Mord in der Sierra Nevada

I do not know director William Witney, never heard of him before and doubt very much that I will in the future on the strength of this mediocre effort.

The film's greatest merit is its clear photography. The script has more character inconsistencies and holes than Swiss cheese (Marla English keeps jumping from the arms of Jan Merlin to those of Ben Cooper and back, and no one seems to mind as plain-faced Joan Evans starts smooching Cooper too, for instance).

Merlin has the plum role, playing the nefarious, impulsive, trigger happy but not stupid Kutner. What detracts from a successful performance is the poor script that has him suddenly and needlessly kill a compliant security van driver, then fail not kill Cooper when he could and probably should. Although he uncovers Cooper's and Evans' ploy involving a portable radio, he fails to detect that blocked nose, constantly sniffing Nick Adams has replaced the heist dough with pine cones, and finally crazily places himself in the line of fire.

Supposed femme fatale English is not that fatal, except to herself (she gets a stiff prison sentence). Besides traveling between the arms of Merlin and Cooper, and leaving a gun for the latter to pick up and point at Merlin, English's most memorable moments involve her light clothing and high heel shoes while everyone else wears warm clothes and the snow builds up outside.

Pretty boy Cooper seems in love with English, then falls for Evans. You can see that he is the one who can do something to turn the tables on Merlin and Adams, but at the crucial moment he fails to make meaningful use of the gun English gives him. He also drives a car needlessly fast when he is not even being chased - the script never clarifies whether he is just a fast driver by nature.

Talking about Nature: the sudden change from sunny weather to snow is too improbable for words. How Cooper and the authorities track down the heist stash hidden in the snow is never explained, you just learn that Cooper and Evans are getting a reward for returning the proceeds, when a minute earlier Cooper kept repeating that he had had nothing to do with replacing the money with pine cones, and had no idea where the dosh might be.

Too many character motivation holes, not enough action, bad script. Waste of valuable time.

I have no idea why this film exists, nor what audience it was intended for. This 1955 Republic drama in widescreen looks terrific and allows for some great L. A. background of the era. Adele Palmer costumes are good and the cast are quite effective, especially Ben Cooper. The film almost exists just to make a good trailer, which is well worth seeing how they salvaged the best bits for that. So much of the information is not shown, eg that Ben is a hot rod driver, so they just tell us. Also I have never seen a film end so abruptly. They just tell us what happened and cut to the fade out. I really enjoy Republic titles especially mid 50s but this one plays like Television in Cinemascope and contrives scenes and locations just to make a good trailer glimpse. The snow tractor on the poster is only there for 30 sec. I wanted to like this more but was continually shortchanged by the film just being cheap and silly. However days afterwards I kept thinking about it and how I now now want to see it again. Republic made about a dozen of these really cheap widescreen action dramas at the time and whilst each are interesting in their low budget way, they really are a suburban time capsule of their time. I have no idea who would go to see these in any cinema when first released. SNOWBOUND HOODLUMS would have been a far better title.

This is quite an unremarkable 50's crime flick. It's about a gang of armed robbers who take a young hotrod hostage and hide out in the mountains in an isolated weather station, taking a further two innocent people hostage.

The whole thing is quite contrived and although it's not particularly interesting it's not that bad either. It's a pretty cheap production but the cast acquit themselves OK, and the story moves along at a decent pace. Things are ultimately wrapped up what is close to a non-ending. It's a half-hearted resolution at best.

Overall it's really not that strange an adventure. But, you know what, I've seen a lot worse.

"A young man with a passion for hot rods and pretty girls finds himself in trouble when he gets mixed-up with some criminals. A pretty border at his mother's motel talks our hero into a drive that ends up as a part of her gang's armored car robbery. Forced to drive them to a remote cabin to hide from the police, our hero must think of a way to save he and his fellow hostages, and foil the plans of the bank robbers," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

A dullish 1950s "rebellious youth" film. Ben Cooper (as Harold Norton) is the passionate hot rod man. Marla English (as Lynn Novak) is the beautifully built gangster's "Doll", who lures innocent Mr. Cooper into the fold. She alternates between Cooper and gang leader boyfriend Jan Merlin (as Al Kutner). Later on, the sweet sister and brother team of Joan Evans and Peter Miller (as Terry and Luther Dolgin) are taken hostage by Mr. Merlin. Nick Adams (as Phil Davis) fights off a cold, and assists Merlin.

**** A Strange Adventure (1956) William Witney ~ Ben Cooper, Marla English, Jan Merlin

Young hot-rodder Harold Norton helps out at the family motel. He falls for seductive guest Lynn Novak who is joined by two men. They turn out to be robbers. They have an inside man for their armored truck heist. After losing a guy, they need a new getaway driver.

This is a crime B-movie. Everything is generally B in this one. Sadly, it's a scale from A to B. The acting is broad melodramatic or stiff. The production is weak. There are holes in the story which includes a whiplash weather change. It's all very 50's. It needs better action to distract from all the bad acting and general problems.