I began this blog Thursday night, Feb. 6 :
Tonight I watched a George O' Brien Western, "Racketeers of the Range"(1939), in which Big George plays an Arizona cattle rancher who tries to prevent the corporate takeover of a local meat packing plant. The plant has contracted with area cattlemen for years and has always paid a fair price for livestock, but now the owner has died. His daughter (Marjorie Reynolds) has been convinced by her shady lawyer to cash in and sell the plant. What she doesn't know is that the lawyer is also working for the packing corporation. If they are allowed to buy the plant, they will have a monopoly in Arizona and will be able to undercut the cattle ranchers, who will be forced to accept far less money per pound.
Sounds positively Trumpian. Man, what an a-hole he is. I can't wait until he goes down the tubes. It would be great if Big George O'Brien were around to kick his ass. I apologize for the blunt language, but that garbage he spewed at the National Prayer Breakfast was a new low, even for him. Something must be done about Donald Trump. Is it really worth the risk to allow this subhuman to continue to occupy the office of the Presidency?
I'm just askin'.
I've already mentioned that the O'Brien Westerns are a cut above for 60 minute serials, and like the also excellent "Mr. Wong" series, they feature plots that are complex for the format. All the O'Briens were shot in Chatsworth, and because some - including tonight's film - were made in the late 1930s, you get a look at the northwest end of the Valley when there was literally nothing there, except the railroad tracks, the train station, and a ranch house or two. This is the same ground I hike on, and the roads I drive to get there through what is now an overdeveloped suburban landscape. In tonight's movie, there was a dirt track that by it's orientation with the mountains might have been the precursor to Plummer Street, or Devonshire. Watching this movie, it's a mindblower to me that only twenty years before I was born, the Valley was mostly empty.
Mostly empty. Not partially but mostly.
Now it's the seventh most populous city in America, if it was officially a city.
I'd rather have "mostly empty". Man it must have been amazing to be here in those days, filming motion pictures. ////
Friday February 7, 2020 :
Tonight I watched a classic WW2 film called "Taxi For Tobruk"(1961), starring Lino Ventura and Hardy Kruger. I found it in a database search of Kruger's name. He was a German actor who appeared in a number of American films in the late 50s and early 60s. "Taxi" was made by a French director named Denys de La Patelliere, and is the story of four French soldiers who are on patrol in the Libyan desert in early 1942, when Rommel was in retreat. Lino Ventura, though only a Corporal, is in charge, due to the fact that their lieutenant, along with the rest of their platoon, has been killed in a German attack. Right off the bat you've got Frenchmen and Germans fighting over Libya, which tells you something about colonialism in the 20th century.
Lino Ventura was another Continental actor who became something of an international star for a short time, again in the early 1960s. Due to his burly physique he often played heavies. Here he is a good guy, but tough as nails. The four soldiers are riding in a jeep, trying to get to their base in El Alamein, Egypt, 700 miles away. They are low on gas, water and food, with only enough to make it half the distance. After their jeep gets stuck in the sand, two of the men are ready to give up, to surrender to the desert heat and die, but Ventura talks them out of it (or rather machos them out of it, to be more accurate). They free the Jeep and continue on, only to be strafed later that day by a Messerschmitt 109. The Jeep is blown up in the process. Now they are on foot in the middle of the Libyan desert and are almost sure to die, of exposure, thirst or both. But then we wouldn't have a movie, so the screenwriter has them eventually cross paths with a small group of fellow soldiers, who may be their salvation.
Except the soldiers are German - i.e, the enemy. Luckily there are only four of them. Ventura and his men take them out, and help themselves to the Germans' food and water. There is also another vehicle, a small German truck. But just as they are about to drive it away, the spot a fifth soldier, who was hiding behind the truck the whole time. He is Hardy Kruger, a Captain of the German Army. Kruger has no choice but to surrender. Two of the Frenchmen want to kill him on the spot, but Lino Ventura forbids it. He is by the book and isn't about to break the laws of the Geneva Convention. Even as a non-com Corporal, he is still the ranking soldier of the group, so his order stands. Kruger is taken alive as a prisoner, and will ride along with the French soldiers all the way to their base in El Alamein. When they get there, the officer in charge will decide what to do with him.
From here, the story will become an epic adventure of survival and cooperation, as the quintet will face many challenges on their way to El Alamein. There will be times when Ventura and his men will have to rely on the navigational expertise of Hardy Kruger - their enemy - and will have to take a chance that he is not leading them into a trap. And vice versa, Kruger has to trust that he will not suddenly be stranded in the desert all alone. Two of the Frenchmen still want him dead. "Taxi For Tobruk" is ultimately an anti-war film, so understanding between the two sides will be the key to everyone's survival. The men find common bonds in their love of French culture. As it turns out, the German Officer Kruger went to college in Paris and speaks "proper French" more fluently than Ventura and his men, who are the French equivalent of country boys. This is something Kruger chides them about, but it also brings them together.
But can they really trust him? After all, he's fighting for Adolph Hitler......
I had never heard of "Taxi For Tobruk", but it turns out to have been one of the best World War Two films I've ever seen. The cast is small and the setting is desolate, nothing but sand as far as the eye can see. But the writing and acting are phenomenal, and the black and white photography is nothing short of spectacular. Hardy Kruger (still alive and working at 92!) is great as always. He also made another great stuck-in-the-desert movie called "Flight of the Phoenix" in 1965, and starred in one of the greatest art house movies ever made (and again anti-war) : "Sundays and Cybele". Make sure you see that one if you haven't already. Kruger had a classic German face with a full head of blond hair that made him ideal for playing Nazis and bad guys, but he was much more versatile than that. He really was an excellent actor, and he shines here as the captured Captain. Lino Ventura is also very good as the gruff Corporal who has to keep his men in line in life-or-death circumstances. "Taxi For Tobruk" has been restored by Olive Films, a releasing house along the lines of Criterion or Kino though without their budgets or prestige. Every Olive film I've watched, however, has looked pristine, so they may be making a name for themselves.
If you are a WW2 buff, or just a fan of war movies in general, "Taxi" is a must see. Directed with great skill by Denys de La Patelliere, it gets Two Gigantic Thumbs Up, my highest rating. Look for it, and check out other great releases from Olive. ////
That's all for tonight. It's now Saturday evening, February 8th. I'm gonna have to go back and edit this blog to indicate when I wrote each section. On Monday I will once again be working solo at Pearl's, and I'll be there almost 24/7 for the next week, so I'll have more time to write and finish blogs in a single day. My movies for the week will be coming from TCM, so it'll be interesting to see what they have on tap.
I'll be back tomorrow night at the Usual Time, and I'll see you in church in the morning.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment