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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.
Rich Hall's How The West Was Lost 2008 Written and presented by Rich Hall. Documentary about Western Cinema that appeared on BBC4. Rich Hall spends his time in London England and Livingston Montana. His wife is a British film maker from Liverpool. Starting in 2008 Rich made a trilogy of film documentaries for BBC4, this is the first.
Rich takes a look at the Western from it's silent days in the early part of the 20th century to the early part of the 21st century. It's a lot of material to cover in an hour and a half so there's much left out. As a big fan of the Western film I was completely entertained. Others who are less interested in the genre might not get as much from it but, who knows, maybe they'll learn something, maybe they'll watch a Western. Rich is definitely opinionated and knowledgeable. You might not always agree with him. I didn't. Still, I enjoyed his roaming through the American west talking to other film historians and interesting characters. I've seen most of the films he mentions and a whole lot more. Some of them are some of the best films ever made and their importance in film history can't be denied. I often dismiss film fans who say they don't watch Westerns. I see Rich does too. I just don't leave them in the desert but I wish I could.
The New Maverick is a 1978 TV film with James Garner reprising his role as Bret Maverick. The script is by Juanita Bartlett and direction by Hy Averback.
It was a pilot for Young Maverick, starring Charles Frank as Ben Maverick. Ben is the son of Beau, who was played by Roger Moore. I didn't care for Ben much at all and that saves me 25 smackaroonies. I was waffling on buying the DVD set, now I don't have to wonder, it's off the Wish List. I did buy, and have to watch at some point, the follow up series Bret Maverick. James Garner reprises his role as Bret in this 1981 show. It only lasted the one season of 18 episodes.
The New Maverick is pretty much the same old Maverick. The story is a typical Maverick story but not as good as one of the best ones. Bret and Ben meet up for the first time in many years. Ben is owed $1000 by Bart and he figures Bret should give him the money. Bret won't pay up so Ben steals it from Bret's secret stash. They are a weird family. Bart is played by Jack Kelly, who only appears near the end of the movie.
The local big shot rail man colludes with a scummy guy to steal some gattling guns from a train. The train big shot has political ambition, his idea is they steal the guns, hide them, and he finds them. Thus gaining some cred with the locals. The Army offers a reward and everyone fights over that. It's more complicated than it should be, the story lines keep bumping into each other. It looks nice but it's not going to get my attention any time soon. So far I'd just watch a few favorites from the original series and skip the rest.
Vincent Price stars as a South African miner in The Jackals. It came out in 1967 and Robert D Webb is the director. It's based on a 1948 film called Yellow Sky which was based on an unpublished novel of the same name by W R Burnett. Lamar Trotti wrote the screenplay to the 1848 film and Harold Medford wrote the screenplay to the 1967 film. I'd like to see Yellow Sky.
It's pretty much a straight up western, other than the bits where the Zulu like tribesmen come calling. Some bank robbers drop in on Vincent and his granddaughter Willie. They sniff out the old man's gold and it becomes a rather tense situation. It all ends pretty well, except for a few of the bank robbers.
I liked Vincent, Willie was fun too, she's played by Diana Ivarson, and I liked some of the South African touches. There's a bit of gun play and some comedy. Enjoyable. You can see it on YouTube, find the link above.
I watched Support Your Local Sheriff and Support Your Local Gunfighter today and enjoyed them all over again. I had copies I had recorded off of Turner Classic Movies and thought I would upgrade them to real DVDs. They do look a lot better.
Support Your Local Sheriff came out in 1969 and I went to see it in the theater. I'd been a big James Garner fan from watching the Maverick series on TV. I recently picked up a set of Maverick and I'm slowly watching the first season.
James Garner is a guy who wanders into a small town. He says he's on the way to Australia but he gets talked into taking the sheriff's job. His first act is to arrest Bruce Dern, the son of the local bad rancher, played by Walter Brennan. Walter and his son's have they way int he town and Walter collects a large fee to protect the gold that gets shipped across his land.
Joan Hackett plays the romantic interest and Harry Morgan is her father and the town mayor. It's a town struggling with the lawlessness of the local gold miners, on top of being under Walter's thumb.
James makes Jack Elam his deputy and they proceed to clean up the town. There's plenty of jokes, some of that mushy stuff, and a good bit of fighting and gun play. The script was written by William Bowers and Burt Kennedy was the director. William has written some good screenplays since starting in 1942 and going on until 1980. I've seen The Gunfighter, Mrs O'Malley and Mr Malone, Cry Danger and Alias Jesse James, enjoyed them all. Burt started directing in 1961 and he worked until 2000. One of my other favorites of his work is the 1976 film adaptation of the Jim Thompson novel The Killer Inside Me.
Support Your Local Gunfighter came out in 1971 and a few of the previous cast return. James is a different guy, he's a conman who arrives in the jerkwater mining town of Purgatory. Suzanne Pleshette plays the wacky romantic interest. I've never cared that much for her. I've seen her in a lot of Disney movies. Henry Morgan is her dad. Henry and John Denher are both digging for the mother load of gold. It's a heated rivalry and there's sabotage involved.
Jack Elam gets tricked into playing a known gunslinger by James. There's several other good character actors in the mix, Marie Windsor, Dub Taylor, Joan Blondell, Ellen Corby, Kathleen Freeman, Henry Jones, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez and Chuck Conners.
I might not have enjoyed the second movie quite as much as the first but it was still entertaining. I gave them both a 7 but I couldn't really give the second movie a 6, it's bit better than that. Burt Kennedy returns as the director and he co-wrote the script (uncredited) with James Edward Grant. Grant started in the movie biz in 1935 when his story was adapted for a movie, he had his own screenplays the following year. He's written a few of John Wayne movies, I know I've seen Angel And The Badman, Flying Leathernecks, The Alamo, McLintock! and Circus World for sure.
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.
I got this four pack of Westerns and watched it today. It's called Western Classics, though they aren't, and all four are Italian Spaghetti Westerns from the late 60s and early 70s. It's from Echo Bridge Entertainment and all four movies are on the same disk. All but one are widescreen and they don't look too bad.
Life Is Tough, Eh Providence 1972 Here's a fun comedy that has a goofy sense of humor. A bounty hunter catches a criminal, turns him in for the reward, then helps him escape so he can catch him again and turn him into the next town's sheriff. They get mixed up with some other criminals and have an adventure. Not all the jokes were good, some were embarrassing. I occasionally laughed out loud, once because it was a funny joke. American Gregg Palmer plays the poor criminal forced to run behind the bounty hunters wagon as they travel between towns. It's the best of the lot and one I would watch again.
The Bounty Killer 1966 Originally called The Ugly Ones. A fairly descent story, the bounty guy after the criminal. They meet up at a hacienda where the locals turn against the bounty hunter, then the criminal's gang show up. They're fucked after that. Eventually the bounty hunter gets a jump on the criminal and nearly saves some of the locals. They deserved it. Not a bad movie, enjoyed it for the most part. British actor Richard Wyler is the foreign actor in the mix. He's alright as the bounty killer and so is main Italian lead Tomas Milan as the criminal. Good locals too.
The Price Of Power 1969 The story is about a Pinkerton agent who discovers a plot to kill President James Garfield. It's 1881 and the place is Dallas Texas. That's not the only reference to the Kennedy assassination in the movie. It's kind of a weird plot element, not sure it's needed, certainly doesn't do anything for me. I did like the social commentary element about the ex-slave guy. There are three Americans in the cast, Fernando Rey, Warren Vanders and Ray Saunders. Generally it was noisy and there was a fair bit of action. I might watch it again, I might never see it again. Who knows.
Sundance Cassidy And Butch The Kid 1969 Here's another Western Comedy that's listed under Alive Or Preferably Dead on the IMDb, it's US release was under Sundance And The Kid. Two brothers have to fill a request in the will of their deceased father. They have to live together for 6 months. They aren't pals and that request causes some great mayhem around the country. Somehow they brothers turn to bank robbing and the like.
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.