Author Archives: Jedadiah Leland

Gun Street (1961, directed by Edward L. Cahn)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

During the closing days of the Old West (people ride horses and form posses but they also use hand-crank telephones), a notorious bank robber (played by Warren J. Kemmerling) escapes from prison.  Everyone fears that the outlaw is heading for his home town, where he’s sworn that he’s going to get revenge on all of the people who he blames for his imprisonment.  It’s up to Sheriff Chuck Morton (James Brown, not that James Brown) and Deputy Sam Freed (John Clarke) to alert all of the outlaw’s potential victims and to put together a posse to ride into the desert and hopefully end his reign of terror once and for all.  Complicating matters (though only slighly) is that the sheriff and the outlaw grew up together and used to be friends.

Yet another B-feature from the very active director Edward L. Cahn (he was credited with having directed 127 films, 11 in 1961 alone!), Gun Street plays out like a lesser episode of Gunsmoke.  Imagine High Noon, just without the red scare subtext and no Gary Cooper.  James Brown and John Clarke are both believable as western lawman and they have a good rapport.  Sandra Stone plays the outlaw’s sister, who now owns the local “dance hall” and, in her scenes with Brown, I thought it seemed as if the film was suggesting that she and the sheriff were once more than just friends.  Unfortunately, that’s one of many potentially intriguing subplots that the film suggests without bothering to explore.  Obviously made to be a second feature on a double bill, Gun Street is barely over an hour long, which doesn’t leave much time for anyone else in the film to make much of an impression.  The short running time also means that the film moves so quickly that certain plot points go unexplained.  Probably the most disappointing thing about Gun Street is that, after all of the build-up about how tough and dangerous this outlaw is, the film ends not with a bang but with an anti-climatic whimper.  Did they run out of money during filming?  Did Edward L. Cahn have to leave so he could go direct another film?  We may never know.

If you’re looking for a good western about one town awaiting the arrival of an outlaw, rewatch High Noon.

Music Video Of The Day: In Liverpool by Suzanne Vega (1992, directed by Howard Greenhaigh)

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In this song from her 1992 album, 99.9F°, Suzanne Vega sings about a lost relationship.  Apparently, this song was inspired by a relationship that Vega actually had with someone who from Liverpool.  He and Vega met in America when she was 18 and they fell in love, just for their relationship to end when he had to return to his home.

Today, this song makes me think of my friends and family in the UK and how I look forward to someday getting to see them again.

This video was directed by Howard Greenhaigh.  Greenhaigh has several videos to his name but the one he’s probably best known for is Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun.

Enjoy!

Julius Caesar (1970, directed by Stuart Burge)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In ancient Rome, under the direction of Cassius (Richard Johnson), several members of the Senate conspire to kill Julius Caesar (John Gielgud), believing that his death is the only way to preserve the Republic.  Even Caesar’s longtime friend, Brutus (Jason Robards), is brought into the conspiracy.  Unfortunately for the conspirators, after Caesar’s murder, Mark Antony (Charlton Heston) gives his famous speech asking the Romans to lend him their ears and the Roman citizens turn against Caesar’s murderers and instead look to Antony and Octavius (Richard Chamberlain) to lead them.

This was the first adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play to be filmed in color and the assassination of Caesar was portrayed much more graphically than in previous productions.  By the end of the attack, Caesar has been stabbed so many times and there’s so much blood on screen that it doesn’t seem like he should even have the strength to say, “Et tu, Brute?”  Despite the then-modern innovations, this version still feels creaky and stiff.  When Caesar makes his appearance on the Ides of March, all of the conspirators actually stand in a neat line while Caesar enters the Senate.  When Mark Anthony and Brutus make their speeches, the extras playing the Roman citizens looked bored and disinterested.

For most viewers, the appeal of this version of Julius Caesar will be for the cast, which was considered to be all-star in 1970.  Along with Gielgud, Robards, Heston, Johnson, and Chamberlain, the cast also features Robert Vaughn as Casca, Christopher Lee as Artemidorous, Jill Bennett as Calpurnia, and Diana Rigg as Portia.  Surprisingly, it’s Jason Robards, the Broadway veteran, who struggles with Shakespeare’s dialogue, delivering his lines flatly and without much emotion.  Meanwhile, Charlton Heston steals the entire film as Mark Antony, nailing Antony’s funeral oration and proving himself to be much more clever than the conspirators had originally assumed.  (Of course, Mark Antony was the Charlton Heston of his day so I guess it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that Heston is perfect in the role.)  I also liked Diana Rigg’s performance in the small role of Portia and Robert Vaughn’s devious interpretation of Casca.

Though he plays Caesar here, John Gielgud previously played Cassius in the 1953 version of Julius Caesar, the one with James Mason and Marlon Brando.  That is still the version to watch if you want to see the definitive adaptation of Julius Caesar.

Music Video of the Day: Signs, covered by Tesla (1990, directed by ????)

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Tesla did not come up with this song on their own.  Instead, Signs was written by Les Emmerson in the late 60s and it was a hit for Five Man Electrical Band in 1970.  The song was inspired by a trip Emmerson took down Route 66.  While driving, Emmerson noticed that there were a lot of … you guessed it … signs!  Embraced by the “long-haired freaky” people mentioned in the opening lyrics, Signs became a surprise hit.

Twenty years later, the song was revived when Tesla performed an acoustic version of the song.  At the time, Tesla was the opening act for Motley Crue’s Dr. Feelgood tour but, because they had an off-day, the band booked an acoustic show.  Each member of the band picked a different song to perform.  Signs was selected by lead singer Jeff Keith, who grew up in Oklahoma and, as you can see in the video, had some definite thoughts when it came to signs blocking out the scenery (or “fucking up the scenery” as the band put it in the uncensored version of the song).

Signs is a good example of song that probably would have been forgotten if not for MTV.  When the song was originally released, it didn’t get much attention but the subsequent video proved to be popular and the song eventually became a hit.  The success of Signs led to other bands do acoustic shows and eventually MTV launching Unplugged.

Enjoy!

Charles Bronson, Hollywood’s Lone Wolf (2020, directed by Jean Lauritano)

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How did a former Pennsylvania coal miner who was born Charles Buchinsky eventually transform himself into Charles Bronson, one of the world’s biggest movie stars?

That’s the question that’s examined in this short documentary.  Filled with scenes from Bronson’s films and clips of the tight-lipped interviews that he gave throughout his career, Charles Bronson, Hollywood’s Lone Wolf takes a look at Bronson’s life and film persona.  It attempts to explain the appeal of a notoriously inexpressive actor who, unlike many of his contemporaries, never went out of his way to win any popularity contests.  Unfortunately, the documentary struggles to tell us much that we didn’t already know about Bronson.  Even when, after years of trying, he finally became a Hollywood superstar, Bronson was still known for keeping to himself.  Much like the characters that he played, Bronson was someone who kept his feeling under wrap.  Lacking any contemporary interviews with the people who knew Bronson and who worked with him, the documentary often has to rely on what Bronson said and, unfortunately, Bronson never said much.

Another problem with the documentary is that it doesn’t seem to have been made by people who actually liked Charles Bronson’s films.  While Once Upon A Time In The West, The Mechanic, and Rider on the Rain are all rightfully praised, Death Wish is dismissed as reactionary and many of the films that he made in the 70s — including some of his best, like From Noon Till Three, Raid on Entebbe, and Telefon — are ignored all together.  While it’s true that Bronson’s films were rarely critically acclaimed, doesn’t it seem like a documentary about Charles Bronson should be made by people who actually dig his movies?

The documentary is at its best when it examines how much of Bronson’s career was fueled by his own bitterness towards his poverty-stricken childhood and the many years in which Hollywood refused to give him decent roles.  Bronson comes across as being surly, a little bit mean, and not someone to mess around with.  At the same time, when he’s with his second wife, Jill Ireland, Bronson seems like a totally different man.  He actually smiles!  Ireland brought out Bronson’s nice side.  With Ireland, Bronson relaxes in a way that most of the characters that he played would never have allowed himself to.  After Ireland’s death in 1990, Bronson is described as having been devastated but he subsequently used that pain to give one of his best performances, in Sean Penn’s The Indian Runner.

The documentary ends by noting that Quentin Tarantino dedicated Kill Bill Volume 1 to his memory.  No one, we’re told, knows how Bronson would have felt about it.  That sounds about right.  I think that really was what made Charles Bronson a superstar.  No one knew what he was thinking but everyone wanted to find out.

Music Video of the Day: Down by 311 (1996, directed by Josh Taft)

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This video is probably about as 90s as you can get but the 1990s were a cool decade and this video introduced a generation to meditation.  According to the band itself, this song was written as a way to thank the fans who were “down” with them before 311 ever found any sort of mainstream success.

This video was directed by Josh Taft, who also directed Plush and Sex Type Thing for Stone Temple Pilots.

Enjoy!

Cinemax Friday: Operation Cobra (1997, directed by Fred Olen Ray)

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Interpol agent Kyle Connors (kickboxing legend Don “The Dragon” Wilson) is sent into a tailspin when his partner, Trevor (Rick Hill), is apparently killed during a failed operation.  Connors’s boss (played by the film’s director, Fred Olen Ray) orders Connors to go on leave so Connors promptly heads over to India.  Connors is planning on capturing Daveed (Evan Lurie), the drug dealer who Kyle blames for murdering Trevor.

While searching for Daveed with the help of an honest (and obviously doomed) cop named Ravi (R. Madhavan), Connors has several battles with a group of Indian ninjas who are intent on capturing a mysterious woman named Shallimar (Deepti Bhatnagar).  Connors also meets yet another mysterious woman, Callista (Tane McClure), who claims to be an intelligence agent and who tells him that Daveed’s boss is actually the enigmatic Victor Grayson (Michael Cavanaugh).  While Connors is tracking down Grayson, he finds out about yet another shadowy crime boss known as The Hydra and a computer disk that can apparently be used to hack into computer in the known world.

Can you guess who The Hydra actually is?

As any aficionado of late night Cinemax can tell you, Don “The Dragon” Wilson and Fred Olen Ray are a match made in heaven.  If you were growing up in the 90s, you knew Don “The Dragon” Wilson was cool because everyone who talked about him used both his given name and his nickname.  He was never just “Don Wilson” or “The Dragon.”  Instead, he was Don “The Dragon” Wilson.  Though Wilson never had much screen presence, he was a good on-screen fighter and the fact that he wasn’t a typically muscle-bound action hero made him more interesting than an ‘actor” like Steven Seagal.  Fred Olen Ray, meanwhile, was smart enough to get out of the way and let Wilson kickbox his way through the movie.  Though the story is nearly impossible to follow, a few good fight scenes more than make up for it.  Ray understands that is what most of his audience (maybe all of his audience) is going to be watching for.

Though the plot of Operation Cobra never makes any sense, most people will know what they’re going to get when they see who directed it and who is starring in it.  Even though the film wasn’t shot in the most photogenic areas of India (because that would have cost too much money), it still makes good use of its location footage and it’s hard not to be entertained by a film features Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Tane McClure, Rick Hill, and Evan Laurie.  That’s B-action movie nirvana.  I also liked that it was never entirely clear what the computer disk actually did but that it was extremely important than it not fall in the wrong hands.  It was the ultimate MacGuffin and because the film was made in 1997, it wasn’t necessary to go into details.  All that had to be said was that it had something to do with computers and that automatically made it a big deal.  That’s just the way things were in the 90s.

Apache Territory (1958, directed by Ray Nazarro)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In this B-western, Rory Calhoun plays Logan Cates, an old west drifter, while traveling through the desert, comes across a young woman named Junie Hatchett (Carolyn Craig).  Junie’s parents were settlers who were captured and killed by a group of Apaches.  Knowing that the Apaches will still be looking Junie, Logan takes her to a nearby canyon where there’s water and shelter.  Soon, other victims of the Apaches start to show up at the canyon.  With their supplies dwindling and the Apaches surrounding them, Logan has to keep everyone alive and lead them to safety.

Complicating matters is that one of the people who shows up at the canyon is Logan’s ex-girlfriend, Jennifer (Barbara Bates).  Jennifer is traveling with her new husband, the wealthy (and therefore cowardly) Grant Kimbrough (John Dehner).  Also seeking shelter at the canyon are a group of Calvary officers, a Pima Indian named Lugo (Frank DeKova), and a naive teenage cowboy named Lonnie (Tom Pittman).

Based on a novel by Louis L’Amour, Apache Territory is a pretty standard western.  Some of the battle scenes are surprisingly brutal — particularly when one of the Calvary officers gets hit by a flaming arrow — but otherwise, this is a typical B-western, the type of movie that would have been the second part of a double bill at a Saturday matinee.  Logan Cates is able to survive because, unlike Grant Kimbrough, he knows and respects the land and, unlike the Calvary officers, he respects his enemy.  He’s a typical western hero, though well-played by Rory Calhoun.

The main problem with the film is that, for a film about a group of people trapped in one location, it never achieves any sense of claustrophobia.  The size of the canyon seems to change from shot to shot.  The film’s finale involves a well-realized dust storm but it still never reaches the type of action-packed conclusion that most western fans will be hoping for.  It ends with a whimper instead of a bang.  It feels more like an extended episode of Gunsmoke or The Virginian than a feature film.

This one will be best appreciated by undemanding fans of the genre.

A Tribute To Diana Rigg

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I was sad to hear that Dame Diana Rigg died today in London.  She was 82 years old.

Like a lot of people, I’ll always first think of Diana Rigg as being Emma Peel.  My dad loves the Avengers and I grew up watching reruns of the show with him.  He taped every episode and, a few years ago, he transferred all of his old VHS tapes to DVD.  I think we saw every episode of The Avengers (and The New Avengers, for that matter) that ever aired in the United States.  (The first season, which featured Patrick Macnee working with Ian Hendry, was never aired in the U.S. and, with the exception of three episodes, is now believed to be lost.)

Even though both Honor Blackman’s Cathy Gale and Linda Thorson’s Tara King both had their strengths, the show was at its best during those three seasons when Patrick Macnee (as John Steed) was partnered with Emma Peel.  It wasn’t just that Diana Rigg was amazingly beautiful and sexy as Emma Peel, though that was definitely some of the appeal.  It was also that she could take care of herself.  As many people learned over the course of her time on the show, you underestimated Emma Peel at your own peril.  She was as smart as Steed, she was as cunning as Steed, and she was as witty as Steed.  Never a damsel in distress, she was John Steed’s equal in every way and they made for a great team.  She could fight and she could deliver a one-liner with the best of them and, because she was played by Diana Rigg, she did it all with a very distinctive British classiness.

However, Diana Rigg was not just Emma Peel.  Not only was she the best of the Bond girls in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (you could believe that James Bond would settle down and retire just for a chance to spend the rest of his life with her) but she also had a co-starring role in one of my favorite British thrillers, The Assassination Bureau.  In the States, she played Portia in Charlton Heston’s production of Julius Caesar and then, in The Hospital, she proved she could handle Paddy Chayefsky’s dialogue with the same charm and skill as Shakespeare’s.  In the 80s, she took over the job hosting Mystery! on PBS when Vincent Price retired from the job.

Of course, to a whole new generation of viewers, she’ll be best known for appearing on Game of Thrones and for bringing Olenna Tyrell to life.  Rigg received three Emmy nominations for her performance as Olenna and her final scene, in which she voluntarily drank poison without a hint of fear or hesitation, was one of the strongest moments in the series.

I’m going to miss the talented and classy Dame Diana Rigg.  I know I’m not alone.

 

Music Video of the Day: House of Fun by Madness (1982, directed by Dave Robinson)

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This is probably one of the best songs ever written about a 16 year-old buying condoms before heading to a brothel (that would be the House of Fun referred to in the title).  Only Madness could have pulled it off.

This video was filmed at a Camden joke shop, a Kilburn chemist (or pharmacy), and a roller coaster in Great Yarmouth.  Reportedly, the band had to ride the roller coaster 54 times before director Dave Robinson was happy with the footage.

Enjoy!