Leonard Nimoy: Kid Monk Baroni (1952) and Valley of Mystery AKA Disappearance of Flight 603 (1967)

[zacharythax]

KID MONK BARONI (1952)

Nimoy said in an interview that this film sank at the box office because of the advent of television. Paul "Monk" Baroni is the leader of J.D. gang who gets caught by a kindly, but tough parish priest sawing up a stair railing for firewood. He invites them to train at the church basement athletic club, where he gets in the ring with Baroni and teaches him the left jab. "I can't hit a fadder!" There's not even a whiff of the rich deep Nimoy voice in this character and he's supposed to have a deformed face, but later in the movie, when he becomes a successful prizefighter and gets plastic surgery he doesn't look any different (!?) He meets a nice girl who wants to save him and a bad girl who takes all his money. It all has a happy ending. With Jack Larson (Jimmy Olson from the Superman TV series) From Herman Cohen, the producer of I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and I Was a Teenage Werewolf. 

 

VALLEY OF MYSTERY (1967)

I couldn't believe Psychotronic never covered this. Long before the Airport franchise made people afraid to fly we had this. It's got a great cast and the plot really moves. A plane crashes in the South American jungle. The passengers include Peter Graves, Julie Adams, Leonard Nimoy, an alcoholic comedian (who steals all the mini-bottles), a Bolivian cop carrying a prisoner who switch places with his captor after the crash, and a folk singer. Peter Graves was paying attention before the crash and finds out there's a missionary camp nearby. They get the radio working again and find out the search for them has been abandoned. A couple of annoying little kids find the cops passport and gig is up for the prisoner, but he escapes with hot Julie Adams as hostage but gets shot by the comedian who's got a boner for her. They take off for the missionary camp, find a native tied upside-down to a tree and then it takes a left turn into almost Heart of Darkness territory. Not bad. 

Both films are available on YouTube in their entirety.