Last night we watched "Lust for Gold"(1949), a Western adventure with a self-explanatory title. Glenn Ford stars as "Jacob Walz", a Dutch immigrant who discovers a Mother Lode gold mine in the Superstition Mountains outside Phoenix, Arizona. Ford's story is told in flashback. He doesn't appear until about 25 minutes into the movie, which begins in the modern day with his grandson (William Prince) trying to locate the mine, now known as "The Lost Dutchman Mine". Prince follows an experienced local man into the mountains, hoping to be lead to the spot. Then suddenly the man is shot dead. Prince runs back down the mountain to tell the sheriff. He doesn't want to get blamed for the murder. The sheriff informs him that this isn't the first shooting. "Twenty other men have been killed looking for that mine in the last hundred years, four of them just recently". He sends a deputy (Will Geer) out with Prince to the murder site to recover the body. While they're up there, Geer recounts the history of the gold mine.
Now we enter flashback mode and come to the heart of the story. Geer gives Prince some background to begin with. "A hundred years ago, a Spaniard named Peralta discovered the mine. That is to say, he was the first man to hope to profit from it. He and his brother excavated 20 million dollars worth of gold ore and hid it deep in another shaft. They could only carry so much out at a time, you see, and they didn't want anyone to know the size of what they found. But in truth they weren't the first ones there. The Apaches knew about the mine long before any Europeans came out West. They considered it a sacred site, the home of their Thunder God. Because of that, they didn't remove any of the gold, and they killed Peralta for defiling it. His brother escaped and came back years later, hoping to recover the ore. That's where your grandfather comes in, and.......".
Next we see Glenn Ford. As Jacob Walz, he's climbing the trail with a man named "Wiser" (Edgar Buchanan aka "Uncle Joe" from "Petticoat Junction"). The year is 1880. They're following Ramon Peralta in secret, waiting for him to arrive at the mine. When he does, Uncle Joe - not movin' kinda slow but pretty fast this time - shoots him in the back. "Now it's all ours", he says to Walz. "How does ten million apiece sound to ya"? It sounds good, but twenty mil sounds better. Walz lets Wiser lead the way into the shaft, then shoots him in the back. Now he doesn't have to share the gold with anyone. But in cashing in some ore, Walz makes his first mistake. Unike the Peraltas before him, he brings down a large amount, 300 pounds worth. Word gets around to the townsfolk and he's accosted at the local saloon. "Hey, you're the one that redeemed that mountain of gold ore! Heard you got five thousand dollars"! Walz tries ignoring the men, then pushes them away but it doesn't work. "Say.....you didn't get that from the old Apache mine, did ya"? "Leave me alone", Walz replies. He finally has to pull his gun to make an exit.
Walz figures he's tough enough to hold the greedy gold seekers off and patient enough to wait them out. He goes up to the mine only in the middle of the night, sneaking out to rent a horse from the livery. He's bribed the stableman to keep quiet about their deal, but what he doesn't know is that there's another kind of threat to his fortune - a beautiful woman is lying in wait. Like everyone else in town, she knows about Walz' find. She sets about to seduce him, playing dumb, pretending to know nothing. "Julia Thomas" (Ida Lupino) runs a bakery. She's married to an outlaw named "Pete" (Gig Young). The two of them are barely scraping by and she's frustrated at hitching up with such a "failure" as she calls him. She also knows a secret about her husband; he got away with a murder in Kansas City. She uses this to blackmail him. "I want you to move out so I can get close to Jacob Walz". She assures Pete she won't sleep with him "but if it happens it'll only be one time. I just need him to show me where the mine is. Then we can take him out. We'll be rich like you used to promise me".
Julia conveniently "meets" Walz at the General Store. She strikes up a conversation. Coincidentally she speaks some German which comes in handy and impresses the suspicious newcomer. Soon, Walz is visting her in the bake shop, buying up all her cookies. "Oh thank you, Mr. Walz. That's very generous of you. It's not easy being an independent woman trying to run a small business". Julia plays her cards slowly, never letting on what she knows. Soon Walz is in love with her. He shows up one day with an engagement ring. Now we're going to find out what a duplicitous gal Julia is. Instead of keeping her husband Pete in the know, and keeping him in on the scheme, she decides to "X" him out of the deal by actually marrying Jacob Walz, who she can have killed later on, after he shows her the gold mine. This is reminiscent of how Walz acquired the mine in the first place, by shooting Uncle Joe in the back. The movie isn't called "Lust for Gold" for nothing. As played by Ida Lupino (a great actress), Julia is a total witch. Her husband Pete gets wind of what she's up to. He's been holed up at the town hotel so Julia will appear to be single. Now he comes storming back, to confront her and Jacob Walz. First she plays it one way, telling Pete it's all part of her plan. "I never loved him, it's you! You're my husband"! Then, when it looks like Walz is gonna win, she jumps back to his side. "Pete's nothing but a loser. I had to tell him that to keep him in line".
This will of course lead to a showdown, up in the Superstition Mountains. "You want her? You can have her", Pete yells to Walz at one point. By now, though, Walz has decided he doesn't want Julia, who even at this late date is still playing the two men off each other. I can't tell you how the showdown resolves, but what about the modern day? We now return to the present, where Will Geer is wrapping up his story. "And that's the story of the Lost Dutchman Mine. I understand your desire to find it, young man", he says to Price, "but no one ever has and no one ever will". That leaves only one question : what about the man who was just shot? If no one has ever found the mine, why have there been four recent murders?
"Lust for Gold" is a terrific yarn, part Western, part romance and all adventure (with even a hint of Noir). Lupino, as noted, is excellent, as are the supporting players like Will Geer, who before he was Grandpa Walton played some fairly rough and tough characters. Glenn Ford gives his usual first rate performance as the taciturn, wily Walz. He's become one of our favorite actors. Two Big Thumbs Up for this movie, bordering on Two Huge. The picture is widescreen as well as razor sharp so don't miss it, it's very very highly recommended. ////
The previous night we found a top notch crime film directed by Don Siegel called "The Lineup"(1958). Eli Wallach and Robert Keith (Brian's father) star as a pair of deliverymen in the San Francisco heroin trade. Both are sociopaths. Wallach is new to the game, Keith is his trainer. The movie opens with the lighting fast theft of a suitcase from a ferry terminal in Fisherman's Wharf. A man impersonating a cab driver speeds away with the case, but soon crashes after running down a cop, who shoots him dead before dying himself. It's a classic Siegel set piece. Detectives on the scene examine the suitcase back at headquarters and find a ceramic statue stuffed with smack. They track the luggage to a San Francisco Opera executive. For a while, they think he's involved with drug smuggling. This turns out to be a red herring, however, and I did wonder why Siegel spent so much effort on it. In this sense, the plot has the feel of a TV show. The script was written by the legendary Stirling Silliphant, who wrote some great movies including "In the Heat of the Night" and "The Poseidon Adventure", but was equally known for his television work.
Not to worry, though, it's a heck of a good movie. Between Siegel and Silliphant they've got us covered. We follow the bad guys through an afternoon of pickups. The way it works is that unsuspecting tourists buy souvenir clay statues in Hong Kong. The statues are hollow inside and carry bags of heroin. The tourists are then tracked back to San Francisco (and presumably other cities) and have their luggage intercepted when they arrive on the ferry. Robert Keith assures Eli Wallach that the afternoon will proceed smoothly. Keith is a weird bird who writes down the last words of Wallach's victims. He's working on a book. When Wallach shoots a guy who tries to stiff him on a deal, Keith asks "did he say anything for me"? Yeah, he's a real creep. The cops have yet to identify the pair, but they screw up when Wallach kills a guy in a steam room. Two kids identify them by their "dark complexions" (I think they're supposed to be Cuban). This leads to a stakeout on their car. Roadblocks are established across the city, by the bayy-ay. Whoa-ee-yohh....ee-yo-oh-oh. Sorry but I couldn't help myself. Cue the guitar solo and get your lighter out while you're at it.
Where were we? Oh yeah, so Robert Keith and Wallach are making their pickups of the ceramic statues at various points in the city. It's their job to transfer the statues to their final destination, so an Unknown Bossman can receive them. But Wallach screws up again, at a hotel. The final clay figure is a doll this time, in the possession of a little girl. She's in the hotel with her mother. Wallach first tries picking Mom up, giving her the Mr. Lonely Heart routine. It works, and Mom invites him back to her room cause she's divorced and he seems like a real gentleman. Her daughter likes him too. But when she lets him hold her doll, he starts pulling it apart, looking for the H. That causes the little one to cry. Mom comes running and Wallach freaks out. He smashes the doll and reverts to his true self, a freakin' maniac. "What'd you do with it"?! he screams. "Where's the baggie that was inside? Where is it?! What'd you do with it"?! The little girl is cringing now. "Mommy he broke my doll"! "Listen lady, if you value your lives, you'd better tell her to give me that baggie".
"But I can't", cries the girl. "I used the white powder that was inside to powder my dollie's face". Wow. Not good. Wallach and Keith are gonna be dead meat with Mr. Big. Then he gets an idea. "You two are coming with me". He takes them hostage and puts them in the car. Keith is waiting in the back seat and I forgot to mention that Richard Jaeckel is their driver. Wallach's idea is to take Mom and daughter to see The Big Boss. "You tell him what you told me. I just hope he believes it". It's the only chance Wallach and Keith have of getting out this thing alive.
There's gonna be a hell of a chase through The Streets of San Francisco (sorry, couldn't help it again) with Richard Jaeckel trying to outdo Steve McQueen. That's all I can reveal, but man what a slam-bang ending! Though there is that "police procedural" feel to the plot, and the only mystery is when the bad guys will be caught, it's a very exciting ride on the way. I give "The Lineup" Two Big Thumbs Up, with a special recommendation for Keith and Wallach's performances. The picture on this one is also widescreen and razor sharp. Two very good movies for your perusal. /////
That's all the news for the moment, except for.......er......The Rams? I hope you didn't see or hear the game tonight, but.........um.............it was terrible. We were worried last week after the Rams got clobbered by the Tennessee Titans, and we asked if that's who they really were. In short, did Tennessee expose them? Was their 7-1 record (at the time) a fluke? After the thorough butt-whipping they took tonight at the hands of San Francisco (there's that City again), I'd have to say yes. 7-1 looks like it was a fluke, because the Rams, right now, suck. The last two weeks they look like a wimpy team, mediocre at best. Let's hope they turn it around, otherwise I can hear Jared Goff saying "see, it wasn't my fault after all". Yikes. Good thing this is a bye week. I hope you had a nice day and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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