4 Shots From 4 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!
The late, great director Jonathan Demme was born 81 years ago today. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Jonathan Demme Films
Stop Making Sense (1984, dir by Jonathan Demme, DP: Jordan Cronenweth)
Something Wild (1986, dir by Jonathan Demme, DP: Tak Fujimoto)
The Silence Of The Lambs (1991, dir by Jonathan Demme, DP: Tak Fujimoto)
Rachel Getting Married (2008, dir by Jonathan Demme, DP: Declan Quinn)
I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that a new movie co-starring Chow Yun-Fat was released in time for the Chinese New Year. Chow doesn’t work that much these days, so anytime he’s in a new movie, it’s an important event for me. And just look how cool he still looks in the picture above. The man is turning 70 on May 18th, for pete’s sake!
I was unaware of the DETECTIVE CHINATOWN franchise when I noticed Chow’s participation in this film on IMDB. It has been a huge box office hit as part of this year’s Chinese Lunar New Year festivities. DETECTIVE CHINATOWN 1900 is the 4th installment in the series that actually stars actors Baoqiang Wang and Liu Horan as Gui and Qin Fu, respectively. In this installment, the duo investigates the murder of a white woman in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1900. Chow seems to be playing some sort of Chinatown boss in this film that also features John Cusack as the U.S. Congressman whose daughter is murdered. It looks kind of silly, but hopefully it’s also a lot of fun. I’ll definitely be checking this film out, and at least one of the other installments in preparation.
Charles Bronson starred in four movies and one TV show in 1958. Two of those movies were produced by Harold Knox, written by Louis Vittes, and directed by Gene Fowler, Jr. The first of the two films was SHOWDOWN AT BOOT HILL, an excellent low budget western that featured Bronson as a bounty hunter with a chip on his shoulder and love in his heart. The second film was GANG WAR.
In GANG WAR, Charles Bronson plays Alan Avery, a high school teacher in Los Angeles who’s walking home one night and happens to witness a gangland killing. He calls the police to report the murder, but he doesn’t want to get any further involved so he doesn’t give them his name. Avery was on his way home from a trip to the pharmacy where he had picked up a prescription for his pregnant wife (Gloria Henry) who is suffering from migraines. In the stress of the moment, he left the pharmacy sack in the phone booth and the police are able to track him down to his home. After being pressed by the police, Avery reluctantly agrees to testify. He’s a great witness as he’s able to give the police a description of the car and its license plate number. His information leads to the arrest of Joe Reno, the second in command to mobster Maxie Meadows (John Doucette). Maxie sends his attorney Bryce Barker (Kent Taylor) over to the police station to see Captain Finch. Finch happens to be on Maxie’s payroll, and he immediately tells Barker about the witness. He even leaks it to the press so they can run a story revealing Avery’s name and address. Maxie would prefer to buy Avery’s silence, but he also wants a little insurance, so he sends his punch drunk henchman Chester over to slap around Avery’s wife. This order is akin to asking Lennie Small from OF MICE AND MEN to go play with some puppies. Simple-minded Chester proceeds to kill Mrs. Avery. When Avery comes home and finds his wife dead, he heads directly to Maxie’s house to kill him. The cab driver who took Avery to Maxie’s place just happened to see his gun, so he called the cops. Just before Avery can squeeze off a kill shot, the police show up and arrest him. Pissed that Avery was able to get so close to killing him, Meadows puts an actual hit out on him this time. Will the high school teacher be able to survive his battle against the mob?!!
(Note: The analysis below ventures into spoiler territory for both GANG WAR and SHOWDOWN AT BOOT HILL. You may want to watch these films prior to reading the rest of the review.)
As a lifelong fan of Charles Bronson, I really appreciate his work with director Gene Fowler, Jr. in 1958. Fowler recognized Bronson’s charismatic screen presence, but he also recognized something deeper in the legendary icon… his heart. SHOWDOWN AT BOOT HILL seemed to be giving us Bronson as a typical western hero, only to reverse course and turn Bronson into a romantic lead who would choose to throw down his guns so he could establish roots in a community and spend his life with the woman he loves. In a similar way, GANG WAR seems to be setting Bronson up to be a vigilante, not much different than the type of character he would be portraying throughout the 70’s and 80’s. But when 70’s and 80’s Bronson would be pulling his trigger, Fowler presents a more thoughtful Bronson who recognizes that the best revenge can sometimes be in letting someone live with the consequences of their own decisions. This allows him to lower his gun, walk away and continue his life free of the guilt and the legal consequences that would undoubtedly come with taking another person’s life. This decision honors his wife’s legacy much more than murder and a lifetime in jail ever would.
There are many good performances in this little gem. Bronson may not have been a “star” when this film was made, but there is no doubt that he was ready. He simply commands every frame that he appears in from the beginning to the end. John Doucette and Kent Taylor are also memorable as the gangster and his paid off lawyer, respectively. Doucette’s Maxie Meadows is certainly a stereotype of the gangsters in TV’s and movies at the time, but he plays the part well, saving his very best for his last moments of the film. Kent Taylor has the movie’s best story arc. When we meet him, he’s an alcoholic who can’t stand what he’s allowed himself to become, yet he continues to run every time Maxie calls. It’s a strong moment when he decides he won’t do it anymore. And Jennifer Holden is simply gorgeous as Marie, Maxie’s woman. Speaking of nice scenery, it was also fun seeing a Los Angeles that included landmarks like the Capitol Records Building and the old Nickodell Restaurant. So much of the action in GANG WAR takes place against these iconic backdrops, and for a guy who’s never been to LA, seeing these places again almost makes me feel like a resident.
Overall, while GANG WAR does feel like an old fashioned 50’s movie, it has plenty of things to recommend it, not the least of which is an excellent performance from a young Charles Bronson. At a 75 minute run time, it’s definitely worth a viewing.
James Stewart is one of the great movie stars of all-time. His work with Frank Capra (MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE) and Alfred Hitchcock (REAR WINDOW, VERTIGO) is legendary. In my household, Stewart’s work with director Anthony Mann is celebrated just as much as those other classics. Mann and Stewart made five classic westerns, beginning with WINCHESTER ‘73 in 1950 and ending in 1955 with THE MAN FROM LARAMIE. I own them all on DVD and watch them quite often. It’s very cold in Arkansas today, so I decided to write about the Yukon-set THE FAR COUNTRY, from 1954.
Jeff Webster (James Stewart) and his crusty ol’ coot of a partner Ben Tatem (Walter Brennan) head North towards Dawson City, in the Yukon Territory, with a herd of cattle. The two men encounter a variety of problems along the way, with the biggest being the corrupt Judge Gannon (John McIntire) of Skagway, Alaska. When Jeff finds himself in front of the judge for killing two cowhands who tried to steal his herd, Gannon acquits him on the charges but decides to keep his herd as payment for the court fees. With their cattle taken away from them, Jeff and Ben sign up to help business lady Ronda Castle (Ruth Roman) take supplies to Dawson City, where she plans to set up shop. After their first day on the trip, Jeff and Ben double back to Skagway and re-take their herd and take off towards Dawson as fast as they can go, with Gannon and his men in hot pursuit. They’re able to make it into Canada, so Gannon and his goons turn back, determined to hang the men if they ever come back through Skagway.
So Jeff and Ben make it to Dawson City with their cattle where they sell them off for $2 per pound to Ronda. Suddenly flush with cash, the two partners buy a gold claim and proceed to find some nice golden nuggets! When they head back into town, they find that Judge Gannon has now come to Dawson City and is in partnership with Ronda. Of course, that bastard immediately starts cheating the miners out of their claims, this time with gunman Madden (Robert J. Wilke) by his side, enforcing his corrupt actions with lead. Jeff and Ben decide they’re going to sneak out of town with their loot, but Gannon finds out about it and sends his men to stop them. Ben is killed in the process and Jeff is seriously injured. Jeff has tried his best up to this point to not get involved with the mess in Dawson City, but with his best friend now dead, he decides it’s time for Judge Gannon and his thugs to be stopped.
James Stewart is just so good as Jeff Webster. The best thing about his work with Mann is how each of the movies would give him a meaty role that capitalized on his basic decency, while simultaneously making him a more complex, layered man, miles away from the likes of Mr. Smith or George Bailey. In THE FAR COUNTRY, he’s as tough as nails, but he really doesn’t want to get involved with the people around him. It takes the death of his best friend for him to finally commit to helping them stand up against the bad guys. Stewart’s work here, and in the other Mann westerns, ranks with his very best.
The remainder of the cast is uniformly excellent. Three time Oscar winner Walter Brennan is always a welcome presence in a movie I’m watching. While he’d pretty much settled into the “old coot” role that would come to personify the later part of his career, his character is a valuable conscience for Stewart a couple of times in the story. I thought that John McIntire and Ruth Roman really stood out in their respective roles as the corrupt Judge Gannon and the stubbornly, independent businesswoman Ronda Castle. Both give excellent performances. The cast is rounded out with a who’s who of character actors like Jay C. Flippen, Harry Morgan, Robert J. Wilke, Royal Dano, and Jack Elam. It’s always nice seeing these familiar faces pop up in these old westerns.
I love it when movies are filmed on location in beautiful places. THE FAR COUNTRY was filmed at the Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada, which added another interesting element to the film. The final thing I want to say about the film is that the screenplay for THE FAR COUNTRY was written by Borden Chase, who had penned RED RIVER a few years earlier. Not only would Chase write this movie, he would also write the screenplays for WINCHESTER ‘73 and BEND OF THE RIVER, both westerns that paired Anthony Mann and Jimmy Stewart. Chase was an excellent writer of western material, and his strong work in this group of films is crucial to their enduring success.
Overall, I confidently recommend THE FAR COUNTRY to any person who enjoys westerns or Jimmy Stewart. I might rank THE NAKED SPUR and THE MAN FROM LARAMIE slightly above this one in the Mann / Stewart westerns, but the truth is that you can’t go wrong with any of them.
I’m sharing the trailer for THE FAR COUNTRY below:
4 Shots From 4 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, we celebrate what would have been the 100th birthday of the great director, Robert Altman! It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Robert Altman Films
MASH (1970, dir by Robert Altman, DP: Harold E. Stine)
The Long Goodbye (1973, dir by Robert Altman, DP: Vilmos Zsigmond)
Nashville (1975, dir by Robert Altman, DP: Paul Lohmann)
3 Women (1977, dir by Robert Altman, DP: Charles Rosher, Jr.)
4 Shots From 4 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!
John Frankenheimer was born 95 years ago today, in New York City. He got his start working in live television and went on to become one of the best directors of thrillers around. After getting off to a strong start in the 60s, directing several classic films (many of which had a political subtext), Frankenheimer struggled in the 70s (though even that decade saw him directing the classic Black Sunday) before making a comeback in the 90s. (1998’s Ronin is regularly cited as having one of the best car chases ever captured on film.) He was also one of the first film directors to make the transition to regularly working for cable channels like TNT and HBO. Indeed, the films that he made for HBO played no small part in establishing HBO’s reputation as being a “prestige” network.
It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 John Frankenheimer Films
The Manchurian Candidate (1962, dir by John Frankenheimer, DP: Lionel Lindon)
Seven Days In May (1964, dir by John Frankenheimer, DP: Ellsworth Fredericks)
Seconds (1966, dir by John Frankenheimer, DP: James Wong Howe)
Black Sunday (1977, dir by John Frankenheimer, DP: John A. Alonzo)
I couldn’t let today go by without recognizing John Travolta. I’ve enjoyed so many of his films over the years, especially movies like GREASE, BLOW OUT, PULP FICTION, and GET SHORTY. But the movie I probably love the most is FACE/OFF. I remember watching it at the movie theater back in 1997 and thinking it was the best movie ever. It came out at a perfect time when I was obsessed with John Woo, and I was still enjoying Travolta’s mid-90’s comeback. I still watch FACE/OFF at least once every year.
Enjoy this excellent scene from John Woo’s FACE/OFF!
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!
Director John Hughes would have been 75 years old today. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 John Hughes Movies
Sixteen Candles (1984, dir by John Hughes, DP: Bobby Byrne)
The Breakfast Club (1985, dir by John Hughes, DP: Thomas Del Ruth)
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986, dir by John Hughes, DP: Tak Fujimoto)
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987, dir by John Hughes, DP: Donald Peterman)
I’m guessing it started with JAWS (1975) and JAWS 2 (1978) since they played often on Fox-16 out of Little Rock when I was a kid, but I’ve been a fan of actor Roy Scheider for as long as I can remember. He’s one of those actors who has his own section in my massive collection of physical movie media. I’ve read about every film he’s ever made, and I’ve watched most of them. Surprisingly, THE SEVEN-UPS is the first Roy Scheider film I’ve written about on The Shattered Lens.
NYPD detective Buddy Manucci (Roy Scheider) leads a team of elite cops, known as the “seven-ups.” They’ve acquired this nickname because most of the criminals they arrest receive sentences that are 7 years and longer, which makes their superiors on the force very happy. Granted, the team does use a variety of unorthodox methods to find and arrest the criminals, which can also rub their superiors and some of their fellow cops the wrong way. Buddy’s childhood friend Vito Lucia (Tony Lo Bianco), an undertaker by trade who has his finger on the pulse of the criminal activities in his community, serves as an important snitch for the team, with his information often leading to major busts. Unbeknownst to Buddy, prominent members of various organized crime families and other white-collar criminals start getting kidnapped and held for ransom in the community. Buddy’s unaware of the full extent of the kidnappings, but he asks his old friend / snitch Vito about this when he actually witnesses the abduction of a crooked bail bondsman he’s following named Festa. We know that Vito is the mastermind behind all of the kidnappings, and his two main henchmen, Moon (Richard Lynch) and Bo (Bill Hickman), are impersonating cops just long enough to confuse and abduct the various criminals. When the Seven-Ups stake out a funeral meeting of various mobsters in the area, squad member Ansel (Ken Kercheval) is killed as part of a screwed-up abduction attempt. Buddy spots Moon and Bo trying to flee the area and tries to chase them down in an incredible car chase that ends when Buddy is almost decapitated in a violent collision with a parked 18-wheeler. With one of their own dead and with the wild chases through the streets, the members of the team are placed on suspension and even investigated as suspects for the kidnappings. Not content to just lay low during their suspensions, the seven-ups continue to try to figure out what’s going on, doing whatever it takes to get the information they need. When Buddy and his group start applying incredible pressure to some of the local mobsters about who shot Ansel, he gets information that ties the killing and the kidnappings to his friend Vito. This time when he meets with Vito, Buddy feeds him false information, thus setting a trap to bring the whole operation down.
After viewing THE SEVEN-UPS again for the first time in a while, it continues to be my opinion that this movie is severely underrated. It’s a great cop film from the early 70’s, anchored by an excellent lead performance from Roy Scheider, who’s wearing one of the coolest leather jackets in the history of cinema. Coming in hot off the heels of THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971), and with many connections to the Oscar winner, it seems that somehow this great film has fallen through the cracks over the years. I mean, how often do you hear people talk about this movie? THE SEVEN-UPS is directed by Philip D’Antoni, his only directorial credit, although he did serve as the Producer for both BULLITT (1968) and THE FRENCH CONNECTION. D’Antoni clearly values a good car chase sequence. THE SEVEN-UPS contains a thrilling car chase, which really isn’t that big of a surprise when you learn that stunt coordinator Bill Hickman, who plays the bad guy Bo in this film, coordinated the car chase sequences in BULLITT and THE FRENCH CONNECTION. This film features my personal favorite car chase sequence from any film that I’ve seen to date. Don Ellis composed the memorable musical score, a service that he also provided in THE FRENCH CONNECTION. I point out all of these ties to THE FRENCH CONNECTION because, in my humble opinion, the talent behind that film created another classic in THE SEVEN-UPS.
Complimenting Roy Scheider’s lead performance, THE SEVEN-UPS has a strong supporting cast. Tony Lo Bianco, Ken Kercheval (of DALLAS fame), Bill Hickman, and Richard Lynch are all quite memorable in their respective roles. I also like the 1973 New York City setting for the film. In movies like this and the following year’s DEATH WISH, we get to see a New York that no longer exists. To me, this only adds to the gritty realism of the film.
Overall, THE SEVEN-UPS is a movie I recommend without any reservations. If you’re a fan of 70’s cop thrillers, you simply can’t go wrong with this one.
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 February 17th, we’re watching FLIGHT 7500 starring Leslie Bibb, Ryan Kwanten, Amy Smart, Jamie Chung, Nicky Whelan, and Johnathon Schaech.
FLIGHT 7500 is the story about an airplane that departs the Los Angeles International Airport bound for Tokyo. As the overnight flight makes its way over the Pacific Ocean during its ten-hour course, the passengers encounter what appears to be a supernatural force in the cabin!
Although FLIGHT 7500 was chosen by Sierra, I’m looking forward to watching it for the first time for several reasons:
I’ve always liked Ryan Kwanten as an actor. I first discovered him on the HBO series TRUE BLOOD, and I’ve just always enjoyed seeing him in anything since. And here he plays a character named “Brad” so I’m hoping that he turns out to be a brave hero.
Nicky Whelan from HALL PASS (2011) is in this film. HALL PASS is one of those movies that cracks me up, and I thought Nicky was especially good in it.
Director Takashi Shimizu has made some creepy films in the past, like films in the “JU-ON: THE GRUDGE” series and the regular old “THE GRUDGE” series. The guy seems to have a grudge so I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out in FLIGHT 7500.
I think the plot sounds interesting, so we could be in for a scary good time!
So, join us tonight for #MondayMuggers and watch FLIGHT 7500! It’s on Amazon Prime.
Through the Shattered Lens 