Mord in der Sierra Nevada

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.

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.

Sometimes it's as if we can forgive the most trying stretches of believability, just because a film was made in an era like the 50's with a shoestring budget. I don't like that. Good, believable films were made at this time as well as clinkers. This has some things going for it, but the way these nasty characters behave is beyond imagination. They wave their guns around, threaten, but don't seem to want to act. Hostages are left to wander all over the place. There is tension among the thieves, but it is dealt with in such a silly, haphazard way, it doesn't work. A slip up of any kind, and their whole project is down the chute. If we are to believe the whole business about being locked up in the woods in the winter, it seems at some point, someone would begin to make realistic plans to get on their way. Are they already murderers? I don't know, but they could have certainly done a better job of getting on with their plot. Then there is the ending (I'm not going to do any spoilers). This is the most ho-hum, contrived mess I've ever seen. It's as if they ran out of time and just decided to create this ending. Judge for yourself. The bottom line is, people just don't act this way--they just don't.

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.

Psychopath Jan Merlin, would-be femme fatale Marla English and general bad guy Nick Adams con Ben Cooper into driving the getaway car for their armored car robbery. When they flee, they wind up at a snowed-in mountain cabin where Joan Evans and her brother, Peter Miller, are doing something for the weather bureau.

It's a nice set-up for a crime drama, and it's decently plotted, but director William Witney isn't able to bring much to it. Some of the trouble with the movie might be that it was shot for 3D, and the version I looked at was flat; certainly films converted that way are often dull. Most of the problem, however, lies with the line readings. While Adams is okay, the rest of the cast is too fresh-faced to be convincing in their dull lines and underwritten characters. Miss English gives a performance that seems more like a spoiled child than someone alluring.

There's some nice long shots of the car fleeing from the authorities, but when it comes to the actors, there's little of interest.