The writing was already on the wall at Republic Pictures by the time this B-pic went into production. Even its generic title seems to admit defeat in advance. With television making their bread & butter Westerns & serials non-starters, and company head Herbert J. Yates unwilling to ‘go big’ as he occasionally did with name stars & directors just a few years back, the studio spiraled down to nothing-burger pics like this little suspenser that might have worked with heavy film noir flair and a cast of threateningly sexy up-and-comers. Instead, we might be watching a double episode of 77 SUNSET STRIP as boy-next-door type Ben Cooper pines for tenant Maria English at his mom’s L.A. rental property, unaware the girl’s no Hollywood hopeful, but amoral moll to a pair of con men (Jan Merlin; Nick Adams) setting up an armored-car robbery. They all wind up snowed in for the winter at an isolated forest weather station and try to wait it out while police activity cools down before violent cabin fever heats up. It’s THE DESPERATE HOURS meets SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS! Well, not really. What it really is is lousy. Visually flat, with cabin interiors staged as if they were radio dramas (soundstage exteriors even worse) and missing those cool side street L.A. locations seen all thru the first act. Workhorse Western specialist director William Witney, always at his best when there’s a horse around, phones it in. Which leaves Nick Adams to steal focus with a cold in his nose that doesn’t let up the whole time they’re snowed in.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: The same year, Witney showed what he could do with a real script, real characters (plus horses!) at Republic in the superb STRANGER AT MY DOOR/’56. Loaded with similarities to ADVENTURE, I doubt it got much more commercial traction. Pity. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/10/stranger-at-my-door-1956.html
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