FILM REVIEW OF ''THE MIDNIGHT MAN" (1974)

Character actor Cameron Mitchell gave the performance of his career for co-directors Roland Kibbee and Burt Lancaster in their complicated but intriguing murder mystery "The Midnight Man," co-starring Susan Clark, Morgan Woodward, Harris Yulin, Lawrence Dobkin, Robert Quarry, Ed Lauter, and Catherine Bach. For the record, Kibbee and Lancaster had collaborated before, principally with Kibbee penning screenplays for Lancaster epics, such as "Ten Tall Men" (1951), "The Crimson Pirate" (1952), "Vera Cruz" (1954), "The Devil's Disciple" (1959), and "Valdez Is Coming" (1971). Together, Kibbee and Lancaster adapted David Anthony's novel "The Midnight Lady and the Mourning Man." Considering the abundance of talent involved in this melodrama, "The Midnight Man" (*** OUT OF ****) should have been a superior whodunit. Indeed, everything about this solidly scripted but formulaic murder mystery is done with efficiency. Kibbee received an Emmy not only for a "Columbo" episode, but he also won one for a "Barney Miller" episode. Kibbee's output ranks as above-average. The chief problem with "The Midnight Man" is the lackluster quality of their action. The events take place at a remote college in South Carolina so nothing that happens can affect the fate of West Civilization. Although the characters are as sturdy as the gifted cast that incarnates them, Kibbee and Lancaster's movie seems mundane despite its narrative strengths.

The characters in "The Midnight Man" comprise an interesting group. Burt Lancaster plays Jim Slade; he is a former Chicago cop who served three years in prison because he shot the man that he caught in bed with his wife. This makes him a flawed character searching for redemption. Slade's old friend Quartz (Cameron Mitchell of "Garden of Evil") is a former policeman who heads up the security of a small college, and he gives Slade a job as a night watchman. Susan Clark is cast as Slade's parole officer Linda Thorpe. Ms. Thorpe constantly clashes with County Sheriff Casey (Harris Yulin of "Scarface") over his treatment of her parolees. Casey wears a white cowboy hat, and at times "The Midnight Man" resembles an episode of "In the Heat of the Night." The action unfolds when Slade learns that somebody broke into his office of Psychology Professor Swanson (Quinn K. Redeker of "Ordinary People") and stole three audio cassettes. These cassettes contain monologues from troubled students who recorded them for Swanson so he could listen to them at a later date and counsel them. Slade interviews the three students. One of the three students, Natalie (Catherine Bach of "Thunderbolt & Lightfoot"), dies under mysterious circumstances, and Slade sets out to expose the murderer. Sheriff Casey arrests the most obvious candidate, Ewing (Charles Tyner of "The Longest Yard"), a fire-and-brimstone religious fanatic who has evidence that implicates him in the slaying. Naturally, our hero doesn't believe that the unsavory Ewing could have committed the crime. While Casey is constantly at his throat, Quartz and Slade's parole officer do their best to shield him from the county sheriff.

Unraveling the narrative threads of "The Midnight Man" to disclose the identities of the villains would constitute a crime. Slade encounters a number of likely suspects as he searches for the villain that killed Natalie. Meantime, he collides with three grimy, redneck dastards that do their best to kill him. The scene in the barn is terrific, especially when Slade commandeers a tractor to smash through walls and run over his adversaries. The revelations that our hero uncovers distinguishes this movie and virtually everybody is implicated in one way or another. Slade's chief opponent Sheriff Casey winds up being his strongest ally, and Harris Yulin gives a good account of himself. Lancaster was on his last legs as a leading man when he made "The Midnight Man," but he gives another of his ultra-efficient performances, and this movie is a polished affair despite its largely ordinary setting and revelations.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL" (1965)

In his well-researched landmark biography of John Sturges, film critic Glenn Lovall points out the failure of “The Hallelujah Trail” at the box office forced John Sturges back into being a contract director. Unfortunately, this ambitious, $ 7 million dollar, two-hour and forty-five minute western extravaganza did prove to be Sturges’ undoing.  Sadly, according to Wikipedia, this United Artists’ release generated only $4 million during its initial release. Nevertheless, I’ve always thought it was an incredibly hilarious and splendidly staged western comedy.  The closest that Sturges had come to making a comedy was the Frank Sinatra & Dean Martin western “Sergeants Three,” but “The Hallelujah Trail” (*** OUT OF ****) was far from anything that “The Magnificent Seven” helmer had ever undertaken.  Sturges assembled a first-rate cast.  Burt Lancaster, who starred in Sturges’ first big western “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral,” took top billing as Colonel Thaddeus Gearhart.  Gearhart was a traditional, straight-laced U.S. Calvary commander who is in charge of a frontier fort who has a beautiful daughter, Louise Gearhart (Pamela Tiffin of “One, Two, Three”), who is hopelessly in love with an officer, Captain Paul Slater (Jim Hutton of “Major Dundee”), who serves under Gearhart at the fort.  At one point, Gearhart finds Slater and his daughter rolling around on his bear skin rug.  The hugely funny western takes advantage of the usual elements of most standard-issue oaters.  There is the inevitable clash between the U.S. Calvary and the Native Americans.  Similarly, the alcoholic frontiersmen ruffle the feathers of the Ladies of the Temperance Movement.  This sprawling, ‘battle of the sexes’ western brings together all these parties for an incredible finale in a swamp.

John Gay’s complicated screenplay based on William Gulick’s entertaining western novel concerns the efforts of desperate Denver merchants inspired by 'Oracle' Jones (Donald Pleasence of “The Great Escape”) to get a wagon train of liquor to them before they exhaust their supplies for the winter.  Signs indicate that the winter will be the worst in years, and the merchants refuse to run out of suds.  Moreover, a citizens’ committee shares the merchant’s anxiety.  Meantime, beer merchant Frank Wallingham (Brian Keith of “The Wind and the Lion”) organizes an emergency shipment of booze to Denver. However, he must contend with some obnoxious Irish teamsters, led by Kevin O'Flaherty (Tom Stern of “Clay Pigeon”), who feel he is exploiting them.  O'Flaherty constantly addresses Wallingham as “your lordship,” and Wallingham grumbles about it the entire time.  Of course, when the Indians learn about this huge shipment of liquor, they decide to help themselves to it.  Walllingham demands that Gearhart provide an escort to safeguard his booze from Chief Walks-Stooped-Over (Martin Landau of “Impossible Impossible”) as well as Chief Five Barrels (Robert J. Wilke of “The Magnificent Seven”) and they bring along their respective tribes.  If contending with Indians armed with Winchester repeating rifles weren’t enough of a challenge, Wallingham faces opposition from a well-known Temperance champion, Miss Cora Templeton Massingale (Lee Remick of “The Omen”), who just happens to be holding meetings at Gearhart’s fort.  Massingale decides to intercept the shipment of suds and destroy the cargo, and Gearhart’s daughter joins her. Naturally, an upset Colonel Gearhart decides Sergeant Buell (John Anderson of “The Satan Bug”) and he must provide an escort for these dames to keep them out of harm’s way.

Lancaster is absolutely brilliant as the square-jawed, Calvary colonel who must supervise everything in this massive sagebrusher. His comic timing is impeccable.  The scenes he has with Lee Remick will keep you in stitches as she manipulates him skillfully throughout the narrative. The contempt these two characters have for each other inevitably brings them together in the long run. The dialogue is crisp and smirk inducing, especially when Gearhart reprimands his top sergeant to his lack of Army strategy.  Sturges doesn’t slight anybody, and he gives some rather unusual parts to actors who had never done anything like these roles. Martin Landau is terrifically amusing as Chief Who Walks Stooped Over, and British actor Donald Pleasence, who eventually played villain in “Will Penny,” is cast as a barfly.  Crowning all these wonderful performances is Elmer Bernstein’s impressive orchestral score and “Satan Bug” lenser Robert Surtee’s radiant widescreen photography. In addition to “The Hallelujah Trail,” Surtees photographed not only “Escape from Fort Bravo,” but also “The Law and Jake Wade” for Sturges.  If you enjoy happily-ever-after comedies where the performers behave as if they were is a serious dramatic saga, “The Hallelujah Trail” qualifies as ideal entertainment.

FILM REVIEW OF ''VERA CRUZ" (1953)

Gary Cooper plays Confederate Colonel Benjamin Trane who lost everything when the North defeated the South.  Burt Lancaster is cast as an unscrupulous soldier-of-fortune named Joe Erin who would kill you for the gold in your teeth.  These polar opposites encounter each other in rugged Mexico when Ben’s horse pulls up lame.  Coop inspects two horses and runs into Joe holding a Winchester rifle.  Joe offers to sell the Colonel one of the horses for $100 in gold.  Reluctantly, Ben shells out the coins.  No sooner has he paid Joe than a troop of French cavalry appear on the horizon.  Joe leaps aboard his horse and skedaddles.  Coop lights out after Joe on horseback.  He is surprised when the leader of the cavalry slings lead his way.  The Colonel rears up his horse and returns fire.  He is such an excellent shot that  his bullet knocks the revolver out of the leader’s fist.  Joe explains moments later that the leader wanted to plug him because he is riding his horse.  Talk about a way to start a friendship!  

Before director Robert Aldrich revolutionized World War II movies with “The Dirty Dozen,” he was revolutionizing westerns with “Vera Cruz.”  This lean, mean, United Artists oater clocks in at a trim 93 minutes without squandering a single second along the way with co-star Cesar Romeo, Denise Darcel, and George Macready as Emperor Maximillian.  Burt Lancaster’s gang of mercenaries constitutes a rogue’s gallery of heavies, including Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam, Charles Bronson, Jack Lambert, while Henry Brandon playing an up-tight, arrogant European officer in green attire.  “Fistful of Dollars” director Sergio Leone idolized this horse opera along with John Sturges’ classic “The Magnificent Seven.”  These two excellent westerns with their south of the border setting served as prototypes for Spaghetti westerns.  Leone even got to work with Aldritch briefly before he got sacked.  Nevertheless, while this Harold Hecht production provides a milestone in the eventual rise of the Spaghetti western, it exerted an effect on all other westerns lensed in Mexico after its release.  Reportedly, Mexican abhorred this sagebrusher, and in one instance, an audience removed their seats from the floor at hurled them at the movie screen in contempt of the image that “Vera Cruz” created about Mexico.  After “Vera Cruz,” American westerns had to suffer the interference of Mexican censors on the set.  John Sturges had to contend with these censors when he produced “The Magnificent Seven.”  Despite all its notoriety, “Vera Cruz” ranks as one of the greatest studio westerns released during the 1950s, and Robert Aldritch’s finest western to boot!

“Vera Cruz” (**** OUT OF ****) opens with scenic long shots of Mexico.  A preface appears over this shots.  “As the American Civil War ended, another war was just beginning.  The Mexican people were struggled to rid themselves of their foreign emperor—Maximilian.  Into this fight rode a handful of Americans—ex-soldiers, adventurers, criminals—all bent on gain.  They drifted south in small groups.  And some came alone.”  At this point, we see Gary Cooper ride his horse into the shot.  He discovers his mount is lame and goes in search of a suitable replacement.  Eventually, the Colonel and Joe form an uneasy alliance.  Initially, they want to work for the Emperor under the supervision of Marquis Henri de Labordere (Cesar Romeo of “Batman”) with the lovely but treacherous Countess Marie Duvarre (Denise Darcel of “Tarzan and the Slave Girl”) running interference.  Joe goes after her but he doesn’t let her beauty undermine his greed.   

Meanwhile, the Colonel grows fond of a Juarista bombshell, Nina (Sara Montiel of “Casablanca, Nest of Spies”), who is as light fingered as she is sweet.  Our protagonists and their gunmen follow the Marquis to Mexico City and marvel at the Emperor's palace.  Of course, most of the hardware is wrong.  The Colonel and Joe wield 1973 Colt revolvers.  Anyway, Ben and Joe display their considerable expertise with skills with their Winchester repeating rifles.  Gimlet-eyed Joe blasts the spears off the top of the French lancers poles.  The Colonel shoots the flames out of the smudge pots used as supplemental lighting.  The imperialist Emperor Maximillian (George Macready of "Coroner Creek) and Labordere enlist them to act as an escort for Countess Marie Duvarre (Denise Darcel of "Tarzan and the Slave Girl") for her trip to Vera Cruz.   Maximilian promises to pay them the sum of $25-hundred.  Naturally, Maximillian and Labordere have no intention of paying them. 

During the journey on the first day, Ben and Joe both notice the deep wheel ruts that the carriage hauling the countess makes at a river crossing. Later, after they have put up for the evening, Ben and Joe discover a concealed compartment in the floor of the coach that yields a small fortune in gold. "Each of one of those six boxes contains a half-million dollars in gold," Countess Duvarre informs them after she finds them in the stable with the wagon. She explains that the gold will be used to hire mercenaries. It is important to notice that the anti-heroic Lancaster hero has changed out of his black shirt into a white shirt when they embark on escort duty. Symbolically, this means that Joe is showing a little goodness. Later, when he betrays Ben, and they shoot it out with predictable results, Joe is dressed in solid black from head to toe. Anyway, the three of them plot to steal the gold and share it. Meanwhile, the Juaristas are shadowing their every move. Eventually, a pretty Juarista, Nina (Sara Montiel of "Run of the Arrow"), makes friends with Ben. Ben decides that he must switch sides and convinces Joe to make the change.

Lancaster's own company, Hecht-Lancaster Productions, produced "Vera Cruz" on a $1.7 million budget. Despite uniformly negative reviews, "Vera Cruz" coined more than $11 million worldwide. The amorality of the characters, especially Lancaster's lascivious villain, along with the surfeit of violence, makes this abrasive western a prototype for Spaghetti westerns. It is amazing that some of the violence survived the Production Code Administration censors, particularly when Joe kills a helpless lancer with his own lance. Cooper and a charismatic Lancaster make a strong pair of heroes who cannot trust each other. Aldrich directed flawlessly, and this lively Technicolor horse opera bristles with both intrigue and excitement. 

FILM REVIEW ON ''VENGEANCE VALLEY'' (1951)

"Desperate Courage" director Richard Thorpe’s adult-themed western “Vengeance Valley” (*** out ****) concerns life on a cattle ranch and the conflict between two men.  This isn’t a trigger-happy gunslinger shoot’em up.  Virtually every character in this tautly-made 83-minute melodrama is involved in either the cattle business or clashes with the cowboys themselves. The characters in Irving Ravetch’s screenplay, based on Luke Short’s novel, emerge as either completely good or really evil. Meanwhile, Thorpe stages this steer opera against striking, snow-swept scenery, and Robert Walker’s villain is a truly treacherous dastard.  He is prepared to swindle his father out of money and land and kill the man who has shown him everything that he knows about ranching.  Furthermore, he has no qualms about having unshielded sex with single women.  In his first and only MGM production, Burt Lancaster delivers a strong performance as the stalwart hero.  "Vengeance Valley" was Lancaster's first time in the saddle, and he looks comfortable astride a horse. Tough-guy John Ireland is a gunman searching for trouble.  Interestingly, co-stars John Ireland and Joanne Dru were reunited on this trail herd western after starring in director Howard Hawks’ seminal cattle drive western. 

This 'Cain versus Abel' film unfolds with the following narration from the perspective of Hewie, one of the cowhands: “I got a story to tell - a yarn about cow country, cow punchers and men. I was workin' for the Strobie Ranch, a trade of worn leather and saddle blisters and brandin' irons. A trade with some song, some fun and some luck. It was as good a job as a man could ask for. Lonely sometimes and cold - so much distance you'd have thought you'd never get back - but for me, a young kid, it was a fine time. Memories are mostly good. You're up on top of the world where the air is clean and thin - the only sound is the wind in the pines. When Colorado ranch foreman Owen Daybright (Burt Lancaster of “Brute Force”) and foster brother Lee Strobie (Robert Walker of “Strangers on a Train”) ride back into town from watching over Arch Strobie’s cattle in the winter, they run into the local doctor at the saloon.  The doctor tells them that an unmarried woman Lily Fasken (Sally Forrest of “Mystery Street”) has had a baby boy. Actually, Lee had an affair with Lily, a former restaurant waitress, but he wants nobody to know about it, particularly his new wife. Owen visits Lily's house on behalf of Lee and brings $500 as well as a bag of provisions.  Later, Lee tells his father he lost the money playing poker.  Not only does Owen find Lee's wife Jen (Joanne Dru of “Red River”) at Lily’s place but also Lily’s pugnacious rifle-toting brother Dick (Hugh O’Brien of “The Shootist”) who is itching to plug the gent who got Lily pregnant.  Dick wants to know the identity of the father, but Owen refers him to Lily.  Dick believes Owen is the dad, but Jen tells him to leave Own alone.   

Later, Dick confronts Owen at the saloon.  Sheriff Con Alvis (Jim Hayward of “Bitter Creek”) gets the drop on Dick.  Owen warns Dick, “You scared me twice tonight. Next time you point a gun at me, shoot it.”   Owen and Lee ride back to the Strobie ranch and confer with Lee’s invalid father, Arch (Ray Collins of “Citizen Kane”), who is elated to see the two men.  Lee leaves them alone to see his wife Jen.  After Lee’s departure, Owen threatens to leave and start out on his own. Arch persuades Owen to stay. During their conversation, we learn that Arch befriended Owen about 15 years ago. Arch has relied on Owen to train Lee to take over operation of the ranch.  Moreover, Arch has relied on Owen to help him.

About a week later, Sheriff Alvis watches as Dick’s brother Hub Fasken (John Ireland of “River River”) gets off the train at the depot.  Hub informs Alvis he has come to kill a man.  A widow woman, Mrs. Burke (Grayce Mills of “Harvey”), takes Lily in to work at her small ranch.  Hub checks in with his younger sister, but she tells him that she doesn't need him. "We're this kind of family," Hub reminds her. "We don't waste any love on each other. We've fought amongst ourselves.  We've even shot at each other.  We got one tie.  You're blood relations."  Not long afterward, Owen and Hewie (Carleton Carpenter of “Summer Stock”) show up at Mrs. Burke's place to round up her cattle for the big drive. Meantime, Dick and Hub get the drop on Hewie, and catch Owen when he leaves the house. Hub and Owen swap blows, but Mrs. Burke intervenes with her shotgun.  The next time Owen sees Dick and Hub, the two are sweating it out in the hoosegow.  Eventually, Jen discovers in a round-about way that Lee is the father of Lily’s baby boy.  This kind of infidelity had to be treated with caution in the 1950s because it was still consider unsavory subject matter by the Production Code Administration.  Indeed, the doctor in the saloon refused to deliver the baby because the father wasn’t present. When Lee confronts Jen about the affair, he finds her nursing a battered Owen who has just slugged it out with Hub. Like Owen, Jen is prepared to leave the Strobie ranch, but Owen dissuades her. 

Owen warns Lee about Dick and Hub. He suggests Lee vamoose with Jen, but Lee insists Owen simply wants the entire ranch for himself.  The bad blood between the two men only worsens.  Lee persuades his father he can handle the ranch and asks to be half-owner.  An overjoyed Arch agrees.  Nevertheless, he mentions that he plans to let Owen have the other half after his death. Hewie informs Owen and Lee that somebody has stolen some of their cattle and horses.  The trail leads them to Herb Backett's place.  Naturally, Backett (Ted de Corsia of “The Killing”) lies that he knows nothing about rustled cattle. Owen beats the truth out of him, during a brief but bloody fight.  Lee tries to smooth over the fracas with Backett.  He agrees to buy back the cattle. Secretly, Lee is concocting a plan to kill Owen and he uses Backett.  Once again Lee accuses Owen of cheating on him with Jen, but he recants those words before the big cattle drive.  Lee makes friends with Backett because he needs him to help him.  He wants Backett to provide Dick and Hub with the necessary authorization to join the big drive without Owen finding out anything. 

Later, Lee sells his father’s herd of 3000 head to a Texas cattleman, Dave Allard (Glen Strange of “House of Dracula”), and this move surprises Owen. As it turns out, Owen suspects that Lee is determined to cheat his father out of money.  After the two herds are merged, Hewie warns Owen that the Fashen brothers are among Lee's crew.  Lee changes his mind about the sale to Allard and requests that Owen accompany him so he can inform Allard that the deal is off.  What Lee plans to do is set up Owen so the Fashen can ambush Owen.  They bushwack Oren, but help arrives not long after the villains Owen pinned down with rifle fire. Hewie forms a posse after they hear rifle fire.  Owen suffer from a nick on the sleeve.  Hewie and the others thunder onto the scene and blast the two brothers. Owen pursues Lee on horseback. Lee’s horse caves in under him and he tumbles into the river.  Owen challenges Lee to draw.  Owen is faster and kills Lee. When he returns to the ranch, Owen explains to Arch what happened, but Arch already knew what Lee was worthless. When Arch wants to tell Jen, Owen intervenes and says he wants will break the news to Jen himself.

“Vengeance Valley” is a sturdy, atmospheric western with Lancaster as the hero and Walker as a slimy villain.

FILM REVIEW OF ''CRISS CROSS'' (1949)

Yvonne De Carlo smolders as a sultry femme fatale who juggles both fall guy Burt Lancaster and bad guy Dan Duryea in “Son of Dracula” director Robert Siodmak’s “Criss Cross,” (*** out of ****) an above-average but predictable exercise in film noir that boasts gloomy atmosphere, a gritty urban environment, and solid performances. Burt Lancaster gives an exceptional performance as the vulnerable protagonist who cannot conceal his sentiments about the De Carlo character from anybody, even the supporting characters. Speaking of supporting characters, “Criss Cross” boasts its share and they take an active part in the proceedings. Percy Helton as a bartender, Alan Napier as a crime planner, Joan Minor as the lush, Griff Barrett as Pop, Isabel Randolph as the hospital nurse and Tom Pedi as Dundee’s accomplice all contribute memorably to the action. Tony Curtis appears briefly without credit as a gigolo dancing with De Carlo and Raymond Burr puts in a similarly momentary appearance as a gangster.

Although the film noir elements aren’t as oppressive as in Siodmak’s earlier and superior collaboration with Lancaster on “The Killers,” “Criss Cross” is unmistakably noir. For example, a larger number of scenes in “Criss Cross” take place during the day rather than at night. Siodmak never wears out his welcome here and the use of an extended flashback 14 minutes into the action that takes us back for important exposition is expertly integrated into the narrative. Siodmak stages the action nimbly without lingering unduly on anybody or anything. A Dresden-born German, Siodmak is a highly underrated helmer who has never received the well-deserved recognition accorded Fritz Lang. Mind you, Siodmak doesn’t have Lang’s cinematic flair with staging scenes, but his films are nevertheless robust.

Scenarist Daniel Fuchs, who later won an Oscar for “Love Me or Leave Me” (1955), based his screenplay on Don Tracy’s crime novel with tough guy dialogue and continuity supplemented by William Bowers that emphasizes the theme of fatalism so essential to film noir. Moreover, Fuchs received an Edgar nomination for his “Criss Cross” script. Everybody in “Criss Cross” is destined to lose in some way or another. Lancaster’s doomed character, however, suffers the greatest anguish by comparison. De Carlo’s siren is second in line. Surprisingly, Fuchs and Siodmak generate more tension among their scheming principals in the first half of the action than they do with the gripping armored truck heist in broad daylight during the second half of the movie. Interestingly, the police don’t figure prominently in “Criss Cross, though they hover on the periphery in the form of Lieutenant Frank Ramirez. The heist is still pretty engrossing material from its carefully planned stages to its skillful execution.

The production values of “Criss Cross” look first-rate. Universal doesn’t appear to have confined either Siodmak or the film--despite its B-movie subject matter—to claustrophobic studio sets. The armored truck set looks terrific, particularly when they load the truck up and leave with a tilting high angle shot that shows them exiting the building. “Champion” cinematographer Frank (later Franz) Planer’s evocative black & white photography is a considerable asset. Planer’s location lensing is top-notch in several scenes, especially the multi-layered Round Up Bar and later at the factory where the heist occurs. Planer does an exceptional job of photographing the Lancaster character after he winds up in the hospital with his arm in traction. An interesting slice-of-life moment occurs early in the movie during a conversation between two employees at the armored truck firm when they discuss about the competitive price of two grocery stores and how one store undercuts the other with their prices o soap and tomato juice that enhances the 1949 setting.

“Criss Cross” starts out suspensefully as we learn that Anna (Yvonne De Carlo of “Brute Force”) and Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster of “Elmer Gantry”) are hiding in the parking lot of the nightclub called The Round Up where they are necking. The story unfolds chronologically to begin with because Anna is married to notorious gangster Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea of “Black Bart”) who is looking for her at that very moment inside the Round Up. Dundee gives Anna the third degree later when she comes back inside about what she was doing. Steve cautions her earlier that they must be discreet or they could blow the entire set-up. Later, Steve enters the Round Up to gate crash on Dundee’s party. You see, Dundee and company plan to relocate to Detroit and he is giving a farewell party. Los Angeles Police Detective Lieutenant Pete Ramirez (Stephen McNally of “Winchester ‘73”) tries to dissuade Steve from butting in where he hasn’t been invited. Steve blows him off and moments later Ramirez gate crashes the party himself after Dundee has pulled a knife on Steve. Ramirez is Steve’s friend, though we never know the basis of their back and forth relationship. Whenever Steve calls Ramirez ‘lieutenant,’ Ramirez has him call him ‘Pete.’ When Ramirez is all business because Steve has crossed the line, he makes Steve call him ‘lieutenant.’

Steve drives an armored truck and Dundee and his henchmen plan to rob the armored track company that employs Steve. Sure, “Criss Cross” has the stock-in-trade message that ‘crime doesn’t pay’ and it is emphasized by everybody but the optimistic Steve. Initially, an armored truck official brags, “Nobody ever got away with the heist on an armored truck in 28-years. Matter of fact, they don’t even try any more.” Later, Finchley (Alan Napier, who played Alfred the Butler on TV’s “Batman”) objects to the robbery because they always end in failure until he listens to Steve’s inside idea. Vincent (Tom Pedi of “The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three”) raves about the interjection from another henchman that everybody on that robbery wound up dead or in the chair. Later, in the hospital, Ramiez reiterates the same message to Steve that you cannot rob an armored car and get away with it.

Initially, the armored truck robbery seems to be a spur-of-the-moment scheme by Steve to prevent Dundee and his henchmen from take reprisals against Anna for sneaking out to see Steve. The subplot about Steve and Anna is very interesting. They were married, but they divorced after two years. Steve leaves Los Angeles to get Anna out of his blood and knocks around the country performing odd jobs as a blue-collar laborer. Nevertheless, Steve is still smitten by Anna and she still has something for him. Eventually, Steve feels himself drawn back to Los Angeles and everybody from Ramirez, the bartender, the lush, Steve’s mom, and Steve’s brother’s girlfriend know that he has feelings for her. They rekindle some of their love but also their drama. As much as they rub each other the wrong way, they also rub each other enough that they get together. As it turns out, Anna has been dating a crime figure and she marries him, probably to keep herself in jewelry. Steve is as hopelessly drawn to Anna as she is to money. Anna mistakenly believes that she can manipulate Slim for his money as she can Steve for his love. Before long Anna realizes that Slim is a force to contend with and worries about Slim learning about how she is two-timing her. These two characters are puppets to their own mistaken notions of love and money. Nothing that they can do will save them from their mutual obsessions. Ironically enough, it isn’t the law that brings Steve and Anna to their demise but the jealous Slim.

Siodmak and Planer do a good job staging the heist. The criminals set off smoke bombs so that everything takes place in a kind of limbo with Steve trying to thwart the robbery after shooting breaks out that he didn’t want. The paranoia in the hospital scenes where Steve feels trapped is gripping as is the ill-fated ending that Anna and Steve meet at Dundee’s hands. Siodmak stages this final scene much the same way that he did the scene at the beginning of “The Killers” when the two hitmen knocked off the Swede. We see Slim enter the house where Steve and Anna are hiding and he fires his gun repeatedly at them off-camera. We don’t see the muzzle of Slim’s revolver belching smoke, we only see the smoke and his irate face as he watches them die in each other’s arms.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE PROFESSIONALS'' (1966)

“Blackboard Jungle” director Richard Brooks produced one of the most exciting, exceptionally made western actioneers of the 1960s with his epic shoot’em up “The Professionals.” Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster headed a top-notch cast in this Columbia Pictures’ release that co-starred Jack Palance, Woody Strode, Claudia Cardinale, Robert Ryan, and Ralph Bellamy. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science nominated “The Professionals” for three Oscars. Although he had already received an Oscar for Best Directing for his 1960 adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel “Elmer Gantry,” Brooks received bids for Best Directing again and Best Screenwriting, adapted from another medium, principally Frank O’Rourke’s novel, “A Mule for the Marquesa,” while ace lenser Conrad Hall got the nod for Best Cinematography. Hall went on to shoot “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” as well as “Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here.” The Academy nominated Hall ten times for Best Cinematography and he won three times, on “Butch Cassidy,” “The Road to Perdition” and “American Beauty.

Set in the early twentieth century, this atmospheric oater ranks as one of the best soldier-of-fortune sagas ever filmed. Primarily, Hollywood filmmakers preferred to confine their westerns to the late nineteenth century, largely between the end of the American Civil War and the official closing of the frontier in 1890. As early as 1934, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a biographical opus about the infamous exploits of rebel leader Pancho Villa, Jack Conway’s “Viva, Villa” with Wallace Beery. Indeed, many B-westerns, some starring John Wayne and Bob Steele respectively, shifted their settings back and forth from the old frontier to contemporary frontier, but Hollywood rarely made a western set between 1900 and 1920 until the 1950s. Some of the most prestigious examples include Eli Kazan’s “Viva, Zapata!” with Marlon Brando, George Sherman’s “The Treasure of Pancho Villa” with Rory Calhoun and Gilbert Roland, Richard Fleischer’s “Bandido” with Robert Mitchum, and Robert Rossen’s “They Came to Cordura” with Gary Cooper.

“The Professionals” occurs on the eve of America’s entry into World War I. By the time that “The Professionals” came out, European filmmakers like Sergio Corbucci and Sergio Leone had discovered the narrative advantages of these twentieth century outings. Chiefly, the level of violence escalated because combatants could deploy water-cooled machine guns to mow down the opposition as well as larger artillery pieces, automatic firearms, and hand grenades. Sam Peckinpah made what is probably the greatest post-frontier western in 1969 with “The Wild Bunch” starring William Holden and Robert Ryan. In director Ralph Nelson’s “The Wrath of God” (1972), Robert Mitchum played an Irishman on the run in Mexico who totes around a Thompson submachine gun in a suitcase.

Oil baron and railroad tycoon J.W. Grant (Ralph Bellamy of “His Girl Friday”) summons three individuals: Henry ‘Rico’ Fardan (Oscar winner Lee Marvin of “Cat Ballou”), Hans Ehrengard (Robert Ryan of “The Tall Men”) and Jacob Sharp (Woody Strode of “Spartacus”) and offers them $10-thousand dollars a piece to rescue his beautiful trophy wife Maria (drop-dead gorgeous Claudia Cardinale of “The Pink Panther”) from a despicable Mexican bandit chieftain Jesus Raza (Jack Palance of “Shane”) who has kidnapped her and taken her back to Mexico to a remote stronghold fortress a 100 miles into a desert hellhole. Each of these soldiers-of-fortune possesses a specific talent. Fardan is a weapons expert and tactician who fought in the Philippine campaign and rode with Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders in Cuba. Currently, Fardan earns $40 dollars a week demonstrating automatic weapons for the military. African-American Jacob Sharp is the most dependable scout and tracker in the territory who is a specialist with rifle, rope and longbow. Hans Ehrengard is an ex-cavalryman, cattle boss, bull-whacker, and pack master. He supervises the loading of the equipment. Ehrengard has a great compassion for horse flesh and this characteristic jeopardizes the mission at one point. When Grant assembles the horses and brags about them, Ehrengard explains that they will need more than speed to complete this mission. “You’ll have to make them do,” Grant states. “I can make them go, Mr. Grant, but I can’t make do.” When Grant describes their adversary as “the bloodiest cutthroat in Mexico,” Fardan reacts with faint surprise because he has “the highest respect” for Raza. As it turns out, Raza and Fardan are old friends who fought together with Pancho Villa during the Mexican revolution.

Grant shows Fardan the ransom letter, and Grant’s Hispanic liaison, Ortega (Joe De Santis of “The Last Hunt”), informs Fardan that Raza has mobilized about 150 gunmen. Fardan advises Grant to pay the ransom, but Grant doesn’t think that he will get his wife back even after he pays up. Grant tries to sell Fardan and company on his audacious scheme to rescue his wife. “It’d take a battalion at least a month, but a few daring men, specialists, led by you, could do it in one bold, swift stroke.” Fardan shakes his head. “What we need is an equalizer,” Fardan points out. “Name him,” Grant demands, and Fardan shows Grant a message that he received from one of his closest pals, Bill Dolworth (Burt Lancaster of “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral”), who is currently stewing in jail with nothing but his Stetson and his long johns. Lancaster’s introduction early on (he’s caught in bed with another man’s wife) is amusing. Dolworth is a wizard with explosives “with a delicate touch to blow out a candle without putting a dent in the candleholder.” “Eight hundred dollars will bail him,” Fardan stipulates. “But can he be trusted,” Grant demands. “I trust him,” Fardan assures the tycoon. Grant bails out Dolworth and Dolworth appreciates Fardan’s intervention. “What’s the proposition,” he inquires as Fardan hands him a bottle of whiskey. “You won’t lose your pants, your life maybe, but what’s that worth.” Dolworth gulps some whiskey, “Hardly anything at all.” Dolworth is surprised when Fardan tells him about Raza kidnapping Grant’s wife and even more so by the ransom demand. “What makes a wife worth a hundred thousand dollars?” Dolworth muses. “Some women can turn men into boys,” Fardan observes, “and boys into men.” Dolworth grins, “That’s a woman worth saving.”

Suspicious things begin to happen no sooner than our heroes leave Grant’s headquarters. They are told to ride by night and camp out by day. They encounter a group of bandits and have to shoot it out with them. Fardan explains to his companions that he has situated in the mountains above the pass where they will meet the bandits that if the bandit leader removes his sombrero and covers his gun with it to open fire. Indeed, the lead bandit takes off his hat and passes it across his six-gun as he bids our heroes to “go with God.” Fardan and Dolworth cut loose while Jacob and Ehrengard fire away from their concealed positions in the rocks above the pass. Afterward, our heroes bury the dead bandits and Dolworth wants to shoot the horses that the desperados rode. Ehrengard objects. Fardan explains that the horses will head back to the camp, but Ehrengard opines that they will head north to the river. Fardan lets them go and they finish burying the bandits. Dolworth rides ahead to scout and runs into more bandits who know about him and his colleagues because the horses came back with empty saddles. Fardan and company rescue Dolworth just before the bandits carve him up. Not long after, they find the fortress that Raza and his small army have occupied. Raza’s men are mounting the machine guns that they took from the Mexican army train. Our heroes rendezvous with a Mexican goat herder Padilla who provides the milk that the lady, Senorita Grant, drinks at the stronghold. He is eager to help the Americans rescue Maria because he raised her on the milk of his goats when she was a child. Fardan lays out his plan. Dolworth will plant explosive charges that will simulate a French 75mm howitzer barrage and Jacob will unleash arrows with sticks of dynamite attached to them. When the bandits rush to defend the walls, Fardan and company will slip in “and rescue little red Riding Hood.” Diversion is their only plan because they cannot shoot their way in and out.

When our heroes do make their move on Raza’s stronghold, they get the surprise of their lives. Nevertheless, between Dolworth’s dynamite that blows the water tower to smithereens and Jacob’s dynamite laden arrows, our heroes manage to slip in and escape and hit the trail back to the border. They take the train that Raza’s men had hijacked, but the hard-bitten bandit and his henchmen are constantly at their heels every bit of the way back to the border. Richard Brooks doesn’t waste a moment in this splendidly staged, tightly-edited, sharply-scripted western that bristles with memorable as well as quotable dialogue, feisty performances and some provocative commentary on contemporary subjects like the emerging war in Vietnam. During one scene, while our heroes watch Raza and his men capture a government train, Dolworth and Ehrengard discuss the Mexican revolution and Fardan’s participation in it. “What were Americans doing in a Mexican revolution?” Ehrengard inquires. “Maybe there’s only been one revolution since the beginning of time,” Dolworth philosophizes, “the good guys against the bad guys. Question is who’re the good guys?” Celebrated “Doctor Zhivago” composer Maurice Jarre furnishes a lively, flavorful orchestral score that enhances the action and captures the time period. “Time” magazine in its review called “The Professionals” . . . “a thinking man’s western.” The ending is simply terrific.