Roger Corman's "Monster from the Ocean Floor", and "The Man from Hell" starring Reb Russell

Last night we found a classic and heretofore unknown black and white sci-fi from Roger Corman! Man, when was the last time we had one of those? I thought we'd long since run the well dry on Mr. C, but anyhow, the name of the film was "Monster from the Ocean Floor"(1954) and to be honest, it wasn't a classic, but the shabularity was negligible, and it was the second film Corman is credited with, his first as a producer. As it opens, a narrator expounds on the native history of the Southern California coast, and folklore concerning a sea monster in the area. Then we cut to "Julie Blair" (Anne Kimball), a commercial illustrator who is vacationing at what looks like Laguna Beach. She's sketching the waves there, when a Mexican boy interrupts to tell her that he lost his father, a fisherman, to a sea monster. She finds his story unbelievable, and heads out for a swim. But before she can paddle past the breakers, she's bumped into by a one-man submarine driven by "Steve Dunning" (Stuart Wade), a marine biologist who pilots his craft to the shore. With her swim ruined, Julie turns back too. Dunning apologizes and introduces himself. Because he's a scientist, she finds him fascinating and forgives his rude sub-bump.

The next we see them, they are on a boat that Steve shares with "Dr. Baldwin" (Dick Pinner), who's accompanying him on a scientific mission to study the one-celled organisms of the Pacific. Baldwin and Steve show Julie some slides under a microscope (one showing a ravenous amoeba) that she finds interesting. It reminds her of the Mexican boy's story of the sea monster, which she relates to the two scientists. Steve finds it ridiculous and Dr. Baldwin agrees. Julie, who also agreed with that viewpoint initially, now questions it. "If a one-celled creature is that voracious and dominant, imagine how much more so a so-called 'monster' could be". The scientists reassure her that there are no sea monsters, and recite data describing the known marine life and the various sizes of sharks, whales, etc. Julie goes swimming again and is startled to see a squid, which at first looks a lot bigger than it is. When she gets back to the boat, Steve chides her for thinking it was the sea monster, which hurts her feelings, so she goes to the village to talk to "Pablo" (Wyott Ordung), a long time resident. To prime him, she brings a bottle of Tequila! (ba-dum-badda-bu-dum-bum-bum), and he tells her he knew the boy's father, the fisherman who got eaten. By now, Steve and Dr. Baldwin have found a diving suit, complete with iron helmet, but with no body in it. Things are gettin' pretty schpooky.

Julie is staying in a beach house owned by an old woman of the village. Unbeknownst to her, the lady is a witch. She wants Pablo to sacrifice Julie to the monster. By now we're at the 40 minute mark, and though you've seen Julie underwater on several occasions, you've yet to see (sea) a monster. "Sea" what I did there? Oh man that's a riot! It's good stuff and the back story holds your interest. The photography is professional, and as always, Corman gives you value for your money, all 15k of the budget. The leads turn in solid, Cormanlike performances, and the character actors are sufficiently eccentric. What more could you want? Well, you could want a Monster, who supposedly lives on the Ocean Floor, and when you finally get him he's Absolutely Terrifying!, but he only shows up when the movie is almost over. Still, I give "Monster from the Ocean Floor" Two Bigs, because the story is what counts here, and it's well told by having Anne Kimball's character investigate the monster on her own, after being scorned by the all-knowing scientists. The one-man submarine works as  a cool gimmick, and according to Wiki it was also used for the aquatic photography. One thing about Roger Corman is that his movies always look pro. I didn't know that before becoming a fan, which might not have happened if not for Youtube because all I knew of his work was "Little Shop of Horrors", which truly is a bad film, and it's why I think he got a bad rap early on. Comedy horror was not his forte (nor should it be anyone's), but this flick is dead serious and well-done. The picture is razor sharp.  ////

The previous night we found a new cowboy star, Reb Russell, who starred in "The Man from Hell"(1934). Russell plays "Clint Mason", a cowpoke recently paroled from the "hell" of the Yuma jail for a crime he didn't commit. He comes back to town looking for a man named Trig, the thug who framed him. Mason is walking a fine line because he really wants to go straight and have no trouble, but he has to settle up with Trig by exposing his frame-job. The town is a rough place; there's a major-leaguer spilling out of the saloon as soon as the movie opens. The fights in this movie go on way too long, but at any rate, Mason discovers that Trig is now going by another name, "Anse McCloud" (Fred Kohler) and he just happens to be the Mayor. He's a big galoot, ornery as hell, and when Clint goes to visit his old girlfriend "Nancy Campbell" (Ann Darcy), he finds out that Mayor McCloud (who's really Trig the thug), has coerced her into an engagement. It's either that, or he's gonna put her Daddy's mine out of bidness. McCloud says the mine is used up, out of ore, but really he's using it as a front for a criminal deception. He's running a stage robbery gang, then saying he got the gold out of the mine.

As noted Clint Mason is out to settle the score with the Mayor McCloud (i.e. Trig), who framed him years earlier, and there's a big-time shootout at the end that resembles a Western stuntman show at Universal Schtudios. The interesting thing about this film is Reb Russell himself, a former football star at Nebraska, which in that regard makes him another Johnny Mack Brown. Both men were good looking athletes, the difference being that JMB was a Rose Bowl hero and thus nationally famous, and - much more importantly - Johnny Mack could act. Reb is okay, but it looks and sounds like he's reading his lines from cue cards. Even so, it makes his performance interesting because of the way it slots into the movie, like a square peg. The director makes it fit; he hammers Russell in with the professional actors, and he makes a contrast with the over-the-top ham fisted brutality of the bully Fred Kohler, who likely went to acting school but perhaps beat up the teacher. Yakima Canutt gets in some awesome stunt riding and is in the mega-shootout at the end. All in all, "The Man from Hell" gets Two Big Thumbs Up because it stands out for Reb Russell's amateurish but interesting performance, and for that reason it's highly recommended. The picture is very good in this case, and we'll certainly be looking for more from Reb.  ////

And that's all I know for tonight. I'm listening to Hatfield and the North "Rotter's Club", and Gilgamesh "Another Fine Tune". I hope you are having a nice weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

Tim McCoy in "Whirlwind", and "Chip of the Flying U" starring Johnny Mack Brown

In last night's Western, "Whirwind"(1933), Tim McCoy is wandering the wilderness with his buddies "Pat Patrick" (Pat O'Malley) and "Injun" (J. Carrol Naish). They're rootless because seven years earlier, a Sheriff named "Hurley" framed Tim for murder in the town of Sagebrush. He got away, with the support of his two pals, and they've been in hiding ever since, but now they're back because there's a rodeo in town. All three are top riders. They figure they can win big money and while they're at it, they're gonna settle the score with Sheriff Hurley, who's nothing more than a crook. Injun in particular wants a crack at him. He's a very tough hombre played by Naish using Pidgin English ("me shootum Sheriff"!). Injun tells Tim he'd better get Hurley first, otherwise: "once me gettum, nothing left to get."

When the boys arrive in town, after a breakfast of Patrick's rock-hard flapjacks, they register for the rodeo, and Tim meets sweet "Molly Curtis" (Alice Dahl) of the Curtis Ranch, where the rodeo is being held. She confides to Tim that her Dad is gonna lose the ranch to Sheriff Hurley, who has a two thousand dollar lien on the property. Tim promises to acquire enough money to pay off the lien, and Injun and Patrick have already cleaned up at a card game. Tim tells Molly he'll get the rest by winning the rodeo, and all three of the boys win their special events (calf roping, bronco busting etc). But when the rodeo is over, they still don't have enough cash, so Tim challenges Sheriff Hurley to a wrestling match: one throw wins all, his money against the lien on the Curtis Ranch.

Now, if you're expecting an impromptu wrasslin' match in the middle of the street, or maybe the town square, that's not what happens. Instead, it's a full on main event, at what could be the Olympic Auditorium. Holy Sampson Movie, Batman! All of a sudden, Tim is in the ring, exchanging hammerlocks with the Sheriff, who goes down for the count in front of a sold out house. Talk about your Hybrid Westerns. But at least he's saved Dad Curtis's ranch, right? Well, no, because Sheriff Hurley has a contingency plan set up with "Blackton" (Lloyd Whitlock), the town banker, so when Tim comes in to pay off the lien, Blackton empties the safe and robs his own bank. He blames the heist on Tim, and now the whole town is after him because he was previously framed for a murder. His reputation has been hard to shake. Blackton and Sheriff Hurley are even richer, and the account holders at the bank are dead broke, including Dad Curtis, who in addition to losing his ranch, now hasn't got a cent to his name.

Tim's own dad, an angry, distrustful Irishman, is leading the posse of townsfolk who are out gunning for him. Dad has never defended his son, even after the original frame up. Now he finds Tim, Injun and Patrick, and threatens to kill them where they stand. But Injun, bad man that he is (and we do love that Pidgin English) saves the day when he shoots Dad's gun from his hand. Tim then turns the tables, and catches Blackton the banker trying to leave town with the stolen bank deposits. Blackton in turn names Sheriff Hurley as the mastermind, and all is well again in Sagebrush. But I mean, c'mon......a pro wrestling match, in the middle of a 60 minute Western? We need to do a whole Sampson Movie retrospective! Two Big Thumbs Up for "Whirlwind". The picture is razor sharp.  ////

The previous night, Johnny Mack Brown was back yet again (hooray!), in "Chip of the Flying U"(1939). Somewhere in that title is a pun, but anyhow, JMB is the Chip in question, a ranch hand at the U who, as the movie opens, is tasked with picking up the payroll and also "Margaret Whitmore" (Doris Weston), the ranch owner's sister, a recent graduate from medical school, who's arriving to become the ranch doctor. Before Johnny Mack heads out, a schemer named "Duncan" (Anthony Warde) orders two of his honchos to head Johnny off at the pass. They don't care about Miss Whitmore, but Duncan wants them to steal the payroll because he wants to own the Flying U. If Dad Whitmore can't pay his workers, he'll soon be out of business, and with the stolen money, Duncan can then buy the ranch for cheap. Nice plan, eh? You can always count on Western crooks to be efficient. But Duncan also has a boss to answer to. He's under the thumb of an even bigger criminal from the East, a saboteur who's stealing munitions. It's implied that this gent has the Mob behind him, and even the toughest Western bad guys don't wanna mess with La Cosa Nostra.

The munitions schmuggler wants Duncan to stash his crates of dy-no-mite! in an unused shack at the edge of the Flying U Ranch. But a knucklehead henchman, who's stolen the payroll money, has already slung the bag of cash in there, so when Johnny Mack Brown goes searching for it, he finds the dy-no-mite!, too. There lots of good music by Bob Baker, who co-stars as Johnny's sidekick "Dusty", and there's comic relief aplenty by the ever reliable Fuzzy Knight, who plays the ranch cook. "Chip" doesn't have the complex plot of JMB's other Universal Westerns, but it still earns Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is soft but watchable. ////

And that's all I know for this evening. I'm trying out the music of a piano composer named Kaikhosru Sorabji, who I read about in the Charles Ives book. In mentioning other abstract composers, to compare them with Ives, the author Kyle Gann said that Sorabji was even more complex. I hate to say it, but he's doing nothing for me as I listen while writing this blog. Ives had melody within his obtuseness; Sorabji sounds dry. Sorry but it just ain't my thing, reminds me of Iannis Xenakis, no can do. Time to put on Alban Berg's "Wozzeck" for a change of pace. There's a 1970 film version on Youtube that is highly recommended. I hope your week is going well and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

     

Tim McCoy in "Fighting Shadows", and "The Return of Daniel Boone starring Wild Bill Elliott (plus "Lonesome" by Paul Fejos, tremendous!)

Last night, Tim McCoy was back in another alternative setting, this time as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in "Fighting Shadows"(1935). The plot could be taken from any of his Westerns, so you can lay it over the snowy context: As Tim is riding through Big Bear, he hears a shot and finds a colleague dying in the snow. Before he expires, the wounded Mountie writes a note that names his killer. Tim goes after the guy immediately and finds him on a nearby slope. He shoulder-shoots him, then he brings him back to jail to make him talk, knowing that no one risks killing a member of the RCMP unless they're in between a rock and a hard place. "Who're you working for?" Tim asks him. "You'd better tell me or you're gonna hang." The guy confesses to being part of a fur trapping ring, "but I swear I don't know who's running it! Go to town and talk to a man named Stalkey. He's their representative!"

Tim finds Stalkey (Otto Hoffman), who turns out to be an old coot, but a tough one. He won't talk, and worse than that, his attitude suggests he's got muscle to back him up. Tim is surprised at the brazenness of the trappers, having the guts to stand up to the Mounties. He figures whoever is running the trapper gang must have some pretty serious connections. Well, next he runs into an old adversary, "Brad Harrison" (Ward Bond), a trapper who claims to have run Tim out of Canada when Tim was a fur trapper, too. Brad swears Tim stole a rabbit hide from him, but what also bugs him is that Tim loves his sister. "I have no time now for personal grudges", he tells Brad. He can't get into fights because the honor of a Mountie is sacrosanct. His Dad, an RCMP Captain, has drilled this into him. As he digs into the mystery of who's heading up the trapping gang, a double cross appears to be in play. Brad Harrison and Stalkey are trying to screw the organised fur trappers, who are price gouging, by stealing all the furs for resale below the border. They are taking an enormous chance because the entire trapper's union is behind the assault on the Mounted Police. Tim tries to talk sense into Harrison by asking him to help break up the racket. Brad agrees to help, but only after Tim bests him in a punchout. Then he reveals where he and Stalkey have stashed the furs, in the basement of his sister's cabin. The plot is very simple, so the main draw is the Big Bear setting. I prefer Tim McCoy on the range, but "Fighting Shadows" still gets Two Big Thumbs Up. It's recommended because you don't see many movies about the Mounties, and the picture is very good.  ////

The previous night's movie was "The Return of Daniel Boone"(1941) starring Wild Bill Elliott, who we came to know from his detective flicks a few months ago. The title is misleading, because Elliott's character is actually Bill Boone, Daniel's nephew, who's returned to Pecos Cty to settle down and find a job. He has a reputation as a gunfighter, which gets him noticed after he settles a score outside the local saloon. The Mayor (Walter Sonderling) and his crooked friend "Kilgrain" (Ray Bennett) ask Bill to be the town's new tax collector. The last one was shot and killed by "Ellen Brandon" (Betty Miles), and with justification, because the taxes in Pecos are exorbitant and collected by strong arm tactics. The Mayor and Sheriff are under the thumb of Kilgrain, who owns the saloon and runs the show in Pecos.

Bill accepts the job of taxman, because he's figured out that Killgrain is a criminal, and the only way to stop him - because he has the Mayor and Sheriff in his pocket - is by playing the Devil's Advocate. He brings in his old pal "Cannonball" (Dub Taylor), an accordianist and singer, to be part of the infiltration. Cannonball is happy to oblige, because since the opening scene he's been trying to escape the clutches of Melinda, a singer-guitarist of marriage-oriented songs, who looks at Cannonball with plaintive eyes and corners him with lyrics of everlasting holy matrimony. He's one of those guys who cringes at the word "women", and Melinda is the man-capturing type, the spider to his prey. So, when Bill Boone comes calling, he's only too happy to join the tax-collecting deception, even if it means posing as a singing waiter and sneaking into Kilgrain's office to riffle his papers, and thereby risk his life. For Cannonball, anything is better than having Melinda chase after him, (though to us she's a true Western Sweetheart).

But ol' Cannonball cant win, because Melinda has a twin, a sister named Matilda who works at the saloon, and now she's got her eyes on him, once she finds out he's a singer. The twins are played by real-life Hillbilly singers The Rodik Twins, who are terrific balladeers. Meanwhile, Bill Boone pretends to be a tough tax collector, roughing up the ranchers so he can entrap Kilgrain. But Ellen Brandon keeps getting in the way of his plan because he's too convincing as a bad guy. She thinks he really is working for Kilgrain and tells him, "I've already killed your predecessor, don't think I won't kill you". And even when Bill tries to save her Dad's ranch from being sold at auction, she undermines him by arriving with her posse. They hold the auctioneer at gunpoint and destroy all the progress Bill has made in gathering evidence against Kilgrain. This leaves it up to Bill to trap him with one last chance, by getting him to open the safe at the Mayor's office. After all, why should he have the combination if the Mayor is in charge of the tax money? Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Return of Daniel Boone". There's ample comic relief in this one, from Dub Taylor and The Rodik Twins, and you can't beat Wild Bill Elliott as a laconic Cowboy star. The picture is very good.  ///

I have another bonus movie for you, briefly reviewed. It's called "Lonesome"(1928) directed by Paul Fejos of "Fantomas" fame. This film follows two young New Yorkers, who go to their jobs everyday, then come home exhausted and alone. Jimmy works a punch-press in a factory, Mary is a telephone operator. Life is dull and lonely for both of them, and though they each have sets of friends (all in relationships) who invite them on outings, Jimmy and Mary always decline because they don't want to be fifth wheels. Then one Saturday, things change for them when a flatbed truck drives through their neighborhood, with a brass band advertising a beach carnival. A bus is offering rides for a buck, so Jimmy and Mary, each with no knowledge of the other, take a trip to the carnival on their Saturday off work, in the hope of having some fun, and maybe.......just maybe......meeting someone special. Well, of course we already can guess that they're going to meet each other, and they do. They have a magical afternoon at the carnival and the beach, and by the end of the day they're in love. But then they get separated by the hustle-bustle all around them, and I can't tell you what happens after that. However, this movie is an absolute gem, for the photography alone, and for it's depiction of Coney Island and New York City circa 1928. It's also a partial Talkie (mostly Silent but with a few scenes that have dialogue). I'll have to look it up, to see if it was dubbed during the Criterion restoration, but I am guessing it was not, that the talking was in the original film. Maybe they were already breaking in sound technology in 1928, and then it came out full-blown a year later. Anyhow, the two stars are great, you can IMDB them and the movie for more details. "Lonesome" is slightly reminiscent of "Sunset" by F.W. Murnau, though it's not a tragedy, but like that movie it's an absolute masterpiece, 10 out of 10 on every count. That's why I'm giving it Two Gigantic Thumbs Up and my very highest recommendation. Absolutely don't miss "Lonesome", on Criterion.  ////

And that's all I know. I'm reading Elvis and listening to National Health and I send you Tons of Love as always!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Ida Lupino and Howard Duff in "Women's Prison", and "Hell-Fire Austin" starring Ken Maynard, Nat Pendleton, and Tarzan (plus Charles Ives)

Last night's film was "Women's Prison"(1955), which, despite the title, was not as exploitative as you might think. It was, however, very brutal and depressing. The great Ida Lupino plays "Amelia Van Zant", the women's superintendent at a co-ed prison in which the men and women are separated by a thick wall. I don't know who the genius was who thought up this arrangement, but apparently there were such prisons, and as you can imagine, the men are trying to sneak into the women's wing, and the women don't mind if they do. Now, that's not what the movie is about - as I said, its not an exploitation flick - but it does present a problem when a husband and wife are incarcerated on two sides of the same slammer. "Glen Burton" (Warren Stevens) knows a way into the ladies' side via the roof and the laundry chute, and he wants to see his wife "Joan" (Audrey Totter) because she's getting out soon, and - besides the obvious love and hubba-hubba-  he wants to tell her where his robbery loot is stashed (under the stairs at her Mom's house) so she can use the money to hire a lawyer and get him sprung, too.

But they both have a problem, because Miss Van Zant is a psycho witch. You know how some actors should be arrested for their performances, like Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, because they're too realistic and therefore you figure the actor was like that in real life? About a year ago we saw Martin Sheen and Tony Musante in a film called "The Incident", and we remarked that both actors should've been imprisoned after the movie because their performances were.......well, just disgusting. Repulsive. Ida Lupino does the same in this film, so if you like her don't watch this movie because you'll never see her in the same way again. She should've been arrested for this performance, because the chacrater is beyond evil. As the movie opens, poor "Helene Jensen" (Phyllis Thaxter) is being processed at the prison for accidentally running over a child. True, she was driving past the speed limit, but as you can imagine her life is destroyed already by the guilt she feels, and Lupino makes her torment worse by having her thrown into solitary for a minor infraction on her first day in the prison. She comes out of The Hole half nuts, and the other gals try to set her straight: "Don't mess with Miss Van Zant, she's crazy". But it gets worse.

Howard Duff plays "Dr. Crane", the prison's kindly physician who has to clean up Van Zant's messes, every time one of her disciplinary actions goes too far, which is often. When she puts Helene in a straitjacket, which nearly suffocates her,  Dr. Crane tells her he's had enough. "One more of these cases and I'm gonna report you to the prison board." He asks Miss Van Zant, who's a registered psychologist, if in fact she's a nutcase: "have you ever considered that you hate these women, not because they're convicts, though you look down on that too, but because every one of them has known love and you haven't"? He's inferring that she's severely repressed, which makes her even angrier, and she tries to tear him a new one but he's a big dude and dead serious. "I've already told the warden about Helene Jensen", he says. "Soon you'll be looking for a new job."

Helene survives the straightjacket incident, which lets Miss Van Zant off the hook, and she's soon back at her sadistic ways, but what she did to Helene is nothing to what Joan Burton is gonna get when her husband Glen breaks in to the women's side again, using his secret entryway. He gets away with it, and we see them making out in the laundry room. Cut to weeks later, and Joan learns she's pregnant, so they must've done more than just kiss, but now she's frantic because in a few months, there'll be no way to hide it from the guards. So, she tells the sympathetic Dr. Crane, who - because the pregnancy will be known anyway as her belly starts to grow - reports it to the warden. "You have a pregnant woman in custody."

The warden knows he could lose his job if this is found out by the prison board, so he passes the buck to Miss Van Zant, since she's in charge of the women's section. "If I go down, so will you, and you'll never have a job again." This sends Van Zant into a homicidal frenzy, where she tortures Joan Burton. At this point, I can't recommend that you watch the movie unless you have a strong stomach, and not because the torment is overly graphic in terms of what is shown, but because of the implied brutality. It's godawful, and as I say, Lupino should've been sentenced to prison for her acting job. But what happens is that the inmates stage a revolt, and Van Zant gets what's coming to her, and at the same time, Glen Burton has snuck over to the women's side yet again, this time with a gun, after he finds out what Miss Van Zant has done to his wife.

This is one grim movie, so watch it if you can handle it, but it's also highly recommended because all kidding aside about Lupino, acting wise it's tremendous. There are many, many supporting characters, featuring every personality type you can think of, and every actress is individually great. The message is prison reform, and what kind of idiot puts men and women in the same slammer, even if there is a giant wall between them. Sometimes the guardians are worse than the prisoners, so thank goodness for Howard Duff. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Women's Prison". The picture is razor sharp.  //// 

Now then, in this day and age, when all you have to do is think of something and it pops up on Facebook, we had some serendipity along those lines with Ken Maynard, in whose last two films we missed the strong presence of Tarzan, his trick horse. Maynard's film "Whirlwind Horseman" was featured in our last blog, and while we enjoyed it, it was the second Maynard vehicle in a row in which Tarzan's abilities were not on display. Well, someone in Webland must've read our lament, either Zuckerberg or Ken Maynard himself, because two nights ago we received a Tarzan Special - "Hell-Fire Austin"(1932), which appeared in our Youtube recommendations. Boy was it great! ; classic Maynard, and it has Nat Pendleton too, the early and burly character actor who specialised in playing Big Dumb Smart Guys who were Kinda Stoopid. As the movie opens, Ken and Nat are in the Army in Noo Yawk, but about to be discharged. Nat knows that Ken was a rodeo star before the service. He asks if he can follow Ken out west when he leaves to resume his career. 

Ken agrees to let Nat tag along, and they hop a train to Californy, where the first thing they do, when they de-train at the Alabammy Hills, is to dine-n-dash at a roadside cafe, by staging a Major League Punchout, after eating a five course meal at the owner's expense. This shenanigan gets them in trouble with the Sheriff and his honchos, and with a businessman who learns that Ken is the top rodeo rider in the country. Ken and Nat are caught for the dinner rip-off, and are sentenced to 60 days breaking rocks. While doing their time, they are met by "Judy Brooks" (Ivy Merton) and her Uncle (Lafe McKee), who happen to be riding by the rockpile. Sweet Judy is training "Tarzan", a new horse who, she tells Ken, has promise. He takes to Tarzan immediately and vice versa. Nat tells Judy that Ken is a champion rider. He demurs, because he's in Aww Shucks mode, but then "Mark Edmunds" (Alan Roscoe) , who holds the deed to Judy's ranch, gets him paroled so Ken can ride for him in an upcoming high stakes horse race. Ken insists that Nat be set free too, cause we need him for comic relief.

But when Edmunds, who covets Tarzan, finds out that Ken likes Judy Brooks, he does a 180 and tries to prevent him from riding in the race, a cross country extravaganza. All of a sudden, he doesn't want Ken and Tarzan in the race, because they will win and Ken will own Tarzan, and Judy will be able to pay off her ranch. Including the horse race, which takes up the final quarter of the film, this is a big time Tarzan movie, in which Ken Maynard is introduced to him and they become buddies, which is like the Lone Ranger being introduced to Silver. There's also some stunt riding that has to be seen to be believed, likely by Yakima Canutt. As for Nat Pendleton, he was a singular comic talent who was a college wrestler before becoming an actor, and as noted in blogs of yore, he was in a thousand movies in the early 30s, always playing the big, polite, dumbfounded galoot who isn't as dumb as he seems. The real star of this one is Tarzan, though. It's a horse movie all the way. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Hell-Fire Austin". The picture is very good.  ////

And that's all I know for this evening. I'm still working on the Elvis book, and I'm also browsing an academic book about Charles Ives' Concord Sonata, called "Essays After a Sonata" by Kyle Gann. Because the Concord was so revolutionary (read: abstract), before publishing it, Ives - an unknown composer at the time (he made his living as an insurance executive) - sent out 200 copies of the Concord score, along with a similar amount of copies of a self-published book called "Essays Before a Sonata", to various music critics and professionals, including other composers. It was his way of giving advance notice as it were, of announcing himself by saying "my name is Charles Ives and I've written a sonata that's a little different." He was trying to prepare a place for himself in the classical world, so that the critics wouldn't just toss his music aside without giving it a fair chance. He knew he'd written something monumental, but he also knew that if he didn't explain it beforehand (because it was weird), that busy critics and composers, whose help he needed in getting launched, might read a few measures and dismiss it as musical nonsense. That's why he wrote a book consisting of various essays, dissecting the movements of the sonata. The entire venture took over nine years, from writing the first note to getting the Concord published. It wasn't recorded until 1948, and probably took that long for a pianist to learn how to play it, lol. Just kidding, but there's a live version on Youtube with a guy playing a tremendous version, and if you watch it you'll see what I mean. This guy plays it from memory, which is even more astounding. At any rate, Gann's book - the one I am reading (or browsing because it's a long and involved read, and I'm still working on Elvis), has the reversed title to Ives' book, of "Essays After a Sonata", and he analyzes the impact of the Concord all these years later, a century after its completion. I got into Ives about 15 years ago, and bought the Concord on CD (on Naxos) back then. If you listen, give it a fair chance. You may come to think its awesome. It has that effect on people.

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

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)    

Tim McCoy in "The Man from Guntown", and "Whirlwind Horseman" starring Ken Maynard and Joan Barclay (plus Elvis & early rock)

Last night's Western was "The Man from Guntown"(1935), one of the best Tim McCoy films we've seen. As it opens, lawyer "Eric Gillis" (Robert McKenzie) is trying to persuade "Ruth McArthur" (Billie Seward) to sell her Dad's ranch. Dad has recently died, and there's no way to save it from going bust, Gillis says, because the dam Dad began building will never be completed now. His contract with the water company has been voided, the construction workers are owed money; better to sell out for pennies on the dollar to town big shot "Henry DeLong" (Wheeler Oakman), who's standing by with a deed for Ruth to sign. He's even willing to give her a $2500 cash bonus. "It's either this or lose the ranch and get nothing", Gillis tells her. Ruth thinks about it but then says, "My brother is coming to visit, to take care of Dad's affairs. I'd like to wait and see what he has to say." Gillis says, "Okay, but I wouldn't wait too long. Henry here is offering the best deal you're likely to get."

Of course, Gillis and DeLong are in cahoots to steal the ranch out from under Ruth McArthur. When they leave, DeLong goes back to his saloon and tells his top henchman "Slater" (Jack Rockwell) to ride out to the gulch and wait for Ruth's brother to pass by. "But don't let him arrive, if you know what I mean." They don't want the brother interfering when they figure Ruth can be easily buffaloed.

Well, by this time, her brother "Alan" (Rex Lease) is indeed on his way to visit. But all the way through Placerita Canyon, he's been followed and shot at - twice! - by the slit-eyed Slater. Somehow he's still alive, and lucky for him, when Slater returns for a third try the next day, good old Tim McCoy just happens to be riding through the canyon. Since he's always the fastest gun, he shoots Slater's pistol from out of his hand, when Slater tries to kill Alan McArthur. However, Slater recovers and fires another shot. This time Alan is struck and he dies. Slater rides away, figuring he got the job done. He killed Ruth McArthur's brother, just as he was sent out to do. At the shooting site, the Sheriff rides up and arrests Tim McCoy for Alan's murder. Tim tries to tell him about the hitman Slater, but he can't present any evidence. "All I know is that you're the one standing here with the body," the Sheriff tells him. "Sorry but I've gotta take you in." By the time they get to the jail though, Tim convinces the Sheriff to give him a chance. "Set me free for two weeks, and if I can't find the real killer, I'll come back and surrender for a crime I didn't commit." The Sheriff takes Tim at his word, and now he's off in search of Slater, and whoever he might be working for. 

 The first thing Tim does is to ride out to Guntown, to tell Ruth McArthur that her brother is dead, and that he is the man who was with him when he was killed. He also plans to tell her that he knows who the killer is, but when he knocks on her door, the screenwriter switches us to the old "can't bring himself to tell her" mode. Ruth answers when Tim knocks, immediately thinks he's her brother - who of course she hasn't seen since she was a tyke (and thus has no idea what he looks like) - and Tim, overwhelmed by her happiness at seeing who she thinks is her "brother", can't bring himself to tell her that he isn't him. And so, in the Old Switcheroo he assumes the role of "brother" in an instant. "Why, uh......yes. I am your brother Alan. I am so glad to be back home. Now tell me about our Dad." In this way he can learn the family history.

Well, at any rate, Ruth's "Aunt Sarah" (Eva McKenzie) finds out that Tim's faking it, but instead of getting angry, she encourages him to continue the charade . "You need to help her save this ranch. Then you can tell her the truth." Aunt Sarah's a toughie. She stands up to the dam workers who're demanding their pay, some of whom are secretly working for the crook DeLong. The whole Dam Thing (ha!) hinges on who gets the water company contract.

Back at his saloon, DeLong is now teed-off at Slater the jut-jawed henchman: "Can't you do anything right? I sent you out to kill Ruth McArthur's brother! Now he's here in town. If he convinces her not to sell that ranch, it's coming out of your hide." Slater tries to tell DeLong that he did in fact kill Alan. "That guy at her house? I don't know who he is, but he isn't her brother. I'm tellin' ya I shot him back at the gulch, like ya told me. Last I saw, the Sheriff was blaming it on that guy, the one who's now claiming to be her brother. But he ain't! I'm telling you the gol-durn truth!" DeLong gives Slater one last chance to get the job done, but by this time, with Ruth's help, Tim has figured out that Gillis the lawyer is behind the ranch scam. It's only a matter of time till he gets to DeLong.

Many times, as I've noted, in the course of watching a 60 minute Western, you can miss a plot point if you aren't paying extremely close attention, because unlike in longer films and A-list pictures with well-rounded scripts, where major points are repeated or driven home in various ways, the 60 minute Western screenwriter has sometimes only one sentence of dialogue, spoken quickly by a single character, to expose what has happened in the plot. So, if your attention wanders for even ten or twenty seconds in a given film, you may end up wondering why a henchman has suddenly turned traitor, for instance, or why the Sheriff has a new suspect in the gold robberies. You have to pay very close attention in 60 minute Westerns, and even then, there are sometimes plots that sound like they were written "on the spot" (which I've read was sometimes the case). All of this is to say that, with "The Man from Guntown", the opposite is true. The script has the A-list quality of plot-points being repeated and developed, so you're never in danger of falling out of the loop. This is a rare thing in a 60 minuter, which is why I point it out. It allows you to relax a little as you enjoy the film, and it's why the movie has a 6.7 rating over at IMDB. Having said all of this, "The Man from Guntown" still gets the standard Two Big Thumbs Up, instead of Two Huge or Two Gigantic because those ratings represent a higher cinematic ideal, but it also earns a very high recommendation because it's as good as 60 Minute Westerns get. And it's got Colonel Tim McCoy (who should've been bigger than John Wayne), and the beautiful Billie Seward, a new Western Sweetheart. See it and you won't go wrong.  //// 

The previous night, we watched Ken Maynard in "Whirlwind Horseman"(1938), which begins with Ken and his sidekick "Happy" (Bill Griffith) riding through the Garden of the Gods, when they hear shots. A gang of bandits are chasing a rancher and his foreman who is driving their wagon. The foreman is killed, but Ken and Happy rescue the rancher, whose name is "Jim Radford" (Joseph Girard). Radford then hires the pair to protect him and his sweet daughter "Peggy" (Joan Barclay) against future attacks, but a monkey wrench is thrown into the plan when the robber gang kidnaps Happy. Ken can't locate him, and at first suspects Radford of double crossing him, and staging the killing of his foreman. It turns out that there's a gold mine beneath his property, but is he running the gang (headed up by Glenn Strange) in an attempt to throw off prospectors or any corporate entities (railroads, etc) who might try to claim the land?

That's what Ken thinks, but then he meets "Cherokee" (Budd Buster, hooray!), an old prospector from the area. Cherokee tries to tell Ken that it isn't gold beneath the Radford Ranch, but oil. "Y'know....black gold." Ken doesn't know about the Glenn Strange gang, that they're organized, he only knows them as a bunch of hoodlums who hang out in town. But they know about the oil (pronounced aerl), and are working in secret for Ritter, the town big shot. Peggy, Jim Radford's daughter, has to convince Ken that her Dad isn't behind the oil scheme, but he won't believe it until he can find his old pal Happy. "Whirlwind Horseman" is another solid entry in the Ken Maynard canon, but for two Maynards in a row now, his horse Tarzan isn't given anything to do. Because we had come to expect (and appreciate!) all the tricks he can do, the absence of same was a little disappointing. Still Two Big Thumbs Up, however, because - two names: Ken Maynard and Joan Barclay. That's all you need to know, even without a strong role for Tarzan. "Whirlwind Horseman" is recommended and the picture is very good.  ////  

And that's all I know. The Elvis book has me watching a lot of early rock videos. Elvis live in the '50s was incredible. Besides the music, watch his moves. He was moonwalking before Michael, and doing the splits before James Brown. Elvis invented the whole darn shebang (though of course I still say Glenn Miller was the precursor to rock n' roll). But then watch Bill Haley on the Ed Simian Show, a year earlier than Elvis. He doesn't have the image, but "Rock Around the Clock" is the more propulsive song. It also has the first shred guitar solo, by Fran Beecher, a precursor to Ritchie Blackmore. Then there's Gene Vincent, who's got the Elvis voice and moves, but he's doing the Black Leather Thing before anyone, and in that way he influenced The Beatles. Ritchie backed Gene Vincent on his 1963 tour. Then there's Buddy Holly, who invented the guitar-based rock band. Buddy wrote his own songs before anyone, every song had a hook, and he invented the Texas rock n roll sound, which was appropriated by the early Beatles. Listen to the twang in a lot of their pre-Rabbi Saul songs. Then there's Eddie Cochran, who invented the cool, nonchalant Guitar Slinger role. He was ten years ahead of his time with hard rock when he died. All of these guys were The Fathers of Rock & Roll, and of course Little Richard, Chuck Berry and The Killer, Jerry Lee Lewis, who Ritchie also backed. I need to do some research on Bill Haley, but from what I've read, he was - at first - a country musician, which might explain why he never had any rock hits after the big one. And that's my Youtube music list for tonight. And Charles Ives' "Concord Sonata".

I hope you have a nice weekend, and I send you Tons of Love as always!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Buster Crabbe and Charles King in "Rustler's Hideout", and "The Man from Hell's Edges" starring Bob Steele (plus music)

Last night, we watched Buster Crabbe in "Rustler's Hideout"(1945), another entry in his 23-film Billy Carson series, with Al St. John as his sidekick. Buster and Al, "Billy" and "Fuzzy" respectively, are drovers this time, leading a herd of beeves over Medicine Pass, where it's rumored that cattle are stampeded, then rustled, when they cross to the other side. Billy rides ahead to check it out. There's a town across the pass, so Billy stops at the saloon there and joins a card game, cards being a way to get a feel for the clientele, encourage gossip, and learn who might be doing the alleged rustling. During the game, it becomes clear that someone is cheating. Could it be Charles King? Maybe not, because he's doing his Well-Dressed Banker Thing, where you know he's up to no good but you can't prove it, and he's probably holding back at first, not cheating at cards so he can scam you big time later. When Billy says, "someone at this table is double dealing", King does his "who me?" routine. "Cheat at cards? I never even carry a gun, it wouldn't be safe for me to cheat." Of course, King not carrying a gun means he carries the smallest one possible, a Derringer, the better to sneak it from his pocket and plug someone.

But because he's a "respectable" banker, no one would believe him capable of murder, let alone cheating at cards, so, while Billy is picking out the wrong guy - a henchman - King and his partner, the town lawyer John Merton, are leading the stampede gang with a view toward acquiring enough cattle to start a ranch. At the same time, King is embezzling funds from his own bank so he and Merton can buy the local meat packing plant. Then they'll have the beef market cornered in the region. But for the longest time, Billy isn't on to them. He's sure the rustlers are led by "Hammond" (Lane Chandler), a troublemaker from the bar who he singled out at the card game.

Finally, the last thing on King and Merton's wish list is a piece of property on which to launch their beef monopoly, and King gets the ingenious idea to use gambling as a means to acquire the sprawling Crockett Ranch. As the Crockett's financial advisor, he knows that young "Jack Crockett" (Terry Frost) has an attachment to the games at the town's casino. King heads over there with a pair of loaded dice, lets Jack win a couple rounds to shark him, then cleans him out. Then, "to be a good sport and give you a chance to win your money back", King tells Jack he'll extend him some credit, "if you're willing to put up the deed to your Dad's ranch". "How'm I supposed to do that?" Jack responds. "Well, son, that's for you to figure out. Do you want to keep playing or don't ya?" Jack does, of course, want to keep going, and does run home to appropriate Dad's deed, but by the time he returns to the casino and the dice game, two new players have joined - Hammond and Fuzzy. Fuzzy has his own set of dice, which are even more loaded than Charles King's. Fuzzy starts clearing the table of chips, which screws up King's scheme to shark Jack Crockett. To make matters worse, Billy has caught the gambler Hammond at Dad Crockett's ranch, trying to rustle some horses. He's about to force Hammond to reveal who's behind the overall rustling scheme, but just when Hammond is about to talk, Merton shoots him through the windum. Then he and King frame Billy for the murder. But at least, now Billy knows who the real enemy is. Can he get out of jail and stop the steal of the Crockett Ranch? We love the Billy Carson series (having seen five of the 23 films), and "Rustler's Hideout" gets Two Big Thumbs Up. The lone drawback is that Fuzzy doesn't get much screen time for his hijinx, perhaps due to the fuller script. Still, it's highly recommended, it's got Charles King, and the picture is very good. ////

The previous night, we found a very early Bob Steele, entitled "The Man from Hell's Edges"(1932), in which Bob, as the movie opens, is in Walla Walla State Prison aka "Hell's Edges". He's doing a long stretch for train robbery and murder, but he stages a daring breakout with his cellies. The warden sends out a search party with hound dawgs, and the other men are all caught and returned to Walla Walla, but Bob - in a Snoopy-esque crossing of a No-Man's Land (fields, mountains) manages to get away, and at an outlaw's camp on the outskirts, he meets up with some old crime buddies, who are abetting his escape. They take him to a hideout on the other side of the mountains, where he hopes to rejoin his old gang. His pals tell Bob he'll have to okay it with someone called "The Chief", the gang's new leader. "Who is he?" Bob asks. "You'll find out when you meet him" is the answer.

In the meantime, when Bob gets to town (he hasn't yet met The Chief), he's drinking buttermilk in the bar when he sees a gun poking out from behind a curtain. It's trained on the Sheriff, so Bob - as always super quick on the draw - shoots the gun from out of the assassin's hand, thus saving the Sheriff's life. Grateful, the Sheriff now wants to make him a deputy, not knowing of Bob's criminal past. In addition, the Sheriff's sweet daughter has fallen for him. Bob figures that being a deputy is good cover, because no one will ever suspect him of being an escaped convict.

But there's one man in the bar who seems to know who he is, a Bandito named "Lobo" (Julian Rivero). Lobo is a former gunfighter, known by the Sheriff, who's tried to deputize him too, because of all the crime in town. The Sheriff is in need of as many fast gunmen as he can get, but Lobo has declined, saying he does not fight anymore. Yet he still wears his bandolier, and he keeps an eye on Bob.

Even though Bob's a deputy, his old gang still expects him to participate in their upcoming robbery. He agrees, on the condition they finally introduce him to The Chief, but The Chief has his own agenda, to screw the gang out of their shares of the money, once the robbery is over, and he won't meet with Bob until he's doggone good and ready. I can't tell you who he is, but it will turn out that The Chief is responsible for Bob being sent to Walla Walla in the first place, though not for the reasons you would think.

During all of this, there are major league punchouts, horses jumping off cliffs into lakes (I hope they weren't hurt), and a two minute finale, consisting of expository dialogue, in which Bob will provide a surprise ending. Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Man from Hell's Edges". It's highly recommended (especially for the escape scene) and the picture is razor sharp.  ////

That's all for tonight. I'm listening to, of all things, "Untitled" by The Byrds, a combination live/studio double album released in 1970. Sometimes, when I'm typing, I'll just play whatever comes up in my Youtube recommendations. This time, The Byrds were recommended (perhaps because I was listening to Spooky Tooth recently), and I love The Byrds hit singles, but those songs were all I previously knew. Anyhow, I'm listening to the live disc right now and, man, it's smokin' hot. Boy, were these guys some good players; you don't always hear this caliber of live playing from California guitar bands of the era. So that's an out-of-the-ordinary LP for me this evening. I'm also listening late night to "Rienzi", Wagners first opera, which is much more expected from me, and is tremendous. And speaking of tremendous, if you ever want to hear one of the small handful of Greatest Musicians Who Ever Lived, go to Youtube and search Vladamir Sofronitsky plays Chopin. The very first link that comes up is 71 minutes of just that, Sofronitsky playing Chopin. Make sure you are in a meditative mood, late night is best, and listen with no distractions. Sofronitsky once said that every time he played, he was playing to God. I'd imagine God gave him a standing ovation.

I hope your week is going well and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)   

Arthur Franz and Dorothy Patrick in "Tarnished", and "Voice in the Night" starring Tim McCoy (plus "Johnny Guitar")

Last night we found a melodramatic Noir called "Tarnished"(1950), in which the studious but versatile Arthur Franz stars as "Bud Dolliver", a Marine veteran of WW2 who returns to his hometown of Harbor, Maine (pop 3847) to find that everyone is just as suspicious and small-minded as they ever were. Bud has a questionable past, though its never spelled out what he did, but as the movie opens, rich kid "Joe Pettigrew" (Byron Barr) is leaving the bar with "Lou Jellison" (Dorothy Patrick) who he considers his gal, and his property. Joe shows what a spoiled brat he is by exceeding the schpeed limit, then leading a motorcycle cop on a high speed chase when the cop tries to pull them over. Lou begs Joe to stop but he won't, and he even manages to evade the policeman, which makes him feel more smug than he already is. But at that point, two things happen: they see a hitchhiker on the road, and Lou decides that she doesn't wanna ride with Joe anymore, unless she can drive. So, Joe pulls over, the hitcher gets in - it's Bud Dolliver - and Lou drives the rest of the way back to town. That's the opening scene, and it makes you feel like you're in for a straightforward crime film.

As it turns out, it's more of a Town Without Pity type of deal, but instead of scorning a rape victim, the town is trying to marginalize Bud because of some error in his past. The fact that he's come home a hero from the war makes them shun him even more, because it's like he's shown them up. He just wants a job and a place to live, and he applies at the local cannery, but the general manager there is Joe Pettigrew, the punk rich kid. Joe makes a point of turning down Bud's application because he didn't like the attention Lou showed him when they picked Bud up hitchhiking. The only one who will give Bud a chance is "Kelsey Bunker" (Harry Shannon), the owner of the town's boat yard. Bunker hires Bud as a laborer and lets him sleep in a shack on the dock. Bud at first hangs out at the bar and is approached by "Nina" (Barbara Fuller), a streetwise chickadee who is usually seen with "Junior" (Jimmy Lydon), a young geeky delinquent who wears a suit but has no job. Junior's a dweeb, but has a connection because his Dad is Kelsey Bunker, owner of the boat yard. When he's not drinking with Nina, Junior pals around with Joe Pettigrew. Both Junior and Joe find reason to dislike Bud because both their gals find him attractive and decent, unlike them. In Lou Jellison's case, she feels an immediate chemistry with Bud, and starts dating him over the objections of Joe, who tried starting a punchout with Bud, to his detriment because Bud knows Marine Corps self-defense techniques. 

As thrillseekers, Joe and Junior are also petty criminals. They like burglarizing local businesses, so now they do it with the twist of framing Bud Dolliver, by breaking into his shack to steal his identifying belongings; his Marine knife, his dog tags, then dropping them at their crime sites.

The Sheriff is ready to arrest Bud for the break-ins, and the townsfolk want him jailed because they believe he's always been a no-goodnik, and his war hero status in the Marines only makes them resent him more. To top it off, Lou, a virtuous girl, swears by Bud and wants to marry him. She's even proposed to him (because he's shy) and they drive to Vermont to get a same-day marriage licence. Lou gives an affidavit to the Sheriff, swearing this to be the truth: "Bud couldn't possibly have done those robberies because he was with me in Vermont. The marriage licence clerk can verify this." That clears Bud of suspicion for the time being, but then Joe and Junior plan and carry out a scheme that will land Bud in jail for sure. That's all I can tell you, except that the scheme backfires and puts Junior in mortal danger. That's when we find out what Bud's job was in the Marine Corps, and why he was a hero in the war. "Tarnished" takes a few minutes to develop, but once it does it rolls along on several dramatic fronts until it's high-powered conclusion. Featuring a strong performance by Dorothy Patrick, it gets Two Big Thumbs Up and the picture is very good.  ////

The previous night, Colonel Tim McCoy was back in a different kind of role, playing a telephone engineer in "Voice in the Night"(1934). As the movie opens, Tim learns the importance of keeping the main cables in operation, no matter what. When a gas ex-schplosion traps a linesman underground, he orders the main cable to be cut to free the man. Back at the office, his Dad - who owns the phone company (this must've been before Ma Bell took over) reads him the riot act. "You never cut the main cable!" "Even when a man's life is at schtake?" Tim replies. "Yes! Even then! Because by cutting the main cable, you have prevented people from calling an ambulance for sick relatives, all over the city. You've prevented crime victims from calling the police!" Dad gives Tim other examples but his point is made: the main phone cable is a lifeline for the populace. Tim retorts with "but that's supposition, Dad. No one can proven to be at risk at any given moment. I was dealing with a fact. A man was dying before my eyes!" But Dad won't budge, and during a board meeting to decide whether or not Tim will be fired, a messenger comes in to announce that the worker in question has died. Therefore, to the board members, Tim's rescue effort is moot as an excuse. But not to Tim. He thinks he did right by trying to save one man who was actually in danger, without considering the hypothetical dangers his Dad presented. Tim quits and schtorms out of the board meeting, vowing never to work for his Dad, or any telephone company, ever again.

The next time we see him, he's playing polo (he's a rich kid, remember), but during the match, his horse collides with another rider. The rider is injured, and Tim springs into action, jumping off his horse to run to his car, which he drives onto the polo field to whisk the injured player to the hospital. But the hospital, for  whatever reason (maybe it's in the boondocks), doesn't have good phone service. A nurse tells Tim that their phone lines are down, yet the polo player needs a surgeon - stat! "Where's the phone company located?" Tim asks "why, it's just down the schtreet". Tim drives like Barney Oldfield to get there, and when he does, he barges into the the wiring and connection room to find the technician who is slacking. "There shouldn''t be a problem with your phone lines!" he yells. "Someone is likely sabotaging them." He fixes the immediate problem and suspects the company engineer of being a saboteur. This leads the owner of the company to ask Tim to work for them, but he doesn't want to because he's sworn off phone company jobs.

But then, the owner tells him he'll be helping to save lives, because a major cross-country connection is about to be completed. A line is being joined across a dam gorge that will connect to the Western U.S. But then we see that the sabotage effort is not limited to the home office. A gang of men is shown chopping down telephone poles, with wires attached, and as an aside, this is actually done in the movie. We see guys with axes, chopping away like they're felling trees. They fall, wires and all, and it looks like they're on Devonshire Boogalord. Then there's a major league sabotage at the gorge crossing that kills a lineman. By now, Tim knows that there has to be a Big Shot behind the sabotage gang; the phone company engineer is just a stooge. Then a rainstorm comes, and floods the area around the gorge. The flood is threatening not only the completion of the gorge connection, but also the train tracks that are precariously holding on as the storm pounds down. And, a train is coming as the saboteurs plan their final action, the dyno-mite!-ing of the gorge. Will Tim be able to save it in time? He'll have his hands full, because the gang have also kidnapped "Barbara" (Billie Seward) the phone company owner's daughter, who Tim is in love with. Boy, does this movie ever call for a restoration. If it had one, we'd give it Two Huge Thumbs Up. The gorge scene alone is spectacular, and a precursor to the legendary ski lift battle in "Where Eagles Dare". The flood scene is also well done, considering the budget and the special effects of the era. I hate to say, therefore, that the print is quite damaged, but don't let that stop you from watching "Voice in the Night." Tim McCoy is great as always and it's very highly recommended.  ////  

Now then, how about a bonus movie? Can you deal with "Johnny Guitar"(1954)? Make sure before you say yes, because this is one of the most intense, and emotionally weird, Westerns that we have ever seen. It boils down to the central issue that "Vienna" (Joan Crawford) paid for her saloon by sleeping with every man in town, while waiting for Guitar to get out of prison. He used to be a gunslinger, but five years wears a man down, and when he gets out, all he does is shred on guitar. He also holds a torch for Vienna, but - and this is one interpretation - so does "Emma Small" (Mercedes McCambridge), who owns the bank. Emma, repressed and with an overflowing supply of rage, has already tried sleeping with "The Dancin' Kid" (Scott Brady), who - according to Vienna - makes Emma feel like a woman. But the Kid is sweet on Vienna too, which makes Emma jealous, but what she's really jealous of, I think, is that all the men get to have Vienna and she doesn't. So, because she can't have Vienna, she wants to kill her, and that's the subtext that got Nicholas Ray in trouble at the time, and why this movie has the reputation that it does. It's highly impassioned, and shows the kind of jealousy that only deep secrets could produce. There are many traditional Western elements, such as the outlaw gang run by The Dancing Kid, who get blamed for every crime in town, even the ones they don't commit. Ernest Borgnine plays the Kid's henchman, who hates Johnny Guitar. They get in a knockdown-drag-out because it's in Borgnine's contract to play a troglodytic thug....

....but I mean, hang on a sec. Rewind to the beginning and answer me this: what kind of movie has a character named Johnny Guitar? I mean...you're kidding, right? And he shreds, too. I looked it up to find the film's year of release, to see if it coincided with the emergence of Elvis Presley. If anyone was Johnny Guitar, he was (even though he was a rudimentary guitarist). But the thing was, the movie came out in 1954, before anyone outside of Memphis knew who Elvis was. And, there was no such thing rock and roll yet, so what kind of trip did you have to be on to have a gunslinger switch to guitar, not only in practice but in his name-change as well? It's weird, weird, weird, I tell ya, and even moreso because it's Sterling Hayden who's doing the shredding, a big macho man. This is one Freudian flick, and Joan Crawford steals the show. If you've ever wondered why she was considered a great actress (and she was, despite all the Mommie Dearest iconography) then watch this movie. Even the Meryl Streeps of the world could not pull off the role of Vienna. That's how great Joan Crawford was, and the movie is loaded to the gills with tremendous actors. Two Huge Thumbs Up! You'll have to get it from the Libe, however, or watch it on a streaming service, as it is not available on Youtube.  ////

And that's all I know. Tonight, I am listening to the music of Bobby Fuller on the anniversary of his passing. Talk about Johnny Guitar, he was one of the greatest, and would've had a huge and lasting career had he not been murdered on this date in 1966.

I hope your week is off to a good start, and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Bob Steele in "Big Calibre", and "Marked for Murder" starring Tex Ritter and Charles King (plus Shakespeare by the Sea)

Last night's movie was "Big Calibre"(1935), starring Bob Steele. We like Bob, and though he doesn't have much of an image compared to our other favorite cowboys (i.e. he's not a gunslinger or a commanding presence), he does have sincerity and good manners. He's what you might call the Nice Boy of 60 minute Westerns, and on the traditional side, he doesn't back down from bad guys. In this film, he's returning from town with 60,000 gees in his saddlebag, from cashing in the gold ore at his Dad's Triple N Ranch. Dad is overjoyed about the money, because now they'll be able to pay off the ranch and get "Mr. Bentley" (Forrest Taylor) off their backs, the local banker who is threatening to foreclose on their mortgage. Bob is concerned, though, because he thought he heard horse hoofs behind him on the ride back. Did a robber follow him home? Dad tells him not to worry, but when Bob goes to sleep, a bandit climbs through the windum, steals the money, and before he leaves, he throws a smokebomb containing poisonous chemicals. Dad dies, and when the Sheriff investigates the next day, he suggests to Bob that they go to town to talk to the assayer, "Otto Zenz" (William Quinn). "He's also a chemist", says the Sheriff, "maybe he can analyse the grenade that killed your Dad."

They pay Zenz a visit, and when Bob gets a look at his footprints (for some reason, the floor of his office is soft dirt), he recognises the shoeprints as the same ones of Dad's killer. "It's him"! Bob exclaims. "He's the guy who killed my Dad!" The Sheriff orders Zanz to put his hands up, but he high tails it, runs out of his office and escapes. We aren't so dumb, however, not to recognize him when he turns up in the next town, in disguise with bad false teeth, and with the new name of Gadski, but with the same occupation as the town's assayer/chemist.

It turns out that he and Bentley the banker are running scheme to obtain ownership of the Triple N, as well as another ranch belonging to "Jim Bowers" (Frank Ball). They've discovered that the Bowers Ranch has a vein of "hard rock", as Bob calls it, running beneath the property. What he means is marble, and as he explains to Jim's sweet daughter "June" (Peggy Campbell), this is what Bentley does; he loans money to ranchers with valuable deposits beneath their properties that they aren't aware of (gold, marble), and charges exorbitant interest rates so the ranchers won't be able to repay. Then he forecloses and cleans up on the deposits. But Bob Steele and his Dad found out about the gold beneath the Triple N, which screwed Bentley up when they cashed in their 60 grand worth of ore. Now that Bob has told June Bowers about the marble under her ranch, she's out to to do the same, to mine it and raise the money to pay off Bentley. But then he has her Dad shot as a warning to her. Her Dad dies, or so it seems, but she doesn't give up. Instead of mining the marble, she robs the stage (a motorcar in this movie) to raise her mortgage money. Bob finds Dad Bowers' bones in the desert, but they turn out to be the leg bones of a cow. Bentley tries to frame Bob for the murders of his own father and Dad Bowers, and the creepy chemist - looking like a reject from a b-horror movie with his protruding false teeth - goes along for the ride, because Bentley needs him. He's got a lot more of those deadly smokebombs that would come in handy in an episode of Batman.

There's a great, extended barn dance scene, in which a lot of Western comedians get to do their things. The scene goes on for 10 minutes (one sixth of the film), and it gives the movie an oddball quality. Bob uses the barn dance, which is also a masquerade ball, to trap the evil chemist. Then June Bowers gets the good news that her Dad isn't dead after all. An Indian found him when he was wounded, and nursed him back to health. Zanz the chemist is chased down by Bob, in a terrific car vs. horse chase across the dry lake bed section of the Alabama Hills. "Big Calibre" gets Two Big Thumbs Up not only for it's layered script and overall Bob Steele-ness, but also for the weird sidebar of the barn dance and the creepy chemist character. The picture is razor sharp, so don't miss it! ////

The previous night, we watched "Marked for Murder"(1945) starring Tex Ritter, and in fact this is the first time we've seen him as the star of a Western and not a sidekick to Johnny Mack Brown. He's paired with Dave O'Brien, who plays Texas Ranger "Dave Wyatt", and you get Charles King in a hillbilly role! Oh man, you're gonna love it; not many know that King began as a comedian in Silent films. His comedy chops are outstanding, and we wish he would have done more of these roles. At any rate, the plot: there's trouble in Corriganville. A range war between the ranchers and the sheepmen is brewing, and after Tex finishes singing the opening song ("Long Time Gone"), he is visited in his law office by two Rangers, the aforementioned Wyatt and his partner "Panhandle" (Guy Wilkerson), who inform him of the feud. Tex says "I'm a lawyer, whataya want from me?" They want him to become a Ranger, cause there isn't one in the region and they need cache with the townsfolk, so he agrees to sign up and they give him a badge. Then, with Tex in the lead, the trio go out to the sheepmen's farm, which is headed by the tough "Ruth Lane" (Marilyn McConnell). She tells the Rangers to go jump in the lake. "We haven't rustled anyone's cattle," she declares, denying the accusations of the ranchers.

Tex and Ranger Wyatt believe her, and send Panhandle out to spy on "Pete Magoo" (Charles King), a hillbilly who lives on the outskirts of town. They suspect he may know something about the rustling, because he was in the saloon when a showdown occurred between the sheepmen and the cattle ranchers. Magoo is a no-account goofball, and it's a treat to see Charles King in comic mode. In one hilarious scene, Panhandle - posing as a handyman - solders King's gun shut, so it can't fire. He gets to do pratfalls and double-takes, and he talks with a hillbilly accent. But of course, he's also a bad guy, and is working for a mastermind named "Dick Vernon" (Ed Cassidy), who wants both of the feuding factions out of the way so that he can acquire all the land in the Valley. To that end, Vernon convinces the Rangers to jail all the cattlemen, while he and Pete Magoo try to run the sheepmen off their land by framing Ruth Lane's henchmen for a murder.

In addition to the action and hijinx, there's a lot of great music, including two songs by Tex Ritter, and an especially good number by The Milo Twins, whose songs can be heard on Youtube (check out "Downtown Boogie"). Two Big Thumbs Up for "Marked for Murder". It's highly recommended and the picture is very good.  ////

That's all for this evening. I hope you are having a nice weekend. Last night, in addition to the movie, I also went to Los Encinos Park in Encino to watch a performance of "Romeo and Juliet" by my favorite Shakespeareans, Shakespeare by the Sea. I may have mentioned them in years past, I'm not sure, but I've been attending their shows since 2014 (at Los Encinos and formerly at Warner Park also), and this was the first time they've been on tour since 2019, because of covid. So, it was awesome to see them again. Once you go to an SBTS show, you become hooked. I was, and I've seen ten of Shakespeare's plays by the troupe, whose casts vary from year to year but have several regular performers. They hit a Dave Kingman-sized home run with Romeo and Juliet and I can't wait to see them again next year. Tonight, my music is "Spooky Two" by Spooky Tooth (and after I just got done saying I don't like blues, go figure) and also "Siegfried" by Wagner. I'm reading the Elvis book ("thankyouveramuchladiesangennamun") and I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)  

William Holden and Lee J. Cobb in "The Dark Past", and "20,000 Years in Sing Sing" starring Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis

Last night, we watched a picture called "The Dark Past"(1948), which began as a crime film then turned into a hostage drama, with an unlikely but compelling premise. The movie opens with a voiceover by "Dr. Andrew Collins" (Lee J. Cobb), a police psychiatrist, explaining the nature of his job. We see him reviewing a lineup of criminals, after which he remarks to a detective that one young punk can be saved from a life of crime, "if you'll let me talk to him". Already the film is setting up the idea that psychiatry cures all ills, and when the detective casts doubt about this, telling Dr. Collins that some criminals can't be reformed, the Doc shoots back with "they can be if they are young. Let me tell you the story of Al Walker". From there, we enter flashback mode, as Dr. Collins relates his ex-schperience with an escaped convict named Al Walker (William Holden). Collins is shown at home, at some time in the past, with his wife and young son. Prior to working for the police department, he was a psychology professor at a local college. Here, he's preparing for a vacation at his cabin in the mountains, and when he takes his family up there, it coincides with Al Walker's escape. We see Walker in his getaway car, with two fellow hoodlums, his moll (Nina Foch), and the prison warden, who's been forced along as Walker's hostage. When Walker asks where the hideout is gonna be, one of the hoods tells him it's a shack in the mountains. Walker says "that's the first place the cops will look, an empty shack. Are there any cabins near there"?

The hood answers, "yes, but they've got people in 'em." "All the better" says Walker. "Makes everything look normal." Thus, he and his gang of thugs pull a home invasion on Dr. Collins and his family, who have the unfortunate timing to arrive at their cabin on the night of Al Walker's escape, the news of which is on radio and in the evening paper.

The home invasion itself is scarily depicted, you can feel the fear of the Collins family and another couple, "Frank" and "Laura Stevens" (Adele Jurgens, Wilton Graff), who have driven up in a second car to spend the night. The Stevens' and Dr. Collins' professor pal "Dr. Linder" (Steven Geray), who's handy with guns and shows up later, are mostly red herrings, written in to fill time, as are two scullery maids whom the thugs tie up in the basement. The brunt of the story belongs to Dr. Collins and the killer Walker, with his girl Betty there for emotional support. Dr. Collins is the only one of the hostages who isn't terrified of Walker, who, as we have seen - because we watched him shoot the warden in the back - is a certified psychopath. But Dr. Collins is a professor of psychology, so he sits back and observes Walker, which drives Walker nuts. "Why are you so calm!?" he yells at Collins, who responds by leaning back and lighting his pipe, because it's in Lee J. Cobb's contract (have you ever seen Cobb without his pipe or a cigar? No you haven't; case closed). Collins tells Walker, "I'm calm because you're scared." This is where things get implausible, because any psycho worth his salt would've shut the hostage up, but this is 1948, when psychiatry was just gaining mass acceptance, and the filmmakers want to make a chess game out of it. In fact, they do that later on.

As it turns out, Walker has bad dreams, which he reveals to Dr. Collins when he tries to get some schleep during the long, unwinding night. Dreams are red meat to a shrink, so Collins homes in on this chink in Walker's tough guy armor. He coaxes Walker into describing his dream, over a game of chess, and this is when the wheels begin to fall off on Walker's effort to control the sitchy-ation. At first, he resists the doctor's attempts to psychoanalyse him, until Collin's tells him "you'll never be rid of your nightmares unless you let me help you, but you have to be truthful with me". Then they really get down to business, with Collins trying to figure out the symbolism of Walker's recurring dream.

It's not cut and dried; Walker keeps up his defiant facade throughout, telling Dr. Collins that psychology, or "mind games" as he puts it, is for "screwballs". But he really wants his nightmares to go away, so he allows Collins to question him about his childhood. Of course, this would never happen in a hostage situation in real life, it's almost like Stockholm Syndrome in reverse, but it makes for excellent drama, and you also have the side issues of Betty, Walker's hard-bitten girlfriend who loves him (though her character is only a sketch), and the friends who are staying at the cabin, the wife of whom is a flirtatious babe who will possibly cheat on her older husband with a younger man who's arrived. These diversions would've made interesting subplots, had the writer found a way to work them into the Psych Story. Also, Walker's hoods keep a lookout for a getaway boat that never arrives, and the scullery maids in the basement provide an important last minute twist.

It's really good stuff if you accept it for what it is. Walker's dream, and Dr. Collins' interpretation of it, has an Oedipal tinge that the filmmakers can only allude to because it's 1948. Lee J. Cobb does his Lee J. Cobb thing, as if the philosophical weight of the world is on his substantial shoulders, and William Holden makes a frightening if just-a-tad-too-jittery psycho, slightly unbelievable, but then aren't all psychos such? Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Dark Past". It's highly recommended and the picture is razor sharp.  ////

The previous night, we watched a prison flick called "20,000 Years in Sing Sing", an early effort from the legendary Michael Curtiz, whose 1955 film "The Scarlet Hour" we very much enjoyed a couple weeks ago. In this one, Spencer Tracy plays "Tommy Connors", a cocky, sharp dressed hoodlum who is headed for Sing Sing on a train. He brags to the coppers escorting him that he'll be bustin' out of there in no time. "The joint ain't been built that can hold me," he says. When they tell him he's never seen Sing Sing, he responds, "I don't care if it's sealed like an armored car, I'll find a way to crack it, and on the slim chance I don't, my lawyer has it all worked out anyway. So how do you like them apples, fellas?" Suffice it to say he's as arrogant as can be, and when he gets to the prison and has the mandatory meeting with the warden, he runs through the same spiel: "I'm different from all these other schmoes.You'll never break me. I don't want no prison job, neither! See these hands? Do they look like they got any callouses?" The warden just looks at him, as if to say : "I've seen every hard case in the world come through here, and they all break sooner or later. You think you're different? Guard, take him to his cell."

Connors complains when his prison uniform is two sizes too big. He refuses to wear it, so, using reverse psychology, the warden tells the guards, "fine, he doesn't have to wear it." Then he puts Connors to work in Sing Sing's ice house, wearing only his skivvies. This angers Connors (he freezes his butt off) and he refuses to come out of his cell. This leads to him being put in solitary, where, after a month, he agrees to break rocks. "Anything to get out of this box", he tells a guard. "But", he adds, "if the warden thinks he's got me down, tell him he ain't seen nothin'". You get where things are going by this point; Connors is an unrepentant con, a hard guy to the end, but then he gets a visit from a girlfriend we didn't know he had (a young Bette Davis in an emotionally charged performance). Seeing her in the visitor's room, Connors becomes tender. The acting here by Tracy and Davis is gripping; it's like Spencer really is in prison and Bette is distraught. Amazing acting, realistic without being Method. (and I like Method so don't get the wrong idea. But this is even realer!)

But back to the plot: Connors finds out that Bette is sleeping with his lawyer to get him out of prison on early release, but the lawyer is actually gonna do the opposite. He wants Connors to serve his full sentence because he has designs on Davis. Meanwhile, other convicts, led by Lyle Talbot, are planning a breakout. They make tools in the machine shop - a cell lock-breaker and a pig-iron gun from scrap metal - and pull their break in the middle of the night. But it's unsuccessful, and leads to several of the culprits being sent to death row, because two guards are killed.

Connors is not among the jailbreakers, which earns him points from the warden. Later, when Bette Davis is almost killed in a deliberately caused car accident by the lawyer, who now wants to get rid of her, the warden offers Connors a day pass to visit her in the hospital, for fear she is going to die. This is part of the warden's rehabilitation plan, to give certain men day passes as a chance to earn trust. Connors, whose arrogance is mostly gone by now, is grateful for the chance to visit Bette in the hospital. He promises to return to Sing Sing that night, but when Bette, in critical condition, tells him what the lawyer did, he plans revenge. Now, his parole might be at stake. Worse, he could end up on death row. 

I can't give away any more of the story, but "20,000 Years in Sing Sing" is a classic prison drama, full of other characters besides Tracy and Davis. The warden is played by Arthur Byron, an early actor who was born in 1872. His father was a stage actor named Oliver Dowd Byron, born in 1842, whose career dated to before the Civil War. So there's that Amazing Time Thing again, and the way time stands still, once it's been preserved in the movies. Two Big Thumbs Up for this one, but it's only available on dvd, Netflix or other services, not on Youtube. I got it from the Libe, don't miss it, it's highly recommended! //// 

And that's all I know. I'm still listening to Procul Harum, this time their live album and "Grand Hotel". So far, they're really good, especially Gary Brooker, but their style is a little hit-and-miss for me (too....what? Too plaintive? Too much like The Band? Wait a minute......I like The Band. Well, I sort of like them. Some of their music is too Coal Miner-ish.....or is that Gold Miner-ish? Probably I should shut up and just listen.) I know it's sacrilege to say so, but I'm not the world's biggest blues fan. I guess I was expecting the bulk of the Procul music to sound more like "Whiter Shade" (i.e. progressive), and some of it does, but other stuff is a bit too rootsy. Maybe it'll grow on me. And, I'm listening late night to Mahler's 7th (tra-MENN-duss!). And I just began reading "Last Train to Memphis" by Peter Guralnick, because of the Elvis movie, which I didn't review because I'm sure you just saw it. It was tra-MENN-duss, too!

I hope you had a nice day, and I send you Tons of Love as always!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)    

Anthony Booth in "The Hi-Jackers" (a Veddy Brrrittish! crime flick), and "Double Exposure" starring Chester Morris and Nancy Kelly

Last night, we found a Veddy Brrrittish crime thriller of the type we were watching a lot of last year, and boy, did they ever make some great ones in the early 60s. That was the height of the so-called Kitchen Sink era, which we talked about at that time (you'd have to look it up in my blogs from when we were on our John Mills kick), but at any rate - wow! what a find: "The Hi-Jackers"(1963), about a gang of robbers who are not unlike our stagecoach gangs from the Old West, except for one thing. Instead of riding out of the hills to rob their target, they plan out elaborate schemes to force lorry drivers to stop. In this case, they stage accidents and when the driver stops, the jack him and steal his truck, which they know in advance has freight with a lot of value. How do they know this? Someone with the scoop tips them off. As the movie opens, we see the gang, led by an older, sophisticated gent named "Carter" (Derek Francis), practicing in the road for their heist. They're out in the middle of nowhere, along the route the victim's lorry will take. It's said to be carrying a load of Johnny Walker worth 12 thousand pounds.

At a village cafe, we see the driver getting ready to make his run. He's sitting at a table with some union chaps, one of whom is complaining about all the hijackings that are taking place. "They oughta provide us with guards", the guy says. "Why should I risk my neck to a load of highwaymen? I'm not gettin' paid any extra." Our driver, whose name is "Terry" (Anthony Booth) is an independent trucker. He doesn't even have a company to back him up, but he shrugs off the threat. "I'm careful. I know not to stop for anyone, and I don't pick up chick hitchhikers cause them gangs use 'em as a ruse". Nevertheless, the waitress at the cafe, who Terry is friends with, asks him to give a ride to a young woman who's been sitting there all day long. She's clean cut but obviously down on her luck. The waitress feels sorry for her; will Terry give her a ride? He thinks of all the hijacking talk and turns the offer down, but later on, when he's driving, he sees the young woman walking on the road with her suitcase and feels bad for refusing her, so he pulls over and gives her a ride.

They make small talk, while in cross-cut scenes, we see the robbers setting up their phony auto accident roadblock, and communicating with walkie-talkies to ensure perfect timing (think Pelham 123). Terry is forced to stop his lorry when he comes to the "accident" (a motorcycle is staged to have collided with a car) and even though he suspects it's a trap, the gal (his passenger) implores him to get out and help. He does, and gets mugged. Then the robbers make off with his lorry. They drive it to a barn, offload the Johnny Walker, and their plan seems to have come off very well. But there's one snag - the robbers didn't expect Terry to have a passenger. And when they jacked him, she ran into Da Bushes (stay! out! da bushes!). They weren't able to catch her, and she got a good look at Carter, the older bald boss man, whom she describes to the police when they interview her and Terry.

He relates this detail to a fellow driver, that his passenger saw "a bald older gent", and the next thing you know, Terry gets a knock at the door of his apartment, where he's letting the girl stay, and some thugs burst in with stockings on their heads, and that's all I should really tell you. I'll give you a hint that, initially, the coppers accuse Terry of staging his own robbery. Because they don't believe him, he's forced to find the gang on his own. And there's also the threat posed by Carter apparently knowing where he lives. Man, this is one top notch crime film. The Brits were at the top of their cinematic game in those days. I think this flick may have influenced Scorsese, because the Taxi Driver soundtrack is similar (jazzbo saxophone) and especially the scene in the cafe, when Terry is talking to other drivers ("my man Travis is loa-ded, loa-ded"). I'll bet he saw "The Hi-Jackers", which gets Two Huge Thumbs Up. It's been restored and the picture is razor sharp, so don't miss it!  //// 

The previous night, our pal Chester Morris was back in a screwball crime comedy, but it wasn't a Boston Blackie. The movie was "Double Exposure"(1944), and this time, Chester is paired with a hugely talented actress named Nancy Allen instead of The Runt. Chester is the editor of a magazine called Flick, which presents sensationalised photos to accompany it's weekly stories of murders, plane crashes and mayhem, the juicier the better. When Flick's publisher - a fitness freak named "Mr. Turlock" (Richard Gaines) - sees a photo of a plane crash by "Pat Marvin" (Kelly), he tells Chester to call and hire her. She lives and works in Iowa with her erstwhile boyfriend "Ben" (Phillip Terry), who helps her concoct fake shots (and the airplane pic is a phony), but he's kind of a nerd, and she doesn't really love him. So, when she gets the call from Chester, and Ben tags along to New York, she introduces him as her brother. Chester thus sees no competition for her hand and puts the moves on her, while Ben fumes because he thinks Pat's in love with him. But all of this is in the background because Mr. Turlock wants to sell magazines. He passes out carrots to his staff to keep them in shape, and when he comes into the office, they'd better be doing their push-ups.

There's a possibility for a scoop with the latest marriage of millionaire "Sonny Tucker" (Charles Arnt). He's a serial womaniser who's on his seventh wife. But she's about to divorce him, just when Mr. Turlock the publisher decides to run a "mystery" issue of Flick, where readers have the chance to solve a fictitious crime. Pat and Chester decide to stage one by photographing a fake "murder" in Sonny Tucker's high-rise apartment, which they sneak into. They have Pat dress like Wife Number 7 and lay across the couch, to make it look like she's been found dead in the apartment. They take their pictures and leave, but then, lo and behiold, it happens for real! Wife Number 7 is found murdered, on the same couch, in the same clothes, laying in the same position. The cops show up and produce a police pic, which is identical to cover photo on Flick magazine, from an issue that has sold like hotcakes. "How did your photographer know about the murder before we did?" the coppers wanna know. Chester confesses: "We didn't know, we staged the photo". "Sure you did", the cops reply. "We think she killed her". They believe this because Pat danced with Sonny Tucker at a nightclub, to butter him up and get a scoop on his divorce.The cops think she's a gold digger who was trying to become Wife 8, and did away with Wife Number 7. The only one who can prove Pat's innocence is poor old goofy Ben, who helped her process the fake murder photo. But Chester, being jealous of Ben when he finds out he's not Pat's brother but her boyfriend, has sent him overseas, on an "emergency" photo assignment to Russia, sailing with the U.S. Navy. Pat rots in jail after being arrested for murder, and Ben's not available to prove her innocence. Then they get word that his ship was torpedoed. Now Pat is gonna go to The Chair. What a wind up!  With no witness to provide Pat an alibi, Chester has to figure out a way to catch the real murderer. He's in love with Pat and will do anything to save her, but will his efforts be in time?

Nancy Kelly is a comedic revelation, with a beautiful but expressive face that moves around like rubber. She's a riot in a modern way, like a cast member on SNL. She steals the show here, and Phillip Terry, who plays Ben, is perfect as well, as is Richard Gaines as Mr. Turlock the health nut. Chester Morris is great as always, holding down the fort with his rapid fire repartee and crack timing. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Double Exposure", which never lets up. It's highly recommended for top notch screwball, on a low budget film but with top talent. ////

And that's all I know for this evening. I'm listening to "Shine On Brightly" by Procul Harum, a band I only know from two songs ("Whiter Shade of Pale" and "Conquistador"). It's good, though a bit more bluesy than I was expecting. I'm also still on a Beggar's Opera kick, and I finally finished Paul McCartney's "The Lyrics", which is an absolute must-read. I hope your week is off to a good start, and I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)     

Tim McCoy in "The Outlaw Deputy", and "Six Shootin' Sheriff" starring Ken Maynard

You can't go too long without watching a Tim McCoy movie, so we did just that with "The Outlaw Deputy"(1935), in which Tim goes straight to stop a payroll robbery gang. As the movie opens, he's part of a small time group of thieves who pull occasional jobs by robbing other criminals at their hideouts. Tim's gang lives outside society and they steal just enough to keep going, but one day, they take a bag containing a payroll shipment. Tim wants nothing to do with a rip-off of that magnitude, and he takes the bag back to town to turn it in. At the payroll office, he says he "found" the bag, and befriends a young clerk named "Chuck" (George Offerman Jr.). Tim offers to ride with Chuck on the next delivery, to protect him against another robbery, but Chuck turns him down, saying he'll be okay. Well, you can guess what happens; Chuck gets shot and dies. Tim finds him. The money is gone, and so is Chuck's prize watch, which he showed to Tim back in town. This is the last straw for Tim as far as his own crime career is concerned. He tells his old thief buddies that he's hanging up his hat. "I'm heading into town to find out who killed Chuck". He doesn't say what he's gonna do when he finds the killer.

When he gets to town, he stops at the saloon to size up the clientele. In any Western, you're gonna find some no-goodnicks in the bar, but this time it seems like they're filling the joint. It's like a Hell's Angels club meeting. They're trashing the place and laughing, throwing food around and terrorising the waitress. After they overturn all the tables and smash all the chairs, Tim pulls his pistol and stops them. "Get your wallets out, Gents. We're taking up a collection for all the furniture you ruined." They stop laughing and drop money into Tim's hat. The Sheriff hears about this, and asks Tim to become his deputy. "There's so many of those troublemakers, it's too much for one man." Tim at first demurs, thinking about his past. What if the Sheriff finds out he used to be a robber? But then the Sheriff's sweet daughter (Nora Lane) asks him to please help her Dad, and he can't say no. In no time, between the two of them, Tim and the Sheriff run the bad guys out of town. Tim posts a sign in front of the bar: "No guns allowed". We need him nowdays! He's also got his eye on a card-sharp who he suspects is double dealing. He can't prove it, but he's leaning on the guy, and he's still looking for the man (or men) who killed Chuck. Then, all of a sudden his old thief buddies pay him a visit. "We've got a job you can't turn down", they tell him, thinking he'll give up his commitment to the Sheriff. They figure, "once a thief, always a thief", but Tim won't bite, especially when they tell him they've graduated to stage robbery. "I'm not gonna help you", he says, "and don't let me catch you". The card-sharp overhears their conversation and learns that Tim used to be a criminal. Now he's out to blackmail Tim, to get him off his back, but Tim undercuts him by going to the Sheriff and confessing. "Yes, I was once a wanted man, but never for murder or bank robbery." He explains that he was a small-time thief. The Sheriff lets it go because Tim was honest, and he needs him.

But the card-sharp won't let the matter drop, and takes a potshot at Tim from behind a curtain. I can't tell you why, but there's a major twist. "The Outlaw Deputy" is one of the rowdier entries in the genre, and depicts what I imagine it was often like inside a bar in the Old West. I often equate the bad guys from that time as akin to the bikers of the 1960s, because of their nasty dispositions and total disregard for the law. This movie shows it. Then Tim McCoy shows up, and wouldn't it be great if we had a Tim McCoy in every town? Also turning in a fine performance is Nora Lane, who is fast becoming a Top Western Sweetheart. Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Outlaw Deputy". The picture is very good. ////

The previous night, we had the great Ken Maynard in "Six Shootin' Sheriff"(1938), which has a similar set-up to "Outlaw Deputy". As it opens, Ken, as "Jim 'Trigger' Morton", is just out of stir, after a stint for bank robbery. But he didn't do it; he was framed by a crook named "Ace Kendall" (Warner Richmond), so he rides back to town, where Ace is waiting at a card game. "Bring it on", says Ace in front of his honchos. "Yeah, I framed you, whatcha gonna do about it?" Then Trigger shoulder-shoots him and Ace shuts up. That's the last we hear from him, but the Bar-X ranch hands are a whole 'nuther matter. They're trouble, night in and night out, at the local saloon and around town. They've never heard of Trigger, so when he comes into the bar and orders a water (because he's trying to go straight), they make fun of him. One, named "Big Boy" (Richard Alexander), tries to roust him, and it's a mistake on all of their parts because they learn that he's not called Trigger for nothing (though he mostly shoots guns out of hands, so don't worry, he's not a killer).

His shootin's so good that old "Zeke" (Lafe McKee) is sent by the citizens to offer him the job of Sheriff. "Every Sheriff we've had is layin' up on Boot Hill, but you......you got somethin' ", Zeke tells him. Trigger can't believe they'd want him as Sheriff. Yes, he was framed by Ace Kendall, so on that score he's an innocent man, but he was still once an outlaw. "Why would you want me"?, he asks. "Because a man can change " is Zeke's answer. So, Trigger accepts the job and starts cleaning up the town. His first order of business is rousting the Bar-X gang from the saloon. He's so quick on the draw that they decide to play it straight after that. We never hear from them again. But there's one last hurdle from Trigger's past that won't be so easy to escape. His old gang is looking for him, led by "Chuck" (Walter Long), his former henchman, who has now co-opted Trigger's younger brother. Trigger does have some loyalty to Chuck, because Chuck provided the evidence that freed him from jail in the Ace Kendall frameup, but Chuck is still tied to gang life whereas Trigger wants to go straight. He rides out to meet Chuck and the gang, and tries to tell them, "I'm the Sheriff now. Please don't try to rob our town. I'm telling you this as your former partner and friend, but I'm the law. I'll arrest you if you come."

Chuck thinks he's bluffing or joking, and when Trigger leaves, he plans with his honchos the robbery of the post office, which is holding a huge payroll stash. Old Zeke has already asked Trigger to look after the postmistress "Rose Morgan" (Jane Keckley), whose sweet daughter "Molly" (Marjorie Reynolds) has a crush on Trigger. She does find an old Wanted poster of him, from when he was framed, and it disillusions her and makes her cry. But in the long run she retains her faith in him, because Mom says he's a changed man. But now his old gang, led by Chuck and including Trigger's brother, are gonna try to take the post office payroll and rob Rose Morgan . This will culminate in Trigger confronting them in the middle of the night, after Molly tries to stop the robbery by herself.

This is classic Ken Maynard, just White Hat against Black Hats, with no music or comic relief. His films usually featured sincerity as the lead quality, that's what Maynard's image was about. He was the ultimate "aww shucks ma'am" cowboy, who - even if his character had a criminal past - was always out to do the altruistic thing. He never was a ladies man, per se, and in this film he confesses women make him nervous, but that only draws Molly closer to him. She sweeps his floor and loves him from afar (in a great performance by Marjorie Reynolds in a small, low budget film), and the other noticeable thing, besides the lack of comedy (which is rare in a 60 minuter) is that there's nothing to do for Tarzan, Maynard's legendary trick horse. No rescues, no riderless runs; I hope he got a new agent after this role! Still, "Six Shootin' Sheriff" has one of the best and most layered scripts we've seen in a Ken Maynard film, and it gets Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is very good. Maynard always presented good values and a Saturday Afternoon Matinee image for kids. He was the real deal. ////

That's all for tonight. I'm listening to "The Tain" by Horslips, and "Waters of Change" by Beggar's Opera, another great one by those guys. I hope you had a nice weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Johnny Mack Brown in "Little Joe, the Wrangler", and "The Silver Bullet" starring Tom Tyler (plus Stuart Sutcliffe)

We're having a Johnny Mack Brown resurgence, and last night in "Little Joe, the Wrangler"(1942), he's out to stop whoever is robbing the ore shipments in the town of Lamplight. It's getting so bad that none of the ore is getting to the smelter. The owner fears he'll have to shut it down. There aren't even any suspects, which has led the citizens to call for the resignation of the Sheriff (Tex Ritter). A townsman asks that cooler heads prevail: "We elected him, let's give him one more chance". The citizens back down, but only on the condition that he produce results in four days, otherwise he'll be replaced. The Sheriff then heads out to the smelter to interview the owner, and while he's out there, a prospector (Johnny Mack) is brought in by the owner's henchmen. They claim he shot a miner named "Webb Hammond" (Robert F. Hill). They also produce gold belonging to Hammond that they say they found in JMB's saddle bag. This makes it look like he's behind all the ore robberies. The Sheriff is ready to arrest him, though Johnny says he's innocent and being framed. The Sheriff says "that's for a jury to decide". Then he brings Johnny back to town and puts him in jail. Soon, a Lench Mob arrives to string him up.

For the Sheriff, the results save his job, but he's starting to believe Johnny Mack is innocent. Johnny asks him to go find his horse; "my I.D. papers should be in the saddle bag". But they aren't, and as an aside, this presents an interesting point about I.D. Before photography, how did anyone know a person was who they said they were? Not that it's much better now, but at least we have photos (which can be photoshopped, I know), but back then, an I.D. paper only had a man's description, provided and signed off on by a reliable witness, often a person of stature. In the movie, when Sheriff Tex can't find Johnny's papers, Johnny then breaks his cover and confesses that he isn't a prospector but is really the vice president of the Monarch Mining Company, sent out to solve the problem of the ore thefts. But because his I.D. is missing, "Janet Hammond" (Jennifer Holt) still thinks he's the robber who killed her Dad. Johnny has to find his papers, which he does with the help of Fuzzy Knight, who plays "Little Joe", the Wrangler of the title. Fuzzy is indeed the local horse wrangler, but he's also an amateur inventor, whose latest contraptions are a horse-throw prevention device, and a pair of wings that he uses to attempt to fly.

Fuzzy does his comic relief bit, which is as good-natured and broad-based as usual (and bruising), and The Jimmy Wakely Trio, as in most of Johnny Mack's films, provides the music. Tex Ritter sings a song at the end, and gets in the requisite punchouts with Johnny Mack. You know how, on Star Trek, it's required in every episode that Spock rebels against Jim, that Chekov stages a mutiny, and that Sulu goes stark raving insane? Well, in the Johnny Mack Brown Westerns in which Tex Ritter co-stars, it's de rigueur that they have at least two fistfights before becoming allies. And you always get Fuzzy Knight as the goofy sidekick. The Universal Studios JMBs always have a layered script, and this time you get the lovely Jennifer Holt and Florine McKinney as sweet "Mary Brewster", the Sheriff's daughter. The only thing missing is a top notch villain, so you'll have to settle for henchman Slim Whitaker, who's behind the frameup of Johnny for murder. Ultimately, Sheriff Tex frees Johnny, and they team up to nab the Travis Gang, who're working for the local big shot "Chapin" (James Craven), who is trying to take over the mines. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Little Joe, the Wrangler". The picture is soft but watchable. ////

The previous night, we had another good one from Tom Tyler called "The Silver Bullet"(1935). Outlaw "Slim Walker" (George Chesbro) and his two pals "Pete" (Lew Meehan) and "Scurvy" (Slim Whitaker) are looking to get drunk and cause trouble. They ride in to Chico, stop at the bar and stick around to shoot the place up. Slim gets a kick out of terrorizing the citizens, and they do so until "Tom Henderson" (Tyler) stops by. He's a surveyor, on his way to look at some land, and when he bumps into Scurvy while entering the General Store, Scurvy tries decking him, which is not a good idea with Tom Tyler. He k.o.'s Scurvy, then goes inside the store to find Slim and Pete strong- arming the proprietress "Nora Kane" (Jayne Regan) into giving them free goods. Tom doesn't go for hoodlums who pick on ladies, so he shows them them the door in a most abrupt way. They retreat to the bar (again) and vow revenge on Tom, but sweet Nora is grateful for his help, and introduces him to her father, "Dad Kane" (Lafe McKee), who is blind.

Dad publishes the local paper in Chico, and decries the lack of law and order. He's been writing editorials about Slim and his gang, and since they arrived, the residents of Chico have been in their houses for five days running, so afraid are they to go outside. Tom thinks this is terrible and wishes he could do something. "You can" says Dad Kane. "You can be our new Sheriff". Tom doesn't want to; he's got land to survey, and not only that, but he's got a mule named Mary who requires a lot of attention because she's addicted to chewing tobacky: one pound a day! Dad tells Tom that he and Nora will keep Mary in chaw - "all she needs!" - if Tom will reconsider and become Sheriff. And he does.

The first person he meets on the job is the town banker, Charles King. We've said this before about early King roles, but this time he really is at his thinnest and cleanest. You'll have to see it to believe it! King tells Tom he's taking a chance by becoming Sheriff: "You know, that Slim Walker, he'll shoot you. They'll be carrying you out of the Sheriff's office feet first." Tom replies that he ain't skeered, and that "feet first" is the only way to go. King, in his role as a "legitimate" town leader, is doing his devil's advocate thing here. We already know he's gonna be implicated in the outcome, he's Charles King after all, the only bad guy who never ever played a good guy (so far as I know), but this time he's really, really trying to appear legit. Therefore, he first sows doubt in Tom Tyler's mind, and when Tom replies that he'll clean up the town in spite of Slim, King says "well in that case I wish you well", but he's such a good actor that the cynicism comes through. He actually wishes Tom nothing but death.

Meanwhile, we see Dad Kane practicing with his pistol at home, shooting cans. He's blind, so Tom can't believe he can hit anything, but sweet daughter Nora tells him that Dad shoots by sound. His assistant taps the cans with a stick and Dad fires away, he's a crack shot. In flashback, Dad tells Tom the story about how he was blinded by a gold robber, and his wife was killed in the process. He vowed ever since then to be ready for the killer "because I know I will see him again".

For a 51 minute movie, there's a truckload of stuff going on. Tom jails Slim Walker, but Scurvy and some other honchos from outside of town organize a jailbreak by posing as United States Marshals. They dupe Tom by calling on the phone to arrange a midnight meeting to transfer Slim to state prison, to avoid a Lench Mob. But in reality it was Charles King who made the call. He's about to have his own bank robbed, to keep the money and blame the robbery on Tom, who he's framing to make it look like Tom was behind Slim's jailbreak! I hope that's not too confusing, but in the movie it plays well, and is one of the best frame ups in the history of Charles King. Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Silver Bullet". The picture is very good. Not a bad double bill, eh? Tom Tyler and Johnny Mack, two of our three very best. ////

That's all I know for tonight. I'm listening to "Act One" by Beggar's Opera, which as the title suggests is their first album. I'd only ever heard their masterpiece "Pathfinder", and "Get Your Dog Off Me", but this is a good one, too. I've also been listening to Wagner's "Der Miestersinger" (over the course of four nights), and I've finished reading "The Beatles' Shadow: Stuart Sutcliffe and his Lonely Hearts Club" by Pauline Sutcliffe (his sister), and I've got to say, it's one of the most affecting Beatles books I've ever read. We only ever think of Stuart Sutcliffe as this mysterious figure, a mythical Man of Cool, who quit The Beatles to pursue a career as an artist. He had the image of a foreign existentialist, inspired by his German girlfriend Astrid Kircherr, and he was all of those things, but as his sister writes it, he was also a kid, a nice Scottish boy just out of high school, like the rest of The Beatles, who became friends with John Lennon and then joined the band before they went to Hamburg. In fact it was Stu who named The Beatles, thinking Johnny and The Moondogs sounded too old fashioned. You really get a full picture of him in this book, and how his death at 21 affected his family. There's a revelation about his demise that is extremely disturbing. I won't reveal it, but you can Google it, or perhaps you already know. I neither believe nor disbelieve what Pauline says about this, in truth it's just all so tragic. He and John lived only 61 years between them, one less year than I've been alive now. One thing I do know after reading this book, which gives an incredible early history of The Beatles, is that from now on I will always think of Stu Sutcliffe as an integral member of the group, and Pete Best, too, for that matter. Neither of them were just side notes, and Stu wasn't just some mysterious artist. I can't recommend the book highly enough; it's essential if you're a Beatles fan.

I hope you are enjoying the start of your weekend, and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)