This lightweight international co-production between Hong Kong's Run Run Shaw and Italian producer Carlo Ponti amalgamates chop-socky martial arts combat with gritty Spaghetti western violence. An Asian kung fu master teams up with an American gunslinger to find his uncle's treasure. Variously known as either "Blood Money" or "The Stranger and the Gunfighter," this tame 'East Meets West' oater is predictable but amusing nonsense. The humor that lies at the bottom of the plot is that four women have tattoos on their backsides that reveal the whereabouts of a fortune in gold. "Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye" director Antonio Margheriti and scenarists Miguel De Echarri and Barth Jules Sussman have incorporated a sex comedy in this Kung Fu/Spaghetti western. The running joke is that our heroes must obtain permission from four women to eyeball their butts. Veteran western villain Lee Van Cleef twirls his six-gun, while the often outnumbered Lo Lieh performs gravity-defying kung fu. Incidentally, Lieh emerged as the first martial arts superstar before Bruce Lee. "Blood Money" came about during Van Cleef's career when he started wearing a hairpiece. Despite his age, the actor spends the last ten minutes baring his whiplashed chest. The production values are sumptuous.
Martial arts movies were increasingly going mainstream by the early 1970s, and "Blood Money" (**1/2 out of ****) exemplified one of a handful of Italian westerns with Kung Fu. Not only did producer Run Run Shaw co-produce this hybrid horse opera, but he also co-produced the Hammer vampire epic "The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires" during the same year in 1974. Mind you, "Blood Money" premiered in Spain in 1974, but illuminated American screens two years later in 1976. Initially, the Tony Anthony western "The Silent Stranger" should have qualified as the first 'East Meets West' Kung Fu/Spaghetti western. Produced in 1968, "The Silent Stranger" was not released by MGM until 1975, so it beat "Blood Money" to the draw. Earlier, James Bond director Terence Young had helmed a European western with Charles Bronson as an outlaw who reluctantly joins up with Japanese samurai warrior Toshirô Mifune to recover the Nippon ambassador's valuable ceremonial sword. Director Mario Caiano's "Shanghai Joe" (1972) followed "Red Sun" and concerned a Chinese immigrant Chin How (Chen Lee) who helps Mexican laborers from their sadistic boss. Sergio Corbucci even got into this genre in 1975 with "Shoot First... Ask Questions Later" (1975) as a samurai warrior helps a lawman find a treasure.
Dakota (Lee Van Cleef of "Barquero") arrives in Monterey by train. A conductor confronts our protagonist as he slips out from under the passenger coach. Before the conductor can do anything to him, Dakota escapes in a cloud of steam. Breaking into the local bank, Dakota picks the lock to the safe but he finds only photographs of women. Meantime, one of those women alerts Wang (Al Tung), a short fat Asian fellow that somebody is in the bank. Wang scrambles over to the bank. Dakota relies on explosives to blow the vault. As the dynamite explodes, Wang is blown off his feet. Dakota finds a fortune cookie and the photographs. He queries Wang about the contents, but Wang has died. The authorities arrive and arrest Dakota. Meanwhile, in Asia, kung fu teacher Ho Chiang (Lo Lieh of "Five Fingers of Death") is escorted by the warlord's troops to his headquarters. The warlord questions Ho's father about his deceased brother who left behind nothing valuable. The warlord confronts Ho. "I was tricked by your uncle. Unwisely, I entrusted him with a vast fortune and all he did to repay me before he died was to send me that wooden figures." The warlord indicates the statue of a noble Plains Indian chieftain. Since nobody can satisfy the warlord’s curiosity, he gives Ho's sister to the guards. Ho intervenes but to no avail. Nevertheless, Ho’s martial arts skills impress the warlord. "You're brave and intelligent and I believe you can be useful in recovering my fortune," he informs Ho. "Find my gold in one year or all of you will --," the warlord completes his sentence with a slashing motion at his throat.
Ho arrives in Monterey. He meets with Wang’s lawyer and learns his uncle left behind a $1000 and four photographs of women. According to the lawyer, Wang's death was ruled accidental. Nevertheless, the authorities sentenced Dakota to swing. The lawyer (Paul Costello of “Cannibal Apocalypse”) adds that Dakota's trial lasted several months. Not surprisingly, Ho encounters racism in a saloon and defends himself against two gunslinging bouncers. The sheriff (Barta Barri of “Horror Express”) arrests Ho for hitting him. Ho lands in a cell next to Dakota. Dakota assures Ho that he didn’t murder his uncle. Moreover, Dakota acquired no fortune. The sheriff releases Ho. Later, the Asian rescues Dakota as he stands poised on the gallows’ trapdoor with his noggin in a noose. Together, Dakota and Ho embark on an unusual search for Wang's four mistresses. Along the way, they incur the wrath of a hypocritical preacher, Yancey Hobbitt (Julian Ugarte of “Autopsy”), who wears a long, black duster with a ridiculous hat. Yancey quotes scripture and wields a devastating six-gun. Yancey abducts the Chinese mistress (Karen Yeh of “The Iron Dragon”) with the aid of a Mexican bandit (Ricardo Palacios of “Return of the Seven”) and his gang. They take her to an old mission. Dakota and Ho follow, but they have a minor falling out when Ho refuses to let Dakota accompany him. Calico captures Dakota when the American tries to sneak into the mission. He uses a bullwhip on Dakota to loosen his tongue about Ho. Ho helps Dakota escape, and Dakota appropriates a Gatling gun. He places the Gatling gun between two horses in harness and rides through the mission firing the weapon and exterminates half of Calico’s gang, while Ho releases the Chinese mistress. Yancey has tried to torture her to translate the tattoos by suspending her in a metal cage and stoking blaze beneath to loosen her tongue. Fittingly, Dakota kills Yancey when the dastard lunges for a gun in a dead man's hand.
Margheriti directs with customary aplomb. Everything unfolds fluidly. Clocking in a 107 minutes, "Blood Money" looks like a Spaghetti western, but the sex comedy often undercuts the usual high body count violence. "Goliath against the Giants" lenser Alejandro Ulloa gives everything a larger-than-life grandeur. "Secret Agent Fireball" composer Carlo Savina drums up a snappy, non-western orchestral score. Savina's music has nothing in common with the quintessential Ennio Morricone Spaghetti western music with whistles, bells, and whipcracks. Interestingly, the mission that Calico and his bandits occupy is the same fortress that Lee Van Cleef and Jim Brown assaulted in "El Condor." Indeed, the fortress was constructed for "El Condor" and has appeared in other major films, such as "Conan the Barbarian" and "A Reason to Live, A Reason to Die." The ending may surprise those who aren't expecting it. It is a hoot to see Lee Van Cleef in a Chinese bamboo hat and robe in the final scene in Hong Kong.
CINEMATIC REVELATIONS allows me the luxury of writing, editing and archiving my film and television reviews. Some reviews appeared initially in "The Commercial Dispatch" and "The Planet Weekly" and then later in the comment archives at the Internet Movie Database. IMDB.COM, however, imposes a limit on both the number of words and the number of times that an author may revise their comments. I hope that anybody who peruses these expanded reviews will find them useful.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
FILM REVIEW OF ''ONE-EYED JACKS" (1961)
Academy Award Winning actor Marlon Brando directed one movie during his prestigious 50-year career in Hollywood. Brando's Pennebaker Productions decided that a western might be a worthwhile investment since westerns had been profitable during the 1950s. The company shelled out $40,000 for the rights to author Charles Neider’s seminal western novel “The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones” and several scenarists came and went before “One-Eyed Jacks” (***1/2 out of ****) was completed. Among the scenarists were a young Sam Peckinpah, but novelist Calder Willingham replaced Peckinpah. This amoral western melodrama dealt with the themes of friendship, greed, deception, betrayal, and revenge. The troubled production history of this splendid horse opera casts a shadow over its artistry. First, Brando created several legends about his use of six or more takes for a scene. Second, the story goes that the star waited for the most dramatic waves to break on the shore. Brando toiled for six months on “One-Eyed Jacks.” Initially, “Paths of Glory” helmer Stanley Kubrick started out as the director. Artistic differences arose between Brando and Kubrick that prompted Kubrick’s dismissal. Reportedly, Kubrick preferred Spencer Tracy over Karl Malden as the villainous Dad Longworth. Brando objected on the basis, however, that Pennebaker Productions had already paid Malden the sum of $300-thousand. Afterward, when nobody stepped forward to helm the film, Brando decided he would try. Paramount executives should have had their heads examined for letting a temperamental actor like Brando call the shots on a film.
Three American outlaws, Rio (Marlon Brando of “Julius Caesar”), Dad Longworth (Karl Malden of “Baby Doll”), and Doc (perennial character actor Hank Worden of “Red River”) hold up a Mexican bank. Dad and Doc ride off to shack up with prostitutes in a bordello, while Rio heads off to romance a refined lady at her hacienda. Mexican Rurale captain (Rodolfo Acosta of “Hondo”) leads a posse to the bordello and they kill Doc when they raid the place. Dad slips out by the window with his gun, but he forgets his boots. Dad rides off to alert Rio. Together they light out into desert with the Rurales on their trail. Rio loses his horse and has to double up on Dad’s mount. They take refuge on a hill and exchange gunfire with the Rurales. Our heroes decide that one of them must round up fresh horses so they can escape from the Rurales. Rio draws two bullets and grips them in his fist. Interestingly, our protagonist lets Dad win and Dad sets out for fresh horses while Rio holds up the Rurales. Dad rides into a tiny ranch and buys a horse. He is shifting the gold coins around in his fist when he decides to leave Rio to the Rurales. Eventually, the Rurales surround Rio and he surrenders. He spends the next five years in a stinking Sonora Prison, while Dad lives high off the hog in Monterey, California, where he has gotten himself elected sheriff. Moreover, Dad has married Maria (Katy Jurado of “High Noon”) and adopted Maria’s daughter, Louisa (Pina Pellicer of “Macario”) as his own. He owns a house about 10 miles out of town.
Rio and Chico Modesto (Larry Duran of “Viva Zapata!”) break out of the Sonora Prison. They are in a cantina when Bob Amory (Ben Johnson of “Rio Grande”) approaches Rio about robbing a bank in Monterey. Rio learns Dad Longworth is the town lawman. Rio visits Dad before Amory and his sidekick, Harvey Johnson (Sam Gilman of “The Young Lions”), show up in Monterey. Initially, Dad believes Rio has come to kill him for double-crossing him back in Sonora. Rio doesn’t want to shoot Dad. Rio explains he gave the Rurales the slip and eluded them. Dad introduces Rio to his family and Louisa takes an immediate interest in him. Later, Rio guns down a drunken man in a Monterey bar, Howard Tetley (Timothy Carey of “The Killing”), who was abusing a helpless woman. Dad has had enough of Rio. Primarily, Dad is angry because Louisa spent the night on the beach with Rio. Dad’s sleazy Deputy Lon Dedrick (Slim Pickens of “Rocky Mountain”) has had his eye on Louisa and hates Rio. Dad arrests Rio for killing Tetley. Disarming Rio, Dad lashes his wrists to a horse’s hitching rack. Wielding a bullwhip on Rio, Dad sends him to his knees. Dad reverses a shotgun and smashes the butt of the weapon against Rio’s right hand to destroy his hand.
Rio and company flee Monterey, but our protagonist is even more determined to kill Dad. Rio recuperates on the beach and gets back the use of his gun hand. Bob and company ride into town to rob the bank. The robbery is a bust, but a little girl dies during the shoot-out. Rio is riding back to town when Dad’s deputies arrest him. Although Rio had no part in the robbery, Dad locks him up and prepares the gallows for his inevitable hanging. Louisa tries to smuggle a derringer into Rio by hiding it in a bowl of soup, but Lon discovers the firearm. He escorts Louisa from the jail and Rio smashes up his bunk for a piece of wood attached to a strap thathe can use to sling out at the table in front of his cell. Lon has forgotten about the derringer and left it on the table. Brando generates some great suspense as Rio repeatedly tries to get the derringer. At the same time that Rio is trying to get the derringer, Dad is taking a liesurely ride along the beach back into town. Rio bluffs Lon with the derringer when he returns. What Lon doesn't know is that the derringer contains no bullets. Rio escapes from jail and shoots it out in the town plaza with Dad. They confront each other with a water fountain between them and Rio slips around behind Dad and shoots him in the back. After he rides out of town, Rio and Louisa rein up and discuss their future together. Rio must clear out of the territory, but he plans to return in the spring when Louisa gives birth to his child.
The striking locales set “One-Eyed Jacks” apart from most westerns. When Brando left the production, he had filmed about five hours of footage and assembled his own cut. Paramount whittled the unwieldy opus down to two hours and forty-one minutes. Interestingly, the title refers to the two sides of a jack rabbit's face. Rio brags that he knows who the real Dad is and he isn't the man who duped the town of Monterey. Financial woes aside, “One-Eyed Jacks” qualifies a good, often compelling western about two bad men who clash at the outset over stolen gold. One lands in a filthy Sonora prison, while the other one ends up in California with a badge on his chest. The cast is stupendous, particularly Malden who plays a thoroughly treacherous dastard. Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Katy Jurado, Timothy Carey, and Pina Pellicer all contribute memorable performances, but it is “The Magnificent Seven” lenser Charles Lang who makes the scenic Monterey coast with his crashing surf and the rugged Mexican locations look absolutely dazzling. Unfortunately, the studio shots involving back projection detract from Lang’s visual real-world composition. Indeed, Brando himself received a nomination for Best Director. Sadly, “One-Eyed Jacks” never recouped its negative cost, the amount that it took to produce this exotic western.
Three American outlaws, Rio (Marlon Brando of “Julius Caesar”), Dad Longworth (Karl Malden of “Baby Doll”), and Doc (perennial character actor Hank Worden of “Red River”) hold up a Mexican bank. Dad and Doc ride off to shack up with prostitutes in a bordello, while Rio heads off to romance a refined lady at her hacienda. Mexican Rurale captain (Rodolfo Acosta of “Hondo”) leads a posse to the bordello and they kill Doc when they raid the place. Dad slips out by the window with his gun, but he forgets his boots. Dad rides off to alert Rio. Together they light out into desert with the Rurales on their trail. Rio loses his horse and has to double up on Dad’s mount. They take refuge on a hill and exchange gunfire with the Rurales. Our heroes decide that one of them must round up fresh horses so they can escape from the Rurales. Rio draws two bullets and grips them in his fist. Interestingly, our protagonist lets Dad win and Dad sets out for fresh horses while Rio holds up the Rurales. Dad rides into a tiny ranch and buys a horse. He is shifting the gold coins around in his fist when he decides to leave Rio to the Rurales. Eventually, the Rurales surround Rio and he surrenders. He spends the next five years in a stinking Sonora Prison, while Dad lives high off the hog in Monterey, California, where he has gotten himself elected sheriff. Moreover, Dad has married Maria (Katy Jurado of “High Noon”) and adopted Maria’s daughter, Louisa (Pina Pellicer of “Macario”) as his own. He owns a house about 10 miles out of town.
Rio and Chico Modesto (Larry Duran of “Viva Zapata!”) break out of the Sonora Prison. They are in a cantina when Bob Amory (Ben Johnson of “Rio Grande”) approaches Rio about robbing a bank in Monterey. Rio learns Dad Longworth is the town lawman. Rio visits Dad before Amory and his sidekick, Harvey Johnson (Sam Gilman of “The Young Lions”), show up in Monterey. Initially, Dad believes Rio has come to kill him for double-crossing him back in Sonora. Rio doesn’t want to shoot Dad. Rio explains he gave the Rurales the slip and eluded them. Dad introduces Rio to his family and Louisa takes an immediate interest in him. Later, Rio guns down a drunken man in a Monterey bar, Howard Tetley (Timothy Carey of “The Killing”), who was abusing a helpless woman. Dad has had enough of Rio. Primarily, Dad is angry because Louisa spent the night on the beach with Rio. Dad’s sleazy Deputy Lon Dedrick (Slim Pickens of “Rocky Mountain”) has had his eye on Louisa and hates Rio. Dad arrests Rio for killing Tetley. Disarming Rio, Dad lashes his wrists to a horse’s hitching rack. Wielding a bullwhip on Rio, Dad sends him to his knees. Dad reverses a shotgun and smashes the butt of the weapon against Rio’s right hand to destroy his hand.
Rio and company flee Monterey, but our protagonist is even more determined to kill Dad. Rio recuperates on the beach and gets back the use of his gun hand. Bob and company ride into town to rob the bank. The robbery is a bust, but a little girl dies during the shoot-out. Rio is riding back to town when Dad’s deputies arrest him. Although Rio had no part in the robbery, Dad locks him up and prepares the gallows for his inevitable hanging. Louisa tries to smuggle a derringer into Rio by hiding it in a bowl of soup, but Lon discovers the firearm. He escorts Louisa from the jail and Rio smashes up his bunk for a piece of wood attached to a strap thathe can use to sling out at the table in front of his cell. Lon has forgotten about the derringer and left it on the table. Brando generates some great suspense as Rio repeatedly tries to get the derringer. At the same time that Rio is trying to get the derringer, Dad is taking a liesurely ride along the beach back into town. Rio bluffs Lon with the derringer when he returns. What Lon doesn't know is that the derringer contains no bullets. Rio escapes from jail and shoots it out in the town plaza with Dad. They confront each other with a water fountain between them and Rio slips around behind Dad and shoots him in the back. After he rides out of town, Rio and Louisa rein up and discuss their future together. Rio must clear out of the territory, but he plans to return in the spring when Louisa gives birth to his child.
The striking locales set “One-Eyed Jacks” apart from most westerns. When Brando left the production, he had filmed about five hours of footage and assembled his own cut. Paramount whittled the unwieldy opus down to two hours and forty-one minutes. Interestingly, the title refers to the two sides of a jack rabbit's face. Rio brags that he knows who the real Dad is and he isn't the man who duped the town of Monterey. Financial woes aside, “One-Eyed Jacks” qualifies a good, often compelling western about two bad men who clash at the outset over stolen gold. One lands in a filthy Sonora prison, while the other one ends up in California with a badge on his chest. The cast is stupendous, particularly Malden who plays a thoroughly treacherous dastard. Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Katy Jurado, Timothy Carey, and Pina Pellicer all contribute memorable performances, but it is “The Magnificent Seven” lenser Charles Lang who makes the scenic Monterey coast with his crashing surf and the rugged Mexican locations look absolutely dazzling. Unfortunately, the studio shots involving back projection detract from Lang’s visual real-world composition. Indeed, Brando himself received a nomination for Best Director. Sadly, “One-Eyed Jacks” never recouped its negative cost, the amount that it took to produce this exotic western.
FILM REVIEW OF "THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE" (1944)
This atmospheric World War II era horror chiller constitutes a rare treat. The filmmakers have skillfully intertwined serious, real-life serious events with supernatural fictional proceedings. Meaning, few monster movies appropriated the contemporary crisis of World War II and exploited it as a part of its storyline. Remember, during World War II, American and British films served as propaganda for the masses and touted democracy over fascism. Usually, these horror films skirted political ideologies, with only the most marginal references to the war. Men and women in uniform appear in several scenes, and the bombs fall three times so we see the savagery of Hitler's civilian bombing campaign. Mind you, “The Return of the Vampire” (*** out of ****) doesn’t weave World War II entirely into the fabric of its yarn, but the titular fangster does arise as a consequence of a German Luftwaffe bombing raid. Moreover, the evil that National Socialism posed to England is comparable to the evil that Armand Tesla poses to England. Like the autocratic Nazis that manipulated millions into submission, the vampire here exerts total control over its powerless prey. During a London air raid, bombs shatter the tranquility of a cemetery where the vampire has been consigned to oblivion with a stake in his chest. Director Lew Landers and “Mummy’s Hand” scenarist Griffin Jay have taken Kurt Neumann’s original story idea and done a splendid job of integrating the war with the vampire’s reign of terror. The cinematography of lensers L. William O'Connell and John Stumar creates a creepy feeling with its reliance on a fog machine and some graceful camera movement. Today’s audiences will probably find nothing scary about this old-fashioned ghoul fest with its use of expressionist shadows to tell a story. “The Return of the Vampire” is quite unusual as it foreshadowed the combo chiller that would bring together two supernatural creatures in one film. A vampire and the werewolf together conspire hand-in-hand for the first sixty minutes of this 70-minute, black and white film before they turn on each other in the end. “Twilight” fans may initially find this film disconcerting because the vampire wields power over the werewolf, but they will savor the ending.
Bela Lugosi doesn’t appear during the opening 23 minutes. Nevertheless, when Lugosi does show up, nobody can steal a scene from him. The first scene where a werewolf, Andreas Obry (one-time actor only Matt Willis), enters a gloomy Priory cemetery and awakens the vampire at dusk is mildly spooky. Andreas serves as the equivalent of Renfield from "Dracula,” because Lugosi’s vampire possesses his soul. Admittedly, Willis appears rather ridiculous in his hirsute make-up, but this scruffy canine look may have been frightening to early twentieth century audiences. Anyway, Landers and his lensers pay tribute to German Expressionist filmmakers when they present the vampire as a shadow against a wall as he emerges from his coffin. The only flesh and blood shot is a close-up of the bloodsucker’s hand as it raises the coffin lid. Similarly, they stage the action of a man driving a stake into the vampire’s heart in silhouette against a wall. Initially, use of silhouettes was a Hollywood method of depicting violence without nauseating the audience. The vampire, Armand Tesla (Bela Lugosi of “Dracula”), differs considerably from Count Dracula. A depraved Romanian scientist who lived 200 years ago in 1744, Tesla published an authoritative text about vampires. He fell victim to his obsession with the undead and turned into one after his death. No, the filmmakers never explain what specifically turned Tesla into a vampire. Tesla is preying on young women in the year 1918 when the action unfolds and the werewolf acts as his servant. Meantime, Dr. Walter Saunders (Gilbert Emery of “The House of Rothschild”) and Lady Jane Ainsley (Frieda Inescort of “Mary of Scotland”) track Tesla down to his tomb and hammer a spike through his heart. Ironically, everything that Dr. Saunders knows about vampires he has learned from Tesla’s writing. Landers and his scenarists use Dr. Saunders as a mouthpiece throughout these early scenes so that non-horror movie audiences would not be left in the dark about the procedure for killing a vampire.
The second act of “The Return of the Vampire” occurs in 1940 before America had entered World War II with the British. Dr. Saunders has died in a plane crash and left behind a manuscript of his fantastic exploits, principally the destruction of Armand Tesla. Scotland Yard’s Chief Commissioner, Sir Frederick Fleet (Miles Mander of “South of Suez”), has read the manuscript and has no alternative but to exhume Tesla’s body to substantiate what appears to be murder. Of course, Sir Frederick flatly refuses to believe in the existence of vampires. Later, a bomb devastates the graveyard where Saunders and Lady Jane buried Tesla's body in an unmarked grave between the Fairchild grave and the Smithley grave. Two laborers stumble upon Tesla’s unearthed coffin and mistakenly believe that the bomb hurled a spike into the corpse. The conversation that they have between themselves about this grisly incident serves as amusing comic relief. Dutifully, one of the laborers, Orace (Billy Bevan) removes the spike and they regret this action. Ultimately, Tesla arises again and Andreas reverts to his werewolf days. Since Tesla’s demise, Andreas has been a tireless laboratory assistant to a now older Lady Ainsley. Lady Ainsley’s son John (Roland Varno of “Zanzibar”) has grown up. A former Royal Air Force pilot, he has now become a concert pianist, while the late Dr. Saunders’ daughter Nicki (Nina Foch of “Illegal”) serves in the women’s corps. The two plan to marry. Tesla enters Nicki’s bedroom and bites her. Later, Nicki bites John. Nothing that Lady Jane tells Sir Frederick about Tesla convinces him that Tesla is a supernatural being. Meanwhile, when his detectives question Andreas, Andreas turns into a werewolf and escapes from them. The detectives show Sir Frederick the wolf hairs that they collected in their brief struggle with Andreas, but Sir Frederick remains dubious.
Meanwhile, Lady Jane has been asked to help a scientist fleeing from the Nazis. Dr. Hugo Bruckner has escaped from Axis-occupied France with the help of the Resistance. He comes to London to meet our heroine. Tesla has Andreas dispose of Bruckner, and Tesla assumes the scientist’s identity. Eventually, Sir Frederick discovers this deception. Tesla visits Lady Jane. Since she knows his true identity, he decides it is time for him to exact his revenge against her and turn Nikki into a vampire. She exposes a cross and Tesla flees. Later, Lady Jane has another of her futile arguments with Sir Frederick about the reality of vampires. Before Tesla can carry out his morbid plan, Andreas kills him. The ending of “The Return of the Vampire” is both clever and amusing. Despite everything that has transpired, Sir Frederick remains adamant in his disbelief about vampires. The Scotland Yard commissioner queries his two plainclothes detectives. “You two fellows don’t believe in vampires, do you?” They are just as convinced that vampires exist as Lady Jane is. Sir Frederick then breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience. “Do you people?”
All vampire movies establish their own set of criteria governing the behavior of the bloodsuckers. “The Return of the Vampire” is the kind where the vampire can enter a residence without the permission of the owner. Nevertheless, the filmmakers take advantage of a strong wind to get around the 'thou shalt not enter a room rule' without a proper invitation. This occurs when Tesla sweeps into Nicki's room with a smoke screen. This may have been the first time that a character shines a mirror on a vampire and the mirror reflects the vampire's apparel but not the vampire. Typically, in these scenes, the vampire's image along with his apparel is not reflected in the mirror. Lady Jane contends that Armand Tesla's body should still be in his coffin if the spike is still in his body. When Sir Frederick sets out to examine the corpse, she hopes that the Scotland Yard Commissioner will find the body intact. According to Lady Jane, if Tesla were a vampire, then his body should not decompose. This characteristic doesn't hold true in the Hammer "Dracula" movies. What is amusing here as it is with the vampire mirror shots is the fact that the Armand Tesla's wardrobe would have deteriorated somewhat over the intervening years, but there is no sign of wear.
Bela Lugosi doesn’t appear during the opening 23 minutes. Nevertheless, when Lugosi does show up, nobody can steal a scene from him. The first scene where a werewolf, Andreas Obry (one-time actor only Matt Willis), enters a gloomy Priory cemetery and awakens the vampire at dusk is mildly spooky. Andreas serves as the equivalent of Renfield from "Dracula,” because Lugosi’s vampire possesses his soul. Admittedly, Willis appears rather ridiculous in his hirsute make-up, but this scruffy canine look may have been frightening to early twentieth century audiences. Anyway, Landers and his lensers pay tribute to German Expressionist filmmakers when they present the vampire as a shadow against a wall as he emerges from his coffin. The only flesh and blood shot is a close-up of the bloodsucker’s hand as it raises the coffin lid. Similarly, they stage the action of a man driving a stake into the vampire’s heart in silhouette against a wall. Initially, use of silhouettes was a Hollywood method of depicting violence without nauseating the audience. The vampire, Armand Tesla (Bela Lugosi of “Dracula”), differs considerably from Count Dracula. A depraved Romanian scientist who lived 200 years ago in 1744, Tesla published an authoritative text about vampires. He fell victim to his obsession with the undead and turned into one after his death. No, the filmmakers never explain what specifically turned Tesla into a vampire. Tesla is preying on young women in the year 1918 when the action unfolds and the werewolf acts as his servant. Meantime, Dr. Walter Saunders (Gilbert Emery of “The House of Rothschild”) and Lady Jane Ainsley (Frieda Inescort of “Mary of Scotland”) track Tesla down to his tomb and hammer a spike through his heart. Ironically, everything that Dr. Saunders knows about vampires he has learned from Tesla’s writing. Landers and his scenarists use Dr. Saunders as a mouthpiece throughout these early scenes so that non-horror movie audiences would not be left in the dark about the procedure for killing a vampire.
The second act of “The Return of the Vampire” occurs in 1940 before America had entered World War II with the British. Dr. Saunders has died in a plane crash and left behind a manuscript of his fantastic exploits, principally the destruction of Armand Tesla. Scotland Yard’s Chief Commissioner, Sir Frederick Fleet (Miles Mander of “South of Suez”), has read the manuscript and has no alternative but to exhume Tesla’s body to substantiate what appears to be murder. Of course, Sir Frederick flatly refuses to believe in the existence of vampires. Later, a bomb devastates the graveyard where Saunders and Lady Jane buried Tesla's body in an unmarked grave between the Fairchild grave and the Smithley grave. Two laborers stumble upon Tesla’s unearthed coffin and mistakenly believe that the bomb hurled a spike into the corpse. The conversation that they have between themselves about this grisly incident serves as amusing comic relief. Dutifully, one of the laborers, Orace (Billy Bevan) removes the spike and they regret this action. Ultimately, Tesla arises again and Andreas reverts to his werewolf days. Since Tesla’s demise, Andreas has been a tireless laboratory assistant to a now older Lady Ainsley. Lady Ainsley’s son John (Roland Varno of “Zanzibar”) has grown up. A former Royal Air Force pilot, he has now become a concert pianist, while the late Dr. Saunders’ daughter Nicki (Nina Foch of “Illegal”) serves in the women’s corps. The two plan to marry. Tesla enters Nicki’s bedroom and bites her. Later, Nicki bites John. Nothing that Lady Jane tells Sir Frederick about Tesla convinces him that Tesla is a supernatural being. Meanwhile, when his detectives question Andreas, Andreas turns into a werewolf and escapes from them. The detectives show Sir Frederick the wolf hairs that they collected in their brief struggle with Andreas, but Sir Frederick remains dubious.
Meanwhile, Lady Jane has been asked to help a scientist fleeing from the Nazis. Dr. Hugo Bruckner has escaped from Axis-occupied France with the help of the Resistance. He comes to London to meet our heroine. Tesla has Andreas dispose of Bruckner, and Tesla assumes the scientist’s identity. Eventually, Sir Frederick discovers this deception. Tesla visits Lady Jane. Since she knows his true identity, he decides it is time for him to exact his revenge against her and turn Nikki into a vampire. She exposes a cross and Tesla flees. Later, Lady Jane has another of her futile arguments with Sir Frederick about the reality of vampires. Before Tesla can carry out his morbid plan, Andreas kills him. The ending of “The Return of the Vampire” is both clever and amusing. Despite everything that has transpired, Sir Frederick remains adamant in his disbelief about vampires. The Scotland Yard commissioner queries his two plainclothes detectives. “You two fellows don’t believe in vampires, do you?” They are just as convinced that vampires exist as Lady Jane is. Sir Frederick then breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience. “Do you people?”
All vampire movies establish their own set of criteria governing the behavior of the bloodsuckers. “The Return of the Vampire” is the kind where the vampire can enter a residence without the permission of the owner. Nevertheless, the filmmakers take advantage of a strong wind to get around the 'thou shalt not enter a room rule' without a proper invitation. This occurs when Tesla sweeps into Nicki's room with a smoke screen. This may have been the first time that a character shines a mirror on a vampire and the mirror reflects the vampire's apparel but not the vampire. Typically, in these scenes, the vampire's image along with his apparel is not reflected in the mirror. Lady Jane contends that Armand Tesla's body should still be in his coffin if the spike is still in his body. When Sir Frederick sets out to examine the corpse, she hopes that the Scotland Yard Commissioner will find the body intact. According to Lady Jane, if Tesla were a vampire, then his body should not decompose. This characteristic doesn't hold true in the Hammer "Dracula" movies. What is amusing here as it is with the vampire mirror shots is the fact that the Armand Tesla's wardrobe would have deteriorated somewhat over the intervening years, but there is no sign of wear.
FILM REVIEW OF ''KNIGHT AND DAY" (2010)
“Walk The Line” director James Mangold and television scenarist Patrick O’Neill must have watched a bunch of European espionage thrillers from the 1960s before they made the new Tom Cruise & Cameron Diaz movie “Knight and Day.” This predictable but entertaining international actioneer brings Cruise and Diaz together as two people on the lam from Federal agents and a trigger-happy Spanish arms dealer. The first time that Cruise and Diaz worked together, they made the murky “Vanilla Sky” (2001) with Kurt Russell. Indeed, “Knight and Day” (**1/2 out of ****) qualifies as a big improvement over “Vanilla Sky.” Furthermore, “Knight and Day” surpasses the similar themed “Killers” with Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl. Nevertheless, this breathlessly paced, Alfred Hitchcock style, thriller lacks the flair of Cruise’s “Mission Impossible 2” that Hong Kong action maestro John Woo turned into a slow-motion bullet ballet with our hero surviving some pretty incredible predicaments. “Knight and Day” boasts its share of hair-raising, cliff-hanger scenes. Most of them, however, have been performed before without blue screens and Mangold cannot substitute momentum for imagination. This is one of those improbable shoot’em up sagas where the virile hero is mighty handy with any fully automatic weapon in sight. He knows a thing or two about riding on the hood of a careening car while firing at multiple villains pursing him. In fact, some of the scenes here look as if they were lifted from “Tomorrow Never Dies,” “Wanted,” “Moonraker,” and “Charade,” not to mention all those Euro-thrillers. Audiences looking for something different may enjoy this above-average but contrived travelogue with fantastic photography and a credible cast.
Tom Cruise plays Roy Miller. This Roy Miller has nothing in common with the Roy Miller that Matt Damon portrayed in the superior Iraq thriller “Green Zone.” Cruise’s Roy works for the CIA. He has stolen a small, D-sized battery that is "the first perpetual energy source since the sun." He explains to June (Cameron Diaz of “The Box”) that the Zephyr “isn’t your average Duracell." In fact, this is one battery that never has to be recharged. The darned thing runs forever. In the Hitchcock thrillers, the object that motivates the plot is referred to as a MacGuffin. Basically, a MacGuffin is something that the good guys and the bad guys are prepared to kill each other for to acquire. FBI agent Fitzgerald (Peter Sarsgaard of “Orphan”) heads up the team of gun-toting agents nipping at Roy’s heels. At the Wichita, Kansas, airport, Roy spots pretty June and slips the Zephyr into her luggage packed with spare car parts so that it will make it through airport security. Initially, when she tries to board the plane, the airline attendant informs June that she will have to take a later flight. Savvy Fitzgerald spotted the switch in the terminal and allows June to get a seat on the flight. Roy was hoping that this wouldn’t happen. Naturally, June is surprised when she finds more than three-fourths of the seats aboard empty. Roy and she strike up a conversation. She reveals that she restores old cars. The jetliner hits turbulence and Roy catches her falling luggage before it smashes into her. All of this happens so quickly that June spills her drink into her lap. She heads off to the restroom to clean up. While she is in the restroom, she wonders about this mysterious guy. Meanwhile, Roy has his hands full with several tough customers who try to kill him, including the pilots. He dispatches them all as if he had been trained by James Bond and Jason Bourne. When June emerges from the toilet, everybody—including the pilots—lay dead, and Roy crash lands the jetliner in a cornfield in the middle of nowhere at night. Predictably, as they are trudging away from the crash, the fuselage bursts into flames and several terrific explosions ensue.
Roy explains to June that some suspicious people are going to visit her. They are going to tell her a lot of bad things about him. For example, they are going to call him a rogue agent with little regard for life and no qualms about killing. They are also going to tell her that they are going to take her to a safe and secure place. Roy warns June not to climb into a vehicle with these liars. Moreover, whenever they mention the words ‘safe’ and ‘secure’ they are planning on killing her. Afterward, he knocks her out with a drugged drink so he can get her out of the line of fire. Keeping June out of the line of fire is somewhat more difficult than Roy envisaged. He has to abduct her at gun point in broad daylight from a Boston diner to clear her name. During this abduction, Roy has to shoot her ex-boyfriend, Boston firefighter Rodney (Marc Blucas of “Animals”), in the thigh to dissuade him from following them. If June appears to be Roy’s hostage, then the authorities—principally the CIA's director of counterespionage, Ms. George (Viola Davis of “Law Abiding Citizen”)—won’t think that she is a conspirator. Meanwhile, Spanish arms dealer Antonio Quintero (Jordi Mollà of “The Alamo”) dispatches hordes of gunmen dressed like an army of SWAT riot patrolmen to descend on our heroes.
Clocking in at 110 minutes, “Knight and Day” lunges from one outlandish predicament to another like a hyperactive James Bond thriller. The audience will find itself in the same shoes that June—the ultimate innocent bystander without a clue—wears because both the good guys and the bad guys parcel out information piecemeal to make sure that it doesn’t interfere with the slam-bang stunts, reckless high speed car and motorcycle stunts, and the exploding SUVs that somersault through the air. Cruise musters his boyish “Risky Business” charisma and Diaz flaunts her terrific body. They are both sympathetic characters, and director James Mangold has the good sense to slap on layers of comedy to undercut some of the high body count shoot-outs. Nevertheless, “Knight and Day” seems too incoherent and second rate to top even Cruise’s worst “Mission Impossible” thriller—“Mission Impossible 3”—and the surprises aren’t very surprising in the long run.
Tom Cruise plays Roy Miller. This Roy Miller has nothing in common with the Roy Miller that Matt Damon portrayed in the superior Iraq thriller “Green Zone.” Cruise’s Roy works for the CIA. He has stolen a small, D-sized battery that is "the first perpetual energy source since the sun." He explains to June (Cameron Diaz of “The Box”) that the Zephyr “isn’t your average Duracell." In fact, this is one battery that never has to be recharged. The darned thing runs forever. In the Hitchcock thrillers, the object that motivates the plot is referred to as a MacGuffin. Basically, a MacGuffin is something that the good guys and the bad guys are prepared to kill each other for to acquire. FBI agent Fitzgerald (Peter Sarsgaard of “Orphan”) heads up the team of gun-toting agents nipping at Roy’s heels. At the Wichita, Kansas, airport, Roy spots pretty June and slips the Zephyr into her luggage packed with spare car parts so that it will make it through airport security. Initially, when she tries to board the plane, the airline attendant informs June that she will have to take a later flight. Savvy Fitzgerald spotted the switch in the terminal and allows June to get a seat on the flight. Roy was hoping that this wouldn’t happen. Naturally, June is surprised when she finds more than three-fourths of the seats aboard empty. Roy and she strike up a conversation. She reveals that she restores old cars. The jetliner hits turbulence and Roy catches her falling luggage before it smashes into her. All of this happens so quickly that June spills her drink into her lap. She heads off to the restroom to clean up. While she is in the restroom, she wonders about this mysterious guy. Meanwhile, Roy has his hands full with several tough customers who try to kill him, including the pilots. He dispatches them all as if he had been trained by James Bond and Jason Bourne. When June emerges from the toilet, everybody—including the pilots—lay dead, and Roy crash lands the jetliner in a cornfield in the middle of nowhere at night. Predictably, as they are trudging away from the crash, the fuselage bursts into flames and several terrific explosions ensue.
Roy explains to June that some suspicious people are going to visit her. They are going to tell her a lot of bad things about him. For example, they are going to call him a rogue agent with little regard for life and no qualms about killing. They are also going to tell her that they are going to take her to a safe and secure place. Roy warns June not to climb into a vehicle with these liars. Moreover, whenever they mention the words ‘safe’ and ‘secure’ they are planning on killing her. Afterward, he knocks her out with a drugged drink so he can get her out of the line of fire. Keeping June out of the line of fire is somewhat more difficult than Roy envisaged. He has to abduct her at gun point in broad daylight from a Boston diner to clear her name. During this abduction, Roy has to shoot her ex-boyfriend, Boston firefighter Rodney (Marc Blucas of “Animals”), in the thigh to dissuade him from following them. If June appears to be Roy’s hostage, then the authorities—principally the CIA's director of counterespionage, Ms. George (Viola Davis of “Law Abiding Citizen”)—won’t think that she is a conspirator. Meanwhile, Spanish arms dealer Antonio Quintero (Jordi Mollà of “The Alamo”) dispatches hordes of gunmen dressed like an army of SWAT riot patrolmen to descend on our heroes.
Clocking in at 110 minutes, “Knight and Day” lunges from one outlandish predicament to another like a hyperactive James Bond thriller. The audience will find itself in the same shoes that June—the ultimate innocent bystander without a clue—wears because both the good guys and the bad guys parcel out information piecemeal to make sure that it doesn’t interfere with the slam-bang stunts, reckless high speed car and motorcycle stunts, and the exploding SUVs that somersault through the air. Cruise musters his boyish “Risky Business” charisma and Diaz flaunts her terrific body. They are both sympathetic characters, and director James Mangold has the good sense to slap on layers of comedy to undercut some of the high body count shoot-outs. Nevertheless, “Knight and Day” seems too incoherent and second rate to top even Cruise’s worst “Mission Impossible” thriller—“Mission Impossible 3”—and the surprises aren’t very surprising in the long run.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
FILM REVIEW OF "FIEND OF DOPE ISLAND" (1961)
“Six-Gun Music” director Nate Watt’s mediocre drugsploitation melodrama “Fiend of Dope Island” (** out of ****) amounts to little more than a tawdry, lowbrow, B-movie thriller toplining ex-“Tarzan” thespian Bruce Bennett and former Miss Yugoslavia Tania Velia. Mind you, “Fiend of Dope Island” lives up to its bizarre title. The protagonist is the eponymous fiend, and he believes that he is invincible. One sympathetic character notes in regard to Charlie that “there is a thin line between human and beast.” At another one, the same character observes in reference to Charlie: “If this guy is human, nature made a terrible boo-boo.” Just as there is a beast in “Fiend of Dope Island,” there is also a beauty. Miss Yugoslavia looks very sexy shaking goodies on the dance floor, especially when she undulates in a cute little black outfit. Late in the last quarter-hour, she appears nude from the waist up briefly when she emerges from the water with her breasts bared. No, “Fiend of Dope Island” doesn’t qualify as a ‘so-bad-it’s-good’ movie because Watt helms it with some competence. Primarily, it constitutes a portrait of a lunatic who has jettisoned his sense of morality in an island climate where he lets his desires run rampant.
Basically, “Fiend” concerns a sleazy, sadistic landowner, Charlie Davis (Bruce Bennett of “Tarzan and the Green Goddess”), who has been ruling over an anonymous Caribbean island like an maniacal autocrat for five years. Charlie suffers from an acute anger management affliction. He relies on a bullwhip as his weapon of choice, and he loves to display his wizardry with its coils. If lashing harmless natives into submission with a bullwhip weren’t odious enough, Charlie grows not only marijuana, but he also participates in an arms smuggling racket. Predictably, Charlie is nobody’s friend, and the locals loathe his antics. As the film unfolds, he bullwhips a poor native without mercy. “Look,” he summarizes his philosophy, “nobody touches nothing on this island unless I say so. Everything here belongs to me. You got to understand that.” Charlie treats everybody like slaves. Charlie’s right hand man, David (Robert Bray of “A Gathering of Eagles”), supervises the laborers. Charlie tries to spice up his mundane existence by importing a dancer, Glory La Verne (Tania Velia of “Queen of Outer Space”), to perform for him. Glory took $500 from Charlie up front. No sooner has she arrived at the island than Glory finds fault with her surroundings. Moreover, she hates Charlie for luring her to the island under the false pretense that she would perform for a hundred of the most important individuals in America and Europe. Charlie tries to ameliorate Glory’s feelings by offering her cigarettes laced with marijuana, but she refuses to smoke them.
Eventually, David organizes the opposition against Charlie. First, he blows up an arms supply of mortars, machine guns, and rifles. Second, he disarms all of Charlie’s henchmen and turns the firearms over to the oppressed island natives. David and the natives keep Charlie holed up in his cantina. When he tries to venture outside, they shoot at him and drive him back inside the cantina. Later, their evil adversary strikes at David’s relief crew who were warned not to fall asleep. Charlie strangles one with a bullwhip and takes his rifle. Meanwhile, David explains to the doctor that Charlie is involved in something bigger than even he realizes. David elaborates that there are twenty other small islands like Charlie’s island where guns, ammunition, and explosives are being stockpiled. Remember, the Caribbean was a powder keg during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Consequently, scenarists Mark Carabel and Bruce Bennett appropriated the volatile attitude that surrounded the Caribbean with all the uprisings that occurred in that part of the world during the Cold War. Essentially, Charlie is a low-grade “Dr. No” type. Towards the end, Glory and David fall in love. A jealous Charlie sneaks up on in the jungle as they hold each other in their arms. He lashes out with his bullwhip, coils it around the defenseless couple, and forces them to dance while he discharges a high-powered rifle at their feet. By this point, Charlie has gone completely insane. David manages to remove the whip and the two men engage in close-quarters combat while Glory flees in terror.
Glory rushes back to the village and alerts them that Charlie is loose and trying to kill David. She sends out a native boy, Naru (Ralph A. Rodriguez of “Nightforce”), and he seizes Charlie’s whip when the villain has the hero in his clutches. Earlier, Naru was shown practicing with a fake whip. Now, Naru goes to work on Charlie with the whip, and Watt and editor James Gaffney cross-cut between Naru lashing Charlie to images of lightning crackling against the night skies and waves angrily crashing on the beach. This generates a modicum of suspense and terror. Our heroes subdue Charlie. When his accomplice, Captain Fred (Miguel Ángel Álvarez of “Counterplot”), arrives at the island the next day. Our heroes try to hand Charlie over to him. Captain Fred’s men brandish firearms, and David and Charlie fall into the water and tangle. Naru and others overpower disarm Captain Fred, but the latter escapes while Charlie and David thrash about in the water. Sharks cruise into the waters where they are fighting each other. The sharks look like they were lifted from a documentary, but these shots serve their purpose. David escapes their lethal jaws, but Charlie fares less fortunate in the end.
The biggest surprise in this gritty, 76-minute, black & white epic is the revelation in the last minute during an expository scene between two supporting characters that David holds the rank of Inspector with the Bureau of Narcotics. The performances are adequate, with former Warner Brothers’ contract player Bruce Bennett chewing the scenery a little when he isn’t doing his Lash La Rue imitation. Robert Bray is appropriately restrained as the taciturn hero. “Fiend of Dope Island” ends with Glory and David in each other’s arms on the beach as the natives sing the Ken Darby song "Forever Hold Me" that opened the picture.
Basically, “Fiend” concerns a sleazy, sadistic landowner, Charlie Davis (Bruce Bennett of “Tarzan and the Green Goddess”), who has been ruling over an anonymous Caribbean island like an maniacal autocrat for five years. Charlie suffers from an acute anger management affliction. He relies on a bullwhip as his weapon of choice, and he loves to display his wizardry with its coils. If lashing harmless natives into submission with a bullwhip weren’t odious enough, Charlie grows not only marijuana, but he also participates in an arms smuggling racket. Predictably, Charlie is nobody’s friend, and the locals loathe his antics. As the film unfolds, he bullwhips a poor native without mercy. “Look,” he summarizes his philosophy, “nobody touches nothing on this island unless I say so. Everything here belongs to me. You got to understand that.” Charlie treats everybody like slaves. Charlie’s right hand man, David (Robert Bray of “A Gathering of Eagles”), supervises the laborers. Charlie tries to spice up his mundane existence by importing a dancer, Glory La Verne (Tania Velia of “Queen of Outer Space”), to perform for him. Glory took $500 from Charlie up front. No sooner has she arrived at the island than Glory finds fault with her surroundings. Moreover, she hates Charlie for luring her to the island under the false pretense that she would perform for a hundred of the most important individuals in America and Europe. Charlie tries to ameliorate Glory’s feelings by offering her cigarettes laced with marijuana, but she refuses to smoke them.
Eventually, David organizes the opposition against Charlie. First, he blows up an arms supply of mortars, machine guns, and rifles. Second, he disarms all of Charlie’s henchmen and turns the firearms over to the oppressed island natives. David and the natives keep Charlie holed up in his cantina. When he tries to venture outside, they shoot at him and drive him back inside the cantina. Later, their evil adversary strikes at David’s relief crew who were warned not to fall asleep. Charlie strangles one with a bullwhip and takes his rifle. Meanwhile, David explains to the doctor that Charlie is involved in something bigger than even he realizes. David elaborates that there are twenty other small islands like Charlie’s island where guns, ammunition, and explosives are being stockpiled. Remember, the Caribbean was a powder keg during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Consequently, scenarists Mark Carabel and Bruce Bennett appropriated the volatile attitude that surrounded the Caribbean with all the uprisings that occurred in that part of the world during the Cold War. Essentially, Charlie is a low-grade “Dr. No” type. Towards the end, Glory and David fall in love. A jealous Charlie sneaks up on in the jungle as they hold each other in their arms. He lashes out with his bullwhip, coils it around the defenseless couple, and forces them to dance while he discharges a high-powered rifle at their feet. By this point, Charlie has gone completely insane. David manages to remove the whip and the two men engage in close-quarters combat while Glory flees in terror.
Glory rushes back to the village and alerts them that Charlie is loose and trying to kill David. She sends out a native boy, Naru (Ralph A. Rodriguez of “Nightforce”), and he seizes Charlie’s whip when the villain has the hero in his clutches. Earlier, Naru was shown practicing with a fake whip. Now, Naru goes to work on Charlie with the whip, and Watt and editor James Gaffney cross-cut between Naru lashing Charlie to images of lightning crackling against the night skies and waves angrily crashing on the beach. This generates a modicum of suspense and terror. Our heroes subdue Charlie. When his accomplice, Captain Fred (Miguel Ángel Álvarez of “Counterplot”), arrives at the island the next day. Our heroes try to hand Charlie over to him. Captain Fred’s men brandish firearms, and David and Charlie fall into the water and tangle. Naru and others overpower disarm Captain Fred, but the latter escapes while Charlie and David thrash about in the water. Sharks cruise into the waters where they are fighting each other. The sharks look like they were lifted from a documentary, but these shots serve their purpose. David escapes their lethal jaws, but Charlie fares less fortunate in the end.
The biggest surprise in this gritty, 76-minute, black & white epic is the revelation in the last minute during an expository scene between two supporting characters that David holds the rank of Inspector with the Bureau of Narcotics. The performances are adequate, with former Warner Brothers’ contract player Bruce Bennett chewing the scenery a little when he isn’t doing his Lash La Rue imitation. Robert Bray is appropriately restrained as the taciturn hero. “Fiend of Dope Island” ends with Glory and David in each other’s arms on the beach as the natives sing the Ken Darby song "Forever Hold Me" that opened the picture.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
FILM REVIEW OF "THE TEXANS" (1938)
Although "The Texans" (*** out of ****) beat Howard Hawks' "Red River" to the draw by at least a decade, "Arizona Raiders" director James P. Hogan's 92-minute, black & white saga about the first cattle drive to Abilene lacks both the cinematic polish and the passion of the Hawks' classic. Nevertheless, this above-average but predictable oater boasts a solid cast, sympathetic characters, several surprises, and some factual history. Reconstruction did take place in Texas and throughout the South, but historians differ on whether it constituted a scourge on the land. Traditionally, Reconstruction has been interpreted as merciless payback for the South. The bristling frontier action unfolds after the end of the American Civil War as Reconstruction becomes the order of the day in Texas, and the carpetbaggers haul their freight into the state to tax the poor citizens into poverty. Some of these scenes foreshadow the John Wayne & Rock Hudson western "The Undefeated" about Southerners heading to Mexico. The economic conditions are so dire that nobody has any money to buy anything, and the avaricious carpetbaggers are stripping citizens of the land because they have no money to pay taxes. Randolph Scott makes an appropriately stalwart hero who fears neither nobody nor nothing. He is a former Confederate private who has endured his trials and tribulations, while Joan Bennett is every inch the heroine but rather narrow-minded in her attitude. Not only did she support the Confederacy during the war, but she also is prepared to support any hopeless effort to resurrect the Confederacy with the use of foreign troops under the command of the Mexican emperor Maximilian. Bennett has fallen in love with an idealist Confederate captain who epitomizes the South's refusal to grovel in any set of circumstances. Moreover, our heroine wants nothing to do with the scheming carpetbaggers. Indeed, she wants nothing to do with America and prefers to throw all her support to the Austrian monarch. Scott detests this crazy scheme. According to our heroine, the French and Austrian troops along with Joe Shelby's Southern cavalry will join forces. "We'll fight for him (Maximilian), and he'll fight for us. He'll cross the Rio Grande, and the whole South will rally around him."
Meanwhile, Texans suffer grievously under Reconstruction. The Scott character is the only individual who isn't reluctant to forget about the war and embark on a new life. At one point, the Scott hero states that he knew some good Yankees during the war and has decided to let bygones be bygones. The theme of change and how these former Confederates struggle to change with the times lies at the heart of action. When they aren't herding cattle, contending with carpetbaggers, and battling Comanche Indians, Scott and Bennett are battling with each other. As a carpetbagger who isn't easily dispensed with until he meets his match, Robert Barrat plays greedy Isaiah Middlebrack. He pursues the Confederates when they smuggles guns into the region and later goes after them with a troop of U.S. Cavalry when they try to take ten-thousand cattle to Mexico. "Ebb Tide" scenarists Bertram Millhauser, "Geronimo" scribe Paul Sloane, and "Black Legion" writer William Wiser Haines adapted author Emerson Hough's novel "North of '36." Mind you, these characters are every bit as desperate as John Wayne and company were in "Red River," but Scott doesn't have somebody like Montgomery Cliff to contend with and a secondary character dispatches the chief villain before Scott can finish him.
"The Texans" opens at a river landing in Indianola, Texas, in 1865, where paddler wheelers are unloading cargo and supplies. The defeated Confederate soldiers are informed that they are still classified as the enemy until they shed their southern uniforms. In fact, the Union authorities refuse to let the men in gray pass the toll gate until they change clothing. Meanwhile, Ivy Preston (Joan Bennett of "The Woman in the Window") is driving a wagon laden with boxes of farm implements when a Union sergeant halts her so he can inspect her cargo. Kirk Jordan (Randolph Scott of "The Last of the Mohicans") spots the cargo and knows that the boxes contain weapons instead of tools. He helps Ivy get out of town before the Union authorities can poke around in those boxes. While Ivy delivers the weapons to Confederate Captain Alan Sanford (Robert Cummings of "Saboteur"), Kirk has to fork over ten acres of land to buy an ill-fitting suit of clothes. Ivy returns to Indianola to pick up her grandmother, Granna (May Robson of "Bringing Up Baby"), and Granna's ranch foreman Chuckawalla (Walter Brennan of "Red River"), so they can all return to their sprawling ranch Boca Grande on the border.
Everybody else seems pretty tame until these two show up, and Robson and Brennan steal the show. Brennan's character is intrigued with locomotives because he has never seen a train and wonders where they put the engines after dark. Granna is a headstrong woman with pioneering blood who refuses to buckle under any adversary. The two characters provide most of the comic relief in "The Texans," but the comedy doesn't overwhelm the drama. Kirk has to save Ivy's bacon again when the Union authorities, principally Middlebrack (Robert Barrat of "Baby Face"), arrests her and questions her not only about the stolen firearms but also a renegade Confederate officer Sanford. Granna has no use for Middlebrack. "There wouldn't be no enemy if there were scum of the earth like you. You with your plundering, murderous reconstruction." A riot enables our hero and heroine to escape from Indianola, and they ride back to Ivy's Boca Grande Ranch. The Preston women own ten-thousand cattle, and Ivy wants to drive the herd to Mexico to feed Southern troops working with Maximilian. Things, however, don't work out for Sanford. He eludes death in Mexico only to find himself back in Texas where the authorities want him for treason. Ivy upsets Kirk to no end when she announces that Sanford and she are engaged to be married.
The scheming Middlebrack decides to let bygones be bygones with regard to the stolen rifles. Nevertheless, he saddles up with a detachment of Union cavalry and rides out to Boca Grande. He informs the Prestons about the new head tax on cattle at a dollar per steer. While they are plying Middlebrack with liquor and food, Ivy strums a guitar and sings a coded song to Granna about taking the cattle away. Middlebrack plans to count the steers the following morning, but Granna drinks him under the table, and Kirk leads the herd out. Initially, Ivy still wants to head the herd south for Mexico, but Kirk persuades her to turn north to Abilene. "The North's been short of beef ever since the war. They'll pay $15 to $20 a head for steers," he tells Chuckawalla and Granna. Kirk adds that this new market for cattle will mean a brighter future for Texas. Reluctantly, Ivy gives in to Kirk. Middlebrack wastes no time when he recovers and chases them. The Union officer with Middlebrack, Lt. David Nichols (Harvey Stephens of "Baby Face Harrington") doesn't like the way that the civilian official is treating the former Confederates. Ironically enough, Nichols and his cavalry ride to the rescue when the Comanches try to destroy the Southerners and steal their cattle. The irony here is interesting. Our heroes and heroine are saved but at the cost of being disarms and put under arrest. Middlebrack dies during an Indian attack when Kirk's cohort, Cal Tuttle (Raymond Hatton of "Undersea Kingdom"), kills him with his tomahawk. Of course, we don't see Middlebrack bit the dust. Not only does this diminish the statue of his villain, but also it undercuts "The Texans." Ironically, when our heroes arrive in Abilene, they find the citizens wearing long faces because the Kansas Pacific Railroad plans to halt construction of the railroad. Cane-toting Kansas Pacific Railroad President Jessup (William B. Davidson of "Each Dawn I Die")announces,"This country of Kansas remains unsettled and unproductive. We find it no longer possible to feed the army of workmen necessary to extend our lines across the plains and over the mountains to California." Interestingly, among the crowd of on-lookers is a wagon filled with well-dressed ladies. The lady who drives the wagon tells the women that they will have to return to St. Louis. It is amazing that the Production Code Administration allowed the filmmakers to keep this scene when it is entirely obvious that these girls are prostitutes. Kirk turns a crisis into a celebration when he offers to sell ten-thousand cattle. Of course, Kirk wants to make Ivy his wife, but Sanford hasn't given up on retaliating against the Yankees. Nevertheless, Ivy has had enough of his pipe dreams to last her a life-time. He struggles to convince her that the new organization that he has joined with help drive the Yankees out of Texas. The organization is the KKK and they plan to make midnight rides in hooded robes to run out the Northerners. Ivy thinks that this mob justice is not fitting for the South.
Altogether, "The Texans" is a good little western.
Meanwhile, Texans suffer grievously under Reconstruction. The Scott character is the only individual who isn't reluctant to forget about the war and embark on a new life. At one point, the Scott hero states that he knew some good Yankees during the war and has decided to let bygones be bygones. The theme of change and how these former Confederates struggle to change with the times lies at the heart of action. When they aren't herding cattle, contending with carpetbaggers, and battling Comanche Indians, Scott and Bennett are battling with each other. As a carpetbagger who isn't easily dispensed with until he meets his match, Robert Barrat plays greedy Isaiah Middlebrack. He pursues the Confederates when they smuggles guns into the region and later goes after them with a troop of U.S. Cavalry when they try to take ten-thousand cattle to Mexico. "Ebb Tide" scenarists Bertram Millhauser, "Geronimo" scribe Paul Sloane, and "Black Legion" writer William Wiser Haines adapted author Emerson Hough's novel "North of '36." Mind you, these characters are every bit as desperate as John Wayne and company were in "Red River," but Scott doesn't have somebody like Montgomery Cliff to contend with and a secondary character dispatches the chief villain before Scott can finish him.
"The Texans" opens at a river landing in Indianola, Texas, in 1865, where paddler wheelers are unloading cargo and supplies. The defeated Confederate soldiers are informed that they are still classified as the enemy until they shed their southern uniforms. In fact, the Union authorities refuse to let the men in gray pass the toll gate until they change clothing. Meanwhile, Ivy Preston (Joan Bennett of "The Woman in the Window") is driving a wagon laden with boxes of farm implements when a Union sergeant halts her so he can inspect her cargo. Kirk Jordan (Randolph Scott of "The Last of the Mohicans") spots the cargo and knows that the boxes contain weapons instead of tools. He helps Ivy get out of town before the Union authorities can poke around in those boxes. While Ivy delivers the weapons to Confederate Captain Alan Sanford (Robert Cummings of "Saboteur"), Kirk has to fork over ten acres of land to buy an ill-fitting suit of clothes. Ivy returns to Indianola to pick up her grandmother, Granna (May Robson of "Bringing Up Baby"), and Granna's ranch foreman Chuckawalla (Walter Brennan of "Red River"), so they can all return to their sprawling ranch Boca Grande on the border.
Everybody else seems pretty tame until these two show up, and Robson and Brennan steal the show. Brennan's character is intrigued with locomotives because he has never seen a train and wonders where they put the engines after dark. Granna is a headstrong woman with pioneering blood who refuses to buckle under any adversary. The two characters provide most of the comic relief in "The Texans," but the comedy doesn't overwhelm the drama. Kirk has to save Ivy's bacon again when the Union authorities, principally Middlebrack (Robert Barrat of "Baby Face"), arrests her and questions her not only about the stolen firearms but also a renegade Confederate officer Sanford. Granna has no use for Middlebrack. "There wouldn't be no enemy if there were scum of the earth like you. You with your plundering, murderous reconstruction." A riot enables our hero and heroine to escape from Indianola, and they ride back to Ivy's Boca Grande Ranch. The Preston women own ten-thousand cattle, and Ivy wants to drive the herd to Mexico to feed Southern troops working with Maximilian. Things, however, don't work out for Sanford. He eludes death in Mexico only to find himself back in Texas where the authorities want him for treason. Ivy upsets Kirk to no end when she announces that Sanford and she are engaged to be married.
The scheming Middlebrack decides to let bygones be bygones with regard to the stolen rifles. Nevertheless, he saddles up with a detachment of Union cavalry and rides out to Boca Grande. He informs the Prestons about the new head tax on cattle at a dollar per steer. While they are plying Middlebrack with liquor and food, Ivy strums a guitar and sings a coded song to Granna about taking the cattle away. Middlebrack plans to count the steers the following morning, but Granna drinks him under the table, and Kirk leads the herd out. Initially, Ivy still wants to head the herd south for Mexico, but Kirk persuades her to turn north to Abilene. "The North's been short of beef ever since the war. They'll pay $15 to $20 a head for steers," he tells Chuckawalla and Granna. Kirk adds that this new market for cattle will mean a brighter future for Texas. Reluctantly, Ivy gives in to Kirk. Middlebrack wastes no time when he recovers and chases them. The Union officer with Middlebrack, Lt. David Nichols (Harvey Stephens of "Baby Face Harrington") doesn't like the way that the civilian official is treating the former Confederates. Ironically enough, Nichols and his cavalry ride to the rescue when the Comanches try to destroy the Southerners and steal their cattle. The irony here is interesting. Our heroes and heroine are saved but at the cost of being disarms and put under arrest. Middlebrack dies during an Indian attack when Kirk's cohort, Cal Tuttle (Raymond Hatton of "Undersea Kingdom"), kills him with his tomahawk. Of course, we don't see Middlebrack bit the dust. Not only does this diminish the statue of his villain, but also it undercuts "The Texans." Ironically, when our heroes arrive in Abilene, they find the citizens wearing long faces because the Kansas Pacific Railroad plans to halt construction of the railroad. Cane-toting Kansas Pacific Railroad President Jessup (William B. Davidson of "Each Dawn I Die")announces,"This country of Kansas remains unsettled and unproductive. We find it no longer possible to feed the army of workmen necessary to extend our lines across the plains and over the mountains to California." Interestingly, among the crowd of on-lookers is a wagon filled with well-dressed ladies. The lady who drives the wagon tells the women that they will have to return to St. Louis. It is amazing that the Production Code Administration allowed the filmmakers to keep this scene when it is entirely obvious that these girls are prostitutes. Kirk turns a crisis into a celebration when he offers to sell ten-thousand cattle. Of course, Kirk wants to make Ivy his wife, but Sanford hasn't given up on retaliating against the Yankees. Nevertheless, Ivy has had enough of his pipe dreams to last her a life-time. He struggles to convince her that the new organization that he has joined with help drive the Yankees out of Texas. The organization is the KKK and they plan to make midnight rides in hooded robes to run out the Northerners. Ivy thinks that this mob justice is not fitting for the South.
Altogether, "The Texans" is a good little western.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
FILM REVIEW OF "SCARFACE" (1983)
Brian De Palma's contribution to modern crime movies, "Scarface" (**** out of ****), amounts to a splendid but extended remake of the 1932, black & white, Howard Hawks classic that starred Paul Muni and George Raft. In this lavish remake, Al Pacino of "The Godfather" trilogy plays the eponymous criminal as a Cuban refugee. He entered America by sea when Castro emptied his jails and asylums in May 1980 as part of the infamous Mariel boatlift. Some 125-thousand refugees fled Cuba, and about 25-thousand had criminal records. This extremely profane but engrossing drama depicts how the protagonist made it to the zenith of the crime world. When Universal Pictures produced this movie in 1983, they had no idea about either the controversy that would erupt during the south Florida lensing or the ultimate cult status that this corrosive, anti-narcotics, tragedy would generate, particularly with African-Americans. Eventually, the film aroused so much ill feeling that Universal had to complete the shooting in California. De Palma and scenarist Oliver Stone took one of the three greatest crime movies of the early 20th century and changed it more than either Hawks or his own scenarist Ben Hecht might have imagined. The original "Scarface" clocked in at a lean 94 minutes, while the "Scarface" remake stretches out to an indulgent 170 minutes. Nevertheless, DePalma and Stone have exploited a historical event to make their gangsters reminiscent of the immigrant gangsters during the era of the first "Scarface" movie. Indeed, at one point, Tony Montana explains to customs officials that he learned English because his American father took him to see Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney movies. He tells them that he worked in construction in Cuba, but they don't believe him and the pitchfork tattoo on Tony's hand makes him suspicious of him. They think that the tattoo is an assassin's tattoo. Considering that the film runs just shy of three hours, the filmmakers do a good job of balancing the violent empire building scenes with Tony's domestic life with his mother, sister, and later his wife. "Midnight Express" composer Giorgio Moroder's disco soundtrack ranks as one of the classics. Moroder does a superb job with the night club scenes and his moody music in the dramatic scenes is just as good. Lenser John A. Alonzo's widescreen color photography is elegant and his cameras have a way of roaming through a scene, especially before the shoot-out in the Babylon Club. DePalma likes to cross cut between different scenes, such as at the Babylon Club where Tony is about to be shot at to the interior of the car with his young sister Gina and his partner Manny as they drive away and discuss her brother. The best filmmakers cross-cut between scenes so as to break up the action, relieve boredom and deliver the plot piecemeal with the fewest complications.
Our underdog protagonist rises from the streets literally after he performs a murder at Freedomtown. Immigration officials have confined all the Cuban refugees, including Tony and his compadres, to a fenced in enclosure under a Florida freeway. Manny finds a way of out Freedomtown. Our protagonist kills a former confidante of Castro, Emilio Rebenga (Roberto Contreras of "Black Samurai"), for Miami drug dealer Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia of "Prizzi's Honor") because Rebenga tortured his brother in a Cuba prison. Tony and his compadres orchestrate the murder as a part of a riot on August 11, 1980, and they stalk Rebenga chanting the word "Libertad!" As a result of this murder, Lopez provides Tony Montana and his closest pal Manny (Steven Bauer of "Raising Cain") as well as some others with green cards. They start out as lowly dishwashers at a food stand called the El Paraiso. Nevertheless, it doesn't take them long to put on their suits and ties and then they never look back. Indeed, Lopez henchman Omar Suarez (F. Murray Abraham of "Amadeus") offers Tony and Manny $500 to unload a marijuana boat. Tony thinks the deal stinks because he has heard that the going price for unloading a boat was $1000. Omar winds up offering them a bigger paycheck. If they can pick up two keys of cocaine from a gang of Colombians arriving in Miami on Friday, Tony and Manny stand to earn $5000. Tony and Manny along with a couple of their Cuban buddies cruise over to the Sun Ray Motel and life is never the same after Tony enters the room. Everything looks okay. A man and a woman occupy the room and the movie "Earthquake" (1974) is playing on the television. The Colombian chieftain, Hector (Al Israel of "The Soldier"), tries to play a cat and mouse game with Tony. Things change drastically when Hector demands to know the whereabouts of Tony's money. Actually, Tony stashed the dough in the trunk of their convertible outside on the street with Manny and company. The Colombians seize Tony's back-up man Angel Fernandez (Pepe Serna of "American Me")at the door when Manny isn't watching, and Hector cuts him up with the chainsaw. Eventually, Manny shoots his way into the motel room with a machine gun in his fists blasting away at everybody in sight. He takes out the woman Marta (one-time only actress Barbra Perez), stitching her across the chest with flying lead. During the shoot-out, one of the Colombians that Manny thought that he had killed shoots him in the right side. The evil Hector who wielded the chainsaw flees in terror, but Tony chases him down in the middle of the street. In front of everybody, Tony perforates Hector's forehead with a bullet. Not only does Tony bring Lopez the coke but also the money.
Lopez takes an immediate liking to Tony. "Hey, I need a guy with steel in his balls. A guy like you. And I need him around me all the time," Lopez says. Meanwhile, Tony sets his sights on Lopez's slinky but gorgeous squeeze, Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer of "The Hollywood Knights"), but she seems more intent on snorting cocaine. Incidentally, Tony learns her last name on the dance floor and that she hails from Baltimore, Maryland. Anyway, Lopez assures Tony that if he flies straight with him that he will enjoy a long, happy life. He tells him that the biggest problem that Tony will face is what to do with all the stinking money. Lopez's words ring true but at a grim price.
Lopez sends Omar and Tony to Cochoabamba, Bolivia, to talk with a major druglord Alejandro Sosa (Paul Shenar of "The End of August") about cocaine. During their negotiations, Sosa smells a rat and has Omar taken up in a helicopter and thrown out with a noose around his throat. According to Sosa, Omar had served as a police informant several years ago and his information about Vito Duval and the Ramos Brothers--Nello and Gino--netted them both life sentences. Tony watches as Omar wiggles at the end of the rope. Predictably, Lopez is furious when Tony comes back with Omar and has a deal of a lifetime for Lopez that the crime kingpin cannot afford to buy. Tony assures Lopez that he can make up any difference in the lack of money by going out and hitting the streets. When Lopez argues that the Diaz brothers won't take kindly to Tony's ambitious movie, Tony erupts in a rage at Lopez. He is prepared to kill anybody that gets in his way. "Remember I told youwhen you started, the guys who last in this business are the guys who fly straight, low-key, quiet," Lopez reminds Tony. "And the guys who who want it all--chicas, champagne, flash--they don't last." Lopez is all but telegraphing his next move.
Meantime, Tony makes two new discoveries that heighten the tension in his life. He enters the Bablyon Club and spots his younger sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio of "The Perfect Storm")dancing with a thug. Tony goes ballistic with controlled rage and Moroder's music reflects this attitude change on the soundtrack. No sooner has Tony seen this than he finds himself talking to a cop. The cop mentions the Rebenga killing and the slaughter at the Sun Ray Motel to get Tony's attention. Corrupt detective MeL Bernstein (Harris Yulin of "Doc")informs Tony that Thony is no longer a small-time punk. "You're public property now. Supreme Court says your privacy can be invaded." Mel makes Tony a steep monthly offer. The offer includes the cops letting Tony know who is moving against him and shaking down anybody that Tony wants shaken done." Not-surprisingly, Lopez puts a contract out on Tony and two killers try to mow him down at the Babylon Club. Tony and his men kill both Lopez and Tony takes Elvira as his wife. He buys an estate, sets up a real estate business, and lives large, installing a 24-hour security monitoring system at his home. Ironically, Tony's affection for children bring him down along with his ferocious coke habit. When the cartel finds itself in the spotlight because of an anti-narcotic activist, Sosa appeals to Tony to help them. Tony is facing a stretch in prison, but Sosa assures him that he will come out clean if he helps his non-English speaking killer, Alberto (Mark Margolis of "Eddie Macon's Run"), murder the activist with a car bomb. Tony betrays Sosa and kills Alberto when the man tries to blow up the activist's car with the man's wife and two children. As tough as Tony is, he lacks the stomach to kill innocent bystanders, perhaps his only redeeming factor and what sets him apart from his criminal conspirators. Predictably, Sosa strikes back with a gang of gunmen who descend on Tony's estate, slashing, gashing, shooting, and killing without a qualm. They hit Tony's place like Indians on a night raid. Ironically, none of the surveillance cameras are useful for our protagonist, though they keep up posted on where the villains are.
Tony has other problems by now. He cannot find Manny and his mother, Mama Montana (Miriam Colon of "One-Eyed Jacks"), has been calling ever since Tony left for New York City about Gina. Gina has vanished but Mama Montana knows where she is; she followed Gina to a palatial estate at 409 Citrus Drive. If Tony were not keyed up enough after the debacle in the Big Apple with Alberto, his brotherly rage asserts itself and he heads to the estate. Manny appears at the door and Gina looks down at her new husband and her brother from a balcony, but it is too late. Tony's rage explodes and he shoots Manny twice before he learns from Gina that they have been married and wanted to surprise Tony. Talk about a surprise that shatters somebody's life, Tony realizes what he has done and his staggered by killing his oldest friend. When his bodyguards drive Gina and he back to the house, Tony looks terrible.
The themes of trust, greed, betrayal and cocaine abuse permeate Oliver Stone's elaborate screenplay and he has written some memorable lines of dialogue. "Nothing exceeds like excess," Elvira observes as she snorts some coke. Stone, who later became a notable film director himself with "Platoon" and "JFK," wrote "Scarface" after he wrote "Conan the Barbarian" for director John Milius and before he wrote "Year of the Dragon" for director Michael Cimino. If you watch "Scarface" enough, you'll notice that the film contains a wealth of irony. The scene at Lopez Motors when Lopez begs Tony not to kill him is a perfect example. Tony doesn't kill Lopez, he has Manny knock him off. The film is not without its moments of humor--few and far between--as when Manny tries his tongue action on a bikini-clad Caucasian female. At one point, Tony puts on a woman's hat to make Elvira laugh at him. The performances are all excellent, especially Loggia. De Palma and Stone carefully groom their protagonist Tony Montana who seems like an okay but abrasive guy until he shows a genuinely nasty side of his personality that involves being a little more than protective of his younger sister Gina. Tony doesn't want anybody to lay a hand on his sister. Squeamish people should probably avoid this trigger-happy, shoot'em up saga, especially the rather gruesome chainsaw scene in the bathroom of a motel with the Colombian drug smugglers.The finale at the Scarface residence is terrific!
Our underdog protagonist rises from the streets literally after he performs a murder at Freedomtown. Immigration officials have confined all the Cuban refugees, including Tony and his compadres, to a fenced in enclosure under a Florida freeway. Manny finds a way of out Freedomtown. Our protagonist kills a former confidante of Castro, Emilio Rebenga (Roberto Contreras of "Black Samurai"), for Miami drug dealer Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia of "Prizzi's Honor") because Rebenga tortured his brother in a Cuba prison. Tony and his compadres orchestrate the murder as a part of a riot on August 11, 1980, and they stalk Rebenga chanting the word "Libertad!" As a result of this murder, Lopez provides Tony Montana and his closest pal Manny (Steven Bauer of "Raising Cain") as well as some others with green cards. They start out as lowly dishwashers at a food stand called the El Paraiso. Nevertheless, it doesn't take them long to put on their suits and ties and then they never look back. Indeed, Lopez henchman Omar Suarez (F. Murray Abraham of "Amadeus") offers Tony and Manny $500 to unload a marijuana boat. Tony thinks the deal stinks because he has heard that the going price for unloading a boat was $1000. Omar winds up offering them a bigger paycheck. If they can pick up two keys of cocaine from a gang of Colombians arriving in Miami on Friday, Tony and Manny stand to earn $5000. Tony and Manny along with a couple of their Cuban buddies cruise over to the Sun Ray Motel and life is never the same after Tony enters the room. Everything looks okay. A man and a woman occupy the room and the movie "Earthquake" (1974) is playing on the television. The Colombian chieftain, Hector (Al Israel of "The Soldier"), tries to play a cat and mouse game with Tony. Things change drastically when Hector demands to know the whereabouts of Tony's money. Actually, Tony stashed the dough in the trunk of their convertible outside on the street with Manny and company. The Colombians seize Tony's back-up man Angel Fernandez (Pepe Serna of "American Me")at the door when Manny isn't watching, and Hector cuts him up with the chainsaw. Eventually, Manny shoots his way into the motel room with a machine gun in his fists blasting away at everybody in sight. He takes out the woman Marta (one-time only actress Barbra Perez), stitching her across the chest with flying lead. During the shoot-out, one of the Colombians that Manny thought that he had killed shoots him in the right side. The evil Hector who wielded the chainsaw flees in terror, but Tony chases him down in the middle of the street. In front of everybody, Tony perforates Hector's forehead with a bullet. Not only does Tony bring Lopez the coke but also the money.
Lopez takes an immediate liking to Tony. "Hey, I need a guy with steel in his balls. A guy like you. And I need him around me all the time," Lopez says. Meanwhile, Tony sets his sights on Lopez's slinky but gorgeous squeeze, Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer of "The Hollywood Knights"), but she seems more intent on snorting cocaine. Incidentally, Tony learns her last name on the dance floor and that she hails from Baltimore, Maryland. Anyway, Lopez assures Tony that if he flies straight with him that he will enjoy a long, happy life. He tells him that the biggest problem that Tony will face is what to do with all the stinking money. Lopez's words ring true but at a grim price.
Lopez sends Omar and Tony to Cochoabamba, Bolivia, to talk with a major druglord Alejandro Sosa (Paul Shenar of "The End of August") about cocaine. During their negotiations, Sosa smells a rat and has Omar taken up in a helicopter and thrown out with a noose around his throat. According to Sosa, Omar had served as a police informant several years ago and his information about Vito Duval and the Ramos Brothers--Nello and Gino--netted them both life sentences. Tony watches as Omar wiggles at the end of the rope. Predictably, Lopez is furious when Tony comes back with Omar and has a deal of a lifetime for Lopez that the crime kingpin cannot afford to buy. Tony assures Lopez that he can make up any difference in the lack of money by going out and hitting the streets. When Lopez argues that the Diaz brothers won't take kindly to Tony's ambitious movie, Tony erupts in a rage at Lopez. He is prepared to kill anybody that gets in his way. "Remember I told youwhen you started, the guys who last in this business are the guys who fly straight, low-key, quiet," Lopez reminds Tony. "And the guys who who want it all--chicas, champagne, flash--they don't last." Lopez is all but telegraphing his next move.
Meantime, Tony makes two new discoveries that heighten the tension in his life. He enters the Bablyon Club and spots his younger sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio of "The Perfect Storm")dancing with a thug. Tony goes ballistic with controlled rage and Moroder's music reflects this attitude change on the soundtrack. No sooner has Tony seen this than he finds himself talking to a cop. The cop mentions the Rebenga killing and the slaughter at the Sun Ray Motel to get Tony's attention. Corrupt detective MeL Bernstein (Harris Yulin of "Doc")informs Tony that Thony is no longer a small-time punk. "You're public property now. Supreme Court says your privacy can be invaded." Mel makes Tony a steep monthly offer. The offer includes the cops letting Tony know who is moving against him and shaking down anybody that Tony wants shaken done." Not-surprisingly, Lopez puts a contract out on Tony and two killers try to mow him down at the Babylon Club. Tony and his men kill both Lopez and Tony takes Elvira as his wife. He buys an estate, sets up a real estate business, and lives large, installing a 24-hour security monitoring system at his home. Ironically, Tony's affection for children bring him down along with his ferocious coke habit. When the cartel finds itself in the spotlight because of an anti-narcotic activist, Sosa appeals to Tony to help them. Tony is facing a stretch in prison, but Sosa assures him that he will come out clean if he helps his non-English speaking killer, Alberto (Mark Margolis of "Eddie Macon's Run"), murder the activist with a car bomb. Tony betrays Sosa and kills Alberto when the man tries to blow up the activist's car with the man's wife and two children. As tough as Tony is, he lacks the stomach to kill innocent bystanders, perhaps his only redeeming factor and what sets him apart from his criminal conspirators. Predictably, Sosa strikes back with a gang of gunmen who descend on Tony's estate, slashing, gashing, shooting, and killing without a qualm. They hit Tony's place like Indians on a night raid. Ironically, none of the surveillance cameras are useful for our protagonist, though they keep up posted on where the villains are.
Tony has other problems by now. He cannot find Manny and his mother, Mama Montana (Miriam Colon of "One-Eyed Jacks"), has been calling ever since Tony left for New York City about Gina. Gina has vanished but Mama Montana knows where she is; she followed Gina to a palatial estate at 409 Citrus Drive. If Tony were not keyed up enough after the debacle in the Big Apple with Alberto, his brotherly rage asserts itself and he heads to the estate. Manny appears at the door and Gina looks down at her new husband and her brother from a balcony, but it is too late. Tony's rage explodes and he shoots Manny twice before he learns from Gina that they have been married and wanted to surprise Tony. Talk about a surprise that shatters somebody's life, Tony realizes what he has done and his staggered by killing his oldest friend. When his bodyguards drive Gina and he back to the house, Tony looks terrible.
The themes of trust, greed, betrayal and cocaine abuse permeate Oliver Stone's elaborate screenplay and he has written some memorable lines of dialogue. "Nothing exceeds like excess," Elvira observes as she snorts some coke. Stone, who later became a notable film director himself with "Platoon" and "JFK," wrote "Scarface" after he wrote "Conan the Barbarian" for director John Milius and before he wrote "Year of the Dragon" for director Michael Cimino. If you watch "Scarface" enough, you'll notice that the film contains a wealth of irony. The scene at Lopez Motors when Lopez begs Tony not to kill him is a perfect example. Tony doesn't kill Lopez, he has Manny knock him off. The film is not without its moments of humor--few and far between--as when Manny tries his tongue action on a bikini-clad Caucasian female. At one point, Tony puts on a woman's hat to make Elvira laugh at him. The performances are all excellent, especially Loggia. De Palma and Stone carefully groom their protagonist Tony Montana who seems like an okay but abrasive guy until he shows a genuinely nasty side of his personality that involves being a little more than protective of his younger sister Gina. Tony doesn't want anybody to lay a hand on his sister. Squeamish people should probably avoid this trigger-happy, shoot'em up saga, especially the rather gruesome chainsaw scene in the bathroom of a motel with the Colombian drug smugglers.The finale at the Scarface residence is terrific!
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