Stony Curtis, Gilbert Roland and Marisa Pavan in "The Midnight Story", and "House of the Damned" starring Ron Foster and Merry Anders

Last night's movie was "The Midnight Story"(1957), a murder mystery melodrama set in San Francisco's Italian Catholic community. Stony Curtis is "Joe Martini", and we have to stop here to ask: is that a great name, or what?. It's like being Joe Cool, but your identifier is The Martini instead of Coolness. Imagine a bystander asking, "Who's he?" "Why, he's Joe Martini of course". And how about Martini in "Cuckoo's Nest"? He was just plain Martini with no Joe in front. "Hotel" was his deal. At any rate, Joe is a motorcycle officer who is devastated when, in the opening scene, a priest is killed late one night while walking back to his parish. "Father Giuseppe" (John Cliff) was the closest thing Joe ever had to an actual father. He grew up in Father Giuseppe's St. Eustace orphanage. Father even steered him toward being a policeman.

Joe talks to the detectives on the case. "Please let me help." "Sorry, Joe," he's told, "you're only a traffic cop. Leave it to homicide." "Then let me join homicide." "There's a long process for that. Sorry." Joe gets so upset he quits, to - as usual - try to solve the case by himself. At Father Giuseppe's funeral, he gets what he feels is an interesting clue, when he observes a man in emotional torment, agonizing and clutching a rosary. He goes back to the station to offer this detail to the detectives, but they aren't interested. "Why is it unusual to see someone grieving at a funeral? And anyway, Joe - didn't you quit the force?"

But to Joe, the man's reaction was extreme, like he was in the same pain Joe is feeling. He must've been close to Father, he thinks, and decides to find out who the man is. Asking around, Joe discovers he's "Sylvio Malatesta" (Gilbert Roland), the owner of a crab stand on the wharf. Playing "anonymous" to get close to Sylvio, Joe goes to his stand for a bowl of chowder. While there, he strikes up a conversation with Sylvio and asks him for a job, using the old "I'm new in town" routine. Sylvio is magnanimous, the kind of guy who  wants to make sure everyone is happy, and he's Italian, so it's in his blood. He takes to Joe right off, and invites him home for dinner. "I wanna you meet-a my family." Joe goes, hoping to glean more about Sylvio's appearance at Father Giuseppe's funeral, but instead is reeled in by his family's Italian Warmth and verbosity. Everyone-a talk-a a-mile-a minute. Little brother "Peanuts" (Richard Monda) is a high school track star. "Momma" (Argentina Brunetti) is momma. Sister "Anna" (Marisa Pavan) is beautiful and high strung, because she's tired of being An Object for all the cretins on the block. But Joe is different. He's quiet, handsome, and deferential. Momma wants Anna married. Sylvio, the man of the family, wants what Momma wants (there's no Poppa), and he encourages Joe to take Anna to the upcoming church dance.

Before Joe knows what's hit him, he has moved into the Malatesta house. Now, he's one of the family. Other than Father Giuseppe, he's never had anyone who cared about him in this way, and because he's fallen in love with Anna (after taking her to the dance), he's also done a 180 with regards to Father Giuseppe's murder and now wants to prove that Sylvio had nothing to do with it, even though we've learned that Sylvio left a card game, off the same alley, right around the time of the killing. Joe goes to the back room of the bar where the illegal poker game is held. There, he meets Sylvio's gambling buddies, who paint a different picture from the smiling, generous family man Joe has come to know. Sylvio, it seems, is a guy who skips out on his debts, goes missing for weeks, and knows a pool shark/adulterer named "Charlie Cuneo" (Herburt Vigran), who regularly sees a prostitute that Sylvio covers for. Maybe he's not the man Joe thinks he is. Maybe he's leading a double life.

By now, the SFPD homicide detectives have also had a change of mind. Where previously they dismissed Joe's mentions of Sylvio, they now (knowing more about him) think he killed Father Giuseppe. That's what Joe initially thought, too. But now, because he's become part of Sylvio's family, and wants to marry Anna, he strains to find an alibi for Sylvio. Anna is tormented by Joe's secrecy, and eventually finds out, from a nun at St. Eustace, that he's an ex-cop.

Most of the movie is melodrama because of the love story of Anna (the beautiful daughter in a traditional, very Catholic Italian family) and Joe the former orphan who wants to catch Father's murderer. But because he loves Anna, he cant bear the growing certainty that all evidence points to her brother Sylvio as the murderer. But Joe wonders: what on earth could've been his motive? Sylvio truly does love his family, and his restaurant, and he's always there for everyone at every turn. Maybe there's something strange about a man who's this happy, all the time? Is it a put-on, a false front?

Gilbert Roland, a silent screen star, was - by the evidence of this movie - a phenomenal actor. He should've been nominated for his performance as Sylvio. Stony Curtis was top notch also, despite his pecadillos (and he was reputedly not a very nice man), and Marisa Pavan, who plays Anna, was a notable dramatic beauty of the time. I was watching her, knowing I'd seen her in other movies, but there was something more, and when I looked her up I discovered what it was; she was the identical twin sister of the tragic Pier Angeli, the one-time girlfriend of James Dean, who slowly killed herself after his demise. Marisa is still with us, however, at 91. The cops in the movie are hard-nosed San Franciscans. News flash: it ain't all hippies up there. I know it seems like it's Commie Central, but there's also a strong conservative and law and order side to that city (thank goodness), and one of the largest Catholic communities in the country. At the end, the details of which I can't reveal, Joe, as a Catholic, chooses forgiveness in order to bring the case to a close. All has been said and done, and the final outcome is up to God. A Best Actor Oscar goes to Gilbert Roland, Best Supporting Actress for Marisa Pavan. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "The Midnight Story". The picture is widescreen and razor sharp. Black and white photography by the great Russell Metty. //// 

Now, before we begin the next review, I have to ask you : Can you even believe we found a new Ron Foster movie? I mean, at this stage of the game? That's like finding an unseen John Agar, and there's something about those two guys; every time we think we've seen all their available movies, another one pops up. Man, how lucky can we film fans be? This time, it's a Foster horror film, and a low-key one at that, from the less-is-more school, and we also get Merry Anders as an added bonus! How much do we love Merry Anders, are you kidding? She's most decidedly our kind of gal, and in "House of the Damned"(1963), she and Ron Foster make the perfect married couple, actually in love with each other, without emotional problems, and they're easy going, low maintenance. A fan remarked that there's a "gentle" quality to this film, an unusual word to attribute to a horror film. It is gentle, and to be honest, not much happens, but on the journey to the major twist ending, it's plenty scary.

As Miles Davis said, "It's the notes you don't play", and in "House" there are a lot of unplayed notes. Foster is "Scott Campbell", an architect, who, as the movie opens, is called in the middle of the night by a lawyer friend who slings a job his way. "I need you to drive up the coast to inspect that old castle house. You know the one; six stories, the supposed dungeons in the basement, and the staircases that lead to nowhere." (It's based on the legendary Winchester House). The lawyer, "Joe Schiller" (Richard Crane), has a client, a real estate developer who may want to turn the castle into a hotel, if it's feasible. The main problem is that it's stigmatized because it was formerly owned by a murderess, a nutty old woman who blew off a trespasser's head with a shotgun. "They never could identify him," Schiller notes. As for the old woman, "She's locked up in a loony bin. But," he adds "she's escaped several times. Those luxury asylums aren't exactly built like Alcatraz."

The movie is from 20th Century Fox, shot in widescreen black-and-white (hooray, color would've ruined it), and the studio quality allays any pre-watch fears that we are in for an early '60s cheapie. Horror got a bad rep after 1960 and "Psycho", because all the bottom dollar hacks jumped in after Hitch had broken down the Taboo Door (and for the last time, Gilligan, it's taboo, not "Tab who?"). Also, what are now called "psychotronic" films became the rage, the super-cheapies with "psychotic" drug undertones and mental illness themes. Think of them as "pre-hippie wierdo films", with acting and production values that make Ed Wood look like Spielberg. Except for Hammer Studios, post-1960 Horror was a wasteland for a while. But this flick does a lot with very little.

First and foremost is the house that Ron and Merry are supposed to inspect. It has a black cat. It has fifty rooms but only 13 keys. "Count 'em!" insists the realtor. "Don't worry, they unlock all the doors." They drive up dirt roads to get there, past Malibu, until a dead-end sawhorse blocks their progress. Foster removes it, but other problems follow. The power goes out the first night, leaving the castle in chiaroscuro. Then, the keys are stolen in the wee hours. We see the silhouette of the man (or thing) that steals them, and it's goosebump creepy.

But then the low key style pulls you back to level ground. What's going on? What kind of horror movie is this?

Joe Schiller's wife shows up. She's not a happy camper. A hot blooded Italian gal, she thinks her hubby is cheating on her, and using the castle as a love nest. Ron and Merry don't wanna get in between them, but the wife soon disappears. They can't find her despite a search of the whole house. Still, there are rooms they can't unlock, because, though they've recovered their keys, two are missing.

By now, they've called the insane asylum to make sure the old crazy woman, the former owner, is still locked up. Have you ever noticed how they used to call them "insane asylums" but dropped the "insane"? They did that because "insane" is a scarier-than-heck word. Think about it: "Insane!" It's one of those words that sounds like what it is. Anyhow, the old woman is indeed still locked up, and you'll find out how we know that but you won't like it.

I don't wanna tell you any more about the disappearance of the lawyer's wife. Let's just say that there are two, very minor, "reveals" in the early going, that are inserted skillfully in order to stand out. They are brief, and you go, "what the hell was that?" And then it's back to Ron and Merry searching the house. The house and the lighting get equal star billing. The search for Mrs. Schiller builds, until her lawyer hubby is kicking down locked doors rather than calling police, because "they won't believe what is likely going on here. They'll just blame it on juvenile delinquents." The black kitty meows. Ron Foster drives downhill to Malibu to check with the realtor. When he gets back, Merry Anders is trapped.

I don't want to tell you the ending, but it's not what you think it will be. Then again, you might guess it from the earlier clues. I did not. But think "gentle" as the IMDB fan said. This movie is different, and will stay with you because they did it just right, with the casting, the production values, and the minimalist approach. It's the antidote to all the proto-drug-induced "horror" cheapies, the psychotronic low budget acid trips that were made after about 1963, until horror returned big time with "Rosemary's Baby" in 1968. Then, in the 1970s, horror was king. (and Hammer was king all through the 1960s, because they didn't take as much LSD in England, or pander to that crowd). But when the movies were still made by the studios, in the dying years of the studio system, they could do any style, and do it well. Two Bigs verging on Two Huge for "House of the Damned", an atmospheric mini-classic with an unexpected ending. The picture is widescreen and razor sharp.  //// 

And that's all for tonight. My blogging music was the first two Belly albums. Remember Belly, fronted by Tanya Donelly? They were one of the great early '90s dream-pop bands, when many of said bands were fronted by guitar strumming girls with sweet voices. Check 'em out, they were great. My late night is "The Flying Dutchman" by Wagner. I hope you had a nice day, and I send you Tons of Love, as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)   

Alex Nicol and Hillary Brooke in "Heat Wave", and "Night Alarm" starring Bruce Cabot and Judith Allen

Last night, in Lippert's "Heat Wave"(1954), American novelist "Mark Kendrick" (Alex Nicol) is trying to get some writing done, but it's difficult to concentrate because the rich folks across the lake are always partying, making a racket. One night, his phone rings. Annoyed, he answers and it's the woman of the house, "Carol Forrest" (Hillary Brooke), asking him a favor. "I see you have a boat. Would you mind ferrying some of our friends across the lake? They've run out of petrol." Kendrick finds the request a bit rude: what is he, a taxi service? But he's seen Mrs. Forrest through binoculars, standing in her party dress. She cuts quite a figure, so he does as she asks just to get a closer look.

He'll soon wish he hadn't, and he admits as much in the opening narration that introduces the movie in flashback. As a somewhat jaded author, he's not impressed with a bunch of wealthy, dressed-up Brits, and even less so when he sees Mrs. Forrest fawning over a pianist (Paul Carpenter, with pompadour but sans Canadian sweater). "Where's your husband?" Kendrick cynically asks her after a few drinks. The guests make fun of his request for bourbon instead of scotch, (just like Ritchie Blackmore talking about Southern rock groups). "Oh, that's right. you're American." Disgusted, he heads back to his boat to leave, but runs into "Bev" (Syd James), Mrs. Forrest's cuckolded husband, who's avoiding the party because he's used to his wife's forays and doesn't need the humiliation. He's also mega-rich, and everybody in the house wants something from him. No thanks. He'd rather sit lakeside with a drink. Bev is a major league boozer, and we'll find out later that his health is bad. He's got between one month and one year to live.

But for now, when Kendrick is about to leave, he asks him instead to stay, just for company. "We could shoot a game of pool. And how about a real drink? You want bourbon? I've got it." Kendrick and Bev thus bond, both knowing Bev's wife is a bimbo. They shoot pool and drink until 7 in the morning.

But Kendrick, a moderately talented author whose weakness is women, can't stop thinking about Carol Forrest, even as he buddies up to her husband, who keeps inviting him back to the mansion. It's one of those male bonding situations where the pal really likes the rich man, and sympathizes with his plight concerning his slatternly wife, but at the same time can't stop thinking about the wife, and eventually allows himself to be seduced by her, even though he thinks she's rotten. And, as quid pro quo, she assesses him also: "You hate yourself, you know. You can't even finish your book because of me." His obsession is about to cost him his publishing contract.

Kendrick is a chump's chump, getting suckered into a rich people's love triangle. It's true that Bev really is his friend, but it's only because he has one month to live and needs someone to confide in. He tells Kendrick that he's gonna cut Carol out of his will, not for being a bimbo - he knew she was that when he married her - but for rubbing his nose in it, making out with Paul Carpenter in front of party guests and in front of Bev's lovely daughter "Andrea" (Susan Stephen).

Because his time is short, Bev wants to take his new speedboat out on the lake, against his doctor's wishes. "Hey, I'm gonna die anyway. So what if it's in a boat doing 40 knots or sitting in a chair?" The speedboating doesn't kill him, but on another boating trip, with Kendrick and Carol aboard, they run into a thick patch of fog and almost crash into a ferry. Bev loses his balance on deck and is knocked unconcho. Carol, knowing he's planning to cut her out of his will, takes the opportunity to heave him overboard while Kendrick desperately tries to right the boat. Now Bev is dead. His money will be Carol's, and if Kendrick says anything, she'll implicate him too: "I'll tell them you helped me!" A coroner's inquest rules accidental death, but a police inspector is snooping around, and he's one of those Veddy Brrrrittish square-jaw guys, relentless beyond measure. By now, Mark Kendrick is wishing he'd stayed home and written his book. The only unbelievable part is that he's just witnessed Carol throwing Bev overboard, but still makes out with her later that day. I mean, cue Joe Biden: "C'mon man!" Bev was his friend. Kendrick wasn't in on the murder, and this bimbo Carol is worse than pond scum, so it's a stretch to believe he's still obsessed with her. But otherwise, Two Bigs and almost Two Huge. The great Paul Carpenter is doing another of his inexplicable walk-ons. He was a star in so many Lippert and Butcher Brothers productions. I think his cameos are just favors: "Say, Paul, we need a piano player/boyfriend, can you do three days of shooting?" "Sure, Bob. I've got nothing scheduled. Should I bring my sweater?" "Not this time. We've got you in a tux."

The picture is razor sharp. Think "Double Indemnity" with a nosy cop instead of Edward G.  //// 

The previous night, in "Night Alarm"(1934), Reagan pal Bruce Cabot stars as reporter "Hal Ashby" (huge lol), who's fed up with his assignment at The Times. His editor has him writing a gardening column when he really wants to be on the crime beat. He's always running out of the office every time he hears sirens. Fire engines are especially his thing, and with an arsonist running loose in the city, setting fire to the older buildings, Ashby thinks he can nail the guy. "I've always been attracted to fires. I think like he does, but from the opposite angle."

At around the same time, a new gal named "Helen Smith" (Judith Allen) applies at the paper. She's competent and has a good grasp of grammar, correcting Hal's mistakes.  "Oh good," he says, "you can have my gardening column. Boss, give it to her. Now I can go chase my fire engines." The editor agrees, and Hal is finally in his element. As he works on his first report, a man walks into the press room unsolicited. He hands Ashby an envelope and says, "I'm just a citizen, but this is my opinion on the fires. You should read it when you have the chance, it might interest you." Hal's so busy he just nods and puts the envelope in his desk. Meanwhile, the paper runs runs an editorial on a possible insurance connection to the fires, which angers "Mr. Henry B. Smith" (H.B. Warner), the head of the downtown business league. Smith controls the mayor, who phones The Times and complains. "You can't accuse Henry Smith of insurance fraud!" "Why not?" asks the editor, "he gets more money from insurance claims than those old buildings are worth."

Smith does seem like a grade-A capitalist powerbroker, but maybe not corrupt. He loves his daughter, who happens to be the gal who took over Hal Ashby's gardening column. Helen didn't mention her connection to her Dad because she wants to "make it" on her own merit. Dad doesn't want her working. He wants her to marry "Vincent Van Dusen" (Tom Hanlon), a dweeb from a prominent family. But Helen's a modern young woman. She wants to make a name for herself. The paper, and Ashby, have no idea she's Henry Smith's daughter, the same Henry Smith theyv'e been railing against.

In the middle of the movie, the plot is temporarily set aside for fifteen minutes of nightclubbing and developing a possible romance. One of the noteworthy aspects of the film is the ultra pre-Code dress that Judith Allen wears to the club. It's extremely revealing, and she spends most of the scene with her arms crossed, covering up. Our old Western pal Fuzzy Knight has a vaudevillian turn, showing comic flash as a song and dance man. Fuzzy was multi-talented and gets a five minute scene. In these kinds of movies, they often threw in a musical number in the middle of a crime plot, just for variety.

The romance between Helen and Hal never really develops. It's more of an "independent woman likes hard charging reporter, but no sex please" kind of deal, and when Hal starts accusing her Dad of being behind the arson, she draws the line and reveals her real identity. "I quit! I won't work with a yellow journalist!" She turns instead to dear old Dad, Henry Smith, and takes a job at his paper factory, but by this time - because of all the hijinx - we've forgotten all about the envelope in Hal Ashby's drawer, from the mysterious visitor to his office.

The movie uses horrific-but-astounding stock footage from real Los Angeles fires in the 1930s, and man, are those firefighters courageous. "Night Alarm" gets Two Huge Thumbs just for this footage alone. The eeriest scene is when the firebug, near the end, sneaks into the basement of Henry Smith's factory, sees all the rolls of paper stored there, and gets excited. He sets a fire and saunters out, causally, as it builds, and I was reminded of the horrible Ole's arson fire in 1984. If you remember Ole's Hardware, it was a precursor to Home Depot. The fire in their Pasadena store was deadly, and there were a series of similar arsons at the time. They finally caught the guy who did it, and it was the fire chief of Glendale, the worst serial arsonist in American history. Joseph Wambaugh wrote the definitive book about the case, called "Fire Lover". It's one of the scariest and most bizarre true crime books I've ever read. Think about it: a fire chief was also the worst arsonist in American history. The guy is still sitting in a prison somewhere. He will never get out. But it turned out he set the fires so he could be "first on the scene", as the fire chief, in order to also be "the hero" who put them out. The way he started the fires, using cigarette butts as igniters, reminded me of this movie (or vice versa), and the scenes in 1930s Los Angeles of heroic firemen risking life and limb climbing tall ladders, heading directly into the flames, is astonishing to see. Despite the nightclub hijinx that take up the middle of the film, it gets Two Huge Thumbs Up, not only for its firefighting scenes, but for it's straight faced look at city-level corruption, which is as bad for folks in major cities (or even worse) than Federal corruption, because city corruption affects them directly. The picture quality is hit and miss.  ////

And that's all for tonight. Let's do a Stephen King Top Ten real quick. We're doing novels only, no short story collections, novellas, or collaborations, and man, it's tough to whittle 'em down. Some classics will have to miss the cut, but what can you do? Here we go. Number One is #1, the rest are in no particular order:

1) IT 2) The Shining 3) Pet Sematary 4) The Tommyknockers (SK hates this book, but I love it) 5) The Green Mile 6) 11/22/63 7) Fairy Tale 8) The Outsider 9) The Stand 10) From A Buick 8.

Yeah, I know: where's "Cujo"? What about "The Dead Zone"? Or "Christine?" I agree on all of those, and basically everything he's ever written. It all belongs in the Top Ten, but if I had to pick only ten, the above would be my choices. And I had to leave out "Black House" (possibly his scariest book), because it was co-written with Peter Straub. Anyhow, these Top Ten lists are fun. What are your ten favorite Kings?  ////

My blogging music was the first two Blue Oyster Cult albums. My late night is "Das Rheingold" by Wagner. I hope your week is off to a good start and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)   

Edward Binns and Carolyn Craig in "Portland Expose", and "Mask of the Dragon" starring Richard Travis

Last night's crime film was "Portland Expose"(1957), a story of the Mob moving into that city, which prompts the question: "Who knew they had crime in Portland?." Heck, who knew they had anything in Portland? But it turns out that it was (and may still be) a Vacation Paradise; the movie shows lots of roadside taverns amid all the pine trees, and in the 1950s, organised criminals saw it as a good place for their pinball and slot machines. Jukeboxes, too, and they had to be their machines, or else. At first, if you didn't "sign up", they'd "picket" your joint with hired (Mob-connected) union workers: "Don't patronize this establishment. Unfair to employees." This tactic could effectively shut your business down. But that was when The Syndicate ran things. We know them by now: their credo is money first, violence only as a last resort. But the Portland Sydicate boss got old, and eventually got forced out by the New York Mafia, who saw the West Coast as an untapped gold mine. They, of course, don't play nice. No picketing your establishment for the Mafia. With them, if you don't "sign up", they throw you in front of a train or pour sulfuric acid in your eyes.

Into this scenario enters "George Madison" (Edward Binns, who you've seen in a million things). A family man, Madison has bought a popular tavern on the main tourist drag, not knowing the rules of the game. Pretty soon, these new Mafia goons show up and tell him "Our pinballs, our slots. Got it?" He doesn't want to cooperate, of course, because he has to pay them a 50% cut, but it only takes a mention of his pretty daughter "Ruth" (Carolyn Craig) to convince him otherwise. The Portland Mafia boss has a chief goon whose partner "Joe" (Frank Gorshin, doing his chin and teeth thing) is a psychopath. This was in Gorshin's contract, and he's got a thing for underage girls. The Boss tells him to knock it off: "One more time and I'll put you six feet under." But Gorshin's got the hots for Ruth, George Madison's daughter, whose Christian boyfriend (a red herring character) is in place to show Portland's family values side, which is mentioned at the beginning of the movie. It looks like a nice place to live if it weren't so rainy and cold.

Anyhow, George Madison has reluctantly been going along with the program. He's accepted the Mob's slot machines, their gaming, and even their prostitutes, who work unnoticed out of an upstairs room. His wife "Clara" (Virginia Gregg) doesn't like it, but they're making a lot of money from their 50% cut, and it's easier than trying to say no. But then, one night Frank Gorshin tries to rape their daughter Ruth. This scene is filmed, in such a way, from an "eyewitness" perspective, and it is acted out so that it looks like an actual assault, and because Frank Gorshin was one of those actors (like Anthony Hopkins) who should've been arrested for his performances, it's a horrific scene to watch. George hears his daughter's screams, runs out of the tavern to find them in the woods, and beats Gorshin to a pulp. And because he's been alicecooperating with the Mob, The Boss (who's already warned Gorshin about his proclivities) has Gorshin thrown in front of a train. "There. He's all gone. Sorry about the attack on your daughter."

But Mrs. Madison has had enough. She takes Ruth and son Jimmy to Grandma's house until George agrees to sell the tavern. "These people are crazy, George!" He agrees with her assessment, but being ex-Army, he doesn't scare, or give in, easily. Also, he's just been approached by the FBI (headed up by Captain Binghamton) to entrap the Mafiosos by wearing a tape recorder under his coat. George agrees to do it, and they've even co-opted the retired former Syndicate boss to help them. All George has to do is engage the mobsters in conversation about their past conquests and future plans, get 'em talking to get their admissions on tape. The Boss tells him that they plan to take over the entire West Coast, all the way up to police and politicians. "The whole enchilada". George gets it all on tape, but The Boss's assistant smells a rat. "That tavern guy's way too cocky. Something's up with him." They trick George by having a prostitute feel him up during a dance party, honoring their #1 East Coast Madame. While the hooker is dancing with him, she feels the tape deck under George's coat. She reports it to The Boss, and now George is toast. What's it gonna be, George? Acid in the eyes? Laid out on the train tracks? This is another pre-Scorsese Mafia flick, totally brutal, be-bop jazz score, evil-beyond-measure hoodlums. But what it also shows is just how organised they were. If you've ever wondered how come the cops, or FBI, or whomever, didn't just mow down these bastards, it's because they controlled the cops, and the FBI, or had moles at the very least, and they had enough money to pay the best lawyers. What the USA should've done was sic the military on them.

In the final confrontation, the mobsters use George's daughter Ruth as a pawn, and of course he goes "Straw Dogs" crazy. Two Bigs bordering on Two Huge for "Portland Expose". This is the real deal, showing how evil the Mafia is. I have no sympathy for them, don't think they are cool, and they should never be glamorized. The picture is razor sharp.  ////

The previous night, we found an early Lippert, "Mask of the Dragon"(1951), directed by our old pal Sam Newfield, in which An American intelligence officer, shipping home from Korea, stops in at a curio shop before embarking. He's had a tip that there might be some quick cash to be had if he were to schmuggle a green ceramic dragon to Los Angeles and deliver it to a dealer in Chinatown. He happens to live in LA; before the war, he was a private investigator. In meeting with the curio shop owner, he says, "I'll do it. I could use the 700 bucks." The job seems easy enough. All he has to do is pack the dragon in a small wooden crate and mail it to himself in LA. before he leaves, However, the shop owner surreptitiously snaps his picture with a hidden camera, which can't be good in a country run by an Elvis impersonator.

Because he's in intelligence, and thus careful, he has the crate shipped to a woman friend who works at the LAPD crime lab. When he gets home, he calls her: "No," she reports, "I've received nothing from you in the mail." Figuring the package is running late, he goes home and is cold-cocked by a gigantic thug and Sid Melton, who think the dragon is in his luggage. They pistol whip and kill him, search his suitcase and other belongings, but can't find the dragon because he mailed it. It later does arrive at the CSI gal's apartment, but by this time, an Army investigator is trying to take over the case because "it's my jurisdiction." Lyle Talbot of the LAPD disagrees: "The murder happened here, after your man was discharged."

A lot of cool TV studio stuff happens in the middle, with Johnny Grant (The Mayor of Hollywood) live-on-air, hosting a variety show featuring the dead officer's girlfriend, a singer. Professional wrestler "Mr. Moto" has a substantial role as a thug. He also serves up semi-comic relief along with Sid Melton, who can be funny when he doesn't overdo it. 

The dead officer's partner (Richard Travis) becomes the star of the film and, after discovering a flyer for a shop called The Jade Lotus in his friend's coat pocket, he goes to Chinatown to find Sid Melton impersonating a Chinese merchant, inviting tourists inside his shop to buy trinkets. "Why," he inquires, "would a trinket, even this green dragon, be worth murder?"

 It turns out that it's carrying enriched uranium. But man, is this an adept little quickie. A caucasian actor named Jack Reitzen plays "Professor Kim Ho", the owner of The Jade Lotus. The movie has only a 3.8 IMDB rating but the fans have it backwards. It should be an 8.3, because: 1) It's 53 minutes, 2) It gets the job done, 3) A Ton of Stuff Happens, and 4) You still have time for lots of Mr. Moto wrestling action. This is Sam Newfield at the top of his game. and, there's a major-league twist at the end. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "Mask of the Dragon". The picture is very good.  //// 

And that's all for this evening. So what did you think of the Republican debate? I got a kick out of Ramaswamy. He's like a carnival barker or a used car salesman. Super slick, but I wouldn't vote for him in a million years. Nikki Haley is the Repub's Nancy Pelosi, doing her "wag your index finger at the men" thing, If Trump for any reason can't run, or isn't selected as the nominee (please God), I think they should run Mike Pence, Tim Scott or Chris Christie. You just know Mike Pence was a hippie in the 1960s. My blogging music is "D.S. al Coda" by National Health, and "Motivation Radio" by Steve Hillage. My late night is "Tannheuser" by Wagner. I hope you had a nice Saturday and I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Rod La Rocque and Marian Nixon in "The Drag-Net", and "What Price Crime" starring Charles Starrett and Noel Madison (plus Trump/Carlson)

Last night, in "The Drag-Net"(1936), early star Rod La Rocque (his real name) plays "Larry Thomas Jr.", a playboy working for his father's century-old law firm. Larry's Dad is a distinguished attorney, well respected among his peers, so he'll be damned if he's gonna make a full partner of Larry, who spends his evenings partying at nightclubs, doesn't come to the office until noon, and when he does he's usually hung over. No siree, and in fact Dad doesn't want Larry with the firm anymore, so he pawns him off on his friend the DA, partially to get rid of him, but also with the faint hope that working in the DA's office might force Larry to get some discipline.

And it does, but not right away. The DA helps Dad out by making Larry his assistant. Larry doesn't want the job and tries to beg off, but the DA says "I won't take no for an answer." Avoiding it for the moment, Larry heads over to the offices of the local paper, where his reporter girlfriend "Kit Van Buren" (Marian Nixon) writes a society column. He asks her to the club, where a jazz band blares away. This is Larry's haunt, where he feels most comfortable, with music and drinks and late night carousing. He doesn't wanna be assistant DA, but Kit thinks he should try it. "And also, we should leave this club immediately because it's not the kind of place district attorneys should be seen."

While they are talking, we cut to a confrontation in the club owner's office. A woman has burst in, angry that her husband has been rotting away in the joint. "You promised you'd get him out! You said three months, then you said five! Well, I'm tired of waiting! He took the heat for you and kept his mouth shut! If you don't keep your word I'm gonna talk to the DA!" She of course turns up dead in the club's phone booth five minutes later, and it's Larry and Kit who discover her. He wants to leave, to avoid getting involved, but she forces him to take charge of the crime scene. The cops arrive, and Larry barely knows what he's doing, but as the plot progresses, because he likes Kit and wants to impress her, he starts asserting himself. There's a mole in the DA's office who's passing info back to the crooked club owner. That's how he keeps escaping justice, because because he's got a secret ally.

Did you watch the Trump - Tucker Carlson interview last night? This movie reminded me of it. Trump has this weird ability to come across - when he chooses - as the polar opposite of his Number One A-Hole Of All Time personality. I call it the soft spoken, jocular Trump. The "well-informed" Trump. He's a quick thinker, you've gotta give him that, and he's been a TV star for many years, so when he's with a sympathetic interviewer like Carlson (himself an Ivy League schemer who knows how to "turn down the volume" on his naturally abrasive personality), they sound like a couple of "reasonable guys" wondering if the whole world's gone crazy when all Trump was trying to do was save America. Watching their very smooth presentation, I thought, wait a minute, this isn't the Trump I know. If this Trump was like this all the time, (and if we didn't know him as he really is) I might even vote for him (cause Lord knows the Democrats have no one except Al Gore and Hillary Clinton). But then I remembered, "Oh yeah...that's right. Trump's a TV star. He's a damn good actor, too, and America is run by the news media, so they give us Two Trumps, the Boogeyman Trump and (occasionally) The Reasonable, Seemingly Knowledgeable Trump, the Trump You'd Vote For If You Didn't Know He Was An Asshole.

And you know that voting for Biden again is absolutely not an option. What do you want, 10 dollar gas? A wheelbarrow of cash to go to the grocery store?

And so, because you tuned into the Trump/Carlson interview out of curiosity, and because they are presenting you with the Reasonable, Well Versed on Policy Trump (remember, the guy ain't stupid and he's quick), you watch it all the way through, and you go: "What is this, a freaking sideshow?" Which Trump is the real Trump?

And then you wonder: "Is the whole idea of a democratic election, governed by what people see on TV,  a freakin' joke?

And of course it is, Jack Nicholson, you ham sandwich, you. Because you can't handle the truth.

This is The Trump Show we are living through. He even called her "Fanny Willis" (not Fani) and the truth is, he is not gonna spend even one day in jail (unless they speed his trial up, and fast), because they just debuted The Reasonable Trump tonight, and you should've seen all the comments from his followers. They adore him and he's gonna get re-elected, and this whole thing is gonna disappear. Poof! Watch it happen.

Because we (or I should say "you", because I no longer identify with the Democratic Party, or with politics whatsoever) have only Joe Biden to run against him, and because Joe Biden is, economically at the very least, the worst President in my lifetime (and we won't even get started on the Wokeness that's taking over America), Trump's gonna win re-election. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it last night, with The Reasonable Trump and the support from all of his followers. Now, it's not Biden's fault that he's a lousy President, because he has dementia, but behind him you have a functional numbskull (Harris) who somehow got named "a Federal prosecutor". If you believe she was actually qualified for that job, you probably also believe that George W. Bush flew an F-104 fighter jet.

So what we are seeing is that American politics is entirely fake. It's a sideshow, run by the news, and that's why the country is collapsing. I'm all done, tirade over, but Two Bigs for the movie, which is first rate. Trump is right, it's all fake news. The picture is very good.  //// 

The previous night we had Charles Starrett, aka "The Durango Kid", in "What Price Crime"(1935), a question they should ask Trump. So far, he'd answer, "No charge," because the price for him has been nothing. Starrett plays "Agent Allen Grey" of the Justice Department, who is called upon to infiltrate a gun running racket headed by club owner "Douglas Worthington" (Noel Madison). Worthington is so smooth he can't be caught. His sister and mother have driven cross country visit him. Sister "Sandra" (Virginia Cherrill) worships him. He's such a good brother that he even has her car repaired, when, by coincidence, she runs it into Agent Grey's as they round the same corner in Hollywood. The accident accounts for the requisite Meet Cute.

Earlier, during a warehouse robbery by hoodlums, a night watchman was shot dead, but one of the hoods also took a bullet, and in his pocket was found a matchbook with the name of Worthington's club on the cover. That gives the Justice chief the idea that Worthington might be behind the gun running operation that has armed all the gangsters on the coast. "But he's as clean as a whistle " says the Chief's lieutenant, "a regular Boy Scout." They always are. But the Chief has an idea for infiltration: "Say, y'know....Worthington sponsors boxers. What if we put an up-and-comer in his sights, to get his attention?" "Yeah, but how're we gonna do that?" Then the Chief says, "Meet my old college roommate - Agent Allen Grey, former middleweight champ at MSU." Wouldn't ya know it, another boxing movie, but only for a couple of scenes. Grey, after saying, "I can't compete with professionals!" agrees to take an arranged match because it will pit him against Worthinton's guy, and in a ten rounder, he finally knocks the guy out. Worthington is impressed, and even more so because he attended the match with his sister Sandra, who recognizes Grey as the man she crashed into when she and her Mom arrived in town. Watching Grey win his match, she's smitten, and asks her brother take him on. Worthington thus becomes Grey's manager, and the infiltration is complete.

We now dispense with boxing to take the next undercover step. Agent Grey establishes his "shady past bonifides" by staging a fake robbery attempt in which he acts as Douglas Worthington's protector. Worthington then takes him into the racket's inner circle, saying "I can use you for more than boxing." Pretty soon, Grey is driving crates of contraband guns across town to a mobster's warehouse. This guy's a major player; the Feds wanna bust him at the same time as Worthington.

But lo and behold, a third-rate henchman spies Grey reporting to his Chief. Worthington is furious, and swears to kill Grey, but then Grey redeems himself by "murdering" two fellow agents (i.e. having the newspapers say he did so). Now Worthington trusts him again. There's a lot of "who's who?" going on. Worthington's sister thinks he's honest. Worthington thinks Grey's a murderous hood. No one is what they seem. 

Charles Starrett could pass for a young Rock Hudson in this flick. Then he made a whopping 65 "Durango Kid" movies and aged appreciably, because just 20 years later he was quite weathered (though still lean). But in those days everybody was a smoker and a drinker. And in the words of the immortal Joe Walsh: "The smoker you drink, the player you get."

The movie ends in a very realistic looking shootout that looks like it could've been filmed by a bystander at an actual crime scene. Given the year of its release, it's a message from the Justice Department, saying "If you are gonna arm organized criminals, we are gonna shut you down". But then the gun runners just opted for doing it out in the open, with sporting goods stores, and gun shows, and mail order, until there were more guns in America than people. 

Well anyway, Two Big Thumbs Up for "What Price Crime", a question only Trump can answer. The picture is very good.  //// 

And that's all for tonight. Sorry about the election pessimism. I sure hope I'm wrong on all counts (i.e. Trump winning, or inflation wheelbarrowing if Biden is re-elected). I just got cynical watching that Trump/Carlson interview, but I'll be back to my cheery self next blog, I promise. As long as there aren't any Man Buns at the CIA, I think we'll be all right. My blogging music was "Evening Star" by Fripp & Eno, and "The Last Waltz" by The Band. My late night is "The Flying Dutchman" by Wagner. I hope you had a nice day, and I send you Tons of Love, as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)  

Lee Marvin, Bradford Dillman and Vera Miles in "Sergeant Ryker", and "The Sin of Nora Moran" starring Zita Johann and Alan Dinehart (plus Top Ten Keyboardists)

Last night, we watched "A Few Good Men", except it was made in 1968 and called "Sergeant Ryker", with Bradford Dillman as Tom Cruise, Lee Marvin playing Jack Nicholson, and a 7 year old Aaron Sorkin in the audience taking notes. "You can't handle the truth!" I always thought Cruise should've walked over to the witness stand, pulled Nicholson up by his collar, then decked him for saying that, especially with that belligerent expression on his face. Nicholson was good right up until about "Five Cheesy Pieces", or maybe "Cuckoo's Nest". After that, he became a cartoon caricature. 

Lee Marvin, himself no stranger to smarm, plays "Sgt. Paul Ryker", a Korean War soldier, currently locked up for treason. He's about to be sentenced to hang. His wife "Ann" (Vera Miles) comes to visit him one last time. She's traveled 6000 miles, but doesn't love him, and because of this, she's easy pickins for "Captain David Young" (Dillman), Ryker's JAG prosecutor, whom she's just met and conferred with. Ann overhears Captain Young tell his superior "Major Whitaker" (Peter Graves), that, while Sgt. Ryker is indeed a pinko traitor, Young doesn't think he got a fair trial. "His defense was inept. I walked all over them." Hearing that admission, Ann asks Capt. Young to tell it to the JAG court. "If he didn't get a fair trial, the court should know it! After all, he's facing a death sentence." And, coming from the prosecutor himself, the declaration of an unfair trial should carry some weight.

Capt. Young agrees to do it, but his fellow JAG officers suggest caution. "Are you sure you aren't doing this because his wife's available ?" asks F. Murray Abraham, I mean Murray Hamilton, playing "Captain Appleton", a glad-handing Southerner straight out of Capote. "You should talk," says Young, "with your Korean girls." Appleton's got a new one every week.

There's a lot of folderol about Sgt. Ryker's superior officer, a now-deceased Colonel, who may have been in possession of a written order that will clear Ryker of the charges against him. The problem is that we have no idea what those charges are. The way the plot is structured is pure "Good Men", where the writer doesn't let you know squat until the Eventual Courtroom Sequence. Thank goodness in this flick it only takes us 45 minutes to get there, instead of 2 1/2 hours as in "A Few Good Men" (and 10,000 "Santiagos" and "Code Reds").

The deal in this kind of picture is that the screenwriter thinks he's smarter than the audience, and he wants to let them know it, so he's gonna toy with them and hope the director is competent enough to hold their attention in other ways, so they don't throw in the towel, and here, he mostly succeeds. You go, "Okay, I get it. You aren't gonna tell us why Sgt. Ryker is treasonous. You're gonna be flippant and make us wait."

But the good thing, for us, is that we've already seen Good Men, thanks to Aaron Sorkin, who plagiarized this flick for his own, and once again I must say, if you don't believe me, watch the freaking court trial near the end, when Lee Marvin explodes, and then tell me Jack Nicholson didn't copy directly from it.

Straight up.

Now, Marvin's explosion is nuclear compared to Jack's (which was just asshole-ish), and it doesn't deserve a nose punch like Jack's did, but I mean.....c'mon. Look, I won't pretend I'm a fan of Aaron Sorkin. Is he a hack? Maybe not, but he is a guy who's overly impressed with himself, and it comes through in his too-jargony, clever-on-purpose scripts. I won't go on a tirade about him, because he doesn't warrant one, but - once again (and I AM gonna teach a class about this) - if he didn't steal from this movie to make "Good Men", then my name is Jackie Robinson.

I was praying for Tom Cruise to come in and kick Jack Nicholson's ass, and neither of them are even in this movie! We do finally get an explanation of what went down for Sergeant Ryker to face execution, and it does show, once again (as in another recent Korean War movie), the interpolitical machinations of Asian students who went to college in California, then went back to fight for the fascists in Japan (WW2) or the commies in Korea. But here, the plot and intrigue get overshadowed by our knowledge that Aaron Sorkin ripped this flick off.

Watch it and see. It's not a "maybe". It's for certain.

Two Huge Thumbs for "Sergeant Ryker", even though you have no idea what the crime is until the 45 minute mark. The picture is razor sharp and in color, which we don't prefer (except in exceptionally great motion pictures), and for the first 15 minutes, it has the feel of a TV movie (thanks to F. Murray Abraham's trite acting), but Bradford Dillman does a great Tom Cruise, and Lee Marvin, smarmy or not, actually was in the Marine Corps and won a Purple Heart and is buried at Arlington. //// 

The previous night, in a last minute rush, we stumbled upon "The Sin of Nora Moran"(1933), a super pre-Coder about a young woman, Nora of the title, who sits on Death Row awaiting the electric chair. It begins in the office of "District Attorney John Grant" (Alan Dinehart), whose socialite sister "Edith" (Claire Du Brey) rushes into his office after finding a stack of love letters to her husband the Governor, written by a woman named Nora. Edith is inflamed. "You do something about this, John! I want this little tramp destroyed, run out of town." After telling her, "Look Edith, calm down. Let's be honest here; you don't care about Dick (her husband) anymore than I do. We both used him to get where we are. Now, do you want to know who this young woman is?" He then shows her a newspaper with the headline "Killer Nora Moran Set To Be Executed Tomorrow". From there, we proceed in flashback mode as the DA tells his stunned, contrite sister the story of Nora's life.

Born in an orphanage, she was adopted by loving parents, who were killed in an auto accident when she was a teen. Using money they left behind, she trained to become a dancer, but the competition was too stiff, and she had to settle for a job in the circus, working as the lion tamer's girl. But worse, he's a drunk who eventually rapes Nora, scarring her for life. She runs away from the circus, and is living hand to mouth until, at a party, she's introduced to "Dick Crawford" (Paul Cavanaugh). He's handsome, charming, a very nice man. But he's being pushed by DA Grant, his friend, to run for governor. The DA wants to be the power behind the throne. He has no idea that Dick, who's married to his sister Edith, is now seeing Nora, a hard-luck sweetheart. Edith's money-grubbing prompted the affair. She doesn't love Dick; he's just a good-looking prop that she and her brother can use to advance themselves. 

The movie now jumps back and forth between dream sequences, in which Nora has nightmares before her pending execution. Her sympathetic prison matron begs her, "Please dear, won't you tell me what really happened?" Nora is hiding something, even to the hour of her death. The dream sequences are intercut with the prison staff's preparations for the execution: shaving Nora's head, adjusting the electric current, the mortician selecting the right size coffin. This is not only grim but almost Lynchian. It's surreal, very anti-death penalty, and in this case I can understand the opposition because The Chair was being used weekly in the 20s and 30s. Probably at least a few innocent men and women got executed. And back then, when women were feminine, it was seen as wrong to execute one, even if she was guilty. I shant get into my views on capital punishment (or maybe I shall), but I just feel, as I've said, that's it's wrong for anyone to chime in who hasn't had a loved one murdered, because if you had, especially your little son or daughter, you might feel differently, or your mom, dad, wife, grandma, etc. Heck, if a guy murdered my dog I'd personally pull the switch. But anyhow.

So, the movie becomes surreal and dreamlike as Nora's final hour nears, and the DA reveals more of the story to his sister, the Governor's wife. I normally give you a lot of plot, and more often than not I reveal the ending, but I'm afraid I cannot do that here. This one is so good - ethereal almost - with an excellent performance by early actress Zita Johann (of Romania), that you're just gonna have to see it for yourself. It gets Two Huge Thumbs Up, bordering on Two Gigantic. It has a 6.7 on IMDB, a very high rating for an unknown early sound flick. But this is what they could do when they went for it 90 years ago. It slightly reminds me of another, more recent, obscure flick: "Obsession" by Brian DePalma from 1977. DePalma disappeared off the face of the Earth, but anyhow, in 1933, Zita Johann was in an auto accident in Hollywood with a car driven by John Huston. She had only minor injuries, but then, the same year, Huston ran over a dancer named Tosca Roulien and killed her. Why didn't he go to jail? It's obvious that John Huston was a massive drunk. But he had good connections, which is what this movie is all about.

If you have connections, nothing happens to you. Except when God gets ahold of you. Then you are toast. 

The picture is very good.  ////  

And that's all I know for tonight. Let's do a Top Ten Keyboards List real quick: You've got your Big Three 1) Keith Emerson, 2) Rick Wakeman, 3) Jon Lord, then you've gotta go with the Two Daves: 4) Dave Sinclair of Caravan and 5) Dave Stewart of Egg, Hatfield, and National Health. After that, you have to have Rick Wright, whose contribution to the Pink Floyd sound cannot be overstated. And you've gotta have Tony Banks at #7 for the same reason. Who, then, should come in at #8? Probably Peter Bardens. It's after that that you get into trouble, because you've still got Mike Pinder (who brought the Mellotron to prominence with The Moody Blues), Kerry Minnear (of Gentle Giant, Ken Hensley (patented organ sound of Uriah Heep), Hugh Banton (Van der Graaf Generator), Tony Kaye and Patrick Moraz (both of Yes). So who do you choose? You only have two slots left. Though he's not a virtuoso, I think I'd have to pick Mike Pinder, because The Moody Blues are incredible, and he is as integral to their sound as Rick Wright is to Pink Floyd's. So that puts Pinder in the #9 slot. At #10, as great as all the remaining choices are, I'm gonna take Hugh Banton, who - again - while not on the level of an Emerson or Wakeman, created an identifiable sound that drove the music of Van der Graaf more than any other instrument except Peter Hammill's voice. And then Kerry Minnear, who is a virtuoso, and a musical genius. But he's a multi-instrumentalist who also excels on xylophone and cello, so for strictly keyboards, the #10 nod goes to Banton. ////

My blogging music was "Pacific Ocean Blue" by Dennis Wilson (really good!), and "Proud Words on a Dusty Shelf" by Ken Hensley (ditto!). My late night is "Rienzi" by Wagner. I hope your week is off to a good start, and I send you Tons of Love, as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)     

 

Charles Buchinsky and John Doucette in "Gang War", and "Breakdown" starring Wally Cassell, William Bishop, and Ann Richards (plus Hurriquake)

Last night, in "Gang War"(1958), mild-mannered schoolteacher "Alan Avery" (Charles Buchinsky) witnesses a gangland murder one night while on his way home from the drug store. Horrified, he calls the cops from a pay phone, but the last thing he wants is to be dragged into a murder investigation. His wife "Edie" (Gloria Henry) is pregnant and suffering migraines. He's got enough on his plate as it is, and besides, it could be dangerous, testifying against the Mob. He makes his call anonymously and figures he's done with it.

But he's left Edie's headache prescription in the phone booth, and the cops trace his address from there, arriving at his house later that night, to whisk him down to the station to take his statement. He reluctantly agrees to testify, saying "Okay. I was in Korea; I don't scare easily," though he'd have preferred not to, but the cops persuade him that it's his duty. Edie is scared for him, even more so after a press photographer snaps his picture upon leaving the station, which is then plastered all over the front page the next day, along with their home address. A crooked police captain made sure of the leak: "Witness To Testify In Murder Of Stool Pigeon!"

Now we meet "Maxie Meadows" (John Doucette), the mobster who controls all of Los Angeles. He lives in Bel Air. He's a low-class mook but has his girlfriend reading Plato because "we gotta get some culture or no one will associate with us in this neighborhood". She says, "I've done a lot of things for you, Maxie, but I never thought you'd force me to read." Maxie likes to watch old gangster movies on TV, especially the ones with paid-off police officers. When he sees the witness photo of Alan Avery in the paper, he tells his valet, a gigantic, lobotomized ex-boxer (uncredited), "go over and slap his wife around a little, to discourage him from testifying". But the lunkhead doesn't know his own strength and kills her.

With Edie dead, Buchinsky goes into revenge mode. You can bet this film was an influence on "Death Wish" 14 years later. Just as Maxie got his address from the newspaper, Buchinsky finds his out and takes a cab over to shoot him. But the cabbie sees his gun and reports him to the cops, who stop him from pulling the trigger. However, Maxie has more than just Charles Buchinsky to worry about. The Syndicate has moved into town, and are set on taking over. You remember The Syndicate; they're the scientific version of The Mafia: no unnecessary violence, no mookishness, no unwanted attention. They plan on putting Maxie out of business. "Maybe he'll retire to Florida." The cops are also closing in, shuffling his assassins in and out of every police station in the city, to prevent his 100 grand a year lawyer from springing them. "Brice Barker" (Kent Taylor) wears a hearing aid, which must be symbolic of something. There's no other reason for him to have one.

Barker's wife hates his ties to Maxie. "I married a Phi Beta Kappa law student, not an unethical shyster!" Barker hates himself, too, but it's indicative that all the women in the film are either terrified of their men or fearful of their occupations/lifestyles.

This flick looks like a lost Scorcese, back when he made good films. I could harp endlessly on him, because he's considered "America's Greatest Director" when he's not even in the top ten. He made one absolute masterpiece ("Taxi  Driver"), a couple pretty good ones ("Mean Streets", "Goodfellas"), several truly bad ones ("Casino", "Gangs of New York", the Jesus movie), and he's really all over the map, but not even close to America's greatest, which would likely be someone from the Golden Age. But, "Gang War" does have the look and feel of early Scorsese, especially in John Doucette's larger-than-life performance as Maxie. He's doing an Al Pacino without chewing the scenery. "Hoo-ahh!" "Say hello to my leetle friend!" Please, Al, turn it down a notch.

You've seen John Doucette in a million Westerns. He's got a Bad Guy face and build. It turns out he does Shakespeare too, a heck of an actor. The direction (by Gene Fowler Jr.) is slow in places. Fowler wanted to emphasize the woman's point of view, married to men in conflict with one another, but he didn't know how to maintain the tension. Still, with the creepy, brain dead boxer as an albatross around his neck, and the erudite Syndicate boss closing in, it's interesting to watch Maxie's empire crumble. There are great location shots of the Hollywood Tower hotel, and Capitol Records with its Christmas tree on top. Charles Buchinsky (i.e. Bronson) was a better actor than he's been given credit for. He could play the Button-Down Academic as well as the dock worker. He kind of got stereotyped in later years, and for certain his "Death Wish" franchise emerged from this film, but Two Big Thumbs Up with a very high recommendation for an unheralded flick that undoubtedly influenced Scorsese. The picture is razor sharp.  /////

The previous night we had a boxing melodrama called "Breakdown"(1952), taken from a play called "The Sampson Slasher" by Robert Abel. All the boxing movie ingredients are here (and I say "ingredients" instead of "tropes" because I'd rather drink dog vomit than use that word). Gym owner "Pete Sampson" (Wally Cassell) dreams of developing a champion. His brother "Nick" (Sheldon Leonard), a city alderman, says, "Just gimme a name, Pete. I'll  buy him for ya." Nick has money and political connections, but Pete has heart. "No, Nick. I don't want a present, I wanna train a guy from scratch, my creation." Pete has boxing in his blood, even though he's crippled with a hunchback and neurological problems. Nick says, "Okay brother, I'll see what I can do", and he comes back with news of a fighter named "Terry Williams" (William Bishop), who's in prison for manslaughter. "He's making a name for himself, Pete. Want me to get him out of the joint?"

Pete goes to the prison to watch Williams box. He's good. Nick asks the warden about getting him out on early parole. The warden says "No, he's gotta do the minimum 2 years", but Nick pulls some strings and gets Williams paroled - then we find out how he did it. His crony, a judge running for Governor, was responsible for framing Terry in the first place, for a crime he didn't commit, a beating death that took place at a political rally.

After Terry is paroled, Pete Sampson develops him, slowly, into a local champion. But then the judge's English niece (Ann Richards, in a slightly too precious performance) decides she needs Terry to fight The Champ in a charity match for her Milk Fund. She pressures her Uncle the judge, who pressures Nick who pressures his brother Pete. Poor Pete, the altruistic trainer. He's a crippled poet, with a classical education. "Tell 'em about the Greeks and Romans", Nick says, to impress the palookas. One broken down ex-middleweight,  named "Punchy" (uncredited), who works as Pete's assistant, was once a top fighter who "got his brains scrambled" by jumping into a championship fight too soon. Pete won't let that happen to Terry Williams. He's gonna bring him along step-by-step. Terry's knocking guys out in the first round, but there's a world of difference between local fighters and The Champ.

Still, Ann Richards needs the revenue from the fight for her Milk Fund, and she conspires to seduce Terry, who falls in love with her. We like Ann Richards ("Random Harvest", "Love Letters"), but in this role, she's too much the English Rose. She seems out of place in an American boxing movie. Terry falls for her and she him. Now she wants him to quit boxing altogether before he gets himself killed. But two factors are at work against that happening. What she doesn't realize is that Terry knows the judge framed him for manslaughter, and as a result, he's using Ann to get info on the real murderer, a guy named DeVito (don't get me started). Nick Sampson is in the middle of this, because he helped the judge cover it up, but he also loves his brother, who isn't well due to his neurological problems. 

Terry ultimately accepts the championship fight because he's now in love with Ann, but by now he's also located DeVito, who should not be locked up for murder but for making "Throw Momma from the Train". The final boxing match is brutal, with Terry taking a beating from The Champ, a Joe Don Baker lookalike named Hal Baylor.

I don't wanna tell you the ending, but at the beginning, an ambulance is called, and then the whole movie is told in flashback. It's the old boxing movie story with a twist; instead of the mob forcing a boxer to throw a fight, it's a politician trying to avoid discovery for framing an up-and-coming boxer for the murder of a political opponent. Tremendous acting from Wally Cassell, who lived to be 103. Sheldon Leonard,  who usually plays smooth bad guys, is right down the middle this time, crooked but loyal to his honest brother. William Bishop is serviceable as Terry Williams, and, oddly, scream queen Anne Gwynne has only a very small role as a member of Terry's contingent. She loved Punchy before he got his brains rearranged. Now, he barely recognizes her. Gwynne was a big star, so it's unusual to see her in a minor role. Two Bigs verging on Two Huge, and a very high recommendation. The picture is very good.  //// 

Alrighty then. Um, did somebody around here predict that the storm would amount to nothing? (cough). I can't imagine who that could've been (me), but whoever they were, they were dead wrong. As a person who doesn't enjoy rainy weather, I can understand the impetus behind that prediction, especially in the middle of August. There's also the fact that the weatherman is wrong a lot of the time......er, some of the time.....okay, even with his satellites he's still wrong once in a while. And I guess the guy who predicted the storm would be a washout was betting on that, that the weatherman would be wrong.

But boy, was he not wrong. We've never experienced rain like this, even in those "atmospheric rivers" that've sprung up since the advent of global warming. In Northridge, it's been raining non-stop since 11am, and very hard for much of that time. And it's not supposed to let up until tomorrow morning. On top of that, we had a nice little earthquake at 2:45 this afternoon. Nothing like a temblor to make you forget, at least temporarily, about a Tropical Storm. Fortunately, the quake - though a 5.1 (small but scary nonetheless) - did no damage (except psychological). Now, if it'll just stop raining, because I'm going stir crazy. I'm used to getting my five miles in, every day. And, my apartment is boxlike. Ahh, but it could be much worse, as we all know too well. In any event, my blogging music was "Mainstream" by Quiet Sun, and "Shootout at the Fantasy Factory" by Traffic. My late night is Lohengrin by Wagner (von Karajan). I hope your weekend was a good one, and that if you live in Southern California (or Nevada) that you are riding out the storm. I send you Tons of Love, as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)     

Nan Grey and Donald Woods in "Danger on the Air", and "The Human Jungle" starring Gary Merrill and Chuck Connors

Last night's movie was "Danger on the Air"(1938), a screwball murder mystery set at a radio station where, of course, everyone's a suspect in the death of the obnoxious program sponsor, "Caesar Kluck" (Berton Churchill), owner and inventor of a soft drink called "Kluck's Popola". Consolidated Broadcasting Studio (reminiscent of WLW) is abuzz with activity. On-air talent; broadcast engineers; the station manager; a hilarious voice impersonator - everyone is talking a mile a minute as the evening's programs go out. Mr. Kluck is also present, and boy, is he a loudmouth, complaining about the air quality in the studio, which is windowless to prevent outside noise. Worse, in Kluck's eyes, is the coloratura soprano, whom he personally hired but whose bleating is now driving him crazy. The entire staff hates him, the mixing-board technician is ready to kill him and finally throws him out of the control room, at great risk to the financial security of the station because Kluck sponsors half the shows.

Kluck finally calms down when "Christina McCorkle" (Nan Grey), the station's top female star and singer, is sent in to placate him. She's a beauty, less than half his age, and offers to sit with him in the green room even though he looks like and has the attitude of WC Fields. But when they get up there, he tries to put the make on her and......she winds up and socks him in the balls! The camera cuts away a split second before contact, but from the angle of her fist, that's what's clearly implied, and it's a riot. McCorkle (as everyone calls her) leaves the room, as disgusted with Mr. Kluck as everyone else, but when the station manger goes to check on him, he's dead -murdalised, it seems.

The rest of the movie is a typical "everyone's a suspect" mystery, but done with screwball flair, a better than average script that includes many possible methods of murder, and outside locations. Usually these types of movies take place inside a mansion where no one can leave. The sound engineer, "Benjamin Butts" (Donald Woods) suspects poison gas was used "because of the color of his blood," which is dripping out of Kluck's mouth. "It has a cherry red tint that cyanogen gas would cause. I learned that in high school chemistry." A hoodlum was last seen talking to Mr. Kluck, demanding payment for services rendered. Could he be the murderer? McCorkle doesn't think so. "Guys like him don't have access to poison gas."

Could it be the janitor, "Tony Lisotti"? Lee J Cobb, who's only 27 here, but convincingly playing 60, is Lisotti. Cobb always looked 60; he was probably born looking 60. He's the papa of the information desk girl who Mr. Kluck was hitting on earlier. Kluck gave her an expensive brooch ("It's pronounced 'broach', Gilligan" - The Skipper). Lee J. Cobb is only four years older than the actress who plays his daughter.

There's a lot of talking, and yelling. You get five minutes straight of the high-blood-pressure vice president yelling at all and sundry. My Mom and I used to talk about William Shatner, who was turning purpler and purpler as the 1990s progressed. This is around the time his girlfriend drowned in his pool. Mom said "he looks like he's gonna have a stroke at any minute." He never did, and is alive to this day, but we both thought he had the highest blood pressure of any man who ever lived.

What I liked most about this movie was the in-studio stuff, with everyone racing around, because my parents were radio folks, and it kind of blows my mind to think about it now, because it happened so quickly in their lives, and my Mom was a radio star, albeit briefly, on the biggest radio station in the world. And then - for her - it ended. She was only on the air for two years, but had a huge audience. I still have a couple of 78rpm acetates of shows they did (which I've gotta get digitized), but anyhow, that's why I like the radio station setting, in that era, because my Mom and Dad were in the exact same setting, thankfully without the murder but maybe with some of the screwball comedy. Rod Serling was at the station for a little while, and Earl Hamner, too. My Dad shot up from being Mom's secretary to becoming, in 1949, a television assistant programmer. Then he came to Hollywood. Dad was more destined for show biz than Mom, but she started the whole shebang. She was in the radio business first. Well anyhow, Two Big Thumbs Up for "Death on the Air". I won't give away the culprit, but the movie has a 6.4 rating on IMDB, very high for a 68 minute quickie. As noted, the energy lifts it above average, and you have to see it just for the amazing vocal talents of Peter Lind Hayes, who plays "Harry Lake", the voice impersonator. The picture is very good. ////  

The previous night, Gary Merrill starred in a hard-boiled crime Noir called "The Human Jungle"(1954). The neighborhood surrounding the Central Precinct in downtown Los Angeles is a jungle, just like the title says. Murder is so routine that the detectives are now blaming it on the victims, who are mainly prostitutes: "These gals outghta know better than to hang out in joints like that". Things have become so blase that, after a cursory investigation, the cops head back to the station to engage in their favorite pastime: poker. It beats working on unsolvable cases. By now, the Chief (Emile Meyer) has thrown his hands up. He's being barraged from all corners, by the Mayor, the Press. And now, one of his brightest officers, "Captain John Danforth" (Merrill), has the bad timing to announce that he's quitting the force, just when the Chief needs him most.

"I've been selected at a top firm," says Danforth, who's taken the bar exam to become an attorney. "Oh, no, not now" says the Chief, "How could you do this to me?" He lists the precinct's woes, which Danforth knows all to well. "That's one reason why I want out," he explains. "Nobody cares around here." The Chief asks him, "What do you mean by that remark? I care!" Danforth says "nothing personal", and the Chief says, "I'll tell ya what, you try running this place for two weeks and see if you can do better. Would ya try it before you go joining that hoity-toity law firm?" Danforth accepts the challenge, and due to his hard-charging nature, he starts cleaning house.

"Listen up! No more card games. no more drinking on the job. No more referring to murder victims as 'bimbos', no matter their background." He wants to crack that most recent case, of the hooker found dead near a nightclub. After dressing down "Detective Lanagan" (Lamont Johnson) who shrugged the case off as worthless, he builds him back up (like a good coach), because he knows that, underneath the cynicism, Lanagan's a good cop. With crusty veteran "Detective Bob Geddes" (Outregis Toomey) helping him, they start leaning on the dead hooker's friends, mainly a dancer (Jan Sterling) who works at the club.

From her, they learn about a guy named "Earl Swados" (Chuck Connors), a hood who was seen with the dead gal. Swados is a slick operator, and Connors is great in the role. He could have been in a Scorsese movie. Connors was also a two-sport professional athlete (Dodgers and Celtics), and was a very good actor. As Swados, he smarts off to Captain Danforth because he knows he'll be sprung from jail in no time. He's working for a low-level mobster who owns "three bowling alleys and a nightclub." Claude Akins plays the mobster's henchman. Swados has screwed up by killing his prostitute girlfriend (he's a hot head), and now, scrutiny is coming down on the mobster because Captain Danforth is determined to clean up the neighborhood.

It's brutal! At one point, after Danforth calls a squad meeting to demand more arrests, a detective tries to haul in a liquor store robber and accidentally shoots a pedestrian. The newsmen are all over the mishap, reporting it as "out of control policing", and now it looks even worse for the precinct. Captain Danforth finally says "screw it", and puts all his chips on busting the the bowling alley owner. He uses Jan Sterling the stripper as bait, to lure Earl Swados, who thinks she's a rat.

The whole thing ends in a chase through the conveniently located Pabst Beer Brewery on Santa Monica Boogalord. Jan Sterling runs in there, to escape from Swados, and starts jumping over keg assembly lines, down corridors, past automated bottling conveyors, with Chuck Connors chasing her. Behind them are Gary Merrill and the cops. Of course, this is where The Climbing Must Begin, up onto the catwalks, behind brewing tanks, with shots fired and not a Pabst employee in sight. Connors is finally cornered and offers to spill on the mobster and his whole operation. Gary Merrill saves the precinct and gives up on becoming a lawyer. The city needs strong police, not wishy-washy attorneys! 

It's great stuff. Gary Merrill was married to Bette Davis, so he had to be tough. Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Human Jungle", and Two More for Pabst Brewery! Before PBR became hip! The picture is razor sharp.  ////

And that's all for a Hot August Night. My blogging music was "Russians and Americans" by Al Stewart, my late night is "Tristan und Isolde" by Wagner. Are you ready for tropical storm Hilary on Sunday? We'll see if it amounts to anything. My bet is "no". I send you Tons of Love, as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Robert Redford and John Saxon in "War Hunt", and "The Purple Monster Strikes", a Chapter Serial starring Roy Barcroft (plus Los Tres Coyotes)

Last night's movie was "War Hunt"(1962, an extremely powerful take on the Korean War, which marked the feature film debuts of Robert Redford, Tom Skerritt and Sydney Pollack. As good as all of them are, and several others in supportting roles, the standout performance is by John Saxon, who stars as "Private Raymond Endore", a lone-wolf assassin who patrols by himself behind enemy lines at night, his face blackened with greasepaint. He's as quiet as an Indian. The Chinese never see or hear him coming. He kills with a knife to maintain stealth, then does a circle dance around his victims. There's something psychologically wrong with Endore, but his Captain lets it go because Endore is fearless and valuable. His solo missions not only have the Chinese on edge, but he's also turned up info about their ammo dumps and gunnery positions.

Robert Redford narrates, as "Private Roy Loomis." He's right out of boot camp, in country and headed for the front. When he gets there, he integrates with his squad. Skerritt plays "Sgt. Stan Showalter", a friendly Southerner, with a "look at the bright side" philosophy about combat; it's whistling-past-the-graveyard black humor. He tells Loomis what to expect, similar to Willem Dafoe mentoring Charlie Sheen in "Platoon". The Dragon Lady (Korea's version of Tokyo Rose) plays them jazz every night, over the Chinese loudspeaker system, peppering the tunes with the usual Wall Street anti-capitalist propaganda : "Hello, G.I. Are you ready to die tonight, to increase Mr. Stockholder's dividend?" Sgt. Showalter tells Loomis to ignore it. "It's when she stops talking that ya gotta worry." That's usually when the artillery barrage begins. When it's over, Endore greasepaints his face and goes out on his killing patrol.

He's got a Korean boy mascot he's taking care of (similar to John Wayne and "Hamchuck" in "The Green Berets"), but Loomis worries about the kid being in Endore's care. During daylight downtime, he tries to engage him in games of catch ("You ever heard of American baseball?"), but Endore doesn't like it. He sees the world as perpetual conflict and dog eat dog, or worse, kill or be killed. There are hints that he was an abused child perhaps brought up in an orphanage, and that's why he keeps the kid under his wing, to spare him the same fate. But - Redford being Redford (his acting style was already in place) - he keeps poking his nose into Endore's business when it comes to the kid. This isn't wise, because Endore is crazy, and we'll find out how much so later on. The squad makes their own night patrols, but the Chinese know the terrain better than they do. Private Loomis survives his first firefight, but when the next bombardment happens, he turns coward and freezes. There's great acting in this scene by all involved, you can tell they were all right out of Sanford Meisner's workshop in North Hollywood. Endore keeps looking at Loomis as he chickens out during the Chinese assault. John Saxon's portrayal reminds me of Tom Beringer in "Platoon", of which the whole movie is reminiscent.

I'm telling you, if you don't think directors steal from other movies, especially obscure ones, just check the fact that Francis Coppola has a small part as an ambulance driver, and John Saxon wears blackface, and then Martin Sheen comes up out of the swamp in "Apocalypse Now" wearing blackface. This movie is from 1962, and I guarantee you Apocalypse and Platoon both cribbed from it.

"War Hunt" is a tremendous motion picture, with outstanding black and white photography from Ted McCord. More than anything, it's once again a Total Actors Movie, and it reminds you how great Tom Skerritt was, and even Gavin McLeod of "Love Boat" fame, who here is big, burly and angry. I don't remember him as big and burly on The Love Boat, but maybe he was. Top notch in support is Charles Aidman (whose face you'd recognize) as the squad captain, keeping the men in line. Sidney Pollack, known later for directing, plays his Staff Sergeant. They have to go after Private Endore when the cease fire is announced, by the politicians in Panmunjon, at the one hour mark with 22 minutes to go. Endore has already promised the kid that they won't rejoin civilization when the war is over but will go live in the mountains by themselves. Endore is damaged goods; the kid's family was killed by the Chinese. Both are orphans from the world. but now that there's a cease fire, the captain has to get Endore out of the demilitarized zone, or risk starting the war up all over again. Private Loomis volunteers to come along, to try and talk Endore down. The final scene is worthy of War Movie Legend, as devastating as in any film from that genre. Two Huge, verging on Two Gigantic Thumbs Up for "War Hunt". I'm surprised that it's not well known. It's a must see, deserving of a Criterion restoration.  The picture is very good.  //// 

The previous night we began a new chapter serial called "The Purple Monster Strikes"(1945). Now, you know how much we love Charles King. Well, if there's a bad guy who's every bit as great, albeit in a different way, it's Roy Barcroft, who plays The Purple Monster, a Martian who's crash-landed in Chatsworth Park, intent on  taking over the Earth.

In the first episode, "Dr. Cyrus Layton" (James Craven), an astronomer at Griffith Park Observatory, is tracking what he thinks is a meteor. But, he tells a colleague, "it seems to have ejected from Mars." When it disappears from the telescope, he triangulates it's location and drives out to the crash site. Barcroft, dressed in full spandex body suit, including head cap, thanks him for the rescue, making an excuse for why he crashed (something to do with misjudging the Earth's gravity). Dr. Layton is honored to meet a real live Man from Mars, and in those days (the 1940s), they were always portrayed as human-looking, never as Little Green Men with antennae on their heads. Barcroft's space capsule is destroyed, so Dr. Layton takes him back to the lab at Griffith Park, to show him a rocket-propelled jet he is developing. "It could get you back to your home planet". He's delighted to help, and in awe of the Martian, who at first is the soul of courtesy and gratitude: "Thank you for your help," he tells Layton. It's not until Dr. Layton reveals the rocket jet that Barcroft shows his true colors. "This is a wonderful day for Mars, and also your last day on Earth!"

He then spells out his plan for the Martian race to take over and enslave all humans. "Your rocket jet and its technology will enable us to do that." Dr. Layton says, "I suppose you're going to kill me now" and Barcroft says, "Yes, but only in a manner of speaking. You will be dead, but I am going to inhabit your body, so I can operate unobserved."

Shortly after this, Layton's assistant "Craig Foster" (Dennis Moore) comes to check on him and gets in a punchout with the The Purple Monster. You've gotta love it when a Man from Mars gets in a Republic Pictures fistfight and knows exactly what he's doing. And of course, he wins. When Craig Foster regains consciousness, The Monster is hiding in Dr. Layton's body. The double-exposure special effects here are exceptional, and I'll take them any day over boring and repetitive CGI, which all looks the same, with the same whoosh/boom sound effects. Give me creativity over computer "art" any day, even if it's supposedly "dated". (Then come back in 100 years and see what folks say about CGI). Anyhow, The Purple Monster is now inhabiting Dr. Layton's body. Prior to this, an extortionist had sent Layton an anonymous letter, demanding 50 grand, "Because I know you are funded by the government. Pay me or die." But when the extortionist shows up to claim his money, he gets a big surprise, because The Purple Monster is inside Dr. Layton's body. When he emerges, using the same double-exposure technique, he offers the extortionist a choice: "I am from Mars. You can either help me or you won't live another minute." The guy chooses the former, so now Barcroft has a gunman working on his behalf. He needs to take over the lab where the rocket jet is being tested.

By now, Craig Foster has recovered and is tracking the path of the "meteor" which he believes has something to do with the body-suited man who attacked him at the observatory. He finds The Purple Monster there, in the lab trying to steal the rocket jet,, and that's where Chapter One ends. Any Republic Serial gets an automatic Two Bigs; this one verges on Two Huge. The only problem is the picture. Chapter One, released by Grapevine Video as a promotion for their DVD release, is razor sharp. But all other chapters are only available, on Youtube, in degraded versions. Oh well. Ya gotta watch 'em anyway, because you can't miss Roy Barcroft as The Purple Monster.  ////

And that's all I know. I had quite a surprise on my Aliso Canyon hike this evening. For the first mile or so, I was all alone on the trail. That often happens when the day is very hot, like today when it was close to 100 degrees. Well, sometimes, on such a hot Summer day, when it is very quiet on the trail, you sometimes get a feeling that you're gonna see a critter. At Aliso, that often means a coyote (though I've also seen rattlesnakes and a bobcat). Well, this time, I was coming up a rise in the trail, by the creek, and I saw - about 75 feet away - not one but three coyotes. Yep, a trio. I've seen a single coyote many times, and have even paused to try and take its picture. One coyote by itself is usually timid, and has always run away when I've seen one. But this time, they looked at me like they owned the joint, like "what're you doing here in our park?"

This was the first time I've ever turned back because of an animal, three in this case. I didn't think coyotes would chase me (and I was a safe distance to begin with), so I turned and walked away. But I wanted to finish my hike, so I waited a few minutes until some people came along, a couple with a small child. I warned them about the coyotes, but they didn't seem worried and kept going. So, I followed them, figuring "safety in numbers", but when they got to the creek crossing, they turned around. I wanted to finish my hike, so I kept going, alone again,and when I got to the end of the trail, there they were again, the three wiley coyotes, this time on the road that leads up to the horse ranches.

There's something about the look in the eye of a non-domesticated animal (again, it's like "who're you, human?"), and the way the coyotes trot along, going anywhere they please is somewhat unnerving. These guys were out looking for a rabbit, or someone's cat or dog. I was carrying a fairly big stick by that time, and had a rock I picked up, but they kept on going, up the ranch road, like Bad Guys in a Western.

It was pretty far out to see three coyotes together. But at least they let me finish my hike. ////

My blogging music tonight was "Modern Times" by Al Stewart, my late night is "Lohengrin" by Wagner. I hope you had a nice day, and I send you Tons of Love, as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)     

Don "Red" Barry in "Tough Assignment", and "FBI Girl" starring Caesar Romero, Audrey Totter and Raymond Burr

This time, we've got a Lippert Pictures double feechum, starting with "Tough Assignment"(1949), which stars Don "Red" Barry as "Dan Riley" a hotshot L.A. newspaper reporter out to bust up an illegal beef racket. Have you ever heard of bootleg beef? I had not. It's explained to us by the Department of Agriculture's livestock inspector. All livestock is federally inspected to prevent disease. That's why you get that USDA sticker on your package of Top Sirloin. Bootleg beef, on  the other hand, is not inspected. It's a racket in which mobsters use cattle rustlers to steal from a rancher's herd, usually in the middle of the night. They butcher it through their own clandestine slaughterhouse, then sell it to local meat markets using strong arm tactics. 

We meet Dan Riley and his new wife "Margie" (Marjorie Sreele) just as they're returning to San Fernando from their honeymoon. Margie can't wait to get home and cook Dan his first "married" meal. Being a news photographer herself, she wants a souvenir picture in front of Schultz's Meat Market on Maclay Street (where much of the movie was shot). "Just a quick snapshot, honey, to remember our first homecooked dinner." But just as he's snapping the photo, three hoodlums walk out of the market. They've just beaten up Pop Schultz for disobeying the rules. Pop's an old man. Dan and Margie find him on the floor and call the cops. But the hoods know their picture was inadvertently taken, and when Dan convinces his editor to let him run an expose series on bootleg beef, they discover it was he who took their picture. They find his address, beat him up and threaten to kill him if he doesn't stop the expose.

Being an intrepid reporter, Dan doesn't scare easily. The intimidation does no good. He and Margie decide to go undercover, to get closer to the operation. By following the hoodlums, they locate their cattle rustlers, out on a ranch in the Valley. Posing as itinerant farmworkers "Don and Amy Hill", they knock and ask for jobs. "Please mister, we're hard up. Haven't eaten in three days. My wife's a good cook, though, and I'm an experienced cowhand." The rancher hires them on her looks. "Yeah, we could use a good cook around here, and you can help her with the dishes." Margie/Amy gets harassed by a big, drunken henchman to create tension within the ranch house. She and Dan know they could be discovered at any moment. Comic Sid Melton, who we've seen in many a low-budget western, is on hand as a steer wrangler. He's not doing his schtick this time, which is somewhat of a relief. The leader of the rustling outfit likes Amy and her cooking, and treats her like a lady, protecting her from the big burly drunk, and he gives Dan a job rustling cattle in the Santa Susana Pass. But Dan, as a reporter, has made a discreet phone call to his editor, setting up a fake ambush, in which the "cattle owners" will surprise them while they're rustling. But it's a setup. The cattle owners are fellow reporters. Dan will "shoot and kill" one of them, then the "killing" will be on the front page in bold headlines: "Bootleg Beef Gang Kill Rancher!" It's an entrapment hoax and Dan's gun is loaded with blanks.

When the mob boss (Steve Brodie) hears about the shooting, which he doesn't know was faked, he's furious. "Why'd the new guy shoot him?", he demands of the rancher. "We don't need the attention, especially with this newspaper breathing down our necks." Brodie doesn't know that "the new guy" and the reporter are one and the same. "The Hills" are treading a fine line on their undercover work, because the mobsters are looking for Dan Riley the reporter, whom they already know from beating him up earlier, and they keep  coming out to the ranch to confer with the rustlers. Sooner or later, they're gonna recognize Dan or Margie. Then their gig will be up.

This is a great movie for locations. Much of it was shot on Maclay Street in San Fernando, but we also get to see Agoura when it was little more than a strip in the road! There are many country lanes that I'd love to know the locations of. This is only four years before my parents moved to the Valley, and the surrounding area looks as remote as Alabama. When I was very small, we had a big DeSoto my folks called "Big Red". It looked like the Riley's car in this movie. There's also a super cool Woody and several Dick Tracy-lookin' sedans. "Tough Assignment" gets Two Huge Thumbs Up for preserving all of this on film. Agoura isn't a big town even to this day, but you'll never see it again as a mere intersection. Wow! And who knew there was cattle rustling going on in the Valley, right up to 1950? This one's a must-see and the picture is very good.  ////

Our second Lippert Picture, viewed the previous night, was "FBI Girl"(1951), in which a politician, the subject of a Senate investigation, tries to cover up his criminal past. They should've call the character "Trump". A narrator introduces us to the young men and women who clerk the massive filing department at FBI Headquarters in Warshington DC. Most are in their early 20s, some barely out of their teens. We then meet "Blake" (Raymond Burr), who's conferring with the pol in question, "Gov. Owen Grisby" (Raymond Greenleaf), who needs a fingerprint record the FBI has on file - his own, under a different name: John Williams. Williams is his real name, and long ago, before he changed his life, he was wanted for first degree murder! It's never made clear what went down, or how it was resolved, but at some point John Williams slipped through the cracks, changed his identity, and became Governor Grisby.

But now, under investigation by the Senate for corruption, he needs to get rid of that fingerprint file. If it should somehow be discovered, and he is found out to be John Williams, he will go to prison for the rest of his life. Trump should go to prison for the rest of his life, but will he? Or is all of this a sideshow? For sure he's a lifelong criminal, but because he's serving a purpose for the much bigger and more powerful criminals who run the news media (which runs the country and serves not only as the major distraction to actual Truth in America, but also promotes comic book villains like Donald Trump) I wonder if he'll really go to prison, because he's doing such a good job for CNN, who got him elected in the first place. To quote the fallen actor Russell Crowe, "are you not entertained?" 

But in the movie, Governor Grisby, who used to be a murderer (the details of which are never explained), needs his fingerprint file back before the Senate digs their claws in. Blake is the Governor's PR man, and as played by Raymond Burr, he's Evil on Ice. If you only know Burr as Perry Mason or Ironside, you should see him as a villain. As a villain, Raymond Burr was so stone cold you'd have to dunk him in molten lava to bring him even one degree above absolute zero. Few cinematic bad guys, if any, were worse, including George Zucco (though if it came down to a cage match, I'd still take Wilford Brimley or Brian Dennehy). But for cold-bloodedness, it's Raymond Burr all the way, and he's gonna get that fingerprint file back no matter how many people he has to have killed.

The first to die is FBI girl "Natalie Craig" (Margia Dean), who is pressured into removing the file by her brother, who owes money to a bookie, who knows Raymond Burr. This shows the reach and power a Governor has, and Natalie is scared to death, because removing a file without clearance is a big time prison sentence. But she does so to help her brother, and gets run off the road for her trouble. The file is not found in the wreckage, however, sending Burr back to Square One. He also has an assassin working for him, a knife killer named "Georgia" (Alexander Pope), who starts eliminating witnesses right and left until he's cornered in a hospital and jumps out a top-floor windum to avoid capture.

With Natalie also dead, Burr needs another FBI girl to get that file, and he chooses "Shirley Wayne" (Audrey Totter), whose fiance, "Carl Chercourt" (Tom Drake) is part of Gov. Grisby's campaign team. Chercourt has no idea that Grisby is a former murderer named John Williams. Burr figures he can pressure Shirley into getting the fingerprint file by driving a blackmail wedge between her and Carl. But by now, FBI Special Agent "Glen Stedman" (Caesar Romero) and has closed in on him. Burr was dumb enough to sit next to Agent Stedman on a flight, to probe him for investigative info. You might be Raymond Burr, but you don't try to outsmart Caesar F. Romero (who will always be The Real Joker).

This is one of those movies that plays like a study film or a training manual for the FBI, as they slowly pare down the ten thousand John Williamses on file, and figure he must be someone prominent. Then they use Shirley Wayne as bait, giving her a high tech walkie-talkie that was years ahead of it's time.

It's another great movie from Lippert, so Two Bigs and a high recommendation, but with Trump? Two Thumbs Way Down. CNN got him elected in the first place. He should spend several lifetimes in prison, even if he never committed a crime (which he has done, in spades) just for being The Biggest A-Hole Who Ever Lived. If there was justice, he'd already have been in prison, but "Judge" Cannon, a flunky, will try to make sure that never happens. Ah, ya can't win. Biden sucks too, and Kamala Harris makes Dan Quayle look like Albert Einstein. Bring back Dick Cheney, or Liz. ////

And that's all I know for tonight. My blogging music was "Green" by Steve Hillage and "Abbey Road" by The Beatles. I also listened to "Kodama" by Alcest, a tremendous album, and it made me wonder what the heck happened to Elizabeth? She's disappeared. We need her back! She's a great artist just for The Red Dress series alone. Her Red Dress photographs are incredible! On top of that, there's her original piano music, her cover songs, all the videos she made for her bands, and the short subject films she created as festival entries, her concert and fashion photography, her pencil drawings, the list goes on. I mean, she is so great, and she needs to be able to work full-time as an all-around artist. Elizabeth, I hope you are still doing what you do. If so, you will have success, so please, never ever give up. You are an Original.

My late night is Rienzi by Wagner. I hope your week is off to a good start and I send you Tons of Love, as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

Warner Oland and Keye Luke in "Charlie Chan at the Olympics", and "Never Too Late" starring Richard Talmadge and Thelma White

Seeing Keye Luke in "The Bamboo Prison" prompted a search for any Charlie Chan flicks we hadn't seen, and we found one, "Charlie Chan at the Olympics"(1937), with Warner Oland in the starring role. We've always had a preference for Sidney Toler as Chan, but now I think it's a tie. Oland is so good at articulating Charlie's Confucianisms, and has a drier take on the character than the smiling Toler, whose Oriental humor is more overt. Anyhow, you can't go wrong with either actor. The plot concerns an automatic pilot being developed for the military at a test facility in Hawaii. The device is radio controlled from the ground. The final test, which takes place as the movie opens, is sabotaged when a stowaway kills the test pilot in midair, lands the plane on a beach, removes the autopilot from the plane and disappears. Charlie Chan is called in to investigate, with #2 son "Charlie Jr." (Layne Tom Jr.) trailing him, wondering when they're gonna go fishing.

The plane's mechanic is found dead in the ocean. At first, the local police investigator thinks he killed the pilot, but Charlie thinks it has something to do with the pilot being a substitute. The actual test pilot who was scheduled for that run was out with an injured shoulder. His girlfriend is "Betty Adams" (Pauline Moore), an Olympic athlete, headed for Berlin and the 1936 Olympics.

The plot gets extremely convoluted after this, so you have to pay very close attention, or you can just sit back and enjoy the atmosphere. The deal is that this autopilot, now stolen, will be coveted by many nations at a time of political instability. Watching the movie now is historically interesting, in that it was released in 1937 and likely filmed in '36, when the world was still waking up to the ambitions of Hitler, who famously walked out of the '36 Games when Jesse Owens showed up his track stars. This movie is happening in real time, historically, and when Chan starts investigating the theft of the autopilot, he suspects a conspiracy to bring it to the ideal international marketplace, the Olympic Games, at which officials from all over the world will be present. Any one of them could be a potential buyer for what will be a formidable tactical advantage. He needs to get to Berlin quickly, so he takes a Led Zeppelin across the Atlantic, and would you believe it? It's the one and only Hindenburg, the real thing, just months before it crashed. Wow! Charlie was already going to go to Berlin to watch #1 son "Lee Chan" (Keye Luke) swim for the US team, but Lee is more interested in helping Dad solving the case, as usual. and - as usual - he wants to solve it before Charlie does, leading to a lot of well-articulated proverbs.

In Berlin, we get to see Olympic stock footage, including the real Jesse Owens running the 400 relay. So many characters are trying to get hold of the autopilot that it's better, in my opinion, to enjoy the movie from the Charlie Chan Formula perspective, and the context of the 1936 Olympics. A Berlin police official, "Captain Strasser" (Frank Vogeding) insists on helping Charlie, and does an admirable job, in his Kaiser Wilhelm helmet. It's telling that he feels the need to protect Germany's image, saying, of the autopilot conspiracy, "Such a thing could never happen in Berlin!" They're making light fun of The Reich before things got truly evil two years later. As for Captain Strasser, he reminds one of Kenneth Mars' "Inspector Kemp" in "Young Frankenstein".

Two Big Thumbs Up for "Charlie Chan at the Olympics". If you've never seen a Chan movie, this is a good place to start. It's one of the best we've seen. Once you watch it, you'll wanna see 'em all. The picture is very good.  ////  

The previous night's movie was "Never Too Late"(1935), a 52 minute crime quickie notable for the physical talents of it's star, Richard Talmadge, whom I hadn't heard of prior to viewing. Talmadge (real name Sylvester Metz), came to Hollywood from Germany as a stuntman, having been an acrobat in the Mazetti Troupe, who performed with Barnum & Bailey. He shows his abilities early on, when, after an opening scene jewel stickup involving other characters, we see him driving down Hollywood Boogalord. He gets into an accident involving a paddy wagon and is hauled off to jail, but on the way he escapes, Houdini-like, by turning a skin-the-cat somersault out the wagon's rear windum.

The movie opens with the aforementioned stickup, carried out by "Helen Lloyd" (Thelma White), a no-nonsense blonde who wants her pearl necklace back. She's come up a fire escape to surprise "Lavelle" (Paul Ellis) in his apartment. Lavelle,  a Don Juan who romances, then blackmails, wealthy married women, has taken Helen's necklace as his latest valuable souvenir. Also after him are the cops, who converge on the scene just as Helen is sticking him up. "Gimme back my pearls!" she shouts. Then, hearing the cops banging on the door, she bails out, going back down the fire escape. After Lavelle is shot and killed by the police, his chest of drawers, filled with blackmailed jewelry, is sold off at a police auction. Helen is there to bid on it, but so are a group of older men, an organized gang of jewel thieves.

Richard Talmadge then reenters the picture, and we learn that he's an undercover cop. He interviews a second woman, "Marie Hartley" (Mildred Harris), whose pearl necklace was also taken by the now dead Lavelle, but the problem is that she's married to a police commissioner! She cheated on him in a moment of boredom, got blackmailed, and has been using the excuse that her necklace is at the jeweler for repair. The commissioner's nosy mother (Vera Lewis) doesn't believe her. "Mother Hartley" micromanages her son's marriage, so Marie needs to get her necklace back as soon as possible. Talmadge infiltrates the jewel gang, who've won the chest of drawers at the auction, to try and recover the necklace. What he doesn't know is that Commissioner Hartley put him on the case deliberately, knowing all along that his wife cheated. He's forgiven her, but just wants to catch the thieves. The blackmailer is already dead.

It's a lot of plot, but it comes through by osmosis. You have to kind of soak it up, because, as in all short films, it's laid out in brief sentences in expository dialogue, and in this case, the plot is overshadowed by the incredible stunts of Richard Talmadge, who - it certainly appears - defied death over Downtown Los Angeles, or Hollywood, by hanging onto ledges of buildings, jumping from scaffolding, etcetera. The guy was one heck of an acrobat. Looking at his IMDB, he was mostly a stuntman but appeared as an actor as well. I kept noticing his unique voice, and thought, "Where's he from? Brooklyn?" I couldn't place it. Turns out he was German, as noted, and was a star in the Soviet Union, where his movies were very popular. "Never Too Late" is a ton of fun for his stunts and comedic ability. It has the static soundtrack common to mid-30s low budget cinema, which we've mentioned in other blogs; there's no music (though there are many car chase and punchout sound effects), and the dialogue, as always in those days, is punctuated by pauses, which I believe are related to the recording equipment, and possibly how it synced with the frame rate. I could be wrong, but there's certainly a reason for the "paused" dialogue of that era. Two Big Thumbs Up. Talmadge manages to foil the jewel thieves. He recovers Marie Hartley's necklace and gives it back to her just in time for an important party, at which her husband the Commissioner will be entertaining political guests. Highly recommended, the picture is very good.  ////

And that's all for tonight. My blogging music was "Fireball" by Deep Purple, and "It's a Beautiful Day" by the band of the same name, whose founder, violinist/vocalist David LaFlamme, passed away earlier this week. Besides having one of the greatest album covers ever, that record features the classic song "White Bird", and another song, "Bombay Calling", that is notable for being the basis of Deep Purple's classic "Child in Time". DP made it their own, but never gave IABD or LaFlamme credit. I guess that was the custom at the time, to take a riff you liked, steal it, and turn it into "your own" song. And on that note, in thinking about "Child in Time", I noticed a similarity in style to Uriah Heep's classic "July Morning", in which David Byron contributes ultra-high-pitched screams ala Ian Gillan. I actually like "July Morning" better than "Child in Time", though both are great songs. Anyhow, a little "music musing" for you. My late night is Wagner's Lohengrin, by Von Karajan. I hope you  had a nice Summer Saturday, and I send you Tons of Love, as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)