Barton MacLane and Sterling Hayden in "Kansas Pacific", and Buster Crabbe and Charles King in "Devil Riders" (plus post-Ozzy Black Sabbath)

Last night, we saw a Railroad Western called "Kansas Pacific"(1953), which was pretty cool because we haven't had one of those in a while. And, it was in color, too (though we don't usually prefer Westerns in color, or most movies for that matter). At any rate, as it opens, the year is 1859 and the Army is trying to build a railroad line to the West Coast, because "General Winfield Scott" (Roy Gordon) is concerned that war may be coming, and if it does, they'll need a supply line from their depots in the West. The tracks will have to go through Kansas, however, which - as a border state - has two equally vociferous factions, those who support the Union, and those who support the Confederacy. The Johnny Reb sympathizers don't want the railroad to get built, and a group of them - led by "Bill Quantrill" (Reed Hadley) - are sabotaging the construction effort. It's all "Cal Bruce" (Barton MacLane) can do to keep the trains running, with what limited track he has, and on top of that, the Rebel gang keeps shooting at him and putting boulders on the tracks, so that he and his engineer "Smokestack" (Harry Shannon) have got their hands full, day in, day out. It's gotten so bad that Cal's sweet daughter "Barbara" (Eve Miller) wants him to quit the railroad and move with her back East. But Smokestack refuses to go with him, so he declines, and then the Army, hearing of the trouble on the construction line, sends in a "track engineer" (supposedly an expert) to facilitate the work.

But really he's an Army officer who's there to observe and rout out the bad guys. Before, all the railroad had at this whistle stop was Cal Bruce, sweet daughter Barbara and Smokestack. Now they've got the tall, strong officer "Captain John Nelson" (Sterling Hayden), who can kick some major league bootational. Bill Quantrill finds this out when his men try to cause a ruckus on the track line. Big time punchouts ensue, with Nelson taking on a squad of guys. After he wins, Quantrill ups the ante, and starts having his Rebs shoot to kill Cal and his train crew. They also steal a dy-no-mite! shipment and blow a train to smithereens. Many of the workers get scared and want to quit, but Nelson offers them double pay, and one by one they come back. And no one knows that he's really an Army officer.

This is what you could call a "perseverance story", because there really isn't a plot as far as twists go. We know who the good and bad guys are from the start. We know what each side wants, and we watch them play it out. So, it's more about the Determination of the Union to Get the Railroad Built, and in that sense it's like a Study Film from your old third grade class. That's not to say there isn't drama, because it's just one fight and sabotage after another. But the film could've used a Charles King to give it more personality, or a producer who wasn't so hooked on Telling a Historical Story. The director is Ray Nazzaro, a Hollywood Craftsman who could always be counted on for middle budget (non-Poverty Row) B-Westerns. And you can for sure always count on Barton MacLane, one of the great character actors of early cinema (he's older here but gruff as always). But if you take it simply as a Train Movie and put the Civil War sabotage in the background, it's very good, especially with all the shots of an authentic coal-fired Choo-Choo rolling acoss old time Chatsworth. There is one subplot worth noting, where Quantrill's henchmen wanna kill Captain Nelson but he won't let 'em because he doesn't wanna tip off the Feds and thinks guerrilla tactics will be more effective. He wants to instigate the Civil War, and in this sequence you get a bit of history that you may not have known about (I didn't), that all kinds of violent incidents led up to the war, besides just the slavery issue, or secession, and there was a run-up before war was declared, it wasn't just "bang" and it happened. All told, "Kansas Pacific", which runs 72 minutes (long by our standards), is an excellent 1950s Western that gets Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is a tad soft, and dark in places, but watchable all the way through. Recommended! ////

The previous night, Buster Crabbe was back in "Devil Riders"(1943), the first entry in the Billy Carson series, started by Sigmund Neufeld Productions after Crabbe's Billy the Kid franchise was played out. In this film, Buster as Billy Carson is running the Pony Express out of Chatsworth. He delivers the mail once a week, cross town or cross country, but now he's got competition from "Tom Farrell" (Frank LaRue), owner of the Farrell Stagecoach Company, who is moving into town and has plans to expand his business once the railroad line comes through. With it will be built new roads, to other towns, and with his stages Farrell can deliver ten times the mail, plus packages and passengers, that Billy can deliver on one horse. Billy is undaunted by the challenge and says he'll adapt. "May the best man win," he tells Farrell.

Meanwhile, the competition between the two is a boon for Charles King. He's a would-be wheeler dealer who is working with the town's sole attorney "Jim Higgins" (John Merton). King doesn't care much who wins the mail war, but he doesn't want the railroad going through Chatsworth, because it will buy up all the land he's got his eyes on. And because the railroad magnates need the mailmen on their side (because the mail is popular with the public), King decides to start a war between Billy Carson and Tom Farrell by stealing all of Billy's horses (two dozen), and making it look like Farrell did it. I'm telling ya: every dastardly deed committed by modern big wigs and politicians was already being thought up and carried out by the honchos of the Old West, or so it seems in movies. But I mean, tell me that Donald Trump could out-do Charles King. Not even close! And King, even though he's a One Man Crime Wave, has ten times more smarts and class.

Anyhow, after King has his henchmen stampede Billy's horses, Billy confronts Farrell at a barn dance (where we get to hear two songs by Tex Williams and the Big Slicker Band). The two men go outside to talk about the stampede, with Billy thinking Farrell is the culprit. But then Farrell gets shot, and the Sheriff, who was at the dance, runs outside and Farrell tells him: "Billy didn't shoot me, it came from the bushes" (stay! out! da bushes!) (actually, we love da bushes now, compared to Trump). Farrell goes home to convalesce under the care of sweet daughter "Sally" (Patti McCarthy), while Billy asks his old pal "Fuzzy" (Al St. John), who runs the general store, to help him catch the shooter of Mr. Farrell. Whoever it is has ridden off into the boonies, and Billy still has no idea that Higgins the attorney and Charles King the landowner are behind the attempted bust-up of the railroad and their mail business. So, he asks them for a loan to help shore up his Pony Express while he tries to catch Ferrell's shooter and get his horses back. But because the shooter works for King and Higgins, even though they "agree" to loan Billy the money, when he's gone, they call on all their henchmen to track him down and kill him, then dynamite the railroad in the process. It's a many-layered plot and well executed. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Devil Riders", featuring shots of Iverson Ranch from angles not usually seen. The picture is soft but watchable.  ////

And that's all I know for tonight. I've been listening, as you know, to a lot of post-Ozzy Black Sabbath of late, and while it's debatable whether they should've used that name or not (Tony Iommi says it was Don Arden's doing), there's a lot of great music on those albums, even if it doesn't sound like classic Sabbath. Another really good one I just discovered yesterday is "The Eternal Idol", the demo version with Ray Gillen on vocals. Gillen passed away back in 1993, but boy could he ever sing. Listen to the song "The Shining" from that album, it's just killer stuff. I've also been listening to a lot of Ronnie James Dio music, and I'm finding that I like him a lot better when he's not singing with Ritchie Blackmore. It's funny - when RB first formed Rainbow, I loved Dio (who didn't?). But when he kept on singing about dungeons and dragons and rainbows, it grew tiresome, and his voice sometimes sounded (to me) overwrought. Then RB got Graham Bonnet, who was great for one album, but that style of singing (try and pop a blood vessel with your voice) would have been too much if they'd kept going in that direction. So, I thought it was perfect when Ritchie got Joe Lynn Turner, who I think was the best Rainbow singer of the bunch. He could really belt it, and was melodic without being gruff or over the top. And for a long time, I didn't care for Ronnie James Dio in retrospect.

But now, hearing him on the Dio Black Sabbath albums, he sounds incredible, especially on the last one, "The Devil You Know", when the band was called Heaven and Hell. And I'm also liking a lot of his own Dio albums, like "Master of the Moon" and "Majica", in addition to the classics from the early 80s. So I guess I like him least in Rainbow, but he's great on everything else. Anyhow, give Ray Gillen a shot on "The Eternal Idol", and make sure you specify him on Youtube, otherwise you'll get the Tony Martin version, which is the only album Martin sounds weak on. On all the other Tony Martin Black Sabbath albums, he's absolutely killer. Here's a list of recommended post-Ozzy Sabbath albums : "Tyr", "Headless Cross" and "Cross Purposes" (all with Tony Martin), "The Eternal Idol" (with Ray Gillen), "Seventh Star" (with Glenn Hughes), and "The Devil You Know" (Ronnie James Dio). Great stuff that I'm only just discovering!

I'm of course also listening to operas by Wagner. I could listen to those and Mahler symphonies every night. I hope you are having a good week, and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Tom Tyler in "Santa Fe Bound", and "A Lawman is Born" starring Johnny Mack Brown (featuring Charles King in both movies!)

Last night we saw a good one from Tom Tyler, "Santa Fe Bound"(1936). At it opens, Tom is riding through Chatsworth Park when he sees a man being bushwhacked. Tom shoots the bushwhacker, but not before he gets off a shot of his own, mortally wounding his target, "Dad Bates" (Murdock McQuarrie). When Tom rides up to check on him, Dad gives him an envelope containing five gees and asks him to take it to Molly in Santa Fe. He dies before he can say her last name, but Tom goes there and tracks her down, and it turns out she's Dad's daughter Molly Bates, mistress of the Circle J Ranch. Tom introduces himself and says he met Dad out on the trail, but when Molly (Jeanne Martel) asks how Dad is doing, Tom doesn't have the heart to tell her he's dead. Therefore, he also can't give her the money.

He's got himself in a jam now, because in town, he's introduced himself at Tex French, the name of the bushwhacker who killed Dad. He even has a letter he took off of Tex after he shot him in the Chatsworth Park ambush. Therefore, the honcho in town, a "Mr. Stanton" (Richard Cramer), thinks he's Tex French, a gunman who does made-to-order killings. But Stanton's henchman Slim Whitaker doesn't trust "Tex", even though he's given Stanton the five grand that was meant for Molly. It turns out that Whitaker's hunch was right, because Tom (as "French") steals the money back while pretending to be a Mexican. Confusing, I know, but not while you're watching the movie. After he pretends to be a middle-of-the-night Mexican robber, and he steals the 5K back from Stanton, Tom rides back to the Circle J and gives the money to Molly, telling her to trust him and not to ask any questions. Molly's "Aunt Bridget" (Dorothy Wood) tells her that Tom is a good guy ("I have an intuition about men," she says), so even though he's acting like a criminal, and Stanton tells her he is one (and Stanton asks Molly to marry him), she trusts Tom and he finds out that Stanton is behind the cattle rustling that has almost put her out of business.

When Stanton goes after the "Mexican" who stole his money, he hires a hitman named "Denton" (Charles King), who, when he gets a look at Tom pretending to be "Tex French", says "that's not Tex, I know him." Now Tom is in an even bigger jam, but he gets out of it by knocking Charles King and Stanton cold, with one punch apiece. But he has to run now, and they know he's not Tex French. But, he gets the Sheriff (Earl Dwire) on his side, and after the Sheriff foils an attempt by Stanton to have Tom lynched (because he initially claimed to be the bushwhacker Tex French), they team up to expose Stanton as the plotter of the Dad Bates murder. "Santa Fe Bound" is top notch Tom Tyler and gets Two Big Thumbs Up for it's layered script and great Charles King action. The picture is very good and hey, get ready because you get two Charles King movies in this blog, plus Johnny Mack Brown coming up! ////

As promised, just a mere sentence down, here's a good one from Johnny Mack called "A Lawman is Born"(1937), which we saw the previous night. In an unusual script, that uses exposition to launch the story and then again at the end to fill in the gaps, we meet Johnny as he's riding through Walker Ranch. He observes a shootout between rival gangs on horseback, and when it's over, he runs into Charles King and sweet "Beth Graham" (Iris Meredith), daughter of a local rancher (Frank LaRue). Now, running into Charles King after a crime has gone down is always indicative of something, but this time, he's with a gal (his gal, he says) and sweet Beth is going to the dance with him that night, so there isn't much Johnny Mack can say, though he likes Beth too. We know little about Johnny except that he works at the general store as a clerk for Al St. John (who, with his false teeth out, is extra goofy). Here's where the early exposition comes in handy: the characters who come into the store hint that there's something amiss about Johnny Mack's past, that he'd rather settle disputes with his gun than by talking. But we're supposed to guess at what the context is for their remarks. It's a weird script - well developed for a 60 minute Western, with several subthemes (normally unheard of given the time limits), but the entirety of the story has gaps galore, filled in with expository dialogue.

So, we have to guess at Johnny's past, and in town there's a cattle war going on between the two main ranchers. They seem to be rustling each other, but the Sheriff suspects there's a middleman involved who is playing both sides against each other. This isn't exactly true; it's actually one of the ranchers having his henchman work for the other guy and doing a triple cross by hiring some crumb bums to rustle his cattle and make it look like.....oh well, forget it. The plot got too confusing at that point (meaning underwritten), but then, because Charles King is the middle man, you can always blame the whole thing on him.

When the Sheriff is killed, trying to settle the ranchers' dispute, his sister wants JMB to become the new Sheriff, knowing of his reputation from his former town, which we don't know the whole of, because it's only been alluded to (and in fact we don't know squat). Apparently, though he acts like a mild mannered store clerk, Johnny's supposed to be a bad-ass gunslinger who will bend the rules as Sheriff, if necessary. This means he won't hesitate to take "offensive action" against suspected criminals, meaning he'll shoot 'em without a trial. Holy schnikey, Batman! That's doesn't sound very Johnny Mack Brown to me! He gets the job as Sheriff, but the top rancher doesn't like it and sends out his henchman to ambush Johnny.

When that doesn't work, Charles King calls upon the deputy Sheriff from Hornito, Texas to come out and work with Johnny. King thinks that because Johnny is supposed to be a wanted killer, the deputy will come and arrest him, but his plan fails - as all Charles King plans do - because he fails to take into account that he may be wrong. Warner Richmond, he of the jaw and teeth, plays the arch villain "Briscoe" the land office manager, but we don't see him until halfway through the movie. Again, it's a strange but well developed schcript.They mention all these names of the various bad guys in the dialogue, but don't bother showing them until the plot is well underway. It's like you're a fly on the wall, and the characters know what they're talking about, but you don't. Still, because there's so much going on, you can't help but be involved, and now that Johnny is Sheriff, sweet Beth makes him promise that he'll never use his gun except in self defense. JMB actually has more screen time with "Martha" (Mary McLaren), the dead Sheriff's sister. Their relationship is not romantic, but she implores him to step between the warring ranchers and clean up the town. The hoodlums (led by Dick Curtis) laugh at him : "Look at the store clerk Sheriff, what a sissy." Then they find out about his past, which again we don't know anything about, and they stop talkin' smack. The bad guys think he's wanted for murder in his former county, but it turns out that's a ruse concocted by the Hornito deputy and JMB.

It's all kind of vague, but really good! This is what small budgets will do ya, and I've read that they sometimes wrote the schcripts on the schpot. Still, when you've got Johnny Mack you get an automatic Two Big Thumbs Up, and in fact it's an excellent movie, and highly recommended. The picture is soft but watchable. //// 

That's all I've got for tonight. I hope your week is going well. I'm listening to "Headless Cross" by Black Sabbath, and "Tristan und Isolde" by Richard Wagner, and I send you Tons of Love as always!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

Carol Ohmart and Tom Tryon in "The Scarlet Hour", and "Gun Code" starring Tim McCoy and Ted Adams

Man oh man, the postman rang twice or even three times in last night's potboiled Noir, a maze of twists and turns directed by the great Michael Curtiz, called "The Scarlet Hour"(1956). Before he gives up acting to write horror novels, handsome Tom Tryon, as real estate salesman " 'Marsh' Marshall", is fooling around with his bosses wife, "Pauline Nevins" (Carol Ohmart), a hottie he can't keep his hands off of. As the movie opens, they're parked on Mulholland Drive, fooling around in the bushes ("Stay! Out! Da Bushes!" : Jesse Jackson, circa 1992), when two cars drive up from opposite directions. They signal each other by flashing their headlights, then the occupants get out; two hoodlums from one car, an older, suave bossman from the other. Seeing that something sketchy is going down, Marsh and Pauline hide, ducking down in the brush. From their position, they overhear a plan by the hoods to rob a mansion, located right behind them on the other side of Mulholland. The bossman details the job for the hoods - a jewelry heist that's he's scoped out (the victim is a rich doctor) - then the parties drive away,

Tom Tryon, who by now has plotted out his story for "The Other", is hugely relieved that he and Ohmart weren't caught and murdalized by the jewel thieves, and she drives him home, promising to call him the next day. When she does, he's stunned by what she tells him. She wants to ambush the thieves in the middle of their caper. "It'll give us enough money to run away and leave the country." She wants to get away from her domineering real estate husband (James Gregory), and live with Tryon on some island paradise forever. But in truth she's a desperate nutcase, and doesn't know what she wants. Tom thinks the idea is nuts. He knows he's about to have a bestselling book and tells her, "Look, I'm about to quit the movie business. I just wrote 'The Other' for God's sake! I can support you. We don't need to steal. And, what if we get killed? We'd be going up against experienced criminals!" Ohmart says it'll be easy - she's got a street mentality cause she grew up in the projects - and because Tom can't control his lust for her, he agrees to stage the ambush, of professional jewel thieves mind you, which, if successful, will net them 350 grand.

What could possibly go wrong? Well, for one thing, Carol Ohmart's hubby isn't as stupid as she thinks. He's been suspecting she's cheating on him, so he rents a car and tails her, and on the night of her jewel theft ambush with Tom Tryon, he follows her car to the rich doctor's mansion, and in the confusion of trying to figure out who she's cheating with (some millionaire in the hills?) he starts slapping her around, then pulls a gun. Terrified, she wrests it away from him and shoots him dead. Meanwhile, Tom Tryon is hiding in the driveway of the mansion house. When the jewel thieves come out, he ambushes them and says "stick em up". They do, but when he absconds with their suitcase full of stolen jewels, they turn back and try to shoot him. Tom and Carol get in their car and split, but in the confusion, it isn't clear to Tom what just happened. Carol tells him her husband showed up and tried to kill her. "He found us out, and at exactly the wrong time!" Tom figures he was killed by a stay bullet from his shootout with the jewel thieves, and because this supposition lets Carol off the hook, she goes along with it. "Yeah, that must be what happened. Let's get outta here and let the police figure it out. Don't worry, there's nothing here to trace us."

Unfortunately for the duo, detective EG Marshall is on the case, and the weird thing is, that the full name of Tom Tryon's character is "E.V Marshall". He and Carol are in boiling hot water now, because the cops keep paying them visits. Both are closely connected to the dead man, as his wife and junior partner. Carol hides out with her friends, a former barmaid and her down-to-earth hubby, while Tom takes refuge at work, pretending to know nothing while he works at the real estate office. His loyal secretary "Kathy" (Jody Lawrance), a beautiful blonde good girl, stays late to help him readjust after the terrible death of their boss. It's clear she's in love with Tom, offering to make him dinner, and as they spend more time together, he decides that it's in his best interest to stick with Kathy and ditch Carol Ohmart.

This enrages Carol, but she's got worse problems, because the bossman of the jewel thieves is back, and is not happy about the ambush. He wants his 350 gees worth of stolen jewels back, and his henchmen have tracked Carol through a bracelet of her own. The bossman pays her a visit at her Beverly Hills house, and makes her an offer she dare not refuse. That's all I'm gonna tell ya, but Good Lordy Moses, the webs folks weave! "The Scarlet Hour" features quite a tangled plot, and just when you think you've got it straightened out, they chuck another twist at you. Carol Ohmart, who worked mostly in TV, is tremendous in the lead role in what was her film debut. One critic called her "the female Brando". It's strange that she didn't become famous, but then those are the breaks of Hollywood. As for Tom Tryon, he might've been Stephen King before Stephen King was Stephen King, but he sold so many copies of "The Other" that he wrote just one or two more books and then quit writing just as he'd quit acting. He excelled at  both, however, as did Michael Curtiz ("Casablanca") at filmmaking, and when you've got that kind of talent on board, you've got a winner. "The Scarlet Hour" gets Two Huge Thumbs Up. It's one heck of a crime flick and is highly recommended. The picture is very good. ////

The previous night had us hanging out with Tim McCoy in "Gun Code"(1940). In the town of Miller Flats, a protection racket is making life miserable for the shop owners. The ultimatum is "either pay up or go out of business", the old Mafia extortion scheme, and the local parson has had enough of it. Every Sunday at church, he sermonizes against the "protectionists". "They're protecting you from themselves", he says, though the townsfolk already know this, and he aligns with "Betty Garrett" (Inna Gest) the publisher of the the local paper, to print editorials against the racket. They also put up posters around town, detailing the scam. We don't know who is running the racket, we've only seen it's enforcer "Slim Doyle" (Carleton Young), who shows up at the stores and demands money. But whoever the boss is, he's nervous about the parson. One Sunday at church, the curtains part behind the pulpit, a pistol pokes out, and bang, the parson is shot dead.

The next thing you know, "Tim Hammond" (McCoy) rides into town. When he opens a shop as the new blacksmith, Doyle and the protection racket tries strong-arming him, which of course is a big mistake. After Tim takes down three of their enforcers in a major-league punchout (sped up, Sam Newfield style), they leave him alone, but he knows it'll take a lot more than that to break up the racket. The rest of the townsfolk are just too scared to resist, but he convinces Betty Garrett and her little brother "Jerry" (Robert Winkler) to join him, and that's a start. They keep printing the paper, in honor of their Dad who was killed by the protectionists, and they announce town meetings, which gradually the citizens attend. Whoever is running the protection racket is leery of taking on Tim McCoy, so they use a dirty tactic instead. They kidnap little Jerry, Betty's kid brother. Man, that's lowdown. But by now, Tim McCoy has Sheriff Ted Adams on his side.

What's that you say? "Sheriff Ted Adams?" (you just said that). "Surely its a double cross! Ted Adams can't be a good guy". But he is in this movie, and he's so good as a good guy, that we wish he'd play one more often! He and Tim team up to stop the protection racket, and find the hideout where the kidnappers are holding little Jerry. He's a plucky kid who escapes on his own, so now - when Sheriff Ted and Tim discover this - they set their sights on the leader of the gang, whoever he might be. There is some great horse riding footage of the "camera in back of a pickup truck at 35mph" variety. I mean, everything must've had to be perfect for those shots, even in a low-budget PRC movie. Because you're dealing with very large and strong animals, riding fast, you had to keep the speed of the camera truck steady and just a bit faster than the horses are running, and they're hauling ass, and the truck wasn't that far in front of them. Yow! And the actors are riding the horses. I think the horses should've gotten credits in all of these films, but anyhow, because I digressed, the movie ends with Tim and Sheriff Ted pulling a ruse on a henchman to have him lead them to the top man.

Two Big Thumbs Up for "Gun Code", another great Western from Sam Newfield and Tim McCoy. It's recommended and the picture is soft but good. ////

That's all I know for the moment. I hope you had a nice weekend. I'm still listening to Dio and Wagner, and reading Tony Iommi's book, and I send you Tons of Love as always!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

Tim McCoy in "The Traitor", and "Stranded" starring the great Kay Francis

Last night we saw Tim McCoy in "The Traitor"(1936), in which Tim, as "US Marshal Tim Vallance", goes undercover to bust up a gang of schmugglers. As the movie opens, Tim is doing another kind of busting, that of broncos at a ranch. After taming a particularly wild horse, he gets a hand delivered letter from his captain telling him to head over to Placerita Canyon, because a lyching is about to go down. Before he leaves, sweet "Mary Allen" (Frances Grant) offers him a job taming broncs at her ranch, should he ever need work. On his way to stop the lynching, several honchos tell him not to go. "That mob will stop you, even kill you. They want those killers dead, and they don't care if you're a Marshal." Well, if there's anything we know about Tim McCoy, it's that he can't be in-Tim-i-dated (ha! I just made that up), so he continues on, one man against a mob, and because he's always the fastest draw in every movie he's in, he backs the mob down from the lynching. The two men to be hung are "Pedro Moreno" (Pedro Regas) and "Jimmy Allen" (Frank Melton), also known as The Texas Kid, who turns out to be the brother of Mary. Marshal Tim doesn't know that yet, and in a strange early twist, he lets both men go free. "If I don't, this mob will just come back tonight and finish the job when it gets dark. But make no mistake," he tells Pedro and Jimmy, "I'm coming after you at sun up, and when I catch you, you'll have a trail, and because I know you're gulty, you'll be hung by the law." So they shouldn't get too excited about being set free, in other words. McCoy believes in law and order, and once he stops the lench mob, he's gonna go after these criminals.

Well, would you believe that when he rides back to the Marshals office, the captain fires him in front of all the deputies! Yep, and with a full dressing-down: "You're a coward for letting those murderers go!" the captain says. "Turn in your badge!" When McCoy does, and the deputies leave the room, the captain pats McCoy on the back, returns his badge, and tells him it was all a ruse to establish his undercover credentials. "I want you to go back and infiltrate that mob. Find out who's running the schmuggling gang. We'll print a headline that you've been fired for being a traitor". That gives Tim an "in" to join the gang.

As we've seen in many movies, It's always easy for Tim to infiltrate gangs, but the problem this time is that Jimmy the Texas Kid is sweet Mary's brother. Tim hates to bust him, because he's fallen in love with Mary. And to make matters worse, Tim is under such deep cover that even the deputy marshals don't know about it. All they know about him is what they read in the paper, that he's been fired for being a traitor. So when they see him apparently in cahoots with Pedro Moreno, the killer who was about to be hung, they tag him as a criminal and hunt him down. He finally gets shot as he rides into Walker Ranch. There isn't a major bad guy in this one, no Charles King or Ted Adams or Harry Woods, it's from Puritan Pictures (super cheap), but it's got a well developed schcript, and it makes a statement about mob violence. It's a hybrid western that takes place in a Undetermined Time Zone, because it's the Old West, but the schmugglers use an airplane, and beautiful Frances Grant wears stylish clothes. The captain gets killed late in the movie, after a battle with Pedro Moreno, and it looks like Tim is gonna be railroaded for the murder because the deputies think he's a traitor. But in the final 90 seconds, he gets a reprieve that keeps him from the gallows. Watch and see why! "The Traitor" is one of the best Tim McCoy films we've seen, and gets Two Big Thumbs Up. It's highly recommended and the picture is razor sharp!  ////

The previous night's movie was "Stranded"(1935) from director Frank Borzage, a top Hollywood Craftsman who helmed such films as "The Mortal Schtorm" and "A Farewell to Arms", in addition to other Noirs and melodramas that we've seen over the years. About a decade ago, we discovered the actress Kay Francis and became instant fans. If you're a long time reader of the blog you may remember her. Kay Francis is the long lost great star of the Golden Age. She should've been as big as any actress you can name, and for a time she was the highest paid, making nearly ten times the weekly salary of Bette Davis. Kay Francis had it all, looks, the prettiest smile in the business, onscreen charm and style, and was known as a clotheshorse. She had an interesting voice that hid a lisp, and she should've been huge. In fact, she was on her way to being so, and then she got into a contract dispute with her studio (studios owned actors in those days), and that was the end of that. She was branded as "trouble", made a few more pictures of lesser stature and retired. But boy, was she great. Kay Francis was a true Hollywood Original, and you'll see why in this movie.

She plays "Lynn Palmer" a social worker for The Traveler's Agency, a federal program during the Depression that was designed to help displaced persons get back on their feet. If you came into San Francisco (where the movie is set), via train or boat, and you had no money, no job, and no place to go, the agency would help set you up. Lynn Palmer loves her job, loves helping people, and is going about it when one day "Mack Hale" (George Brent) walks up to her counter at the train station to ask about a Polish steel worker he's in need of. Hale is the project manager for the Golden Gate Bridge, in charge of the whole doggone thing. It's interesting to remember that the bridge only opened in 1939, just 21 years before yours truly was born, but like all things from the past, Before You Were Born always seems like a million years ago. Yet it wasn't, it was just a generation earlier. In the movie, we're shown footage of the bridge under construction, in many scenes, and its fascinating schtuff. With Lynn Palmer's help, Mack Hale finds his steelworker, then gets involved in a labor dispute - a plot that constitutes half the movie. The other half is his romance with Lynn, who agrees to a date with him after their initial meeting. They fall for each other and intend to get married, but as they get to know each other better, they discover they don't agree on social philosophies. Lynn believes in helping people down on their luck. It's the Depression and the nature of her job is assistance. She believes folks are basically good, and with a boost from the government, any one can make it through hard times. She's a socialist, in other words, but of the old Rooseveltian school, where you get a handout but then pull yourself up. However, Mack disagrees with everything she stands for. He thinks if you're in a bread line it's your own fault and indicative of your character.

"How do you think we're building this bridge?" he argues, "with no-good layabouts and alcoholics? No! We've got men who're willing to not only do the hardest jobs on the planet, but to put their lives on the line for a fair day's pay." He thinks if you're in the gutter, you belong there. Lynn loves him, and off-work he's a great and personable guy, and he loves her, and its for real, but when he asks her to quit her job "because it's not important work, you're only helping bums who won't succeed in the long run" she stands her ground and breaks off their engagement. Once again single, Mack throws himself back into his work, which requires 24/7 dedication because they're undertaking one of the biggest engineering projects in history, but he's hit with a demand from "Mr. Sharkey" (Barton MacLane), the boss of a "protection agency" who threatens to disrupt the construction of the bridge if he isn't paid five grand a month.

Sharkey is nothing more than an extortionist, whose "agency" is Mob-related, and Hale tells him to get lost. "This is a union job. The men here get good wages and you won't find any to bribe or flub a weld." But Sharkey doesn't give up. When Mack still won't pay, he embeds a man on the bridge crew who gets the workers drunk. This leads to multiple firings by Mack, because you can't drink and work on a bridge. After Sharkey does this a few times, Mack has fired so many workers that the rest of the men rebel and stage a walkout. Then a tragedy happens and Mack is held responsible. He's about to be fired himself, which will ruin his career, when who should come to his rescue but Lynn Palmer, his ex-fiance and the woman whose social welfare politics are anathema to him. Mack of course has an epiphany about life's circumstances when he gets through his trial by fire, and Mr. Sharkey gets his comeuppance, but that's all I'm going to tell you. This is a classic Kay Francis film, and a good introduction if you've never seen her before. I guarantee you'll want to see all her movies, and "Stranded" gets Two Big Thumbs Up. You can't see it on Youtube, so find it at the Libe or watch it on Netflix. The picture will be razor sharp! //// 

That's all I know. I'm listening to various songs by Dio (the band) as I write, and also Mahler's 7th last night. I'm also liking the new King's X song "Let It Rain", and can't wait for their new album in September. I hope you are enjoying the start of Summer. I wish you a nice weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always!

A Double Dose of Noir: "The Argyle Secrets" and "Shoot to Kill" (both super hard boiled)

Last night's film was an eccentric Noir with a political subtext called "The Argyle Secrets"(1948). William Gargan stars as "Harry Mitchell", a tough-as-nails reporter who's on the hunt for a notebook called "The Argyle Album", which supposedly has the names of American businessmen and their Nazi collaborators. Expository dialogue, which is in abundance in this film, hints at surreptitious art thefts, but nothing is ever spelled out. As the movie opens, a newspaper columnist named "Allen Pierce" (George Anderson) is dying in the hospital from heart failure brought on by his job. He was the one to break the story on the existence of the Argyle Album, and his protege Mitchell is the last person to visit him. Mitchell asks him about the album because he'd like to take over the case, but just as Pierce is about to give him the lowdown, his doctor comes in the room with his medicine, which turns out to be poison. The doc was a hired gun to shut him up.

Harry Mitchell finds himself in a tight spot, in the hospital room of a man who knew too much, so he stages a ruse with his photographer to sneak out. But then the photog is also killed inside the room, and Mitchell, having split the scene, is wanted for both murders. From there, the movie is narrated by Mitchell, in the style of the Fearless 1940s Reporter: "I found myself at the waterfront." Of course he did, because "the waterfront" just plain sounds good in a sentence, and as a metaphor, it's at land's edge, where bad guys and good guys alike run out of real estate. Mitchell himself is more of the former, he's not nice, and he even punches women in the face (sorry to have to mention that), and thus his character is not very likable. But as I said, this is an eccentric Noir, and the woman in question doesn't seem to mind. Then another woman shows up, named "Marla" (Marjorie Lord), who Mitchell keeps pronouncing as "Mahler". She's a seductive blackmailer who also wants the Argyle Album, and she's got a trio of hoodlums to help her obtain it. But, after she has them beat the tar out of Mitchell, to the tune of a "room spinning" montage, she then backtracks and feels guilty, and volunteers to let Mitchell choke her into unconsciousness so that he can escape. "They'll need to see bruises" she says of her henchmen, "go ahead and do it." And then he does. He chokes her. So as I also said, he is not a likable character.

However, all of this is done in classic, even exaggerated, Noir style, so it's almost (and would be) a caricature of a Noir if it weren't so dead serious, and in that way it's like an Orson Wwelles flick, with exaggerated character personas, i.e., the Marla chick is too cool for school, so much so that she asks Mitchell - a newspaper reporter - to choke her, and he does, so that tells you something about the psychosexual undercurrent of the plot, which I don't even wanna get into.

The thing is, this movie has Noir style to boot, so it's kind of a shame that the mystery of the Argyle Album (the whole point of the plot) is given short shrift. All we get is the old shell game: "Album, album, who's got the album?", but we never really get to know what's in it. The cops want to get Mitchell for the murders, so he has to beat them to the punch by remaining on the lam and finding the killers himself. Sgt. Schultz is the main suspect. He claims to have been a concentration camp survivor (by exposition), but he's really a Nazi collaborator, and his show is being run by the mysterious Marla, though its never explained how, and that's because this flick is very short on substance but saturated with style, and in that regard, it succeeds. It's been restored by some filmic society that I don't remember the name of (it's in the opening credits), and it flows well enough to keep you watching (and even riveted in places), but as I say, the Mitchell character is just a rotten guy, so you can't root for him. Nonetheless, it gets Two Big Thumbs Up (and almost Two Huge), just for its hard-core Noirness and the focus on style. The picture looks like it's off of a dvd. Give it a watch, it's highly recommended. ////

This is a Double Noir blog, and for our second feechum, the previous night we saw a hard boiled flick from Lippert Pictures, who've brought us some good ones in the past such as "Motor Patrol" and "Train to Tombstone". You'd better bring your score cards to keep track of the double crosses in "Shoot to Kill"(1947), in which a crooked assistant D.A. named "Lawrence Dale" (Edmund MacDonald) frames a small time hood for a murder he didn't commit. The story is told in flashback from the hospital bed of Dale's wife "Marian" (Luanna Walters). As the movie opens, she's been in an accident with her husband and the framed criminal, who's escaped from prison. Both men are now dead. They ran off the road while being chased by the cops, who are puzzled as to how they came to be together. What were they doing in the same car, and why were they running from the police? As Marian tells it, Lawrence Dale was a crook, who was campaigning for the top job of District Attorney in the coming election. His platform was that he was tough on crime (as opposed to his out of town boss), but in truth, he was in the pockets of the three mobsters who run the town. Hence the murder frame-up of one of their enemies. 

"George Mitchell" (Russell Wade; we've got reporters named Mitchell in both movies) is a hotshot who wants a scoop on the case; he also happens to be a close friend of Marian. When he visits her in the hospital, she tells the story of how she met Wade in the first place. She was looking for a job and got hired on the spot. She's an excellent Gal Friday and soon she and Wade fell in love. But behind the scenes, we see that he was a crook, making deals with the mobsters, to cover-up their hold on the city. Marian didn't know this and helped him campaign for the election. Soon, he popped the question and she said yes and they got married. But no sooner did they leave the courthouse, than someone took a pot shot at her. We already know why. Marian figures it out soon after.

This is why I tell you to bring your scorecard, because I'm gonna tell you that she married Wade to set him up. As she reads him the riot act after nearly getting shot on her wedding night, we assume she's been working on behalf of reporter George Mitchell the whole time, as his undercover filly, trying to bust her husband Wade for framing the hood at the beginning of the movie. But boy, the trickery goes a lot deeper than that, and just when you think you've got it all figured out, they spring a whopper of a twist on ya.

Keep in mind the mob bosses and the escaped framed hood, and then wife Marian, and you'll see that Lawrence Wade has his head in a vice. The plot moves slow for the first 20 minutes, but when it gets going it's a steamroller. There's also some killer piano playing during a nightclub scene, from a guy named Gene Rogers, demonstrating pre-rock n roll stylings later made popular by Jerry Lee Lewis. "Shoot to Kill" also does The Fearless Forties Reporter thing, if less spectacularly than "The Argyle Secrets", but it's plot probably makes more sense. I give it Two Big Thumbs Up and a high recommendation. The picture is again razor sharp. On a side note, we know and love Luanna Walters as one of our favorite Western Sweethearts, and it's also worth noting that she appeared in more 60 minuters than any actresses except Elizabeth Holt and Joan Barclay. Walters plays "Marian" in "Shoot to Kill" and though she looks well enough, I didn't recognise her in this role, and was sorry to read in her IMDB that she had a drinking problem by this time and died in 1963 at age 50 from alcoholism. A sad story, but she sure is great in the movies. God Bless all of our actors and actresses, for to entertain is a great thing. It takes folks out of the everyday and away from the chaos of the world. ////

That's all I know for tonight. I hope you are enjoying your week. I'm listening to "Die Walkure" by Wagner (conducted by von Karajan), and also "The Devil You Know" by Heaven & Hell, and I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)   

Tim McCoy in "Outlaws' Paradise", and "Below the Border" (a Rough Riders movie) starring Tim McCoy, Buck Jones and Raymond Hatton

Last night, we saw another Lightning Bill Carson western starring Tim McCoy. In "Outlaws' Paradise"(1939), a gang led by Ted Adams pulls off a mail heist that nets them 30 grand in gubment bonds. When Ted hides the money at Iverson Ranch - "to let it cool off" - one of his henchmen tells him to make sure and save a cut for "Trigger Mallory" (also Tim McCoy), who's about to be released after serving three years in jail. It's not Adams' gang after all, it's Mallory's. He's the real leader; Ted just took over after Mallory got caught in an earlier holdup. Adams scoffs at including Mallory in on the take. "I'm the boss now. I'm not sure I even want him back after three years in stir. A man can lose his nerve in that amount of time, and his quick draw." Trigger hasn't lost his nerve. We've seen him on parole day. He's ornery and demands to be released "right now". The deputy tells him to hold his horses, "Ya got two more hours, Mallory. We go by the book around here".

When the Marshal's office gets word of the post office robbery, they assign Lightning Carson and his partner "Magpie" (Ben Corbett) to the case. No sooner so they get a look at Trigger Mallory's photo, then Magpie gets a brilliant idea. "Dang, Lightnin'" he says, "durned if you're not his dead ringer." Yes folks, it's the Old Dual Role Routine yet again. What would 60 minute Westerns be without them? We the audience know from the beginning of the movie that Trigger Mallory looked just like Tim McCoy, and that McCoy looked just like Lightning Carson, but when Lightning figures it out, he sets up a plan to infiltrate Trigger's gang. What would 60 minute Westerns be without infiltrations? Lighting talks to the jail warden and arranges for Trigger to be held indefinitely, beyond his release date, until he can impersonate Trigger, infiltrate the gang, and bust them for the 30 grand bond theft.

Observing Trigger in his cell from a hidden vantage point (and he's out-reeged now that he's been denied release with two hours to go), Lightning Bill adopts his voice and mannerisms and sets out to meet up with the gang. A meeting place has been pre-arranged by Trigger's gal "Jessie" (Joan Barclay), but when Lighting shows up at the appointed spot, he doesn't quite have Trigger's persona down pat, and Ted Adams - suspicious as always - has a feeling that something is weird with "Trigger". This leads him to trick Lightning Bill into a phony cattle rustling job in which he's to be ambushed. But when it happens, and Bill draws fast enough to shoot the guns from three henchmen's hands, Ted gives up trying to take over the gang from "Trigger". That is, until the real Trigger finds a newpaper that shows him out of jail. He knows he's been set-up, that someone from the Feds is impersonating him, and he escapes. Then he and Ted Adams, with Jessie's help, take Lightning Bill Carson prisoner. 

While I liked Tim McCoy's alter-ego role as a jailbird, it wasn't as much fun as the Mexican Bandito persona he adopted in the two other Lightning Carson films we've seen. He's a hoot in those movies, and while he's good here too, the plot doesn't have as much going for it, it's mostly built around Ted Adams' suspicion that he's not the real Trigger Mallory, which we already know. The best thing about this entry in the series is Joan Barclay, one of our favorite Western Sweethearts, who - while svelte and classy as always - is playing a Bad Gal this time around. She's loyal to Trigger Mallory throughout, and even holds Lightning Bill at gunpoint until Ted Adams and Trigger can subdue him and tie him up. Only with Magpie's help does Lightning Bill live through this one, which, while not the best in the series, still gets Two Big Thumbs Up. Why? Tim McCoy of course. He's always highly recommended, and the picture is razor sharp.  ////

The previous night, the Rough Riders were back, and - oh boy! - that's always cause for celebration, am I right? In "Below the Border"(1942), "Marshal Buck Roberts" (Buck Jones), working undercover as outlaw John Robbins, is riding the stage through Walker Ranch, along with "Senorita Rosita Garcia" (Linda Brent) and her "Aunt Maria" (Eva Puig) who live at the Garcia Ranch across the border in Mexico. The Garcias are carrying the family jewels, which are worth a fortune and are dear to "Papa Garcia" (Eumenio Blanco), who is back at the ranch and ill. When a gang of bandits rides up and robs the stage, "outlaw Robbins" willingly turns over the jewels to the robbers. This leads the Sheriff to suspect he's in on the robbery. Marshal Buck can't let him know he's undercover, because it would spoil his plan to infiltrate the robbery gang, and - as usual - he and the Marshals Office want to root out the leaders. The Sherriff doesn't have any evidence to arrest "outlaw Robbins", so he has to let him go, and Robbins heads over to the saloon, where owner Roy Barcroft likes his "bad guy" credentials. He hires Robbins (not knowing he's Marshal Buck) on to the stage robbery gang, who've coerced good-guy Garcia Ranch hand "Joe" (Dennis More), into helping them hide the Garcia jewels. Joe is vehemently against this. "I agreed to help you rustle some cattle. I never agreed to help steal the family jewels. They are sacred to Papa Garcia."

Joe goes out to Bronson Cave, where henchman "Slade" (Charles King) is waiting. Slade is in charge of the jewel box and he tells Joe to shove it when Joe demands the jewels. Then, he follows Joe back to the ranch that night and shoots him to prevent him from talking. Roy Barcroft the saloon owner is pissed, because King has now brought attention to the Garcia Ranch, and what Barcroft doesn't know is that his janitor, seemingly a bumbling fool, is "Marshal Sandy Hopkins" (Raymond Hatton), who's been spying on him from behind the scenes.

On top of this, "Marshal Tim McCall" (Tim McCoy) has ridden into town on his own, as he always does. McCall almost always works alone, whereas Marshals Buck and Sandy usually run a cover scheme between the two of them. Marshal Tim is always the main gunslinger. He shows up at the saloon, posing as a cattle buyer. Roy Barcroft says "we can do business", then Tim says "let me see your livestock", which are being held in the desert between Garcia Ranch and Bronson Cave. Charles King shows up, and because he's got a sixth sense about getting caught, he doesn't trust "cattle buyer" Tim or "outlaw" Buck. King decides to stampede the cattle, to see how the two will react, and when they identify themselves as Marshals, it turns out that Charles King was right (and isn't he always, even in a bad way?)

This leads to a great showdown between King and Marshal Buck, with the Mexican border fence separating their gunfight. Once Roy Barcroft finds out his top henchman is dead, he tries to hightail it with the Garcia jewels, and that's all I am going to tell you. There isn't as much Marshal Sandy in this one. Usually we get a clever scheme involving him as a tramp or stumblebum, who frees the other Riders from peril. This time, he's pushing a broom in Roy Barcroft's bar, without much else to do. Still, "Below the Border" gets Two Big Thumbs Up, with another great performance from Charles King, and the bottom line is that it's a great series. Don't you wish they made a couple of dozen Rough Riders movies? So do I. This one is highly recommended!

And that's all I know for tonight. Happy Summer! I'm listening to "Down on the Upside" by Soundgarden, and "Tannhauser" by Wagner, and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Tim McCoy in "Riders of Black Mountain", and "Riders of Pasco Basin" starring Johnny Mack Brown (plus Eastwood's "Heartbreak Ridge)

Getting back to Westerns, last night we had Tim McCoy in "Riders of Black Mountain"(1940). As the movie opens, Tim - in his customary guise as a card sharp - is riding a stage through Iverson Ranch. To pass the time, he demonstrates his skills to the other passengers in a game of "pick a card any card", when the coach is stopped by a gang of masked bandits, who steal the Wells Fargo strongbox and ride off. Tim slips out the other door and signals to a man on horseback, who is hiding in the rocks. This is his partner "Tombstone" (Ralph Peters); he and Tim are US Marshals, called in by Wells Fargo to investigate a series of stage robberies. Because Tim left the stagecoach, when he arrives in town the Sheriff (Rex Lease) wants to arrest him, thinking he was the set-up man for the robbers. He doesn't reveal himself as a Marshal, because he is trying to root out the top dog of the operation, and for all he knows it could be the Sheriff! When the Sheriff tracks down and arrests a hoodlum named "Pete Smith" (Ted Adams) and two other men who've been identified by the other passengers, McCoy points a gun at him and demands he let the robbers go.

It sounds crazy, but he's trying to get the whole gang by infiltration. His methods only cause the Sheriff to suspect him more, and it's a confusing premise. This one is a super-cheapie from PRC, without any frame ups, romance or comedy (when was the last time you saw a western without any of those elements?), but it does have a lot of horse riding action in the Santa Susana Mountains. It turns out that the local banker is robbing his own bank, via the stage coach deposit runs, to collect the insurance money on the "stolen" cash. This way he doubles his money, because he gets the stolen dough and the replacement insurance. "Riders of Black Mountain" is hard to follow, but if you just watch it and don't try to make sense of the plot, you'll like it because of Tim McCoy, who's great as always. Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is very good. ////

The previous night, Johnny Mack Brown was back in "Riders of Pasco Basin"(1940). After winning a rodeo contest, Johnny receives a letter from his friend "Caleb Scott" (William Gould), a newspaper editor in the town of Pasco Basin. "Things are in turmoil, come quickly" Scott writes, and when Johnny gets there, he discovers that a hydrologist named "Kirby" (Arthur Loft) is planning an irrigation project, at the behest of loan shark "Evans" (James Guilfoyle), to bring water to the ranchers. Editor Scott thinks its a scam. Damming up the creek will only bring water to a handful of the wealthiest ranchers nearest the source. A group of smaller ranchers agree. They've been asked to pitch in to help fund the project, by placing their mortgages in the hands of Evans, in lieu of cash, for their contribution, and now they're having second thoughts. Group leader "Singer" (Rudy Sooter) addresses a rally of the opposition ranchers, who back out of their agreements to fund. Evans and Kirby get nervous that their scam will be discovered, and send their henchman Ted Adams to tell the easily fooled Sheriff (Ed Cassidy) that Singer is a troublemaking renegade.

By this time, Johnny Mack Brown has shown up. Before looking into editor Scott's claims, he visits his sometime sweetheart "Jean Madison" (Frances Robinson), who's acquired an upstart beau since JMB left town. "Bruce Moore" (Bob Baker) knows and admires Johnny too, but rues his return, because he's always second best to everything Johnny does. Bruce knows he's gonna lose Jean, too, but he still sides with JMB to stop the irrigation project, and the romantic aspect is just a diversion in this film. The focus is on the vigilante groups that form, on either side of the water rights debate. Evans and Kirby are the first to hire vigilantes, whom they "deputize" through their influence over the wimpy Sheriff, therefore, their gunmen are officially legit.

But when editor Scott prints the truth about Kirby and his water scam, which he's using to steal the rancher's mortgages, Kirby has Ted Adams shoot him dead. A very touching scene follows, in the newspaper office, where "Tommy" (Robert Winkler), Caleb Scott's now-orphaned young son - in tears and working the printing press - vows to keep printing the truth about the crooks because "that's what my Dad would have wanted". Johnny Mack consoles him, and you'd better have a box of Kleenex handy. After this, Johnny Mack hires his own group of vigilantes, which leads to a lot of showdowns with Kirby's men. Fuzzy Knight provides comic relief as a card trick playing, hostage taking, printer's devil. He's a crafty nitwit as usual, and as usual he saves Johnny from a frame up by Kirby for Caleb Scott's murder. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Riders of Pasco Basin". I'm pleasantly surprised that we're still able to find new Johnny Mack movies. This one is highly recommended and the picture is very good.  ////

I have another bonus movie for you, Clint Eastwood's "Heartbreak Ridge"(1986). When it came out, I remember my Dad went to see it over and over, three times at least, and for some reason I avoided it, perhaps because Eastwood, for me anyway, seemed to be in decline artistically. He'd done those awful monkey movies in the late 70s, and tried to resurrect Dirty Harry in 1983 with "Sudden Impact", which was okay but not up to the standard of the first film. He'd also made "City Heat", a wink-nudge two-star popcorn flick with Burt Reynolds, who was at the height of his smirky popularity (love ya Burt), and it seemed like you couldn't take Clint seriously anymore. So that's why I didn't go. Dad kept raving about it, and in hindsight, I think the reviews were good, too. I think they said it was his comeback movie, and having seen it now, it could be considered the first film in which his screen persona became crusty. At any rate, it's the story of Gunnery Sergeant Tom Highway, a washed-out careerist, an anachronism from "yesterday's Army" who finds himself, at 56, reassigned to a recon division at his old base. He's to be in charge of training new recruits, and in that regard it has a lot in common with "Top Gun: Maverick". The new guys are self-assured punks who aren't worth their weight as far as soldiering is concerned. Gunny Highway is gonna whip 'em into shape, only his methods of discipline are considered out of date by the camp's new commander, a "supply depot" Major, played as a total a-hole by Everett McGill of Twin Peaks fame.

Gunny and the Major butt heads again and again, and Gunny also has his troops hating him so much they threaten to beat him up (big mistake). A comic foil is provided for Gunny by Mario van Peebles as a recruit who fancies himself a rock star off base. Ala Top Gun, there's also a hangout bar, where the waitress is a war widow loyal to old timers like Gunny and his pal Choozoo, both of whom are survivors of the legendary battle at Heartbreak Ridge in Korea. Highway finally gets some esprit de corps instilled in his men, just in time for the invasion of the island of Grenada, which of course was a real life operation during Reagan's presidency. As the movie shows, it wasn't a walk-over for American troops, and - again as with Top Gun - the depiction is very inspiring. One character who especially wins you over is a geeky Lieutenant straight out of ROTC, which means he's "book-trained" but has no experience, and of course because he's an officer, he's above Gunny in rank. It would've been easy for the writers to make him a jerk, too, like the Major, but they don't. They show him really trying to fit in with the troop - and lead, which is his job - and despite his early naivety, he comes through in battle when the chips are down. A great performance by actor Boyd Gaines.

I loved "Heartbreak Ridge", thought it was one of Clint Eastwood's best movies, and now I wish I'd seen it when it came out, with my Dad. Happy Father's Day, Dad! (and to all the Dads out there). If you liked Top Gun: Maverick, you'll like Heartbreak Ridge, which gets Two Huge Thumbs Up and is very highly recommended. See it on dvd. ////

That's all for tonight. I am listening to "Operation Mindcrime" by Queensryche and "High and Dry" by Def Leppard. Yeah, you heard that right, it's much harder rockin' than their later stuff, which ain't bad, but this album, for me, is their best. I hope your weekend is going well and I send you Tons of Love as always!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)     

Nina Foch in "My Name is Julia Ross", and "Samson and Delilah" starring Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr, directed by Cecil B. Demille

Last night we saw an excellent psychological thriller called "My Name is Julia Ross"(1945). Poor Julia (Nina Foch). In need of a job, she applies at an agency for a secretarial position. She's tried all over town, this is the last agency in the want ads. Their receptionist specifies that the client wants someone with no attachments, no relatives or boyfriends "because the last three girls this client had, got distracted by relationships and quit. She wants someone who will stay at least a year". Julia meets all the qualifications, so she is introduced to the client, "Mrs. Hughes" (Dame May Whitty), who wants her to start that night. It's a live-in job.

Julia has fibbed a little about her status. She does have a maybe-boyfriend in her apartment building, "Dennis Bruce" (Roland Varno), but he's a busy guy and hasn't committed to the relationship. Before she leaves, she tells him about her new job and gives him the address, just in case he's interested. "But I'll be working for a year," she tells him. "I have to honor my contract." 

Moving in with Mrs. Hughes is a big mistake for Julia, all the way around, because she's about to get drugged and gaslighted by this woman and her adult son "Ralph" (George Macready), who are crazier than a pair of hoot owls. Aided by the phony receptionist, and a male lackey chauffeur, their whole "want ad agency" was a front using a rented office. On Julia's first night, they drug her, burn all her clothes and luggage, totally destroy any identifying papers/ photos/ anything she can use to prove she's Julia Ross, and when she wakes up - two days later! -  she has to check the newspaper to know what day it is. They've got her dressed in the monogrammed clothes of Ralph's missing wife Marion. They call her by that name, and it's the old gaslight routine again. When she says, "who are you people? I know you drugged me, what do you want?" they say, "oh come now Marion, you aren't yourself today, you've been ill and we want you to get better". Then they give her more drugged tea to drink. But Julia is quick, and by the second day she knows these people are psychos. Ralph the son is a knife-nut. His mama has to keep taking away his pocket knives because he's always ready to slash something: a curtain, a pillow, a sofa. He's stark raving crazy, and the reason they've hired Julia under false pretenses and hauled her out here, to their mansion by a sea cliff, is because sonny Ralph murdered his wife and tossed her body in the sea. Mama Hughes helped him cover it up, and now they have Julia - who looks enough like Marion to pass - as their patsy. They will try to drive her crazy by gaslighting her until she "committs suicide" by jumping off the cliff into the ocean. Then they will have an alibi for the disappearance of Marion.

But Julia is too smart for them. She keeps trying to escape, through the front gate, then by a secret panel in her room. She even hides in the car of a visiting neighbor couple, only to have Ralph track them down when he notices her missing. Finally, she has a shot at getting free when she fools Ralph into allowing her to mail a letter. I can tell you no more than that, but man, this is a nail-biting flick that will have you on the edge of your seat. It moves fast, too, at 65 minutes, and I mean, c'mon.....Dame May Whitty as a psycho-Mom? She usually played charming, dignified old ladies. Too funny, but scary. On a side note, Dame May was born in 1865, making her one of our earliest actresses, and she was from Liverpool to boot. She didn't begin her film career until she was 72 years old. Nina Foch, with her angelic face, is perfectly cast as Julia, and George Macready is downright spooky as the cuckoo-bird son Ralph. Two Big Thumbs Up for "My Name is Julia Ross." It's highly recommended and the picture is razor sharp.  ////

The previous night brought us a Technicolor epic, a biblical Technicolor epic, oh my goodness a biblical Technicolor epic from Cecil B Demille! Are you absolutely not kidding me? We haven't seen one of those for a while, and what more could you ask for, correct? (you are indeed correct sir!) I'm talking about "Samson and Delilah"(1949), which I've seen in the dvd section of the libe for quite some time now. I've been meaning to see it, mainly because I think Demille is a tremendous filmmaker, not just as a director of Spectaculars with Casts of Thousands, but good with actors also. With Victor Mature and Hedley Lamarr (that's Hedy!) in the lead roles, he knocks Samson and Delilah out of the park. You know the story of Samson's hair, and that Delilah cut it, thereby depriving him of his strength. That was all I knew, but the fuller story is that Samson is a hero to the Danite people, who are subjugated to the rule of the Philistines. They don't like Samson but respect him for his strength (strong as 1000 men), and allow him to mingle among them, even to seek out their women, so long as he knows his place. Basically the Philistines want no trouble with Samson, because fighting him only leads to disaster.

He takes advantage of this by fancying "Semadar" (Angela Lansbury), a Philistine debutante. He asks for her hand but her Dad doesn't want trouble with the Philistine prince Ahtur, who also loves Semadar, so he suggests his other daughter to Samson, the viperous Delilah, who bores holes in him with her laser stare. Delilah cannot stand that she is second choice to her sister Semadar, so she arranges for Ahtur to start a rivalry with Samson (whom she craves) and a fight starts. Ahtur has brought an army with him, to defeat Samson (yeah, great idea - not!) and sweet sister Semadar is killed by an errant spear. Now Delilah has no rivals for Samson, and he, deprived of his love Semadar, accepts when Dad again offers him the trampy Delilah. She gives Prince Ahtur the old 23 skidoo and seduces Samson, who falls hard for her because of her (ahem) powers. But when he realises that she's nothing but a harlot, he dumps her and heads back to Dan, his hometown, to look after his mother, who has been robbed and beaten by honchos of Prince Ahtur.

During all this time, multiple examples have been demonstrated of Samson's incredible strength. The Philistine king (George Sanders) knows it's futile to send an army, because Samson will defeat them single handed. And now, he's enraged because Ahtur's men have beaten up his mother. The Philistines are worried. What if he goes on a rampage? It is then that Delilah makes her fateful suggestion: "You've tried armies of men; how about one single woman?" The King, knowing Delilah's seductive power (which is considerable in the person of Hedy Lamarr "that's Hedley!") agrees to give her a chance. She makes a bargain with all of the power brokers in the Philistine court. "If i am successful in discovering the secret of his strength, and neutralizing it, you will each pay me 1000 silver sheckels. If I am unsuccessful, do with me what you will."

She goes to Dan and throws herself at Samson's feet, apologising for past sins and declaring her eternal love for him. But it's only another trick. Using her wiles, she gets Samson to give up his secret, and after she cuts his hair he is weakened. "I am now like any other man." Then Ahtur reappears, and has Samson chained to a grist mill, to turn it forevermore. Against Delilah's wishes, he is also blinded by Ahtur. Now she feels guilty for Samson's plight (imagine that) and, for his final wish, after he prays to God for one last burst of strength, she leads him to the Philistine temple, where he is to be made sport of like the Christians and lions. Once, he killed a lion with his bare hands. Now, sightless, he will be their prey. But Samson, with Delilah's help, makes his way to stand between two columns of the temple, and with the strength of God he pulls it down upon the hecklers and the crowned heads. All die, including Samson and Delilah. If you can find a more tremendous film, have at it. I give it our highest rating, Two Gigantic Thumbs Up. There are more subplots than you can shake a stick at, and our old pal Harry Woods (from 60 minute Westerns) makes an appearance as a member of the King's court. Also shining in a support role is Olive Deering as "Miriam" the Danite girl, who is "milk face plain" in Delilah's words, but who she is jealous of because Samson is loyal to Miriam. Don't miss "Samson and Delilah", it's very highly recommended, but it's only available on Netflix or dvd. //// 

That's all I know for the moment. I hope you're enjoying your week. I'm listening to "Nostradamus" by Judas Priest and I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Tom Tyler and Bob Steele in "Gauchos of El Dorado" (Three Mesquiteers), and "Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture starring Chester Morris

How about a Three Mesquiteers with Tom Tyler and Bob Steele as Stony Brooke and Tuscon Smith? Pretty nifty, eh? In "Gauchos of El Dorado"(1941), they're riding through Walker Ranch when they come upon a dying man named "Jose Ojara" (Duncan Renaldo). He's been shot by a gang of bandits, and in his dying wish, he gives the boys an envelope with five gees inside and asks them to take it to his mother, a nice Senorita with a ranch in the area. "Dona Ojara" (Rosina Galli) is behind on her mortgage and banker "Sam Tyndal" (William Ruhl) is about to foreclose on her. The five grand will pay off the mortgage, but as the movie opened, we saw Jose rob a bank as part of a gang. Then he got a letter from his mama, explaining the fix she was in, and he double crossed the gang. At gunpoint, he stole the money for himself, to give to his mama for the mortgage.

But Jose may be a recurring character called The Gaucho, whose history we don't know because we just jumped into the Mesquiteer films. I'd guess he's a Mexican Federale who infiltrates robbery gangs (and I could be wrong because he dies in this flick, and recurring characters don't usually die) At any rate, the Mesquiteers, being the good guys they are, abide by Jose's dying wish, and take the money to his mama at her ranch. And wouldn't you know it, when Bob Steele knocks on the door, mama answers and immediately thinks he's Jose, whom she hasn't seen since he was a child. The fact that he looks nothing like Jose is papered over with some confabulated expository dialogue. Everyone understands that it's ridiculous except for Dona Ojara and Jose's aunt, both of whom are sure Steele is Jose. But all is well, for a time, when "Jose" gives mama the money. At least the ranch is paid off.

But then, the banker finds this out and is out-reeged. His plan was to foreclose on Dona Ojara, he didn't want the payment, he wanted her ranch. It seems he's in cahoots with the Braden robbery gang. But, worse for Bob Steele, mama now introduces him to his son! (Jose's son). The whole problem is that Bob can't bring himself to tell mama that her real son is dead. We saw this plot in a Tom Tyler film, but anyway, the third Mesquiteer "Lullaby" (Rufe Davis) bonds with the kid and teaches him how to imitate animal noises (think of the Old Macdonald pull toy when you were a kid.) This will be a clue when the boy is kidnapped by the Braden gang as collateral for the money Jose stole from them. If any or all of the preceding is confusing, I'll admit I was confused too, by everything except the central aspect of the plot, which is that Bob Steele doesn't have the heart to tell Dona Ojara that he's not her son Jose, and that Jose is dead. I actually thought that The Three Mesquiteers formula worked better in the first film we saw them in, with Robert Livingston in the lead role as Stony. They seemed more of a unit in that film. Here, it's two big stars (Tyler and Steele), whose personas are bigger than their characters, because we've seen them as leads in so many films. Still, when you've got Tom Tyler and Bob Steele in the same movie, you can't go wrong. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Gauchos of El Dorado, which was released October 24, 1941, just weeks before Pearl Harbor. The picture is very good. ///// 

On Sunday night, Boston Blackie went to Chinatown, in "Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture"(1949). It happens by coincidence, as these things often do to Blackie and Runt - no sooner do they leave a Chinese laundry, where Blackie has dropped off his shirts, than the owner's daughter "Mai Ling" (Maylia) walks in to find her Papa dead. He's been murdalized and so, Blackie and Runt, having been the last ones inside the establishment, naturally become the suspects. Sgt. Matthews pulls up to them as they walk down the street and hauls them down to the station, where Inspector Faraday is waiting. Blackie has an alibi; he was dropping off his laundry. He even has the ticket (no tickee no shirty), written on the back of a Chinese lotto ticket (he wrote it himself cause the owner appeared not to be in the shop).

Faraday believes him, as far as the murder is concerned, but still thinks that Blackie and Runt may be involved in more jewelry thefts because an uptick has been reported in Chinatown. The Tong Wars are ongoing so, to clear his name, Blackie starts an investigation himself. He goes back to the laundry to talk to Mai Ling, who pours him a delicious cup of tea. When he asks where she got it, she directs him next door to a curio shop run by Benson Fong (Maylia's real life husband). While he's in there, he sees Fong reach under the counter to surreptitiously close a "tea" deal, and figures that Fong must have something in his boxes besides tea leaves. Like diamonds, maybe. The customer involved with the "tea purchase" is a tour bus driver named "Les" (Don McGuire). He may also be a mule for Fong's contraband diamonds, so Blackie and Runt follow him and pay for a ride on his tour bus, a Hollywood-style show-'em-the stars type of deal, except in this case, the stars are the "Authentic Chinese" of Chinatown. The tour itself features a stop at an underground "alley", where doors open to reveal an illicit Fan-Tan card game, a Chinese "slave girl" dance, and a Tong assassin chasing his victim through a hallway with an axe. It's supposed to be an "exotic" tour, two bucks a head, for a view of the forbidden secret world of Chinatown, but when the tourists have passed, the the director cuts to the inside of the various rooms, where the "authentic Chinese" turn out to be Americanised Chinese actors, complete with Brooklyn accents. It's a riot, as they take off their wigs, set down their props, and pop open beers and sandwiches. 

It turns out that Benson Fong is indeed smuggling diamonds, as a frontman for "Craddock", the white theater owner next door, who - with the help of a phony Dutch refugee (actually a Nazi) - steals and recuts diamond shipments coming in from the wharf. Despite being the last of the 14 films in the Boston Blackie series (which usually indicates a franchise is running out of gas), I thought it was one of the best BBs, plotwise, that we've seen, with a different kind of setting - Chinatown - that adds a genuine mystery element to the story. There wasn't as much for Inspector Faraday to do this time (and Dick Lane may have been already transitioning to announcing boxing and roller derby), so the comedy element isn't as strong, but Frank Sully is back as the dumbell Sgt. Matthews. The pace is 100mph as usual, so following the plot twists isn't easy. They must've drunk a lot of Chinese tea while shooting this flick, haha. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Chinese Venture". Chester Morris rules, as always, and so does Boston Blackie. The picture is razor sharp. ////

That's all I know for tonight. I'm listening to "Acquiring the Taste" by Gentle Giant, a freaking masterpiece! (pound table and say Tra-MENN-duss!) I hope your week is going well and I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)  

Buster Crabbe in "Thundering Gun Slingers", and "Ghost Town Gold, a Three Mesquiteers film

Last night we saw Buster Crabbe in a film similar to those in the Billy the Kid series but not part of the franchise, called "Thundering Gun Slingers "(1944). As the movie opens, a rancher accused of rustling is being strung up at the old hanging tree by an unknown gang. This happens at night so we can't see their faces, except that of Charles King. Local gal "Bobbie Halliday" (Frances Gladwin), out for a night ride, sees it happen but can't identify anyone. "Dave Carson" (George Chesebro), the man who was hung, was the uncle of "Billy Carson" (Crabbe), who lives the next town over. Billy - like Billy the Kid - is the fastest gun in the region. "You're playin' with dynamite" a henchman tells King. "Good. That's just what I wanted" he responds. King wants to lure Billy to town, so he can do a revenge frame-up. You see, the guy King really wants to get rid of is Bobbie Halliday's Dad "Jeff" (Karl Hackett), who owns a prime piece of ranchland. King plans to set it up to make it look like Halliday killed Dave Carson over a rustling dispute, and that he's the leader of the nighttime gang. That way, when Billy Carson comes to town, he'll seek out Jeff Halliday and kill him as payback for his uncle's murder. Then in turn, Billy will be arrested and the frame-up will be complete.

But what happens is that Al St. John enters the picture. He usually plays sidekick "Fuzzy" in all the Billy the Kid flicks. This time, he's "Doc Jones", a horse doctor who "sometimes works on humans". And he's not too bad when it comes to sewing up shoulder-shots. When Billy Carson doesn't respond as fast as expected, Charles King tries to take out Halliday through his henchman "Slade" (Kermit Maynard). This is the first time we've seen Kermit in a major role, and he's great as a bad guy. He shoots Halliday in the shoulder, which leads Halliday to Doc Jones. Doc thus becomes a sounding board for all the range war gossip in town, and by the time Billy Carson rides in, and predictably shows up at Halliday's ranch and accuses him of leading the gang that killed his uncle, Doc Jones sets him straight, as does Bobbie. They both testify that Halliday could not have been the gang leader, and that - hey! - he's been shot.

Kermit Maynard then shows up for treatment at Doc's office. Halliday shot back when Kermit tried to kill him, and Kermit was grazed on the arm. He tries to pass it off as an accidental self-inflicted wound ("I was cleaning my gun") but Doc puts two and two together and tells Billy that Kermit shot Halliday. Billy then waits for Kermit in the saloon. Charles King is in there, glad handing everyone of influence, the Sheriff and all the ranchers. In truth, he's gonna steal the properties out from every one of them, but right now, all he wants is to frame Billy Carson to get him out of the way. So far, it isn't going too well, and when Billy finds out about Kermit Maynard trying to kill Halliday, so that King can blame it on him, Billy shoots Kermit dead. This movie has some brutal scenes in that regard, cold blooded without the usual humorous touches. After King tries cashing a forged check in Dave Carson's name, Billy figures out that King has been leading the hanging gang all along, which he would've known earlier if he'd watched enough 60 minute Westerns. This leads to a grand finale punchout between Billy and Charles King, in which the joint is trashed and King winds up in Sheriff Budd Buster's jail where he belongs. This is another barrel-scraping budgeter from PRC, lacking the pizzaz of their Billy the Kid releases, but any time you have Buster Crabbe, Al St. John and Charles King all sharing equal screen time, you've got a winner, especially when the picture is razor sharp as it is here. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Thundering Gun Slingers". It's highly recommended! ////

The previous night, we discovered a new cowboy trio: The Three Mesquiteers, starring in "Ghost Town Gold"(1936). The Mesquiteers (pronounced Mess -Ka- TEERS or muh-SKEETERS, depending on who's doing the talking) are "Stony Brooke" (Robert Livingston), "Tuscon Smith" (Ray Corrigan), and "Lullaby Joslin" (Max Terhune). In town, Stony and Tuscon ask Lullaby to deposit a check for 4300 bucks they've earned on their latest cowpunch. "Go straight to the bank, no card playing"! they tell him, knowing his penchant for a tricky deck. Lullaby is a magician with more than one ace up his sleeve, and instead of going to the bank, he heads for the town carnival, where he wins a ventriloquist's doll off a barker in a rigged game. Lullaby knows all the tricks, and walks away with the doll, but he's such a goof that he completely forgets to deposit the paycheck, and has to wait until the bank opens the next morning.

By the time it does, a scheme has been put in motion by saloon owner "Dirk Barrington" (Leroy Mason) to rob the bank of it's gold backup, and thus defraud the depositors. Barrington wants to overthrow the banker and take over the town. Sweet "Sabina Thornton" (Kay Hughes), daughter of the Mayor (Burr Caruth), works at the bank as a teller. She confides in Lullaby that because of the gold robbery, the bank is now broke. They need The Mesquiteers to hold off the customers long enough to get their money back. Lullaby informs Stony and Tuscon, both of whom oblige to help. At this time, there is to be a boxing match for the heavyweight champeenship of the West, between the local champ and a self described "wild man" behemoth from Eastern Europe. Seeing this barbarian, the champ chickens out, and Stony asks Tuscon, who has a boxer's physique, if he will fight the wild man in the champ's place. "It'll make enough money to right the bank". The Mesquiteers are true altruists; there's nothing in it for themselves. At first, Tuscon doesn't wanna do it, because the wild man is huge (pronounced yooge), and Tuscon, though in good shape, is not a fighter. But Stony tricks him into singing a contract, and the next thing you know, you've got a boxing scene that takes up one fifth of the movie (ten minutes). Huge sums are bet on this match, as all the hoodlums in town are sure that the wild man will knock Tuscon out of the ring in the first round. But as the match drags on, Dirk Barrington gets nervous, and has his henchmen ride down to an out of town mine, in a ghost town, where they've laundered their stolen bank gold by purchasing the ghost town from its old geezer owner.

Barrington tells his henchmen to kill the old guy, take the stolen gold back and hide it, so that nothing can be proven, then get back to town while he figures out what to do about The Mesquiteers. We've never seen Robert Livingston before, but he has just the right look and personality to lead a trio of good guys. Ray Corrigan is of course the cowboy star who went on to found the Corriganville movie ranch on land that is now a park, and one of my favorite places as you probably know. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Ghost Town Gold" filmed entirely at Chatsworth Park. The picture is very good, and we'll be looking for more from The Three Mesquiteers. ////

That's all for tonight. I'm listening to Tristan und Isolde by Wagner, still on a von Karajan kick, and I'm also listening to Tony Martin-era Black Sabbath. Though he'd probably have been more successful with it if he hadn't called it Black Sabbath (because by then he was the only original member left in the group), Tony Iommi wrote and produced some pretty impressive music during the period when Tony Martin was the singer. I'd never heard any of it until last week; it was Mick Wall's Black Sabbath book that got me interested. At any rate, give those albums a shot if you like heavy rock, especially "Tyr", "Headless Cross" and "Cross Purposes". Lastly, speaking of Sabbath, keep Ozzy in mind tomorrow (Monday June 13) as he will be undergoing what Sharon described as "major surgery that will determine the rest of his life". God Bless Ozzy Osbourne.

I hope you had a nice weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

Buster Crabbe and Charles King in "Sheriff of Sage Valley", and "Dial Red O" starring Bill Elliott (plus Conjuring 3)

Last night we returned to Buster Crabbe, as Billy the Kid in "Sheriff of Sage Valley"(1942). You know how Billy and his pals Jeff and Fuzzy are always getting blamed for crimes they didn't commit? That's why, at the beginning of every movie, they're always hiding on the outskirts of town. Well, this time they decide to do something about it. They're gonna ride into town, early in the morning, and take down all the wanted posters with Billy's name on them. "Fuzzy" (Al St. John) suggests they go the extra mile and steal the rest of the posters from the mayor's office. "That's where they keep the extras", he tells Billy, "I'll bet there's a whole roll of 'em in there". Billy agrees it's a good idea, but just as they're about to take action, a stage rolls by, being chased by three bandits. Our boys run them off, then come to the rescue of the passengers. Unfortunately, one of them has been shot, and he's the Sheriff. Billy deduces that he was shot in the back, and the trajectory indicates that it came from inside the stagecoach. Someone aboard is the killer.

Could it have been Charles King? He plays "Sloan", the owner of the local casino. Sloan is an underling for a man named "Kansas" (also Buster Crabbe), who masterminds a gang from the boondocks. Kansas has plans to take over the town, after King forecloses on all the ranchers. It's never stated how he has the power to to this, and if Kansas holds the mortgages, then why is he an outlaw in hiding? Maybe I missed these explanations (they'd have been one sentence long, quickly spoken), but at any rate, one day when the boys are having a drink, Billy notices a wanted poster for Kansas, and holy smokes - he looks just like him! It's the old Dual Role Routine once again.

Because the Sheriff is dead, Billy becomes the new Sheriff at the mayor's request, to shut down Kansas and Sloan and their gang, but it's confusing to the ranchers and Kansas knows this, because he and Billy could be twins. So, he takes advantage by trapping Billy and forcing him to swap clothes. It's the old Identity Theft Routine, 60 minute western style. Now the ranchers and townsfolk think that Billy is Kansas and Kansas is Billy, i.e. the Sheriff. Kansas, as Sheriff, throws all the good guys in jail until the mayor figures out what's going on and rescues them. From there, many punchouts ensue. Interestingly, there isn't much gunplay in this film until the end, unusual for a Western, but there's a reason. It has to to with the lookalike factor between Billy and Kansas and I can't reveal it. This is another super-cheapie from PRC, with no romance and not much comedy (which is surprising with Al St. John in the cast), but you do get prime Buster Crabbe and Charles King, and he gets in a great line when, at one point, Billy the Kid tells him "you won't get away with this!" and King replies "I'm doin' okay so far". I about busted a gut on that one, which should be on Charles King's tombstone if it's not already . Two Big Thumbs Up for "Sheriff of Sage Valley", which, while mostly a Buster vs. Buster show, is still doggone good and highly recommended. The picture is fair to middling. //// 

The previous night, we found another detective movie starring Bill Elliott: "Dial Red O"(1955), which begins in the neuro-psychiatric unit at the Westwood VA. When one of the patients escapes by hopping the fence, an APB is sent out by the Sheriff's Department, and the hunt is on for "Ralph Wyatt" (Keith Larsen), ex-Marine and WW2 vet, who is suffering from PTSD (called a nervous breakdown in those days), and is possibly dangerous. Sheriff's detective "Andy Flynn" (Elliott) sends out two deputies, one male, one female, to go undercover at the bars in Hollywood that Wyatt is known to frequent. Flynn himself goes straight to the apartment of Wyatt's estranged wife "Connie" (Helene Stanley), a hot-to-trot babe who's been cheating on him while he was away, with his old Marine Corps buddy "Norman Roper" (Paul Picerni). It isn't very Semper Fi of Roper, to sleep with his fellow Jarhead's wife, but he's got some payback coming from Connie herself, who is now demanding marriage. She's already filed divorce papers on her too-sensitive hubby Wyatt, an honest good guy, shell-shocked by the war. He's not her type; she wants the sleazy night life with diamonds dripping off her neck, which is why she chose Roper, who is now a successful real estate agent with money to burn. She's divorcing Wyatt to marry him, but Roper, who is also married, won't return the favor. On the same night that Wyatt escapes from the VA, Roper and Connie have a fight at her apartment. She slaps him hard, she's that kind of dame.

He responds by murdalizing her in a brutal way, using a Marine Corps judo chop, which will become an important clue later on.

After interviewing the sci-fi writer who lives next door to Connie Wyatt, Detective Andy Flynn concludes that it wasn't husband Ralph who killed her. One of the undercover agents talks to a man at a bar who describes seeing Connie drinking with a "well-dressed gent" (Roper), and with that, Det. Flynn has his suspect. But Ralph, who has no idea his wife has been murdered, goes to visit his old war buddy Roper at his real estate office, just to talk about old times. He explains that he's been in the psych ward, that he's escaped but plans on turning himself in.

This gives Roper an idea on how to frame Ralph for Connie's murder (which is a shame, because Paul Picerni has always played a good guy in every other movie in which we've seen him). If his scheme doesn't work, Roper plans to shoot Ralph. Det. Flynn, knowing now that Roper is the probable killer of Connie Wyatt, hunts all over town for Ralph until he finds him and puts him in a holding cell for his own safety, until Roper can be apprehended. But Ralph has a Marine Corps tactic up his sleeve as well. He fakes hanging himself to attract a deputy, then jumps the guy, and escapes. This scene uses realism in showing the deputy putting his gun in a drawer before entering the lockup. With Ralph back on the street, knowing that Roper not only cheated with Connie but also killed her, Det. Flynn now has to find both men, before Ralph kills Roper. This is one hard-boiled crime thriller with great performances across the board, especially from Keith Larsen as Ralph the war-damaged psych patient. He's not as crazy as people think he is, which plays against the cliche. Bill Elliott is tremendous again in the lead as a Sheriff's detective. This guy Out-Decencys Jack Webb as a Soul of Honor Cop. Webb's a hard guy, moral but street-worn (he always gives lectures, though the hippies deserve them), whereas Bill Sullivan's detectives, while under no illusions about the nature of man, have a softer touch where the choice between protection and violence is concerned. He'd rather lock a bad guy up than shoot him, and would be happier if a convict is reformed, but his dedication is to the innocent victims of crime. He's the kind of cop we wish we had in every squad car. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Dial Red O", which features great location shooting in Hollywood circa 1955 (check out the old-time hamburger stand). It's highly recommended and the picture is razor sharp.  /// 

With this blog you get a bonus movie, "The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It", which I watched the other night on dvd. The reviews weren't as good for this entry as they were for the first two, both of which were classics in my opinion. I got this one from the Libe the other day on impulse, because i'm a fan of the franchise, and (cue Ed Grimley) I must say, though it has elements that, if not cliche, are clearly taken from other films (Exorcist, Amityville Horror), it is scarier than all get-out anyway. it's a demonic possession movie, with a crime story thrown in, and it's missing the out and out creepiness of the first two Conjurings (that easy chair in part two is bone chilling), but in its own way it more than delivers the goods. My advice: watch it with the volume turned up, but with all the lights turned off in your abode. If it doesn't scare the bejabbers out of you, I'll give you your money back. Two Big Thumbs Up and a very high and horrific recommendation. Conjurings never let you down. ////

That's all I know for tonight. I'm listening to Brahms' Requiem, conducted by the great Herbert von Karajan. Do you know that he sold 250 million records worldwide? He's the most successful classical artist in history (conductor or otherwise), and his sales are on par with the very biggest of rock stars (The Four Zepplini Brothers, Elton, Queen etc.) Not Beatles big, but right up there. Listen to his recordings and see why.

I wish you a nice weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always! 

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)  

Warner Baxter in "Earthbound", and "Down Texas Way" (a Rough Riders movie) starring Tim McCoy, Buck Jones and Raymond Hatton

Last night's film was "Earthbound"(1940), an ethereal ghost story, with biblical underpinnings, about a love triangle that ends up in murder. Sounds interesting, eh? It was one of those Mysterious Gems we sometimes uncover, prime examples being "The Enchanted Cottage" and "I'll Be Seeing You". Warner Baxter of "Crime Doctor" fame stars as "Nick Desborough", who is hiking in the Alps with his wife "Ellen" (Andrea Leeds). They're on their second honeymoon, and other than a slight mishap in which their dog almost runs off a snowy cliff, all could not be happier. Stopping for a picnic at the summit, they speak of true love and remaining married forever, even past death. Then, Nick's butler - wearing a suit and tie - arrives at the mountaintop with a telegram. Nick's been summoned to Paris at the request of his scientist friend "Jeff Reynolds" (Henry Wilcoxon). Nick, a wealthy philanthropist, is funding Jeff's new state of the art laboratory. Alas, the honeymoon must be cut short. Nick promises Ellen he'll return as fast as he can, two days at most, but when he gets to Paris and goes to Jeff's hotel, he discovers it wasn't Jeff who sent him the telegram. It was Jeff's wife "Linda" (Lynn Bari), who doesn't love Jeff but is head over heels for Nick, with whom she's been carrying on a years-long affair.

What a letdown. Here we thought that Nick was an upstanding guy, pledging Eternal Love to Ellen. It must be said that he's not a complete heel (just 87%), because he does tell Linda Reynolds that he doesn't appreciate the deception (the fake telegram), and that their affair is over. He tells her, "look, we never loved each other". It was a typical affair in other words, all about lust. Now he's found love with Ellen, but Linda is unwilling to let him go. Nick tells her to come to her senses and settle down with Jeff. "He's doing important work as a scientist, and he loves you. Surely you can be his support". But for Linda, it's Nick or no one. She pulls a pistol from her purse, and in a moment of madness shoots him dead.

His spirit immediately separates from his body in a surprising special effect.

For the next ten minutes, Nick doesn't realise he's dead. The notion starts to dawn when no one will answer him, when everything he tries to pick up falls through his hands. Finally, on a train, a friendly older gent befriends him, one "Mr. Whimser" (Charley Grapewin), who after some conversation suggests Nick read the bible. "It has all the answers you're looking for". Mr. Whimser is apparently an angel, which is why he can see and hear Nick. But Nick still thinks he's alive and has no time for reading. Mr. Whimser doesn't force the issue and bids Nick goodbye for the time being.

After Nick returns to America and his mansion, he finds Ellen grieving. This is when he begins to understand what has happened. He ends up attending his own funeral, ala Mr. Howell, and at that point he knows he's dead. Mr. Whimser shows up and explains everything to him. He realises he was murdalized, and that Linda Reynolds did it, but he doesn't want retribution, he just wants her to tell the truth. Because now, Jeff, Linda's scientist husband, is on trial for the murder. He's framed it to look like he shot Nick, to spare Linda a life sentence because he loves her. But she couldn't give two cents about him and is willing to let him rot in jail rather than admit what she did.

Nick the ghost is out-regisphilbined by this. He shows up at the trial and badgers everyone with the truth of what happened, including the judge, jury, lawyers and witnesses, but no one can see or hear him. However, because he truly loved his wife Ellen, she can sense his presence through their bond. He in turn discovers that he's able to influence her from the Other Side, so he starts planting suggestions in her mind, to get her to find evidence against Linda as the murderer, because his friend Jeff is heading for the big house. All Nick wants is for the truth to be told about his murder, and he knows that in uncovering the evidence, Ellen will find out about his long term affair with Linda. But love wins out, because Linda cracks at the end when confronted with the murder weapon.

You could classify "Earthbound" as a mystical, magical crime thriller. It's really good and has a cameo role by Ian Wolfe, the librarian who pushed Captain Kirk out the windum in one of the most irritating Star Trek performances ever! The "ghost of Nick" special effect is very well done, but the acting steals the show, especially Lynn Bari's meltdown at the end. The plot is telegraphed from the start, so therefore atmosphere is everything in this "Enchanted Subgenre" movie, but it's more than enough, and Mr. Whimser ties it all together at the end. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Earthbound" and a very high recommendation. The picture is razor sharp. ////

The previous night we were once again back with The Rough Riders, in "Down Texas Way"(1942). As the movie opens, "Marshal Tim McCall" (Tim McCoy) is relaxing on his ranch in Wyoming when he  receives an invitation to a surprise birthday party for "Marshal Sandy Hopkins" (Raymond Hatton), who is running his hotel down in Texas. Tim leaves right away, and while he's en route, we watch Sandy enjoying a card game with his pal "John Dodge" (Jack Daley), who owns the saloon, the bank, and also the mortgage on Sandy's hotel. Mr. Dodge is nervous and confides in Sandy, showing him a letter from his ex-wife, who's been long thought dead. In fact, Dodge has raised his son "Dave" (Dave O'Brien) to believe his mom died in childbirth. In truth, she disappeared long ago, after the couple divorced (divorces were taboo in the 1880s). Gilligan: "Tab who?" The Skipper: "Not Tab Who, Gilligan! Tab-oo!"

But getting back to Mr. Dodge's wife, now she's returned, and she wants a reunion with her son, and hopefully with her husband as well. Mr. Dodge doesn't know how to respond to the letter,  so he and Sandy say "the hell with it" and drink a couple shots. Then they continue with their game of pinochle.

As they are playing, Dave Dodge and his girl "Mary Hopkins" (Luana Walters) happen to be walking by on the sidewalk. Sandy overhears them talking, and suggests to Mr. Dodge that they fake an argument, just like the old days, when a game of cards would get them all worked up. "Let's give em a run for their money", Sandy says, and soon they are arguing over the pinochle game like they really mean it. On the sidewalk, Dave Dodge and Mary are aghast, thinking its a real argument. "One of these days, they're gonna kill each other over that stupid game" says a friend. Sandy and Mr. Dodge overhear this through the windum and have a good laugh, then they finish their game and Dodge goes back to his saloon to help the barkeep close up, only to be shot dead in the street.

Behind the scenes, you see, a man named "Bert Logan" (Harry Woods) is conspiring with the bartender to entrap Mr. Dodge and kill him. Logan is behind the "reunion" letter from Dodge's estranged wife, who is actually dead. Logan has hired an impersonator in her place, to inherit all of Dodge's ownings now that he is dead too, which she will then bequeath to Logan as her lawyer. He promises the lackey bartender a cut, and because Marshal Sandy was heard "arguing" with Dodge before he was shot, and because Dave Dodge testifies to this, Sandy is accused of his murder. A posse sets out to string him up and he's caught. But then, "Marshal Buck Roberts" (Buck Jones) rides into town and rescues him, by posing as an outlaw. Meanwhile, Marshal Tim has checked into the hotel. He tells Logan straight up, "I know you framed Sandy and i'm going to nail you". But Logan has some clout with "Sheriff Trump" (yes that's his name, played by Glenn Strange), so he pleads his case with him, saying that Tim is a crooked marshal, trying to help his deadly pal Sandy go free. Things look bad for Sandy until Buck "kidnaps" him from the posse. Remember, Buck's an "outlaw" who wants his own "revenge" on the Marshal who put him in the penitentiary. Once they team up with Marshal Tim back at the hotel, they reveal themselves as Federal agents and, with Sheriff Trump on board, they shut down Logan and the bad guys. As always, you absolutely cannot beat The Rough Riders, and how could you, with Jones, McCoy and Hatton all in the same movie? Two Big Thumbs Up for "Down Texas Way". The picture is soft but watchable.  ////

That's all for this evening. In continuing with The Ring Cycle, I'm listening to "Das Rheingold" by Wagner. I hope you are enjoying your week and I send you Tons of Love as always. 

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)