“Red River” director Howard Hawks’ “El Dorado” (**** out of ****) qualifies as a leisurely, old-fashioned oater that conjures up more hilarity with its frequent comic interludes than its serious moments. Mind you, this 1967 John Wayne & Robert Mitchum western possesses a couple of unsavory moments, principally when men brandish their six-guns and blast away at each other without a qualm. The violence here is nothing compared to the sadistic Spaghetti westerns produced in Europe during the late 1960s. Anybody who enjoys Hawks’ westerns should not be surprised that Hawks and scenarist Leigh Brackett dusted off the plot to “Rio Bravo,” essentially recycled scenes and characters from that film rather than from the cited source material, the novel "The Stars in Their Courses" by Harry Brown, published in 1962. Reportedly, Hawka retained one scene from the book and fell back on "Rio Bravo." The one scene involved the shooting of Luke MacDonald.
Hawks cast Robert Mitchum as the drunken that Dean Martin had played in “Rio Bravo.” Arthur Hunnicutt takes over for Walter Brennan, while James Caan substitutes for Ricky Nelson in a different role. Hawks changed Caan’s supporting role from Nelson’s accurate shooting gunslinger to the worst shot on the frontier. As in “Rio Bravo,” the heroes hole up in a jail with a prisoner and await the arrival of the territorial lawman while the villain’s henchmen keep them bottled up in town. This time, however, John Wayne plays a drifting gunfighter with an Achilles heel, while Mitchum wears the sheriff’s badge. Hawks and Brackett whittled down the female participation to an older woman, Charlene Holt, who walks in from time to time, but never intrudes on the action like Angie Dickinson did in “Rio Bravo.” Meanwhile, a young slip of a girl, cute Michele Carey, has a somewhat bigger part as a hot-headed babe who wounds our hero and later guns down the chief villain. Nevertheless, “El Dorado” is an immensely charismatic western with clever dialogue, interesting characters, and hilarious humor. Attention deficient audiences may complain this 126 minute melodrama drags and sags when it should raise hell and holler.
Hawks and Brackett provide the ground work for the plot in the opening scene when Sheriff J.P. Harrah (Robert Mitchum of “Cape Fear”) confronts Cole Thornton (John Wayne of “Hatari”) in the washroom of a local saloon. Cole has come to El Dorado to hire his gun out to ranch owner Bart Jason (Edward Asner of “The Satan Bug”), but Harrah dissuades him from taking the job. Harrah explains that Jason is a greedy rancher who wants to expand his spread, but he needs water. Incidentally, the Bart Jason character resembles Hawks’ “Rio Lobo” villain Ketchum in that Jason showed up in El Dorado with a lot of money when everybody else in Texas was dead broke. Harrah elaborates that Jason wants to run the cattle rancher Kevin MacDonald (R. G. Armstrong of “Ride the High Country”) out of the country because he cannot force MacDonald to sell out to him. Cole decides to accommodate Harrah and pull out. He rides out to Jason’s ranch and refuses to hire out to him. Meantime, Doc Miller (Paul Fix) has sent warning out to MacDonald that Cole Thornton is on Jason’s payroll. MacDonald and his men scatter and he leaves his youngest son Luke (Johnny Crawford of “The Rifleman”) to serve as a look-out and fire in the air if he should see Thornton.
After Cole leaves Jason’s ranch, he rides toward the place where Luke is stationed. A startled Luke awakens, leaps up and fires at Cole rather than shooting in the air. Without a second thought, Cole plugs Luke. Luke commits suicide because he has been gut shot and feels that he cannot survive such a painful wound. Cole takes Luke’s body to the MacDonald ranch. Joey MacDonald (Michele Carey of “Dirty Dingus Magee”) vows to kill Cole. She lays in ambush and wounds him. Doc Miller refuses to extract the slug because it lies too close to Cole’s spine and he fears that he would do more damage. He advises Cole to find “one of them new-fangled squirts” to remove it, “but don’t wait too long to do it.” Cole rides off to the border for a job and winds up in a border town where he runs into scar-faced killer Nelse McLeod (Christopher George of “The Rat Patrol”) and his gunmen. McLeod and his gunmen are heading for El Dorado to take the same job with Bart Jason that Cole turned down. Another young drifter, Alan Bourdillon Traherne(James Caan of “Redline 7000”) enter the cantina, picks a fight with a McLeod gunman, and kills him with a knife in a draw.
After Cole prevents Trehearne, whose nicknamed ‘Mississippi,’ from walking into an ambush by McLeod’s vengeful gunmen, the younger man becomes his sidekick. Cole advises Mississippi to get rid of his oddball hat and get a gun. Mississippi asks Cole to teach him how to shoot, but Mississippi is such a bad shot that Cole gets him a sawed-off, double-barreled shotgun with the stock cut down to a plow-handle. Initially, Cole doesn’t want anything to do with Mississippi, but Mississippi knows that Cole is heading back to El Dorado. It seems that Sheriff J.P. Harrah tangled “with a wandering petticoat” and lost. Since his ill-fated romance, Harrah has retreated into a whiskey bottle and Cole fears that Harrah will prove easy prey for McLeod. When they reach El Dorado, Maudie (Charlene Holt of “Redline 7000”) brings Cole up to speed on the situation. Cole and Harrah tangle in the jail when Cole tries to awaken the drunken Harrah. Mississippi whips together a concoction to sober up Harrah and an old frontier scout Bull (seasoned character actor Arthur Hunnicutt of “The Big Sky”) helps him acquire the ingredients.
Jason’s men wound another MacDonald and Harrah takes Jason prisoner while McLeod lays siege to the jail. Cole’s Achilles heel gunshot wound strikes him at an inopportune time and McLeod takes him hostage and exchanges Cole for Jason. The heroes, both crippled from gunshot wounds, surprise McLeod and Joe mows down Jason in a savage shoot’em up. Christopher George doesn’t get much screen time but he makes a memorable villain. Hunnicutt steals the show with his homespun humor. The byplay between Wayne and Mitchum is hilarious, especially when Wayne awakens Mitchum in the jail scenes. Mitchum is quite good playing a drunk and he shares a scene in the saloon showdown with his brother.
“Bad Seed” lenser Harold Rosson gives “El Dorado” a warm, leathery look that adds atmosphere to the action. The shot where McLeod’s henchman plunges off a church belfry and falls into the camera is terrific! “Batman” composer Nelson Riddle furnishes this western with a lively jazz type orchestral score. Veteran characters Jim Davis of “Dallas” and Don Collier of “The High Chaparral” appear in supporting roles. “El Dorado” ranks as a more entertaining western that “Rio Bravo,” but “Rio Bravo” is justly considered more classical, if for nothing than he served as the inspiration for Hawks and Wayne to reteam with Brackett handling the screenplay. Hawks and Brackett dust off another scene for some of the more violent encounters in “El Dorado.” After Mississippi shoots a McLeod man, two of McLeod’s gunmen, Milt (Robert Donner) and Pedro lay outside to bushwhack Mississippi. Cole keeps Mississippi from being shot. Three-quarters to the way into the story, Cole and Mississippi chase a villain in to saloon and find Milt and Pedro waiting for them in front of a doorway. Cole pumps Milt full with three slugs before the reluctant villain agrees to exit by the rear door, only to be shot and killed by assassins waiting outside. Hawks and Brackett pulled this gag in the Humphrey Bogart film noir thriller “The Big Sleep.” The scene where a hung0ver Harrah pursues a wounded gunman into the saloon is similar to a “Rio Bravo” confrontation where Dude (Dean Martin) pursued a wounded killer into a saloon. The scene where James Caan’s knife-throwing sidekick pronounces his name for the benefit of a fuzzy-headed Harrah is side-splitting stuff.
“El Dorado” is worth seeing several times over.
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.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
FILM REVIEW OF ''THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3"
As the second remake of "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," the latest version starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta manages to be a slick and suspenseful white-knuckler. Nevertheless, this glossy new epic with its numerous narrative changes doesn't surpass director Joseph Sargent's 1974 original that toplined Walter Matthau & Robert Shaw. "Top Gun" director Tony Scott and Oscar-winning "L.A. Confidential" scenarist Brian Helgeland have cherry picked scenes and ideas from both author John Godey's bestselling novel and Sargent's original. Sadly, Scott and Helgeland have altered irreparably the characters of hero and villain in the name of political correctness. Not only have they changed the hero from a Transit Authority lieutenant to a corrupt subway employee, but they have also altered the villain from an out-of-work mercenary to a sleazy Wall Street crook.
Furthermore, the second remake of "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" (**1/2 out of ****) suffers from a dire lack of credibility. Denzel Washington's last minute transformation from a non-violent subway dispatcher to a gun-toting crusader who can commandeer a vehicle so he can pursue the villain isn't persuasive enough to pass muster. Additionally, the new technology that the film features is marginal when you consider either what Scott and Helgeland have omitted or ignored as solid story elements. Mind you, Scott generates more than enough tension to make you put you on the edge of yours seat while the villains hold hostages, but the surprises are few and far between in this R-rated actioneer. Consequently, we have a tainted hero who isn't a professional like Walter Matthau's Transit Cop in the original. Incidentally, I missed the 1989 made-for-TV remake with "Miami Vice" star James Edward Olmos. Anyway, an ordinary guy is now the hero, while the villain is an egotistical lout. Happily, actor John Travolta delivers a strong, wholly believable performance as the unhinged maniac who planned this hijacking.
As Garber's murderous adversary, Ryder (John Travolta) is two weeks out of prison with a tattoo on his neck, a bandit mustache, and a willingness to blow the brains out of hostages at point blank range. He is an ex-Wall Street broker who tampered with the city of New York's pension fund, and he is using the hijacking incident to play the stock market for bigger gains. Helgeland has concocted some good ideas, such as Ryder's stock market scheme, but he has provided some bad things, too. For example, heroic subway dispatcher Walter Garber (Denzel Washington of "Man on Fire") is suspected of accepting a $35-thousand dollar bribe during a business trip to Japan and has been demoted. The day that Ryder (John Travolta of "Wild Hogs") occupies the eponymous subway train with his three fellow conspirators and demands $10-million from NYC, Garber is working as the dispatcher. Ryder contacts him and makes his demands. When Garber's supervisor relieves him, Ryder threatens to kill a hostage if they don't recall Garber. Ryder simply doesn't trust anybody, but he believes Garber because the latter admitted that he took a bribe in the presence of eye-witnesses.
The villains, a quartet of submachine gun toting goons, hijack the subway train and stop it in the middle of a busy tunnel. They disconnect all the cars from the engine car and let the motorman and the passengers trudge back to the last platform. A cop tries to intervene as the transfer is going down, and the badguys riddle him with a hail of bullets. Now, the badguys hold the 17 passengers and the conductor from the first car, shut the power off to the tracks, and establish their own wireless access so that they can monitor the Internet as news about them develops in the city. During this interval, Ryder surfs the web and discovers that Garber has been accused of bribery.
One of Helgeland's bad ideas is a teenage passenger with a lap-top computer. When Ryder brings the subway train to a jarring halt, the computer flies out of the kid's hands and slides underneath the seats across the aisle from him. The kid can clearly see his idiotic girlfriend on the 16-inch monitor begging to know what has happened. Initially, after the train halts, the Internet connection between the kid and his girlfriend is disrupted. Later, after the villains establish power so that Ryder can monitor the stock market, the kid's lap-top comes back on-line. Eventually, the girlfriend arranges things up so that her boyfriend's computer is streaming live video from the train that apparently nobody else but the cops can view. Moreover, Ryder's cretinous cohorts patrol the aisle but cannot spot a lap-top computer with its glowing picture screen. Talk about a serious lapse in credibility! Naturally, everything above ground goes amok in New York City. The unhappy NYC mayor (James Gandolfini of "The Sopranos") rushes to the subway command center to assure Ryder that New York will pay the ransom. Incredibly, the city has a short length of time to count the cash and deliver by police couriers with motorcycle patrolmen blocking intersections across the city as the couriers race as breakneck speed. At one point, an accident occurs and the courier vehicle is smashed and sent flying off a bridge to crash into on-coming traffic in the lanes under the bridge!
Scott does a good job of ramping up the action and keeping things tense both above and below ground as Ryder's clock ticks to a dangerous deadline. Altogether, Scott's "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" isn't a bad movie, but it isn't half as good as Joseph Sargent's original nail-biter. Travolta makes a solid villain, unstable as all get-out, but Robert Shaw was better in the first film. If you haven't seen the 1974 original, then you don't know what you are missing. Prepare yourself for a great deal of profanity in "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" and several violent shoot-outs, especially one street shoot-out where two men perish in a barrage of gunfire.
Furthermore, the second remake of "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" (**1/2 out of ****) suffers from a dire lack of credibility. Denzel Washington's last minute transformation from a non-violent subway dispatcher to a gun-toting crusader who can commandeer a vehicle so he can pursue the villain isn't persuasive enough to pass muster. Additionally, the new technology that the film features is marginal when you consider either what Scott and Helgeland have omitted or ignored as solid story elements. Mind you, Scott generates more than enough tension to make you put you on the edge of yours seat while the villains hold hostages, but the surprises are few and far between in this R-rated actioneer. Consequently, we have a tainted hero who isn't a professional like Walter Matthau's Transit Cop in the original. Incidentally, I missed the 1989 made-for-TV remake with "Miami Vice" star James Edward Olmos. Anyway, an ordinary guy is now the hero, while the villain is an egotistical lout. Happily, actor John Travolta delivers a strong, wholly believable performance as the unhinged maniac who planned this hijacking.
As Garber's murderous adversary, Ryder (John Travolta) is two weeks out of prison with a tattoo on his neck, a bandit mustache, and a willingness to blow the brains out of hostages at point blank range. He is an ex-Wall Street broker who tampered with the city of New York's pension fund, and he is using the hijacking incident to play the stock market for bigger gains. Helgeland has concocted some good ideas, such as Ryder's stock market scheme, but he has provided some bad things, too. For example, heroic subway dispatcher Walter Garber (Denzel Washington of "Man on Fire") is suspected of accepting a $35-thousand dollar bribe during a business trip to Japan and has been demoted. The day that Ryder (John Travolta of "Wild Hogs") occupies the eponymous subway train with his three fellow conspirators and demands $10-million from NYC, Garber is working as the dispatcher. Ryder contacts him and makes his demands. When Garber's supervisor relieves him, Ryder threatens to kill a hostage if they don't recall Garber. Ryder simply doesn't trust anybody, but he believes Garber because the latter admitted that he took a bribe in the presence of eye-witnesses.
The villains, a quartet of submachine gun toting goons, hijack the subway train and stop it in the middle of a busy tunnel. They disconnect all the cars from the engine car and let the motorman and the passengers trudge back to the last platform. A cop tries to intervene as the transfer is going down, and the badguys riddle him with a hail of bullets. Now, the badguys hold the 17 passengers and the conductor from the first car, shut the power off to the tracks, and establish their own wireless access so that they can monitor the Internet as news about them develops in the city. During this interval, Ryder surfs the web and discovers that Garber has been accused of bribery.
One of Helgeland's bad ideas is a teenage passenger with a lap-top computer. When Ryder brings the subway train to a jarring halt, the computer flies out of the kid's hands and slides underneath the seats across the aisle from him. The kid can clearly see his idiotic girlfriend on the 16-inch monitor begging to know what has happened. Initially, after the train halts, the Internet connection between the kid and his girlfriend is disrupted. Later, after the villains establish power so that Ryder can monitor the stock market, the kid's lap-top comes back on-line. Eventually, the girlfriend arranges things up so that her boyfriend's computer is streaming live video from the train that apparently nobody else but the cops can view. Moreover, Ryder's cretinous cohorts patrol the aisle but cannot spot a lap-top computer with its glowing picture screen. Talk about a serious lapse in credibility! Naturally, everything above ground goes amok in New York City. The unhappy NYC mayor (James Gandolfini of "The Sopranos") rushes to the subway command center to assure Ryder that New York will pay the ransom. Incredibly, the city has a short length of time to count the cash and deliver by police couriers with motorcycle patrolmen blocking intersections across the city as the couriers race as breakneck speed. At one point, an accident occurs and the courier vehicle is smashed and sent flying off a bridge to crash into on-coming traffic in the lanes under the bridge!
Scott does a good job of ramping up the action and keeping things tense both above and below ground as Ryder's clock ticks to a dangerous deadline. Altogether, Scott's "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" isn't a bad movie, but it isn't half as good as Joseph Sargent's original nail-biter. Travolta makes a solid villain, unstable as all get-out, but Robert Shaw was better in the first film. If you haven't seen the 1974 original, then you don't know what you are missing. Prepare yourself for a great deal of profanity in "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" and several violent shoot-outs, especially one street shoot-out where two men perish in a barrage of gunfire.
Monday, June 8, 2009
FILM REVIEW OF ''THE HANGOVER'' (2009)
“Old School” director Todd Phillips finds himself in fine form once again with a farcically funny, guys-gone-crazy, hootenanny “The Hangover” (**** out of ****), the flip side of the darker 1998 Christian Slater facsimile “Very Bad Things.” Starring Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha, and Heather Graham, this side-splitting Sin City ‘lost weekend’ gives new meaning to the old adage “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.’ A riotous, rip-snorting, R-rated, road-trip comedy from fade-in to fade-out, this opus about three groomsmen and a bachelor sowing wild oats takes many unexpected twists and turns throughout its hysterical 99 minutes to keep you laughing long after the end credits. “Four Christmases” scribes Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, who also penned “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,” have concocted a fresh, funny, and far-out misadventure that consistently delivers laughs based on the comic formula of incongruity. Our sympathetic heroes spend the entire time behind the eight ball dealing with one trial and tribulation after another so outlandish that you cannot help by howl at each new revelation.
Doug Billings (Justin Bartha of the “National Treasure” movies) is due to wed his wealthy fiancée Tracy Garner (Sasha Barrese of “Legally Blonde”) in two days. Before he gets hitched, Doug’s two best buddies—school teacher Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper of “He’s Just Not That Into You”) and dentist Stu Price (Ed Helms of “Semi-Pro”)—along with Tracy’s weird brother Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis of TV’s “Tru Calling”) take him to Vegas for a last-minute blow-out. Tracy’s father Sid (Jeffrey Tambor 0f “Hellboy 2: The Golden Army”) hands Doug the keys to his classic Mercedes convertible and entrusts its care to him. Sid admonishes Doug not to let Alan get behind the wheel, and Doug and his cronies hit the road for Caesar’s Palace. No sooner do they arrive than they alter their plans. First, they check themselves into an expensive $4, 200 a night villa. Second, they ascend to the roof to toast Doug’s future with shots of Jagermeister. Third, cretinous Alan laces their liquor with Rohypnol or roofies, a date-rape drug that he mistakenly believes is Ecstasy so they can really enjoy themselves.
Phil, Stu, and Alan awaken the next day to a trashed villa. Alan waddles off to take a whiz and discovers that a real-live tiger—stripes, claws, and all—is lounging in their bathroom. Our heroes regroup and deduce that they have spent the wildest weekend of their lives. Phil wears a medical bracelet from his night in the emergency room where doctors treated him for a concussion. Not only has Stu lost one of his front teeth, but he has also lost his mother’s Holocaust ring that he planned to give to his girlfriend Melissa (Rachael Harris of “The Soloist”), when he proposes marriage to her. Incidentally, Melissa believes the boys are enjoying a wine tasting weekend in the woods rather than a bachelor party in Vegas. Nothing really awful happens to Alan because he qualifies as his own worst enemy. Alan discovers, however, that they have an infant in their closet. When the guys descend to the parking lot for their Mercedes, they are surprised when the valets whip a Las Vegas police cruiser up to the entrance for them.
Principally, our heroes remember nothing from the previous eight hours thanks to the roofies. Worse, they find neither hide nor hair of Doug. Indeed, Doug has vanished. Phil, Stu, and Alan set out to retrace their evening’s revelry in an effort to recover Doug. Stu learns he has married a stripper, Jade (Heather Graham of “Say It Isn’t So”), who is wearing his mother’s Holocaust ring, while a couple of Asian thugs want to pound them into the pavement for stealing $80-thousand from their whiny boss, Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong of “Role Models”), who has lost is dough as well as his duds.
Todd Phillips relates most of this madcap merriment in flashback. No stranger to comedy, Phillips also helmed “School for Scoundrels’ and “Road Trip,” and he keeps the humor in high gear. One of the funniest scenes finds our hapless heroes making a deal with the Las Vegas Police to drop their grand theft auto charges if they participate in a tazer demonstration. The LVPD let elementary school aged children tazer them. Eventually, our heroes find Doug but they also have to tangle with Mike Tyson as well as Doug’s testy fiancée. Tracy demands unequivocally that they haul themselves back to L.A. for the wedding. Predictably, our heroes damage Sid’s priceless Mercedes and snap scores of incriminating photos of themselves at play. Unlike “Very Bad Things,” “The Hangover” will keep you doubled up in hysterics!
Doug Billings (Justin Bartha of the “National Treasure” movies) is due to wed his wealthy fiancée Tracy Garner (Sasha Barrese of “Legally Blonde”) in two days. Before he gets hitched, Doug’s two best buddies—school teacher Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper of “He’s Just Not That Into You”) and dentist Stu Price (Ed Helms of “Semi-Pro”)—along with Tracy’s weird brother Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis of TV’s “Tru Calling”) take him to Vegas for a last-minute blow-out. Tracy’s father Sid (Jeffrey Tambor 0f “Hellboy 2: The Golden Army”) hands Doug the keys to his classic Mercedes convertible and entrusts its care to him. Sid admonishes Doug not to let Alan get behind the wheel, and Doug and his cronies hit the road for Caesar’s Palace. No sooner do they arrive than they alter their plans. First, they check themselves into an expensive $4, 200 a night villa. Second, they ascend to the roof to toast Doug’s future with shots of Jagermeister. Third, cretinous Alan laces their liquor with Rohypnol or roofies, a date-rape drug that he mistakenly believes is Ecstasy so they can really enjoy themselves.
Phil, Stu, and Alan awaken the next day to a trashed villa. Alan waddles off to take a whiz and discovers that a real-live tiger—stripes, claws, and all—is lounging in their bathroom. Our heroes regroup and deduce that they have spent the wildest weekend of their lives. Phil wears a medical bracelet from his night in the emergency room where doctors treated him for a concussion. Not only has Stu lost one of his front teeth, but he has also lost his mother’s Holocaust ring that he planned to give to his girlfriend Melissa (Rachael Harris of “The Soloist”), when he proposes marriage to her. Incidentally, Melissa believes the boys are enjoying a wine tasting weekend in the woods rather than a bachelor party in Vegas. Nothing really awful happens to Alan because he qualifies as his own worst enemy. Alan discovers, however, that they have an infant in their closet. When the guys descend to the parking lot for their Mercedes, they are surprised when the valets whip a Las Vegas police cruiser up to the entrance for them.
Principally, our heroes remember nothing from the previous eight hours thanks to the roofies. Worse, they find neither hide nor hair of Doug. Indeed, Doug has vanished. Phil, Stu, and Alan set out to retrace their evening’s revelry in an effort to recover Doug. Stu learns he has married a stripper, Jade (Heather Graham of “Say It Isn’t So”), who is wearing his mother’s Holocaust ring, while a couple of Asian thugs want to pound them into the pavement for stealing $80-thousand from their whiny boss, Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong of “Role Models”), who has lost is dough as well as his duds.
Todd Phillips relates most of this madcap merriment in flashback. No stranger to comedy, Phillips also helmed “School for Scoundrels’ and “Road Trip,” and he keeps the humor in high gear. One of the funniest scenes finds our hapless heroes making a deal with the Las Vegas Police to drop their grand theft auto charges if they participate in a tazer demonstration. The LVPD let elementary school aged children tazer them. Eventually, our heroes find Doug but they also have to tangle with Mike Tyson as well as Doug’s testy fiancée. Tracy demands unequivocally that they haul themselves back to L.A. for the wedding. Predictably, our heroes damage Sid’s priceless Mercedes and snap scores of incriminating photos of themselves at play. Unlike “Very Bad Things,” “The Hangover” will keep you doubled up in hysterics!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
FILM REVIEW OF "METROPOLIS" (1927)
As one of the earliest examples of cinematic science fiction and fantasy, "Destiny" director Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (**** out of ****) ranks as an unparalleled achievement in its size, scope, and vision. Forty years would elapse before Stanley Kubrick's “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) would rival Lang's epic spectacle about a troubled, dystopian society fractured along the fault lines of the economic inequality that isolated the haves and the have-nots. Nevertheless, nothing could ever be said to surpass "Metropolis" as a film of scale, special effects, and surrealism. According to Frank Miller at the Turner Classic Movies Website in his Overview Article about "Metropolis, "Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou were influenced by several writers: "They drew ideas from a variety of sources, including Karel Capek's play about a robot revolt, R.U.R.; the pioneering Soviet science fiction film "Aelita" (1924); and H.G. Wells' novels." Miller describes "Metropolis" as "the most influential science fiction film of all time." Miller may be going out on a limb to make sure an assertion, but the limb that he treads on his very sturdy. "Metropolis" deals with machines that allow its futuristic society to flourish and how those machines govern mankind's relationships. Nevertheless, moviegoers should keep in mind that "Metropolis" was not the first science fiction film. The definition of science fiction here is fiction of a speculative sort set in the future. French filmmaker Georges Méliès' short, 14-minute, black & white silent film "A Trip to the Moon" aka "Le voyage dans la lune" (1903) and the Soviet film "Aelita" (1924) preceded "Metropolis."
The preamble encapsulates the film's timeless, universal message: "It has a moral that grows on the pillar of understanding. The mediator between the brain and muscle must be the heart.” “Metropolis" inspired generations of filmmakers with its use of state-of-the-art visual effects that transformed the science fiction film. Thea von Harbou's saga about an evil robot designed by a vengeful inventor to impersonate a flesh & blood female Christ figure and incite anarchy can clearly be traced as a source of inspiration to many contemporary sci-fi films and television shows, such as the "Terminator" franchise, "Robocop" franchise, "Blade Runner," "Total Recall," "I, Robot," “Logan’s Run,” “The Fifth Element,” "Westworld," and Battlestar Galactic.” The "Metropolis" robot was not the first robot, but it was unmistakably the seminal one that sired a long line of cinematic robots. Robots appeared in films as early as Italian filmmaker André Deed's "The Mechanical Man" (1921)about a robot gone berserk, but only bits and pieces of the film have survived the ravages of time.
Meanwhile, according to Dominik Zunt at The Karel Čapek website, Čapek introduced the public to the word "robot" in his play R.U.R.("Rossum's Universal Robots")in 1920. Specifically, Čapek's drama took place in a factory that builds artificial people designated as 'robots.' Earlier examples of robots can be found in literature, especially the Greek and Roman myths. Indeed, robots are to sci-fi films what horses are to westerns. The famous science fiction author Isaac Asimov has written many novels and short stories about robots. The famous transformation scene where the robot turns into a human foreshadows the "Frankenstein" franchise.
Many detractors of Lang's visionary work—primarily noted sci-fi author H.G. Wells--derided it as shallow and Wells' criticisms are not without some justification. Indeed, the characters lack depth because they represent archetypes instead of individuals in this larger-than-life story set in the year 2000. The spectacle, this Marxist chronicle of humanity at odds with itself over machinery, and the anarchy that emerges from this division makes "Metropolis" a memorable mediation about our flawed society, part sci-fi, part horror and a statement about the incompatibility that comes about between those who control and those who are controlled. In this instance, those in control are the heads and those that carry out of the orders of those in control are the hands. Again, von Harbou’s theme re-echoes with greater intensity. The virtuous Maria would say that the head and the hands would need a mediator and the mediator would be the heart. You cannot understand and appreciate science fiction as a cinematic genre until you see that every sci-fi film owes a debt of gratitude to Lang's masterly work of genius. Actually, while Lang would make many great movies in a long career, the legendary Austrian director never made another sci-fi film that surpassed this milestone.
A malevolent robot, messianic crusaders, a patriarchal titan of industry, a vindicative mad scientist, and masses of mindless men and women enslaved by the patriarch constitute the array of characters in this milestone of German Expressionist cinema that embraces Art-Deco in his architectural designs. Scenarist Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang assembled these protagonists and antagonists for the clash of the century with visuals that were designed to overwhelm 1920’s audiences by their sheer beauty and grandeur. In the annals of science fiction film, these special effects, involving the use of mirrors to supplement shots of live action, matte paintings for sprawling cityscapes, and miniatures of the city, were singular. All the planes, trains, and automobiles in the long shots were done either with wires pulling them along or shot-action photography. Reportedly, Lang got the idea for his cityscape from a trip to Manhattan, but there are too many undocumented stories about Lang and his inspiration so you’d have to read the biographies available about his life to sort out the fiction from the facto. One thing is certain Lang was more a film dictator than a director and he toiled endlessly and made his cast and collaborators toil to forge his vision. Lang drove his actors, actresses, and technical crew like a slave driver and often exhibited a sense of perfectionism that defied civility and common sense. He amounted to a cinematic Herod.
While “Metropolis” qualifies as sci-fi, the film also dabbles in the disaster film. The villainous father of the hero, Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel), enlists the evil inventor, C.A. Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), to create a robot look-alike of the virginal heroine, Maria, who preaches a gospel of sorts to unit the workers. Rotwang dresses in dark colors, has wind-blown hair, and wears a black glove on his right hand. Fredersen wants Rotwang to forge a robot that can assume the identity of Maria (Brigitte Helm), mislead the masses, and get them to destroy themselves. Joh has obtained secret plans about meetings among the workers in the catacombs and wants to thwart them. When they learn about the meeting, Rotwang escorts Joh down into the 2000 year old catacombs to witness Maria preaching her gospel of unification. During this scene, Joh spots his son Freder (Gustav Fröhlich) among the workers and watches as he embraces Maria.
Previously, Freder has been smitten by Maria since he saw her first early in the film. She entered the Club of Sons where Freder cavorted with various women. Freder was so stricken by Maria that he descended to the depths where the workers operated the machines and witnessed a meltdown. Joh is worried about his son’s dalliance with the workers because it threatens to destroy everything that he has worked for so many years. In fact, Joh fires his secretary Josaphat (Theodor Loos) because Josaphat didn’t inform him about the incident with the machines. Joh replaces Josaphat with the Thin Man (Franz Rasp) and orders him to keep him constantly abreast of his son’s whereabouts. Eventually, the false Maria does mislead the workers into destroying the Heart Machine and the loss of power leads to a flood that wipes out their homes. Grot, the foreman in charge of the machines, warns Joh, but he orders Grot to open the gates so that the workers can destroy the Heart Machine. The evil Maria leads the men and women workers alike to the machine hall, but she slips out a back exit while they destroy the machines. What the workers fail to realize is that the destruction of the Heart machine.
Meanwhile, Freder and the real Maria rescue the children below as the flood waters rise from an underground river that Joh had constructed. They use the air shafts to escape from the depth and take the children to the Club of the Sons above the earth. At the same time, Grot alerts the workers about the dangers of what they have done and how it will jeopardize their children. The furious workers now want to kill Maria. The evil Maria has gone to a nightclub where she is celebrating her triumphant masquerade over the workers. The nightclub revelers leave the club with Maria on their shoulders and go out into the night air. The virtuous Maria has gotten separated from Freder and the children and is now being pursued by the mob of angry workers. She runs into the revelers and wicked Maria and the mob grabs the evil Maria. They tie her to a stake and set fire to her. Rotwang captures the real Maria and takes her to the top of the cathedral. Freder spots Rotwang with Maria over his shoulder and sets off in rapid pursuit. They fight on the roof-top and Rotwang plunges to his death below. In the last scene, the virtuous Maria calls on Freder to serve as the mediator between his father and Grot, the worker’s representative, to work together.
“Metropolis” concerns one of Lang’s favorite themes—mob violence. Later, he explored this theme in “M” (1931) with Peter Lorre and “Fury” (1936) with Spencer Tracy. Although “Metropolis” has been available as a cheap, inexpensive public domain film for over 40 years, Kino Video has released a splendid restored version that true movie lovers will genuinely appreciate for its clarity of picture. Meanwhile, this is one hell of a silent German movie!
The preamble encapsulates the film's timeless, universal message: "It has a moral that grows on the pillar of understanding. The mediator between the brain and muscle must be the heart.” “Metropolis" inspired generations of filmmakers with its use of state-of-the-art visual effects that transformed the science fiction film. Thea von Harbou's saga about an evil robot designed by a vengeful inventor to impersonate a flesh & blood female Christ figure and incite anarchy can clearly be traced as a source of inspiration to many contemporary sci-fi films and television shows, such as the "Terminator" franchise, "Robocop" franchise, "Blade Runner," "Total Recall," "I, Robot," “Logan’s Run,” “The Fifth Element,” "Westworld," and Battlestar Galactic.” The "Metropolis" robot was not the first robot, but it was unmistakably the seminal one that sired a long line of cinematic robots. Robots appeared in films as early as Italian filmmaker André Deed's "The Mechanical Man" (1921)about a robot gone berserk, but only bits and pieces of the film have survived the ravages of time.
Meanwhile, according to Dominik Zunt at The Karel Čapek website, Čapek introduced the public to the word "robot" in his play R.U.R.("Rossum's Universal Robots")in 1920. Specifically, Čapek's drama took place in a factory that builds artificial people designated as 'robots.' Earlier examples of robots can be found in literature, especially the Greek and Roman myths. Indeed, robots are to sci-fi films what horses are to westerns. The famous science fiction author Isaac Asimov has written many novels and short stories about robots. The famous transformation scene where the robot turns into a human foreshadows the "Frankenstein" franchise.
Many detractors of Lang's visionary work—primarily noted sci-fi author H.G. Wells--derided it as shallow and Wells' criticisms are not without some justification. Indeed, the characters lack depth because they represent archetypes instead of individuals in this larger-than-life story set in the year 2000. The spectacle, this Marxist chronicle of humanity at odds with itself over machinery, and the anarchy that emerges from this division makes "Metropolis" a memorable mediation about our flawed society, part sci-fi, part horror and a statement about the incompatibility that comes about between those who control and those who are controlled. In this instance, those in control are the heads and those that carry out of the orders of those in control are the hands. Again, von Harbou’s theme re-echoes with greater intensity. The virtuous Maria would say that the head and the hands would need a mediator and the mediator would be the heart. You cannot understand and appreciate science fiction as a cinematic genre until you see that every sci-fi film owes a debt of gratitude to Lang's masterly work of genius. Actually, while Lang would make many great movies in a long career, the legendary Austrian director never made another sci-fi film that surpassed this milestone.
A malevolent robot, messianic crusaders, a patriarchal titan of industry, a vindicative mad scientist, and masses of mindless men and women enslaved by the patriarch constitute the array of characters in this milestone of German Expressionist cinema that embraces Art-Deco in his architectural designs. Scenarist Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang assembled these protagonists and antagonists for the clash of the century with visuals that were designed to overwhelm 1920’s audiences by their sheer beauty and grandeur. In the annals of science fiction film, these special effects, involving the use of mirrors to supplement shots of live action, matte paintings for sprawling cityscapes, and miniatures of the city, were singular. All the planes, trains, and automobiles in the long shots were done either with wires pulling them along or shot-action photography. Reportedly, Lang got the idea for his cityscape from a trip to Manhattan, but there are too many undocumented stories about Lang and his inspiration so you’d have to read the biographies available about his life to sort out the fiction from the facto. One thing is certain Lang was more a film dictator than a director and he toiled endlessly and made his cast and collaborators toil to forge his vision. Lang drove his actors, actresses, and technical crew like a slave driver and often exhibited a sense of perfectionism that defied civility and common sense. He amounted to a cinematic Herod.
While “Metropolis” qualifies as sci-fi, the film also dabbles in the disaster film. The villainous father of the hero, Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel), enlists the evil inventor, C.A. Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), to create a robot look-alike of the virginal heroine, Maria, who preaches a gospel of sorts to unit the workers. Rotwang dresses in dark colors, has wind-blown hair, and wears a black glove on his right hand. Fredersen wants Rotwang to forge a robot that can assume the identity of Maria (Brigitte Helm), mislead the masses, and get them to destroy themselves. Joh has obtained secret plans about meetings among the workers in the catacombs and wants to thwart them. When they learn about the meeting, Rotwang escorts Joh down into the 2000 year old catacombs to witness Maria preaching her gospel of unification. During this scene, Joh spots his son Freder (Gustav Fröhlich) among the workers and watches as he embraces Maria.
Previously, Freder has been smitten by Maria since he saw her first early in the film. She entered the Club of Sons where Freder cavorted with various women. Freder was so stricken by Maria that he descended to the depths where the workers operated the machines and witnessed a meltdown. Joh is worried about his son’s dalliance with the workers because it threatens to destroy everything that he has worked for so many years. In fact, Joh fires his secretary Josaphat (Theodor Loos) because Josaphat didn’t inform him about the incident with the machines. Joh replaces Josaphat with the Thin Man (Franz Rasp) and orders him to keep him constantly abreast of his son’s whereabouts. Eventually, the false Maria does mislead the workers into destroying the Heart Machine and the loss of power leads to a flood that wipes out their homes. Grot, the foreman in charge of the machines, warns Joh, but he orders Grot to open the gates so that the workers can destroy the Heart Machine. The evil Maria leads the men and women workers alike to the machine hall, but she slips out a back exit while they destroy the machines. What the workers fail to realize is that the destruction of the Heart machine.
Meanwhile, Freder and the real Maria rescue the children below as the flood waters rise from an underground river that Joh had constructed. They use the air shafts to escape from the depth and take the children to the Club of the Sons above the earth. At the same time, Grot alerts the workers about the dangers of what they have done and how it will jeopardize their children. The furious workers now want to kill Maria. The evil Maria has gone to a nightclub where she is celebrating her triumphant masquerade over the workers. The nightclub revelers leave the club with Maria on their shoulders and go out into the night air. The virtuous Maria has gotten separated from Freder and the children and is now being pursued by the mob of angry workers. She runs into the revelers and wicked Maria and the mob grabs the evil Maria. They tie her to a stake and set fire to her. Rotwang captures the real Maria and takes her to the top of the cathedral. Freder spots Rotwang with Maria over his shoulder and sets off in rapid pursuit. They fight on the roof-top and Rotwang plunges to his death below. In the last scene, the virtuous Maria calls on Freder to serve as the mediator between his father and Grot, the worker’s representative, to work together.
“Metropolis” concerns one of Lang’s favorite themes—mob violence. Later, he explored this theme in “M” (1931) with Peter Lorre and “Fury” (1936) with Spencer Tracy. Although “Metropolis” has been available as a cheap, inexpensive public domain film for over 40 years, Kino Video has released a splendid restored version that true movie lovers will genuinely appreciate for its clarity of picture. Meanwhile, this is one hell of a silent German movie!
FILM REVIEW OF ''THUNDERBOLT & LIGHTFOOT'' (1974)
Before he ascended to the zenith of his career with the Oscar-winning Best Picture “The Deer Hunter” (1978) and then plummeted to his nadir with the costly western “Heaven’s Gate” (1980) that bankrupted United Artists and forced them to merge with MGM, writer & director Michael Cimino got his start with Clint Eastwood. Initially, Cimino contributed the Russian roulette sequences to the “Dirty Harry” sequel “Magnum Force.” Incidentally, Cimino’s first credit as a scenarist occurred earlier on director Douglas Trumbull’s sci-fi epic “Silent Running,” with Bruce Dern. Anyway, Cimino made his directorial debut with “Thunderbolt & Lightfoot” (**** out of ****). This exciting, tour-de-force Clint Eastwood & Jeff Bridges thriller ranks as one of the top ten perfect crimes heist movies of the 1970s. Cimino’s film chronicles the friendship between an older man, a Korean War veteran on-the-lam, and a hopelessly footloose but fast-talking twentysomething who cherishes grand theft auto, easy women, and cliches.
Ultimately, Joe Doherty, aka ‘Thunderbolt’ (Clint Eastwood) and Lightfoot (Jeff Bridges) team up reluctantly with Eastwood’s old partners-in-crime, Red Leary (George Kennedy of “Cool Hand Luke”) and Goody (Geoffrey Lewis of “High Plains Drifter”) to rob an armored car company. They wind up wielding a 20MM cannon to blow gigantic holes in the wall of the safe. The first third of the action introduces us to the rogue’s gallery of thieves, and the second third details their elaborate plans as they accumulate the necessary tool to pull it off this complicated heist. The third focuses on the frenzied getaway, dissolution of the gang and the final showdown with Red. Not only is “Thunderbolt & Lightfoot” a memorable crime caper with quotable dialogue, but also it is a top-notch drama with interesting characters, including Geoffrey Lewis as a bumbling fool and George Kennedy as a sadistic killer. Jeff Bridges received as Oscar nomination for his sympathetic but ill-fated bad guy. The scenes with Bridges dressing up like a girl to lure a tubby security guard in the alarm systems board are hilarious.
The action opens with scenic long shots of wheat fields to the lovely strains of Dee Barton’s music and we find ourselves near wooden church with a majestic steeple as an old black car wheels up to it. A burly guy in a dark suit and white hat, Dunlop (seasoned heavy Roy Jenson) gets out to stretch his legs as he listens to the choir warble a standard hymn. Cimino switches to another setting as the eponymous young drifter, Lightfoot, limps onto a used car dealership, and admires a Trans Am. The owner, brilliantly played in a bit part by Gregory Walcott) invites him to climb behind the wind and kick the engine over. “She’s cleaner than a cat’s ass,” the dealer brags and then wonders if a youth like Lightfoot can handle her. Lightfoot tells him that he has a wooden leg. While the dealer ponders this sudden shift in conversation, Lightfoot steals the car and tears away across country.
Back at the church, we discover that Clint Eastwood is posing as an Episcopal minister in black suit with a white collar. Just as John ‘Thunderbolt’ Doherty utters some Biblical homilies about the lion lying down with the lamb, Dunlop bursts into the sanctuary with a Mauser machine pistol and triggers a barrage of shots that sends everybody scrambling for the doors, including Doherty. Our hero charges across the wheat field with a wheezing Dunlop in close pursuit, pausing occasionally to fire at his fleet-footed quarry. Doherty flags down a sports car, Lightfoot in the Trans Am, and Lightfoot swerves, plunges into the wheat field, smashes into Dunlop, and kills him. Reversing, Lightfoot races back out of the field. As Lightfoot races past Doherty, Doherty slings himself onto the automobile, climbs through the passenger’s window, dislocating his shoulder, and settles in alongside Lightfoot. Presto, their friendship begins. Along the way, they swap cars with a family and Doherty decides to go his separate way at a bus depot.
Doherty leaves Lightfoot at a bus station. While he is sauntering through the depot, Doherty spots is old crime partner, vindictive Red Leary, and rejoins Lightfoot before he pulls out of town. The guys head off to a motel, and Lightfoot changes vehicle license tags. Along the way, he picks up two cuties, Melody (Catherine Bach) and Gloria (June Fairchild of “Detroit 9000”), and takes them back to the motel. Doherty, we learn, has a bad leg. Gloria inquires about all his scars and he explains that he received them in Korea. When Doherty refuses to take Gloria home at 3 AM, she runs out in her underwear and screams "rape!” Doherty gives her cab fare.
Eventually, Red and Goody catch up with our heroes. Initially, Red tries to ambush in a roadside diner parking lot. Lightfoot leads Red on a careening chase through the mountains with Red blasting away with his carbine but missing. Later, Red and Goody get the drop on them and try to kill them. Doherty disarms Red but refuses to kill him. Instead, he explains he didn’t take the loot from the previous hold-up. They stashed it in a one-room school house. When they returned to get it, the school house had vanished. Lightfoot’s suggests that they rob the same armored car company. Red hates Lightfoot from the get-go, but he cooperates reluctantly as they set up the crime. They take jobs. Goody drives an ice cream wagon. Red is a janitor at a local department store. Doherty goes to work as a wielder. Lightfoot works as a landscaping technician. They live in a trailer and pile their dough together while they plan the heist. Lightfoot tells them about his encounter one afternoon while he was pounding turf and a bored housewife stood in the window with nary a stitch on, beaver and all on display. Naturally, the perverted Red wants to know what Lightfoot did. Lightfoot surprises him by clapping his hand over Leary’s mouth and kissing the back of his hand. Predictably, Leary is furious and wants to beat the hell out of Lightfoot.
Our conspirators get through old gear out of storage, namely the 20 MM cannon. Doherty and Leary invade the Montana Armored supervisor home (Jack Dodson of “The Getaway”) wearing hose, tie them up, and get the combination for the safe. Meanwhile, Lightfoot poses as a woman to get into the alarm systems office and silence the alarms. Doherty masquerades as a cop and brings a prisoner, Leary, up to Montana Armored and bluffs his way inside. They slug the guard unconscious, drag him into the toilet, and tie him up. On the other side of town, Lightfoot does the same thing to the alarms system guy, gagging him and leaving him knotted in ropes in the toilet. While Goody goes to pick up Lightfoot, Doherty and Leary assemble the gun, blast giant holes in the vault wall, and grab the loot. Goody and Lightfoot head to Montana Armored where they hook up with Doherty and Leary, load up the loot and take off, leaving the cannon behind. They plan to sit tight at the nearby drive-in, but they close the trunk on Leary so that his shirttail is hanging out and a fat, red-haired cashier spots it. While the cops converge on Montana Armored, the cashier and manager search the parking lot. Doherty pulls out of the drive-in before the cashier and the manager can bust them, but runs straight into the cops. A chase ensues and shots are fired. Goody and Leary are sprawled in the trunk and Goody dies from a gunshot wound. Leary dumps him on a back trail and then forces Doherty to pull over. He kicks Lightfoot repeatedly until the kid passes out and slugs Doherty. Making off with all the loot and a gun, Leary runs into a road block and the cops pursue him back into town.
Leary evades the cop temporarily, but he crashes into the storefront of the department store where he worked as a custodian. A guard dog attacks him and drags his body off as the authorities show up at the door and decide to leave the dog with its prize alone until the dog handler comes in the following morning. Meanwhile, Doherty gets Lightfoot back to where Leary pushed Goody out and they swap clothes so that Lightfoot is no longer dressed up in drag. Our heroes roam the hills and catch a ride in a pick-up and wind up getting out at the Warsaw exit. They stumble upon a roadside historical park where the one-room school house sits. Although they lost the loot from their robbery, they discover the loot from the original robbery still stashed behind the chalkboard. Doherty buys a Cadillac and picks up Lightfoot. Lightfoot got kicked too many times by Leary and he looks awful. He dies as they are driving through scenic Montana and the movie concludes on a dour note.
Cimino provides recurring comic relief scenes to lighten things up and a number of character actors, such as Gregory Walcott of “Plan 9 From Outer Space,” “Gunsmoke” veteran Dub Taylor as a gas station owner, Vic Tayback of “Alice,” and “Deliverance” redneck Bill McKinney as a psychotic who cruises around in a souped up car with white rabbits galore in his trunk, appear at intervals. “Thunderbolt & Lightfoot” was one of the 1970s stick up movies where the robbers got away with the loot. Indeed, Lightfoot, Goody, and Red are punished, but Doherty gets away, largely because he had lost track of the original money and because he was the most sympathetic of all the robbers. “Thunderbolt & Lightfoot” is a brilliant, sometimes violent, often funny heist thriller that heist fanatics owe it to themselves to watch.
Ultimately, Joe Doherty, aka ‘Thunderbolt’ (Clint Eastwood) and Lightfoot (Jeff Bridges) team up reluctantly with Eastwood’s old partners-in-crime, Red Leary (George Kennedy of “Cool Hand Luke”) and Goody (Geoffrey Lewis of “High Plains Drifter”) to rob an armored car company. They wind up wielding a 20MM cannon to blow gigantic holes in the wall of the safe. The first third of the action introduces us to the rogue’s gallery of thieves, and the second third details their elaborate plans as they accumulate the necessary tool to pull it off this complicated heist. The third focuses on the frenzied getaway, dissolution of the gang and the final showdown with Red. Not only is “Thunderbolt & Lightfoot” a memorable crime caper with quotable dialogue, but also it is a top-notch drama with interesting characters, including Geoffrey Lewis as a bumbling fool and George Kennedy as a sadistic killer. Jeff Bridges received as Oscar nomination for his sympathetic but ill-fated bad guy. The scenes with Bridges dressing up like a girl to lure a tubby security guard in the alarm systems board are hilarious.
The action opens with scenic long shots of wheat fields to the lovely strains of Dee Barton’s music and we find ourselves near wooden church with a majestic steeple as an old black car wheels up to it. A burly guy in a dark suit and white hat, Dunlop (seasoned heavy Roy Jenson) gets out to stretch his legs as he listens to the choir warble a standard hymn. Cimino switches to another setting as the eponymous young drifter, Lightfoot, limps onto a used car dealership, and admires a Trans Am. The owner, brilliantly played in a bit part by Gregory Walcott) invites him to climb behind the wind and kick the engine over. “She’s cleaner than a cat’s ass,” the dealer brags and then wonders if a youth like Lightfoot can handle her. Lightfoot tells him that he has a wooden leg. While the dealer ponders this sudden shift in conversation, Lightfoot steals the car and tears away across country.
Back at the church, we discover that Clint Eastwood is posing as an Episcopal minister in black suit with a white collar. Just as John ‘Thunderbolt’ Doherty utters some Biblical homilies about the lion lying down with the lamb, Dunlop bursts into the sanctuary with a Mauser machine pistol and triggers a barrage of shots that sends everybody scrambling for the doors, including Doherty. Our hero charges across the wheat field with a wheezing Dunlop in close pursuit, pausing occasionally to fire at his fleet-footed quarry. Doherty flags down a sports car, Lightfoot in the Trans Am, and Lightfoot swerves, plunges into the wheat field, smashes into Dunlop, and kills him. Reversing, Lightfoot races back out of the field. As Lightfoot races past Doherty, Doherty slings himself onto the automobile, climbs through the passenger’s window, dislocating his shoulder, and settles in alongside Lightfoot. Presto, their friendship begins. Along the way, they swap cars with a family and Doherty decides to go his separate way at a bus depot.
Doherty leaves Lightfoot at a bus station. While he is sauntering through the depot, Doherty spots is old crime partner, vindictive Red Leary, and rejoins Lightfoot before he pulls out of town. The guys head off to a motel, and Lightfoot changes vehicle license tags. Along the way, he picks up two cuties, Melody (Catherine Bach) and Gloria (June Fairchild of “Detroit 9000”), and takes them back to the motel. Doherty, we learn, has a bad leg. Gloria inquires about all his scars and he explains that he received them in Korea. When Doherty refuses to take Gloria home at 3 AM, she runs out in her underwear and screams "rape!” Doherty gives her cab fare.
Eventually, Red and Goody catch up with our heroes. Initially, Red tries to ambush in a roadside diner parking lot. Lightfoot leads Red on a careening chase through the mountains with Red blasting away with his carbine but missing. Later, Red and Goody get the drop on them and try to kill them. Doherty disarms Red but refuses to kill him. Instead, he explains he didn’t take the loot from the previous hold-up. They stashed it in a one-room school house. When they returned to get it, the school house had vanished. Lightfoot’s suggests that they rob the same armored car company. Red hates Lightfoot from the get-go, but he cooperates reluctantly as they set up the crime. They take jobs. Goody drives an ice cream wagon. Red is a janitor at a local department store. Doherty goes to work as a wielder. Lightfoot works as a landscaping technician. They live in a trailer and pile their dough together while they plan the heist. Lightfoot tells them about his encounter one afternoon while he was pounding turf and a bored housewife stood in the window with nary a stitch on, beaver and all on display. Naturally, the perverted Red wants to know what Lightfoot did. Lightfoot surprises him by clapping his hand over Leary’s mouth and kissing the back of his hand. Predictably, Leary is furious and wants to beat the hell out of Lightfoot.
Our conspirators get through old gear out of storage, namely the 20 MM cannon. Doherty and Leary invade the Montana Armored supervisor home (Jack Dodson of “The Getaway”) wearing hose, tie them up, and get the combination for the safe. Meanwhile, Lightfoot poses as a woman to get into the alarm systems office and silence the alarms. Doherty masquerades as a cop and brings a prisoner, Leary, up to Montana Armored and bluffs his way inside. They slug the guard unconscious, drag him into the toilet, and tie him up. On the other side of town, Lightfoot does the same thing to the alarms system guy, gagging him and leaving him knotted in ropes in the toilet. While Goody goes to pick up Lightfoot, Doherty and Leary assemble the gun, blast giant holes in the vault wall, and grab the loot. Goody and Lightfoot head to Montana Armored where they hook up with Doherty and Leary, load up the loot and take off, leaving the cannon behind. They plan to sit tight at the nearby drive-in, but they close the trunk on Leary so that his shirttail is hanging out and a fat, red-haired cashier spots it. While the cops converge on Montana Armored, the cashier and manager search the parking lot. Doherty pulls out of the drive-in before the cashier and the manager can bust them, but runs straight into the cops. A chase ensues and shots are fired. Goody and Leary are sprawled in the trunk and Goody dies from a gunshot wound. Leary dumps him on a back trail and then forces Doherty to pull over. He kicks Lightfoot repeatedly until the kid passes out and slugs Doherty. Making off with all the loot and a gun, Leary runs into a road block and the cops pursue him back into town.
Leary evades the cop temporarily, but he crashes into the storefront of the department store where he worked as a custodian. A guard dog attacks him and drags his body off as the authorities show up at the door and decide to leave the dog with its prize alone until the dog handler comes in the following morning. Meanwhile, Doherty gets Lightfoot back to where Leary pushed Goody out and they swap clothes so that Lightfoot is no longer dressed up in drag. Our heroes roam the hills and catch a ride in a pick-up and wind up getting out at the Warsaw exit. They stumble upon a roadside historical park where the one-room school house sits. Although they lost the loot from their robbery, they discover the loot from the original robbery still stashed behind the chalkboard. Doherty buys a Cadillac and picks up Lightfoot. Lightfoot got kicked too many times by Leary and he looks awful. He dies as they are driving through scenic Montana and the movie concludes on a dour note.
Cimino provides recurring comic relief scenes to lighten things up and a number of character actors, such as Gregory Walcott of “Plan 9 From Outer Space,” “Gunsmoke” veteran Dub Taylor as a gas station owner, Vic Tayback of “Alice,” and “Deliverance” redneck Bill McKinney as a psychotic who cruises around in a souped up car with white rabbits galore in his trunk, appear at intervals. “Thunderbolt & Lightfoot” was one of the 1970s stick up movies where the robbers got away with the loot. Indeed, Lightfoot, Goody, and Red are punished, but Doherty gets away, largely because he had lost track of the original money and because he was the most sympathetic of all the robbers. “Thunderbolt & Lightfoot” is a brilliant, sometimes violent, often funny heist thriller that heist fanatics owe it to themselves to watch.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
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!
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