NOT OF THIS EARTH (1957)
Written by Charles Griffith and Mark Hanna Directed by Roger Corman

Mr. Johnson (Paul Birch), an odd, sunglasses-wearing stranger, visits the office of Dr. Rochelle (William Roerick), insisting on a blood transfusion but initially refusing a blood test. When the doctor discovers his need for a daily transfusion, he sends his nurse, Nadine Story (Beverley Garland) to stay at Mr. Johnson’s house and attend to him. This early Corman effort shows polish and humor, with a compact storyline and suspense neatly served up. Birch is convincingly alien, while Beverley Garland personifies the best parts of her director’s talents: no nonsense, good to look at, and providing more depth than is necessary to fulfill the needs of the genre. The scene between Mr. Johnson and a hipster vacuum cleaner salesman played by the brilliant Dick Miller (here billed as Richard) is priceless. Ronald Stein’s score is adds enormously to the film’s atmosphere, and the poster can’t be beat. (Long awaited on home video, this was viewed on Shout! Factory’s nice looking DVD, which contains the likewise long-withheld ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS and WAR OF THE SATELLITES. What a bonanza!)

ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)
Written by Budd Schulberg Directed by Elia Kazan

Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) is a former boxer who has it easy, working the docks for a crooked union, led by Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb), who is assisted by Terry’s smart dressing brother Charlie (Rod Steiger). Terry begins to question his allegiances when every man who attempts to buck the union winds up dead. Gripping on all counts, from Schulberg’s script to Kazan’s direction to Leonard Bernstein’s score to Boris Kaufman’s cinematography, what stands out most about this classic film is its acting, not only from all the leads (Brando, Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden) but from small supporting cast members like Fred Gwynne, Pat Hingle, Pat Henning, Martin Balsam, even Nehemiah Persoff as the silent man driving the cab when Brando and Steiger have their justly famous “Coulda been a contender” scene. If one of the definitions of a classic is a work that rewards multiple viewings over a long span of time; ON THE WATERFRONT is a classic. (Viewed on TCM in a print that is visually pristine, but whose audio track has been mixed at too low a level. A crime for a film whose writing is as good as its acting.)

— Robert Deveau, The Doomed Farmer