Fortunately, the folks at VCI understand that people actually do watch these sort of movies (no matter how bad they can be at times) and have assembled another 3-disc collection of movies (licensed to Kit Parker Films) for connoisseurs of gritty photography, abstract lighting, overly dramatic femme fatales, and guys that speak in analogies and mixed-metaphors.

Disc One
David Harding, Counterspy (1950) - Directed by Ray Nazzaro - Based on the popular radio series “Counterspy”.  Our title character, David Harding (Howard St. John) isn’t even the film’s hero, but rather the storyteller who relates the tale of Naval Officer Lt. Cmdr. Baldwin (Willard Parker) and his brush with enemy spies during World War II.  Audrey Long, Harlan Wade, Alex Gerry, and Raymond Greenleaf co-star.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Yeah, it’s a great title (and if the Academy handed out awards for the Goofiest-Sounding Title, this one would probably win!) but it’s nowhere near as catchy as “Fred Garvin, Male Prostitute”.  The script for this quickie B-Movie was probably rushed together within a week.  Try finding some recordings of the radio series instead.

Danger Zone (1951) - Directed by William A. Berke - Hugh Beaumont (yes, the Beav’s dad) gets as noir as noir can get (complete with overcoat and voiceover narration) in this low-budget tale of a San Francisco P.I. named Dennis O’Brien (who gets knocked out and fingered for a killing in every segment).  By all outward appearances, this 56min long epic could have been the Pilot and 2nd Episode of an unaired television series (the first and second halves of the story are completely unrelated), but as the story goes, it was quite the opposite (more on that later).  The only connections present in each part are two characters: Lt. Bruger (Richard Travis), the dumb-ass cop who is always ready to pin the crime of the week on O’Brien, and Professor Schicker (Edward Brophy), O’Brien’s well read, thesaurus-for-a-vocabulary friend.  A series like this would probably be a big hit today.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Hmmm, Danger Zone?  Did Kenny Loggins just pop in your head, too?  Seeing Beaumont as a P.I. is a nice change of pace (especially if you’ve only ever seen him in “Leave It To Beaver”) but seeing character actor Brophy as the Professor had me grinning with delight (Brophy appeared several dozen films throughout the 30s and 40s and also provided the voice for Timothy Q. Mouse in Disney’s Dumbo).  Released theatrically by Lippert Pictures.

The Big Chase (1954) - Directed by Arthur Hilton - And what a big chase it is, too!  But first, you have to contend with 35 minutes of footage shot a full year after the exciting climax was released.  You see, the great Robert L. Lippert had this bright idea: let’s make a 3D short that is nothing but action and assigned his son, Robert, Jr., to oversee the whole project.  The result was Bandit Island with Jim Davis and Lon Chaney, Jr. as a couple of hoods on the run and Glenn Langan as the cop in pursuit.  A year later, Senior, not one to waste footage, assigned Junior to get a few of the actors from Bandit Island back and shoot some wraparound footage - hence, The Big Chase.  Douglas Kennedy (The Amazing Transparent Man), Adele Jergens, and Joe Flynn (“McHale’s Navy”) are in the new scenes.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Unfortunately, one actor from Bandit Island didn’t return for the new footage and so, about forty minutes into the film, Lon Chaney, Jr. appears out of nowhere (and yet he received third billing).  Another great big continuity error has Langan chasing Jim Davis to the “getaway island” via a helicopter and then, having defeated him, strolls over to his patrol car to radio in!

Disc Two
Mr. District Attorney (1947) - Directed by Robert B. Sinclair - Wait a sec here… a D.A. that’s a good guy?  My, how times have changed!  After walking out on his job at a big law firm because he knew his client was guilty (what a guy, eh?), Steve Bennett (Dennis O’Keefe) is immediately hired by District Attorney Craig Warren (Adolphe Menjou), a very loud man who enjoys yelling at and firing others over their incompetence and yet, somehow, keeps a cynical, sarcastic little man (Michael O’Shea) as his personal assistant (which for some weird reason reminded me of my workplace - if the guy had have been named Adam, it would be my workplace!).  Tensions grow when Steve falls for a woman named Marcia Manning (Marguerite Chapman, The Amazing Transparent Man) and Dennis suspects her of being a rat.  George Coulouris, Jeff Donnell, Steven Geray, and Ralph Morgan co-star.  Based on the popular radio series of the same name.

Luigi’s Useless Information: If you look closely in this film, you’ll see a number of familiar faces, including Gene Roth and Cy Schindell (the unsung, uncredited actor who appeared as a heavy in 35 shorts with The Three Stooges).  Not only did former silent film star Adolphe Menjou smell rats on film, but he smelled them off too… he hunted down alleged Communists right along side Sen. McCarthy during the Red Scare and was highly criticized (and rightfully so) because of his ultra-right-wing politics.  The witch hunter died of hepatitis in 1963.

Ringside (1949) - Directed by Frank McDonald - This Robert L. Lippert release begins with a whimper and becomes even less interesting from there on in.  A musician seeks revenge on the dirty fighters who blinded his brother in the ring, so he takes on the champ (under an alias).  Pretty bland stuff.  Don “Red” Barry and Tom Brown play the boxing brothers, Sheila Ryan and Margia Dean play the love interests.  Lyle Talbot plays a ring announcer.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Wait ‘til you get this one, kids: the storyteller in this movie is the boxing ring.  Yes, that’s exactly what I said: the friggin’ boxing ring talks to us, folks!  How did they expect us to take this one seriously… a boxing ring??!!

Hi-Jacked (1950) - Directed by Sam Newfield - Another Lippert masterpiece.  Jim Davis plays Joe Harper, a poor truck-driving schmuck that keeps getting hi-jacked by the bad guys.  Trouble is, the bad guys are being tipped off by his Harper’s own boss and, being an ex-con, the police suspect Harper himself!  Two of the baddies are played by David Bruce and the great Sid Melton.  Marcia May Jones plays Davis’ lonely and neglected wife.  Paul Cavanagh, Ralph Sanford, House Peters, Jr., and Iris Adrian (as a loud-mouthed waitress) co-star.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Sid Melton is sometimes considered to be funny - and he may or may not be… it all depends on how old you are, where you were born, and what you had for breakfast this morning.  House Peters, Jr. was a veteran of several Saturday Matinee Serials and was also the first Mr. Clean in a series of television commercials.

Disc Three
Scotland Yard Inspector (1953) - Directed by Sam Newfield - The wonderful Cesar Romero lends his talent to this oft-amusing U.S./U.K. co-production as Phil O’Dell, an American detective in London who is asked by young Heather McMara (Bernadette O’Farrell) to investigate the hit-and-run death of her brother (who is played by Richard Johnson, although you really cannot tell in the dark like that).  Lois Maxwell and Geoffrey Keen - both of whom were in the James Bond series - co-star.  Originally released in the U.K. as Lady In The Fog in 1952 (Robert L. Lippert released it Stateside a year later).

Luigi’s Useless Information: I actually saw this once on AMC (and recorded it - I think I still have that VHS cassette, too!).  Cesar Romero’s introduction in this grand film has he and bartender Wensley Pithey (who played Winston Churchill onscreen at least four times!) sitting in a desolate bar concocting a lethal drink known as the “Dusseldorf Detonator”.  As a former “executive beverage consultant” (my own title), this scene brought back some fond memories of sitting in a barren bar after hours… experimenting with different mixtures, trying our utmost best to create the “ultimate” invention.  Ah, those were the days and the nights… but those mornings afterward weren’t so hot, though.

Pier 23 (1951) - Directed by William A. Berke - If you didn’t get enough of the characters in Danger Zone (see Disc One, Feature Two), here they are again!  Dennis O’Brien is asked to pick up an escapee from Alcatraz by a priest and finds himself hit on the head (again) and framed for murder (again).  In the second half, our hero is asked to place a bet on an aging fighter and somehow winds up with a bump on his head and another murder wrap from good ol’ Inspector Bruger (Richard Travis) to beat again.

Luigi’s Useless Information: This was the third in a trilogy of films created by Robert L. Lippert (the middle one being 1951s Roaring City).  Each feature-length film was comprised of two completely unrelated vignettes and were made to saturate the theaters before being split-up and sold to television as six different episodes (say what you will about him, but Lippert was anything but a schnook).  Serial/B-Movie regular Stanley Price served as a Dialogue Coach in all three films and appears in this one.

The Case Of The Baby-Sitter (1947) - Directed by Lambert Hillyer - Tom Neal took some time out of his busy schedule to show up for a few minutes of shooting on this one (as a detective), but Allen Jenkins is the real star here.  The plot (what there is of it) involves the theft of a valuable diamond (and a baby, too).  Jenkins is the goofy gumshoe that gets the prestigious honor of watching after the kid.  Tom Kennedy appears as a beat cop.  The entire movie runs a staggering 40 minutes long!  From the director of Dracula’s Daughter and The Batman (1943).

Luigi’s Useless Information: Tom Neal pulled an O.J. Simpson/Robert Blake long before it was fashionable: his wife Gale was found dead from a bullet to the back of her head and he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison (he was out in six and died eight months after that).  O.J. and Blake had better lawyers.  Neal was also notorious for once beating fellow actor Franchot Tone into a bloody pulp over actress Barbara Payton (she was seeing Neal and engaged to Tone at the time).  Sound like an interesting bit of Hollywood Babylon?  It is.  Look it up sometime.

Presentation
Each movie is presented Full Frame (the way they were made).  While a number of the flicks in this set look pretty good, a few of them show their age (and wear).  If I had to pick the best-looking film out of the bunch, I’d chose David Harding, Counterspy - it looks positively super (Hi-Jacked and Scotland Yard Inspector could tie for the least-attractive looking of the bunch).  All of the films in this set contain 2.0 Mono Stereo tracks and some of them have a weird 2.0 Surround Sound track, yet most of the sound comes out of the center speaker (the front left and right speakers come through, but very faint - the rear speakers seem to deliver nothing but equally faint static).  No subtitles are provided.

Extras
Disc One includes the Big Chase Interview With Robert L. Lippert, Jr. (9:07), a recreation of an Interview with Robert L. Lippert, Jr. as conducted by Tom Weaver.  The phony interview discusses the origin of the (color?) 3D short Bandit Island and how it became The Big Chase a year later (reportedly, Lon Chaney, Jr. lent his creativity to the two-reeler).  The second Bonus Feature on Disc One is Lord Of The Radio, Part 1 (11:44), a Featurette about the life and work of Phillips Lord (writer/creator of numerous radio series - including “Mr. District Attorney”, “Gangbusters”, and “Counterspy” to name a few).  The Audio Featurette (set to still photos and memorabilia) is narrated by Richard Roberts and contains an audio interview with one of Lord’s daughters, Jean Lord Greenlaw.  Also on Disc One are Trailers for Motor Patrol (1:55), Portland Exposé (2:21), Terror Street (1:34).

Disc Two features an original “Mr. District Attorney” Radio Program (30:00).  The show is complete with its original commercials and the sound is very loud and crackly.  Also included on Disc Two is Lord Of The Radio, Part 2 (25:17).

Disc Three’s Special Features consist of “Pat Novak For Hire”, the original Radio Program star inspired Pier 23 (29:34), a Scotland Yard Inspector Featurette with Joel Blumberg from www.silverscreenaudio.com (15:54) and three Trailers: FBI Girl (1:51), Deadly Game (1:07), and Bad Blonde (1:43).

The Bottom Line
While it probably would have been best if some of these films had remained forgotten, the rest of them are a welcomed addition to home video and, when you consider the countless number of B-Noir films that were made from the 30s to the 50s alone, I’m sure this won’t be the last set VCI releases (and hopefully, the next ones will be available on Blu-ray, too).