Girls, Guns and Cigarettes
Director: Edward Cahn
Year: 1959
Rating: 6.0
And Mamie Van Doren can sing. At least I think
that is her singing two songs since she has a small discography to her credit
and did a nightclub act later in her career. She isn't bad. As a singer I
mean but she is bad - very bad - as she gets involved with the wrongs guys
in this surprisingly gritty heist film that has a fair amount of violence.
In it she is a nightclub singer all hips, brass bra and attitude who has
a bad habit of falling for men on the wrong side of the law. Her husband
is in prison, her boss and lover at the club is looking for crooked money
and a new man enters her life with plans for a big score. She gets dragged
into the caper against her better judgement because she wants to be far away
from her husband when he gets out in a few months. Fast hard boiled dialogue
that often hits the target - "Back up boys I may have to take some deep breaths"
- and a crisp plot (71 minutes) makes this a good little B film.
The plan from Wheeler (Gerald Mohr) is a simple one - rob an armored car
the day after New Year when it will be stocked with cash from Vegas. Then
give it to the club owner (Grant Richards) for cleaning and a split of $2
million between them all. But once the husband (Lee Van Cleef) breaks out
of jail looking for trouble and his girl all hell breaks loose.
Director Edward L. Cahn uses a narrator in this one just as he did in the
other Mamie Van Doren film Vice raid for no particular purpose. Maybe he
figured the men who came to see a Van Doren film were not all that smart
and needed help. It irritates more than elucidates. Cahn was one of the more
prolific B film directors of his time with over 100 director credits to his
name. He did all types of films from crime to monsters to westerns to teenage
hormone films. A few of his films were titles like Invisible Invaders, Riot
in Juvenile Prison, Curse of the Faceless Man, It the Terror from Beyond
Space, Invasion of the Saucer Men, Voodoo Woman, Zombies of Mora Tau and
so many more. They sound great but probably aren't. But I sort of want to
find out.
P.S - I came across a Jack Benny show in which Mamie does in fact sing
live and in which she is together with Gerald Mohr in a very funny skit.
