The Cruel Tower (1956)
** (out of 4)
Often told tale of a drifter (John Ericson) who picks up work with a skyscraper crew but quickly falls in love with a girl (Mari Blanchard), which doesn't sit too well with her boyfriend (Charles McGraw) who just happens to be a crazy psycho. This is basically a low-budget remake of a group of films (TIGER SHARK, SLIM, MANPOWER) that were made at Warner Brothers and they did the story much better justice. Whereas those films dealt with power wires, this one here changes the setting to hundreds of feet up in the air and director Lew Landers really gets to do some magic with this. Some of the best moments in the film deal with people dangling off this high spaces or either falling. It appears the director really enjoyed these scenes and he managed to make them feel quite tense and at times you too feel as if you're falling. I really enjoyed the cinematography during the scenes with people falling as the camera perfectly captured the violence of the fall and i was surprised at some of the sound effects used for the bodies hitting. Considering this was 1956, the violence is a little bit stronger than you might effect. The biggest problem with the film is that we've simply seen this type of story way too many times and there's really nothing fresh or new done with it here. The performances by the three leads are enjoyable enough as they each fit their roles just fine. The screenplay isn't all that original and there's a tad bit too much hatred between rival workers to be believable. I mean, these guys all want to kill one another, which is a tad bit too far fetched to really work. Still, fans of "B" movies might want to check it out but others will probably want to stay clear.
