Semiquincentennial Movie Project #25: True Grit

  

 

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

Week #26: Arkansas -

The state of Arkansas was established on June 15, 1836

Details about Arkansas:

State bird: mockingbird

State flower: pine

State tree: apple blossom

Additional historical trivia:

It's against the law to mispronounce "Arkansas" in the state. (Talk about anal!!!)

The Arkansas School for the Deaf sports team is called the Leopards, and their mascot's name is "Deaf Leopard". 

A famous stand to prevent African-American students from entering a previously all-white high school happened in Little Rock.

The first woman to be elected to a U.S. Senate seat, Hattie Caraway, came from Arkansas (although she was originally born in Tennessee). 

A Little Rock newspaper once offered a free plow with a subscription to the newspaper. 

Famous people born in Arkansas: U.S. President Bill Clinton,  Billy Bob Thornton, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, John Grisham, Alan Ladd, Paul "Bear" Bryant, Douglas MacArthur and Sam Walton (who founded a business you might (possibly) have heard of... Wal-Mart),  

 

 

True Grit (1969):

Note: I originally had scheduled this entry to be The Legend of Boggy Creek because I thought I had already covered True Grit at an earlier date. but a check of my archives proved I was mistaken. Because I recently did an entry for a tribute to Robert Duvall (where once again, I would have probably opted for True Grit instead of the one I did choose, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, if I had known), I decided to change my selection for this. Someday down the road I may get back to that horror flick, don't give up hope....

The story starts out on a farm in  Yell County, Arkansas. A man, Frank Ross (John Pickard), prepares to leave on a trip to Fort Smith to purchase some horses for breeding. He is going to be accompanied by Tom Chaney (Jeff Corey), a hired hand. Frank's daughter, Mattie (Kim Darby), a girl with both feet firmly planted on the ground, admonishes him to take care in his dealings for the horses.

 

In town, after having secured the horses, Tom gets drunk and loses heavily in a card game. He insists he was cheated, but in a scuffle as Frank tries to get him to leave, Tom shoots and kills Frank and then runs off. 

 

Mattie arrives in town to take care of the transport of her father's body back to the family farm and find someone to hunt down Tom and bring him to justice. She also has a confrontation with the guy who sold Frank the horses, Col. Stonehill (Strother Martin), since not only does she determine that the horses are unacceptable, but also that Stonehill should pay for the loss of her father's horse and gear, since he was supposed to be taking care of them and Tom had stolen them while they were under his care. 

 

Can I just interject something here? I absolutely love it when Strother Martin makes an appearance in a film. In my opinion, a film gets about ½ a star higher rating just because he is in it in a scene or two. I kept expecting him to say to Mattie "What we've got here is...failure to communicate!" (and if you need a movie reference here for that quote, you need to watch more movies). The next time one of my fellow bloggers puts up a "character actor" blogathon, I have my entry ready.

Mattie determines that her best bet for tracking down Chaney is by employing a U.S. Marshall, Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne), who has a reputation for being the most reliable, as well as the most determined to complete his mission, when tracking down criminals. (He also has a reputation for taking too much interest in drinking, of which Mattie disapproves, but she is apparently willing to overlook that if she can get her father's killer brought in for justice).

 

Gumming up the plans is the appearance of a Texas Ranger, La Boeuf (Glen Campbell). La Boeuf is also looking for Chaney, but he wants to take Chaney back to Texas to stand trial for another murder. The relationship between Mattie and La Boeuf gets off to a rocky start even before she finds out about his quest. They had met in the boarding house where Mattie was staying, and he comes off as a rather offensive type, at least to her way of thinking. (Really, it's a matter of your own opinion who is more offensive. Personally I don't really like the Mattie character. She is a bit too headstrong and opinionated for my tastes. But the Kim Darby portrayal is exactly like she was written in the original source novel.)

 

Mattie is incensed that Cogburn has gone behind her back and let this interloper Texas Ranger in on the manhunt. In the original novel she even debates with herself about finding another partner, but realizes that that would take more time and effort than just sticking with her original arrangement. But her insistence of accompanying the pair on the manhunt is also met with resistance from the two. They both insist that it would be a burden to have to babysit Mattie along the way. But they both underestimate how headstrong and determined the girl is.

 

The story plods along for a brief period as each character tries to come to terms with the quirks that one or the other of the two fellow companions has that grates on them. The film doesn't really start to get interesting again until the trio happen upon a cabin that they are planning to use, only to find out that two desperadoes have claimed it for themselves. And, as luck would have it, they are cohorts of Lucky Ned Pepper (Robert Duvall), an outlaw that Chaney has been rumored to have hooked up with after his escape from Fort Smith.

 

Moon (Dennis Hopper) and Quincy (Jeremy Slate) are, it turns out, waiting for Ned to show up for fresh horses. After dispatching the pair, and after Cogburn learns of Ned's imminent arrival, the law officers set up and ambush. They manage to take out a couple of the hoodlums, but Ned escapes. 

 

A little while later things come to a head when Mattie is out fetching water and happens to come across Chaney. Although she manages to injure him by shooting him, the ruckus causes Ned to come by and she is captured. Ned tries to use her as a hostage to get Rooster and La Boeuf  to leave them alone. 

 

But, you just know that's not going to happen... 

 

One of the results that came from this film is that FINALLY the Academy Awards committee granted Wayne his due, and he won an Oscar for Best Actor. Wayne, in his acceptance speech, famously said: “If I’d have known that would have got me this, I’d have put that patch on 35 years ago!” Despite a career spanning over 40 years at the time, Wayne had only been nominated 3 times; One other time for Best Actor in Sands of Iwo Jima (which he lost to Broderick Crawford in All the King's Men) and once for Best Picture for The Alamo (which lost to The Apartment). 

Many people think he SHOULD have been nominated for Best Actor for The Searchers, Red River and The Quiet Man. As well, his final performance in The Shootist, but I personally think that would have been considered a sentimental nomination at best, since Wayne was dying at that point in his life. There are a few others that I might have included in the list: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and, even though I prefer El Dorado, his role in Rio Bravo was great.

Kim Darby was over 20 years old when she took the part of the 14 year old Mattie. I have no idea whether there were any relatively competent actresses of a more appropriate age to fill the role at the time. I do know that Mia Farrow was originally cast, and she was 2 years older than Darby. Other actresses who were offered the role included Michelle Carey (who was 27), Sondra Locke (who was 25), Tuesday Weld (who was 26) and even Olivia Hussey (who was at least closer, being 17 at the time). Wayne wanted his own daughter Aissa, who at least would have been the same age as the Mattie character, whether or not she was a qualified actress. (Her IMDb credits only number 4 films, all of them before she even turned 8. And all of them, BTW, with Daddy). By comparison Hailee Steinfeld, the actress who got the role in the 2010 remake, actually was 14.

Glen Campbell had virtually no acting experience when he landed the role of La Boeuf. Personally I think he falls into that category of "singers who should NEVER have tried acting". To be sure, he was probably miles ahead of Neil Diamond, who tried to transition to acting with The Jazz Singer, but my opinion is he barely covered the role. There was almost no scene in the film that he exuded anything even remotely convincing that he was a Texas Ranger. More, he just looked like a guy play acting at being a Ranger. Even the title song he sang for the film was not on par with much greater songs he did as a singer; Southern Nights, Wichita Lineman, Country Boy and the one most people know him for, Rhinestone Cowboy. Side note: The part could have gone to Elvis, but that was nipped in the bud when Elvis' agent demanded he get top billing... even over Wayne...

Rounding out the headliners in the film is Robert Duvall as Ned Pepper. While he doesn't even come close to the quality he would exhibit later in his career, he does a pretty decent job in his brief appearances on screen here. 

By the way, don't miss a brief scene where John Fielder shows up as the oft mentioned "my lawyer, J. Noble Daggett", who up until his appearance I pretty much thought might just be bluff and bravado on the part of Mattie... He certainly doesn't look like the essence of tough street smart solicitor that Mattie pumps him up to be...

 

 

True Grit came in as #8 in terms of ticket sales for 1969, being beat out by the likes of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (OK. I can see that) The Love Bug, Easy Rider and Hello, Dolly. But...Paint Your Wagon??? Come on...! Rotten Tomatoes puts the film at 88% Fresh, which I think is fair. Roger Ebert said  "...it is the Western you should see if you only see one Western every three years (an act of denial I cannot quite comprehend in any case)." Other reviews were equally kind. Would it have been as great without Wayne heading the cast? I'm not so sure. I point out that even James Brolin, in my opinion, had to basically channel Wayne to pull it off in the remake. 

I myself rank the film in the top 15 of all Wayne movies I have watched. The character he plays here has some good qualities that I like in my movie heroes, not the least of which is that ever present resistance to being pigeon holed into a "just go with the flow" mentality that outsiders want to establish in the public eye. (One of the reasons I like :Dirty Harry" Callahan, too...)

I'll wrap up here. Drive safely folks. And come see a cantankerous (but not fat) old man sometime.

Quiggy

 

Semiquincentennial Movie Project # 6: Alice's Restaurant

 

 

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

Week #6: Massachusetts -

(BTW: That banner is the state's motto: "Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem." for those of who didn't take French in school that translates, loosely,  to: "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty.")

 

The state of Massachusetts was established on February 6, 1788.

Details about Massachusetts:

State bird: chickadee

State flower: mayflower

State tree: American elm

Additional historical trivia:

Four U.S. Presidents were originally born in Massachusetts: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John F. Kennedy and George H. W. Bush.

For you chocolate lovers; the first chocolate factory was established in MA, as well as the invention of Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Fenway Park (home of the Boston Red Sox) was the first established MLB baseball field.

"Watson! Come here! I want to see you!", the famous first telephone call occurred in Boston.

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg (and there's a tongue twister) holds the record for the longest lake name in the U.S. The name, BTW, is Algonquin, and roughly means: "Fishing Place at the Boundaries - Neutral Meeting Grounds". And sometimes you may hear the since disproven translation as "You fish on your side, I'll fish on my side, and no one shall fish in the middle."All I can say is, Thank God no monster like the Loch Ness Monster has been spotted in Lake  Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.... 

 

 

Alice's Restaurant (1969):

Arlo Guthrie's famous "Alice's Restaurant Massacree", a folk rock protest song about the Vietnam War and the draft, was originally recorded in 1967. The word "massacree" deserves a bit of explanation. According to wikipedia it comes from the dialect spoken by natives of the Ozark Mountains. It is "a story that describes an event so wildly and improbably and baroquely messed up that the results are almost impossible to believe". Which pretty much defines the story as Arlo Guthrie relates the events preceding and surrounding his attempt to register for the draft. Keep that in mind, because I will point out some differences between the real story, the song and the movie as we go along.

The movie opens with Arlo and several others appearing before a draft clerk (Vinnette Carroll) to justify exemptions they listed on the draft registrations on why they may not be eligible for the draft. Arlo's excuse is Hutchison's chorea, which is hereditary. Unfortunately even though his father and other members of his family have it, Arlo does not have it at this point so his exemption is disqualified.

 

(Note: this may be a fictional representation of the real Arlo, but since he is called Arlo Guthrie in the film, and he does indeed have a dad named Woody Guthrie, both in the film and in real life, I am forced to take most of his personal part in the film as somewhat biographical. And Woody did indeed die from Hutchison's chorea.)

 

Arlo decides his best bet to avoid the draft is to enroll in college, which he does in Montana. but he is not cut out to the rigors of fitting into college life. He eventually gets expelled and heads to Stockbridge MA, where a couple named Ray and Alice Brock (James Broderick and Pat Quinn) have bought a de-consecrated church and basically have turned into some kind of commune for like-minded hippies. Alice also pens up a restaurant nearby, which, by the sound of the menu, has a rather eclectic feel to it.

The first hour of the film involves some rather deep and emotional content that was used to bulk the song up into a full-fledged movie.Two people that play an important part in Arlo's life come into the film. Roger (Geoff Outlaw) is a friend that Arlo grew up with, and Shelley (Michael McClanathan) is a former heroin addict who has just gotten out of rehab and is trying to make it straight.  

The film is ostensibly a comedy, but there are some serious moments in the film. One in particular that stands out is that Alice keeps becoming increasingly disenchanted with Ray, and often falls into other men's arms for solace. This is a microcosm of the attitude towards sex and fidelity that was a part of the 60's, especially among those who felt disenfranchised from the norm of the establishment (at least as much as I know from my history books... I was WAY too young to even be aware of it until I reached my teens in the 70's...)

Of course, the original song never mentions Arlo's dad, Woody, but there are some heartrending moments in the film as he visits dad in the hospital. Woody (played by Joseph Boley) is dying from the aforementioned disease. Arlo deals with it as best he can, but it is apparent, at least in moments that he is in the hospital room with Woody, that he would rather be anywhere else. I can empathise with that sentiment completely.  I, too, have dealt with death in my family and often wanted to be far away from it, because then I could pretend it wasn't happening.

Eventually the part of the film that incorporates the events in the song come into it. Ray invites a raft of friends and gets Alice to fix a "Thanksgiving meal that can't be beat". 

 

After the meal, Arlo and several friends pack up the debris left over from the shindig and take it to the city dump, only to find that the dump is closed for the holiday.

 

But they find a back road where they find a place that someone else has dumped a load of garbage and combine he two. Bu the fly in the ointment is Officer Obie (William Obanheim, playing himself). he finds out that Arlo was behind the illegal dump and arrests him. He also takes him to court. 

 

But the problem with the trial is that all the pictures that Obie and his officers took are pretty much useless, because the judge (James Hannon) is blind.  All that Arlo receives is a fine and an order to clean up the garbage 

Later, while at the draft board registering for the actual draft, Arlo makes a nuisance of himself, first by tring to pretend to be psychotic, then by complaining about a line in the form questioning whether he was rehabilitated from his crime (which is well and good if he had been convicted of rape or murder, but Arlo thinks it rather stupid to ask if he has rehabilitated from being a litterbug.

 

The movie is not quite over yet, however, there is some sentimental stuff to end it, which I won't delve into, but suffice to say that someone close to Arlo is going on to a greater reward.

The film has a 63% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and did garner some good reviews. Newsweek said it was  "the best of a number of remarkable new films which seem to question many of the traditional assumptions of establishment America."  Believe it or not, director Arthur Penn even garnered a nomination for Best Director at the Academy Awards. His competition that year included George Roy Hill for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the eventual winner John Schlesinger for Midnight Cowboy.

 According to a real life compadre in crime for the event, Richard Robbins (on whom Roger was based), the film is only about 15% based in fact, and the rest is totally fabricated. Arlo even said that the reason for his leaving Montana was not because of some run-in with the law, but that he dropped out voluntarily. Arlo himself has expressed the opinion that the movie was fairly accurate however, So who to believe? The friend or the central character himself?

You should know before going in that this film is markedly different in tone and feeling from Penn's acclaimed Bonnie and Clyde. Although both deal with characters who are somewhat at odds with the rules of normal polite society, the only way I would recommend these two as a double feature is if you wanted something to cheer you up after watching the devastation caused by the characters in the Bonnie and Clyde film, on BOTH sides of the law.

All in all, I can recommend Alice's Restaurant as at least a good window into the counterculture of the time period.

Until next time. drive safely folks.

Quiggy

 

 

Lizards and Lassos

This entry is in celebration of Legends of Western Cinema Week

The hosts of the event are: Along the Brandywine, Hamlette's Soliloquy and Meanwhile, in Rivendell.

 

A note: As usual, I am pushing the envelope here. Our hosts were looking for classic westerns, and I actually like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood and some other classic western actors. But I like to see just how far I can take the original theme and see if I can get a reaction. Thus, cowboys vs. dinosaurs. 

 

Dinosaurs crop up in the most unusual of circumstances.  The creatures dominated the landscape millions of years ago, but the pesky critters just seemed to be unwilling to let the past go.  

The first dinosaurs to appear on film were mostly set in prehistoric times, the actual dinosaur age. As near as I can tell, the first movie to have dinosaurs outside of their natural historic period was The Lost World, a 1925 silent film based on a novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (yes, he did publish stuff other than his most famous work featuring Sherlock Holmes). And several years later, in 1948, a similar story was filmed featuring dinosaurs on an Unknown Island. Both involved finding a heretofore unknown modern area of the earth that still had dinosaurs living on it.

Most of the films that came out during the history of dinosaurs fell into one of the two categories, prehistoric features or modern areas that still had some remnants. A couple of my favorites from the 70's The Land That Time Forgot and The People That Time Forgot were set in the WWI era and featured a forgotten land under the icecaps, based on a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. You should check those out.

And we can't forget that Godzilla is basically a dinosaur that had been dormant for centuries but was resurrected by a nuclear bomb. And the Jurassic Park movies involved modern scientists using genetic material to recreate dinosaurs for a theme park.

Two movies that I watched way back in the 70's on UHF stations come to mind, though, which featured cowboys battling dinosaurs. Those more or less fit into that of the "modern times" category, despite the relative span of time between the movie release and the actual time period.  And they feature some rather "exotic" ways for the characters to deal with these historic anomalies.

 

 

 

Valley of the Gwangi  (1969):

   

In the pre-credits, the scene opens up with a group of people searching the desert for a lost friend. They find him, on the verge of dying, looking like he's been in some kind of monstrous fight.  The only thing he has is a bag with something in it squealing like the dickens, and his only word before dying is "Gwangi!" An old woman warns the leader of the search party to leave the bag and let whatever is in return to the valley from whence it came, but he just calls her a silly old fool and ignores her dire warning.

A Wild West rodeo comes in, making an appearance in a town in Mexico. The star of the show is also the host of the show, one T. J. Breckenridge (Gila Golan). T. J. has a trick pony show where she rides it on a diving board and jumps into a big vat of water. (Entertaining people was pretty easy back in those days).

 

Onto the scene comes a former lover of T. J., Tuck Kirby (James Franciscus). Tuck still has the hots for T. J., but holy ego-deflation, she rejects him. As well as his offer to buy out T. J.'s circus. Or at least her prize wonder horse that she uses in her diving trick. But T. J. is not impressed with Tuck or his offer.

 

Run out of town, so to speak, Tuck meets up with a British scientist,  Professor Bromley (Laurence Naismith),  out in the desert looking for dinosaur bones.  The professor shows Tuck a fossil he found which includes a footprint (or hoof print) of a creature Bromley refers to as an eohippus, an ancestor of the modern day horse, only the eohippus was much smaller. He relates to Tuck that his finances have grown slim in his quest to search for more proof that the eohippus existed alongside prehistoric man.

 

Meanwhile back at the circus a fellow circus hand, Carlos (Gustavo Rojo), {the same guy who told the old woman to go fly a kite in the opening} approaches T. J. and tries to convince her that this new exhibit he has brought her, referred to as "El Diablo" is the ticket to bigger fame and fortune. Tuck has come back, along with a young boy he has befriended, Lope (Curtis Arden). T. J. is still not receptive to Tuck's offer, but when Lope jumps into the bull ring to try to become an impromptu matador and finds himself in danger, Tuck jumps in to rescue him.  This act of heroism, of course, causes T. J. to immediately become re-enamored with Tuck. Enough so she decides to let Tuck see her new exhibit, "El Diablo" which turns out to be a real live eohippus!

 

Of course, Tuck sneaks in Bromley to have a look and leading to  visions of fame, fortune and a knighthood for Bromley. But other plans are in the works.  Professor Bromley meets the old foolish woman and her gypsy clan, who concoct a plan to steal the eohippus and return it to it's home. Of course, the old woman is only doing it to prevent a curse from falling upon her people, but Bromley is trying also the trick her in showing him the valley in which the eohippus was found.

 

Carlos, who tried to stop the act, is knocked out, but tells T. J. that Tuck was involved in the kidnapping. She and her partner give chase after Tuck, who is not involved, really, but is following Bromley and the clan. He catches up with Bromley who uses all his charms to convince Tuck to come in on his side; fame and fortune for Tuck and scientific notoriety for Bromley for a discovery of a hidden cache of prehistoric creatures that are bound to be in this hidden valley.

The gypsies release the eohippus and let him find his way home, but Tuck and the rest of the crew find it went into a hidden passage. On inspection they find it comes out in the hidden valley.  On coming into the valley they are attacked by a pterodactyl (flying dinosaur) . It looks like they have found a lost world of prehistorical creatures. But that's not the only creature. They also find an ornithominus, which is eventually attacked by an allosaurus (our titular "Gwangi").

The others are committed to get out of Dodge, but the professor, ever the scientist refuses to leave, at least until he comes face to face with Gwangi... In the mix also comes a stegosaurus. (It seems the producers and Ray Harryhausen (the stop motion animator of these creatures) decided to go all out on this endeavor.

 

 Despite the fact that Gwangi seems to be a destructive force to be reckoned with, the crew eventually captures it and takes it back to the circus, with visions of dollar signs dancing in their eyes. Obviously these people have never seen any of the previous films or even future films that pit a prehistoric behemoth against a public spectacle.  But, you know how all this is going to end don't you?

 

 

Ray Harryhausen was behind the stop motion in this endeavor. As usual, his work is pretty spectacular, taken in the context of the time it was made. Cinema goers today might be apt to laugh, since it doesn't compare to what can be done with CGI. 

 

 

The Beast from Hollow Mountain (1956): 

 In the beginning of the film we see three cowboys following a trail. Just in case you need to know what this movie is about, we get a voice over from the narrator:

"Deep in the back country of Mexico, there rises a grim and mysterious mountain, which is said to be hollow. It's interior has never been explored because, at it's base, lies an impassable swamp. The superstitious link of the hollow mountain and the swamp and their folk legends as places of evil... great evil. They tell of a strange animal from the dawn of creation that inhabits the area, coming forth to prowl and pillage only in time of drought. They tell of man and cattle disappearing without trace. But perhaps these are only tales.. tales told by simple people."

 

The three cowboys consist of Jimmy (Guy Madison) and Felipe (Carlos Rivas), co-owners of a cattle ranch, and Manuel (Jose Chavez). Manuel serves as the superstitious native in this piece.  He spouts the typical "we can't go there, we need to turn back, no one has ever come back alive" narrative we come to expect from the uneducated masses in these films.

 

Just after rescuing Felipe from a quicksand trap, Jimmy and Felipe find a dead cow, drowned in the swamp. Hot headed Felipe is convinced that rustlers are responsible for luring their cattle into the swamp, specifically Enrique Rios (Eduardo Noriega). Jimmy tells Felipe to stay calm and not use his gun instead of his brains.  Jimmy is going to town to visit the top dog, or alcalde, Don Pedro (Julio Villareal). 

While there, Enrique comes on the scene and we almost get our first fight but Don Pedro breaks it up. It seems that Enrique has it in for Jimmy not only because he is in competition for cattle sales, but Enrique's girlfriend / future wife is showing an interest in this American. Sarita (Patricia Medina) is showing way too much interest in Jimmy and Enrique thinks Jimmy is trying to move in on his woman.

 

In his effort to get Jimmy to throw in the towel Enrique has convinced Jimmy's farm hands to quit, ostensibly because of their superstitions about the haunted mountain nearby. But Jimmy gets Pancho (Pascual Garcia Pena) and his son, Panchito (Mario Navarro) to come on board. Jimmy and Felipe are still investigating the disappearance of cattle and are absolutely convinced that Enrique is behind all of the bad things that are happening.

 

 

But the truth of the matter is that there is another culprit. It takes  a full hour of the film for it's appearance in the film, but the real culprit behind the disappearances is an allosaurus, a remnant from prehistoric times. 

 

In terms of the concept of being believable, this creature, I have to note, is not the quality stop-motion animation that Ray Harryhausen  brought to the previous film in this blog entry. For one thing, this dinosaur can move like the wind. You might find yourself laughing at the chase scenes, and the closeups of just the feet of the creature are obviously some guy in dinosaur feet walkingaround. The creature makes it's way into the ranch and stampedes the cattle. Which helps Enrique's plan since he had actually planned a stampede anyway to cause Jimmy to lose his cattle.

Jimmy rides out to try to battle with the allosaurus and Enrique ends up showing up too, although not necessarily to help; he is still looking for a way to drive Jimmy out of Dodge. And of course our hero helps out Enrique when he gets in trouble and is on the verge of becoming the allosaurus' next meal. (Gotta wonder about this dinosaur... it seems to have an appetite that is never sated....)   

For the first hour of this movie it gradually plays out like a typical two reeler from the early cowboy pictures days. You get the good guy rancher, Jimmy, who just wants to make a decent go in the cattle business. You get the sneaky bad guy, Enrique, who just doesn't like the competition. You get a love interest and some sneaky goings on behind the scenes.  In fact, without the injection of a dinosaur into the mix, this could easily be mistaken for one of those generic westerns that the low-rent studios like Monogram and Mascot and Republic studios put out in the 30's and 40's.

The film was originally conceived as an idea by Willis O'Brien of King Kong fame, but was shelved for years. When it finally got a green light, O'Brien, who was still alive at the time, was considered for the job of special effects, but it eventually went to another team of artists. 

Beast will never be mistaken for a truly high quality film. The monster itself is pretty shoddy and the acting of the humans never really gets above a level of adequate. But if you like those old poverty ow westerns, the western part of the movie is decent enough. My only issue is that, as mentioned above, that dinosaur seems to be pretty damn quick. I kept waiting for it to roar "Epa! Epa! Epa! Andale! Andale! Andale! Arriba! Arriba! Arriba!" like the cartoon character Speedy Gonzalez. Which wouldn't have necessarily been out of place since this movie was an American and Mexican co-production, and filmed in Mexico to boot.

Well, folks, the old Plymouth is warmed up and ready to make the run home. Gotta detour a little south to avoid that swamp, but I think I might make it.  Drive safely.

Quiggy

 

  

Witty Outlaws

This is my entry in the William Goldman Blogathon hosted by Taking Up Room

I have stated before that I am a director groupie.  My favorite directors include John Carpenter, Marin Scorcese, Stanley Kubrick, Ron Howard and Rob Reiner.  But directors would just be nobodies without a good script to with which to work.  I admit I never paid much attention to the scriptwriter's credit in movies however, until I saw The Princess Bride.

I loved the movie, and the dialogue just zinged.  So I began to check out past credits for the screenwriter, William Goldman.  I found out that he was a two-time Oscar winner, for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men, both of which I had seen, but well before I recognized that scripts made a movie better.

Goldman started out as a novelist and migrated to Hollywood as some novelists do to be a fixture on the movie set.  While not all of the movies he wrote the screenplay play for were fantastic (Memoirs of an Invisible Man, anyone?), it wasn't entirely the fault of Goldman.  (Even Invisible Man has some good dialogue).

Goldman's best work was when he was adapting his own novels.  Magic, Heat, and the aforementioned The Princess Bride among them.  The Princess Bride novel reads kind of like a movie adaptation until you realize he wrote the novel some 15 years earlier.

I like All the President's Men, even though he didn't really have much to work with as far as dialogue went.  But Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has about as much quotable dialogue as the Princess Bride.  And you'll be remembering it long after you have finished watching the movie.

And it could've been pulled off with any number of leads, but the movie scored big time when it landed Paul Newman and Robert Redford for the leads.  Along with guest appearances by great character actors, the highlight of which is Strother Martin, the movie made a big splash.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969):

In the late 1890's Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) is scoping out a bank for potential robbery.  Meanwhile The Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) is playing blackjack in a saloon (and if you have quick eyes or good ears you will notice one of the players is Sam Elliott in possibly his first big screen role).  After a brief tense confrontation with one of the players accusing Sundance of cheating, the two take off for their hideout.

Back at the hideout there is a confrontation in store.  Butch is ostensibly the leader of the gang, but Harvey Logan (Ted "Lurch" Cassidy) has eyes on taking over.  He challenges Butch to a fight.

It turns out that Harvey had an idea to rob the Flyer, a train both on the going and coming routes, which Butch thinks is a pretty good idea.  They rob the train on the going with an exchange with a young dedicated guardsman named Woodcock (George Furth).  They hideout in a nearby town where an industrious sheriff tries to marshal a posse to go after them, unaware that the culprits are in the building above him.

While Butch fools around with the whores in the whorehouse Sundance goes off looking for a woman of his own.  He finds her, but as it turns out Etta Place (Katherine Ross) is already involved with the two.

Later, the gang pulls it's second attempt on the Flyer.  Finding an extremely difficult safe, Butch calls for more dynamite to blow it.  He ends up blowing the entire railroad car to smithereens, scattering the money everywhere.

The fly in the ointment, however, is the arrival of a second train which has what is called a "Super Posse".  As Butch an Sundance and the remaining gang take it on the lam, they split up, with Butch and Sundance going one direction and the rest going another.

Butch: "How many of them are following us?"
Sundance: "All of them."
Butch "ALL of them?" (turning and pointing to the rest of the gang) " What's the matter with those guys?"

The pair determine that the "Super Posse" consists of several well known lawmen.  They run but are ended up cornered on a mountain overlooking a river.  Their only options are to fight it out or surrender.  Until Butch comes up with a better idea...

After their narrow escape, the pair head to New York with Etta, and eventually to Bolivia.  Where they revert to their old ways of robbing banks.  With some rather inept first attempts since neither of them speak Spanish.  They have to be taught rudimentary Spanish by Etta.

Well, eventually the law in Bolivia is on the trail of the pair, known as "Los Bandidos Yanquis", so they come to the conclusion that they need to go straight and get legitimate jobs.  They take on jobs as guards for Percy Garris (Strother Martin), a mine owner who is consistently getting robbed of his payroll.

But on the trip Percy is killed and the bandits corner Butch and Sundance.  They give up the payroll, but later get the drop on the bandits and take the money back.  Deciding that the legal life is not much fun, they decide to go back to robbing.  But Etta has had enough and leaves them.  A final scene occurs as, after they have robbed another bank they are cornered in an abandoned building.

The great thing about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is that the script makes it all worthwhile (not to mention two actors who could pull off the repartee with such panache).  Goldman has such an ear for dialogue the movie is a treat to listen to, even if you aren't actually watching it.

Well folks, time to saddle up and head home.  Drive safely.

Quiggy

South of the Border

This is my entry in the Rock Hudson Blogathon hosted by In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood and Love Letters to Old Hollywood.

The Undefeated (1969):

The Civil war has ended.  Unfortunately for Col. John Henry Thomas (John Wayne), the news comes a couple of days late.  His cadre of Union soldiers has just demolished another cadre of Confederate soldiers.  Thomas is distraught over the needless slaughter of men who should have lived to an older age.

Thomas and a group of loyal companions decide to round up a herd of wild stallions, the goal being to sell the herd to the States.  Thomas is joined by a cast of soldiers that include many names of which you have probably heard; Roman Gabriel as Blue Boy, the adopted Indian son of Thomas; Ben Johnson, a frequent guest star in Wayne movies, as Shortgrub, Thomas's second-hand man; Dub Taylor as the cook McCartney (That's MR. McCartney to you...).  The men round up horses and prepare to sell them.

But the people who represent the United States are trying to back out of the deal.  They are only prepared to take 500 of the 3000 horses Thomas and his crew have captured.  They also try to weasel out on the agreed upon price of $35 a head, instead insisting on $25 a head.   But Thomas insists it's all or nothing, and at the previously agreed upon price to boot.  He instead decides to take a counter offer from representatives of Emperor Maximillian in Mexico, and heads to Mexico with his herd.

Meanwhile, Col. James Langdon (Rock Hudson), of the former Confederate States has decided there is no use in living in a country that doesn't meet his standards and decides to pack up his former crew and their families and go to Mexico themselves, to offer their services to Emperor Maximillian. 

He has with him a cast of his own famous names like Jan-Michael Vincent as Lt. Bubba Wilkes, the potential husband of his daughter; Merlin Olsen as Little George, his burly blacksmith;  and Bruce Cabot as his First Sergeant, Newby.

Langdon burns down his ranch, rather than sell it to carpetbaggers, or leave it for them to take over and goes on a trek towards the border with his crew.  Both Langdon and Thomas have to deal with agents who are determined to prevent them from crossing the border, but both end up safely in Mexico.  (Or so it seems they are safe, anyway, but you know it's not going to end so quickly, don't you...?)

Eventually the two groups do hook up.  At first there is some animosity after Langdon learns that Thomas was on the other side.  But the two become somewhat partners as the former Union soldiers band together to help the former Confederates defend themselves against a band of Mexican banditos.  Later, Langdon invites Thomas and his buddies to a 4th of July celebration.  Which  ultimately breaks out in an old-fashioned, all-out (but good natured) brawl.

But all is not well in Mexico.  The Juaristas (the rebels who oppose Maximillan and his French rule) are on the rampage, and before this movie is over, both the Thomas contingent and the Langdon forces are going to have to come to terms that Maximillan's days are numbered as ruler of Mexico.  There is of course a rousing ending, and both forces do end up friends t the end.  Butwhat else would you expect from a Wayne movie?

There are a whole host of other recognizable faces in this movie other than those mentioned above.  Lee Meriwether plays Langdon's wife, but you will (or should) al;so be able to spot Royal Dano, John Agar, Richard Mulligan, Paul Fix and a host of other character actors who showed up in dozens of TV and movie westerns (and other genres of film).   See if you can count them all. 


Time to saddle up and head back to the ranch.  Drive safely, folks.  And watch out for banditos and rebels on the way home.

Quiggy