Extremely Low Budget Vanity Project Black and White Crime Films of the 1960's That Become Horror Movies Double Feature:
Right Hand of the Devil (1963)
Character actor Aram Katcher, born in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (before it was Istanbul, Turkey) produced, directed, wrote, edited, and starred in this grim heist film. Since his second career was running a beauty salon, he also did the hair and makeup.
He plays a criminal mastermind who assembles a gang and uses his masculine wiles to seduce an older woman who works as the head cashier at a sports arena so she'll give him the keys. Suffice to say that there's no honor among thieves and that there's a bathtub full of some kind of corrosive liquid involved. Lots of Los Angeles locations seen. The Shocking Twist Ending depends on somebody not recognizing somebody who should be easily identified, but at least it brings things to a gruesome close.
The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds (1965)
Character actor Bert Williams produced, directed, wrote, and starred in this Southern Fried shocker. He plays some kind of cop investigating moonshiners deep in the Florida swamp. Some footage appears to be missing, as we very quickly see the crooks chasing him even deeper into the swamp. He winds up at what we're told is an inn on some isolated island. Sure seems like a plain old shack to me, although there's a shot at the end of a model that makes it seems big.
In residence are a guy with beard but no mustache, a woman who goes into frenzies of religious fanaticism, and her blonde daughter, who she keeps chained up during the day and who she beats savagely. Our hero witnesses a naked blonde woman stab one of the crooks to death. There's a room he's not supposed to enter. You'll see the Shocking Twist Ending coming a mile away in this sweaty, alligator-filled film with hints of Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
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