INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN

 

By 1956, any movie producer willing to hire Lon Chaney Jr. for a role in a genre film, knew that the legendary horror actor had a drinking problem. Stories abound about having to get all of Chaney's scenes filmed before noon on various productions, because he was known to drink his lunch and be absolutely useless for the rest of the day. 

Creative producers came up with a serviceable solution to this problem. Make whatever character Chaney was playing a mute. With no lines to memorize, it was much easier to handle the frequently inebriated horror icon. This approach can be seen in THE BLACK SLEEP (1956), in which both Chaney and a close-to-death Bela Lugosi, play characters unable to speak. It's used again in INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN (1956) with Chaney given only one scene with dialogue early in the film. 

Presented in the style of a police procedural drama (see any episode of DRAGNET), INDESTRUCTIBLE features voice over narration by police detective Dick Chasen (Max Showalter), relating the story of Charles "Butcher" Benton (Chaney), who is sentenced to death for a robbery and subsequent murder. He's been set up by crooked lawyer Paul Lowe (Ross Elliott) and Benton claims he'll somehow kill the attorney and his other two partners in crime. How will Benton return from the dead to enact his revenge?

Enter mad scientist Dr. Bradshaw (Robert Shayne who played Inspector Henderson on TV's ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN) and his lab assistant played by an uncredited Joe Flynn (Captain Binghamton on TV's MC HALE'S NAVY). Bradshaw bribes a morgue attendant to deliver Benton's body to his lab where he jolts the body with an incredible amount of electricity. Benton is returned to life, his vocal cords conveniently fried by the voltage and with a now indestructible body. Thus revived. he sets out to wreak havoc on those who wronged him. 

The sets in INDESTRUCIBLE MAN are pretty basic but there's a ton of on location footage of Los Angeles in 1956 that adds greatly to the atmosphere. There's also a lot of stock footage used but cinematographer John L. Russell does solid work throughout with some scenes having a hint of film noir. 

At one point, the narrator refers to Benton as a "monster man made", which sounds like it should be a "man made monster". Trouble is, that is the title of a Universal Chaney horror film from 1941 and most likely producer/director Jack Pollexfen probably didn't want to risk getting into trouble with the studio. 

Both the bad guys and the police are searching for the money from the robbery that Benton was convicted for. The only clue is, I kid you not, a piece of paper with several intersecting, curved lines and a big black "X" to mark the spot. There's no writing on the paper but a character takes one look at the paper and instantly knows that it represents the Los Angeles sewer system.

Apparently the electric jolt also makes Benton's clothes indestructible as he is repeatedly shot at point blank range with no bullet holes visible in his jacket. 

The action climaxes in a well shot sequence in the Los Angeles sewer system (reminiscent of the climax of THEM! (1954)). Here heavily armed police officers (one man has a bazooka, another a flame thrower), track Benton down. Benton escapes them (but is badly burned in the process) and meets his spectacular demise in an LA power plant. 

INDESTRUIBLE MAN moves at a pretty good clip, slowing down only long enough for an expository scene at a hamburger drive-in stand that fills us in on the back stories of Detective Chasen and Eva Martin (Marian Carr), a burlesque dancer briefly involved with Benton before he was convicted. 

Far from a great film and certainly not a jewel-in-the-rough worthy of reconsideration, INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN is nonetheless a fun little time waster (72 minutes), in which the great Lon Chaney Jr. gives the best he was capable of at the time. 

SYNTHETIC FLESH!

There it is, right on the cover of MONSTER WORLD #8 (May 1966), a full color portrait of the mad fiend to be found in DR. X (1932). MONSTER WORLD, for those who came in late, was a spin-off sister (brother?) publication of the legendary FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND. In the mid 1960s, FM was enjoying unprecedented success, so much so that publisher James Warren and editor Forrest J Ackerman decided to launch a companion magazine. MONSTER WORLD was published in between issues of FM, had a lower cover price and fewer pages but it was filled with great articles and photos. Sadly, the magazine only lasted ten issues. 

I know for a fact that it was in the pages of the issue featured above that I first learned of such a film as DR.X. Of course, for years, until I actually saw the film, I was under the mistaken impression that the monster on the cover was Dr. X himself, but that's not the case. 

No, the misshapen monstrosity of a mug depicted on the cover belongs to Preston Foster but to say any more about how he got that way would be to spoil the delights to be found in this early two-color Technicolor, pre-Code horror film. Early Technicolor film certainly had it's limitations but the cinematography here works to the films' advantage with most scenes cast in various shades and hues of orange and green. The lurid, lush green color is particularly atmospheric in this story of the "Moon Killer", a maniac who strikes when the moon is full. 

DR. X has a lot of things going for it in addition to the primitive Technicolor palette. Lionel Atwill is superb in the title role as Dr. Xavier (surely Stan Lee and Jack Kirby saw this film when they were young), the lovely Fay Wray (here sporting her natural brunette hair color),  impressive sets and art direction (some of the sets are towering), nimble camera work by Ray Rennahan that includes several striking high angle shots, mixed with compositions in laboratories that foreground arcane scientific equipment. Preston Foster is good as the monster who craves "synthetic flesh" and the whole thing moves at a good clip under the command of Michael Curtiz. In fact, Curtiz, Atwill and Wray would team up again the following year for THE MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933), another early Technicolor horror film that served as the inspiration for HOUSE OF WAX (1953).

But a couple of things work against DR. X and they are things that are hard to ignore. First is the screenplay by Robert Tasker and Earl Baldwin. Based on the play THE TERROR (1931) by Howard W. Comstock and Allen C. Miller, DR. X can never quite escape it's origin on the stage. Even though much credit should be given to Curtiz and the crew to try and open up the action, there are several extremely stagy sequences that consist of people standing around talking. 

I could overlook that to some extent because a lot of early '30s films are stagy (see Tod Browning's DRACULA (1931)). But what really grates on me is the performance by Lee Tracy as happy-go-lucky newspaper reporter Lee Taylor. Tracy strains mightily to be funny and perhaps audiences of the time enjoyed his antics and found them a good way to leaven the tension of the rather gruesome goings-on. But from a 2020 perspective, Tracy's schtick comes off as inept and annoying. What's worse, he's the hero of the story, destroying the monster and getting the girl.

Still, DR, X has it's moments of pure pulp horror and for that I commend it and recommend it to all horror aficionados and all of those little boys who stared in wonder at the cover of MOSNTER WORLD #8 and wondered if they'd ever have the chance to see this landmark film. 

THE BLACK CURTAIN

 

THE BLACK CURTAIN (1941) is the fourth Cornell Woolrich novel I've read in the last year or so. Although it starts out strong, the ending feels a bit forced and contrived. However, that in no way lessened my enjoyment of the book and my anticipation of savoring more Woolrich novels in the future. 

CURTAIN deals with the classic noir trope of amnesia. A freak accident restores Frank Townsend's memory one day but he's left with a three year gap in his life that he has no recollection of. He soon finds himself hunted by a mysterious man in gray. Townsend goes back to the street where the narrative opening accident occurred, hoping to find some clue to his missing past. He finds a young girl who knows him as Dan Nearing and knows he's wanted for murder. Townsend and the girl team up to discover the real killer and it's here where things get a bit stretched.

From out of nowhere, Townsend suddenly develops and employs deductive skills second only to Sherlock Holmes. He can decode Morse Code sent by eye blinks (!) and figures out how the deadly shotgun blast was engineered in a fantastical way. 

Still, Woolrich keeps the tension turned up to maximum throughout resulting in a satisfying thriller of psychological suspense. BLACK CURTAIN was filmed as STREET OF CHANCE in 1942 (a film I have not seen but will be on the look out for), as a radio drama on SUSPENSE in 1943 and as a Sydney Pollack directed episode of THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR (no surprise, this material is straight up Hitch's alley) in 1962. 

Recommended for all noir fans. 

SENSE OF WONDER

This is another one of those "woulda, coulda, shoulda" pieces that I hate to write. 

I recently finished reading SENSE OF WONDER: A LIFE IN COMIC FANDOM (TwoMorrows, 2001) by Bill Schelly. Boy, do I wish I had read this absolutely wonderful book sometime before last September. You see, Bill Schelly passed away on September 12th of 2019. If I had read this book while he was still alive, I most certainly would have reached out to him in some way to let him know how much I enjoyed his book. 

SENSE OF WONDER, subtitled "A Personal Memoir of Fandom's Golden Age", is exactly that. It's a heartfelt look back at one young man's discovery of both comic books and subsequently, comic book fanzines in the early and mid 1960s. While Schelly was slightly older than me, I could nonetheless identity with a lot of the things he writes about. Schelly's love for comics and zines ultimately led him to publish his own fanzines, of which, SENSE OF WONDER was the longest running and, in the end, most professionally produced of all of the zines he cranked out either alone or with the assistance of likeminded fans. 

It's a wonderful, "you-are-there" look back at a truly magical time in American comic book history aided immensely by Schelly's stellar prose. SENSE OF WONDER is an often funny, sometimes deeply moving accounting of one man's coming of age at the same time his most beloved of media was experiencing immense growing pains itself. 

Recently, SENSE OF WONDER was re-released with additional material by Schelly that frames his various adventures through the lens of a young gay man, which Schelly was. His homosexuality is only vaguely hinted at in the original edition of SENSE and even though I haven't read the expanded version, I have no doubt that it can only be an improvement on what Schelly had already accomplished. Schelly comes across as honest, thoughtful and insightful about comics, life, and various relationships and I'm sure the new edition sheds additional light on his unfortunately way too short life. 

The only other book by Bill Schelly that I've read is EMPIRE OF MONSTERS (Fantagraphics, 2019), his brilliant biography of horror magazine publisher James Warren. I have a few other Schelly scribed and/or edited tomes here in the old man-cave that I'll get to hopefully sooner rather than later. These include his Joe Kubert (one of my all time favorite comic book artists) biography, MAN OF ROCK (2008), the stunning hardcover collection THE ART OF JOE KUBERT (2011), COMIC FANDOM READER (2002), THE BEST OF ALTER EGO (2008)  (with the legendary Roy Thomas, my all-time favorite comic book writer) and THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMIC FANDOM (1995). 

In addition to these and other books on comics fandom, Schelly wrote two books about the great Otto Binder, a critically acclaimed bio of John (Little Lulu) Stanley and an Eisner Award winning book about the legendary Harvey (MAD) Kurtzman. 

Had Schelly lived, there's no doubt he would have continued to contribute meticulously researched, lively written volumes of comics history spotlighting both the endless trove of treasures contained in fanzines, the phenomenon of fandom itself and the creative men and women who brought those wonderful four-color fantasies to life. 

I deeply regret not having had the chance to communicate with this talented man while he was with us. If you have even the slightest interest in the history of comic books, I urge you to seek out and read any and all of the books you can find with the Bill Schelly byline. I promise, you won't be disappointed. 

 

"TROLLOP? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?"

 

Platinum tressed sexpot Mamie Van Doren, poured into a pair of blue jeans and a too-tight sweater, shimmies and shakes her way through several godawful "rock 'n roll" song and dance numbers in the notorious '50s exploitation film UNTAMED YOUTH (1957). The "musical" numbers serve to pad out the 80 minutes running time which would otherwise clock in at less than hour without Van Doren repeatedly strutting her stuff. 

UNTAMED YOUTH is the tale of a group of wayward teens and young adults (all of the actors are clearly way too old for the parts and totally unconvincing as "youth"), who are arrested and forced to serve their terms doing hard labor on a cotton farm. These kids can work in the cotton fields all day (often wearing improper clothing, no sign of protective hats and occasionally bursting into songs) and then dance and sing the night away back in the mess hall. Boy, do those kids have a lot of energy! Anyone else would be totally exhausted after a day of back breaking labor but not these untamed youth. 

The cotton farm is owned by the sinister Russ Tropp (John Russell), a crook who is out to exploit not only the youth at his command but also a number of illegal alien workers about to cross over from Mexico. It's all part of a plot cooked up by Tropp and corrupt Judge Steele (Lurene Tuttle), who conveniently sentences young offenders that come before her to work on the farm. Turns out Tropp and Steele are secretly married (it's definitely a May-December romance), with Tropp using the Judge for his own ends. 

Steele's son, Bob (Don Burnett), takes a job on the farm only to discover the misdeeds taking place there including the working to death of a young woman, Baby (Yvonne Fedderson), who is five months pregnant at the time of her death. Bob, along with the plucky Lowe sisters, Penny (Van Doren) and Jane (Lori Nelson), uncover Tropp's scheme and shut down the entire operation.

Cinematographer Carl E. Guthrie shoots most of Tropp's scenes from an extreme low angle making the already tall man seem even more visually imposing. Tall, dark and handsome, John Russell had a long career in both television and feature films. He starred on two television series in the 1950s, SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE (1955-1957) and LAWMAN (1958-1962) and appeared in three Clint Eastwood films: THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (1976), HONKYTONK MAN (1982) and PALE RIDER (1985). 

Real life rock star Eddie Cochran is featured as "Bong", one of the "kids" and he's featured in a couple of musical numbers. 

Lori Nelson is known to genre fans for her appearances in REVENGE OF THE CREATURE (1955) and Roger Corman's THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED (1955) while Van Doren's genre work includes THE NAVY VS. THE NIGHT MONSTERS (1966) and VOYAGE TO THE PLANET OF PREHISTORIC WOMEN (1965). 

UNTAMED YOUTH is nowhere as taboo shattering as it's reputation would lead one to believe. It's a fairly routine story with a serviceable supporting cast. But make no mistake about it, UNTAMED YOUTH is Mamie Van Doren's film from beginning to end. She's there to sell tickets, raise eyebrows and quicken male pulses, both young and old.  

She succeeds at doing these in a most magnificent way.

WAR OF THE WILD, WILD PLANETS

Within the last week, TCM has run two of the four "Gamma-One" Italian science fiction films. These low-budget monstrosities were produced in the mid '60s, utilizing the same production company, cast members, sets and recycled special effects sequences. The films, in order are WILD, WILD PLANET (1966), WAR OF THE PLANETS (1966), WAR BETWEEN THE PLANETS (1966) and SNOW DEVILS (1967). It's not necessary to watch these films in their order of release but I include this information for anyone who feels compelled to do so. The two films that TCM ran (and which I've had the dubious pleasure to watch) are WILD, WILD PLANET and WAR OF THE PLANETS. They're both truly dreadful, craptastic exercises in bad genre filmmaking. But that's besides the point of this post. 

Watching these films took me back to my high school days when I would often spend the night at my buddy Blake Brown's house. It was always a blast to spend a night there because Blake had "cable television." In Austin, Texas in the early '70s, "cable television" meant that for a monthly price you could receive all of the Austin broadcast channels as well as the stations in San Antonio (the closest big city). That's it. Remember, there really was no true "cable television" until the early 1980s so getting to watch television stations from another city (and with good reception) was really a big deal for us. Especially on Friday nights. 

That was when KSAT, the San Antonio ABC affiliate, would broadcast "Project Terror", their late night package of horror/science fiction films. The show was always a double feature, with the first film starting at 10:30. "Project Terror" billed itself as being where "the scientific and the terrifying meet" and to prove it, the opening focused on a blinking green oscilloscope (oh, scary!). No matter how cheesy these films were, Blake and I were determined to stay awake as long as possible and try desperately to make it to the end of the second feature. 

Our marathon movie watching was fortified by snacks provided by his mother and when I say "snacks", I mean SNACKS! Whenever I was over there on a Friday night, Mrs. Brown would provide both of us with homemade bowls of both guacamole dip and queso, along with giant size bags of Fritos. These were no ordinary bowls. These were mixing bowls full of home made goodness. 

We'd polish off the bowls of dip during the first feature of "Project Terror" and during the commercial break before the second film started, we'd raid the kitchen for more food, this time consisting of incredibly thick peanut butter and strawberry preserves sandwiches (on white bread) and ice cold milk in the biggest glasses we could find. Thus restocked, we'd head back to the den for more sf/horror wonderment. 

I bring all of this up because while I don't recall ever actually seeing WAR OF THE PLANETS or WILD, WILD PLANET on "Project Terror", these are exactly the kinds of films that would have aired on that program. The fact that they were (and remain), horrible movies, is beside the point. Watching these two films over the last several days served as the best kind of time machine, taking me back to an earlier, more innocent age when watching badly dubbed Italian science fiction films with a good buddy and stuffing myself with dip, chips and sandwiches was nothing short of pure bliss. 

SHE

 

There's a lot of good to be said about Hammer Studios 1965 production of SHE. Filmed in CinemaScope, with exteriors lensed in Israel, the film is handsomely mounted and extremely ambitious for a studio known for it's lower budgeted Gothic horror films. 

Chief among the good things about SHE is the star of the film, the top billed Ursula Andress. Andress, one of the great screen beauties of the '60s, became a cinematic icon due to her appearance in the first James Bond film, DR. NO (1962). By the time Andress made SHE, she was a major international film star and Hammer knew they had a good thing with her as Ayesha ("She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed") in the lead. 

The supporting cast includes Hammer stalwarts Peter Cushing (as one of the heroes) and Christopher Lee as the villain. John Richardson, sporting a blond dye job and spray on tan, is Leo Vincey, the man who appears to be the reincarnation of Ayesha's long lost love, Kallikrates. Richardson co-starred with another '60s sex symbol, Raquel Welch, in ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966). 

The bulk of the action takes place in the lost city of Kuma, somewhere in Africa. Allegedly founded by a tribe of Egyptian outcasts, Kuma displays a diverse culture, seemingly made up of equal parts Roman and Egyptian influences, with few women to be seen. The Kumans have enslaved the native tribe, the Amahagger, but the oppressed people revolt in the action packed third act. 

Veteran director Robert Day orchestrates all of the action well enough but the film suffers from a tediously paced second act that's heavy on expository dialogue and the burgeoning romance between Ayesha and Leo (Andress and Richardson share little if any real onscreen chemistry). While native girl Ustane (Rosenda Monteros) truly loves Leo for himself, not for whom he may have been centuries before, but the plucky girl meets an unfortunate end. 

Director Day made several genre films in his career including THE HAUNTED STRANGLER (1958), CORRIDORS OF BLOOD (1958), FIRST MAN INTO SPACE (1959), TARZAN THE MAGNIFICENT (1960), TARZAN'S THREE CHALLENGES (1963), TARZAN AND THE VALLEY OF GOLD (1966) and TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER (1967). 

Based on the classic adventure novel by H. Rider Haggard, first published in 1887, SHE was previously filmed in 1935. Produced by Merian (KING KONG) C. Cooper, the film stars Randolph Scott as Leo and Helen Gahagan as Ayesha. Some aficionados prefer this version of the material with it's pulp adventure atmosphere. 

SHE proved to be the box office success that Hammer hoped it would be and a sequel, THE VENGEANCE OF SHE was released in 1968 with Olinka Berova in the title role. 

Counting only the good on location cinematography by Harry Waxman, impressive sets, nice matte work and decent for the time special effects, SHE is enjoyable film. But with the always solid Cushing and Lee in the cast and the incandescent beauty of Ursula Andress, SHE becomes a touchstone '60s genre film that falls just short of greatness.

"WHEN THE MONSTER'S DEAD..."

The team of good guys is headed by genre stalwart Kenneth Tobey. He's aided by Jack Kruschen, Barney Phillips and William Schallert and others in their battle against the bad guys.

The bad guys are led by the bow tied, glasses wearing (and scenery chewing) Rod Steiger. The members of his team include the beautiful but deadly Angie Dickinson, Jack Klugman and the benny popping rapist Neville Brand.

In the middle are the innocent pawns James Mason and Inger Stevens.

With a cast like that, CRY TERROR! (1958), has to be good.

And it is.

Directed in a matter-of-fact, semi-documentary style in various New York area locations by Andrew Stone (who co-wrote the screenplay along with his wife, Virginia), CRY is a suspenseful crime thriller in which criminal mastermind Steiger plots to extort half a million dollars from an airline by threatening the use of explosive devices. Those devices were manufactured by Mason, who was duped by Steiger into believing they were for military use. 

  Once Steiger makes his initial demands, various law enforcement agencies spring into action in a race against time to find the gang without endangering the lives of Mason and Stevens (and their young daughter), who are being held hostage and forced to participate in the extortion scene.

Highlights of the film include a nail-biting sequence in a for real elevator shaft and a dangerous climax in a likewise real subway tunnel.

The cast is uniformly excellent but I couldn't help but laugh at Steiger a couple of times. What a ham he was! Mason is one of my favorite actors, Stevens and Dickinson are both lovely, Klugman is good as a bad guy and was there ever a better psycho thug (Stevens calls him a "degenerate") than Brand?

CRY TERROR! is a first rate albeit not widely know little thriller that is well worth seeing.

Thumbs up.

 

BANANAS

"You've heard it with your own eyes"

BANANAS (1971), Woody Allen's second film as writer, director and actor opens and closes with two bits of absolutely inspired insanity. In the opening, Allen stages an assassination in San Marcos, a small Latin America country, as an event worthy of coverage by ABC's WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS. He has the legendary Howard Cosell provide the play by play and then, an interview with the dying dictator.

The gag is repeated at the end of the film but instead of an assassination, it's coverage of the wedding night of Fielding Mellish (Allen) and Nancy (Louise Lasser). Once again, Cosell is there in the couple's bedroom (along with rooting fans), to provide play by play and post coital interviews.

Those scenes are indicative of the type of madcap, scattershot humor that fills every frame of BANANAS. Allen and co-writer Mickey Rose, load the screenplay with sight gags, one liners, fake television commercials, film references and just plain craziness all punctuated by a bouncy Marvin Hamlisch score. If one joke doesn't land, don't worry, there's another one coming, and one after that, and one after that..

For me, all of the jokes land. I had seen Woody Allen's first feature film, TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN when it was released in 1969 so when BANANAS came out a couple of years later, I was ready to see another film by the guy I thought was a comic genius. I believed that then and I believe it now.  

The story of a New York nebbish, Fielding Mellish, who inadvertently gets involved in a banana republic revolution for the sake of love, BANANAS is the kind of film that Allen would dismiss later in his career as being "one of his early, funny ones". It is that and even though I've seen the film several times over the years, I still laugh uproariously at most of the gags. Just ask Judy.

Originally intended as a vehicle for British actor Robert Morse, with Allen serving only as writer and director, the project was shelved when Morse reportedly read and hated the script. Following the tremendous success of TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN, United Artist was quick to sign Allen to a contract and gave him the green light for BANANAS as a 100% Allen project.

A very young Sylvester Stallone appears, uncredited, as one of two subway thugs that Allen encounters early in the film.

BANANAS is a textbook laugh riot showing a young filmmaker learning and growing before our eyes, figuring out what works and what doesn't all while building one of the great bodies of cinematic comedy in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Highly recommended. 

 

GIRL MOST LIKELY

I've read a ton of books so far during this unprecedented year of 2020. But I haven't reviewed many of them here on the ol' blog. Chalk that up to laziness on my part. So, let's do something about that right now.

Max Allan Collins is one of my all-time favorite mystery writers. Don't believe me? According to my Goodreads page (https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/8553032?ref=nav_mybooks) I've read 23 Collins books so far and I'm starting my 24th one today. So, yeah, I like this guy and the books he writes. While some are better than others, I've yet to read a Collins novel that I didn't like.

My buddy Jon Levesque, whom I worked with at Barnes & Noble for many years, knows about my appreciation and admiration for Collins. When he and his lovely fiancé Jeanine attended Bouchercon in Dallas last year, Max Allan Collins was one of the featured authors. Jon was kind enough to get Mr. Collins to sign a copy of the book pictured above for me. It was an extremely thoughtful gesture and I really appreciate it.

By the way, I recall rubbing shoulders with both Collins and Lawrence Block (another one of my faves) at a Mystery Convention in Austin back in the early '90s. I had a press pass (I was freelancing for THE WEST AUSTIN NEWS at the time) and I spent the afternoon combing the dealer's room for vintage John D. MacDonald (my hands down all-time favorite crime writer)  paperbacks. So were Collins and Block! We exchanged pleasantries but at the time, I had yet to read anything by either author so I didn't take the opportunity to get something signed.

GIRL MOST LIKELY (Thomas & Mercer 2019) is a good old fashioned murder mystery that also serves as a starting point for yet another Collins produced series. The star here is twenty-eight-year old Krista Larson, the Chief of Police in Galena, Illinois. She worked her way up through the ranks and does an admirable job of fighting what little crime there is in the riverside community. 

Her ten-year high school reunion is coming up and all of the chatter is about the appearance of the stunning Astrid Lund, a classmate who has become a television reporter in Chicago. The breathtaking beauty had several flings with some of the boys in the class but someone she fooled around with wants her dead. 

Another female classmate is murdered in the opening chapter of the book in a narrative that is told from the killer's point of view. Collins does a good job of never giving away anything that would identify the killer's age or sex. 

The reunion takes place with Astrid in attendance. When she's murdered at her parent's home after the reunion, Chief Larson realizes she's got a serial killer on her hands. She calls in her retired police detective dad, Keith, to serve as a consultant and together the father and daughter team of sleuths start putting the pieces together in a riveting whodunit.

 Collins knows how to tell a traditional murder mystery right down to assembling all of the suspects (of which there are plenty along with some juicy red herrings) at the lodge where the reunion takes place. Another young woman is killed (making the body count three) before things come to a climax with a nighttime chase and confrontation with the killer in the snowy woods.

If I could make a movie out of this material and cast any actors living or dead in the leads, I'd get a young Diane Lane to play Krista and Brian Dennehy to play her father. 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed GIRL MOST LIKELY even though I didn't guess the identity of the killer. Collins plays fair throughout and I'd gladly read another adventure of Krista and Keith Larson.

Thanks Mr. Collins. And thanks Jon. I appreciate both of you.

RED SUN

I remember when RED SUN came out in 1971 but somehow I missed seeing it then and in all of the years since. TCM ran it the other day, I recorded it and watched it this afternoon. Loved it!

At this point in his career, Charles Bronson was beginning to headline films rather than just be part of the supporting cast and RED SUN is a perfect example of this. He gets top billing and it's clearly his film from beginning to end although he does have one helluva supporting cast.

His main co-star is Japanese film legend Toshiro Mifune and the idea (courtesy of screenwriters Denne Bart Petitclerc, William Roberts and Lawrence Roman) of teaming up a gunfighter/train robber with a samurai in the American West was absolutely inspired. These two men represented two of the most macho men to be found in the cinema at the time and they both bring their A games.

Of course, any good western has to have a good villain and RED SUN has one in the form of French heartthrob Alain Delon. He plays Bronson's former train robbing partner who double crosses Bronson and makes off with a fortune in gold and a prized samurai sword, intended as a gift from the Emperor of Japan to the American president.

Bronson and Mifune make an unlikely pair of heroes as the two set out to recover the loot and the sword. They hate each other at first but come to understand and appreciate each man's code of honor. 

Along the way, Bronson and Mifune pick up the beautiful prostitute Cristina (Ursula Andress). She's in love with Delon and the two men plan to use her as a bargaining chip with the outlaw. 

But when all of the parties are finally gathered in the third act, the greatest threat facing them is a tribe of savage Comanches who are determined to kill them all. 
 
RED SUN is a rousing Western adventure with four appealing stars, a nice score by Maurice Jarre and Spanish on-location cinematography by Henri Alekan and a plethora of vertical wipes thanks to editor Johnny Dwyre. I swear, at times I thought I was watching STAR WARS (1977). Director Terence Young, Ursula Andress and Anthony Dawson (who plays one of Delon's henchmen) had all previously worked together on the first James Bond film adventure, DR. NO. Young also directed FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963) and THUNDERBALL (1965). 

It's worth noting that Mifune became an international star thanks to his starring role in Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece, THE SEVEN SAMURAI (1954). When an American version of that film, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, was made in 1960, Charles Bronson was one of the seven along with Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz. 

RED SUN combines the best elements of American western films with Japanese samurai movies for an extremely entertaining slice of pulp adventure.

 Thumbs up.

 

THE T.A.M.I. SHOW

 

The weakest act in the otherwise superlative 1964 rock concert film, THE T.A.M.I. SHOW is The Barbarians, a garage band that plays only one song, "Hey Little Bird." Ever heard of 'em? Me neither.

Otherwise there's a ton of vintage rock material to enjoy in this groundbreaking, landmark film. Surfer boys Jan and Dean serve as the emcee's (and even skateboard!) for a star studded lineup that includes Motown acts The Miracles (with Smokey Robinson), Marvin Gaye and The Supremes (with Diana Ross), British invasion bands Gerry and the Pacemakers and Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas, girl singer Lesley Gore, rock godfather Chuck Berry and surf music kings The Beach Boys. All of these acts perform several of their biggest hits but it's the final two acts of the film that stand out.

James Brown shows why he was named "the hardest working man in show business" in an electrifying penultimate set in which he and The Famous Flames bring the house down with an absolutely incredible performance that left Brown, the audience (and me) drained. I have had surgery on both of my knees and they still give me problems now and then. So I could only wince in astonishment when Brown, still clutching the microphone stand and singing, fell to his knees repeatedly during "Prisoner of Love". You can see the stains on the knees of his pants as this man continually pushed his body to the breaking point only to recover practically instantaneously and keep going. 

Unfortunately, The Rolling Stones had to follow Brown as the closing act, a move that Keith Richards has called the biggest mistake of their careers. They deliver a killer set and Mick Jagger does a great job of strutting, spinning and dancing but his gyrations and acrobatics are nothing compared to those of Brown.

I flat out loved this movie. It was a gas to see all of those acts performing live in front of a wildly screaming audience at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium (home of the Academy Awards broadcast for several years). The performers are backed by an energetic team of young go-go dancers, both black and white, male and female (one of whom was Teri Garr). They prance and "Frug" with wild abandon but never upstage the featured acts. 

The whole affair is a cross between an episode of AMERICAN BANDSTAND and the performance segments of A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (also released in 1964). THE T.A.M.I. SHOW prefigured two network television series, HULLABALOO which ran on NBC from 1965 to 1966 and SHINDIG! which aired on ABC from 1964-1966. 

I listened to all of this music when I was young. I heard these songs (and many more) broadcast daily on radio station KNOW-1490 AM here in Austin, Texas. I never had any albums by these performers until later in life although my sister did have a few Beach Boys records that I listened to. Years later I saw both The Beach Boys and Diana Ross in concert.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, T.A.M.I stands for Teenage Awards Music International, which is kind of a misnomer as no awards of any kind are mentioned.

That's a minor quibble though because this is one hell of a blast from the past. If you're a child of the sixties like me, you'll love every minute of this terrific film. Other performance films would follow but THE T.A.M.I SHOW stands as the Rosetta Stone of rock and roll concert movies.

Highly recommended.

THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED

Three screenwriters, Fred Coe, Edith Sommer and, believe it or not, Francis Ford Coppola, expanded Tennessee Williams' one act play from 1946, THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED, into a feature length film in 1966.

Like many films based on material originally written for the stage, PROPERTY has several scenes that play as "stagy", consisting of characters in one room (or set), trading long passages of expository dialogue. But credit must be given to the screenwriters and director Sydney Pollack for opening up the action (especially in the New Orleans set third act) as much as possible.

Still, that suffocating, stagy feel to much of the narrative actually serves the film well as the main character, Alva (Natalie Wood), yearns desperately to escape the dead-end environs of small, Mississippi railroad town Dodson circa nineteen-thirty-something. Alva and her younger sister, Willlie (Mary (TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD) Badham), live with their domineering mother (Kate Reid), who runs a boarding house in which many railroad workers live.

Alva, has one foot in the clouds, dreaming of running away to someplace, any place else, where magic might be found. Her other foot (and the rest of her body), is rooted in the bedrooms of the boarding house where it's clear she's been sleeping with most of the workers including J.J. (Charles Bronson) and Sidney (Robert Blake). Dirty old man Mr. Johnson (John Harding), wants to take the three women out of Dodson to Memphis where it's clear Alva would be obliged to perform sexual favors for the man, who's wife is alleged to be infirm.

Into this slowly simmering pot of sex and dreams of escape, comes a handsome young stranger, Owen Legate (Robert Redford). He's clearly no railroad worker but he does have work to do in the town. He's there to lay people off from the railroad, this being the middle of the Depression and all, and the railroad is not carrying as many harvest loads as in the past. Owen is hated by everyone except Alva who sees the blond outsider as her ticket out of town.

The third act, filmed on location in New Orleans' French Quarter, offers hope that Owen and Alva will finally achieve true happiness but this being Tennessee Williams, things do not end well.

Wood, never more beautiful, plays Alva as a spiritual cousin of Williams' other great soiled Southern Belle, Blanche DuBois. Alva's not as slap dab crazy as DuBois, but the two share a fantasy outlook on life while being perpetually used by brutish men who only want the women for their bodies.

Originally intended to star Elizabeth Taylor, that deal fell through when Taylor insisted that her husband, Richard Burton, direct the film. The producers balked at that. Natalie Wood was a big enough star at the time to call her own shots and she insisted on casting Robert Redford (whom she had co-starred with in INSIDE DAISY CLOVER (1965). Redford then suggested to Wood that Sydney Pollack be hired as director. THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED was only Pollack's second film as a director, following THE SLENDER THREAD (1965). He and Redford went on to work together on a string of extremely successful films including JEREMIAH JOHNSON (1972), THE WAY WE WERE (1973), THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (1975), THE ELECTRIC HORSEMAN (1979), Best Picture Oscar winner OUT OF AFRICA (1985) and HAVANA (1990).

The supporting cast is solid with Bronson playing a non-action role for once in his career and young Jon (LASSIE) Provost appearing in the framing sequence that opens and closes the film. PROPERTY was only the second feature film of young Mary Badham after her star turn as Scout in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962). But THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED belongs to Natalie Wood who gives a bravura performance as the damaged and doomed Alva. 

Recommended.

 

THE WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE

 

The British/American co-production THE WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE (1959), has an impressive pedigree both in front of and behind the camera. This no-nonsense adventure thriller co-stars two of the screen's greatest "manly" actors, Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston. For Cooper, WRECK marked his next to last film. THE NAKED EDGE (1961) was his last but production on WRECK was halted several times due to Cooper's ill health. For Heston, WRECK was one of two films he made in 1959, the other being BEN-HUR.

The source material is the novel of the same name by British adventure scribe Hammond Innes with a screenplay by Eric Ambler, the king of realistic spy thrillers. And director Michael Anderson (who could make good films and very bad ones), here does a very good job of orchestrating the narrative. Anderson's other credits include THE DAM BUSTERS (1955), the Best Picture of the Year Oscar winner AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956) (which earned Anderson a Best Director nomination), OPERATION CROSSBOW (1965), THE QUILLER MEMORANUDM (1966), DOC SAVAGE: THE MAN OF BRONZE (1975), LOGAN'S RUN (1976) and the JAWS ripoff, ORCA (1977).

WRECK is the story of two men, Captain Gideon Patch (Cooper) and salvager John Sands (Heston), thrown together under extraordinary circumstances. The first act finds Sands boarding what appears to be a deserted ship, the Mary Deare. He finds only Patch onboard and it's clear that the man is hiding a secret about the damaged vessel. Patch eventually runs the ship aground on some reefs in the English Channel and asks Sands to remain quiet about the affair until after an official inquiry can be held.

The second act is centered on the inquiry, which does not go well for Patch. His opponents in the courtroom include the owners of the Mary Deare, their insurance company and a ruthless first mate, Higgins (Richard Harris).

A race against time takes up the third act as Patch and Sands try to get to the wrecked ship and reveal the truth before the Mary Deare can be sunk, taking it's secrets to the bottom of the sea. 

WRECK is helped tremendously by some first rate model work, great water tank action sequences and tense underwater scenes. Cooper is tight lipped and stoic throughout while Heston plays second fiddle without going over the top. 

WRECK was originally planned to be an Alfred Hitchcock production. The plan was for Hitchcock to direct with Cooper starring. Hitchcock and screenwriter Ernest Lehman worked on the script for weeks but couldn't solve the problem of such a large chunk of the action taking place in a courtroom. The men eventually abandoned the project and began working on what became NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959).

It's fun to speculate on what a Hitchcock and Lehman version of WRECK would have looked like but alas, that must ever remain in the realm of unwrought things. As it is, the version of WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE that we do have is a first rate adventure film.

Recommended.

THE SPANISH MAIN

 

Now this, my friends, THIS is Technicolor! As the lobby card pictured above so proudly proclaims, THE SPANISH MAIN (1945) was shot not just in Technicolor, but in "Glorious" Technicolor. The Technicolor cinematography (hats off to George Barnes who received an Oscar nomination for his work) in SPANISH is light years better than the Technicolor displayed in UNHOLY WIFE (which I recently reviewed on this blog).

Produced at RKO, SPANISH MAIN was the studio's first all-Technicolor film since BECKY SHARP (1935). It's a lush and lavish swashbuckling adventure film starring Paul Henreid and Maureen O'Hara, the woman for whom Technicolor cinematography seems to have been invented. The close-ups of the drop-dead gorgeous O'Hara are simply breathtaking, alive and shining with a rich vibrancy that is better than real life.

The narrative is pretty routine stuff. Henreid is Laurent van Horn, a Dutch sailor who butts heads with the corrupt governor of Cartagena Don Juan Alvarado (Walter Slezak). Laurent escapes with three companions only to return five years later under the guise of the notorious pirate, The Barracuda (his ship bears the same name).

The Barracuda intercepts a Spanish vessel bound for Cartagena carrying Francisca Alvarado (O'Hara), the daughter of the viceroy of Mexico and the bride to be of Don Juan.

The Barracuda takes Francisca as his own wife, is challenged by his old flame Anne Bonny (Binnie Barnes) and meets treachery from his second in command Mario Da Bilar (John Emery). Veteran tough guy Barton MacLane is almost unrecognizable under a wig and pirate garb as Captain Black, another foe that The Barracuda must eliminate. 

There's tons of sword fighting and ship to ship combat all of which is well staged and handsomely mounted by director Frank Borzage with the stirring score by Hanns Eisler adding immensely to the action. The miniatures and sets are quite good by 1945 standards and it's obvious that RKO spared no expense to bring this rousing adventure to the screen. 

Walter Slezak practically steals the show as the buffoonish villain Don Juan Alvarado. He's a vainglorious lout who poses no real physical threat, preferring to have his underlings do all of his dirty work. At times it seems Slezak is somehow preparing for his turn more than twenty years later as the villain The Clock King on television's BATMAN.

Screenwriters George Worthing Yates and Herman J. Mankiewicz know better than to reinvent the wheel and their script rings all the notes of a standard pirate swashbuckler. Nothing new or original here but who cares? Feast your eyes on the saturated Technicolor palette and the ravishing Maureen O'Hara.

 A good time is guaranteed.

THE UNHOLY WIFE

I have a coupe of unprovable theories about why THE UNHOLY WIFE (1957) looks and sounds as bad as it does. Although shot by ace cinematographer Lucien Ballard (who photographed a lot of great movies including Stanley Kubrick's THE KILLING (1956) and Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH (1969), UNHOLY has a washed out look and dialogue that was clearly looped during post-production. These two factors serve as minor distractions in what is otherwise a fairly decent little film noir which really should have been produced in black and white.

When UNHOLY went into production at RKO in 1957 that studio was in the process of getting out of the movie production business. In fact, what was left of the RKO studios was eventually sold to Lucille Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz, who transformed it into their own studio/production company, Desilu. But someone in the head office made the decision to shoot UNHOLY in Technicolor and here's where my two theories come into play. 

One, the studio had a bunch of unused Technicolor film stock on hand and the producers decided that rather than incur any additional expenses, they'd simply use what was available. I think it's possible that the film stock was well past it's "sell by" date and as a result, the colors turned out slightly blurry, with noticeable blackness around the frames. Nothing is sharp and well defined and Lucien Ballard was too good a DP not to deliver first rate work.

My second theory is that the decision was made to shoot in color only to find that there was no color film available. Perhaps some hapless production assistant was dispatched to the corner drug store to purchase as much color film stock as could be had and said stock was more suitable for home movies than major Hollywood productions. Because that's what UNHOLY looks like at times, someone's semi-well lit home movies. If someone reading this can either prove or disprove these theories I'd love to hear from you. As I said it's not a deal breaker because the film is certainly worth your time, just be aware that the overall production looks like it was made on the cheap and the quick.

British sex symbol (dubbed the British Marilyn Monroe) Diana Dors stars as Phyllis Hochen, a femme fatale who commits cold blooded murder and frames her wine making husband Paul (Rod Steiger in a somewhat subdued, at least for Steiger, performance). Phyllis has the hots for rodeo cowboy San Sanders (Tom Tryon) and plans to run away with the tall, dark and handsome stud after securing the conviction of Paul. But the web of lies spun by Phyllis becomes increasingly entangled and she ends up being convicted for a murder which she really didn't commit. It's all terribly ironic and it's classic noir material.

The supporting cast includes Arthur (MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS) Franz, Beulah (IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE) Bondi, and noir icon Marie (NARROW MARGIN) Windsor in a small part. Look quick or you'll miss Hal (THE ANDY GRIFIFTH SHOW) Smith in one scene as a doctor. 

 Director John Farrow does yeoman like work here but he made better noirs in his career including THE BIG CLOCK (1948), WHERE DANGER LIVES (1950), and HIS KIND OF WOMAN (1951). 

UNHOLY WIFE was a financial flop, a factor which led to the end of Dors short lived American filmmaking career. She soon returned to her native Great Britain where she enjoyed a long career in films and on television.

 

A DANGEROUS PROFESSION

Wikipedia says that A DANGEROUS PROFESSION (1949) is a film noir.

I disagree.

In my opinion, this RKO production is an overly convoluted yet thoroughly routine crime drama made worth watching primarily for the cast.

George Raft, who made three other films at RKO after WWII (JOHNNY ANGEL (1945), NOCTURNE (1946) and RACE STREET (1948)), stars as ex LAPD detective turned bail bondsman Vince Kane. He's partners with Joe Farley (Pat O'Brien) and the two do a very good business.

When two bit hoodlum Claude Brackett (Bill Williams), gets arrested, Kane discovers that he's married to his old flame, Lucy (the oh-so-beautiful Ella Raines). Brackett was involved in a years-old robbery case and is wanted by police detective Nick Ferrone (Jim Backus), for the murder of a cop.

Kane takes a considerable amount of bail money from two separate parties to bail Brackett but when Brackett disappears, Kane is forced to play detective once again and find his missing client.

Kane's quest leads him into a complicated web of crime, intrigue and murder. Is he really trying to solve the case out of a sense of duty or to win back his old flame?

The film climaxes with a shoot-out and fight staged close to L.A.'s legendary Bronson Caverns in which a couple of stunt men really earn their pay.

Everything is tied up in a neat package at film's end and Kane and Lucy are reunited at last.

A DANGEROUS PROFESSION was directed by Ted Tetzlaff who directed the far superior noir thriller THE WINDOW (1949). Raft and O'Brien are old pros who seem to be on automatic. Raft is especially stiff while it's interesting to see perennial good guy O'Brien play a character with a touch of larceny in his heart. The gorgeous Ella Raines also appeared in such better noirs as PHANTOM LADY (1944), BRUTE FORCE (1947) and IMPACT (1949). 

The real surprise here is the appearance of Backus as both narrator and police detective. Of course, this was years before he did the Mr. Magoo cartoons and starred in IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (1963) and television's GILLIGAN'S ISLAND. He's actually surprisingly good. 

 Light years away from greatness, A DANGEROUS PROFESSION is an okay time waster to enjoy on a brutally hot late summer afternoon.

 

THE WEAK AND THE WICKED

 

With a title like THE WEAK AND THE WICKED, I expected something entirely different from what I ultimately got when I sat down to watch this film this afternoon. This 1954 British women-in-prison picture looks like it should contain lots of pulpy, trashy material, you know, like the majority of women-in-prison pictures deliver (and why I bother to watch such films in the first place.) 

Instead, director J. Lee Thompson orchestrates a straight forward drama in which tawdry thrills (despite the title and one-sheet pictured above) are not to be found. WEAK opens with the trial, conviction and imprisonment of young Jean Raymond (Glynis Johns), who is sent to prison for a twelve-month sentence for fraud. She's actually innocent of the crime, a victim of a neat frame-up, but nonetheless, she has a stretch to do in a British penitentiary.

It's there she meets and befriends the brassy blonde Betty Brown (Diana Dors). The two become fast friends and are eventually transferred to an "open" prison (more like a college campus), to serve their final months. Here, the prisoners are given meaningful work to do and live in dorm like facilities. It's all very progressive and forward thinking. But Jean and Betty are tested near the end of the film with a taste of freedom that momentarily goes awry.

The narrative switches attention from Jean and Betty several times throughout the film as we see illuminating vignettes about a shoplifter, a mother convicted of infanticide and an older woman convicted of blackmail. They're interesting little stories that provide additional characterization but ultimately contribute little to the overall story.

Nothing much really happens in THE WEAK AND THE WICKED. Jean is ultimately released into the arms of her lover while Betty (jilted by her beau), remains behind to serve out the remainder of her sentence.

Much is made of the presence of Diana Dors, the British Marilyn Monroe of the '50s. But with her platinum blonde hair and Spock like eyebrows, Dors looks more freakish than alluring. She does prove herself to be a capable actress however, holding her own against the more seasoned Johns.

THE WEAK AND THE WICKED is a sincere film that offers a semi-documentary look inside British women's prisons. It's not bad but it's no CAGED HEAT.

THIS LAND IS MINE

Produced at RKO in 1943, a year before Allied forces invaded Normandy and began the liberation of Europe from Nazi Germany, Jean Renoir's THIS LAND IS MINE is a stirring call to action, imploring all free men and women in every country under oppression, to stand up and fight for freedom.

Set somewhere in German occupied Europe, THIS LAND focuses on one Albert Lory (Charles Laughton), a mother dominated school teacher, secretly in love with one of his co-workers, the beautiful Louise (Maureen O'Hara). Trouble is, Albert is a coward through and through, afraid of expressing his real feelings, terrified of Allied bombings, too scared to join the underground and strike a blow against the occupiers. But Louise's brother, Paul (Kent Smith), who works at the local railyard, is an active saboteur, doing all he can to disrupt the supply lines.

Louise is in love with George Lambert (George Sanders), the superintendent of the rail depot. He's sold out to the Nazis, going along to get along with Major Erich von Keller (Walter Slezak). But Paul is ratted out and hunted down (in a brilliantly filmed sequence) among the rail cars. Stricken with guilt over his friends' death, George commits suicide and seconds later, Albert finds the body and stands accused of murder.

The third act is a bravura courtroom sequence in which Albert butts heads with the prosecutor (George Coulouris) by defending himself and finally standing up to his oppressors. He confesses his love to Louise and is finally ready to die as a redeemed hero.

THIS LAND IS MINE is propaganda of the highest order but director Renoir treats everything with the utmost sobriety and seriousness. He's aided by a first rate cast headlined by the luminous O'Hara and Laughton, playing a sympathetic character instead of a villain. 

Other points of interest include Major von Keller's artificial arm, an injury he sustained in WWI. It directly recalls Lionel Atwill's turn as Inspector Krogh in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939). The art direction in THIS LAND was under the guidance of Eugene Lourie who went on to direct such genre touchstones as BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953), COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK (1958), GIANT BEHEMOTH (1959), GORGO (1961) and CRACK IN THE WORLD (1965). Kent Smith appeared in Jacques Tourneur's horror masterpiece CAT PEOPLE (1942) while Laughton was unforgettable as Dr. Moreau in ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932). Magpie Una O'Connor appeared in two of director James Whale's gothic horrors at Universal, INVISIBLE MAN (1933) and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935). And George Sanders (one of my all time favorite actors), would later star in the terrific British SF film, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960) and became one of three actors to play Mr. Freeze on televisions' BATMAN.

Handsomely mounted and laced with stirring speeches about freedom and liberty, THIS LAND OF MINE is a first rate piece of wartime filmmaking. It directly addressed the situation in occupied Europe and offered a bracing dash of hope for everyone then suffering under the yoke of tyranny.

Recommended.

 

SLEAZE '73

I recently purchased this magazine on eBay. It's yet another piece to add to my growing collection of vintage men's adventure magazines (or MAMs). I've got about two hundred different issues in my collection so far, one which I've built over the last several years. I don't buy them as often as I used to but every once in a while, I get an itch that only one of these mags can scratch.

Case in point, MEN for May 1973. I was at the end of my junior year in high school the month this magazine was originally published. I certainly didn't buy it at the time as I wasn't buying any of this type of material back then. I probably saw it on the stands at 7-11 or some other convenience store but I avoided that material for fear that one, the guy behind the counter probably wouldn't sell it to me and two, it just looked sleazy as hell.

And sleazy it is. That's a huge part of the appeal for me now all these many years later. By May of 1973, MEN was clearly making the transition from focusing on articles and artwork with the occasional, fully clothed pin-up photos to an almost 100% skin mag. You can see it in the cluttered art direction on the cover. Four different images and more than a half dozen blurbs make it hard to determine exactly what this magazine was selling. One of the articles, about "Mate-Swap" Cities, actually names Austin, TX, as one of the top cities for "swingers" in 1973.

MEN wasn't an out and out skin mag yet but clearly the powers that were at Magazine Management Company (which also handled the Marvel Comics black and white magazines of the era), saw that featuring photos, (even grainy black-and-white pics printed on cheap paper) of near naked young women was more profitable (and cheaper to produce) than paying writers and artists to crank out outlandish "true" stories of crime, adventure and war.

Even though I passed on issues of MEN and their like minded brethren publications, I was eager to reach the point where I could purchase an issue of a honest-to-Hefner real skin mag, something that had class and critical cachet. I'm speaking of course, of the legendary PLAYBOY magazine. Oh sure, I'd seen issues here and there. My older brother had copies stashed in the bath towel compartment in our bathroom, some barber shops had them around for customers to peruse and some neighborhood kid always had a prized (and possibly purloined) copy to show around.

But I had never actually gone into a 7-11 or other convenience store and purchased a copy for myself. Again, I was afraid that the sale would be turned down and I wanted to spare myself the embarrassment of not being to able to buy an issue of PLAYBOY.  All of that changed in November of 1973.

Even though I wouldn't turn 18 until March of 1974, I could pass as being of age and I decided that if I acted with confidence and self-assurance, I could probably pull off buying the latest issue.

And that's just what I did one fine day.

Here's the issue I purchased:

 

THERE'S A GIRL IN MY SOUP

Peter Sellers is one of my all time favorite comic actors. He seldom fails to make me laugh no matter what the film or role he's playing. So, I would think that pairing the great Sellers with the ditzy, screwball actress Goldie Hawn (not long removed from her days on televisions' ROWAN AND MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN) in an R rated British sex farce would be a can't miss recipe for some naughty hijinks.

Except that I'd be dead wrong.

THERE'S A GIRL IN MY SOUP (1970) is based on a long running British play by Terence Frisby. Frisby and Peter Kortner do much to open up the action in the narrative but ultimately, the film cannot escape it's origin as material for the stage and thus, there are many scenes that suffer from an inherent "stagy" quality.

The plot concerns the adventures of Robert Danvers (Sellers), a restaurant critic who has a popular television show. He's also a letch who scores with almost every beautiful young woman he meets. But when he meets kooky American Marion (Hawn), he's met his match. Although the two get off to a rocky start, they do eventually fall in love only to have Marion walk out on Danvers in the final act, leaving the middle aged lothario right back where he started from, ready for his next sexual conquest.

There's some brief glimpses of female nudity here and there, horrible pop songs by Mike D'Abo punctuate the soundtrack, and a supporting player, the hippie drummer and Marion's former lover Jimmy (Nicky Henson), is the winner of the Don Stroud look-alike contest. It says something about the tepidness of the film when the thing that got me most excited was seeing a large poster of the Incredible Hulk (drawn by Jack Kirby), on the wall of Jimmy's "pad".

Hawn is fine here. She's her usual giggly, adorable self who occasionally shows some flashes of maturity and depth. No, the real problem here is, sadly, Sellers.

When you hire Sellers to star in your film, you should give him a larger than life character to play, preferably one with an accent and he should certainly be allowed to engage in some of the slapstick buffoonery that he exceled at. That's not the case here. As Sellers himself said, "they've hired me to play Cary Grant". Oh there are a couple of moments of physical schtick that show Sellers doing what he did best but those scenes are few and far between.

If you're looking for a vintage Peter Sellers comedy that is guaranteed to produce laughs, move along. There are none to be had here.

 

TWO RODE TOGETHER

Many people consider John Ford to be the greatest American film director of the twentieth-century.

 I'm not one of them.

Oh, I admit, Ford was certainly capable of greatness but in my opinion, he was an incredibly uneven, inconsistent filmmaker. Some of his films are indeed great, solid, unquestioned American classics such as STAGECOACH (1939), THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940) and THE QUIET MAN (1952). I'm ambivalent about THE SEARCHERS (1956), which many consider Ford's masterpiece but I will confess that I do need to revisit that film with a fresh perspective. However, I wouldn't watch HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY (21941), MISTER ROBERTS (1955) or DONOVAN'S REEF (1963) again with someone else's eyes. 

For my money, the best John Ford film I've ever seen is (and always will be) THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERY VALANCE (1962). A brilliantly structured and measured deconstruction of the myth of the American West, VALANCE is not only Ford's finest hour, it's also among the best work ever done by co-stars John Wayne and James Stewart. 

Stewart's appearance in TWO RODE TOGETHER (1961) contributes greatly to the status of this film (which I watched today for the first time) as one of Ford's best. Although the film treads a lot of similar thematic material as THE SEARCHERS, with it's narrative of two men seeking to rescue captured white children from hostile native Americans, it's not as deeply dark as SEARCHERS nor is it played out on such an epic scale. TWO is not without moral ambiguity but overall the film is a more positive take on the idea of rescue from one culture and re-entry into society.  

Stewart is Marshall Guthrie McCabe in Tascosa, Texas in the 1880s. He's not totally corrupt but he is on the take for 10% of all of the business in the small town. He's approached by old friend, Calvary Lieutenant Jim Gary (Richard Widmark) with a mission: ride into a Comanche camp and barter for the release of white children captured years ago.

McCabe agrees to do it but demands a high price for his services. Desperate pioneers, whose children were taken, meet his demands,  and the two ride towards a meeting with Comanche chief Quanah Parker (Henry Brandon), a real figure in Texas history. Two of the captives refuse to leave. Another, a wild young man, is taken by against his will while Elena (Linda Cristal) the wife of warrior chieftain Stone Calf (Woody Strode) has her freedom purchased by six additional rifles for Parker. 

The third act of the film deals with the difficulties these two outsiders encounter while trying to fit back into "civilized" society. The young man (who is revealed to be the lost brother of lovely Marty Purcell(Shirley Jones), meets a violent end while the beautiful Elena finds herself scorned by the men and the women stationed at the military outpost.

Ford populates his supporting cast with many of his regular players including Harry Carey Jr, real-life son-in-law Ken (GUNSMOKE) Curtis, John McIntire, John Qualen, Andy Devine and Woody Strode. 

TWO was the first time Stewart and Ford worked together and although the one-eyed director had a well deserved reputation as a hard to get along with son of a bitch, Stewart and Ford worked well together and made two subsequent films, LIBERTY VALANCE and CHEYENNE AUTUMN (1964). 

The screenplay by Frank Nugent was based on the 1959 novel COMANCHE CAPTIVES by Will Cook and was shot location in and around Alamo Village in Texas by cinematographer Charles Lawton, Jr.. There's one remarkable scene early in the film, an unbroken two shot that runs for five minutes, of Stewart and  Widmark sitting on a log by a river and talking. The scene contains a lot of great character and narrative exposition and seems completely natural and relaxed. However, the camera crew had to endure an entire day in the icy river water in order to get a perfect take of the scene. 

TWO RODE TOGETHER is a first rate western with a ton of talent in front of and behind the camera. It's not Ford's best but it's not far behind. 

Thumbs up. 

 

WRITTEN ON THE WIND

If you dismiss Douglas Sirk's WRITTEN ON THE WIND (1955), as merely an overblown, soap opera melodrama (which it most certainly is), you're denying yourself one helluva movie watching experience.

To put it bluntly, I flat out love this film which I watched for the second time this afternoon. German émigré director Douglas Sirk made several films in a variety of genres in the United States after coming to Hollywood in 1937. But it's the string of melodramas that he helmed for Universal International in the 1950s that secured his place in the pantheon of great 20th century directors.

The Sirk melodramas include ALL I DESIRE (1953), MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (1954), ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955), THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW (1956), TARNISHED ANGELS (1957) and his final film, IMITATION OF LIFE (1959). It was in these films that Sirk found his greatest canvas on which to showcase subversive entertainments that, while ultra slick and glossy on the surface, dared to reveal the darkness that lurked in the corners of mid-century American life. And WRITTEN ON THE WIND is a fine of example of Sirk at the peak of his creative genius.

To start with, the film is drop dead gorgeous to look at. The super-saturated Technicolor cinematography of Russell Metty practically explodes off of the screen, while the art direction, sets, clothes and period cars, make you wish you could step into this full to bursting, overripe fantasy world that depicts the 1950s as they should have been. 

Rock Hudson, who worked with Sirk on a total of four films (MAGNIFICENT OBSESSEION, ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, WRITTEN and TARNISHED ANGELS), stars as Mitch Wayne, a geologist employed by the Texas based Hadley Oil Company (the headquarters of which is located in, where else, Hadley, Texas). He's best friends with Kyle Hadley (Robert Stack), an alcoholic playboy overflowing with self loathing. Friends since childhood, Mitch has always stood up for Kyle, even at his worst.

Mitch has eyes early in the film for Lucy Moore (Lauren Bacall), who works in an advertising company. But when Mitch introduces Lucy to Kyle, Kyle sets his cap for the young woman and before you know it, they're married.

Poor Mitch burns a long smoldering torch for Lucy while fending of the overly aggressive advances of Kyle's sister, Marylee Hadley (Dorothy Malone), a tramp whose horniness meter goes to 11.

Add all of these ingredients together, throw in some father issues, stir in some heaping helpings of sexual impotency, and top it all off with a fatal shooting and a dramatic final act inquest and you've got one deliriously intoxicating cinematic experience.

The supporting cast includes Edward (GET SMART) Platt as a sympathetic doctor, Robert Keith as Jasper Handley, the father of the dysfunctional Kyle and Marylee, John (DIRTY HARRY) Larch as one of Marylee's many admirers and Grant (INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN) Williams as a hapless gas jockey seduced by the volcanic Marylee. Oh, and look fast for the appearance of veteran character actor William Schallert who plays a reporter in one scene. 

And just to make sure there's no doubt about the subtext of this film (which is SEX), Sirk sets his players and their twisted lives amidst a veritable wilderness of oil derricks, giant erector set structures that throb and pulse with phallic symbolism in every shot in which they appear. Hell, the next to last scene in the film shows Marylee sitting at her dead father's desk, stroking and caressing a golden oil derrick model, the same object which her father is fondling in the portrait hanging above her. 

Sirk also includes a ton of mirrors throughout the film. There are multiple shots that feature a mirror and mirror images, visuals that underline the duality of the characters and the hidden depths of their true selves. 

WRITTEN ON THE WIND received three Academy Award nominations including Best Supporting Actor (Stack), Best Supporting Actress (Malone, winner) and Best Original Song. Malone, who practically burns a hole in the screen with her voracious carnality, clearly deserved her Oscar.

A clear inspiration for the long running television soap opera DALLAS, WRITTEN ON THE WIND would make a great double bill (albeit a lengthy one) with GIANT (1956), another Rock Hudson starring film about the Texas oil business .

I've watched a lot of films so far this summer and while I've enjoyed the majority of them, WRITTEN just knocked me out with it's audacity, daring and can-you-believe-this situations and characters.  

Highest recommendation.