Movie Review: The Rare Breed (1966)... John Brown loves westerns...

The Rare Breed (1966)

Jimmy Stewart. Maureen O'Hara. Brian Keith. A Technnicolor western. What could possibly go wrong?

Everything. Almost.

Stewart is too old, thin, lanky and personable for the role of Bulldog. I mean, really, can you even imagine calling James Stewart "Bulldog" if you weren't being ironic? Ohara's part is severely limited by the script and after the first ten minutes, she is more prop than person. Brian Keith? When you hear the Scottish accent and witness the giant fake red beard he sports, you'll be forever scarred. Oh, and the unbilled co-star is a hornless Hereford bull named Vindicator who settles down and behaves when you whistle "God Save the Queen".

The plot? O'Hara is an English widow who goes to the livestock show in St. Louis to sell the family's prized Hereford bull, which she believes will successfully mate with longhorn stock. A bidding war ensues and vindicator is eventually purchased by an agent of a Texas cattleman (Keith). The agent is more interested in getting under O'Hara's petticoats than he is in the bull. Jimmy Stewart is hired to escort the bull to Texas. He makes an underhanded deal with the losing bidder to "lose" the bull, which is foiled when O'Hara and her daughter decide to tag along for the ride. Eventually, the double-cross is resolved, everyone ends up in Texas, Keith tries to romance O'Hara, but she eventually falls for Stewart who has fallen in love with her and the potential for better livestock offered by Vindicator.

Does that sound bad? It is. And I'm leaving a lot of other really bad parts out of the story. The movie is part western and part unaware parody of western. It's almost a complete disaster. Almost.

I keep saying "almost" for a reason. The movie has a saving grace. Her name is Juliet Mills and she plays Hilary Price, daughter of Maureen O'Hara. She's blond, beautiful, and utterly unforgettable.

Here's what I know about Juliet Mills. She's not as famous as her sister, Hayley. Her movie career hasn't been tht extensive, although she's made a name for herself on television. Apparently, she's still working, playing the role of an older "good witch" in some magic-related series. I'll be honest, though, I intentionally cut my research on Juliet Mills short. I realized I didn't want to know too much about her. I wanted to keep her, in my mind, as Hilary Price.

If you're looking for passionate scenes, revealing outfits, raw sexuality, or a series of opportunities to ogle a young blond, The Rare Breed will disappoint you. The Rare Breed is more Disney than Cinemax late night and Juliet Mills, if I remember correctly, is always wearing an ankle-length skirt. Her dress may actually be consistent with Sharia in that she's usually wearing a hat, too.

Her light English accent is entrancing. Her charm is irresistible. She plays a loyal daughter, an able cattlewoman, and a smarter-than-she-should-be young lady with an earnestness and honesty that deserves a much better movie.

It's hard to steal a movie from James Stewart, but somehow, Mills does it for me. She became every young woman with whom I fell in love. I can't explain it and I'm willing to bet that most viewers of The Rare Breed won't even feel the same way.

Nonetheless, Juliet Mills increases the John Brown rating for The Rare Breed from 1/2 singing cowboy to a solid 2.

FINAL RATING:





(2/5 Singing Cowboys)

P.S. Juliet Mills did get a TV show about 5 years after The Rare Breed. I don't think The Nanny & the Professor was a hit, but this little clip of the opening credits gives you a picture of Juliet Mills, although her look here just isn't the same as in The Rare Breed.









Technorati Tags: Movies, movie reviews, film, film review, Jimmy Stewart, maureen o'hara, juliet mills, vindicator, hereford, cattle, the rare breed, 1966 Del.icio.us Tags: Movies, movie reviews, film, film review, Jimmy Stewart, maureen o'hara, juliet mills, vindicator, hereford, cattle, the rare breed, 1966 Furl Tags: Movies, movie reviews, film, film review, Jimmy Stewart, maureen o'hara, juliet mills, vindicator, hereford, cattle, the rare breed, 1966

Movie Review: Gun Street (1961)... John Brown loves westerns...

The sheriff is pissed off at the town. Years ago, he apprehended a killer. The jury of locals handed down a prison sentence instead of an invitation to the gallows. Now, the bad guy is on the loose and headed back to town for more. The lawman wishes they would've killed the criminal when they had a chance.

The people are terrified. They don't seem interested in taking responsibility for letting the bad man live. They don't seem excited at the prospect of helping the sheriff and his loyal deputy this time around, either. They expect the lawmen to handle the problem. They just want to be safe.

Most of Gun Street involves the sheriff, played by James Brown, doing western detective work. We get to meet the various county cowards as he tries to find the killer. Gun Street devolves into a B-grade High Noon rip-off wherein Brown eventually gets a posse put together to handle the killer.

Gun Street was one of over 100 movies directed by Eddie Cahn. Cahn was a B-movie king, known for producing better-than-average second-rate flicks in an era where a constant stream of low-dollar features were needed to feed an insatiable public appetite. He handled everything from sci-fi to early rock 'n' roll exploitation topics with what's been described as a "hyper-efficient" hand.

Cahn made passable movies in 10 days or less. It kept him busy and it kept matinee-goers occupied. Some of the work, like Gun Street, doesn't hold up very well. Gun Street doesn't look dirt cheap, but it certainly isn't textured. Gun Street doesn't feature bottom-of-the-barrel talent, but James Brown and Jean Willes aren't what you'd call "engaging on-screen presences" in this one. Gun Street is a quick-fix western with a shitty ending that will leave you emptier than expected.

Three more reasons not to watch Gun Street:

1. THE TELEPHONE

The Sheriff has a phone in his office. So do some of the townspeople. Look, I understand that there was a period in history where people still got around on horseback AND had phones, but it's really creepy to see people dialing each other up in a western.

It makes Gun Street look and feel more like a gangster flick than a western to me. Some people might not have a problem with old west telephony, but it's a distraction for me.

2. THE DEATH PENALTY

The movie feels like a macho advertisement for capital punishment. Now, I understand that left-wing politics and old westerns are unlikely to be a good match, but Gun Street is a little over the top. James Brown is downright pissed off that the bad guy didn't get the necktie of doom and he spouts off about it a few times. The movie itself seems to reinforce the notion that all these people had to do was hang the guy in the first place and everything would be alright. The argument is too simplistic and subtle like a sledgehammer. Another issue for me, a guy who doesn't dig capital punishment, that might not bother you, I suppose.

3. THE ENDING

There are rules within genres. You can break those rules, but only if you have a good reason to do. Good reasons include (a) making a damn good movie, (b) making a movie more interesting or rewarding and (c) intentionally testing the limits of genre and expectation for effect or principle. You don't get to fuck with the rules if you're filming a short, B-grade matinee western. The ending of Gun Street doesn't offer the expected payoff.

I can tolerate a bad western because it creates a comfort zone of expectation. I can appreciate a good western that changes the contours of that zone. I can't abide by a piece of crap western that breaks the rules. This one does and that's a major problem. SPOILER (just in case you might be thinking about watching this on On-Demand in a few minutes no matter what I say): The bad guy dies, but no one involved in the movie is responsible. No shootout. No sheriff. No nothing. It's bullshit.

I'm giving Gun Street 1.5 singing cowboys. I would've given it a mere 1/2 Autry, but I realize that some of my criticism isn't universal in nature.

FINAL RATING:





(1.5/5 Singing Cowboys)





Technorati Tags: Movies, movie reviews, Gun Street, jean willes, james brown, b-movie, edward cahn, western movie, film, film review Del.icio.us Tags: Movies, movie reviews, Gun Street, jean willes, james brown, b-movie, edward cahn, western movie, film, film review Furl Tags: Movies, movie reviews, Gun Street, jean willes, james brown, b-movie, edward cahn, western movie, film, film review

Movie Review: The Dalton Girls (1957)... John Brown loves westerns...

The Dalton Girls (1957)

This is the second time I've tried to review The Dalton Girls.

After I watched the movie, I found an interesting commentary about it by Gwendolyn Audrey Foster in Captive Bodies: Postcolonial Subjectivity in Cinema. Foster spent more time on The Dalton Girls than anyone else I've found and I was interested by her arguments. That led to an incredibly insightful piece of absolute genius. Using Foster as a springboard, I set out to create a lengthy meta-examination of film criticism. The first portion of this masterpiece simultaneously attacked and embraced the notion of academic film study as the intersection of the shiniest brilliance and the dingiest stupidity. I was making firing off arguments at a pace that would make the Gatlin gun from Josey Wales jealous.

That's when I realized three things. First, I wasn't really THAT interested (or, I must humbly admit, qualified) to write what might become a book on film criticism. I'd only scratched the surface and things were already starting to bore me. In order to finish what I'd started, I'd have to surrender all outside interests for a long, long time. Not happening. Second, The Dalton Girls disappeared after the first few paragraphs. My true intent was to share some thoughts on the movie and I didn't want to abandon that. Third, it was boring. That was my fault. Though I could blame it on too many half-assed trips through graduate programs, I blame myself for labyrinthine, dry writing spurts.

So, here we are. My second review of The Dalton Girls, a standard-issue 1950s B-western with a twist.

The twist? The villain protagonists are women. They rob trains, banks and stage coaches. They live life on the run. They're pursued by a Pinkerton-style detective. They ride horses at high speed, shoot/kill people and end up in a showdown. They do all of the usual "guy" stuff--but with better hair and makeup.

The brief synopsis:

When the infamous Dalton brothers are brought to justice by the bullet, two of their sisters go to identify the corpses. The mortician gets a little handsy with one of the gals and ends up with a shovel to the cranium. He keels over. The Dalton sisters know that their family's reputation will prevent them from getting a fair shake from the authorities, so they take off as outlaws. The movie fast-forwards to a few years later. The younger sisters are out of school (the elders paid their way through boarding school with ill-gotten gains) and the brood gets to work right away, robbing a stage coach.

One sister, Columbine, falls in love with the gambler Illinois Grey (a passenger on the doomed coach). Grey has that uncanny ability to show up over and over again whenever it might create a good plot complication. He also creates the ever-important romantic storyline. The movie is all about whether any of the gals can or should try to go straight and whether Columbine and Illinois will make a life together. There's a campfire singalong and a big shootout, too!

The Dalton Girls as a movie:

Not so good. It's fun to see women breaking the glass ceiling outlaw life--for awhile. If you take the gender-flip out of the equation, though, The Dalton Girls is standard-issue matinee fare (as well as being the first movie Ann Althouse ever watched). I'm guessing that 1957 audiences might have been more entertained by the idea of female western leads than I am 50 years later, but I'm also willing to bet few of them walked out of The Dalton Girls convinced they'd seen a masterpiece.

Is it worth watching?

Yes. By all means, watch The Dalton Girls. It's not a particularly good movie, but it has a few characteristics that make it worthwhile.

First, it's short. That helps this one, because it probably would start to wear very thin if it lingered. Fortunately, it's a compact little movie, which increases its overall watchability. Plus, you won't feel like you wasted a huge chunk of your life if you hate it. It moves along at a nice clip and, despite its 162 weaknesses, it is pretty entertaining.

Second, the sisters are really attractive. I feel almost guilty making that argument in light of the previously-mentioned Foster analysis of the movie, which is a strong piece of feminist criticism. I can't escape the patriarchy on this one, though. Maybe I'm just being a phallocentric oppressor who can't control his socialized misogyny worth a damn, but the Dalton girls are true hotties in that 50s-black-and-white kind of way.

Whether you prefer demure Columbine or the butchier and more aggressive Rose, you WILL find a Dalton sister to love.

I'm pro-Rose. She's meaner and sexier than the other sisters. Plus, Lisa Davis later did one of the puppy voices in 101 Dalmations and played alongside the miserable performer known as Zsa Zsa Gabor in Queen of Outer Space. Mainly, though, I found myself captivated by her amoral behavior and her not-that-good singing voice. Go Rose!

Third, Boyd "Red" Morgan plays the (very, very, very) limited role of the stagecoach driver. Thus, watching The Dalton Girls is experiencing a Historic Moment. Red played the role of "stagecoach driver" at least 4 times (television and film) between 1956 and 1957. I can't imagine that's happened to anyone else in Hollywood history. By the way, Red played "stagecoach driver" a few other times in his long career, too. He was also a world-class stuntman who doubled for John Wayne repeatedly and once bragged that he'd fallen off 2,000 horses on screen.

Fourth, if you don't watch The Dalton Girls, you won't have as much fun reading Foster's perspective on the movie. I'd tell you why you really should read that, but then I'd be back to writing my first, failed, review. Just do it, okay?

Rose Dalton quotation:
"They tell me he plays women just like he plays poker. Riffle, shuffle, fast cut, big deal, the sky's the limit; and then all of a sudden you're lying there in the discard."

Final Rating:





(2.5/5 Singing Cowboys)





Technorati Tags: Westerns, movie reviews, the dalton girls, dalton girls, film, film review, western movie, b-movie Del.icio.us Tags: Westerns, movie reviews, the dalton girls, dalton girls, film, film review, western movie, b-movie Furl Tags: Westerns, movie reviews, the dalton girls, dalton girls, film, film review, western movie, b-movie