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Ring of Fear (1954)
Topic Started: Apr 1 2011, 08:16 AM (458 Views)
AndyFish
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Movie Watcha Foist Class
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I'm not sure this is in the right category, but I guess it's a mystery.

Clyde Beatty is running a circus and some shenanigans are going on, possibly due to the new hire, a recently escaped psychopath named Dublin McKiller or something like that-- so Clyde and his partner Pat O'Brien do the only thing sensible, they call in mystery writer Mickey Spillane to help out. Mickey is played by Mickey Spillane- and it makes as much sense calling him in as it does to call in Stephen King the next time you're struggling with a poltergeist.

I suspect the detective is also a real person, Jack something or other, because he's pretty awful too.
So we end up with a Circus picture, a cross love story, Mickey Spillane and Jack something standing around and saying stuff and Clyde Beatty wrestling Tigers.
Overall it's a bizarre little film with a badly chosen musical score and little atmosphere. There are some nice moments with the psycho who is pretty bloodthirsty, but overall you'll find it hard to get through with its plodding storyline and weak acting. Definitely filmed at a time when Circuses were a big deal.

The thing that struck me the most is that either Pat O'Brien was a tiny man, which would lead to Bogart and some of his other co-stars being equally tiny, because he is either at eye level or lower to Spillane who I met in the early 90s and was struck by how small he was.

Got this at my local library which has an amazing collection of DVDs which I stumbled across recently. Nice to actually browse some DVDs instead of Netflix or ClassicFlix.

www.andytfish.com
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Chandu
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Champeen of Justice and Seeker of Knowledge, but rascal at heart!
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I saw this thing awhile back and it was interesting to me because I used to listen to the Clyde Beatty radio program in my yoot and have been a Mickey Spillane fan for many years. It was kind of interesting to me to see how Mickey would do playing the detective he usually writes about. Course I'd already seen the Clyde Beatty serials, so it wasn't a surprise to me that Clyde was also smaller in stature than I'd imagined him on the radio. I agree with your overall assessment of the movie itself. It's a stinker, but sometimes you watch those things for a special purpose, such as I did. I thought Mickey acquitted himself quite well in the role of Mike Hammer, his own detective, in the later film, Girl Hunters.
Not plane, nor bird, nor even frog. It's just little ol' me...
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toddgault
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AndyFish
Apr 1 2011, 08:16 AM
I suspect the detective is also a real person, Jack something or other, because he's pretty awful too.
Jack Stang was an actual New York police detective and Spillane has stated in interviews that Stang was the inspiration for Mike Hammer and he wanted him to play Mike Hammer on film. Spillane even wrote and directed a screen test for Stang to try and get him the role for Kiss Me Deadly.
Todd Gault..........Serial Buff
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Laughing Gravy
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Okay, so, here's why research is better than memory: "the guys" called me up and invited me to get-together, sans women, of the "he-man women hater's club", our informal name for "guys getting together to watch stuff without any pesky women around". We always watch a few 3 Stooges when we do that, but they asked me to pick a good movie. I was looking, and found "Ring of Fear", and said to myself, "Hmmm... I recall that a few people mentioned this on my website. And Mickey Spillane is in it! Perfect for guy's night!"

What a crappy movie. I should've actually looked and re-read this thread. Ah, well. Live and loin.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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You guys should have watched The Big Lebowski. -- a man's man film. It also has Julienne Moore *shivers*
It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong."
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panzer the great & terrible
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I feel your manly friends' pain, G. Give 'em a dose of Bogart and call me in the morning.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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AndyFish
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Needless to say you aren't allowed to pick the movie any time soon.
Club sounds fun. I need to start an east coast version, the trouble is my wife is one of the guys-- has great taste.
www.andytfish.com
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