eaglejet98 Reviews

For Love of the Game (1999)

Superb acting by Costner and Preston. Great Baseball film.

[10/10 · 23 July 2006]

Most people are aware that Kevin Costner is an avid baseball fan, as he has made four movies where he was either a rabid fan, active or retired player.

He understands baseball and must have been a fairly good amateur player himself, as his movements on the field are realistic, so his baseball movies are believable even without dissecting the plots.

In For Love of the game however, the underlying love story between Billy Chapel and Jane Aubry (Costner and Preston), enhances, but does not overshadow the baseball theme. In fact, without the love story, the film might be a flat, plot less story.

Some critics say the plot and particularly the ending, where we all know Chapel will pitch a perfect game, detracts from or imparts an artificiality to the film. But I would refer those critics to the 1984 film, The Natural, with Robert Redford. That film was predictable, yet its predictability was the stuff of Saturday morning matinées at the movies, where the good guy in the white hate defeated the bad guy. Same with For Love of the Game. Its predictability, which actually only becomes apparent near the middle of the last game, adds to the overall effect of the film.

Costner is superb, not only as a ball player, but as a man who is obviously falling in love with something other than baseball, for the first time in his life.

The best surprise of all is Kelly Preston. This is, by far, her best performance. She is totally believable as a vulnerable, insecure single mother, who is afraid of having her heart broken as a sports groupie.

As an avid baseball fan, I loved this film for its reality in depicting an aging baseball player's plight. But as a guy who isn't into "chick flicks" I have to admit that I was swept away by the love story.

I loved it, even though I am a die hard Yankee fan!

Shane (1953)

One of the top three best all time western films

[10/10 · 19 January 2005]

Along with High Noon (1952), The Searchers (1956) and The Magnificent Seven (1960), Shane defines the western movie genre.

Everything is here; the wild and beautiful scenery; the unrequited love; and most of all the man with a bad reputation who does the right thing at the right time to protect the weak but righteous from evil. In fact, all three movies have this same thread: the man with a past ultimately redeems himself at the end of this story.

All the characters are quintessential representatives of their type: Jean Arthur is the image of strong but feminine womanhood; Van Heflin is the hard working homesteader; Brandon DeWilde is the young, trusting boy in all of us; Ben Johnson is the bad guy who turns good. There's a host of other bad characters, all topped by Jack Palance as the ultimate evil gunslinger for hire. And, of course, Shane himself represents every man who, for reasons unknown, has a bad reputation but is ultimately good.

The story builds throughout the film until the climactic ending. Even though we can predict the outcome, we feel good when it plays out. And after he kills the gunfighter, Shane's words to little Joey reinforce the child's image of both the evil killer and the ultimately good Shane. Joey: "Gosh Shane, he was fast." Shane: "Yes Joey, he was fast; fast on the draw". The last phrase, reemphasizing the misguided glamor of the gunslinger's speed plays up the unspoken truth that since Shane killed the gunfighter, Shane was the fastest. Shane was the best.

Outstanding classic western.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

Absolutely terrible.

[1/10 · 13 January 2005]

This is one of the worst films I have ever seen.

George Clooney is a great actor when he stars in a good (or even mediocre) film. But in many respects he reminds me of Steve McQueen; whenever he takes a role in a poor film, his presence alone is not enough to carry the story, and he is very poor at comedy or self parody.

"Oh Brother..." is a perfect example of a bad film that George Clooney cannot save. The acting is juvenile, the story is dreary and rambling and the only good aspect, the title song, is only sung once or twice.

Disappointing all around.

Trapeze (1956)

I'm biased; I liked it.

[7/10 · 11 January 2005]

Actually I think Trapeze is a fairly decent depiction of a 1950s European flyer's act. And I understand that Mr. Lancaster was an acrobat whose career was ended due to injury prior to his becoming an actor. So this may have enabled him to have a good feel for his role.

But I'm also a bit biased. I've been to a couple of circuses in Paris, which seemed to mirror the film's atmosphere and I actually met the actors who starred in this film.

In 1955 I was living on an American military base near Paris where Trapeze was being filmed. The USO hosted a gathering on base and Tony Curtis and Gina Lollabrigida appeared to promote the film and sign autographs. My older sisters got their photos taken with Mr. Curtis.

So naturally, whenever I catch this film on late night cable, I see it from a nostalgic point of view.

Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971)

Worthless exploitation of WW II. Some things are just not funny.

[8 January 2005]

While I would agree that there is humor in almost every situation, and certainly there were humorous events throughout WW II POW camps, the premise of POW life being one big happy time is absurd. And though all humor, no matter how macabre, has some basis in reality, this show doesn't fit that bill.

I have a number of relatives and friends who were POWs in German Stalags. They all say that while the Germans did not torture them as they did concentration camp inmates, nor were they barbaric like the Japanese to military (and all other) prisoners; POW life was grueling, and bleak. There was little to eat, the barracks were cold and time passed ever so slowly. Lack of news from home about loved ones and family caused great anxiety. The memories of air battles and being shot down prior to capture were traumatic.

There was nothing fun about POW life, nothing. Despite its popularity, this series was an insult to both Americans and Germans. And the series' star, Robert Crane, turned out to be a sexual predator in real life who was murdered under mysterious circumstances related to his aberrant lifestyle. Hogan the POW was Crane the POS.

A bad dream would be washing up on a desert island and finding only two videos; Gilligan's Island and Hogan's Heroes.

Night Shift (1982)

First half of film is funny; the remainder is tired.

[4/10 · 8 January 2005]

Night Shift has a macabre funny premise; a milquetoast morgue attendant and his BS artist partner become pimps using the "Night Shift" at a NYC Morgue as corporate headquarters for a group of hookers whose pimp was murdered by other crooks (Richard Belzer is perfect as the hood in shades).

Henry Winkler completely sheds his Fonzie image and is convincing as the harried ex stockbroker henpecked by his fiancée, mother and future in-laws, and abused by everyone he meets, including the neighbor's dog.

Michael Keaton is a riot as the complete cartoonish caricature of every BS artist you've ever seen.

Unfortunately Shelly Long is both unconvincing as a hooker and unattractive as the leading lady (her complexion looks bad). The other ladies of the evening are unconvincing and the last 30 minutes of the film drag as if no ending was written and the director realized he had more film than dialog left.

It's funny the first time around if you stop 3/4 of the way through.

So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)

One or two good scenes. The father is funniest. LaPaglia is hilarious.

[4/10 · 8 January 2005]

To my mind "...Ax Murderer" is one of those films like "Clerks" or "Swingers". Its plot is fairly pointless but you watch it over and over for the few really cleaver sight gags and one liners it contains.

Anthony LaPaglia is excellent as an undercover police detective who wants his life to be like that of Starsky and Hutch. He constantly begs his mild mannered supervisor, Alan Arkin, to scream and yell at him like their boss did. When he shows up disguised as Huggy Bear I laughed my insides out.

The sequence where Mike Myers introduces Nancy Travis to his family (Myers also plays his own father) is riotous. The sexual undertones of the "big heed (head)" insults to Myers' little brother are great. It takes a little while to grasp the point of why the the old man keeps insulting the boy for his over-sized head as well as to develop the mental image of Dad telling his wife to show Travis the family photo album..."show her the one where he **** his pants in Niagara Falls!" The whole idea of such a photo is so absurd and pointless that its pointlessness becomes humor, like jokes about passing gas in a space suit or a pay toilet in a hospital diarrhea ward. Duh. This scene would make the 3 Stooges proud.

Best seen with the guys, after having a few beers.

Battle Circus (1953)

Totally sexist 50s war flick

[7 January 2005]

As another viewer already stated, Bogey's character would have been brought up on sexual harassment charges for this kind of behavior today.

Plus, his character was just a plain bore-he made a couple of passes at a subordinate and she politely declined. Instead of taking the hint he used his rank and position to wear her down. Both Allyson and Bogart were better actors than to have accepted their cheesy roles in this film. I can't believe either of them needed the money that badly.

The only saving grace in the film was that it gave the viewers an idea of the MASH concept. The difficulties in providing state-of-the-art medical treatment to front line troops on a fluid, fluctuating battlefield in WW II resulted in the inception of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) in Korea. Instead of having to wait days for treatment of major combat wounds, patients in the Korean War, and subsequent conflicts, were often undergoing lifesaving hospital surgery in a MASH within hours.

It's a film worth watching if it's showing on cable but not worth buying or renting.

Kill Me If You Can (1977 TV Movie)

As bad as "Birdman of Alcatraz"

[1/10 · 6 January 2005]

This film is just as bad as "The Birdman of Alcatraz". I do not refer to the acting but rather the premise of both films, which try to portray psychopathic criminals as heroic figures. Moreover it disturbs me when well respected, revered actors like Alan Alda (and Burt Lancaster) play such roles, because their status tends to lend credibility to the director's intent to elevate the film's subject, a societal outcast.

I was in junior high school during the last years of Caryl Chessman's life and his death penalty appeals and books were very much in the news. I remember the groundswell of opinion that the death penalty was wrong and Chessman was the victim.

Get a grip people. Read the history. Chessman was a criminal and sexual predator. He drove around the LA streets at night with a stolen police light in his vehicle. He stopped cars with attractive women inside under the ruse of making a traffic arrest; then abducted and raped the women. Rape is the worst trauma a woman can experience and many victims say they would prefer death to its horror and humiliation.

Chessman got exactly what he deserved, it just took a decade too long. No sympathy for the devil here.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Just keep telling yourself it's only a movie

[10/10 · 19 December 2004]

Remember the trailers for some of those campy 1950s sci-fi flicks..."just keep telling yourself it's only a movie"...and "no one with heart problems should see this movie"? All the folks who are criticizing this film, and particularly those who use the film as a spring board to criticize America, get a grip! Every military person I've known has loved this movie. We know it's a spoof of us and of the dark days of the Cold War. We don't take it personally. In fact, we've all known people similar, if not exactly like, the characters in this film, which makes the movie all that more fun. It's JUST a movie!!!

Humor and satire are always best when based on some small truism. But I see nothing sick or mean spirited about Dr. Strangelove. For the information of the person who was disturbed by the image of MAJ Kong riding the A Bomb down to the target like it was a rodeo bull, relax, it was only a movie! Slim Pickens didn't die in the film and I'm sure James Earl Jones was not offended by any ethnic humor, especially when he cashed his paycheck. Or I could be wrong, in which case, the good citizens of Bear Creek are up in arms over MAJ Kong's comment about them being all hair-lipped. Find me one joke, one stand up comic, one internet repeated cartoon that doesn't base its humor on some human characteristic or frailty.

I don't expect everyone to like this film. As the man said, that's what makes horse racing. But I am surprised at the hostility among the people making comments to one another when discussing this film.

And one last thing, why are so many of you hostile to America? I suspect most of you are not from the USA. Americans are not the only people to steal land or kill others. Man has been killing his fellow man since the beginning of time. The Greeks, Romans, Visogoths, Huns, Anglo Saxons; you name them, races have been fighting and conquering long before the Americans did it. And by and large, the US does far more good in the world than it does bad. We bailed Europe out of two world wars and we still try to ease the suffering of millions. The guy who listed all the supposed NBC crimes we've committed since the dawn of the 20th Century has obviously got an ax to grind no matter what reality tells him. He probably hates The Christmas Story, Snow White and The Wizard of Oz.

Lighten up folks.

American Graffiti (1973)

Movie that defined high school in the late 1950s - early 1960s.

[10/10 · 30 July 2004]

This film is the perfect depiction of American high school life in the "innocent" 1950s - 1960s before Vietnam and assassinations of Amercian political leaders brought us to the brink or anarchy.

George Lucas managed to capture and present all the high school characters we've ever seen, from the shy geek, the Stepford cheerleader, class president, class clown, lecherous teacher, to the class bully.

In both a comedic and serious vein they are all there, showing their strengths and weaknesses. The heroes, villains, doers and watchers each had their moment on stage. And it was narrated by the town's favorite radio DJ (in this case Wolfman) that somehow connected every high school in your hometown.

This film is a true classic. Along with Animal House, it defined the wry side of American youth academia. Anyone who hasn't seen this flick gets three days' detention.

Easy Rider (1969)

Stupid, amoral and generally pointless movie.

[1/10 · 19 July 2004]

Yes I know, Easy Rider is a classic and a reflection of the youth counter-culture of the 1960s. But to quote Brad Dexter's character in "The Magnificent Seven"; "sure, sure, that's all on top. But what's underneath?" The answer: Nothing.

POSSIBLE SPOILER Two scum bag drug smugglers, who deal dope because they're too lazy to work and have no regard for the pain and suffering their enterprise causes, get a big payoff from a crime boss and spend the next few days/weeks/months biking across the great Southwestern Desert of America and meander their way to New Orleans. One of these clowns even has the audacity to drape himself and his chopper in the Stars & Stripes motif. All this while thousands of upstanding young men were fighting and dying in Vietnam to defend the rights of these two ancestors of Beavis & Butthead.

And since America isn't beautiful enough by itself, they enhance their metaphysical surroundings by constantly toking joints all along the way. Hope they don't crash into any school buses or other "regular citizens" who might trespass on their private DUI highways.

Pete and Repete mooch off hippie communes or sit in road side cafés, bewildered because the locals are disgusted by what they are, scum bag drug smugglers.

Their "holier than thou" attitudes eventually get them what most arrogant bad guys deserve. These two mental midgets get schwacked dead because they didn't have sense enough to stay away from people who hate idiots.

I saw this waste of celluloid when I was young and in college. It didn't impress me then and it doesn't impress me now.

What's New Pussycat (1965)

Funniest film you'll ever see the first time 'round.

[10/10 · 25 May 2004]

I saw this movie when it first came out in 1965. It was sort of like a comedy on steroids...

We look back on the works of Peter Sellers and Woody Allen now with routine acknowledgment of their comic genius, but imagine seeing them early on in their careers-and together!! Sellers' lecherous grins and comments are priceless. Allen's dysfunctional paranoid inferiority complex got its start here. And Peter O'Toole, not normally seen as a comedian, plays his role with understated humor. The result was, as they say, synergistic---the whole was greater than the sum of the parts. I have never laughed so hard in my life. The car chase scene, particularly with Sellers in a go cart, grinding away through a vegetable market, literally made me fall out of my seat, in tears, I laughed so hard...it actually hurt my stomach.

If you haven't seen it, rent it. Great fun.

Never So Few (1959)

Routine Rat Pack(-) flick spiced up by Steve McQueen

[20 May 2004]

This is a typical "Rat Pack" (minus Deano, Joey and Sammy) theatrical romp; big on action and small on fact based substance, but entertaining nonetheless.

The big surprise is Steve McQueen, appearing in one of his first major films. Up to this point, he has come to prominence in the TV series Wanted, Dead or Alive, but has yet to make the jump to film star. "Never So Few" is his springboard. A spat between Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. gets McQueen the supporting role that launches his movie career under the direction of John Sturges (who later directs The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape).

McQueen plays Corporal Bill Ringa (Why'd they pick that name...a pseudonym for "Ringer" maybe?), a self promoting "SGT. Bilko" type con man making a few fast bucks "in the rear with the gear" of the CBI. When Ringa is assigned as OSS Capt. Tom Reynold's (Frank Sinatra) jeep driver, during the latter's visit to the rear area headquarters, he impresses the officer with his unorthodox approach to selling illegal whiskey and fighting with MPs (anyone that hates MPs has got my vote). Reynolds gets Ringa transferred to his outfit and the two go about smashing the Japanese and renegade Chinese warlords.

McQueen shows the strong almost overpowering "2d in command" role he perfects in The Magnificent Seven a year later. His on-screen presence in these two films propels McQueen to leading man status thereafter.

Not a very historically accurate film, and some of the acting is overplayed, but McQueen is strong throughout and the film is fast paced and entertaining.

Killers from Space (1954)

Actually a pretty entertaining little sci-fi thriller

[7/10 · 20 May 2004]

Taken in the context of 1950s sci-fi pulp, this little flick is actually not that bad. It's suspenseful and entertaining.

The premise is standard 1950s subliminal anti-communism fare; aliens (Reds) plan to take over earth (USA) using a diabolical and disgusting plan (world domination)...in this case giant bugs they've bred deep inside the mountains will be released to gobble up earth's inhabitants. (This sounds familiar to the story line of THEM, also released in 1954).

But I liked the way the movie used a believable approach to the plot. A pilot/scientist is in a mysterious plane crash then wakes up with a memory loss and unexplainable chest scars (from surgery performed by the baddies while he was out). He starts experiences recurring nightmares wherein the bug eyed aliens appear. This is quite plausible and keeps up the film's suspense.

Peter Graves is a very convincing actor so whether he's playing a sergeant in an Oscar winning movie about a POW camp (Stalag 17), or running around in a sci-fi flick, he's still very good and lends credibility to whatever vehicle he's in.

While the movie's plot and ending are predictable, Killers from Space is fast paced escapism. Fun to watch on a Saturday night.

The Blob (1958)

An Early look at The King of Cool

[18 May 2004]

An interesting note: this year (2004) The Great Escape is being re-released. By coincidence, the film that made Steve McQueen famous is based on a true story-the allied POW officers' escape from Stalag Luft III, which took place on the night of March 24, 1944. March 24 is Steve McQueen's birthday.

THE BLOB

Except for one thing, this is a forgettable flick, even in a sea of forgettable 1950s sci-fi flicks. The one thing notable about this film is that it provides an early look at an undeveloped talent in the form of Steven McQueen; later box office mega star Steve McQueen.

Many biographies of Steve McQueen note his early career attempts to follow the styles of the late James Dean and Marlon Brando. Like others who tried, McQueen fails badly in this movie. The only young actor to come out of the 1950s using his own unique style from the beginning was fellow Actors' Studio grad, Paul Newman, McQueen's internal personal rival. The Blob gives us a unique view of a young man as he struggles to find himself as an actor. In spite of the film and himself, a number of scenes show the truly great actor that will emerge within five years. Once McQueen learned to just play himself, The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape (along with a number of other excellent, but lesser publicized, films) established The King of Cool as a box office heavyweight who would ultimately outshine all his rivals. This inner character, McQueen as McQueen, has made him as strong a screen star 24 years after his death as he was in his heyday.

Only Clark Gable and John Wayne had stars that continue to shine year after year as McQueen's does.

The 7th Dawn (1964)

Unheralded but classic period piece & morality play

[10/10 · 21 January 2004]

This is one of those films that goes unnoticed for some reason, despite having an excellent story, superb cast and breathtaking scenery.

Although it is "entertainment", art does imitate life and we see the brutal reality of how a dedicated (and duped) Marxist revolutionary lets deep, committed friendships fall to the wayside, in fact uses those very friendships, to further his political cause.

The film came out about the time the war in Vietnam became an American War and this may be the reason it did not do as well as it should have at the box office.

A young Suzanna York is stunning; Capucine is the classic beauty she remained until her untimely, and sad, suicide in 1987. Bill Holden was the perennial Bill Holden. The Asian commie rat was a typical Asian commie rat. Those guys still don't have a clue. China will eventually fall not from within but from without-they can't keep the internet out and once its citizens see the real world out there, communism is finished.

Well worth watching whenever you can catch it.

This Property Is Condemned (1966)

Natalie Wood & Robert Redford. Perfect.

[9/10 · 29 November 2003]

This is one of Natalie Wood's best dramatic performances. She had been a major star for more than a decade when she made this film so it is hard to believe she was only 27. Her looks were the best they ever were.

Robert Redford was not a major star yet but his performance was equal to anything he did later.

This story is classic Tennessee Williams. I'm sure he only climbed out of a bottle long enough to write it and then crawled right back inside. It revolves around a railroad executive who travels the company line and trims the personnel fat during the great depression. He hits a small southern Mississippi town where one could cut the humidity and poverty with a knife. He has to decide which men to fire and which to keep. Then his very ordered and structured life gets complicated when he stays at a boarding house run by a dysfunctional family. He meets the oldest daughter, Natalie Wood, who is the local beauty. Great credit goes to casting and whoever scouted and selected the site location.

The supporting characters are superb in their roles as examples of the worst people we've ever run into. Everyone except Redford's character is living in total denial. They're all shallow losers.

Weird flick. Great, but weird. Depressing, but weird.

Texas (1941)

Glenn Ford and William Holden, both young and superb.

[29 November 2003]

In the midst of all the wide screen, technicolor 1950s westerns, I saw this small screen B&W feature when I was ten, in 1957. Something about it just took hold.

The simple but fast paced story is fun and entertaining. Glenn Ford and William Holden are in top form even at the start of their great careers. Claire Trevor is attractive and spunky. Edgar Buchanan is the consummate character actor in his usual role as a shady...fill in the blank...dentist. His constant reference to "a bad bicuspid" is typical of his almost absent minded approach to his part. His voice and facial expressions could make putting on his shoes look shady.

Texas is great all around fun and has an ending with a moral. I give it 4 Stars.

Kelly's Heroes (1970)

Classic comedy; realistic characters, believable props/scenery.

[28 November 2003]

Kelly's Heroes does not try to trivialize war. It portrays a comedy within the boundaries of war's absurdity. (Quite frankly, I did not like the film MASH because I felt it did try to trivialize war).

What makes Kelly's Heroes a success is that the director never forgot that the point of comedy is to make us laugh. There's no message here; just pure entertainment.

The film is believable because it stretches, but never steps over, the line of plausibility. The story is preposterous, but in the confusion of war we can believe something like this could happen. Those who have served in the military have all met characters like the ones in Kelly's platoon, even Oddball. Yes, Donald Sutherland was clearly cast out of time, from the 60s, but he somehow personified the rebel in all of us, and that spans generations. If anything, Oddball subliminally told us it was okay to view the film from our vantage point of 1970. His character worked. And so did all the others.

On top of that, the filmmaker spent the extra time and expense to insure reasonable technical accuracy. The uniforms were authentic and I was most impressed by the fact that the vehicles and equipment, for both sides, were accurate. (My biggest gripe about 'Patton' was that it used M-41 tanks for both sides, just painted differently).

The structure of the film is excellent. We believe everything is real. The early scene where the platoon is sitting on the side of the road while a seemingly endless convoy of Sherman tanks passes is a perfect example. There may have only been a few tanks but the way they were looped about continuously gave the impression of 'a cast of thousands'. The Yugoslavian backdrop was reflective of WWII Europe.

Watch this film a few times and you'll catch the slight nuances not normally found the first time through. It's classic how seemingly unimportant early events or dialog enhance the humor of later scenes. For example, when Oddball first shows Kelly his tanks he says they have loud speakers to calm their nerves and paint in their shells to scare the Germans. Early Sherman tanks had a low velocity shell that was ineffective against German armor. Later we roar when Kelly catches a Tiger from its vulnerable rear, but Oddball forgets to fire an anti-tank round and instead splatters it with pink paint! The railroad yard attack scene, (which is superbly choreographed, and tactically accurate) becomes absolutely riotous when Oddball's crew plays 'I've been working on the Railroad' after destroying the place and rumbling away.

Don Rickles should have won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Crapgame. He congeals all the other elements and characters in the film.

The parody scene of 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' is superb. Like Oddball, its being out of time somehow enhances its own effect.

I read somewhere that Clint Eastwood was a bit disappointed with this film because he was not allowed to give it one more edit before its release. I don't know how on earth he could have improved on it.

Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)

Superb film. Under rated and highly entertaining.

[27 November 2003]

Great flick.

The director used an ingenious combination of Clint Eastwood's `Man with no name' character and Shirley MacLaine's charm to make a funny and entertaining movie.

POSSIBLE SPOILER: `Every man's got a right to be a sucker once', as Hogan says. But he's no sucker and Sarah is no nun. Every aspect of the film works. For a while the audience actually believes Sarah is a nun and Hogan will never romance her. Outside of that, the rest of the plot is a classic Eastwood western, with him chomping the smoked out cigar and tossing sticks of dynamite. The plot is predictable, but that is what we want. We want Hogan to out gun the bad guys and get the gold. And somehow we know there has to be some sort of romantic relationship for Sarah and Hogan.

Once we find out Sarah's real profession, it all fits. Bad guys lose; Hogan and Sarah win, and ride off together. The last scene is hilarious. We know Hogan is going to be henpecked the rest of his married life and we know he will love every minute of it.

The Tall Men (1955)

Gable is the tallest of them all.

[27 November 2003]

It seems to me that with few exceptions, the best western films were made in the 1950s. The Tall Men is one of the best.

What makes it work so well is what made any Clark Gable movie work; Clark Gable. He had an on screen presence that has been rivaled by few, if any, leading men before or since. As Robert Ryan's character, Nathan Stark, says of gable's character Ben Allison, "he's what every boy wants to be when he grows up, and what every man wishes he had been when he's old." This is a line clearly meant to describe Gable himself.

The film's plot is predictable but it works. Ben Allison and his brother Clint are down on their luck after serving in the Civil War "in a left handed sort of way" as rebels with Quantrill's Raiders. They decide to hold up a cattle baron (Stark) for some fast cash. But in a twist, they agree to return his money and sign on with him for a dangerous cattle drive north for the promise of greater earnings. Along the way Jayne Russell shows up to be the love interest.

Cameron Mitchell is excellent in a role he seems to have perfected, that of a drunken gunslinger who gets his due before the film ends. Juan Garcia is superb as the leader of a Mexican crew of caballeros that once served with Colonel Allison and have remained loyal to him over the years. You can see his total loyalty to "Colonel Allison" in everything he says and does.

All in all, a top notch film.

Them! (1954)

Tight script; tight action; tight skirt on the female lead.

[26 November 2003]

"Them!" and 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' are the two best sci-fi films ever made; period. Even compared to today's special effects extravaganzas, all other entries in this genre are just also-rans.

Most 1950s sci-fi "invasion" films were forgettable; even laughable. Humans violate Mother Nature's balance and humongous monsters, aliens or tax collectors arrive to destroy us. 'THEM!' is different. It takes the basic monster flick formula and turns it into a sly 'who-done-it'. This makes it a subliminal, but chillingly effective, adaptation of America's cold war fear of communism and atomic annihilation.

"Them!" unfolds like a dark and foreboding detective mystery. It makes the audience think the authorities are looking for a serial type killer (the term was not coined yet) who has left a trail of death in the American desert Southwest.

POSSIBLE SPOILER: Suddenly, we discover the villains are common household ants, mutated into giants by atomic bomb tests. And they are about to spread their colonies worldwide and destroy mankind.

Like any great thriller, what sets 'THEM!' apart is the way the filmmaker uses our imagination, not special effects, to scare us. The giant ants don't spend that much time on screen. We see lots of clues, like weird footprints, mangled dead bodies and large traces of salivary acid (ants have a mouth acid to break down food).

But mostly we go through the film sitting on the edge of our seats while the cast does basic, thorough police work. Once the villains are discovered (the giant ants in three colonies that are about to spread world wide) the film reaches its conclusion quickly.

A couple of scary scenes are played out when a then unknown James Arness (and Millburn Stone, both will star in Gunsmoke) checks out the giant ants' first nest. The Los Angeles City sewer/flood runoff system is cleverly used as the final set where the last colony is breeding.

There are great sequences of the U.S. Military running around in Jeeps and passing out flamethrowers. The female lead wears a tight (but way below the knee '50s style) skirt and she and Jim Arness fight over what's safe for her to do. They finally decide the safest thing for her to do is to fall in love with him.

Edmond Gwinn is absolutely superb as Dr. Medford, the old, but undisputed authority on ants and their social behavior. His befuddled and methodical personality steals every scene he is in.

Even an unknown Fess Parker shows up doing an extreme parody of his Southern accent, which became his trademark as Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone.

James Whitmore is outstanding as Police Sgt. Ben Petersen. He is a methodical, fearless highway patrolman who finds the catatonic survivor of the first ant attack wandering in the desert, screaming the movie's title.

Like any true classic, 'THEM!' stands the ultimate test; the test of time. After 49 years it is just as good as the current crop of multi-million dollar special effects Terminator and Matrix movies. I watch it every time it comes on the late show and it's every bit as fun now as it was back in 1954.

Bombers B-52 (1957)

Hot looking Air Force bomber; hot looking Natalie Wood.

[22 November 2003]

Fantastic wide screen, technicolor close-up images of one of the world's greatest long range nuclear bombers, the B-52. Fantastic wide screen, technicolor close-up images of one of the world's greatest actresses, Natalie Wood. ...and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. gets to ride both of 'em. Is this a great movie, or what?

The Far Country (1954)

Jimmy Stewart without June Allison.

[17 November 2003]

James Stewart played a shady character in this and a number of other westerns. If you can get beyond the fact that in real life he was a squeaky clean, All American war hero, his westerns, all very similar, are fairly entertaining.

Except for 1962's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence" (which I disliked thoroughly), all Stewart's post-WWII westerns were wide screen technicolor epics. The visual stimulation made up for any flaws in the story or characters.

Generally his supporting actors were always well established personalities, like J.C. Flippen and Walter Brennan. These folks carried the film's plot while Stewart ambled along as he always does, until the end when he kills all the bad guys and wins the girl.

Just be careful when you check out a Jimmy Stewart movie from the rental place...avoid any films in which he co-stars with June Allison. Those who have seen these flicks know what I'm talking about. She has the "voice from hell"...and the hoop skirts to end all hoops skirts.