Author Archives: Jedadiah Leland

Camouflage (2000, directed by James Keach)

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It’s strange to hear Leslie Nielsen drop an F bomb.

That was my main though I watched Camouflage.  Leslie Nielsen plays a hard-boiled private detective named Jack Potter who reluctantly takes on an apprentice named Matty McKenzie (Lochlyn Munro).  Mostly to get Matty, a failed stage actor, out of his hair, Jack sends him to handle a minor case in the small town of Beaver Ridge.  The minor case becomes a major case when it becomes clear that a murder is being planned.

Camouflage starts out like a typical Leslie Nielsen mockbuster, with Nielsen providing a ridiculous, Frank Drebin-style narration.  But the film itself develops into a dark comedy where Matty finds himself in a small town where everyone’s got secret.  Nielsen gives an almost-serious performance as Potter, playing him as a cynic with a tragic backstory and little patience for his protegee.  There’s a tonal imbalance between the moments of broad comedy and the more serious moments and the film doesn’t work as a result but it is interesting to see a post-Airplane! Leslie Nielsen playing things relatively straight.

One interesting thing about Camouflage is that it was written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson but, in the final cut, the screenplay is credited to Reginald Perry.  (The small town setting is one that Thornton used frequently in his scripts and it’s easy to imagine him playing the role of Jack Potter in alternate version of this film.)  Camouflage reportedly sat on the shelf for quite a while before it was finally given a release and Nielsen’s narration often feels like it was something that was added in post-production to try to both bring the disjointed film together and to draw in the Naked Gun fans.  I have a feeling the story behind this film is probably more interesting than the film itself.

North of the Border (1946, directed by B. Reeves Eason)

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Rancher Bob “Utah” Neyes (Russell Hayden) heads into Canada to meet up with his business partner.  Unfortunately, his partner has been murdered by outlaw Nails Nelson (Douglas Fowley).  Mountie Jack Craig (Lyle Talbot) almost arrests Utah for the crime but he becomes convinced that Utah is innocent and Nails is guilty.  Along with fur trader Ivy Jenkins (I. Stanford Jolley), Craig and Utah try to break up Nails’s fur-smuggling operation.

While I was watching it, I thought this movie seemed even more familiar than the usual Poverty Row western.  I realized that’s because I had actually seen Russell Hayden and most of the rest of the cast in another movie that had a similar plot, right down taking place on the other side of the border.  That other movie was called ‘Neath Canadian Skies.  Both it and North of the Border are among the four Canadian western films that Robert Lippert produced in 1946, all of which starred Russell Hayden and were directed by B. Reeves Easton.  Supposedly, it took 20 days to shoot all of them.

As for North of the Border, it’s only 42 minutes long and none of those minutes are wasted.  There’s all of the usual horse chases and gunfights that fans want from these films.  For me, the most interesting thing about the film was getting to see Lyle Talbot play something other than a boring authority figure.  Also, this film features Inez Cooper, a pretty redhead who had a short career but whose beauty and personality as well-remembered by fans of Poverty Row westerns.  She plays the love interest in this one and there’s no doubt that most men would give up living in Utah for her.

Jury Duty (1990, directed by Michael Schultz)

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Meek-looking accountant Sanford Lagelfost (Bronson Pinchot) is on trial for embezzlement.  It’s supposed to be a simple, up-and-shut case but when the beautiful star witness (Tracy Scoggins) testifies that Sanford is an amazing lover, it becomes a tabloid sensation and the jurors are sequestered in a hotel, where they have to deal with their own restlessness and several distractions, the majority of whom are also played by Bronson Pinchot.  Pinchot plays a total of four characters but it’s not like he’s Peter Sellers or even Eddie Murphy.  He looks and sounds like Bronson Pinchot in every role.

The jurors are played by a bunch of a familiar television actors.  Alan Thicke plays a yuppie named Phil and Lynn Redgrave plays a hippie named Abby and they end up getting married.  Stephen Baldwin is the waiter who falls for Heather Locklear, an actress who is a former call girl who is being threatened by her pimp.  Madchen Amick is the spoiled rich girl.  Television mainstays Mark Blankfield, Ilene Graf, William G. Schilling, Danny Pintauro, and Bill Kirchenbauer are all present and accounted for.  Adding to the overall sitcom feel of the movie is the presence of Reginald VelJohnson as the judge.  No one in the cast tries very hard, though I do think a case can be made that Madchen Amick was the most beautiful woman on television in 1990.

With the film failing to achieve either a consistent tone or a single laugh, the best thing that I can say about Jury Duty is that it didn’t feature Pauly Shore.  Instead it featured Alan Thicke driving a BMW with a license plate that read, “BMW4Phil.”  It’s hard to believe that this film was directed by Michael Schultz, who was responsible for movies like Car Wash, Cooley High, and Greased Lightning in the 70s and Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon in the 80s.

I wish I had watched The Last Dragon instead.

Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin (1937, directed by Sam Newfield)

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On the frontier, crooked lawyer Gabe Bowdre (Karl Hackett) is trying to secure all of the local water rights for himself and that means running off both the homesteaders and the ranchers.  Bowdre and his men try to start a range war between the ranching Stocktown family and the homesteading Dawsons.  Meanwhile, Dan Stockton (Bob Steele) has fallen in love with Gail Dawson (Louise Stanley) and marries her mere minutes before someone shoots his father in the back.

Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin has all the common elements that usually come with a B-western.  I have lost track of how many times I have watched Karl Hackett play a crooked businessman who tries to start a range war to win either the water rights or the property deeds.  Bob Steele spent a good deal of his career beating up Karl Hackett on screen.

What sets Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin apart is the Romeo and Juliet angle.  While it’s predictable, the love story between Dan and Gail still adds more emotional depth than is usually found in these movies.  The scene where all of the ranchers glare daggers at Dan’s new wife is powerful.

Bob Steele’s as good a hero as usual and Karl Hackett is a dastardly villain.  Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin runs a little less than an hour, making it a good western for an afternoon break.

Deal of the Century (1983, directed by William Friedkin)

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Chevy Chase, Gregory Hines, and Wallace Shawn all play small-time arms dealers who get involved in a scheme to sell the “Peacemaker” drone to the dictatorship that has seized control of the Latin American country of San Miguel.  After Shawn commits suicide, Chase and Hines are joined by his widow, who is played by Sigourney Weaver.  Selling the Peacemaker should be easy except that Hines has a religious epiphany and becomes a pacifist and Chase himself is starting to have qualms about the way he makes a living.  As his brother-in-law puts it, something bad seems to happen in every country that Chase visits.

Deal of the Century has the unique distinction of being one of the two films that director William Friedkin did not acknowledge in his autobiography, The Friedkin Connection.  When Friedkin was asked why he left it out of his book, Friedkin said that he didn’t consider Deal of the Century to be a “Friedkin film.”  He wanted to do a Dr. Strangelove-style satire while the studio wanted a board Chevy Chase comedy.  The studio won, Friedkin was not given final cut, the movie bombed, and Friedkin didn’t see any reason to revisit the experience of making it.

Deal of the Century is a disjointed film.  The best scenes are the one that are probably the closest to Friedkin’s original vision.  These are the scenes set in weapons expos and that highlight the commercials designed to sell products of mass destruction.  But those scenes are dwarfed by scenes of Chevy Chase being pursued by cartoonish guerillas in San Miguel and Gregory Hines overacting after getting baptized.  Chase has a few good smartass scenes at the start of the film, some of which are reminiscent of his career-best work in Fletch.  But he loses his way as the film goes on and his change-of-heart never feels convincing.  The film ends with a burst of special effects that are unconvincing even for 1983.

Deal of the Century may have been directed by William Friedkin but he was correct to say that it is definitely not a Friedkin film.

Riders of the Desert (1932, directed by Robert N. Bradbury)

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In the closing days of the frontier, a group of Rangers in New Mexico receive a telegram telling them that it is time to disband and to turn law enforcement duties over to the local sheriff.  However, there’s a viscous outlaw named Hashknife (George “Gabby” Hayes) on the loose so Bob Houston (Bob Steele) and Slim (Al St. John) pretend that they never received the telegram so that they can arrest him.  Hashknife kidnaps Bob’s girl (Gertie Messenger) and that makes thing personal.

Riders of the Desert is an appropriate name for this film because the majority of its 50-minute running time really was just taken up with footage of men riding their horses from one location to another.  Even though the film was less than an hour long, the story sill needed some filler.

Riders of the Desert is still a pretty good western, though.  It’s definitely better than the average Poverty Row western.  As always, Bob Steele look authentic riding a horse and Al St. John provides good support as Fuzzy.  The disbanding of the Rangers gives the first half of the film an elegiac feel that would later show up in several of the westerns made during and after the 1960s.  The old west is coming to an end and there’s less need for the Rangers.  The second half of the film is almost all action and George “Gabby” Hayes is a surprisingly effective villain.  Of course, this movie was made before he became Gabby.

As with most Poverty Row westerns, this is not the film to watch if you’re not already a fan of the genre.  But for those who like westerns, Riders of the Desert is a good one.

Nothing But Trouble (1991, directed by Dan Aykroyd)

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Publisher Chris Thorne (Chevy Chase) is eager to get to know lawyer Diane Lightson (Demi Moore) so he agrees to drive her and two Brazilian hangers-on from Manhattan to New Jersey.  The Brazilians encourage Chris to take a detour, which leads to him running a stop sign, getting into a high-speed chase with chief of police Dennis Valkenheiser (John Candy), and being detained in the dilapidated village of Valkhenheiser.  Dennis decides to leave town with the Brazilians, leaving Chris and Diane to face the wrath of 106 year-old Judge Alvin “J.P” Valkenheiser (Dan Aykroyd).  Judge Valkenheiser has spent decades killing anyone who breaks the law in his village, though he also kills anyone who he just dislikes.  The Judge assumes Chris is a banker (and he hates bankers) and is prepared to kill him unless he marries the Judge’s granddaughter, Eldona (John Candy, in drag).  This town is nothing but trouble and Chris and Diane have to escape.

Nothing But Trouble was both the directorial debut and swan song for Dan Aykroyd.  (Aykroyd also wrote the script, from a story that was written by his brother, Peter.)  The film was an notorious box office bomb and watching, it’s easy to see why.  The story is all over the place, awkwardly mixing humor and horror.  Anyone who has seen the early seasons of Saturday Night Live knows that young Dan Aykroyd was one of the funniest people around but, when it comes to the movies, he’s always worked better with a collaborator than on his own.  As a director, Aykroyd throws a little bit of everything into Nothing But Trouble and the movie feels overstuffed.

As an actor, though, Aykroyd is funny.  Whatever laughs are to be found in Nothing But Trouble are largely the result of his performance as the Judge.  Chevy Chase seems bored.  Demi Moore actually gives a decent performance but she plays her role straight.  John Candy is likable as Dennis but too cartoonish as Eldona.  Aykroyd, however, so commits himself to playing the 106 year-old judge that he wrings laughs from even the weakest of lines.  Criticize Aykroyd the director all you want, Aykroyd the actor delivers.

One final note: The rap group Digital Underground makes a cameo appearance as themselves, performing in the Judge’s courtroom after getting arrested for speeding.  When I was watching Chevy Chase mugging for the camera and Dan Aykroyd walking around hunched over, I hardly expected to see a young Tupac Shakur suddenly show up but he did.  Digital Underground’s cameo is one of the film’s better moments, even if they don’t perform The Humpty Dance.

Billy The Kid In Texas (1940, directed by Sam Newfield)

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Billy the Kid (Bob Steele) escapes from a Mexican prison (where he was being held on a trumped-up charge) and ends up in Corral City, Texas with his old friend, Fuzzy Jones (Al St. John).  This version of Billy the Kid may be an outlaw but he’s a really nice outlaw.  He holds up two men who had previously held up a express wagon but he turns over the loot after he and Fuzzy are appointed the new law in Corral City.  The bad outlaws don’t want Billy the Kid or anyone else as their new sheriff so they bring in a notorious gunslinger (Carleton Young) to help them keep the town under their control but it turns out that Billy and the gunslinger have a past that no one knew about.

Bob Steele played Billy the Kid in a series of films, until Buster Crabbe took over the role in 1942.  Steele was a convincing cowboy and a convincing gunman but he wasn’t a convincing kid.  Of course, this version of Billy the Kid didn’t have much in common with the real Billy the Kid.  The movie version of Billy the Kid got into a lot of trouble but it was usually due to a misunderstanding.

Billy the Kid In Texas is definitely a Poverty Row western.  It looks cheap and it was cheap but it did feature a good fight scene between Bob Steele and Charles King and the relationship between Billy the Kid and Carleton Young’s gunslinger also added some extra dimension to the otherwise predictable story.  This film is okay for western fans who aren’t sticklers for historical accuracy.

 

The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994, directed by Peter Segal)

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Mad bomber Rollo Dillon (Fred Ward) has been hired by terrorists to bomb a major American institution.  Captain Ed Hocken (George Kennedy) and Detective Nordberg (O.J. Simpson) know that there’s only one man who can handle this job and his name is Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen).  Frank, however, has retired from Police Squad and promised his wife, Jane (Priscilla Presley), that he is through with police work.

At heart, Frank remains a cop.  He even dreams of shoot-outs.  When he tries to do police work without Jane noticing, it backfires on him.  Even though Frank lies and claims that he’s just having an affair, Jane leaves him.  Frank, with nothing better to do, goes into prison undercover to gain Rollo’s confidence.  After Rollo and Frank escape, Frank discovers that Rollo and his girlfriend (Anna Nicole Smith) is planning on bombing the Academy Awards!

The Naked Gun 33 1/3 is the weakest of the original Police Squad films, which is to say that it’s still pretty funny, even if some of the jokes no longer feel as fresh as they did in the previous films.  It opens with a brilliant send-up of the shoot-out from The Untouchables and it ends with a perfect parody of the Academy Awards.  (Pia Zadora singing This Could Be The Start Of Something Big is funny because it’s exactly the sort of thing that used to happen at the Oscars.)  It’s in the middle section that the film drags, though there are still things that made me laugh, like a flashback to Frank, Ed, and Nordberg in the 70s.  David Zucker did not return to direct this installment and his absence is definitely felt.

Leslie Nielsen is as funny as ever and he’s well-matched with George Kennedy and Priscila Presley.  (OJ Simpson’s presence is as awkward as ever.)  Fred Ward plays his villainous role straight, a smart move.  But then you’ve got Anna Nicole Smith, who was such a terrible actress that her presence in the film doesn’t even work as a joke.  Whenever Smith shows up, the film grinds to a halt.  It’s the worst type of stunt casting.

This was Leslie Nielsen final performance as Frank Drebin.  Even in a lesser film, he was still a comedic treasure.

Overland Mail (1939, directed by Robert F. Hill)

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Jack Mason (Jack Randall) has the most important job on the frontier.  He delivers the mail.  After he’s chased by the members of the local Indian tribe, he learns that an uprising is imminent because a young brave has been murdered and the tribe blames the citizens of a nearby town.  Of course, the murder was actually committed by a gang of counterfeiters led by saloon owner Pollini (Tristram Coffin).  Pollini is not only a counterfeiter but he also lies to sweet Mary Martin (Jean Joyce), telling her that he’s hiring her to be a waitress when he’s actually looking for a dance hall girl.  Jack has to bring Pollini to justice before a full scale war breaks out.

This is not a bad B-western.  It’s short and quick but the story is slightly better than the average Monogram oater and Jack Randall and co-star Dennis Moore are both believable as cowboys and gunslingers.  Fans of the genre will be happy to see Glenn Strange as the sheriff and Iron Eyes Cody as the chief of the tribe.  I’ve always liked westerns where the heroes were just trying to keep the peace so that they could deliver the mail.  We take mail for granted nowadays but in the 1800s, delivering mail was almost as dangerous as delivering money.  If you’re not into westerns, Overland Mail won’t change your mind but, if you’re already a fan of the genre, Overland Mail makes for an entertaining 50 minutes.