We've got a double Glenn Ford bill for ya this time, so let's jump right in and get started. Have you ever heard of a TV movie called "The Brotherhood of the Bell"(1970)? I had not, but it came up on my Youtube recommendations last night and Classic Rob, who runs a Glenn Ford channel on Youtube and who posted the movie, says it's a Tarantino favorite. We usually trust QT's choices, so long as they aren't Grindhouse, Kung Fu or Blaxploitation, and from the synopsis this one sounded right up my alley.
Ford stars as a college professor who's a member of a secret society. Think "Skull & Bones". As the movie opens, we see him and two other members of the Brotherhood inducting a new member (CHiPs sergeant Robert Pine). The four are down in the hidden basement chamber where the Bell is kept, at a San Francisco Catholic University. The ceremony is being led by Brotherhood Chairman "Chad Harmon" (Dean Jagger, Mick's brother), a wealthy industrialist and university alumnus. Robert Pine swears the oath, which of course includes a vow of lifetime secrecy, and voila, he's now a Bellsman. Before the men go their separate ways, Jagger stops Glenn Ford to say he has a mission for him. Ford gets upset. "C'mon, Chad. I've paid my debts by now. Why're you handing this to me at this late date"? In Brotherhood terms, "paying one's debt" is parlance for carrying out the special "missions" required of Bellsmen in exchange for all the material goodies any of them could ever want. Through their wealthy connections, Jagger and the shadowy players above him will arrange for you to get the house of your dreams, any car you desire, a new position in whatever field you'd like to work in (provided you can do the job). You say you're tired of being a bank president? You'd rather be the curator of a museum? Done. You'd rather live in France? Done. You want your stock portfolio to take a healthy jump? Done. They can even get you a nice young wife. Ford has one. All you have to do in exchange is carry out the missions that are infrequently given to you, and keep silent about them. And hey, as Jagger explains to the now-complaining Ford : "It's not like we've ever asked you to murder anyone".
Maybe not, but when Ford opens the file Jagger's given him, he sees that what he's being asked to do could end up amounting to murder. His mission is to persuade a fellow professor to turn down a promotion he's been offered. "Dr. Konstantin Horvathy" (Eduard Franz), expatriate from a Communist country, has been named as the new Dean of Linguistics at the university, but Jagger and the Bellsmen want someone else because Horvathy is seen as a potential rabble rouser. Now, Ford is Horvathy's close friend. His mission is to get the professor to turn down the Deanship, to plead with him if he has to, and as a last resort to blackmail him with a list Dean Jagger has given him. The list names the people who helped Dr. Horvathy defect to the United States. If he refuses to turn down the job, Ford is instructed to mail the list to the Communist country's government (it's gotta be Hungary, given the name Horvathy), who will certainly jail or execute the conspirators.
Ford is furious when he sees the list, but goes to a party in honor of Dr. Horvathy to try and persuade him not to become Dean. Horvathy of course cannot understand why his friend isn't happy for him. "This is a wonderful opportunity for me, why are you so upset"? Finally, going against Brotherhood rules, Ford spills the beans. "Because if you take the job, many of your friends will die". He starts to explain that he's a member of a secret society, knowing that if it gets back to Dean Jagger, he could wind up dead himself. He's hoping that his old pal Horvathy will just go along with it and keep his professorship. "Your students love you". But Horvathy freaks out and runs off down the hall. The next morning he's found dead in his bathtub, a suicide.
Now Ford is really pissed off. He goes to see Dean Jagger : "Never asked me to murder anyone, eh? This is the same damn thing. I'm responsible for Horvathy's death. He was my friend and I've killed him".
"Oh come now, Andrew", says Jagger. "You had no way of knowing he'd do that. Even though you broke your sacred oath by showing him that list - which I'll overlook this one time - any reasonable man would've done what you asked. A reasonable man would've refused the promotion, thereby saving those lives".
Ford's now had enough. "What you call reasonable is to me persecution! You're no different than the leaders of the country he came from. Let me tell you something Chad. I quit the Brotherhood as of this moment".
"You can't quit, Andrew. You took a lifetime oath".
"Well I just broke it. And I'm not only quitting, I'm going to expend every effort to expose you and the Brotherhood, so the world can see exactly who and what you are"!
"Andrew........that would be a big mistake".
Ford storms off and the next day does just what he threatened. He calls a press conference to announce the existence at the university of a secret group called The Brotherhood of the Bell, who he claims is responsible for the death of Dr. Horvathy. Then he names Dean Jagger (Mick's brother) as the leader.
Okay it's me again. Man oh man, do you like super paranoid thrillers like "The Manchurian Candidate"? The thing is though, just because Ford becomes paranoid doesn't mean the Bellsmen aren't after him, because they are. First, his father-in-law offers to help him expose the group. "I've got a friend at the F.B.I". But when he takes Ford to meet with the Special Agent, and Ford later tries to follow up, he's told that the agent doesn't exist! "We have no one by that name in this branch". Maybe he should try the I.B. Curly. Anyhow, the harder he tries to find out what's going on, the more he gets pulled in to the quagmire of dirty tricks and disinformation. It's pretty clear his father-in-law is a Bellsman, and that his beautiful young wife (Rosemary Forsythe) was "arranged" to marry him ("we can get you anything you want"....).
Ford's own father (Will Geer again, Ford and Geer are always great together) finds out what's happening to his son and pays a visit to the father-in-law, who he threatens to kill "with my bare hands". I told ya Geer's a badass in his non-Grandpa Walton roles. I won't reveal how that confrontation turns out, but I will say that finally, Ford, out of other options, is forced to take his case to a tabloid talk show. You think there's something new under the sun? This movie could've come out today and been 100% current. William Conrad is the host of the show and is a cross between Jerry Springer, Howard Stern and Alex Jones. Really, he almost comes across as Trumpian as he baits Glenn Ford and then takes him apart, allowing his audience to take potshots at Ford's "ludicrous" story in the form of their own ridiculous questions. You think there's something new under the sun? One of the first "questioners" is an African-American man, 30ish and wearing a tunic, who comes across with the old "I represent all of Black history" routine. "His story's nothing new. I've known about it for 600 years! And it's not about no secret societies because the only secret is that everyone in White America is a racist! Only it ain't no secret to me"! He then goes on to explain the "fact" of systemic white racism ("it's in the genes"!) until William Conrad shoots him down with insults. Next up is a female John Bircher from Michigan, who says it's all the fault of the Jews. Conrad, an equal opportunity loudmouth, cuts her down to size too, and even though she deserves it, the whole point is to create a circus-like atmosphere in which Ford's story gets lost in the hysteria. Sounds like 2021, no?
There's another subplot involving his wife and a burglar that I won't describe except to say be on the lookout for Dabney Coleman in a non-moustachioed role as a detective. I didn't recognise him; you might, given the heads-up. Now I've gotta say "man oh man" again, because "Brotherhood" is a five star classic with one of the best scripts I've ever encountered for this type of movie, made-for-TV or otherwise. It gets our highest rating, Two Gigantic Thumbs Up. The picture is a little soft and in color (which we don't prefer because in older movies it tends to become washed out), but it's still exceptionally watchable. Give it a view tonight! ////
The previous night saw Glenn Ford traipsing through the Central American jungle with hostages in tow, in "Appointment in Honduras"(1953). Ford plays "Jim Corbett", a mysterious adventurer riding aboard a tramp steamer headed for Guatemala. Also on the boat are "Harry" and "Sylvia Sheppard" (Zachary Scott and the great Ann Sheridan) a wealthy man and his wife. It's not clear what they're doing on the rickety old ship (or maybe I missed it), but it's clear from the outset that it's not a happy marriage. Sheridan throws herself at Ford the first chance she gets. He refuses because he's got something else on his mind. In addition to Ford and the Sheppards, there are five wanted criminals on board, headed up by "Reyes" (Rudolfo Acosta of "High Chaparral" fame). The captain of the boat is charged with transferring them into custody. In the middle of the night, Ford hatches a plan with the bandits. "I'll help you escape through the jungle if you'll help me take over this boat". While the crew are asleep, Ford and the criminals grab their guns. They force the captain to step aside, and - taking the Sheppards as hostages - jump into a rowboat and head off downriver to disembark in the thick of the rainforest.
No one knows what Ford is up to. Ann Sheridan thinks he's a gun runner. Rudolfo Acosta thinks he's a treasure hunter. "I'm sticking with you, amigo. I think you know where the gold is". Ford doesn't want this. "I got you your freedom, so take off". But Acosta and his comrades, as well as the Sheppards, know that Ford is their only way out of the jungle. He knows the terrain, they don't, and potential death is everywhere in the form of gators and pythons and piranhas and pumas. Watch out! And Zachary Scott had better watch out, too, because wife Ann Sheridan is becoming more and more attached to Glenn Ford, Patty Hearst/Stockholm Syndrom style. Even though he kidnapped her and her husband, she sees him as the stronger of the two men. Once they're all off the boat, most of the plot is about the survival of the group, which totals seven (four criminals, the Sheppards and Ford). Different alliances form. Scott, who's filthy rich, tries to sway Acosta and the banditos over to his side. "I can offer you real money, as much as you want, instead of some imaginary gold. How do you know that's what he's here for, anyway"? In truth, no one does. Ford even wants the Sheppards gone now. "Everyone needs to go their own way, I have nothing to offer you". But they can't, as they keep telling him, because they don't know the jungle. He's their only way out and now Ann Sheridan's hooked. She's getting Ford on the hook too and husband Zach Scott is jealous......well, not jealous exactly, though he's that too. What he wants is to get the hell out. If Ann decides she wants to come with him, fine, if not ces't la vie. You see, he's found a map in Ford's backpack, and the map gives away an important secret. If this secret is revealed to Reyes and the criminals, Ford's days as the shot caller are numbered.
So what's Ford's deal? Is he a criminal himself, like Acosta and the banditos? Is he a treasure hunter, or maybe a gun runner as Sheridan suggested? If he's a bad guy, why hasn't he simply gotten rid of the others, now that they've served their purposes as enforcers and hostages? Most importantly, is it even in Ford's contract to play a bad guy? Watch "Appointment in Honduras" and find out. Though the plot's a one way ticket through the dangers of the jungle, with some romantic suspense thrown in, it's top notch in the going, and in the scheming between the males in this particular safari. You also get Ann Sheridan in the bargain, one of our favorite actresses. I give it Two Big Thumbs Up. Once again it's in color and the picture is very watchable. ////
So there you have it for tonight. I hope you had a nice weekend. The Rams had a bye today, so we didn't have to worry about them getting creamed. Hopefully that won't happen next week when they go on the road against the Packers. I'm currently reading "Landslide" by Michael Wolff, about the last days of the Trump administration. It's some weird, wild stuff, Ed. "You are CORRECT, sir"! It's crazy, yet pathetic and written with a sense of the absurd in Wolff's almost stream-of-consciousness style. Reassuring is that Trump's staff thought he was as nuts as we did...... :)
I send you Tons of Love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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