Most Dangerous Man Alive (1961)
Ron Randell is Head MF in Charge of all the hoods, but his colleagues, led by Anthony Caruso, doing a very fine Anthony Caruso, stage a coup de mob and oust him. Not only that, but with the help of his ex-girlfriend (and now Caruso's girl), an enjoyably manipulative, trampy, seductive Debra Paget, they frame him for murder.
Somehow Randell escapes from the prison bus (or whatever) taking him to the electric chair at Q, and heads back through the desert to civilization to exact revenge against those who betrayed him, particularly Caruso and Paget. So then he has the mob, the police, and the National Guard to contend with. He has only one person in his corner: the exquisite Elaine Stewart, his good girl current girlfriend. Sounds like standard issue noir to me.
But wait, I think I forgot something. Oh yeah. While he was running handcuffed through the desert, he happens on a nuclear test site, where they are just about to detonate a bomb with a new isotope, Cobalt X. So the bomb goes boom, and Rendell, instead of dying, merges with his handcuffs, and becomes The Man of Steel (Superman’s evil twin). He is indestructible, has enormous strength, but his heart and soul become cold as steel (not that they weren’t already like that when he was merely a mortal hood). Not surprisingly Debra Paget wants to merge with him again. Though her motivation is not just sexual, there is an ahead of its time erotic scene in which Paget and Randell start to undress each other, and got as far as you could in 1961. Of course Elaine Stewart, loyal and true, and brimming with unconditional love does her best to help him.
A fascinating early gotta see it to believe it sci-fi noir.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Steve-O
