the film deals with some of the same racial tension explored more prominently in Ranald MacDougall's The World, the Flesh, and the Devil eight years later, as the aforementioned, douchebag cast away reveals himself to be a racist as well. Yet this and all of the other events s in Oboler's story do not present any compelling social or psychological dilemmas. None of the characters have anything interesting to say or do, plus coupled with the threadbare budget, it does not afford any exciting set pieces save for brief detour to a devastated city with fake skeletons sitting in cars and a siren perpetually blaring.
(1957)
Dir - Paul Landres
Overall: MEH
Though competently made in spite of its undetected production values, Paul Landres first of two low-budget, contemporary undead films The Vampire, (Mark of the Vampire), deserves points for its singular approach to its subject matter at least, but unfortunately that very approach wields lackluster results. For one, this is a "vampire" movie in name only as it concerns a local doctor who simply turns into a Mr. Hyde brute with amnesia due to some experimental bat blood pills that he is taking. Also, we do not even see actor John Beal in his beastly form until about ten minutes are left in the running time, which may be for the best since the crude, dirty putty make-up job is nothing to write home about. Shot in only six days and featuring a handful of hardly notable thespians, it is more agreeable than most drive-in cheappies from a technical level since the performances are all solid and one would have to stretch to nitpick any unintended schlock. Still, the sincere approach is hardly enough to forgive its lack of ominous atmosphere and uninteresting mythos-tweaking ideas, presenting us with virtually no action and a B-movie monster that hardly does anything on screen until he is easily and unceremoniously shot to death by regular bullets.
(1959)
Dir - Roy Del Ruth
Overall: MEH
A potboiler monster film made as a double feature with 20th Century Fox' own Return of the Fly, The Alligator People also serves as the penultimate directorial effort from Roy Del Ruth. Lon Chaney Jr. appears as the type of character that he was all too often stuck with playing during the second half of his alcohol-fueled career, (namely a dim-witted brute), and he does an effortless though efficient job with a hook arm and southern accent to boot. The makeup effects by veterans Dick Smith and Ben Nye are not half bad at least when Richard Crane's human features are still detectable. Once he starts running around in an alligator mask, rubber torso, and jeans though, it all becomes laughable as does his gargly, reptilian voice. Such unintended humor is forgivable due to the B-movie budget in play which gives it a campy charm despite the sincere performances. Del Ruth thankfully keeps up an agreeable pace even if the script is predictable and ends with a whimper; a script which had a number of hands working on it both officially and unofficially, which could be part of the problem. All things considered, it is certainly better than hoards of other even cheaper creature productions from the period, (looking at you Roger Corman), and at a mere seventy-four minutes with Chaney in fine, sweaty form, it deserves a passing grade.
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