The Girl in Black Stockings *** (1957, Lex Barker, Anne Bancroft, John Dehner, Ron Randell, Marie Windsor, Mamie Van Doren) – Classic Movie Review 5217

Director Howard W Koch’s entertaining 1957 thriller stars a fine line-up in Anne Bancroft, Lex Barker, John Dehner, Ron Randell, Marie Windsor, Mamie Van Doren and John Holland, and makes ideal late-night film noir viewing.

Somebody is bumping off a series of women at a smart Utah hotel, Harriet Ames (Van Doren) among them, in this taut and intriguing B-movie suspense thriller with a Western setting. It is written for the screen by Richard H Landau, taken from Peter Godfrey’s story Wanton Murder.

Dehner plays Sheriff Jess Holmes, who investigates lawyer David Hewson (Barker), receptionist Bess Dixon (Bancroft), handicapped hotel owner Edmund Parry (Randell), his sister Julia (Windsor), and actor Norman Grant (Holland).

A fabulous Fifties B-movie cast as the usual suspects and just the right sleazy atmosphere combine to make this excellent 75-minute support feature work really well, with its nifty mystery staying engrossing. Cinematographer William Margulies shoots in black and white of course.

Also in the cast are Diane Van Der Vlis, Richard H Cutting, Larry Chance, Gene O’Donnell, Gerald Frank, Karl MacDonald, Norman Leavitt, Stuart Whitman, David Dwight, Dan Blocker (from Bonanza), Mark Bennett and Mickey Whiting.

Bancroft had just filmed the similar Nightfall (1956), but was getting tired of this kind of work in the cinema and headed for Broadway, reinventing herself as a serious actress.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5217

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