Another film I watched in honour of Dick Miller's passing. It was based on a 30 minute TV play and you can really tell. I mean this fells super padded, even running at just an hour. Roger Corman starts off with some music acts, then there's comedy with Mel Welles speaking hip talk, then there's more music acts... then about half an hour in the actual story starts.
It's not much of a story - a siege. They could have made more of it -you could have fleshed out the support characters more - but I know Charles Griffith wrote it very much under the gun.
The musical acts are good - the Platters, that's something. It is fun to see Miller in a lead role and Russell Johnson as a hoodlum but really to be honest I just don't think Miller is the leading man, even as a Jimmy Cagney type. He would've been great as a cop in a long running series. It just feels silly when Miller overpowers a criminal by yelling at him.
Audrey Dalton sings some songs and sounds awful - I think that's the point but it's not fun to hear. This is unpretentious and has historical interest, but is actually frustrating because I think Corman and Griffith could have made a great siege movie had they devoted more time.
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