A group of steeplejacks led by Charlie McGraw bounce around in a trailer with statuesque Mari Blanchard and fight over women, booze and the danger of their profession.
This film is so over the top with corny dialogue and clichéd situations that you have to love it. Only McGraw at 5'10' could credibly play a character named 'Stretch'. Blanchard, whose character is aptly named, 'The Babe', evidently digs men risking their lives while hanging off of water towers and vying for her attentions. Add in a witches brew of jealousy, adultery, drunkenness and attempted murder along with Steve Brodie, Alan Hale Jr. and the usual suspects and you have one of the classic 1950's schlock dramas courtesy of that eminent low budget helmsman of "B" programmers and serials, Lew Landers. The producer, Lindsley Parsons Sr. spent his most of his long career at Monogram and then Allied Artists cranking out pictures of this quality and production value.
McGraw is at his best: double-crossing, mashing a cigarette out on his hand, drinking and fighting.
The musical score for "The Cruel Tower" has to be a classic of cornball overkill. The soundtrack trumpets the same, annoying signature theme every time an ominous water tower looms into the camera frame.
Lovers of 1950's films, Charlie McGraw and camp classics shouldn't miss this one.
This IMDB squib was accompanied by a 7/10 rating. Other reviewers were a good bit less kind.
PLAYGIRL has a "faceoff" between Shelley Winters and Colleen Miller at its center, and never have two acting styles been so blatantly juxtaposed on the screen. The film rehashes twenty-plus years of show biz/high society corruption clichés, but Miss Miller is very pretty and probably deserved a better shot at a career...however, she "married up and out" and ditched Universal before her contract was up, making only a half-hearted attempt to revive her career before switching rich husbands in the mid-70s.
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls088879608/?ref_=ttrv_rls_5
Some enterprising type might want to see if they can add names/films to this IMDB list (which accompanies the entry for PLAYGIRL). Surely there are more than 30 films with nightclub singers in them!
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