What do you get when you cross a prison movie with a train movie? You get "Prison Train"(1938) of course, and for a film from Poverty Row's Equity Pictures it's a surprisingly good ride. Racketeer "Frankie Terris" (Fred Keating) runs a nightclub in New York and considers himself a gentleman and a legit businessman, though he's made a fortune off of the illegal lottery. He's also not above threatening "Manny Robbins" (Alexander Leftwich), the #2 Mob boss in the city, telling Manny to stay off his turf. But then Manny's son "Joe" (James Blakeley) takes a shine to Frankie's sister "Louise" (Dorothy Comingore), an honest girl who Frankie protects to keep her innocent. Frankie doesn't like Joe Robbins and kills him in a fight. He's caught by police and sentenced to life on Alcatraz, across the country. Because he killed Joe on post office grounds, it's a federal crime, hence Alcatraz, and the Feds have a special "prison car", that is hooked up to an ordinary commercial train, to transport guys like Frankie. It's reinforced, with extra guards, but Manny Robbins has sworn to kill Frankie before he reaches The Rock. He already tried to shoot him in court, which earned him a lengthy prison sentence of his own, but even from stir, he's got his henchmen on the job, and they have contracted other bad guys, including a black train porter (Clarence Muse) who used to be a street thug, and also prisoners on the train, one of whom delights in telling Frankie, over and over, "don't worry about your life sentence, cause you're never gonna serve it."
The henchmen are following the train in their car, and plan to hijack it when it stops at Kansas City. Frankie's sister has hopped the train in New York, because she got word that Manny Robbins was gonna have him killed. There's also a Federal Special Agent on board who can't reveal himself. He's there to make sure Frankie gets safely to Alcatraz, but he's way outnumbered, and Clarence Muse has just served the guards some coffee with sleeping powder in it. "Prison Train" is a top notch prison/train flick that keeps the tension ratcheted up by switching from scenario to scenario. One minute you're following Clarence Muse, then the smirking taunter, then the hoodlums in the car, then the Special Agent. It's really well directed, and like all good train movies, it has plenty of great shots of iron wheels turning and coal fires burning. When Frankie sees the henchmens' car pull up to the Kansas City station, he alerts the guards, "don't let them kill me!" The bad guys kidnap his sister instead, and Clarence Muse pulls a gun. That's all I will tell you, but it's highly recommended and gets Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is soft but watchable. ////
The previous night, we found an interesting Silent film called "As the Earth Turns"(1938), silent not because it was made pre-sound but because it was essentially a homemade film, written and directed by a 20 year old filmmaker named Richard Lyford. Have you heard of him or this movie? I had not, until last night when it popped up on my Youtube recommendations. And in fact, no one knew it existed until it was found in Lyford's basement a few years ago. It was restored in 2019 and premiered on Halloween night last year (on TCM), and while it has the earmarks of a student film (young actors wearing makeup to appear older, obvious use of models) it is nevertheless very accomplished given Lyford's age at the time. I would guess he had some connections, and possibly came from a moneyed family, because he has use of locations, such as a power plant, and his camera techniques and set-ups required an above average degree of production design. Even given the homemade quality, in some ways it has the look of a professional silent film, and he shows you his talent from Frame One, with a title sequence that could come from a Fritz Lang film of the time.
The movie is about a young female reporter who is sent back East by her boss, to cover a massive flood that's been caused by a nationwide earthquake. When she begins to cover the story, she's contacted by telex by a being calling himself Pax (played by Lyford himself). Pax claims to have planet-destroying powers, and he proves it by emptying all the lakes in the Atlas mountains and channeling the water into the Sahara desert. At the same time, he's running trains off their tracks and causing airplanes to crash. The train sequence is from stock footage, suggesting again that Lyford had cinematic connections. I have to take an aside to mention the relation, in this sense, to the publicity that surrounded Spielberg when he began his career. I've mentioned this before, but at the time he became famous, it was said - in order to give him mystique - that he simply "walked onto the lot" at Universal Schtudios and set up an office. This created the idea in the public mind that SS was an auteur of homemade filmmaking. Of course, it later came out that he went to Long Beach State, but I would guess that his connects run much deeper than that, or he straight-up would not have gotten a shot to direct major TV shows as a 24 year old. He didn't even go to a major film school like USC, but at any rate, I'm using all of this to say that Richard Lyford certainly had filmic connections, because Walt Disney saw his work, and three years later he was working on "Dumbo".
Having noted all of that, "As the Earth Turns" is a very good movie, and a lot of fun. One thing it does, is move forward with constant action, as Pax causes worldwide havoc in his demand to end all war. In this respect, Lyford predates "The Day the Earth Schtood Schtill", and you will notice the similarity in titles. Did "Stood Still" schteal their schtory from Lyford? It's veddy interesting to consider. In the end, Pax turns out to be the reincarnation a WW1 German flying ace, who so hated war that when he died, after being shot down, he came back to life as Pax to challenge the world and end war. It's a heck of an effort for a 20 year old kid. Lyford is a tall, serious guy who looks closer to 30. After "Dumbo", he worked for Disney on "Fantasia" and other films, then went into TV, including "The Wonderful World of Color". This movie was sitting in his basement all this time. It's highly recommended for historical value, and because its inventive. And, it's only 45 minutes long and we always appreciate short running times, and movies that get to the freaking point. Two Big Thumbs Up! The picture has been restored. ////
Now then, I have another Bonus Movie for you: "The Fighting Sullivans"(1944), which I got from the Libe a few days ago. In short, it's the inspiring and heartbreaking true story of the five Sullivan brothers of Waterloo, Iowa who were all killed in the Pacific when their Navy ship "Juneau" was exploded by Japanese torpedoes in November 1942. It was rare for the Navy to put brothers on the same ship, especially five of them, because if the ship went down, well, parents could lose more than one son. But the Sullivans had insisted on being placed together at their induction, because as the movie shows, they did everything together since childhood. The movie focuses on the Sullivans' boyhood and their young adult lives; only the last 20 minutes is about the war. The story is told in classic 1940s Hollywood fashion, full of Depression-era sentiment and family values (and foibles), but it's also a classic of American patriotism, and Americana. Put simply, it's one of the greatest films ever made. I give it 10 out of 10 stars. I don't have enough words to recommend it or say how great it is, just get it from the Libe or watch it on Netflix, and bring a box of Kleenex because you'll need it. This is as tremendous as motion pictures get. Two Gigantic Thumbs Up. ////
And that's all I know for tonight. I listened to "Little Red Record" by Matching Mole while writing this blog. Earlier this eve, "Sunflower" by The Beach Boys. Late night listening last night was Mahler's 8th, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, the live version that's available on Youtube, which is freaking tremendous. I hope your week is off to a good start, and I send you Tons of Love, as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment