Movies I've Missed Until Now: The Duke (2020)

The last time I did a movie post, a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a film called THE DUCHESS. So what movie am I writing about today? THE DUKE, of course. Purely a coincidence, and other than both films being British, they couldn’t be more different.

THE DUKE is set in 1961 and is about an older Englishman who’s a failed playwright and has a hard time holding down a job. His long-suffering wife works as a maid to keep the family together. One son works building boats, and the other is a criminal. All the old guy wants to do is watch TV, but the British government requires people to buy a license to own a television, and as a matter of principle, our protagonist won’t pay it. (Wait, you have to buy a license to watch TV? That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard!)

Anyway, the British government is really proud of a portrait of the Duke of Wellington painted by Goya that they’ve just bought to keep it out of the hands of an uncouth American, so our rabble-rousing protagonist steals it from the museum where it’s being displayed and holds it for ransom to raise money to buy TV licenses for elderly people and war veterans. A heartwarming mix of comedy and drama ensues, and as a bonus, not everything turns out to be as it appears at first.

Despite my rather snarky tone above, THE DUKE is a wonderful movie that took me completely by surprise. It’s based on a true story, and it has great characters, nice plot twists, and top-notch acting all around led by Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren as the husband and wife. I really enjoyed this movie. Nothing flashy, no pyrotechnics or special effects, just a solid story well told. Highly recommended.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: The Duchess (2008)

When you’re watching a movie called THE DUCHESS starring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes (yep, that guy again), you have a pretty good idea what to expect: big hair and low-cut, fancy dresses on the ladies, and powdered wigs, tricorn hats, and puffy shirts for the fellas. That’s what you get in this 2008 historical drama, along with political shenanigans and lurid love affairs. Unfortunately, for a high-class soap opera, THE DUCHESS is pretty slow and stodgy and never works up any real momentum. It’s very well-made and well-acted, and we watched it all the way to the end, but I can’t really recommend it unless you’re a big fan of British period dramas. A few swordfights might have helped it a lot.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: The English Patient (1996)

Although I tend to avoid long movies these days, occasionally I give one a try. And the same thing could be said of movies that win the Best Picture Oscar, most of which in the past couple of decades seem calculated not to be the kind of film I enjoy. But a whim led me to pick up a DVD of THE ENGLISH PATIENT at the library. I knew it was partially a war movie, so I thought why not?

I’m sure most if not all of you know the plot. In the late days of World War II, spring of 1945, four people find themselves sharing an abandoned Italian villa: a French-Canadian nurse, her dying patient, a badly burned amnesiac who was pulled out of the wreckage of a burning biplane, a former Canadian soldier who was once a thief in Montreal, and an Indian bomb disposal officer. Over the course of the nearly three-hour running time, we find out more about the histories all of them, although only the mysterious English Patient gets lengthy flashbacks to fill in all the details of how he came to be flying an ancient biplane over the North African desert, only to be shot down by German anti-aircraft fire.

If you’ve seen the movie, you already know what’s going on. If you haven’t, you should watch it to find out, because it really is a fine film, a throwback of sorts to the kind of epic love and war movies popular in the Forties, Fifties, and Sixties. I’ll just comment on a few things.

The script and direction by Anthony Minghella are great. This is a long movie, but it moved right along and I was never bored, always intrigued. There’s one scene that’s really suspenseful, too.

The movie looks beautiful. Production values are superb, and so is the musical score. Again, very old-fashioned, which is a good thing as far as I’m concerned.

The acting is top-notch all around. I never paid much attention to Kristin Scott Thomas before, but good grief, she’s gorgeous in this movie. I always like Colin Firth, too, although he doesn’t have a whole lot to do in this one. Ralph Fiennes plays the title character, and he’s excellent as always.

I could quibble a little about some of the historical aspects. I think the timeline of the war happening in the background isn’t quite right in a couple of cases. But that would be quibbling.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed THE ENGLISH PATIENT. Watching it and EL CID recently have put me in the mood to watch, or in some cases rewatch, more epic historical movies. I’ll be interested to see what I come up with.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: Entrapment (1999)

I always enjoy movies with Sean Connery in them, so I’m not sure how we missed ENTRAPMENT when it came out in 1999. It’s a heist movie, with Connery playing a world-class thief and Catherine Zeta-Jones playing the insurance investigator who’s out to catch him. Through a series of plot twists, they wind up working together on a series of heists that become more complicated and dangerous as they go along. Then we get a bunch more plot twists before things wrap up in a satisfying manner.

Connery is, well, Connery, and you either enjoy that or you don’t. (I do.) Zeta-Jones is incredibly beautiful, and you either enjoy that or you don’t. (Again, I do.) Top-notch character actors Ving Rhames and Will Patton are on hand, but the movie really belongs to the two leads. There are plenty of “Sure, why not?” moments in this one, and in the end, the plot is the kind that works only if you squint your eyes and hold your mouth just right, but I found ENTRAPMENT to be a really entertaining two hours. One good thing about missing movies when they come out is that you’ve got some good stuff to watch later when you finally catch up to them.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: Elvis and Anabelle (2007)

Quirky little indie films often leave me cold, but sometimes they work and I enjoy them. ELVIS AND ANABELLE is definitely quirky. Max Minghella plays Elvis, a young man who has secretly taken over his father’s undertaking business when his dad (played by the great Joe Mantegna) suffers a brain injury that leaves him unable to work. Blake Lively is Anabelle, a local beauty queen who collapses on stage right after winning a pageant and dies. Or does she? Elvis is about to embalm her when she suddenly comes back to life on the table. A predictably oddball romance between them is the result. Although they try to keep it a secret, eventually it comes out and causes much hoopla, most of it generated by Anabelle’s mother (Mary Steenburgen) and her stepfather (Keith Carradine).

As you can see, for an indie film this movie has a pretty darned good cast, and they all do excellent jobs. The script by Will Geiger, who also directed, is humorous, poignant, heartbreaking, and heartwarming. Some pretty dark stuff is hinted at, but it never quite goes there, and the ending is more satisfying than I expected it to be.

ELVIS AND ANABELLE was filmed in Texas, mostly around Austin and in the town of Lockhart, with a few scenes on South Padre Island. As soon as I saw the courthouse square in Lockhart, I knew it had to be in Texas, although I didn’t recognize it. My father and a friend of his owned the radio station in Lockhart 50-some-odd years ago when it first went on the air. KHRB, it was called, for Heath/Reasoner Broadcasting. I spent quite a bit of time there and was even an unpaid helper around the station for a while, but I haven’t been back to Lockhart since 1972, so I’m not surprised I didn’t recognize it. But Texas courthouses have a distinctive look.

Now that I’ve digressed, let me say that ELVIS AND ANABELLE is definitely worth watching, in my opinion. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: Eddie the Eagle (2016)

Regular readers of this blog know that we enjoy inspirational, based-on-a-true-story sports movies around here, and 2016’s EDDIE THE EAGLE certainly fits the category, as well as being a Movie I’ve Missed Until Now. It’s the story of Eddie Edwards (played by Taron Egerton), the British ski jumper whose dream was to compete in the Olympics ever since he was a sickly little boy. A lot of things get in his way besides his own lack of talent, mostly the bureaucrats in charge of the British Olympic team and later the International Olympic Committee. Helping Eddie overcome these obstacles is his reluctant coach, a washed-up American ski jumper (Hugh Jackman) whose career never recovered from a falling out with his coach, played by Christopher Walken.

As you can see, this movie has a pretty good cast, and it’s well-made and moves right along. Evidently it’s only loosely based on what really happened, but that’s not a problem as far as I’m concerned. It’s an entertaining little film, not one of the classics of the genre, maybe, but I enjoyed it and think it’s worth watching.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: El Cid (1962)

When I was a kid, my parents had a coffee table book about this movie that included a synopsis of the story, features on many of the actors, and stuff about the production of the movie, illustrated by lots and lots of still photos. How they wound up with this book, I don’t know. I think such volumes were sold as souvenirs in theater lobbies during so-called roadshow engagements, but my parents didn’t go see EL CID in the theater. I don’t think they ever went to an indoor movie theater in my lifetime, only the drive-in up the road a little ways from our house. But I read through that EL CID book many times, since I was already interested in movies and historical fiction. But I’d never actually seen the movie until now.

EL CID is about an actual historical figure, Rodrigo Diaz, who fought to unify Spain and protect it from Moorish invasion in the 11th Century. However, most of what we know about Diaz is a mixture of history, legend, and myth, with much of it based on an epic poem written only fifty years after his death. The movie’s script leans heavily on the legend and myth part, as you’d expect with Charlton Heston playing the character. Also as you’d expect from Hollywood in the early Sixties, almost every role in this movie about Spaniards and Moors is played by an American, an Englishman, or an Italian.

Anyway, as the movie opens, Rodrigo is about to be married to a beautiful young noblewoman played by Sophia Loren, but before the wedding takes place he gets mixed up in some political intrigue. Tragedy and exile ensue. Rodrigo befriends some Spanish Moors who are loyal to the king and gets the name El Cid from them. He works his way back into the king’s favor, and then more political intrigue upsets everything again. Sophia Loren’s character hates him for a while, then loves him again. In between all this scheming, lots of battles against various enemies take place, until finally an army of Moors from North Africa led by Herbert Lom invades Spain, setting up a final epic showdown.

Actually, it’s more like the soap opera stuff takes place in the intervals between battles. Anthony Mann is credited as the director of this movie, but I’d be willing to bet more than half of it was actually helmed by the second unit director, the legendary Yakima Canutt. I’m a long-time fan of Yak’s work as an actor, stuntman, and second unit director, and EL CID looks great. We get scene after scene featuring enormous sets and thousands of extras (most of them Spanish soldiers provided by Generalissimo Francisco Franco, who was not yet dead), and the movie looks great. I love big, elaborate spectacles like this, and there’s something very impressive about knowing what you’re seeing is really there and doesn’t exist just in some computer somewhere. I mean, special effects are great, but they’re not like a thousand guys fighting each other at once.

EL CID is a long movie, a little more than three hours. But I was never bored. There’s enough story to go along with the battles, and the cast does a good job. I’ve always liked Charlton Heston in everything I’ve seen him in. Sophia Loren doesn’t have much to do other than look beautiful, but she’s great at that. Herbert Lom, as usual, is a suitably despicable villain. I had a very good time watching EL CID. If you miss this kind of sweeping epic, as I do, and haven’t seen it, I give it a strong recommendation.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: Easter Parade (1948)

Considering that I’m not a big fan of musicals, Fred Astaire, or Judy Garland, it’s not surprising that I never saw EASTER PARADE, a 1948 movie starring those two. But hey, it’s almost Easter, so why not?

You need at least a little plot to hang the songs and production numbers on in a musical, and that’s what you get in EASTER PARADE, a little plot. It’s 1912, and song-and-dance man Don Hewes (Astaire) has his partner in the act (the gorgeous Ann Miller) abruptly desert him to sign with the Ziegfield Follies instead. Angered by this, Hewes tells her he could pick any girl out of a chorus line and make a bigger star out of her. That turns out to be Hannah Brown (Garland), and sure enough, she does become a bigger star and she and Hewes fall in love, although their romance is a rocky one. There’s also a bit of a romantic rectangle with Hewes’ buddy Johnny (played by Peter Lawford, another non-favorite of mine) getting involved with both Garland and Miller.

There’s nothing wrong with that plot. It’s very similar in some respects to the plot of the much better SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN. The script was written by Sidney Sheldon, Frances Goodrich, and Albert Hackett. Goodrich and Hackett contributed to the scripts of some great movies, THE THIN MAN and IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE among them, and Sheldon won an Academy Award for his screenwriting long before he created the TV show I DREAM OF JEANNIE and became a bestselling novelist. I’ve enjoyed every one of Sheldon’s novels I’ve read, and I was a regular viewer of I DREAM OF JEANNIE when it was new (admittedly, that was mostly because of Barbara Eden and the great character actor Bill Daily). But I’ve been less impressed by the movies he wrote. The script for EASTER PARADE is thin and predictable and only mildly amusing.

The real stars, of course, are the songs by Irving Berlin. The movie wouldn’t exist without them. They’re okay, but after watching the movie, I don’t remember a single one of them except the title song and “Steppin’ Out With My Baby”, the subject of a long, elaborate production number that’s the highlight of the film. Astaire is at his best in that scene, and it’s the only one in the movie that put a grin on my face.

So EASTER PARADE is okay, one of many movie musicals I’ve seen once and enjoyed, and I’m glad we watched it. There are only three musicals I regard as great films, though: WHITE CHRISTMAS, SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN, and BIKINI BEACH. The first two are classics, and before you look too askance at me for that last one, consider: BIKINI BEACH has Frankie Avalon playing both Frankie and British rocker The Potato Bug, Don Rickles as Big Drag, Harvey Lembeck as Eric Von Zipper, a cameo by Boris Karloff, a song by Little Stevie Wonder, and the absolute best closing credits sequence in the history of cinema, Candy Johnson and Renie Riano dancing to “I’ve Gotcha Where I Want You,” by Candy’s band The Exciters. Now that, my friends, is classic filmmaking, and I grinned all the way through it every time I’ve watched it.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: Easy Virtue (2008)

I’d never heard of this movie, let alone seen it, and I’m not a huge fan of British drawing room comedies, but hey, I liked DOWNTON ABBEY, so why not give it a try?

EASY VIRTUE is based on one of Noel Coward’s lesser-known plays. A young Brit from an aristocratic family is touring Europe when he meets and falls in love with a female race car driver from America. He marries her and takes her home to introduce her to his eccentric and somewhat dysfunctional family. Cultures clash and witty banter ensues, along with a few surprisingly poignant dramatic moments, leading up to a so-so but somewhat satisfying conclusion.

Jessica Biel plays the young race car driver. She’s gorgeous, no doubt about that, and although some of the reviews for this movie fault her acting, I thought she was okay. I’ve always liked Colin Firth, and he’s fine as Biel’s new father-in-law with some dark secrets in his past. The rest of the cast is all right, and the movie looks great. It sort of plods along at times, but overall, I enjoyed it. Except . . .

The filmmakers make the choice to use deliberately anachronistic music in the score, a technique that seldom works for me. In this movie, it’s not too jarring other than the moment we hear the theme from CAR WASH, but I’m still not a fan of it. (I did, however, love CAR WASH when I saw it back in the Seventies, but that’s neither here nor there.) The other problem I have with this movie is that it has a cute little dog in it, and (SPOILER) the dog does indeed die. So if this bothers you, be warned. I might not have even watched it if I had known.

And that wouldn’t have been a great loss. EASY VIRTUE isn’t a terrible movie, and it has some very nice moments scattered through it. But I can only give it a mixed recommendation at best, if you’re a big Noel Coward and/or Colin Firth fan.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: Donnie Brasco (1997)

I love gangster movies, by which I mean the classics from the Thirties, Forties, and Fifties. I enjoy gangster movies made after that, too, as long as they’re about those earlier decades. But when it comes to stories about organized crime set after the late Forties, those are a lot more hit-and-miss for me. The closer you get to the present day, the less I’m likely to enjoy them. Movies like that set from the Seventies onward, I consider mobster movies, rather than classic gangster movies. I don’t know if that makes sense to you, but it does to me.

So I definitely took a wait-and-see attitude toward DONNIE BRASCO, a 1997 movie set in 1978. It’s based on the true story of an undercover cop named Joseph Pistone who creates the fictional identity of Donnie Brasco, a low-level fence and would-be wise guy, in order to infiltrate the mob. He becomes friends with a mid-level hood named Lefty Ruggiero and works his way up in the organization. Lots of suspense ensues as Pistone constantly walks a fine line between doing his job, not having his true identity discovered, and being drawn deeper and deeper into the violent world of organized crime. There’s some domestic drama, too, as the strains of being undercover begin to affect Pistone’s marriage.

A movie like this is going to rise and fall largely on the acting. Johnny Depp plays Joseph Pistone/Donnie Brasco. I realize Depp can be sort of a polarizing figure, but I’ve always enjoyed his work and I think he does a good job in this one. Al Pacino plays Lefty Ruggiero and is, well, Al Pacino. I can’t fault his performance, and I really feel for the character at times because he’s kind of a sad sack, but I’m just not a big Pacino fan and never will be. Elsewhere, Michael Madsen and Bruno Kirby play wise guys because of course they do, and they’re fine. The movie perks right along, and I enjoyed it. Not a classic by any means, but I’m glad I watched it.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: Dreamland (2020)

I had never heard of this movie, but the description sounded promising: a Depression-era crime yarn set in the Dust Bowl-blighted Texas Panhandle, with Margot Robbie playing a beautiful bank robber who encounters the teenage stepson of a deputy sheriff.

There are two ways a movie like this can go. Either you get a raucous, AIP/Roger Corman-style, Seventies drive-in epic complete with boobs, chase scenes, Tommy-gun shootouts, and lots of bluegrass music, or you get a leisurely paced, beautifully photographed, moody film reminiscent of Terence Malick’s BADLANDS (a movie I liked a lot, by the way).

Well, DREAMLAND goes the moody, leisurely paced route for the most part, although there are some decent chase scenes and gun battles. The slowly developing relationship between angsty Eugene Baker (Finn Cole, an actor I’m not familiar with) and fugitive Allison Wells (Robbie) after he finds her wounded in his family’s barn takes up the lion’s share of the movie. There are a few flashbacks to fill in the background of both characters. Eugene’s younger half-sister provides voice-over narration from the perspective of twenty years later. Allison wants to escape to Mexico, and of course it’s easy for her to persuade Eugene to help her. Eventually they take off together, banks get robbed, and the law, including Eugene’s deputy sheriff stepfather, pursues them.

The on-line reviews for this one are definitely mixed, with a lot of bad reviews and a few really glowing ones. I can’t give it a full-fledged recommendation, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. The cast, which includes Travis Fimmel (Ragnar from VIKINGS) as Eugene’s stepfather, does a good job. The photography is excellent. The movie was filmed in New Mexico, not the Texas Panhandle, and sometimes you can tell that, but it’s not too distracting. I didn’t spot any anachronisms, but I wasn’t watching too closely for them, either. At least there was nothing blatantly wrong. (That sounds like I’m damning with faint praise, and I don’t intend it that way.)

DREAMLAND is no lost classic, but I think it’s worth watching. And I’ve left what I liked best for last: Eugene is a big reader of crime and detective pulps, and issues of BLACK MASK and DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY are not only featured prominently on-screen, they even play a part in the plot. What’s the last movie you could say that about?

Movies I've Missed Until Now: The Eagle (2011)

Given my fondness for historical adventure movies, I’m surprised I never saw THE EAGLE, a 2011 film about ancient Romans versus ancient Britons, another favorite plot element for me. Channing Tatum is the new commander of an outpost in northern Britain who carries a family shame: his father was one of the officers in the infamous Lost Legion, the Ninth Legion that marched even farther north and vanished, their disappearance prompting the construction of Hadrian’s Wall.

Now there are rumors that the golden eagle standard carried by the Ninth has been seen being used in religious rites by the savages north of the wall, and so Tatum’s character decides to find and retrieve it, accompanied only by a slave (Jamie Bell) he’s saved from being killed by a gladiator.

Plenty of running, riding, and swordfighting ensue. THE EAGLE is a bloody, violent movie, but the gore isn’t overdone. It uses ’way too much quick-cut editing during some of the fight scenes, a cinematic technique I really dislike, but there’s enough regular action to more than make up for that, and the movie captures a sweeping, epic feel at times that really works for me. There’s a scene involving the surviving remnants of the Ninth that’s great, almost a stand-up-and-cheer moment.

I like Channing Tatum. He usually plays a lovable goofball and does a good job of it. He plays his role in THE EAGLE absolutely straight and turns in a decent performance, although he’s overshadowed a little by Jamie Bell as his morally conflicted sidekick. Donald Sutherland and Dakin Matthews play ancient Romans and are fine as always.

This is kind of an odd movie for me, because in tales like this, my natural sympathy tends to fall more on the side of the Britons than the Romans. But by boiling the focus down to just a few characters, the overall conflict doesn’t matter as much, so I had no trouble rooting for the Romans this time.

THE EAGLE is a well-made film that I thoroughly enjoyed. If you enjoy historical adventure movies, I think it’s well worth watching.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: Death Takes a Holiday (1934)

A bunch of rich aristocrats gather at an Italian villa for a weekend of partying, all of them except one unaware that Death walks among them. That’s right, Death, wanting to experience what it’s like to be human and understand why they fear him so, has taken on the form of the mysterious, monocle-wearing Prince Sirki, and he’s there to romance their women and engage in deep philosophical discussions.

I had heard of DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY but never watched it until recently. I’m really not the target audience for this sort of romantic fantasy/drama, but when it comes to movies, I’m willing to give almost anything a try. Sometimes a film takes me by surprise and I like it a lot more than I expected to.

However, DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY never really won me over. The concept is interesting, and the black-and-white photography is really good. After a promising opening involving some fast cars and driving stunts, it settles down to become really stage-bound, not surprising since it’s based on a play, and the script is pretty long-winded and pompous. It doesn’t help that I’m not a fan of Fredric March, who plays Death/Prince Sirki, and the rest of the cast is pretty bland except for the always dependable character actor Henry Travers. There are a few suitably eerie moments, but mostly this was an effort to stay awake. Which I did, so that ought to count for something, I guess. This one just wasn’t for me, but your opinion of it could be different.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: D-Day, the Sixth of June (1956)

Regular readers of this blog may recall that I like war movies, and I watched a lot of them on TV when I was a kid. But somehow, I never saw D-DAY, THE SIXTH OF JUNE. Now that I’ve watched it, I can kind of understand that. The title should have drawn my attention, but maybe I sensed that this film is only indirectly about D-Day and is barely a war movie at all.

What it is, in fact, is a romance movie told mainly in flashback. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, so I was certainly willing to give it a try. The story opens on a ship the night of June 5, 1944, as a combined special force of American, British, and Canadian troops are headed for Normandy to carry out a commando raid in the hope of knocking out a big gun overlooking the beaches where the regular troops will land a few hours later. Commanding the force is a British officer played by Richard Todd. One of the American officers is played by Robert Taylor. And there’s a connection between them because, you see, they’re both in love with the same girl they met, at separate times, a couple of years earlier in London. Cue the flashbacks.

The movie spends a lot more time on the relationship between Taylor and Dana Wynter, who plays the young English woman, than it does on Wynter’s romance with Todd. We also get a couple of subplots about Wynter’s father, a brigadier general who was wounded at Dunkirk but wants to get back into action, and Taylor’s commanding officer, who’s also gung-ho to the point of recklessness because he wants a promotion. Wynter’s father is played by the great British character actor John Williams, and Taylor’s commanding officer is played by the always top-notch Edmond O’Brien.

After a lot of well-done romance and British homefront scenes, we finally shift back to Todd, Taylor, and the rest of the commandos landing and going after the German gun emplacement, and for ten or fifteen minutes, D-DAY, THE SIXTH OF JUNE actually is a war movie, and decently done, too, although the filming is staged on a very small scale so we can’t see how few people are actually involved. This isn’t a cast of thousands, by any means. But it’s an exciting and satisfying battle.

Followed by a terrible and unsatisfying ending. No spoilers here, but I didn’t like it.

The movie looks good, in a mid-Fifties, major studio way, and the cast is also a good one. That said, I’ve never been a big fan of Robert Taylor. He’s one of the most dour-looking leading men I’ve ever seen. That works okay when he’s playing, say, a world-weary gunfighter in a Western, but it’s hard to like him in this move. It doesn’t help that he’s playing a character who’s basically a heel all the way through. I like Richard Todd and he’s plenty stalwart when he has to do something, which isn’t often enough. And Dana Wynter, good grief, she was a beautiful woman! And she turns in a decent performance, too, in a role where it would be easy to be too overwrought. The supporting cast features Jerry Paris in a fairly meaty role, and if you look quick, you can spot Dabbs Greer and Parley Baer, too.

It's probably a good thing I never tried to watch this when I was a kid. All the smooching and violin music would have had me switching the channel or heading outside to play. Watching it now, I thought D-DAY, THE SIXTH OF JUNE was a somewhat okay movie for what it is, but for war movie fans, it’s probably best for completists.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: Dillinger (1973)

Given my fondness for gangster movies, and for Ben Johnson, I’m surprised I never watched 1973’s DILLINGER until now. It’s also an American International Picture, and AIP turned out some mighty entertaining movies over the years. I watched many of them at the Eagle Drive-In, but not this one. By the time DILLINGER came out, the Eagle had already switched over to showing X-rated movies.

But now I’ve seen DILLINGER. Warren Oates plays the title character, and Ben Johnson is Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent who doggedly pursues not only John Dillinger but most of the other famous criminals who roamed the Midwest during the Depression, robbing banks and mowing down cops and anybody else who got in their way. Most of them show up in this movie, too, including Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson. Bonnie and Clyde are mentioned numerous times, but their paths never cross that of Dillinger, which is probably a good thing because he looks down on them as non-professionals. For him, on the other hand, it’s just his job, and he’s the very best at it, at least according to him.

The script by John Milius, who also directed, has only a nodding acquaintance with historical accuracy, starting with the fact that the FBI didn’t exist when Dillinger was active. It was still the Bureau of Investigation. The various gangster characters are killed off out of historical order, often in ways that didn’t happen. But take it for what it is, a piece of entertainment, and DILLINGER is pretty darned good, with interesting characters, good dialogue, excellent photography, and a bunch of bloody shootouts. It’s a loud movie most of the time.

Oates does a fine job as Dillinger, playing him with a real zest for life and fondness for excitement. Ben Johnson, one of my favorite actors, is great as Melvin Purvis. Johnson is one of those actors I could listen to all day, no matter what he was saying. Just a great voice. Michelle Phillips is okay as Dillinger’s girlfriend, and a young Richard Dreyfuss shows up as Baby Face Nelson. The top-notch Seventies character actor Geoffrey Lewis is also a member of the gang. It seemed like Lewis was in just about every movie made for a while back then.

I had a fine time watching DILLINGER. It’s probably not a great movie, but it’s a very good one. I’m still a little flabbergasted that I didn’t see it back when it was new, but on the other hand, that gave me something good to watch now.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: Daylight (1996)

Back in the Seventies, we watched all the big disaster movies: AIRPORT, THE TOWERING INFERNO, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, etc. I even read Arthur Hailey’s novel AIRPORT that was the source of the movie. It was hardly my favorite genre, but I found those movies to be reliable, if forgettable, entertainment.

So when I came across DAYLIGHT, a 1996 Sylvester Stallone movie I’d never seen, I didn’t hesitate. The description made it sound very much like one of those earlier disaster movies: some thieves fleeing through a tunnel under the Hudson River in New York City cause a wreck with a truck carrying toxic waste, and the resulting explosion and fire close off both ends of the tunnel, sealing a dozen or so survivors in there to look for a way out.

It's lucky for them that a taxi driver up on the surface is really the disgraced former chief of Emergency Services (Stallone, of course), who’s the only one who can figure out a way to get into the tunnel and lead the survivors out.

Naturally, before that we get a number of scenes introducing us to the characters who will make it through the explosion (and some who won’t). There are no real villains in this movie except the thieves who cause the disaster with their attempted getaway, and they’re not around long. Most of the movie is Stallone vs. the tunnel. The other characters are stereotypes: the would-be writer, the bickering couple and their teenage daughter, the old couple and their dog that used to belong to their dead son, the heroic cop, a few convicts from a transport van. But even though we’ve seen them all before, they’re still handled pretty effectively.

DAYLIGHT really plays a lot like CLIFFHANGER, another Stallone movie from a few years earlier in which he also plays a guy who’s the best at what he does but has personal demons from past failures haunting him. And like that earlier film, DAYLIGHT is well-made, well-acted, decently written (Stallone isn’t credited as one of the writers but contributed to the script, as usual), and an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours. That’s plenty for me.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: Uncertain Glory (1944)

I watched this movie a while back but decided I wanted to wait and let my reaction to it percolate in my brain some before I wrote about it, to see if I felt differently after I thought it over. UNCERTAIN GLORY, made in 1944, stars Errol Flynn, and I usually really enjoy Flynn’s movies. The script was co-authored by Max Brand. And it was directed by Raoul Walsh, one of my all-time favorite directors. So it seemed to be a movie I would really enjoy.

I hated it. And I can’t talk about why I hated it without tons of spoilers, especially about the ending. So if you’ve never seen this movie and think you might watch it someday, you might be well-advised just to move on and not read this post.

For those of you still reading, Flynn plays a somewhat different sort of character for him, a French criminal who’s a professional thief and quite possibly a murder. He’s been convicted of murder, anyway, and is about to taken to the guillotine when an Allied bombing raid wrecks the prison and he escapes. World War II is going on, you see, and of course France is currently occupied by the Nazis.

So far, so good. A French police inspector played by Paul Lukas is on Flynn’s trail, and for a while we get an excellent cat-and-mouse movie with Lukas trying to catch Flynn and Flynn trying to stay ahead of the law. Flynn, of course, makes friends with some villagers, because he’s charming and likable despite being a criminal. How could he be anything else? He’s Errol Flynn! He’s not really a bad guy. He’s just a rogue!

Or maybe not. He probably did all the things he’s accused of, the script deliberately leaves that ambiguous. But Lukas finally catches him and is ready to take him back to Paris for another date with Madame Guillotine.

But wait! The Resistance has blown up a bridge in the area, and the Nazis have taken a hundred of the local men prisoner and the local S.S. commander is threatening to execute them unless the saboteur turns himself in. Flynn hatches the idea of pretending to be the saboteur and turning himself in so that he can save the hostages, but only if Lukas will allow him to have a few more days of freedom. Lukas agrees, reluctantly.

This is all very well-done. The acting is great, the script is nice and crisp, and even though there’s not much action, Walsh keeps things moving along at an entertaining pace. I was enjoying this, waiting for what I figured was the inevitable twist: something would happen that results in a big, action-packed climax in which Flynn reveals he really is a good guy as he rescues the hostages, kills a bunch of Nazis, and redeems himself, after which Lukas lets him go to join a Resistance unit. Or else he rescues the hostages and dies in a blaze of glory with a machine gun chattering in his hands.

BIG SPOILER NOW.

What really happens: Flynn turns himself in to the S.S. and they execute him, I guess. We’re never really told one way or the other.

I was left staring at the screen with the proverbial “Wait . . . What?” look on my face. No bullets flying, no grenades going off, no stirring music? Would the ending I expected have been hokey as all get-out? Well, yeah, but it’s still what I wanted, and what I figured I was sure to get from Errol Flynn, Max Brand, and Raoul Walsh. I didn’t want some artsy “statement.”

I almost just let this one go and didn’t write about it. I’m a firm believer in the idea that you should review a book or a movie or a TV show for what it is, not what you want it to be. And to be fair, UNCERTAIN GLORY is a very well-made, well-acted movie. As a piece of cinema, it’s worth watching. But I was enormously disappointed in it.

Those of you who disagree—or agree, for that matter—feel free to let me know. Won’t bother me a bit either way.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: Each Dawn I Die (1939)

I was never a big fan of James Cagney’s movies when I was a kid, which means that even though a lot of them were shown on TV, I never watched all that many. That actually worked out okay, because now that I am a fan of his movies, there are still quite a few of them I’ve never seen until now, such as 1939’s EACH DAWN I DIE.

In this one, Cagney plays a crusading newspaper reporter who has evidence that the district attorney and his assistant are crooked. So the DA frames him for manslaughter on a drunken driving rap and gets him sent to prison for 20 years. That, of course, discredits all the allegations against the corrupt politicians.

Once he’s in the big house, Cagney befriends a charming gangster played by George Raft. I was never a big George Raft fan, either, but now I like his work quite a bit. A lot of your typical prison stuff happens—clashes with the screws and fellow cons, guys getting shivved, our protagonists being thrown in the Hole, things like that—before Raft manages to escape with a promise to clear Cagney’s name once he’s on the outside. But things don’t quite play out the way you’d expect . . . until they do.

EACH DAWN I DIE, directed by William Keighly (who directed several good Cagney films) and based on a novel by Jerome Odlum, is a thoroughly entertaining movie, an old-fashioned prison picture that hits all the usual beats but hits them very skillfully. Cagney and Raft both turn in excellent performances, and the supporting cast features just about every tough he-man supporting actor from the Thirties except Ward Bond and George Tobias, plus weaselly Victor Jory as one of the bad guys. George Bancroft is especially good as the tough but sympathetic warden. The violence of the prison riot at the end is pretty graphic for the time and very effective. Some of the plot twists are a little far-fetched, maybe, but they still work and really grab the viewer.

I had a great time watching this movie. It reminded me of all the afternoons I spent sitting on the floor in front of the TV watching old movies on the local stations. I might not want to go back to those days, but I sure don’t mind revisiting them now and then. And if you’re a Cagney and/or Raft fan and haven’t seen EACH DAWN I DIE, I give it a high recommendation.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: The Cariboo Trail (1950)

You remember in BLAZING SADDLES when Bart says to the townspeople of Rock Ridge, “You’d do it for Randolph Scott,” and the townspeople take off their hats, put their hands over their hearts, and respond in hushed reverence, “Randolph Scott!” Well, I’m just like those settlers. I love Randolph Scott movies.

Which is why I was surprised when I came across one that I don’t recall ever hearing of, let alone watching. THE CARIBOO TRAIL was released in 1950 and finds Scott playing Montana rancher Jim Redfern, who drives a trail herd into Canada with his partner Mike Evans (played by Bill Williams, who, a few years later, would star in the TV show THE ADVENTURES OF KIT CARSON, one of my early favorites). Redfern wants to establish a ranch and open up Canada to the beef industry, but Evans is more interested in hunting for gold. They run into an old prospector known as Grizzly (the immortal George “Gabby” Hayes) but also encounter some hardcases (Jim Davis and Douglas Kennedy among them) working for a villainous town boss played by Victor Jory. The only one in town who doesn’t seem to be under Jory’s thumb is a beautiful saloon owner played by Karin Booth.

You’ve all see enough Westerns to know how this set-up is going to play out. There’s nothing in the workmanlike script by Frank Gruber (another old favorite of mine) that’s going to surprise you, but it’s well-constructed and provides plenty of opportunities for action as well as a little romance and pathos, the latter provided by a fine performance from Bill Williams, whose character loses an arm due to injuries suffered in a stampede and become embittered. Scott is as stalwart and likable as ever, and I’ll watch and enjoy Gabby Hayes in anything. He’s my all-time favorite Western sidekick, and this was his final movie. Victor Jory is suitably smarmy and evil, and a very young Dale Robertson shows up as a cowboy.

Many of the reviews of this movie on IMDB complain about the cheap Cinecolor process and the photography, and the quality is pretty inconsistent. However, the movie doesn’t look bad, and parts of it actually look pretty good. There’s some spectacular scenery. Its biggest flaw, as far as I’m concerned, is a terribly staged fight scene between Scott and Kennedy in which none of the so-called punches are even remotely convincing. I’m actually surprised they let the scene go through like that. But that’s an aberration and the rest of the action is fine.

Overall, THE CARIBOO TRAIL is a pretty minor film, I suppose, but it has its moments that worked really well for me and reminded me of why I love Westerns so much. If you’re a Randolph Scott and/or Gabby Hayes fan, it’s certainly worth watching.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: The Man From Nevada (1929)

THE MAN FROM NEVADA is another silent Western starring Tom Tyler that was released in 1929, right after THE LAW OF THE PLAINS, which I wrote about last week. Both of those movies are included on a new DVD and Blu-ray release from Undercrank Productions.

Several members of the cast are the same in this one, as are the director (J.P. McGowan), the screenwriter (Sally Winters), and the cinematographer (Hap Depew). I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they shot THE LAW OF THE PLAINS one week and THE MAN FROM NEVADA the next week. Tom Tyler plays rancher Jack Carter, whose neighbor is a rather shiftless sodbuster with a beautiful daughter (Natalie Joyce) and three sons, two of whom are scrappy adolescents and the other is a toddler. An evil cattle baron played by Al Ferguson has his eye on the sodbuster’s ranch and plans to get his hands on it in a swindle assisted by his crooked land recorder brother. Stalwart Tom Tyler is having none of that, of course, so the villain and his henchmen (one of them played by legendary stuntman and stunt coordinator Cliff Lyons) frame him for rustling and try to get the sheriff to arrest him. Chases, fistfights, and shootings ensue.

McGowan, who also had an acting role in the previous film, stays behind the camera this time and keeps things charging along in very fine fashion. There’s an excellent stunt early on where Tyler’s character stops a runaway wagon carrying the helpless toddler, and while I couldn’t be absolutely certain, I think he performed it himself. The script stretches credibility every now and then but has some fine dramatic moments and a very satisfying showdown at the end. Tyler has a natural screen presence that allows him to dominate every scene he’s in, and an actor I’m not familiar with, Bill Nolte, does a fine job as the comedy relief sidekick, as he does in the previous film.

This is another fine restoration job from Undercrank Productions with a top-notch new score from Ben Model. Depew’s photography looks great. At one point, I believe THE MAN FROM NEVADA was considered a lost film. I’m glad they found and restored it, because I really enjoyed it. The same outfit has done a set of two silent Tom Mix Westerns. I’ve ordered it from Amazon and look forward to watching them.