cult film freak: March 2018

Written by James M. Tate / 3/31/2018 / No comments / adventure , bill mumy , biopic , don gordon , drama , dustin hoffman , francis j. schaffner , henri charrière , john quade , prison , seventies , steve mcqueen , woodrow palfrey

STEVE MCQUEEN ESCAPES IN 'PAPILLON' ORIGINAL ADAPTATION

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year of Capture & Release: 1973</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Director Francis J. Schaffner and scriptwriter Dalton Trumbo convert </span><span style="font-size: small;">Henri Charrière's riveting biographical novel to the big screen, providing Steve McQueen with a more fleshed-out role than usual and rebooting Dustin Hoffman's minor character in the book to main sidekick on screen: </span>Both have a realistic aura, surviving hell as they work a swampy chain-gang and eventually plan their escape, and each scene is like a movie in itself, beginning with a slave ship to the initial prison (initially along with a grownup but still young Bill Mumy and McQueen's BULLITT and TOWERING INFERNO partner Don Gordon). <br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">As an examination of the hellish existence in the French penal colonies, and eventually Devil's Island, there's gritty realism held back for mainstream audiences, seeming at times like a well-made television melodrama with some widescreen blood and guts thrown in: </span><span style="font-size: small;">But as a straight-out adventure flick there's plenty of eventful situations to keep the viewer interested, and completely entertained, in the struggling journey of one tough cookie who refused to stay-put.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Steve McQueen, Billy Mumy, Don Gordon and Dustin Hoffman in PAPILLON</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Steve McQueen's PAPILLON in his first of two solitary sentences</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Bill Mumy autograph on original Papillon Jerry Goldsmith LP Soundtrack "You're Dead" from dream sequence</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>William Smithers lectures Steve McQueen's PAPILLON that he'll live on bread... and circuses</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Steve McQueen's PAPILLON makes a deal with Citizen Kane veteran George Coulouris</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Steve McQueen tries talking sense to Dustin Hoffman in PAPILLON</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>John Quade and Steve McQueen's PAPILLON make a surprise deal</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Steve McQueen looking Indy Jones before there was one in PAPILLON w/ Anthony Zerbe</u></td></tr>
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adventure, bill mumy, biopic, don gordon, drama, dustin hoffman, francis j. schaffner, henri charrière, john quade, prison, seventies, steve mcqueen, woodrow palfrey

STEVE MCQUEEN ESCAPES IN 'PAPILLON' ORIGINAL ADAPTATION

Year of Capture & Release: 1973 Director Francis J. Schaffner and scriptwriter Dalton Trumbo convert Henri Charrière's riveting ...

Written by James M. Tate / 3/28/2018 / No comments / 2018 , new , science-fiction , steven spielberg

STEVEN SPIELBERG GOES FUTURE-PAST IN 'READY PLAYER ONE'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Real of Release: 2018 Years of Celebration: 1980's</u></td></tr>
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Most films begin slowly, and then open up into an adventurous middle with pockets of character-developing downtime leading to the kind of crescendo that READY PLAYER ONE ignites from the get-go.<br>
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Taking place about fifty years from now in the usual raggedy dystopic future, this particular urban wasteland's known as The Stacks, which the living quarters are, one atop the other. But a virtual reality game-world, Oasis, has become a sparkling haven beyond the squalor, and as people play into the games wearing helmets, walking on treadmills, etc., their avatars fight to stay alive while... and here's the plot... trying to find three keys that Oasis's dead founder left — for then the winner takes over the half-a-trillion dollar company...<br>

2018, new, science-fiction, steven spielberg

STEVEN SPIELBERG GOES FUTURE-PAST IN 'READY PLAYER ONE'

Real of Release: 2018 Years of Celebration: 1980's Most films begin slowly, and then open up into an adventurous middle with pockets...

JACQUES TOURNEUR DIRECTS DANA ANDREWS IN 'CANYON PASSAGE'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: CANYON PASSAGE Year: 1946 Rates: ****1/2<br></u></td></tr>
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Over a decade before <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/08/feardemon.html">CURSE OF THE DEMON</a> and <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/08/feardemon.html">THE FEARMAKERS</a>, Jacques Tourneur directed Dana Andrews in a well-dressed, comfortably-paced North Western, CANYON PASSAGE, taking place mostly within a small, makeshift town built from — and tucked within the shade of — the surrounding forest, a knee-jerk away from an uneasy peace with brooding Indians... <br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dana on book</u><br></td></tr>
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Yet the suspense relies more on how two particular characters develop 
than the horse-clopping action taking most of the third act: In almost every Western with Dana Andrews there's an edgy gallows kangaroo court involved, and here it's the least important aspect although would-be victim Brian Donlevy, as extremely unlucky, altogether-cursed gambler, George, sharpens Dana's workaholic, mule running/cargo moving entrepreneur, Logan, since he has to keep covering his old pal from gambling debts and other vices: including a possible murder. This is really a tale on how far a friendship can bend... <br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Riding into the Portland Oregon rain</u></td></tr>
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And there's only a hint of romance between Andrews... engaged to a Stepford Prairie Girl played by British import Patricia Roc... and future MY FOOLISH HEART co-star Susan Hayward as a beautiful tomboy — both share a cool friendship almost too perfect to hinder with complications: Actually, she already belongs to the flaky loser/dreamer, Donlevy... kind of... though it's obvious where her heart <i>really </i>is...<br>
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Meanwhile, interesting side-characters include another frequent Dana co-star, musician Hoagy Carmichael (<a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2019/05/stinking-at-butches.html">NIGHT SONG</a>, <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/05/BYOOurLIVES.html">BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES</a>), as a mandolin-playing expository moral conscious, and Lloyd Bridges (later in Tourneur's Western <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2018/03/W-stands-for-Witchia.html">WICHITA</a>) spitefully ruling the kangaroo court: But the true antagonist's played with gusto by Ward Bond (Dana's <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2018/08/SwampWater.html">SWAMP WATER</a> foe), who causes all sorts of bruised-up and/or deadly havoc, especially in a sublimely choreographed saloon fight scene, where director Tourneur's otherwise rich, artistic lens flows with testosterone-fueled bravado.<br>
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action, andy devine, brian donlevy, dana andrews, drama, forties, hoagy carmichael, jacques tourneur, lloyd bridges, susan hayward, ward bond, western

JACQUES TOURNEUR DIRECTS DANA ANDREWS IN 'CANYON PASSAGE'

Title: CANYON PASSAGE Year: 1946 Rates: ****1/2 Over a decade before CURSE OF THE DEMON and THE FEARMAKERS , Jacques Tourneur directed ...

BLOODY REMAKE OF 'DEATH WISH' STARRING BRUCE WILLIS

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Bruce Willis in what looks like a golf swing follow-thru YEAR: 2018</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The difference of the original Charles Bronson crime exploitation classic DEATH WISH and its four sequels is the same between Eli Roth's modernized take with Bruce Willis... </span><br>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Instead of one man becoming a freelance, anything-goes vigilante <i>because of</i> his wife's death and daughter's coma </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">(aided by a young Jeff Goldblum)</span>, he sets out after the real killers. Which makes 2018's DEATH WISH more of a sparse Neo-Noir extension of Denzel Washington's surprisingly good THE EQUALIZER than a high-octane "yippee ki yay" update of the 70's cult classic...</span><br>

2018, action, bruce willis, elizabeth shue, exploitation, new, remake, suspense