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joeparkson
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These Wilder Years (1956)
Rarely Seen, Well Acted, Just Misses Greatness
The two old pros, Cagney and Stanwyck are the reason to watch this one. Neither chews the scenery; there's no romantic subplot between them, yet their scenes together are wonderful. Stanwyck shows no femme fatal sexiness or been there done that humor. She's just a nice, hard working person, and when confronted with Cagney's type A "I'm used to getting what I want", she sweetly deflects it instead of the fireworks you'd normally expect from a Stanwyck character. For his part, Cagney drops his tough guy image and when faced with the pain his past misdeeds have caused, makes no attempt to evade responsibility.
They're on opposite sides, yet show a respect for each other.
No motivation is shown for Bradford's sudden desire to drop everything to find the son he abandoned 20 years before. It might have been better if a chance meeting with Betty Lou Keim's abandoned, pregnant teen had served as the spark. Clearly, she reminds him of the girl he abandoned.
The other major flaw, is that being in his 50s, it would have been more realistic if Bradford's abandonment of his newborn son been 30 years before instead of 20. The guy that plays his son (Don Dubbins) looks and acts much older than a 20 year old. Also, 20 years before, Bradford would have been in his mid 30s, way too old to be a callow college boy. And is 20 years enough time to build such a large business? I also can't help wishing they'd cast someone who looked like Cagney to play Cagney's long lost son, like Richard Jaeckel.
Elysium (2013)
Rich Whites Ruin Earth Like They Ruin Everything
If I were to stereotype today's leftist liberal thinking, I couldn't do better than this movie: Wealthy whites (bad; wealthy whites are always bad, except when they vote for Obama) deserted earth (white flight; isn't that what bad rich whites always do?) to live on a space station called Elysium (white suburb or gated community), and the hispanics (except for white hero Matt Damon), get to live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. Secretary Rhodes, an evil white lady (why must the evil ones always be white?), will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve, protect and defend the white people of Elysium. That doesn't stop the hispanic (code for good but exploited) people of Earth from trying to get in, by any means they can. When unlucky Max (the token non-evil white person on earth) takes on the task ( like good white man Tarzan) of saving the good (non-white) people of earth. _________________________ It's a testament to the stupidity of the average moviegoer that so many have bought this simplistic BS. Here on the real earth, I wonder when Matt Damon is going to move his whole family out of his Elysium and into Detroit.
The West Point Story (1950)
Ultra Talented Cast, Weak Story, Production Values & Songs
Next to "Yankee Doodle Dandy", this has Cagney's best dancing. It also has some fine dancing and singing from Virginia Mayo, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae & Gene Nelson. They all do very well, along with an early funny performance by Alan Hale Jr.
Shot in Technicolor, with better songs and more plausible story, this could have been another "The Bandwagon".
Cagney's role is similar to his role in the earlier musical 'Footloght Parade'. As in "Footlight", at one point, one of the dancers is unable to go on and Cagney's character fills in for him. Virginia Mayo plays the same sort of wise-cracking sexy blonde that Joan Blondell played in "Footlight".
The main main plot is Cagney being pressured into joining West Point to help them put on a musical. Adding to that implausibility is a cadet (Gordon MacRae) with a magnificent voice preferring to make a career in the Army, even after falling in love with a famous singing star (Doris Day basically playing herself).
The romance between Cagney and Mayo isn't so far fetched when you look at the movies Fred Astaire made with Leslie Caron, Audrey Hepburn and others. Virginia Mayo displays a fine dancing talent and lovely singing voice, and Doris Day shows she could dance as well as sing. I wish they'd left out the long patriotic number with Gordon MacRae and let him sing a ballad or duet with Doris. Gene Nelson is totally wasted here; they really didn't let him have a big dance number like his Kansas City number in "Oklahoma!" The movie would have been improved had there been an estrangement between Mayo and Cagney with perhaps a dalliance between Mayo and Nelson sparking jealousy in Cagney.
Even though Cagney is noticeably heavier here than in "Yankee Doodle Dandy", he still dances very well and delivers a comic performance complete with facial mugging and explosive tantrums. Those tantrums with lots of hopping up and down like a Warner Bros. cartoon character couldn't have been good for Cagney's 50 year old knees! Alan Hale Jr. was quite funny especially when his huge bulk is next to the short statured Cagney. Warner's should have made some sort of police comedy buddy movie with Hale and Cagney.
I enjoyed seeing Cagney and Mayo once again playing totally different parts. They play off each other very well as do Cagney and Day. It's obvious that MacRae and Day look so cute together that they just had to make more movies together with better songs. Cagney was sufficiently impressed with Doris Day that he pushed for her to get the Ruth Etting part in "Love Me Or Leave Me".
The Strawberry Blonde (1941)
Woody Allen-Like Character & Neighborhood Study
This is the kind of movie Cagney wanted to make once he got the clout; his brother William Cagney is the producer. The theme is that trying to be something you're not may not give you the life you really wanted.
In "Strawberry Blonde", Cagney turns his streetwise, toughguy image on its head. His character Biff Grimes is nowhere near as streetwise or as tough as he pretends to be. He keeps saying "I don't take nothing from nobody!", but in fact he loses every fight and gets played for a sucker again and again.
Cagney dominates this movie, but the rest of the cast also nails their parts. "The Strawberry Blonde" character Virginia Brush is played by Rita Hayworth just before her WWII pin-up fame. This was a hard character to make sympathetic. She toys with Biff's adoration and ultimately stands up Biff in order to marry the more successful Hugo Barnstead. She does reveal herself poignantly; "Remember how all the boys used to whistle at me? Today I'd have to do the whistling." Jack Carson plays the phony Hugo Barnstead to such perfection that he got typecast in this part. In the 1960s Carson was still doing these parts; he played a used car salesman who suddenly cannot stop telling the truth in an episode of "The Twilight Zone".
A radiant Olivia DeHavilland plays Virginia's best friend Amy Lind as a would be emancipated woman. Amy and Biff begin with a mutual dislike of each other, but what they really dislike is each other's facade. It all changes in a bittersweet scene where Amy goes to tell a waiting Biff that Virginia has eloped with Hugo. The masks come off, and Amy and Biff discover that they actually like each other. She is not the girl that Biff has longed to marry all his life, but he seems to fall in love with her after he marries her.
Spoiler: Years later, Biff sees how the unhappy Virginia has made life miserable for Hugo with her nagging, and realizes that while he thought he'd been getting the short end all his life, he's actually a happy man and Hugo's not.
The funniest lines go to Biff's barber friend Nick Papalas (George Tobias), and his deadpan deliver is a riot.
"My, how dees foreigners murrder de Eengleesh language" "Eef I marry Virginia, she turn out deefferent. Woman with seventeen kids, got no time to nag!" Credit should also be given to the director Raoul Walsh who recreated a nostalgic look at a more peaceful time on the eve of WWII. This movie is almost a musical; period songs are sprinkled throughout. It begins with college students singing "Bill Bailey"; there is actually a barbershop quartet in a barbershop singing "In The Evening By The Moonlight". The melody "When You Were Sweet Sixteen" plays whenever there's a scene between Biff and Amy.
The song "The Strawberry Blonde" is sung or played by different characters throughout the movie. In Cagney's autobio, he says his mother was on the set during the filming and he waltzed with her to this song before the whole cast. Cagney's mother was a strawberry blonde in her youth, and the film's title was changed from "One Sunday Afternoon" to reflect this.
I do wish that Warners had sprung for technicolor film on this movie. This is a far better movie than "Captains Of The Clouds" which was done in color.
Fort Dobbs (1958)
Clint Walker In Hondo-Like Role
I think Clint Walker (or his agent) had thoughts of being the next John Wayne. This movie is very similar to "Hondo" 1953 which starred John Wayne. Stranger with a past shows up at a farmhouse occupied by a woman and her son, but the husband is missing. Stranger is attracted to woman and becomes a surrogate dad for the son.
The writing in this movie is not as good as in "Hondo", which had moments of pure poetry.
There's no romance between Walker and Mayo; Walker doesn't even try. Why, I don't know. Virginia Mayo is a beautiful woman though older than Walker. Walker does take his shirt off, which was probably required in his contract for every movie he ever made. Maybe she should have made a play for him. Other reviewers have said that it might have been unseemly for Walker & Mayo to have a romance, but Wayne got right down to business in "Hondo". He told that woman how she smelled and how he could find her in the dark. And that was before her husband died. Wayne didn't even have to take his shirt off.
Ironically, the charismatic bad guy played by Brian Keith, makes a very frank play for Mayo.
Finally, the Indians here are not given the depth of characterization they had in "Hondo". They're more like very bad weather.
The boy, is well played by Richard Eyer. Unlike most child actors, he's not annoying.
This could have been a much better movie. I've seen all the actors do better in other movies, and the director Gordon Douglas, though not a great director, has done better movies. Perhaps if Walker's part had been written with less politeness and more menace, it would have been a more interesting movie.
Robbers' Roost (1955)
Not Very Good, But Good Colors
This movie wasted a good cast and film stock.
George Montgomery and Richard Boone should have switched roles. Boone would have brought out the subleties of a good man masquerading as a bad guy.
Montgomery's career might have profited by playing a slick bad guy.
Who the heck was Sylvia Findley? why was she given the female lead? You've got Montgomery, Boone, William Hopper and Peter Graves all lusting after her. I don't see what the big deal was.
It also makes little use of Leo Gordon. When you have a big, intimidating guy like that, use him! He made a bigger impression opposite John Wayne in "Hondo" or as a convict in "Riot In Cell Block 11".
They should have given the guy with the guitar some better songs to sing.
At least the colors were good.
Red River (1988)
Makes You Appreciate How Good Wayne Was
I like James Arness. I grew up with Gunsmoke. Unfortunately, he doesn't dominate a scene like John Wayne, nor does he have the acting range of Wayne. Bruce Boxleitner's Garth was not as good as Montgomery Clift's, nor was Gregory Harrison's Cherry up to the standards of John Ireland's. However, these are not fatal to the movie. Dunson is the heart of the movie. If you're going to remake Red River, you'd better have a good Dunson.
Maybe it has to do with learning the right cadence of delivering your lines so that they take on real meaning, maybe it's reacting to the other actors so that it seems like you're actually listening to them.
I'm a little surprised, since Arness was a friend of John Wayne's and acted in several of his movies. You'd think Arness would have learned something. Just compare the bar scene where Dunson lays out the plan and the rules for the upcoming cattle drive.
Too bad. This movie has a great cast, with old names from the past (like Ty Hardin, John Lupton, LQ Jones, etc.), but every single member of the cast has done far better work in other movies or other TV shows.
It also hurts that the original was directed by Howard Hawks and had that wonderful Dimitri Tiomkin score.
The Long Wait (1954)
Deserves More Viewing
I see by the credits that this gem of a noir was filmed by Franz Planer, who did many classics. I've seen most of the Mickey Spillane movies, and this one has the most distinctive photography. The director Victor Saville seems to have been a better producer than a director. he also had an affinity for Mickey Spillane; he produced nearly all the Mike Hammer movies in the 1950s.
The cast is outstanding; besides the great Anthony Quinn, there are several lovely girls, the best being Peggie Castle. Even the trampy woman at the beginning who gets a rude kiss-off from Quinn plays her small part to perfection.
The doctor who treats Quinn's hands at the beginning has a familiar face. I've seen him in many TV shows as well as movies.
It's impossible to make a bad movie when you have Charles Coburn and Gene Evans backing you up.
The Fastest Gun Alive (1956)
Could Have Been A Contender
There was a great movie here but it just didn't come together. Perhaps if Crawford's character had had more scenes with Ford's character to show how similar they really are or how they are two sides of the same coin, it would have been a great movie.
I'm thinking of Bud Boetticher's "The Tall T" which forms a relationship between Randolph Scotts good guy and Richard Boone's bad guy.
Broderick Crawford was miscast. He looks like a man who would hire a gunslinger, not a ginslinger himself.
I thought the movie might go in a different direction when Crawford listens to the churchgoers singing and remembers a church from his youth. Unfortunately, he never reflects on the man he might have become had he not become an outlaw.
I too think the fantastic dance sequence by Russ Tamblyn was out of place, but it sure was fun to watch. Perhaps there was more to Tamblyn's character that was left on the cutting room floor.