Manfish / Wetbacks

Manfish (1956, Color, 76 minutes): Modern-day fortune hunters follow in the centuried footprints of the pirates of the Caribbean - but the trail leads only to murder and madness. Brannigan is the captain of the turtle-hunting ship "Manfish" that sails the blue Jamaican waters off Port Royal. On the ocean floor a skeleton holds in its hand a bottle containing half of an 18th-century treasure map - a discovery that leads Brannigan to "The Professor," a local character who owns the other half. The map is in code which only the Professor can decipher, forcing the two men to form a hate-filled partnership. The pirate treasure is finally unearthed, resulting in treachery, crime and macabre punishment.

Adapted from two Edgar Allan Poe masterworks ("The Gold-Bug" and "The Tell-tale Heart") and shot on location in the Caribbean, Manfish is a suspenseful tale enhanced by vivid underwater photography, lush locales. Lon Chaney Jr. delivers a sympathetic Lennie-like performance as "Swede," a gentle giant whose one love is the "Manfish" on which he serves as mate. - Tom Weaver

Wetbacks (1956, B&W, 87 minutes): Jim Benson, a down-on-his-luck fishing boat skipper, stranded in a primitive Mexican coastal village Enter the wetback runners who need a boatload of human cargo smuggled into the U.S. They promise Benson an easy job and enough cash to get him back on his feet. He refuses but reconsiders when the smugglers put a gun to his head. Now he finds that the smugglers intend to force him to continue these illegal runs - OR ELSE.

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