Crooked River 1950 Screenplay by Ron Ormond and Maurie Tombragel, directed by Thomas Carr.
Simple western about a guy who helps another guy track down the bastards who killed his parents.
It's about average. Nothing special. An early film for Julie Adams.
New York Ninja 2021 Originally written and directed by John Liu, 2021 writer and director Kurtis M Spieler.
John Liu shot his film in 1984 and after the distribution company went bankrupt it remained unedited and unreleased until Vinegar Syndrome finished it this year. Kurt M Spieler used the raw footage to assembled a movie, then had the dialog dubbed in by an interesting gang of actors: Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Michael Berryman, Cynthia Rothrock, Linnea Quigley, Vince Murdocco, Matt Mitler, Leon Isaac Kennedy and Ginger Lynn. I didn't know who Vince or Matt or Leon is but it doesn't matter. I didn't read it anywhere but I suspect that John shot his movie without sound. The common practice of Chinese film makers at the time. Maybe they still do.
It's a revenge story, John Liu plays the husband of a woman killed by street toughs during a kidnapping. The gang kidnap women on the streets to sell as sex slaves. The wife just happened to be there at the wrong time. John dresses up as a ninja and hunts down the gang. He attacks and there are plenty of fights. Sadly, they just aren't very good fights, some of the worst I've seen. They seem like slow motion training videos. John Liu is the martial arts choreographer and he's not doing that good a job. He's not doing so well on his acting either. Some of his mugging to the camera is laughable but not in a good way. John made most of his 2 dozen films between 1972 and 1982, I can't say I've seen any of them, they aren't the popular films that I recognize.
The revenge story is pretty standard fare, the villains are where the film takes a slight dip to wacky land. The menacing street thugs dress and act comically and all I could think of is how clumsy it all looked. The head baddie is so radioactive he can kill with his hands. Most of his murderin' effects weren't that good. There's a bunch of cops and reporters involved and they aren't much better at the old acting game than John was. It's nice that VS salvaged the film and released it, it's too bad it's just so poor. I don't imagine I'll be picking up this one.
Curse Of The Undead 1959 Written by Edward Dein and Mildred Dein, directed by Edward Dein. It's listed on the Kino Lorber DVD box as the first vampire western. I do like the poster.
A small town has had some young women die from what the local doctor, played by John Hoyt, thinks is a wasting disease. Soon John finds out what's killing the women, it's a vampire, played by Michael Pate. Michael plays a good villain. If you watched a lot of TV from that era you would have seen Michael as a guest star on many shows. I really liked two of his earliest films, The Black Castle and The Strange Door.
There's a local baddie who's trying to take over other people's land in the area through force, he's played by Bruce Gordon, another character actor that appeared on oodles of TV from the same time. Michael sets his eyes on the local widow rancher played by Kathleen Crowley. Lucky for her, she's got Preacher Dan on her side, he's played by Eric Fleming, and he can kick some vampire ass.
I enjoyed it, it's a nice looking film, it's got a nice mood. I liked the characters, the locations, sets and props worked well. The script mixed the two genres well without changing much of the mythology people expect from either. Someone mentioned the movie dragged a bit in the last third and I thought the same thing. It doesn't make me like it any less, glad I picked it up, I'll watch it again.
Kentucky Jubilee 1951 Screenplay by director Ron Ormond and Maurice Tombragel. A movie director is in Kentucky looking for talent for a hillbilly movie. He gets kidnapped by the local crooked showman who handles crap acts from Florida's swamps. A Hollywood reporter helps get him out of trouble. Jerry Calonna is the emcee and a kidnap victim. Nothing too exciting, below average but a bit better than the picture below. This is the last of the Showtime USA series. There wasn't that much that stands out from the lot. I'll be somewhat hard pressed to want to watch them all again.
The Kid From Gower Gulch 1950 Story by Bob Gilbert, screenplay by Elmer Clifton (writing under the name Elmer Pond), direction by Oliver Drake. Spade Cooley is back singing some cowboy songs. Spade gets involved with a local rodeo, he bets his ranch will win, one of his men goes over to the other ranch. There's too much singing and Spade's not much of a singer. The movie isn't much either. Below average.
Showtime USA Volume 2 has two musical movies. It's part of 4 volume set. I'm not a big musical fan for the most part but these low budget films are sort of interesting. They come from Kit Parker, who has other DVDs, like the Forgotten Noir series I had just watched.
Yes Sir, Mr Bones is a 1951 musical that looks back at the Minstrel Show. Ron Ormond is the producer, writer and director. He was mostly a producer, he produced the other film on this disc. I didn't recognize any of the other 24 films he directed but one, Mesa Of Lost Women, not something to recommend a guy for, that's for sure.
There's not much of a story, a kid looks in the window of a retirement home and gets invited in, the old men tell him about their singing and dancing which we see as flashbacks. There's a big variety of acts, mostly it's singing and dancing but there are comedians. There's plenty of black face on white man but there are also a lot of black performers.
In fact, it's Scatman Crothers first film, he does a comedy bit with another man where one man starts a sentence but never finishes it, the other man answers like he knew what the other man was saying. The same gag, with different dialog, was used by Mantan Moreland and Ben Carter in the 1945 Charlie Chan film The Scarlet Clue. Here's a bit of the gag from TSC.
Birmingham Brown, Chauffeur: Well, if it ain't, uh...
Ben Carter: Ben Carter's my name.
Birmingham: Benjamin Carter! Yeah! Boy, it's been a long time. I haven't seen you since...
Ben: Longer than that.
Birmingham: Yeah?
Ben: The last time I saw you, you was living over...
Birmingham: Oh, I moved from there.
Ben: Yeah?
Birmingham: Sure. I moved over to, uh...
Ben: How can you live in that neighborhood?
Birmingham: I don't know.
Ben: Now where I'm living, I only pay...
Birmingham: It ain't THAT cheep, is it?
Ben: Sure it is.
Birmingham: Hey, looky here.
Ben: What?
Birmingham: Is you still married...
Ben: No, I divorced her.
Birmingham: Yeah?
Back in Yes Sir, Mr Bones the boy's mother comes along and takes him home. I enjoyed some of the acts but some weren't too good. Some are rather cringeworthy but I expected that. There was a really good whistling act. It's a pretty short movie, only an hour, so it was over quickly. There's an interesting commentary by Richard Roberts, Brent Walker and Randy Sketvedt. I didn't know much of anything about the history of that sort of entertainment and they fill in a lot of detail about the performers. They mention that Mantan inherited the routine from another performer and did it onstage before doing it in The Scarlet Clue.
I wound up enjoying Square Dance Jubilee better than the first movie. It came out in 1949 and it's a musical with a typical Western story. It's produced by Ron Ormond who co-wrote the screenplay with Daniel B Ullman. William L Nolte is credited with the story. Paul Landres is the director. Paul directed all sorts of TV in the 50s and 60s, working on all the popular shows.
Don "Red" Barry and Wally Vernon are talent scouts for a New York TV show. They travel to the West to find some new acts. They get mixed up in a cattle rustling plot. There's more music than most of the Westerns that have a musical component. Like a film with Roy Rogers or Gene Autrey. I thought it was about average. I'd watch it again. I enjoyed the commentary with Richard Roberts, Brent Walker and Randy Sketvedt. They have a lot of detail.
First up, The Living Coffin, a 1959 Mexican movie based on the La Llarona legend. Ramon Obon wrote the thing and Fernando Mendez is the director. Gaston Santos, a bullfighter for real, plays Gaston the cowboy and Pedro do Aquillon plays his sidekick Coyote Loco. Gaston is a secret lawman and he's investigating the possibility of a gold mine in the area. It leads him and Loco into some trouble at a local hacienda. The film is just like hundreds of Western from Hollywood and uses the standard plot of the baddy taking land from a more defenseless woman. Lucky for her Gaston and Loco show up. There's plenty of riding, some gunfights, some fistfights, and a drunken doctor. The fist fights aren't too good, Gaston has a hard time throwing a realistic screen punch, but he can rough and tumble a bit. Loco just falls off stuff. It's kind of dull at times, so are many cookie cutter westerns, and though it features supernatural elements, it's all Scooby-Doo when the masks come off. Not too bad but not too good neither, I wouldn't need to pick one up.
Our second feature was Victor Crowley which turns out to be Hatchet IV. It's a grisly comedy by writer director Adam Green. He wrote all four films and directed all but number 3. I have seen the first two but missed the 3rd. Sad, I like to see stuff in order. I have the 1st movie but haven't picked up the 2nd or 3rd. Someone was nice enough to pass along the DVD of Victor Crowley, I'll use that as an excuse to order 2 and 3 right now. The story in VC picks up ten years later. Perry Shen plays the third character he's played in the series, he was Shawn the tour guide in the first movie, his twin brother Justin in the second and Andrew Yong in the third and fourth movie. Andrew is lured into the swamp from his book tour with the false promise of a big payout. Ironically, his lying manager gets hers for luring him there. A moronic film maker and her pals trek into the swamp to shot a movie trailer for her Victor Crowley movie. The two groups eventually meet up but only after film maker gal has spouted the words that raise Victor from the dead. The hideous Victor pops up out of the swamp and starts chopping people apart. He doesn't do much more than wreck things and chop people apart. You can kill him but it seems likely some asshole will call him back, at least until the sequels stop. There's plenty of slaughter and a few laughs. It's alright, worth a look mostly.
Brimstone is a 2016 Dutch Western that's pretty darn unpleasant. Guy Pierce is a horrible preacher in a story that's told in four chunks. Dakota Fanning is the poor woman mixed up in his life. They start with the latest bit and go back in time. No one has a good time and many die. I didn't care for it much but many seem to like it.
Along Came Jones is a 1945 Western with Gary Cooper, Loretta Young and William Demarest. I'd seen it a couple of times in the past but didn't have a copy. I recently found a 2 movie set, with Fury At Showdown, and bought that. Along Came Jones is based on a novel by Allan Le May, the script is by Nunnally Johnson and the director is Stuart Heisler.
Gary and William arrive in a small town and Gary gets mistaken for a criminal. Loretta is the criminal's gal and she helps the guys escape when things get a bit hot. The criminal, Dan Duryea, is wounded, he's hold up at Loretta's place. There's a triangle a brewin' and some folk are going to get dead at some point. It's pretty entertaining, glad to have it, it'll hopefully get watched again someday.
Fury At Showdown is a 1957 Western with John Derek and Nick Adams. It's based on a Todd Lucas novel, the screenplay is by Jason James and Gerd Oswald is the director. Gerd directed a few movies at the start of his career and then did a lot of TV work in the 60s and 70s. He worked on shows like Perry Mason, The Outer Limits, The Fugitive, Bonanza, Star Trek, Daniel Boone, Gentle Ben and It Takes A Thief.
John Derek gets out of jail for killing a guy in a gun fight. There are people in the town that would like to see him gunned down and no one more than the brother of the dead guy. Gage Clarke plays the brother, he hires John Smith to be his body guard. Gage wants revenge and he'll do anything to get it. He's also got his eyes on John and Nick's ranch. Nick had to borrow money to stay afloat while John was in jail for a year. Gage is a really creepy villain, mean and manipulative, I can't imagine anyone who isn't glad to see his fall at the end of the movie. I was saddened he wasn't blasted down but locking him up is good, in that it takes longer to punish him. It sure reminds you how shitty and narrow minded people are, especially in small communities. Better than average Western, not a 7 but a good solid 6. John is an interesting guy to watch. I'd watch him again.
Abilene Town is a 1946 Randolph Scott film. I'm watching a crappy DVD that still has the tape skew on the top of the image. It's based on a book by Ernest Haycox called Trail Town, the screenplay is by Harold Shumate, the director is Edwin L Marin. Edwin directed several of the Maisie pictures with Ann Southern. He directed the 1950 Randolph Scott picture Colt 45. That was a pretty good one.
In Abilene Town Randolph is the town Marshall. Edgar Buchanan is the county Sheriff and Lloyd Bridges is the leader of the homesteaders. Rhonda Fleming is the pretty gal at the mercantile and Ann Dvorak is the dance hall singer. They both have a bit of a thing for Randolph.
Randolph's up against some scummy cattlemen that will kill people to stop the homesteading. It's a pretty horrific scene, when the cattlemen burn the wagon train and kill men women and children. Randolph finds out who lead the baddies and goes after him. Edgar tries to slow down the investigation but he fails. There's some fighting and shooting and horse riding.
There's plenty of tension in the town as the locals decide what side they're on. The merchants figure out quickly that more homesteaders the more customers. There's a great scene at the end when the town gathers together with the homesteaders and stand up to the cattlemen. The West is a little better place to live.
Wagon Wheels is another Randolph Scott Western, this time from 1934. Zane Grey wrote the novel Fighting Caravans, Carl A Buss and Charles Logue adapted the book, Jack Cunningham wrote the screenplay and Charles Barton is the director.
Wagon Wheels is a remake of the 1931 Gary Cooper movie called Fighting Caravans. It takes footage from the original and puts in a new cast.
Randolph is one of three men who are leading a wagon train to Oregon. They face the usual hardships, long slow travel, tension in the ranks and Indian attacks. One member of the wagon train is secretly riling up the Indians to attack the train.
Interestingly, at least to me, some of the scenes are filmed in country with snow on the ground. It makes sense, they are traveling a long way at 6 miles a day, and they are crossing the Rockies. Eventually the good guys prevail and most of the wagon train gets to Oregon. It was a pretty good movie, worth a 6 to me, but I do wish there were better copies to watch. So many of these old Westerns look pretty poor on DVD, no one cares to make them better, no money in it.
Third today is yet another Randolph Scott movie. Don't worry, I have plenty more to watch. Man In The Saddle is a 1951 Western based on a Ernest Haycox novel of the same name. The screenplay is by Kenneth Gamet and it's directed by Andre De Toth.
Randolph is a rancher, Alexander Knox is another, Alexander is marrying Joan Leslie, for whom Randolph has feelings. Alexander is ruthless, cold hearted, he wants all the land around him. He forces Clem Bevans off his land and then goes after Randolph.We all know it won't go so well for Alexander in the long wrong.
Ellen Drew plays a nice local rancher. Cameron Mitchell, Tennessee Ernie Ford, John Russell, Richard Rober, Richard Crane, Frank Sully and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams are also in the cast. It's a good story with some good action. Worth a look to me.
Here's the other half of the Durango Kid 10 Movie DVD set.
Lightning Guns 1950 Typical rancher against rancher. The Durango Kid and his alter ego Steve Brandon set things to right with little help from Smiley Burnette. There's the usual shootin' and ridin' with a bit of romance too.
Snake River Desperadoes 1951 The Durango Kid is investigating the sale of rifles to the Indians. Local businessman and pillar of the community is really the baddie. Who would have thought? He's got his gang dressing up as Indians in order to stir up trouble and drive the land prices down. Smiley Burnette is still TDKs sidekick. I'm getting a bit tired of the man.
Bonanza Town 1951 Steve Brandon is on the trail of a supposedly dead guy. He stole a bunch of money and died. The money was never found. Recently some of the marked bills turned up in Bonanza Town. Steve's soon on the trail of the baddie and he always gets his man.
The Hawk Of Wild River 1952 Steve's on the trail of stolen gold. Clayton Moore plays The Hawk, he's causing trouble for the locals. Steve gets tossed into jail with The Hawk and helps him break jail. He's in the gang and on the trail of the gold. Smiley Burnette nearly cocks things up but that's comedy.
The Kid From Broken Gun 1952 This is the last of The Durango Kid pictures. It's kind of sad, nut just for it being the last picture but for the poor job they did on it. Much of the picture is borrowed from a 1946 Starrett picture called The Fighting Frontiersman. Not a bad story but oneI'd mostly seen already. The Fighting Frontiersman is also in the same set.
A good batch of watchable and typical Westerns. There are 65 films in The Durango Kid series. It would be nice to have them all in one set. I'll be on the lookout for some more down the road.
Three more Durango Kid movie with Charles Starrett. They are from the 10 movie set I picked up a few weeks ago. Most are later in the 65 film series. Up today are:
Laramie 1949 There's trouble when the local Indian Chief is murdered at a meeting with the local Colonel of the Military Post. The Durango Kid steps in to shoot some varmints. It's got Smiley Burnette as the sidekick. I usually speed through his songs. It's got a decent script from Barry Shipman and Ray Nazarro is the director. Barry wrote an amazing number of movies and TV shows, including Flash Gordon Conquerors The Universe, The Lone Ranger (1938), and 3 episodes of the 1958 TV show Mike Hammer. Ray directed four episodes of that same show and over 80 films.
Trail Of The Rustlers 1950 Ray is directing this film and Victor Arthur is the screenwriter. Local scumbags are trying to scare the ranchers out with fake Durango Kid attacks. Of course, the Durango Kid comes calling to see who's taking his name in vain. Smiley Burnette works in at livery stable. I speed up his songs here too. Another good Western, nothing too out of the ordinary or anything. Enjoyed. On to the last film on the disc.
Streets Of Ghost Town 1950 Here's a bit of an odd one. The Sheriff, Durango Kid, and Smiley Burnette ride into a ghost town. They are looking for gold and the baddies are hot on their trail. Much of the film is told in flashbacks. There's plenty of shootin' and ridin' in this one, much of it from other Durango Kid Westerns. They shoot a bit of new footage and use some narration to tie it all together. Weakest of the bunch.
I found a nice 2 movie set and watched that. The first movie was The Man From Laramie, it's a 1955 movie with James Stewart. It's directed by Anthony Mann, who usually turns in a good product, and it's the fifth film he made with James Stewart, The screenplay is by Philip Yordan and Frank Burt, it's based on a Saturday Evening Post serial by Thomas T Flynn. It's one of the first Westerns to be shot in CinemaScope. There's plenty of nice scenery in Arizona and New Mexico.
James is trying to make a living hauling freight. He gets to a small town and winds up running into trouble with the local rich man's spoilt son. The Rich man is going blind and the son is too stupid and ignorant to run the ranch. The foreman can hardly keep him in check. James has another reason for being in the town, vengeance, he's looking for the man who sold rifles to the Apaches, rifles that the Apaches used to killed his younger brother.
There's a whole other subplot about the rich man's foreman who thinks he should be getting something more than a wage. He's a bit a piece of work, that one. He's set to marry the local store keeper. James gets befriended by a local woman, she's one of the few ranchers left in the area, the others were bought up by the rich guy. James gets framed for killing a local scumbag but we know he didn't do it. Don't worry he'll get out of that. Of course, more bad stuff is coming before the end of the movie.
I liked it quite a bit. Worth seeing and adding to the Western collection.
The second movie in the set, which also came on it's own disc, is The Desperadoes. It came out in 1943 and it's based on a Max Brand story. The screenplay is by Robert Carson and Charles Vidor is the director. Budd Boetticher was the assistant director.
Randolph Scott is the sheriff in town. There's been a bank robbery and some men are dead. The local banker is the head of the operation. He didn't want any killing but that's a silly wish when you've hired murderous scum to do your dirty work.
Edgar Buchanan is the livery station owner and mail man, he's wrapped up with the banker and the crooks. His daughter falls for Glenn Ford when he shows up. Glenn was supposed to lead the bank robbers but he got held up by his explosive guy Nitro, who's played by Guinn "Big Boy" Williams. Glenn turns out to be Randolph's old pal.
There's plenty of stuff going on. I had a good time watching and was glad to have picked up the set. I'd watch them again.