The Outlaw Josey Wales.

Review #2554: The Outlaw Josey Wales.

Cast: 

Clint Eastwood (Josey Wales), Chief Dan George (Lone Watie), Sondra Locke (Laura Lee Turner), Bill McKinney (Captain Terrill), John Vernon (Fletcher), Paula Trueman (Grandma Sarah Turner), Sam Bottoms (Jamie), Geraldine Keams (Little Moonlight), Woodrow Parfrey (Percy Long), Joyce Jameson (Rose), Sheb Wooley (Travis Cobb), Royal Dano (Ten Spot), Matt Clark (Kelly), John Verros (Chato), Will Sampson (Ten Bears), William O'Connell (Sim Carstairs), Madeleine Taylor Holmes (Grannie Hawkins), John Quade (Ciril E. Forebaugh), Frank Schofield (Senator James Henry Lane), Buck Kartalian (Shopkeeper), Len Lesser (Abe), and Doug McGrath (Lige)

Directed by Clint Eastwood (#1252 - Space Cowboys, #1310 - Million Dollar Baby, #1476 - Pale Rider, #1501 - Unforgiven, #1550 - Gran Torino, #1638 - Bird, #1757 - Sudden Impact, #1831 - High Plains Drifter, #2487 - The Rookie)

Review: 

"When people stop me in the street, it tends to be about Josey Wales. They seem to like that one. I rented it recently, it still holds up."

As we approach the Semiquincentennial of America, I suppose it only makes sense to cover a film that came across in the dawn of the Bicentennial fifty years ago. The movie was based on a book called The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales (titled Gone to Texas in later editions), which was published in 1973 with the writer being listed as Forrest Carter. He had sent the book unsolicited to Eastwood's office with a letter talking about "Eastwood's kind eyes", and go figure, producer Robert Daley felt it looked like a good idea to approach it to Eastwood, who soon agreed to work with optioning Carter's book. When Philip Kaufman looked at the book for the first time, he thought, well, that it was written by a "crude fascist". He co-wrote the screenplay with Sonia Chernus, which included the characters of Terrill and Fletcher that was not previously included in the book. It didn't help with filming, as disagreements with Eastwood in the shooting led to Kaufman's firing in favor of Eastwood, which he once said was "the worst moment of my life"*. It was his fifth film as a director, after the release of The Eiger Sanction (1975). The resulting film made over eight times its $3 million budget back with audiences when released (premiering in late June for a festival before going into release in July and August). As for Carter, he actually was born Asa Earl Carter, an Alabama-born segregationist who for whatever reason decided to try and rebrand himself as a writer with Cherokee background that lived in Abilene, Texas. Sure, there were rumbling questions about who Carter really as early as 1975 (only a few years prior, he ran a failed campaign for governor of Alabama), but Carter kept the facade on long enough to have written three further books, one of which was The Education of Little Tree (which was adapted into a film in 1997). He died at the age of 53, which apparently came after choking on his own vomit after a fight with his son. Plans to do a movie based on his second novel with the Wales character in The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales (1976) did not come to pass with Eastwood involved. In 1986, Michael Parks directed and starred in The Return of Josey Wales, which dealt with confronting corrupt lawmen in Mexico.

Sure, you might wonder how it goes to make a movie about an ex-Confederate guerilla (incidentally, Jesse James was one of them), particularly with a person that believed that the "values of a civilization never died so long as they’re kept alive in legend.” Simply put, there are people who really thought there was a lost cause to a group of losers who never won a war, never deserved a monument to being traitors, and never did anything meaningful for the United States of America besides dying, because goddamn it, you should know the war was fought over slavery before you leave high school*. But, and this is the important part, it is such a worthwhile movie to see a tale of a man at war with himself that becomes whole again (besides, some people called Dirty Harry "fascist", it didn't stop them from making four more of those movies), or at least much as possible when the iron in his words is akin to the iron of a pistol. All he wants to do is move on and pick up what was broken in him from the war and move on. As Eastwood once said, man becomes his most creative in war, so you can only do so much to clean the blood stain from the tapestry. It isn't even that much of a revenge tale, because McKinney (and to a lesser extent in adversarial nature, Vernon) is not present in the movie as much as, say, George is for the 135-minute runtime, as if to suggest that it matters to see the frontier for what it really is beyond the cliches matters more than if one is going to rattle the sabre right into a man's heart, which, well, yes. It's a violent movie that also has plenty of offbeat moments, such as the moment where one says that hell is coming to breakfast. Everything collides for a reckoning of the soul, whether that's Eastwood and his ambivalence, George and his straightforward nature or otherwise. New order, old order, we thrive on the myths and tales we tell for ourselves, regardless of where they may spring from. As a whole, The Outlaw Josey Wales freewheels history and the usual conventions of the Western for a pretty solid result in offbeat entertainment that is expertly filmed and executed by Eastwood and company for a movie that reckons with community and what really matters to live or die on the frontier.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*If one goes by this interview, Kaufman has never seen the film: Philip Kaufman: The Hollywood Interview | The Hollywood Interview

*If I remember correctly, my dad had a license plate cover of the Confederate battle flag. And yet, I turned out the way I did. 

The Trouble with Harry.

Review #2509: The Trouble with Harry.

Cast: 

Edmund Gwenn (Capt. Albert Wiles), John Forsythe (Sam Marlowe), Shirley MacLaine (Jennifer Rogers), Mildred Natwick (Miss Ivy Gravely), Mildred Dunnock (Mrs. Wiggs), Jerry Mathers (Arnie Rogers), Royal Dano (Deputy Sheriff Calvin Wiggs), and Parker Fennelly (Millionaire)

Produced and Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (#219 - Rope, #223 - North by Northwest, #446 - Spellbound, #447 - Psycho, #450 - Vertigo, #455 - Rear Window, #553 - Strangers on a Train, #800 - Shadow of a Doubt, #910 - Notorious, #963 - The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, #964 - The Ring (1927), #965 - Downhill, #970 - Mr. and Mrs. Smith, #977 - Frenzy, #1343 - The 39 Steps, #1739 - The Birds, #1828 - Rebecca, #2014 - The Lady Vanishes, #2032 - The Man Who Knew Too Much, #2374 - Blackmail [1929])

Review: 

"With Harry, I took melodrama out of the pitch-black night and brought it out into the sunshine. It's as if I had set up a murder alongside a rustling brook and spilled a drop of blood into the clear water. These contrasts establish a counterpart; they elevate the commonplace in life to a higher level."

I suppose it is hard to be the ugly duckling of a string of movies, but The Trouble with Harry is certainly a curious film in the work of Alfred Hitchcock. Of the eleven movies Hitchcock directed in the 1950s, it served as his only comedy (and one of just two that weren't thrillers, and the other was the based-on-a-true-story The Wrong Man [1956]). Of course, it wasn't his first comedy, as evidenced by Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), but Hitchcock apparently was quite keen on doing this film the way he wanted, complete with doing it in VistaVision with primary filming in Vermont (well, at least until they needed leaves on the trees or scenes in a certain gym). There were a few firsts here too. This was the first Hitchcock movie with music by Bernard Herrmann, who he would work with all the way to Marnie (1964). It was also the feature film debut of Shirley MacLaine*. She was not even in her twenties when she moved to New York to try out acting, which had her go from a bit role in Me and Juliet on Broadway to being the understudy-turned-star of The Pajama Game (due to an ankle injury of the star). The result of stepping into the role on Broadway attracted attention by Hal Wallis that eventually saw her signed to a contract with Paramount Pictures (and, well, Hitchcock apparently was interested to do a film with a charming unknown). Based on the 1949 novel of the same name by Jack Trevor Story, John Michael Hayes wrote the screenplay in his third collaboration with Hitchcock (having previously done the screenplay for Rear Window [1954], To Catch a Thief [1955] before doing The Man Who Knew Too Much [1956). While the movie was not a big hit in the States, it did play fine in Europe for years and apparently the film was one of Hitchcock's personal favorites. Hitchcock had the film rights until his death, whereupon it made the rounds in reissuing in the 1980s. 

You might call it a morbid little movie or one of Hitchcock's more mellow efforts, one that might actually be thought of as filled with whimsical nature. So yes, it is a pretty warm and fairly enjoyable affair (one that even can thread the needle of suggestion when one character asks if they can sketch them in the nude). The body is there just to be there, because the mystery is peeling the layers of these peculiar people in this landscape (yes, even with some studio shots, you get some neat views of the autumn season) for 99 minutes. You either are with the film in its casual sly nature for all the things that come with a ride that basically handles death as if it really was just a case of "so it goes" (yes I am cribbing from Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five that had its own views about death, but, well, I actually did read that in college). Leading the way is Gwenn in one of his swansongs. This was among the last of Gwenn's films as an actor, as he appeared in two more movies (and one episode of Hitchcock's Alfred Hitchcock Presents) prior to his death in 1959 at the age of 81. He deftly handles it with the solid professionalism that comes with selling someone who really can just coast with some of the offbeat lines that come in observation and newfound zest, which probably overshadows Forsythe and his offbeat non-conformism (at least he wasn't going for "beatnik") a bit by comparison. Even as the youngest of the ensemble, MacLaine holds her own with a sense of odd grace and the type of confidence that leaves one invested in their lives and the wayward path that might come with being paired with Forsythe. Natwick rounds it out with solid dignity and understated charm, at least when one doesn't see the considerable age difference [28 years] between her and Gwenn. Rounding it out is Dano pulling out the humorless dry authority figure that mostly balances out the whims had by the main quartet, which I guess works out to how it goes in our everyday lives in sobering qualities. In general, it might not be among Hitchcock's best of the best, but it is a curious film you should seek out, one that has some amusing moments within a film full of peculiar characters brought to life with useful energy and a leisurely pace to make it all matter at the end.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Starting now, we're doing a song of the day. Enjoy at your own risk.

*Yes, that would be the younger sister of Warren Beatty. Go figure each actor would use modifications of their names for films, as she would use a modification of her middle name (MacLean) while, well, someone took off a "t" from their last name of Beaty

Killer Klowns from Outer Space.

Review #2105: Killer Klowns from Outer Space.

Cast: 

Grant Cramer (Mike Tobacco), Suzanne Snyder (Debbie Stone), John Allen Nelson (Dave Hansen), John Vernon (Curtis Mooney), Michael S. Siegel (Rich Terenzi), Peter Licassi (Paul Terenzi), Royal Dano (Farmer Gene Green), Charles Chiodo (Jojo the Klownzilla), and Christopher Titus (Bob McReed) Directed by Stephen Chiodo.

Review: 

“We wanted to do to the toilet what Alfred Hitchcock did to the shower.”

I'm sure you have a grasp on a film with a title that distinct for a film so often labeled among the cult favorites, particularly ones that celebrate their 35th anniversary this year. Made as a homage to films such as The Blob (1958), this was the brainchild of the Chiodo brothers (Stephen, Charles & Edward), who had worked on various effects in films of the 1980s that dealt with either clay models, creature input, or stop motion, which could range from short sequences such as working on the "6000 SUX sequence" in RoboCop (1987) to critter design for Critters (1986). As such, the film was written by Charles and Stephen while the two produced it with their brother Edward, and it was they who came up with the idea of adding "from Outer Space" to the title so that people would not think it was a straight slasher movie. They did provide a few effects for the film, such as the miniature set for the sequence at the end involving "Klownzilla", which was played by one of the brothers in a suit when a lack of time meant it couldn't be done with stop motion. The film was distributed by Trans World Entertainment, which is probably more known for the credit scandal that bankrupted them in the 1990s rather than their feature films, which apparently didn't help the fate of this film on initial release. However, time has been extremely kind to this film to the point that plans for a follow-up or even a video game based on the film have been in talks for years; the Chiodo brothers have kept busy from time to time on certain jobs, whether that involved the opening sequence for Elf (2003) or Alien Xmas (2020). 

It is the kind of film you watch for the goofy charm that emanates in seemingly every scene, one that manages the tightrope act of strait-laced folks engaging with a high body count that arises from the alien threat that have such a wonderful look to them. Apparently, the look was so good that some of the costuming would be re-used for Ernest Scared Stupid (1991). I think the feature manages such a breezy and enjoyable atmosphere because it doesn't stumble in being exactly what you would think comes from a movie that sees folks driving in an ice cream truck in the belief that they could attract girls or clowns doing shadow puppets to a crowd that later eats them. The funny thing is that when compared to something like the B-movie tribute Night of the Creeps (1986), Killer Klowns strikes for an even more obvious tone but somehow proves more successful in general enjoyment. It has a feeling of an offbeat cartoon at times within its look that comes with scenes shot involving the lair of the Klowns (which involve plenty of cocoons). I had a feeling there was going to be a gag or two involving klowns and gags, and sure enough, I enjoyed chuckling at a live balloon dog. Honestly, I can at least see why someone would be afraid of a clown even it sounds a bit silly (as a kid, I had other fears, like the 20th Century Fox opening or, uh, sunflowers). The main trio (Cramer-Snyder-Nelson) is charmingly one-note, managing to not distract the proceedings while inspiring a few light moments of banter. They may be vaguely young adults, but they are tolerable young adults. If there ever was an actor who rolled right along with being the hardass to play for laughs, Vernon would be the one to cite in the best of ways, all things considered. Siegel and Licassi make for a few relief moments of chuckles (well, the whole film is full of them, but still). The climax is goofy and about on par when you have a man in a suit and a big top to go with pies. In general, the 88-minute runtime is efficient for a charming feature of gnarly klowns creating havoc is one that proves that sometimes you really can catch lightning in a bottle when it comes to slasher amusement with the enduring element of energetic imagination above all else.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Next up: Hammer strikes double with Dracula and Frankenstein...1970 style.

Movie Night: 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.

Review #430: 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.

Cast
Tony Randall (Dr. Lao, Merlin, Pan, the Serpent, Medusa, Apollonius of Tyana, and the Abominable Snowman), Arthur O'Connell (Clint Stark), Barbara Eden (Angela Benedict), John Ericson (Ed Cunningham), Kevin Tate (Mike Benedict), Noah Beery, Jr. (Sam), Royal Dano (Casey, the Brutal Henchman), John Doucette (Lucas, the Henchman's Sidekick), Lee Patrick (Mrs. Howard T. Cassan, the Stuffy Matron), Minerva Urecal (Kate Lindquist, the Shrewish Wife), John Qualen (Luther Lindquist, the Meek Husband), and Frank Cady (Mayor James Sargent)  Directed by George Pal (#247 - The Time Machine)

Review
This is a weird sort of film, it feels like a fantasy film, but it sometimes feels like it tries to be a comedic film, and it also manages to try to show a cavalcade of stop motion effects, creating a jello mold of a film in which the main actor tries to flesh out 7 different characters. But does this film work as a whole? Eh...it depends. The directing for the most part is alright, George Pal (also notable for producing The War of the Worlds in 1953) does alright, and focus doesn't get too off focus. And while Randall does okay in his performances, it is a tour de force in the makeup department by William Tuttle as he even won an honorary Oscar for the makeup. The effects are alright, and the Serpent does look good. The rest of the actors are okay, not too bad, even if they are overshadowed by the effects and Randall, though probably unintentionally. The film is dated at some points and despite some questionable aspects, this is at least okay, and while it is a weird experiment in the amount of characters one actor or actress can play, I suppose it can't be too harmful. Take this film at your own risk.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.