FILM REVIEW OF ''THE HOUR OF 13" (1952)

Although "The Hour of 13" (**1/2 out of ****)doesn't top its predecessor, this polished but minor MGM item still qualifies as an entertaining, above-average, mystery thriller with a good cast, atmospheric studio settings, and competent direction. Arguably, "The Hour of 13" ranks as one of Peter Lawford's better starring roles in his extremely uneven and spotty career as a leading man.

Released in 1952, during the notorious McCarthy era, this Harold ("Rob Roy, The Highland Rogue") French directed film looks as if it were subjected to harsher censorship than its 1934 original. Nevertheless, scenarists Howard Emit Rodgers & Leon Gordon integrate the approved social propaganda seamlessly into their screenplay about what happens when a vindictive serial killer who ices British Bobbies on the beat in cold blood crosses paths with a handsome gentlemen jewel thief in London sometime during the 1890s. The Terror, the name by which the killer is known, murders a policeman near a house where a dinner party is in progress. As it turns out, the Lawford character has just filched a valuable jewel from around a lady's neck and is in the process of making good his escape when he stumbles onto the dead bobby. Mistakenly, the police suspect that the serial killer and the jewel thief are one in the same. As Connor, a high-ranking Scotland Yard inspector, actor Roland ("Thunderball") Culver makes a tenacious adversary. When Lawford comes forward to testify that the British officer that the police have arrested could not have been the murderer, Connor suspects that the Lawford character may be the killer himself in this cat & mouse Victorian mystery-thriller. The Rodgers and Gordon dialogue is very British and wonder to listen to.

Between 1935 and 1968, the Catholic Church forced Hollywood filmmakers to alter their movies to accommodate the Legion of Decency or weather a boycott. This pressure advocacy group demanded that Hollywood show the police in a positive light and that criminals must be punished for their crimes. "The Hour of 13" does a splendid job of observing the Production Code while allowing us to sympathize with Peter Lawford's urbane jewel thief Nicholas Revel. No, I won't divulge the surprise ending, since it needs to be experienced first-hand to be enjoyed, but "The Hour of 13" should leave you satisfied. Incredibly, the police are smart for a change, though they make an occasional mistake (check out the 'switch the liquor glass' scene), and the Peter Lawford anti-hero (he does steal for a living) often finds himself in several suspenseful tight spots. When he isn't tangling with the serial killer, he is dodging the nimble-witted Connor and a number of undercover London policemen assigned to shadow his every move. Dawn Addams provides the romantic interest as the daughter of a London cop who is engaged to marry an Army officer. Initially, Scotland Yard suspected the Army officer because he was found with the dead policeman's helmet in his hands. It is interesting that the Lawford character has no love interest and that the Dawn Addams character remains devoted to her husband-to-be. Of course, when the suitor discovers that Revel and his intended have dined together often he is disturbed. The revelation of the serial killer's motives is a nice touch. The Connors character poses more of a threat to Revel than the serial killer.

Anybody who has perused any books about Frank Sinatra and the infamous Rat Pack, of which Lawford was a member until Frankie gave him the boot) or books about MGM stars will really enjoy "The Hour of 13." According to books like The Rat Pack and The Men of M-G-M, Lawford severely damaged his right arm during his youth. Reportedly, he smashed it through a French door and did more damage to it when he extracted it. Consequently, his right arm remained virtually useless, except for minor things such as shaking hands, opening & shutting doors, and holding books. He relied visibly on her left hand and often anchored his right in his pants pocket. Armed with that knowledge, you'll be able to fully savor Lawford's performance. In the long shots, in a scene set in a darkly-lit warehouse, our heroic jewel thief fights with the villain and uses his right arm. Clearly, this was a double, because Lawford could not have done this on-screen fracas because of his physical impairment. If you like inside production information, background stuff like this will elevate your appreciation of all things Lawford.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE STRANGER'' (1946)

A patient, pipe-smoking Edward G. Robinson pursues an elusive Nazi war criminal Orson Welles in his third movie set after World War II. This tightly-knit, black and white, film noir thriller co-starring Loretta Young, Richard Long, and Billy House as Mr. Potter. The technical credits are beyond reproach, especially Russell Metty’s first-rate cinematography, Ernest Nims’ evocative editing, and top-flight performances by a uniformly superb cast. No, “The Stranger” (*** out of ****) isn’t as tour-de-force as “Touch of Evil,” but “The Stranger” ranks as one of Welles’ more palatable melodramas with intrigue and atmosphere galore. Anybody that enjoys a gripping cat and mouse nail-biter should find themselves wrapped up in this edgy yarn. It helps considerably that the hero is a rather ordinary fellow blessed with superior intuition that a cunning, cold-blooded villain challenges right up to his comeuppance. Robinson’s mousy detective, Orson Welles’ cornered Nazi war fugitive, and Loretta Young’s deceived wife who stands poised between them make this movie worth watching several times.

According to the Internet Movie Database, “The Stranger” represented the first Hollywood movie to show the infamous Nazi concentration camps. Furthermore, “The Stranger” remains Welles’ only film to make a profit, and the lean, mean, no-nonsense pacing underlines the brilliant simplicity of this film. Welles appears at his least pretentious, creating not only solid, three-dimensional characters with his hero, heroine, and villain, but also conjuring up the conservative mind-set in an entire community in a remote corner of Connecticut, far removed from the outside world. You feel like you’re watching a white-knuckled thriller in the setting of “It’s A Wonderful Life.” Ironically, for all its virtues, Welles had little complimentary to say about “The Stranger.” Many sources quote him as saying the “The Stranger” qualifies as “the worst of my films. There is nothing of me in that picture. I did it to prove I could put out a movie as well as anyone else." This alone distinguishes Welles and makes “The Stranger” loom even larger in his oeuvre. Clearly, “The Stranger” isn’t something that you can easily dismiss, even when most copies are public domain prints.

A tireless government investigator, Mr. Wilson (Edward G. Robinson of “Little Caesar”), with the Allied War Crimes Commission, Department 12 finds himself at the end of his tether. Wilson has been hot on the trail of a notorious Nazi officer, Franz Kindler, who--in Wilson’s words--evinced “the most brilliant of the Nazi minds” and conceived the theory of genocide, mass depopulation of conquered countries so that regardless of who won the war, Germany would emerge the strongest in Europe, biologically speaking.” Kindler disappeared after the war and destroyed all clues to his identity from Poland and Germany, and nobody has been able to find him. Wilson convinces his reluctant colleagues to release from prison convicted Nazi war criminal Konrad Meinike (Konstantin Shayne of "Vertigo") in hopes that the latter will lead Wilson to Kindler. Wilson is prepared to shoulder the burden of the blame if his plan backfires. Indeed, he is so committed that he smashes his pipe on a table to drive his fanaticism home. Afterward, Wilson repairs the pipe, wrapping tape around the stem, and uses it as if it were none the worse for wear.

Meinike believes that God intervened on his behalf so he could escape from the Allied War Crime captors, and he sets out to find fellow Nazi Franz Kindler. Studio executives slashed about 30 minutes from the film as Meinike searches for Kindler in South America. Welles took issue with their decision to eliminate this part. In all fairness, however, they have accelerated the pace and brought the film to its setting in Harper, Connecticut where most of the action occurs. Sources say that producer Sam Siegel authorized the deletion because that half-hour slowed down the action. Nevertheless, Meinike learns of Kindler’s whereabouts when he obtains picture postcard with the image of a church steeple. Presto, Welles fades to the church in Connecticut and Meinike looks for History Professor Charles Rankin who teaches at the Harper School for Boys.

After he arrives in Harper, Meinike stashes his suitcase at Mr. Potter’s store. Although Potter amounts to little more than a peripheral character, Billy House’s chummy performance makes quite an impression. Largely, it is the way that Potter runs his store. Potter remains seated behind the cash register while his customers serve themselves and then pay him. Occasionally, he lures Wilson and Rankin separately in games of checkers, dons his visor, and beats them. Potter and his method of transacting business is a different as well as distinctive touch in another otherwise fascinating but formulaic film. Anyway, Meinike suspects that he may have been followed and uses gym equipment to knock Wilson unconscious. Meinike visits Mary Longstreet (Loretta Young of “Ladies Courageous”) in his search for Rankin. The meeting between Meinike and Mary turns out to be crucial and Mary discovers later on that not only her life but the life of her husband hangs by the string of that encounter. She directs him to Rankin and the two ex-Nazis meet his deep in the woods so that nobody can see them. Rankin strangles Meinike and conceals the corpse. Welles shows his villainous character seize Meinike by the throat, but then Rankin lowers Meinike behind a large bush and kills him with his bare hands. As the director, Welles supplements the scene with suspense because several college students are playing a paper chase game and cavorting in the woods. Frantically, Rankin scrambles to move the paper trail that is dangerously close to Meinike’s body.

Not long afterward, the cold-blooded Rankin marries Mary Longstreet. Meanwhile, Wilson noses around Harper and masquerades as an antiques dealer compiling a catalog of Paul Revere silver. He meets Mary’s father, liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Adam Longstreet (Philip Merivale of “Adventure”) and receives an invitation to dinner one evening. Wilson suspects Rankin may be the evil Kindler because clocks obsess both men. Furthermore, Rankin has been repairing a church clock that has been inactive for years. During the conversation at the Longstreet residence, Rankin makes a comment that incriminates him in Wilson’s eyes. Rankin makes a disparaging observation about Karl Marx that Wilson initially dismisses. Later, Rankin drives Mary’s dog Red away from digging up the corpse. When Rankin kicks Red, the film cuts to Wilson waking up to the realization that Rankin is Kindler. “Who but a Nazi would deny that Karl Marx was a German because he was a Jew? Earlier, Wilson was prepared to leave Harper, deciding that Rankin was “above suspicion.”

Eventually, Meinike’s body is found and Mary stands between her husband and justice. Wilson enlists the aid of Mary’s brother Noah (Richard Long of “The Big Valley”) and they keep an eye on her. Eventually, they discover the dead dog. Rankin begins to get nervous and concocts a story (not unlike the George Stevens’ movie “A Place in the Sun”) about a boating accident and the accidental death of a girlfriend and how a relative has tracked him down and tries to blackmail. Rankin confides in Mary that he had to kill the blackmailer and convinces her not to aid the authorities. Mary becomes the weakest link in the plot. She really believes that her husband is incapable of having committed heinous acts of genocide. Stoutly, she defends him against his accusers. Rankin realizes that Mary represents a threat so he tries to arrange it so that she will visit him in the church steeple and fall to her death while climbing a ladder to the belfry. Mary’s housekeeper distracts Mary so that she cannot keep her appointment with Rankin while he establishes his alibi by playing checkers with Mr. Potter. Instead, Wilson climbs the ladder and nearly dies. The indefatigable Wilson closes in on Mary. He shows the concentration camp films to both Mary and her father and tries to rattle Mary, but she stands by Rankin.

The biggest flaw in “The Stranger” is how did Rankin arrive in America and acquire a job as a college teacher. Sometime John Huston collaborator Anthony Veiller penned the screenplay that leaves out some important information that occurred during the missing South America scenes, but for the most part, Veiller and other writers who worked on “The Stranger” supply us with most of what we need to know. Veiller wrote “The Night of the Iguana,” “The List of Adrien Messenger,” “Moulin Rouge” and “Beat the Devil” for Huston. Previously, Veiller had contributed his writing skills to Frank Capra’s “Why We Fight” series. Veiller’s collaborator on “The Stranger” was German born Victor Trivas who received an Oscar nomination for penning the original story that Veiller rewrote as the screenplay. The ending atop the church steeple is a corker!

FILM REVIEW OF ''DANCE FLICK'' (2009)

The Wayans clan, who made the first two “Scary Movie” spoofs, show no mercy with their latest parody “Dance Flick,” an uproariously crude, lewd, and rude roasting of dance movies. Specifically, “Dance Flick” pokes fun at “Fame,” “Save the Last Dance,” “Drumline,” “Hairspray,” “Center Stage,” “Step Up,” “Roll, Bounce,” “Stomp the Yard,” “Step Up,” “Step Up 2 the Streets,” and the “High School Musical” movies. “Dance Flick” ranks as the best parody movie since “Superhero Movie” (2008). Moreover, the Wayans have ripped into some classics, such as “West Side Story” and “Singing in the Rain.” Indeed, the fun of most parodies is spotting the movie being jeered first and hoping second that you’ll cheer the jeers. Even if you loved the movie getting mocked, a good parody can make you appreciate your favorite movie more because it pays tribute to it.

Not nearly as scatological as the first two “Scary Movies,” “Dance Flick” relies on the usual hilarious sight gags that the Wayans deploy throughout their derivative, often lowest-common-denominator, storyline to skewer the conventions and cliches of those terpsichorean tales. Unless you’ve seen the aforementioned films, you may not be laughing when others are roaring. Sometimes, the Wayans insert some pungent political satire into this brisk 83 minute epic, but it doesn’t distract from the overall antics. You rarely have enough time to read all the whacky wall signs plastered in every shot because the film flies by so quickly.

After her mom dies in a tragic auto accident rushing to her daughter’s Juilliard dance audition, Megan (Shoshana Bush of “Fired Up”) relocates to the big city to live with her destitute father (Chris Elliot of “Cabin Boy”) in his condemned apartment. Like everything else in the audacious “Dance Flick,” the demise of Megan’s mother is played strictly for laughs. In fact, she escapes from her wrecked vehicle, only to be struck by a car with a Lindsay vanity license tag. Another vehicle with a Brandy vanity tag hits her. Finally, a third vehicle with a Halle vanity tag strikes her. Appropriately enough, a black female dressed as Cat Woman flees from the accident. After Halle hits her, Megan’s poor mom flies through the air and lands in her freshly dug grave.

Meanwhile, Megan enrolls in an inner city high school, Musical High School. She meets Thomas (Damon Wayans Jr.) and they become an item. Megan has shunned dancing since her mom’s accidental death. Eventually, Thomas persuades her to take up hip-hop dancing. Later, on their first big date, Thomas takes Megan to the ballet. Megan is shocked. The ballet recreates the events that culminated in her mom’s death involving a stalled gasoline tanker truck along with those reckless celebrity drivers with vanity tags.

Aside from Thomas, Megan meets a variety of oddballs at Musical High. The first day at lunch in the cafeteria, the entire student body breaks into a routine from the movie “Fame” where everybody plays a musical instrument, including a blind kid named Ray (George Gore II) who displays exceptional piano skills. The "Fame" lyrics has been altered to something considerably more salacious as well as silly. Megan’s ghetto hall locker neighbor is Charity (Essence Atkins of “How High”) and Charity hauls her infant son to school everyday and hangs him in her locker while she attends classes. Megan discovers that Charity’s brother is none other than Thomas! In another “Save the Last Dance” scene, Charity reprimands Megan for her interracial romance with Thomas when African-American gals are running out of their own race to date.

Imagine the usual line-up of characters in teen dance musicals. Each has a counterpart in “Dance Flick,” right down to the pairing an obese “Hairspray” type girl and her dream boy jock who would rather play Juliet in “Romeo & Juliet” than dribble for his father’s high school basketball team. Megan gapes when she meets her dance class instructor, Ms. Cameltoé (Amy Sedaris of “Bewitched”), who lives up to her descriptive surname. Meanwhile, Thomas and his main man, A-Con (Affion Crockett of “Soul Men”), have their own troubles. A-Con is a street hoodlum with no ambition, but Thomas aspires to be a gynecologist. Thomas dreams of attending Jus Community College. They have a dance crew that participates regularly in street dance competitions. They have lost $5-thousand during their last street dance contest. Now, they owe the five grand to a local gangsta, Sugar Bear (David Allen Grier of “An American Carol”), and he demands his dough. Sugar Bear resembles Jabba the Hutt of “Star Wars” and cannot consume enough candy, pies, and sugary treats.

Primarily, director Damien Wayans has taken "Save the Last Dance" and crossed it with “Step Up 2 The Streets,” supplementing it with characters from other movies like "Hairspray," "Ray," and "Fame.” For instance, the obese girl, Tracy Transfat (Chelsea Makela), who attends Musical High, is modeled on chubby Tracy Turnblad from “Hairspray” while the basketball coach's son resembles Zac Efron from “High School Musical.” Grier is riotous in an obvious fat suit as Sugar Bear and Chris Elliott plays Megan’s sordid, low-life father. Naturally, the entire Wayans clan gets in on the action. Shawn plays Charity’s baby’s daddy. Shawn has several amusing scenes. Marlon ranks as the most outrageous as an idiotic drama teacher who has made only one movie. He played a slave in a “Mandingo” plantation movie where he cut off his leg. Keenen Ivory plays street dance promoter Mr. Stache with the whitest fake teeth you’ve ever seen.

The Wayans have been masters at politically incorrect parodies since their Fox-TV series “In Living Color” (1990-1994), and they ridicule stereotypes mercilessly here for maximum merriment. They rag straight people, gay people, black people, white people, teachers, and drunken celebrities. When A-Con tells Thomas that he cannot become a doctor because he has guns for hands, he displays his gun hands and calls himself Edward Triggerfingers after the Johnny Depp movie “Edward Scissorhands.” Altogether, “Dance Flick” is a cakewalk of a comedy.

FILM REVIEW OF ''IN & OUT" (1997)

Hollywood movies since the 1930s have treated gays as lepers. In condemning homosexuality, the film industry has reflected only what the repressive society of its day espoused as an ideology. For example, in the 1962 Otto Preminger melodrama “Advise and Consent,” straight actor Don Murray was cast as a queer congressman who commits suicide rather than confess his alternative lifestyle. Gay movie characters have covered a lot of ground since “Advise and Consent.” In the 1997 movie “In & Out,” (**1/2 out of ****), heterosexual actor Kevin Kline is cast as a homosexual teacher who comes out of the closet on his wedding day. While the conservative Hollywood of yesteryear stipulated that the congressional queer in “Advise and Consent” had to commit suicide, the liberal Hollywood of today dictates that the gay English teacher should be embraced rather than maced.

Basically, “In & Out” preaches good citizenship in the garb of a politically correct comedy. Director Frank Oz and scenarist Scott Rudnick endorse honesty as the best policy because honesty always ensures happiness. High school teacher Howard Brackett (Kevin Kline of “The Big Chill”) will be happy only after he comes out of the closet, just as his once-fat-but-now-thin fiancée Emily (Joan Cusack) will only feel happy when she can ditch her diet. Ultimately, the movie contends that straight society will accept gays when homosexuals can act with greater honesty and candor about themselves. The happily outed gay tabloid reporter played by straight actor Tom Selleck here effectively dramatizes this open-minded commentary.

Rudnick’s lightweight script embellishes the true life incident that occurred at the Oscars when Tom Hanks paid tribute to a high school teacher. In “In & Out,” Cameron Drake (Matt Dillon), a blond, Brad Pitt style bimbo type actor, wins the Oscar for impersonating a fruity foot soldier. Drake honors his mentor Howard Brackett during his acceptance speech. Not contend to stop there, the candid Cameron reveals to a live, television audience that Howard is gay!

Suspicion, paranoia, and horror set in as the media descend upon the sleepy town of Green Leaf, Indiana. (When would a no-name high school English teacher’s sexual deviance spark such massive media concern?) Among those reporters lurks Peter Malloy (Tom Selleck of “High Road to China”), and he wants to do a week-long exclusive one on Howard. Howard, however, wants nothing to do with the witch-hunting media, especially the pesky Peter Malloy. Howard denies Drake’s gay charges to everybody, including his fiancée and his mom. Malloy lingers because he smells a scoop. The revelation has turned Green Leaf upside down. High school principal Tom Halliwell (Bob Newhart) squirms nervously with all the media coverage. Halliwell warns Howard that were his marriage not imminent, he’d have to give him a pink slip. Meanwhile, Peter bets Howard that his marriage to Emily will fall through at the last moment and he’ll be there to record the result on camera.

Howard resorts to audio tapes about macho men. He struggles to reform himself. But Howard’s efforts are futile. Guilt swells up inside him. And then there is Peter Malloy, who rags him to come clean about his homosexuality. Finally, at the altar in the sight of God, Howard confesses. Of course, bride-to-be Emily Montgomery is floored by Howard’s gay confession. Predictably, the school fires Howard, but he shows up for graduation. Drake shows up, too, and rushes to Brackett’s defense. Not only has the school stripped Howard of his job, but they’ve also given his teacher-of-the-year award to somebody else. Drake appeals to the principal and wins Howard the unanimous support of the community.

The biggest defect in Rudnick’s contrived script is Howard himself. Rudnick has created a character too chaste to be true, either by gray or straight standards. Howard Brackett looms as more of a saint than a sinner. He helps one student gain admission to college, and he coaches the track team. How often do you hear of an English teacher doubling as a coach, too? Everybody at his high school adores Howard. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. Further, Rudnick and Oz ask us to believe that nobody else in Green Leaf is gay. Where are Howard’s gay friends? Are they too scared to come to his defense?

No, “In & Out” is not targeted strictly at homosexual audiences. Oz, whose screen credits include cute comedies like “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” and “House Sitter,” as well as Rudnick teeter on a politically correct tightrope. “In & Out” is not a gay recruiting movie. The filmmakers show no interest in what prompted either Howard or Peter Malloy to prefer the gay lifestyle. Instead, Oz and Rudnick are only interested in shoring up a thin premise: Is he or isn’t he gay? They flesh it out to involve the community response to the answer. Finally, when Howard admits that he is gay, the filmmakers devote the rest of the movies to showing how a conservative, Norman Rockwell-like town can accept him despite his difference.

Along the way, director Oz and writer Rudnick have a high time poking fun at rather than bashing gay stereotypes. If ever a Hollywood mainstream feature were sympathetic toward gay America, “In & Out” is it. Although some prudish characters complain that gay is abnormal, they quickly celebrate Brackett’s virtues: his sartorial elegance, his witty manner, and his sophistication. Before his students realize that Howard is gay, they advise him about how carry he should carry his hands or comport his posture. The scene with the macho man tapes is pretty funny, too, especially the teapot stance reprimand. Oz and Rudnick carefully shun any AIDS or promiscuous sexual behavior.

The sincere message of “In & Out” about tolerance toward those whose sexual orientation may not conform to the norms of society is praiseworthy. Kindly messages, however, don’t make good movies. Sure, the well-timed gags entertain, but the film amounts to more of a sermon than a satire. The final scene at graduation when everybody stands up for Howard is way over the top. Pure fantasy!

As Howard Brackett, Kline delivers a nimble and fastidious comic performance. Clearly, he strives to offend neither straight nor gay moviegoers. Aside from a brief scene with Peter Malloy, Kline’s gay Brackett character makes homosexuals appear as humane, lovable, and compassionate as heterosexuals. The best thing about Kline’s performance is its quiet, unobtrusive quality. Howard Brackett is so obviously gay that you’d have to be blind to miss it. He pedals a bike to school each day, sports a neat bow-tie, and dresses immaculately. Prissy gestures and effeminate postures underlie his every move, and he is a paragon of cleanliness. He has even contaminated the community with his Barbara Streisand mania. “In & Out” is not the kind of movie where a last reel revelation exonerates the protagonist.

Selleck’s role as the trashy gay TV reporter represents a definite stretch from his “Magnum, P.I.” persona. With his thick, he-man mustache shaved off, Selleck doesn’t look anything like he usually looks. Matt Dillon is particularly amusing in his film clips at the Oscars in a gay movie combination of “Platoon” and “Born on the Fourth of July.” Debbie Reynolds’ mother figure who demands that her son wed triggers laughter galore, too. Cusack has a great scene at a roadside diner. She wheels up in a “just married” car wearing her bride’s gown and throws herself at anybody who will have her.

The most shocking scenes in “In & Out” is probably when tabloid reporter Malloy does a lip lock on Howard. Straight guys kissing each other in a movie about a gay identity crisis are as hilarious as they are phony. Kline and Selleck grind their faces together in what appears as more of a head-on collision than a closed-mouth kiss. Nothing at all like the controversial 1994 British movie “Priest,” “In & Out” emerges as an engaging but labored piece of social propaganda with its okay-to-be-act message. If “Ellen” weren’t the TV equivalent, “In & Out” would probably be heading toward TV as a new sitcom. Watching “In & Out” is not so much about dealing with the issue of gay or straight, but how to be a decent person in the last days of the 20th century. What makes “In & Out” a tolerable comedy about sexual intolerance is its equal opportunity cheers and jeers about queers and steers.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE EDGE'' (1997)

Outdoors enthusiasts will find something to relish in the Anthony Hopkins & Alec Baldwin adventure “The Edge” (** out of ****), a grim but familiar alfresco saga of survival that boasts elements of both “Deliverance” and “Jurassic Park.” Despite the considerable talents involved, an uneven screenplay and unsympathetic characters unravel “Mulholland Falls” director Lee Tamahori’s weather-beaten yarn of betrayal and jealousy. Only die-hard Hopkins fans may rate this soggy opus worth watching, while seasoned cinemagoers who know anything about critter movies will smirk every time that Bart the Bear chases our protagonists through the sticks.

The stodgy David (“The Untouchables”) Mamet screenplay whistles up the perennial theme of man versus the wilderness. Fashion photographer Bob Green (Alec Baldwin of “Miami Blues”), his model (Elle Macpherson of “Batman & Robin”), and her bookworm tycoon of a husband Charles Morse (Anthony Hopkins of “Instinct”) fly deep in the remote Canadian Rockies for a photo shoot. No sooner has the plane landed and the characters been deposited at a quaint lodge perched on a looking glass lake than you feel the story knuckle up with tension. Something isn’t right between husband and wife. Moreover, the cuckolded hubby shudders at the thought that his wife’s photographer may be clicking with her in other ways that have little to do with setting an F-stop.

When a model cannot report for his shoot, Green searches for a native as a replacement. He finds a picture that lodge keeper Styles (L.Q. Jones of “The Wild Bunch”) has shot of an Indian who hunts bears. Green resolves to track the man down and use him as a substitute. Bob invites Charles to fly with them out to where the Indian lives. During the trip, Charles casually asks Bob, “How are you planning to kill me?” Bob chuckles with incredulity at Charles’ paranoia. Later, a flight of birds collide with their plane. Spiraling out of control, the plane crashes into a lake and sinks.

The pilot dies, but Bob, Charles, and photo assistant Steven (Harold Perrineau of King of New York”) escape from the sunken aircraft. Lost in the desolate mountains where no phones, roads, or Triple-A motor club help is easily obtained, our heroes rely on their scanty knowledge with successful results to real-life situations. Charles is the kind of guy who has more book sense that world sense. Initially, he uses a paper clip and a leaf spinning in a water drenched tree stump to guide them south. But his first efforts fail and he resorts to the nighttime stars to keep them from tramping in a circle. Credit the filmmakers with handily isolating our heroes and not cutting them much slack. Although they dramatically set up their story well enough, a good set-up doesn’t always guarantee an adequate payoff.

The best part of “The Edge” occurs after the crash when these fish out of water arouse the appetite of a carnivorous Kodiak. Out of the woods bounds Bart, a 1,400 pound bear, whose performance can accurately described as grizzly. This huge bear menaces our threesome for the second-third of the action. The scenes featuring Bart as he scrambles after and then stalks our heroes into the night with bloodthirsty results spark a reasonable aura of terror. New Zealand film director Lee Tamahori beefs up the anxiety by photographing his actors in the same shots with the bear. The use of a telephoto lens enables Tamahori to make the bear, actually romping much farther behind Hopkins or Baldwin than it seems, appear as if the beast were nipping at their heels.

Unfortunately, if you know anything about trained movie animals, a subversive thought may undercut those pictorially realistic escapades. Every time that big bad Bart bares his fangs, rears up on his hindquarters, or drools over his next victim, you cannot help but think that off-camera stand his trainer frantically waving a Dolly Madison bear claw at him. Other than the harassed Hopkins, Bart is the sharpest thing in “The Edge.” Bart’s performance is captured in riveting close-ups that sensationalizes his critter villainy. Speaking of animals portrayals, you can see the toll that animal rights activists have taken on movies like “The Edge.” In one scene, our starving heroes trap an unsuspecting squirrel in a home-made cage of twigs, but you never see them dine on the defenseless arboreal rodent. Somehow, the sight of two big, famished guys munching down on a scrawny squirrel doesn’t evoke the epic struggle of man against Nature. Of course, only the naïve don’t realize that most of the time, the real animals are replaced in close-ups with puppets or convincing facsimiles.

Once Bart has been slain, Mamet’s script settles down to more serious but less exciting business. Charles’ suspicions that Bob and his wife have been shacking up are confirmed. This is one of the major flaws of Mamet’s lackluster script. Charles’ wife gave him an inscribed watch for his birthday. When he searches the watch case, Charles discovers the warranty along with the incriminating receipt. The receipt contains not only the cost of the watch that his wife gave Bob! How stupid can you be?

Sometimes, these Hollywood movies make their revelations a tad too convenient. This doesn’t say much for the mentality of Charles’ dimwitted spouse. By this time, our heroes have found an abandoned hunting lodge, and Bob has appropriated a rifle. Charles realizes with some regret that he was right all along as Bob orders him to turn around so he can more easily shoot him in the back.

The sense of relief that you experience at the end of “The Edge” has little to do with who survives the ordeal but more with the reprieve you get from the film itself. Even the ending when Charles confronts his wife stirs up any overwrought emotions. The craggy Canadian terrain where “The Edge” was lensed and the optically abetted bear fights cannot redeem the trite man versus man cat & mouse games in the latter half of the movies.

Ultimately, it makes you wonder what audiences did Hollywood aim “The Edge” at, because the film is so spartan and dreary. Despite some moments of genuine suspense, this existential character study flounders about, unsure whether it wants to qualify as a juvenile action opus or a heavy-handed morality parable.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE TERMINATOR'' (1984)

“Piranha 2: The Spawning” director James Cameron scored his first major cinematic hit with “The Terminator,” (*** out of ****) a gritty, on-the-run, rough-hewn, low-budget science fiction actioneer about time travel with a curious twist. Body builder Arnold Schwarzenegger of the “Conan” movies virtually guaranteed that this 107 minute exercise in murder and mayhem would be a blockbuster with his villainous, straight-faced portrayal of a relentless cyborg that will allow nothing to stand between its programmed objective of executing a woman, Sarah Connor, in the past. According to the Internet Movies Database, sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison took James Cameron to court over “The Terminator.” Ellison accused Cameron of plagiarizing two “Outer Limits” episodes that the former penned, specifically, "The Outer Limits: Soldier (#2.1)" (1964) and "The Outer Limits: Demon with a Glass Hand (#2.5)" (1964). Cameron has stated that these two episodes inspired him to make “The Terminator.” He may also have lifted the idea of "Skynet" from Ellison’s short story "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream." The producers reached an out of court settlement with Ellison and acknowledged the writer in the ends credits. Later, director Franklin Adreon’s “Cyborg 2087” (1966) with Michael Rennie featured a similar plot about a cyborg dispatched back to the past, but it had a different mission. The cyborg in “Cyborg 2087” sought to curb government abuse in the future by going back to the past where free thinking is coming under attack.

“The Terminator” opens in Los Angeles in 2029 A.D., at night while enemy Hunter Killer hovercraft prowl the post-apocalyptic rubble of the city for human prey. Heavy combat vehicles with massive treads on their wheels crush hundreds of human skulls into powder while human survivors exchange fire with skeletal metal terminators with fiery red eyes. A preamble of sorts comes up and sets the scene: The machines rose from the ashes of the nuclear fire. Their war to exterminate mankind had raged for decades, but the final battle would not be fought in the future. It would be fought here in our present . . . tonight. The actual story unfolds at 1:52 AM when a garbage truck driver watches crackling blue plasma-type waves envelope him and his vehicle.

A garbage truck operator is emptying trash bins when a plasma-like web of jagged blue lighting bolts envelopes his vehicle and shuts off the vehicle’s power. He flees when the T-101 Terminator assassin (Arnold Schwarzenegger) appears naked out of nowhere. Skynet has sent the T-101 from the future back to the year 1984 to kill the mother of resistance leader John Connor. The naked t-101 saunters up to a trio of punks at the Griffith Park Observatory overlooking Los Angeles. An obnoxious, blue-haired punk (Bill Paxton of “Aliens” and “Twister”) and his friend (veteran heavy Brian Thompson of “Sudden Impact” and “Cobra”) ridicule T-101. The Terminator kills both of them while the third strips off his clothing. Meanwhile, elsewhere in L.A., another naked man, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn of “The Rock”) materializes from the future. He steals a homeless man’s pants, evades the L.A.P.D., and breaks into a clothing store, steals Nike sneakers and a trench coat. Whereas the T-101 wants to kill Sarah, Kyle wants to save her! Not surprisingly, young Sarah Connor doesn’t have a clue that anybody yearns to either murder her or save her life.

Sarah works at a fast-food restaurant. The T-101 finds three Sarah Connors in the L.A. phone book and kills the first two and then invades Sarah’s apartment and kills her roommate Ginger and Matt (Rick Rossovich of “Top Gun”) her boyfriend. Eventually, Sarah discovers what is happening and holes up at a night club called Tech Noir where the T-101 tracks her down. Kyle Reese rescues Sarah and they flee, but the L.A.P.D. capture them and Reese has to cough up his far-fetched story to a by pompous psychologist Dr. Peter Silberman (Earl Boen of “Alien Nation”) who doesn’t believe a syllable of Reese’s saga. Silberman diagnoses Reese as suffering from paranoid delusions and boasts that he make a career out of analyzing the guy’s stories. During Reese’s interrogation scene at police headquarters with Silberman, Cameron and co-writers Gale Ann Hurd and an uncredited William Wisher, Jr., provide audiences with crucial expository information about Skynet and the war with the cyborgs that seek to annihilate mankind.

The bulk of “The Terminator” concerns the T-101’s tireless efforts to kill Sarah while Reese struggles to lead her to safety. During their flight, Reese and Sarah become romantically involved and Reese gets Sarah pregnant with future resistance leader John Connor. Talk about twisted time travel?! Cameron intersperses a flashback to the future where a T-101 (Schwarzenegger’s pal Franco Columbu of “Beretta’s Island”) invades a resistance bunker and goes on a murderous rampage before he is eliminated. Throughout the blazing action sequences, Cameron gradually strips the T-101 down to its alloyed metal endoskeleton. Reese explains to Silberman that a Terminator is a cyborg, half-man, and half-machine that will never stop until it kills Sarah. Everybody at the police station regards Reese as a fruit cake with his unbelievable story until the T-101 shows up with an arsenal of weapons and shoots up the premises, killing at least 17 cops. Reese and Sarah escape, hid out in a motel where they build pipe bombs, but the resourceful T-101 finds Sarah’s mother, kills her off-screen, and imitates her so that it can learn Sarah’s whereabouts. Another ramped up chase ensues with the T-101 caught in a blazing 18-wheeler. The fire scorches its entire body in the last 15 minutes so that all that remains is the skeleton. Reese dies blowing the skeleton in two. The torso of the T-101 continues to stalk Sarah until she crushes it in a tool manufacturing factory so that only the hand and forearm, which appears in the sequel “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”

James Cameron has more road trip action in this thriller than actual science fiction, but the action-packed scenes more than deliver their quota of thrills and chills. One of the earliest scenes in a pawnshop has the T-101 gathering an arsenal of hardware from an unsuspecting clerk (Dick Miller) and then killing him instead of paying for it. The “I’ll be back” scene at the police station massacre is probably the best scene in this supercharged little spine-tingler. The irony in the last scene is that Sarah Connor destroys the T-101 in a machine press.

The chief science fiction element in Cameron's film is the use of predestination paradox where it appears the history is being altered, when in fact, it is really being fulfilled. Cameron rehashed much of the "Terminator" action in the sequel, but he made the Schwarzenegger more sympathetic by having him serve as young John Connor's bodyguard. Ironically, again, this $6-million plus movie (remember the ABC cyborg series "The Six-Million Dollar Man?")wasn't that original because cyborg type characters have been around in fantasy literature as early as Edgar Allan Poe's writings. Nevertheless, "The Terminator" put cyborgs on the marquee more than "The Six-Million Dollar Man" ever did and eventually inspired the "Robocop" franchise.

FILM REVIEW OF ''SADDLE THE WIND'' (1958)

“Twilight Zone” writer Rod Serling tried his hand at writing a western with director Robert Parrish’s “Saddle the Wind,” (** out of ****) an average but unexceptional oater with Robert Taylor, John Cassavetes, and Julie London. Mind you, Serling was one of the top writers in early television, but he seems about as lost in these wide open spaces as a stray calf with this hard-bitten, hackneyed oater about two brothers, with Taylor as the older and Cassavetes as the young brother, clashing about just everything that comes up. Steve Sinclair (Robert Taylor of “The Law and Jake Wade”) had to raise his younger, impulsive brother Tony (John Cassavetes) because they had no parents. Tony turned out no good, and Steve has had to take care of his hot-headed sibling since then. Basically, this is a juvenile delinquent on a range scenario with little to recommend it beyond Cassavetes’ spirited performance.

The action opens when Tony comes back to their spread, the Double S Ranch, after selling their herd. The surprise is that he has with him his fiancée, Joan Blake (Julie London of “Man of the West”), in a brand new buckboard. Steve explains to Joan that the Double S is no more ready for a female than Tony is a wife. Joan isn’t the only thing that Tony has brought back. He has purchased a fancy six-shooter. Steve doesn’t approve of Tony’s ‘tricked-out’ revolver because the trigger has been honed “so fine you could sneeze it off.” Tony feels committed to protect his older brother and starts practicing with the revolver. Although Steve is a reformed character and an ex-gunfighter to boot, Tony doesn’t think that Steve is fast enough to protect himself. Steve isn’t impressed with Tony’s fervor to protect him. Tony spends hours perfecting his draw. In one telling shot, he shoots his reflection in a pond.

In the ranch house alone with Steve, Joan reveals that she was the daughter of a hide hunter and has roamed every frontier town. She met Tony in a saloon where she sang songs and he treated her with so much respect that she found him refreshing and his description of the valley and Double S prompted her to accompany him back to the ranch.
Steve informs Joan that he has been Tony’s father and mother since his kid brother was four. Steve still cannot believe that Tony wants to get married. Just as Tony returned with Joan, Steve asked his top hand why he didn’t dissuade Tony from bringing the woman back with him. The ranch hand delivers the best line in his response to Steve: “Looking after your brother is like poking hot butter in a wildcat’s ear.”

Meanwhile, a tough hand with a six-gun, Larry Venables (Charles McGraw of “The Narrow Margin”), wanders into the valley looking to kill Steve. Steve served as Deneen’s trail boss for three years before he got the Double S Ranch. Dennis Deneen (Donald Crisp of “The Sea Hawk”) owns the rest of the valley, but Deneen gave Steve a third of his precious valley to raise cattle. Indeed, Deneen is the law in the valley, though we never see any of his hired hands, except for his gruff foreman, Brick Larson (seasoned heavy Ray Teal of “Bonanza” as a good guy), who backs Deneen up at every turn.

Tony takes Joan into town and runs into his good friend and former Confederate enlisted man Dallas Hanson (Richard Erdman of “Objective, Burma”) who Steve had run off the Double S. Venables saunters into the saloon. Tony and he swap tough talk because Venables is looking to Steve, but doesn’t want to give Tony his message. Instead, Venables suggests that Tony take a ‘flying jump at the moon.” Tony prods Venables into a showdown and kills Venables because the gunman is distracted. Deneen is upset because he hates violence and wants Steve to run Tony out of the valley. Meantime, things aren’t going so good between Joan and Tony because she doesn’t like the way that Tony kisses her. The showdown comes when a former Union officer, Clay Ellison, Owner of Strip (character actor Royal Dano of “Moby Dick”) arrives with his family to farm the land left to him. Steve warns Ellison to clear out, but Tony isn’t as nice. Dallas and Tony harass Ellison and his family and set a wagon on fire before Steve and Blake arrive to calm things down. Ellison takes his claim to Deneen. Again, Deneen is dead set against violence for no reason that we are ever given. He agrees to stand by Ellison despite his lack of love for barbed wire.

The following morning Deneen and Brick escort Ellison into town to buy his barbed wire. Tony is waiting with an itchy trigger finger, and he kills the shotgun wielding Ellison. Ellison’s death doesn’t reduce Deneen’s resolution to see not only Ellison’s land fenced off but also his own land fenced off. He warns the storekeeper not to sell anything to Steve. Steve decides to hang it up and give his ranch back to Deneen. Predictably, Tony is furious, rides out, and confronts Deneen. They have some brief words and Tony shoots him, but Deneen wounds Tony. Brick rides over to Steve’s ranch and lets him deal with Tony. Steve and Tony pull their six-guns on each other in the high country.

The end to “Saddle the Wind” is pretty depressing and there is nothing in Tony’s character to explain his mysterious decision to commit suicide when it comes to a showdown. Steve rides back, checks up on Deneen and then decides to settle down with Joan at his side. The uninspired Elmer Bernstein musical score doesn’t heighten the tension and the theme song is rather bland. Julie London isn’t given a lot to do other than stand around and look gorgeous. Reportedly, John Sturges of “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” performed some polish up, post-production work, but nothing would have saved this western. The performances are strong, the scenery is rugged, but the cliches are intact. “Saddle the Wind” is pretty saddle sore stuff.