Reviews

I am very surprised that no one has written anything about this fine documentary about the preservation efforts of the Subway Lounge in Jackson MS. This lounge, in the basement of the Summers Hotel faced closure as the hotel was in disrepair. Many, many fine blues acts and notables like Morgan Freeman offered their assistance in saving one of last of the old Mississippi jukes.

I thoroughly enjoyed the music as it was being played in the lounge and hearing about the history of the hotel and area.

The music was performed in part by such artists as Alvin Youngblood Hart, Chris Thomas King, Bobby Rush, Vasti Jackson, Patrice Moncell, and the King Edwards Blues Band.

Sadly, I have learned that after this film was made, the Summers hotel and the Subway lounge were demolished in 2004. The owner, Jimmy King, has reopened the lounge again in another building in Jackson.

Great, enjoyable music and a fine documentary that blues fans won't want to miss.

I got this in a dollar store. $1 for a DVD with two movies on it (the second being The Snows of Kilmanjaro). I like picking up these low budget movies. Most are awful but every now and then I find a gem.

Fatal Assassin would not be called a gem, but it isn't a lump of coal, either. Quinn, who has a fatal illness, kidnaps a visiting dignitary in South Africa in order to provide for his daughter. Meanwhile, an assassin has been hired to kill the dignitary. The story focuses more on the growing relationship between Quinn and the President.

I did not think this was a bad movie at all. It held my interest to the end.

I remember seeing this movie when it came out in 1973. I believe it was a made for TV film, but it had better production values than the usual made for TV fare.

Just watched it again for the first time in over 30 years last night. I got it on one of those cheap DVDs you find at the dollar store.

Firehouse starts of interesting enough. With some John Carpenter horror movie synthesizer music and heartbeats pounding, we see fire starters setting an urban building ablaze. The city fire department arrives shortly thereafter. The firefighting scenes were grainy and realistic. They may have been real firefighters, but I am not sure.

From here, we are introduced to the firefighters at a particular station. Led by Captain Parr (Andrew Duggan), we meet Spike (Vince Edwards), Hank (Richard Jaeckel), and Sonny (Val Avery). Another fireman, Eddie, dies in the blaze that begins the movie. Spike is a bigot who blames the fire on blacks and the others go along with him.

Meanwhile, Shelly Forsythe (Richard Roundtree) is the first black to join the station. He is a "probbie". Shelly is reluctant to join the fire department and gets into an argument with his wife, who threatens to leave him if he doesn't join.

Racial tensions develop as soon as Shelly arrives. Spike makes it difficult for him. The captain is spineless (in once seen he gives Spike an order and Spike replies "Don't tell me what to do.") and tells Shelly just to ignore the verbal abuse.

Some of the racial issues are stereotyped and clichéd. I thought it was unrealistic that a large city would not have hired any black firemen by 1973. And I doubt if Spike's behavior was realistic. His hostility toward Shelly should have gotten him fired, but everyone called him a hero so they looked the other way.

I saw this on the Western Channel this Sunday morning. Never heard of this one before so I thought I'd watch it for awhile. As it turns out, I watched the whole thing before I finished my pot of coffee! Quick, sturdy little western.

I was surprised to see it was filmed in color and was amazed at how sharp the color was 48 years later.

The length of the movie was just right, about an hour and ten minutes. A little longer and the padding would have shown. The action scenes and script were somewhat clichéd ("It's just a flesh wound"--where have I heard that one before?), but I enjoyed it as the pace was crisp.

Philip Carey has had a long career on the "One Life to Live" soap opera, Andrew Duggan had a steady stream of guest starring roles on TV along with the lead on "Lancer", and, of course, Jay Silverheels was Tonto, so the cast wasn't completely obscure. The boy who played David, Christopher Olsen, is the brother of Susan Olsen (Cindy on the "Brady Bunch").

Not a bad way to pass the time on a Sunday morning. Now it is time to rake the leaves.

I vaguely remember this series as a kid and had totally forgotten about it. The other day, I bought a DVD set called "TV's Lost Show Collection" (from Diamond Entertainment) and two episodes of Fury are in it. I bought the DVD at a drugstore, but you may be able to find it on Ebay or Amazon.com.

The episode I watched was was called "The Search for Joey". Joey was bitten by a rabid dog. He and his friend then got lost in the woods. It was imperative for Jim and the doctor to find him to give him his shot within 24 hours. Fury to the rescue! Joey has a friend in this episode (Ken Osmond)who was more famously known as Leave It To Beaver's Eddie Haskell. Osmond was about 12 or 13 when he appeared on Fury. This episode of Fury first aired on February 18, 1956.