La mujer de las medias negras

The Girl in Black Stockings is directed by Howard W. Koch and written by Richard Landau and Peter Godfrey. It stars Lex Barker, Anne Bancroft, Mamie Van Doren, Ron Randell, John Dehner and Marie Windsor. Music is by Les Baxter and cinematography by William Margulies.

When a party girl is found murdered at a Utah hotel, everyone is under suspicion.

Miserable predatory creatures!

One of the definitions of the low budget drive-in movie, The Girl in Black Stockings is an odd and fascinating picture. In core essence it's a standard murder mystery piece, a sort of minor Ten Little Indians only with kooky overtones.

She'd get on that dance floor and fry eggs!

The characterisations, performed by a wide scope cast list, are firmly in the realm of the off kilter or suspiciously suspect! While some of the scripted dialogue is priceless and pungent with noirish tones. Plus there is lots of smoking going on to emphasise the noirish fever.

I'm gonna have to raise taxes to build a morgue!

The acting is all over the place, mind, with Tarzan leading the way doing some smell the fart acting, while others are overwrought in delivery of script. Yet the up and down acting fits into the grand scheme of Utah weirdo style, further accentuated by the swirly Gothic musical score.

Nutty and fruity, corny yet crisp, it's a fun experience. Plus there's Van Doren, who had to have had the widest mouth of all circa the 1950s. 7/10

A lot of talent is wasted in this turgid misfire. At this point in his career, director Howard W. Koch had proved himself an efficient overseer of crime dramas-- Big House USA; Shield for Murder et al. Here however his usual expert pacing dissolves into a number of static, uninvolving scenes with way too much dialogue for a slasher film.

Then too, note the lack of reaction when suspect Frankie backs into a log-cutting machine. The sheriff (John Dehner) and his deputy merely stand there expressionless, with no help from the director, after observing what is presumably a very gory accident. My guess is that Koch took one look at the script and decided to walk through the rest.

In fact, the real problem is the script, which is about as confusing as a whodunit gets. Note the five-minute explanation Dehner has to deliver in order to tie-up loose ends in the movie's last scene. Not only is his solution as complicated as a problem in higher math, but I suspect the audience has long since lost interest, anyway. Not helping either is Ron Randell's teeth-clenching attempt to play the role of a mordantly depressed cripple. But then, who could bring off all that goofy sarcasm that the script sticks in his mouth.

The real crime is not using such ace performers as Marie Windsor and Anne Bancroft to better effect, especially Windsor whose role could have been filled by a dozen lesser actresses. Note also how sexpot Mamie Van Doren's one big high-cleavage scene is highlighted. No doubt that one showed up on all the promotion posters during the age of the busty blonde. Also wasted is the spectacularly scenic landscape around Kanab, Utah, where the movie was filmed. Instead, the action only leaves the nondescript resort grounds once, to go to the lumber mill.

In fact the whole production seems a curious affair-- almost like a bunch of Hollywood types suddenly found themselves at the same Southwestern resort and decided to shoot a movie, typing up the script each night after a heavy cocktail hour. Anyhow, whatever the backstory, the resulting film amounts to a plodding and talky misfire that likely never got closer than the farthest drive-in from town.

"The Girl in Black Stockings" is an unusual murder mystery, mostly because of where it was filmed. The Parry Lodge (which is still operating) in Kanab, Utah, hosted this movie shoot. It's not far from Zion National Park and is a lovely part of the country. Too bad you didn't get to see more of the countryside in this film.

The story begins with the body of a woman found at the resort. She'd been stabbed repeatedly and the filmmakers were not timid about applying blood to the 'corpse' in this scene. Because the policeman investigating (John Dehner) assumes a guest of the hotel did it, he orders everyone to stay there. And, soon, bodies start piling up! The identity of the killer is, of course, revealed at the end and it's a bit of a surprise.

Aside from the locale, I never found this film all that exciting. Now I am not saying it's bad in any way, but more of a time-passer. And, by the way, on the poster currently on IMDB, you see mostly Mamie Van Doren on it...but she's not a major character in the film. I think they were just trying to capitalize on her...um....assets.

A pretty interesting whodunit, but too short ;the action is too hurried for comfort and some characters should have been more developed,particularly the frustrated disabled owner in his wheelchair and his companion (Marie Windsor,often cast as the bad girl,here she acts as some kind of nurse apparently devoted to her brother); Lex Barker is just OK and only in it to provide Anne Bancroft with a love interest .

The whodunit has the de rigueur unexpected twist , but then again,the explanations are a bit far-fetched .

The Girl in Black Stockings (1957)

** (out of 4)

Bizarre thriller set in a Utah resort where the body of a woman is found brutally sliced up. David Hewson (Lex Barker) was supposed to have gone out with the woman but instead went with someone else (Anne Bancroft) and soon he's looking into who did the brutal murder. It's important to note that THE GIRL IN BLACK STOCKINGS came out three years before PSYCHO or PEEPING TOM and while this film here isn't nearly as good as those two, it's worth saying that this one here beat them in regards to murder and mental illness. It also beat those two masterpieces by showing and discussing some graphic murder scenes first. This film here is too uneven and at times too poorly done to be considered "good" but I think fans of the genre are going to find enough interesting things here to make it worth viewing. I'm not going to ruin the ending but I will say that the final fifteen-minutes are extremely well done and manage to be quite creepy as well. I really liked how the film played itself out and once you see who is responsible and why the murders were done, well, it's very nicely handled. Barker, best known for his stint as Tarzan, does a pretty good job here as he's at least interesting enough to help the viewer go through the entire film. He manages to carry the film without a problem but Bancroft also deserves a lot of credit as she too is extremely good. Ron Randell is also good in his role as a paralyzed man and Marie Windsor, a noir vet, is good as his sister. Cult favorite Mamie Van Doren also briefly appears. Barker not only acted in the film but he also did the music score, which is quite effective. The problem with the film is that some of the supporting performances aren't all that memorable and there are times where the direction is a bit sloppy. Some of the dialogue could have been better written as well. Still, this film manages to set itself apart from a lot of other mysteries from this period and the good things here make it worth sitting through at least once.