RICHARD DENNING: HIS PSYCHOTRONIC FILMS

Richard Denning is best remembered as the relentlessly affable Governor Paul Jameson on the original Hawaii 5-0 series. He made 74 appearances on that cop show but had previously filled starring roles in other television programs like Mr. and Mrs. North, The Flying Doctor, Michael Shayne and Karen.

This being Balladeer’s Blog I’m focusing purely on Richard Denning’s roles in Psychotronic films for this post.

UNKNOWN ISLAND (1948)

With the latest film in the Jurassic World series now in theaters I’ll start with this dinosaur flick. Denning portrays John Fairbanks, the drunken sole survivor of a visit to a Pacific Ocean Island inhabited by dinosaurs and other extinct creatures.

Fairbanks is hired by an expedition planning to explore that island because their photographer leader (Phillip Reed) was a World War Two pilot who once snapped a sub-Loch Ness Monster level picture of dinos while flying over the island during the war. His wealthy wife (Virginia Grey) is financing the expedition and their ship’s captain – who drinks almost as much as Denning’s John Fairbanks – is played by Barton MacLane.

The foolish photographer winds up getting multiple members of the expedition killed by dinosaurs through his inept, unfocused “leadership.” He also keeps everyone on the island, endangering their lives every minute, long after he has more than enough photos to prove the existence of the dinosaurs and therefore justify additional, heavily armed visits to the Unknown Island.

SPOILERS: Most of the crew members still alive by story’s end get killed by a tidal wave while trying to abandon our lead characters on the island. MacLane’s captain is killed while recklessly trying to capture a dinosaur and our Big Three survive to return to civilization. But I’m betting Carole left her bumbling hubby for Fairbanks before too long.

NOTE: Believe it or not, this flick was shot in Cinecolor. Silent film comedian Snub Pollard had a cameo. Also, it was partly filmed at Ray “Crash” Corrigan’s Corriganland Ranch, which he rented to Hollywood studios while appearing in cheap monster costumes as a bonus. 72 minutes.   

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954)

No color in this infamous monster movie, but it IS in 3-D! Richard Denning stars as Dr. Mark Williams, with fellow members of the Psychotronic Hall of Fame like Richard Carlson, Julie Adams and Whit Bissell in other roles. 

Virtually everybody has seen this film, so I’ll keep this brief. Denning and Carlson play scientists who lead a search for an upright walking amphibious creature which dates back to the Devonian Period.

The title creature killed most of the initial expedition to the Amazon Jungle, and a reinforced group of researchers scours the river for the one-of-a-kind prehistoric beastie. Typical of these movies, the monster inexplicably gets the hots for the expedition’s beautiful woman (Adams).

After more deaths and assorted man-versus-beast antics, our stars survive and the Gill Man creature later appeared in two lesser follow up flicks. Neither Denning nor Adams appeared in those, however. 79 minutes.   

TARGET EARTH (1954)

An army of robots arrives from the planet Venus and attacks Chicago and vicinity. The military evacuates most of the population, but a few people are left behind.

Richard Denning stars as the heroic everyman Frank Brooks, who missed the signal to evacuate because he was lying unconscious after a mugging. He meets up with Nora King (Kathleen Crowley), who missed it because she just woke up after a failed attempt to overdose on sleeping pills.

The couple search for other people but find only death until sounds from a cocktail lounge attract their attention. A couple (Virginia Grey and Richard Reeves) who partied through the robot attack and the evacuation join Frank and Nora. Another figure shows up only to be killed by one of the robots on the loose. 

Our main characters plus a psychotic murderer (Robert Roark) hole up together in a robot version of the Night of the Living Dead siege. Whit Bissell shows up as a scientist developing a weapon to destroy the robots and Steve Pendleton is along for the ride as the colonel in charge of the Earth army trying to retake Chicago.

SPOILERS: The right people survive, our man Denning hooks up with Crowley and Earth’s robot invaders are destroyed. 75 minutes.

CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN (1955)

You want zombies? This film’s got ’em! You want gangster zombies? This film’s got ’em! You want ATOMIC POWERED gangster zombies? This film’s got them, too in Richard Denning’s most underrated Psychotronic movie.

Michael Granger crams in as many tough-guy gangster tropes as he can in his performance as Frank Buchanan. The law – and his rival gangsters – have been closing in on Buchanan but he has an ace up his sleeve.

That ace? A fugitive Nazi mad scientist (Gregory Gaye) whom Buchanan blackmails into using corpses as atomic-powered zombies. Frank then sends them out to slaughter his criminal enemies in one of the strangest gang wars this side of Krako vs Oxmyx. 

Scientist Chet Walker, PhD (Denning) starts investigating all this and goes on to lead the military and the police in putting the kibosh on Buchanan, the Nazi fugitive and the gang of atomic powered zombie gangsters.   

Also starring were Angela Stevens as Dr. Walker’s wife Joyce plus the one and only Tristram Coffin as the District Attorney. 69 minutes.

DAY THE WORLD ENDED (1955)

It would have been a crime if Richard Denning and director-producer-legend Roger Corman hadn’t worked together on a schlock film! 

In the aftermath of a nuclear war, several survivors meet up on a still-standing ranch protected from the radioactive fallout by a lead-rich box canyon. A mutated monster (Paul Blaisdell in costume) besieges our characters as they struggle to stay alive and come up with a way of destroying the seemingly unstoppable creature.

Denning plays Rick the geologist and uranium expert; Michael Connors, still in his “Touch” Connors phase, plays the criminal Tony Lamont; and Paul Birch portrays survivalist and former military man Jim Maddison.

Lori Nelson is Jim’s daughter Louise, who falls for Rick; Adele Jergens is Lamont’s gun moll; and Jonathan Haze, Paul Dubov & Raymond Hatton are in support as other survivors. Only two of our cast emerge alive, but radio contact is made with others before the film ends. 

Roger Corman appears in a photograph and newsman Chet Huntley narrates. 79 minutes.

THE BLACK SCORPION (1957)

This flick is second only to Creature from the Black Lagoon as Denning’s most well-known schlocker, thanks largely to Joel Hodgson’s Mystery Science Theater 3000. Willis O’Brien did the special effects work. 

In Mexico, a series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions attract the attention of American geologist Dr. Hank Scott (Richard Denning) and his Mexican colleague Dr. Arturo Ramos (Carlos Rivas). After the geological havoc seems to have passed, isolated locations mysteriously suffer additional damage and the loss of all life.     

NOTE: The Black Scorpion, like Beginning of the End, is one of those 50s flicks that mindlessly imitate the giant ant movie Them! by having the story’s monsters carry out mysterious attacks before they are finally spotted in action.

Dr. Scott helps the locals investigate and discovers that the earthquakes and eruptions freed kaiju-sized black scorpions (despite the singular title) from subterranean caverns that also contain other giant forms of insects, arachnids and worms.

This film practically defines fun-bad. Naturally the monsters are defeated and Denning gets beautiful leading lady Mara Corday as his love interest. 88 minutes.

*** FOR MY REVIEW OF RICHARD DENNING AND ANTHONY QUINN IN TELEVISION SPY (1939) CLICK HERE.