The Last Duel.

Review #1879: The Last Duel.

Cast: 

Matt Damon (Sir Jean de Carrouges), Adam Driver (Jacques Le Gris), Jodie Comer (Marguerite de Carrouges), Ben Affleck (Count Pierre d'Alençon), Harriet Walter (Nicole de Buchard), Alex Lawther (King Charles VI), Serena Kennedy (Queen Isabeau), Marton Csokas (Crespin), Željko Ivanek (Le Coq), Tallulah Haddon (Marie), Bryony Hannah (Alice), and Nathaniel Parker (Sir Robert de Thibouville) Directed by Ridley Scott (#100 - Blade Runner, #530 - Alien, #739 - The Martian, #1076 - Thelma & Louise, #1524 - Gladiator)

Review: 

"I think what it boils down to — what we've got today [are] the audiences who were brought up on these fucking cell phones. The millennian do not ever want to be taught anything unless you are told it on the cell phone"

It is not every day you can get to enjoy an old-fashioned long action drama, complete with actors who also serve as writers. But one can never know what to expect in the modern age, since I know you haven't exactly heard of this movie. I know I didn't really think of this one, which came out in October of last year and managed to generate a memorable statement from its director on how it failed (the budget was $100 million, and it made not even half of that upon release by 20th Century Studios); of course, the film was set to be released in the winter of 2020, but I'm sure you know why it was pushed back. Well, let us start with the details: the movie is as adaptation of The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France by Eric Jager, a 2004 historical novel that detailed the duel of trial by combat done between two knights of France on the 29th of December in 1386, which was attended by both members of the royal family along with residents of Paris (incidentally, both knights were in their mid-fifties when they did this duel) after one of them was accused of rape by the wife of the other knight; if the husband died, the wife would have been burned alive, as a sign of God's will. It was not the last duel ever held in the country (that happened in 1547 as a matter of honor), but it was the last judicial duel ever held that resulted in the death of one of the participants (incidentally, the survivor would live for ten more years before dying in the Crusades) along with extensive coverage from chroniclers and historians over the centuries. Nicole Holofcener, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon wrote the screenplay for the film (incidentally, Affleck was at one point attached to serve as the main lead alongside Damon but instead elected for a supporting role). 

I was expecting a decent movie, albeit one that I hoped would justify its lengthy run-time. The movie is 153 minutes long, as it is a movie that shows the perspective of each of the main three characters in telling the story of the de Carrouges-Le Gris conflict, going from Damon to Driver to Comer before closing with the duel; not surprisingly, the movie has been compared to Rashomon (1954) in the showing of multiple perspectives. The result is a magnificent experience, a gruesomely honest movie that makes a 14th century tale seem quite diverting and relevant without falling into self-parody (there is probably an argument that one with an offbeat sense of humor could make a comedy out of the material, but I digress). Granted, it isn't a perfect epic, but it fills most of the requirements laid out from a period action drama to make it all work for riveting entertainment. Damon is enjoyable to watch here, capturing the duality that comes with his take on a historical knight: fierce but temperamental, rash but also brave in what and who is he is that proves quite interesting to view in each of the three perspectives, which only goes to show how a scene can be interesting when you see it from many angles, such as the moment with him arguing over fairness (in regards to not being named to a certain position) in front of Driver and Affleck. There are no real heroes or villains with this kind of story, and Damon does just right with what is needed here. Driver encapsulates the other side of infamy in imposing confidence, one with a certain kind of confidence and assured nature that plays off Damon and Comer in distinct ways throughout the perspectives for useful effect, which makes him a quality figure worth seeing for the duel. In other words: Damon and Driver make a good pair of figures to build for a fight, both wrapped in pride and confidence as heroes in their own mind. Incidentally, each actor did their own stunts, as coordinated by Rob Inch - while the helmets worn by each man makes their face visible in contradiction to history, it certainly doesn't affect the quality of the fight, which has a mix of jousting and fight with weapons in heavy armor. Not to be lost in this is Comer, trapped in a system of expectations that has her firmly at a disadvantage that she handles like a pro in timing. She carries her end of the story with knowing presence, a woman of fate more than anything. The rest of the cast do pretty well to serve their roles within the varying perspectives, which mostly benefit Affleck in his key part that he handles with collected confidence. The action is here and there, but it is well-executed and quite satisfying to play out amidst the look of the film, which looks pretty good for the time period. As a whole, the movie is a wonderfully executed one, one with attention to detail in craftsmanship from a director who has known what he has wanted to show on film for decades with worthy confidence to back it up. As an action period drama, Scott has made a clear winner that should deserve appreciation that could make a case for a cult classic in the coming years, one with enough entertainment in armored action and a useful trio to carry it all together. Brutal but fair, The Last Duel is the kind of movie you would expect a director to get angry about when people didn't appreciate its worthy talents in its time.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

And with that, Action in August formally ends. Twelve films in the span of a month that all had a distinct level of action throughout a century of film was pretty interesting to do, and I hope you enjoyed reading every word of it.

Ip Man.

Review #1878: Ip Man.

Cast: 

Donnie Yen (Ip Man), Lynn Hung (Cheung Wing-sing), Hiroyuki Ikeuchi (General Miura), Tenma Shibuya (Colonel Sato), Gordon Lam (Li Chiu), Fan Siu-wong (Jin Shanzhao), Simon Yam (Chow Ching-chuen), Xing Yu (Lin), Wong You-nam (Yuan), Calvin Cheng (Chow Kong-yiu), and Chen Zhihui (Master Liu) Directed by Wilson Yip.

Review: 

A film viewer, if given enough time and resources to spend viewing movies beyond the usual ones, will probably find a worthwhile pattern to enjoy. This works especially well for action movies and the line that comes across between martial arts and biopic with this movie. The director for the film is Wilson Yip, a Hong Kong native who honed his craft between exploitation and comedy features before becoming an action presence with Bullets Over Summer (1999) that led to various other movies, complete with three collaborations with Donnie Yen, most notably SPL: Sha Po Lang (2005). Yen (born in Hong Kong but raised in Boston), was a star that rose from his interest in martial arts from a young age, doing so while also serving as fight choreographer for films in Asia and the United States, and he is generally credited for bringing mixed martial arts into Asian cinema. Yip and Yen would work together for the three sequels that came from this film (2010, 2015, 2019). The movie is a loose telling of Ip Man (sometimes referred to as Yip Man), who prior to this film had not had a full feature dedicated to his story, with previous features showing scenes of training one of his most famous pupils, Bruce Lee (such as Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story in 1993). The martial art style of Wing Chun is generally associated with him, who trained at the age of 12 and saw plenty of things over his use of Wing Chun from the Japanese occupation of China to having to flee the country to Hong Kong in middle-age and so on. It should be noted that there are a handful of films that cover certain elements of Ip Man; just to highlight a few, The Legend Is Born: Ip Man was released in 2010 with a number of actors from this film along with an appearance by Ip Chun (the son of Ip Man), while The Grandmaster, released in 2013 by the famed Wong Kar-wai that is noted for its cinematography and action, and a television series was made in 2013 that had Yip serving as artistic consultant. In a way, Yip Man became a hotbed for mythmaking and venture for countless movies just like Bruce Lee.

This feature was a co-production between Hong Kong and China, with Edmond Wong and Chain Tai-lee serving as writers. Sure, it may be a loose interpretation of history, because one really doesn't believe that Japanese generals would decide to fight Chinese martial artists, and Ip Man actually was a police officer in his time away from his native Foshan (which he left when the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) began). It is the presentation that matters most, and the martial arts choreography by Sammo Hung (with technical consultancy by Ip Chun) certainly lends a hand in carrying a movie that generally works out for 108 minutes in prime mythmaking entertainment. It doesn't flinch in its sequences of Wing Chun (which Yen had to spend months on) that make for captivating viewing, one that shows reverence for its subject matter without veering into parody. It is swift and efficient in the one category that it holds dear among all else, with the rest of the aspects doing just fine in the slick result generated by Yip and company, with Yen coming out the best among them. He looks like a seasoned pro in movement to go along with a general sense of calm charisma that can pass through scenes of restrained fury or family scenes without strain. The others do pretty well, albeit mostly within action sequences more than anything. The scene with Yen being tasked to face ten people is one of a number of interesting sequences, although the climax involving him and Ikeuchi is a worthy clincher, mashing the skills of skilled fighters with grace before it inevitably segues back into closing statements (because this is technically a biopic in fragments, remember) that likely will make one curious to what could be covered next. As a whole, it is a fine biopic that relies on the strength of its action in martial arts to carry it through, which ends up making a pretty good experience, one that is maneuvered by its star in Yen to enjoyment. However one feels about the subsequent explosion of Ip Man films, one can say that this was a worthy film to start the action off on the right foot.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Under Siege.

Review #1877: Under Siege.

Cast: 

Steven Seagal (Chief Petty Officer Casey Ryback), Tommy Lee Jones (William Strannix), Gary Busey (Commander Peter Krill), Erika Eleniak (Jordan Tate), Colm Meaney (Daumer), Patrick O'Neal (Captain J.T. Adams), Andy Romano (Admiral Bates), Dale Dye (Captain Nick Garza), Nick Mancuso (Tom Breaker), Damian Chapa (Tackman), Tom Wood (Private Nash), Troy Evans (Granger), Dennis Lipscomb (Trenton), Bernie Casey (Commander Harris), Glenn Morshower (Ensign Taylor), and Raymond Cruz (Ramirez) Directed by Andrew Davis (#176 - The Fugitive and #187 - Holes)

Review: 

“Most people are surprised that the film is as sophisticated as it is. It appeals to people who have a point of view about nuclear weapons and the story thrusts you into an incredible situation that is not far-fetched.” - Andrew Davis

Admittedly, the sentence "A movie considered to be one of the best with Steven Seagal" is not exactly a big selling phrase in the realm of picking out action movies. This was the fifth film for an actor that in some ways looks and sounds like what would happen if a Soldier of Fortune ad came to life, one that you may remember had gone from stunt coordinator to starring in Above the Law (1988), which had been directed by Andrew Davis, who had only been known as an action director because of Code of Silence (1985). Davis would get to work with Jones again after their collaboration on The Package (1989). The writer for Under Siege was J. F. Lawton (a former member of the Coast Guard Reserve), who wrote it as a spec script named Dreadnought, which evidently was written with a big budget in mind before it got scaled down (Lawton would also serve as an executive producer, and like a number of his films, Seagal also produced the movie) to be made for roughly $35 million. Seagal actually turned the film down a couple of times, apparently because he was resistant to the character played by Eleniak, calling the character as a "bimbo", but revisions were done that pleased him, with him calling the film "an adventure, not an action movie" with human moments and humor (he has since claimed it was his idea to have the character in the film for humor, but can you really take that seriously?). At any rate, Seagal got to be director and star for On Deadly Ground (1994) in exchange for participating in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (with Romano, Mancuso and Dye returning), which takes place on a train. As for Davis, he got the job for The Fugitive (1993) because of how Harrison Ford liked what he saw from this film.

The strange thing is that the film only features Seagal sparingly if you really think about it, since he is basically present for about 40 minutes of a 103-minute film (this fact was apparently presented to Davis by a Warner Bros. executive as to why he should direct). The ship (USS Alabama, which was docked in Alabama) is basically the most important presence of the film anyways, given the scenario of the film (basically Die Hard on a battleship). It moves along full speed with execution being at the forefront in terms of action staging and (let's just say) quirky characters to carry the movie, complete with playing on an actual real-world development of US Navy surface ships having their nuclear weapons removed in 1991. To be generous to Seagal, he does well with the material given to him in part because he seems relaxed here, one who can play on the silly parts of the script (the cook who happens to be a former Navy SEAL being teamed up with a Playboy playmate) without coming off as wooden or out-of-touch. In other words: if you let him kick and try not to say too much, he does fine. Besides, with Busey and Jones on the other side of the coin, how can you go wrong? Man is it fun to see these two get to play adversary, particularly from Jones. Busey can chew on scenery like it was a solid piece of steak, let's get that out of the way, since he gets to grit his teeth in brazen intensity, complete with doing mayhem in a dress for a few moments. Jones still manages to be the key attraction, doing so with manic chaos in all the enjoyable over-the-top ways. Naturally, he gets the best ending sequence, because of course he does, as him and Seagal get to make faces in hand-to-hand combat before he gets taken down with the art of overkill: his eye gets gouged, then he gets stabbed in the head before he is pushed into an electrical radar screen (this plays right into my theory that one could cut Seagal films into a horror movie, since one other guy gets pushed into a band saw). Eleniak (an TV actress and model with one obvious showstopper scene) is okay, mainly there to add a few chuckles in the attempts at making Seagal and her look like a normal tandem despite both a considerable height difference (basically a head), which does work out for a few neat moments. Meaney may be playing just an Irish heavy but being a Star Trek alum makes one smile anyways, while O'Neal (in his final film role) makes a decent character presence/sacrificial lamb. The film makes for a solid thriller, mostly because one gets a collection of good action beats without sacrificing much in the plot stakes. For some odd reason, there are plans for a reboot of this film, which confuses me in part because how can you improve on what was? The accomplishment of the film is not so much the plot but the maneuvering of spectacle and familiar actors to the right places for fun, and that is more suited for original filmmaking rather than drawing from the well. At any rate, it is the direction of Davis in making a suitable thriller in confined space that helps to bring Under Siege into winning material even as it reaches three decades of age.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Tango & Cash.

Review #1876: Tango & Cash.

Cast: 

Sylvester Stallone (Lieutenant Raymond "Ray" Tango), Kurt Russell (Lieutenant Gabriel "Gabe" Cash), Jack Palance (Yves Perret), Teri Hatcher (Katherine "Kiki" Tango), Michael J. Pollard (Owen), Brion James (Requin), James Hong (Quan), Robert Z'Dar (Face), Marc Alaimo (Lopez), Roy Brocksmith (FBI Agent Davis), Phil Rubenstein (Matt Sokowski), Lewis Arquette (FBI Agent Wyler), Clint Howard (Slinky), Michael Jeter (Skinner), and Geoffrey Lewis (Captain Schroeder) Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky and Albert Magnoli (#885 - Purple Rain)

Review: 

"Andrei was a real gentleman and I thought his take on "Tango and Cash" was very good and would've been infinitely more realistic had he been allowed to continue. His replacement was more attuned to comic pop culture, so the film had a dramatic shift into a more lighthearted direction."

The combination of director, producer, and star(s) for an action film has probably never seemed so surprising with a film like this. Yes, Konchalovsky was an established director, so consider his resume: an adaptation of Uncle Vanya (1970), a historical epic with Siberiade (1979), his venture into American cinema with the drama Maria's Lovers (1984)...and the action thriller Runaway Train (1985), which used a script from Akira Kurosawa. Born in Moscow, he studied for a decade at the Moscow Conservatory with the intent to be a pianist but encountering Andrei Tarkovsky led to him to working with him on the script that became Andrei Rublev (1966). Konchalovsky began his career as director with The First Teacher (1964) and did a handful of films before moving to the United States in 1980, where he resided before returning to Russia in the 1990s, with this film being his last full American production (his next film, The Inner Circle (1991), was a co-production between America, Italy, and the Soviet Union). Now, if you were wondering how this movie came about, it was based on a script by Randy Feldman, who in turn was doing it on an idea that Jon Peters and Peter Guber had thought of, with the intention of Sylvester Stallone and Patrick Swayze as the stars. But Swayze decided to do Road House (1989) instead, which served as one of many weird things to come. Konchalovsky would spend three months in the director's chair before arguments with Peters came to a boiling point because of disagreements with tone (believe it or not, Stallone was on the director's side) and budget problems. Peter MacDonald (who had directed Rambo III ironically after taking over for a director that Stallone had fired) and Stallone filled in temporarily before Albert Magnoli was hired to shoot the chase and fight scenes in the ending. Jeffrey Boam was brought in to try and do re-writes to the script but hated the final result so much that he didn't want credit. Remember that this was a film that started to shoot in June and end shooting in August of 1989...which ended up needing re-shoots for two weeks in October before intending to be released in December. It barely met its goal, thanks to editing from three people, including Stuart Baird, who had edited countless movies such as Lethal Weapon and its sequel (incidentally, he would be brought in to fix further troubled movies such as The Last Boy Scout), with the film being released on December 22, serving alongside Always) as the last movies released in the 1980s.

Wait, people didn't care for this film in 1989? What exactly did they expect? It wasn't exactly a great commercial hit, but there is a tinge of appreciation for it after over 30 years. Honestly, I enjoyed it just fine, as it is a movie that does exactly what it wants to do in macho action flair. A sillier person could possibly make the argument that this is a play on the action genre, one that is as goofy and beefed up as possible with the most obvious lead stars to accomplish this goal. My god, it's a movie that starts with someone shooting a vehicle to reveal cocaine, continues with a guy using rats to demonstrate his complicated scheme, and ends with monster trucks and tank-like SUVs - who would resist? I understand the potential for a serious buddy cop type of movie, but sometimes going for broke really is the better option. For someone who is fascinated at seeing both Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell on screen like I am, this is basically the ideal bait. That doesn't mean that it is infallible in being good (because, trust me, Stallone has had made a few duds worth talking about), but it does mean that the curiosity factor went up far more than if it was just a strait-laced attempt at buddy cop stuff. Call me a junk connoisseur, but I do enjoy movies with a bit of bombast and confidence to just go on the beat of its own drum in action, winking eyes or not (my problems are more if someone tries to bullshit their movie into "up their own ass" territory"). Calling it a bastardized Lethal Weapon only serves to make the interest go up, not down, considering the impending mediocrity of movies that tried to hone in buddy cop cliches in obligation or bewildering confusion with 1990's Another 48 Hrs. or The Rookie.

Honestly, I understand where Stallone was coming from with the character, he tries to play here in this offbeat take on the action cop type with glasses (actual ones used by Stallone) and a banker attire...but Stallone is Stallone. Making a chuckle with "Rambo is a pussy" is cute, but one knows that the best way to contain the ever-growing ego of Stallone (when you created Rocky, you get slack) is to just let him be himself. He has the schlock factor of someone who would've been "man in a suit" for a certain type of older movies, but he does it with a certain charm that you go along with what he tries to pull here. Besides, Russell has always been a favorite with me, in that he can basically walk through a role with no trouble, which I would expect from someone who went from Disney child star to a guy who can pass for both comedy and drama. He passes through here with casual charm, one who knows what kind of movie he is in without thinking they are above it all, smirking his way through with the kind of stubborn tenacity I would expect to see play out when playing out this intense dunderhead chemistry shared with Stallone that plays in the vein of The Odd Couple at times. Of course, in the middle of this is James, whose went from having two scenes turned into more when they liked his "Cockney" accent (he was an American with plenty of experience playing bad guys). He overshadows Palance (who even manages to turn a role of watching things happen into a ham) to the benefit of the movie when it comes to casual derangement. Hatcher would obviously find better material to hone in her charms (besides TV anyway) while Pollard breezes through with light amusement. The climax is preposterous and exactly what one could expect without dull surprises. As a whole, it manages to rein enough out of 104 minutes for stupefying fun that I believe make it a worthy curiosity, one with the general action sought by audiences with corny liners and general engagement from two likable stars to carry it despite plenty of clear faults and excesses. If you've seen one, you've seen plenty, but the folks that enjoy what they like to enjoy will be right at home here.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

A Better Tomorrow.

Review #1875: A Better Tomorrow.

Cast: 

Ti Lung (Sung Tse-ho), Chow Yun-fat (Mark Lee), Leslie Cheung (Sung Tse-kit), Emily Chu (Jackie), Waise Lee (Shing), Tien Feng (Father Sung), John Woo (Inspector Wu), Yanzi Shi (Mr. Yiu), Kenneth Tsang (Ken), and Fui-On Shing (Shing's right hand man) Directed by John Woo (#030 - Face/Off, #336 - Broken Arrow (1996), and #1100 - Mission: Impossible 2, and #1855 - Hard Target)

Review: 

Ever hear of a movie that inspires a nickname for a genre? On release, A Better Tomorrow (1986) would set the stage for what is known as the "heroic bloodshed" genre in Hong Kong cinema. In other words: films with some sort of good-willed criminal to go with elements of loyalty or strong brotherhood before action is conveyed through stylized gun battles that is known as either "ballistic ballet" or more specifically, gun fu. This was the first prominent film of John Woo, who had been inspired by seeing Bruce Lee in The Big Boss (1971) that saw him do a mix of martial art films and comedies. The film was written by Woo, Chan Hing-Kai, and Leung Suk-wah, with producer credit going to Tsui Hark, who had directed film such as All the Wrong Clues for the Right Solution (1981) and Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983) before co-founding his own production company Film Workshop in 1984. The movie was done on a tight budget and proved a huge success. Tsui and Woo would work together again in A Better Tomorrow II (released in 1987 that saw the return of Ti, Chow, Cheung, Chu, and Tsang)), but their disagreements meant that only the former returned to direct the last of the series with the prequel A Better Tomorrow III: Love & Death in Saigon (1989). A Better Tomorrow had a number of inspirations that included two Hong Kong films: The Story of a Discharged Prisoner (1967) and The Brothers (1979), which was actually a remake of an Indian movie named Deewaar (1975). Three remakes have followed: Aatish: Feel the Fire (1994, made in India), A Better Tomorrow (2010, made in South Korea), and A Better Tomorrow 2018 (made in China).

The power of the film is not so much just the array of action sequences with weapons but instead the characters around it that make it a generally absorbing experience. Told primarily in Cantonese with some English and Mandarin as well, A Better Tomorrow utilizes its 95-minute runtime to righteous execution and timing. Squabbles over just who one is as an individual trying to get out of the muck of the underworld has never felt so bittersweet in fun. The material may be familiar, even seeming like a touch from Old Hollywood at times, but it is a patient movie that never seems at odds with its audience, instead leading them to the payoff they think they want rather than playing for phoniness; of course, Chow's attire in particular inspired an array of copy cats across Hong Kong, so folks really did just dig the movie and wanted to look like it rather than just absorb it like product. Ti was elevated to star status in the 1970s with Chang Cheh as his primary director before leaving Shaw Brothers Studios lessened his power in the 1980s. Pushing forty with a role that was basically part of a three pronged attack of actors, Ti pulls it all together with the regrets required from such a role with solemn force. Cheung had started a career in show business as a teenager that eventually found success within Cantopop music, although he would appear in a number of films from time to time. Chow and Ti may overshadow him, but Cheung does make a fair impression when it comes to trying to play stubborn impulse in the shadow of crime (his onscreen chemistry with Chu isnt as lucky, since Tsang manages to overshadow her in outright presence). Chow was a television presence for a number of years prior to this film that had mixed results in trying to enter film (to the point where there were doubts over the success of a film with him in it). The success of the film would lead to a handful more collaborations with Woo alongside both of the follow-ups to A Better Tomorrow. He does an exquisite job here, straddling the line of loyalty and lack of fear that makes for a confident presence. The sequence where he convinces a character to get their head together and fight is probably the highlight scene, although obviously the climax would be a good one to highlight Chow too. Lee makes a quality villain, conniving in all the right ways for those cold moments required with either lesd presence, right down to the vicious beating sequence. As a whole, the movie runs smoothly in its bravado of action and tinges of drama that come together for riveting quality for involved, one with a closing sequence that caps itself off in rewarding fashion to make it all quite worth the time spent to get there. Helping to make a specific nickname for a genre is certainly worth all of the things said after 35 years later, in my book.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Assault on Precinct 13.

Review #1874: Assault on Precinct 13.

Cast: 

Austin Stoker (Lieutenant Ethan Bishop), Darwin Joston (Napoleon Wilson), Laurie Zimmer (Leigh), Martin West (Mr. Lawson), Tony Burton (Wells), Charles Cyphers (Special Officer Starker), Nancy Loomis (Julie), Peter Bruni (Ice Cream Man), John J. Fox (Warden), and Marc Ross (Patrolman Tramer) Written and Directed by John Carpenter (#068 - Halloween (1978), #634 - Escape from New York, #712 - The Thing (1982), #732 - Escape from L.A., #1221 - Dark Star, #1298 - They Live, and #1479 - Big Trouble in Little China, #1605 - Starman)

Review: 

I'm sure that hearing me say that John Carpenter is a vastly underrated director sounds like repetition, but there is one little caveat to make: John Carpenter is a vastly underrated great director. If you remember, Dark Star (1974) was the first movie that John Carpenter brought onto the screen. Granted, it wasn't particularly great, but it serves as a low-budget curiosity for those who are into that sort of thing with loose sci-fi comedy. After the movie was done, Carpenter had two scripts he wanted to do for himself: this film and "Eyes", with the latter being sold to Jon Peters and eventually grounded and spit up into what you know as Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), but Assault did attract attention for financing that Carpenter could make, provided that he could do it for $100,000; Carpenter had a friend named J. Stein Kaplan from USC that served as producer, joining in tandem with Joseph Kaufman to produce. The budget restraints meant that Carpenter would have to change his idea of making a Western in the style of Howard Hawks' El Dorado or Rio Lobo into basically an urban rendition of Rio Bravo (1959). Given that Hawks is Carpenter's favorite director, this is an ideal pairing to make a movie that would basically serve as his coming out party to bigger and better things. Carpenter shot it over the course of three weeks and says it is his most enjoyable film experience, one where he also served as editor and cinematographer (he used a pseudonym for one of the roles, referring back to Rio Bravo). One certain scene in the movie would have possibly given the movie an X rating, if not for Carpenter cutting the scene in the copy given to the MPAA and then distributing the movie with the scene put back (he later regretted shooting the scene in that fashion). The success of the film led to Carpenter being approached about making a movie about a killer stalking a babysitter on Halloween night...and you get the idea.

What we have here is an ideal main trio of characters packed in a wonderfully captured movie that is wrapped up in tension with distinct characteristics in an endless cycle of violence. It is a grimy, wonderful movie. It is the most famous film for each of its main actors: Stoker, born in Trinidad and Tobago, had done stage work and a handful of blaxploitation films before this feature, while Joston and his characteristics when living in the same apartment as Carpenter while also having his own share of stage and TV work. Zimmer had three further film roles before retiring in 1979 to teach. Stoker does his best with the role here, packed in steely-laced patience and charm that makes a quality rendition of the hero seen from stuff like Rio Bravo. It is the stoic loyalty shown by Joston that proves the most striking for the film, one that takes in all of the sensibilities seen in Westerns such as Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) to worthy effect in sardonic charm. It comes through despite the background of the character, which means one really did a wonderful job in acting. The two make for a quality tandem when they meet in the film, one that isn't quite a buddy film but a useful collaboration that rewards both actors, complete with their final scene together. Zimmer matches them in screen presence that is self-assured and ready at the helm for action and tension, one with an unspoken rapport against Joston that keeps the movie fresh. Burton and Cyphers don't have as much to do, but they are nice character actors to see make an impression early in their careers (each started appearing in movies in the 1970s). One could maybe talk about the fact that there are very few lines for the threat presented in the relentless criminal gang that is shown cutting their hands to put blood in a bowl. Others would say: who gives a crap? You are here to watch a movie that is basically Rio Bravo meets Night of the Living Dead (1968), and it accomplishes all it sets out to do as an action thriller that utilizes its surroundings for a wonderfully built ride, one that rolls in tension the narrower and narrower things get within 91 minutes. Carpenter balances the three initial plot threads handily with no weak link before it eventually segues into moments of action that Carpenter stages with good timing and framing. There are movies that have come out in its wake that seemed their villains as obstacles to be taken down by the hero in a blaze of effects or perhaps doesn't take itself too seriously. This is not the case here, shown most strikingly with the scene most remembered: a scene in an ice-cream truck where someone is shot at point-blank range in the chest. Regardless how shocked one is at the scene, it certainly is a striking sequence fitting for its decade in grimy realism, and that is all that matters. Carpenter's music score also proves quite effective in setting the tone for the film in its tone and pace. As a whole, this is Carpenter's first big accomplishment as a director, one that shows him make an urban rendition of Rio Bravo with his resourceful methods of direction that would have him grow further in his subsequent career.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

The Big Boss (1971).

Review #1873: The Big Boss.

Cast: 

Bruce Lee (Cheng Chao-an), Maria Yi (Chow Mei), James Tien (Hsu Chien), Marilyn Bautista (Miss Wuman), Han Ying-chieh (Hsiao Mi), Tony Liu (Hsaio Chiun), Lee Kwan (Ah Kun), Nora Miao (Drinkstand Owner), Shan Chin (Hua Sze), and Rhoma Irama (Xin Chang) Directed by Lo Wei and Wu Chia Hsiang.

Review: 

Bruce Lee was the man. It is hard to believe that it has almost been forty years since his sudden death at the age of 32, days before his biggest triumph. Lee was born in San Francisco to the son of a Cantonese opera star, who was travelling abroad because of his concert tour that took him away from Hong Kong. It was his father that showed him the power of film, since he appeared in a number of films as a child, even co-starring with his father in The Kid (1950). He trained under the famous instructor Yip Man in martial arts along with tai chi and boxing before his dabbling in street fights led to his parents suggesting he move to the United States. He completed his high school education in Seattle while becoming a teacher of martial arts, which he would do rather than continue his studies at the University of Washington (where he had studied drama), with his exhibition at a 1964 tournament in Long Beach being particularly noteworthy. His first key role in American media was as Kato in the TV series The Green Hornet, which ran from 1966 to 1967 as a showcase of his martial art skills that ultimately got him a handful of small parts over the next couple of years (such as karate advisor on The Wrecking Crew in 1969). When Lee struggled to get any of his ideas onto Hollywood, he decided to follow a suggestion to try his luck in the Hong Kong industry. Fortunately, his efforts in The Green Hornet had made the show quite popular. As such, he first received an offer from Shaw Brothers, but he decided to take the offer from Raymond Chow and his new company Golden Harvest, complete with filming in Thailand. The script was developed by Ni Kuang, a novelist behind over 300 film screenplays, but when Lo Wei stepped into the director's chair (after Wu Chia Hsiang was taken out after a few days), he re-wrote the script and thus got credit in the final print. Lo Wei directed over sixty movies (doing so until 1979) as a director with countless others written and produced, having shifted to directing after being an actor in his younger years of Hong Kong during the 1950s. The release of the movie proved better than anyone expected, as it set the box office record upon release in Hong Kong. Five months later, Lee and Lo returned for Fist of Fury, which was even more popular. Strangely enough, when it came to dubbing in America, the movie was retitled Fists of Fury while Fist of Fury was called The Chinese Connection - it also saw its final death scene trimmed to get an R rating, serving as one of the many edits made both in Hong Kong and America over the years. Five months later, Lee and Lo returned for Fist of Fury (1972), which was even more popular. Lee would star in one more Hong Kong film with The Way of the Dragon (1972) before his biggest hit would come with Enter the Dragon (1973), released days after his death as the first kung fu film by a major American studio (his work on the incomplete Game of Death, which he shot only the climax for, would be finished with stand-ins by Robert Clouse in 1978).

Strangely enough, when it came to dubbing in America, the movie was retitled Fists of Fury while Fist of Fury was called" The Chinese Connection" (to add onto the fun, Lo Wei would direct New Fist of Fury in 1976, and there were also two sequels to the original Fist of Fury that had Bruce Li as the star - but Bruceploitation is another story). The Big Boss also saw its final death scene trimmed to get an R rating, serving as one of the many edits made both in Hong Kong and America over the years (such as trimming fights); you can tell there are considerable cuts and changes made in and during production with how Tien is the first one to be shown fighting in the film, and he basically is one of the main folks followed for a good chunk of the first third of the film more so than Lee (Tien was an established presence in the film industry, of course). There are also numerous music scores, one of which that includes music cues from numerous films and music groups such as Pink Floyd (specifically, "Time", and yes, it was as weird to hear it in real time as it is to write about it). Told in a mix of Mandarin, Cantonese, and Thai for 100 minutes, the movie is pretty decent for all of its brief ambitions of telling a semisolid story to setup its martial arts sequences, ones that don't see much of Lee...until nearly halfway through. When it does drop the pretenses and gets to business, it does prove quite enjoyable for the pleasure of seeing him charm the screen. Of course, the production was a tough one for him, with ankle sprains and miserable shooting conditions to go along with hesitancy at the suggestions done by Lo Wei (such as having a man be punched through a wooden wall and leaving an outline in the wood). Lo Wei seems to have known how to give the audience what they want in an action film: a charming lead who doesn't have to say too much with a quiet plot that can fall into the background for jumping and kicking without falling into outright parody. You have folks fighting with tools or in places that look like country clubs while outmanned (while drugs are hidden...in ice), how can you go wrong? Lee handles the path of eventual revenge with the timing that comes straight of an old-fashioned Western to go with his graceful fists of fury that makes him the most interesting presence in the whole film. Tien, before he gets killed off not even midway through the film, is at the very least someone who can help carry some of the building blocks for what would've probably been an "okay" movie if Lee wasn't there at all. Yi and the others and all okay in stock characterizations, but one is really here to see Lee kick a villain, so seeing Lee against Han proves quite serviceable for the climax. As a look upon maintaining the spirit of oneself in spite of temptation with a bunch of kicks and jumps, The Big Boss is a solid winner, one boosted by the lightning charisma of its main star that will prove just fine for anyone looking for some quality entertainment from across the world.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Motorpsycho.

Review #1872: Motorpsycho.

Cast: 

Haji (Ruby Bonner), Alex Rocco (Cory Maddox), Stephen Oliver (Brahmin), Holle K. Winters (Gail Maddox), Joseph Cellini (Dante), Thomas Scott (Slick), Coleman Francis (Harry Bonner), and Sharon Lee (Jessica Fannin) Directed by Russ Meyer (#1420 - Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!)

Review: 

If you remember, Russ Meyer first made movies when he was with the US Army's 166th Signal Photographic Company during World War II. His first couple of films would be "nudie cuties", which thrived on the circuit of independent and exploitation audiences, which he wrote, directed, edited, photographed, and distributed himself. He did this for a couple of years before shifting to less nude fare with Lorna in 1964 (incidentally, that movie was about a woman being assaulted that sees her break out of sexual frustration with her husband - Meyer described himself as looking at sex in a humorous and outrageous way). Mudhoney (1965) was a Great Depression period drama without as much exploitation (and not quite successful with audiences). But August 1965 saw the release of both Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and this film, with the former being the one that eventually became a cult classic. Each have their fair share of violence and sex (i.e. women you or someone would probably say is attractive) with villainous trios, with one featuring a gang of go-go dancers and the other featuring a gang of bikers. Meyer served as co-writer on this film, as James Griffith, Hal Hopper, and W. E. Sprague did the script with him. Meyer also served as producer along with his wife Eve, served as cinematographer, and he edited the film with Charles G. Schelling.

There are a handful of odd moments but seeing a blurb promoting the use of Toyota vehicles at the end certainly was a surprise. Seeing a movie with a character depicted as being a veteran of the Vietnam War in 1965 was another surprise in a movie filled with lurid energy. It may not spring as many eye-raising moments as the aforementioned Pussycat movie (which he also wrote/produced/edited), but it never loses sight of what it means to see raw human energy put on screen to the point where could almost call it a satire of exploitation. Who else would make a movie where a guy gets stung by a snake and yells at his lady accomplice to suck the poison out? Meyer has an efficient eye to making movies with the right degree of sleaze that means one gets to see a bunch of grim violence to go with the early moments of attractions (as one says). Sure, there are probably people who will say that it is the women that really attracts people to his films, but who cares? I would rather have a director who has a clear interest in what they want to show on screen rather than a pretentious bore, and Meyer knows how to edit his material into 74 minutes of entertainment with bombast. As was the case with Pussycat, it is the women (in this case, one) that sticks out among the cast, as Haji (playing a Cajun whose trip with a scuzzy husband turns into death) makes for quite a tremendous presence, one who vexes the screen with dazzling energy. Rocco is fine in the general hero of vengeance type designed to fill time in one-note moments that doesn’t waste all of one’s time. The biker gang (three of them, which is the minimum to even have a gang) do okay, with Oliver becoming more interesting when the deranged elements come through (i.e. going from hip lingo to fantasizing about being back in the jungle), with the radio-in-ear Scott being a close second. Older film lovers may notice Coleman Francis in a scuzzy role, which is amusing to consider when this might be the best film he ever appeared in where he is on screen (for longer than a couple of seconds) or behind the camera. As a whole, one would best consider this a decent companion piece to Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, both having their own methods of going through the road of sleaze and violence that can be the difference between one being a cult classic and the other just being a decent little flick to find in the margins for those who like what they saw from the mind (and eyes) of Russ Meyer.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Hell's Outpost.

Review #1871: Hell's Outpost.

Cast: 

Rod Cameron (Tully Gibbs), Joan Leslie (Sarah Moffit), John Russell (Ben Hodes), Chill Wills (Kevin Russel), Ben Cooper (Alec Bacchione), Kristine Miller (Beth Hodes), Jim Davis (Sam Horne), Taylor Holmes (Timothy Byers), Barton MacLane (Sheriff Olson), and Ruth Lee (Mrs. Moffit) Produced and Directed by Joseph Kane.

Review: 

Admittedly, the action movie is in more forms than just big-budget adventure or costume drama. No, one can also encounter action flicks in cheap B-movie form, courtesy of studios like Republic Pictures. Republic, if you were wondering, was the motion picture company behind many, many Westerns, serials, and B-films (with occasional A-features like The Quiet Man), which just happened to have a select number of films that featured John Wayne, Gene Autry, or Roy Rogers. It came about in 1935 as the result of merging six Poverty Row studios together, as devised by founder Herbert J. Yates that was focused on low-budget product with his laboratory to counter the lack of need from major studios to have his lab. As for the director for this film...Joseph Kane naturally ended up behind the chair because of his experience with Republic. The San Diego native actually went from an interest in cellist to directing, and he took up jobs with Mascot Pictures and Republic Pictures with serials in 1935, and he would stay with the latter studio until its demise in 1958, serving as an associate producer on numerous films along with editor and screenwriter. While he did not get to serve as primary director much in the years after the 1950s ended, he continued with second-unit work until his death in 1975 at the age of 81. 

Sure picked a winner, huh? Technically, it is more of a noir than an action movie, but at least there are a few fistfights (lasting less than five minutes each) to go along with a little bit of action involving loony rich guys and oddball heroes writing false letters in which both actors look like more famous ones if you squint a bit. There really isn't anything particularly great about the movie in any sense or form, and it definitely seems a bit too packed at 89 minutes, but one interested in B-movies or things to pass by on a long summer day could tolerate it. The only thing that sounds fun is the fistfight, because who doesn't want to hear about it? It happens, naturally, in the dark, and one hopes you have a good eye to see with the print (or video, if you like easy-to-find old movies). It isn't anything too special, but again, it satisfies the basic requirement when it comes to stomaching the rest of medium product that makes only the slightest of sense (rich guy decides to fight a guy, agrees to giving him $10,000 in a loan if the other guy wins and then does wild things to stop him enjoying using the money for a mine). This was based on a Luke Short's book Silver Rock, with Kenneth Gamet serving as screenwriter. Truly it fun to be talking about tungsten mines and guys trying to circumvent the other while middling relationships lurk in the background. Cameron (born in Canada but raised in New Jersey) kind of looks like if an old studio executive tried making a discount Randolph Scott, particularly since he did plenty of Westerns to go with other genres you might expect in cheapie fun; beginning in 1953, he ended up doing syndicated television over the course of three different shows in the span of eight years that made him a nice amount of money. He grits his teeth like it was a modern Western rather than the action crime drama hodgepodge, and it doesn't really gel greatly for anything besides mild stares and the occasional attempt to make a gray-shaded hero but having a guy who makes a few false letters isn't really as interesting as it could be for hustle quality. The sillier a movie like this, the better it seems...so it doesn't quite work with a stiff lead. Hey, what do you know, the villain is also a television presence: Russell is best known for his starring role on two shows that ran in the late 1950s involving adventure. He is mildly effective here in chewing the bland ham thrown to him in dastardly ideas, looking more like a guy trying to convince himself to pick apart the wings of baby birds because of boredom. Honestly, Wills might be the only name that sticks out today, albeit one who didn't grow to acting by Westerns, since he had his own singing group in the 1930s that he quit to go for acting, and his deep rough voice certainly wishes for something with riveting material to bite on rather than the mush here. To be nice to Leslie, one hopes that the assignment was a decent experience for them. As a whole, all one might enjoy is the occasional action bit, whether that involves drunken antics or the final sequence involving dynamite that goes...kind of the way you would expect from a cheapie needing to end quickly. It's a humble movie, where names go in one ear and out the other for nothing too special for a mediocre result. But, as a comparison to say just how action movies stack up from different eras when it comes to mushy foundations trying to hold it together with middling actors or effect, it fits the bill adequately.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

I know sometimes it is ideal to say what is next for a themed month but cobbling together a list is easier said than done...That said, next up is Motorpsycho.

Sanshiro Sugata (1943).

Review #1870: Sanshiro Sugata.

Cast: 

Susumu Fujita (Sanshiro Sugata), Denjirō Ōkōchi (Shōgorō Yano), Yukiko Todoroki (Sayo Murai), Ryūnosuke Tsukigata (Gennosuke Higaki), Takashi Shimura (Hansuke Murai), Ranko Hanai (Osumi Kodana), Sugisaku Aoyama (Tsunetami Iimura), Ichiro Sugai (Police Chief Michitsune Mishima), and Yoshio Kosugi (Master Saburō Kodama) Directed by Akira Kurosawa (#968 - Throne of Blood and #1385 - Seven Samurai)

Review: 

"I just had a gut feeling that "This is it". There was no logical explanation for my reaction, but I believed wholeheartedly in my instinct and did not doubt for an instant." - Akira Kurosawa

Sure, a martial arts drama seems a bit odd to consider within the bounds of action, but I think the quality involved behind and in front of the camera merits a worthy case. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name that was written by Tsuneo Tomita. He was the son of Tomita Tsunejiro, a famed disciple of judo, a system of unarmed combat that is part of the modern Japanese martial art since its creation by Kanō Jigorō in 1882 as a clear mark away from jujutsu in its form of free sparring without weapon training, and it became especially important when the Tokyo Metropolitan Police hosted tournaments to see which martial art was superior, with the result being that the police academy would adapt judo as their official training style. This form of full contact designed with the intent to either throw an opponent, pin them or force submission without outright striking has proven an influence on other martial arts that includes mixed martial arts (MMA). Tomita (described as "Four Guardians of the Kōdōkan" for him being an early competitor in judo when it began its split from jujutsu), alongside Maeda Mitsuyo, would do numerous exhibitions in the United States in the early 20th century; the younger Tomita based his character of Sanshiro Sugata on his father's colleague Shiro Saigo. Amidst all of that information, it also is the feature film debut for Akira Kurosawa. He had grown up with watching films due to his upbringing, but it was his time spent with his brother Heigo in his teenage years that proved important in seeing films alongside theater and circus performances. In 1935, he was hired by Photo Chemical Laboratories (a company that would merge with the Tokyo-Takarazuka Theater Company, Toho Eiga, and Jenkins Osawa Studio to form what we know as Toho in 1937), where he would serve as an assistant director for a number of years, primarily under director Kajirō Yamamoto. Uma (1941) had him basically serve as a director in terms of control of the production when Yamamoto was busy with shooting a different film (Kurosawa, as a 4-F, was able to build on his career in the midst of World War II). It was he who told Kurosawa to take up screenwriting in order to be a good director, which he would do for all of his feature films along with a handful of other productions. The basis for Kurosawa making this film came from his gut instinct in seeing an advertisement of Tsuneo Tomita's forthcoming novel in the newspaper, but his lobbying for Toho to buy the rights to make it as a movie did not occur until it was published (indeed, when he got down to read the book, he found it commercially appealing and adaptable to his own interests); despite his enthusiasm, Toho actually approached Masahiro Makino to direct before he declined, which opened the door for Kurosawa to step in, and the film was shot in the winter of 1942.

The movie originally ran at 97 minutes on release, but it was trimmed by Japanese censors to 79 minutes (it should be noted that one defending member of the board was Yasujiro Ozu, who called it an important artistic achievement despite some charges of being too "British-American"). Some of the scenes cut did not survive, and the aforementioned cut version begins with text (since it was re-released by Toho in 1952) that also comes into play when describing a cut sequence. The movie has been remade five times, although the first two took inspiration from Kurosawa's screenplay rather than the novel. Two years later, Kurosawa would do a sequel called Sanshiro Sugata Part II, doing so at the behest of requests to do a propaganda film for the war effort that was released in May 1945, mere months before the surrender of the war (The Most Beautiful, his second feature, was also a propaganda work released in April); the film sees Okochi, Fujita, Tsukigata, and Todoroki return, but it is generally considered a lesser sequel. Let us get the obvious part out of the way: it is the journey of the hero that matters more than outright action with the hero, but it sure does pack an important punch with its execution by Kurosawa in the art of nuance. Beyond his use of wipes and shots of the weather to depict the mood of characters is a movie that seems quite prescient in making an action movie built on emotional growth, which Fujita does pretty well as the main focus. Beyond just being a judo hero, he has the brimming confidence required in making the journey believable in all the facets required in sincerity (Fujita became a star during the war for playing the hero in war flicks, much to his subsequent regret, and he shifted to supporting roles by the mid 1940s). Seeing him jump in a lotus pond and cling to a stake in an attempt to show his worth to his master is probably the noted sequence, since it shows him rising the occasion of just what matters most when lying in a pond in the spur of the moment: self-realization. Ōkōchi doesn't say much as the mentor figure, but he does exactly what is needed in the art of stoic balance, one best represented by the sequence of him handling jujutsu toughs in a river with calm patience. Todoroki makes a decent pairing with Fujita in graceful quietness, but it is Tsukigata who sticks out more in the adversarial role, slithering patiently for the inevitable climax, which is handled expertly in a windy hillside (incidentally, Kurosawa likened the character played by Tsukigata to Mephistopheles). There are four general fights shown in the film, which is handled with quiet ease that manages to not muddle the overall arc, showing that Kurosawa was all primed to become a force worth viewing in his first effort as director in a victory of style. He would get better over the course of time as a director, but one cannot go wrong with starting their curiosity here with a movie that packs the ideal punches: A Kurosawa effort and an action triumph. 

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

The Mark of Zorro (1940).

Review #1869: The Mark of Zorro.

Cast: 

Tyrone Power (Don Diego Vega/Zorro), Linda Darnell (Lolita Quintero), Basil Rathbone (Captain Esteban Pasquale), Gale Sondergaard (Inez Quintero), Eugene Pallette (Friar Felipe), J. Edward Bromberg (Don Luis Quintero), Montagu Love (Don Alejandro Vega), Janet Beecher (Senora Isabella Vega), George Regas (Sergeant Gonzales), Chris-Pin Martin (Turnkey), and Robert Lowery (Rodrigo) Directed by Rouben Mamoulian (#773 - Applause)

Review: 

Zorro, if you remember correctly, originally appeared in serialized form in 1919 from author Johnston McCulley, which went under the title as "The Curse of Capistrano" (it has since been published as The Mark of Zorro). As such, the first film adaptation came with The Mark of Zorro (1920), with Douglas Fairbanks as the adventurous one-man force that served as a co-writer, producer, and star. 20th Century Fox had the rights to do a remake when they bought them from Fairbanks, although it did not stop other stories to be adapted involving the character as created by McCulley, such as Republic Pictures making The Bold Caballero (1936). Of course, Tyrone Power is an ideal matinee idol to take the helm as the title lead. The Cincinnati native was an actor as was the case with his Irish great-grandfather (the original Tyrone Power), his grandmother (Ethel Lavenu), and his father (Tyrone Sr.). He appeared in films starting in 1932, but it was his appearance in his fifth with Lloyd's of London (1936) that made him into a screen presence worth seeing on the screen over and over, and he was only 22. At the helm of director was a solid successor from Fred Niblo in Rouben Mamoulian. He had emigrated from the Russian Empire to England before to direct plays before moving to the States to teach and direct opera/theatre. He would direct a variety of productions even after entering film such as Oklahoma! and Carousel. His first film was Applause (1929), an early sound feature, but his best-known feature is probably Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931). He would direct films on a regular basis from 1929 to 1942 (with two more films afterwards) that did a variety of genres (noir, musicals, adventure) while also serving as a founding father for the Directors Guild of America; he died at the age of 90 in 1987. Six years before his death, Zorro, the Gay Blade (1981) was dedicated to him as a tribute to the classic adventure portrayed in this film. 

The screenplay was done by John Taintor Foote while the story was done by Garrett Fort and Bess Meredyth. One other key tribute came with the world of comic books, as it is one of the parts of the original origin-story of Batman (whose parents were killed after a screening of the movie); Zorro in general proved an inspiration to the concept of Batman as devised by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, since both characters are folks presenting themselves as rich playboys while secretly fighting crime in a dark costume. Coincidentally, this film has a member of the cast in Robert Lowery, who would become the second actor to play the character of Batman in a film serial later in the 1940s. This film and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) share two actors basically playing the same type of character with Rathbone and Pallette. It might not be as great as the original feature in terms of outright professionalism and newness (i.e. not being the first great Zorro adventure), but it does make for a solid adventure film with enough reason to exist with a capable lead and all-around charm to make it just as interesting for the curious moviegoer to view hand in hand with past and future Zorro movies. Mamoulian achieves a film with plenty of fluid engagement and rhythm that achieves plenty in 94 minutes. The balance of narrative and action is done to where one isn't aching to see too much of one over the other, moving along with smiles rather than gloom. Power plays the double act required in the title lead with worthy screen presence, dashing in the moments needed for his public face but also riveting when it comes to being the man in black with an accompanying tight drawl. He might be young, but he has the presence of an old soul that probably would've fit well in a variety of action eras (sure, Zorro should probably be played by someone of a different ethnicity when it comes to helping people living in California before it became a state, but one must pick their battles when it comes to older films). Darnell and Power have semi-decent chemistry together despite the age difference (ten years between the 26-year old Power and, well...) with at least some sort of general innocence to make things look semi-solid (Sondergaard does seem more intrigued to be in the same room with Power at times though). Pallette is the ideal pairing with Power in heroic accomplice for all of his drawing power in voice qualities and timing. Bromberg makes for a decent stooge pretender, although Rathbone is the key other highlight, one with dignified ruthlessness that simmers well against Power in the ways expected to help make its ultimate endpoint quite worth it (of course, he was quite good with fencing to where he did not need to have a double). Fred Cavens helped choregraph the fencing sequence while his son Albert served as a stunt double for Power in shots from behind, which means one isn't watching sequences of folks jumping around while trying to fence (not that there's anything wrong with that, since it is execution that matters more than anything). The funny thing is that it isn't the final part of the film, since there's still a bit of time left to wrap things up, which works out just fine, bookending itself in throwing a sword into the air with winking convenience. As a whole, it runs at a slick rate that will dazzle all whoever heard of the term "matinee" and lined up to see it with rapt attention, packed with energy that has not dulled over the prevailing eight decades since release that shows how one can re-adapt prior material and make it seem fresh and worthy of viewing for audiences that other films wish they could do so well.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Next Time: Sanshiro Sugata.

The Three Musketeers (1921).

Review #1868: The Three Musketeers.

Cast: 

Douglas Fairbanks (d'Artagnan), Adolphe Menjou (Louis XIII), Léon Bary (Athos), George Siegmann (Porthos), Eugene Pallette (Aramis), Mary MacLaren (Anne of Austria), Nigel De Brulier (Cardinal Richelieu), Thomas Holding (Duke of Buckingham), Marguerite De La Motte (Constance Bonacieux), Willis Robards (Captain de Treville), Boyd Irwin (Comte de Rochefort), Barbara La Marr (Milady de Winter), Lon Poff (Father Joseph), and Walt Whitman (d'Artagnan's Father) Directed by Fred Niblo (#1677 - The Mark of Zorro)

Review: 

Surprise! It is time to do another themed August - Action August! Throughout the month, I will cover a variety of action movies, from old-fashioned to the current times. The goal is to cover a minimum of ten features with wide degrees of action that isn't just reserved for the United States, so let's see where that road takes us...

If you remember correctly, Hollywood loves their book adaptations, particularly if they can find some fighting in the prose to put into its feature. This is the case with this film, an adaptation of the 1844 novel of the same name, which had been written by Alexandre Dumas (the elder Dumas is referred to as père [French for father] to distinguish him from his son of the same name). Musketeer Charles de Batz de Castelmore d'Artagnan proved the inspiration for Dumas, as Gaiten de Courtilz de Sandras had utilized d'Artagnan for his own novel with certain fiction. Dumas wrote two further novels that were published in serial form involving the Musketeers that are called The d'Artagnan Romances (1844, 1845, 1847-50); the first novel has the most adaptations, although the third novel in The Vicomte of Bragelonne has had numerous adaptations as well, generally adapting the third part of the book in "The Man in the Iron Mask" (since the book in general has 268 chapters). The movie was apparently set to be shot in France, but time constraints and the decision of Fairbanks to not travel abroad meant that the movie would be done in the Pickford-Fairbanks Studios lot in Hollywood with a few exterior shots in France. Edward Knoblock served as the adapter for the material from film to screen, while Lotta Woods served as scenario editor while Douglas Fairbanks was uncredited for his writing of the screenplay, and Fairbanks also served as producer. Fairbanks, De La Motte, De Brulier, and Bary would reprise their roles for The Iron Mask (1929).

If you've seen The Mark of Zorro (1920) or his later work with Robin Hood (1922), you pretty much know what you are going to get with Fairbanks in terms of swashbuckling dazzlement. Granted, at 120 minutes it does run a bit long for comfort, but it is a useful comfort that generally rewards the patience of its viewer with dazzling costumes and select moments of action with swords that does pretty much what you would expect from a silent era movie without troubles. Fencing expert H.J. Uyttenhove choregraphed the fight scenes, which worked well right up until one had to tell Fairbanks to try to be orthodox about handling a rapier, which results in him jumping around with a certain kind of energy that could make a fencer go mad but make others go wild. Imagine a 38-year-old going around with a blade and not having a degree of fun show once, particularly since it is a silent venture where Fairbanks thrived best. Since he is the one behind a loose adaptation of the material (in other words, a sanitization meant to send the folks home happy), it results in a fairly engaging experience, one in which he is the main attraction without making it sound like an ego-trip for the sake of chewing all of the attention, moving with energy in ways that would make an audience member await adventure avidly. The others are by and large fine at the costume stuff in never doddering their eyes, with Menjou courting the camera well enough to go with De Brulier and his invasive presence behind the scenes. Siegmann and the other two title members are mainly there to accompany action shots, but they do okay, if only because the whole point is to watch Fairbanks with company. MacLaren, De La Motte and La Marr make quality contrasts to one another in grace and guile, and generally one doesn't lose things in the shuffle. The action with the blades proves quite diverting and never seems to override one's senses or suspension of disbelief.  The action film has been around since film began, right down to The Great Train Robbery (1903). The action film has had many faces over a century, whether involving swashbuckler adventures or war-adventures or with jidaigeki films or with detective features. As a whole, The Three Musketeers maintains a worthy level of excitement with its rendition of the swashbuckler that makes it a useful piece to consider in the history of action films or with the history of its actor/producer/writer in Douglas Fairbanks that makes for a fair recommendation for those into silent cinema or to see the seedlings of action cinema take shape.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.