harkin-1 Reviews

Inferno (1953)

Cheesy Crime/Survival/Love Story With Moments

[6/10 · 8 March 2015]

Boy the reviews here are pretty strong for a mediocre crime/survival drama. It's worth watching but I don't get the love even though I'm a lifelong desert rat (on the other hand maybe that's why I'm unimpressed, the desert scenes are as over-dramatized as they are weak).

Ryan does an OK job winning our sympathy once he's been out in the desert a while but the scenes where he's trying to move/climb/hunt are so hokey that it gets a bit comical. The actual best part IMO is the ridiculous melodrama of Fleming and Lundigan dealing with fear that someone will figure out what they did as their lust smolders back at the awesome vintage 50s motel.

As for the 3D well I was never a fan (except for the so-bad-it's-awesome Treasure Of The Four Crowns) or the contrived ways most 3D films try and mix in an object headed at the screen but if you want to see someone throw a knuckle curve with a kerosene lantern, this is the movie for you!

Compulsion (1959)

Great moments interspersed with death penalty weeping.

[8/10 · 17 January 2010]

A first rate crime overview marred only by the desire to argue against the death penalty in shovel loads. This doesn't mean I'm pro capital punishment but to give Orsen Welles over nine minutes to compare anyone pro-cp to hyenas while completely ignoring the prosecution summary is cowardly, it's as if the filmmakers know they have to stack the deck to make their point. Very reminiscent of the failed scenes at the end of In Cold Blood. At least in that film the prosecutor (Will Geer) was allowed to point out the ruthlessness of the butchery of the Clutter family, in Compulsion the victim (the little boy) is nothing more than a plot device.

That aside, the performances of Stockwell, Dillman, Marshall, Macleod and even Welles are great and this is a very interesting film.

Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969)

Some good performances but fantasy in lieu of history

[6/10 · 18 April 2009]

While I enjoy this movie very much it has to be said that the history portrayed has been embellished a lot. Polonsky, a victim of anti-communist black-listing, decided to make Willie Boy a hero fighting against the suppression of racist, uncouth white capitalists. The real Willie Boy was very quiet and shy but was also known among the Indians for having an irrational and violent temper. Willie got his whiskey from another Indian who stole the bottle from out of a bunkhouse, not from whites after participating in a bar fight. He did not run away with his lover after being confronted while they were making love. She was terrified of him and he kidnapped her after shooting her father in the face while he slept. He later shot Carlota in the back either when she tried to escape or because she was slowing him down. The only real relevance to the proximity of the US President was that it also meant there was an over abundance of newspaper reporters near San Bernardino and Riverside who sensationalized the chase not even knowing that Willie Boy was already dead before most of them had even heard of him.

The true story of the manhunt (or at the least the closest to the truth as it was based on eyewitness and second-hand accounts from the remaining witnesses) is The Last Great Manhunt by Harry Lawton, the book TTWBIH is based on (Lawton even changed the title to that of the film). Years later a couple of politically correct college professors wrote articles claiming Lawton's book was all wrong and Willie Boy was a hero, even going so far as to suggest Carlotta was killed by the posse. Lawton sued and showed his meticulous research of historical archives and interviews with witnesses. The professors later were forced to print a retraction as part of a settlement.

Hoffa (1992)

Fantasy Hoffa Worship

[4/10 · 26 November 2008]

In spite of a very accurate impersonation by Jack Nicholsen, this film is a failure because it completely whitewashes what a cretinous character the real James Hoffa was.

Jimma Hoffa was charismatic, but he was also completely corrupt and played one of the biggest roles in allowing organized crime to take over one of the largest unions in the United States, and by doing so, bilking thousands of honest, hardworking people of pay and benefits.

Read a history of Hoffa and you'll see a man who did everything he could to eliminate owner-operator truckers as a means of controlling all truckers. He wanted all drivers under the powerful fist of the union. You'll also see a predator who schemed to take over many existing enterprises by getting a foot in the door, striking, taking over and then allowing one or more of his thugs to exact tribute (often under their wife's name) in return for good labor relations.

These are just a few examples of the corruption forced upon honest businesses by Hoffa and his criminal associates. Read history to know the real man, see the film to see a nice impersonation and a BS history.

The Haunting (1963)

A good, solid haunted house tale.

[8/10 · 31 October 2007]

I was six years old when I first saw this film in 1963. Along with Black Sabbath this is one of the two scariest movies I saw as a child. Along with The Innocents and The Uninvited, as good as it gets for ghost tales.

Very well done, the photography is excellently moody. The real star of the film is the house and the way it's shot in shadow.

The scariest part for me back in 1963 was that face in the wall pattern that keeps giving its wry grin as Eleanor hears the house talking to her.

The weakest part is Dr Marquay himself and his lame jokes and sensationalism. Even when his wife disappears, his main concern is that the police might be called???

Dallas 362 (2003)

Sub Sub-Par

[7 May 2007]

If you want a great example of the new wave of pretentious small time hood films, this is it.

It's kind of amazing that anyone could think that an audience would want to sit and listen to this insipid dialogue. That its delivered by actors resembling a first read-through makes it even worse.

This movie is like an Actors Studio session where the worst students are allowed to 'let loose'.

It's worth watching however for Freddy Rodriguez' making a complete ass out of himself. I'd pay anything to see a shot before/after the scenes were shot to hear Caan's guidance.

This movie reeks.

Heir to an Execution: A Granddaughter's Story (2004)

Painful To Watch

[1/10 · 4 May 2007]

I'm not sure what makes this embarrassingly amateur 'symp-documentary' more painful to watch, the fact that it's mostly misplaced, vindictive pseudo-journalism or that there are many gullible America-hating minds ready to eat this trash up.

The Venona Papers (opened after the fall of the Soviet Union) have confirmed without a doubt that the Rosenbergs were not only traitors giving the Russians America's atomic secrets, they also showed that the Rosenbergs were hard-core ideologues who felt their mission was more important than theirs or other people's lives. FACT - While the USSR was killing millions of its own citizens, these two criminals were doing everything in their power to help spread communism over the earth. David Greenglass was a scum and he's probably the closest thing there is to Julius and Ethel......except he talked.

I'm sure it would be hard for any descendant of this sinister couple to come to terms with what they did, much less move on and live for themselves; in fact, Ivy Meeropol has actually put her mind in REVERSE and regresses to a point of blaming everyone but the traitors. I can't imagine anyone sitting and listening to her and her family and not wanting to get the hell away.

The title of this film should be 'How To Waste Your Life And Wallow In Pity And Hate Because Your Grandparents Were Willing Tools For Totalitarinasm'

Mississippi (1935)

Rare Crosby Action/Drama/Comedy - Plus Fields!

[7/10 · 27 December 2004]

Have been trying for years to find a copy of this one. Saw it a few times and enjoyed it more each viewing when it was on TV back in 60s Los Angeles. Crosby playing the 'Killer' Col Steele/Tom Grayson is a totally different Bing at times, although he does manage to belt out a few tunes. If you liked Gail Patrick in 'My Man Godfrey' you'll also enjoy her in a very similar role here, as the sister who does not appreciate a good man. But the real treat is Fields as the riverboat captain. He's only a supporting character here but his scenes with wooden Indians and his recollection about shooting off a man's nose are hilarious. FIND IT IF YOU CAN AND ENJOY!