The Cruel Tower (1956)
132Tom Kittredge (John Ericson), a young drifter, is hitching a ride on a boxcar. However, three vagrants beat him up, steal his wallet and toss him from the train. Tom is rescued by "Joss" Jossman (Peter Whitney), a mentally disabled steeplejack worker. Tom awakens later under the watchful eye of Joss's co-worker Casey (Steve Brodie), in a trailer owned by their employer, steeplejack contractor Harry "Stretch" Clay (Charles McGraw). They take him to Websterville, where he is treated by a doctor (Stafford Repp) and then nursed by Stretch's mistress, former burlesque dancer Mary "The Babe" Thompson (Mari Blanchard), who is ashamed of her past.
When Tom recuperates, Stretch insists on hiring him to replace an employee who fell to his death. Tom, who is afraid of heights, feels indebted to Stretch and reluctantly agrees after being assigned to be the groundsman. On Tom's first day, Joss accidentally drops a ladder from the top of a water tower, which strikes Casey on its way down. Casey is knocked unconscious and hangs from the rigging until Stretch and Tom rescue him. When he awakens, the resilient Casey cheerfully returns to work, after Stretch agrees to pay for boardinghouse lodgings.
Tom falls for Mary and distrusts the volatile Stretch. When Stretch and Casey leave for their respective weekend plans, Joss privately tells Tom that Casey is seeing Stretch's wife Rosemary. A resentful Joss then admits that prior to his brain damage, which was caused by an accident, he and Rosemary had been in love, but she married Stretch while Joss was in the hospital. Joss's disability now prevents him from finding work elsewhere.
To help Tom with his fear of heights, Mary climbs the water tower, and Tom follows her. However, when she reaches the top platform, a thunderstorm breaks and Mary is too frightened to climb down. Tom fixes the rigging to lower Mary by rope, then climbs down on his own. After they reach the ground, Tom declares his love and they kiss. Stretch warns Tom to stay away from Mary.
Moments later, Forrest (Dick Rich) arrives with two workers, and Stretch and Tom pelt them with stones from above. One of the workers, Rocky Milliken (Alan Hale Jr.), is struck on the head and collapses and, after a second scuffle, is left behind.
Owing to a previous friendship between the men, Stretch hires Rocky. The next night at a bar, Stretch incites a brawl against Forrest and his men. The police are called, after which Stretch and his crew take refuge at a mission where Joss regularly attends services. However, Joss threatens to kill Stretch after the employer makes insulting remarks about the female Rev. Claver (Barbara Bell Wright). Mary warns Tom to keep Casey away from Stretch for his own safety, but Casey is unconcerned.
Mary decides to return home to face her disapproving family, and Tom agrees to join her. The next day, a drunken Stretch arrives at the job site and climbs the smokestack with Tom and Rocky. Stretch menacingly lunges for Tom, who finds his courage and confronts Stretch. Stretch pretends to apologize, but again attempts to attack Tom, then slips and falls to his death. After the ambulance leaves with his body, Tom and Mary sadly walk away from the towering smokestack.
A 1956 Black & White American adventure film directed by Lew Landers, produced by Lindsley Parsons, Sr., screenplay by Warren Douglas, based on William Brown Hartley's novel "The Cruel Tower" (1955), cinematography by Ernest Haller, starring John Ericson, Mari Blanchard, Charles McGraw, Steve Brodie, Peter Whitney and Alan Hale Jr.
This is basically a low-budget remake of a group of films that were made at Warner Brothers ("Tiger Shark" (1932), "Slim" (1937), and "Manpower" (1941), now considered a classic thanks to the presence of George Raft and Marlene Dietrich in creating a truly memorable triangle. Ironically, Alan Hale Jr. appears in this film, pretty much playing the same role that his father Alan Hale Sr. played in that version.) Those films dealt with power wires.
Director Lew Landers gets some tense moments in the film with people dangling off high spaces or falling, and managed to make the audience feel as if they're falling. Ernest Haller's neck-craning shots of the high towers induces a sense of vertigo. The cinematography perfectly captures the violence of the fall.
Landers began his career as an actor. In 1914, he appeared in two features: D.W. Griffith's "The Escape" and the short "Admission – Two Pins", under his birth name. He became an assistant director at Universal Pictures in 1922. He began making films in the 1930s, one of his early ones was the Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi thriller "The Raven" (1935).
Music Soundtrack:
"Cruel Tower" - Music & Lyrics by Richard M. Sherman (as Dick Sherman), Sung by Kay Brown
This programmer is so over the top with corny dialogue and clichéd situations that you have to love it. Fans of "B" movies, 1950's films, Charlie McGraw and camp classics shouldn't miss this one.