The Big Punch, God vs. Hoodlums

God will win, every time. In the debut film for Gordon MacRae, the fellow who played "Curly" in "Oklahoma," his problem is that he'd like to win every time, but hoodlums will force him not to. Yep, a boxing film...kind of.  Just like today's NFL, most matches are fixed, and if a young boxer doesn't go along with the crime lords, he'll be broken. Today, Major League Baseball and the NBA have proven their allegiance to gambling interests, but in the 1940s, we all knew most boxers were on the take. The guy with the glass shoulder was always going to take a fall.  A good man just would not go into boxing...and this is our story today. Today we look at 1948's "The Big Punch," directed by Sherry Shourds.

Chris (Wayne Morris) is a good man. He was a fighter pilot in WW2, then a star fullback for a pro-football team.  Corrupt fighting promoter, Con Festig (Anthony Warde) will offer him a king's fortune to fight for him. Chris meets with Con, thanks him, and turns down the money. Why? Chris wants to be a minister. Johnny (MacRae) is one of Festig's boxers who is due to take a dive tonight.  He hears Chris turn down a fortune and also the reason why. Chris explains God has already claimed him.  Chris poses the question, what would you do if you had one day to live? On that query, the film progresses. Chris goes off and becomes a minister at a small town church.  Johnny goes all honest and doesn't throw the fight. Now gangsters, led by Festig, want Johnny dead and he's on the run.

Chris gets to a little town filled with nice people.  He meets the disillusioned babe, Karen (Lois Maxell). The beauty was an army nurse and saw so many young men shredded. Now Karen hates people, hates God, and hates herself.  Chris ministers to her and now Karen seems ready to come back into the flock. With nowhere to go, Johnny remembers the uncorruptible Chris and finds out he now ministers to a congregation at a little church. Johnny heads there and is taken in by Chris...and ministered to. Johnny meets Karen, likes her, and realizes Karen likes Chris. Trouble brewing? Yes, but on many fronts. Johnny's evil past finds him and now he is being blackmailed into returning to serving his previous master. Karen, who now is in love with a man of God, devises an awful plan to save Johnny.  Chris hesitantly goes along.  Now Karen dons a sultry evening gown, glams up, and goes all seductive. The guys won't have a chance!

Just what is the skeptic turned" seductress for the Lord" up to?  Will Chris be giving a sermon on redemption or the whore of Babylon this Sunday?  Can a divine outlook and faith save Johnny from the vicious thugs that seem to have a stranglehold on him?  This is a quirky one and inspiring.  Not known as a faith film, per se, "The Big Punch" is incredibly more honest and holy that that over-rated TV show, "The Chosen." See "The Big Punch" and consider it a sermon with pro sports, hunks, and a real doll in a slinky evening gown.  

Hi-Jacked, Truckers in Peril

Shocking! Most Americans don't realize why they pay higher prices for their toasters, hairdryers, and television sets. Hijackings on our highways.  Trucks are robbed enroute to their destinations and their goods stolen.  This costs Americans $40 million per year.  It costs trucking companies $200 million in elevated insurance costs. Yep, this is almost as much as a few Somali daycare centers in Minneapolis rip-off the federal government in a week. Somali fraud is rampant now, and we implore ICE to help take care of it.  But in 1950, $40 million was real money, hence we will look at that year's Film Noir picture, "Hi-Jacked," directed by Sam Newfield.

Joe (Jim Davis) is a schmuck truck driver. He's a good soul and on parole.  As the film begins his sweet wife, Jean (Marcia Mae Jones) comes back to him. So cute! Uh oh...Joe is being set up by his own trucking company.  His truck is hijacked and he is knocked out in the process.  He comes to and the cops and insurance investigators figure he, a parolee, did the job. The trucking company manager, Clark (Ralph Sanford) funnels info on the routes and loads, to hijackers headed by Matt (David Bruce).  Killer (Sid Melton) is one of Matt's thugs and is eager to get a gun and murder someone.  Matt wisely never gives him a gun...until...well, you'll see. Killer? He looks and talks just like Joe Pesci and has a Napoleon complex. Now Joe is made the patsy again in a fur heist.  The coats are worth thousands...each. Now the trucking company has to fire Joe if they plan on keeping their insurance.

Joe realizes only he can clear his name.  Before he sets out to do this, the hijackers show up at his house, rough him up, and lock his sweet wife in the closet. She got off easy. Now Joe figures on violating his parole with his plan of violence he adopts to clear his name.  The schmuck Joe puts two and two together, figures his manager, Clark, is in on it, and heads to them.  Oh, Jean, the sweet wife? Yeah, the hijackers take care of her as soon as Joe leaves on his quest of vengeance.  Now Joe's idiot plan to clear his name better work perfectly, or poor Jean will...well...you'll see.

Will Joe clear his name?  Will the sweet Jean remain unsoiled as the end credits arrive? Can't Fernando Mendoza, who just signed a $57 million dollar/year contact with the Raiders, write a check and cover all the hijacking losses?  This is a gritty one, and you will enjoy the scenes at the diner with one colorful and sultry waitress played by Iris Adrian. See "Hi-Jacked," and learn some weird new names for common diner food.

Too Late for Tears, Money, Murder, and a Psycho Dame

Film Noir! Yep, and put Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea in the cast and you can add another exclamation point to Film Noir.  A beautiful dame as a psychopath? I know, you divorced guys are asking what sultry dame isn't? To be fair...however psycho she may be, it is always nice to see Lizabeth Scott and this film will present her nicely. Dan Duryea? Is he a psycho, too? Yep. Two psychos...will any of them survive? Our feature today is 1949's "Too Late for Tears," directed by Byron Haskin.

Bored wife Jane (Scott) is embittered because her doting husband, Alan (Arthur Kennedy), isn't rich. He tries to please her, but Jane is a...dame! Then, out of nowhere, while out for a drive in their convertible, Jane and Alan are shocked when a car in the other lane throws a suitcase with $60,000 in their backseat. Alan wants to give it to the cops. Jane wants to spend it. She promises Alan she will not spend it if he doesn't want to. The good natured sap husband puts it in a bus station locker and the couple drift apart. Jane bags the locker and buys furs and clothes. Alan is upset. Then Danny comes by (Duryea). He knows Jane has his money.  His money? Yep...dirty money, but his, and he wants it back. Jane stalls and tries to seduce Danny...Danny bitch-slaps her. She, being a typical Film Noir dame is excited by the violence and kills her husband.

Uh oh...Jane and Danny don't trust one another...imagine that. Jane has the money and Danny wants it. Uh oh again, Alan's sultry sister Kathy (Kristine Miller) begins to suspect Jane murdered her brother when Alan doesn't return home. Then another visit of a mysterious stranger, Don (Don DeFore). Who is he? Therein lies a mystery. Kathy doesn't care, she is hot for him and begs him to help prove Jane murdered her brother. Jane doesn't like people suspecting her and lures Danny in on a plan to murder Kathy.  The two swap a lot of spit, some passion, and more steamy lip locks. Jane looks for opportunities to murder everyone who is still alive in this film. Danny the psycho realizes he is nowhere near as psycho as the sultry dame who has his money. Kathy falls in love with Don while realizing she knows nothing about him. That's enough.  What transpires is classic.

Will Jane and/or Danny survive one another?  Will Kathy and Don survive Jane?  Is it at all possible for Jane to get away with the entire $60,000 tax free? Lizabeth Scott turns in a steamy performance and we do so pine for her to get into a catfight with Kristine Miller.  As psycho as Mr. Duryea's character is, Ms. Scott's is 10 times as deranged.  For a perilous story with steamy performances, see "Too Late for Tears."   

The 7th Commandment, Sex, Temptation, and Madness

What is the 7th Commandment? This movie won't tell you, but rest assured, all 10 of them are violated in this one. Actually, lesson presented, or sermon presented, once you violate the first one the others will also be violated in quick succession. So here we are...be warned...there are no good guys in this gritty and vicious film of a preacher in a small town. Lies and falsehoods take hold from the beginning and permeate to one deranged ending. Our film today is 1961's "The 7th Commandment," directed by Irvin Berwick. 

Ted (Jonathan Kidd), a dweeb, gives the commencement address at his graduation from night college. He graduates with degrees in Business Administration and Public Speaking. Outside, not into boring speeches, is his girl, the sultry vixen Terry (Lynn Statten). She is quite the dish and the two drive off together. She kisses him on a two-lane road, distracts him, and a head on collision occurs. Terry is knocked out and Ted sees he has killed the driver in the other car. Fraught with guilt, Ted develops amnesia, wanders away, and is picked up by a traveling fire and brimstone preacher, Noah (Frank Arvidson).  Terry is left at the scene and the cops arrest her and she does a stint in prison. Fast forward seven years. Ted has developed into a preacher, built a big church, and heals crippled children by laying hands on them.

All is going well for Ted, who still doesn't remember the events of seven years ago or his true identity. He is building a children's hospital with the donations from his faith healing events. Terry has shacked up with a brute, Pete (John Harmon), who slaps her silly on a daily basis. When Terry reads about her old buddy in the newspaper, she is shocked. She knows who this preacher really is, and what's more, did time for him. Now she blackmails Ted.  Then keeps doing it. Now Ted remembers and is encouraged by Noah to keep the secret and keep healing crippled kids. Terry is slapped harder by Pete and now has the ultimate plan. Ted will fall victim to Terry's ultimate plan and descend into madness. What follows is madness, murder, and some real soul searching.

Is Ted's ability to heal crippled kids by putting hands on them evidence that God wants him to stay a preacher and keep his past secret? Is Terry, with her stint in prison, and the daily abuse she gets from Pete, entitled to any of the donations in the offering plate? Will Terry's ultimate plan lead to the violation of the Sixth Commandment?  This one poses great moral and theological questions.  Here's the takeaway point, once you violate the First Commandment, the others will fall quickly...look that one up. To be convicted and edified in your faith, see "The 7th Commandment."