Walk the Dark Street

Frank Garrick is a big game hunter, but he has a bad heart and is also mentally unbalanced. He unfairly blames Dan Lawton for his brother Tommy's death in Korea. When Dan visits, Frank proposes a stalking game using photographic rifles and trying to get a photo of the opponent. Dan gets $10,000 if he wins. Dan agrees and the game is on throughout the city, but Frank has secretly loaded his rifle with a real bullet. Also stalking Dan is Tommy's fiancé, Helen Leyden, who also blames Dan for Tommy's death. But, after picking up Dan in a bar, Helen falls in love with him after spending about two minutes of idle chit chat. Helen becomes Dan's ally in the game. Watch the movie to find out how it all turns out.

For awhile, I thought maybe I was watching another masterpiece from Coleman Francis. Anybody remember the classic "Red Zone Cuba?" But unlike Francis' movies, WTDS uses a few actual actors who do their best. Chuck Connors as Frank wears a grown out flattop haircut. He would become a TV superstar a few years later as "The Rifleman." Don Ross plays Dan. He would become a regular supporting actor on Jack Webb's "Dragnet" TV series in the 1960s. Underrated Regina Gleason plays Helen. She really emotes in a lot of her scenes and her overacting is quite noticeable here. In 1964, Regina was cited by an LA traffic cop for wearing sunglasses that were too thick! She fought the case in court, and after speaking with the DA, she got the case dismissed.

If you can tolerate the long pauses between the actors giving their lines, the bad script, the awful editing, and the unbelievable and impossible occurrences in WTDS, you might be able to sit through its 73 minutes. I did and i still live!

Don Ross returns from Korea and calls on Chuck Conners. Conner's brother was in Ross' platoon and had been killed. The two chat. Both are big game hunters, but Conners has a new twist. He has a big game rifle, but the bullet has been replaced with a camera. He wants to hunt people in the city. When he pulls the trigger, there's a snapshot with a time stamp. He challenges Ross to a bet: they stalk each other, and the winner walks away with either a thousand of Ross' money or ten grand of Conners. It's a good gamble as far as Ross is concerned. A field-promotion second lieutenant doesn't pull down much, and while he was away, his partner let the business go to pot and failed to pay the insurance just before they had a fire.

So they shake hands on it, and Ross walks away with a rifle set up with a camera in the barrel. Whereupon Conners replaces the camera in his with a 30-30 shell. His brother had written him that Ross was a tin g*d and would probably get them all killed. So he's going to get some revenge.

It's an interesting variation on THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME. Writer-Director Wyott Ordung shoots most of it in medium length stolen shots, showing the two men looking for each other, vanishing around one corner as the other comes around another. It didn't quite work for me, looking almost foolish the fifth or sixth time it happened, rather than suspenseful. The subplots also miss by a hair: Conners' bum ticker, his brothers' girlfriend who thinks he's crazy.

Also, the times have changed: two men walking the streets of Los Angeles carrying big game rifles are going to be shot by the LAPD. But kudos for a nice idea.

This is considered film noir because it's poorly lit. Chuck Connors just starting out. I once saw Chuck Connors ask John Wayne About his real name Marion. John Wayne did take the bate and had no problem acknowledging his real name. Would have been great to see these two giants spar but the Lone Ranger Clayton Moore and Cheyanne Clint Walker were there and it was all friendly. Anyway this was made on a shoestring in 50's LA and meanders along but could have been great with better scripting and people with talent. In the end it's pointless. I had teacher say all good stories are a chase, the only problem with that theory is the end has to pay off and this payoff is pointless.

Definitely a takeoff on THE MOST DANGEOUS GAME. You have a contemporary big game hunter (squarely played by Chuck Connors) walking the streets of a big city --instead of a jungle --hunting down another human being. Character actor Don Ross, who appeared in scores of tv shows for decades, plays the man on the run, who Connors believes caused the death of his brother.

The catch -- both men are armed with rifles. AND may the best shot win. Not a bad premise, and even with a super low budget, the story has its moments; adventure and a few chills, mostly filmed on the streets in 1950s Hollywood. Also a neat time capsule.

The film will hold your attention and it does move. Connors is interesting, especially as he grows frustrated in his attempts to nail Ross, who is quite elusive. Regina Gleason co-stars, likewise a veteran of hundreds of tv shows, though her claim to fame in the 1960s was her arrest for wearing "thick" sunglasses while driving in LA. True story. Wyott Ordong, the low, low budget director whose name was more famous than his work, produced this adventure, also credited for cult films like ROBOT MONSTER and MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR. He also gave Ed Wood (PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE) a run for his money, not the only director and producer to scrape together a few bucks to make cult movies. Ordong also managed to get a large studio involved, in this case Universal Pictures, at least to use their sound stages and leftover sets.

Not a bad time killer, which in the last few years had turned up on dvd. Thanks much to MOVIES NET for adding this oldie to their noir weekend edition.

Low budget thriller, with a strange plot, that is delivered well by the actors and director. Exemplary.