Monthly Archives: May 2024

Lawless Empire (1945, directed by Vernon Keays)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

For years, outlaws have controlled the frontier town of Dusty Gulch but now their power is threatened by the homesteaders who are moving into the area.  Led by the crusading Rev. Tex Harding, the homesteaders are being progress and reform to the frontier.

Duke (Ethan Laidlaw) and his gang have launched a campaign of intimidation against the new arrivals.  Luckily, the Durango Kid (Charles Starrett) rides into town to protect the homesteaders.  Duke’s boss, businessman Blaze Howard (John Calvert), decides that the town needs a sheriff to go after the Kid.  Blaze offers the job to newcomer Steve Ranson, not realizing that Steve is not only the Durango Kid but also the brother of the former sheriff, who was murdered by Blaze’s men.

Lawless Empire is one of the few Durango Kid films not to feature Smiley Burnette as Durango’s sidekick.  Instead, Durango rides into town with Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys and, while Willis does perform a song or two, there’s still considerable less singing than in the films that featured Burnette.  The role of comic relief is provided by Dub Taylor in the role of Cannonball.  Cannonball gets a job sweeping up Blaze’s saloon and he feeds whatever information he learns back to Durango.  When Blaze figures out what’s going on, he deliberately supplies Cannonball with bad information but it doesn’t make any difference.  The Durango Kid is always one step ahead of the bad guys.

Lawless Empire is a little more serious than the other Durango Kid films.  Steve is not only trying to clean up the town but he’s also seeking to avenge his brother so there’s not as much room for as much comedy as usual.  Lawless Empire does have all of the usual gunfights and horse chases and the film gets off to an exciting start with Durango making his first appearance with his gun already drawn so that he can disarm Duke and his men.  Even without Smiley around to help him out, Durango brings law to a lawless empire.

 

 

Retro Television Review: Welcome Back, Kotter 3.22 “What Goes Up”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Saturdays, I will be reviewing Welcome Back Kotter, which ran on ABC  from 1975 to 1979.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!

This week, Freddie gets hooked on pills!

Episode 3.22 “What Goes Up”

(Dir by Jeff Bleckner, originally aired on February 9th, 1978)

At the new, big, how-does-he-afford-that-on-a-teacher’s-salary apartment, Gabe tries to avoid taking out the trash by telling Julie a joke about his Uncle George.  Julia tells Gabe to shut up and take out the damn trash.

Meanwhile, at school, Freddie has a problem.  After injuring his knee while playing basketball, Freddie is given a prescription for pain killers.  But the pain killers leave him feeling groggy so he also starts taking pills to give him energy.  The other Sweathogs are concerned.  Freddie insists that he’s just taking vitamins.  Horshack insists that Freddie would never lie to him.  If Freddie says that the pills that he’s buying in the bathroom and carrying around in his shoe are harmless vitamins than Freddie is telling the truth!

Woodman, however, is concerned.  He tells Kotter that Freddie entered the cafeteria, took off his shoes, and said, “Ho ho ho, I’m the Jolly Black Giant.”  “Is he on the dope!?” Woodman demands to know.

Epstein and Barbarino decide that the best way to handle this problem is to act like they’re on drugs as well so that Freddie can see how dumb he looks.  Epstein tries to act spacey.  Vinnie walks around hunched over and repeating, “Give me drugs …. give me drugs …. give me drugs….”  Freddie doesn’t buy it for a second but then …. what’s going on with Horshack!?  Horshack explains that he took some of Freddie’s special vitamins and then he tries to jump out of the classroom window!

(What the Hell was in those pills?  I pretty much take the same thing for my ADHD and I have never been tempted to jump out a window.)

That’s all it takes for Freddie to realize that it’s time to stop taking the pills.  Gabe encourages him to flush them down the school’s toilet and Freddie agrees to do while the studio audience watches in reverent silence.

Back at the apartment, Gabe tells Julie a joke about his Uncle Luther.  Julie does not care.

It’s hard to know where to begin with this episode.  On the one hand, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs was often underused by the show so it’s always nice when he gets a chance to show off the fact that he was one of the better actors on the show.  That said, the show’s portrayal of drug use was so cartoonish that it ultimately kind of made being a speed freak look kind of fun.  If nothing else, this show left me wondering how a bunch of teenagers in the late 70s could be so naive about drugs.

Of course, if Barbarino had been the one who nearly died, I imagine the audience would have been more upset.  If Epstein had gotten hooked due to Freddie’s lies, it could have led to some drama.  But Horshack?  Eh, who cares?  When the show first started, Ron Pallilo was often given an opportunity to show that there was some hidden depths underneath Horshack’s eccentricity.  But, by the time the third season rolled around, Horshack had become such a cartoonish character that it’s impossible to take anything involving him seriously.

To give credit where credit is due, John Travolta made me laugh with his delivery of “Give me drugs …. give me drugs….”  Travolta appeared to be having a lot of fun in this episode, perhaps because he knew he wouldn’t be on the show much longer.

Anyway, for someone who couldn’t go an hour without popping a pill, Freddie got over his addiction pretty quickly.  That’s good because next week, Vinnie is going to have to deal with the death of one of his teachers and Freddie’s going to have to be there for him.  As for Horshack, this episode ends with him being taken to the school nurse but I assume he’ll eventually make a full recovery as as well.  It takes more than pills to keep the Sweathogs down.

Scenes That I Love: The Muppets Meet Dabney Coleman In The Muppets Take Manhattan

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yesterday, the world learned the sad news that the great Texas character actor, Dabney Coleman, had passed away at the age of 93.

Today’s scene that I love comes from 1984’s The Muppets Take Manhattan.  In this scene, the Muppets try to sell Coleman on their idea for a musical.  Coleman, meanwhile, does his best to cheat the Muppets out of all of their money.  It takes a truly great actor to give a convincing performance while acting opposite a very large group of puppets.

(I mean, we all know Kermit’s real but I’m pretty sure that the rest of them are puppets….)

Live Tweet Alert: Join #ScarySocial for Tell Me A Creepy Story!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter.  I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie!  Every week, we get together.  We watch a movie.  We tweet our way through it.

Tonight, at 9 pm et, Tim Buntley will be hosting #ScarySocial!  The movie?  2023’s Tell Me A Creepy Story!

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag!  I’ll be there tweeting and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well.  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

Tell Me A Creepy Story is available on Prime and Tubi!

See you there!

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Frank Capra Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

127 years ago, on this date, Frank Capra was born in Sicily.  Capra was six years old when his family immigrated to the United States and, for the rest of his long life, he would often talk about seeing the Statue of Liberty from the deck of a boat sailing to Ellis Island.  Capra went on to become a director whose work celebrated the ideals and the promise of America.  He not only gave us the holiday classic, It’s A Wonderful Life, but he also directed one of the few political films that matteed, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.  And let us not forget that the first two comedies to win the Oscar for Best Picture were directed by Capra, It Happened One Night and You Can’t Take It With You.

In honor of a great career and legacy, here are….

4 Shots From 4 Frank Capra Films

It Happened One Night (1934, dir by Frank Capra, DP: Joseph Walker)

You Can’t Take It With You (1938, dir by Frank Capra, DP: Joseph Walker)

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939, dir by Frank Capra, DP: Joseph Walker)

It’s A Wonderful Life (1946, dir by Frank Capra, DP: Joseph Walker and Joseph Biroc)

Late Night Retro Television Review: Friday the 13th: The Series 2.4 “Tails I Live, Heads You Die”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Friday the 13th: The Series, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The show can be found on YouTube!

This week, a flip of the coin leads to tragedy!

Episode 2.4 “Tails I Live, Heads You Die”

(Dir by Mark Sobel, originally aired on October 21st, 1988)

Finally, Jack, Micki, and Ryan have a night to relax.  Jack does some reading while Micki poses for Ryan, who is apparently a sculptor now.  Micki says that it’s unfortunate that Ryan is stuck having work at Curious Goods when he has so much artistic talent.  Micki has a point, even if this is the first time that we’ve heard about Ryan’s artistic interests.

Suddenly, the phone rings.  A reporter named Tom Hewitt (Bill MacDonald) is calling because he’s heard that Jack is an expert in the occult.  Tom says that he’s tracked down a Satanic cult that is planning on doing something big.  He tells Jack where he can find all of the evidence that Tom has gathered over the course of his investigation.  While Jack and Ryan head over to the bus depot where Tom has hidden his research, Micki stays at the store.  As for poor old Tom, he ends up dead with the image of a bloody ram’s head imprinted on his forehead.

Looking through Tom’s papers and photographs, Jack discovers that the head of the Satanic cult is a taxidermist named Sylvan Winters (Colin Fox) and that Sylvan is in possession of a coin that is imbued with Satanic energy.  When the owner of the coin flips it, it leads to the death of whoever is standing nearby.  After the coin kills someone, it can be used to bring someone back to life.

First, Jack goes to the taxidermy shop with Ryan but the two of them fail to find the coin.  Later, Jack returns with Micki and the two of them stumble on a Satanic ceremony.  When they are spotted by Sylvan and the cultists, Jack and Micki make a run for it.  Sadly, they get separated.  While Jack manages to escape from the cultists, Micki is caught by Sylvan.  Sylvan flips the coin and …. KILLS MICKI!

Seriously, Micki’s death took me totally by surprise and it actually left me feeling really upset.  I’ve got red hair.  Micki has red hair.  Micki tends to be a skeptic.  I tend to be a skeptic.  Micki was pretty much me on this show!  And now she’s dead?  Agck!

Arriving at the taxidermy place, Ryan sobs over Micki’s body and then tells Jack that, after he gets the coin and destroys Sylvan, he is done with the cursed antiques business.  Ryan says that he’s ready to live his life and he can’t handle losing anyone else close to him.  (Remember that Ryan’s father was killed by a cursed pipe last season.)  

Returning to the taxidermy studio, Ryan and Jack discover that Sylvan is planning on using the coin to raise two powerful warlocks and a witch so that they can combine their power to bring Satan into the world.  However, Ryan and Jack steal Micki’s body from the morgue, put a mask on her to make her look like the witch that Sylvan wants to raise from the dead, and then the replace the witch’s body with Micki’s body.  As a result, Sylvan brings Micki back to life.  (Ryan and Jack’s plan is incredibly complicated and I’m kind of surprised that they were able to pull it off.  But who cares as long as Micki is no longer dead.)  Satan gets angry, the taxidermist studio collapses. and Ryan grabs the coin and flips it in front of Sylvan.  Sylvan dies but the coin is still out there.

But no matter!  The important thing is that Micki comes back to life!  Yay!  And Ryan decides not to leave Curious Goods, mostly because he’s in love with his cousin, though that’s something that the show rarely acknowledges.

By the time this episode came around, Robey, Chris Wiggins, and John D. LeMay had developed into a tight enough ensemble that Ryan’s tears and Jack’s anger over the death of Micki felt very powerful and very real.  As well, Colin Fox was a wonderfully hissable villain.  He was so smug that I couldn’t wait to see him get his comeuppance.  This was an excellent episode.

Next week, Ryan falls in love with a cursed violinist because Ryan is never allowed to be happy for long.

The Films of 2024: He Went That Way (dir by Jeffrey Darling)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The year is 1964.  Kennedy is dead and Johnson is president.  American troops are in Vietnam but the American public is not yet concerned with that conflict.  Instead, it’s the British Invasion that has intrigued the youth of America.  People know that times are changing but they have no idea just how much change is waiting for them in the future.

Jim Goodwin (Zachary Quninto) is a meek animal trainer who is driving across the country with his chimpanzee, Spanky.  At one time, Spanky was a celebrity.  He ice skated with the stars.  He appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.  Everyone loved Spanky but now, it appears that his time has passed.  People are more interested in Beatles than chimps.  With Spanky no longer in demand, Jim’s marriage is failing and he’s struggling to pay the bills.

At a Nevada gas station, Jim sees a young man named Bobby Falls (Jacob Elordi) trying to hitch a ride.  Assuming that Bobby is a college student and wanting someone to talk to during the long drive to Chicago, Jim offers him a ride.  Bobby is reluctant at first and demands to know if Jim has some sort of sinister motive for picking him up.  After Jim promises that he doesn’t, Bobby gets in the truck with him.

What Jim doesn’t know, but eventually learns, is that Bobby is a criminal.  Using a derringer, Bobby has been robbing gas stations and executing the gas station attendants.  Their journey becomes a rather macabre road trip, with Jim and Bobby bonding despite the fact that Jim is scared of Bobby and Bobby always seems to be one step away from snapping.  Bobby encourages Jim to stop being such a wimp and Jim encourages Bobby to maybe not be such a violent sociopath.  Though Bobby and Jim come from different worlds, they both have one thing in common.  They really like the chimpanzee.

I have to admit that I liked the chimpanzee as well.  Bobby’s a killer so it’s impossible for me to like him.  Jim is a wimp who fails to take advantage of several opportunities to escape so it’s impossible for me to respect him.  But Spanky is an innocent animal who likes to eat apples and who sincerely cares about both his owner and the hitchhiker who keeps losing his temper.  I watched the film dreading that something bad would happen to Spanky.  In fact, the only reason I stuck with the film for its entire running time was because I wanted to make sure Spanky survived. 

(SPOILER ALERT: He did.  Whatever other flaws this film may have, there is no deliberate animal cruelty.)

I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about this movie.  There was a lot that I didn’t like about the film.  I never bought the relationship between the two main characters (though I should also acknowledge that the film is loosely based on a true story and ends with an interview with the real life model for Jim).  The performances felt a bit one-note.  And, to be honest, I’m a bit bored with movies about people who spend the majority of their time killing other people.  At the same time, the film looked great.  Visually, it really captured the arid beauty of the American desert.  And the film’s final twist was just bizarre enough to make me smile.  Tragically, director Jeffrey Darling died shortly after completing production of this film.  (It was his feature directorial debut.)  And while I didn’t care much for the film, there were moments where I could see the talent of the director peeking through.  I would have liked to have seen what Darling’s second film would have been.

As for He Went That Way, it’s not a disastrous film but it’s also not one that I will probably ever feel like rewatching.

 

 

Six-Gun Law (1948, directed by Ray Nazarro)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Steve Norris (Charles Starrett) has moved to a new frontier town and is making a good living as a cattle rancher.  The sheriff (Ethan Laidlaw) takes a dislike to Steve and even accuses him of being a cattle rustler.  Steve is so angered that he plays right into the hands of Decker (Hugh Prosser), a corrupt businessman who secretly puts blanks into Steve’s gun and then tricks Steve into thinking that he has shot and killed the sheriff.

Decker appoints Steve as the new sheriff but demands that Steve do exactly what Decker orders him to do.  If Steve actually enforced the law, Decker will turn him in as the first sheriff’s murderer.  Steve may not be able to do anything about Decker’s crimes but his alter ego, The Durango Kid, can!  As always, working with Steve is his loyal sidekick, Smiley Burnette.

The stand-out set piece of this Durango Kid film is an exciting stagecoach chase, which features the Durango Kid (in the form of legendary stuntman Jock Mahoney) making some thrilling moves.  The scene was so exciting and popular that it was used in a dozen other Durango Kid films.  These movies were never shy about reusing good scenes, effective stunts, and plot twists.  (It’s easy to lose track of how many times Steve has been appointed as sheriff of a town.)  This was also neither the first nor the last time that Hugh Prosser and Robert Wilke would play bad guys in a Durango Kid movie.  However, this is the only Durango Kid film to feature the Rodeo Rangers providing musical accompaniment  to Smiley Burnette’s songs.

Six-Gun Law will be best appreciated by fans of the western genre.  Charles Starrett is as tough and authentic a cowboy as always and the storyline has some nice twists and turns.  For once, with Steve being blackmailed by Decker, it makes sense that Steve would put on his disguise and solve his problems as the Durango Kid.