Peggy Cummins

Gun Crazy

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Laurie and Bart, both with guns in their hands

A crazy mixed-up kid is dragged to hell by a sexy dame in Gun Crazy (not for nothing also known as Deadly Is the Female), a film that has us by the scruff of the neck right from its fabulous opening scene. In super-sharp close-up a kid smashes the plate glass window of a hardware shop, steals a gun and then falls flat on his face in the rain as he tries to run away. Bad luck of this sort is to dog Bart Tare for the whole of his life. Flashback scenes flesh out this pretty decent kid with a strange obsession with guns – “Shooting’s what I’m good at. It’s what … Read more

Night of the Demon

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Holden at Stonehenge

Moody horror from Jacques Tourneur, Night of the Demon battles all the way against a studio that wanted to make the director’s psychological approach more literal. Hence the Demon itself, shown early on and right at the end, against Tourneur’s wishes. From this distance Tourneur was obviously right. There’s nothing remotely convincing in what looks like a toy dinosaur being shaken about by a props man. But on to the plot, which is adapted from an MR James story – usually a good sign. Dana Andrews plays John Holden, an American man of science who’s been invited to England by fellow scientist Professor Harrington to speak at a conference debunking ghosties and ghoulies, … Read more