Why the 60s Was the Greatest Decade for War Films

 

 

This is my entry in the 6 from the 60's blogathon hosted by Classic Film and TV Cafe


"War is man's greatest adventure" - Ernest Hemingway

War movies have been around ever since the invention of movies.  It may not have been among the first subjects. After all, a decent war flick does involve a bit more than some slapdash makeup to create a Frankenstein monster, or even to create the illusion of traveling to the moon.  But take it as fact, once the concept of motion pictures took off, quite naturally the adventure of war became a target to transfer to the screen.

I can't actually tell you what the first war movie was.  I gave up trying to find a website that would tell me.  But as early as 1911, war was depicted on film.  The Fall of Troy, a 1911 short film from the silent era seems to be one of the first, however.

Over the years, war became increasingly a good draw at the box office.  Some of the classics would have to include (regardless of political messages they may have had):  Birth of a Nation (1915), Battleship Potemkin (1925), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Sergeant York (1941), From Here to Eternity (1953), Patton (1970), Platoon (1986), Gettysburg (1993), Black Hawk Down (2001) and Fury (2014).

(Author's Note:  For brevity, I only chose one movie from each decade.  This is not necessarily the best movie, just my choice as a representative of the decade. If a movie you favor was not chosen, it does not mean I think it's less than the one I actually chose. Your opinion may differ.)

You will notice, of course, that the 60's are missing from the above list.  That's because, in my opinion, the 60's were the best decade for war films.  The primary subject for war films during this time period, of course, was for the then fairly recent conflict of WWII.  The one we actually could hold our heads high and proudly state "We won!"

Of course, it didn't hurt that some of the biggest names in show business were associated with these films.  I mean look at the cast listing of the six movies I am using as a representative:  Stanley Baker, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, James Coburn, Sean Connery, Vince Edwards, Henry Fonda, James Garner, William Holden, Trevor Howard, Lee Marvin, Steve McQueen, David Niven, Gregory Peck, Donald Pleasence, Anthony Quinn, Cliff Robertson, Frank Sinatra, Rod Steiger and John Wayne, just to name a few.  Plus you had such stalwart directors as Robert Aldrich, John Sturges and Daryl F. Zanuck behind the camera.

Of course, the following six are only a representative of the whole decade, not necessarily the unanimous best.  They are some of my favorites, of course, but as you will see, I also chose these six because I have already reviewed them in depth in other posts on this blog.  Some of the others not included, but well worth checking out from the 60's output of war films are:  The Alamo (1960), The Battle of Britain (1969), Battle of the Bulge (1965), The Green Berets (1968), Hell in the Pacific (1968), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Sand Pebbles (1966), Where Eagles Dare (1968), and Zulu (1964). (Still an incomplete list, but it will get you started.)

My favorite war movie of the 60's is not one that involves actual war action.  I consider The Great Escape  (1963) to be the best of the bunch, however.  It is actually based on a true story about the planning of and escape from a Nazi P.O.W. camp near the end of WWII (based on an account written by one of the P.O.W.s who witnessed the events, Paul Brickhill).  The all-star cast makes this an intriguing movie.  The ending is somewhat of a downer, I warn you in advance.  I won't spoil the ending more than that, but watching the likes of McQueen, Bronson, Garner, Coburn and the like as they plan the escape is rather riveting.  As a side note, I used to call my folks every week when they were still alive, and I would play this movie without the sound in the background as I talked with them. (It helped me focus on the conversations, believe it or not...)

Another great escape movie is Von Ryan's Express (1965).  In this film, Frank Sinatra plays a downed pilot named Ryan who becomes the ranking officer in an Italian P.O.W. camp during WWII.  As such, he makes a general nuisance of himself, earning himself the rather disparaging nickname of "Von Ryan" (insinuating that he has Nazi sympathies).  The ultimate goal at the end is the commandeering of a prisoner train that is transporting the Italian P.O.W.s to a German P.O.W. camp after the Italians have surrendered.

 The Dirty Dozen (1967) is a different animal altogether.  In this film Lee Marvin is an officer given the task of training a dozen malcontents into a crack force of soldiers destined to create havoc at a secret Nazi rest area for officers of the German army.  And the all-star cast of this one has people who have memorable scenes which will stick with you long after you watch it.  Don't miss the great performances of Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, and Donald Sutherland just to name a few.

On the heels of that escapade comes another story about a cadre of men with a goal to disrupt the Nazi's and their nefarious deeds. The Guns of Navarone (1961) involves a group who must somehow disable a couple of devastating guns in a mountain stronghold that is creating havoc with troop movement of the Allies.  Gregory Peck and David Niven are among the stars of this great adventure.

In The Devil's Brigade (1968) William Holden is the leader of a cadre of American and Canadian soldiers with a task to capture yet another Nazi stronghold.  Like the Dirty Dozen, many of Holden's charges are malcontents who must be whipped into shape before proceeding on their mission.

Rounding out this sextet of great 60's war movies is another one that is actually based on fact.  John Wayne heads yet another cast of familiar names staging the historical D-Day invasion of France, then under Nazi control.  The Longest Day (1962) focuses on more than just Wayne, however.  Most of the big names are listed above, but you will recognize quite a few more of them, depending on your movie watching history.  And the fact that it's all pretty much true to the actual conflict is a history lesson that for once you might not mind enduring.

Looking back, the fact that all of these are representative of only one conflict, WWII in Nazi Germany, may seem a bit choosy.  But the fact is there is not a dud in the bunch.  And they were all made during one decade. For more in depth discussion on each entry, please click on the links to see my thoughts on each.  Or better yet, devote a weekend to just watching the movies.  I guarantee you won't be bored.

Drive home safely, folks.

Quiggy

There's Gold in Them Thar Trains

This is my entry in the Great Western Blogathon hosted by Thoughts All Sorts

John Wayne was the essence of the classic western.  Of the 150 or so movies he made during his career over ½ of them were westerns.  Many were of the variety of the cheap budget movies which made him a recognizable albeit underrated star, but beginning with Stagecoach he became a marketable star.  A John Wayne movie during his heyday was sure to be one of the bigger moneymakers of the year.

The greatest western movies usually evoked a time long gone by.  Sometimes they could be politically incorrect (at least by today's standards) when the enemy was the Native Americans, but the "Cowboys and Indians" trope was not the only one Hollywood used during the golden age of the western.  There were also plenty of the "bad guys vs. good guys" type.  A list here would make this post long (and probably a bit boring), but suffice to say not all of the westerns had Indians has the enemy.

I chose two here that have similar themes, that of Wayne as a sort of anti-hero.  Meaning he plays a character who is somewhat on the wrong side of the law, but he is still a character with whom the audience sides, mainly because the alternative is some fairly shady characters.  And both involve trying to get a stash of gold (another western trope that crops up now and then).

























The Train Robbers (1973):

The film begins with a pair of desperadoes waiting the arrival of a train.  The two men, Grady (Rod Taylor) and Jesse (Ben Johnson) are expecting the arrival of an old war buddy, Lane (John Wayne).  Grady has brought along Calhoun (Christopher George) and Ben (Bobby Vinton), two men that he was asked by Lane to include in the coming event.  Also include to round out the gang is Sam (Jerry Gatlin; no relation to the country music Gatlin brothers, as near as I can tell).

When Lane arrives he has a woman with him.  He introduces her as Mrs. Lowe, the wife of a deceased train robber.  Sometime in the past Lowe and a gang of men robbed a train of $500,000 and it was stashed on a wrecked and abandoned train in the desert near Durango, Mexico.  The plan, according to Lane, is not to get the money and split it.  It is to get it and return it to the train company, thereby clearing Lowe of his nefarious deeds.  Ostensibly this is so that Mrs. Lowe's son won't grow up thinking daddy was a bad guy.

Of course these guys aren't going to do it just for the glory of hero-ship.  Nor are they going to do it just because Mrs. Lowe is a sweet woman who has an impressionable young child.  There is a $50,000 reward for the return of the money, which Lane plans to divide among his compadres.

So seven souls set off in search of gold.  But there is an added twist. Ricardo Montalban, as a character whom is never really identified until the denouement, is shadowing them.  What his mission is is really unclear, but his presence in the shadows is always there.  One could easily get the idea that he plans to hijack the gold once our heroes have actually recovered it.

The gold seekers are also hounded by a horde of men who are probably inspired by the posse that chased Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  I say this because they arrive on the scene the same way that the posse did in the earlier movie; already mounted and ready to leap off a train and head out after our crew.  They chase the gang, unbeknownst to them in the early stages, but of course never quite catch up to them until the dramatic scene at the wrecked train.

When Lane and his gang arrive at the train, it is as predicted, a wreck in the sands.  One could wonder why the train company built a track through the sandy desert, but that is immaterial to the story itself.  The gold is stashed aboard the wreck, and Lane and company retrieve it.  But by this time they know that a cadre of no-gooders is hot on their trail and decide their only course is to make a stand.

Having decreased the number of their pursuers and chased off the rest the company makes it's way back to their original destination.  But they have to continue to worry about an ambush from the remaining soldiers of fortune.  A last stand back at the town is set in motion.

Be sure to stay tuned for the final twist in the film, in which we FINALLY find out who Montalban's character is and what his goal is.  We also find out that Mrs. Lane is not necessarily who she claims to be, either.

The movie is truly enhanced by the musical score.  Dominic Frontiere wrote the score, a veteran of Hollywood's composers who would later win a Golden Globes for best score for The Stunt Man.  Burt Kennedy, himself a veteran of many movies, a lot of them westerns, directed Wayne and company.    Kennedy also directed our second feature.  He worked closely with wayne for his Batjac Productions company over the years, although these two movies were the only ones in which he directed John Wayne.

 

The War Wagon (1967):

Taw Jackson (John Wayne) has just been released from prison. He was a rancher who had been falsely imprisoned by Frank Pierce (Bruce Cabot), a man who eventually acquired Jackson's ranch, and was now the bigwig in town.  Pierce regularly ships gold from a nine he has discovered on the property, in the titular War Wagon, an armored tank decked out with a Gatling gun, and escorted by an army of about 30 or so gunmen.

Jackson engineers a plan to hijack a shipment that Pierce is going to ship which has a value of about $500,000.  To help he calls in several friends; Levi Walking Bear (Howard Keel), whose help is needed when dealing with the Kiowa Indian tribe that is being railroaded off the land that Pierce wants;  an explosives expert Taw met in prison, Billy (Robert Walker, Jr.), an old coot who has a wagon that comes in handy, Fletcher (Keenan Wynn); and an old friend/enemy, Lomax (Kirk Douglas), who is an expert safecracker. 

Pierce tries to hire Lomax to kill Jackson and part of the fun of the movie is you never really know which side Lomax is actually going to come out on.  He sides with Jackson in the plans, but he has also agreed to Pierce's offer of money to kill Jackson.

The plan is to attack the war wagon at a weak point in the trail and Billy gets some nitroglycerin to blow up a bridge on the trail.  The rousing scenes involving the actual hijacking are riveting to say the least.  In the end, the plans go slightly awry, and there is a question whether any of them will be as rich as they hoped.

In an effort to find interesting trivia to entertain my readers, I often watch the special features on DVDs.  One fact that stood out is Keenan Wynn's hat.  Wynn found the hat when he was doing a screen test and realized it was the same hat that Leslie Howard wore as a Confederate soldier in Gone with the Wind.  So he stole it.  And he managed to wear it again in every movie he made thereafter, according to legend.  (I must say I can't remember seeing him wear it in Dr. Strangelove, but it's a neat story anyway, and at least it LOOKS like the same hat.)

Also included in that special feature was an interview with Burt Kennedy in which he stated that he thought Kirk Douglas was such a great fit for the character of Lomax that he voluntarily gave up half of his salary as a director in order to have the budget to hire Douglas to play the role.  And he was right.  Douglas makes the role very interesting, even with that gaudy ring he wears on the outside of his leather gloves.

Hope you enjoyed the movis.  Drive home safely, folks.

Quiggy

The Bond Age (Part III)

 

 

2017 marks 55 years of James Bond on the movie screen.  To celebrate this momentous year, I am undertaking to review the entire oeuvre of Bond films, all 24 of them (at this juncture in history), two at a time.  These will appear on the 7th day of each month  (Bond's agent number being "007").  At the beginning of each entry I will give my personal ranking of each movie and of each movie's theme song.  (These are subjective rankings and do not necessarily agree with the view of the average Bond fan, so take it as you will).  I hope you enjoy them, nay, even look forward to the next installment.  As an added note, I am deeply indebted to Tom DeMichael, and his book James Bond FAQ,  for tidbits of information I with which I am peppering these entries.                                                                                                                                                                                                  -Quiggy

By 1967, Connery was getting tired of the Bond thing, worried that he might be getting close to being typecast.  After filming You Only Live Twice, he bowed out of the series.  This led to a frantic search for a replacement.  The producers set out to find a newcomer, much like Connery had been before he landed the role.  Among some of the potential possibilities was John Richardson and Anthony Rogers, but the role went to George Lazenby, an Australian (???!!!).

In the lexicon of Bond history, most people rank George Lazenby's Bond as the worst of the lot.  I have to admit, it would have been hard to follow Connery who had already made the role a household name.  You couldn't find a harder job to do.  So don't blame Lazenby too much, but that said, he just didn't exude the panache and charisma that we had come to expect from Bond.  Which made it not too surprising when he didn't show up in the next Bond entry.

You Only Live Twice (1967)

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Movie: #10

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Theme Song: #22

Best Bond Quote:  (After being told by Moneypenny that he is late, having supposedly just been killed and buried at sea)  "We corpses have no sense of timing".

Best Bond Villain Quote:  Blofeld:  "Give him his cigarettes.  It won't be the nicotine that kills you, Mr. Bond."

Best Weapon:  The electronic safe cracker.  I could use one of those when I forget the combination to my locker.

Sean Connery returns once again as Bond, and, after an opening sequence in which an American spaceship is hijacked, Bond gets killed, even before the opening credits...  After the opening credits, Bond is buried at sea.  The End.

Or it would have been, except Bond is not really dead.  Divers bring the wrapped body aboard a submarine and unwrap the body, and there is Bond just as alive as ever.  M and Miss Moneypenny are also aboard the submarine, a sort of field office for MI6.  M is there because how else would Bond get his new assignment.  As to why they needed Miss Moneypenny, well, what would a Bond movie be without the sexually deprived repartee between Bond and the ever unrequited love affair between him and Moneypenny?

Bond gets clued in on the situation.  The Americans are blaming the Russians for the hijacking of their spacecraft.  The spacecraft that did the hijacking, however, landed somewhere in the sea of Japan, and of course, the Russians are claiming to be innocent of the deed.  Bond is sent to Japan to find out what he can.  And I'm here to tell you, even if he found out in the first 15 minutes, it was worth it.  Japanese women are the most beautiful women on Earth.  (and this from an Anglo-Saxon without an ounce of Oriental blood...)

After meeting his contact in Tokyo, Henderson (Charles Gray. who apparently has the nine lives of a cat, fittingly, since he was cast as Blofeld in Diamonds are Forever), who is murdered before he has a chance to spill any useful information, Bond manages to catch a ride with the assailants to Osato Chemicals.  IT turns out Mr. Osato (Teru Shimada) is one of Blofeld's men and has some secret documents hidden in his safe, which Bond gets by using his pocket electronic safe cracker.  (Why do these dimbulb criminals always keep incriminating evidence in their safes?  Hasn't anybody ever heard of not leaving a trail?)

Bond has Q deliver "Little Nellie" which turns out to be a mini-helicopter, which Bond uses to scope out an island suspected of being the secret hideaway of the criminals, but finds nothing but volcanoes.  So Bond goes undercover (even more undercover than he already is, I mean), posing, with the help of makeup, as a Japanese fisherman, married to a native island girl, who is also a secret agent, Kissy Suzuki (Mie Hama).

Meanwhile the bad guys capture a Russian spaceship, and of course, the Russians blame the Americans.  The Americans deny it, and counter with the threat of repercussions  if their next ship launch is sabotaged.  Someone seems to be trying to get a full-scale war going between the Americans and the Russians.  Bond suspects his old nemesis SPECTRE is behind it all, and of course he is mostly right.  Blofeld meets with agents from Red China who stand to benefit most from an all-out war between the two super-powers.  But he isn't doing it for altruistic reasons for the Red Chinese.  He demands a boatload of money for his endeavors.

Bond and company find out that the "crater lake" on the island is fake, and tries to infiltrate the secret hideaway of Blofeld (Donald Pleasance), eventually meeting up with him face-to-face (for the first time in the ongoing series).  As usually, Bond is captured, and as usual, Bond gets away, helping the Americans and the Russians to narrowly avoid going to war in the process.

This one is a pretty good entry in the oeuvre, as you noticed in my ranking, even if I didn't particularly care for the Nancy Sinatra version of the theme song.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Movie: #21

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Theme Song:  #15  (for the instrumental opening, not the Louis Armstrong love theme, which I really don't count, since it only briefly appears in the middle of the movie.)

Best Bond Quote: (In response to Bunt's asking if something is wrong, after being fondled by one of the female patients) "I just feel a slight stiffness coming on."

Best Bond Villain Quote: Blofeld:  "Respectable baronets from the College of Heralds do not seduce female patients in clinics".(Somehow I think Blofeld's advice is wasted on Bond...)

Best Weapon:  There is nothing really new in this film.  Even the electronic safe cracker, which was pocket size in You Only Live Twice pales by comparison since this one requires a winch to get it into the office where Bond needs it.

Just in case you didn't know this was another James Bond movie, the producers and writers spent every effort to let you know.  In the opening sequence, the new incarnation of James Bond (George Lazenby) tries to save a girl from committing suicide by drowning and fends of an attack by unknown assailants.  Instead of being grateful the girl drives off as Bond quips "this never happened to the other guy..."

And then during the opening credits sequences we are inundated with some scenes from the previous five Bond films, in which Lazenby was not cast as Bond, but since they are just clips of previous villains and Bond girls and femme fatales, you aren't even aware that it was not him  (unless of course, you had seen the previous five films...)  But the producers apparently just wanted to make sure you knew it was a Bond film and not some cheapjack knockoff, I guess.

Lazenby has been vilified as the worst James Bond of the series, and much of that is probably due to the script as anything else.  Of course, Lazenby decided to make it only one Bond movie, since I guess he really didn't like his experiences.  (Note:  I always thought it was because of his poor performance that the producers threw a bunch of money at Sean Connery to come back to the series, but according my book, mentioned in the header of this post, Lazenby declined to continue in the role on his own.)

The sad part of the movie, however is not the fact that Lazenby was not the great successor to Connery that most people hoped.  It's not even that the plot was pretty tame and somewhat ridiculous as far as Bond plots go.  My opinion is that the worst thing about the movie is that Telly Savalas was cast as Ernst Stavro Blofeld.  Not that Savalas was not good in the role.  Just that he had to play a role in the movie.  Savalas was a great actor, whether he was playing a lollipop sucking detective good guy in Kojak, or a psychotic killer with a misplaced sense of morals as Maggott in The Dirty Dozen.

Savalas was the second actor to essay Blofeld on the screen, following Donald Pleasance's performance in You Only Live Twice. (I don't actually count the previous Blofeld's since you only really saw his cat, and the actor who played him was not even credited.)  The omnipresent pet cat of Blofeld's only makes a very brief appearance in one scene.  This shouldn't deter you from the performance of Savalas, however, but until the scene, it could have been any villain, and it would have been a lapse to me.

Bond becomes interested in Teresa (Diana Rigg), who is the daughter of Marco Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti), a Mafia don in the French Mafia.  Draco tries to bribe Bond into romancing his daughter with the dowry of a million dollars, which Bond counters to include information on the whereabouts of Blofeld.  When Teresa finds out about this she demands that her father give him the information without including her in the deal.

Bond ends up romancing Teresa anyway, and the two fall in love.  Meanwhile Bond discovers that Blofeld has a rehab center for allergies in the Swiss Alps.  Of course, Blofeld's intentions are not truly altruistic.  He is conditioning his patients, all women, to be unwitting carriers of a plague that will sterilize entire species (plants, animals humans) unless the world pays a ransom, (the less than stellar evil plot I previously referenced).  Bond gains access to the center through the auspices of a genealogical institute which Blofeld has hired to prove he is a descendant of a dynasty called the de Bleuchamps (supposedly the French variation of Blofeld).

Since Bond has previously met Blofeld face to face in You Only Live Twice, it is curious that Blofeld does not recognize Bond right away.  He is accepted by Blofeld in his guise as Sir Hillary Bray, the genealogist sent to work with Blofeld to determine the authenticity of his claim.  But because Bond tries to woo a couple of the female patients, Blofeld and his right hand woman, Irma Bunt (Ilse Steppat), determine his true identity.

Bond escapes the clutches of Blofeld, but in the ensuing actions, his lover Teresa is kidnapped by Blofeld.  Because MI6 relieves him of his position in the efforts to capture Blofeld, and the world governments have decided to acquiesce to Blofeld's extortion demands, Bond has to rely on help from Draco to save Teresa.

The Bond entry this time has all the requisite action and intrigue you come to expect from a Bond movie, but I have to admit Lazenby did nothing for me as Bond.  He just doesn't have the cachet that Connery did, nor does he have the humor that my favorite Bond, Roger Moore, had.  Savalas' Blofeld helps keep this one from being the worst Bond on my personal list, however.

Well, folks, that ends this entry.  Enjoy a martini while you wait for next month.

Quiggy

Coloring Outside the Lines

This is my entry in the Sidney Poitier Blogathon hosted by The Wonderful World of Cinema.

In the old days of the racist South, a black man had to abide by certain rules of etiquette when dealing with white people.  There was segregation that  reared it's ugly head in the form of substandard facilities, like restrooms and restaurants.  There were places where only whites were served.  Black people had to live in segregated neighborhoods, and since they were not paid anything near equal in wages, those neighborhoods were also substandard.

When John Ball appeared on the scene with his first novel featuring Virgil Tibbs, he set the story in this world.  Tibbs himself was, probably (although it's not entirely clear), a former resident of this world.  (He was on his way back home from visiting his mother, and I highly doubt she moved to this world from a more lenient section of the country).  Tibbs, being from Pasadena, CA (in the movie it was changed to Philidelphia, PA), has grown accustomed to being treated more equally, and the change in attitude from the locals leaves him frustrated and edgy.

Sidney Poitier was cast in the iconic role of a northern police officer caught in the South with a murder in which he is first a suspect, then is instrumental in solving the true identity of the murderer.  In the course of the film, Poitier exudes the right amount of a blend of hostility, compassion and superiority, without overdoing any of them.  Since his debut about 20 years earlier, Poitier had been nominated twice for Oscars, winning once for Lilies of the Field.  He brought to the production and astounding resume already at this point in his career, and SHOULD have been able to add a third Oscar nomination for his performance here, but that would prove not to be so.  (He was nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe, so it's not all bad, but still...)

In the Heat of the Night (1967)

It is a hot summer's eve in Sparta, Mississippi.  (Note:  There is no connection to the real Sparta, MS.  The film was not even made in the south, as obviously at that time there would have been extreme hostility to the film's concept in that part of the country.  It was filmed in a "Sparta", but the one in Illinois, instead.)  Officer Sam Wood (Warren Oates) makes his rounds, which includes a brief episode where he indulges in voyeurism, spying on a young girl as she parades around her kitchen in the nude.

Wood eventually discovers a dead body, which is revealed to be that of Philip Colbert, a wealthy man who had been in town to negotiate building a factory, which would have brought much need money and prestige to the community.  Chief Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger) sends Sam out to find and round up any suspicious persons.  Checking the train station, Wood finds a man in the "colored" waiting room and arrests him.  It turns out, however, that the man is above suspicion: he's actually a police officer on the force in Philadelphia, PA, Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier).

Once it becomes clear that Tibbs is not a valid suspect, the focus is on finding the killer.  Tibbs is basically commanded by his superior officer in Philly to present himself as a help to solve the murder.  Gillespie and the rest of the town are reluctant to even admit that a black man could be of any use, but Gillespie lets Tibbs inspect the body of Colbert.  Tibbs garners some information from his inspections and heads back to the police station.




Enter Harvey Oberst (Scott Wilson), a poor white from the town who has been found with Colbert's wallet and a large sum of money.   Tibbs tells Gillespie that it is highly unlikely that Oberst killed the victim because Oberst is left-handed, and Tibbs' investigations prove that the killer was right-handed.  But since Gillespie's prejudices restrain him from accepting Tibbs' theories, he has Oberst jailed on the murder charge.

Colbert's wife (Lee Grant) is instrumental in the continuation of keeping Tibbs on as a helper in the investigation, threatening to pack up and move the potential factory somewhere else if he is not given a free hand in the investigation.  But she is the only person in town, initially, who is on his side.  Because Tibbs refuses to kowtow and be the subservient Negro that the white people expect of their dark-skinned neighbors, he manages to offend just about everyone with whom he comes into contact.  This is especially true of a gang of roughs who at one point chase him and corner him in an abandoned factory.  It is only the fortunate arrival of Gillespie that prevents him from getting the snot beat out of him.

Tibbs main suspect is the town's rich man, Eric Endicott (Larry Gates), with whom he gets into a slapping match. The so-called "slap heard round the world" comes in a confrontation during an interview with Endicott on his plantation.

 In the course of the film, Delores appears before Gillespie and accuse Woods of having seduced her and gotten her pregnant.  This coupled with the fact that woods recently made a large deposit at the bank causes Gillespie to arrest Woods on suspicion of the murder.  But Woods is innocent, since he has been saving money at home and just made the large deposit after it got really big.  But the pregnancy of Purdy leads Tibbs to discover the true culprit of the murder.


Although he does not win he hearts of the entire town (which would put the movie in the realm of fantasy if he did), he does win the admiration and respect of Gillespie and Woods (and probably  several of Woods' fellow officers).

Steiger was nominated for, and won, the Oscar for Best Actor in the film.  He went up against some sound performances by 4 other actors from other movies, but he was NOT challenged by Poitier for his role as Tibbs.  Why, I can't say.  Poitier's performance is definitely Oscar material.  However, looking at the four other candidates that year, I'd be extremely hard pressed as to decide which one I would have left out in order to put Tibbs in their spot.  Perhaps you might have a choice, so I'll include the other four candidates and see if you can choose:

Warren Beatty in Bonnie and Clyde
Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate
Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke
Spencer Tracy in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner


The film also won the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound Mixing and for Best Film Editing, and was in the running for several other categories.  1967 was a landmark year in the film industry, and for an excellent overview on the background to the five nominees for Best Picture this year (along with this one, also were in the running: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?, The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde and Dr. Doolittle), I refer you to Mark Harris' Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of New Hollywood.

Well folks, time to rev up the old Plymouth and head home.  Drive safely.

Quiggy

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

This is my entry to Once Upon a Screen and Wide Screen World's  Atheletes in Film Blogathon.

Note:  I would like to dedicate this blog entry to the fallen heroes of this film.  Most of the major cast and crew members have passed on.  In particular, E. M. Nathanson, the author of the book from which this movie was filmed, passed on in April of this year.  (Jim Brown is still with us as of this writing, however.)


Jim Brown, was an all-star fullback, who played out his entire football career with the Cleveland Browns.  He set and held many records, one of which he still holds, that of 6 games with 4 rushing touchdowns per game.  (Two former players are tied for second with 5 games with 4 such touchdowns).  He was the first player to ever have 100 + rushing touchdowns.

Brown was drafted 6th overall in the 1957 NFL draft by the Cleveland Browns.  In 9 years he was elected to the Pro Bowl 8 times.  Along with Johnny Unitas and Brett Favre, he is one of only four NFL players to have received an NFL MVP award. (Peyton Manning, the fourth in that list has 5) .  He had a stellar career has a player.  It was while on the set filming today's movie selection, The Dirty Dozen, that Brown decided to retire.

The story behind that retirement is interesting in itself.  It's a sure bet Jim Brown could have had several more years in the football world.  He had previously said he wanted to retire after his contract ended that year.  But it was delays in the filming of Dozen that threatened to cause him to be late for training camp for the 1967 season.  Art Modell, the owner of the Browns, threatened to fine him for each week he was late.  Brown, doing exactly what I would have done, only in less amicable terms, retired from the NFL, and devoted himself to his acting career.

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

The Dirty Dozen is an action-adventure/war movie that takes place during the later years of WWII.  Major John Reisman (Lee Marvin), a maverick officer, is tasked with the job of taking 12 criminals with varying criminal convictions,  and training them and conforming them into a crack squad of  soldiers for a secret assignment.

Reisman

The assignment is to invade a Nazi chateau where officers from the German army have a retreat, and kill as many of the officers as possible.  In an effort to do this, Reisman, and his right hand man, Sgt. Bowren (Richard Jaeckel) take the 12 prisoners to a remote area where they train aggressively and build their own encampment from scratch.

Bowren

The 12 consist of what the commentaries refer to as "the front six" and "the back six".  This is a concession to the actors who played them, not their importance to the mission, however.  The "front six" actors came in with some significant background while the "back six" are guys you likely haven't heard of or seen since.  "The front six" consisted of John Cassavettes (Franko), Clint Walker (Posey), Charles Bronson (Wladislaw), Telly Savalas (Maggot), Donald Sutherland (Pinkley) and Jim Brown (Jefferson).  "The back six" included Al Mancini (Bravos), Stuart Cooper (Lever), Tom Busby (Vladek), Ben Carruthers (Gilpin), Colin Maitland (Sawyer) and Trini Lopez (Jimenez).  Note: Trini was a folk singer, and so had a bit more public exposure than the rest of the back six.

The dozen pose for the camera

Jim Brown's character, Jefferson, is one of only 5 of the prisoners who are escaping the hangman by participating in this endeavor.  (The rest just have long terms of imprisonment).  In Jefferson's case, apparently he killed a couple of racists who were going to try to castrate him.  In this respect, Jefferson is a WWII stand-in for the racism that was prevalent in the southern United States at the time.

Jefferson

Since this is an ensemble cast movie, there is plenty of camera time for everyone.  The first scenes of the movie involve Reisman's briefing in London of his mission.  It is here we see how rebellious and cantankerous his character can be.  Joining him in this scene are Ernest Borgnine and Robert Webber as his superior officers, Generals both, and his friend and fellow Major played by George Kennedy.

By far, the most interesting characters of the movie are Franko and Maggot.  Franko plays the hotheaded, rebellious, officer-hating bit to the hilt, and Maggot, a religious zealot who takes his divine blessings  by his God a bit too far are both unstable dynamite sticks in the midst of the compound.  It is interesting to watch how each reaches his own destiny within the film.

Franko

Maggot

The film transitions, after the initial meeting of the twelve prisoners, to the boot camp that will be their training grounds.  Each of the major characters gets to show his chops in scenes devoted to this training.  Franko, at one point tries to take it on the lam, but is stopped by Jefferson and Wladislaw.  There is quite a bit of testing in the campgrounds to see what each can get away with, and a revolt, led by Franko, which ends up denying them the use of soap and shaving equipment and eventually gives them the moniker of the "Dirty Dozen".

Things heat up slightly when the crew has to go to the army base of Colonel Breed (Robert Ryan), a by the book officer who despises Reisman (the feeling is mutual), and tries to find out he details of the secret mission.  He comes away empty-handed, though, because Jefferson and Posey (the other big boy in the troop) take out his two top dog inquisitors in a fight in the barracks washroom.

Breed

A short time later Breed shows up at the secret camp with armed troops to get the lowdown on the mission and is once again humiliated by Reisman and crew.  But Reisman gets called up to HQ and is unceremoniously taken off the mission.  Reisman counters with a challenge that, during an upcoming war games, his crack troop could take out Col. Breed and his headquarters.  The crew succeed, so the mission is reinstated.

War games

The final moments of the mission are played out with relentless suspense.  Included in the final moments is a chance for our subject, Brown, to show off that speed that made him such a star on the football field, as he races from one end of the grounds to the other, dropping grenades as he goes.

This is war, however, and not all of the dozen survive until the end.  But you'll have to watch to see just which ones do.

Jim Brown went on from here and to date has been in some 40+ movies, including a run from the late sixties to the late seventies in which he played the lead role.  He still continues to act, most recently playing himself in Draft Day (2014).


Well, the stadium lights just dimmed, as so the game draws to it's end.  Have a safe drive home, kiddies.


Quiggy