Recently released from jail, Don Gregor (Clancy Malone) works for nasty bad guy Vic Brady (Timothy Farrell), who has a beautiful model moll called Loretta (Theodora Thurman).
During a blackface minstrel show (starring Cotton and Chick Watts in footage from Ron Ormond’s Yes, Sir, Mr Bones (1951), Don botches a holdup and kills a former cop night watchman (Bud Osborne).
He goes to his kindly old goateed plastic-surgeon father (Herbert Rawlinson, who had terminal lung cancer and died the day after his scenes were shot) and demands a new face.
Ed Wood’s second film – his attempt to make a serious film noir – has horrendous dialogue, flubbed lines, laughable parts, botched continuity and terrible acting, but the surprise ending is a worthwhile payoff.
Marilyn Gregor (Wood’s girlfriend, Dolores Fuller) is Don’s concerned sister. Inspector Johns (Lyle Talbot) and Lt. Bob Lawrence (future Hercules Steve Reeves in his less-than-sterling film debut) are the investigating policemen.
Wood fans can also spot Mona McKinnon, Conrad Brooks, and other familiar faces.
The irritating and incessant guitar and piano music by Hoyt Kurtin (who later wrote the music for The Jetsons) is from Ormond’s Mesa of Lost Women (1953).
The Rhino “director’s cut” version runs to 72 minutes and includes stripper footage (not by Wood) instead of the minstrel show.
Don Gregor
Clancy Malone Inspector Johns
Lyle Talbot Marilyn Gregor
Dolores Fuller Dr Gregor
Herbert Rawlinson Lt. Bob Lawrence
Steve Reeves Vic Brady
Timothy Farrell Loretta
Theodora Thurman Mac
Bud Osborne Miss Willis
Mona McKinnon Detective Davis
Don Nagel Detective McCall
John Martin Miss Lytell
La Vada Simmons Newspaper Woman
Regina Claire Police Doctor
John Avery Chick
Chick Watts Cotton
Cotton Watts Radio News Announcer
Edward D. Wood Jr.
Director
Edward D. Wood Jr.
Related Posts
48 Hours (1982) 48 Hours is a Clint Eastwood movie without Clint Eastwood in it. Instead, it's got Nick Nolte, looking puffy and out…
Ernest Goes to Jail (1990) Jim Varney played Ernest P Worrell - a character big on smile but small on brains - in over 2,000…
Jumping Jacks (1952) Nightclub entertainer Hap Smith (Jerry Lewis) has a new act since his former partner Chick Allen (Dean Martin) joined the…
So Young, So Bad (1950) Idealistic and naive psychiatrist Dr John Jason (Paul Henreid) arrives at the Elmview Reform School for Troubled Girls and immediately begins…
1776 (1972) The Second Continental Congress - which eventually declared America's independence from Britain in 1776 - was a group of men…
Night and the City (1950) This classic example of film noir revolves around Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark), a sneering, sulking, small-time American grifter with delusions…
War Of The Worlds (1953) Loosely adapted from H.G. Wells' classic novel of the same name, this 1953 doomsday sci-fi was billed as a "mighty…
40 Guns to Apache Pass (1967) When Apache chief Cochise (Michael Keep) goes on the warpath, US cavalry Captain Bruce Coburn (Audie Murphy in his last…
