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I watched "The Tall T" on Saturday night. This is one of the classic Budd Boetticher-Randolph Scott collaborations from the late 50s. Although, the first 20 minutes had me wondering why Netflix recommended it for me, the last hour is great. Adapted from an Elmore Leonard story, Scott plays a rancher who, through some bad luck mainly, ends up the captive (along with Maureen O'Sullivan) of a group of bandits led by Richard Boone (the gang also includes an early appearance by character actor Henry Silva). It's about as gritty as the censors would allow in the late 50s (and I think, they probably got away with a little bit more as this is definitely an adult movie and probably wasn't being shown with a Mickey Mouse short before it) and touches on adult themes of abandonment, loneliness and settling for second best later in life. Randolph Scott plays the Gary Cooper "High Noon" archtype of the older man with a strong moral compass. The bad guys don't always wear black hats and it was extremely refreshing to see O'Sullivan comfortably playing a woman in her late 40s/early 50s. Throw in some great scenery and this is definitely recommended for Western fans and fans of pulpy novels.
I had about 80 minutes to kill and enjoyed the last western I watched, so I racked up William Wellman's "The Ox-Bow Incident". This film stars Henry Fonda (actually, he's billed first, but I'm not sure he has the most screen time) as a cowboy who accidentally finds himself as part of a lynch mob and who isn't sure the people they are going to lynch did the crime. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, and you're right, this is a prototype of the character he would play 14 years later in "12 Angry Men". This film is nearly just as good as that one. Wellman's camera work and the fact that to save money this was shot inside on sets leads to a claustraphobic feel that ratchets up the tension throught the film. Throw in great performances by some really good young and veteran character actors (Harry Morgan, Anthony Quinn, Dana Andrews, Victor Kilian, Margaret Hamilton) and you have a morality story that doesn't feel heavy handed but leaves the viewer to think about life afterwards.
We had a kids and then adults (well, just me, since the boss was at work) double feature last night. With the kids, I watched "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad". This had some of Ray Harryhausen's best work IMO. It looked better then the work from "Clash of The Titans" which came out 25 years later. I was surprised at how engaged my kids were with this as they sometimes get bored with full length films. My three year old daughter was actually standing and cheering during one of the Cyclops battles. The only downfall is Kathryn Grant and that kid that played the genie. The kid I could get past, because most kid actors are pretty brutal (especially in 1958), but Kathryn Grant couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. Just awful. Awful enough it took away from the story and effects, which is really saying something. A better lead actress in this and this moves from the fringes of kiddie/cult movie to classic I think.
After the rugrats went to bed, I sat down and watched "Magnum Force", the second Dirty Harry film. It wasn't nearly as good as the first one and a lot of it actually felt forced. When the opening credits rolled, I actually said out loud "Holy s***, this was written by John Milius and Michael Cimino!", so maybe my expectations started too high. It just seemed that there were random scenes thrown in to show how much of a bada** Harry was, and that took away from the focus of the film. There were some great actors in here, Eastwood obviously (who reportedly directed a lot of the film, even though he wasn't credited) and Hal Holbrook as well as young up and comers Robert Urich, Tim Matheson and David Soul. Between the expectations of the classic first film and the writing tandem, I guess I just expected more. What I ended up getting was a slightly above average action film, highlighted by nice acting and nice scenery, but hindered by a forced script.
The newest Star Trek, which was really, really, REALLY good!!!!!!!
one of the best of 09 IMO
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