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 :):)
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