The War Wagon

I love westerns. I love heist movies. They're two of my favorite genres. So what happens when you combine the two? And throw in two of my all-time favorite actors? Oh, no.....it's a movie nerd alert!!! With just an air of fun hanging over the whole story and production, it's hard not to get on-board and truly enjoy the 1967 western The War Wagon.

Fresh out of jail after serving a three-year sentence for a crime he didn't commit, former rancher Taw Jackson (John Wayne) heads home with revenge on his mind. Framed by a local businessman and landowner, Pierce (Bruce Cabot), Jackson wants to exact revenge where it hurts most...Pierce's gold mine. The attempt would seem suicidal though, Pierce paying for an armor-plated wagon outfitted with a Gatling gun and guarded by 33 outriders that transports the gold from the mine to the train station that would prove to be a major deterrent to any would-be robbers. Jackson isn't about to give up though, but he does need some help, including an unlikely partnership with a hired gun named Lomax (Kirk Douglas) with whom he's had a deadly rivalry in the past and has the bullet wounds to prove it. With a small team of fellow crooks, Taw puts his plan into action to rob the armor-plated wagon, the War Wagon. But just how in hell is he going to pull this off successfully without getting shot full of holes?

This is a movie that's just hard not to like. It was a staple on AMC and TNT growing up so I saw it many times, and it's one I always look forward to revisiting every so often. This last time, well, it had been quite awhile. From tough guy director (and a Wayne favorite) Burt Kennedy, 'War' is one of those perfectly straightforward westerns with no pretensions about the changing times or a revisionist view. It's F-U-N, plain and simple, mixing so effortlessly that western setting with a heist story. Put a crew together, give them a crazy, no way in hell this works mission, and let things fall where they may. Not the best, but one of the most purely entertaining westerns to come out of the decade.

So John Wayne and...Kirk Douglas. Please and THANK YOU. The duo had worked previously together in 1965's In Harm's Way and 1966's Cast a Giant Shadow, but this is the best pairing because it just lets these two pros go to work. Yeah, the heist is fun throughout, but you watch this movie for any and all scenes between Wayne and Douglas. The dialogue crackles between them, a rivalry that treads that fine line between joking and deadly serious. There's some genuine menace in the chemistry, but you just sit back and watch things develop. The best part? They're clearly having a blast. An underrated comedic actor to begin with, Wayne gets to show off his funny chops with some great line deliveries, and Douglas is the perfect foil as Lomax, a hired gun who's a bit of a dandy but takes his job supremely seriously, especially with so much potential money on the line. You couldn't ask for a better star duo to lead the adventure film.

Any good heist needs a good heist team so who to look out for? Certainly a motley crew of crooks, including the very white Howard Keel as Levi Walking Bear, Keenan Wynn as Wes, an employee of Pierce's, and Robert Walker Jr. as Billy, an explosives expert with a drinking problem. A Wayne friend and favorite, Cabot looks to be having a ball as Pierce, the sneering, menacing crook with a whole bunch of power. Also cool to see background player Don Collier get a more visible part as Pierce's right-hand man. Also look for Joanna Barnes, Valora Noland, Bruce Dern, Chuck Roberson (Wayne's stunt double), Emilio Fernandez, and Gene Evans rounding out the cast.

'Wagon' has a lot of little things going for it that combined make for a significantly better flick. Durango, Mexico was one of Wayne's favorite filming locations including Sons of Katie Elder, The Train Robbers, Chisum and here with 'Wagon.' The Mexican mountains and wilderness provide an intimidating, authentic backdrop to the story. Dimitri Tiomkin's score is a gem, big and booming, perfect for an adventure story and one that instantly screams 'Oh, yeah, that's Tiomkin music.' Lastly, an oh so perfectly bad theme song that you can listen to HERE. It's awful, but my goodness, is it ever catchy. I defy you to watch the movie and not to be humming along to the theme days later.

But, ah yes, the heist. There's hints along the way of what Taw, Lomax and Co. are up to, but nothing too specific. So like the best heist movies, as the caper develops, we're in the dark to the exact details, all of that adding a sense of mystery to the proceedings. Nothing too crazy here other than a matter of split-second timing, some dumb luck, and one rather prominent plot hole if you ask me. But there's no point in ripping it to pieces too hard. This is a movie that's meant to be a hell of a lot of fun, and it succeeds throughout on that premise. Wayne and Douglas are pitch perfect together and look to be having a ball.

Sit back, enjoy and let that fun take over from there.

The War Wagon (1967): ***/****
Rewrite of February 2009 review

The Savage Seven

Writing this blog, I take some pride in doing reviews of countless guy's guys type of movies; westerns and war movies, film noir and heist flicks. Any and all, I'll give them a shot. How about a new addition? In 1,000 plus reviews, I've never really wrote a review of a true outlaw biker film, but there's a first for everything. Here's 1968's The Savage Seven.

At a tiny, isolated desert shanty town, a young Indian man, Johnnie Little Hawk (Robert Walker Jr.) is one of many poor Indians under the thumb of a very greedy, very sinister American businessman, Fillmore (Mel Berger). There is a constant back and forth as Fillmore consistently keeps the people down, but there could be a solution for all involved. One day, a biker gang led by Kisum (Adam Roarke) rides into the town and immediately starts to wreak havoc. The bikers don't seem too interested in getting involved with anyone else's problems; instead they want to booze, drink and party before moving on to the next town. Kisum is drawn though to Johnnie's younger sister, Marcia (Joanna Frank), and the gang sticks around. All bets are off though when Fillmore tries to cut a deal with Kisum and the gang to rid himself of the Indian villagers. Let the chaos and violence ensue.

The outlaw biker genre was a perfect time capsule of its era, the late 1960s and early 1970s. Rebel groups of motorcycle riders terrorizing towns and populations......well, because they can. Who wants to stick it to The Man? We do!!!! Who wants to take what we want and forget about the consequences? We do! We're bikers so who cares?!? These are low-brow, cheap flicks that were meant as part of a double-bill at a drive-in on the weekend. We're not talking Shakespearean scripts here. We're talking about a biker gang with characters called Joint (Larry Bishop), Stud (John Garwood), Bull (Richard Anders), and Wolf (Walter Robles) among others. Cliches, stereotypes, cheesy one-liners, 'Savage' has it all, and let me tell you.....it's an entertaining mess of a movie that kept me entertained from beginning to end.

So like any sub-genre, know what you're getting into, and that will go a long way in determining what you take away from it. Director Richard Rush knows exactly what he's working with here and in its own oddness, delivers an almost perfect genre flick.

The formula here is as simple as they come. A movie that runs just 94 minutes is full of fistfights, brawls, drinking, riding and bizarre male bonding. Seriously....no more than five minutes go by at any point where someone doesn't get punched in the face. This isn't the type of flick that stimulates your brain, making you think for hours and days later about what you've just watched. You sit back and let it wash over you. Then, because the movie is pretty dirty -- literally dirty in terms of actual dirt, not sex -- you want to go take a shower. The story of bikers fighting Indians, Indians fighting bikers, Indians and bikers teaming up to fight the Man, it's always on the move and never slows down. It's incredibly stupid, but boy, is it fun.

Though he's buried a bit in the cast listing, Roarke is the star here as biker leader Kisum. He's the perfect roguish anti-hero. His mindset is simple; take what you want, and if you can't take it, take it anyways. In this case, he wants Joanna Frank's Marcia. At this isolated little Indian village, he sees some chances for fun and entertainment, becoming almost a biker Robin Hood (almost, he's still a dirty biker). A familiar face of the biker genre, Roarke is a scene-stealer. Walker Jr. is all right in a smaller part as an Indian (and he doesn't look the part at all), but he plays second fiddle to Roarke's Kisum. Playing the evil Man, Berger is a perfect evil, dangerously overweight, corpulent bad guy while Charles Bail is his karate-kicking enforcer, Taggart. The enforce announces one his attack intentions, yelling 'KARATE!' to which Bull answers 'CHAIR!' and hits him with a chair. You couldn't make up that type of quality script-writing if you try.

Without a lull along the way, 'Savage' still manages to ratchet things up in the final act in a battle royale at the village. After a brutal incident pits the bikers versus the Indians, Kisum's gang descends on the barricaded village, throwing themselves and the bikes at the heavily-guarded barricades. It's an extended action sequence that features some truly impressive biker stunts and jumps, not to mention some pretty rough hand-to-hand violence. It goes on for at least 15 minutes, not too bad for a cheap drive-in flick. 'Savage' is pretty low-brow and requires no heavy lifting in the brain department, but I enjoyed it from the start. Even Eric Clapton and Cream sing the theme! Listen HERE.

The Savage Seven (1969): ***/****

The Hook

A title card for 1963's The Hook makes an interesting distinction about war. Paraphrased a bit, it says that for war and all its major campaigns, violent battles, and conflict on such an epic scale, the actual art of war is a very personal thing that is based at the individual level. It is the individual doing the fighting. That's something that sounds incredibly obvious, but in terms of a successful anti-war movie, that idea is almost always present.

This little known Korean War movie has more or less been lost to the decades since 1963. Before it showed up on Turner Classic Movie's schedule in September, I had never even heard of it.  Because of its subject matter, it is pretty clear why it has been forgotten over the last six decades.  The story revolves around orders for three American GI's to murder their North Korean prisoner soon after capturing him. In other words, a story with the most obvious of anti-war messages. It doesn't always work with some holes in the plot, but the message comes through clearly without being overbearing.  Definitely a movie that deserves a better fate since its 1963 release.

Working to load barrels of fuel onto a ship as part of an American withdrawal, Sgt. Briscoe (Kirk Douglas) and two privates, Dennison (Robert Walker Jr.) and Hatchett (Nick Adams) are strafed by a North Korean plane, their commanding officer killed in the raid. The plane crashes near the ship they're loading, and Dennison swims out to save the wounded North Korean (Pancho Magalona). Moving out on the Finnish ship run by Captain Van Ryn (Nehemiah Persoff), the trio bring the wounded prisoner with, planning to turn him over to the authorities when they reach their base. Just hours into the voyage though, they receive a startling radio message. The base has been badly hit in a bombing raid, and all the North Korean prisoners were overrun and killed by the locals. The order is simple; execute the prisoner before they reach the base. The enemy is the enemy, but can these three do it?

As far as subject matter, 'Hook' is years ahead of its time, coming two years before the United States was even involved officially in Vietnam. Even the most naive among us can appreciate that brutal and horrific things are done in war, atrocities that are crimes against man. Often times, there are incidents that happen far from the battle as opposing sides meet as is the case here. That's what the story boils down to. All hatred and prejudices aside, the act is a war crime, out and out murder, no matter that they're doing what they're ordered to.  It is a talky movie, the three soldiers all battling with their inner struggles and personal morality about what they've been told to do. Acts like this have almost certainly been committed in war since the dawn of time, but does that make it any easier to handle? Not really. Death is death no matter how you cut it.

The individual face of the war comes across in the roles of the three soldiers, Douglas, Walker Jr., and Adams.  Looking for some sort of existential symbolism or meaning, Persoff's captain is even a bit of a God-like figure, watching from above as the situation deteriorates. Okay, enough with that mumbo-jumbo and deeper meanings. The performances keep the movie based, especially Douglas as Sgt. Briscoe, a 19-year Army vet a year away from retirement and his pension. As the highest ranking soldier, he is handed the unenviable task of carrying out the order, bullying his two men into the act. It's Douglas at his best, a brother/father-like figure looking out for their well-being balanced out with a manipulative, conniving way of getting things done. His monologue about a patrol gone bad on Guadalcanal in WWII is an actor showing how good he is at what he does. Both hero and villain, he makes Briscoe an interesting character, no doubt about it.

Some of my concern about 'Hook' was the casting of Walker Jr. and Adams alongside Douglas, fearing they would be overshadowed. That wasn't the case thankfully. Walker's Dennison is the smart, thinking soldier, questioning aloud what they're supposed to do. North Korean or not, their prisoner is a man, a father and a husband. He intends to fight Briscoe about the execution every step of the way. I think it would have been more interesting for Dennison's character if he wavered even a little about the orders, just for that added dimension, but he's resolute in his stance. Adams too does not disappoint, his Hatchett a diminutive soldier who Briscoe has a hold on. He starts to see the folly in his ways as he is pushed and pushed to do what he doesn't want to do. A Filipino actor who only starred in a handful of American movies, Magalona does much with a character that has no speaking lines, communicating his fear and terror with his eyes. It's a good part, one that could have been a throwaway piece, an idea more than a human being.

What prevents 'Hook' from being an anti-war classic is the ending, which I won't spoil here. As is, the ending works in George Seaton's film. It is effective with a touch of irony and hope for the future still there. The finale delivers a twist in that irony, going down a path I didn't see coming. Once the twist is revealed though, more -- much more -- could have been done to really slam home the anti-war ideas. There was potential for a shocking, startling, surprising ending that would have made this an even more memorable conclusion. As is so often the case, my issue is what could have been done. This ending does work, but it is a safer ending. Still, I very much enjoyed this movie. It has been wrongly forgotten and deserves more of a following or audience.

The Hook <---TCM trailer (1963): ***/****

Ensign Pulver

Released in 1955 in movie theaters after a successful run on Broadway, Mister Roberts is a WWII classic of a cargo supply ship thousands of miles from the fighting in the Pacific dealing with the extreme boredom of the war.  Henry Fonda plays the titular character in one of his most memorable roles, James Cagney plays the captain who might as well have a bullseye on his back, and Jack Lemmon won an Oscar for his part as Ensign Pulver, the morale and laundry officer.  It's a classic for a reason including one of the more moving endings to a movie.

Naturally with all that going for it, especially the ending wrapped up with a nice, tidy bow, a sequel was made with the same characters played by different actors.  If that's not a recipe for success, I don't know what is.  The result is 1964's Ensign Pulver, an unnecessary sequel if there ever was.  My complaints about sequels is that usually they're just money generators.  The few good ones are those that build on the original, whether it is answering unsolved questions or plot lines or finding a new direction to go.  'Ensign' falls short of either, basically continuing the story Mister Roberts started.  The only problem? There was no need to continue it.

It's in the waning months of WWII in the Pacific and far from the battle and action is a supply cargo ship off a small island with no strategic purpose at all, the ship's commander, Captain Morton (crooner Burl Ives), still insisting on doing things as if they were near the front. In the process, he drives his crew crazy with all of his punishments and strictness.  Ensign Frank Pulver (Robert Walker Jr.) is content to ride out the war without causing as much as a wave, but even he is finally pushed too far. With some help from the on-board medical officer, Doc (Walter Matthau), Pulver begins to plot against the captain, each plan more ridiculous than the next.

Fairly or unfairly when looking at a sequel with a different cast than the original, you're going to compare.  So before a word is spoken here, 'Ensign' is swimming against the current.  Jack Lemmon or Walker Jr.?  Tut-tut, that's a stupid question.  James Cagney or Burl Ives? Cagney going away.  Matthau is the one improvement I thought over William Powell's Doc, but a 33% isn't that good overall.  More than anything else though, the biggest problem here is basically a retelling of the story from Mister Roberts.  Pointless much?  Sure, there's more comedy, but that's not necessarily a good thing.  Just because a movie is popular doesn't mean it deserves a sequel, and this one's pretty bad.

In a supporting role in the original, Jack Lemmon is a scene-stealer, and overall the cast has a great dynamic.  Stepping into the Pulver role, Walker Jr. just isn't up to the task.  The character is whiny, self righteous, and shrill to boot, an unlikely trio of character traits for someone we're supposed to be rooting for.  His Pulver goes on rants that the crew don't think much of him while minutes before he was content to stay in his bunk and ride out the rest of the war with as little personal interaction as possible.  He's given the most coincidental love interest as well, a pretty nurse named Scotty (Millie Perkins), but that never amounts to much. It's hard to blame Walker Jr. for not being Jack Lemmon, but I'm going to do it anyways.  He's no Jack Lemmon, and we're moving on.

An immense man physically, Burl Ives did his fair share of movies while also recording countless songs and albums as a singer.  He could be a good actor, but this part is too cartoonish overall.  It's just one thing after another where as an audience we're pushed to the point where you just want someone to shoot him.  Ives also has a scene where his shirt is off, and let me say this, most unnecessary, uncomfortable topless scene in a movie ever.  Matthau as Doc is typically strong, the one man who the captain may listen to, and he doesn't do that too often.  His part provides some laughs in an otherwise bland attempt at humor.  Also in the cast is Larry Hagman, Tommy Sands in a good part as a sailor trying to get a leave home, and a young Jack Nicholson in one of his early movies as Yeoman Dolan.

A rehash of a popular story is one thing, and the first hour is halfway decent just because of the subject matter, but the story crashes into a brick wall about 60-plus minutes in.  Ives' Captain is washed over board in a storm, and Pulver jumps in to save him.  Unbeknownst to the rest of the crew, Pulver and the Captain are awash at sea in a small raft.  When they do find out the captain may be dead, the crew celebrates in a fashion that makes The Village People's 'In the Navy' look incredibly heterosexual.  The twists and plot points in the last hour are those of a madcap 1960s comedy, not a halfway decent service comedy.  All the stops are pulled out with some Pacific native stereotypes, and a dozen or so coincidences too many. The ending tries to do a 180 and get all serious, but that never really comes together.  So moral of the story? Steer clear of this one, stick with Henry Fonda and the original.

Ensign Pulver <---TCM trailer (1964): * 1/2 /****

Young Billy Young

Starting his movie directing career in the mid 1960s, Burt Kennedy found a home in the western genre and rarely left it in a 20-year span. None of the Kennedy westerns are classic, far from it, but they are about the equivalent of the hour-long serials from the 1930s. Nothing groundbreaking with good guys tangling with some ornery bad guys, but they are always entertaining if nothing else.

Kennedy worked with a wide variety of tough guy actors in these westerns, including John Wayne, Glenn Ford, Henry Fonda, Ben Johnson, Yul Brynner, Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas and Robert Mitchum. Just like director Kennedy, many of these actors are remembered for their parts in westerns over the years. Mitchum especially never really left the western behind, joining with Kennedy for the 1969 oater Young Billy Young just two years removed from minor classic El Dorado.

Based loosely on a novel about Wyatt Earp's involvement with the Cowboy gang following the shootout at the O.K. Corral, Young Billy Young feels like a mash-up of several different stories all rolled into one. A great opening sequence has two young gunfighters, Billy Young (Robert Walker JR) and Jess Boone (David Carradine) sneaking onto a Mexican troop train and completing a hit on a Mexican general. In their escape, Jess abandons Billy when his horse throws up, and it's only by pure luck Billy escapes.

Billy makes it to the next town on the back of a burro, but it's not long before he guns down the town's sheriff for cheating in a card game. With some help from a gunfighter, Ben Kane (Mitchum), passing through town, Billy escapes a posse on his trail. He tags along with Ben who's on his way to a new job, working as a deputy in a roughshod town with no law and order run by slimy John Behan (Jack Kelly). The odds are against Ben, but he's got revenge on the mind as he looks for the man (John Anderson) who killed his son years ago in a jailbreak.

As if that wasn't enough, a saloon/dance hall girl, Lilly (Angie Dickinson), takes a shine to Kane, but Lilly is Behan's girl and doesn't take too nicely to Ben stepping in. There's more that is revealed in terms of plot twists that won't be spoiled here, but it's nothing too new that you won't have seen before. The only problem is that with all these different storylines about revenge and friendships and shootouts, the 89-minute running time is all sorts of convoluted. Maybe another 30 minutes could have served the movie better, but it's not a deal breaker.

Some characters get short-shrift, like Anderson's gunfighter who shows up in town, disappears for awhile, and then reappears with little warning for a final showdown with Mitchum (a disappointing end for that story). It would have been interesting to see two storylines, Billy and Jesse and then Ben's revenge dealt with exclusively, but what's there is entertaining nonetheless. It doesn't hurt that the movie was filmed in Old Tucson and looks great.

With the cast, Mitchum provides credibility just by being there. It's the type of part for the veteran star that he could do with no heavy lifting. He shows up, acts cool, shoots some baddies and gets the girl. Made the same year as he made Easy Rider, Walker JR gets a more mainstream role here as Billy who with Mitchum's older, more experienced gunfighter make a good old vs. young buddy pairing. Carradine's a good villain (when wasn't he?) while Kelly sneers as Behan, I guess loosely based on the real-life John Behan. In a role similar to her part 10 years earlier in Rio Bravo, Dickinson again plays a strong female character with a checkered past and even as little as she was height-wise is a good match with Mitchum.

So what's not to like with a western with a more than capable cast, some nice location shooting, plenty of gunfights, and Robert Mitchum singing the theme song? Maybe Burt Kennedy wasn't the best director around and one without much of a personal style, but he put together some exciting westerns during his career. Young Billy Young is certainly one of them, an oater that will keep you interested from start to finish.

Young Billy Young (1969): ** 1/2 / ****