The Klansman

It seems pretty simple if you ask me. You're making a movie so you want to assemble the best group of talent you can to make a successful movie. Right? Well, sometimes even that isn't enough. Sometimes even a ton of talent can't prevent a stinker. Here we are with another iTunes discovery I found, 1974's The Klansman.

In a small Southern town during the Civil Rights movement, Sheriff Track Bascomb (Lee Marvin) constantly has his hands full keeping the peace. His work is cut out for him with the KKK boasting a strong contingent in the county, but a majority of the population is African-American. The problem? It's the whites who control his job security come election time. It's a lose-lose battle, and it's about to be much, much worse. A white woman is raped by a black man and soon after the bodies begin to pile up until ultimately part of the KKK rapes a black woman. An upcoming demonstration to get the African-Americans in town to get out and vote is fast approaching, and the county has turned into a powder keg just waiting to be set off. Track is in trouble and his saving grace may be a rich local man, Breck Stancill (Richard Burton), who has absolutely no use for the KKK or its "objectives." The problem though...Stancill may be too extreme in his counter to help.

I was born in 1985 so it's difficult for me to get my ahead around the Civil Rights movement. Sure, I can read books, watch movies, shows and documentaries about it, but I'll never really know horrific the time truly was. It is a time period often explored through film, recently with movies like Selma but also including Malcolm X, In the Heat of the Night, Mississippi Burning and many more. This may sound obvious, but if you're going to take on a Civil Rights movie, it should probably have...well, a serious tone. Or at least I'd think so. You don't want to get too over the top. Just let the story and characters speak for themselves. 'Klansman' decided not to go down that route.

Yikes. What a stinker. This racially-charged drama is from director Terence Young who directed far better movies like Dr. No, Thunderball, From Russia With Love, Triple Cross and several others. This is just a lousy movie. It starts with the tone. Frighteningly enough, the racism we see on display from our KKK members was probably pretty accurate. On the other hand, it plays out here in almost cartoonish fashion to the point I was laughing out loud at this dreck. The n-word is used so many times by sneering, driveling hillbilly yokels you become numb to it. And that becomes the issue. 'Klansman' is so overdone and over the top that any potential impact or message is beyond muddled. Instead, it plays out like a spoof of sorts. If the message is 'No one wins with racism'.....well, thanks. Quite the message.

Searching through the iTunes movie library, this one caught my eye because of the cast assembled. Unfortunately, that's as far as it went. I didn't look any further into it, and I most definitely should have. There goes $2.99 (even off a gift card) I'll never get back. The production stories indicated that star Richard Burton needed three bottles of vodka a day to get over a back injury. It shows. Delivering his lines in an odd Southern(ish) accent, Burton mumbles and stumbles his way through the movie in a really bad part. The scary part? Co-star Lee Marvin supposedly matched Burton drink-for-drink and ends up delivering the movie's best performance. His Sheriff is torn between his duty, what he believes, what the job means in support of his family, and what he knows is right and wrong.

Too bad then that Marvin's pretty decent performance is lost in a winding, kinda episodic story that doesn't really know where it's going or how to get there. There are too many characters, too many subplots that go by the wayside. The rest of the cast includes Cameron Mitchell as Deputy Butt Cutt Cates, hamming it up with hate, O.J. Simpson (taking a break from football) as Garth, a rifle-wielding vigilante, Lola Falana as Loretta, a friend of Breck's who becomes a KKK target, David Huddleston as the mayor and KKK head honcho, Luciana Paluzzi (obviously dubbed) as Trixie, the police secretary who has a thing with Breck, and Linda Evans as Nancy, the white woman raped in the movie's opening scenes.

It's just a bad movie that doesn't deserve too much more analysis. Bad script, out of place soundtrack, and an ending that would have been halfway decent if the build-up wasn't so painful. I wouldn't have continued watching if I hadn't paid $2.99 to rent it. Watch at your own risk!!!

The Klansman (1974): */****

The Longest Day

When you look back through history, certain dates hold a higher place in the history books. It can be someone's birth, someone's death, or just have an amazing historical significance in terms of impact on the world. High up on that list is June 6, 1944, the day Allied forces invaded Normandy, better known as D-Day. In the age of gigantic, sprawling epics, one of the best movies of the 1960s tackles the immense subject, 1962's The Longest Day.

A plot description wouldn't do this flick justice. It's just infeasible. The history will serve as a big enough jumping off point. After four-plus years of war, Allied forces had massed for months, all prepping for the invasion of Europe, hopefully taking back the continent from Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Third Reich. The invasion was months and years in planning, millions of men, millions of tons of equipment, thousands and thousands of ships, trucks, jeeps and tanks waiting to be unleashed at Normandy and in the French countryside. What was the mystery? The Allies tried desperately to keep the location of the invasion -- Normandy -- secret to help save lives and make the invasion smoother. The Germans similarly tried desperately to discover where the attack was coming. The war hung in the balance along with millions of lives, not just those taking part in the attack but all over the world. Not bad for historical significance, huh?

So tackling that premise in movie form seems a rather daunting task if you ask me. In the age of the epic, this one doesn't disappoint. At 178 minutes, 'Longest' covers a ridiculous amount of ground in a story that takes place over about a 36-hour time span. We see the Allies deciding the time is finally right after days of wavering while the Germans decide if this is the actual invasion or just a feint, a distraction to throw them off. Based on the book by Cornelius Ryan, it is told in docu-drama style as we meet all the participants from the high command to the soldiers, paratroopers to resistance fighters, townspeople to priests and everything and everyone in between. This isn't a movie about characters, but instead about the spectacle and immensity of what happened. If the Allied invasion on D-Day didn't work, who knows how the world would have changed?

Just a huge movie but one that never feels rushed or forced. The three-hour running time absolutely flies by. It was filmed in black and white, giving it an appropriately dated look. Maybe color takes away from what's on-screen, but the decision to film in black and white simply put, works. Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton and Bernhard Wicki combine to direct this behemoth epic and to handle it well. Technically speaking, it is a virtually flawless film. Some stock footage is sprinkled here and there, but many of the locations where the actual events took place were used as filming locations. Talk about authenticity, it can be downright eerie watching some of the scenes knowing the locations' history. The score from Maurice Jarre is used in appropriate doses with the main theme (listen HERE) a memorable piece of music that's always stuck with me.

As an epic though, one thing was required more than just about anything else. That requirement? A cast of seemingly thousands. Literally everyone in Hollywood and stars internationally were required to star in this movie. Okay, a slight exaggeration, but you get my point. Most of these parts were nothing more than cameos, but just as a taste of the ridiculous star power on display, we get John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Henry Fonda, Richard Burton, Edmond O'Brien, Rod Steiger, even a pre-James Bond Sean Connery. Many of those parts only required an on-screen appearance of a minute or two -- some for much more -- but their presence alone...just wowza. The scary part? That's only a somewhat small taste of the depth of the cast that truly brings an international flavor to the D-Day proceedings with German, French, British, American and many more brought together.

The Longest Day is an epic, plain and simple, but for every scene where the scope and scale impresses, I loved the quieter, personal and often times, terrifyingly real scenes just as effective and memorable. I loved Richard Todd as a paratrooper commander tasked with landing in France via glider and taking a key bridge and holding until reinforcements arrive...if they can. The scene where American paratroopers, including strung-up Red Buttons, overshoot their landing zone and land in a German town is tragic and moving. One paratrooper (Sal Mineo) making a tragic decision is surprising and intensely real. I especially liked the simplicity of a late scene between Burton's RAF pilot and Richard Beymer's American paratrooper discussing the necessary evil of the day but also the lunacy of it. I think the best, most iconic moment has Hans Christian Blech's German officer finally spotting the invasion force in the English Channel when the fog clears. His face drops and he mumbles 'Die invasion,' all set to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Just a ton of great moments like this.

The other counter to those scenes are the BIG moments, and that's where the technical comes into play. One tremendous scene has a German fighter strafing the beaches, all of which we see from the perspective of the plane. Hundreds and thousands of extras scramble for cover underneath in a remarkable visual scene. The same later in 'Longest' when French commandos fight their way up a street in a French town, a helicopter (I think) filming all the action. As well, the scene of the paratroopers coming down on the German-held Sainte-Mere-Eglise is a horrifying scene that utilizes some very cool camerawork. Also look for a cool scene where American Rangers -- including Robert Wagner, George Segal, Paul Anka, Fabian, Tommy Sands -- scale the cliffs of Pointe de Huc, all trying to knock out a key German emplacement. Some especially memorable moments, not all of them action scenes.

Because I don't want to forget anyone but don't want to overdo it describing EVERY character, also look for Eddie Albert, Irina Demick, Mel Ferrer, Steve Forest, Gert Frobe, Leo Genn, Jeffrey Hunter, Curd Jurgens, Peter Lawford, Christian Marquand,  Roddy McDowall, Kenneth More, Wolfgang Preiss, Ron Randell, Jean Servais, Norman Rossington, Tom Tryon, Peter van Eyck and Stuart Whitman. Okay, I'll take a breath now.

The Longest Day isn't the best war movie around, but it's one of my favorites. It tries to accomplish a ton and succeeds on just about every level. The history, the scale, the spectacle, the gigantic cast, the moments that resonate amongst all the epic qualities. It also serves as an excellent companion piece to the more recent Saving Private Ryan. Nowhere near as violent, but a more far-reaching story. A gem from the age of epics.

The Longest Day (1962): ****/****

The Wild Geese

A little bit of a spin on the wild west gunslinger, today's discussion centers around the mercenary, the hired gun who will take just about any job as long as the money is good. And if movies have taught us anything, mercenaries had lots of work throughout Africa in the 1960s and since with movies like Dark of the Sun, The Dogs of War and most recently Tears of the Sun. What about the best of the bunch? It's a movie many American viewers may not have heard of because it didn't get much of a release in the states. That movie? One of my favorites, 1978's The Wild Geese.

 A brutally efficient mercenary with years of experience under his belt, Allan Faulkner (Richard Burton) has agreed to take on a dangerous mission in Africa courtesy of the equally brutal, efficient and greedy merchant banker, Sir Edward Matherson (Stewart Granger). With lucrative copper mining rights on the line, Matherson needs Faulker to rescue a deposed African leader, Julius Limbani (Winston Ntshona), a leader of the people and a good man, to retake the government and settle things down. Taking a hefty payday, Faulker assembles an experienced, effective unit of 50 mercenaries, including fellow officers Lt. Shawn Fynn (Roger Moore), Capt. Rafer Janders (Richard Harris) and Lt. Pieter Coetzee (Hardy Kruger), and goes about putting together an effective plan, a smash and grab job. Faulker has the men assembled to pull off the job with a minimum of danger, but no matter how well thought out the mission is, even these mercenaries can't know what awaits them when they drop into Africa.

This review comes just a day after my Von Ryan's Express review, one of the great entertaining war movies ever made. More than that, just a great action movie. Well, surprise surprise, but I put this 1979 mercenary-centric action/drama on the same level. Is it a great movie in the vein of The Godfather or Lawrence of Arabia? Heck no, but it doesn't need to be! I watched a version that was 128 minutes long, and it is one extended thrill ride from beginning to end. Director Andrew McLaglen is far from a great director, but this is one of his best (if not THE best) movies. It is gritty, graphic, rough and tumble and the definition of a great tough guy flick. This is a movie that earns it's "Guy's Guy" type of movie, even if that theme song (listen HERE) seems a little out of place. But that's for the opening and closing credits. Enough with that. Let's get to the action!

Okay, not quite yet there with the casting. In the men-on-a-mission vein of The Guns of Navarone or Where Eagles Dare, here's one of the all-time great tough guy casts. The script calls for some older mercenaries, giving stars who weren't exactly A-list stars a chance at the spotlight again, and let me tell you, they don't disappoint. In a part of his career where the films weren't exactly great (an understatement), Richard Burton absolutely nails the part as Faulkner, a weathered, experienced mercenary who doesn't care for much other than the money he makes and the booze he can drink. Not exactly a stretch, but let's not nitpick. His officers include Harris as Janders, the master tactician and planner, Moore as Fynn, the born soldier who can fly or drive anything with a motor, and Kruger as Coetzee, the South African experienced bush fighter who has quite a few racist tendencies. They each get their moments to shine, the tough guy quartet killing it throughout with an easygoing, likable chemistry.

But wait....there's more!!! Along with Granger's quick appearance, there's Barry Foster and Patrick Allen as other shadowy characters involved in putting the mission together. Filling out the mercenary lineup are scene-stealing Jack Watson as foul-mouthed drill instructor Sandy Young, John Kani as Sgt. Jesse, the youngest of the bunch but an incredibly capable fighter, Kenneth Griffith as Witty, the flamboyantly gay medic, with Ronald Fraser, Ian Yule (an actual former mercenary), Percy Herbert, and Glyn Baker rounding out the crew. Also look for Jeff Corey and Frank Findlay in small parts. Just a cool, underrated supporting cast with plenty of memorable, recognizable faces.

Based off a novel by Daniel Carney and a Reginald Rose screenplay, one of 'Wild's' most underrated aspects is its script. Yes, it is familiar. Yes, it is politically incorrect one moment and somewhat preachy the next. But in the end, you throw it all together and all those separate ingredients work well together. It follows the men-on-a-mission formula nicely, going from assembling the team, to training the team, to unleashing the mercenaries on their dangerous mission deep in Africa, a regiment of brutal Simbas waiting to wipe them out if given the chance. There's too many good moments to mention from the Wild Geese free-falling out of a plane at 25,000 feet to Watson's hysterical rants during the training sequences to the almost non-stop smartass attitudes that produce a ton of memorable one-liners, some funny and some highly effective in the old drama department. Just a lot of positives on display here across the board.

But the biggest positive? The action of course! It's so good that the DVD actually offers a stand-alone menu where you can watch solely the explosions, shootouts and all sorts of hell that breaks loose. Without giving away any spoilers, the mission doesn't go off quite as planned, Faulkner and his men forced to improvise deep in enemy territory. Most of the last hour of the film is one extended action scene with some occasional dialogue to break things up. The highlight is the last 30 minutes, the mercenaries shooting it out with a large force of Simbas hell bent on stopping them from escaping. It's bloody, graphic and uncomfortable and features some surprising twists too as the body count rises ever higher. The action turns into a chaotic chase across the African savannah, lines and flanks shifting minute to minute. What an action movie.

This can be a difficult movie to track down. Years ago, I was lucky enough to track down a Tango DVD of this 1978 mercenary flick. It's currently available at Amazon for a very reasonable $12.99 if you're curious. As I mentioned, is it a perfect film? Nope, and again, it isn't meant to be. Instead, it is pure escapism, pure entertainment, and for me that's all I'm looking for. Familiar but highly entertaining story, action to burn and one of my all-time favorite casts. Can't recommend this one enough.

The Wild Geese (1978): ****/****
Rewrite of June 2009 review

Where Eagles Dare

With his novel The Guns of Navarone (and its film version), author Alistair MacLean deserves an all-time spot in the impossible, suicide, men on a mission genre. Not all of his novels are winners, especially some of his later entries, but as far as success goes, 1968 was a year that was hard to beat for the author. Two of his novels were made into highly successful adventure movies, Ice Station Zebra and Where Eagles Dare.

It's the winter of 1944 and an American general's plane with knowledge of the coming Second Front has crashed in the Bavarian Alps. Captured by German forces, General Carnaby (Robert Beatty) is sent to the Schloss Adler, a mountain fortress home to the SS in the district. A commando team headed by Major John Smith (Richard Burton) is being parachuted into the mountains disguised as German soldiers. Their mission is straightforward if extremely difficult; gain access to the heavily guarded, fortified castle and rescue Carnaby before German interrogators can get the information out of him that they need. On Smith's team are five fellow British commandos and one American Ranger, Lt. Schaffer (Clint Eastwood). Almost the second the team lands, things start to go wrong, and Major Smith isn't letting on everything he knows. Is there something else going on with this mission, more than the others could even guess?

The story of this movie comes from MacLean, who on a request from a producer and Burton wrote a novel that could be made into a fast-paced adventure film. MacLean wrote the novel which became a huge success and was quickly put on the fast track, the film getting its release in 1968. As far as war/adventure films go, there are very few that are more fun than this one. Better ones? Yes, but in terms of pure entertainment value, this one is hard to beat. Director Brian G. Hutton (Kelly's Heroes) does a fine job crafting a twisting, turning story that is almost secondary to the war-time shenanigans. Many reviews that you read are from viewers who were genuinely confused watching this flick. I don't blame them. It took me multiple viewings to pick up everything you need to know. 

The beauty of that statement is that this WWII espionage film can be enjoyed on different levels. We find out quickly that there's far more to the mission than we know. I won't reveal any spoilers here, but there's a-plenty of them! From the second the team parachutes into Bavaria, one of the commandos is killed by one of the team. What's going on? MacLean's script does a fine job parceling out hints here and there about the actual intent of their mission, finally revealing itself in a mind-bending, classic scene in a huge, Medieval-looking dining hall near the halfway point. The build-up is a little slow-moving, but it's worth it. Scenes you thought were pointless end up having key importance later in the movie. We see Smith and Schaffer prepping for their getaway days and hours in advance. We see the inner workings of this suicide mission. Not too many men on a mission movies go into such a detail, therefore setting 'Eagles' one step above so many other like-minded flicks.

Some pairings are just too perfect. Case in point, Burton and Eastwood. Burton as Maj. Smith is the highly capable, brutally effective and nearly brilliant secret agent and commando. He did a lot of acting parts in his career so it's great to see him do a movie that's just fun. It shows. It looks like he had a phenomenal time doing the part, his silky smooth voice, his smartass smirk ever-present on his face. And his radio call sign 'Broadsword calling Danny Boy' sounds almost Shakespearean in its delivery. As his American counterpart, Eastwood is given little to do other than look very cool, and he succeeds on all levels. Burton's Smith calls him a 'second rate punk,' an American Ranger and brutally efficient killing machine. Through all the craziness, it works. This is two pros who look to be having a lot of fun. Also in the team is Donald Houston, Peter Barkworth, William Squire, Brook Williams and Neil McCarthy.

Though Burton and Eastwood are in almost every scene, the supporting cast is solid just the same. Mary Ure plays Mary, a longtime fellow agent of Smith's (and some romance too) secretly along for the mission, with Ingrid Pitt as Heidi, an Allied agent working in the town below the fortress. Patrick Wymark and Michael Horden play Col. Turner and Adm. Rolland, two high-ranking officers back in Britain who knew the true intention of the mission. Rounding out the cast is some familiar faces as the evil German counterparts including Anton Diffring, Ferdy Mayne and Derren Nesbitt.  

While all the build-up, background and twists are fun, the movie's most entertaining feature is the finale. The truth of the mission revealed, Smith, Schaffer and Mary (with some friends along for the ride) must basically shoot their way out of the mountaintop fortress, causing as much chaos as they can along the way. Eastwood's Schaffer alone single-handedly dispatches a whole German division on his own. The shootouts in the dark, poorly-lit castle hallways are a highlight, but the coolest sequence has Smith fighting two Germans aboard a cable car hundreds of feet off the ground. Adrenaline-pumping action, it is a doozy. It's ridiculous action throughout, our heroes able to pick off enemy soldiers at will while the hundreds of enemy soldiers can barely manage to nick our intrepid heroes. And how many packs of dynamite can two men manage to carry? Apparently 385 by my count.

This is not meant to be a serious war film. It's meant to be a film you enjoy from beginning to end. The on-location shooting in Austria, including the Hohenwerfen Castle and in and around Werfen, are spot-on choices for accuracy and realism. As a topper, composer Ron Goodwin's score is big and booming and equally perfect, keeping the tension building and driving the action. Listen to the main theme HERE. In the vein of MacLean's The Guns of Navarone, this is a popcorn flick at its best. Sit back and enjoy Burton and Eastwood win WWII with pretty girls, plenty of action, and even more twists and turns in that ridiculously convoluted plot.

Where Eagles Dare (1968): *** 1/2 /****
Updated February 2009 review

Breakthrough (1979)

Released in 1977, Sam Peckinpah's Cross of Iron is a forgotten masterpiece, a war movie that doesn't get the credit it deserves. Not necessarily remembered as a classic, it ends on a particularly downbeat if effective ending, making the news that there's a sequel kinda hard to believe. I'm a big fan of Peckinpah's original so here goes with the unlikely follow-up, 1979's Breakthrough.

Under a withering Russian attack, German forces are retreating all along the Western Front. Among them is Sgt. Rolf Steiner (Richard Burton), a hardened veteran who's seen all the fighting can offer throughout the war. Amidst the fighting, he's granted a 14-day leave in Paris, but just as he settles in, the Allies attack at Normandy with his division transferred to the fighting. Upon catching up with his men, Steiner is given a dangerous mission that could ultimately bring the war to an end, but at minimum could save thousands of lives. In between Allied and German lines, Steiner meets an American officer, a tanker, Col. Rogers (Robert Mitchum), who isn't sure whether he can believe what Steiner is telling him. A decision must be made though quickly with an Allied offensive imminent.

In terms of original to sequel, this 1979 WWII flick from director Andrew V. McLaglen bears little resemblance to its predecessor. The ending in 'Iron' is open for interpretation as to whether certain characters survive, but this sequel answers that question (They make it by the way). And other than character names and that this too is a World War II movie, there are no real unifying links. It seems an odd movie and storyline to continue, but whatever, it happened so here we sit. It's not a particularly good movie -- most reviews rip it pretty mercilessly -- but I managed to get some enjoyment out of it. Then again, I'm a sucker for basically any western and war movie. You've been warned!!!

So now that I've established that I liked this movie, let's move ahead with ripping the movie some! While I like many of McLaglen's films (The Wild Geese, The Devil's Brigade), I can admit he was far more a workmanlike director than a master filmmaker. To say the story drifts a little bit would be a vast understatement. It starts in Russia, moves to Paris, jumps to Normandy and involves German and Allied knowledge of assassination attempts on Hitler. Oh, and Steiner's commanding officer, Major Stansky (Helmut Griem), is power hungry and doesn't care who gets caught up in the killing, civilians and innocents alike. The budget is obviously pretty limited with a fair amount of stock footage used from other war movies of the era. The score is atrocious, an oddly horrific mix of spaghetti western tones, country music, odd rock and roll notes, and hippie-psychedelic noises. It's not just bad, it's distracting, and that's significantly worse.

Here's the issue that I'm noticing in a lot of reviews. The cast here has some pretty impressive name recognition -- more than Peckinpah's original -- but it's not necessarily good performances. It's a fair criticism that most of the big names gathered are clearly phoning it in. On the other hand....oh, Richard Burton and Robert Mitchum! Replacing James Coburn, Burton does a decent job as war-weary Steiner. Mitchum is clearly not too interested in the part, but I like Mitchum so there. Also look for Rod Steiger, pissed off as usual and screaming orders as an American general, Webster. Michael Parks has a good supporting part as Sgt. Anderson, Mitchum's assistant and jeep driver. Klaus Lowitsch returns from 'Iron' as Cpl. Kruger, Steiner's fellow NCO and close friend. Curd Jurgens also plays a familiar role, an aristocratic German general frustrated with Hitler's leadership.

Schizophrenic story with far too much going on, aging stars with less than spectacular acting jobs, and a budget that's limited in basically all aspects. The action is okay, including the finale as Maj. Stansky attempts to set up an ambush for an attacking American tank battalion, but that's really the only memorable set piece. Why did I even remotely like this movie? I have no freaking idea. I was entertained throughout -- maybe because of the badness -- and that's all I'm looking for. Also worth mentioning, do a shot every time Mitchum asks about the anti-tank emplacements. You'll be drunk in minutes.

Breakthrough (1979): ** 1/2 /****  

The Desert Rats

When I think of Richard Burton, I think Actor with a capital A. A little eccentric, maybe a little more nutty, but at his heart a true actor in the sense of the word. What I like so much about Burton was that when he could have been some crazy, pretentious Shakespearean nutcase, he didn't...at least on film. He did fun, entertaining movies, not just acting movies. Early in his career in 1953's The Desert Rats, we get the best of both worlds.

It's spring 1941, and German Field Marshal Edwin Rommel (James Mason) and his army are pushing the Allied forces back further with each passing day. In the Libyan port city of Tobruk, Allied forces -- predominantly English and Australian -- have been completely cut off by Rommel's army and have been given the order to hold the city until relief comes. Among those soldiers trapped in the city is Capt. MacRoberts (Burton), a Scotsman who was one of the few survivors from his unit caught in a German ambush. He's given command of an inexperienced, newly arrived company of Australian infantry. He's forced to whip them into shape quickly as the German noose around the city tightens.

If it is a WWII movie about the North African campaign, it appears the story must focus solely on Tobruk. Whether it's this flick, Raid on Rommel, the aptly named Tobruk, Play Dirty, even The Rat Patrol, a North Africa campaign has to deal with this famous port city. Not a classic movie, it's especially interesting considering the time it was released. By 1953, WWII was still fresh enough in people's minds, but director Robert Wise isn't making a propaganda movie here. This isn't evil Nazis battling infallible Brits. It's just two sides fighting it out in the desert without any notion of  a bigger picture. It certainly marked a change in trends the years passed since the end of WWII.

For a generally forgotten WWII movie from the 1950s, I came away quite impressed with the action sequences. An extended siege -- the German siege of Tobruk lasted eight months -- isn't necessarily the most exciting thing to watch, but Wise keeps things moving in his 88-minute long movie. An early tank battle in a driving sandstorm sets the tone, not a huge scale battle but harrowing nonetheless. Commando raids across the desert to German lines are handled in a brutally efficient montage, and a deep behind enemy lines raid after a German ammo dump is the high point. The action isn't just there for action's sake though. We see the wearing down of the soldiers, the toll the extended siege has on them, especially in a fitting, moving finale as the end of the siege nears.

Just 28 years old when he starred in 'Desert Rats,' Burton is the unquestioned star here. He's a commander who looks out for his men, pushing them because he knows it will benefit them when the battles begin. His MacRoberts doesn't care if his men hate him. Their hatred can be a motivator as survival hangs in the balance. He has some excellent scenes with Robert Newton's Bartlett, MacRobert's former schoolteacher who's now a drunk and questioning his own bravery (or lack of). It's a subtle shift too, but the character ends up changing for the better by the end. Reprising his role from 1951's The Desert Fox, Mason is basically making a cameo appearance as Rommel, making the most of his few short scenes. Robert Douglas and Torin Thatcher play the British commanders in Tobruk with Chips Rafferty, Charles Tingwell, an uncredited Michael Pate, Charles Davis and Ben Wright playing some of MacRobert's men.

Covering so much ground in terms of time in an 88-minute movie, the story does feel rushed at different parts. A 2-hour movie could have fleshed things out a little, but as is, the movie is pretty solid on its own. There is that problem of having German characters talk in German for entire scenes without subtitles, but most of them are early on in the film. I have this weird thing about understanding what's going on in the movies I'm watching, but maybe that's just me. Subtitles, please! Still a very enjoyable, well-made WWII story.

The Desert Rats <---trailer (1953): ***/****

The Night of the Iguana

Making his directorial debut in 1941, John Huston did the equivalent of sprinting out of the box, making 1941's The Maltese Falcon for his first movie. Huston just kept on going, turning in classic after classic in a career that spanned five decades and almost 50 movies. Of course, they weren't all classics, and the Hollywood veteran did slow down by the late 1950s. His movies always had a hard, realistic edge that never pulled any punches with their storytelling.

One of his lesser known but highly regarded movies among critics, 1964's The Night of the Iguana, was ahead of its time in its ability to tackle some controversial subject matter and deal with it in an honest and forthright fashion. So a couple years before the drug culture and hippies and Woodstock came along -- and all the freeing attitudes movies dealt with in the late 60s and early 70s -- Huston's movie deals with lesbians, statutory rape, threesomes, pot, and a defrocked priest who may or may not have had an inappropriate relationship with a minor, and all of this taking place at a run-down Mexican resort.

Leading a tour bus through Mexico, a former priest, Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon (Richard Burton), doesn't seem to be able to avoid trouble. One of the women on his tour believes he's trying to seduce an underage girl (Sue Lyon) when really the girl, Charlotte, is pursuing Shannon.  Pushed to his limit, Shannon freaks out and drives the bus to an old inn cut into a mountainside overlooking the sea near Puerto Vallarta.  The women running the inn, Maxine (Ava Gardner), is an old friend of his and is only a few weeks removed from her husband's death.  While Shannon deals with the problems among his customers, a woman shows up at the inn, Hannah Jelkes (Deborah Kerr), who with her poet grandfather is traveling around the world with what little money they have.

Watching this over the last couple days, my first reaction was that the proceedings are all very theatrical from the limited sets to the verbose, larger than life characters.  Needless to say, finding out 'Iguana' is based on a play by Tennessee Williams didn't come as much of a surprise.  Huston filmed the movie in Mexico -- one of his favorite locations -- and more specifically Puerto Vallarta, but limits much of the story to this seaside inn.  The story is almost completely self-contained at the inn and limits the number of people/characters around.  It's secluded and because of this, the story keys in exclusively on this variety of people and their issues.  No distractions, no diversions, just some weird folks working things out.

The casting is phenomenal with Huston giving his leads -- Burton, Gardner, and Kerr -- a lot of leeway in how to bring their characters to life.  I would have paid to listen to Burton read a phone book, his voice is perfect for movies.  His Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon is a tough one to read because we don't see the incidents from his past that caused him to be kicked out of the priesthood.  Did he or didn't he do it? Who really knows for sure?  However you decide to interpret the character, Shannon is fascinating as Burton presents him.  This is a good example of a scenery-chewing role with lots of yelling, screaming and theatrics a-plenty.  Kerr is just the opposite -- as she almost always was onscreen.  She's quiet, well-spoken, dignified and a lady, in the process stealing the scenes the duo have together.

One particular scene with Burton and Kerr late in the movie is the high point and really allows you to get to know these characters.  But the real star of the movie is Gardner from character introduction to final scene.  She's often remembered as all beauty and no ability because, let's face it, she's drop dead gorgeous.  But Ava Gardner was a great actress as well and could easily carry a movie if it was required.  She isn't needed to carry 'Iguana' but she does it anyway.  Her Maxine lives her life as she tries to transition with her husband's death, and in the process really doesn't care what people think of her or her actions.  Throw in a group of middle-aged religious women staying at her inn, and we've got ourselves a situation.

It's a good thing these three main performances are so good -- as is the small supporting cast -- because the subject matter could have easily overshadowed the characters.  Of all the things mentioned before, none of them are in your face with an aggressive 'hey, look at what we're talking about style!'  Huston doesn't linger on these moments, instead mentioning them and moving on.  At one point, Burton's Shannon urinates on the luggage of one of the women, but unless you listen closely you'd never know what he did.  He may go for the shock value, but it's over so quick it never gets old, repetitive, or exploitative.  It's still more than a little odd hearing about some of these things -- like lesbians or Ava Gardner having a threesome in the ocean with two young Mexican men -- but Huston handles it in a way that is appropriate for the time and the story.

This was a weird movie all-around that got better as the story developed.  The first hour was a little slow-going for my taste but picks up when Kerr shows up, seemingly out of nowhere, at Gardner's little inn.  The last hour is great with the leads really getting a chance to show off their chops and dive right into the story.  It's a beautiful movie filmed in black and white that if nothing else will surely bring up some interesting conversations.  Very different from most movies made in 1964, and for that reason alone worth checking out.  Available to watch on Youtube, starting with Part 1 of 11.

The Night of the Iguana <----trailer (1964): ***/****