Neil Doyle Whatever inspired Howard Koch to direct this B-movie was certainly not the script, full of atrocious dialog and given dead pan acting by everyone in the cast except RON RANDELL as a bitter crippled man being cared for by his wife, MARIE WINDSOR. Randell at least attempts to give some backbone to his role, but nothing works as he delivers most of his dialog through clenched teeth.JOHN DEHNER is the sheriff at a Utah lodge, who questions suspects of a brutal murder with absolutely no conviction. He seems distracted by something or other even as the investigation becomes more complex and seems almost bored with his role.ANNE BANCROFT and MAMIE VAN DOREN are figured prominently among the women in the cast but do nothing here that contributes to the film's effectiveness. Whatever noir material there is in the script's potential, is left untapped from beginning to end. LEX BARKER shows off his physique but was much more convincing when he was playing Tarzan than he is here.Summing up: A complete waste of time. There's an amateurish feel to the whole thing.

moonspinner55 Unbelievable murder-mystery centering around an upscale lodge in Utah, wherein sheriff John Dehner (in a cowboy hat) investigates the gruesome slaying of a blonde actress, a "man-hating witch" who had plenty of enemies. Soon, more bodies start popping up, the main suspects being: Lex Barker as the local he-man (with his navel judiciously covered at the pool), Ron Randell as an anti-social quadriplegic, Anne Bancroft as his wet-nurse, Mamie Van Doren as a model, and Larry Chance as Indian Joe (Chance appears to believe his character is a Wooden Indian instead of a Drunken Indian). Low-budget adaptation of Peter Godfrey's short story "Wanton Murder", this B-flick might have been a hoot had it been directed with some flair. Unfortunately, Howard W. Koch (who later became a famous producer) sets up this whodunit like a plodding amateur, and most of the acting is atrocious (including La Bancroft). Van Doren has an oddly surreal tipsy scene that rates as pure camp and Dan Blocker is fun as a leering bartender (how come he isn't a suspect?), but the poor writing defeats Dehner and Randell. The title is mysteriously irrelevant, however the setting is unusual and the black-and-white cinematography isn't bad. Les Baxter's melodramatic score heightens the ridiculousness, but serious movie-lovers will only scoff. ** from ****

Ripshin Frankly, this a lame "B" flick, with hilarious dialogue, great locations and uneven performances.To even utter the phrase "film noir," in conjunction with this film, is ludicrous. Some of the comparisons found in previous posts are mind-boggling.Disposable characters, inane conversations and an annoying soundtrack are buffered by a wonderful setting - a kitschy, picture-perfect motel, straight out of a retro-fanatic's dream. Man, I want to stay at the "Parry Lodge" for a weekend!!Every time actor Ron Randell opens his mouth, you know you're in for some scenery-chewing, par none. Lex Barker is, well, Lex Barker. "Sheriff" John Dehner comes across the least scathed, although as a previous comment did point out, he appears to have wandered in from another movie set.All in all, worth a viewing, just to see what it meant to stay in a "motel" before Holiday Inn and Ramada ruined the experience.UPDATE: Lodge is still up and running - see parrylodge.com!

melvelvit-1 THE GIRL IN BLACK STOCKINGS and SCREAMING MIMI, both made at the tail-end of the American Film Noir cycle (1941-1958), predicted something wicked this way comes -a savage darkness that would reach fever pitch in Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO just two years later. This kind of "noir" would eventually be mirrored in the Italian gialli of the '60s and '70s before finally coming home to roost with Brian DePalma's DRESSED TO KILL in 1980 and beyond. THE GIRL IN BLACK STOCKINGS is a lynch-pin and unique for a number of reasons. Female serial killers are a rarity in real life -and rarer still in films up to that time- and she's a brutal sex-slayer of women no less, possibly a film first. The film's "Americana" Utah resort locations (with wardrobe by "The Pink Poodle of Kenab") are used to excellent sun-shiny effect; the outdoor scenes reflect a "normalcy" that belies the darker indoor melodrama and the film's stark B&W low-budget TV look and feel shows up in THE SCREAMING MIMI as well, accounting for a lot of their dark charms. The "gender confusion" of these films manipulate the audience shamelessly in much the same way PSYCHO would and shows that horrible things can happen in broad daylight, a shower -or a lighted room. Midway through THE GIRL IN BLACK STOCKINGS, the killer opens the door to a couple's room and watches while they make out. After getting a voyeur's thrill that sets the twisted psyche raging, the killer barges in, knocks the man out and butchers the girl!Lawyer Lex Barker (more a giallo hero than a noir anti-hero), in Utah to get away from the rat-race of L.A., gets sucked into a whirlpool of sex and savagery in a shocking opening sequence that sees him use his cigarette lighter in the dark to bring to light the mutilated body of a woman. His date, runaway bride Anne Bancroft, is in Utah escaping a marriage where her husband made her do such "shameful" things that she had to escape him. There's no dearth of suspects and potential victims, everyone has sexual hang-ups and the cast plays those hang-ups to the hilt. The resort's owner, Ron Randall, hates women -he actually became paralyzed because one left him. His sister, Marie Windsor, caresses and kisses his brow the way a wife would -and it was she who drove her brother's woman away. A Native American ranch-hand hates all women because he cared for, and tended to, Randall until Windsor hired Bancroft to do it. Hmmm... There's a young buck recently released from prison (who hasn't had a woman in two years!), an aging Addison De Witt-type actor and his Miss Caswell (Mamie Van Doren), the sheriff and other various and sundry guests. Life is cheap in this compact thriller. Some of the cast get taken out between sex-slayings just to keep the film in high gear. A private investigator drowns in the hotel's pool and the ex-convict gets backed into a buzz-saw at the lumber-mill where he works. A fantastic ending rises from the murk when Annie's husband (Stuart Whitman) comes to fetch her, explaining that she just escaped from the nut-house. He had to put her there after their wedding night. It was S-E-X that flipped Annie. Just like Norman Bates in PSYCHO ...and Yolanda Lang in SCREAMING MIMI ...and Dr. Elliot in DRESSED TO KILL.The tale is not a great mystery -isn't it always the one you'd least expect? The wheelchair-bound killer had already been done to death ever since Warner Bros. DOCTOR X way back in 1932 so that lets Randall out. Who or what was left besides Bancroft? The blistering Utah sun? What's interesting here is that Anne Bancroft plays the same "mouse" she did in 1952's DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK -only this time, it's the mouse and not the platinum blonde bimbo (Van Doren here) that has a few mental screws loose. This trashy, lurid barrel of fun can't reely be appreciated in just one sitting. Once you know that Anne Bancroft's the culprit, watch her throughout the film and catch the clues she's trying to give us that she's the killer. See who she looks daggers at and why. Look closely when Lex attempts to embrace or kiss her. Best scene: Mamie Van Doren drunk at the dinner table, throwing herself on paralyzed Ron Randall. His horrified look, and the mixed deep-dish looks of the other guests (freaking out for sexual reasons of their own) in freeze-frame is priceless! Scenes like this have been spoofed many times- a near-analogy would be a room full of gangsters all reaching under their coats for their rod at the same time in a crowded nightclub. Look for Dan Blocker (Bonanza's Hoss) as the bartender. The film reeks of S-E-X ...wholesome and otherwise. There's some lingering shots of Lex Barker in his bathing trunks and the Va-Va-Voom attributes of Mamie Van Doren are often on display. The violence quotient is high and although nothing's shown (for too long, anyway) it's not hard to get the drift and creep out. "Slaughtered like a side of beef. Throat slashed ...even her arms and legs." Anne Bancroft, as well as the rest of the cast, are in top form giving it all they've got in their respective ways. THE GIRL IN BLACK STOCKINGS is seminal -and "killer" for so many reasons and in so many ways...