(Welch in a publicity photo for the 1967 spy film "Fathom". (Cinema Retro Archive)

By Lee Pfeiffer

Raquel Welch, the actress who took the international film industry by storm with her appearance in the 1966 remake of the fantasy film "One Million Years B.C.", has passed away after a brief illness. Welch was one of the last of the so-called "Glamour Girls" of this period; actresses who were chosen primarily for their looks and measurements as opposed to their acting abilities. But Welch defied the odds and didn't prove to be a flash-in-the-pan in terms of popularity. She was one of the last of the big studio contract players- in this case 20th-Century-Fox, which meant she could only make films for another studio if Fox approved. She had little say over the films she appeared in during this period and she would later look back on them with disdain. However, retro movie fans would be largely defensive of many of these films, as they cast her opposite popular leading men of the period as Frank Sinatra, Ernest Borgnine, Stephen Boyd, Jim Brown, Burt Reynolds, Robert Wagner, Edward G. Robinson, James Stewart and Dean Martin. Among her best films of this era were "100 Rifles", "Fantastic Voyage", "Bandolero!", "The Biggest Bundle of them All" and "Lady in Cement".  Some were duds, such as the misguided thriller "Flareup" and the disastrous sex comedy "Myra Breckinridge". She became an instant pop culture icon due to the famous photo of her as a cavegirl sporting a fur bikini in "One Million Years B.C." Teenage boys around the world had the resulting poster adorning their bedroom walls. In the early 1970s, she played vengeance-driven female gunslinger in the Western "Hannie Caulder", a victim of Richard Burton's lady killer in "Bluebeard", a roller derby queen in "Kansas City Bomber" and a member of the all-star cast in the murder mystery "The Last of Sheila". By the mid-190's, she played a comedic co-starring role in the big budget version of "The Three Musketeers" and its sequel "The Four Musketeers". Critics finally acknowledged that she could act and should be judged by her talent and not her image as a voluptuous  sex symbol.

(Welch in her first leading role in "Fantastic Voyage" (1966). (Photo: Cinema Retro Archive)

When the prime big screen roles began to vanish, Welch suspected it may have been due to her suing MGM over age discrimination when she was fired as the leading lady in the film "Cannery Row" and replaced by Debra Winger. The studio countered that Welch had acted unprofessionally on the set. She won the case and $10 million in damages but it seemed to make studios reluctant to hire her again. Nevertheless, she successfully reinvented herself with live shows on stage including an acclaimed leading role in the Broadway production of "Victor/Victoria". She also scored with a funny self-deprecating appearance as herself in "Seinfeld" in which she was presented as an obnoxious, hot-tempered diva.

Welch kept a low profile in recent years and was rarely seen in public. She was married four times and is survived by a son and daughter. Despite her sex symbol image, she was always proud that she never gave in to offers to appear nude on screen or in print. She was the one who got away, said a disappointed Hugh Hefner who couldn't use influence or money to lure her to the pages of Playboy.

For more on her life and career, click here.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Burt Bacharach, one of the most prolific musical talents in the modern history of the art form, has died from natural causes at age 94. Bacharach was a rare artist who was honored with Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards. His list of pop hits crossed the charts from easy listening to becoming major hits on rock radio stations. He had long and fruitful collaborations with lyricist Hal David and singer Dionne Warwick, who had some of the biggest hits of her career singing Bacharach songs. He had long feuds with both artists but would eventually reconcile with them. Movie buffs are well-acquainted with Bacharach's contributions to the music of the film industry beginning with his campy but beloved theme song "Beware of the Blob" for the 1958 early Steve McQueen sci-fi film. He wouldn't dwell in the "B" movie realm for long, however. He wrote the hit title theme for "What's New Pussycat"?, a major early career success for Tom Jones. He also wrote the classic title theme for "Alfie", which was sung in the film by Cher. However, both Dionne Warwick and Cilla Black would have hit cover versions of the song. Bacharach won two Oscars for the 1969 film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" for both the musical composition and for the classic song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head". He would also win a Best Song Oscar for "The Best That You Can Do",  the theme from the 1980s comedy "Arthur". Bacharach also composed "The Look of Love", one of the most recorded romantic songs of all time. The song appeared, perhaps improbably, in the madcap 1967 big screen spoof version of the first James Bond novel "Casino Royale". It was nominated for an Oscar, as well. The song inspired Mike Myers to create the Austin Powers character and films, which were heavily influenced by "Casino Royale". Bacharach did suffer a major career disappointment when he wrote the score for the ill-fated 1973 musical remake of "Lost Horizon", the failure of which was said to send him into a prolonged funk.

Bacharach was good to his word that he would never retire and continued to work almost to the end of his life, writing new songs and even performing with Elvis Costello and Dr. Dre, an indication of the timelessness and wide popularity of his work. For more about his life, click here.

RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES. 

By Lee Pfeiffer

MGM has made available a region-free DVD of the Oakmont-produced British WWII films from the late 1960s-early 1970s. These modestly-budgeted films were not designed as Oscar-bait. In fact, they seem to be specifically created to fill out the bottom of double bills as the era of that great cinema staple was rapidly coming to a close. Hell Boats was shot in 1970 and bares all the ingredients of an Oakmont production: it's intelligently written, well-acted and directed (by Paul Wendkos) and features some exotic locations, in this case Malta. As with some other Oakmont titles (The Last Escape, Attack on the Iron Coast, The Thousand Plane Raid), this rather unconvincingly shoehorns an American leading man into what is clearly an all-British story line, presumably to give the film some broader boxoffice appeal. In this case, James Franciscus (in full, Chuck Heston clone mode) is Jeffords, the new commander of a British torpedo boat unit. There is a brief explanation as to how an American got a job as Commander in the Royal Navy- something to do with having been born in the UK. With that sore point quickly dispensed of, we get to the main plot line. Jeffords is assigned to blow up a seemingly impregnable German gun bastion carved into a mountainside in Malta. The mission appears suicidal but Jeffords concocts a daring plan that involves scuba divers, commandos and the torpedo boats. He does have other distractions: he and his superior officer, Ashurst (Ronald Allen) despise each other. Ashurst wants to prove himself in combat, but is stuck behind a desk. He envies Jefford's courage and is further emasculated by his knowledge that Jeffords is bedding his frustrated wife Alison (Elizabeth Shepherd), who fortunately has an aversion to clothing. The soap opera elements are actually intelligently woven into the story line, creating genuine tension between the two men. Franciscus is all grit-teethed masculinity, but he makes a rather bland hero. He is humorless and all business, all the time. (He even makes his sexual dalliances look about as desirable as changing a tire.) Allen's character is far more interesting and the dissolution of his marriage before his eyes adds an interesting subplot to the military sequences. 

Like most Oakmont productions, Hell Boats does a lot with very little in terms of budget. The photography is excellent and so are the production values, save for the sea battle sequences that betray the very obvious use of miniatures. Nevertheless, this is a highly entertaining adventure movie throughout- and it refreshingly sidesteps what I thought was going to be a predictable plot device leading to a somewhat unexpected conclusion. 

If MGM is listening, the only Oakmont title not available on DVD is The Last Escape starring Stuart Whitman. C'mon guys, keep up the good work and get this one out there. 

Click here to order from Amazon (The film is currently streaming on Screenpix and Paramount +)

By Lee Pfeiffer

Screenpix is currently streaming the hard-to-find (in America, at least) 1957 version of "Robbery Under Arms", based on the famous novel by Rolf Boldrewood. Written in the late 19th century, the book inspired some early film versions in 1907, 1911 and 1920. The Australian tale was later remade in 1985. The 1957 film is set in 1865 and was filmed in remote areas of Flinders Range and Wilpena Pound in South Australia. The tale follows the exploits of the charismatic, but notorious outlaw known as Captain Starlight (Peter Finch), whose band of henchmen include brothers Dick and Jim Marston (Ronald Lewis and David McCallum), as well as their crusty father Ben (Laurence Naismith). They've just rustled a thousand head of cattle and sell them quickly before the pursuing police can catch them. However, with their new-found riches the men become reckless and begin spending lavishly. Dick and Jim, delighted to be freed of their hardscrabble struggle to survive in the unforgiving Outback, decide to take a cruise to Melbourne. On board they meet teenage sisters Kate and Jean Swanson (Maureen Swanson and Jill Ireland) who are traveling with their elderly aunt. Sparks fly, especially when they find out the girls also reside in an area accessible to where they live. Kate is especially captivated and she and Dick promise to reunite. The men are as good as their word and  promise to give up a life of crime, especially when they learn that Captain Starlight had been arrested as a consequence of his drawing attention to his sudden wealth. However, Starlight bribes his captors. He is freed and tracks down his former gang members and forces them to participate in a stagecoach robbery that nets everyone a good deal of loot. Jim and Dick are now wanted men and hide in the hills in gold-mining country. These use the stolen funds to finance their own operation and find success with it.

The script takes an improbable turn when Dick and Jim unexpectedly encounter Kate and Jean, who they had to spurn when they went into hiding. Both young women are now saloon girls in the raucous boom town. Jim and Jean ultimately marry and it isn't long after that they learn a baby is on the way. Dick, however, doesn't prove to be as reliable as Jim. He meets a local girl he falls for and betrays Jean's trust in him. When Starling and his gang turn up in town and execute a bank robbery that goes terribly wrong, the authorities are in hot pursuit, but also come across Jim, who is accused of being complicit in the murder of an innocent bystander despite the fact he wasn't present at the scene. The climax of the film finds Dick reuniting with Starlight and his remaining gang members as it becomes apparent to them that their only way to survive is to engage the police in a gunfight- even as Jim faces the prospect of being hanged. .The shootout in the final scenes is well-handled and exciting.

The film is very much identical to an American Western with the exception of seeing the odd kangaroo and the fact that the native people are from Aborigine tribes. Jack Lee provides the excellent direction, although he later called the film a disappointment because the script wasn't up to par and that he felt it was too slow and talky. I beg to differ. I found the film to be thoroughly engrossing and benefiting from the impressive cinematography of Harry Waxman. The opening titles claim it is "A British Film" and indeed it is, at least technically. The producers were British, as were most of the cast members and interiors were shot at Pinewood Studios near London. However, this isn't a cheapjack production that incorporates a few minutes of second unit photography to represent Australia. The country's own film industry had yet to really blossom so any films made there during this period are of special interest. The performances as all excellent with David McCallum especially impressive as the more mature and sensitive of the Martson brothers. (He developed a real life romance with Jill Ireland and the two would marry shortly thereafter.) The Screenpix source material is okay but is a bit soft to do justice to the fine camerawork. The film has only been released in the USA on a public domain video label, as far as I can tell. Here's hoping a Blu-ray might appear in the future.

(Screenpix is available for $2.99 extra a month for subscribers to Amazon Prime, Roku and Apple TV.)

Click here to order DVD from Amazon

Here are some fun highlights from "The Addams Family", which last only two seasons on television (1964-66) but which has become a major part of pop culture through the ensuing decades. These scenes are a tribute to Lisa Loring, who played Wednesday Addams, and who passed away recently at age 64. The show was so politically incorrect that it is amazing it was ever telecast in the 1960s. Tribute must be paid to Loring's talented co-stars, Carolyn Jones, John Astin, Ken Weatherwax, Jackie Coogan, Ted Cassidy and Blossom Rock for their iconic interpretations of these immortal characters who were created by cartoonist Charles Addams. - Lee Pfeiffer

By Lee Pfeiffer

Following their acclaimed book "A Wealth of Pigeons", Steve Martin and his friend, New Yorker magazine cartoonist Harry Bliss, have collaborated on another volume of cartoons, "Number One is Walking". The title refers to how the main star on the set of a movie is referred to. "Number One is Walking", is shouted to advise the crew that the main star is en route to the set. Martin advises there is a numeric pecking order that only Hollywood could create. Each actor's status is diminished by how far down the line his or her "number" is. The first half of this book consists of Bliss's cartoon depictions of Martin's experiences on movie sets. Refreshingly, the humor is gentle and self-deprecating towards Martin. Many of the cartoons depict Martin's devotion to his beloved pet dogs. Bliss's work- intentionally or not- calls to mind the creations of Gary Larson , the mad genius behind "The Far Side". Larson went into self-imposed retirement some years ago, so Bliss's clever work helps fill the gap. During the film-related section of the book, Martin recalls amusing anecdotes involving most of the more prominent productions he appeared in. He has nothing but kind words to say about everyone he mentions or depicts in the book, with special praise given to Carl Reiner, with whom he collaborated on several films. The film section of the book is presented in comic book style with multi-panel cartoons and the anecdotes are interesting and funny. Martin explains why he gave up making feature films, writing "I lost interest in movies at exactly the same time movies lost interest in me". He relates that after making 40 feature films, he found the process too taxing and time-consuming. Thus, he re-evaluated his life and career and decided to slow down. He wrote a great deal (books, songs, plays) and teamed with his old pal Martin Short for a stand-up comedy tour that resulted in their hit streaming series "Only Murders in the Building". The second half of the book is a creative free-for-all and features full-panel cartoons unrelated to Martin's film career.

"Number One is Walking" has only one drawback for fans of Martin's movies, namely, the cursory anecdotes might well be his only attempt to provide us with insights into the making of these films. One would hope that a traditional book of memoirs about his movies might someday come to pass. In the interim, this book is amusing and classy, much like Martin and his distinctive brand of timeless humor.

Click here to order from Amazon

By Lee Pfeiffer

It has always been possible for Netflix subscribers to share their passwords with family members and friends who do not reside with them, even though the company's usage agreement specifies that all password sharing should pertain only to people who live in the same household. With Netflix reporting a net loss of  subscribers, the company is taking new measures to increase revenues. They have introduced a Netflix option for subscribers who don't mind watching programs and movies that are interrupted by commercial breaks. (Obviously, this wouldn't pertain to Cinema Retro readers!) The willingness of some people to watch these compromised versions will result in a whopping $3 a month discount. Cinephiles and purists will find this an offer they can refuse. For many viewers, the initial appeal of streaming services was to get away from the horrendous numbers of commercials that are seen on broadcast TV programs, but there will probably be plenty of undemanding viewers who jump at the offer. The other way to increase revenue will be to crack down on people sharing passwords. Beginning by late March, such individuals will either have to pay for their own subscriptions or lose access. They will be offered a special discount, however, as well as the ability to retain their account data and history. For more, click here.

RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES

By Lee Pfeiffer

You don't have to be gay to admire John Schlesinger's 1971 film Sunday Bloody Sunday but it probably helps in terms of appreciating just how ground-breaking the movie was in its day. As a straight guy of high school age when the film was released, I do remember it causing a sensation, although it would literally take me many years before I finally caught up with the film. Gay friends always spoke reverently of the movie and expressed how the most refreshing aspect of the story was how normally a loving relationship between two adult men was portrayed. In viewing the film as a Criterion Blu-ray release, I feel I can finally appreciate that point of view. Gay men have long been portrayed in movies, of course, but for the most part they had been depicted as objects of ridicule or as sexual deviants. There were the odd attempts to present gay characters as sympathetic in films such as The Trials of Oscar Wilde and the brilliant Victim. Yet, even these fine efforts present homosexuality as a burden those "afflicted" must bear. Stanley Donen's 169 film Staircase offered fascinating and bold performances by Rex Harrison and Richard Burton as two aging queens. However, the studio marketing campaign over-emphasized the oddity of two of the film industry's great lady's men playing a gay couple. In fact, the ad campaign showed Burton and "Sexy Rexy" giddily dancing, thus falsely conveying that the film was a comedic romp instead of a poignant and intelligent look at loving homosexual relationship. Schlesinger, one of the first unapologetic directors to come out of the closet (if, indeed, he was ever in one), decided that the most daring aspect of this highly personal film would be in its very ordinariness. The story covers a complicated love triangle between three disparate people. Dr. Daniel Hirsh (Peter Finch) is a middle-aged, Jewish London doctor who is involved romantically with a much younger man, Bob Elkin (Murray Head). Hirsh doesn't flaunt his homosexuality, nor does he attempt to painstakingly deny it. He just lives his life as a respected member of his community, although it is clear his family thinks he's straight. (In one amusing, though uncomfortable sequence, Hirsh attends a Bar Mitzvah and has to endure attempts by nosy female relatives to set him up with his "dream girl"). The relationship between Hirsh and Bob is fairly intense, but is compromised by one uncomfortable fact: Bob is bi-sexual and is carrying on an equally intense love affair with an older woman, Alex Greville (Glenda Jackson). Both Hirsh and Alex know about each other and (barely) tolerate the triangle as the price of having Bob in their lives. For his part, Bob is a rather self-absorbed young man who seems to have genuine affection for both of his lovers, but is also either oblivious or uncaring about how the uncertainties of the relationship are affecting their psychological well-being. 

Sunday Bloody Sunday was released a time when the gay rights movement was moving into high gear in the post-Stonewall period. It illustrates why the 1970s is regarded by many as the most liberating decade in film history, with old line directors like Hawks, Welles and Hitchcock working at the same time young turks like Schlesinger were shaking things up in a way the old masters never had the opportunity to do, thanks to the restrictive motion picture code. Sunday is primarily remembered for an eyebrow-raising scene in which Hirsh and Bob engage in a romantic kiss. There's nothing sensational about the tasteful way in which this rather routine gesture between lovers is presented on screen. In fact, it was the sheer lack of sensationalism that drove home Schlesinger's primary message: that loving gestures between gay men can be every bit as routine as they are between husband and wife. The fact that the kiss was enacted by two straight actors did add considerable gravitas to the moment and must have caused more than one straight viewer to think "Well, if they don't care about enacting such a scene, why should I feel uncomfortable watching it?"  Schlesinger also dared to film tasteful but passionate bedroom scenes between Bob and Hirsh. Nevertheless, nothing much actually  happens in Sunday Bloody Sunday. The story was based in part on real-life experiences and people from Schlesinger's own life. The story merely traces the ups and downs in the love triangle as Bob causes panic in both Hirsh and Alex by announcing he is thinking of moving to America. Hirsh and Alex do have an unexpected face-to-face meeting during this crisis and their sheer civility and inability to engage in more than light banter only adds to the dramatic tension. 

The primary attribute of the film, aside from Schlesinger's spot-on direction, is the brilliance of the performances. Glenda Jackson was then emerging as a national treasure for the British film industry and the little-known Murray Head acquits himself very well indeed. However, it is Peter Finch's performance that dominates the movie as we watch his character go from loving acceptance of Bob's youthful self-absorbing actions to downright fury as his realization that Bob will never have the same passion for him. It's a superb performance on every level. Some viewers find the film's bizarre final sequence in which Hirsh addresses the viewer directly about his philosophy of life, but I found it to be a distraction and somewhat confusing. Nevertheless, this is a fine film, worthy of the praise it has generated over the years, and one that remains remarkably timely today.

The Criterion Blu-ray is right up to the company's top-notch standards. The transfer is beautiful and there are the usual informative extras including:

• New interviews with Murray Head (who says that, as a young actor, he found his character to be rather despicable), cinematographer Billy Williams (who supervised the Blu-ray transfer), production designer Luciana Arrighi, Schlesinger biographer William J. Mann and the director's long-time partner, photographer Michael Childers who shot many of the great production stills for the film.
• A 1975 audio interview with Schlesinger
• Screenwriter Penelope Gillatt's original introduction to the published screenplay (there is plenty of coverage throughout the Blu-ray concerning the tense working relationship between Gillatt and Schlesinger, who accused the writer of taking the lion's share of credit for a screenplay he had extensively rewritten.)
• The original theatrical trailer
• Extensive liner notes by writer Ian Buruma, Schlesinger's nephew who appeared as an extra in the film.

In all, an outstanding tribute to an outstanding work by one of the era's great filmmakers.  

Click here to order from Amazon. The film is also currently streaming on the Screenpix app, available for $2.99 a month through Amazon Prime, Roku and Apple TV.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

The only commonal element among the films of director Nicolas Roeg is that there are no common elements. Roeg graduated from being one of the industry's most respected and innovative cinematographers to becoming an esteemed filmmaker in his own right. Among his disparate productions: the London crime film "Performance", the bizarre David Bowie starrer "The Man Who Fell to Earth", the cult favorite "Bad Timing" and his most accomplished film, the adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's supernatural novel "Don't Look Now", which ranks as one of the most atmospheric and terrifying movies ever made. By the early 1990s, however, Roeg's penchant for making avant garde films with limited boxoffice appeal- combined with his insistence on not compromising his artistic visions in the name of commerce- put him at odds with studio executives. His movies were largely appreciated by the art house cinema crowd but that didn't endear him to the studio bosses in the corner offices. One of Roeg's most bizarre, ambitious and expensive films was the little-seen and even less-remembered "Eureka", a 1983 production that was bedeviled by bad luck. First the basics: Roeg initially approached screenwriter Paul Mayersberg to adapt a book titled "Who Killed Sir Harry Oakes?" by Marshall Houts. Sir Harry Oakes may have faded into historical obscurity but in 1943 he was certainly one of the most famous men in the world- and had been for two decades. It all began when Oakes, an American by birth, went north into the wilds of Canada in his quest to prospect for gold. He doggedly pursued this ambition for fifteen years before stumbling upon what became the greatest discovery and claim for gold in North American history. Overnight Oakes became one of the richest men on earth. He later moved to the Bahamas where he lived comfortably on a large estate with his wife and daughter. Enamored by the British gentry he interacted with, Oakes changed his citizenship and became a subject of England. Big money buys impressive friends and Oakes was quite chummy with the Duke of Windsor, who had made a wee bit of a splash himself a few years earlier when he was known as King Edward VIII- yes, that King Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne in order to marry the love of his life. Edward was by then relegated to being the Governor-General of the Bahamas, some theorized to get him off the front pages. Between his scandalous  marriage and the fact that he was deemed an appeaser to Hitler in the lead up to the war with Germany, which was now raging, the Duke was not "Flavor of the Month" in his native England. Still, he and Harry Oakes hit it off rather well and before long Harry was knighted, ostensibly because of his sizable contributions to charity, but some theorized the Duke had pulled some strings on his behalf. Sir Harry's bliss was short-lived. In 1943, he was brutally murdered in his own bed. How brutal was the crime? Well, he was bludgeoned, tarred and feathered, burned alive and beheaded.  As you might imagine, the cause of death was not listed as suicide. Clearly, at least one person in his orbit was not very enamored of him and it was decided that the person who liked him least was his son-in-law, who Harry had virtually disowned. A sensational trial took place that resulted in breathless international coverage but the suspect was found to be not guilty on the basis of flimsy evidence. The sensational case remains technically unsolved to this day, though amateur sleuths still debate who the real culprit was and what his motive might have been. 

Nicolas Roeg was understandably intrigued by this story and was delighted when screenwriter Paul Mayersberg had also read the book that Roeg wanted him adapt for the screen. He, too, had longed to make a film of it. With the two men in synch, they set out to make a linear retelling of the remarkable characters and events pertaining to Sir Harry's life. However, they realized that since several of the major players in his life were still alive, the production could be plagued by lawsuits. Thus, they decided to give fictitious names to the characters. This also liberated them in terms of using artistic license when desirable, as they were no longer attempting to present a purely factual study of Sir Harry's life and death. It also liberated Roeg by allowing him to bring more esoteric elements into the production. The central character was now named Jack McCann (Gene Hackman) and our first view of him is indeed striking: he in embroiled in a violent struggle with another man in the midst of a raging blizzard in the Canadian wilderness. An unidentified woman, presumably the other man's wife, pleads for the men to stop fighting and we learn that Jack, who has been enraged by something that is never explained, is splitting up his prospecting partnership with the other man. He eventually storms off into the intimidating landscape to continue to pursue his goal of finding a major strike. Ultimately he does just that by literally falling into a fortune when he slips through a crevice and finds himself in an underground cave that is literally raining gold dust. He rejoices in his triumph but his happiness is short-lived. He returns to the bordello where the love of his life, a local hooker and oracle (Helena Kallianiotes) is literally on her death bed and she dies in his arms. It's the first in a string of unfortunate incidents that will plague Jack's  life. The scene then abruptly switches to twenty years later when we find Jack comfortably residing in his Bahamian estate named, appropriately enough, Eureka. He's a hot-tempered man prone to violent outbursts. The only calming influence in his life is his twenty year-old beautiful daughter Tracy (Theresa Russell), who he clearly adores but who also brings him consternation because of her strong, independent ways. Tracy has married Claude Malliot Van Horn (Rutger Hauer), a handsome, charismatic European gigolo. Jack can immediately see through Claude's motives and calls him out for being an opportunist who is using Tracy to get access to the McCann fortune. The rift results in Tracy becoming estranged from Jack and her mother, Helen (Jane Lapotaire), a weak-willed woman who Jack treats as he would the hired help. A parallel subplot finds Jack being pressured by his friend and business associate Charles Perkins (Ed Lauter) to sell his beloved estate to a group of American gangsters headed by a man named Mayaofsky (Joe Pesci) and his second-in-command Aurello D'Amato (Mickey Rourke). Seems they want to expand their operations to the island Jack resides on and consider his land crucial to their plans. Typically, Jack not only rejects their offer but insults them in the process, leading to the gangsters deciding to take strong-arm tactics against him. In the film's most disturbing scene (and there are several), Jack is murdered in his bed by being bludgeoned, tortured with a blowtorch and (we learn later) beheaded. It's an incredibly gruesome sight to behold, as Roeg holds nothing back from the viewer except the decapitation. (We should be thankful for small favors). The balance of the film concerns the resulting murder trial, which mirrors the real life case in that Jack's son-in-law was arrested and charged with the crime. He had motive and opportunity- but so did many of his enemies including the gangsters. 

"Eureka" may have been an ambitious undertaking but it's also a highly unsatisfying one. The script provides us with a dearth of sympathetic characters. With the exception of Tracy (who is superbly played by Roeg's then-wife Theresa Russell, who made numerous other films with him), there isn't a single other character with any admirable traits. Hackman delivers a powerful performance as McCann but the character is sketchy. We all know money doesn't always buy happiness but we never get to the root cause of his dissatisfaction with life and everyone around him. The supporting cast is equally excellent with Rutger Hauer giving one of the best performances of his career as the vain, almost effeminate pretty boy whose charm makes Tracy blind to his vulgarities. These are demonstrated in a very haunting sequence in which Claude and two female companions secretly attend a voodoo ritual that becomes a pagan-like orgy which leaves everyone involved disgraced and emotionally scarred. Joe Pesci and Mickey Rourke are impressive as the gangsters, with Pesci uncharacteristically underplaying his role, while Ed Lauter does the same as Jack's wimpy friend Charlie. The main problem with "Eureka" is that Roeg values style over substance. The entire first section of the film involving Jack's quest for gold is compromised by Roeg dropping in metaphysical and supernatural aspects, implying that his seer girlfriend is somehow sending him psychic signals to find the gold even though this will inexplicably cost her her own life. Even when the story gets on more traditional footing in Jack's later years, Roeg still toys with the viewer by inserting artistic touches that are visually striking but which distract the audience and make things quite confusing to follow.  At times it's hard to figure out who is who and what everyone's relationships and motivations are. Roeg also can't resist making numerous analogies between the characters of Jack McCann and Charles Foster Kane, though the comparisons seem a bit obvious and heavy handed. Having said that, the movie looks beautiful and Alex Thomson's cinematography is top-notch, as is the lush musical score by Stanley Myers.  

If Jack McCann's fate seemed cursed, so did "Eureka" as a major film production. The movie was financed and was to be distributed by United Artists. However, during production the management team of the long-troubled studio changed and "Eureka" was treated as an orphan project that had been green lit by the previous regime. Not helping matters was the fact that a test screening proved to be very discouraging, with the audience overwhelmingly giving the quirky film a "thumbs down" verdict. UA sat on the movie for two years before giving it a very minor and abbreviated release, after which it fell into obscurity. Twilight Time has released the film as a special edition Blu-ray, limited to only 3,000 units- and kudos for them for doing so. Although the film is a misguided and unsatisfying enterprise, it still has enough impressive aspects to merit a look by any serious movie scholar. "Eureka" is an artistic failure in this writer's opinion but at least it's a fascinating one and certainly worth a look in order to draw your own conclusions.

The film is currently streaming on Screenpix, which is available through Amazon Prime, Roku, YouTube and Apple TV for $2.99 per month. 

Click here to order DVD from Amazon

By Lee Pfeiffer

A very positive aspect about streaming movies through Amazon Prime is that the service affords retro movie fans a seemingly limitless buffet of films that have never been released on DVD or Blu-ray. Thus, when I came upon a little-remembered 1972 TV movie, "She Waits", I was tempted to tune in. After all, any movie that offers a cast headed by Patty Duke, David McCallum, Dorothy McGuire, Lew Ayres and Beulah Bondi was certain to be worth checking out. I probably saw the movie back in the day but had no recollection of it. The 1970s was the Golden Age of TV movie and mini-series and every week viewers were enticed to check out big stars in original TV productions. The ratio of hits-to-misses was impressive. Some truly memorable productions were broadcast including young Steven Spielberg's classic road rage thriller "Duel". "She Waits" is no "Duel", but it is an interesting entry in the TV movie genre. You might think its premise of otherworldly possession of an innocent person was yet another entry inspired by "The Exorcist", but "She Waits" aired more than a year before "The Exorcist" was released- although a case could be made that it was inspired by the phenomenal success of William Peter Blatty's bestselling novel. 

In addition to the impressive cast, "She Waits" also boasted an impressive director: Delbert Mann, whose feature films included such acclaimed gems as "Marty", "Separate Tables" and "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" as well as the Doris Day hits "Lover Come Back" and "That Touch of Mink". By the early 1970s, however, Mann's star had eroded somewhat and he crossed over to television productions where he found constant employment. The script for "She Waits" was written by Art Wallace, who knew a thing or two about supernatural scenarios, having written an abundance of episodes of "Dark Shadows". In short, there's a lot of talent involved with this rather run-of-the-mill production.

McCallum and Duke play Mark and Laura McGuire, a newlywed couple who met in Tokyo, where Mark holds a prestigious executive position for a big company. They have traveled back to the States so that Laura can meet Mark's mother Sarah (Dorothy McGuire), whose precarious health leaves her spending most of her time in bed, cared for by the long-serving nanny Mrs. Medina (Beulah Bondi, reunited with McGuire with whom she appeared in "A Summer Place".) The two women inhabit one of those big Victorian-era homes that generally ensure there are plenty of things that go "bump" in the night. From the moment of their arrival, Mark and Laura find Sarah in a rather disturbed state of mind. She privately encourages Mark to leave the house as soon as possible and stay at a hotel, but Mark will have not consider it. He wants to stay in the house he grew up in. The reason for this sentiment is puzzling because we learn the cause of Sarah's trepidation relates to horrendous memories she and Mark have of his time in the home. It seems that Mark had previously resided there with his first wife, Elaine, who was apparently a nasty, demanding and manipulative woman. After one particularly bad argument with Mark, he stormed out of the house and Elaine was found dead from a gunshot wound which was attributed to suicide. Sarah tries to convince Mark that Elaine's spirit still remains in the house and that she will likely exact revenge on him through endangering Laura. Despite Laura's efforts to win Sarah's affections, she finds the situation in the house to be unnerving, with Mark and his mother keeping her in the dark about how Laura died. (It seems a bit of a stretch that Laura wouldn't have asked Mark about his former spouse prior to marrying him.) Mark summons Sarah's long-time physician, Dr. Carpenter, who seemingly has no other patients, as he virtually moves into the house to care for Sarah through administering numerous sedatives. Before long, Sarah's predictions begin to ring true, as Laura begins to feel a presence in the house and hears ominous voices and other indications that Elaine is still a presence there. Ultimately, Sarah confides in Laura about a shocking secret concerning her death and Mark's involvement. But that's just the beginning of the nightmare scenario, as Elaine's spirit takes possession of Laura.

"She Waits" is hardly a distinguished entry in films of this type, but it is enjoyable on a certain level, primarily due to the cast, who rise above the cliches. The film was obviously done on a low budget, as there are very few exteriors. The production design of the house is impressive, however, and Morton Stevens provides a suitably eerie score, right down to including organ music.

The main problem with watching "She Waits" on Amazon opens up a subject for debate. The source for the streaming version seems to have been derived from a VHS tape, which is the only home video format it has ever been available on. Viewed on today's hi-tech widescreen TVs, the show is barely watchable. The image looks as though it were filmed with a dirty camera lens through a murky pane of glass. Amazon's barely existent standards for what passes as appropriate for its screening service leaves a dilemma for retro movie fans. Is it acceptable to present such an atrocious version of a film if its the only way those interested can see it? Film directors and industry professionals would probably oppose showing their work in such a manner but historians would argue that even a sub-par version can be valuable for research purposes. As is evidenced by this review, I'm in the latter camp, though I certainly sympathize with filmmakers who object to having their carefully-crafted work presented in such a manner. If you have Amazon Prime, watch "She Waits" and decide for yourself.

By Lee Pfeiffer

"The Wilby Conspiracy" is primarily notable for the teaming of two big screen legends: Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine. The 1975 film itself aspires to be a bold indictment of South Africa's cruel apartheid regime which saw black residents of the country terrorized and humiliated by the white minority.  Most movies wouldn't go near the topic in the mid-1970s so the script, based on Peter Driscoll's novel, is to be commended for being ahead of the game in terms of raising awareness of the practices that would ultimately bring down the corrupt regime and see the seemingly impossible achievement of having one-time political prisoner Nelson Mandela elected as president. Yet, screenwriters Rod Amateau and Harold Nebenzal were obviously tasked with primarily delivering an action adventure "buddy" pic that starts off resembling Poiter's 1950s classic "The Defiant Ones" (the protagonists are even handcuffed together for a time.) Adding another note of nostalgia is that the film reunited Poitier with director Ralph Nelson, with whom he collaborated on "Lilies of the Field" and "Duel at Diablo".

The film opens with a courtroom scene in which a prisoner, Shack Twala (Poitier) is awaiting what is believed to be a predetermined sentence for political "crimes" that will see him sent back to prison. Twala is a prominent black activist who has gained international attention for his objections to social injustice. Much to the surprise of Twala and his lawyer, Rina Van Niekerk (Prunella Gee), Twala is absolved of the crime and is released as a free man. The good feelings don't last long, however. During the drive home, their car is stopped by police officers who harass Twala, who becomes enraged and fights back with the help of Rina's boyfriend, Jim Keogh (Caine), a mining executive who is largely apolitical. Now wanted by the law, the two men drop off Rina and flee to Johannesburg, a 900 mile journey. There, Twala hopes to unite with a fellow political activist who might be able to sneak them across the border into Botswana. They have plenty of close calls and are aggressively pursued by Major Horn (Nicol Williamson), a dreaded higher up in the nation's nefarious security forces that routinely employed torture. They also learn that there was an ulterior motive in the court case that saw the government drop charges against Twala. The plot gets increasingly burdened with secondary characters and the search for a large cache of stolen diamonds that went missing many years ago. Twala wants to recover them and deliver them to a man named Wilby (Joe de Graft), the head of the black resistance movement who resides freely in Botswana. The plan is to use the diamonds to finance Wilby's attempts to publicize and shame the apartheid regime. Along the way there are double crosses and people who turn out to be dubious allies to the men who are on the lam. Most amusing is Saeed Jaffrey as a timid dentist who nevertheless risks his life for the activists cause. He also employs a fellow conspirator, Persis (Persis Khambatta), who seems to have been primarily written into the film in order to shoehorn in a rather absurd and unconvincing sex scene between her and Twala. Caine is in top form as the meek man who turns into an action hero literally overnight and he has the movie's best one-liners. Poitier, while not wasted, is under-utilized and lacks any scenes of great dramatic power. Prunella Gee provides a fine, spirited performance but the scene stealer is Nicol Williamson, who presents a fascinating villain who is charismatic, yet cruel and totally dedicated to enshrining white supremacy in South Africa by whatever means he needs to employ. (Like his real life counterparts, he naturally considers himself to be a patriot.)

The film abounds with impressive action scenes though a couple come close to "jumping the shark" in terms of credibility. (Ironically, the most suspense was generated off screen when an errant camera crashed through a speeding car with Poitier and Caine in the front seats, almost killing them both.) The movie also has an adequate score by Lalo Schifrin, though the decision to open this action opus with a romantic love song over the credits is bewildering. Because South Africa was obviously not available as a film location, Kenya substituted nicely and director Nelson makes the most of the expansive landscapes. Interiors were shot at Pinewood Studios outside of London. There are quite a few "behind-the-cameras" talents from the James Bond films: Associate Producer Stanley Sopel, Sound Recordist Gordon K. McCallum, legendary stunt coordinator Bob Simmons, First Assistant Editor John Grover and and Stills Photographer George Whitear. Another trivia note: the film was produced by actor/director Helmut Dantine, who has a small role in the movie. So there's a lot of talent both on and off-screen and while the movie is certainly not a classic, it can be recommended as a fun and sometimes poignant action flick.

(Now streaming on Screenpix, available through Amazon Prime, Roku, YouTube and Apple TV for $2.99 per month.)

By Lee Pfeiffer

In the 1960s, Chuck Connors was a big star in his native America. After spending a few years in professional baseball, Connors entered the acting profession His husky build and good looks got him noticed and he began to land prominent supporting roles in a wide range of films. In the 1960s, he became one of the biggest American TV stars by playing the title role in the long-running classic Western TV series "The Rifleman". When that show finally left the air, Connors returned to feature films. Among them was a little-noticed European Western titled "Kill Them All and Come Back Alone", one of many such movies inspired by the success of Sergio Leone's "Dollars" trilogy. The film's release in the U.S. was rather haphazard and the primary distributor was a company named Fanfare Films. As evidenced by this marketing poster, the promotion for the movie was lackluster and botched. Connors was the above-the-title leading man, yet the company managed to spell his name wrong. So much for hiring Mr. Magoo as a proofreader!

By Lee Pfeiffer

Michael Winner emerged as a promising young director/screenwriter/film editor in the early 1960s and his career gained momentum when the mod movement of the mid-Sixties made London the go-to place for everything and everyone who was hip. Winner fit into that category very neatly. He was wealthy, charismatic, talented and very much a key member of the city's thriving social scene. He made offbeat comedies that appealed to young audiences such as "The Jokers" and "I'll Never Forget What'sis Name". Soon he was making big studio films and was accorded substantial budgets to do so. He was quite diverse in his subject matter. "Hannibal Brooks" was a WWII comedy, "The Games" a drama set at the Olympic, "The Nightcomers", an ambitious prequel to Henry James's classic ghost story "The Turn of the Screw". He made good Westerns such as "Lawman" and "Chato's Land" and his numerous collaborations with Charles Bronson were crucial in finally elevating Bronson to major star status after being regarded as a reliable character actor for many years. Winner's biggest hit starred Bronson: the 1974 urban  thriller "Death Wish" that perfectly reflected the real-life paranoia of America's soaring crime rate. The film was provocative and controversial, much to Winner's delight, and it made a ton of money. But soon after, Winner's fortunes in cinema began to decline. He seemed to have backward momentum and most of his films were poorly received by critics and audiences, even though occasionally a few proved to be underrated including his 1978 remake of "The Big Sleep" that was fittingly as confusing as the classic original.

One of Winner's least-remembered films from this era is "Firepower", released in 1979, which starred James Coburn and Sophia Loren. Like most of Winner's recent movies, it didn't light any fires at the boxoffice, but it has an impressive cast and production values that elevate the film above the embarrassing "Death Wish" sequels Winner would later preside over that gave him a resurgence of relevance. The film literally opens with a bang when a scientist opens a letter bomb and is blown to smithereens. He's the husband of Adele Tasca (Sophia Loren), who suspects the assassination was orchestrated by her husband's employer, the mysterious billionaire Karl Stegner, because he had discovered that Stegner was distributing a drug that could result in patients contracting cancer. Stegner is also wanted by the U.S. government for high-end criminal activities. There's one major problem: Stegner maintains a Howard Hughes-like lifestyle and no one even knows what he looks like. FBI agent Frank Mancuso (Vincent Gardenia) leans on crime figure Sal Hyman (Eli Wallach) to use his connections to locate Stegner in return for having pending criminal charges against him dropped. Hyman, in turn, reaches out to another man of mystery, Jerry Fannon (James Coburn), to get the job done in return for an eye-popping fee. Fannon is the ultimate Mr. Fix-It, having pulled off seemingly impossible tasks for other shady characters. Fannon enlists his trusted right-hand man, Catlett (O.J. Simpson) for the assignment and the two set off to the island of Curacao in the Caribbean, where he has learned Stegner is residing in a seaside mansion protected by an army of bodyguards who report to his top assistant, Leo Gelhorn (George Grizzard, successfully cast against type in an action role.)

Things get complicated when Adele arrives on the scene, ostensibly to find a way to expose and kill Stegner herself. But Fannon soon sees she might actually be in league with her husband's murderer. As with scenarios of this type, Fannon is welcomed into Stegner's hacienda by his prey. In this case, Stegner remains unseen but Fannon is afforded some courtesies by Gelhorn and Stegner's personal physician, Dr. Felix (Tony Franciosa). The Bond-like scenario finds heroes and villains exchanging witticisms and veiled threats very politely over drinks in a luxurious environment. Of course, the detente doesn't last long and the action becomes frequent and explosive. There's a goofy and thankfully brief subplot that finds Coburn face-to-face with his exact double, who he employs as part of his strategy but the screenplay by frequent Michael Winner collaborator Gerald Wilson affords some unexpected plot twists and genuine surprises and Winner handles the action scenes very well indeed, even if they not very original. For example, Coburn employs a bulldozer to demolish a house, which is fun to watch, but Robert Mitchum had already performed the same feat on screen a couple of years before in more spectacular fashion in "The Amsterdam Kill". The gorgeous Caribbean locations add a degree of luster to the production. The cast comes through, with Coburn especially fun to watch. Loren, who was paid $1 million to appear in the film, looks sensational but the role is somewhat underwritten and the inevitable romantic moments between Coburn and Loren's characters are rather dull and perfunctory. Eli Wallach and Vincent Gardenia are relegated to extended cameo roles and the film ends with a strange but welcome brief appearance by Victor Mature that is played for laughs.I should also mention the impressive stunt work performed by Terry Leonard and his crew.

(Warning: the video below contains spoilers!)

"Firepower" was produced by Sir Lew Grade, who originally had Charles Bronson agree to star in the film. At the last minute, Bronson pulled out and Grade considered canceling the production. However, he had already sunk a good deal of money into the project and signed James Coburn as the lead. Coburn would later recall,  "I did it for the money, the locations (the Caribbean islands) and to work with Sophia Loren. The director was Michael Winner. He’s probably one of the weirdest guys I’ve ever met. Yet, I thought he was a good guy when I first met him. But when he got on the set, he was almost like a total dictator. I found it hard to work for that way. The most fun I had was when I got to drive a bulldozer through a house in the islands." For all the effort, the film was greeted with negative reviews and a weak boxoffice take. The movie is available on Blu-ray as a collaboration between Kino Lorber and Scorpion Releasing. The transfer looks great and the disc includes the original trailer.

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By Lee Pfeiffer

The 1969 action flick "The File of the Golden Goose" stars Yul Brynner in a crime thriller that plays more like an espionage movie. Brynner portrays American Treasury agent Peter Novak, who is sent to London to infiltrate and bust a major ring that specializes in spreading counterfeit U.S. currency. Novak is assigned a young Scotland Yard detective, Arthur Thompson (a very effective Edward Woodward) and the two men enact a scenario where they are ultimately taken in as part of the gang by mobster front man George Leeds (always-reliable character actor Walter Gotell). The film is unremarkable on most levels, but the script is intelligently written and there is some genuine suspense when Novak begins to suspect that Thompson is adapting to the mobster lifestyle for real. Brynner makes for one of the most inimitable leading men of his era, constantly bringing a sense of dignity and gravitas to what otherwise might be considered to be a B movie.

There is also a very wry performance by Charles Gray, playing an out-of-the-closet queen who dabbles in counterfeit bills in between hosting orgies. The film was helmed by actor/director Sam Wanamaker, who makes the most of the extensive London locations. However, the movie's climactic shootout sequence involving a helicopter is a bit of a dud and suffers from poor editing. Nevertheless, any Brynner film deserves attention and The File of the Golden Goose is a more than satisfying thriller, though it must be said my opinion is in the minority. The movie was a critical and boxoffice failure but if you share my sometimes irrational love of even low-grade spy movies of this era, you'll find it enjoyable. 

The film is available on Blu-ray through Kino Lorber in a welcome upgrade to MGM's previous DVD release. The only bonus extra is a trailer. 

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By Lee Pfeiffer

The late David V. Picker is known to James Bond fans as the United Artists head of production who agreed to finance and distribute the James Bond series after Columbia Pictures turned down its option. But Picker, who was a longtime friend of Cinema Retro, can be credited with being prescient about many other aspects of the movie industry including recognizing the potential of Steve McQueen as a viable leading man in motion pictures, despite the fact that McQueen was primarily known as a "TV actor" at the time. In those days, that made it difficult for actors to fully assimilate into stars of the big screen. Picker approved McQueen as a lead in "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape", both directed by John Sturges, who also deserves enormous credit for McQueen's career ascension. Here are clips from these films and the 1968 production of "The Thomas Crown Affair" in which McQueen was allowed to play against type as a rich sophisticate. The rights to the films are now held by MGM but they represent the glory days of United Artists.

By Lee Pfeiffer 

By 1963, Vincent Price was generally recognized as the heir apparent to Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi as the undisputed king of the horror film genre. Somewhat lost in discussion's of Price's work is the fact that, until he starred in "House of Wax" in the mid-1950s, he had a long career as a popular and respected supporting actor in mainstream Hollywood productions. If there is a sad aspect to his international success as a horror star, it's that his talents were rarely used henceforth in films of other genres. Nonetheless, Price knew a good thing when he saw it. His collaborations with producer Roger Corman on cinematic versions of classic Edgar Allan Poe stories had proven to be wildly successful. Price wasn't overly selective about working with other producers who sought to capitalize on those films by making blatant imitations of Corman's productions. One such title is "Diary of a Madman", released in 1963 and based on a story by French writer Guy de Maupassant.  In some ways, the film is a worthy rival to a Corman/Price collaboration in that it's intelligently scripted, well-cast and has a relatively creative production design that somewhat masks the movie's threadbare budget. As with the Corman flicks, Price is given a meaty role and he makes the most of it. He plays Simon Cordier, a respected French judge in the late 19th century. He has a reputation for fairness and an obsession with studying the criminal mind in the hope of understanding what motivates some men to commit horrendous crimes of violence. The film opens with Cordier receiving a request to meet with a prisoner who he has sentenced to die on the guillotine. The man is a serial killer and Cordier is interested in taking the opportunity to speak to the prisoner, whose behavior has left him baffled. The man was a pillar-of-the-community type with no criminal background a stable profession. Upon meeting the condemned prisoner in his cell, the doomed convict informs Cordier that he welcomes his imminent execution because he has been inexplicably possessed by an invisible being known as the Horla. He relates an incredible story about this creature periodically taking over control of his body and mind and forcing him to commit acts of murder. As the incredulous Cordier tries to absorb this fanciful tale, the man suddenly attacks him. In defending himself, Cordier hurls the prisoner against a wall, killing him instantly. 

Back in his chambers, Cordier is haunted by the experience but doesn't think much more of it- until some strange occurrences leave him disturbed. Seems that Cordier's irresponsible behavior had somehow been responsible for the accidental death of his wife and young son years before. Cordier has tried to block the bad memories from his mind by locking away all mementos relating to them, including a large framed photograph that had been stored in his attic. He is shocked to find it hanging prominently on the wall of his study. His loyal butler (Ian Wolfe) denies having placed it there. Other strange occurrences lead Cordier to question his mental stability. A psychiatrist assures him that he is suffering from fatigue and urges him to delve back into his passion for sculpting, which he has ignored for years. Cordier follows his advice and begins to feel more relaxed. Things only get better when he has a chance encounter with a vivacious and flirtatious young woman named Odette (Nancy Kovack), who agrees to be a paid model for him. She begins a campaign to seduce Cordier, never telling him that she is actually married to a financially-strapped artist, Paul (Chris Warfield). When Paul objects to the amount of time that Odette is spending in Cordier's studio, she assures him she is only trying to earn money that they desperately need. In reality, she is a heartless gold digger who is weighing the option of leaving Paul for the older man. Oblivious to all this, Cordier is happy to have found love once again. His mood, however, is rudely disrupted when he realizes the cause of the strange things that have been going on in his house: it seems that the Horla has chosen to possess him in retribution for killing the prisoner whose body it once inhabited. Although Cordier can not see the Horla, he discovers it is a physical presence who can not only speak to him, but can also utilize a number of cruel witticisms that he uses to mock and humiliate the esteemed  jurist.  From this point on, Cordier's life is a living hell. In rational moments, he tries frantically to figure out how to rid himself of this ghoulish presence, but the Horla retains control of his mind and body at will. This leads to Cordier carrying out a particularly gruesome murder, leaving him desperate to find a way out of his tortured existence. He devises a last-ditch effort to lure the Horla into his study where he hopes to kill him through use of his one vulnerability: fire. The resulting consequences are dramatic but have tragic results even for Cordier. 

"Diary of a Madman" is mid-range Price fare from this period. The entire enterprise rides on the actor shoulders, but they prove to be broad enough to carry it off. Price looks dashing and, as always, puts his best efforts into even a modest enterprise such as this. Nancy Kovack also gives a fine performance as a bad girl who, refreshingly, never learns to redeem herself as she cuckolds both of her lovers in turn. The film is not exceptional on any level, but it is consistently entertaining and reasonably engrossing.

"Diary of a Madman" is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. 

BY LEE PFEIFFER

The most memorable aspect of "Who is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?" is its title, which still resonates with people of a certain age even though most probably never saw the film itself.  "Harry" was a speed bump in Dustin Hoffman's meteoric rise to success that began with "The Graduate" in 1967 and continued with such diverse hits as "Midnight Cowboy", "Little Big Man" and "Straw Dogs" (which would be released a few months after "Harry"). Directed by Ulu Grosbard, who would direct Hoffman in the acclaimed drama "Straight Time" seven years later, "Harry" is a bizarre comedy with an anti-Establishment social message. Hoffman, almost unrecognizable behind a mustache and curly hair, plays Georgie Soloway, a "Boy Wonder" in the music business for his ability to almost instantly write hit rock and folk songs, along with memorable advertising jingos. He has fame and fortune and resides in luxurious penthouse apartment in Manhattan that is a virtual museum to his own accomplishments. However, the affable Georgie is desperately lacking something in his life: genuine friendships and a loving, significant other. The film doesn't follow a linear path and bounces around between various stages of Georgie's life. We see him growing up in Brooklyn, the only child of two stereotypical, overbearing Jewish parents. As a teenager, Georgie goes through the customary stages of trying to deal with raging hormones. He and a friendly but air-headed girl become lovers but he cruelly ditches her when she becomes pregnant. Later we see he had married when he impregnated another woman who bore him two children. Georgie ended up deserting them as well because he couldn't deal with the adult responsibilities that fatherhood demands. We see present-day Georgie having no problems finding bedmates but he realizes he only attracts women because of his fame and fortune. Every time he seems to enter a promising relationship it is compromised when the woman is contacted by a mysterious man who calls himself Harry Kellerman and who seems to know all the intimate aspects of Georgie's life. Kellerman routinely unveils to these women the sordid ways Georgie has treated previous lovers and inevitably, his new relationships fail. When we first see Georgie, he is a psychological basket case. He fantasizes about suicide as though it will be a charming and pleasant experience. He also desperately tries to forge genuine friendships with those in his life. For years he has been paying a psychiatrist (Jack Warden) to hear his problems and act as a surrogate father figure to him but it becomes clear the man only sees Georgie as another client. Similarly, Georgie's outreach to his business manager (Gabriel Dell) and his harried accountant (Dom DeLuise) fails to result in establishing anything but business relationships. Georgie is the ultimate poor little rich boy. Much of the story line finds Georgie increasingly infuriated by Kellerman's interference in his love life and becoming obsessed with finding out who he is and how he knows so much about him. 

The film was written by Herb Gardner, best known for his play "A Thousand Clowns", which was also about a dysfunctional New York man, who- like Georgie- was superficially charming but not very admirable. Gardner's screenplay drifts back and forth through time at a dizzying pace and sometimes it's hard to know whether we are viewing Georgie in the past or present. He also includes sequences that are genuinely bizarre but are later revealed to be dreams or fantasies. The end result is a rather unsatisfying mix of comedy and pathos despite fine performances by everyone involved. Director Grosbard makes scant use of the New York locations, other than some earlier scenes representing Coney Island in the 1950s and one fantasy scene that finds Georgie inside either the Holland or Lincoln Tunnel, which is totally deserted (trying filming that today).  There are also some wonderful aerial shots of the city as we watch the bored Georgie pilot his personal jet for joy rides. But Grosbard never captures the flavor of New York and film could just have easily been set in any major city. The movie is primarily shot in dark interiors with grim lighting, making for a suitably depressing experience. The message of the movie seems to be that money can't buy happiness and that personal virtues are more important than a large bank account. This may be true but it wasn't exactly a unique theory even in 1971. The film comes alive mostly in its final phase when Georgie meets an untalented aspiring singer (Barbara Harris, superb in an Oscar-nominated performance) who is ditzy but lovable. She brings out the kind of genuine human emotion that Georgie had been suppressing for most of his life- but is it too late to save him from his own demons? The final scene of the movie sees Georgie finally seeming to find happiness as he soars above the boroughs of New York City in a wonderfully-filmed sequence that comes to an unexpected conclusion, even as it provides an answer to the question "Who is Harry Kellerman?" 

Kino Lorber has released the film on Blu-ray sans any special features other than a trailer for Ulu Grosbard's 1981 drama "True Confessions". The transfer is very good indeed but can't overcome the deficiencies in the film itself. "Harry Kellerman" isn't a bad film and it does provide the joy of seeing another fine performance by young Dustin Hoffman. But it is a movie that falls far short of its aspirations and at times comes across as merely pretentious.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

"Gun the Man Down" is yet another Poverty Row low-budget Western shot during an era in which seemingly every other feature film released was a horse opera. Supposedly shot in nine days, the film is primarily notable for being the big screen directing debut of Andrew V. McLaglen, who would go on to be a very respected director who specialized in Westerns and action films. The movie also marked the final feature film for James Arness before he took on the role of Marshall Matt Dillon in TV's long-running and iconic "Gunsmoke" series. After failing to achieve stardom on the big screen, Arness found fame and fortune in "Gunsmoke" when John Wayne recommended him for the part. Wayne had been championing Arness for years and provided him with roles in some of his films. Following "Gunsmoke"'s phenomenal run, Arness seemed content to stay with TV and had another successful series, "How the West Was Won".  John Wayne was one of the first actors to successfully launch his own production company, Batjac, which produced this film and Wayne's influence is felt in the project. Andrew V. McLaglen was the son of Wayne's good friend and occasional co-star Victor McLaglen. The screenplay was written by Burt Kennedy, who Wayne would later hire to direct several of his own films. The movie provided young Angie Dickinson with her first role of substance and she would reunite with Wayne years later on Howard Hawks' "Rio Bravo". Speaking of which, another Wayne favorite, character actor Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez appears in both films. Also in the cast is Harry Carey Jr. , son of Wayne's idol and and personal friend, Harry Carey. The cinematography is by William Clothier, who would lens many of Wayne's later movies and the film was produced by Duke's brother, Robert Morrison. "Gun the Man Down" is very much a Wayne family affair. 

The film opens with three fleeing bank robbers: Rem Anderson (James Arness), Matt Rankin (Robert J. Wilke) and Ralph Farley (Don MeGowan), who arrive at their hide-a-way cabin with the law in hot pursuit. Rem has been seriously wounded and Rankin makes the decision to leave him behind. Rem's girl, Jan (Angie Dickinson), objects at first but Rankin convinces her to go with them in part because they have $40,000 in loot from the local bank. The law arrives at the cabin and arrests Rem. He is nursed back to health and is offered a deal for a light sentence if he helps track down his confederates. Rem refuses and does his time in prison. Upon release, he begins his mission vengeance and tracks Rankin, Ralph and Jan to a one-horse town where Rankin has used his ill-gotten gains to open a profitable saloon. Upon discovering Rem is in town, Rankin hires a notorious gunslinger, Billy Deal (Michael Emmet), to assassinate him. Jan has a tense reunion with Rem and seeks his forgiveness but her pleas fall on deaf ears. Rem emerges victorious over Billy Deal and Rankin, Ralph and Jan flee town with Rem in pursuit. Their final confrontation takes place in a remote canyon with tragic consequences.  

Given the film's meager production budget, "Gun the Man Down" is a surprisingly mature and engrossing Western with intelligent dialogue and interesting characters. (In addition to those mentioned, there is a fine performance by Emile Meyer as the town sheriff). Arness projects the kind of macho star power that Wayne had and Dickinson acquits herself very well as the stereotypical saloon girl with a heart of gold. The film, ably directed by McLaglen,  runs a scant 76 minutes and was obviously designed for a quick playoff and fast profit. It has largely been lost to time but the film is currently streaming on Screenpix, which is available through Amazon Prime, Roku, Apple TV and Fire TV for an additional monthly fee of $2.99 The movie is also available on Blu-ray through Olive Films.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

A decade before the release of the teenage vampire sensation "Twilight" in 2008, there was another film with the same title that couldn't be more different in tone and style. While the horror flick helped launch the careers of up-and-coming actors, the 1998 film was gently acknowledging that its already legendary stars were coming to the end of theirs. This is evidenced by the title, which has a dual meaning: the time of day as well as the stage of life its central characters find themselves in. "Twilight" was written and directed by Robert Benton and stars Paul Newman, Susan Sarandon, Gene Hackman and James Garner. Benton and Newman had found considerable acclaim and success with their previous collaboration, "Nobody's Fool", but "Twilight" received mixed reviews and performed poorly at the boxoffice. Therefore, there's probably a good chance you never saw it. The failure of movie is puzzling, given the public's affection for the film noir genre. Purists may argue that true film noir requires that a movie be made on a modest budget and shot in black and white. "Twilight" doesn't apply to either of these rules. It has a high-priced cast and gorgeous color cinematography by Piotr Sobocinski, but in many ways it evokes the very best of the noir genre, in a way that director Dick Richards' 1975 detective flick "Farewell My Lovely" also succeeded in doing. It has all the central elements: the protagonist is a down-and-out  private eye (are there any other kind in noir films?), a deceptive man who sends him out on a mission to make some fast money, a sultry femme fatale and an abundance of supporting characters who are as eccentric as they are threatening. Oh, and most of the action takes place in the dead of night.

The film is set in contemporary L.A. Newman plays Harry Ross, a one-time cop who was fired for alcoholism, an affliction that saw his career as a private dick also fail. In the process, he lost his wife and kids and remains alienated from them. Harry survives due to the generosity of his benefactors, old friend Jack Ames (Gene Hackman) and his wife Catherine (Susan Sarandon), both of whom were once prominent and popular actors whose careers and finances are on a downward trend. Harry is allowed to live rent-free at their lavish home, where he earns a few bucks here and there by acting as a Man Friday for Jack, running errands for him that often involve people of dubious backgrounds. Jack has just learned that his cancer has been determined to be terminal and he's given about six months to live. He takes it in stride but resents having to spend much of his time in bed. Catherine seems to be devoted to him but even Jack knows that she and Harry have long had eyes for each other. Also sharing the residence is Jack and Catherine's precocious teenage daughter Mel (Reese Witherspoon), who Harry had to to fly to Mexico to retrieve from the arms of an older paramour, Jeff Willis (Liev Schrieiber), who accidentally shot Harry in the leg during an altercation. Now Jack has another mission for Harry; a seemingly easy one: deliver an envelope stuffed with money to a man named Lester Ivar (M. Emmett Walsh) with no questions asked. Needless to say, things go awry from the start and Harry finds himself being shot at, beaten up and framed for murder, all due to a blackmail plot against Jack and Catherine, who were long suspected of murdering her first husband so they could be together. As with any noir or noir-like film, it doesn't pay to go into much detail about the plot, as it would compromise all the twists and turns in Robert Benton's screenplay, which, in true genre form, is complex but thoroughly compelling.

"Twilight" is the kind of film that celebrates the kinds of characters that existed in crime movies of the 1940s and 1950s. Everyone speaks the same lingo, dishing out insults and wisecracks with abandon. It's also the kind of film where a cuckolded husband learns his best friend has been sleeping with his wife and deals with it by simply telling him to knock it off. In today's increasingly sanitized world of filmmaking, it's refreshing to revisit an era in which hard-bitten characters are unapologetic about drinking and smoking without restraint. The performances are uniformly excellent, with Newman at age 73 displaying the same cynical wit that made "Harper" such a pleasure to watch. He's also still drop-dead handsome, even though his character acknowledges his advanced years. (A running gag in the film is that Harry is unaware that the rumor mill has it that his "pecker had been shot off" in the incident in Mexico.) Sarandon burns up the screen as the diva-like object of both Harry and Jack's affections and Reese Witherspoon displays the talents that would see her rise to stardom. Hackman is very good, but his screen time is limited, though the dialogue he shares with Newman is terrific. There's also a standout turn in a supporting role by James Garner, as a friend of both men who is a retired cop who serves as a "Mr. Fix-It" on the L.A. crime scene. There is also an excellent performance by Stockard Channing as a tough-as-nails LAPD lieutenant and former flame of Harry's. Liev Schrieber and Margo Martindale fill out the ranks as a team of murderous blackmailers who are as eccentric as any characters to be found in an old John Huston movie and there is an amusing turn by Giancarlo Esposito as an aspiring private eye who idolizes Harry. The film is also complimented by an impressive score by the legendary Elmer Bernstein. The critical and boxoffice failure of "Twilight" shouldn't distract from the fact that this is a first-rate detective film well worth checking out.

After being out-of-print on home video in the U.S. for a number of years, Kino Lorber has released an impressive new Blu-ray edition with a marvelous transfer. Best of all is the commentary track by film noir experts Alain Silver and James Ursini. If you were ignorant about the genre before listening to them, you won't be by the time the track is over. According to them, "Twilight" technically qualifies as a "neo-noir" film because it is set in the modern era. However, Silver argues that the movie possesses so many traditional elements of the genre that it should probably be regarded as an example of classic noir. Indeed, director Benton seems to realize that shooting anything in L.A. at night gives a film a noirish element and Benton doesn't need obvious gimmicks to remind the viewer of this fact. In all, the KL edition is a "must-have" if you appreciate films of this type. As an additional bonus, there are original trailers and TV spots for this movie along with other titles available through KL. Highly recommended. 

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By Lee Pfeiffer

If you asked anyone who is a fan of Sixties spy movies "In what film did Donald Pleasence play a rich, brilliant international criminal mastermind?", the answer would be obvious: "You Only Live Twice", in which Pleasence portrayed the evil Spectre mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld. However, there is another answer that would be equally correct: "Matchless", an unheralded long-forgotten spy spoof made by Italians and shot in such diverse locations as Germany, America and England. Pleasence plays Gregori Andreanu, the main villain of the piece, but he doesn't appear until well into the running time. The film opens with American journalist Perry Liston being creatively tortured by Communist Chinese soldiers who suspect he is a spy. In reality, Liston writes a popular newspaper column under the nom de plume "Matchless", the significance of which is never explained- along with other key plot points. For example, I don't recall if Liston ever does explain to anyone why he is China, but in this fast-moving comedy-adventure, plot points come and go with such rapidity that they may well be regarded as dispensable. While in jail, Liston shows pity on a fellow prisoner, an elderly Chinese man who, before dying, bequeaths to him a magic ring that will allow the wearer to become invisible. There are only two catches: the invisibility only lasts for 20 minutes and can only be utilized once every ten hours. (The team of five screenwriters must have been under the influence of something drinkable to come up with this zany concept.) Much to Liston's surprise, the device works and he escapes from prison, conveniently hiding in a nearby house that happens to belong to a single, gorgeous, horny young woman who even more conveniently happens to be taking a shower. She is startled by Liston's ability to be invisible but not for long. Once he appears in the flesh, it's under the covers for both of them. 

The scene then switches to the United States where high level military personnel are subjecting Liston to the same torture applied by the Chinese, which involves tying the victim to a large canister that revolves at lightning speed in much the same way you get a paint can mixed at Home Depot. Again, I can't recall if it's explained how Liston ended up in the U.S. and why he is being tortured, but he is quickly enlisted by two members of the top Army brass, General Shapiro (Howard St. John) and his fawning sidekick Colonel Coolpepper (Sorel Brooke) to undertake a dangerous mission to Europe where he is to ingratiate himself with Andreanu, secure his confidence and somehow steal of case of chemical vials in his possession (though it's never explained what they are or why they are dangerous to the world.) Liston agrees and sets off to London, where somehow he is stalked for assassination by Hank Norris (Henry Silva), an American who was in the Chinese prison. How did he get out and become an assassin? Who knows. Just go with the flow. From there, the unflappable and capable Liston encounters deceitful, beautiful women and numerous villains in between making a series of narrow escapes thanks to his ability to temporarily become invisible. (One downside to the ability is that his clothes remain visible, so each time he wants to disappear, he has to ditch his clothing and often reemerge naked, a running gag used throughout the film.) When Liston finally meets Andreanu, they both pretend they like each other while following the old spy movie tradition of having each man obviously know that the other is his mortal enemy. 

"Matchless" is an off-the-charts weird movie in every sense but it's also a lot of fun. Patrick O'Neal, who rarely scored a leading role in his career as a popular supporting actor, is well cast here. He seems to be having a ball playing a hero who is more Derek Flint than Bond. He's handsome, debonair and has the ability to toss out bon mots even when staring at deadly threats. Donald Pleasence gets an equally rare chance to show his comedic abilities and he's delightful playing an eccentric and ruthless megalomaniac. As with most of these lower-grade Bond-inspired spy flicks of the era, this one makes up for its shortcomings by supplying an endless bevy scantily clad women including Ira von Furstenberg (a real life princess), Nicoletta Machiavelli and Elisabeth Wu, who between them expose heaving bosoms and plenty of flesh, all the while dolled up in those marvelous mod fashions of the era. There are cheesy attempts to emulate Maurice Binder's trademark James Bond opening credits and an equally cheesy Bond-style title song ( future legend Ennio Morricone was one of the three credited composers). But the production values are better than you might imagine and the stunts and action scenes work quite well. (Liston utilizes an amphibious car a full decade before Bond did in "The Spy Who Loved Me"). Director Alberto Lattuada keeps the action going non-stop and makes the most of the Continental appeal of the European locations. One of the funniest aspects of the film is unintentional: the dubbing is terrible to the point of being of laugh-out-loud caliber. It appears that everyone other than O'Neal and Pleasence has been dubbed, including (inexplicably) Henry Silva, who was an American actor of repute. Silva gives a maniacal and very funny performance and, as with Pleasence, he seems to be relishing the opportunity to play a comedic role. 

It should be noted that the deceitful American marketing campaign disguised the fact that "Matchless" is a comedy and presented it as straight spy thriller. One can only imagine the reaction of the gobsmacked viewers who were expecting a tense Cold War thriller and instead were treated to a film that was more akin to a Jerry Lewis production. I don't want to overstate the attributes of "Matchless" but it is an unexpectedly enjoyable romp. If you're idea of good viewing is "Operation Kid Brother", then this one is for you.

(The film is currently streaming on Screenpix, a subscription service available through Amazon Prime, Roku, YouTube and Apple TV for $2.99 a month.)

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Those who have a weakness for British spy movies will find plenty to like in "The Whistle Blower", a largely unheralded 1986 production that boasts a fine performance by Michael Caine. He plays Frank Jones, a nondescript middle-aged Brit with a somewhat convoluted background. He was a fighter pilot in the  military but his career came to an end when he struck a superior officer. It's then implied that he went on to work for British Intelligence in some capacity, though in reality his act of military insubordination would probably have excluded him from that position. When we are introduced to Frank he is a widower and owner of a small office supply business who is paying a visit to his 28 year-old son Bob (Nigel Havers, very good) for a low key celebration of his offspring's birthday. It turns out that Bob is employed by Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which is a branch of the intelligence community. Frank finds Bob to be dealing with a good deal of pressure, both personally and professionally. He's in a romantic relationship with a woman, Cynthia Goodburn (Felicity Dean), who has a young daughter. Felicity is also currently married, though the film doesn't explore her motivations for carrying on an affair with the love-smitten Bob. Frank likes Cynthia personally but is disapproving of the relationship. But he discovers Bob has even bigger problems. For years he has been a Russian linguist in the agency, providing valuable service in translating information concerning Soviet activities and agents. He tells his father that he has uncovered some disheartening information that ties in with revelations regarding a recent scandal that caused embarrassment for the GCHQ when a Soviet agent had been revealed to have been working in the agency for a decade before being caught. Bob is alarmed by an atmosphere of paranoia at the agency in the wake of the scandal. All employees are being encouraged to keep track of their colleagues' activities and to report any suspicions regarding anyone whose allegiance might be questionable. Bob, an idealist, rejects this and has come to the conclusion that, based on other information he has uncovered, that British Intelligence and their American allies are every bit as brutal as the KGB. Frank dismisses the concerns and encourages Bob to stay on the job rather than resign in protest. 

Nigel Havers and Michael Caine.

Things get murky when Bob is reported to have died in a tragic home accident. Frank immediately suspects that Bob was killed by his own agency to prevent him from revealing some information that might compromise the GCHQ's already tarnished reputation. He begins his own investigation and, as these things generally play out in conspiracy-themed movies, finds that he can trust no one, even old colleagues and friends. As Frank doggedly pursues the truth, he finds his own life in danger as well as those of Cynthia and her daughter. Director Simon Langton (his only feature film) keeps Julian Bond's talky but interesting script moving at a brisk pace. Refreshingly, the character of Frank is never miraculously transformed into an action hero. In fact, there is very little action or violence in the entire film. Caine gives a terrific, understated performance. His trademark wit doesn't get much opportunity to be displayed in this somber story but he does provide a healthy dose of his character's Harry Palmer-like cynicism in regard all aspects of the spy game. He gets able support from a fine cast that includes esteemed veteran actors like James Fox, Gordon Jackson (his final film), John Gielgud (in a pivotal cameo) and Barry Foster (superb as an old military service crony of Frank's who may or may not be involved in deception.)

The film is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. There is also a Kino Lorber Blu-ray and the transfer is right up to the company's usual excellent standards. The only bonus feature is a nice gallery of trailers for other KL releases starring Caine, although, curiously, "The Whistle Blower" trailer is not among them.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Quite a few years ago, my Cinema Retro publishing partner Dave Worrall, a fellow enthusiast of 1960s spy flicks, warned me to avoid "Danger Route", a 1967 espionage concoction that he deemed to be "awful". Worrall had seen a TV broadcast of the film on British TV.  Complying with his advice wasn't a problem since the film has never been released on home video in America. However, I noticed it was streaming through the Screenpix app, which is available through Amazon Prime, Roku and Apple TV for a paltry $2.99 additional charge per month. I decided to ignore my esteemed colleague's advice and take the plunge largely because of the impressive cast in "Danger Route": Richard Johnson, Carol Lynley, Harry Andrews, Sylvia Sims, Diana Dors, Sam Wanamaker, Gordon Jackson and the "go-to" girl for low-budget Sixties spy movies, Barbara Bouchet.  

The film was a rare non-horror production for Amicus, the company that was the main rival to the legendary Hammer Films. The movie was based on Andrew York's well-received novel "The Eliminator" and adapted for the screen by Meade Roberts, who had some estimable credits before and after this film. There were two types of spy movies during this period: those that spoofed or imitated the James Bond films and those that sought to provide a more realistic depiction of espionage work, seemingly inspired by the success of director Martin Ritt's brilliant screen version of "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold". "Danger Route" is squarely in the latter camp. Richard Johnson plays Jonas Wilde, a top assassin for British Intelligence, who dispenses his victims through a couple of well-placed karate chops. He is partnered with fellow agent Brian Stern (Gordon Jackson) and the two travel widely through Europe to carry out missions on the guise of being yachtsmen. When we first meet Jonas, he's exhausted from having carried out a recent mission on the continent. He comes back to his girlfriend Jocelyn (Carol Lynley in a small but pivotal role that bookends the story). She's a hipster who associates with the mod crowd, clearly to Jonas's dismay. He tells her that even though he is only 37 years-old, he wants to retire and get out of the spy game. They make plans to travel the world living off their wits and working odd jobs. However, reality comes calling when Jonas's boss Canning (Harry Andrews) browbeats him into accepting one more mission- and we all know what happens when the protagonist decides to take on one more mission. Canning informs Jonas that the Americans have a Soviet scientist in their possession who has defected. MI6 thinks he's a Soviet double agent but the Americans don't agree. Thus, they want Jonas to kill him before he is transported to the U.S. It's at this point that the main plot becomes almost incidental, as quirky characters of dubious allegiances interact with our hero, all to the detriment of of a coherent story.

Richard Johnson told this writer that he took himself out of the running to be the screen's first James Bond because he didn't see the potential in the series. Ironically, like every other working actor of the 1960s, he would find himself playing the role of Bond imitators in several low-budget espionage flicks. Johnson gives a very fine performance and makes Jonas an interesting and complex character: a man with a conscience working as a paid assassin. He's a also a vulnerable hero. Though quick on his feet to extract himself from jams without the aid of gadgets, he makes miscalculations in terms of who to trust, with important consequences. Jonas has another vulnerability: he's a borderline alcoholic who is always pouring from a bottle. He finds himself in bizarre situations and death traps, captured by enemy agents and even the C.I.A. There is an extended scene played for some comical effect in which Jonas uses a ditzy, sex-starved housekeeper as a pawn to gain entrance into a mansion house where the bad guys convene. The object of his deceit is winningly played by Diana Dors and she affords the film the few brief moments of humor seen onscreen. On the opposite end of the spectrum, when Canning disappears, Jonas teams for a while with his glamorous wife played by Sylvia Sims. 

The film is ably directed by Seth Holt, but he is guilty of bungling a couple of shots. In one scene, Jonas has his hands bound behind his back by heavy rope. He gains access to a small razor and - presto!- he is free in a matter of seconds, when, in fact, such a feat would take hours to accomplish even if it were possible. In a climactic scene aboard a yacht that is in the midst of a dangerous pea soup-like fog near some dangerous reefs, Jonas simply dives overboard with no explanation as to how he survived and made it back to some finely-tailored clothing. A bit more judicious editing would have helped in these scenes.

The plot of "Danger Route" becomes almost incomprehensible and the film, which was largely shot at Shepperton Studios, didn't ignite much interest and was a casualty of the spy movie tidal wave of the era. Thus, a planned sequel never materialized. However, with all due respect to Dave Worrall, I found the film to be enjoyable fun largely due to the inspired cast, especially since I can't resist any movie featuring Harry Andrews.

(Margolin with Charles Bronson in the 1974 film "Death Wish".)

By Lee Pfeiffer

Actor and director Stuart Margolin has died at age 82. No details or cause of death have been released as of this writing. Margolin's professional credits began in the early 1960s. He quickly became and in-demand character actor appearing in popular shows such as "The Fugitive", "Love, American Style", "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour", "Bewitched", "The Monkees", "Gunsmoke", "M*A*S*H", "Hill Street Blues", "The X-Files", "NCIS" and many others. He was also a prolific director of stage and screen productions. On the big screen, Margolin had supporting roles in "Kelly's Heroes", "Death Wish", "The Stone Killer", "The Gambler", "Days of Heaven", and "S.O.B." among others. He is best-remembered, however, for his collaborations with James Garner, especially relating to the hit TV series "The Rockford Files" in which he made recurring appearances, winning two Emmy awards in the process. He also co-starred with Garner in two short-running series, "Nichols" and "Bret Maverick".

On a personal note, this writer knew Stuart Margolin from our days as members of The Players, the historic club for the arts in New York City. When I would encounter Stuart there, he was always a fun guy to chat with, as his long career ensured he had volumes of interesting and amusing anecdotes. I recall him discussing Charles Bronson's personality quirks. He had made both "The Stone Killer" and "Death Wish" with Bronson. Shortly after shooting a key scene with him for the latter film, he ran into Bronson in an airport lounge and had to introduce himself to him because Bronson's insulated personality allowed him to shut out people and things that weren't relevant to the moment. Stuart was a gold mine of information when it came to assisting Cinema Retro in our special issue devoted to the making of "Kelly's Heroes". I recall him joking about the zany antics of the cast and crew when they were "stranded" for an extended period of time filming in a remote area of Yugoslavia. He said that all-night poker games occurred regularly and one was so intense that the players barely looked up to see the moon landing that was being televised live. At the time I knew him, his old friend James Garner was suffering from a debilitating medical condition that he would never recover from. Stuart spoke about how much Garner's friendship meant to his career and to him personally. He kept in touch with Garner until the end of his life. He was a kind and giving man who will be missed by anyone who knew him.

"RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES"

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Olive Films has released a Blu-ray edition of the little-remembered and rarely seen 1979 film "The Outsider", a powerful drama directed by Tony Luraschi , who seemingly had a bright career but who, instead seems to have fallen into obscurity.  This seems to be one of only two films he was ever credited with. The reasons for this remain unclear, given the fact that "The Outsider" is a powerful film that has retained its bite over the decades. One can only wonder why a work of such passion could not have inspired its director to continue to direct movies, although perhaps fate prevented him from doing so. (If any readers has any information to share about this, please let us know.)  The film is set in Northern Ireland during the height of "The Troubles", that seemingly endless period of time when nation was torn apart by state of virtual civil was. The IRA routinely battled British forces on the streets of major cities, turning urban centers into  war zones at times. There were also loyalist paramilitary groups that did not want independence for Northern Ireland and who wanted to stay loyal to the Crown. The end result was a series of bombings, gun battles and kidnappings that ultimately took thousands of lives and left the civilian population in grave danger. The Good Friday peace agreement, brokered by Prime Minister Tony Blair with enthusiastic backing of President Bill Clinton, finally brought about an end to most of the violence but this didn't take place until 1998 and until then, the bloody legacy of Irish fighting Irish forever seared the nation's history. 

In "The Outsider", Craig Wasson plays Michael Flaherty, a disillusioned Vietnam War veteran of Irish descent who grew up under the spell of his grandfather (Sterling Hayden), who continues to relate stories about his glory days serving in the IRA and carrying out dangerous missions against the British. Michael decides to make his grandfather proud by leaving the family home in Detroit to join up with the IRA. He manages to make the proper contacts and when he gets to Ireland, he is promptly met by members of an IRA group located in the Catholic dominated Republic of Ireland. Here his new comrades greet him politely but warily and with good reason: traitors are not uncommon in the movement and there is suspicion Michael might be a British plant. Finally convinced he is sincere, they move him from safe house to safe house, much to his frustration. Michael is eager to see action against the British but all he gets are delays. After griping that he feels he is wasting his time, the IRA commander sends him and another agent on a mission that requires them to cross the border into Northern Ireland,  the geographical area where most of the acts of violence are carried out in the quest to have both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland reunited as one country, independent of British rule. When Michael arrives in Belfast, he finds the city resembling a war zone with bombed-out buildings and an occupying force of machine gun-carrying British forces on seemingly every corner. While he awaits his orders for the mission, he meets and strikes up a romantic relationship with Siobahn (Patricia Quinn), a firebrand of a young woman who hates the British for killing her younger brother. Although she is not officially with the IRA, she is trusted by them and provides cover for their actions. As Michael impatiently awaits making himself useful, a cruel deception is under way. The local IRA commander has come to the conclusion that Michael could be more valuable dead than alive. He theorizes that if the IRA murders him and frames the British, the result will outrage Irish American sympathizers in the USA who would then increase their monetary donations to the group. Simultaneously, the local British commander (Geoffrey Palmer) has had Michael under surveillance and has also concluded that he could be quite valuable dead- especially if the blame could be placed on his IRA comrades. Meanwhile, Michael is oblivious to all this and is finally given orders to proceed on a mission- but it's one that is intended to be his last. The film ends with a shocking revelation relating to Michael's family that sets up an emotional last scene. 

"The Outsider" is a highly accomplished work and is superbly directed by the aforementioned Tony Luraschi. It's a pity that, for whatever reason, he never chose or perhaps had the opportunity to continue making films. The movie is also outstanding in terms of casting with even minor roles played so convincingly that at times you would be forgiven for thinking you were watching a documentary. The story does manage to deftly tip-toe through the tulips when it comes to passing judgment on the political implications of the events depicted. Both the British military and the IRA members are presented in an unflattering light. How you react to the film probably depends on your personal view of the politics involved. After all, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. If there is a criticism of the film, it's related to the script, which is unrelentingly downbeat. Surely even IRA members managed to have a laugh and a joke occasionally in a pub but in "The Outsider", everyone is downbeat, depressed and paranoid. Still, the Olive Films Blu-ray is most welcome and very highly recommended. There is only one disappointment: the presentation is bare bones.  With a film associated  with this much controversy, there should have been a commentary track with scholars who can discuss Ireland's infamous "Troubles" so that the script can be discussed in context. Highly Recommended.

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By Lee Pfeiffer 

Director Stanley Kramer's 1970 comedy "The Secret of Santa Vittoria" is now streaming on Amazon Prime. Until the late, great video company Twilight Time released the film on Blu-ray some years ago,  I hadn't seen the movie since it was originally released and only had vague recollections of it. Watching it again, I found it to be an absolute delight thanks to a terrific script by Ben Maddow and William Rose (the latter co-wrote Kramer's "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World") and a sterling cast. The film is set in 1943 in the small Italian village of Santa Vittoria. The story opens with a young university studio, Fabio (Giancarlo Giannini in one of his first major roles) who hurries to his native town to breathtakingly inform the residents that Mussolini has just been deposed. The announcement is met with a collective yawn by the townspeople, who have remained largely immune from the effects of the war and their dictator's fascist police state. However, when the towns folk learn that German soldiers will be occupying Santa Vittoria, there is widespread concern. The town's one claim to fame is its production of popular wines which are exported in massive numbers. Everyone in town depends in some way on the revenues from the wine sales and it becomes apparent that the German army intends to confiscate the town's precious inventory. Through happenstance, a local wine merchant, Bombolini (Anthony Quinn) has been appointed mayor. He is regarded as an idiot by everyone including his long-suffering wife Rosa (Anna Magnani), who has grown weary over the decades of trying to cope with his laziness and regular bouts of wine-fueled excesses. Recognizing that the seizure of the town's stockpile of wine will leave the locals destitute, Bombolini devises a seemingly preposterous plan to leave enough wine on hand to satisfy the Germans that they have secured the lion's share of the inventory. Meanwhile, prior to their arrival, the entire town will participate in a massive effort to hide the bulk of the inventory in a local cave and then have a wall constructed to hide the stash. The plan proves surprisingly effective and Bombolini emerges as an unlikely leader, who rallies the locals in the Herculean effort that involves hundreds of townspeople forming seemingly endless lines in which people painstakingly pass hundreds of thousands of bottles from hand to hand one-by-one. 

When the German forces finally arrive, they are under the command of Capt. von Prum (Hardy Kruger). He is a civil, even charming, fellow who nevertheless makes it clear to Bombolini that he is no fool. von Prum has anticipated that substantial wine bottles are hidden somewhere but Bombolini, who puts on a respectable act of being a fawning, spineless civil servant, adamantly denies the charge. The tenuous situation is made more dangerous when von Prum turns his attentions to romancing a local beauty, a cultured woman named Caterina (Virna Lisi), who reluctantly plays along with him because she doesn't want to incur his wrath. Seems she is secretly hiding her real lover, an Italian army deserter, Tufa (Sergio Franchi). It seems Bombolini is winning the war of wills but before the Germans can depart with the stores of wine, the Gestapo arrives with evidence that a cache has indeed been hidden. The frolicking good times seem over for the townspeople when von Prum's methods are overruled in favor of torture.

The Secret of Santa Vittoria is a truly underrated gem with one of those glorious, scenery-chewing performances that only Anthony Quinn could successfully pull off without looking hammy. He's in full Zorba mode here, turning the lowly and discredited town idiot into a figure of courage and nobility. Quinn is more than matched by Anna Magnani as his fiery-tongued wife. They are like an Italian version of Ralph and Alice Kramden, constantly trading barbs and insults in sequences that are genuinely amusing. It's also fun watching the scenes in which the beleaguered Bombolini must also deal with his teenage daughter's (Patrizia Valturri) raging hormones and her quest to lose her virginity to her student lover, Fabio. Director Kramer is at his best and the sequences in which the townspeople join together to hide the wine are almost epic in scope. It's a touching, funny and moving film that is set to a fabulous score by frequent Kramer collaborate Ernest Gold. 

By Lee Pfeiffer

If you're a fan of "The Munsters" TV series, then your hearse has come in. MPI Video has released a terrific and fun DVD with the rather awkward title "Marineland Carnival with The Munsters TV Show Cast Members & More Lost Treasures". The centerpiece of the disc is an obscure 1965 TV special that finds the cast of the show (Fred Gwynne, Yvonne De Carlo, Al Lewis, Butch Patrick and Pat Priest) paying a visit to the beloved California aquarium/theme park that operated from 1954 until 1987 when it was purchased by (and closed by) the villainous owners of Sea World in San Diego. The special was broadcast in B&W on CBS, the same network that aired the weekly sitcom, which was also in B&W. (The Munsters did appear in color on the big screen in the feature film "Munster, Go Home!" in 1966). The TV special is corny and acts primarily as an extended commercial for the park but it is also quaint and charming compared to the raw comedy that kids today are raised on. In the show, the Munsters remain oblivious to the fact that they stand out from everyday people. They believe a giant tank consisting of sharks and octopi is actually a pet store. Grandpa also takes to flagpole climbing and Butch and Marilyn join the audience for the dolphin show, where Herman joins the act, feeding one of the dolphins that is trained to make high leaps. The New Christy Minstrels, a popular folk singing group of the era, also perform a number of songs.

 The release includes a treasure trove of TV rarities relating to the series:

• Fred Gwynne making guest appearances in costume for comedy sketches on "The Danny Kaye Show" and "The Red Skelton Hour".
• Yvonne De Carlo in a guest appearance from 1968 on Joey Bishop's chat show. She talks extensively and affectionately about the show and her fellow cast members but acknowledges that the two-hour procedure for applying makeup was a grueling ordeal that had to be undertaken five days a week. She also says that the series' run of two seasons was just long enough.
  
• A new interview with Butch Patrick in which he tells some highly interesting and amusing tales about filming the series. He relates that for the pilot, the roles of Eddie and his mother Lily were played by different actors. CBS approved the series but wanted those actors replaced, thus Patrick go the job. He has nothing but good things to say about the experience, noting he was eleven years-old but looked much younger. He recalls being thrilled to be filming at Universal because he was a fan of the studio's classic monster movies and got to see the stages where they were shot. He also liked seeing other films and TV series in production and meeting the makeup people and seeing their creations for horror and sci-fi films. He also recalls the making visits to the studio of George Barris, who created seemingly every legendary TV vehicle including the Munsters' distinctive car.
  
• A rare TV promo for the special as well as generic CBS promos for the regular series.
  
• There is also an abundance of unrelated promotions for other MPI video sets of TV shows and specials from the era starring Bob Cummings, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Donna Reed, and Doris Day that are available from the company. 
  

By Lee Pfeiffer

Charles Bronson, the epitome of the screen hero of few words and emotions, is the subject of the French documentary "Charles Bronson: Hollywood's Lone Wolf" from writer/director Jean Lauritano. While the movie's 52-minute running time is hopelessly inadequate for providing much insight into the film legend's life and career, it does benefit from plenty of HD film clips instead of the usual VHS-quality footage culled from public domain movies and well-worn trailers, which is usually the norm in documentaries of this sort. Because the French are generally known as the ultimate cinephiles, the film concentrates primarily on aspects of Bronson's professional career, with only some fleeting insights into his personal life and background. We learn he grew up in a hardscrabble lifestyle in the coal country of western Pennsylvania and seemed destined for a dead end job in the mines. However, after being drafted for service in WWII, he joined a generation of other recently-discharged young men who gravitated toward the acting profession after the war. Like most of his peers, Bronson never dreamed of being an actor and tried out for a play at the suggestion of a friend. He found he had a knack for the profession and soon moved to Hollywood, where he traded his real name- Charles Buchinsky- for Charles Bronson because Senator Joseph McCarthy's "Red Scare" witch hunts were in play and Bronson suspected that a Slavic name would not be beneficial. He found work immediately and was generally cast as ominous tough guys and henchmen largely because he lacked the handsome features of traditional leading men of the era.

In the late 1950s, Bronson landed the lead role in the modestly-successful TV series "Man with a Camera" before director John Sturges cast him as one of "The Magnificent Seven" and in "The Great Escape", both of which afforded Bronson high profile roles. It was during the filming of the latter production that Bronson began wooing actress Jill Ireland, despite the fact that she was married to his co-star and good friend David McCallum. Ultimately, she would divorce McCallum and marry Bronson, but such dramatic developments are dismissed with in a nanosecond in the documentary. Instead, director/writer Lauritano dissects Bronson's achievements on screen, pointing out that he reached leading man status in Europe long before Hollywood recognized his potential as a boxoffice super star. The film presents Bronson as resentful that, while he was starring in films by the likes of Rene Clement and Sergio Leone in Europe, he was still relegated to playing rather nondescript villains in American cinema, despite a high profile role as one of "The Dirty Dozen" and playing a non-violent role opposite Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in "The Sandpiper". 

Brosnson's prospects for American stardom rose with the release of two European films that were well received in the States: the Western "Red Sun" and the real-life crime drama "The Valachi Papers", both directed by Terence Young. Soon after, his collaborations with British director Michael Winner on films such as "Chato's Land" and "The Mechanic" finally afforded Bronson name-above-the-title respect in his native country. The highlight of this period was starring in Winner's "Death Wish", the controversial crime thriller that perfectly tapped into the American public's concerns about urban crime waves of the era. It would prove to be one of the most influential films of all time, for better or worse. The documentary is frustrating because it affords us an interesting overview of a cinematic icon who is rarely examined in any meaningful way, yet it needs to have a much longer running time to do him justice. What exists is impressive, however.

The version of the film currently presented on Amazon for streaming rental or purchase and on Freevee for free, but with ads. (Yuck!) 

By Lee Pfeiffer

The tagline for the 1971 crime movie The Last Run reads "In the tradition of Bogart and Hemingway..." That would probably seem preposterous to assign to an action film with most of today's soft-boiled leading men, but it seemed perfectly appropriate at the time for a movie starring George C. Scott. The script by Alan Sharp, who also wrote such underrated gems as The Hired Hand, Night Moves and Ulzana's Raid, is perfectly tooled to Scott's persona. With facial features that look like they were chiseled out of granite, the actor, who had just won the Oscar for Patton, is well-suited to the tough-as-nails character of Harry Garmes. Harry has forsaken a life in crime for a seemingly idyllic retirement in a small Portugese fishing village. Happiness, however, does not follow him. Shortly after their young son died, Harry's wife left for Switzerland to have her breasts lifted only to run off with another man. In one of the film's most amusing lines, Harry says he thought she was having them lifted as part of a surgical procedure. He finds that old adage "Be careful what you wish for- you just might get it" has special pertinence to his life abroad. He has succeeded in establishing the low-key, no risk lifestyle he so badly desired. However, he is now bored and feels out of place. He has a friendship with a local fisherman (Aldo Sanbrell) and a middle aged hooker who genuinely likes him (Colleen Dewhurst), but he feels he'll die of boredom. Thus, he decides to take on one more simple crime run, a seemingly low-risk job that involves transporting an escaped convict over the border to France.

The escape is cleverly planned and goes well, but Harry immediately gets a bad vibe from his passenger, a smart-mouthed, often manic career criminal named Paul Rickard (Tony Musante in a truly unnerving performance.) Ignorant of what the caper is actually all about, Harry is soon disturbed to learn he has to pick up Rickard's sexy young girlfriend Claudie (Trish Van Devere) to accompany them. Harry is the kind of man who doesn't like unexpected developments and his instincts prove correct. Before long, he finds himself wrapped up in a complex situation defined by double crosses and deathtraps. To say much more would ruin some of the more surprising elements of Sharp's gritty script, which is punctuated by smart dialogue. Director Richard Fleischer and the great cinematographer Sven Nykvist fully capitalize on the exotic scenery (the film was actually shot in Spain) and eschew studios to shoot even the interiors in actual locations. The decision adds immeasurably to the atmosphere of the movie, which is tense and engrossing throughout.

The film also benefits from a wonderful score by Jerry Goldsmith and fine supporting performances. From a trivia standpoint, the movie afforded Scott to star on-screen with then-present wife Dewhurst and future wife Van Devere.

The Last Run is an atmospheric crime thriller. It may not have looked like a work of art in its day but today it approaches that status, basically because when it comes to stars like George C. Scott, they just don't make 'em like that anymore.

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By Lee Pfeiffer

This review will bring readers good news and bad news. The good news is that director Barry Rubinow's new documentary, "Banded Together: The Boys from Glen Rock High" is one terrific documentary. It's packed with laughter, sentiment and some great music, as he assembled some of his former classmates from the Glen Rock, New Jersey High School, which they attended in the early 1970s. All of the guys who formed an ad-hoc band went on to bigger and better things in the field of music and they credit their music teacher, Joel Sielski, with their success due to his inspirational methods of teaching. I recently saw the film screened on the final day of the Montclair Film Festival in New Jersey where it received a rousing reception. Rubinow was in attendance and hosted the band members, who have continued to perform together occasionally over the decades, on stage for a Q&A session. Most gratifying was that Joe Sielski, who figures prominently in the film, was there to accept the plaudits. The film is one of the best documentaries I've seen in many years but that leads me to divulging the bad news: you can't see it anywhere. That's because Rubinow has not been able to land a distribution deal anywhere and he's hoping the buzz from the festival will help him to do so.

The film presents the musicians (brothers Jimmy Vivino, Floyd Vivino and Jerry Vivino, Lee Shapiro, John Feeney, Frank Pagano, Doug Romoff and Jeff Venho) as they assemble once again to perform some sets and sit for group interviews with Joe Sielski. They talk a great deal about their hometown of Glen Rock, New Jersey, a small suburban town with a population of 12,000 in north Jersey defined by its unique centerpiece in the middle of town: a giant rock that weighs 570 tons and is said to be 15,000 years old. All have fond memories of the place and most still live in town or nearby. You don't have to be from Jersey to appreciate their humorous tales but it helps if you are tuned in to Jersey Guy traditions such as never saying a kind word to your friends and expressing sentiment towards them through ball-busting put-downs. Funniest of all is the most celebrated of the group, Floyd Vivino, who is a Jersey comedy legend who is known as Uncle Floyd. His unabashed old-fashioned shtick is in the tradition of Rodney Dangerfield and Henny Youngman. (In the Q&A, Floyd imitated Don Corleone, saying "I told Sonny to use EZ-Pass!", a reference to the car tag device New Jersey drivers use to breeze through the toll booths without stopping.) The guys relive how fabulous it was to grow up in a period when music was so exciting and inspiring. Some of them went on to play in bands with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, the Ramones, Frankie Valli, Tony Bennett and other exalted names. Conan O'Brien appears in various segments extolling their talents, as Jimmy Vivino was a member of his TV show's band. 

"Banded Together" is a fun ride throughout, especially if you came of age in the 1970s. It's also great to see a film in which a teacher is a revered hero. Kudos to Barry Rubinow for turning his labor-of-love into a highly entertaining experience that is truly is a "must-see". Hopefully, there will be a place to actually see it soon. We'll keep readers posted.

By Lee Pfeiffer

In this clip from the 1963 musical comedy "Robin and the 7 Hoods", Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin join their idol Bing Crosby for the terrific musical number "Style". The casting of Crosby was due to some intrigue in Sinatra's personal life. Originally Rat Packer Peter Lawford was cast in the role. However, Sinatra had felt betrayed by President John F. Kennedy, who he had campaigned for enthusiastically. Kennedy won by a sliver against former vice-president Richard Nixon in the election of 1960. Soon after the election, JFK appointed his own brother Robert F. Kennedy as Attorney General, a controversial move to be sure, and Bobby had publicly declared war on organized crime. He badgered JFK to drop all ties with Sinatra because of his alleged (but never proven) ties to the Mafia. JFK listened and gave Sinatra the cold shoulder. Sinatra then called upon Lawford, who was JFK's brother-in-law to sort things out and re-establish their friendship. When Lawford demurred, saying he couldn't have more influence on the president than his own brother, Sinatra responded by blackballing Lawford from the Rat Pack. Sinatra had spent a fortune adapting his mansion to accommodate JFK when he visited. He even installed a helipad on the property. When JFK shunned him, Sinatra was said to have gone on a tirade and wrecked some of the improvements he had made. Adding insult to injury, when JFK did visit the area, he stayed with Bing Crosby- who was a Republican. Sinatra took it out on Lawford and dropped him from "Robin and the 7 Hoods" and cast Crosby in his place. He would never speak to Lawford again despite pleas from Sammy Davis Jr., who continued his friendship with Lawford. Ironically, while the film was in production, President Kennedy was assassinated, causing the filming to shut down temporarily.

By Lee Pfeiffer

The 1970 Western "Cannon for Cordoba" is yet another film that was written off as "run of the mill" at the time of its initial release but probably plays far better today when Westerns are scare commodities. The film is clearly designed to capitalize on movies such as The Professionals and The Wild Bunch, and while it certainly isn't in the league of those classics, it's a consistently engrossing and highly entertaining horse opera.  Set in 1916, when the US was embroiled in assisting the Mexican government in suppressing "revolutionaries" who were really bandits, the plot centers on a crime kingpin named General Coroba (well played with charm and menace by Raf Vallone), who launches an audacious raid on American General Pershing's troops and succeeds in stealing a number of valuable cannons that will make him almost invulnerable to attack once they have been installed at his remote mountaintop fortress retreat. George Peppard is Captain Douglas, a hard-bitten and insolent cavalry officer in Pershing's command who is sent on a virtual suicide mission to infiltrate Cordoba's compound, blow up the cannons and kidnap the general. Imagine The Guns of Navarone with sombreros. He takes along the standard rag-tag team of tough guys which includes Peter Duel and the always-reliable Don Gordon, seen here in one of the most prominent roles of his career. That old chestnut of a plot device is introduced: Gordon has sworn to kill Peppard at the end of the mission for allowing his brother to be tortured to death by Cordoba.

The group pretends they are American sympathizers to the revolution and succeed in infiltrating the compound with the help of Leonora (comely Giovanna Ralli), who intends to seduce the general and then betray him in revenge for having raped her years before. The film is as gritty as it gets, and as in the Sergio Leone Westerns, there is a very thin line that separates the villains from the heroes. Peppard is in full Eastwood mode, chomping on omnipresent cigars and saying little. He betrays no sentiment and is almost as cruel as the criminal he seeks to bring to justice. 

Director Paul Wendkos keeps the action moving at a fast clip and there is at least one very surprising plot device that adds considerable suspense to the story. The action sequences are stunningly staged and quite spectacular, and it's all set to a very lively and enjoyable score by Elmer Bernstein. Cannon for Coroba may not be a classic, but it's consistently well-acted and will keep you entertained throughout. 

The film is currently streaming on Screenpix, which is available for a separate subscription fee of $2.99 a month through Amazon Prime, Roku, Apple TV and Fire TV. 

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Steve McQueen and Robert Vaughn co-starred in the original 1968 blockbuster.

By Lee Pfeiffer

The Deadline web site reports that Bradley Cooper and Steven Spielberg will collaborate to bring the character of San Francisco maverick detective Frank Bullitt back to the big screen. Cooper will star as the character immortalized by Steve McQueen in the 1968 blockbuster. The film will not be a remake but, rather, a new crime thriller with Bullitt as the central character. The original film was made for McQueen's Solar Productions and his son and granddaughter will serve as Executive Producers of the movie, which remains known primarily for its groundbreaking car chase scene. The film was also a major critical success. It won an Oscar for Frank P. Keller's editing and was nominated for Best Sound. It was also nominated for five BAFTA awards including Best Director for Peter Yates and Best Supporting Actor for Robert Vaughn, who played an ambitious District Attorney at odds with McQueen.

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By  Lee Pfeiffer

When movie fans think about films related to the battle of the Alamo, the most obvious reference that comes to mind is John Wayne's epic 1960 production, "The Alamo". There are two others from the modern era of filmmaking that are largely forgotten to all but Alamo history buffs: the 1955 film "The Last Command" and the ill-fated, but underrated 2004 production, also titled simply "The Alamo". Less obvious is the 1987 NBC-TV presentation of "The Alamo- Thirteen Days to Glory" based on Lon Tinkle's book of the same name. Tinkle presented a historically accurate depiction of the legendary battle, at least in terms of what was accepted by historians at the time. However, facts about the battle continue to be fluid and hotly debated among historians. The TV production has not been widely seen since its initial airing. It was released on VHS tape and research has shown an obscure DVD release as part of a double feature with "High Noon II: The Return of Will Kane". However, the movie is now being streamed on Amazon Prime. Not having seen it since its broadcast in 1987, I felt it was time revisit the production, which was widely panned by fans who obsess over all things relating to the Alamo. Their main complaint was the casting of the pivotal roles of Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett, who were played by popular TV stars James Arness and Brian Keith, both of whom were not only long-in-the-tooth but were sporting tusks. The role of Crockett was particularly a thankless one to play. Fess Parker had become an American phenomenon when he played the role in Walt Disney's telecasts. Disney only made a handful of episodes and even he was shocked when the show generated a massive fan movement and became the most successful film/TV tie-in  up to that time. Parker knew he was on to something so in the mid-1960s, free of Disney's edicts, he simply put on a new buckskin jacket and raccoon hat and starred in a hit TV series, "Daniel Boone". When John Wayne was negotiating with United Artists to produce and direct the big screen version of "The Alamo", he had to be forced to play Crockett as the studio's insistence. They wanted his name upfront to draw in his legions of fans. Wayne acquitted himself well enough, but the shadow of Parker loomed over his performance. The choice of Brian Keith was a bizarre one. He was 66-years old at the time and nothing about his appearance suggests the popular image of Crockett (he doesn't even wear the signature cap.) I'm second-to-none in my admiration of Keith's talents and recently praised his portrayal of Theodore Roosevelt in "The Wind and the Lion" on the forthcoming Imprint Blu-ray, but this was a rare case of his judgment in roles being off-course. Arness was also too old to play Bowie, but since the popular conception of the historic figure wasn't ingrained in modern society the way Crockett was, Arness's performance proved to be a bit more tolerable. The only agreement seemed to center on young up-and-coming Alec Baldwin, who delivers a fine and believable performance as Col. Travis, though it's a less interesting one than presented by Laurence Harvey in Wayne's film. Lorne Greene makes a very brief cameo as Sam Houston, showing frustration at his inability to raise an army in time to save the defenders of the Alamo. Greene is generally a commanding screen presence, but his role is so limited he can't make an emotional impact, as Richard Boone did in the role in the Wayne production.

In favor of the TV production, it was filmed on location in Brackettville, Texas, where the massive and convincing sets from Wayne's movie still stood. Behind the scenes, the film benefited from a seasoned pro in the director's chair, Burt Kennedy, an old hand at making good Westerns ("Support Your Local Sheriff", "The War Wagon"). I'm not an expert on the history of the battle, but it's been pointed out that the TV production gets certain things more accurately than the feature films but certain other factors are clearly the invention of the screenwriters. In attempt to appeal to younger viewers, the screenplay provides a completely superfluous subplot about a young Mexican girl in love with one of the Caucasian defenders of the Alamo. It's pretty dreadfully presented, with the young lovers looking like they'd be more suitable for "The Breakfast Club" gang than the besieged Texas mission. Faring a bit better are Kathleen York and Jon Lindstrom in the key roles of Captain Dickinson and his wife, who was one of the few inhabitants of the Alamo to survive. There are some familiar faces among the defenders, but most of them don't register strongly because their roles are under-written. (John Wayne's son Ethan has a minor role.) This version of the Alamo saga differs from Wayne's by presenting Santa Ana as a major character, whereas in the Wayne film he is only a minor presence. As played by Raul Julia, the legendary historic figure is presented as Snidley Whiplash-type, leering at young women and devoid of any human qualities. Julia brings some gusto to the role but a more nuanced characterization is called for. There is also the distracting presence of David Ogden Stiers as a Mexican army officer, which is justified by having him described as an adviser from the British army. If such individuals did exist, it's news to me but in any event, Stiers' presence seems more like a casting gimmick than an attempt to portray an obscure historical fact.

Original TV Guide advertisement.

Things are fairly turgid through much of the film but as the battle scenes finally arrive they are well-handled with impressive stuntwork on display. The problem is that the spectacular climax of Wayne's big-budget production looms over the relatively skimpy assets that director Burt Kennedy has as his disposal. The TV battle attempts to add some spectacle by cribbing battle footage from Wayne's film. Much of it is set to Peter Bernstein's serviceable score, though at various times during the production, he shamelessly copies the work of another Bernstein (Elmer), with similar music to that found in the latter's classic score from "The Magnificent Seven".

In summary, "The Alamo-Thirteen Days to Glory" is undeniably flawed, but it has enough positive aspects to merit viewing, if only for comparison to other films that depict the battle and the events leading up to it. The source material used by Amazon leaves a lot to be desired, but it's still a positive development to see the production get some exposure. It deserves a Blu-ray release with a commentary track by Alamo historians, who could decipher its truths and fabrications far better than this writer can.

By Lee Pfeiffer

In the mid 1960s Amicus Productions emerged as a Hammer Films wanna-be. The studio aped the Hammer horror films and even occasionally encroached on Hammer by "stealing" their two biggest stars, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. The first Amicus hit was "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors", released in 1965 and top-lining Lee and Cushing. The format of various horror tales linked by an anthology format proved to be so successful that Amicus would repeat the formula over the next decade in films such as "Tales from the Crypt", "Vault of Horror" and "The House That Dripped Blood". The studio cranked out plenty of other horror flicks and by the mid-to-late 1970s Amicus was producing better fare than Hammer, which had made the mistake of increasingly concentrating on blood and gore and tits and ass to the detriment of the overall productions. Occasionally-indeed, very rarely- Amicus would branch out from the horror genre and produce other fare. (i.e. the Bond-inspired "Danger Route" and the social drama "Thank You All Very Much") but the studio was out of its element when it came to producing non-horror flicks.  A particularly inspired offbeat entry in the Amicus canon was the 1970 production "The Mind of Mr. Soames", based on a novel by Charles Eric Maine. The intriguing premise finds John Soames (Terence Stamp) a 30 year-old man who has been in a coma since birth. He has been studiously tended to by the staff at a medical institution in the British countryside where a round-the-clock team sees to it that he is properly nourished and that his limbs are exercised to prevent atrophy. Soames apparently is an orphan with no living relatives so he is in complete custody of the medical community, which realizes he represents a potentially important opportunity for scientific study- if he can be awakened. That possibility comes to pass when an American, Dr. Bergen (Robert Vaughn) arrives at the clinic possessing what he feels is a successful method of performing an operation that will bring Soames "to life". The operation is surprisingly simple and bares fruit when, hours later, Soames begins to open his eyes and make sounds.The staff realize this is a medical first: Soames will come into the world as a grown man but with the mind and instincts of a baby. 

Soames' primary care in the post-operation period is left to Dr. Maitland (Nigel Davenport), who has constructed a rigid schedule to advance Soames' intellect and maturity as quickly as possible. Initially, Maitland's plans pay off and Soames responds favorably to the new world he is discovering. However, over time, as his intellect reaches that of a small child, he begins to harbor resentment towards Maitland for his "all stick and no carrot" approach to learning. Dr. Bergen tries to impress on Maitland the importance of allowing Soames to have some levity in his life and the opportunity to learn at his own pace. Ultimately, Bergen allows Soames outside to enjoy the fresh air and observe nature first hand on the clinic's lush grounds.  Soames is ecstatic but his joy is short-lived when an outraged Dr. Maitland has him forcibly taken back into the institute. Soames ultimately rebels and makes a violent escape into a world he is ill-equipped to understand. He has the maturity and knowledge of a five or six year old boy but knows that he prefers freedom to incarceration. As a massive manhunt for Soames goes into overdrive, the film traces his abilities to elude his pursuers as he manages to travel considerable distance with the help of well-intentioned strangers who don't realize who he is. Soames is ultimately struck by a car driven by a couple on a remote country road. Because the lout of a husband was drunk at the time, they choose to nurse him back to health in their own home. The wife soon realizes who he is and takes pity on him- but when Soames hear's approaching police cars he bolts, thus setting in motion a suspenseful and emotionally wrenching climax.

"The Mind of Mr. Soames" is unlike any other Amicus feature. It isn't a horror film nor a science fiction story and the plot device of a man having been in a coma for his entire life is presented as a totally viable medical possibility. Although there are moments of tension and suspense, this is basically a mature, psychological drama thanks to the intelligent screenplay John Hale and Edward Simpson and the equally impressive, low-key direction of Alan Cooke, who refrains from overplaying the more sensational aspects of the story. Stamp is outstanding in what may have been the most challenging role of his career and he receives excellent support from Robert Vaughn (sporting the beard he grew for his next film, the remake of "Julius Caesar") and Nigel Davenport. Refreshingly, there are no villains in the film. Both doctors have vastly different theories and approaches to treating Soames but they both want what is best for him. The only unsympathetic character is a hipster TV producer and host played by Christian Roberts who seeks to exploit the situation by filming and telecasting Soames' progress as though it were a daily soap opera.

Amicus had a potential winner with this movie but it punted when it came to the advertising campaign by implying it was a horror film. "The mind of a baby, the strength of a madman!" shouted the trailers and the print ads screamed "CAN THIS BABY KILL?" alongside an absurd image of  Stamp locked inside an infant's crib. In fact, Soames does pose a danger to others and himself simply because he doesn't realize the implications of his own strength- but he is presented sympathetically in much the same way as the monster in the original "Frankenstein".  Perhaps because of the botched marketing campaign, the film came and went quickly. In some major U.S. cities it was relegated to a few art houses before it disappeared. In fact the art house circuit was where it belonged but the ad campaign isolated upper crust viewers who favored films by Bergman and Fellini but balked when the saw the over-the-top elements of the ads.

"The Mind of Mr. Soames" is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

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By Lee Pfeiffer

The 1970 film adaptation John Le Carre's 1965 Cold War novel The Looking Glass War is now available for streaming on Amazon Prime. The movie has been largely forgotten and relatively unseen since its release, which is odd given the consistent interest in all things Le Carre. Christopher Jones plays Leiser, a twenty-something Polish illegal immigrant in London who has the goal of being able to live there with his pregnant girlfriend, Susan (Susan George.) Although prone to bad habits and unpredictable behavior, Leiser is intent on taking his future role as a father seriously. He is arrested for immigration violations, however, and an MI6 boss LeClerc (Ralph Richardson) concocts an audacious plan to manipulate Leiser into spying for the West. Using a legal immigration status as a carrot, LeClerc gets Leiser to reluctantly agree to the scheme. The young man is given a crash course in spying by another MI6 agent, Avery (Anthony Hopkins). He proves an adept enough student when it comes to handling the physical requirements of the job. (The film's best sequence finds the two men engaged in a knock-down, extended brawl when a training exercise gets out of hand when their personal animosities take over.) However, Leiser sneaks away for a brief romantic interlude with Susan but he is emotionally distraught when she tells him she has aborted their baby. Although having lost the main goal of his life- fatherhood- Leiser agrees to go on a secret mission into East Germany to search for evidence of a deadly new class of missiles that MI6 feels could tilt the Cold War in the direction of the Soviets.

Director/screenwriter Frank Pierson took considerable liberties with the source novel, but it still retains LeCarre's trademarks: a highly complex plot peppered with all sorts of extraneous characters who epitomize the author's cynical view that, when it came to espionage, there was little moral difference between East and West. Still, the film is far less confusing than the over-rated 2011 big screen version of LeCarre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy which won international acclaim although seemingly no one I have discussed the film with can begin to explain what it's all about. One of the main problems is that Leiser is an unsympathetic protagonist. As played by Jones, fully in his James Dean/Marlon Brando mumbling mode, he is a fairly unlikable character, routinely lying, breaking his word and abusing those around him, including Susan, who he physically assaults. It's pretty hard to consider him one of the good guys. Nevertheless, Jones, who was always underrated as a screen presence, uses his good looks and charisma to full advantage so you can't help but hope he survives his seemingly suicidal mission in the most intrusive and paranoid society the world has ever seen. The film does pick  up steam once Leiser makes it under a barbed wire fence and is forced to reluctantly kill an East German border guard. The scene is quite suspenseful, as is another fine sequence in which the desperate and wounded Leiser accepts a ride from a predatory farmer who unexpectedly tries to goad him into performing a homosexual sex act- with tragic results. Leiser also picks up a hitchhiker himself, but- this being a 1960s spy movie- she's a drop-dead gorgeous blonde (played by flash-in-the-pan starlet Pia Degermark), who later reemerges in the story in a not-too-convincing plot twist that is designed to provide an obligatory sex scene. The first coincidental meeting between them takes place on a country road where she is traveling with a young boy who she introduces as her friend. Their relationship is never explained and the kid is never seen again when she has an ridiculously improbable reunion with Leiser in a nightclub. There's also a humdinger of ludicrous plot point in the first scene of the movie. Here, an MI6 agent in a foreign country obtains a roll of secret film that has proof positive of the missile system. He is handed the film by his contact. The agent gripes that his departmental budget is so small that they didn't give him cab fare. Thus, after obtaining this all-important evidence, he is left to trudge along a desolate road in the dead of night in the freezing cold. He is struck by a car and the film is lost. MI6 calculates this as murder and assume the Reds now have the film, which Leiser must retrieve. Really? We're all for financial restraint but the idea that the lack of taxi fare would endanger such important evidence is beyond crazy. It's just one of the improbable elements of Pierson's screenplay.

The film boasts a hip jazz score by Wally Stott, that nevertheless seems out of place in this dark espionage tale and the cinematography by Austin Dempster finds beauty in the East German countryside that contrasts with the "Show your papers" demands made by the secret police he encounters along the way. The performances among the supporting actors are all first rate, with Hopkins particularly impressive in an early screen role. The Looking Glass War is by no means the best of the LeCarre film adaptations (nothing has really equaled The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. ) However, it is an intelligent thriller (a few absurdities aside) with exotic locations and an impressive cast. Retro spy movie lovers will certainly enjoy it.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

The first major "biker movie" was the 1953 production of "The Wild One", which elevated Marlon Brando from being a hot Hollywood commodity to that of a pop culture icon. Posters of him in his leather jacket and biker's cap still adorn walls today. Given the success of the film, it's surprising that it took until 1966 for the biker film to emerge as a genre. That occurred with the release of Roger Corman's "The Wild Angels". The film- like all Corman productions- was shot on a modest budget but was efficiently made, starred a host of young talents and made a boatload of money (spawning two soundtrack albums in the process.) "The Wild Angels" begat "The Born Losers", which pitted Tom Laughlin's Billy Jack against savage bikers and that begat a host of other lower-grade biker flicks of varying merits. Of course, the genre would hit its peak with Dennis Hopper's 1969 pop culture classic "Easy Rider". At the bottom of the biker barrel was "The Rebel Rousers", a 1967 crudely-made production that was deemed unworthy of a theatrical release. The film did afford prominent roles to up-and-comers Bruce Dern, Harry Dean Stanton and Jack Nicholson and after the latter was vaulted to stardom with his Oscar-nominated turn in "Easy Rider", someone dusted off "The Rebel Rousers" and promoted it as a Nicholson flick. The film is the creation of Martin B. Cohen, who co-wrote the screenplay and kind of directed it. (Many of the scenes between the bikers appear to have been improvised.) 

The movie's top-billed star is Cameron Mitchell, who plays Paul Collier, a free-spirited type who arrives in a tiny desert town in search of his lover, Karen (Diane Ladd, the real-life wife of Bruce Dern and another member of "The Wild Angels" cast.) When he finally locates her in a motel, their reunion is less-than-sentimental. She explains that she learned she was pregnant with Paul's child and, fearing he would insist that she undergo an illegal abortion, she fled for parts unknown with little money and even fewer resources. (In reality, Ladd was pregnant with future Oscar winner Laura Dern.) Paul accepts the responsibility for her dilemma and insists on marrying her, but Karen declines on the basis that she fears Paul's life as a rolling stone type would only lead him to abandon her at some point. As the two debate their plans for the future, a secondary plot takes hold in which the Rebel Rousers biker gang rides into town and takes over the local saloon, wreaking havoc, accosting women and causing the town's sheriff (John 'Bud'Cardos) to courageously force them out of town. The gang obliges, but refuse to leave the immediate area, causing headaches for the locals and the sheriff. A chance encounter between Paul and Karen and gang members seems certain to lead to tragedy, as the bikers torment their victims. However, the leader of the gang, J.J. Weston (Dern) turns out to be an old high school acquaintance of Paul's. He "invites" them to join the gang for some festivities on a nearby beach, leaving them no alternative but to comply. Things get out of hand quickly, however, when Bunny (Nicholson), one of the most brutal members of the gang, decides he wants to force himself on Karen. Paul is beaten to a pulp but J.J., showing a smattering of human compassion, challenges Bunny to some motorcycle stunt games on the beach. If Bunny wins, he can claim Karen as his prize. If not, she goes free. The film lumbers to a clunky conclusion in which Paul fails to rally any of the cowardly townspeople to help him rescue Karen (shade of "High Noon"!) and it falls to a previously unseen character (Robert Dix) to unconvincingly take on the mantel of hero.   

The film is so sloppily constructed that even Martin Cohen would publicly disown it. The cinematography by the soon-to-be esteemed Laszlo Kovacs and Glen Smith is rather amateurish and there is little evidence of the future star power pertaining to its stars. Only Cameron Mitchell and Diane Ladd provide performances that resonate in any way. There is some minor suspense when the gang kidnap Paul and Karen but much screen time is taken up and padded out with Dern and Nicholson performing some boring biker competitions on the beach. "The Rebel Rousers" has been released on DVD by the indie label Liberty Hall. The print, as you might suspect, has not undergone any restoration efforts and is therefore mediocre, but that's a bit better than I suspected it would be.

The DVD is billed as a "Biker Triple Feature" because it contains two other wildly diverse bonus films. The first, "The Wild Ride", is a micro-budget 1960 production that runs only 61 minutes. It has nothing to do with bikers or biking but does feature Jack Nicholson in an early leading role. He plays the narcissistic and cruel leader of a group of high school students who have formed a cult of personality around him. He routinely insults and abuses them and drops one of his girlfriends, telling her "You're too old." Nicholson, was actually 23 years-old at the time, gives a rather one-note performance under the direction of Harvey Berman, who probably would have tried harder if he knew he had a future cinema icon in his film. The titular wild ride refers to an incident in which Nicholson's speeding car is pursued by a police officer on a motorcycle. The cop crashes and dies and Nicholson faces consequences for his actions. The movie is briskly paced and is entertaining but one can only wonder why Nicholson's character continues to receive unquestioned loyalty, given his rude, crude and cruel ways. On the other hand, we're living in a time in which rude, crude and cruel authoritarian figures are all the rage among vast numbers of the world population, so perhaps the scenario isn't irrational. The print quality is passable, if a bit grainy, though it has been restored by one Johnny Legend in 2009, as evidenced in the credits.

The second bonus feature is titled "Biker Babylon" (aka "It's a Revolution Mother!" (sic), a 1969 feature length documentary directed by Harry Kerwin and a team of fellow future filmmakers of "B" horror flicks. The film's opening credits say we'll see over 5,000 people attending an anti-Vietnam War peach march. Apparently, the team didn't watch their own footage, as the November, 1969 march attracted over a half-million people. The footage of the peace marchers is awkwardly and weirdly juxtaposed with separate segments that follow the exploits of a biker gang known as The Aliens over a particular weekend in which they play to the camera by engaging in outrageous behavior including having a Wesson Oil party that, as you might imagine, involves plenty of naked female flesh. We're told that the role of young women in the gang is to be owned by either a particular member or be regarded as common property for the men to have sex with on a whim. Things then move to a Florida Woodstock-like music festival where bikers and rock fans mingle without much to show for it. For whatever reason, the filmmakers don't show us the rock acts but instead just concentrate on thousands of hot, sweaty young people milling about in a muddy terrain.

The most interesting aspect of the set is this documentary, however, largely because it does crudely capture the anti-Vietnam War movement at its peak. It provides an interesting time capsule as everyday citizens  march with celebrity activists such as Dr. Spock and Dick Gregory, with Gregory demanding that the Nixon administration end the war. (Gregory refers to Vice-President Agnew as Washington D.C.'s version of "Rosemary's Baby". ) What is lacking is context. Nixon squeaked into the presidency in 1968, winning a razor-thin contest against Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey, largely on running a campaign that promised he had a "secret plan" to end the war that would only be revealed after he took office. The plan turned out to be an escalation of the conflict that would drift into Cambodia. His "law-and-order" administration saw Agnew resign in disgrace after being caught accepting bribes, a practice he had carried over from his tenure as governor of Maryland. Of course, Nixon himself would be caught having covered up for the Watergate break-in and he, too, would resign from office under threat of impeachment from prominent fellow Republicans. Dozens of members of his administration would would be convicted of or plead guilty to crimes. It would have been worth the effort for someone to provide a commentary track reviewing the documentary in a modern context and providing insights into historical events. Instead we get an unintentionally hilarious narrator who peppers his every sentence with perceived hippie jargon in an attempt to appear cool. Instead, he sounds like Jack Webb's Sgt. Joe Friday in one of those "Dragnet" episodes in which he lectures teens about drugs using their own lingo.

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(Photo: Montclair Film)

By Lee Pfeiffer

Cinema Retro was invited to cover the Daniel Craig/ Stephen Colbert interview event at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark on Friday, October 28 as part of the Montclair Film Festival. It was quite an enjoyable evening and featured the best interview I've ever seen Craig give. He has been on Colbert's chat show many times and by now they have an Abbott and Costello-like relationship. The set was designed as a living room, with Craig and Colbert perched comfortably in facing chairs, which gave the impression you were observing two guys speaking privately even though it was in front of an auditorium of over 2,000 people. (Amusingly, if you looked closely, you could see a model Aston Martin DB5 placed on top of a table.)To keep the atmosphere loose, Colbert would periodically walk over to a bar and mix drinks for the two participants. Colbert got Craig to talk about his hardscrabble early days in Liverpool, his early film career and his experiences working on specific films with specific co-stars. There was plenty of time devoted to talking about 007. Craig said he only spoke personally with one of his predecessors in the role, Pierce Brosnan, but said he appreciated Sean Connery's public comments praising his work as Bond. He was extremely positive about the producers and everything the series has afforded him, career-wise. His said his favorite Bond film in which he didn't appear is "Goldfinger". Craig also spoke of his delight at being part of the "Knives Out" series and praised the writer/director Rian Johnson.

(Photo: Montclair Film)

When it was announced that the event would allow for questions for the audience, I had concerns. We all know that an open microphone tends to attract at least a few people who can be relied upon to ask cringe-inducing questions. But Artistic Director Tom Hall defused this possibility early on and in a humorous manner by advising attendees that asking the stars to review their personal film project or some other such pipe dream was not going to happen. Consequently, the questions that were asked were intelligent and lead to insightful answers.

(Photo: Cinema Retro)

There were some well-chosen film clips demonstrating the evolution of Craig’s career and he was also extremely funny throughout the night. It left me with the realization that, while I greatly admire his Bond films, they never capitalized on his talent for humor and witticisms the way previous films did for their lead actors. At the end of the event, Colbert presented Craig with a career achievement award to rapturous applause. In all, a terrific evening. Well done, Montclair Film Festival.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

In a worthy attempt to focus attention on the work of writer/producer/director/actor Delmer Daves, Criterion has released a Blu-ray edition of his 1956 Western Jubal. It's a rather odd choice for the label, which specializes in gold-standard editions of established classics and revered cult films. On the surface, Jubal may sound like a standard horse opera, especially with the title role played by reliable-but-unexciting Glenn Ford. However, the reason why Criterion sought to have the movie re-evaluated is immediately apparent. This is an unusually mature Western with a very dramatic story line that builds in intensity under Daves' assured direction. Ford plays Jubal Troop, a troubled loner and drifter, who is saved from certain death in the mountains by Shep Horgan (Ernest Borgnine), a boisterous but kind prominent rancher who nurses Jubal back to health and rewards him with a job on his ranch. It isn't long before Jubal proves his worth and impresses Shep enough to make him the new foreman- an act that offends and alienates another, long-time ranch hand, "Pinky" Pinkus (Rod Steiger), who had sought the position himself. Jubal's seemingly idyllic situation is further hampered by the fact that Shep's sultry Canadian wife Mae (Valerie French) is disgusted by her husband's boorish behavior and his tendency to treat her as a prized steer. Clearly suffering from sexual frustration, the isolated woman exists in a world of misogynistic men. It isn't long before she's making eyes at Jubal, who must summon all of his willpower to resist her advances out of respect for his friendship with Shep. Adding to the rising tensions is the fact that Mae had once had a fling with "Pinky" and he can't accept the fact that she now favors Jubal. The intricate plot takes numerous turns leading to Mae's manipulation of Shep and Jubal by implying to her husband that she has slept with his ranch foreman. This sets in motion a series of tragic circumstances.

Although Daves is best known for his seminal Western 3:10 to Yuma, there is much in Jubal that rivals that classic. Daves makes full use of the magnificent Wyoming locations, using the widescreen process as effectively as George Stevens did with Shane. While the personal relationships of the principal characters are perpetually in crisis mode, Daves seems to use the sweeping cinematography to intentionally dwarf the key players, as though to imply that, in the end,  we're all just rather inconsequential figures in nature's landscape. The performances are all first rate, and this may well be the most effective performance of Glenn Ford's career. His low-key approach to acting has often been dismissed as boring, but Ford always brought a quiet intensity and "guy next door" quality to each of his performances. As Jubal, he's just a shy man who wants to get through the demons of his past by starting a new life that is unblemished by personal stress. Instead, he finds himself in the unlikely situation of being embroiled in a cauldron of sexual tension, betrayal and violent death. Ernest Borgnine is terrific as the hapless Shep, a likable "man's man" who remains oblivious to the fact that the wife he so adores has nothing but contempt for him. Rod Steiger seems a bit out of place here, as he as always seemed far more comfortable in gritty, urban dramas. Valerie French practically steams up the screen as the femme fatale at the heart of the deception that endangers the men in her life. She clearly the villain, but you can't help but empathize with her plight, which must have mirrored that of countless women of the plains: she is trapped in a man's world of endless work with little appreciation for her femininity beyond her "duty" to provide sex. 

The Criterion transfer is flawless and the colors leap off the screen. Frustratingly, the film is devoid of any bonus extras. It would have been a nice touch to hear a film scholar discuss the film and Daves' work in general. However, there is a booklet that contains a lengthy and informative essay by Kent Jones. If you like Western, this one is a "must".

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Photo: Montclair Film.

By Lee Pfeiffer 

Brendan Fraser started as most actors do, trying to land supporting roles in high profile films. He landed the leading role in low-brow 1992 comedy "Encino Man" in which he played a caveman in the modern era. Over the next few years, he worked steadily- if unevenly- in a range of films that failed to score at the boxoffice. That changed in 1997 when he played the role of George of the Jungle, a big screen adaptation of a 1960s cartoon series. With his hunky good looks, athletic physique and ability to perform difficult stunts, Fraser was in demand when the film proved to be a hit. More successes followed with "The Mummy" and its sequel. Fraser excelled in playing genial, if fallible action heroes and romantic leads, but he also proved he had the talent to portray dramatic characters as well, as evidenced by his acclaimed performances in "Gods and Monsters" and "The Quiet American". He also won plaudits for his performance as Brick in a 2001 stage production of Tennessee Williams' classic "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". Then things slowed down. A few modest hits aside, Fraser appeared mostly in forgettable films and in supporting roles in TV productions. A volatile divorce, medical consequences from the many stunts her performed earlier in his career and other personal challenges led to him virtually dropping out of sight a few years ago. Fans who had grown up on his work in the 1990s speculated that he might soon fit into the "Whatever happened to?" category. His much-anticipated role as a villain in the "Batgirl" feature film was a casualty of Warner Brothers' decision to cancel the unfinished film. But Fraser has had plenty to be happy about recently. He landed a major role in Martin Scorsese's currently-filming "Killers of the Flower Moon" and has recently generated Oscar buzz for his leading role in director Darren Aronofsky's dramatic film "The Whale", which premiered last month at the Venice Film Festival to a six-minute standing ovation.

I joined my fellow ink-stained wretches of the press for a screening of the film last Sunday at The Montclair Film Festival in New Jersey. Fraser was on hand to be interviewed by Stephen Colbert, who resides in Montclair and who, along with his wife Evelyn, have been major players in the creation of the film festival, which holds screenings in two local historic theaters, the one-time Cinerama showcase The Claridge and the Wellmont, a grand old venue where this event took place. The cavernous Wellmont had a packed house and the crowd was made up of true cinephiles, as evidenced by their rapt attention to the film and the interview that followed. Nobody was texting, talking or otherwise distracting from the proceedings, despite the fact that there were three bars on site dispensing plenty of adult beverages. This was my first time attending the festival and I was impressed by the atmosphere and choice of venues.

As for "The Whale", like many critics, I found myself with mixed feelings. The primary reason to see the film is because of Fraser's justifiably acclaimed performance. It has been noted that the actor is now more beefy than beefcake but don't confuse Fraser with Charlie, the character he plays in the film, who is a 600-pound man confined to his apartment. Fraser required a rather amazing prosthetic "fat suit" as well as some convincing CGI effects to convincingly play a person this morbidly obese. The film opens on a jarring note. Charlie is slouched in his couch masturbating to a gay porn video, and his aroused state almost causes his death. In fact, virtually every movement is a challenge for Charlie, a kindhearted man whose only regular connection to society is his job teaching an online college course in literature via Zoom. Because he is ashamed of his appearance, he tells his students that his camera is broken. He can see them, but they can't see him, which unintentionally allows him to create an air of mystery about his persona. Charlie is obsessed with Herman Melville's "Moby Dick", and the analogy between the great white whale and his own physical state is obvious. Charlie receives a visit from a young evangelist, Thomas (Ty Simpkins) who ostensibly is there to spread the word from the Good Book but who ends up assisting and befriending Charlie, while keeping a secret about his own background. Next in line to visit is Ellie (Sadie Sink), Charlie's estranged teenage daughter who lugs a pretty good number of plot devices in the door with her. Seems Charlie was once married but left Sadie and her mother when she was very young when he came out of the closet and lived with his lover, who is now deceased and whose memory leaves Charlie in a constant state of despair. This first plot contrivance doesn't hold up for the simple reason that Charlie and his wife and daughter all still live in the same town, so it seems unlikely they would have had no social interaction until now. Next up among the visitors is Liz (Hong Chau), a saucy, no-nonsense nurse who happens to be a personal friend of Charlie. In between looking after his endless medical needs, she lectures him about his health to little avail. Rounding out the parade of eccentric troubadours dropping in on this mini Grand Central Station is Charlie's ex-wife Mary (Samantha Morton), who discusses their mutual concerns about Ellie's rebellious nature and self-destructive tendencies, all of which are squarely blamed on Charlie's negligence toward her.

"The Whale" is based on Samuel D. Hunter's stage play and film looks very much like a filmed stage production. There are precious few exterior shots and the murky interior cinematography by Matthew Libatique, combined with Ron Simonsen's eerie score, results in the mood of a horror film being prevalent. Hunter's screenplay and Aronofsky's direction tip off all but the most gullible viewer that their emotions are being exploited in a naked and shameless manner. Nothing wrong with that. Chaplin did the same with the final scene of "City Lights", as the Little Tramp unveils his identity to his once-blind paramour in a scene that may be the most touching in screen history. But "The Whale" is loaded up with a lot of contrived crises. Charlie is a sympathetic figure throughout but Ellie is painted as the Cruella DeVil of the high school set, a  one-note character that you try in vain to find redeeming qualities in. She even charges her own father money in order to spend time with her. Director Aronofsky has Sadie Sink go for the rafters in terms of her cruelty but we know from minute one that at some point she'll fall for young Thomas in another improbable plot twist. The actors can't be faulted. They're just following orders. The only believable character aside from Charlie is Liz the nurse and Hong Chau registers strongly in the role. The most affecting scenes are those centering on Charlie as an individual, as we watch seemingly mundane actions such as attempting to stand up evolve into "Mission: Impossible"-like scenarios. It's painful to watch Fraser, but that's the point. Regardless of the film's flaws, his performance is flawless. "The Whale" isn't the first film to portray morbidly obese people in a sympathetic fashion. Director Anne Bancroft's 1979 film "Fatso" did so through a serio-comedic lens. "The Whale", however, provides precious few reasons to smile.   

Following the screening, Brendan Fraser and Stephen Colbert took to the stage to Fraser's latest standing ovation. He appeared genuinely moved and in discussion with Colbert, it became clear how grateful he is to have been cast as Charlie. The chat reinforced Fraser's image as a Mister Nice Guy and to Colbert's credit, he suppressed his comedic side and did nothing to overshadow Fraser in any way. The interview was enjoyable and insightful.  

"The Whale" is a flawed film but no so flawed that it can't be recommended for those who seek a moving, if manipulative drama, as well as the performance of a lifetime by Brendan Fraser.

The film will open on December 9.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

When they say "They don't make 'em like that anymore" it could well be in reference to "The Honey Pot", a delightful 1967 concoction.The film is the kind of star-studded comedy/mystery that has recently made a comeback through the "Knives Out" movies. However, this film barely registers in the minds of most movie-goers and was not successful when it was first released. (The studio even reissued it under a new title, "It Comes Up Murder".) The project was cursed from the beginning. The original cinematographer, Gianni Di Venanzo, died before production was completed. When the film was released in select engagements, the running time was 150 minutes, which was deemed to be far too long for this modest enterprise that is confined largely to interiors. For general release, 18 minutes were cut, although some of those scenes still appeared in lobby cards advertising the movie. One well-known character actor, Herschel Bernardi, had his entire role eliminated. Additionally, the film's producer Charles K. Feldman was under a great deal of stress, as he was simultaneously overseeing production on his bloated, out-of-control spoof version of the James Bond novel "Casino Royale". Yet, what emerges somehow managed to end up being quite entertaining, thanks in no small part to the larger-than-life Rex Harrison having a field day playing an equally larger-than-life rich cad. Essentially, he's playing Henry Higgins from "My Fair Lady" once again- only this time with a more devious streak. Both characters are filthy rich. Both are erudite and sophisticated snobs who devise cruel games involving innocents in return for his own self-amusement. Harrison is a wicked but lovable character. You can't help cheering him on despite his lack of ethical convictions.

The film, written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, is cobbled together from Frederick Knotts' play "Mr. Fox of Venice" and Thomas Sterling's novel "The Evil of the Day" with a healthy dose of Ben Johnson's play "Volpone" tossed in. In fact the film opens with Harrison as the pretentiously-named Cecil Sheridan Fox enjoying a performance of "Volpone" at a magnificent Venetian theater. The camera pans back to show that this is a private performance for Fox alone. He stops the play before the finale, thanks the cast members for a spirited production and leaves the scene. Yes, he's that rich. We soon learn that he is using elements of "Volpone" to orchestrate an elaborate and expensive practical joke. The first step comes when he hires an unemployed American actor, William McFly (Cliff Robertson) to be his hired hand. He informs McFly that he must pose as Fox's long-time major domo in his elaborate mansion house, which is impressively located right on one of the canals. Fox explains to McFly that he has written to three former lovers and told them he is terminally ill. None of the women know that the others have been informed. He reasons that they will all make a bee-line directly to him, ostensibly to care for him, but in reality in hopes of inheriting his fortune. First on his list is Lone Star Crockett (Susan Hayward), who Fox wooed when she was a wild teenager. In the course of their affair, he put her on the road to a life of luxury and pleasure. Then there is Princess Dominique (Capucine), an exotic beauty who is in a troubled marriage and Merle McGill (Edie Adams), a famous but fading movie star. On the surface, all three of these women are independently wealthy and shouldn't need his fortune. But he suspects that, in reality, all are in some degree of financial distress and he wants to see if they will compete with each other to earn his favor. Sure enough, each of the ladies arrive at his home and are surprised to see they have two female competitors. Lone Star is now a cranky hypochondriac who requires constant pampering from her ever-present companion, a spinster named Sarah Watkins (Maggie Smith). Dominique tries to put on an air of self-assurance and Merle is a wise-cracking cynic. All of them individually express their sympathies to Fox and there is even the occasional attempt at seduction. Fox puts on a show that he is desperately ill and even sits in bed affixed to an oxygen tank. In private, however, he blasts classical music and dances around the room, delighted that his perceptions of human behavior are proving to be true. The plot takes several major swings in due course, however, when one of the women ends up dead, ostensibly from an overdose of sleeping pills. However, McFly and Sarah suspect murder is afoot. The film then becomes one of those time-honored drawing room mysteries with upper crust characters matching wits with the local inspector (Adolfo Celi, marvelous in a rare comedic role.) 

To describe the plot in any further detail would necessitate providing some spoilers. Suffice it to say there are plenty of red herrings and a complex plot that will demand your constant attention or you will be hopelessly lost.  

The performances are all first rate, though Capucine (never one who mastered the light touch that these sorts of comedies require) is a bit stiff. However, Hayward and Adams pick up the slack with very funny characterizations. The scene stealer among the women, however, is Maggie Smith, who is more streetwise than any of the others suspect. As for Harrison, he seems to be having a genuine ball, chewing the scenery and dispensing bon mots that are consistently amusing. The sequence in which he dances around his bed chamber is one for the ages. 

"The Honey Pot" deserved a better fate than it received when it was released theatrically. Hopefully it will get a more appreciative audience through streaming and a Kino Lorber Blu-ray that is available.

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By Lee Pfeiffer

If you are a subscriber to Amazon Prime, you already know that the service is a goldmine of retro movies and TV shows that are included in the annual subscription fee. You have probably also noticed that there are independent movie screening services that you can subscribe to for separate fees and these can be played conveniently through the Amazon Prime app. These separate streaming services are usually built around a niche such as horror films, westerns, foreign films, etc. One of the apps I recently discovered is Screenpix and for a paltry $2.99 a month, you can access a wide range of retro movies that are not included in Amazon Prime's catalog. The service gives you a 7-day free trial and is also available through Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV and Playstation. Here are just some of the titles I glimpsed in browsing through the service:

• "Shout at the Devil"
• "The Professionals"
• "Fail Safe"
• "The Innocents"
• "Red River"
• "Marooned"
• "Bus Stop"
• "To Catch a Thief"
• "The Blob" (original)
• "Rollerball" (original)
• "To Catch a Thief"
• "Stagecoach" (original)
• "Born Losers"
• "The African Queen"
• "Return of Sabata"
• "Attack on the Iron Coast"
• "The Wild Angels"
• "Billion Dollar Brain"
• "Where's Papa?"
• "Witchfinder General" (aka "The Conqueror Worm")
• "Attack!"
• "The 1,000 Plane Raid"
• "Woman of Straw"
• "House of Usher"
• "The Longest Day"
  

BY LEE PFEIFFER

The year 1967 marked the high point of Sidney Poitier's screen career. He starred in three highly acclaimed box office hits: "To Sir, With Love", "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "In the Heat of the Night".  The fact that Poitier did not score a Best Actor Oscar nomination that year had less to do with societal prejudices (he had already won an Oscar) than the fact that he was competing with himself and split the voter's choices for his best performance. "In the Heat of the Night" did win the Best Picture Oscar and immortalized Poitier's performance as Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia detective who finds himself assigned to assist a redneck sheriff (Rod Steiger, who did win the Oscar that year for his performance in this film) in a town in the deep south that has experienced a grisly unsolved murder. When Steiger's character, resentful for having to work with a black man, refers to Tibbs as "boy" and asks what they call him back in Philadelphia, he replies "They call me Mister Tibbs!", thereby uttering what would become one of the cinema's most iconic lines of dialogue. In the film, Poitier plays Tibbs as a man of mystery. Little is unveiled about his personal life, which adds immeasurably to his mystique. He proves to be highly intelligent, logical and courageous, though refreshingly, not immune from making mistakes and misjudgments. The reaction to the movie was so good that, Hollywood being Hollywood, United Artists became convinced that Tibbs could be brought back to star in a "tentpole" series of crime thrillers. These have previously been released as individual Blu-ray titles by Kino Lorber and they are now available as a double feature set.

First up is the 1970 release, "The Call me MISTER Tibbs!" Aside from Poitier's commanding presence as the same character, there is virtually no connection between this Virgil Tibbs and the one seen in the previous film. The screenplay by Alan Trustman, who wrote the winners "The Thomas Crown Affair" and "Bullitt", softens the Tibbs character to the point that he resembles one of those unthreatening TV gumshoes. When we first see him, he is now in the San Francisco Police Department, though Trustman doesn't provide even a single line of dialogue to explain how he got there. He's apparently been there for some time, too, because Tibbs has suddenly acquired a wife (Barbara McNair) and a young son and daughter. The movie opens with the brutal murder of a call girl who lived in a pricey apartment. Evidence points to Tibbs' old friend Logan Sharpe (Martin Landau), a firebrand street preacher and activist who enjoys a wide following and who is galvanizing the community to vote in a politically controversial referendum. Sharpe professes his innocence and Tibbs sets out to acquit him and find the real killer. The trail quickly leads to a confusing mix of motley characters and red herrings, among them Anthony Zerbe and Ed Asner. Poitier is never less than impressive even when playing a watered-down version of a once gritty character. However, his impact is diminished by the sappy screenplay which allocates an abundance of time showing Tibbs dealing with day-to-day family living. He flirts with his wife and offers life lessons to his son that border on the extremes of political incorrectness. When he catches the lad smoking, Tibbs decides to teach the pre-teen a lesson by inviting him to join him in smoking Churchill cigars and drinking some scotch. (Most of our dads would probably have employed methods that were slightly more "conventional".) This domestic gibberish reduces the character of Tibbs to a big screen version of Brian Keith's Uncle Bill from the "Family Affair" TV series. Director Gordon Douglas, normally very underrated, handles the pedantic script in a pedantic manner, tossing in a few impressive action scenes including one in which Poitier chases Zerbe on foot seemingly through half of San Francisco in the movie's best sequence. The scenes between Poitier and Landau bristle with fine acting but they only share a limited amount of screen time. Quincy Jones provides a lively, funky jazz score but the film never rises above the level of mediocrity.

Poitier returned to the screen for the last time as Virgil Tibbs in 1971 in "The Organization". Compared to the previous outing, this one is superior on most levels. The script by James R. Webb is just as confusing but there is a grittiness to the production and the character of Tibbs is toughened up a bit. Thankfully, the scenes of his home life with wife and kids are kept to a minimum. The film, well directed by Don Medford (his final production), begins with an inspired caper in which a group of masked men stage an audacious and elaborate infiltration of an office building owned by some shady mob characters. They abscond with millions in cocaine. Tibbs is assigned to the case and is shocked when the culprits secretly approach him and admit they stole the drugs. Turns out they are community activists who wanted to prevent the cocaine from hitting the streets. However, they want Tibbs to know that they did not commit a murder that occurred on the premises of the office. They claim someone else did the dirty deed and is trying to pin it on them. Tibbs believes their story and goes against department protocols by keeping the information secret from his superiors while he works with the activists to crack the case. At some point the plot became so tangled that I gave up trying to figure out who was who and just sat back to enjoy the mayhem. Tibbs' withholding of information from the police department backfires on him and he ends up being suspended from the force. Predictably, he goes rogue in order to take on organized crime figures who are trying to get the drugs back. "The Organization" is fairly good Seventies cop fare capped off by a lengthy action sequence imaginatively set in a subway tunnel that is under construction. The supporting cast is impressive and includes reliable Sheree North, scruffy Allen Garfield and up-and-comers Raul Julia, Ron O'Neal and a very brief appearances by Max Gail and Damon Wilson. Barbara McNair returns as Mrs. Tibbs but her sole function is to provide attractive window dressing. Gil Melle provides a hip jazz score.

Both films boast fine transfers but the only bonus features are the original trailers.

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"Torah! Torah! Torah!" 

By Lee Pfeiffer

"The Frisco Kid" is a gentle buddy comedy Western made in 1979 when star Gene Wilder was riding high and post-"Star Wars" Harrison Ford was a rising star. The script was not a hot property, as it had plenty of people's fingerprints on it by the time Wilder signed on to the film. Ford was a major fan of Wilder's and was eager to co-star. Seasoned veteran Robert Aldrich, best known for his macho action movies such as "The Dirty Dozen", "Flight of the Phoenix", "Ulzana's Raid" and "The Longest Yard", was signed as director. It was seemingly an odd fit but Aldrich had directed the 1963 Frank Sinatra/Dean Martin Western comedy "4 for Texas". The film finds Wilder well-cast as Avram, a somewhat bumbling rabbinical student in Poland who is chosen to travel to San Francisco to serve as the rabbi for a new order. As a reward, he is shown a photograph of the beautiful young daughter of the religious leader in the area who will become Avram's bride. The trip from Poland to California would be arduous enough in the days of the old West under any circumstance but things go particularly wrong for Avram. Upon arriving on the east coast of America, he's told the ship he had booked passage on has been significantly delayed. He befriends three men with a wagon who say they are going to San Francisco. He opts to join them but along the way they rob him and leave him penniless in the desert. A group of Mormons save him and give him money to continue his now seemingly impossible journey across a hellish landscape of deserts and other natural barriers, as well as dangerous Indian tribes. He has a chance encounter with Tommy (Harrison Ford), a low-key friendly young guy who occasionally robs banks. The two men make for an "Odd Couple" scenario as they bond in friendship. Tommy feels sorry for the hapless Avram and agrees to escort him to San Francisco. The film chronicles their adventures and misadventures along the way, some comical, others frightening. 

Today's film comedies are largely defined by an abundance of cynicism, cruelty and gross-out jokes, so one is hesitant to be harsh to the bygone era of  family-friendly big screen yucks that "The Frisco Kid" epitomizes. There are some genuine giggles in the film, particularly due to Wilder's fish-out-of-water reaction to American traditions and the chemistry between Wilder and Ford is genuine and enjoyable. At other times, the film is sentimental and occasionally touching, as in the scenes in which our hero rabbi risks his life to save the sacred Torah he must deliver to his synagogue. However, the script by Michael Elias and Frank Shaw is meandering and has quite a few slow spots. There is a completely extraneous sequence in which our heroes are captured by hostile Indians that employs the age-old joke of having the tribal chief actually be a sophisticated, seemingly educated man. The scene drags on forever and goes nowhere. At 2 hours, the movie is about a half-hour too long. At times it seems endless and one can only wonder if a 90 minute version wouldn't have been more enjoyable. Sometimes less is more."The Frisco Kid" isn't a bad film, but it is bloated and Robert Aldrich's direction is workman-like and uninspired. It will primarily be of interest to Harrison Ford fans as an example of the eclectic types of films he appeared in after the original "Star Wars".

The region-free Warner Archive Blu-ray looks very good indeed. The only extra is the original trailer.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

Kino Lorber has released a Blu-ray edition of the 1965 comedy Strange Bedfellows, which existed primarily to reunite Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida, who had a box-office hit with Come September several years before. Like most of the romantic comedies of the era, there is little to separate this from a standard sitcom episode aside from the running time. Hudson plays a London-based executive on the rise who spontaneously marries a tempestuous Italian bombshell artist played by Lollobrigida. The newlyweds find their mutually insatiable sex drives are the only thing they have in common. Politically conservative Hudson is constantly at odds with his wife's liberal activism. They soon separate but after seven years, Hudson has a reason to stall the divorce proceedings he has put in place. Seems his even more conservative boss wants to promote him to be his right hand man- on the proviso that he is happily married. The contrived plot finds Hudson trying to swallow his pride and woo his wife back- despite the fact that she already has a British lover, Edward Judd.

The film ambles from one predictable, over-played scene to another, though there are some genuine laughs along the way. Hudson and Lollbrigida do have genuine chemistry on-screen and there is a very amusing supporting cast that includes Gig Young, Terry-Thomas, Arthur Haynes, Nancy Kulp, Bernard Fox and and the late, great Cinema Retro contributor Joe Sirola, who offers a very funny turn as a perverted sculptor. The most amusing aspect of the film is rather unintentional- the now laughably cliched presentation of life in England. In one scene, people can't get home because London is covered in a pea-soup like fog, an enduring legend that stemmed from the Victorian era when the city was often shrouded in pollution, not fog. Taxi drivers all speak with Cockney accents and call everyone 'guv. Ironically, only a small bit of second unit footage was even filmed in Old Blighty. The only on location footage featuring the stars is confined to a shot or two of Edward Judd and an opening scene of Rock Hudson walking along the Thames. One might ask why no additional footage of Hudson was shot on location. The answer was probably moolah. It would have cost Universal a tidy sum to deal with the logistics of shooting in the midst of a major city. So the studio reverted back to an economic model and "London" was recreated very unconvincingly on the Universal back lot. One sequence that was played for laughs has a more subtle aspect of humor to it when viewed today: Hudson reluctantly sharing a bed with Judd. (Hudson shared similar scene when he bedded down with Tony Randall in Send Me No Flowers, leading one to believe that he was probably in on the joke in the days when he was still very much in the closet.)  Like most of these types of comedies, the finale features the entire cast coming together in a big chaotic scene. This time, it's Lollobrigida's scheme to scandalize London by riding through town as Lady Godvia. It's a mark of the movie's prudishness, however, that she is clad in neck-to-toe flesh colored body suit. Some scandal. The film's uninspired direction by Melvin Frank doesn't completely negate the fun of watching two genuine screen legends at the peak of their careers.

The Kino Lorber Blu-ray features a pin-sharp transfer that only makes it more obvious how much of the film relies on shoddy rear-screen projection.  The disc features an informative commentary track by film historian Eddy Von Mueller and it's admirable that Kino Lorber continues to provide these tracks on movies that are routine at best. Even films that are artistic failures often have many interesting tales relevant to their production and Strange Bedfellows is no exception. There is also the original trailer and gallery of other trailers from KL featuring the two legendary stars.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

"A Tattered Web" is yet another 1970s American made-for-TV movie that has found new life on Amazon Prime's streaming service. The 70s were a golden age of TV movies, then a relatively innovative concept. Popular actors and talented writers and directors would bring to the small screen countless productions, many of which have long been forgotten. However, that doesn't diminish their worth. "A Tattered Web" is an engrossing crime thriller that I either forgot existed or never knew it did. In any event, it's a compelling and unconventional crime flick. Lloyd Bridges plays Sgt. Ed Stagg, a 25 year veteran of the L.A. Police Department. Stagg has a reputation as a top-notch detective and he's by-the-book in every respect. At home, however, his life is a lot messier. Stagg's wife abandoned him and their young daughter Tina (Sallie Shockley) who he has raised to adulthood on his own. She's now married to Steve Butler (Frank Converse) a hunky blue collar worker in the oil industry. Trouble is they are living in Stagg's house and the situation is tense. Butler resents Stagg's authoritarian rules and things get worse when Stagg discovers that Steve has been having an affair with goodtime girl Louise Campbell (Anne Helm). Stagg has played the role of overprotective father to Tina since her mother left them. In doing so, he has also gone overboard, treating her as a child who can't cope with bad news or pressures. When Steve refuses to agree to Stagg's demands that he end the affair, Stagg takes it on himself to pay Louise a visit at her apartment.Things go badly. Louise isn't bothered by the fact she is endangering another woman's marriage and she seems quite content to continue to play the role of mistress to Steve. The argument becomes physical and Stagg pushes her, with Louise striking her head on a piece of furniture and dying from her wound. Stunned and frightened, Stagg does his best to remove any traces of his being in the apartment. 

The next day, the LAPD receives news that a cleaning woman has found Louise's body. Ironically, Stagg and his partner, Sgt. Joe Marcus (Murray Hamilton) are assigned to the case. Stagg does his best to appear unaware of the circumstances of Louise's death but neighbors report she had been seeing a man regularly in her apartment. An artist's sketch makes the front pages and Marcus is all-too-aware the sketch is identical to Steve. Adding to Stagg's worries is the realization that he neglected to dispose of a drinking glass at Louise's apartment that has his fingers prints on it. Stagg finds himself trying to put out quite a few fires, all the while keeping Tina in the dark about the events. With the police closing in on Steve as a suspect, Stagg finds the opportunity to get him off the hook. A local alcoholic hobo (Broderick Crawford) has already confessed to murdering someone and has been sentenced to the death penalty. Stagg begins trying to convince him to confess to Louise's murder, as well. Stagg justifies the deception by rationalizing that if the drunk is going to die for one murder, what difference does it make if he also admits to another homicide?

Lloyd Bridges is exceptionally good as the man trying to juggle many different levels of this crisis simultaneously. He's not a villain in the traditional sense, but he is covering up his own responsibility for manslaughter and trying to frame another man for the death. The supporting cast is first-rate, with Frank Converse a standout as the much-put-upon son-in-law who becomes the prime suspect in the murder. Murray Hamilton is also very good as Stagg's partner who becomes increasingly suspicious that Stagg is covering up a crime.  Broderick Crawford is truly impressive and he makes the most of his couple of brief scenes as the alcoholic whose memory is so bad that Stagg might convince him he committed a murder he is innocent of. As with most TV movies of the era, the tight 74-minute running time ensures the story moves quickly and there isn't any extraneous dialogue. "A Tattered Web" is an above average crime thriller. 

By Lee Pfeiffer

Classic movie lovers have long been acquainted with the fact that some of the industry's finest performers of stage and screen perfected their unique styles of acting through their association with The Actors Studio, which has locations in New York and Los Angeles. The roster of alumni reads like a "Who's Who" of Hollywood legends. As the Actors Studio celebrates its 75th anniversary, we reached out to Beau Gravitte, Artistic Director of the New York Studio to get some insights into the Studio's history, mission and legacy.

Cinema Retro: How was the formation of the Actors Studio inspired by the legendary Russian actor and director Konstantin Stanislavski?

Beau Gravitte: The roots of The Actors Studio go back to the Group Theatre (1931-1941) whose work was inspired by the discoveries of the great Russian actor and director Konstantin Stanislavski and his best student Eugene Vakhtangov as revealed in the legendary productions that the Moscow Art Theatre toured in America in 1923. Techniques based on a variety of methods were developed here by Lee Strasberg from the Stanislavsky System and reformations from the Vakhtangov acting processes. Within the Studio, actors are free to develop privately without the glare of commercial pressures.  Since its founding in New York City in 1947 by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, and Bobby Lewis, The Actors Studio has become renowned worldwide as ‘the home of method acting.’

CR: Kazan's name remains known to most classic movie lovers. Can you give us a bit of background on the co-founders Bobby Lewis and Cheryl Crawford?

BG: Bobby Lewis was an accomplished actor, director, teacher and author.   He was an original member of the famous Group Theatre, and then, in 1947, he became a co-founder of the Actors Studio, along with Elia Kazan and Cheryl Crawford. Bobby directed several plays, including, in 1947, the Broadway production of “Brigadoon.”  He later became the Chair of the Yale School of Drama, in the 1970’s, where he shaped the careers of many successful actors, including Meryl Streep.  

Cheryl Crawford was the only co-founder of both the Group Theatre and the Actors Studio. She was a very influential producer, involved in many iconic productions, including “Awake and Sing,” “Porgy and Bess,” “Brigadoon,” “The Rose Tattoo,” “Paint Your Wagon,” “Sweet Bird of Youth,” and many others.  

A bit of a cipher, her incisive mind, and her connection to the Broadway pipeline seems to have been integral to the Studio’s early successes.

Actors Studio legends Marlon Brando and director Elia Kazan on the set of the 1954 Oscar winner "On the Waterfront". (Photo: Columbia Pictures.)

CR: "The Method" was a new style of acting that tremendous influence on a new generation of actors, many of whom would go on to gain esteemed reputations. How would you describe the Method and in what ways did it differ from the traditional styles of acting?

BG: The “Method” is simply that - a method, a series of techniques to train the imagination to respond to imaginary circumstances. Before this, acting was much more formulaic, exterior, and largely unconnected to anything personal. This new method taught actors to use their own experiences, their memories, their subconscious in creating a character.   

CR: The Actors Studio was founded in 1947. Was it an immediate success or did its reputation build slowly?

BG: By the time the Actors Studio was created, in 1947, this new kind of work was already catching on. That same year, “A Streetcar Named Desire” opened on Broadway, and the film in 1951. Word was out - something new was happening in American acting.

CR: The Actors Studio is free of any membership charges. Has it always been free for those artists who are accepted?

BG: Membership at the Actors Studio is lifetime, and free. And always has been.  

CR: Those who studied at the Studio are said to be given a great deal of latitude in terms of developing their acting skills. How crucial is the ability to improvise relevant to a student's ultimate success?

BG: I’m not sure if “latitude” is the correct word. The Studio is like a gym, for actors. And like a gym, you have to create your own workout.  The actor shapes whatever exercise they feel they need, so I guess there is latitude in that. It is a very self-motivated place. And improvisation is simply another tool at an actor’s disposal.

CR: How and when did Lee Strasberg become affiliated with the Studio and how can you describe his influence?

BG: Lee Strasberg became Artistic Director of the Studio in 1951, at the request of Elia Kazan - a position he held until his death in 1981.  The list of actors that he trained is simply a “who’s who” of American film and theatre. He was, undoubtedly, the most influential teacher of acting in American history. And his legacy lives on in the Studio leadership, including presidents Ellen Burstyn and Al Pacino.  

Two more Actors Studio legends, Lee Strasberg and Al Pacino, co-starred in "The Godfather Part II" in 1974. Both actors received Oscar nominations for their performances. (Photo: Paramount Pictures.)

CR: The Studio remains relevant today for a new generation of actors who follow in the footsteps of legends. Can you name some of the more prominent artists who came to fame after attending the Studio?

BG: This year marks the 75th year of continuous operation for the Actors Studio.  Since that day in 1947, the members of the Studio have met, twice weekly, to deepen their understanding and mastery of the craft of acting. That’s pretty remarkable, for a non-commercial theatrical enterprise, located in the heart of what is probably the most commercial theatre district in the world. The Studio continues because of its very high standard of work, and because of the caliber of artists who make up its membership. Just to name a few:  Bradley Cooper, Melissa Leo, Stephen Lang, Nicholas Braun - all lifetime members of the Actors Studio.  

CR: How would you describe the continuing mission of the Actors Studio?

BG: The mission of the Actors Studio is to provide a private, safe place for its members to work, to stretch, to try things they would not normally be allowed to do - all in the service of deepening their understanding of the work. As the world changes, so does the artist, in response. And the Studio is a place where that focus can evolve - which keeps us relevant in these turbulent times. The Actors Studio is in session, twice a week, every week - hopefully for the next 75 years, and beyond.  

(Special thanks to Brett Oberman.)

(Al Pacino will be appearing at a benefit screening of "Dog Day Afternoon" for the Actors Studio in New York City on October 27. Click here for details.)

BY LEE PFEIFFER

The first African-American to direct a major film for a majorHollywood studio was Gordon Parks, whose feature film debut "The Learning Tree" was released in 1969. Parks may have shattered the glass ceiling but there wasn't a tidal wave of opportunities that immediately opened for other minority filmmakers, in part because there were so few with any formal training in the art. One beneficiary of Parks' achievement was Ossie Davis, who was internationally respected as a well-rounded artist. He was a triple threat: actor, director and writer but his directing skills had been relegated to the stage. In 1970 Davis co-wrote the screenplay for and directed "Cotton Comes to Harlem", a major production for United Artists. The film was based on a novel by African-American writer Chester Himes and proved to be pivotal in ushering in what became known as the Blaxploitation genre. In reality, it's debatable whether "Cotton" really is a Blaxploitation film. While most of the major roles are played by black actors, the term "Blaxploitation" has largely come to symbolize the kinds of goofy, low-budget films that are fondly remembered as guilty pleasures. However, "Cotton"- like Gordon Parks's "Shaft" films that would follow-  boasts first class production values and top talent both in front of and behind the cameras. Regardless, the movie had sufficient impact at the boxoffice to inspire a seemingly endless barrage of Black-oriented American films that were all the rage from the early to mid-1970s. The Blaxploitation fever burned briefly but shone brightly and opened many doors for minority actors. 

The film was shot when New York City was in the midst of a precipitous decline in terms of quality of life. Crime was soaring, the infrastructure was aging and the city itself would be on the verge of bankruptcy a few years later. Harlem was among the hardest hit areas in terms of the economy. The once dazzling jewel of a neighborhood had boasted popular nightclubs, theaters and restaurants that attracted affluent white patrons. By the mid-to-late 1960s, however, that had changed radically. Street crimes, organized gangs and the drug culture spread rapidly, making Harlem a very dangerous place to be. It was foreboding enough if you were black but it was considered a "Forbidden Zone" for most white people, who spent their money elsewhere, thus exacerbating the decline of the neighborhoods. "Cotton Comes to Harlem" serves as an interesting time capsule of what life was like in the area, having been shot during this period of decline. Director Davis was considered royalty in Harlem. Despite his success in show business, he and his equally acclaimed wife, actress Ruby Dee, never "went Hollywood". They stayed in the community and worked hard to improve the environment. Thus, Davis was perfectly suited to capture the action on the streets in a manner that played authentically on screen. Similarly, he had a real feel for the local population. As with any major urban area, Harlem undoubtedly had its share of amusing eccentrics and Davis populates the movie with plenty of such characters. 

The film opens with a major rally held by Rev. Deke O'Malley (Calvin Lockhart), a local guy who made good and who is idolized by the population of Harlem. O'Malley is a smooth-talking, charismatic con man in the mode of the notorious Reverend Ike who uses religion as a facade to rip off gullible followers. This time, O'Malley has launched a "Back to Africa" campaign for which he is soliciting funds. It's based on the absurd premise that he will be able to finance disgruntled Harlem residents back to the land of their ancestry. The hard-working, semi-impoverished locals end up donating $87,000 in cash but the rally is interrupted by a daring daytime robbery. An armored car filled with masked men armed with heavy weaponry descend upon the goings-on, loot the cash box and take off. They are pursued by two street-wise local cops, "Grave Digger" Jones (Godfrey Cambridge)  and his partner "Coffin" Ed Johnson (Raymond St. Jacques). Davis provides an exciting and colorful car chase through the streets of Harlem, as the cops fail to snag the robbers. They also discover that O'Malley has gone missing, leading them to believe that he orchestrated the heist himself so he could keep the proceeds raised at the rally. The plot becomes rather convoluted, as Jones and Johnson learn that a bale of cotton has arrived in Harlem and its somehow connected to the crime. They assume that the stolen money has been stashed in said cotton bale, which quickly changes hands among the most unsavory characters in the community. Getting in on the action is a white mob boss and his goons who are also trying to recover the cotton bale. The cotton itself is resented in Harlem because of its historical links to slavery and by the end of the film, the bale ends up in a stage show at the famed Apollo Theater where it is used as a prop in a bizarre production that involves historical observations about the black experience intermingled with a striptease act! Through it all, Jones and Johnson doggedly chase any number of people through the streets, engage in shoot-outs and car chases and come in and out of contact with Rev. O'Malley, who professes his innocence about being involved in the robbery. The Rev isn't so innocent when it comes to other unscrupulous activities such as chronically cheating on his long-suffering girlfriend Iris (Judy Pace) and manipulating other women in a variety of ways. 

The most delightful aspect of the film is the showcasing of some very diverse talents of the era. Godfrey Cambridge (who made it big as a stand-up comic) and Raymond St. Jacques enjoy considerable on-screen chemistry even if the script deprives them of the kind of witty dialogue that would have enhanced their scenes together. They make wisecracks all the time and harass some less-than-savory characters but the screenplay never truly capitalizes on Cambridge's comedic potential. The film's most impressive performance comes from Calvin Lockhart, who perfectly captures the traits of phony, larger-than-life "preachers". He's all flashy good looks, gaudy outfits and narcissistic behavior. Lockhart seems to be having a ball playing this character and the screen ignites every time he appears. There are some nice turns by other good character actors including pre-"Sanford and Son" Redd Foxx, who figures in the film's amusing "sting-in-the-tail" ending, John Anderson as the exasperated white captain of a Harlem police station that is constantly on the verge of being besieged by local activists, Lou Jacobi as a junk dealer, Cleavon Little as a local eccentric, J.D. Canon as a mob hit man and Dick Sabol as a goofy white cop who suffers humiliation from virtually everyone (which is sort of a payback for the decades in which black characters were routinely used as comic foils).  The film has a surprisingly contemporary feel about it, save for a few garish fashions from the 1970s. It's also rather nostalgic to hear genuine soul music peppered through the soundtrack in this pre-rap era. Happily, life has not imitated art in the years since the film was released. Harlem has been undergoing the kind of Renaissance that would have seemed unimaginable in 1970. The old glory has come back strong and the center of the neighorhood, 125th Street, is vibrant and thriving once again. These societal perspectives make watching "Cotton Comes to Harlem" enjoyable on an entirely different level than simply an amusing crime comedy.

(The film is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.)

BY LEE PFEIFFER

"Kill a Dragon", a 1967 action-adventure production from United Artists, is the perfect example of kind of film I've praised many times before. Namely, it's a low-budget flick designed for a fast playoff (perhaps as the second feature on double bills) and a modest profit. Often, as in this case, they were marketed with terrific movie posters that often promised more sex and violence than the films delivered. Studios thrived on such mid-range fare which inevitably employed actors in leading roles who would generally be playing supporting parts in more prestigious productions. They still enjoyed enough respect and name recognition to market the films successfully internationally. "Kill a Dragon" is based in an around Hong Kong and stars Jack Palance as Rick Masters (now there's a cinematic name for a hero), who is an American jack-of-all-trades who enjoys a laid-back lifestyle with his mistress, nightclub "hostess", Alizia Gur (who memorably squared off against Martine Beswick in the gypsy catfight in "From Russia with Love".) In the umpteenth Hollywood attempt to crib from the scripts of "Seven Samurai"/"The Magnificent Seven", Masters, who specializes in maritime salvage operations, is approached by peasants from an impoverished village. They inform him that recently a ship was grounded on their island and the crew deserted it because of its cargo: a gigantic load of highly volatile nitroglycerine. The peasants offer Masters a 50/50 split of the profits if he can smuggle the goods into Hong Kong and sell it on the black market. There is a catch, however. The nitro shipment is the property of Nico Patrai (Fernando Lamas), a local crime kingpin who warns the peasants to turn over the goods or have their village destroyed. Masters accepts the assignment and contacts his frequent collaborators: Vigo (Aldo Ray), who is now relegated to hosting bus excursions for tourists, Jimmy (Hans Lee), a local aspiring boxer and martial arts expert and his British manager, Ian (Don Knight). They are outnumbered and outgunned so they must use their instincts to outwit Patrai.

"Kill a Dragon" is the kind of goofy action flick that never takes itself very seriously. It opens with what is possibly the worst title song in the history of film and presents  Latin heartthrob Fernando Lamas as a Hong Kong crime lord without a word of explanation as to how he managed to arrange this. The film is laden with Bond-style quips and the fight scenes are pretty limp under the direction of Michael Moore. (Obviously, not that Michael Moore.) But there is a great deal of fun to be found in the film. The Hong Kong locations adds an exotic element and cinematographer Emmanuel L. Rojas makes the most of it, capturing the hustle and bustle of the city center and the serenity of the surrounding areas very effectively. Palance gives a low-key performance (for him, at least) and minimizes his tendencies to ham it up. Lamas is a villain in the Bondian style and its a pleasure to see him and Palance in the requisite scenes in which they banter with witticisms and civility even though they have marked each other for death. An unusual and pleasurable aspect of the movie is that all of the Asian characters are played by Asian actors, a rarity in 1967 and they are presented in a dignified manner.

I don't want to overstate the merits of "Kill a Dragon", as it's the epitome of a "B" movie and nothing more. However, if one approaches it with those expectations, you may well find it as enjoyable as I did.

Kino Lorber has released the film on Blu-ray, a significant upgrade to MGM's previous burn-to-order DVD. Quality is very good and the original trailer is included along with a gallery of other action films from KL.

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(Above: Her Majesty attends the London opening of "West Side Story" in 1962. The title of the film is never mentioned because the Queen could not be seen as making a commercial endorsement.) 

By Lee Pfeiffer

Queen Elizabeth was known to be an avid movie fan who looked forward to attending royal premieres. These were generally held at the famed Odeon Theatre in Leicester Square, London. However, she also attended the premiere of the first motion picture to be shown at the Royal Albert Hall, "Die Another Day", which marked the 40th anniversary of the James Bond franchise in 2002. Her Majesty had seen every Bond film, but supposedly favored the earlier ones because they weren't "as loud" as the more recent entries. Indeed, she even participated in that surrealistic 007-themed sketch that was seen as the opener of the London Olympics, "co-starring" with Daniel Craig. On occasion, Her Majesty would also visit film sets, much to the delight of cast and crew.

The Queen's appeal was universal. I'm an American but I felt a connection to her, possibly more than most of my countrymen because I've spent so much time in England since the mid-1990s. In 2002, her attendance at the Royal Premiere for "Die Another Day" and later, "Casino Royale" in 2006, reminded me that no one does opulent and impressive events as well as the Brits. The premieres are always very special occasions with tuxedos and gowns mandatory as a dress code. But when Her Majesty was in attendance, it was all the more special. Audiences have to be seated a full hour before her arrival- no exceptions. When Her Majesty arrived, it was telecast on the big screen so that the audience could enjoy seeing her being introduced to the cast and crew by the producers. When she entered the auditorium, Royal trumpeters took to the stage in their traditional regalia to announce the Queen had entered the auditorium. It was always a moving and unforgettable moment. Her presence was enough to lure Lord Richard Attenborough to the stage before the premiere of "Casino Royale". Pure movie magic made all the more special by the Queen's attendance. 

Her Majesty greets actress Diane Cilento and husband Sean Connery at the 1967 premiere of "You Only Live Twice".

The Queen's taste for popular culture was well-known and wasn't restricted to upper-crust fare. In his autobiography, Dick Van Dyke recalls attending the premiere of "You Only Live Twice" and being introduced to her by producer Cubby Broccoli as she made her way down the line of dignitaries and engaged in a few seconds of small talk with each person. Van Dyke was shocked when she told him how much she and her family had always enjoyed watching his weekly TV sitcom. Thus, in the end, she was a woman of privilege and vast wealth- but she never lost her touch when it came to relating to people from all aspects of society. In that sense, she belonged to everyone and that is why everyone today is sincerely mourning her passing.

RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Criterion has released a dual format Blu-ray/DVD edition of director Michael Mann's 1981 crime thriller Thief starring James Caan. It's a highly impressive film on many levels, especially when one considers this was Mann's big screen feature debut. He had previously directed the acclaimed 1979 TV movie The Jericho Mile, which was set in Folsom Prison. Mann was inspired by his interaction with the world of convicts and wrote the screenplay for Thief, which is credited as being based on author Frank Hohimer's novel The Home Invaders, but he maintains virtually none of the source material ended up on screen. The story centers on Frank (James Caan), a bitter man with a troubled past. As a child he was raised in state-run homes before being sent to jail for a petty crime. Inside prison, he committed violent acts in order to defend himself but this only resulted in lengthier jail terms. By the time he has been released, he has spent half of his life behind bars.

While in jail, Frank befriended Okla (Willie Nelson), a older man and master thief who is doing a life sentence. He becomes Frank's mentor and father figure and teaches him the tools of the trade. When Frank is finally released, he becomes a master at his craft, which is pulling off seemingly impossible heists of cash and diamonds. Before long, he has become a legend in his field. As a cover, Frank runs a major used car dealership and a small bar. However, he realizes that his luck will certainly run out at some point and he is determined to retire after making a few more high end scores. He works with a small team consisting of two confederates (James Belushi, Willam LaValley) who are also pros in gaining access to seemingly impenetrable vaults. The headstrong Frank wants to also settle down and raise a family. He makes an awkward introduction to Jessie (Tuesday Weld), an equally head strong, down-on-her luck character who nevertheless becomes smitten by him and ends up marrying him. The couple face frustration, however, when their attempts to adopt a baby are thwarted by Frank's criminal record. Frank is ultimately approached by Leo (Robert Prosky), a local crime lord who entices him to stop working independently and pull off a high profile heist for a fortune in diamonds. Frank rejects the offer but eventually he relents, though he is reluctant to work with a new partner. Leo has managed to break through Frank's cynicism by showering him with praise the benefits of his influence, which include arranging for Frank  and Jessie to illegally adopt the baby they want so desperately. The lure of being able to retire after this one huge score leads Frank to go against his better judgment and he agrees to work for Leo on this one big job. The diamonds are located in a vault so secure that it would seem to be better suited for Fort Knox.  In order to break in, Frank and his team must use highly sophisticated drills and other equipment that would rival the top gear used by any branch of the military. On the verge of realizing his greatest score, however, things go terribly wrong on any number of levels. Frank, seeing his world crumble around him, goes on a violent rampage of destruction and self-destruction.

Thief is a highly stylized movie that moves at a rapid clip and features one of James Caan's strongest performances. The problem, however, is that the character of Frank is so obnoxious, he is difficult to relate to. Peckinpah, Scorsese and Coppola always had a knack for making disreputable characters seem appealing, but Frank is nasty, arrogant and self-centered. This is certainly realistic, given the bitter feelings he has toward society, but the viewer never warms to him in any meaningful way. He is only sympathetic because the people he deals with are so much worse. Nevertheless, Thief is a crackling good yarn that boasts some fine performances especially by Tuesday Weld and character actor Robert Prosky, who is brilliant in a scene-stealing role. Willie Nelson's screen time is very limited but he makes effective use of his two scenes. The film features superb cinematography by Donald E. Thorin, who made his debut here as Director of Cinematography. His night sequences on the rain-slicked streets of Chicago evoke visions of neon-lit nightmare. The film features an electronic score by Tangerine Dream, the band that provided the memorable music for Willliam Friedkin's Sorcerer. Strangely, their score for that films holds up well but their work in Thief comes across as a bit monotonous and dated. The film's ultra-violent conclusion is exciting but rather cliched with Frank turning into yet another pissed- off screen hero who decides to take down all of his enemies in an orgy of shootouts and destruction. (I know it sounds petty but I can never accept such sequences when they are set in urban neighborhoods in which no one ever seems to call the police even as houses explode and machine gun fire is sprayed all over the place.). The film excels, however, in the break-in sequences which are superbly directed and feature camerawork that make the crime scene look like an attraction from Disney World, with fireworks-like sparks filling the air. 

The Criterion Blu-ray transfer is superb on every level.  Extras, which are carried over to the DVD, include a commentary track by Michael Mann and James Caan that was recorded in 1995. There are also fresh video interviews with both men that are rather candid. (Caan, who has worked consistently through his career, modestly says "I was rather popular at one time" in reference to his work on the film. Mann says he is still debating in his mind whether he regrets using Tangerine Dream's score.) There is also an interview with Johannes Schmoelling of the band, who discusses working with Mann to create the score. An original trailer is included as is a nicely illustrated booklet with an informative essay by film critic Nick James. 

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