zardoz-13 Not did actor Mark Stevens star in "Cry Vengeance," but also he helmed this brooding melodrama about revenge. If you haven't seen Fritz Lang's classic "The Big Heat," you probably won't spot the resemblance between "Cry Vengeance" and it. The premise is strongly reminiscent of Lang's film, except that Stevens and scenarists Warren Douglas of "Torpedo Alley" and George Bricker of "King of the Underworld" take "The Big Heat" premise a step further. Tough Frisco cop Vic Barron (Mark Stevens of "The Dark Corner") lost his wife and daughter during an explosion that left him scarred for life on the right-hand side of his face. Were this not enough of a tragedy, the villains who planted the bomb also planted enough evidence to frame Vic and get him a three-year stretch in San Quentin. Since this unfortunate episode, big-time criminal Tino Morelli (Douglas Kennedy of "The Texas Rangers") has left San Francisco and moved to Ketchikan, Alaska, where he is raising his pre-elementary school age daughter Marie (Cheryl Callaway) with the help Blue-Eyes (Mort Mills of "Psycho") his hoodlum henchman Johnny. As it turns out, Vic is getting out of San Quentin, and he is determined to wrecked vengeance on Morelli. Meantime, nobody in Ketchikan knows Tino's true identity. He is masquerading as an ordinary citizen and he has pretty young, Peggy Harding (Martha Hyer of "The Sons of Katie Elder"), fooled, too. Meantime, Tino's pals warn him that Vic has gotten out, and mobster kingpin Nick Buda (Lewis Martin) assigns psychotic killer Roxy Davis (Skip Homeier) to watch Vic. Vic and Roxy have a history and neither likes the other. What Vic doesn't know about is Roxy's secret, and Buda doesn't want Vic to find out about it. As soon as Vic gets out, he heads to a pawn shop and purchases a revolver. Vic's old pal on the S.F.P.D., Red Miller (John Doucette), tries to persuade Vic to give up his quest. Vic refuses to and learns Tino's whereabouts and flies up to confront him. Trigger happy Roxy follows him with predictable results. "Cry Vengeance" boasts strong performances, authentic locations, loads of atmosphere, and a strong backstory.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** Framed for a crime, which is never elaborated or explained in the movie, that he didn't commit ex-SFPD cop Vic Barron, Mark Stevens, is out to not only gets those who framed him but the person who killed his wife and child in a car bomb explosion that left him looking like the phantom of the opera without his mask on. The one person whom Barron is out to get is mob boss Tino Morelli, Douglas Kennedy, whom he thinks order the hit on him that ended up killing both his wife and five year old daughter. Checking out Morellie's old haunts in the city a bay area nightclub owned by Nick Buda, Lewis Martin, Barron is confronted by Buda's bodyguard the man in white Roxey, Skip Homeier, whom he puts away with a couple body chops and hits to the kidney.It's later that Barron gets the word from the out cold Roxey's abused girlfriend Lily Arnold, Joan Vohs, after leaning on her a bit that Morelli skipped out of town and is now residing in th Alasken town ,known as the "Salmon Capital" of the world, Ketchiken. Taking Lily's fishy story to be the real deal Barron takes the first plane out or north to Alaska to both meet and knock off Morelli for what he did to him and his family. It's there that Barron meets bar owner Peggy Hadrding, Martha Hayer, who despite his disfigured mug or face takes a shine to him because of his manly and "I don't give a sh*t about anything" attitude. Meanwhile with the word out that Vic Barron is in town Morelli's bodyguard Johnny Blue-Eyes, Mort Mills, takes a crack at him only ending up on the floor with his kidney's badly damaged from Barron's karate chops. It was later in the movie when Barron breaks into Morelli's house that he karate's chops Johnny Blue-Eyes, who tried to stop him, so bad that he never regained consciousness or woke up for the remainder of the film!****SPOILERS**** Things start to happen that has the vengeful Vic Barron begins to change his opinion about Morelli when he meets his 7 year old daughter Marie, Cheryl Callaway, who's so sweet and friendly to him, even when he attempted to kidnap her, that he has second thoughts of doing her dad in! How could, Barron summarizes, Morelli be such a rat when he produced a sweet and lovable girl like Marie! It soon turns out that Barron was right! Not in how sweet & lovable Marie is but that her dad Morelli couldn't have done what he did in killing his wife & child with a bomb planted in the family car! It turned on Buda's orders, who also framed Barron, it was Roxey who did it who's now also in Alaska and on Buda's orders not only planning to knock off Morelli but also his motor mouth girlfriend Lily and frame Barron for it!P.S Mark Steven's first directed film and probably his best right up there with his later big score in the anti-Castro movie, filmed during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, "Escape from Hell Island" that almost had, if WWIII broke out, him and his entire cast nuked in a massive nuclear exchange between the USA & USSR while filming the movie!

dougdoepke Fast and efficient slice of thick-ear, with a plot borrowed from previous year's The Big Heat (1953). The producers, however, had the good sense to locate the action in Ketchican, Alaska, definitely not an over-used locale. Director Stevens makes good use of the outdoor settings, lending exotic flavor to the action. To bad that the photography is definitely non-noir. But then the interiors were filmed in a TV studio.The plot may be borrowed, but there's an interesting wrinkle. Namely, nominal, good guy Stevens is more fearsome than the ostensible mobster, bad guy Kennedy. That's because Stevens thinks Kennedy killed his family and framed him. Now, ravaged with revenge, Stevens wants to kill Kennedy's family, including his winsome little daughter. So, we're left wondering just who to root for. Then there's the psycho hit-man Homeier who's kind of a wild card in a mop of ultra- blonde hair. (Note, for example, the cold-hearted abruptness of the execution scene.) Add a number of familiar supporting players, like Mills and Doucette, and you've got a generally persuasive cast. And, oh yes, on the blondined distaff side mustn't forget barfly Vohs or the fetching Martha Hyer.Considering this movie along with Stevens' tour-de-force Timetable (1956), it's too bad his niche with b&w B-films was giving way to TV. In my book, he shows himself a filmmaker of more than average aptitude. Anyway, the movie's both interesting to follow and scenic to eyeball, a pretty good combination for any film.

Paularoc Mark Stevens both stars in and directed this movie. He plays a cop who just gets out of jail after being framed for corruption and is determined to kill the gangster he thinks responsible for framing him and for killing his wife and child. His search takes him to Ketchikan, Alaska; the aerial shots of the town are brief but quite beautiful. The supporting cast is strong and includes such familiar faces as Douglas Kennedy, John Doucette, Skip Homeier, and Mort Mills. Martha Hyer really doesn't have much to do as Stevens' new love interest. Skip Homeier with his bleached blond hair is okay as the psychotic killer but not a particularly interesting character. Unfortunately, Mark Stevens' performance is too wooden - we should feel some sympathy for a man who has been so unjustly treated by life but we don't, at least not at an emotional level. For those liking crime dramas, this is certainly worth a watch but is pretty average for the genre.