Lex Barker, Marie Windsor, Anne Bancroft, Mamie Van Doren, score by Les Baxter,Stuart Whitman in a tiny role, directed by Howard Koch.Filmed like a Perry Mason episode, the movie is interesting but has no real tension, drama and a flaccid climax. And talk, lots and lots of talk. It will be the destruction of pictures, I tell ya. It's still fun to watch, though. Eye candy for any persuasion: Lex Barker in swim trunks and Mamie Van Doren in skin tight dresses. Anne Bancroft early in her career. Given her later work and stature it would have seemed a long shot if this picture was any predictor. Marie Windsor is always a treat, but largely wasted in this as her wheelchair bound brother's caregiver.Easy to guess the perpetrator in this one, but still fun to watch.Goof: Lex Barker takes off in a 56 Chrysler which turns into a 55 Chrysler during the same trip, then back again into a 56 Chrysler as he pulls up to his location.

The late 50's was a strange time for Movies. There were rumblings of an "expansion of consciousness" if you will, that resulted in attempts, like this one, to explore lurid, unmentionable gruesome violence (against Women), and sexual themes that were previously only barely hinted.If you were paying attention, it was obvious that the Arts were becoming a more liberal expression of primal urges (Rock n' Roll) that were always there but rarely talked about in polite company. So here we have this lackluster Serial Killer Movie that was just aching to escape from Studio and Audience conventions, but alas, it was not to be.The "grisly" Murders are very Ho-Hum, one if you can imagine, is just a guy being pushed into a swimming pool. The rest take place off screen. There is a lot of Psycho-Babble, the most scathing coming from a paralyzed hater of all Women. Some of this is slightly entertaining in a trashy kind of way, but not quite enough to save this stiff and incompetently Directed Movie.People talk and talk and say very little. The Sheriff's investigation is basically talk and talk, occasionally on the telephone, and everyone seems to have sunstroke rendering them immobility and inability to emote. This is a strange one at best, but at its worst is slowly paced, mostly uninteresting, and lacking any flare.

Thought this 1957 film starring some very great actors would be entertaining or at least a good murder mystery. The film takes place in a Utah Mountain Lodge where there are a large group of tourists and also behind the scenes very sick people running this lodge. The manager is a man who is handicapped and taken care of by his sister who waits on him hand an foot and this man seems to hate all kinds of women and is also a mental case. One night, a girl is murdered and slashed to death with a knife multiple times and it looks like they have a serial killer on their hands. Lex Baxter, Anne Bancroft and Mamie Van Doren all add a great deal to this story with their great supporting actors roles. There are other murders and the film goes completely around in circles until you have already figured out who the killer is and you can't wait for the film to end.

Frankly, this a lame "B" flick, with hilarious dialogue, great locations and uneven performances.To even utter the phrase "film noir," in conjunction with this film, is ludicrous. Some of the comparisons found in previous posts are mind-boggling.Disposable characters, inane conversations and an annoying soundtrack are buffered by a wonderful setting - a kitschy, picture-perfect motel, straight out of a retro-fanatic's dream. Man, I want to stay at the "Parry Lodge" for a weekend!!Every time actor Ron Randell opens his mouth, you know you're in for some scenery-chewing, par none. Lex Barker is, well, Lex Barker. "Sheriff" John Dehner comes across the least scathed, although as a previous comment did point out, he appears to have wandered in from another movie set.All in all, worth a viewing, just to see what it meant to stay in a "motel" before Holiday Inn and Ramada ruined the experience.UPDATE: Lodge is still up and running - see parrylodge.com!