Jail Bait, 1954.
Directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr.
Starring Lyle Talbot, Steve Reeves, Herbert Rawlinson, Clancy Malone, Conrad Brooks, Dolores Fuller, Timothy Farrell and Theodora Thurman.
After his proposed Bela Lugosi supernatural TV series Dr. Acula failed to get off the ground, schlock filmmaker Ed Wood turned his hand to film noir for his second feature Jail Bait, which was produced under the title The Hidden Face. Inspired by the 1935 crime drama False Faces (a.k.a. Let 'em Have It), the film revolves around a gangster who plans to undergo drastic facial plastic surgery in order to evade the police. To do so he kidnaps the son of Dr. Gregor, played by English actor and silent era star Herbert Rawlinson, who died the day after filming was completed (the part was originally written for Lugosi, who dropped out after falling ill himself).
Jail Bait reunites Wood with Glen or Glenda cast members and regular collaborators Lyle Talbot, Timothy Farrell and Conrad Brookes (all of whom would go on to appear in the cult classic Plan 9 From Outer Space), along with then girlfriend Dolores Fuller. It also marks an early screen appearance for former bodybuilder Steve Reeves, who would later enjoy success in Europe in a string of low budget Italian sword-and-sandals efforts (as Europe's highest paid star of the time, Reeves reportedly turned down the roles of The Man With No Name in A Fistful of Dollars and James Bond in Dr. No).
Embed courtesy of Internet Archive.
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