cult film freak: MARK STEVENS & JOANNE DRU IN THE NEO NOIR 'SEPTEMBER STORM'

Pulpy poster featuring a lovely painted lovely actress Joanne Dru for SEPTEMBER STORM Year: 1960 Rating: ***

Directed by underrated WAR OF THE WORLDS filmmaker Byron Haskin, for a 3D movie with a giant shark on the poster, it's amazing how much time's wasted at a Spanish (i.e. Spain-set) nightclub, which includes an extremely drawn-out Flamenco dance. All viewed by the four main characters that consist of two important pairs...

The first begins the picture: An extremely perfect-looking young Spanish guy who pretends to own the yacht of a vacationing millionaire (his boss), and a pretty yet slightly aged American model who he's making up the lie for: They go diving when the other two check out the vessel...

Mark Stevens and Robert Strauss in SEPTEMBER STORM

Actor Mark Stevens usually preferred directing adventurous b-pictures. This one a treasure hunt with only one shark — made of what looks like Styrofoam. His partner is a joke-around rummy familiar in oceanic Neo Noirs, and it's goofy Robert Strauss as this very goofy character, and an extremely creepy one too...

That only Anne, played by red-head in a red bikini Joanne Dru — once they've all set out after a cache of buried gold coins — is partially aware/suspicious of...

Joanne Dru and Asher Dann in SEPTEMBER STORM

Meanwhile, she's shying away from gigolo Asher Dann (from New York but looking genuinely Spanish) and it takes Stevens' maverick Joe Balfour to get badly injured for her to fall in love... or at least like...

Stevens is an AFRICAN QUEEN Bogart type of sweaty-chested scoundrel, but his character's pretty dull, leaving Strauss to keep refilling the comic relief, even throughout the titular storm that mostly occurs at night, and is hardly visible to the audience...

Joanne Dru and Asher Dann in SEPTEMBER STORM with Mark Stevens

At one point, the beautiful Anne actually requests "no more bad jokes," which is the best dialogue/advice given since the drunken first mate grates (intentionally) on the nerves...

Then there are the usual treasure seeking double-crosses and an 11th hour greed-driven mad-impulse. But SEPTEMBER STORM, while a pretty dull cinematic tempest, is pretty fantastic to look at — and feels, for better or worse, like hanging out under the early 1960's Technicolor/CinemaScope sunshine.