I may as well admit up front that the main reason for my renting out "The Scavengers" (1959) was to see Carol Ohmart in one of her too-rare screen appearances. Fans of the original "House on Haunted Hill" (1958) may empathize with me when I say that, for the past 40 years or so, every time I think of Ms. Ohmart in that film, with a noose around her neck and floating outside the window of Carolyn Craig's room, I get chills down my spine. But other than this horror film, and the cult movie "Spider Baby" (1964), Ohmart films have not exactly been easy to see. And that's a real shame. Ohmart was a real beauty--Miss Utah in the 1946 Miss America pageant and, Paramount hoped, the new Marilyn Monroe--with a unique presence and style. Happily, she is shown to good advantage in "The Scavengers," playing, as she did in "House," a scheming, duplicitous wife. It seems that she had abandoned her husband, Vince Edwards, some six years before, and when Edwards finds her in a Macao gambling den one evening, she is up to her pretty eyes in drug addiction and a hunt for stolen bonds. Edwards, who in two years would achieve TV fame on "Ben Casey," is fine as an ex-smuggler who's still hopelessly in love with his undeserving wife. And it's a kick to see Vic Diaz, star of so many Filipino action films, in this, his first role. "The Scavengers" is basically a sleazy "B" noir, with good nighttime photography, a twisty plot and some interesting glimpses of 1950s Hong Kong. But for me, the main attraction is Carol Ohmart, who certainly does steal the show with her looks and her mysterious character. Now...when is somebody going to release 1959's "Naked Youth" on DVD? That's what I want to know!
