Reviews

In our home theatre, we often run a "Complete" festival showcasing all the work of a director or star. When it came around to Greydon Clark, I checked the IMDb listing to make sure I had all of them and found this at the beginning of the directorial list. Comparing to an older list, this was a new addition and with the lack of info provided, I figured finding it was a lost cause and possibly a lost film.

To my surprise, a bit of searching provided it and as the festival began, we played it. I hadn't seen The Bad Bunch in years (IMDb title Tom, aka N Lover), but I was immediately struck by similarities. After a few minutes, I realized that this debut effort was roughly half of The Bad Bunch!

Clark, in the spirit of exploitation master Al Adamson (with whom he'd worked in the years preceding this effort), took this drama about a returning Vietnam veteran's relationships with the titular trio, and used much of the footage for the far more widely known/seen/released later film while creating a whole new plot.

Spurred by the brief Vietnam flashback scene in MF&L, TBB took off in a whole different direction with an increasingly bitter and downbeat look at the effort of the main character, played by Clark, to befriend his fallen comrade's family amid racial tensions. Much has been written about TBB for better or worse but it clearly was geared to tap into the Black cinema market that was drawing crowds regularly. Just as Adamson would retool his projects or simply change the ad campaigns to cater to popular trends, this early Clark effort became something wholly different.

MF&L is more in the spirit and tone of several other low budget counterculture projects of the day. It's rough around the edges and sometimes right through the middle, but it's interesting to compare the two projects and see how the relatively placid earlier film became the later one.

Like quite a few other of the 70's crime dramas that were not classics, but still of more grit and consequence than many of those churned out in the last two decades, this interestingly plotted mob film is a frustrating mix of a really good scene or two followed by a painfully predictable and badly presented one. Anthony Quinn is top billed but largely wasted as the boss whose romantic liaison triggers a war of wills and weapons with some headstrong younger members (led by Robert Forster, Frederic Forrest and Al Lettieri.) Some good action scenes follow, but, like the rest of the film, some of them are quite impressive while others fall flat. A mixed bag, not often seen but worth watching, with limited expectations.

In other of Paul Newman's movie years, this one might have fared better, but alongside the Southern masterpieces Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Long Hot Summer, and the flawed but interesting Billy The Kid take The Left-Handed Gun, this sometimes amusing fluff just can't hold up. Good to see him paired with Woodward and taking a stab at screen comedy for the first time, but he never truly excelled at it until later in his career. Still, some nice bits and decent work survive. It's just impossible to see and compare these days, rarely if ever broadcast and unreleased to video to this day.

The Big Country has long been underrated in discussions of some other, rather overblown two-and-a-half-hour plus westerns of the 50's and 60's. Unlike many others, this one is rich in character, not just another lesson in "it's in Cinerama/Super Panavision and historical, so it's gotta be good."

The cast is smaller than some spot-the-star epics and couldn't have been better chosen; what few people remember in amongst the always commanding Gregory Peck lead, the talented female duo of Jean Simmons and Carroll Baker, and the vivid feud-masters Burl Ives, Charles Bickford and Chuck Connors, is that Charlton Heston gave one of his best performances here.

Not to say that the visuals aren't striking here; the technical work stands up to and often surpasses the big Westerns of the era. Good news for fans and never-seens: the movie was recently announced for release in stereo and widescreen on DVD in the next couple of months: an overdue treat of a movie ready for discovery (or rediscovery.)

Vividly filmed in Cinemascope in the best late-50's MGM style, this loose remake of The Asphalt Jungle in a Western setting has some good acting and takes a different road. The relationship of Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine is consistently interesting and unpredictable throughout, and Katy Jurado offers a standout performance. Ultimately less grim than its source material, this one has a satisfying resolution, and the action that leads to it holds the interest the entire way. A solid Western that deserves a significant place in both of its stars' filmographies.

Boetticher and Scott spent the latter half of the 1950s making some terrific, adult, low-key Westerns, of which this stands as the best. Atmosphere, technical work and acting are all excellent, with interesting villain characterizations and a well-realized flawed hero in Scott.

Brutal and vivid, great-looking, and among Elmore Leonard's earliest writing work in the medium. Check out this classic, as well as the other films of the star and director (also the similar, excellent Gary Cooper/Anthony Mann teaming in the following year's Man of the West.)

One of the more minor-key of Randolph Scott's late 50's Westerns, with frequent era collaborator Budd Boetticher nowhere in sight. The more standard filming style is evident, but Scott offers his traditional dependable portrayal, and the film is of interest for the early big-screen work of James Garner and Angie Dickinson. Has some good action scattered throughout.

Often mistaken as a Western, this little ranch-set, (then) modern-day murder tale has ambitious themes, but fails to resolve itself with much of an impact. Orson Welles was seen to possibly his best effect onscreen in 1958 with his masterpiece Touch of Evil and his great, scenery chewing Southern patriarch in The Long, Hot Summer. Here he's barely given anything to work with, and Jeff Chandler's solid work doesn't produce a memorable character. Good atmosphere, interesting potential, but a disappointment.

Throughout the 50's, Universal-International was home to most of director Douglas Sirk's striking views of life, love and heartache among the American classes. His work with Rock Hudson, Dorothy Malone, Barbara Stanwyck and others in superior films like Written on The Wind, The Tarnished Angels and There's Always Tomorrow is not matched here.

June Allyson on occasion was able to break free from her standard persona with the fortuitous help of the right co-star, director, script turn or moment in time. Here the noble suffering and Rossano Brazzi do not provide the right formula. The stars try (probably too hard) and the trappings are predictably pretty, but the whole affair is rather unfortunately empty.

Certainly among the lesser-known 50's racket-noirs (even many inferior are more discussed and collected), this one hits hard, looks good and has the unmistakable touch of prime-era Aldrich, though it was only partially done by him. Frequent cinematography collaborator Joe Biroc puts the stamp on that ensures a vivid look at a harsh story.

The cast is uniformly good, with Cobb leading in one of his best performances. The blending of two directors' work here unusually doesn't detract from the impact of this one. Look for it on television, or the hard-to-find, out-of-print video, whenever possible.

When this gem came out in the summer of '86, it was gone and forgotten in the time it took to clean the neighboring theatres still showing Top Gun...too bad, because then and now, it stood high above the competition as one of the best crime thrillers in years.

William Petersen had just distinguished himself less than a year before with his starring debut in To Live and Die in L.A. playing another lawman with different shadings. His work here is notably intense without the hand-wringing histrionics that might have appealed to some of this great movie's detractors.

Speaking of this great movie's detractors: some of the previous comments have complained about the nerve that it took to change Thomas Harris' "great" novel ending. Long before this movie was ever thought of, I read and enjoyed Harris' work, but the ending of the book kind of struck me as a cheap horror movie ending. And after that, with the onslaught of slasher pics that had been on the screens for nearly a decade, perhaps Mann and company realized that on film, that ending would even look MORE like a cheap horror movie than it read years before. Whatever the reason, the ending of the film is well-shot and satisfying in the terms of a crime thriller (which after all is what this movie is...); better a typical crime movie ending than a typical Friday the 13th ending.

The atmosphere and production values are all top-grade, despite the predictable beefs that plague movies on here of every decade except NOW: the usual comments, stuck in present day, that complain: it's "too 80's", "looks too 80's", "terrible soundtrack..sounds too 80's." Guess what, folks, IT WAS MADE IN THE 80's! There is always backlash over what went before; maybe great numbers of people are embarrassed over what they were dressing in, listening to, watching, etc. ten or twenty years ago. But movies naturally exist, bad ones and good ones, as indicators of their era.

I'm not defending the experience of that era, truth is, most of the movies released in the '80s were not great, but then, most movies released in any given year see the mediocre to bad far outweigh the good and definitely overshadow the great. The point is, if you're happier being spoonfed the latest new releases, just because they carry a year-old or less release date, don't even venture back to the masterworks of yesteryear. Might be some fashions or electronic music that frighten you more than the killer!

Not every great movie from the past is going to be remade to capture the look and style of current day. Good thing, too, because they'd probably blow it. And even so, if this movie were remade with the equal brilliance and look of The Matrix, American Beauty, Fight Club (not a knock; I love them all) and other internet faves, chances are that in ten years, the same people would sit and write "it had a decent plot, but looked and sounded so lame and cheesy...SO 90'S."

Manhunter still stands today as a great film, not eclipsed at all by its famous followup The Silence of the Lambs, which was a huge success financially and critically. It's wonderful to remember that such a dark and un-Gandhi/Last Emperor/Driving Miss Daisy film won the Best Picture Oscar. And it was a fine film, though not without just a few faults. (Jodie Foster's wardrobe was so '91......just kidding). The obvious difference was the style in which Lecter was presented and played, but Brian Cox' work here is an admirable portrayal of Lecter at a different point, and it's actually a little more chilling to imagine his depraved crimes as he does not tip his hand at all with any frightening design to his work. [No slight to Hopkins' fantastic work; his more overtly frightening mannerisms depict Lecter in a different set of circumstances.]

The rest of the cast performs very well, with Noonan a frightening and enigmatic killer, Farina a dependable and sardonic Jack Crawford and Joan Allen in one of her earliest roles. Only Kim Griest's role seems undernourished, but not much time is spent on the Graham's domestic life. (Further down in the cast, it's quite interesting to see funnyman Chris Elliott in a straight role behind a law enforcement desk.)

The production design is a nice mix of dark foreboding and crisp brightness. Michael Mann did create Miami Vice (another thing everyone has to say was "cheesy" to be properly entrenched in modern thinking) and this film did come out right in the middle of its successful run. Do they share some common design appearances? Yes, and the movie's look is all the better for it, just as the show was changing the look of TV crime thrillers from Cannon and Barnaby Jones to something a little more striking. With Thief, Manhunter and Heat, Michael Mann created three of the very best crime dramas of the last quarter century. As decent and noble as The Insider was (and Ali will probably be), his fans would certainly agree that it's time for him to take another walk down the dark criminal alley again.

Certainly one of the more eccentric of Bronson's starring vehicles, it tries to evoke memories of Casablanca even in its title. Taken apart from that unlikely-to-attain goal, it's fairly interesting, with a few talented cast members to keep it going (though they're not well served by the material). Large chunks of the story are pretty muddled, but as a curiosity piece, it's worth seeking out for Bronson completists.

When this briefly played in the U.S. in 76-7, American International marketed it more in the line of a horror thriller than the shoot-em-up it leaned toward. Six capable perfomers, most of whom were accustomed to making the most out of low-budget material, appeared to varying degrees of success. DeMartino was a workmanlike director who, like most of his Italian contemporaries of the era, made his way around all of the heavily produced genres from western and superhero to crime and horror.

In the mid-70's, Fred Williamson began his own productions away from the big and mini-major studios that had been home to his best (and worst) films. After the Jesse Crowder duo and the really bad Mean Johnny Barrows, this one had a nice feel, good music, lots of smart and tough lines, and good action. Can it be stilted and rough-around-the-edges at times? Of course, but overall it's one of the better Hammers from his company and maybe the best of his directorial stuff.

In 1976, Universal spent significant money to bring two golden-age Hollywood biopics to the screen: Gable and Lombard and W.C. Fields and Me. Both were panned, gave little return on the money spent, and have been relegated to rarely seen, not-on-video status. I haven't seen Gable since the year of its release, but caught up with W.C. on cable awhile back. It's imperfect, but certainly interesting, well-acted and worth another look. (I'd like to see Gable again, too, to see if it's worse or better than I remember.)

Steiger gives a good interpretation of Fields, though unable to channel the unique comic gifts that he possessed. It was always good to see Perrine onscreen in her too-few roles, and Jack Cassidy was effective in one of his last roles prior to his untimely death. The design and technical work result in a great look, unfortunately panned and scanned in the TV version that is seen today (when it's seen at all.)

Interestingly, the Fields portrayal can be traced back to the memorable serial killer Steiger portrayed in 1968's No Way To Treat A Lady, adapting several disguises and voices, one of which evoked Fields. Universal has been pretty good about releasing older films of theirs to DVD at a good price; how about a couple of widescreen editions of these flawed but interesting biopics?

It was 1976, Bronson had just scored one of his bigger creative triumphs with Hard Times late the past year and had effectively changed pace earlier that year with the satirical, western set From Noon Till Three and the more traditional western mystery Breakheart Pass. As the titular mystery writer/troubleshooter, his performance is more loose in the style of some of his better efforts.

A good cast surrounds him, most of whom play some part in the intrigue. It's not classic mystery or classic Bronson, but is easy to enjoy even for non-fans. Check out the late stuntman-extraodinaire Dar Robinson in one of his few acting appearances and a pre-Freddy Robert Englund (who had one of his best roles that same year in Stay Hungry).

The low budget and the talent of Burt Kennedy (working in a rare venture outside the western genre) add to the striking atmosphere of this largely unseen, barely released Jim Thompson adaptation. After the critically lauded Fat City, Stacy Keach had quite a few star turns in alternative fare during the 70s, of which this is among the best (though his decade-wrapper with The Ninth Configuration is awfully hard to beat.)

Susan Tyrell rejoins him here after her acclaimed Fat City turn, with many terrific character actors throughout the cast. Technical work is top-drawer with the William Fraker photography as good as ever.

One of the first budget DVD's released, (naturally unletterboxed) the Panavision cries out for a redo. Sadly, the small resurgence in Thompson adaptations in the early 90s ended rather quickly; still plenty of great material there for dedicated crime filmmakers.

Coming near the end of the spaghetti western cycle, this one should have worked out better. While some of the action scenes are good, others fail with a thud, and none of the solid stars are given any material to distinguish themselves.

Overall, Jim Brown fared a bit better in westerns than Williamson, who made a few more; this was Kelly's sole venture into the genre. And with Van Cleef around, one wishes that one of the better directors (Leone, Sollima) who guided his top efforts was on hand to spark this one. A disappointment; couldn't be a total loss with that cast, but they deserve better.

A mixed bag of tones runs through this gangster picture, veering from comedy to violence and pathos and back again. The mix doesn't always work, but makes for some good scenes here and there. Palance is effective, even subdued more than he often was during the era, and he's backed up by some talent (the always underused Carol Lynley, Adam Roarke, etc.) Obviously not well remembered, but possibly worth a look.

Where Harper was jazzy, amped up for its day and often dark humored in its intrigue and violence, this sequel has more of a laid-back and ultimately melancholy tone. The humor is still there, but the dysfunctional family theme that produced edgy laughs in the earlier film cuts deeper here.

Newman looks great and is as effortlessly effective as ever as he prowls Cajun Country, at the behest of onetime flame Joanne Woodward, in search of a blackmail source that quickly turns into much more. Filmed all over South Louisiana, including a mansion shot here in Baton Rouge, it gets the local flavor down pretty well.

Dismissed as draggy even in its day, and certainly so in the age raised on the newspaper ad quote "A Thrill Ride!!!", it's a thoughtful, well acted addition to the private eye genre, with Melanie Griffith coming out the gate full force as a troublesome nymphet (an interesting predatory flip-side to the victimized variation seen later the same year in the superb Night Moves.)

Hopefully a widescreen DVD will one day soon afford its excellent Panavision photography to be seen for the first time in 25 years.

His significant charisma and commanding presence are about all that keep this afloat, but Fred Williamson has done far better urban action films including many of his later, vid-released fare. The big studios' Williamson films of the early-to-mid 70's rarely had the punch of their mid-level counterparts, and this is a prime example. Clumsy action, little violence, and the PG rating is nowhere near questionable. Worth a look for Hammer completists in any case.

The one sheets and newspaper campaign suggested (as often they did) a far more lurid and violent piece than showed up on the drive-in screens. Claude Brook is actually an Americanization of Claudio Brook, who worked in films for years. This one's quite hard to find anymore; I'd love to see it again to compare it to other international horrors of the day, but don't remember particularly impressed way back when. Chances are it was a chopped up version that made it to U.S. theatres and video. But oh, that one sheet...still a gem of my later horror collection.

Unknown or forgotten, and never released on video, this unexpectedly gritty film from Robert Culp (who also directed) and Bill Cosby is light years away from their popular I Spy series. As two low-end private eyes, neither has ever been more effective on screen before. An interesting, atypical contrast of styles in their acting; Cosby plays it humorless, (in a realistic, lived-in fashion, not a tough guy caricature) while Culp is alternates several nice modes for his character.

The earliest directorial effort from Walter Hill stands among the best of his career (it would make a fine double bill with his classic THE DRIVER), and also among the best of the rich era of 1970's crime dramas. It was released by United Artists and the rights-holders would do us a favor to release it for sale. It has some class-A action scenes and two terrific central performances. Hopefully will soon see the light of day again and gain some of the reputation it so deserves.