cinemalover: Confessions of a Video Junkie

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Date watched:10/1/2007
Title: Private Detective 62 Made: 1933
Genre: Detective Studio: WB
Format: DVD-R Source: TCM
Number of times viewed: First

Director: Michael Curtiz

Stars:
William Powell--Donald Free
Margaret Lindsay--Janet Reynolds
Ruth Donnelly--Amy
Gordon Wescott--Bandor
Arthur Hohl--Dan Hogan
Natalie Moorehead
James Bell
Hobart Cavanaugh
Irving Bacon

Plot: In Paris, Donald Free (Powell), who works for the United States State Department, is asked to steal important papers from the French government. He is warned that if he's caught they will disown him and he will have to face the music alone. He is caught in the act and is departed on a cargo ship. When the cargo ship is radioed and told to bring Free back, he knows that can't be good news and jumps ship. When he finally returns to the U.S. he finds himself unemployable. The government can't admit a connection with him and nobody else will touch his reputation.

When he goes to talk to a lowlife detective, Dan Hogan (Hohl), he finds an opportunity when a potential client talks to him, assuming he works there.

Dan, "Who are you?"
Free, "You ask me? And you call yourself a detective? I'm your new partner!"

Free has a proposal for the detective:
Free, "You've got a license to be a private detective, haven't you?"
Dan, "Uh-huh."
Free, "But you haven't any clients. I've got a client, but I haven't got a license."
Dan, "Well..."
Free, "Well, am I your partner or do I take my business elsewhere?"

Free sums up Dan's skills after Dan blows their first case, "The only claim you've got to being a detective is you've got big feet...and they're flat"

And a less-than -beautiful relationship is born. Unbeknownst to free Dan makes an arrangement with a gang that runs a gambling joint. The partnership becomes very lucrative with all the business brought in though the gang.

Janet Reynolds (Lindsay) is a socialite who keeps winning at the gang's casino. They don't take kindly to repeat offenders when it comes to draining their casino. They tell Dan to find some dirt on her so that they can blackmail her. Dan cons Free into the job, with him still being ignorant of their connection to the gang. Free finds himself attracted to the lovely Janet and can't complete the job. The gang continues to pressure Dan and when Janet finds out that Free was just socializing with her because he's a detective it hits the fan. The gang tries to frame Janet for murder and Free must come to the rescue...if he can.

This is lesser Powell, but any Powell is better than no Powell at all. He gets a few of his classic deadpan, sarcastic lines off. You know, the ones that drip off his tongue like sucker punches below the ribs. He may be the verbal heavyweight champion of all time. It is a pleasure to watch him be so much more clever than the clowns that surround him. Margaret Lindsay looks great, and is believable as the socialite who just likes to win for the thrill of it. Arthur Hohl vacillates between milquetoast and weasel, and makes both parts work.

6* (out of 10) A decent programmer taken up an extra level due to Powell's presence.

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I'm looking forward to recording The Leopard Man tonight. It has been many years since I've seen this atmospheric masterpiece. It used to run as part of the local TVs late night Friday horror show hosted by "The Count" on a really tacky castle basement set with a $2 coffin. Oh, those childhood memories. My kids will never understand what they're missing! I used to force myself to stay awake long enough to see the weekly double feature, always fearful that it would cause me to sleep in Saturday morning and miss my beloved toons!

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I decided to take a bite out of this little comedy, I haven't recouped my appetite since...

Date watched:10/6/2007
Title: My Son, The Vampire (Mother Riley Meets the Vampire) Made: 1952
Genre: Comedy-Horror Studio: Fernwood productions
Format: DVD-R Source: TCM
Number of times viewed: First

Stars:
Arthur Lucan--Mrs. Riley
Bela Lugosi--Von Housen
Dora Bryan--Tilly
Phillip Leaver--Anton Daschomb
Richard Wattis--Police Constable Freddie
Graham Moffatt--Yokel
Maria Mercedes--Julia Loretti
Roderick Lovell--Douglas
David Hurst--Mugsy
Judith Furse--Frida
Ian Wilson--Hitchcock, the butler

Tagline: The laughs are monster-ous!

I'd been hearing about this little oddity for years, but had never seen it. Another prolonged absence from it would not make my heart grow fonder. It is an uncomfortable mix of attempted humor and horror, reminiscent of Ghosts Run Wild (1943) where the East Side Kids meet Bela, only the East Side Kids can be funny at times. Here we get Arthur Lucan in drag as Mrs. Riley (this was apparently the last in a line of Mrs. Riley films, though I have never seen any of them). Somebody must have enjoyed the character of Mrs. Riley since Lucan performed the part on stage as well as screen, but I fail to see the attraction. The constant mugging, breaking into song without reason or connection to the plot, and downright poor writing add up to a novelty for poor Bela, and that's about it. The story goes that Bela only agreed to be in the film because he and his wife were stuck in England after an attempted Dracula stage revival tanked. He couldn't afford the fare back to the States so he did the film.

This version of the film (My Son, the Vampire) opens with a theme song which includes some ridiculous lyrics, such as:
My son, the vampire, he'll make you a wreck,
Every time he kisses you, there'll be two holes in your neck.

When we first get to see Von Housen (Bela) he is asleep in a coffin which is in the master bedroom. The half-pint servant goes to knock on the coffin to wake his master. We hear Bela snoring loudly inside.

Servant, "Master?"
Von Housen, "Yes?"
Servant, "I'm curious to know why you always sleep in your evening clothes?"
Von Housen, "Really?"
Servant, "Yes, Master."
Von Housen (laughing), "I was buried in them!"

Von Housen has a plan for world domination, he already has a machine which will destroy aircraft and sink battleships, but his pride and joy will be his army of robots. He is awaiting the arrival of the prototype robot when the container he receives holds only the inheritance of junk that was supposed to go to Mrs. Riley. And Mrs. Riley receives a container in which she is expecting a fortune in inheritance from her uncle Jeremiah. Imagine her surprise to find a robot in the container.

Mrs. Riley, "Oh, it's me Uncle Jeremiah...they canned him!"

So Von Housen has a reason to track down Mrs. Riley and retrieve his robot, imagine the comic possibilities. No, really...imagine them, because apparently the writers couldn't. You're imagination will do a much better job with the plot than the movie does.

Bela looks very frail and was obviously not in good health. He's still the only reason to see the film. He made a lot of low quality films in his career and this one could compete with the worst of them.

2* (out of 10) Watch to satisfy your curiosity only, but, yes, sadly, it is that bad.

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Just a quick weekend update. On our Family Friday Night (after soccer practice) the kids once again chose to watch episodes of Smallville rather than watching movies. Sorry, no family movie reviews again this week. We are in the middle of Season 3 of Smallville and the kids have become totally addicted to it. It is nice to have a show that the entire family really enjoys watching together.

Soccer update: Jeremy and Crossfire won an exciting game 5-4 with Jeremy scoring twice again. He's really starting to get a nice rhthym out there and has built up his endurance. The boys are just beginning to really understand the game and play together. It's fun to watch. My Mom drove up (she lives about 60 miles away) to watch the game so Jeremy was glad to show off for her.

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Another dip into the grindhouse world....

Date watched:10/7/2007
Title: Mean Frank and Crazy Tony (Dio, Sei Proprio un Padreterno!) Made: 1975
Genre: Action Studio: Aquarius Releasing Inc./Dino De Laurentiis
Format: DVD Extras: Part of The Grindhouse Experience, a set of 5 DVDs with 20 movies of dubious quality, Fullscreen, Dubbed.
Number of times viewed: First

Stars:
Lee Van Cleef--Frank Diomedes
Tony Lo Bianco--Tony Breda
Edwige Fenech--Orchidea
Jean Rochefort--Louis Annunziata
Jess Hahn--Jeannot
Fausto Tozzi--Massara
Mario Erpichini--Joe Sciti
Aldolfo Lastretti--Al
Silvano Tranquilli--Sylvester

The film features a jazzy score with a heavy dose of horn by Riz Ortolani (whom I am not familiar with at all).

Tagline: Crazy enough to take on the cops and the mob...and mean enough to whip 'em!

This is an Italian crime thriller with an attitude. The opening scene is of a hitman, pretending to be a masseuse, pulling out an industrial sized drill and putting it through the back of his clients' head. Ouch! Bad move though because the man they killed was a friend of mob boss Frank (Van Cleef), who doesn't know how to turn the other cheek. Frank promptly walks into the house of one of the men who ordered the hit and shoots him, calmly waiting for the police to pick him up. He has greased many palms in the police department (and above) so he is confident that they will go through the motions and then release him. Before he goes to trial he arranges to have one of the guards on his payroll to let him out of prison one night so that he can go kill the other man who ordered the hit. He accomplishes his task and slips back into his call without suspicion. But then his plan goes awry. Frank is in for a rude awakening when one of his enemies greases said palms with even larger amounts of graft and Frank is convicted of BOTH murders and sentenced to a long stretch in the pen. Other inmates and a few guards have been paid off to see that Frank dies in prison, and he narrowly escapes the first hit attempt.

A low level criminal, Tony (Lo Bianco) is only i jail for a short sentence but sees his opportunity to become "connected" to an important crime figure so he tries to buddy up to Frank.

Tony (extending hand), "Hi. I'm Tony."
Frank, "It's a nice name. Hold on to it!" (Blowing smoke into Tony's face and ignoring the extended hand).

Frank warms to Tony because he needs somebody on his side. Even though Tony is mere days away from being released from prison Frank talks him into helping with an escape plan. Tony, still blinded by his desire to be affiliated with real criminals, agrees. The two mange to break out and go on a violent revenge spree.

The hawk-faced Van Cleef always looks intimidating, and I sure wouldn't want him hunting me down with revenge on his mind. Lo Bianco fills the bill as Tony, though Van Cleef eats him alive in every scene they share. A decent amount of action and stunts for a low budget actioner.

5* (out of 10) I always enjoy Van Cleef in tough guy mode, whether it's a western or actioner, he makes the journey worthwhile for me. This one will be too violent for some tastes.

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It looks like we're back up and running...THANK YOU! Did we lose the posts from earlier today?

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There is a certain irony in life, isn't there. Just this weekend I had come to the conclusion that many of you had already reached...that the TCM site is just not worth the effort any more. I had been maintaining my review thread over there (primarily since that's where I started it) but there is just so little of interest going on over there these days I decided to stop posting. Sure enough, I post a review of The Proud Ones yesterday and our server crashes! Such is life. I guess I'll write it up again, but I somewhow feel like the dog ate my homework.

Pardon my grousing.

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Date watched:10/7/2007
Title: The Proud Ones Made: 1956
Genre: Western Studio: 20th Century Fox
Format: DVD Extras: FS/WS
Number of times viewed: 2

Stars:
Robert Ryan--Marshal Cass Silver
Virginia Mayo--Sally
Jeffrey Hunter--Thad Anderson
Walter Brennan--Deputy Jake
Robert Middleton--"Honest John" Barrett
Arthur O'Connell--Deputy Jim Dexter
Ken Clark--Pike
Rudolfo Acosta--Chico
George Mathews--Dillon
Fay Roope--Markum
Edward Platt--Dr. Barrow
Whit Bissell--Sam Bolton

Tagline: When the law is broken, justice can't be far behind.

A quiet town is about to undergo a radical personality change. A recently completed railroad depot is going to turn the place into a rowdy boomtown as cattle herds from all over will be driven there to get transported to market. With the herds come the trail hands just itching to whooop it up and spend their wages. The local business men are drooling at the prospect of overflowing profits, which blinds them to the potential dangers to the citizens. That's where Marshal Cass Silver (Ryan) comes in. It's his job to maintain the peace and protect the townsfolk. He takes his job very seriously and rides out to meet the first group of trailhands who are approaching his town.

Cass, "You're the first trail crew to come in here and I don't want any trouble...so let's keep everything nice and peaceful. As soon as anybody draws a gun, I've got to go to work. I don't like hard work. My ambition is to be the oldest living marshal west of Kansas City!"

The trail crew includes Thad Anderson (Hunter) who believes that Cass murdered his father and had revenge on his mind. When he confronts Cass about his father, Cass tries to explain that Thad's dad was no angel.
Cass, "It was him or me, I've never drawn on an unarmed man in my life!" A fact that will come into question later in the film.

Thad is young and headstrong and his immediate reaction is to try to get a job with Cass' nemesis, "Honest John" Barrett (Middleton), who runs a gambling saloon rigged to empty the wallets of the trail crews. Honest John and Cass have a troubled history. At the last town they were both working and when Cass wanted to shut down Honest John's gambling operation his girlfriend, Sally (Mayo), talked him out of it. She convinced Cass to move to this new town with her and lead a peaceful, happy life. Honest John interpreted this as cowardice on Cass' part, so he thinks that he will be able to walk all over Cass once again in this new town of opportunity. Honest John couldn't be further from the truth. Cass has no intention of turning the other cheek, no matter how strenuously Sally pleads.

Honest Johns response to Thad's employment inquiry, "You don't come with the best recommendations. You've got a temper and a dead gunslinger for a father!"

Thad's pride leads him back to Cass. He is now open to the possibility that Cass' story may be at least partially true. So he goes to work for him as a deputy. Cass tries to teach Thad how to survive as a lawman.

Thad, "I can take care of myself!"
Cass, "Taking care of yourself is one thing, taking care of a town is another!"

After Cass arrests Dillon (Mathews), who runs the saloon for Honest John, for murder Honest John won't sit still. He assigns his men Pike (Clark) and Chico (Acosta) to kill the Marshal while he's walking his night rounds. While this has been going on Cass has been having trouble with his vision. When he bends over he gets a headache and his sight temporarily goes blurry. He has kept this fact from his deputies. That evening he bends to pick something up and his vision goes out. Chico and Pike pounce on the opportunity and fire at the Marshal as though he were big game. Cass manages to stumble down an allety and escape his pursuers.

Days later when Chico is out in the streets drunk and threatening Cass, Cass shoots him. When the townsfolk search Chico's body no gun is found. The town turns on Cass believing him to be a trigger happy murderer. These flames are fanned by the business men who feel that Cass' protective services are scaring away some of their profits.

Can Cass prove his innocence and get the town to realize the danger they have put themselves in or has Cass turned vigilante to settle his old score with Honest John?

Ryan is the master of the face contortion when he's angry, and he has plenty to be angry about in this film. Hunter gives one of his better performances and shows a decent range of emotion as his opinion of Cass morphs. Middleton is a professional villain and fits the part perfectly. Walter Brennan has a small role as Cass' Deputy Jake, but he wrangles every scene to his advantage.

In an otherwise ordinary story the background issues between Honest John and Cass add layers of interest. The question of whether the Marshal is protecting the town or his own pride is an interesting one. Adult oater that doesn't pretend all answers wear white or black hats.

7* (out of 10) I would have loved to have seen Gary Cooper in the role of the Marshal.

[jdb1]

Aaaahhh - this movie has a dream cast of 50s supporters and character actors: imagine Ryan, Hunter, Brennan, Middleton, O'Connell and Good Ol' Whit Bissell, all in one film! Fan-flippin'-tastic.

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Date watched: 3/10/2007
Title: Riders of Death Valley--I watched chapters 1-4 Made: 1941
Genre: Western/Serial 15 chapters
Studio: Universal
Format: DVD Extras:none
Number of times viewed: this is the first time I've seen this serial

Stars: Buck Jones, Lon Chaney Jr., Leo Carillo, Noah Beery Jr.

Plot: It has an Aztec goldmine and cowboys, and if you need more of a plot than that you won't be a serial lover.
Interesting fact: later this year (1941) Lon Chaney Jr would go on to create his most famous role in The Wolf Man
Comments: I'm a sucker for westerns and a sucker for serials so that makes me a double dipped sucker for this baby. This was a stellar cast compared to most serials. There were no notable cliff-hangers in the first four chapters.

6* (out of 10)

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Date watched: 3/10/2007
Title: Lone Wolf Strikes Made: 1940
Genre: Detective
Studio: Columbia
Format: DVD-R Source: TCM
Number of times viewed: this is the first time

Stars: Warren William, Eric Blore

Plot: A pearl necklace, a copy and much confusion. These little "B" programmers are always brisk, and Eric Blore as the sidekick Jamison lends a perfect levity to the proceedings. These compact crime dramas are the Lay's Potato Chips of "B" movies...I betcha can't watch just one!

6* (out of 10)

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Date watched: 3/10/2007
Title: Lone Wolf Meets a Lady Made: 1941
Genre: Detective
Studio: Columbia
Format: DVD-R Source: TCM
Number of times viewed: this is the first time

Stars: Warren William, Eric Blore

Plot: A theft of $100,000 of jewelry to cover up the fact that the real jewelry had previously been replaced by fake stuff. Warren William at his most charming. I'm so glad TCM is showing these, I look forward to the future installments.

6* (out of 10)

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Date watched: 3/10/2007
Title: Lone Wolf Takes a Chance Made: 1941
Genre: Detective
Studio: Columbia
Format: DVD-R Source: TCM
Number of times viewed: this is the first time

Stars: Warren William, Eric Blore

Plot: It starts out with a cat wearing a string of pearls and also involves engraving plates. Lloyd Bridges has a small part and I just can't look at him anymore without thinkg of his character in Airplane! I really enjoy this series but I think that watching three of them back to back was one too many. The plots are starting to blend together. Note to self: two crime drama limit per day.

6* (out of 10)

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Date watched: 3/10/2007
Title: Yakuza Papers 3: Proxy War Made: 1973
Genre: Foreign/Crime
Studio: Toei
Format: DVD-R Source: IFC
Number of times viewed: this is the first time

Stars: Bunta Sugawara

Plot: IFC has done a fabulous job over the last few years of bringing Janpanese cinema to their channel. This film is the third in a series of five films that follow mafia (yakuza) families as they struggle for power in postwar Japan. The series starts just after the conclusion of WWII and moves up to the 70's. This is a Japanese answer to the Godfather saga. IFC has shown beautiful LB prints with subtitles on the black bar below the picture. I have already watched the first two installments of this series and enjoyed them immensely. This is a VERY violent series, so if you are put off by violence this series is not for you. There are no horse heads in the bed but several cut-off fingers and brutal murders. It is definitely a movie that you have to watch in isolation so you don't get distracted. The plot is very convoluted with many different characters and families as well as constantly shifting alliances. If you sneeze you'll miss a plot twist! If you aren't put off by violence or subtitles than I highly recommend this!

8* (out of 10)

As you can probably tell, I spent way too much time in front of the TV this weekend, but the weather was terrible and I was a little under the weather myself.

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Date watched: 3/11/2007
Title: Hooper Made: 1978
Genre: Action/Comedy Studio: Warner Bros.
Format: DVD Extras: None, standard screen (boo!)
Number of times viewed: 2

Stars: Burt Reynolds, Sally Fields, Jan-Michael Vincent

Plot: Reynolds is the aging stuntman "Hooper" Hooper is challenged by a young, upcoming stunt-stud (Vincent), though they end up more pals than rivals. Hooper is working on a film "The Spy Who Laughed At Danger" (complete with faux Bond music), which, had they really made would have been a more entertaining picture than Hooper. The movie works up to and includes the "greatest stunt ever filmed".
Comments: Remember when reynolds was box office gold? Well, he does. Coming off of the mega-success of Smokey and the Bandit (1977) Reynolds could have made any movies he wanted. He seemed to choose camaraderie over quality movies because his choices seemed to be based on how many of his buddies he could squeeze into each picture (see: Cannonball Run). Hooper is mindless frat-boy entertainment and Reynolds is fun but not memorable.

3* (out of 10)