Poseidon, I always get my money's worth from a stop here. The mention of "wildcat" was worth the price of admission as I forget there were other actors involved in that Broadway misfire. I definitely saw the Claudette Colbert resemblance with Cabot. He had a great combo of hot body and manly face, yes please. I am sure the intention was not to make people laugh but that Marilyn Monroe photo is a scream for the wrong reasons.
And a few years later came “No Man is an Island”, in which another hunky GI, Jeffrey Hunter, eluded capture. Mr Hunter had the advantage of color to show off those baby blues.
Other than a couple “Perry Mason” appearances, I can think of only one thing I’ve seen Andes in - “A Life at Stake” with Angela Lansbury. A middling noir film that at least had the good sense to start with a shirtless Mr. A. He should do more for me, especially with that rich voice, Maybe it’s because he seems to have just one setting - intense.
Hi Poseidon!
This is one I’ve yet to catch up with and since I’m always on the lookout for obscure flicks from the 30’s through the 50’s I’m delighted to hear I can give this a watch on Tubi!!
Keith Andes is someone whom I’ve been familiar with since I was a wee kid thanks to his co-starring role in “Blackbeard, the Pirate.” That was the film where I discovered my beloved Linda Darnell when it showed countless times on the “Saturday Morning Matinee” which I plopped myself down in front of early each weekend morning at 8AM while my folks caught up on their sleep!! In fact that’s where I first became aware of Irene Ryan as Linda’s tippling maid long before I saw her as Granny Clampett!
Keith was never an actor of great scope but since his role called mostly for daredevil antics, usually shirtless, in dazzling Technicolor I was always kindly disposed to him. The majority of his pictures seemed to lean to the adventure side of things (“Clash by Night” being an exception. That mood piece is interesting in many ways, among them the atypical casting of Marilyn as just an ordinary girl, albeit an extremely attractive ordinary girl but not one singled out as special) and he is competent in them but little else. He did have a nice, somewhat gravelly voice that added to his appeal, and he had an incredibly fit, defined physique for the fifties. I didn’t know that about his ending, how sad. Cabot’s end of course is even sadder.
Having not seen this yet but looking at the poster I can see the filmmakers, or at least the art department, had a fairly good idea of what they had on their hands and how to sell it! Maybe once I give it a look I will check back in with more thoughts! Thanks for the tip!! 😊
Thanks for yet another great post, Poseidon-- you're always coming up with these films I've never heard of, and never fail to glean some interesting (and hilarious) content in them!
Not only was SURRENDER-- HELL! totally off my radar, two out of the three top performers are similarly-- though not completely, it turns out-- outside my range.
I was definitely *aware* of Keith Andes through beefcake photos from various roles-- especially BLACKBEARD THE PIRATE-- and from mentions of his breakthrough appearance with Marilyn Monroe in CLASH BY NIGHT. I most certainly took note of his muscled body, smooth torso offset by perky nipples, and his looks that fell somewhere on a continuum between early Peter Graves and early Steve McQueen.
However, I didn't think I'd actually seen him in anything other than the STAR TREK episode "The Apple"-- where his memorably buff body was sadly offset by a *ridiculous* platinum blonde bouffant wig, bad makeup, and a lengthy, ratty wraparound skirt that looked like a dilapidated tablecloth-- until I checked his credits.
Though I haven't seen any of his movies, I *did* watch him regularly on a now-obscure short-lived CBS sitcom, GLYNIS (1963), where he was the patient husband to Johns' proto-Jessica Fletcher writer/amateur sleuth. (You could call it "MURDER", SHE HUSKED.) Oddly, the main thing I remember is her, not him, and one episode where they demonstarted how to see what had been previously written on a notepad by carefully rubbing a pencil across the impressions left on the top sheet.
And since I'd never heard of her before, I figured Paraluman was probably totally off my radar, but I checked her credits to see if she'd been in any of those cheesy Filipino '70s horror flicks like the "BLOOD ISLAND" series with John Ashley. She wasn't in those, but she was in DAUGHTERS OF SATAN (1972) with Tom Selleck and in THE LOSERS (1970) with William Smith-- so even though my eyes and memory were busy elsewhere, yes, I *have* seen "the Greta Garbo of the Phillipines"! (And I gotta love a screen name like that-- an archaic Tagalog word for "muse" or "magnetic needle," according to Wikpedia.)
However, Susan Cabot was the one star in this I was quite familiar with, though her casting as a Filipina is mind-boggling and apparently "because the script says so," without any attempt to make her look even vaguely "ethnic" with a wig or eyeliner. I always loved her late '50s drive-in movies, like SORORITY GIRL, VIKING WOMEN/SEA SERPENT and THE WASP WOMAN, which may actually be her last, depending on when it was shot. (It previewed just before SURRENDER-- HELL! but went into full release after.)
And the circ*mstances of her death need a little clarification, since there was a good amount of misreporting for years. Cabot's mental state had deteriorated drastically in the final years of her life, with her depression, suicidal tendencies and paranoid delusions rendering her unable to take care of herself by 1986, and she was being cared for by her 22-year-old son, Timothy Roman.
Roman was charged with second degree murder, and the drugs he was taking for his physical condition were cited in his defense as allegedly causing mental impairment and reduced culpability. However, he also testified thet Cabot had gone into a psychotic episode and while he was trying to call for help, she attacked him with a scalpel and a barbell bar, and that he struck her with the barbell bar in self-defense. The charges were reduced to involuntary manslaughter and he was convicted, and sentenced to three years' probation and mandatory counseling, with credit for the 2 1/2 years he'd been jailed awaiting trial. He died in 2003.
Thanks for another fabulous post, Poseidon! This blog is always the best! Love to all, and be safe and well, everyone!
