Most noted for its troubled production background, this hospital-set murder thriller turns a doctor into a detective: James Coburn’s medico undertakes an amateur investigation of a crime involving an illegal abortion, and the cover-up thereof. Although tangled up in the crazy James Aubrey-Kirk Kerkorian regime at MGM, Blake Edwards’ film can boast a strong supporting cast: Jennifer O’Neill, Pat Hingle, Elizabeth Allan, Dan O’Herlihy, James Hong, Michael Blodgett, Regis Toomey and John Hillerman.
The Carey Treatment
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1972 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 101 min. / Available at Amazon.com / General site Wac-Amazon / Street Date May 10, 2022 / 21.99
Starring: James Coburn, Jennifer O’Neill, Pat Hingle, Skye Aubrey, Elizabeth Allan, Dan O’Herlihy, James Hong, Michael Blodgett, Regis Toomey, Jennifer Edwards, John Hillerman, Alex Drier, Robert Mandan, Melissa Tormé-March.
Cinematography: Frank Stanley
Art Director: Alfred Sweeney
Film Editor: Ralph E. Winters
Original Music: Roy Budd
Screenplay by “James P. Bonner” and...
The Carey Treatment
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1972 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 101 min. / Available at Amazon.com / General site Wac-Amazon / Street Date May 10, 2022 / 21.99
Starring: James Coburn, Jennifer O’Neill, Pat Hingle, Skye Aubrey, Elizabeth Allan, Dan O’Herlihy, James Hong, Michael Blodgett, Regis Toomey, Jennifer Edwards, John Hillerman, Alex Drier, Robert Mandan, Melissa Tormé-March.
Cinematography: Frank Stanley
Art Director: Alfred Sweeney
Film Editor: Ralph E. Winters
Original Music: Roy Budd
Screenplay by “James P. Bonner” and...
- 5/24/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Michael Cimino could have done worse for his first directing gig — a big Clint Eastwood-Jeff Bridges buddy picture with guaranteed major attention. It’s a simple crime caper for simple audiences, and he pulls it off in style. The Sunday movie supplements celebrated Cimino as a great new talent. His picture still looks handsome and it runs like a Swiss watch — the writer-director even has his vulgar comedy down pat, giving bad guy George Kennedy a few memorable choice bits to play.
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1974 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date November 12, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, George Kennedy, Geoffrey Lewis, Catherine Bach, Gary Busey, Burton Gilliam, Roy Jenson, Bill McKinney, Vic Tayback, Dub Taylor, Gregory Walcott.
Cinematography: Frank Stanley
Art Direction by Tambi Larsen
Film Editor: Ferris Webster
Original Music: Dee Barton
Produced by Robert Daley
Written and Directed...
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1974 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date November 12, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, George Kennedy, Geoffrey Lewis, Catherine Bach, Gary Busey, Burton Gilliam, Roy Jenson, Bill McKinney, Vic Tayback, Dub Taylor, Gregory Walcott.
Cinematography: Frank Stanley
Art Direction by Tambi Larsen
Film Editor: Ferris Webster
Original Music: Dee Barton
Produced by Robert Daley
Written and Directed...
- 11/23/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Here’s something I never expected to see: I ran to the blaxploitation attraction Willie Dynamite because I like actress Diana Sands, and it’s her last picture in a too-short career. But the main character on view, a gaudy fur-wearing pimp, is played by none other than Roscoe Orman, well known to a couple of generations of kids as none other than ‘Gordon’ in the long-running TV show Sesame Street. It’s like watching MisterRogers play Hannibal Lecter!
Willie Dynamite
Blu-ray
Arrow Video
1974 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 102 min. / Street Date January 8, 2019 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95
Starring: Roscoe Orman, Diana Sands, Thalmus Rasulala, Joyce Walker, Roger Robinson, George Murdock, Albert Hall, Norma Donaldson, Juanita Brown, Royce Wallace, Tol Avery, Robert DoQui, Slim Gaillard.
Cinematography: Frank Stanley
Film Editor: Aaron Stell
Original Music: J.J. Johnson
Written by Ron Cutler & Joe Keyes Jr.
Produced by Richard D. Zanuck, David Brown
Directed by Gilbert Moses...
Willie Dynamite
Blu-ray
Arrow Video
1974 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 102 min. / Street Date January 8, 2019 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95
Starring: Roscoe Orman, Diana Sands, Thalmus Rasulala, Joyce Walker, Roger Robinson, George Murdock, Albert Hall, Norma Donaldson, Juanita Brown, Royce Wallace, Tol Avery, Robert DoQui, Slim Gaillard.
Cinematography: Frank Stanley
Film Editor: Aaron Stell
Original Music: J.J. Johnson
Written by Ron Cutler & Joe Keyes Jr.
Produced by Richard D. Zanuck, David Brown
Directed by Gilbert Moses...
- 1/8/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
I normally equate seaside towns with peace and tranquility, a place for rest, relaxation, and perhaps writing the Great Canadian Novel (it’s going to be a thinly veiled takedown of beloved children’s TV host Mr. Dressup, for the record). Clark’s Harbor however, the setting of Cry for the Strangers (1982), is a place where my laptop and I shall never set foot; there’s just too much damn tribalistic murder.
Originally broadcast by CBS on February 11th, Cry for the Strangers would have to contend with Barney Miller, Taxi, and 20/20 on ABC and Different Strokes, Gimme a Break! and Hill Street Blues on NBC, and it’s safe to say most eyes were peeping these network staples. But for those with a salty taste for the macabre, the Eye was the network to be. (For this occasion anyway; they can’t all be ABC Movie of the Week’s.
Originally broadcast by CBS on February 11th, Cry for the Strangers would have to contend with Barney Miller, Taxi, and 20/20 on ABC and Different Strokes, Gimme a Break! and Hill Street Blues on NBC, and it’s safe to say most eyes were peeping these network staples. But for those with a salty taste for the macabre, the Eye was the network to be. (For this occasion anyway; they can’t all be ABC Movie of the Week’s.
- 2/11/2018
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
MILL VALLEY, Calif. -- Writer-director James Redford's new film, which had its world premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival, will undoubtedly attract attention because of the director's famous surname -- he's Robert's son -- but this wan coming-of-age narrative set in 1950s Tucson, Ariz., isn't likely to resonate with audiences. The film contains several flaws in the plotting, and young actor Ryan Merriman, in his first lead role, is a good-looking kid, but he doesn't possess enough screen presence to jolt the movie out of its torpor.
Based on a novel by Donald Everett Axinn (also the movie's producer), "Spin" is the story of Eddie (Merriman), a young boy whose father and mother have been killed in a plane crash. (His father was the pilot.) Eddie is now under the care of his uncle, Frank Stanley Tucci), also a pilot. Frank can't handle the responsibility and takes a long-term job abroad, leaving Eddie in the care of his ranch worker Ernesto (Ruben Blades) and his Anglo wife, Margaret (Dana Delaney). When Frank returns 10 years later, he offers to teach Eddie to fly, and Eddie has to renegotiate his relationships with his three fathers: Ernesto, Frank and his dead birth father. Eddie also courts his on-again/off-again Latina girlfriend, Francesca (Paula Garces).
Redford seems to possess a lackadaisical attitude toward basic storytelling. It takes too long for the audience to realize that Ernesto and Margaret are married (at first it seems that Margaret lives next door), and we assume Ernesto is a gardener when we first see him. (He's raking the leaves next to the driveway.) Margaret quashes Eddie's plans to work the ranch by saying, "You have to love the ranch to work it." And we wonder, what ranch? All we've seen is a hangar, an airstrip and a couple of pigs.
Some fellow jocks at school hurl some racist remarks at Eddie, and we figure it's because he's being raised by Ernesto. Later we find out Eddie is half-Latino. Merriman looks pretty waspy, and except for a too-brief shot of his mother in the plane crash at the film's beginning, there's no other clue she was Latina. Eddie's rival for Francesca, Brad (newcomer Rich Montague, who gives the best performance in the movie), encounters Francesca's wastrel father and thinks he's a jerk. We're meant to take this as racist or classist or something, but her father is a jerk -- a rather despicable one, as we learn in the very next scene.
Then when Frank tells Eddie, "You're just like your father. You're going to make the same mistakes," we pray the film doesn't mean that literally, but it does, and we've guessed the ending about an hour before it arrives.
Cinematographer Paul Ryan lets us know it's a period film by overlaying everything with sepia tones, though there are some wonderful shots of the Arizona desert. There's nothing objectionable in this film, and that's part of its problem. There's no urgency or passion, and it all remains rather bland and pallid.
"Spin" is no plane wreck, but it never really flies, either.
SPIN
Spin Prods.
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: James Redford
Producers: Donald Everett Axinn, Elaine Rogers
Director of photography: Paul Ryan
Production designer: Patti Podesta
Music: Todd Boekelheide
Costume designer: Alexis Smith
Editor: Nicholas C. Smith
Cast:
Eddie: Ryan Merriman
Frank: Stanley Tucci
Margaret: Dana Delaney
Ernesto: Ruben Blades
Francesca: Paula Garces
Brad: Rich Montague
Running time -- 114 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Based on a novel by Donald Everett Axinn (also the movie's producer), "Spin" is the story of Eddie (Merriman), a young boy whose father and mother have been killed in a plane crash. (His father was the pilot.) Eddie is now under the care of his uncle, Frank Stanley Tucci), also a pilot. Frank can't handle the responsibility and takes a long-term job abroad, leaving Eddie in the care of his ranch worker Ernesto (Ruben Blades) and his Anglo wife, Margaret (Dana Delaney). When Frank returns 10 years later, he offers to teach Eddie to fly, and Eddie has to renegotiate his relationships with his three fathers: Ernesto, Frank and his dead birth father. Eddie also courts his on-again/off-again Latina girlfriend, Francesca (Paula Garces).
Redford seems to possess a lackadaisical attitude toward basic storytelling. It takes too long for the audience to realize that Ernesto and Margaret are married (at first it seems that Margaret lives next door), and we assume Ernesto is a gardener when we first see him. (He's raking the leaves next to the driveway.) Margaret quashes Eddie's plans to work the ranch by saying, "You have to love the ranch to work it." And we wonder, what ranch? All we've seen is a hangar, an airstrip and a couple of pigs.
Some fellow jocks at school hurl some racist remarks at Eddie, and we figure it's because he's being raised by Ernesto. Later we find out Eddie is half-Latino. Merriman looks pretty waspy, and except for a too-brief shot of his mother in the plane crash at the film's beginning, there's no other clue she was Latina. Eddie's rival for Francesca, Brad (newcomer Rich Montague, who gives the best performance in the movie), encounters Francesca's wastrel father and thinks he's a jerk. We're meant to take this as racist or classist or something, but her father is a jerk -- a rather despicable one, as we learn in the very next scene.
Then when Frank tells Eddie, "You're just like your father. You're going to make the same mistakes," we pray the film doesn't mean that literally, but it does, and we've guessed the ending about an hour before it arrives.
Cinematographer Paul Ryan lets us know it's a period film by overlaying everything with sepia tones, though there are some wonderful shots of the Arizona desert. There's nothing objectionable in this film, and that's part of its problem. There's no urgency or passion, and it all remains rather bland and pallid.
"Spin" is no plane wreck, but it never really flies, either.
SPIN
Spin Prods.
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: James Redford
Producers: Donald Everett Axinn, Elaine Rogers
Director of photography: Paul Ryan
Production designer: Patti Podesta
Music: Todd Boekelheide
Costume designer: Alexis Smith
Editor: Nicholas C. Smith
Cast:
Eddie: Ryan Merriman
Frank: Stanley Tucci
Margaret: Dana Delaney
Ernesto: Ruben Blades
Francesca: Paula Garces
Brad: Rich Montague
Running time -- 114 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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