I Bury the Living.

Review #1791: I Bury the Living.

Cast: 

Richard Boone (Robert Kraft), Theodore Bikel (Andy McKee), Peggy Maurer (Ann Craig), Howard Smith (George Kraft), Herbert Anderson (Jess Jessup), and Robert Osterloh (Lt. Clayborne) Directed by Albert Band.

Review: 

With new directors, sometimes you have to look back into the realm of B-movies to find people to feature, or at the very least one behind films that slipped through the cracks. So, here we are with a film directed by Albert Band. Technically, there are some interesting things to say about the Band family, in that he was the son of Max Band, a landscape artist born in Lithuania (he lived in France for most of his life, which is where Albert was born). Band had two children that became involved with film: Charles became a horror filmmaker and Richard became a music composer. At any rate, Albert became interested in film from a young age (when the Bands moved to the States before France became occupied, they lived in California). He would be tasked to help write the film adaptation for The Red Badge of Courage (1951), doing so with John Huston. Band would be given his chance to direct with The Young Guns (1956), a Western. While he never exactly became a household name, Band was a solid contributor to B-movie cinema for years in directing and producing, whether that meant films like Troll (1986, producer) or other various efforts (which even included work with his brother Charles).

The movie was shot in nine days in a cemetery. Honestly, there is quite a crisp movie to watch here, even if the title (originally referred to as "The Killer on the Wall" before United Artists changed it) is considerably misleading. Nobody is actually buried alive, for one thing. Well, the plot is quite simple, really. A new member of a committee is tasked to manage a cemetery by obligation, and his office just happens to have a wall-map of the cemetery with white pins for plots that are bought but not used and black pins for the dead and buried. Accidents in putting the wrong pins make him think that he has the problem of marking folks for death, and it is attempts by board members to dissuade him from his belief that make things worse (in other words, he isn't "burying" the living, he just happens to be putting pins in people's spots that see them die). Of course, there also happens to be a superstitious Scotsman that works at the cemetery, too. Louis A. Garfinkle wrote the film while also producing it with Band, and the two worked on five films together (Garfinkle is likely best known for his help in developing a computer screenwriting system called Collaborator along with co-writing The Deer Hunter). Garfinkle's script seems like the kind of material familiar with stuff such as The Twilight Zone (although this film came out one year earlier), which means one might find eerie fascination with the ideas presented here. The lighting also certainly helps here (not just being a budget dodge), since it contributes to the growing mood of fear and weirdness presented in a film with limited sets and consistent understated acting. In that sense, one could almost see this as an under-looked gem, one that benefits from Boone (perhaps best known for Have Gun - Will Travel, which premiered the previous year), who moves through the material with icy curiosity that doesn't quiver when faced with looming morbid stuff. Bikel (actor, folk singer, musician, composer) might be a bit clouded under all the age makeup, but he isn't distracting to the point of irritation, as he pulls off an interesting contrast to Boone in offbeat nature. The rest are the usual skeptic type for weirdness (i.e. folks needed to look dull before they could get roped off). The growing sense of losing oneself is the best part of the film, because the climax is a complete letdown, doing a bait and switch that tries to cut off the mystery with rationality. Sure, it might have fit when it comes to trying to make money with the audience, but a bait and switch is still a bait and switch. As a horror movie, it is completely average, but it at least stands out enough in its average qualities to make it worth a curiosity over the attempts at building horror within simple things (a cheap set, reliable actors, Gerald Fried's music, take your pick). It was interesting enough to have praise lent to it by horror writer Stephen King, no less. If that can't sway you, nothing could. As a whole, Albert Band had a lengthy career of film that one could only dream to have for themselves or for their children, regardless of quality, you might say.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Next Time: This Sporting Life (1963)

The Shootist.

Review #1453: The Shootist.

Cast: 
John Wayne (J.B. Books), Lauren Bacall (Bond Rogers), Ron Howard (Gillom Rogers), James Stewart (Dr. Hostetler), Richard Boone (Sweeney), Hugh O'Brian (Pulford), Bill McKinney (Jay Cobb), Harry Morgan (Marshall Thibido), John Carradine (Beckum), Sheree North (Serepta), Rick Lenz (Dan Dobkins), and Scatman Crothers (Moses) Directed by Don Siegel (#893 - Dirty Harry and #920 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers)

Review: 
"I think in America I'm looked upon as the equivalent of a European director--which is quite laughable. I've never had a personal publicity man working for me. So all this came out of the blue--all this publicity. The cult was not engineered. It festered, in a sense. And erupted. And it did me a lot of good."

"The guy you see on the screen really isn't me. I'm Duke Morrison and I never was and never will be a film personality like John Wayne. I know him well. I'm one of his closest students. I have to be. I make a living out of him."

Time waits for no man, where a life and a career each have a beginning, middle, and eventually an end. In a career that spanned a half century, John Wayne appeared as a star or in a small part in over 150 films in a variety of genres (with the Western and war genre being the most prominent) with plenty of collaborations taking place that would serve him and others well in too many films to list. By the time of this film, he had been survived a diagnoses of lung cancer in 1964 (which led to having surgery to remove a lung and four ribs) along with other health problems for the rest of his life, which proved especially apparent for filming here (with compromised breathing during filming in Carson City alongside influenza). He was driven to do this film because of the desire to star in the title role, which apparently had been rejected by several actors such as Paul Newman and George C. Scott. Wayne finished the film but found himself diagnosed with stomach cancer in early 1979, which led to his death on June 11 at the age of 72. The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Glendon Swarthout with a screenplay by his son Miles and Scott Hale. At the helm as director was a careful craftsman in Don Siegel, who had started his career as a montage director for Warner Brothers before becoming a director with The Verdict (1946), the first of a career comprised of noirs, action films, and Westerns (with this being the fifth-to-last film of his career). 

Wayne helped in recruiting old friends of his to star in the film, such as Stewart (his first film role in five years, having moved his focus to television work while having a hearing impediment), Bacall (who worked with him in Blood Alley 21 years earlier), Carradine (who made several appearances in Wayne films), and Boone (who had worked with Wayne before in Big Jake but is most commonly known for his lead role in Have Gun – Will Travel). There is a great deal of familiarity and foreboding nature to this film, a quiet elegy to a time of the past when it comes to the legend of the gunfighter. We've seen these kinds of characters before in other films, and we know a good deal of where the film urges to go. And yet, there is an undeniable power to how enjoyable the final result is, buoyed by a grizzled Wayne that shows plenty of dignity that we come to expect from him without becoming wrapped in self-serving pity, an actor who lives and reacts on his own terms for consistency. He may not be known as the most sensitive actor, but one can't help but care for those moments where he stands without a gun just as much as the parts with it. Bacall follows along with reserved grace to make a worthwhile pairing in the moments with Wayne, while Howard makes a curious youthful(ish) presence to accompany Wayne with slowly-growing interest. While Stewart has just two scenes in the film, it is always nice to see him around with his stately presence nonetheless, solemn yet fitting. Boone, O'Brian, and McKinney make for worthy adversaries when the moment requires it, while Morgan, Carradine and Crothers prove amusing. There were key changes made to the script from the novel, particularly with its climax. The book had ended with Howard's character shooting Wayne after the gunfight left him mortally wounded, which led to him throwing the gun away. In the film, he shoots the bartender that shoots Wayne in the back and then throws the gun away. I like the climax and its simplicity, which accompanies a film of 100 minutes that achieves most of what it wants with a carefully sensitive nature to lead up to one more gunfight that we can't help but enjoy to see play out with the familiar faces out in play. 

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.