Harold J. Stone

A Chicago mobster hires a rock'n'roll singer and his band to keep an eye on his daughter during Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Elvis Presley is in fine form as singer Rusty Wells, who is hired by Big Frank to watch over his daughter Valerie while she is on her first spring-break holiday. Much mayhem ensues when heartthrob Romano tries his luck with the hapless girl, and Elvis et all must intervene. —Paul Batey <pbatey@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au>

Ray Milland plays Dr. James Xavier a brilliant scientist who understands that the human eye only perceives a tenth of the entire visual spectrum. Through his experiments he develops an eye drop that allows a monkey to see through hard material and his gal-pal Dr. Diane Fairfax (Diana Van der Vlis) is astounded at the discovery. Xavier turns to his friend Dr. Sam Brant (Harold J. Stone) to aid him in administering the drug on himself to record the details first hand, but Brant doesnt want to because too much is still unknown about the drug. Xavier goes forward with his plans and discovers a wealth of new visual abilities he didnt posses before. His ability to see through material prevents a miss-diagnosed surgery but puts him at odds with the attending physician at his hospital. Brant tries to prevent Xavier from continuing the drug because of the physical damage to his system. In the midst of an argument Xavier accidentally causes the death of Brant and Diane convinces Xavier to flee until he can pull himself together and explain what happened. Xavier drops out of sight until Diane tracks him down and discovers that by continually using the vision drug Xavier has developed a sensitivity that has caused shocking changes in the doctors persona. As the police close in and crosses paths with a religious preacher the doctor takes some actions that have drastic aftereffects.

Humphrey Bogart is Eddie Willis an older washed up unemployed sports writer hired by Nick Benko (Rod Steiger) a gangster fight promoter to publicize an unknown hulking South American heavyweight boxer Toro Moreno (Mike Lane). In the sparring session it is obvious that Moreno has no boxing skills. The scheme is to get out of New York and build up Toro against fighters who are being paid to take a dive so Steiger can cash in down the line in a big fight by betting against Toro. Bogart goes along reluctantly for the money but is constantly at odds with Steiger and his crooked henchmen's tactics. Bogarts wife (Jan Sterling) tries to convince him to go back to writing but he has been seduced by the promise of money and his share of the fighter. When one of Toro's opponents is knocked out in the ring and later dies, the fighter's fatal injuries were sustained in a previous fight, Toro wants to go back home. Bogart convinces him to stay and fight one more bout against the champion by leveling with him about his skills and that he couldn't hurt anyone. To prove this he has Toro's sparing partner (Jersey Joe Walcott) knock Toro down in the hotel room. His final opponent, played by real heavyweight fighter Max Baer, vows to hurt Toro to prove he was the one who injured the deceased fighter and administers a brutal beating in the fight to Toro. When Bogart tries to get Toro's share of the purse he is rebuffed by Steiger and his crooked accountant (Nehemiah Persoff) and told the fighter's net share is basically zero. Steiger sells Toro's contract to another lowlife promoter but Bogart spirits Toro to the airport and ends up giving him his share of the fighter's proceeds so Toro won't go home broke. Despite threats from Steiger, Bogart decides to write an expose on the fight game and the crooked promoters and gangsters involved.