cult film freak: August 2016

Written by James M. Tate / 8/30/2016 / No comments / counter culture , drama , drug culture , george c. scott , leonard gaines , paul schrader , peter boyle , prostitute , reb brown , season hubley , seventies

GEORGE C. SCOTT & SEASON HUBLEY JOIN IN 'HARDCORE'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Season Hubley with an addictively cool shirt YEAR: 1979</u></td></tr>
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George C. Scott is a straight-laced, Midwestern business-owner with an innocent daughter who, on a church trip from hometown Grand Rapids, Michigan to Southern California, suddenly goes missing at an amusement park (Knotts Berry Farm, to be exact)...
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Ilah Davis with Karen Kruer</u></td></tr>
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Desperate, and with only a mellow lecture from the police, he hires a street-smart, quirky L.A. Private Eye, Peter Boyle, who literally proves that his client's runaway daughter is a porn actress, resulting in an awkward (and at this point, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3npY7MTcl7E">YouTube-famous</a>) tantrum from Scott that few actors could get away with...<br>
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But what's really intriguing, and even humorous without being distracting or contrived, is how Scott's Jake Van Dorn clashes with Boyle's gumshoe, symbolically named Andy Mast, their verbal dynamic exceeding intentional scene-stealer Leonard Gaines as a Los Angeles porn producer more talkative than "Easy Andy" from Schrader's original game-changing script of Martin Scorsese's masterpiece, <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2013/05/harry-northup-taxi-driver.html">TAXI DRIVER</a>...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>George C. Scott insisted Reb Brown bounce him down the stairwell</u></td></tr>
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Back on track: After a few weeks, Jake returns to California and in doing so, wanders the streets, going from porn stores to massage-brothels backed by Jack Nitzsche's bluesy hard-rock score, practically bursting through the screen (eventually curbed by Neil Young's vulnerable acoustic 'Helpless' playing in a sex shop). The juxtaposition of the conservative loner lost in a modern Gomorrah is both mesmerizing and familiar ("Are YOU talkin' to me?!"). Eventually, the film loses some validity when our woebegone lead goes undercover as a would-be-producer, donning a bogus mustache and mirrored shades, weeding out young porn-actors in search of the <i>one guy</i> (Ryan O'Neal's failed getaway driver in <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/06/DRIVER.html">THE DRIVER</a>) in the only photo of his daughter, <i>at work</i>. Although this sequence is entertaining, providing a more conventional audience a break from the severe mainline, it somewhat trivializes the edgy and risque subject-at-hand, curtailing the essential danger of the quest, which had a sparse, unapologetic exploitation vibe beforehand.<br>

counter culture, drama, drug culture, george c. scott, leonard gaines, paul schrader, peter boyle, prostitute, reb brown, season hubley, seventies

GEORGE C. SCOTT & SEASON HUBLEY JOIN IN 'HARDCORE'

Season Hubley with an addictively cool shirt YEAR: 1979 George C. Scott is a straight-laced, Midwestern business-owner with an innocent ...

GOODBYE WILDER GENE: A MEMORIAL FOR GENE WILDER

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>We Rushed this Rushed Tribute, so FORGIVE any Unedited Mistakes!</u></td></tr>
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What was it about Gene Wilder that worked? That really, really worked? To go back to WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, the trickster who limped until suddenly being able to roll himself over, hop back up and shake hands, was all part of an unexplainable magic... outside the script and outside the box... that put everyone, young and old, in a spell – and for decades we were completely spellbound...<br>
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It's difficult to fathom that such a good thing couldn't last... longer than the long time it did. After a while, Wilder became like a magic trick everyone just kind of... stopped using. Of course, we all remember the Mel Brooks' double-genre parody of BLAZING SADDLES and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN: in the first, his character's jail-cell introduction ended a string of laugh-a-minute introductory jokes and is where the story really began, and the latter, co-written by Wilder and Brooks, is his most famous venture. Most also recall STIR CRAZY, with Richard Pryor, where both had an equal share of screen-time following Gene's lead in SILVER STREAK, a train-set homage to Alfred Hitchcock that only sporadically featured the black comedian and both, as a team, collaborated on four films together...<br>
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gene wilder, tribute

GOODBYE WILDER GENE: A MEMORIAL FOR GENE WILDER

We Rushed this Rushed Tribute, so FORGIVE any Unedited Mistakes! What was it about Gene Wilder that worked? That really, really worked? ...

DEFENDING THE NOIR-HORROR OF 'THE LEECH WOMAN'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Part of the Universal Science Fiction Collection YEAR: 1960</u></td></tr>
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While it's rare, Mystery Science Theater (or what they've become, Riff-Trax) can be a misleading device in which to discover or uncover vintage b-movies, and while the "b" technically stands for the production value, or lack of, and the lower spot given on the marquee, it usually refers to a movie being just plain "bad."<br>
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That's not always the case – THE LEECH WOMAN, one of many victims of the MSTK-3000 treatment, should also be called a C-movie, for Creative: What it lacks in budget, it makes up for in... other ways, like how the title character, an aged, formerly attractive wife of a doctor seeking an impossible cure for aging, winds up on a killing spree. The first act plays out economically inside two interior locations, the most important being the Doctor's Office where Coleen Gray's bitter June Talbot verbally tears into her husband, Dr. Paul Talbot, played by BORN TO KILL stiff-suit Philip Terry...<br>

coleen gray, film noir or melodrama, gloria talbott, horror, sixties

DEFENDING THE NOIR-HORROR OF 'THE LEECH WOMAN'

Part of the Universal Science Fiction Collection YEAR: 1960 While it's rare, Mystery Science Theater (or what they've become, Ri...

FIFTIES & EIGHTIES: GLOSSING OVER TWO DECADES OF D.O.A.

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>1950 D.O.A. starring Edmond O'Brien</u></td></tr>
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<u>D.O.A. 1950</u>: Before the ball really gets rolling, and things become serious for a small town businessman on vacation in San Francisco, an unbelievable sound occurs, more befitting a zany comedy caper, perhaps even a cartoon, than the sparsest, most serious of Film Noir vehicles...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>The Eighties One</u></td></tr>
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Inside a lavish hotel, whenever an attractive "dish" passes our rural fish out of water, an intentionally corny and contrived wolf-whistle chimes... Not coming from any character in the movie but from the "author" intruded editing room: Like PULP FICTION's Uma Thurman drawing an animated box outside Jack Rabbit Slims, the viewer must simply go with it. So in this severe tale of a dying man frantically in search of who "killed him," perhaps that silly noise existed to separate the two halves – and that's the gist of this particular nightmarish odyssey. Loaded with whodunit potential since what's been done can't be set back, it's never a question since, with the exception of those convention partiers who left town before O'Brien wakes up with a lethal hangover, no one's really known to us or him other than a faithful secretary, back home, on the phone, talking to her frantic boss who, poisoned at a jazzy bar that the hotel party had moved to, he has only a few days to live, and has to find out who, and why?<br>

dennis quaid, edmond o'brien, eighties, fifties, film noir, jazz score, neo noir, remake

FIFTIES & EIGHTIES: GLOSSING OVER TWO DECADES OF D.O.A.

1950 D.O.A. starring Edmond O'Brien D.O.A. 1950 : Before the ball really gets rolling, and things become serious for a small town bu...

DANA ANDREWS SUSTAINS ZERO HOUR IN 'THE CROWDED SKY'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Ouch! This image describes the film's title YEAR: 1960</u></td></tr>
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Now this... THIS is an "entirely different kind of flying, <i>altogether</i>..." A classic line, not only from the 1980 smash-comedy AIRPLANE but its parent, the stern, low-budget, sky-high thriller ZERO HOUR...
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d49xF4TnUzE/WDltbf5LW6I/AAAAAAAAvXg/WnpDuWW_ZGgYMHp0RTENFjHaJgIcaGhuwCLcB/s1600/15202756_629341853935629_5571835230104322633_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d49xF4TnUzE/WDltbf5LW6I/AAAAAAAAvXg/WnpDuWW_ZGgYMHp0RTENFjHaJgIcaGhuwCLcB/s320/15202756_629341853935629_5571835230104322633_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dana Andrews as The Captain</u></td></tr>
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And you'd think Dana Andrews, the first to play reluctant passenger-turned-pilot Ted Stryker, had learned to stay clear of THE CROWDED SKY – but it's ingrained, going way back: In the World War II era A WING AND A PRAYER above an air craft carrier; an unlucky takeoff in MY FOOLISH HEART; and through expository repose in the Post-War drama THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, he had taken to the unfriendly skies: <i>Now</i> it's 1960 and he's a legit commercial jet pilot. Meanwhile, soaring in a jet fighter is Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and his young newbie wingman, Troy Donahue – soon both big and small plane will meet but this is different than most aerial disaster flicks – before the nail-biting finale, SKY plays out not only like an eight mile high soap opera, it spends 75% of its time in each of the character's narrating minds, reflecting upon their troubles, romances, troubled romances, and even a little happiness...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dana Andrews ready to fly THE CROWDED SKY</u></td></tr>
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Beginning with an awkward close-up on child starlet Karen Green as Efrem's daughter: she much prefers her tall military dad to a selfish, bitter mom. Other flashbacks include a "He Thinks, She Thinks" of our two young buried leads: grouchy "jerk boyfriend" co-pilot played by John Kerr and blond-haired, optimistic, "she deserves better" stewardess Anne Francis (her and Dana Andrews would return five years later in William Conrad's <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/08/citizen-cannon.html">BRAINSTORM!</a>, married unhappily)...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>CrowdedSkyScore: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
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The most annoying, tacked-on stories don't include a visual aid, punctuating their overall insignificance – those being: a shunned, slightly-older gal seated beside a suave (not handsome) Hollywood player, letting him woo her and, as we <i>do</i> hear her thoughts, learning they once had a one night stand while he doesn't recognize her at all (THE TAO OF STEVE must have been influenced)...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>John Kerr looks out while Dana Andrews thumbs up</u></td></tr>
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Also on board are a middle-aged, inexperienced businessman finding the guts to address a middle-aged gal; and a nervous method acting James Dean type (who actually resembles Troy Donahue) attempting to persuade a world-weary New York agent/yenta to represent him. "I can't feel fear... I've never been afraid in my life," he whines...<br />
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A forced harbinger of what's to come, and Dana Andrews goes right back in <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/07/Dana-Does-Airplane.html">ZERO HOUR</a> dead-serious mode, holding the gears tight while sweating profusely and yet, keeping his edge this time around: At which point the near-catastrophe is a relaxing break following all those damn memories – some intriguing, others draining yet all an intricate piece of a bizarre cinematic puzzle that, despite the camp, is an original spin on the plane-in-peril canon.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ec8cdZcV93s/WBME4osj0bI/AAAAAAAAu-I/-HPE4mZZT1ctdJrdqqsEs6y_-yqoOxPjwCLcB/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ec8cdZcV93s/WBME4osj0bI/AAAAAAAAu-I/-HPE4mZZT1ctdJrdqqsEs6y_-yqoOxPjwCLcB/s1600/1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Another airline disaster, Fate is the Hunter, would do the opening credit rushing to the screen trick</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Workmates here, in five years Anne Francis and Dana Andrews would be unhappily married in BRAINSTORM!</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dana Andrews is the patron saint of disaster flick pilots, already having flown in ZERO HOUR!</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Something about the look of 1950's Jet Fighter Planes: modern yet antique and very cool</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-60ymHdmJx9A/WBME41SScfI/AAAAAAAAu-U/XuYUN053kUkI9_N0lZol48YOxZuFxWVRACEw/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-60ymHdmJx9A/WBME41SScfI/AAAAAAAAu-U/XuYUN053kUkI9_N0lZol48YOxZuFxWVRACEw/s1600/5.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>To this movie what a private jet flown by Dana Andrews would be in another camp delight, AIRPORT 1975</u></td></tr>
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anne francis, dana andrews, disaster, sixties, troy donahue, warner archives

DANA ANDREWS SUSTAINS ZERO HOUR IN 'THE CROWDED SKY'

Ouch! This image describes the film's title YEAR: 1960 Now this... THIS is an "entirely different kind of flying, altogether .....

Written by James M. Tate / 8/24/2016 / No comments / adventure , dana andrews , david carradine , forties , jean renoir , moonshine , seventies , walter brennan , walter huston

MUDDY DOUBLE: SWAMP WATER W/ THUNDER & LIGHTNING

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S5ruLsVJhNI/WNxy1-_EUyI/AAAAAAAAxRw/i8ltJcxbuJgJ25obYFyrUhOx_Ox7QWRBACLcB/s1600/14040200_171687846593733_7187887356935017578_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="328" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S5ruLsVJhNI/WNxy1-_EUyI/AAAAAAAAxRw/i8ltJcxbuJgJ25obYFyrUhOx_Ox7QWRBACLcB/s400/14040200_171687846593733_7187887356935017578_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Car chase in THUNDER & LIGHTNING</u></td></tr>
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A gritty double feature, both set in the swamps, one concerning snakebites and a few shotguns, the other with loads of moonshine and one great fan-boat chase: the first has John Carradine as a side-character in the 1940's while the other headlines his son David in the 1970's – both sharing a rural locale and a father & son during each of their prime decades, beginning with...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jUedrF1RfAg/V71pbq46IgI/AAAAAAAAuAo/dufvqTp32mc42fg3w14H4DwecarTAqz5gCLcB/s1600/2299554e7f8c23e401733fd5d8836eb9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jUedrF1RfAg/V71pbq46IgI/AAAAAAAAuAo/dufvqTp32mc42fg3w14H4DwecarTAqz5gCLcB/s200/2299554e7f8c23e401733fd5d8836eb9.jpg" width="162" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><u>Year: 1941</u></td></tr>
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<u>SWAMP WATER</u>: Despite a (friendly, smiling and bearded) famous critic's opinion that Walter Brennan was outrageously miscast in Jean Renoir's SWAMP WATER, set in the mysterious Georgian Okefenokee with more of a rural John Ford style than Renoir's own "foreign film" masterpiece, GRAND ILLUSION, Brennan's actually quite effective as an escaped convict with a "Wrong Man" backstory; a bizarre mental ability to survive otherwise deadly Cottonmouth bites. And last but not least, a love for Dana Andrews's hunting dog that'd chased a doe past a spooky skull on a post in the river, a warning to never go beyond that point, just for the pooch – the best hunting dog around, Dana's Ben Ragan goes that extra dangerous mile to retrieve him.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4_KqVtOD_2E/V71pqg1COfI/AAAAAAAAuAs/RiLYZxbDSfgcMlPtiVwPc9z-nxVfiNLNQCLcB/s1600/14034991_170316320064219_2796178528011437697_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="350" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4_KqVtOD_2E/V71pqg1COfI/AAAAAAAAuAs/RiLYZxbDSfgcMlPtiVwPc9z-nxVfiNLNQCLcB/s400/14034991_170316320064219_2796178528011437697_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dana Andrews crosses the line... all because a dog</u></td></tr>
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This ghostly, suspenseful, contained yet adventurous programmer is only hindered by a few side-characters (including the otherwise capable Ward Bond) who seem more befitting a dusty saloon, and, surprisingly enough, Western-genre staple Brennan – seeming as agile and dangerous as his threats spoken in that signature drawl – ins't a culprit of the Cowboy cliche...<br />
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Dana Andrews, early in his career before the star-making turn in LAURA, is natural and effective – how surprising such a "Hollywood Handsome" leading man with a "city" voice could realistically portray a hick who's never been outside the murky swamp-surrounded village – smaller than even one horse. Despite third-billing to the already-established Brennan and his stubborn father played by Walter Huston, Andrews is the buried lead throughout, and what he holds back from the gossiping village overrides the pretty local girl he plans to marry, or the fact he desperately yearns to move out of his daddy's tiny shack...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KovNc_vJuKE/WVdq90H3GvI/AAAAAAAAyIc/cL-cfIHRZ94WDMjP-Qt3dqqq1C8APGQOgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-07-01%2Bat%2B2.25.39%2BAM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="380" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KovNc_vJuKE/WVdq90H3GvI/AAAAAAAAyIc/cL-cfIHRZ94WDMjP-Qt3dqqq1C8APGQOgCLcBGAs/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-07-01%2Bat%2B2.25.39%2BAM.jpg" width="128" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Insert Poster</u></td></tr>
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That being, the secret of Brennan's Tom Keefer, a fugitive accused of murder, rumored to be long gone yet actually lurking very nearby: a living/breathing wraith beyond the spiked skull, always keeping a tight eye on gator hunters, including the men who sentenced him to hang – mostly, though, he's tortured about the daughter he left behind.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qg4z4VRoih0/V71zFPYEwRI/AAAAAAAAuBY/c-kENWPAnFgO8hPH6fbYnK1EF-KBf9cqwCLcB/s1600/14045997_171703623258822_2710872451234585166_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qg4z4VRoih0/V71zFPYEwRI/AAAAAAAAuBY/c-kENWPAnFgO8hPH6fbYnK1EF-KBf9cqwCLcB/s400/14045997_171703623258822_2710872451234585166_n.jpg" width="236" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>J. Carradine & Dana SCORE: ****</u></td></tr>
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Fresh from his scene-stealing, sympathetic turn in THE GRAPES OF WRATH, John Carradine plays the most ambiguous and bizarre character, a skinny pole with a strapped-on guitar and a lusty penchant for Huston's young wife and, most importantly, he keeps a secret that Andrews has to figure out...<br />
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The only slight-miscast is Anne Baxter's half-crazy "wild girl," Keefer's daughter, looking like a pinup dressed as a cavewoman at a Halloween party – of course she's attracted to our leading man, and vice versa (Linda Darnell, Dana's future FALLEN ANGEL and ZERO HOUR co-starlet, almost landed the role: which might've worked better given her tempestuous, savage beauty)...<br />
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But Renoir doesn't veer down that many predictable avenues, at least not for very long. For his core fans, this is no art film while a conventional audience may yearn for more gunplay – but with just enough brawn and brains to go around, this dusty little gem shines for a steady, even-keeled 90-minutes. The director, recently exiled from German-occupied France, made his very own American popcorn flick with an underlying pulse and atmosphere of something more important.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dx-3o_e8CSk/V71sSyu3lkI/AAAAAAAAuBE/0DAw4kXcdTwFAuZ_ZFxz7C90oNIhVBQWQCLcB/s1600/14089120_171687843260400_9129940848946316531_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dx-3o_e8CSk/V71sSyu3lkI/AAAAAAAAuBE/0DAw4kXcdTwFAuZ_ZFxz7C90oNIhVBQWQCLcB/s320/14089120_171687843260400_9129940848946316531_n.jpg" width="244" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Alternate Title: Hog Heaven YEAR: 1977</u></td></tr>
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<u>TEXAS & LIGHTNING</u>: Around the same time as Ingmar Bergman's THE SERPENT'S EGG and Hal Ashby's BOUND FOR GLORY, David Carradine, free from his career-making stint on TV's KUNG FU, had some moonshine downtime in the everglades. Although only the opening twenty minutes takes place knee-deep in the muddy water during a local goon bully session, leading to a vengeful fan-boat chase (ala LIVE AND LET DIE), and while the film peaks early, there's still loads of adventure left during a prolonged car chase that takes up the entire second half, mirroring (not copying) that exact same year's "grungy maverick with a fancy dame in a fast car" road run in the wildly popular SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT. The characters that'd been... well... fleshed-out – enough for this kind of movie – are all but forgotten and/or completely insignificant when action trumps storyline... Hell, it doesn't even matter what names these people have after a while, or who's in the cast, although, THUNDER & LIGHTING is a nostalgic TV fanatic's dream as Carradine's near-past ("Knock off the Kung Fu shit!" Charles Napier growls during a fight), and Jackson's role on CHARLIE'S ANGELS following an eclectic small-screen career ranging from THE JIMMY STEWART SHOW sit-com to a Movie of the Week exploitively titled: SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3Z7pJhD4uKg/V74KHHDspFI/AAAAAAAAuBs/XQ6PjVLzLbQv679k7AnlKOcLuroW6C5qgCLcB/s1600/MPW-39048.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3Z7pJhD4uKg/V74KHHDspFI/AAAAAAAAuBs/XQ6PjVLzLbQv679k7AnlKOcLuroW6C5qgCLcB/s400/MPW-39048.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Poster for Thunder and Lightning 1978</u></td></tr>
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Fanning through the water or roaring over roadsides, pretty much anyone could have been driving the long stretch of highway where things wind up, just beyond the wet marshes that provided a misleading rudimentary impression on what the landscape would be, and it's a long, long road at that: Too bad because the plot's buildup is actually somewhat intriguing, putting a spin on the cliche moonshine motif: Kate Jackson's crooked father runs competing 'shine against her boyfriend Carradine's makeshift yet good quality swamp-still (run by underdog character-actor Sterling Holloway) while dad's soda company turns out crap including six gallons of toxic rotgut. But crime doesn't pay. While Carradine has good ol' boys, a beautiful girl and a vintage car on his side, the token heavy has thugs either breathing down his neck or out for his hyde: Soon enough, everyone's caught in the crossfire – Carradine breezing his way throughout like he did in some of his pictures (BOUND FOR GLORY, THE LONG RIDERS and KILL BILL are a few grand exceptions), yet he maintains an organic worldweary realism: when it matters most, he means what he says and, doing a lot of his own stunts, the hard work shows.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JFNWHqSSpow/WrUUctkfxEI/AAAAAAAA008/7yCRVdIqkeg_oshwJT4NVzaPijjjgL96ACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-03-23%2Bat%2B7.50.14%2BAM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="759" data-original-width="1600" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JFNWHqSSpow/WrUUctkfxEI/AAAAAAAA008/7yCRVdIqkeg_oshwJT4NVzaPijjjgL96ACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-03-23%2Bat%2B7.50.14%2BAM.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>John Carradine hearing the bitter truth from Dana Andrews in Swamp Water</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6-RragmsaBQ/WrUD1hm_w0I/AAAAAAAA00s/GzyMIy6TufAVdTdhjtbljypEFI5cTNFggCLcBGAs/s1600/29541824_452149288547586_3511355169287913818_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="784" data-original-width="960" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6-RragmsaBQ/WrUD1hm_w0I/AAAAAAAA00s/GzyMIy6TufAVdTdhjtbljypEFI5cTNFggCLcBGAs/s1600/29541824_452149288547586_3511355169287913818_n.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dana Andrews as Ben, looking for Trouble, literally... his beloved hunting dog that took after a bull gator...</u></td></tr>
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adventure, dana andrews, david carradine, forties, jean renoir, moonshine, seventies, walter brennan, walter huston

MUDDY DOUBLE: SWAMP WATER W/ THUNDER & LIGHTNING

Car chase in THUNDER & LIGHTNING A gritty double feature, both set in the swamps, one concerning snakebites and a few shotguns, the ...

Written by James M. Tate / 8/21/2016 / No comments / earl holliman , fifties , film noir or melodrama , heist , jack palance , lee marvin , perry lopez , remake , shelley winters

JACK PALANCE IN 'I DIED A THOUSAND TIMES'

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6xeQbkeXDOY/V7pCDGHw7kI/AAAAAAAAuAI/RJgMwmiegWg6CinFAXoTU3Qa32Ac-HilgCLcB/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="335" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6xeQbkeXDOY/V7pCDGHw7kI/AAAAAAAAuAI/RJgMwmiegWg6CinFAXoTU3Qa32Ac-HilgCLcB/s400/1.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Warner Archives DVD Cover YEAR OF FILM: 1955</u></td></tr>
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HIGH SIERRA is a great book that became an even greater film. With Raoul Walsh's tight direction from an adapted screenplay by Humphrey Bogart's (soon to be) most famous collaborator, John Huston, the iconic MALTESE FALCON, KEY LARGO and TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE star was finally, after playing villains in George Raft and James Cagney vehicles (Walsh directed ROARING TWENTIES), turned into a bonafide Hollywood A-lister – although, just like John Wayne in his career-catapult, STAGECOACH, Bogie takes second-billing to a dame in tough and determined Ida Lupido: Which doesn't occur in the 1955 remake as Shelley Winters is far more vulnerable and passive, and, while not as pretty, does fit the role – had some bombshell co-starred opposite Jack Palance as Roy Earle, he wouldn't be so initially dead-set on getting rid of her... That is, asking her to split from the woodsy fishing lake locale where four men, including Earle, are poised to rob safe-kept jewels in a luxurious hotel not far away.<br>

earl holliman, fifties, film noir or melodrama, heist, jack palance, lee marvin, perry lopez, remake, shelley winters

JACK PALANCE IN 'I DIED A THOUSAND TIMES'

Warner Archives DVD Cover YEAR OF FILM: 1955 HIGH SIERRA is a great book that became an even greater film. With Raoul Walsh's tight ...

BERLIN & FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: MARTIN KOSLECK TRIPLE

action, adventure, alfred hitchcock, dana andrews, forties, joel mccrea, martin kosleck, war, world war II

BERLIN & FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: MARTIN KOSLECK TRIPLE

Martin Kosleck & Dana Andrews YEAR: 1942 BERLIN CORRESPONDENT : A spinoff from the ongoing Dana Andrews retrospective as we'll s...

LIZ TAYLOR & DANA ANDREWS TAKE A GIANT 'ELEPHANT WALK'

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dR8xr0X7hAw/Wr3lFnU5uUI/AAAAAAAA0_o/mTopf86MwbIYkjjJogeZqPfueCWsV33UgCLcBGAs/s1600/29597737_455307681565080_7366085131348004661_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="932" height="291" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dR8xr0X7hAw/Wr3lFnU5uUI/AAAAAAAA0_o/mTopf86MwbIYkjjJogeZqPfueCWsV33UgCLcBGAs/s400/29597737_455307681565080_7366085131348004661_n.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dana Andrews in Elephant Walk YEAR: 1954</u></td></tr>
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Elephants are beautiful, majestic, powerful and... potentially dangerous — not man-eaters but could easily become human-stompers if something got in their way...<br>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Humqna2k0rk/Wr3nEFdz_RI/AAAAAAAA0_0/SP7JBLwbbeYKrodab11687UIBNBrukdNACLcBGAs/s1600/hqdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="140" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Humqna2k0rk/Wr3nEFdz_RI/AAAAAAAA0_0/SP7JBLwbbeYKrodab11687UIBNBrukdNACLcBGAs/s320/hqdefault.jpg" width="172"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Starring Liz Taylor</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Sta</span>So in ELEPHANT WALK the gallant gray beasts provide a suspenseful element of doom, and it's not their fault... As usual, vapid, selfish humans are to blame...<br>
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The backstory goes: In the British Dominion of Ceylon, an immense watering hole that herds of elephants would rush to during drought season has a "bungalow" mansion bulwarking their path, and only a large backyard wall serves as protection. KING KONG proved how ineffective that can be, and like that movie, the plot is simple, and most important, extremely familiar to Elizabeth Taylor fans...<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UZdAvNjQ91c/Wl3FQypyd-I/AAAAAAAA0Xg/7x0QLCoP-OAwAzi7atbZwCqEEC-_g_l8QCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-01-16%2Bat%2B1.25.29%2BAM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="331" data-original-width="484" height="136" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UZdAvNjQ91c/Wl3FQypyd-I/AAAAAAAA0Xg/7x0QLCoP-OAwAzi7atbZwCqEEC-_g_l8QCLcBGAs/s200/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-01-16%2Bat%2B1.25.29%2BAM.jpg" width="200"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Novel Artwork</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qAq09l3UC_0/Wr3VMs0JQ1I/AAAAAAAA0-Y/vcC-PMs3TJ4TZWv6ZDrV3Ow34GecYR1twCLcBGAs/s1600/29572253_455290258233489_4585434504027410360_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="922" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qAq09l3UC_0/Wr3VMs0JQ1I/AAAAAAAA0-Y/vcC-PMs3TJ4TZWv6ZDrV3Ow34GecYR1twCLcBGAs/s320/29572253_455290258233489_4585434504027410360_n.jpg" width="307"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Opening of the book and narration by Finch</u></td></tr>
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In two years she'd star alongside Rock Hudson and a posthumous James Dean in what would (arguably) be her greatest film, GIANT – as the wife of a stubborn, determined, old-fashioned (or simply, Texan) millionaire, she was equally set in her ways and not too crazy about the ingrained "boys club" mentality...<br>
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While here, being the only white woman in a land full of natives, she's not as headstrong as her newly-wed husband she'd met in England, played by Peter Finch, the owner of the "Elephant Walk" Tea Plantation. Their hotel-like chateau perpetually harbors a dozen or more guests; loud and obnoxiously-drunk Englishmen play bicycle polo in the main hall. Instead of putting her foot down, Taylor's more vulnerable, ladylike character whines, mopes and desperately yearns for the man she fell for back home – who we only caught five minutes of during the prologue, making Finch's role one-dimensional and severely limited.<br>

dana andrews, disaster, drama, elizabeth taylor, fifties, peter finch, romance, suspense, warner archives

LIZ TAYLOR & DANA ANDREWS TAKE A GIANT 'ELEPHANT WALK'

Dana Andrews in Elephant Walk YEAR: 1954 Elephants are beautiful, majestic, powerful and... potentially dangerous — not man-eaters but c...

DIRECTOR WILLIAM CONRAD PYSCHO-NOIR DRIVE-IN DOUBLE

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Joey Heatherton & Troy Donahue in MY BLOOD RUNS COLD</u></td></tr>
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From his sinister beginnings as one of the two title hitmen who cast an ominous shadow across a <i>one gas station </i>town's greasy spoon diner in THE KILLERS, taken from an Ernest Hemingway short story that only involves a single act of what became a three-act classic Film Noir...<br>
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While igniting the career of Burt Lancaster, character-actor William Conrad was recognized; a sort of b-side to Orson Welles, including the rich, deep voice, narrowed, penetrating eyes and – actually, Conrad led the way on being overweight... And was second-place to the KANE auteur on providing narration to movies, miniseries, documentaries, and cartoons (THE ROCKY & BULLWINKLE SHOW!)... And to make an already rambling prologue shorter, Conrad was mostly known as a tough old cop on TV's popular series, CANNON... So to get to the point already – like Welles, he too was a director, and while not one of the best of all time, the big man was pretty darn good, especially given the b-movie scripts for a pair of low-budget thrillers, both made in 1965, a very busy year...<br>

anne francis, dana andrews, drive-in, nicolas coster, richard kiel, sixties, strother martin, troy donahue, william conrad

DIRECTOR WILLIAM CONRAD PYSCHO-NOIR DRIVE-IN DOUBLE

Joey Heatherton & Troy Donahue in MY BLOOD RUNS COLD From his sinister beginnings as one of the two title hitmen who cast an ominous...

ANATOMY OF A COURTROOM AGENDA: TWILIGHT OF HONOR

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Richard Chamberlain faces Joey Heatherton YEAR: 1963</u></td></tr>
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Once again, Hollywood puts Capitol Punishment on trial along with another of their favorite targets, the Middle American small town – and in the case of TWILIGHT OF HONOR, it's a double whammy...<br>
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Since the 1940's (Elia Kazan's <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/08/capital-noir-punishment.html">BOOMERANG!</a> was our last review) the Courtroom Drama has shared similar traits: an idealistic underdog Defense Attorney, who's an alone and easy target against a usually Fascist-like prosecutor in bed with everyone, including the judge and literally, in this case, even the jury: Although here, Richard Chamberlain's young, inexperienced David Mitchell isn't completely by himself with an old mentor in his corner – during this time, working alongside veteran actor Raymond Massey on TV's popular DR. KILDAIRE, Richard's scenes with Claude Rains as retired defense attorney Art Harper (an ancient, creaky-boned version of Orson Welles in COMPULSION, who was channelling Clarence Darrow) is a cakewalk, their scenes providing color-commentary following each day in court or leading to the next round...<br>

claude reins, courtroom drama, joey heatherton, nick adams, richard chamberlain, sixties

ANATOMY OF A COURTROOM AGENDA: TWILIGHT OF HONOR

Richard Chamberlain faces Joey Heatherton YEAR: 1963 Once again, Hollywood puts Capitol Punishment on trial along with another of their ...

BOOMSHADOW: DANA ANDREWS COURTROOM NOIR DOUBLE

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Poster Art and DVD Cover YEAR: 1956</u></td></tr>
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CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, DANA ANDREWS & FILM NOIR: Following the career of Dana Andrews and dedicating two months spotlighting his eclectic career, the man's become a sort of "Six Degrees," connecting actors, actresses, directors and even similar themes within particular genres...<br />
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This isn't only Dana's month, but director Otto Preminger's as well (while next month's centered on both James Stewart <i>and</i> director Anthony Mann, covering the films they did together and separately)...<br />
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For example, three Westerns (reviewed soon) that starred or co-starred Andrews, all center on or involve a lynch mob kangaroo court. His characters are either an opponent or possible-victim: And in two Noir ventures, the same theme plays out only in the "modern" post-war era, trading the hangman with the electric chair (or a more modern hangman); starting out with...<br />
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<u>BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT</u>, which, with the exception of a slight variation on a completely predictable twist i.e. a twist within a twist, is one of Dana Andrews weakest Film Noir outings, and it's a complete shock that that genre's top-shelf director, THE BIG HEAT auteur Fritz Lang, had anything to do with it. The pace is slow-moving and uncreative, resembling a drowsy television program as each scene has the actors standing, and talking. Talking, and standing. And during sporadic courtroom scenes, sitting, listening, and talking some more...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>DOUBLE: Beyond a Shadow Doubt SCORE: **</u></td></tr>
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Few sites call to attention any vehicle written by and starring 1970's improvisational comic actor Tim Conway while reviewing a political Film Noir, but it must be done: His surprisingly effective prison romp THEY WENT THAT-A-WAY & THAT-A-WAY centers on two inept highway patrolmen given an assignment by the Governor to go undercover as felons at an infamous chain-gang penitentiary to check the conditions inside...<br />
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This includes being tried and convicted of a crime, and <i>only</i> the Governor knows about it... Before their road adventure escape, the two goofs wind up serving a possible life-sentence with no evidence of their mission, and you can easily guess the reason why...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year: 1947</u></td></tr>
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Future ROSEMARY'S BABY devil-agent Sidney Blackmer plays an ultra progressive-advocate against the death penalty. He abhors a political climbing lawyer having too much pleasure in sending men to the electric chair. A desperate idea arises: to find someone beyond-innocent for the recent death of an exotic dancer in order to be tried, convicted, and then, at the last minute, revealed as a shill to prove how, without a substantial witness or evidence, no one should sizzle in the hot-seat. The perfect candidate is his former star reporter, Andrews' Tom, working on a novel and engaged to his high society daughter. The most intriguing scenes show Andrews undercover, traipsing in and out of a strip-joint, trying to hook up with the dancer-friend of the slain victim. The strippers, despite yammering in a put-on "New Yawwk" accent, are the most real and grounded things get, despite sounding like an actor's workshop.<br />
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While the idea, seeming creative in the 70's Tim Conway flick (the plot's been used other places as well, including the fairly recent Sly Stallone flick, <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2013/10/escape-plan.html">ESCAPE PLAN</a>), is intriguing, the extremely dull and lethargic manner of how it's pulled off, before and after the trial... even noted by suspicious ingenue Joan Fontaine... make this quickie programmer more a sleeping pill than an effective thriller. It's impossible to figure out who's more of an obvious cliche: the "Yay" man of Capital Punishment or the two "Nay" dolts going too far to prove a not-so-buried agenda with a predictable turnout, albeit curbed by that aforementioned 11th hour surprise wherein, luckily for fans of Dana Andrews, he wakes up enough to finally earning his paycheck.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>BOOMERANGE Score: **</u></td></tr>
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And speaking of swift, uneven, questionable justice – a decade earlier, another courtroom melodrama Film Noir with soon-to-be groundbreaking A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and ON THE WATERFRONT director Elia Kazan pushes that theme's envelope to the hilt, and beyond: Never has one man been so innocent as Arthur Kennedy's otherwise wayward drifting war hero. In fact, Andrews, as the initially headstrong prosecutor, changes sides after one conversation with the person The State is all-too determined to punish – since it had taken too long to find the killer, and goaded by the press (never blamed in old movies), the first worthy culprit becomes "the best" choice. And while the direction is passably taut and, along with Lee J. Cobb as a put-upon police chief and the often too-perfect idealist Sam Levene (who rarely plays a character that doesn't seem to know more than anyone) as a reporter, who, as the writer's mouthpiece, had his mind up made up even before the street-corner slaying of a beloved small town priest, BOOMERANG! is less of an ambiguous programmer and more an overtly obvious morality tale, and yet, this bleeding heart does have heart.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Lee J. Cobb and Dana Andrews in BOOMERANG!</u></td></tr>
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<u>A Second Glimpse into BOOMERANG, much angrier, written for IMdB, not written in the usual style of this site but, still, it needed shared here</u>: A Closeup on one of the witnesses coke bottle glasses. Another closeup on the feeble old obviously insane bum as one of the culprits in the ridiculously eclectic police lineup. The expressions of the shunned waitress that screams "I'm lying and just seeking revenge." Scenes where townsfolk speak to each other which sound like a much too perfectly timed rehearsal. The politicians having a meeting while an idyllic putting green of a golf course sleeps in the background. Ed Begley pulling a gun, and thus making leading man Dana Andrews's role that much less mysterious and engrossing. Sam Levene, as usual, playing the perfectly wise "progressive" working man, who knows more than anyone with a wink, almost directed right at the audience. And a narrator that pours on the grim irony behind a pseudo-documentary template.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Another shot of Cobb and Andrews in BOOMERANG!</u></td></tr>
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BOOMERANG is extremely disappointing, especially since it's a movie starring Cult Film Freak Cinema's favorite actor, Dana Andrews, and directed by one of my favorite directors, Elia Kazan, who hadn't yet met Marlon Brando i.e hit his stride, and became more subtle, and implied...<br />
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Idealistic is an understatement for this contrived Film Noir that's hardly a Film Noir. And that's the word to center on... The one connected to Under... Which is, Statement. This movie is not only making one, it's screaming like a wounded and abused banshee: And all this is why Dana's usual director, Otto Preminger, hit it outta the ballpark with his masterpiece Anatomy of a Murder, by having all the characters ambiguous, and, unlike BOOMERANG, remaining realistic without having heroes and villains. Such characters should never be anywhere near a Courtroom Drama. Anyhow: Dana Andrews did a good job and stayed tried and true despite starring in a movie that not only made up its mind from the start, but takes sides, one side... One-Sided, and beyond!

dana andrews, elia kazan, fifties, film noir or melodrama, forties, fritz lang, lee j. cobb

BOOMSHADOW: DANA ANDREWS COURTROOM NOIR DOUBLE

Poster Art and DVD Cover YEAR: 1956 CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, DANA ANDREWS & FILM NOIR: Following the career of Dana Andrews and dedicat...

Written by James M. Tate / 8/09/2016 / No comments / dana andrews , fifties , film noir or melodrama , horror , jacques tourneur , suspense , thriller

ANDREWS & TOURNEUR 1950's: DEMON & FEARMAKERS

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year Released: 1958 </u></td></tr>
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<u>THE FEARMAKERS</u>: Of the three motion pictures actor Dana Andrews starred in under the direction of Noir-Horror guru Jacques Tourneur, we'll cover two, made a year apart: CURSE OF THE DEMON and THE FEARMAKERS... So let's begin with the most obscure, and perhaps it's for a reason...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dana nearly spooked in CURSE OF THE DEMON</u></td></tr>
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Very rare a film go after the "Peace at any price" groups even and especially the 1950's when <i>not a</i> (for example and unrelated to this particular movie) science-fiction flick played out without a hidden or not so subtle message against nuclear weapons – and FEARMAKERS is a reverse sermon in a vacuum, beginning with a low-budget, rushed version of patriotism about as obvious as Michael Rennie leaving Earth following his Martian State of the Union Address...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dana Andrews gives to faint spells no thanks to Korea</u></td></tr>
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But enough of all that... FEAR is no space movie or a Film Noir despite one of that genre's signature leading men from <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/dana%20andrews">LAURA, FALLEN ANGEL, BOOMERANG, DAISY KENYON, WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS</a>, and especially OUT OF THE PAST director Jacques Tourneur, who Andrews requested after the surprise success and worthy turnout of their first collaboration (reviewed below) the year before, CURSE OF THE DEMON...<br>
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Our heroic when tortured after being captured in Korea war-vet Andrews has a horrible fake-looking beard in the prologue – and thereafter flashbacks – and it's nice to see him all cleaned up and suited, back home, processed by the Army as sane (despite reoccurring dizzy spells), ready to dive back into work – his own business: A somewhat complicated operation that has a big surprise waiting, and it's no party...<br>

dana andrews, fifties, film noir or melodrama, horror, jacques tourneur, suspense, thriller

ANDREWS & TOURNEUR 1950's: DEMON & FEARMAKERS

Year Released: 1958 THE FEARMAKERS : Of the three motion pictures actor Dana Andrews starred in under the direction of Noir-Horror guru...

AN OLDER JAMES CAGNEY IN THESE WILDER YEARS

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year Released: 1957</u></td></tr>
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While the Studio System may have been difficult for the talent, forced into project after project using whatever style that makes them shine again and again in various stories with similar plots and characterizations, it's great for anyone just turning on to a particular actor or actress...<br>
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James Cagney is a prime example. During the 1930's after accidentally hitting it big as the lead in PUBLIC ENEMY, a role that was supposed to go to the taller, more standard, typical Hollywood-looking guy and then wound up becoming Cagney's to own: the minute he smashed food on that dame's face a long journey had been ignited, and during that decade there are over ten programmers where his swagger, bravado, confidence, and dancing is in full form: From B-Pictures like PICTURE SNATCHER, WINNER TAKE ALL and our personal favorite, THE ST. LOUIS KID to crime flicks like G-MEN and EACH DAWN I DIE, con artist flicks like <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2014/01/cagney-bogart.html">LADY KILLER</a> and BLONDE CRAZY, patriotic but never too corny or cliche ventures like HERE COMES THE NAVY and eventually, Early Film Noir/Melodrama classics like CITY FOR CONQUEST and especially THE ROARING TWENTIES...<br>

barbara stanwyk, drama, fifties, james cagney, small town, teen

AN OLDER JAMES CAGNEY IN THESE WILDER YEARS

Year Released: 1957 While the Studio System may have been difficult for the talent, forced into project after project using whatever sty...

FALLEN DAISY WHIRL: DANA, GENE & OTTO TRIPLE FEATURE

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dana Andrews and his reflection in FALLEN ANGEL Year: 1945</u></td></tr>
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Presenting three reviews of movies by Otto Preminger following his Film Noir masterpiece, <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/05/Loir.html">LAURA</a>, each starring either one of the two main stars with Otto directing all: The first two with Dana Andrews in the lead and closing with the lovely painting herself, Gene Tierney, who'd literally reunite with Otto and Dana in <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/05/WTSends.html">WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS</a>, which we've covered already...<br>
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<u>FALLEN ANGEL</u>: If you look at the filmography of two actresses who play sisters in the Otto Preminger Film Noir FALLEN ANGEL, Alice Faye, as naive June Mills, and an older, wiser, more cautious Ann Revere as Clara, both had prosperous careers in that decade, the 1940's, and then their 50's resume reads like a clean slate: Sadly, more of a Blacklist for the NATIONAL VELVET Oscar-Winning Revere (who co-starred with Andrews in <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/08/DPWaters.html">DEEP WATERS</a>), but the 20th Century Fox starlet Faye basically quit acting for a long while (until she was old enough to be a teenage girl's mother in the remake of STATE FAIR, the original co-starring Andrews), and her career's demise was all because of FALLEN ANGEL...<br>

charles bickford, dana andrews, film noir or melodrama, forties, henry fonda, joan crawford, otto preminger, wrong man

FALLEN DAISY WHIRL: DANA, GENE & OTTO TRIPLE FEATURE

Dana Andrews and his reflection in FALLEN ANGEL Year: 1945 Presenting three reviews of movies by Otto Preminger following his Film Noir ...

MERRY ANDERS CNEMA: WITH ROBERT DIX IN AIR PATROL

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I-QXB3XOEW4/V6LNpMlEqEI/AAAAAAAAt0g/qHbapC31CAEVujaVc7QjXs7hhginzbNBQCLcB/s1600/61OopBURO4L._SL1000_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I-QXB3XOEW4/V6LNpMlEqEI/AAAAAAAAt0g/qHbapC31CAEVujaVc7QjXs7hhginzbNBQCLcB/s400/61OopBURO4L._SL1000_.jpg" width="280"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Terrific Fox DVD Cover Art YEAR: 1962</u></td></tr>
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In AIR PATROL, one of many low-budget movies directed by Maury Dexter, the wheels of justice move slowly, and the blades even slower. Scenes with the police helicopter dotting the blue sky of what seems like the rural suburbs just beyond a skyscraper-laden landscape, takes some time, but are still suspenseful and entertaining: Beginning with a soundtrack like any cop program of that era, though leaning on a jazzy upbeat over the usual forceful punch... other times providing bits of Halloween horror flick Tiburon sounds... as a faceless male thief steals a painting, and then takes off in a helicopter that meets him on that high-rise building's roof...<br>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Cc6LTa3d9Aw/V6LNWl4xqHI/AAAAAAAAt0Y/cqSVPRQxXWkjOitLF71kidFAtNTlkdytgCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-08-03%2Bat%2B10.06.12%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Cc6LTa3d9Aw/V6LNWl4xqHI/AAAAAAAAt0Y/cqSVPRQxXWkjOitLF71kidFAtNTlkdytgCLcB/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-08-03%2Bat%2B10.06.12%2BPM.png" width="224"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Merry Anders as Mona</u></td></tr>
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The one-man knockoff went easy enough, and only one lady, working late, got in the way: but only for the amount of time to get bonked unconscious in this breezy Late Noir with a beautiful, edgy, cranky, cop-hating ingenue, with old school chops of one of those brisk and edgy Femme Fatalle's, or the curt best friend of the leading lady on here, she's in the lead...<br>
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Waking up after the heist with a feeling liken to a hangover, or worse, and she's our primary starlet, looking better than ever: that being Merry Anders, as part of our ongoing "Merry Anders Cinema" and/or, on other flicks sans the exotically wide-eyed ingenue, Maury Dexter Cinema, for her already covered in b-movie write-ups of <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/07/anders1-HYP-EYE.html">THE HYPNOTIC EYE</a> and <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/07/merry-anders-cinema-raiders-from.html">RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA</a>, here playing Mona, under questioning in the same office building by a wise, patient yet assertive veteran cop Lt. Taylor played by Willard Parker and then our hero, a mellow, younger lawman whose primary task is a flier in the AIR PATROL. Bob Dix is a personal friend of Cult Film Freak, having starred of <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2012/08/hells-bloody-devils-fakers.html">HELL'S BLOODY DEVILS</a>, <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2012/08/satans-sadists.html">SATAN'S SADISTS</a>, <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2010/03/robert-dix-five-bloody-graves.html">FIVE BLOODY GRAVES</a>, and <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2014/06/first-archive-bagful.html">FORBIDDEN PLANET</a>. His Sgt. Castle slowly melts Anders down into not being so feisty and aggravated... But that's skipping ahead...<br>

cop, film noir or melodrama, jazz score, maury dexter, merry anders, neo noir, robert dix, sixties

MERRY ANDERS CNEMA: WITH ROBERT DIX IN AIR PATROL

Terrific Fox DVD Cover Art YEAR: 1962 In AIR PATROL, one of many low-budget movies directed by Maury Dexter, the wheels of justice move ...

DANA ANDREWS & CAESAR ROMERO WORK IN 'DEEP WATERS'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Uc4Z47R_JD0/V5_8aSUDIAI/AAAAAAAAtzE/1vGjiXtMuoYAbQsq8aivHZNbODuRiaEGACLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-08-01%2Bat%2B6.49.52%2BPM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Uc4Z47R_JD0/V5_8aSUDIAI/AAAAAAAAtzE/1vGjiXtMuoYAbQsq8aivHZNbODuRiaEGACLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-08-01%2Bat%2B6.49.52%2BPM.png" width="382" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Future Joker from BATMAN meets the Old Guy from QUANTUM LEAP</u></td></tr>
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<i>How very easily DEEP WATERS could have been a sappy childhood melodrama, ripping the tears straight from the eye-sockets, but thanks to both leading men... or rather, one man and one boy... it's anything but contrived or melodramatic...</i><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NaTx1OlaHLw/WmJhloq9syI/AAAAAAAA0aY/mYYBnLzR1agXtx4pjyh_ifou6wikpXPtgCLcBGAs/s1600/3a8745a1f4b07229c6f51d6fb9bb6aed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="259" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NaTx1OlaHLw/WmJhloq9syI/AAAAAAAA0aY/mYYBnLzR1agXtx4pjyh_ifou6wikpXPtgCLcBGAs/s400/3a8745a1f4b07229c6f51d6fb9bb6aed.jpg" width="171" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dana w/ Jean Peters</u></td></tr>
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Dana Andrews stars as former potential big-time architect turned full-time blood-and-sweat lobsterman Hod Stillwell, as true as a man could be during the post-war 1940's, yet he's still determined and stubborn i.e. imperfect and realistic...<br />
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Meanwhile, Dean Stockwell's Donny Mitchell, turning in one of the most natural kid performances, is the real main character i.e. our buried lead: first seen being dropped off by subtle-beauty social worker Jean Peters to a nice yet strict older woman, Anne Revere as Mary in a strong performance wedged between her Oscar-winning NATIONAL VELVET turn and blacklisting in the 1950's, living in Maine where Donny, having grown-up with a local hero sailor dad, who, like a lot of men in the town, had died in one of many formidable storms. But no matter what the risk, Billy yearns for the ocean, and nothing more.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p1Y8VJrCUzE/V5_75GiO2hI/AAAAAAAAty8/mAGTvl752xwXAB4GYyq34bPX5t11orFkgCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-08-01%2Bat%2B6.47.09%2BPM.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="357" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p1Y8VJrCUzE/V5_75GiO2hI/AAAAAAAAty8/mAGTvl752xwXAB4GYyq34bPX5t11orFkgCLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-08-01%2Bat%2B6.47.09%2BPM.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Mary Revere, Dean Stockwell & Dana Andrews YEAR: 1948</u></td></tr>
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Andrews and Stockwell have a easygoing chemistry that builds slowly, and is genuine enough for their ultimate plot-necessary problem/roadblock to be a near heartbreak for both the boy and the audience. And yet Stockwell's narrow-eyed determination keeps himself and the film going headstrong... Not much whining with this kid...<br />
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On the adult side, Peters, always a terrific method actress, is more or less a potential ingenue, being she was formerly engaged to Andrews' character. Because of the history of deadly storms, she fears the sea, and doesn't want Billy near the water...<br />
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But not Dana and especially our zesty fifth banana/comic relief in Caesar Romero as his smiling Spanish business partner: Romero's Joe Sanger yearns to become a farmer of anything, from turkeys to minks, instead of building those lobsters traps, day in and day out. As the polar opposite of Billy, these two have more of a cool uncle to nephew inside-chemistry, .<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BLTBEyxr390/V5_9FcnGoYI/AAAAAAAAtzM/uIPAM14Owz4z59rvuO27jXRbi6bb3zfPACLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-08-01%2Bat%2B6.52.32%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BLTBEyxr390/V5_9FcnGoYI/AAAAAAAAtzM/uIPAM14Owz4z59rvuO27jXRbi6bb3zfPACLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-08-01%2Bat%2B6.52.32%2BPM.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>A Very Misleading Poster Image of DEEP WATERS Score: ****</u></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A pleasant motion picture that has dated but very effective special effects when the ship hits a storm that was begging to happen, and it's no surprise who's life gets put in jeopardy. Sure, it's all rather predictable during the 10th and 11th hour. But when things turn-out just how you want, enough last-minute suspense occurs to where it might just <i>may not</i> fit together after-all, making DEEP WATERS an idyllic yet suspenseful excursion into a town that's as part of the sea as the sea is to the town. The performances are as natural as the actual location, outside and in. One particular sequence has Andrews searching for a bottle of wine as Revere's Mary cleans up the kitchen. It's mesmerizing how both move around in a contained space while the shot continues for about three-minutes. In a way this Henry King programmer has more than a touch of "foreign film" going for it. At one point you  may even imagine subtitles splashed across the screen. This picture sure doesn't seem created to make bundles on an opening weekend, but to exist for the long-run.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wiEPLCQMFD4/WVeCVvlzBnI/AAAAAAAAyIs/sKBNRFlcc4ofhTxsZBsf4Dg2NtNlihVsQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-07-01%2Bat%2B4.02.57%2BAM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="840" data-original-width="1600" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wiEPLCQMFD4/WVeCVvlzBnI/AAAAAAAAyIs/sKBNRFlcc4ofhTxsZBsf4Dg2NtNlihVsQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-07-01%2Bat%2B4.02.57%2BAM.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Caesar Romero shows Dean Stockwell the advantages of not fishing but trying to get rich quick: not Plastics, Mink!</u></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9zxVernosbQ/WVeCXPYtPLI/AAAAAAAAyIw/DOjjGqpwLWYpJtOtaaEVj1JrTPT9jkEegCLcBGAs/s1600/19467753_737355499800930_1114816052474846377_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="707" data-original-width="1600" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9zxVernosbQ/WVeCXPYtPLI/AAAAAAAAyIw/DOjjGqpwLWYpJtOtaaEVj1JrTPT9jkEegCLcBGAs/s1600/19467753_737355499800930_1114816052474846377_o.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dana Andrews with Mary Revere in this movie and Otto Preminger's FALLEN ANGEL: She has his number in both</u></td></tr>
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dana andrews, dean stockwell, drama, jean peters, kids

DANA ANDREWS & CAESAR ROMERO WORK IN 'DEEP WATERS'

Future Joker from BATMAN meets the Old Guy from QUANTUM LEAP How very easily DEEP WATERS could have been a sappy childhood melodrama, ri...

JMT

Written by James M. Tate / 8/30/2016 / No comments / counter culture , drama , drug culture , george c. scott , leonard gaines , paul schrader , peter boyle , prostitute , reb brown , season hubley , seventies

Written by James M. Tate / 8/29/2016 / No comments / gene wilder , tribute

Written by James M. Tate / 8/27/2016 / No comments / dennis quaid , edmond o'brien , eighties , fifties , film noir , jazz score , neo noir , remake

Written by James M. Tate / 8/26/2016 / No comments / anne francis , dana andrews , disaster , sixties , troy donahue , warner archives

Written by James M. Tate / 8/24/2016 / No comments / adventure , dana andrews , david carradine , forties , jean renoir , moonshine , seventies , walter brennan , walter huston

Written by James M. Tate / 8/21/2016 / No comments / earl holliman , fifties , film noir or melodrama , heist , jack palance , lee marvin , perry lopez , remake , shelley winters

Written by James M. Tate / 8/20/2016 / No comments / action , adventure , alfred hitchcock , dana andrews , forties , joel mccrea , martin kosleck , war , world war II

Written by James M. Tate / 8/19/2016 / No comments / dana andrews , disaster , drama , elizabeth taylor , fifties , peter finch , romance , suspense , warner archives

Written by James M. Tate / 8/16/2016 / No comments / anne francis , dana andrews , drive-in , nicolas coster , richard kiel , sixties , strother martin , troy donahue , william conrad

Written by James M. Tate / 8/15/2016 / No comments / claude reins , courtroom drama , joey heatherton , nick adams , richard chamberlain , sixties

Written by James M. Tate / 8/14/2016 / No comments / dana andrews , elia kazan , fifties , film noir or melodrama , forties , fritz lang , lee j. cobb

Written by James M. Tate / 8/09/2016 / No comments / dana andrews , fifties , film noir or melodrama , horror , jacques tourneur , suspense , thriller

Written by James M. Tate / 8/08/2016 / No comments / barbara stanwyk , drama , fifties , james cagney , small town , teen

Written by James M. Tate / 8/06/2016 / No comments / charles bickford , dana andrews , film noir or melodrama , forties , henry fonda , joan crawford , otto preminger , wrong man

Written by James M. Tate / 8/04/2016 / No comments / cop , film noir or melodrama , jazz score , maury dexter , merry anders , neo noir , robert dix , sixties

Written by James M. Tate / 8/03/2016 / No comments / dana andrews , dean stockwell , drama , jean peters , kids

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