Last night's movie was "The Tijuana Story", a you-are-there crime drama, complete with Jackwebbian narration, in which a brave newspaperman goes up against a local TJ mobster to expose drug trafficking and corruption in the border city. The narrator informs us that Tijuana means "Aunt Jane", and we're off to the races. Rudolfo Acosta of "High Chaparral" fame plays "Manuel Acosta Mesa", an incendiary columnist who writes accusatory screeds against "Peron Diaz" (Paul Newlan), the silent partner/owner of a nightclub nominally run by ex-jazz pianist "Eddie March" (Robert McQueeny). Eddie is only fronting for Diaz, who operates behind the scenes, and he doesn't like it in TJ. He's an American who's only there because his piano career went nowhere. But now his wife is pregnant, and he needs the money. He also can't quit on Diaz without risking his life. The club is a money laundering cover for Diaz's narcotics business; young American kids drive down there on weekends to buy marijuana and goofballs.
The ante is upped when Diaz has his men beat up one of Acosta Mesa's news colleagues. The guy dies, and now Acosta Mesa (pronounced like Costa Mesa, California) is no longer content with just accusing Diaz and The Syndicate, he's out to put them in prison. But the Syndicate extends way beyond Diaz and his nightclub. It has ties in the Mexican government and threads it's way up into Los Angeles (pron. Lowss Ang-less). Marijuana joints, known as "sticks", are a prime source of income for The Syndicate, and they don't appreciate Acosta Mesa's crusade.
Then a young American boy (James Darren) drives down to TJ for a lark. He meets and falls in love with Acosta Mesa's assistant, a pretty, young good girl he meets on the street. But Darren gets hoodwinked in a bar by a savvy older prostitute. Soon, he's mixed up in buying and smoking pot, and the next we see him, he's running into the ocean to get away from the Mexican police. He drowns after hitting his head on the rocks.
After that, Acosta Mesa runs a column calling Diaz a "vulture". Eddie Marsh finally decides he's had enough also, after Diaz bribes a prison guard to let a hitman out of the slammer for 24 hours, to do away with Acosta Mesa once and for all. Eddie didn't know what he was in for when he signed on to be Diaz's nightclub boss, and now he's caught in the middle of a Mexican drug war and murdalization. He tries to go to the cops, to inform on Diaz, but Diaz has eyes and ears on every street corner. Acosta Mesa is set up to be assassinated, and I can't tell you what happens, but his son Robert Blake (doing a perfect Spanish accent) is in line to succeed him at the newspaper, regardless.
This is one ruthless crime story, similar in theme to "Traffic" and shot on location in Tijuana. On a side note, actor Robert McQueeny later became a Catholic priest and led the Padre Pio Foundation. Padre Pio was a miracle worker and healer who was canonized by the church in 2002. Read up on him, he's pretty far out. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "The Tijuana Story". The picture is widescreen and razor sharp. ////
The previous night, our pal Don Castle was back in a dual role in "Roses are Red", a Noir featuring crooked cops, crooked lawyers, and crooked mobsters. There aren't many people in this flick who aren't crooks, and only DA "Robert Thorne" (Castle) can name 'em all without a scorecard. The movie opens with the murder of a woman found dead in her apartment. Police lieutenant "Rocky Wall" (Joe Sawyer) investigates, then goes straight to wheelchair-bound Mafia boss "Jim Locke" (Edward Keane), in whose pocket he resides, to report on a surprising discovery: a photograph was found in the dead woman's purse, of DA Thorne himself! Locke wants to know: "What's a dead floozy doing attached to our straight-laced DA?" "I have no idea," Lt. Wall replies, "but it's good blackmail bait. We can use it."
As a well-connected cop, Lieutenant Wall knows there's a convict named "Don Carney" (also Castle), who's just about up for parole. He looks exactly like DA Thorne, and because Wall and boss Locke are now in a position to blackmail the DA, Wall approaches Carney in prison.
Meanwhile, early on, one of Locke's henchmen (Douglas Fowley) is upset. He feels he's been hung out to dry for a murder rap and is threatening to talk to DA Thorne. Locke has him rubbed out (a rare early exit for Fowley), and the low-level hoodlum who does the killing is then also abandoned by Locke and sent to prison. Lieutenant Wall tells Don Carney that Locke wants to use him as a double for Thorne, so they can get the loser henchman out of the slammer and prevent him from talking. The plot gets very convoluted here, and it takes a while to sort things out, but once they kidnap the DA, and replace him with Carney the convict, the situation starts to become clear. Only their girlfriends can tell Thorne and Carney apart, and after Thorne is kidnapped by Locke's henchmen, the two lookalikes are confined together, with Carney the ex-con studying Thorne the captive DA, memorizing his history and mannerisms to impersonate him.
Jeff Chandler (Pete Best) appears midway through, to stage a car accident in which Thorne is badly injured. But then he recovers in the hospital, and recruits a team of investigators, one of whom is a young James Arness, who - at 6'9" - is taller than Chandler! Man, did you know Arness was 6'9"? I didn't. Anyhow, he is one gigantic son-of-a-bee. He out-bigs Chandler (which isn't easy to do), and intimidates him into surrendering. Then, Thorne puts his plan into action, which is to make the mobsters and crooked cop Wall think he's convict Carney, still doing his impersonation. The impersonation plot is super convoluted, but it resolves during the last twenty minutes of the film. This is the best part, when everything comes together and only the girlfriends know who is whom. You might remember Joe Sawyer as the overbearing Army Sergeant in the "Private Doubleday" films we saw and enjoyed last Spring. We observed at the time that Sawyer was a talented comedian and that he was a core member of the Pasadena Playhouse. He shows his versatility here, as a sociopathic detective who thinks nothing about shooting a DA in the back. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Roses are Red", the picture is very good. ////
Since this is the last blog of 2022, we need to do a year-end review. 60 minute Westerns were without doubt the biggest thing that happened. We discovered Tim McCoy, Tom Tyler, Johnny Mack Brown, and Buster Crabbe, to name a few of our new favorite cowboy stars. Charles King is definitely our Actor of the Year (and probably of all-time). Can you believe we saw 387 movies this year? Yep, I just looked at my list and counted 'em. Some days we watched more than one. We saw some cool franchises, like The Five Little Peppers (who we loved), and The East Side Kids (ditto) and Nancy Drew and Boston Blackie (double ditto). Man, this is the most movies we've ever seen in one year. I'll look over my list again for the next blog and we'll mention some more and do a Top Ten.
And that's all I know for now. My blogging music tonight is "Beck, Bogert & Apache Live", my late night is various Handel choral music. I'm excited about 2023 and I hope you are too. Happy New Year!
I send you Tons of Love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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