FILM REVIEW OF ''STEAMBOAT BILL, JR" (1928-SILENT)

This imaginative comedy lacks the prestige of Buster Keaton's classic American Civil War comedy "The General." Nevertheless,"Steamboat Bill, Jr." (***1/2 out of ****)surpasses "College." Clocking in at a concise 69 minutes, this amusing father and son reconciliation drama includes a romance along the lines of William Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet." Furthermore, the narrative chronicles the emergence of our diminutive protagonist as a man who can master his fate after he appeared destined for disaster. In other words, Buster casts himself as an underdog again as he did in "College." The problem with this existential comedy is our hero's transition from a clumsy nincompoop to an expert acrobat who can perform high dives off the top of a steamboat and rig it up in such a way so he can operate it single-handedly lacks credibility. The only shred of evidence that our eponymous hero has what it takes occurs when he surprises the sheriff, slugs him in the stomach, and watches as the fellow falls like an avalanche. More amazing than any of Buster's clever sight gags as he learns his way around the paddle wheeler is the spectacular special effects. Remember, the special effects personnel pulled off these stunts long before computer-generated special effects were available.

The Carl Harbaugh story concerns a pugnacious Mississippi River paddle wheeler captain who meets his son, Willie (Buster Keaton of "The Three Ages"), for the first time since he last saw him as an infant in the crib. Essentially, Bill does not know what Willie looks like. Meantime, Willie arrives at River Junction from Boston dressed like a fashionable college graduate, wearing a beret, sporting a pencil thin mustache, a spotted bow-tie, and carrying a ukulele under his arm. He has sent his father a telegram informing him that he will be able to recognize him by the white carnation that he will be wearing in his coat lapel. Unfortunately, Willie seems to have forgotten that it is Mother's Day and everybody is wearing a white carnation. Bill (Ernest Torrence of "Captain Salvation") and his First Mate, Tom Carter (Tom Lewis of "Adam and Eva"), head off to the railway station fully expecting to greet a big strapping lad twice the size of William Canfield, Sr. Nobody at the train station fits the description of the elder Canfield's son. As the Southern Railway locomotive with the number 45 on it pulls out, it turns out that Willie Canfield has been out of sight on the other side of the tracks. He makes an idiot out of himself as he approaches all the men in the station and flashes his carnation at them. Eventually, Willie loses the carnation, but he does not realize it and keeps poking his empty lapel into the faces of strangers. Finally, Bill recognizes Willie by the tag on his luggage while Willie is dancing and playing his ukulele for a baby in a stroller. Clearly, the 1920s were a different age altogether when babies could be left unattended in carriages at a public place without fear of being abducted.

Once he has picked his son up at the depot, Bill ushers Willie into a barber chair and orders the barber to shave off the "barnacle" of a mustache on his lip. Later, Bill drags Willie to a haberdashery to replace the beret with a hat that a man would wear. No sooner have they left the store than a gust of wind whips the white hat off his head and blows it into the river. Willie pulls the beret out of his back pocket and slips it back onto his head. Predictably, Bill is surprised to see the beret reappear, but he does nothing. Earlier, while Willie enconsed in the barber chair, Willie noticed that a cute little thing sitting opposite him is none other than Kitty King (Marion Byron of "Song of the West"), who attended the same college in Boston. These two try to get together, but their fathers refuse to countenance their relationship. John James King (Tom McGuire of "The Reckless Age") tells Kitty that he will pick the right man for her and the candidate will not be "the son of a river tramp." Similarly, Bill tells Willie that he will choose an appropriate mate for him and will not have a King for a daughter-in-law. Basically, Steamboat Bill and King are competitors in the paddle wheeler business on the Missisippi River. Recently, King brought in his brand new paddle wheeler and convinces the Public Safety Commissioner condemn the paddle wheeler--the Stonewall Jackson--that Bill owns. Bill goes after King, and King has him thrown in jail. The same day that the sheriff puts Bill in jail is the very day that Bill had arranged transport for Willie back to Boston. Willie sees the authorities take his father to calaboose and contrives a scheme to break him out. He conceals several tools inside a giant loaf of bread and convinces the sheriff to let him give it to his father. Initially, Bill wants nothing to do with Willie until his son shows him what the loaf contains. Bill breaks out, but Willie is caught. The sheriff cracks an unsuspecting Willie over the head with his six-gun and sends Canfield Junior off to the receiving hospital.

The major set-piece of "Steamboat Bill, Jr." is a high wind storm that tears up all the buildings in River Junction, blows the top off the hospital, and sends the jail into the river. The physical sight gags that Keaton performs are some of his best and most imitated. In one scene, the entire facade of a building falls on Willie, but he is standing where the window is so he is not hurt! Each gag is beautifully orchestrated by director Chas. F. Reisner who specialized in comedies, including the lesser Marx Brothers picture "The Big Store" and the Abbott & Costello comedy "Lost in a Harem." Even the smallest of gags, such as peanut hulls--which Bill refers to as "cocoanut shells"--that cut their bare feet up when they cross a floor are hilarious. The spectacle of Keaton clutching an uprooted tree that is hurled into the river is incredible as are the flying buildings that Buster runs into and out of. Of course, Willie and Kitty hook up in the end. Keaton performs all of his stunts and they are pretty amazing. "Steamboat Bill, Jr." ranks as a memorable Buster Keaton epic with several well-staged sight gags.

Don't miss this one.

FILM REVIEW OF ''RETURN OF THE SEVEN" (1966)

No, Burt Kennedy's "Return of the Seven" (***1/2 out of ****) doesn't surpass the classic John Sturges western "The Magnificent Seven." Remember, however, the Sturges film itself constituted a remake of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's "The Seven Samurai." First, I contend that "The Magnificent Seven" is one of the top ten best westerns. Second, I get a kick out of watching "Return of the Seven" for its own modest virtues. This sagebrusher came about as a result of the sequel craze that hit Hollywood in the early 1960s. After the tension on the set of "The Magnificent Seven" with Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen refused to play second fiddle again to 'the King.' Anyway, McQueen's star was ascending, while Brynner's stardom was going into eclipse. The theatrical title of the Kennedy film is important, too, because it is "Return of the Seven" with the omission of the adjective "Magnificent." Indeed, Brynner is the only one who made it back for the sequel. McQueen refused to and Horst Buchholz had disappeared in Europe making other movies. Everybody else is practically brand new, except Emilio Fernández who had worked behind the scenes on the Sturges oater.

Mind you, around this time, the Europeans had spawned the so-called 'Spaghetti' western craze. Moreover, the Franco government in Spain was subsidizing filmmakers, and the rough-hewn Spanish scenery substituted more than adequately for the frontier American Southwest. When the scenery is more interesting to look at, the music stands out, and the corpses outnumber the horses ten-to-one, you know that you're watching a 'Spaghetti' western. Oh, yeah, if the dialogue isn't lip-synched, you know you're watching a 'Spaghetti' western. Consequently, the Mirish Production company must have felt that they could knock out a sequel very inexpensively in Spain. Reportedly, the Alicante location where they filmed "Return of the Seven" had not been used in a picture. Unquestionably, "Return of the Seven" looks like an epic western, and "Battleground" lenser Paul Vogel's cinematography is a feast for the eyes. Everybody looks really picturesque when they shoot their guns in this vigorous western. The moving camera scenes when Lorca and his gunmen charge the ruins of the church are cool. Burt Kennedy's "Seven" surpasses Sturges' "Seven" only in terms of its rugged, breath-taking scenery, Vogel's ace cinematography, and the lavish production values. Burt Kennedy stages some exceptional gunfights, but he cannot top the vintage Sturges shoot-outs.

"Return of the Seven" picks up years after the Sturges epic. An insane rancher decides to honor the memory of his two dead sons by abducting the farmers of several villages and having them build a shrine—a church—to commemorate his sons. Right off, "Return of the Seven" differs from "The Magnificent Seven." Francisco Lorca (Emilio Fernández of "The Wild Bunch") looms above all as a law unto himself, whereas Calvera (Eli Wallach) was a cunning, ruthless bandit that lived outside the law. These films have different villains. One of the villages that Lorca's men raid and enslave is Chico's village. Julian Mateos takes over the role that Horst Buchholz created.

The worst scene is the first between Chris (Yul Brynner) and Vin (Robert Fuller of "Laramie") at a bullfighting arena. Vin sidles up to Chris during a bullfight and makes up a story that he is looking to collect bounty on Chris. Scenarist Larry Cohen of the "It's Alive" trilogy could have contrived a better reunion scene. Although Cohen received credit for writing the screenplay, all the dialogue sounds like something that Burt Kennedy would have written for Randolph Scott on those Budd Boetticher westerns of the 1950s. My favorite line is when Chris and Vin meet again during a cockfighting tournament and talk about their luck rounding up candidates. Vin asks, "Are they any good?" Chris retors, "They're alive." Staying alive is what "Return of the Seven" is all about. Meanwhile, Cohen replays themes from the original. The villagers huddle in a rainy church and admit their fear of anything.

The cast differs obviously and so do the characters. Burt Kennedy's "Seven" is harsh, definitely less sentimental than the Sturges' "Seven." Some of these guys don't get along and grate on each other. Chris averts a gunfight between the loquacious Colbee (Warren Oates of "In The Heat of the Night") and the tight-lipped Frank (Claude Atkins of "A Man Called Sledge")during one campfire scene. "Is he faster than you, Chris," Frank asks. "I'd hate to have the live on the difference," Chris observes. I'd heard this line in "Rio Bravo," but it fares better here. Another great scene occurs earlier when Chris bribes the jailor (Ricardo Palacios) to let Frank out of jail. "He killed five men in a gunfight," complains the jailer about the amount of Chris' bribe. "I could make it six," growls Frank. The bargain is sealed. The dialogue in this scene compares with the dialogue in the Charles Bronson scene in the original "Seven."

This time the Seven face at least fifty gunmen, twenty or so more than in the first picture. Later, Lorca calls on the rest of his men at his faraway haciendo to come and the number rises to 200 guns. Interestingly, Chris gets not only Frank but also Luis Emilio Delgado (Vergílio Teixeira of "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad") from the local jail. This anticipates the classic Lee Marvin war movie "The Dirty Dozen." Another scene that matched the original is the initial hero and the villains confrontation. Chris rides boldly into the construction site and demands the release of Chico and everybody else to the incredulity of Lorca's second-in-command Lopez (Rodolfo Acosta of "Rio Conchos") who replies, "I could have you shot like that." Lopez snaps. "There are six Winchesters pointed at your head." Chris is far more audacious here than he ever was in "The Magnificent Seven." Emilio Fernández is a splendid follow-up to Eli Wallach. In real life, Wallach was gentle, whereas Fernández was violent, handy with a gun, a gangsta of sorts. He looks like he means business as the villain in "Return of the Seven."

The core of the plot of "Return of the Seven" is pretty complicated stuff, too, There is nothing like it in "The Magnificent Seven." The theme here is an abusive father determined to have his way no matter what. Lorca has abducted hundreds of villagers to rebuild a church to honor the memory of his dead sons. The padre (Fernando Rey of "The French Connection") disagrees with Lorca's methods. Lorca and his men have shot villagers who fled from the project. As it turns out, Lorca's two sons hated their father. They were gentle and weak, not strong and brusque like their overbearing father. Indeed, Chris reveals in an expository dialogue scene with Vin that Lorca's sons had hired him to kill Lorca. On the other way, there is one scene that is clearly lifted from "The Magnificent Seven." Frank infiltrates the enemy camp like Horst Bucholtz did in "The Magnificent Seven" and brings back the bad news that Lorca has called on more men and guns. Like Yul Brynner, Elmer Bernstein encores his original Oscar nominated orchestral soundtrack and amazingly he received another nomination for it. If you haven't seen the first "Seven," you could swear that Bernstein created the score for the sequel!