BODYGUARD

I wrote at length the other day about the career of director Richard Fleischer when I reviewed his 1958 historical epic, THE VIKINGS, here on the ol' blog. . I mentioned Fleischer's earlier works, including a brace of terrific film noirs. I had the opportunity today (thanks to TCM, Eddie Muller and his always entertaining NOIR ALLEY Saturday night feature) to see for the first time, BODYGUARD, Fleischer's first noir.

It's a fairly routine little B crime film but it has a couple of interesting things going for it. First and foremost is the star of the film, Lawrence Tierney. Tierney made a career out of playing tough guys in such films as DILLINGER (1945), THE DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE (1947) and BORN TO KILL (1947) along with appearances in other crime films and westerns throughout the '40s and 50s. He was also, by all accounts, completely off the rails in his offscreen life. A hard drinker with a very short fuse, Tierney had multiple run-ins with the law and his rap sheet was almost as long as his filmography. He wasn't a great actor by any stretch but he brought a wound-too-tight air of unstable menace to his roles even when he was playing a good guy, as he does in BODYGUARD. 

Here Tierney is a former LAPD homicide detective who is hired to play bodyguard to the head of a meat packing company. He discovers that a so called "accident" that occurred at the plant was really a murder and before you know it, Tierney himself is soon wanted for murder (a frame up) and on the run (along with helpful police secretary Priscilla Lane) to uncover the truth about the corruption at the plant. 

It's all standard stuff but Tierney is fun to watch and Fleischer keeps things moving at a brisk clip. The screenplay is by Fred Niblo, Jr. and Harry (IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE) Essex based on a story by George W. George and, believe it or not, Robert Altman. Told you this is an interesting little film. 

Although Tierney's career had many ups and downs, he is perhaps best remembered by modern audiences for his appearance in Quentin Tarantino's vastly overrated RESERVOIR DOGS (1992). Tierney played the crime boss in the film that is just too, too precious (Tarantino screams "look how clever I am!" in every frame) and nowhere near as good as its' legion of admirers think. 

BODYGUARD is a good little thriller with a star on his way down and a director on his way up. Worth seeing. 

THE TOUGH TEXAN

I love western movies. I love western TV shows. But I have to confess that when it comes to the printed page, I've read very few western novels. I took an English class in college on the western but the only two books I can remember reading are THE VIRGINIAN by Owen Wister and SHANE by Jack Schafer. 

Since my college days, I've read a handful of Elmore Leonard westerns, all of which I enjoyed but then, I have yet to NOT enjoy any Leonard book I've read. And a couple of years ago I inherited a box of Louis L'Amour paperbacks (and other westerns)  from my late father-in-law. I've read a few of the L'Amour books (reviews are posted on this blog) and enjoyed them but I have yet to be convinced that L'Amour was anywhere near as good a writer of westerns as Leonard was. 

Among the other westerns I got from Lawrence was THE TOUGH TEXAN by Will Cook. I finished reading it yesterday evening and, based on the strength of this novel alone, I have to rank my admittedly short list of favorite western writers as follows: 

1. Elmore Leonard 

2. Will Cook.

 3. Louis L'Amour. 

Cook (1922-1964) wrote 56 novels over the course of his career, two of which, THE DRIFTER and TWO RODE TOEGTHER have been made into movies. THE TOUGH TEXAN was first published in September 1963. That's the cover of the first paperback printing pictured above. The edition I read, also published by Bantam, came out in July, 1980 with completely different cover art. Gotta admit, I think the art on the first edition is terrific and it does kinda sorta capture a scene in the book. I'd post a scan of the edition I read but it's pretty beat up and well read. 

THE TOUGH TEXAN is the story of young drifter Martin Hinshaw, who, having tried his hand at rodeoing (and failing), decides to join up with the Texas Rangers in Laredo. The year is 1905 and the very first automobiles are beginning to dot the South Texas landscape along with the new fangled weapons mass produced by Germany, the Mauser rifle and a new model of machine gun (lighter and more powerful than the existing Gatling gun). 

Hinshaw and his fellow Rangers are up against Pedro Vargas, a Mexican outlaw in command of his own private army. Someone on the Texas side of the border is supplying Vargas with these new weapons and Vargas is planning an all out attack on Laredo, South Texas and beyond. It's up to the new recruit and the seasoned veterans of this legendary law enforcement organization to stop the threat of Vargas and his guns. 

Cook paints vivid portraits of all of the players. The characters are more complex and flawed than those found in the pages of a L'Amour novel and many a racial epithet is delivered by some of the "good guys". The violence when it comes is sudden and unexpected and several characters that I was sure would live meet swift and brutal deaths. 

Hinshaw and the Rangers win out in the end but not before the loss of several key players on both sides of the law. THE TOUGH TEXAN lives up to it's name. It's a tough, gritty western that delivers the goods with both barrels blazing. 

Thumbs up.

BY THE SACRED BLOOD OF ODIN!

It's hard to classify director Richard Fleischer as an auteur. None of his films have ever struck me as having a distinctive cinematic style or common thematic concerns. But even if he was largely a hired gun, especially for 20th Century Fox in the 1960s, Fleischer nevertheless produced an astounding body of work over the course of more than forty years in the business. 

His earliest success came in the films noir he helmed in the '40s and '50s, among them BODYGUARD (1948), TRAPPED (1949), FOLLOW ME QUIETLY (1949), THE CLAY PIGEON (1949), ARMORED CAR ROBBERY (1950), HIS KIND OF WOMAN (1951), VIOLENT SATURDAY (1955) and his masterpiece (and one of my all time favorite noirs), THE NARROW MARGIN (1952). 

Fleischer stepped up his game considerably when he was hired by the Walt Disney Studios to helm the incredibly ambitious 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1954). The film proved to be both a critical and box office success and let studios know that Fleischer was capable of working with larger budgets on bigger productions. Working at 20th Century Fox in the 1960s, Fleischer directed the Biblical epic BARRABAS (1961), the science fiction adventure FANTASTIC VOYAGE (1966 and another one of my all time favorite movies), the Best Picture Oscar nominee (but financially disastrous) DOCTOR DOLITTLE (1967), the compelling true crime drama THE BOSTON STRANGLER (1968), and WWII epic TORA! TORA! TORA! (1970), which faithfully and accurately depicts both the American and the Japanese players in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. Fleischer returned to science fiction for the cult classic SOYLENT GREEN (1973), and helmed two sword and sorcery adventures, CONAN THE DESTROYER (1984) and RED SONJA (1985), both of which were inspired by characters created by Robert E. Howard. 

Fleischer's first big budget, historical epic was THE VIKINGS (1958), a handsomely mounted production that benefits greatly from a good cast and breathtaking on location cinematography in the fiords of Norway. Kirk Douglas, all dimpled chin, flashing white teeth and wavy blond wig stars as Einar, son of Viking chieftain Ragnar (Ernest Borgnine). In real life, Borgnine was actually two months younger than Douglas but hey, this is the movies after all. 

Einar and Ragnar, aided by British traitor Egbert (James (THE GREAT ESCAPE) Donald)  come up against foppish and swishy King Aella (Frank Thring), who has something both of the horny (pardon the pun) Vikings want, the beautiful Morgana (Janet Leigh). Slave Eric (Tony Curtis), who is really Ragnar's other son (courtesy of a rape that appears at the start of the film), gets in the way, claiming his love for Morgana and his vow to fight Einar to the death, after defeating Aella, of course. 

Beautifully shot by ace cinematographer Jack Cardiff, THE VIKINGS is deliberately paced and shows signs of padding here and there. It appears as if the producer of the film (Kirk Douglas), was determined to get every cent he invested in the project up there on the big screen no matter what. The film could stand a bit of judicious editing and could easily lose a good ten or fifteen minutes of its' 116 minute running time and still deliver an exciting adventure. 

And exciting it is, especially in the third act siege of Aella's fortress castle. It's a well orchestrated sequence (filmed on location in Brittany) that climaxes in a spectacular swordfight between Eric and Einar atop the castle's tower. That's really Douglas and Curtis in the majority of the shots in this scene and the whole thing looks incredibly dangerous for them, the camera operator and any other crew members that were on that stony stair stepped roof. 

THE VIKINGS was the third of five films that Curtis and Leigh made while married. I had the honor of meeting Ms. Leigh at a monster movie convention in Washington D.C. in 2000. She was a delightful, classy lady. Got her to sign her book about the making of PSYCHO and she was gracious enough to pose for a photo with me. 

Douglas swore he'd never do another historical epic after THE VIKINGS but he changed his tune and appeared with Curtis again in Stanley Kubrick's SPARTACUS (1960). The success of THE VIKINGS inspired several other films about Norsemen and their adventures including Mario Bava's ERIK THE CONQUEROR (1961)  and THE LONG SHIPS (1964). 

The opening narration by the great Orson Welles adds to the luster of the production but perhaps the greatest honor to be bestowed upon THE VIKINGS is that it was featured in a comic book, Dell's FOUR COLOR #910 in June, 1958. 

THE VIKINGS is definitely worth a look, especially if you enjoy old fashioned Hollywood historical epics. Hell, it's worth seeing just for that final sword fight. 

Absolutely incredible. 

TWELVE CROWDED HOURS

Journeyman director Lew Landers manages to cram TWELVE CROWDED HOURS into 64 minutes of running time in this 1939 crime drama. 

This is strictly a bottom of the bill programmer, the type of film churned out by the hundreds in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Richard Dix stars as a newspaper reporter out to bust the numbers racket run by George Costain (Cy Kendall, who makes a pretty fair crime kingpin). He's aided by dance hall instructor Paula Sanders (Lucille Ball) and cub reporter Red (John Arledge). 

The screenplay by Garrett Fort and Peter Ruric is overly complicated but Landers keeps things moving at a steady clip. There are a couple of nicely staged auto/truck crashes before the film ends with the break of day (a replay in reverse of the opening, fall-of-night sequence). 

Richard Dix is part tough guy, part comic actor wannabee. His saturnine countenance makes Dix look like the unholy love child of later actors George Reeves and Robert Vaughn (with a bit of  Rodney Dangerfield as that weird uncle that no one ever talks about, thrown in). He's not good looking by any stretch and not necessarily ugly, just unusual looking. 

The most interesting thing about TWELVE CROWDED HOURS by far is the fact that in 1939, Lucille Ball was a contract player for RKO. In the early 1950s, what was left of the studio was purchased by Lucy and her husband Desi Arnaz and renamed Desilu. Along with being a first rate comedienne, Lucy was a shrewd and astute business woman. 

ANDROMEDA GUN

I've had a copy of ANDROMEDA GUN, John Boyd's 1975 science fiction novel on my shelf for I don't know how long. I was in college when this was originally published and while I didn't purchase it at the time of release, I picked up a copy somewhere over the years. Two things influenced my purchase. First, the terrific cover art (they just don't make 'em like this anymore) and the mash up of two of my all time favorite genres, science fiction and westerns. 

I finally got around to readying ANDROMEDA GUN during the afternoon of July 4th. First, and this is no surprise, the cover doesn't reflect any scene found in the book. It's still a great piece of cover art and I'm sure it helped sell many copies then and now. Second, this novel is about 10% science fiction and 90% western but that's okay because Boyd spins a pretty good western yarn. 

G7 is a being of intelligent light, part of an intergalactic brotherhood of similar beings whose mission it is to bring peace and harmony to the inhabited planets in the galaxies. G7 arrives on earth in the late 19th century where he takes up residence in the consciousness of one Johnny Loco (real name Ian McCloud). Ian is an outlaw with plans to hold up a stage, get revenge on his former partner in crime, and rob the bank of the small town of Shoshone Flats, located in the Wyoming territory. But fate, in the form of G7, has other plans in store for the young gunman. 

Ian, through the subtle influences of G7, slowly starts going straight and in so doing, becomes a respectable member of the community. He courts the lovely young school teacher Gabriella, while G7 has his "eyes" set on the older, riper Liza, Gabriella's mother. 

Ian becomes deputy and starts doing good things for the community but it's all to his own ends. He still plans to rob the stage, kill his former partner, hold up the bank and hightail it out of town. But G7 has other plans. 

While G7 ultimately decides that saving the entire human race is impossible, the redemption of one wayward, yet savvy young man, is a goal worth achieving. 

There's nothing spectacular to be found within these 172 pages but nevertheless I did enjoy the book. Boyd salts his narrative with nice doses of sly humor and the main characters are colorful and well drawn. 

Reading ANDROMEDA GUN was the perfect way to spend the 4th of July afternoon. 

Thumbs up. 

THE STALKING MOON

I have only the vaguest memory of seeing THE STALKING MOON when it was released in 1968. I know I saw it at either the Paramount or State Theatre in downtown Austin and I recall that 12-year-old Frank liked it for the suspense/thriller aspects of the story, Gregory Peck going one-on-one against a murderous Apache. 

Peck stars as Sam Varner, an Army scout about to retire after 15 years of service. He's persuaded to accompany white woman Sarah Carver (Eva Marie Saint) and her half-breed son to a safe place. But as the unlikely trio hit the trail, they soon discover that they are being stalked by Salvaje (Nathaniel Narcisco), a much feared hunter who is also the father of Sarah's son. Salvaje kills several people while pursuing Varner and his charges before Varner reaches his ranch in New Mexico. 

There, aided by an old man, Ned (Russell Thorson) and Varner's half breed tracker protégé Nick (Robert Forster), the valiant band stages a last stand against Salvaje. 

Varner takes a beating at the hands of his opponent. He's shot in the shoulder and stabbed in the thigh but he keeps going, fighting the good fight after his other male companions have been killed. 

The last act of the film is tense and suspenseful and extremely well staged by director Robert Mulligan (who previously directed Peck in the American classic TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)). The setting, Charles Lang's  expert camera work, and Fred Karlin's effective score contribute to the success of the cat and mouse sequences. 

Based on a novel by T.V. Olsen, THE STALKING MOON marked the last time the team of producer Alan J. Pakula and director Robert Mulligan worked together. The two went their separate ways with Pakula launching an extremely successful career as a director. 

THE STALKING MOON is an offbeat western that trades heavily on the suspense/thriller tropes for its' narrative engine. Not a great film by any means but a very enjoyable one with first rate talent both in front of and behind the camera. 

Thumbs up.

I'LL BURY MY DEAD

I'LL BURY MY DEAD (1953) is the first book by James Hadley Chase that I've read. It won't be the last. 

Chase (1906-1985), was a prolific author, with 90 novels to his credit. 50 of them have been made into films, most of them in foreign countries. Writing under a variety of pen names, Chase's novels were published in the United States and Europe and while never achieving universal critical acclaim, his books sold extremely well. 

BURY is the story of Nick English, a powerful, rich and influential entrepreneur with a number of ongoing business interests. When his estranged brother, a two-bit private detective is found dead, apparently by his own hand, English deices to investigate because even if the two siblings didn't get along, the dead man was family. 

English uncovers a blackmail ring headed by a cold-blooded murderer who kills anyone who gets in his way. The killer frames English for two murders and before things come to a smashing climax aboard a blazing yacht, seven corpses litter the landscape. 

BURY isn't a mystery novel because the killer is revealed midway through the narrative. But it's a solid piece of crime/suspense fiction, as English and his aides (his loyal secretary, his lawyer, another private detective and his chauffeur ) race against time to bring the killer to justice and clear English's name. 

Nice way to pass a hot summer afternoon. Thumbs up.