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Jagveld (2017)
Predictable But Entertaining Feminist Revenge Opus
This South African made thriller evoked memories of Cornel Wilde's "The Naked Prey," where tribesmen captured a big game hunter, stripped him of his weapons, and then turned him loose, so they could hunt him in the wild. The predicament in director Byron Davis' "Hunting Emma" is considerably different, but the stakes are just as devastating: life and death. A blonde elementary school teacher embarks on her summer vacation only to have her battered car conk out on her in the middle of nowhere. The radiator in her car overheated. Mind you, Emma Le Roux (Leandie du Randt of "Born to Win") is by nature and temperament a pacifist. In fact, she isn't on speaking terms with her boyfriend because he struck a man in a fit of rage, and she wants nothing to do with him. Anyway, after our heroine realizes she needs water for her ravenously thirsty radiator, she hears fired nearby and heads off into the wilderness in the direction of the gunfire. However, Emma isn't prepared for what she encounters. Six ruthless drug traffickers have shot a highway cop, appropriated his vehicle, and plan to liquidate him with extreme prejudice. When she realizes she is in big trouble, she tries to flee, but the villains pursue her and capture her. While they are interrogating her, the wounded cop recovers from his wound and crawls back to his car. The villains are too focused on Emma to notice the cop's stealthy retreat. Of course, this seems a little contrived, but you've got to expect a little hokum out of everything. Predictably, the villains are upset, especially when the injured cop gets back to his car and careens away down the road. One of the villains who wants a taste of Emma's flesh leaves her handcuffed to a post to join his companions as they pursue the cop. Despite her avowed pacifism, Emma was raised by a father who was a military hero, and he passed along to her his infinite wisdom about surviving in the wild. Now, Emma is being stalked by these six dastards, and they have no qualms about killing her. One of them has a high-powered rifle with telescopic sights, so suspense mounts as they follow her.
Despite its sturdy production values and a serviceable but anonymous cast, "Hunting Emma" suffers from a leaden pace. The exposition is clumsy at times, and the suspense wanes during repeated interludes when characters must provide expository information about their behavior. Above average with interesting characters, "Hunting Emma" benefits from more than its share of good moments. Of course, the villains want to rape her, but they never get the chance. Emma makes a credible transition a damsel in distress to a female Rambo, but the depiction of mayhem seems tame at times. The problem is it just isn't trashy enough compared to another damsel in distress epic "I Am Rage." "Hunting Emma" takes itself far too seriously, but you'll be entertained.
Duchess (2024)
Lady Scarlett
British writer & director Neil Marshall knows how to create gripping, white-knuckled, suspense thrillers that keep audiences poised on the edge of their seats. "Duchess" differs little from Marshall's earlier epics about resilient dames. He made "The Descent" (2005), "Doomsday" (2008) and "Centurion" (2010). Predictably, many critics have derided it as just another derivative empire building crime saga. Mind you, virtually every major mobster movie from "Little Caesar" (1931) to "The Godfather" (1972) to "Wrath of Man" (2021) has chronicled the formation of a criminal organization. Naturally, "Duchess" imitates them in some respects, but Marshall spins everything here from the dame's standpoint. Indeed, "Duchess charts the trajectory of our heroine's efforts to avenge the murder of her gangster boyfriend. A slam-bang revenge epic from fade-in to fadeout, "Duchess" is riddled with gunplay and violence galore which may sicken squeamish souls. Several men are torn apart by a ravenous tiger!
Scarlet Monaghan (Charlotte Kirk of "The Reckoning") is the daughter of a low-life, English hooligan, Frank Monaghan (Colm Meaney of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"), who landed in prison for shooting a guard during a bungled robbery. Not surprisingly, Scarlet feels deeply repelled by the biological fact she shares the same evil blood pulsing through Frank's repugnant veins. Initially, this savvy, blonde, blue-eyed, babe picks pockets for her crime boss. Things change for Scarlet, however, when a rugged, good-looking, diamond smuggler, Robert 'Rob' McNaughton (Robert Winchester of "Strike Back"), lays his eyes on her. At first, she wants nothing to do with him. She owes her success as a pickpocket to her thuggish benefactor until he beats her up in a jealous rage. Inevitably, Rob wins her heart, and they become inseparable. He introduces Scarlet to his big-league underworld cronies. Life with Rob constitutes a fairy tale come true for Scarlet until treachery bursts their bubble. One of Rob's longtime partners of 20 years, Tom Sullivan (Colin Egglesfield of "Reprisal"), emerges as his sworn enemy. He is jealous because Rob spends more time with Scarlet than with him, and it's undermining their partnership. He orders Rob's execution. Miraculously, Scarlet survives certain death at the hands of Tom's gunmen, and then she rechristens herself as 'Duchess.' Earlier, one of Rob's henchmen had addressed Scarlet as 'Duchess,' so it isn't surprising she adopted the title. Rob's bosom buddies, ex-SAS operative Danny Oswald (Sean Pertwee of "Gotham") and former Congo mercenary Billy Baraka (Hoji Fortuna of "Banzo"), form up alongside Scarlet as she plots payback for Tom and his ilk who shattered her life.
Mind you, anything easily attained is hardly worth the effort, and 'Duchess' finds that doling out vengeance is no Sunday picnic. She sloughs off all forms of naivete as she goes in with guns blazing. Along with She assembles a small cadre of friends along with Danny and Billy, and they attend to the dastards who betrayed Robert. Happily, Duchess lives long enough to see the tables turned on her momentarily when the opposition outnumbers them. She finds herself strapped to a chair with electrodes attached to her and a madman who drools to hear her scream. Our anti-heroine pays the price for being a gangster. Nevertheless, she is shrewd enough to have a back-up plan, so she survives the ordeal.
Clocking in at 114 minutes, this intense, R-rated, melodrama shifts gears from scenes of bullet-blasting shootouts to loquacious, dialogue-laden interludes with necessary exposition. Nevertheless, Marshall more than compensates for these bouts of logorrhea with some blazing shootouts and harrowing torture scenes. For example, one criminal refuses to sell out his gang until 'Duchess' applies a scorching iron to his crotch. Right up to the final few moments of the fireworks, our anti-heroine is constantly dodging adversity, so the suspense never slackens until the end credits roll. Repeatedly, throughout the action, gangsters who betray our anti-heroic protagonists find themselves on the brink of a pit in Robert's mansion where a ravenous tiger prowls about awaiting his next meal. Several villains take this fatal plunge. If you can handle the obstacle course of suspense and mayhem that Marshall drums up, you'll enjoy "Duchess" as a first-rate crime thriller.
Rawhide: Incident of the Tumbleweed (1959)
The Premiere Episode of "Rawhide"
Director Richard Whorf's "Incident of the Tumbleweed" served as the first episode of the 217 that comprised "Rawhide" during its eight seasons on CBS-TV between 1959-1965. Trail boss Gil Favor (Eric Fleming of "Curse of the Undead") and his crew of cattle drovers cross trails with a tumbleweed wagon transporting seven unsavory prisoners Ft Craig to stand trial. Among these reprobates is a woman, Dallas Storm (Terry Moore of "Mighty Joe Young"), but every one of them is biding their time, planning an escape, while Dallas' husband, Luke (Val Dufour of "The Undead"), and his gun hands are tracking them. He is riding hard to catch up to the tumbleweed so he can free Dallas as well as one of his outlaw minions, Lennie Dawson (John Larch of "Dirty Harry") before they reach their destination. Marshal Wilt Jackson (Frank Wilcox of "Pony Express") and Deputy Art Gray (Bob Steele of "The Big Sleep") stop to make camp near the herd. During the preparations for camp, the prisoners endeavor to escape. First, they kill the cankerous deputy, who slapped Dallas around when she struck his rifle barrel with her handcuffs. Marshal Jackson gets off a shot but he takes a slug in the chest. Before the prisoners can make good their escape, Mr. Favor's drovers force them to surrender. Wounded so badly he cannot sit upright but must lay on a stretcher in the tumbleweed wagon with the seven, Marshal Jackson persuades a reluctant Gil Favor and Rowdy Yates (Clint Eastwood of "Hang'em High") to resume the journey to Fort Craig. Favor leaves Pete Nolan (Sheb Wooley of "High Noon") in charge of the herd. This journey of hardship turns out to be quite dramatic as Gil and Rowdy contend with the unruly prisoners. One of them, a scheming Englishman, Sinclair (Tom Conway of "Cat People"), who murdered his wife when she refused to include him in her monetary inheritance, giving it instead to her family, poses as much a problem as Dallas and Lennie. Lennie cannot stand Sinclair and doesn't trust him. Eventually, Luke catches up with the tumbleweed during a treacherous river crossing, and indiscriminate fireworks erupt. Rowdy catches a bullet in the upper arm, and Luke brings their progress to a halt. When he learns Sinclair tried to strangle Dallas, Luke shoulders his Winchester repeating rifle, aims it at the tumbleweed wagon stalled in the middle of the river, and shoots Sinclair without a qualm. The doomed Englishman pitches sideways into the river. Luke turns his attention to both Gil and Rowdy, and he plans to kill them. Earlier, during the river crossing fracas, Dallas plunged into the river, and Gil saved her from drowning. Since neither Gil nor Rowdy are actual lawmen, Dallas objects to Luke's decision to murder them in cold blood. Snatching his revolver when he is not expecting her to do so, she shoots him.
Mind you, plenty of action and intrigue unfold in his somewhat implausible episode penned by "Jesse James" scribe Curtis Kenyon and Fred Freiberger of "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms." Several people die in this horse opera. Presumably, one of them survives the conditions under which he must be carried across rugged terrain to his destination. Clint Eastwood fans know he made a rather similar film-"Hang'em High"--after he returned from Italy to establish his own movie production company Malpaso. In "Hang'em High," Clint cast himself as a wrongly accused cattle rustler who winds up stuck in a similar tumbleweed wagon. Interesting enough, the deputy sheriff in this "Rawhide" episode-Bob Steele-played one of the vigilantes that hanged Clint's character. There is just enough conflict and complications in "Incident of the Tumbleweed" to keep viewers alert and aware.
Black Angel (1946)
A Disappointing Murder Mystery
Just when you think you have Dan Duryea pegged playing a good guy, "Sherlock Holmes" director Roy William Neill and "Double Alibi" scenarist Roy Chanslor fool us and reveal him as a dastard. "The Black Angel," a brooding black & white, Universal Pictures' whodunit drawn from Cornell Woolrich's novel, exemplifies misdirection like you've never seen it before. At this point, I'm obliged to say most of what follows will take all the surprise out of this talkative 1946 thriller for anybody who likes to solve the murder before the filmmakers tell all themselves. Although it is billed as a film noir, "The Black Angel" differs from most film noirs. First, shadows are few and far between. Second, we have no idea who did the killing. A formally attired gentleman, Kirk Bennett (John Phillips of "John Paul Jones"), entered the woman's apartment where popular vocalist Mavis Marlowe (Constance Dowling of "Blind Spot") lives and discovers her corpse strewn on the carpet of her bedroom. She has been strangled to death. Bennett had come to see Mavis who had been blackmailing him about their relationship. He wanted to end the blackmail. Bennett displays incredibly poor judgment after he entered Marlowe's apartment. He left behind his fingerprints on a small automatic pistol he found on Marlowe's bed. No sooner does he find the murdered dame's corpse than he hears another door open. Rushing into another room, Bennett watches as a door swings shut, but he saw nobody. Earlier, our protagonist, Martin Blair (Dan Duryea of "Winchester '73"), had sought to see Mavis in her exclusive Wilshire Apartment. However, the door man refused to let him go up and visit her. Earlier, Mavis had phoned the door man and instructed him not to let her ex-husband come up and see her. We learn early on Blair is a weak individual who wrestles with alcoholism. Happily, Blair has a couple of friends run interference for him, and they manage to keep him from landing behind barsl. Professionally, Blair plays piano as well as pens songs. He wrote the hit tune "Heartbreak" for his former wife Mavis. Since they divorced, Blair's life is spiraling into the bottle when he endeavors to meet her one last time. Anyway, all evidence points to Bennett, particularly since he was seen rushing out of Mavis' apartment by her maid. Predictably, Homicide Detective Captain Flood (Broderick Crawford of "All The King's Men") arrests Bennett and tries to sweat a confession out of him, but he never cracks. Later, on trial for Mavis' murder, Bennett is sentenced to die in the gas chamber. Bennett's long-suffering spouse, Catherine (June Vincent of "Shed No Tears"), believes her husband is innocent and sets out to prove it despite the death sentence that hangs over her hubby. Eavesdropping on a conversation, Catherine learns about Blair and his relationship with Mavis. She tracks him down and wants any information he can give her to save her husband from the gas chamber. Bennett and Blair know about a heart-shaped brooch that Bennett said was stolen off Mavis' body while he was distracted in her apartment. Eventually, the trail leads to a sinister nightclub owner, Marko (Peter Lorre of "M") who emerges as a tailor-made red herring. Blair and Catherine audition for him and land a job with Catherine warbling tunes while Blair plinks away on the ivory keys. She suspects Marko killed Mavis. Sadly, the cops prove otherwise, so Marko is off the hook and Catherine is dreading his husband's forthcoming execution date. All along we're told Blair was crazy about Mavis and wanted to get back together with her but she couldn't stand him. We know about Blair being a message in a bottle drunk. Eventually, we learn that he suffered from alcoholic amnesia. At the last minute, Blair realizes he murdered Mavis and confesses to Captain Flood. My problem with this outcome is simple. Initially, the burly door man barred Blair from going up to see Mavis. The filmmakers show Blair being turned away. Presumably, he was not able to gain entry to Mavis' apartment, but somehow he did break in and kill her. Blair stacks up as a film noir protagonist. He is weak and vulnerable and he cannot control himself nor his drinking. After he teams up with Catherine in an effort to get some confidential information from Marko's safe, he learns Catherine doesn't want to get into a relationship with him. Blair guzzles himself virtually to death, and the police pick him up and take him to sanitarium where he confined to a bed with his wrists buckled to the rails. Blair convinces the doctor to contact Flood because he-Blair-has relived the killing in his mind.
The surprise is that the sympathetic Martin Blair turns out to be the homicidal killer. Of course, murder mystery filmmakers always conceal something from audiences, but the eleventh-hour reversal is just too convenient. Personally, I'd rather have seen Marko get nailed for Mavis' murder. Mind you, it is rather disconcerting to learn the man who we have seen behave so sympathetically is a cold-bloodied murder. "The Black Angel" was Roy William Neill's final film.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)
The Hills Are Alive With Axel F
Happily, freshman helmer Mike Molloy's legacy sequel "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F" surpasses John Landis' lame "Beverly Hills Cop 3," but it only occasionally generates the rowdy, robust energy of either Martin Brest's original or Tony Scott's follow-up. What this Netflix installment does best is deliver four-star fan service with virtually everybody whose live alive reprising their original roles. Some of those holdovers have more screen time than others. For example, John Ashton's Taggart has more scenes (or at least seems to) than Judge Reinhold's Billy Rosewood. We see Rosewood early in the action and then he goes AWOL until the go-for-broke finale. At times, this demolition derby, corrupt cop thriller wallows in too much yap and not enough snap. This time around Axel (Eddie Murphy) tangles with his estranged adult daughter Jane Saunders (Taylour Paige of "White Boy Rick") as much as he does the dastardly villains. Production values are top-notch as one would expect from producers Jerry Bruckheimer & Lorenzo di Bonaventura and the music is perfect with a sufficient but never indulgent content of bullet blazing nonsense. Not surprisingly, the trigger-happy villains waste hundreds of rounds of ammo on Axel and company in this outing. Despite its R-rating, "Axel F" never ramps up its violence with an excessively high body count with blood and gore galore nor spews the kind off incendiary profanity we've come to tolerate for an R-rated feature. Nudity is nowhere to be seen. Indeed, it's almost two-hour runtime is required so audiences can learn about Axel's daughter who practices law in L. A., and is serving as defense for a young man charged with killing a cop. Of course, a standard part of any mystery thriller is the reams of exposition required to bring audiences up to snuff in all the details while planting clues. Naturally, for the sake of some drama, Axel and Jane thrive on father and daughter issues. Jane wants Axel back on a plane to Detroit, so she can get on with her life and see her client exonerated. The daughter's rage seemed slight and she never really tore Axel another one for his faulty fatherhood. Kevin Bacon looks like he had a blast as the overconfident villain. The set-up with Axel alienating himself during a hockey game heist gets the action off to a nimble start with Axel driving a garbage truck around the Motor City in a hellbent-for-leather chase. Altogether, "Axel F" qualifies as above-average.
The Torch (1950)
Love At Hindsight!!!
Hispanic writer & director Emilio Fernández's turn of the century western "The Torch," set amidst the turbulent Mexican Revolution, chronicles a venerable 'attraction of opposites' romance between a hot-tempered revolutionary Army General José Juan Reyes (Pedro Armendáriz) and a tempestuous landowner's daughter (Paulette Goddard of "Modern Times"), who is dead set against loving him. Gilbert Roland co-stars as a solemn Catholic priest named Father Sierra who stands between the two. As it turns out, Reyes and Sierra were childhood friends, and the bond of friendship still thrives after all their years of separation. When the General lays his eyes on the privileged María Dolores Penafiel, he experiences love at first sight and sets out to court her. The conflict is María wants nothing to do with him. She has already set her sights on a doctor, Dr. Robert Stanley (Walter Reed of "The Destructors"), and has no intentions of changing her mind.
Nevertheless, María's stubborn attitude doesn't discourage Reyes' amorous efforts to woo her. Initially, General Reyes and his revolutionary army captured the city where María lives and ordered the executions of the wealthiest men. Foremost among the landowners was María's father, Don Carlos Penafiel (Julio Villarreal of "The Beast of Hollow Mountain") and Reyes was in no mood to be lenient until he learned Don Carlos was María's father. The first half of this 1950, black & white, adventure/romance concerned General Reyes and his army occupying the city and driving out Government troops. Immediately, he orders firing squads to eliminate the wealthy. The second half deals with his efforts to win María's heart. Now, María hates the General passionately. Similarly, she wants nothing to do with this upstart ruffian. Eventually, in Reyes knocks her down after she refuses to comply with his wishes. The friendship with Father Sierra teeters in the balance because Reyes slapped María and the priest interceded. Just moments before this 83-minute epic winds down, María changes her attitude toward the General, seeing him in a new light) and accompanies his army and Reyes as Government troops reenter the city.
"The Torch" boasts the evocative cinematography of the legendary Gabriel Figueroa. Literally, his camera set-ups and the angles that Figueroa adopted are nothing short of brilliant. His use of lighting enhances his imagery. Performances throughout are robust, especially in the scenes coupling General Reyes with María.
Strange Alibi (1941)
A Slam-Bang, Undercover Police Thriller
"Bullet Scars" director David Ross Lederman's ballistically-paced, B-movie thriller "Strange Alibi" casts Warner Brothers contract actor Arthur Kennedy as rogue detective Joe Geary. Geary staggers the chief of police with a punch in the face in front of departmental witnesses after the chief questioned his moral integrity. Police Chief Sprague (Jonathan Hale of "The Black Parachute") refers to Geary's chummy rapport with known criminals. Naturally, our hero is suspended. However, things aren't as incriminating as they appear. Later, we learn Sprague conjured up this elaborate ruse in a desperate effort to unearth corruption within his department. Unfortunately, our hero cannot risk letting his devoted girlfriend, Alice Devlin (Joan Perry of "Shakedown"), in on this secret, so she worries about him. Meantime, the mob welcomes Geary with open arms, and he proves his worth as a tenacious bill collector.
Meantime, notorious gambler King Carney (Herbert Rawlinson of "Dark Victory") has returned to town. Carney has agreed to sing like a canary for the grand jury! No sooner has he arrived than somebody mows him down in a barrage of scorching lead. When Carney dies, the prosecution's case collapses. At the same time, the police search for Carney's driver Louie Butler. However, before they can grille Butler, the guy hangs himself in his cell! What nobody knows until the end is Reddick killed both Carney and Butler! The coroner has his suspicions, but he cannot prove Butler didn't kill himself. As it turns out, another hoodlum fresh out of the pen, Benny McKaye (Joe Downing of "Danger in the Air"), may know something but he refuses to talk. Geary is poised to expose the corrupt officials in the department when he arranges a secret rendezvous with the Chief. Tragically, everything goes to haywire. Another high-ranking but corrupt cop, Lieutenant-Detective Pagle (Stanley Andrews of "Cry Terror"), barges into the room, blasting away at Sprague and hitting him. The chief gets off one shot, but his bullet accidentally strikes Geary rather than the diabolical Pagle. Strewn face down on the floor with a head wound from where Sprague's stray slug grazed him, Geary lies unconscious at Pagle's feet. Naturally, Pagle puts the gun that he riddled Sprague with in Joe's hand, so when the police swarm into the premises, they believe Geary killed the police chief. Predictably, Geary protests his innocence vehemently at his trial. He divulges Sprague's decision to use him as an undercover agent to smoke out corruption. Nevertheless, the jury sentences him to life!
Mind you, this scenario about a cashiered flatfoot infiltrating the mob is as antiquated as Methuselah. Nevertheless, time after time, Hollywood has resorted to this proven formula with success. Typically, the hero and his confidante are the only people privy to their plan. The chances of their best laid plans backfiring on them is ever-present. Moreover, if anything goes amiss, the hero will find himself knee deep in danger, unless his confidante stashed evidence of their collusion. Since Sprague trusted nobody, both Geary and he were running an extreme risk. Since nobody can corroborate Geary's revelations, our hero cannot convince anybody of his innocence.
Geary lands in prison where he tangles with a sadistic guard, Monson (Howard Da Silva of "1776"), who terrorizes him enough that our hero plans to break out of stir with another convict, Tex (John Ridgely of "The Big Sleep"), who unbeknownst to anybody has stashed a car for this very occasion. During their careening getaway with cops racing after them like maniacs on motorcycles and in cruisers, Geary risks their lives with his daredevil driving. Recklessly, Geary avoids a collision with a speeding train at a railroad crossing. Quickly, the authorities resume their pursuit. Sadly, the second time Geary tries to pull this death-defying feat, our protagonist cannot beat the locomotive and careens off the road and skids to a halt. Alas, Tex doesn't survive this close encounter. Nevertheless, Geary manages to get back to town into one piece. Imagine his chagrin when he learns McKaye, the only man who can clear him, has died! For all practical purposes, Geary's goose looks cooked!
Nevertheless, our hero improvises and sets McKaye's corpse in a car and then parks the vehicle in plain sight on a city street. Now, the audacious Geary surprises the reform-minded governor, Phelps (Charles Trowbridge of "The Paleface"), in the latter's hotel room. Holding him at gunpoint, Geary dopes out in detail his own outlandish ploy. Although McKaye is kaput, Geary persuades Phelps to notify the police about the gangster's presence in a parked car and prompts them to send out men to arrest the hoodlum. Since the police believe McKaye may still be alive, Reddick and Pagle decide to handle it themselves but they end up incriminating themselves. Imagine Phelps' shock when he watches the cops dispatched to arrest McKaye blast the car with a fusillade of gunfire nobody could survive. Mind you, not only does Phelps witness this homicidal act, but he can also identify both Reddick and Pagle. Now, the shoe is on the other foot, and the foolish villains have incriminated themselves!
Clocking in efficiently at an adrenaline-fueled 63 minutes, "Strange Alibi" lives up to its title. In fact, the words 'strange alibi' appear in the newspaper flashes inserted during Geary's trial. Arthur Kennedy delivers another charismatic performance as the wronged hero, while Howard De Silva stands out as Geary's abrasive guard in the prison scenes. Director David Ross Lederman never lets the momentum slacken during this slam-bang, white-knuckled, hellbent, urban crime saga.
Slaves in Bondage (1937)
Sexual Slavery in the 1930s
"Gambling with Souls" director Elmer Clifton's "Slaves in Bondage" reveals the enormous pressure the Production Code brought to bear on exploitation filmmakers during the reign of Hollywood's Code of Self-censorship. This low-budget, black & white, 1937 crime thriller exposed the evils of white slavery. Of course, neither Clifton nor scenarist Robert Dillon could plumb the depths of unadulterated depravity surrounding the circumstances involving these impressionable, young, females. These darlings were bamboozled into accepting apparently harmless jobs before ultimately being railroaded into prostitution. Eventually, after Hollywood abandoned the Code in the 1960s, filmmakers could depict with greater accuracy the perils awaiting young women who stumbled and resorted to prostitution. Nowadays, these venerable exploitation films are treated with amusement because Hollywood was governed by a different set of rules and prevented from exploring the rough stuff. Instead, audiences had to use their imagination. Basically, what constituted a tragedy in 1937 would be ridiculed as "so bad, it's good.'
The story unfolds one evening as a speeding car streaks down the highway. One villainous dastard sits behind the wheel of this jalopy while the second lowlife, mustached Jim Murray (Wheeler Oakman of "Three of a Kind"), rides in the back seat with a defenseless dame, Mary Lou Smith (Louise Small of "College Holiday"), who begs Murray to stop the car and release her. These despicable brutes ignore Mary Lou until the girl resorts to the unimaginable. Hurling herself from the car, Mary Lou tumbles into the middle of the road. Once up she picks herself up, she doesn't get far before she collapses. Fortunately, the three fellas in a car who know Mary Lou stop and alert the authorities about her predicament. Naturally, Mary Lou's mother is shaken up about the incident. Mary Lou explains to a detective that the men pulled up alongside her while she was walking home from church and fooled her into getting into the car. The neighbor consoling Mary Lou's distraught mother is Dona Lee (Lona Andre of "Pilot X") and her boyfriend, out of town newspaper reporter Phillip Miller (Donald Reed of "Secret Agent K-7"), questions the fellows who found Mary Lou in the road. It seems Phillip plans to marry our heroine Dona Lee just as soon as he can land a job on a local newspaper. Despite his account of Mary Lou's escape from sure slavery, Miller cannot persuade the editor to hire him. Meantime, Dona works as a manicurist in a local beauty salon run by Belle Harris (Florence Dudley of "Party Girl") who advertises for employees. Essentially, when Belle interviews prospective employees, she looks at their legs and then hires them if she finds them appealing. Sadly, those ladies who don't work out in beauty salon are shipped off to Jim Murray's notorious roadhouse. As it turns out, Murray and Belle are business partners, and business is booming. Murray loves to sit and watch Dona do his nails. He lusts after this naïve beauty who holes him at arm's length until Murray learns about Phillip Miller. Murray wants Dona in his bed so badly that he will do whatever it takes to land her. He learns that her boyfriend is a small-time gambler, so he fixes it so that Phillip wins a race. Meantime, a pickpocket plans forged dollars on the unsuspecting journalist and he winds up in jail. Murray recommends a mouthpiece to Dona, but this crooked lawyer advises Phillip to do the worst thing: confess his crime.
Eventually, Belle ushers Dona into her house of prostitution and shows her what is involved. This scene will no doubt trigger laughs galore as Belle shows our heroine a variety of ladies sprawled in luxurious beds in their lingerie. You'll laugh yourself silly at this scene. "Slaves in Bondage" provides some hilarious comic relief that has little to do with the plot. Two drunks are at a bar and one goads the other into having a 'mixed drink.' What happens is funny. The bartender furnishes them with three bottles of liquor. One drunk pours a drink from each bottle and then tips it down the other drunk's throat. Once he has filled his friend up with booze, the other drunk squeezes his friend's mouth shut and shakes the man's head vigorously. The drunk staggers happily at this exercise.
Meantime, Dora's suspicions prompt her to visit the police, and she fills them in on what happening at the roadhouse as well as the way her boyfriend is being treats. Turns out the police harbored their own suspicions and have held Phillip until they are sure that Murray's lawyer is railroading the journalist into prison by confessing his crime. Lecherous Jim Murray itches for the opportunity to take advantage of Dona. Not surprisingly, as Dona is being manipulated into the web of evil that Murray and Belle have set her up for, the Production Code dictated that crime could not pay, so the police crash Murray's roadhouse and our two love birds are reunited. Watching "Slaves in Bondage" from the perspective of our enlightened age, we have no alternative not to laugh ourselves silly as the way crime was committed in the 1930s.
Comanche blanco (1968)
Captain Kirk Goes West!!!!
William Shatner plays a dual role as half-breed twin brothers in Spanish helmer José Briz Méndez's hell-bent-for-leather sagebrusher, "White Comanche," co-starring Joseph Cotton and Rosanna Yanni. Shatner made this low-budget oater while on hiatus from "Star Trek." Although neither Méndez nor co-scripter Manuel Gómez Rivera earned any writing credit as scribes, they must have retooled the original screenplay by longtime Hollywood writers Robert I. Holt and Frank Gruber. These two Yanks boasted far more writing credits than Mendez and Rivera together. Indeed, apart from writing with Méndez, Rivera had only one earlier script credit, and it was for a short subject! Comparably, Holt had penned teleplays for many popular, prime-time television series, including "Hunter," "Starsky and Hutch," "The Six Million Dollar Man," "Cannon," and "S. W. A. T." Comparably, not only was Frank Gruber a published author with several western novels to his credit, but he also inked scripts for several episodic western television shows, among them "Shotgun Slade," "Tales of Wells Fargo," "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp," and Rory Calhoun's "The Texan." Presumably, since he was a specialist in the field of frontier western fiction, Gruber may have polished this horse opera.
Neither brother backs down from their inevitable clash in "White Comanche," and the conflict ends efficiently with a showdown about a half-hour into the action. Basically, a Native American chieftain who craves Peyote with a passion, Notah (William Shatner of "The Outrage"), wants to wipe out all whites! Incidentally, for those who know little about it, peyote is a hallucinogenic substance containing mescaline. Moreover, apart from a renegade or two, Notah's tribe stands behind him. Unlike his bad-tempered brother, Johnny Moon (William Shatner) remains the level-headed one of the twins. Nevertheless, he realizes with grim fortitude he must kill the bloodthirsty Notah before his unhinged sibling incites a frontier holocaust.
Mendez introduces us to Notah as he waylays a stagecoach. The chieftain orders his braves to kill the passengers in the coach as well as the driver and the shotgun guard. Just before he is about to depart from the scene of this cold-blooded carnage, Notah catches a whiff of perfume and discovers a lady, Kelly (Rosanna Yanni of "Sonny and Jed"), hidden in the coach. Predictably, after he chases her down in the rocks, Notah rapes this frightened dame but then surprisingly turns her loose! Afterward, she manages to make it back to the town of Rio Hondo on her own where she works in a saloon. She swears the town lawman, Sheriff Logan (Joseph Cotton of "Citizen Kane"), to silence about her ordeal. Clearly, Kelly doesn't want her boss to know about the unfortunate circumstances of her encounter with the renegade Comanche who defiled her.
Meanwhile, Johnny Moon is tracking down his nefarious twin brother when a group of vigilantes jump him. Mind you, this constitutes a case of mistaken identity since these owlhoots plan to string up Johnny because they believe is Notah. In their struggle to slip a noose around his neck, Johnny manages to escape his fumbling captors. The hangmen catch up their mounts, but they fail to capture our hero. Later, Johnny rides into Notah's village and challenges to him to a duel in Rio Hondo.
Shatner does an adequate job as both hero and villain. Literally, he turns in a performance reminiscent of Robert Lewis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." When he is decked out in cowboy duds, his Johnny Moon is "Dr. Jekyll." Johnny is the good guy, while Notah is "Mr. Hyde." Hollywood had not perfected the technology to place an actor facing himself in the same shot when "White Comanche" came out, or the producers couldn't afford it, so we never see the faces of both brothers eyeballing each other in the same shot. The writers do furnish some expository information about their lives. Eventually, Johnny Moon reveals his eyes are blue, while Notah has black eyes. Essentially, Shatner appears to have performed all his stunts. Watch the saloon brawl. During one moment in this fracas, Shatner and his opponent swap blows with each other in real time, and the camera follows them without cutting away from them as they demolish saloon. Shatner's face is always visible during this white-knuckled donnybrook. He spends quite a bit of time also in the saddle. At one point, Notah hurls himself from the horse he is riding to one of the team pulling the stagecoach. He brings those horses to a halt, while his braves start slaughtering passengers.
The final showdown in this nimble, 94-minute opus resembles a Medieval jousting tournament. The twins charge each other on horseback down the main street of Rio Hondo, slinging lead at each other. To heighten the suspense, the filmmakers have Shatner riding bare-chested, so it isn't immediately clear who dies until the moment of revelation. Nevertheless, Johnny Moon does kill his blood brother. "White Comanche" boasts solid production values. The rugged Spanish scenery substituted suitably for the old West, but some goofs are apparent in the frantic production schedule of his western. Meantime, Joseph Cotton is still spry enough to indulge in a shootout or two and intervene on Johnny's behalf when everybody in town believes Johnny is Notah.
Altogether, the formulaic "While Comanche" is hardly Oscar winning material, but at least it isn't an embarrassing oater. Since this low-budget film was shot quickly to accommodate Shatner, he doesn't adopt the traditional, fright wigs worn by his braves. Instead, Shatner maintains his "Star Trek" haircut as Notah, with the mere addition of a tribal headband. The only concession is Notah wears war paint smeared. Veteran lenser Francisco Fraile's cinematography is flawless. Between Fraile and Méndez, the camera is always in the appropriate place to cover the action. Unfortunately, composer Jean Ledrut's mundane orchestral score consists of somebody thumping monotonous cords on a base fiddle. Otherwise, production values stand up to scrutiny for a movie that amounts to a curiosity piece in Shatner's resume.
Dark Mountain (1944)
A Wartime Domestic Crime Thriller
Regis Toomey steals the show in "Fighting Buckaroo" director William Berke's pastoral crime melodrama "Dark Mountain." Toomey is cast as a desperate mobster on the lam for cold-blooded murder. Writers Paul Franklin and Charles F. Royal received credit for the story, while Maxwell Shane penned the formulaic screenplay. Best known for an endless string of B-picture potboilers, foremost of which was "The Mummy's Hand" (1940), Shane paints the characters into a corner. Occasionally suspenseful as it is, the storyline suffers from a lack of credibility. A fugitive couple hole up in a remote cabin after the wife deludes a kind-hearted Forest Ranger about her circumstances. During the first two-thirds of the action, our Ranger hero labors under the delusion that the wife is alone in the cabin. Indeed, what he doesn't know is this duplicitous wife has concealed the presence of her sadistic spouse from him. Basically, "Dark Mountain" boils down into a devastating love triangle set in a wilderness cabin. Clocking in at a swift 56-minutes, this black & white crime thriller doesn't waste time. Despite its lack of plausibility, "Dark Mountain" maintains a full head of steam. Nevertheless, it is difficult to imagine how our forthright hero didn't suspect the villain was hiding right under his nose.
Fearless Forest Service Ranger, Don Bradley (Robert Lowery of "McClintock"), risks life and limb to plunge into a blazing inferno and save two stallions trapped in a barn. Naturally, he ignored his firefighting superior's order when braved the blaze alone. Once in the barn, he wraps blankets over each horse's head and leads the two blind equines back to safety. Although trees topple across his path, Don never loses his glacial cool. Not only does this act of valor earn Don a promotion but he also gets a one-week leave of absence. Don rushes off to propose marriage to his longtime girlfriend Kay Downey (Ellen Drew of "Isle of the Dead") but learns she has married another man. Eventually, Kay discovers Steve (Regis Toomey) has lied about himself and his racket. Turns out he deals in black market goods. Moreover, Steve has implicated her in his evil ways. The feces really hits the fan when she accompanies her husband to police headquarters. She watches him kill an informant, one of Steve's own men pulled in for questioning. After he kills the informant, Steve finishes off his closest accomplice, Whitney (Elisha Cook Jr of "The Maltese Falcon"), because the latter caught a slug. Wounded by police gunfire, Whitney begs Steve to kill him, otherwise he fears he will inform on Steve after the cops beat a confession out of him. Clearly, Steve's criminal empire has fallen, and he must get out of town fast. Initially, Steve and Kay go their separate ways. Kay heads off to see Don. Explaining her dire predicament without divulging the whole truth, Kay convinces Don to let her stay in a nearby forest cabin that is not be occupied for the season.
Naturally, Don is eager to help Kay. He arranges for her to stay in a cabin and surprises her often when he deliver groceries. He lends her a radio, so she can keep abreast of the news. Eventually, things take a turn for the worse. Steve shows up and takes refuge with Kay. Although he pays Kay several visits, Don doesn't have a clue that Kay is mixed up in murder. Later, Don notices minor details that make him suspicious, like different cigarette butts littering the cabin's ashtray. Furthermore, he is puzzled by the amount of food Kay eats. Since he buys her groceries, he begins to wonder. Meantime, Steve has holed up with Kay, and the passage of time-it's taking longer than he imagined-has frayed his nerves to the breaking point. He refuses to shave and looks unkempt. He chain smokes. He rants and rages. Kay struggles to maintain her composure. Repeatedly, Don keeps showing up with little warning and talking to her. Meanwhile, Steve huddles in an adjacent room and bites his tongue. Don wises up. He concocts a scheme to force Steve out into the open.
Don and fellow Forest Ranger Willie Dinsmire (Eddie Quillan of "Mutiny on the Bounty") broadcast a bogus radio message. He announce the authorities have launched a search in another direction. Steve takes advantage of this revelation. He tricks Don by firing two shots in the air. This was the signal agreed upon signal should Kay need to summon Don. Don falls into Steve's trap. Although Steve had initially threatened to kill Don, Willie intervenes and everything evolves into a stand-off. Steve changes his mind. Instead of shooting Don, Steve threatens to kill Kay if the Forest Rangers interfere with his bid for freedom.
Dragging Kay along as a hostage, Steve commandeers Don's official Forestry truck. Steve knows nothing about the boxes of dynamite stacked in the back of the vehicle. Earlier, Don had mentioned he needed the explosives to blast tree stumps. When Willie walked in on Steve, Don, and Kay, he was accompanied by his dog. This tenacious canine chases Steve and Kay as they tear off in the truck. The pooch leaps inside the truck and mauls Steve. Kay leaps out of the careening vehicle, while Steve struggles to thwart man's best friend. Moments later, the dog leaps out, too. Willie and Don are following Steve in close pursuit. By this point, Steve is alone in the truck. Willie manages to shoot out one of the tires, and Steve loses control of the vehicle, slamming it headlong into a tree. The dynamite ignites and Steve is blown to kingdom come! "Dark Mountain" is well-paced with sturdy performances.
The Square Peg (1958)
A Hilarious British Service Comedy
Director John Paddy Carstairs' "The Square Peg" ranks as an above average, black & white, World War 2 service comedy about an error prone civilian who winds up in the British Army because he made a buffoon out of them. Pitkin (Norman Wisdom of "Up In The World") lands himself in more trouble than he can get out of when the British Army interferes with a roadside project that Pitkin is handling. Eventually, Pitkin reaches out for help from his incredulous, bespectacled boss, Mr. Grimsdale (Edward Chapman of "Juno and the Paycock"), who assures him the War Office has made a terrible mistake. It seems Pitkin's misbehavior riled the Army enough that they decided to draft him into the ranks. Not only do they draft Pitkin, but they also call up Mr. Grimsdale as well as his entire staff for service. Wisdom is believably cast as the clueless hero, and he displays great comic timing. During basic training, Pitkin drives everybody crazy when he practices the bayonet drill. He runs the dummies through and then chases after everybody else in a reckless burst of energy. Along the way, our hapless hero encounters a dazzling dish of a dame, Leslie Cartland (Honor Blackman of "Goldfinger") who is a soldier herself. She is poised to embark on a secret mission as a spy in France. Essentially a screwball comedy, Pitkin, Mr. Grimsdale, and some of the latter's employees find themselves bound for France. Mind you, everything goes haywire, and our heroes bail out over France. Eventually, the Nazis capture Mr. Grimsdale because Pitkin and he have inadvertently blundering into enemy territory. The Hun lock him up for interrogation. They believe erroneously Grimsdale is the head of the French Resistence! About the same time this happens, Pitkin enters the Nazi occupied village. Now, he doesn't know he is cavorting about on enemy turf. Later, he discovers he is a dead ringer for a high ranking Nazi. "The Square Peg" recycles is a clever gag straight out of the Marx Brothers movie "Duck Soup" where Groucho and Harpo imitated each other movements in pantomime. They matched each others' movements flawlessly. When Pitkin confronts the German officer, he pulls the same pantomime gag. Later, he masquerades as the Nazi officer to obtain the release of his boss from prison. Goofy fun all around, "The Square Peg" has more than its share of funny moments.
Step by Step (1946)
A Slap Happy Marine Tangles with Post War Nazis
Pugnacious Lawrence Tierney and blonde babelicious Anne Jeffreys reunite for the second time in "Paper Bullets" director Phil Rosen's predictable but polished post-World War 2, espionage outing "Step By Step." Basically, they qualify as a Hitchcockian couple on the lam for a murder neither committed. If this weren't enough of a problem, they wind up tangling with renegade Nazis rather than Commies in this concisely edited 62-minute yarn. Unlike most melodramas set after 1945, this snappy little RKO Studio programmer pits our heroic ex-Marine and his dish of a doll sidekick against conniving Nazis. Senator Remmy (Harry Harvey of "Ace in the Hole") has hired a pretty stenographer, Evelyn Smith (Anne Jeffreys of "Dillinger"), to transcribe a telephone conversation with a cloak and dagger, National Security agent, James Blackton (Addison Richards of "Nick Carter, Master Detective"), who has urgent confidential intelligence about Nazi espionage agents in Washington, D. C. As the senator tells Evelyn, the Allies have defeated the Axis, but he argues Germans will simply go underground again and bide their time until they can organize a Fourth Reich. Initially, our heroine frets about her new stenographer's job because she lied to Remmy on her application. She told the senator she had worked for a close friend of his for four years. Actually, she had only worked for four days! Nevertheless, she shrugs off her trepidation about her 'white lie' as the Congressman ushers her out to his Malibu beachfront house on the Pacific Coast Highway where he plans to take a call from Blackton about the identities of these shrewd Fascists.
At first, Blackton planned to call Remmy from his hotel room and relay his information to the senator which Ms. Smith would transcribe. However, during his call with Remmy, Blackton spotted microphones dangling outside his room windows. Blackton and the senator decide it would be infinitely safer for the former to deliver this volatile findings in person. Consequently, Remmy dismisses Ms. Smith and arranges for Blackton to come out to his estate. Since he needs to speak with his agent alone, Remmy suggests Evelyn take a dip in the Pacific Ocean. He advises her she may find suitable swimwear in a storage closet. As it turns out, Ms. Smith has dreamed about frolicking in the Pacific, so she heads off for the beach. While she is splashing in the surf, a recently de-commissioned Marine Corps Sergeant, Johnny Christopher (Lawrence Tierney of "Dillinger"), spots her and cannot get out of his car and into his own swim trunks fast enough to speak to her. Wherever he goes, Christopher is followed by a feisty a Australian Terrier named BUnfortunately, Johnny doesn't get long enough to talk to her before she abandons the beach. She complains about too much freshness in the fresh air since his arrival. After plunging in the surf to cool his ardor, Christopher shrugs off his failure and returns to his jalopy with his feisty little dog named 'Bazooka.' Incredibly, Christopher realizes he has locked his keys in his car. He remembers Evelyn talking about working in a house up the road, so he knocks on the door and inquires after her. Surprisingly, the girl who shows up and claims to be Evelyn is a mysterious blonde who isn't half as pretty. The Nazis have already stuck. They have Evelyn bound and gagged, and they have dealt Remmy a near fatal blow on the head. They send Christopher packing. When our hero in his sodden swimwear gets back to his jalopy, he finds a motorcycle cop scrawling him a ticket for illegally parking on the highway. Christopher sounds off about the suspicious activities in the house up the hill and the inquisitive cop, (Pat Flaherty of "My Man Godfrey ") accompanies him to the house and inquires about Ms. Smith. Not only have the clever Nazis gotten somebody else impersonating Senator Remmy, but they have hung a portrait of the impersonator as the senator on the wall to seal the deal! The Motorcycle cop figures Christopher is a slap-happy Marine still suffering from dodging Japanese bullets. The cop refuses to break into Christopher's car for his keys but plans to call him a locksmith. After the cop tools off on his bike, Christopher marches back up the hill to investigate the matter. He knows something is amiss, and he winds up complicating things for the Nazis. They kill Blackton, but they cannot find the information he said he was taking to Senator Remmy! Lots of action and intrigue follows in this efficiently made and well-acted police procedural.
The Stickup (2002)
Nothing Is What It Initially Seems . . .
Writer & director Rowdy Herrington of "Road House"fame orchestrates a complicated but exciting heist thriller about an apparently rogue LA detective pursued by sheriff's deputies in a small town after a bank robbery. Ingenious best describes this entertaining neo-noir crime thriller that bristles with startling revelations. The reversals never seem to stop coming as a gallery of interesting characters clash. A small town degenerates after the success of a Native American casino that sends everything spinning out of control. The non-linear storytelling with its jumbled chronology will keep you guessing. Told with a smirk, "The Stick-Up" never loses momentum and constantly keeps you on your toes with a happy ending.
The Gladiator (1986)
Freeway Road Warrior of Justice!!!
Any movie "Bad Lieutenant" director Abel Ferrara helms is worth watching at least once, and his competently made-for-TV revenge melodrama, "The Gladiator" proves no exception. "Wiseguy" star Ken Wahl plays the hard-bitten protagonist, and he delivers a sturdy performance. As older brother Rick Benton, Wahl struggles to raise his younger sibling, Jeff (Brian Robbins of "C. H. U. D. II: Bud the Chud") without their parents. He decides to coach Jeff about how to drive since the lad has landed his learner's permit. Buckling up and cruising out into Los Angeles traffic, Rick reminds the fifteen-year-old to abide by the rules of the road. Suddenly, out of nowhere, for no apparent reason, a sleek, black, 1969, Dodge Charger, looking souped up and sinister as a phantom, careens in behind them. After the aggressive Charger rams Jeff twice, the youth accelerates in a desperate bid to elude the homicidal driver. Sadly, Jeff floors it and speeds through an intersection. Out of nowhere, a semi-truck collides with him. Not surprisingly, Jeff dies in the horrendous crash. Fortunately, Rick awakens a couple of days later from a coma.
Now, our embittered protagonist embarks on a self-appointed mission to track down this anonymous felon known only as "The Skull." With the help of his long-time buddy Joe Barker (Stan Shaw of "Daylight"), Rick relies on his skill as a custom car designer to modify his two-door, pick-up truck, installing stronger suspension and heavier bumpers as well as equipping it with a police band radio. He searches for the murderous motorist who wheels around town deploying savage "Ben-Hur" blades that telescope from his front hubs during his death dealing escapades. Sometimes, this madman terrorizes other drivers for nothing more than either accidentally bumping his car or he careens up behind them and plows into them, running them off the road.
Meanwhile, an overworked detective, Lieutenant Frank Mason (Robert Culp of "Hickey and Boggs"), has little success with the case. After he recovers from the accident, Rick sits in on a support group of people who lost family members to drunk drivers. Initially, Rick suspected the dastard who brought about the death of his brother was a drunk. Later, he comes to the realization that this isn't the case. Here's the deal, however, the genuine culprit of this above-average, television quickie doesn't abuse alcohol! Instead, he is a hopeless psycho who preys at random on innocent, unsuspecting victims. By this time, Rick has begun a relationship with a late-night, radio talk show host, Susan Neville (gorgeous Nancy Allen of "RoboCop"), who juggles phone calls from a variety of listeners that are split along the lines of whether the self-professed "Gladiator" as Rick dubs himself is either a vigilante or a menace to society. Inevitably, he emerges as a celebrity in the sense that he patrols the roads to dissuade drunken drivers from swerving across lanes and killing people. Finally, Rick manages to thwart this madman during a climatic, slam-bang, demolition derby in an automobile junkyard. Moments before this showdown, Rick had phoned Detective Mason and identified himself as the "Gladiator." Like Michael Winner's "Death Wish" starring Charles Bronson, Rick takes it on himself to find his brother's killer. Unlike Bronson, Rick succeeds in bringing the lawbreaker to justice. Unfortunately, not only do we never get a glimpse of this fiend, played by professional stunt car driver Jim Wilkey, but also we never learn what fueled his road rage. For the record, Wilkey drove some of the vehicles in "Mad Max: Fury Road!" This is the only flaw in an otherwise white-knuckled thriller. Although it is a made-for-TV movie, Ferrara never lets the momentum stall in this gripping 94-minute tire shredder of an epic. Interestingly, Ferrara's film was initially supposed to unspool on the big screen instead of television.
The Bikeriders (2023)
Rumble on the Roads
Danny Lyon's 1968 photojournalistic book about a Chicago biker club inspired "Mud" writer & director Jeff Nichols to make "The Bikeriders," starring Austin Butler, Jody Comer, and Tom Hardy. This nostalgic but lackluster, 116-minute epic chronicles the evolution of the fictitious Vandal's Motorcycle Club from its origins in the 1960s to the 1980s. Nicholas pays tribute to Martin Scorsese's classic Mafia crime thriller "Goodfellas" (1990) with the pervasive use of flashbacks, a gabby narrator, and patch work of character interviews to forge an ethnographic portrait of early biker subculture. Although Nicholas humanizes these counter-culture ruffians, letting then chew the scenery about themselves, the film seems to start and stall out and it never maintains sufficient headlong momentum. "Midnight Special" cinematographer Adam Stone, who has shot many of Nichols' films, lenses scenic long shots of these bikers as they cruise through sun-drenched, mid-western America. You can savor the spirit of freedom they bask in on these open roads. Nevertheless, the spectacle of these steel horses cannot compensate for the dire lack of drama. Mind you, gearheads and car-geeks will drool over vintage bikes and cars. Several bikers die tragically. Like Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper), the cross-country heroes exploring America in "Easy Rider," the Vandals suffer fates nobody could foresee. One biker who swears he would die first rather than shed his colors capitulates at fadeout. Nobody is really happy long in this journey from one era to another.
"The Bikeriders" shares little in common with those genre-flavored exploitation biker pictures that followed the 1969 success of "Easy Rider." Primarily, Nicholas illustrates the origins of this Chicag0-based club. While watching the iconic black & white biker saga "The Wild One" (1951) on a small television in his family living room, trucker Johnny (Tom Hardy of "Venom") decides to launch his own bike riding club. Whenever anybody wants to challenge his leadership, Johnny promises to give them a chance to topple him. Eventually, Johnny buys a bar and holds meetings there with suds flowing. He installs a phone so anybody who gets arrested or injured in a fight can contact club members. Occasionally, we see Johnny and his followers rumbling through Chicago's concrete canyons in an impressive display of bikers riding in formation. The sight of these noisy choppers growling like mechanical lions captures the heart of a discontented twentysomething who shares Johnny's aspirations.
Meantime, the second protagonist is Benny (Austin Butler of "Elvis"), a quiet loner who would rather die than shed his colors. The opening scene in "Bikeriders" depicts the danger of wearing colors in a hostile setting. Benny suffers grievously at the hands of two obnoxious blue-collar thugs. The scene is brutal, perhaps the most visceral in the film, and Nichols reprises this gripping scene later. Watching that scene unfold when Benny refuses to forsake his colors looks like something in "Easy Rider." This is the show-stopping scene in a film that lacks narrative focus. Basically, Benny, Kathy, and Johnny amount to triangular protagonists. Benny and Kathy are an amorous couple, while Johnny is Benny's best friend. Meantime, a gallery of fascinating characters jabber about their exploits, but we rarely see them doing anything more than drinking and boasting. Occasionally, fights break out, but Johnny doesn't line up any kind of genre style enterprise, such as selling narcotics or robbing businesses.
"The Bikeriders" amounts to an inventory of scenes that resemble excerpts from a photo album. The chief drama here is Johnny's fateful decision to turn over the club to someone else since he lacks the vision to take it beyond a social group. The Vandals neither stick up convenience stores nor banks. They don't molest citizens, etc. Benny's worse crime is evading the police during a high-speed chase. They capture him because he runs out of gas! The early Vandals reminded me of Boy Scouts compared to those psychotic cretins that followed in their footsteps. Nicholas indulges in a peripheral kitchen drama when he introduces the chief villain, the Kid (Toby Wallace of "Dark Frontier"), who hails from a broken inner-city home. His father beats his wife without mercy. Repeatedly, the frustrated Kid approaches Johnny about joining the Vandals. Johnny rejects him twice. Eventually, the Kid challenges Johnny. Meantime, Nichols explores the lopsided romance between Benny and Kathy (Jody Comer of "The Free Guy"), with Kathy talking about them during her interviews. Largely speaking, "The Bikeriders" is filtered through Kathy's eyes. Most traditional biker movies are told from a male perspective, but everything here has a feminine slant. More often than not, these interviews feel like repetitive commercials that interfere with the flow of the action.
Mind you, the cast is impressive. As the Vandals' head honcho, Tom Hardy rules his riding club with a passion. Indeed, Hardy gives a marvelous, Marlon Brando-infused performance. After Benny is beaten down at a bar, Johnny and his riders destroy. Spectators stand in a crowd around the bar with firefighters and watch it go up in smoke. Benny emerges as Johnny's closest confidante, but he refuses to replace Johnny as the Vandals' leader. Most of the picnics that the Vandals have amount to garrulous, booze-fueled, gripe sessions. Michael Shannon has a wonderful scene where he explains how he was rejected for military service because he was branded "an undesirable." Ultimately, little about "The Bikeriders" qualifies as either nostalgic or dramatic. Not only does Benny refuse to be the leader, but he also lets Johnny and the Vandals down by not punishing the Kid. Altogether, "The Bikeriders" leaves you feeling indifferent about the fate of these hellions.
Nightfall (1956)
Taut Suspense and Sinister Characters in a Vintage Film Noir
A sub-genre of crime thrillers exists where the villains corner the hero but fail inexplicably to kill him. Dramatically, no hero can die before his time! This rule applies to heroines, too. Therefore, filmmakers must dream up a reasonable excuse to account for the protagonist's miraculous survival. "Out of the Past" director Jacques Tourneur's atmospheric but formulaic film noir "Nightfall," starring Aldo Ray, Brian Keith, and Anne Bancroft, bristles with sinister characters and suspenseful situations. About 40 minutes into this non-linear, black & white, exercise in tension and intrigue, our elusive hero, James Vanning (Aldo Ray of "The Naked and the Dead"), dodges two cold-blooded murderers. John (Brian Keith of "The Wind and the Lion") and Red (Rudy Bond of "On The Waterfront") are homicidal bank robbers. They lose control of their car and crash it through a railing, plunging the vehicle into a ravine. Vanning and his good friend, Dr. Edward Gurston (Frank Albertson of "Bachelor Mother"), are encamping near at a lake in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, when they heard the automobile crash. Driving over to investigate the accident, they spot Red and John trudging up the embankment. John is nursing an arm. Dr. Gurston puts John's forearm in a splint. Suddenly, John and Red brandish firearms and order Vanning and Gurston to drive them back to their camp site. After they park the car, Red shoots the doctor twice in the back with a rifle, polishes his prints off the weapon and pitches the rifle to Vanning. Tossing Vanning a rifle cartridge, he challenges him to try his luck. Predictably, Red shoots Vanning without a qualm.
Although he looked at Vanning's crumpled body, Red didn't carry out a close inspection. Apparently, when Red shot at him, the bullet chipped a rock, and the rock struck Vanning's head. Our unconscious hero lies half-strewn on his stomach with part of his forehead splashed with his own blood. Indeed, the blood on Vanning's inert body fools Red. Worse, not only do these two bank robbers leave Vanning behind alive, they also grab the wrong satchel. Instead of retrieving the one containing $350 thousand, they made a big mistake and took Dr. Gurston's medical bag. Eventually, the two killers realize the error of their way and set out to track down Vanning. Ironically, behaving like a good Samaritan cost the doctor his life. Now, poor Vanning is on the run from the two thugs. "Nightfall" qualifies as a film noir because it features a tormented protagonist. It seems Dr. Gurston was married to a younger woman who kept making passes at Vanning. He has several of her letters which might incriminate him to the authorities as the doctor's killer. So Vanning maintains a low profile so as not to arouse attention to himself. Later, he encounters a mysterious woman in a restaurant. As it turns out, she was used as bait to capture him. Most noir femme fatales are duplicitous dames that prey on these vulnerable heroes.
Since his near-fatal encounter with John and Red, Vanning has been keeping a low profile. At a bus depot, Vanning runs into a sociable passenger awaiting a bus, Ben Fraser (James Gregory of "PT-109), who works for an insurance company that is investigating the bank robbery that involved John and Red. Fraser has been shadowing Vanning and watching his every move. It doesn't take long for John and Red to run down Vanning. They pay a woman, Marie Gardner (Anne Bancroft of "The Graduate"), to attract Vanning's attention in a bar. Dying for some companionship, Vanning takes Marie to dinner. Afterward, while they are walking outside on a sidewalk, John and Red appear. They send Marie on his way. She is a model for a fashion agency. Meanwhile, they take Vanning out to an oil pumping station and threaten to mutilate him in the station. Somehow, after taking a beating from the two thugs, Vanning manages to escapes from them. No sooner has he gotten away than he meets a loquacious fellow at a bus depot, Ben Fraser (James Gregory of "PT-109), who strikes up a conversation with him. Turns out Fraser is an insurance investigator who has been conducting surveillance on our protagonist. Later, in a restaurant, Vanning encounters a woman at the bar, Marie Gardner (Anne Bancroft of "The Miracle Worker"), who confides in him that she cannot pay her bar tab, so he gives her some cash. Later, we learn Marie models apparel for a living. What our hero doesn't realize is she is supposed to led him right back to John and Red. They slam him in a car and drive out to a remote oilfield pumping station where they interrogate our hero about the whereabouts of a fortune in dough, i.e., their hold-up money. A vicious fight ensues, and Vanning is able to elude them and drive back into the city, drawn irresistibly back to Marie because he doesn't want anything to happen to her. They take on their own aboard a bus, and Fraser gets a ticket and follows them.
A minor gem featuring top-notch performances, "Nightfall" is one of those film noir you've probably never heard of that will surprise and delight you.
Fort Defiance (1951)
Revenge Rides The Range!!!
Director John Rawlins was no stranger to westerns. He helmed the 1942 serial sagebrusher "Overland Maid," with Lon Chaney, Jr., the Tim Holt oater "The Arizona Ranger" (1948), the U. S. Calvary horse opera "Massacre River" (1954) with Rory Calhoun and Guy Madison, before he saddled up with Dane Clark, Ben Johnson, and Peter Graves for "Fort Defiance." This formulaic dust-raiser marked "River of No Return" scenarist Louis Lantz's third collaboration with Rawlins. Earlier, they had teamed up for "Rogue River" (1951) and then "Shark River" (1953). Revenge emerges as the dominant theme in Lantz's screenplay. Rawlins and he go about their business in a somewhat confusing fashion. For example, although Dane Clark's Johnny Tallon receives top billing, this two-gun toting war hero doesn't show up in this concise 82-minute epic until 34 minutes have passed. Comparably, Ben Johnson's sympathetic, plain-spoken, cowpoke Bob Shelby is seen riding across on screen from the start. Essentially, despite receiving second-billing, Johnson's Shelby is the hero. Later, he meets Peter Graves. Graves is well-cast as Ned, a grown-up rancher who lost this eyesight under mysterious circumstances during his youth. Johnny blames himself for Ned's loss of vision. When returns home, he vows to take Ned with him to San Francisco, so doctors can restore his sight. Meantime, Bob Shelby has ridden literally to the ends of the earth to catch up with Johnny. At least half-way through this drama, we learn what motivates Bob. No, he isn't one of Johnny's friends. Actually, he wants to kill Johnny because Johnny sold out the army detail that Bob and his brother rode with on a mission. Initially, Shelby rides into the Tallon ranch in search of Johnny, but he learns Johnny has been killed. The news spreads like wildfire, and then out of the blue, Johnny arrives at the site of his uncle's ranch to find the cowboys of a rival rancher burying his uncle! Earlier, David Parker ( Craig Woods of "Raiders of the Border") and his drovers rode into Tallon's rancher slinging a hailstorm of lead. They killed Uncle Charlie Tallon (George Cleveland of "Cripple Creek") who was keeping them busy while his nephew and Shelby made their getaway. Now, Johnny wants to have a showdown with Parker. Indeed, he outdraws two of Parker's hands who had been burying his uncle and lets the third ride back to Parker with a message. Predictably, Shelby doesn't get along with Johnny. Mind you, Johnny could drop him in a duel in a second, but he cannot bring himself to kill Shelby because Shelby had helped his uncle and brother out with their ranch. Eventually, Johnny bites the dust but he doesn't go down without taking Parker and his gun hands down. Peter Graves gives an exceptional performance, and Ben Johnson could have been the "Marlboro" man of his generation. Watch that jasper ride, and you'll see how it's done. Naturally, Native Americans on the warpath complicate matters. Twice Oscar nominated director of photography Stanley Cortez of "The Magnificent Ambersons" and "Since You Went Away" frames this riding, shooting western against some sprawling vistas of the old Southwest in Utah and Gallup, New Mexico. Indeed, nine-tenths of "Fort Defiance" takes place in those majestic lands with their towering mountains that dwarf the horsemen riding through them. The above-average but uneven western with a happy ending is entertaining enough despite its predictability. Gun enthusiasts will grimace at the firearms both heroes and villains wield because they are not period accurate. Nevertheless, sturdy performances and the majestic beauty of the mountainous terrain through which these horsemen ride get "Fort Defiance" over the hump.
Trigger Warning (2024)
An Above Average But Predictable Thriller
Jessica Alba goes full metal jacket in Indonesian director Mouly Surya's Hispanic-themed action thriller "Trigger Warning" and shows she is no slouch when it comes to fighting. Our resourceful heroine disarms a chainsaw wielding madman when he tries to carve up her. Later, she tangles with ruthless domestic terrorists selling high-tech, military-grade weapons from a nearby Army Depot! As a U. S. Special Forces commando with combat experience galore, Parker (Jessica Alba of "Sin City") takes a leave of absence to go home and attend her father's funeral. During a bullet-riddled shootout in the scorching sands of Syria's Badiyat al-Sham Desert, she had received the phone call from her former high school sweetheart, Sheriff Jesse Swann (Mark Webber of "Green Room"), about her dad's tragic death. When she meets with him at the Swann County Sheriff's Department, Jesse hands her the suicide note her father Harry (Alejandro De Hoyos of "The Contractor") left behind on his bedside nightstand. According to Jesse, Parker's father killed himself with a live hand grenade in a mine shaft he had been excavating when he wasn't operating his own bar. Reservations notwithstanding, Parker concedes her father's death as accidental. Later, after she discovers weapons have gone missing from the local U. S. Army armory, she changes her mind about her dad's death. Meantime, she encounters Jesse's father, incumbent conservative Senator Ezekiel Swann (Anthony Michael Hall of "The Breakfast Club"), on the campaign trail. Eventually, she learns the senator has a gunnery range on his estate and allows his house guests to blow holes in the targets in his backyard. Not surprisingly, the weapons are government-issue! Earlier, she had seen Senator Swann's obnoxious younger son, Elvis (Jake Weary of "Animal Kingdom"), obliterate a Mexican taco wagon with a shoulder-fired, rocket-propelled grenade (RPG).
Now, Parker has second thoughts about her dad's demise. She learns Senator Swann is up to his eyeballs in a conspiracy to sell million-dollar, high-tech weaponry because he needs the dough his illegal arms sales generate to fund his re-election campaign. Meantime, Elvis has stashed some of those weapons in Harry's cave. When Harry discovered them, Elvis murdered him and covered up his death as a suicide. By this time, Parker has notified a shady colleague at the CIA, code-named 'Spider' (Tone Bell of "Dog Days"), look into this treachery. The villains try to kill Parker and they burn down Harry's tavern. Parker tosses one miscreant off a second story balcony into the writhing inferno. Jesse arrests Parker for attempting to kill Elvis and cuffs her to a jail cell. A standard-issue ritual torture scene ensues with Ezekiel and his sons roughing Parker up until she reveals she has video evidence connecting them not only to her father's murder but also to the theft of those Army weapons. Apparently, Elvis thought Harry's surveillance cameras were not documenting his skullduggery. As it turns out, those cameras recorded evidence of their nefarious deeds and dumped them off-site for safekeeping! Now, Parker must break out of jail before they kill her. Worse, she is appalled to learn Jesse looked the other way when Ezekiel and Elvis were smuggling military ordinance. When Jesse tried earlier to convince her to agree to a cover-up, Parker had refused.
Mind you, there's plenty of rough and tumble gymnastic action with Alba reliving her "Dark Angel" days when she takes down guys twice her size. Scenarists John Brancato of "The Game" and Josh Olson of "A History of Violence" penned the by-the-numbers screenplay which "Babysitters" scribe Halley Wegryn Gross rewrote. Altogether, they have churned out a predictable but entertaining boilerplate actioneer that gives Alba a chance to play rough. She wields a machete with considerable flourish as it if were a steel tipped fan. Of course, nothing is easy for our redoubtable heroine as she struggles to get to the bottom of her father's death. Jesse finds himself caught in the middle between his arrogant brother Elvis and his unsavory father. Elvis has brokered a deal with people who are on the classified FBI's terrorist list. Once our heroine realizes her father was murdered, she sets out to exact vengeance. At one point, she confronts Jesse and urges him to turn himself, the senator, and his younger brother into the authorities. Predictably, family ties outweigh the law, and Jesse goes along with his father. Earlier, he had tried to bribe Parker by buying her property. Mind you, Parker was no more going to sell than Jesse was going to make it simple for her to do.
"Trigger Warning" had such a troubled production history, and Netflix kept it on the shelf for three years. Meantime, Alba had been absent from the screen for five years. Her 2019 thriller "Killers Anonymous" (2019) was her last theatrical film. Now, she looks far more mature. The action choreography of the close-quarter combat scenes looks plausible. Parker's willingness to hurl herself into breech and fight the Swann family says a lot about her tenacity. She is like a mongoose when she goes after them. As a murder mystery revenge thriller, "Trigger Warning" makes the grade. Comparably, it is not as violent as "Peppermint" (2018) with Jennifer Garner. Happily, Surya doesn't waste time with comic relief, and she maintains enough momentum so the action doesn't dawdle. The basic plot is no great shakes. The death of a loved one that prompts the hero or heroine from afar to say goodbye is standard-issue narrative convention. Of course, we know no matter how stiff the odds are, Parker will survive and her adversaries will grovel. The villains-the entire Swann family-both father and sons-lack the savagery of genuinely despicable villains. Indeed, they beat the living daylights out of Parker, but they don't kill innocent men or women who stumble into the line of fire. Our heroine is fearless even when she has her back to the wall while taking a beating. Altogether, "Trigger Warning" qualifies best as 'a guilty pleasure.'
Afyon oppio (1972)
A Good Euro Crime Thriller About Narcotics Smugglers
"Blindman" director Ferdinando Baldi's violent, mafia-themed, narcotics-trafficking thriller "The Sicilian Connection," starring Ben Gazzara, Steffen Zacharias, and Fausto Tozzi, qualifies as a slam-bang, action-packed saga. Gazzara plays Joe Coppola, an audacious New Yorker who flies to Sicily to establish an opium/morphine/heroin pipeline from Turkey via Sicily, with the Big Apple as the final destination for his contraband. Gazzara is ideally cast as a smiling, thick-skinned criminal of considerable resource who has been engaged in the illicit drug trade for years. Now, Coppola sets out to make a big splash. Nevertheless, in the tradition of all mafia-themed, Euro crime stories, treachery is rampant, since nobody can trust anybody, and surprises constantly keep both criminals and the authorities on a tightrope. The shocking opening essentially foreshadows the shocking finale!
When Baldi helmed this exciting little actioneer, he stuck to the venerable Hollywood edict that 'crime cannot pay.' In other words, nobody succeeds in this complicated, multi-million-dollar venture which could serve as a companion piece to Robert Stevenson's "To The Ends of the Earth" (1946) with Dick Powell, a Treasury Agent who follows the trail of opium from China to Egypt and finally New York. Baldi collaborated on the script with "Hell Raiders of the Deep" scenarist Duilio Coletti, and they keep the surprises coming in this 100-minute gangland opera but never wears out their welcome.
The opening scene of "The Sicilian Connection" is a genuine showstopper. Indeed, this gruesome encounter serves as a template for everything that ensues. An intrepid police inspector interrupts the funeral of a respected high-ranking mafia figure. He demands to examine the funeral permits without considering the plight of the grieving mourners. Not surprisingly, the mafia soldiers and the family attending the funeral are not amused. Nevertheless, they endure his painstaking interference without protest. Just when they think this suspicious cop is going to let them proceed with their funeral, he demands to eyeball the corpse. It seems the corpse was embalmed in Turkey, so now the inspector insists they strip the body. According to the dead man's papers, he died of a respiratory ailment. Imagine the cop's curiosity when they open the funeral shroud and discover the pale corpse has a gash running from his throat to his navel. Whoever stitched the dead man's chest together did a shoddy job. You can see through the crevice in the corpse's torso to something inside his chest cavity. As it turns out, the inspector was correct in assuming that packets of cocaine were stashed in the corpse. By this time, the mafia lieutenants overseeing the funeral have had enough of their nosey cop. Just as the inspector is congratulating himself on his discovery, he seems to have forgotten that he is alone, by himself, surrounded by the mafia. Suddenly, the mafia soldiers seize him and thrust his protesting arms and legs atop the dead man. Despite his cries of protest, the fear-stricken man struggles in horror as the mafia thugs screw the nails down on the coffin lid and bury their soldier with the crying inspector in the ground.
The next thing we know, we are introduced to Joe Coppola in a Sicilian restaurant. He asks for some coke, and the owner of the restaurant slips him a couple of packets of coke in a folded napkin. Coppola inquires about the whereabouts of a mafia kingpin with whom he can conduct business. Everything treats Coppola with considerable suspicion until they establish his credentials and then they educate him about not only the difficulties of selling him the large quantities that he wants but also the extreme cost and the various people to whom he must ingratiate himself. No, "The Sicilian Connection" is not without some shooting and killing, but it covers the logistics of smuggling the narcotics from Europe into New York.
This is truly an insightful thriller with an ending that you won't expect.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024)
Worst of the "Bad Boys"
Mike Lowery (Will Smith of "Independence Day") and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence of "Blue Streak") reprise their roles as the two, loose-cannon Miami PD detectives in co-directors Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah's "Bad Boys: Ride Or Die," the follow-up to "Bad Boys for Life." "Bad Boys for Life" scenarist Chris Bremner & Will Beall of "Gangster Squad" have drummed up a humdrum finale to the "Bad Boys" franchise. Little about this half-baked, formulaic, by-the-numbers, crime thriller, bristling with some bullet-riddled firefights and unsavory villains is remotely surprising. Bremner & Beall bog down what could have been a cathartic conclusion to the series with bouts of lowest common denominator humor. This time around Mike and Marcus spend more time shooting the bull a la "Amos and Andy" than shooting the villains. Marcus is clownishly over the top looney tunes in this outing. After he suffers a near death experience, Mike's partner believes he cannot die. A nightmare he had while he was recuperating in a hospital emergency room fostered this delusion. He imagines he entered the land of the dead, but as it turns out, he isn't dead. Think of similar movies, such as "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941) and "Heaven Can Wait" (1978), where the hero died, but the powers-that-be realized admit their mistake and grant him a new lease on life. While he imagines he is in the land of the dead, Marcus encounters the late boss, L. A. P. F. Captain Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano of "The Fugitive") on a higher plane. Meanwhile, Howard, who died at the hands of Mike's son, Armando Aretas (Jacob Scipio of "The Outpost") in the previous "Bad Boys" shoot'em up," leaves our heroes a video message.
Mind you, this is the familiar ploy in crime thrillers where the heroes receive some kind of message from the dead person who posted it in the event of his demise. Turns out Miami PD is plagued with corrupt cops at the highest level who have been in cahoots with the Mexican cartels! One of the white-collar criminals at the top of the heap who orchestrated not only Captain Howard's death but also sealed a deal with the cartels is Lockwood (Ioan Gruffudd of "The Fantastic Four"), a close friend of Lowery. Later, he tries to justify his criminal activity to his girlfriend, Kelly (Vanessa Hudgens of "Spring Breakers") when he tells her that his accomplices and he collaborated with the cartels so they could learn about any terrorists entering the country. Now, these dastards are trying to besmirch Captain Howard's legacy. Predictably, Howard's wife and daughter are not amused by this turn of events. Naturally, neither Mike nor Marcus are going to sit still for this skullduggery.
Basically, "Bad Boys: Ride or Die" picks up the plot where "Bad Boys for Life" left off after Mike discovered he had a son with a cartel moll. You know a franchise has gone on too long when the heroes are to contend with their offspring. The gunfights are noisy, the scenery is exotic, and the cliches are spring loaded for maximum impact without endearing us to our crazy heroes. The camaraderie between Mike and Marcus sinks to an all-time low with their buffoonish antics. For example, when our heroes see Captain Howard's video confession, Marcus leaps to the absurd conclusion that Howard is alive on the other side! After he is told that he isn't dead when he meets Howard on the other side in his dreams, Marcus indulges in more idiotic behavior. Believing he cannot be die, Burnett cavorts shamelessly through street traffic making an ass of him while Mike struggles to convince him otherwise. Altogether, "Bad Boys: Ride or Die" qualifies as the worst entry in the film. The only redeeming feature about it is his son-in-law, Reggie (Dennis Greene of "Bad Boys 2"), proves that he is an invincible Marine. Original "Bad Boys" director Michael Bay has a cameo as a Porsche driver early in the action. Disappointing from start to finish, "Bad Boys" deserved a better send off.
The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024)
Lacks the Gutsy Angst of the original "Strangers"
"A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master" director Renny Harlin helms the reboot of scenarist Bryan Bertino's home invasion horror franchise "The Strangers" with the first entry in the new trilogy "The Strangers: Chapter 1." Mind you, publicity for the trilogy stipulates that the newest film is not a prequel to the previous pair of chillers. For the record, "The Strangers" came out in 2008 with Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as the first ill-fated couple. "The Strangers: Prey At Night," with Christina Hendricks and Martin Henderson followed a decade later. Now, Harlin is officially listed as the director of the two forthcoming sequels "Chapter Two" and "Chapter Three." "Due Date" scribes Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland penned the rather lackluster script about a clueless couple of city slickers from New York, Maya and Ryan (Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez) traveling cross-country by car for Maya's job interview in Portland with an architectural firm. No, these two aren't married. In fact, they've been dating for five years but Ryan hasn't taken a knee to make Maya an honest woman. Predictably, the three masked assailants from the original movie-Scarecrow, Doll-Face, and Pin-up--show up to send shivers as well as blades into our cute little couple. Although the story takes place in a small town in Oregon, Harlin and company filmed the action in the Central European country of Slovakia. Looking at the scenery, you wouldn't know it since everything looks just like the states. Sadly, "The Strangers, Chapter 1" doesn't qualify as either white-knuckled or different. The filmmakers observe all the usual cliches, with only a few scenes that stand out of this 91-minute opus. Once again the victims of this mayhem are so oblivious to everything happening around them that it is difficult to conjure up a tear or two of sympathy for them. Mind you, despite some occasional touches here and there, nothing in this reboot will come as a surprise for anybody who has seen the first two "Strangers" sagas.
Beauty and the Bandit (1946)
Gilbert Roland Is The Cisco Kid!!!
Latin sensation Gilbert Roland plays O' Henry's charismatic Mexican troubleshooter The Cisco Kid, a gunslinger who straddles the line between being a saint and a sinner, in Old California. Basically, he is a bandit on horseback with a gang of twenty loyal followers. In this installment of the Monogram Pictures' franchise, The Cisco Kid takes an interest in a young Frenchwoman, Jeanne Du Bois (Ramsay Ames of "The Mummy's Ghost"), who is masquerading as a man. It seems her dad has died and left her with a pile of silver, and she plans to do something with it, but isn't sure what she will do. She arrives at her destination via a wooden sailing ship. Cisco learns about her from a former accomplice, Sailor Bill (Glenn Strange of "Gunsmoke" fame), who alerts the Latin bandit about her and her stash of silver. No long after these two meet, Cisco steals her silver from a strongbox during a robbery. She is heading to a town to meet one of her father's criminal associates, Doc Wells (William Gould of "Beasts of Paradise"), who owns lots of land and has allowed an epidemic to ravage the surrounding countryside. Essentially, Doc has blackmailed his accomplice, Dr. Juan Valegra (Martin Garralaga of "The Gay Cavalier") into withholding a remedy to staunch this epidemic. Once these two greedy villains have depleted the population of Mexican farmers, they plan to sell the acreage to investors who are aboard. Basically, this is what Du Bois plans to do until she meets Cisco and falls madly in love with the rascal. Of course, everything works out splendidly in this tidy, little, 77-minute, black & white oater with veteran director William Nigh of "Forever Yours" at the helm. Roland would star in several of Cisco Kid B-movies. He brings a sense of class and presence to these otherwise nondescript westerns. Initially, Cisco has no idea that Jeanne Du Bois is posing as a gentleman, and he treats her like a young man who doesn't know enough about the pleasures of life. For example, Cisco introduces her to tequila. She had order wine at the cantina, but Cisco convinces her tequila is a better choice. One of Roland's trademarks in his acting was the elaborate business that he brought to performing certain chores. In "Beauty and the Bandit," Roland demonstrates not only how to light a cigarette by using his thumbnail to scratch the sulfur wooden matches and ignite a flame. Once he was scratched the match alight, he holds the bottom of it in his thumb and ignites his cigarette. No sooner has he taken a puff or two off the cigarette than he puts it atop his ear the way a clerk would put a pencil, and indulges in his favorite past time of licking salt off his hand and chasing it with the tequila. Mind you, he takes his time as he performs this routine of drinking the tequila while the cigarette burns on his ear. No, he doesn't burn his ear because he doesn't allow the cigarette to go unattended. Of course, like Zorro, Cisco plays games with the Rurales. He has fun making buffoons of them, but they don't take it too badly. In the end, the Captain (George J. Lewis of "Radar Patrol vs. Spy King") warns Cisco that he must leave before they have to arrest him for his borderline shenanigans.
Miami Blues (1990)
A Quirky Cops & Robbers Comedy
Director George Armitage's "Miami Blues" qualifies as a quirky, little, off-beat, crime thriller laced with bouts of humor and bursts of violence and. Armitage adapted "Miami Blues" from a series of novels by the late Charles Williford about Miami Police Detective Sergeant Hoke Moseley. Fred Ward plays Hoke with a good ole boy demeanor. Mind you, he isn't the kind of spit and polish cop who you'd set out to imitate. First, he is as blue collar as they come. Second, he is a bachelor. Third, he drives a beat-up car. Fourth, he lives in a cramped apartment. Fifth, he isn't worried about his wardrobe. Character actor that he is, Ward is a splendid fit as Hoke. He can be congenial, but he can be tough. Although he was the protagonist of several Williford novels, Hoke isn't the man to watch in this dandy 96-minute epic. Instead, the man of the hour is Frederick J. Frenger Jr. (Alec Baldwin of "The Hunt for Red October"), because he serves as the catalyst for everything that happens in this frivolous, fast-paced noir comedy.
Having recently been released from California's notorious San Quentin Prison, Frenger jumps on the first flight out for sunshiny Miami, Florida. Before he leaves the airport terminal, Frenger breaks the finger of a Hare Krishna who is harassing tourists. Incredibly, the poor slob dies from shock! Hoke is handed the case. Meanwhile, Frenger embarks on a crime rampage and hooks up a cute, sassy, bubble-brained, Southern prostitute, Pepper (Jennifer Jason Leigh of "Rush"), and they become a couple. Afterward, Pepper has good memories of her time with Frenger. First, she likes it that he loved her home cooking. Second, the ex-con refrained from smacking her around like a punching bag. Nevertheless, Frenger is flawed from the first. Not only is he a pathological liar, but he is also a career criminal. He doesn't have the least compunction of treading the straight and narrow. Instead, he prefers to take advantage of the other criminals. We watch him as he knocks off a gang of pickpocket thieves and thwarts redneck convenience store bandit.
If you can look past his gleaming eyes and charismatic grin, you'll know he is a dead man walking. It is only a matter of time until Hoke tracks Frenger down and quizzes him about the airport incident. Hoke meets Pepper, shares supper with the amorous couple, and helps them deplete their supply of booze. Later, the audacious Frenger attacks Hoke at his modest apartment, nearly breaks the sergeant's neck, swipes his badge, steals his false upper teeth, and lands him in the hospital. Three quarters of the way through "Miami Blues," Pepper figures it out. She spends too much time hoping for the best out of Frenger, but all she gets is the worst. Eventually, Hoke tracks down Frenger when he tries to sell a coin collection he stole from an apartment. The gruff old dame who eyeballs the coins introduces Frenger to her shotgun wielding bodyguard. Frenger doesn't like the way the guy looks at him and blows a couple of holes in him for the sheer delight of it. The old dame chops off two of his fingers with a machete. Frenger doesn't bat an eyelash and shoots her in the shoulder. In a showdown in the sunny streets of Miami, Hoke takes down Frenger. Although it never takes itself seriously, "Miami Blues" musters more than enough spontaneity to keep you watching it right up to the end credits with Norman Greenbaum's Top 40 hit "Spirit in the Sky." Suffice it to say, "Miami Blues" has a lot of spirit!
Atlas (2024)
Not Another Artificial Intelligence Opus!!!
Jennifer Lopez suffers grievously in her heroic efforts to save mankind from a rogue A. I. in "Rampage" helmer Brad Peyton's straight-to-streaming sci-fi saga "Atlas" that dreams of making mankind take a knee. As it turns out, this clash of titans is largely personal. Indeed,data analyst Atlas Shepherd (Jennifer Lopez of "Hustlers"), our caffeine craving misanthrope, knows her adversary, Harlan Shepherd (Simu Liu of "Arthur the King"), as only a sister could a brother. Technically, Harlan is a cunning android who amounts to a futuristic Fu Manchu sans the facial hair and fingernails. He is the sharpest robot on the block, and he qualifies as a worthwhile, first-rate villain, too. Seems these two grew up together. Sadly, Harlan took advantage of Atlas' gullible sincerity and managed to reprogram himself, so he could mastermind an armed revolt and kill millions of people. Think of Thanos with far less screen time. That's a severe weakness since the best villains is often far more interesting that the protagonist. About the only thing interesting in this derivative nonsense is Atlas' ironic predicament. She abhors Artificial Intelligence with a passion and joins a combat mission to destroy Harlan. However, she must synchronize herself with an inquisitive on-board A. I. computer, Smith (voice of Gregory James Cohan), for "the mech suit" she occupies during the mission. At the same time, the beleaguered Atlas totes around enough guilt for two people in this Armageddon-esque showdown set in 2043 on a remote planet somewhere "in the Andromeda Galaxy." Harlan has fled from Earth to this volatile planet before he makes his final move against mankind. Atlas winds up seated in a giant robot that does a whole lot of stomping. This heavily armed module resembles the flawed police robot from the original "RoBoCop." This sophomoric sci-fi saga explores the controversial issue of trusting Artificial Intelligence and the prospective problem it poses. Nevertheless, Peyton and freshman scribe Leo Sardarian and "Star Trek: Discovery" scribe Aron Eli Coleite appear cautiously optimistic about mankind's relationship with A. I.. Had Ms. Lopez been far less histrionic, then the outcome might of "Atlas" might have been more tolerable.
Piranha (1972)
Where Are the Piranha?
William Gibson's one and only film "Piranha," reuniting "Laredo" co-stars William Smith and Peter Brown, qualifies as a half-baked spin on the venerable survivalist saga "The Most Dangerous Game." Brother and sister, Art Greene (Tom Simcox of "Shenandoah") and Terry Greene (Ahna Capri of "Enter the Dragon"), hire a local, Jim Pendrake (Peter Brown of "Lawman"), to serve as their tour guide in the jungles of Venezuela. Terry is a wildlife photographer with an antipathy toward firearms. Later in the story, her brother Art fills Jim about her sour attitude. Apparently, their mother shot their father in cold blood. Mind you, he had cheated on his wife, so in a fit of rage, she blew his head off. Tragically, Terry witnessed the murder. Since then the sight of guns evokes those painful memories. They encounter Caribe (William Smith of "Any Which Way You Can"), a seasoned hunter who sums up his love of hunting, "I can taste the very soul of every animal I hunt... what I hunt becomes a part of me... and lives on in me. Someday I'll be outhunted. And everything that I will become part of that hunter..."
By the time, this slow-burn, but tedious 95-minute melodrama has worn out its welcome. Caribe loves to kill animals much to Terry's chagrin. Near the end, Caribe kills Terry's brother and beats poor Pendrake half to death. Predictably, Terry adapts to this horrific predicament. Earlier, she complained to Jim about packing a pistol. Nevertheless, he saved not only Terry's life but also her brother when she shot a venomous snake poised to strike them. Now, she has gotten hold of Caribe's rifle, and she blasts him into eternity. Although the location photography and the stock footage of wildlife provide considerable atmosphere, Richard Finder's screenplay is light on drama until the final quarter hour. The use of stock footage pads out the action and provides a sense of atmosphere. Incredibly, we never see any piranha. What a letdown! Apparently, neither Gibson nor his writer lacked the resources to stage a piranha feeding scene. As it turns out, Piranha is Caribe's nickname. Smith is appropriately maniacal as the hunter gone mad. Gibson could easily have whittled twenty minutes out of this lethargic saga. Whether he knew it or not, Gibson paved the way for those grisly Italian-produced horror movies, like Sergio Martino's "Slave of the Cannibal God," which featured live footage of animals eating animals. Although it doesn't redeem the film, the wildlife unit shot film of an incredibly monstrous anaconda. No, this anaconda is far larger than the one Jennifer Lopez tangled with in "Anaconda." This reptile resembles a felled oak tree slithering through the underbrush. Presumably, the cast got a vacation out of this on-location shoot when they weren't sweating it out in the jungle. Save your curiosity for something else if you feel the urge to watch this abysmal adventure.