In the year 1881, a recently arrested prisoner named Thomas Riley (Andrea Zirio) attempts to gain his freedom by offering to inform Sheriff Pat Garrett (Thom Hallum) about the location of a man calling himself Henry McCarty. At first Garrett asks why he should care about a man named McCarty but, when Riley reveals that McCarty is actually the infamous Billy the Kid, Garrett becomes much more interested.
TheKillingofBillyTheKid is a straight-forward account of the events leading up to the death of Billy the Kid (played here by Paul Addison). While there are flashbacks to the pasts of both Billy and Garrett, the majority of the film is Garrett heading out to the location where Billy is hiding. With a few notable exceptions, it sticks to the general accepted facts about the death of Billy the Kid. Paul Addison plays Billy as being a cocky punk and probably comes closer to capturing Billy’s actual personality than a lot of other actors have.
The budget was obviously low (the imdb says it was made for only $30,000) but the film still looks good and it’s version of the old west feels duty and isolated enough to be passable. I have seen the film listed as having a 90-minute runtime on some sites. Every streaming version that I’ve found clocks in at 77 minutes and, when I watched the film, it didn’t seem like there were any parts of the story missing. Addison and Hallum are convincing in their roles, looking authentic whether riding a horse or shooting a gun. For western fans, there’s much to appreciate about The Killing of Billy The Kid.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Mondays, I will be reviewing Miami Vice, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989. The entire show can be purchased on Prime!
This week, as the drug epidemic rages out of control, Sonny searches for a serial killer.
Episode 4.10 “Love At First Sight”
(Dir by Don Johnson, originally aired on January 15th, 1988)
What the Hell, MiamiVice?
Seriously, remember when this show was about Crockett and Tubbs going after drug dealers while Phil Collins played in the background? Season 4 feels like a completely different show.
This week’s episode finds Sonny going undercover (*massive eye roll as Sonny does his, “My name is Sonny Burnett” routine for the thousandth time*) and joining a video dating service. The plan is for Sonny to bust prostitutes but instead, he finds himself as the latest client to be targeted by a serial killer.
Sonny goes on dates, never knowing if the woman he’s with is a killer. One woman approaches him with something behind her back. Is it a knife? No, it’s a vibrator! “I can see the headlines now — Undercover cop slugs woman after assault with a sex toy!” Sonny says while wearing a yellow sweater and having a nice grapefruit breakfast at his mansion.
Meanwhile, cocaine is flooding Miami, the crack epidemic is spiraling out of control, there are communist taking over Central America, Fidel Castro is still alive, there’s a lot of going on out there and apparently it’s being ignored so Sonny can be used as serial killer bait — hey Vice Squad, why don’t you let the homicide detective deal with the murders while you get back to what you’re supposed to be doing?
Caitlin, Sonny’s wife, worries. Oh, how she worries. Her best friend tells her that she’s knew what she was getting into when she married a cop. If Sonny is trying to maintain his undercover identity, should Caitlin be telling people that she married a cop? Shouldn’t she be like, “I’m married to drug dealer! His name’s Burnett and he just looks like that guy who used to play college football?” That Sheena Easton was not a professional actress is pretty obvious in this episode. When she previously appeared, she was a singer playing a singer and that brought some authenticity to her performance. Now, she’s having to pretend to be the worried wife of a cop and her acting limitations are much more easier to see.
The killer is eventually revealed to be a woman (played by David Bowie’s future wife, Iman) with multiple personalities. When she feels threatened, she turns into her brother and uses a knife to castrate the men from the dating service. Will Sonny survive? Yes, he does.
Don Johnson directed this episode and usually, when a cast member directs an episode of their show, their character tends to take a background role so they can concentrate on directing. Not our Don! This episode is so much about Sonny that the rest of the Vice Squad is barely in it.
Every Monday night at 9:00 Central Time, my wife Sierra and I host a “Live Movie Tweet” event on X using the hashtag #MondayMuggers. We rotate movie picks each week, and our tastes are quite different. Tonight, Monday July 7th, we are showing NOBODY (2021), starring Bob Odenkirk, Aleksey Serebryakov, Connie Nielsen, Michael Ironside, Colin Salmon, RZA, and Christopher Lloyd.
The plot:A docile family man slowly reveals his true character after his house get burglarized by two petty thieves, which, coincidentally, leads him into a bloody war with a Russian crime boss.
So, if you think you might enjoy watching a “nobody” turn into a badass and take on the Russian mafia, and you’ve about 90 minutes to spare, then we’ve got the movie for you! Join us tonight for #MondayMuggers and watch NOBODY. It’s on Amazon Prime! I’ve included the trailer below:
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasion ally Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We snark our way through it.
Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be1996’s LethalTender!
It should make for a night of fun viewing and I invite all of you to join in. If you want to join the live tweets, just hop onto Mastodon, pull up Lethal Tender on YouTube, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag!
Yesterday was Janet Leigh’s birthday and today is Pat Hitchcock’s birthday so it seems appropriate that today’s scene that I love should feature both of them. From 1960’s Psycho, this scene features Leigh and Hitchcock as office co-workers who meet the very wealthy Mr. Lowry (played by Frank Albertson).
“He was flirting with you. He must have seen my wedding ring,” remains one of the greatest lines ever written.
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!
Today the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to director Robert Eggers! It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Robert Eggers Films
The Witch (2015, dir by Robert Eggers, DP: Jarin Blaschke)
The Lighthouse (2019, dir by Robert Eggers, DP: Jarin Blaschke)
The Northman (2022, dir by Robert Eggers, DP: Jarin Blaschke)
Nosferatu (2024, dir by Robert Eggers, DP: Jarin Blaschke)
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991! The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi
This week, everyone’s either self-centered or foolish.
Episode 2.9 “Extracurricular Activities”
(Dir by John Bertram, originally aired on January 14th, 1991)
Caitlin or Lucy, it’s hard to say who is worse in this episode.
Caitlin is excited when her mother invites her to come home for a meeting with her father. Caitlin, who has been imposing on friends ever since she discovered her father was cheating on her mother, is all excited because she thinks her parents are going to get divorced. Instead, her parents announce that they’re staying together. Caitlin gets angry, telling her friend Maya that she’ll just get an apartment and a job and she’ll never see her parents again. Maya, who is in a wheelchair and actually knows a little more about hardship than Caitlin, reminds Caitlin that “they’re your parents,” which I think is Canadian for, “Good Lord, stop whining!” Seriously, Maya — who actually has a lot that she could justifiably be upset about — never complains about anything while Caitlin — who is from a middle-class family and has a nice house and somehow only got a slap on the wrist after being arrested for trespassing and vandalizing — never shuts up about her difficult her life is. We get it, Caitlin. It sucks that everyone in the world isn’t as perfect and principled as you are.
(Does Caitlin ever ask anyone how they’re doing or does she just enter a room and automatically start talking about her life? Based on the second season, the latter would appear to be true.)
Meanwhile, Lucy is dating Bronco, the student body president. When Bronco tells Lucy that everyone’s favorite Degrassi band, the Savages, are going to be shooting a video at Degrassi, he swears Lucy to secrecy. (Actually, Gourmet Scum was everyone’s favorite band on DegrassiHigh but I guess the Savages were cool too.) So, of course, Lucy tells the creepy Farrell twins and then they make plans to break into the school on the weekend to watch the video shoot. Joey and Snake also decide to break into the school for the video shoot. Of course, they all get caught by Mr. Raditch and Bronco gets in a ton of trouble because Raditch assumes that Bronco let all of his friends into the school.
“Sorry,” Lucy says.
Gee, Lucy, that’ll really help!
You may have noticed this episode annoyed me. Some of that is purely personal on my part. With my mind slipping into summer and holiday mode, I’m missing both my mom and my dad so I wasn’t necessarily sympathetic to Caitlin’s demand that her parents split up or else never speak to her again. As for Lucy and Bronco, Bronco should have known better than to tell Lucy. And Lucy sure as Hell should have known better than to tell the Farrell twins. Everyone was just too dumb this episode.
Next week, though, we have the first part of one of DegrassiHigh’s best-remembered episodes. Fear not, we can put this episode behind us.
In the year 1881, a recently arrested prisoner named Thomas Riley (Andrea Zirio) attempts to gain his freedom by offering to inform Sheriff Pat Garrett (Thom Hallum) about the location of a man calling himself Henry McCarty. At first Garrett asks why he should care about a man named McCarty but, when Riley reveals that McCarty is actually the infamous Billy the Kid, Garrett becomes much more interested.
