Gorilla Of My Dreams

This is my first entry in the It's In the Name of the Title Blogathon hosted by Realweegiemidget Reviews and Taking Up Room

 Way back in the early 2000's, I was in the habit of ordering a pizza on Saturday nights.  On one occasion the pizza place I did business with had a deal.  Pizza and a Movie.  What the deal was, you order a large pizza and along with it came a DVD of some movie,

They only did it a few times. It probably wasn't all that profitable. You didn't get a big budget gonzo movie. To be honest, the ones I got in those deals were public domain movies that I could have gotten anywhere on multi-disc sets for a few dollars.  I only have two of them, now, 20 years later.  One was Abbott and Costello meet the Mummy, (which came with a bonus episode of the TV show The Munsters, so it must've been a Halloween promotion.) The same thing could probably be said about today's movie. 

...I mean Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla? Just Lugosi's name suggests horror.  Unfortunately for Lugosi, he got typecast, although given the career he had under that typecast, I would have been happy with it, even if, as I have heard, he wasn't necessarily so happy. But at any rate, even if it wasn't for Halloween, it was a decent bonus to go along with pizza.

The DVD itself, I mean, not necessarily the movie on it.  But, as I've said before, I enjoy low budget trash as much as those huge budget epics, sometimes even more so. I like pushing the envelope and see if I can get a reaction from people.  

A few of the movies I've reviewed over the course of the history of this blog fall into a category of what I would call "Really??? That's your movie choice?"  (I can imagine the consternation of some of my fellow bloggers with the choices I came up with to join heir blogathons.)

Case in point.  A few years ago I posted a review of a double feature: Billy the Kid vs. Dracula and Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter  (both directed by the same guy who directed today's feature, BTW). Neither of these movies would be on the radar of most people (in fact, most people have probably never even HEARD of them).

So back to the focus of today. Some interesting tidbits of trivia:  Sammy Petrillo, half of the comedy duo of Petrillo and Duke Mitchell, got his start because Jerry Lewis saw him perform and liked the almost dead-on imitation of Lewis that Petrillo had perfected and gave him his first role (as a baby version of Jerry Lewis on his own TV show}.  But apparently there was a falling out at some point, because by the time this movie came out, Lewis was ready to sue over the obvious similarity between the two characters and his and Dean Martin's comedy pairings.

William Beaudine, famously referred to as "One Take Beaudine" for his tendency to stay on budget by going with the first take of filming no matter how bad, is often ranked with Ed Wood as one of the worst directors to ever come out of Hollywood (Make room, Ed...). He had a huge career. From 1915 until 1970 he directed over 400 movies.  None of which are all that memorable. He did direct a slew of movies featuring The Bowery Boys, so those who are interested in 40's and 50's comedies may have seen his films (albeit maybe not know it was him behind the camera...)

Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla was one of the movies that Martin Landau watched to get a feel for Bela Lugosi in preparation for his role as the actor in Tim Burton's biopic of Ed Wood. Landau commented on Beaudine's film that it was "so bad it makes Ed Wood films look like Gone with the Wind. " (Ouch!) 

Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952):

First thing you notice in this film is the title sequence. After the movie title it lists the cast. "Introducing Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo" comes immediately after the title, followed by a list of the rest of the cast that merited getting listed, including the major roles played by Charlita as Nona and even Ramona as Ramona (the chimp).

Missing from the cast list is Bela's name... Wait a minute! I thought this was Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla... Is Lugosi not in it? Well, you get his name in the title, so maybe that counts for saying "Starring Bela Lugosi"...

The movie opens with one of those old-style documentary featurettes, featuring some stock footage of jungle creatures and a voice over: "This is the jungle..." which ends with the camera on two bearded men lying on the jungle floor while the announcer says "Who are these men? What can they possibly be doing in this cruel tropical wildness?"

The men are Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo (playing themselves), a comedy/singing duo who were on their way to do a show for Armed Services personnel, but end up on the jungle floor.  Waiting to be discovered by... what else... jungle natives. 

Duke and Sammy

The head medicine man (Milton Newberger) is insisting that they kill them (At least, that's what I think "hoo li ga vahntay" and slicing his hand across his throat means...) But the two have a savior in the person of the daughter of the chief, Rakos (Al Kikume) of the tribe who doesn't want them to be killed (OK, so that is what the medicine man is insisting..) Instead they get cleaned up and shaved.

Upon awakening, the two introduce themselves to their savior, Nona (Charlita) and the rest of the tribe. And the real reason that Nona has saved them from sacrifice becomes evident... she has the hots for Duke.  And her baby sister, Saloma (Muriel Landers), has a likewise attraction to Sammy,

Nona and Rakos

Saloma

Dean and Jerry, I mean Duke and Sammy, perform a song from their act for the tribe, with Duke singing one of the two songs featured in the film, " 'Deed I Do".  But they want to get off the island and back to civilization.  Fortunately (coincidentally..) for them, Nona works part time helping a scientist on the other side of the island, Dr. Zabor (Bela).  

Dr Zabor

Seems that Dr. Zabor is working on some experiments in the science of evolution.  And (plot point that drives the last half of the film) Zabor also has the hots for Nona. (Of course, he does.) So Nona takes Duke and Sammy to meet the Doctor.  Who lives in a fairly creepy mansion on the other side of the island with his native manservant, Chula (Mickey Simpson).  Nona is not only acquainted with Dr. Zabor, she also works part time  as his laboratory assistant.  (Which explains how the doc has become so enamored with Nona, she's always hanging around his lab doing assistant things.

Zabor has a monkey named Ramona, who is probably a potential victim of his nefarious experiments in the future.  Ramona takes an immediate shine to Sammy, but Sammy, of course, does not consider Ramona to be much of  an improvement over Saloma...

The first thing that Zabor notices about the two is Nona seems to have an interest in Duke, which makes Zabor a little jealous... (A little?)  So since the doc has his secret experiments on the study of evolution (you know the science that says man was originally a variation of the ape in it's past), he decides to use his knowhow to eliminate the competition.

How?  His experiments have been on how to reverse evolution.  Or at least that's what his ultimate goal is.  He experiments first on Ramona (I told you see was going to be a victim...)  He injects Ramona  with is serum and ends up with a monkey that has reverted to an earlier life form.  He tells Chula that now he can turn a man into a gorilla.  But don't worry Chula, he has another victim in mind to test out this serum...

But the problem is that the serum he used on Ramona did not last, and before he can show off the results of his success, Ramona has reverted back to her normal self.  (And, see, all those tears you were crying for poor Ramona turn out to be tears too soon...)

The terror is only just beginning however.  Remember how I said Zabor wanted Nona for himself and was getting a little peeved that Duke was getting somewhere with her when he couldn't?
  Well he gets Chula to kidnap Duke and, while Sammy and Nona have gone back to the village to look for him, Duke is stuck in Zabor's cages, having been injected with Zabor's new and improved serum. Which is a resounding success.  Duke is transformed into a gorilla, played, as usual, by that whiz who made his living doing gorillas in the 50's movies; Ray Corrigan. I think it was his suit, so it was probably in the contract that he would be the one to wear it... (You didn't REALLY think it was a REAL gorilla, did you...?)

When Nona and Sammy return. Zabor tries to convince that the gorilla is really Ramona.  But Sammy eventually becomes convinced otherwise.  See, even though Duke has become a gorilla physically, he still retains the mind and intelligence of Duke and takes various steps to try to convey the situation to Sammy.  Which may take a bit of effort, since Sammy is a couple of marbles short of a hopscotch game.

While trying to figure out how to resolve the situation another gorilla appears on the scene. The new gorilla turns out to be a female gorilla whose hormones go into overdrive on seeing Duke.  The two manage to escape and get back to the tribe, but they have been followed by Zabor, who has his eyes set on killing Duke.  Sammy jumps in front of duke to save him, but the doctor ends up shooting Sammy instead.

And then, in the classic ending, it all turns out to be a dream. Sammy dreamt the whole thing and everyone he knows was actually a part of the dream (shades of The Wizard of Oz!!), which it turns out he was having while waiting to go onstage with Duke as part of their act.  Nona and the chief were an act that involved, apparently, a trainer and her gorilla, which was actually the chief in a gorilla costume. Chula is apparently a bouncer.  And the guy who is in charge of the theater? None other than Zabor. 

The End.  And since there are no closing credits, Bela is STILL not credited as having been a part of the movie....

Folks, this is one of those films that requires that you leave your brain at the box office and just go in with only your eyes, because you won't need the rest of your body.  Entertaining?  On one level, yes.  But if you are a big fan of the Martin/Lewis pairing, you may have some issues with the more than obvious imitation by Petrillo trying to do Lewis. Which may convince you that Lewis had a good reason to get annoyed by the act.  Of course, this kind of thing couldn't have much to keep it afloat.  Sammy only had 5 roles in movies and Duke only had 9 and as near as I can tell, this was the only one that paired them together.

After this movie, Bela Lugosi was only able to get work with Ed Wood.  Only 4 movies before he passed away and three were with Wood.  A sad ending for man who had a great career scaring the bejeebers out of people for years in his heyday. 

Well, time to get the next boat out of the theater and get back to civilization.  Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

   .

Blondes Have More Bad Vibes

 

 

 

 

 

This is my entry in the Hammer-Amicus Blogathon hosted by Realweegiemidget Reviews and Cinematic Catharsis.

 

 

 

 

The blonde woman has always been a fixation for the adult male. Blondes get all the good stuff in life, hence the phrase "Blondes have more fun."  But when it comes to film noir, the opposite can also be a standard trope.  Look at how many blondes are the source of a downfall for the main male character in classic noir films.  

Cora (Lana Turner) in The Postman Always Rings Twice? Blonde.  Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck) in Double Indemnity? Blonde.  Elsa (Rita Hayworth) in The Lady from Shanghai? Blonde. (Note: Blonde was not always the actress' natural color, sometimes, but they were blonde in these roles.)

One could get the idea that blondes are bad news. And if you find yourself involved in the plot line of a film noir, it's probably a good idea to steer clear of any blonde women.  Not that that advice would be observed by most of the male protagonists in them.

Hammer films were no stranger to this trope during their period of producing noir style films.  Of course, most people who think of Hammer Films will naturally first come up with "Oh, yeah! Those people who made the Christopher Lee / Peter Cushing horror movies!" But that's not the entire output from Hammer Studios.

I won't rehash what I've already written once. If you want to see a little more see my post Hammer Films Does Film Noir .  Both of these films were released in the UK under different titles, hence the "a.k.a." after the titles below.

Bad Blonde (1953): (a.k.a. The Flanagan Boy)

The American title, Bad Blonde, is much more conducive to drawing in the crowd that wanted to see film noir.  The Flangan Boy??? What kind of viewing crowd would THAT draw?  Sounds more like a title for a melodrama than a gritty noir.  But American promoters knew better and renamed it.

The opening music is pretty much a noir type, however.  The music was done by Ivor Staney, who mostly did film noir type movies over his brief career.  

The movie starts at a carnival where a huckster named Sharkey (Sid James) is trying to entice amateurs to go one round of boxing with one of his boxing stars.  He has a ringer in the audience, but the ringer is tripped on his way to the ring and Johnny Flanagan (Tony Wright) steps up to take his place.

 

 

 

After Johnny takes down Sharkey's boxer, Sharkey realizes that Johnny is not entirely the "amateur" he promotes himself as.  In steps Charlie Sullivan (John Slater) who is Johnny's own promoter. 

 

 

 

Together, Johnny, Sharkey and Sullivan decide that making a full-fledged  fighter out of Johnny is a good idea.  They need a backer, however, so they take him to see Giuseppe Vecci ( Frederick Valk).  Giuseppe has a trophy wife, Lorna (Barbara Payton) {the "Bad Blonde" of the title.}  

 

 

 

Lorna has the hots for Johnny and has no scruples about seducing the young boy.  She initially puts up a front, at least in front of her husband. Johnny intimates that he doesn't want her watching him and she harrumphs with one of the best lines in the movie "Tellyour boy not to flatter himself.  I've seen better bodies hanging in a butcher shop."

But is it all just a front?  Not long after, Giuseppe, upset that his new boy and his wife aren't getting along, he invites Johnny to his birthday party, where Giuseppe gets rip-roaring drunk and stumbles around trying to dance with his  wife. Really he has two left feet (or is just too drunk to stand) he gets Johnny to dance with her.  Not long after, the gloves come off (and not just the boxing gloves.

A romance develops with Johnny and Lorna, and, as so often happens in noir film, they both decide they would be better off if Giuseppe wasn't around to hamper the affair. Well, at least Lorna does. Johnny, still a good fellow at heart, doesn't want anything to do with it.  Until Lorna informs him that she is pregnant.  She doesn't have to tell him who the father is.

So Johnny reluctantly agrees to help remove Giuseppe from the scene.  He hides aboard Giuseepe's fishing boat and when Giuseppe goes out to fish, Johnny manages to engineer a drowning.  Since everyone knows Giuseppe can't swim, it looks like an accident.

Of course, if that were all, Johnny and Lorna could life "happily" ever after.  Unfortunately, his mama shows up from Italy. And mama knows more than anyone would think, including the fact that Lorna is not really pregnant.

Johnny is distraught over the whole thing. And decides to cure his depression in that age-old solution that many come to (unfortunately).  But Sharkey and Charlie have their own way of getting revenge on Lorna,

This is a fairly straightforward remake of many film noir films that were made before it.  And not entirely better acted, at that.  It follows mostly along the same lines as The Postman Always Rings Twice. Although you can't blame Tony Wright for not being up to par with John Garfield, I think Barbara Payton could have given Lana Turner a run for her money.  Unfortunately alcoholism cut her career short.  She died at age 39 from heart failure brought on by her addiction.

 

 

 

Man Bait aka The Last Page (1952):

 

Man Bait had one of the most unbelievable subplots of any movie I have ever seen.  Maybe in the 1950's it might have been shocking and possibly scandalous to kiss a woman who was not your wife. Just kiss her... not even have any more intimate contact than that...  But the plot stems from just that one encounter.

Anyway, the plot revolves around a woman, Ruby (Diana Dors), who is probably the most irresponsible woman in London.  She works at a book store and is notoriously late for work every day. Her supervisor, Mr. Oliver (Raymond Huntley) reprimands her and even approaches the big boss, Mr. Harman (George Brent) to have a talk with her.

 

 

 

 

After the reprimand, a customer walks in to the shop and, while he thinks no one is looking, attempts to steal a rare book from a case on which he picks the lock.  Ruby spots Jeff (Peter Reynolds) and makes him put the book back.  But instead of reporting him, she accepts a date with him after work.

 

 

 

 

Later, Ruby ends up having to work late with Mr. Harman.  In a moment of contact with Ruby, Harman impulsively kisses Ruby.

 

 

 

Jeff is the unscrupulous sort, and, in case it wasn't obvious, is not averse to using any means to get money.  So when Ruby tells him that Mr. Harman kissed her, Jeff concocts a plan to extort money from Harman, or else have Ruby inform his wife of the indiscretion.

Of course, even with the blackmail, it's not enough.  Jeff sends a letter, purportedly from Ruby, to inform Harman's wife.  But his wife (Isabel Dean), an invalid, ends up dying while trying to burn the letter.  A confrontation occurs between Harman and Ruby and later, Jeff appears in the shop demanding all the money Ruby had extorted from Harman.  He also ends up inadvertently killing Ruby and stashes her in a crate of books being shipped.  

Harman discovers the body first as in on the run.  Suspicion immediately falls on Harman when the police discover the body later.  Harman enlists the help of his secretary (Marguerite Chapman) to find out the truth as to who killed Ruby.

Except for the unrealistic attempt at blackmail (surely a better path could have been written.), the intrigue involved in the discovery of the real culprit has some good film noir scenes, and overall it is a pretty good example of acting from the main cast members.  

I like the idea of setting the film in a bookstore.  There are a couple of problems with these scenes that do stand out, though.  This is not a chain store bookstore on the same business level as, say Barnes and Noble.  It's just a local bookstore, so having what looks like about 12 employees on duty does not seem all that believable from an economic standpoint.

The other thing is that Ruby seems to have a history of being late to work.  Are the employers that desperate for help that they can continue to let her stay?  She has obviously been doing it for some time, you see.  Even if I had a hot woman like Ruby as an employee I doubt I would have let her last as long as she seems to have been doing.

Overall, I would not give this film as high a rating as it has. (IMDb rates this one higher than the previous entry, Bad Blonde...)  I think Bad Blonde is a better picture.  But both are fairly good given that they are British attempts at a mostly American genre.

 

Well, the old Plymouth is up and running, so it's time to head home.

Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

Never Trust a Martian

This is my first entry in the Beyond Star Trek blogathon hosted by Hamlette's Soliloquy and Me

So is it kismet that one of Leonard Nimoy's first appearances on the screen was as an alien?  No, not as Spock.  15 years before that iconic role Nimoy played a Martian (zombie) in the 12 part serial Zombies of the Stratosphere.

Nimoy had a rocky start to his career before Star Trek.  He got the title role in Kid Monk Baroni, but that film failed at the box office, so Nimoy made a decision to just take whatever he could get, which usually resulted in his being an "also-ran" in the credits.  Of course, when Star Trek went into production he was in the title credits, albeit behind William Shatner, but before that you would have been hard pressed to notice his name in the credits.

In particular with Zombies, Nimoy's name only appears third in the list of the secondary characters, behind the 5 primary stars that appear in the first on screen credits.  And Nimoy (as Narab) is basically just a gofer in the film.  For most of the 12 part serial his sole line is usually just "Yes, sir" to the orders of Marex, the leader of the Martian entourage.  But even with that secondary status you can't miss Nimoy's face, and voice.

"Zombies" by the way, is a misnomer.  There are no real zombies, not ones you would think of anyway.  Even the 50's version of zombies.  In fact, you never even hear the Martians referred to as "zombies" until the final reel. But then, as we will see, the Martians are a sci-fi substitute for a much closer "alien" force which many in the West probably considered "zombies" in the 50's.

Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952):

As a group of government agents (Inter-Planetary Patrol) watch, an alien spaceship enters Earth's atmosphere.

Since they don't have any idea of it's intentions Larry Martin ( Judd Holdren) is dispatched to check it out.  Why Larry?  Because he has a spacesuit with rockets attached to his back.  (Note:  Although he is never called Commander Cody in this film, the outfit is almost an exact replica of the one used by that character in other films.  In fact, this was supposed to be a sequel to Radar Men from the Moon, but apparently some snafu involving a projected TV series starring Commander Cody caused the people in charge to have to change the name).

Before Larry can get to the ship though, Marex (Lane  Bradford) and his assistant Narab (Leonard Nimoy) have unloaded some supplies and take off with a couple of nefarious goons who met them at the landing site.  Marex and Narab go to a local (mad) scientist's lab/house where Dr.Harding (Stanley Waxman) is the go-to contact.

The Martians have a plan.  You see, the climate on Mars is pretty shabby.  So the Martians want to build an H-bomb which, when strategically planted, will blow the Earth out of it's orbit, thus allowing Mars to take its place in the Earth's orbit.  (And if you have trouble with the logic of that, you are probably in the wrong theater...)  They want Dr. Harding to help them in their construction of the H-bomb.

So why do they think Harding will be a willing participant?  Well, Harding has been selling state secrets to a competing power (Russia?) and the Martians threaten to reveal his shenanigans if he doesn't cooperate.  (See, even on Mars they understand the concept of "blackmail"...)

The Martians and their Earthling cohorts proceed to try various attempts at hijacking shipments of uranium.  One gets the idea that uranium wasn't all that much of a high priority item as these shipments didn't have hordes of armed forces personnel assigned to guard them.  (But then if they did, Larry Martin and his jet suit would have been pretty much an after thought, if not an unwanted presence. )

Over the course of the 12 part serial we get the typical "cliffhanger", scenes where Larry or one of his associates is trapped and apparently rides off to their death, only to have the next episode reveal some incredible luck to have them survive to fight anther day.

The only real question throughout the entire serial is why only two guys and one girl are involved in the desperate struggle to keep the Martians from fulfilling their nefarious plans.  Are we dependent only on one guy in a jet pack and a few pistols to save the Earth?  (And there is another question.  If the Martians are so advanced, why don't they have ray guns?  Even the Martians resort to primitive pistols.  And none of them are good shots.... I think only one person in the entire serial takes a bullet, but there must have been close to a hundred fired over the course of the serial.)

Probably the funniest part of the serial (though it probably wasn't INTENDED to be funny) is the appearance of a robot.  The robot has some laser powered arms, but on several occasions it just fights with its fists like the rest of the cast.

Although the villain in the film are Martians, this film could have easily subsituted Russians for the Martians and not suffered too much.  To be sure, the plot to switch the orbit of Mars with Earth might have had to be altered somewhat, but then again, the underlying plot was not much more  ridiculous than some of the plots to any James Bond film.  So maybe SMERSH (a frequent James Bond nemesis) could have planned it and was going to colonize Mars with its "New Order".

One must take into consideration when watching this or virtually any other serial that the potential audience for them was mostly kids.  You didn't really need a coherent plot, just losts of fist fights and gun play and an eventual triumph by the heroes.

Personally I'm an advocate for the return of the serial.  I think it would be an improvement on the theater experience.

Well, folks time to fire up the jet packs.  Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

The Day the Academy Lost Its Mind

This is my entry in the 31 Days of Oscars Blogathon hosted by Outspoken and Freckled, Once Upon a Screeen and Paula's Cinema Club

The Best Picture award is always given to the best film of the year, right?  Not necessarily.  Arguments have been made for how better movies were passed over for the one that actually won.  As I told Kellee when I signed up, I always thought "Goodfellas" should have won instead of "Dances with Wolves", and although part of that has to do with my intense dislike of Kevin Costner, I must point out that I am not alone in the idea that Goodfellas was the better movie.  There is a large contingent of people out there that agree with me on that subject.

There are plenty of others that have their devotees who think the wrong movie got the award.  Some I agree with (Going My Way over Double Indemnity?  Ordinary People better than Raging Bull?  Titanic was greater than L.A. Confidential? I could go on but those are three of my top issues.  I concede the argument whether Star Wars was better than Annie Hall, but I think ALL of the movies in the 1976 category were better than Annie Hall...)

One of the biggest Oscar snubs of its history, however, would have to be how two fantastic movies, The Quiet Man and High Noon, got passed over for Cecil B. DeMille's melodrama of circus life, The Greatest Show on Earth.  Why DeMille's extravaganza won while two decidedly better movies were passed over is a mystery to me.  I can only imagine that since DeMille had been around since the beginning of time (or at least the beginning of cinema) and was only now getting recognition by the Academy that the voters voted for it for old time's sake.  Or maybe the fact that it was the biggest moneymaker for the year of 1952.  (Of course, that no longer means much in Oscar decisions.  If that were the case Terminator 2 would have been up for consideration, and surely no one thought it was Oscar worthy... But maybe it was true in the 50's, I don't know).

The Greatest Show on Earth revolved around, just in case the title didn't give it away, the circus.  (Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey's Circus has that appellation as their motto.)  Like most other extravaganza's of the day, this revolved around multiple characters and, at least in this case, some of the cheesiest melodrama ever to grace the screen.

As far as the acting goes, I guess the best example of how substandard it was is the fact that none, not even one, of the actors and actresses were nominated for an Oscar that year.  Is it because there were way too many to choose from?  I highly doubt it.  And its not as if they were nobodies... You had Charlton Heston, Cornel Wilde, Dorothy Lamour, Betty Hutton, and even Jimmy Stewart in it.  But none of them really pulls off anything better than what you might find on General Hospital.  Which basically this film is, a soap opera on the big screen.

The film was also up for best director, but fortunately clearer heads prevailed and the statuette went to John Ford for The Quiet Man.  (Best Actor went to Gary Cooper for High Noon, so at least the Academy didn't go completely bonkers that year.)  But I'd like to touch upon the two better movies that lost the Best Picture Award to this clunker.

High Noon (1952):

High Noon was a Western with a message. The message is that a man must stand up for what he believes is right, despite the fact that everyone seems against his decision.  Some people, including John Wayne, thought that the movie was a parable denouncing the HUAC's stance against former and current people in Hollywood with Communist leanings, although the director, Fred Zinnemann, insisted that this was not the case.

Marshall Will Kane (Gary Cooper) has just married his love, Amy (Grace Kelly), a Quaker who has convinced Will to hang up his guns and step down as Marshall.  But unbeknownst to him, three gunmen from a gang whose leader, Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), have just ridden into town.  The three gunmen (Sheb Wooley, Lee van Cleef and Robert J. Wilke)  are awaiting the arrival of their leader who has been pardoned by the governor and is en route to the town to take revenge on Will. who was instrumental in sending him to prison in the first place.

Will and Amy are encouraged to skeedaddle before the arrival of the train, and initially they do so.  But on the way out of town, Will's conscience and determination takes over and he heads back to town to face destiny.  He tries to get people to help him, trying to form a posse to defend the town, but he runs up against a group who just want to let things be.

Primarily working against him is his former deputy, Harvey Pell (Lloyd Bridges), who resents the fact that Will didn't stand up for him in his attempt to take over as Marshall.  Pell walks out on Will after throwing down his badge.  Will also runs into problems with a former lover, Helen Ramirez (Katy Jurado).  Helen tells Amy that if she had married Will, she would not desert him in his time of need, which amy seems determined to do.

The town is divided into two courts, some who disapproved of Kane's actions with Miller (friends of the outlaw) and some who are worried that the whole town may suffer as a result of the feud between Miller and the Marshall.  He cannot get anybody to help, not even the town's leaders.

Eventually Miller arrives and a showdown begins as Will faces the four alone.  You surely don't need me to tell you how the movie ends, but I think you may just be surprised at one or two of the events that occur before the final denouement.

  
The Quiet Man (1952):

John Wayne movies were notoriously shubbed over the years, and much of it probably had to do with his politics.  For years the political view in Hollywood has been of a liberal bent and Wayne was a staunch conservative.  He was quoted once in an interview that he was proud of the fact that he had helped run Carl Foreman, the writer of the previous movie in this entry, out of Hollywood because of Foreman's Communist connections.

But his politics must be viewed separately from his acting, (as should anybody), when it comes to awards such as the Oscars.  In actuality that is not always the case, but I am an idealist by nature, and I have a view that the best person should get the laurels even if I don't agree with his outlook on life.  (On a personal note, I think Scientology is a whack-job religion, but I would not have let that affect my voting on Best Actor and would have given John Travolta my vote for best actor in Pulp Fiction.)

The Quiet Man begins with Sean Thornton (John Wayne)  arriving in Ireland.  Thornton is a man on the run from the past (although you only get hints of it until about midway through the movie).  Thornton was originally born in Ireland but moved to America at an early age.  He grew up in America and became a prize fighter, and it is an event in his life as a fighter that has brought him to leave America.

His first goal is to acquire his birth home.  The cottage and land is owned by a wealthy widow, Sarah Tillane (Mildred Natwick), and Thornton has a competitor in wanting to acquire the land, Will Danaher (Victor Maclaglen), a local squire.  Thornton outbids him, but the widow probably would have sold it to him anyway because she doesn't really like Will.

Thornton becomes infatuated with a redhead woman he sees who turns out to be Will's sister, Mary Kate (Maureen O'Hara).  At first, as is the custom in Ireland, brother Will refuses to let Thornton court his sister, because he is still miffed over the slight in the contest to buy the land, but the town's residents conspire to convince Will that the widow, with whom Will is infatuated, will marry him if his sister is no longer in the house.

Once Will finds out the truth, after the marriage, he refuses to give Mary Kate her dowry.  Mary Kate wants Thornton to fight her brother for the dowry, but he refuses, since the reason he left the States in the first place was because he accidentally killed a man in the boxing ring.  The towspeople convince Will to release Mary Kate's furniture, but stilL refuses to give her her dowry, and Mary Kate refuses to allow Thornton to consummate their marriage as a result.

It all boils down to an ultimate donnybrook in the town between Thornton and Will.  The final knock down drag out is the highlight of the film.

So which movie do I feel should have won the Oscar?  Well, my love of John Wayne movies would suggest that I chose The Quiet Man, but you may be surprised to learn that I think High Noon is the better movie, despite the fact that my hero hated it.

Time to sail the old Plymouth back to the cottage, now.  Drive home safely.

Quiggy