Incident at Phantom Hill

I've been watching westerns since I was little, and I'll be watching them for years to come hopefully. By now at the ripe old age of 28, I've seen just about all of the must-see westerns out there, but with a genre that's been around since the first films, I've got a whole lot more to catch up with, like 1966's Incident at Phantom Hill, a solid if not hugely known American western.

It's the final few weeks of the Civil War and a heavily guarded Union convoy is transporting over a $1 million in gold bars across the Texas desert. A capable, shifty bandit turned Confederate soldier, Joe Barlow (Dan Duryea), leads an attack on the convoy, massacring the guards and making off with the gold. Some weeks later a Union captain, Matt Martin (Robert Fuller), is tasked with a mission. Barlow has been captured and says he can lead him to where the gold is hidden in the desert. There's a catch though...the hiding spot is in land designated for the Comanches where no white man is allowed. If Martin is to accept the mission, it will be without any permission or backing from the U.S. Army. With some personal reasons of his own, Martin accepts and with Barlow and a small detachment of volunteer soldiers heads out into the desert. With so much gold on the line though, it's questionable if anyone with him can be trusted.

While this 1966 western has been on the Encore Westerns schedule on and off for several months now, I was never able to catch up with it. Until now! Thanks Encore On Demand! From director Earl Bellamy, 'Incident' is a solid western that isn't trying to be a classic in any vein. It's more than content to assemble a cool cast, throw them into a pretty dark post-Civil War western and let the chips fall where they may. 'Incident' was filmed in the California desert -- with some similar locations to TV's Hondo -- so if it doesn't look like Texas, so be it, it's a fitting backdrop to the story. Overall, it is a pretty simple formula but it works. A whole lot of gold, a vengeance-seeking Union officer, a murdering bandit and Confederate soldier, a motley collection of volunteers, lowlifes and drifters seeking the gold and Comanches on all sides. How can you go wrong?

The most interesting dynamic here was between Fuller's Capt. Martin and Duryea's Joe Barlow, completely unwilling partners. I haven't seen Fuller in much, but I liked him in The Magnificent Seven sequel 'Return of the 7.' Here, it's an okay part, but mostly his Capt. Martin seems irritated and yells every one of his lines and glares at everyone around him in between. I suppose that frustration comes from his ever-constant vigilance in watching Barlow, played to perfection by Duryea. Nothing about Duryea screams great villain, but he's perfect once again. He's slight in stature, his voice is really high, but it works. His Barlow is a murdering bandit, looking for a pardon for a pre-war murder of a U.S. marshal. He's like a rattlesnake lying in wait, just waiting for his chance to make his move on his captors and escape. I enjoyed the movie overall, but Duryea is the best thing going here.

Overall, I was surprised by the general nastiness of this western. At 87 minutes, it packs a whole lot of darkness into a short running time. That's fair I guess when you figure there's a million bucks in gold bars out there in the desert. More on the casting of the crew later, but Martin's detachment of volunteers range from psychopaths to drunks, pacifists to one soldier plagued with guilt. Along the way, the convoy runs into a knife-wielding hunter (Denver Pyle) and his gang who quickly catch on that Martin's men are onto something big. At a trading post, the owner (William Phipps) leers in not so subtle fashion at a woman (hinted at she's a prostitute) along for the ride. Martin intercedes, knowing what awaits if she's left behind. How did she get there in the first place? A sheriff (Don Collier) had "dated her" but kicked her out of town when a different, classier, more reputable girl came along. It all adds up to a surprisingly dark tone that works really well.

Onto the rest of the cast. Jocelyn Lane plays Memphis, the possible prostitute basically shanghaied onto the convoy. Lane is rather wooden, always immaculately decked out in wardrobe and makeup regardless of the desert setting. Martin's motley crew of men include Lt. Adam Long (Tom Simcox), the guilt-ridden survivor of the original massacre, Dr. Armstrong (Linden Chiles), a pacifist doctor struggling with all the patients he lost during the Civil War, Otto Krausman (Claude Akins), a murdering soldier hell bent on killing as many Comanches as he can to avenge his family, and O'Rourke (Noah Beery Jr.), a boozing Irishman. No big stars, but some solid, interesting characters. Also look for Paul Fix as the general who assigns Martin his mission.

Nothing flashy here as a western, just an entertaining one. Also listen in the opening massacre with part of 1965's Shenandoah's soundtrack used. Odd because it isn't credited, and nothing else is used. Yeah, movie nerd trivia! Western fans will definitely like this one, worth a watch for sure.

Incident at Phantom Hill (1966): ***/****

The Burglar

With a career that spanned three decades, Dan Duryea had quite a career in film and television, racking up over 100 different roles. He never became a huge star, instead becoming one of the best character actors to ever grace the screens in Hollywood. Like most character actors, he did get a crack or two at his own movies, one he could carry himself, and he doesn't disappoint in 1957's The Burglar.

Having grown up as a thief, always improving his skills and ability, Nat Harbin (Duryea) doesn't have many equals. He's a small-time thief though, never gaining much in the way of notoriety over the years. He pulls jobs that net him enough money to get him to the next job while also caring for his step sister, Gladden (Jayne Mansfield), who helps him and two other thieves. With his most recent job, Nat steals a necklace worth $150,000 but much to the dismay of his team, he sits on, waiting for the heat to cool down and the cops to back off. With each passing day though, the heat intensifies, and his two partners get more and more anxious. When Nat senses the cops are closing in, he sends Gladden to Atlantic City to hide out only to find out that a crooked cop (Stewart Bradley) is following her. Now it becomes a race against time to see who can get to her first.

I came away impressed with a lot of things from this Paul Wendkos-directed film noir. It is based on a novel by David Goodis (who also wrote the script), and it is the better for it. The best thing going here is Duryea as the anti-hero thief, a thief with a code of honor. It is the type of character that would pop up more and more in the late 1950s and into the 1960s. He's a criminal, a thief, no doubt about it, but he does operate by a code of sorts. No guns, no betrayals (if possible) and no messing around, just get the job done. His background is explained, showing how he ends up caring for Gladden, how he came to be the man he is. It is a quiet, perfectly understated part that gives Duryea a chance to shake off his bad guy typecasting. With a bit of that doom cloud hanging over his head, it is apparent things may not end well for him, but maybe, just maybe, there's a chance for him to get out clean.

Using Duryea's starring performance as a jumping off point, 'Burglar' manages to rise above the good but not great film noir list with some impressive style decisions. Yes, it is filmed in black and white, bringing to life the shadows and dim lights that populate the criminal underworld, but it's more than that. Wendkos takes what we know of the noir genre and makes it more of an arthouse film, an almost existential film. It is a lonely, isolated world, and Wendkos brings it to life with some startling jump cuts, some odd, off-center camera angles and a solid, appropriately jazzy, unsettling score from composer Sol Kaplan. The pacing can be a tad slow early on with some long, dull monologues, but once things get rolling, it doesn't really slow down, right up until the surprising finale.

While Duryea's performance is noteworthy, I think at least part of this movie's relatively unknown status is because the rest of the cast lacks any name recognition. Building up her sex kitten status, Mansfield shows she doesn't have a ton of acting range, but she's solid. Her looks are dulled down for the first half -- baggy clothes and all -- and then at the halfway point....ta-da! Bathing suit! Martha Vickers plays Della, a middle-aged woman with a checkered past, looking for something new in her life...and maybe with an ace up her sleeves. As the sinister, hovering villain, Bradley is a good counter, a bad guy with greed as his only real motivation and nothing else. Working with Nat as his partners on jobs are Peter Capell as Baylock, an older crook looking to retire and Mickey Shaughnessy as Dohmer, a brutish thug who is always worrying.

Shaking off the somewhat slow start, 'Burglar' picks up the pace when Nat realizes the crooked cop is on their trail. The ending is almost inevitable in its execution, but that doesn't take away from that tension-packed build-up. Nat and Co. head to Atlantic City to find Gladden, but when they run into a motorcycle officer that recognizes them, the plan takes a wicked plan. 'Burglar' films its finale on location in Atlantic City -- a time capsule to the late 1950s -- and it becomes a race against time as Nat, Gladden, cops (crooked and legit) all converge on the Steel Pier. It really finds its noir roots in the finale, a downbeat ending that nonetheless works extremely well. Highly recommended, shaking off a sluggish start. Watch the movie HERE at Youtube.

The Burglar (1957): ***/****

Ride Clear of Diablo

World War II hero turned movie star Audie Murphy knew what his fans wanted. Action movies and westerns, rinse, lather and repeat. Why fix something that isn't broken? So for the most part, Murphy's career doesn't offer more than a classic or two, but there is something familiar, comfortable and most importantly, enjoyable, about his films. Take 1954's Ride Clear of Diablo, a solid western that is content to be just that and little else.

A railroad surveyor, Clay O'Mara (Murphy) has received word that his father and son have been brutally gunned down by cattle rustlers stealing the family's herd. He heads home in hopes of tracking down the rustlers/killers but wants to do so legally. Clay approaches the Santiago sheriff, Kenyon (Paul Birch), about taking a job as a deputy so his efforts will be on the up and up, very legal. The sheriff approves, telling Clay that a good place to start in hunting down the rustlers is to go after infamous gunfighter and wanted killer Whitey Kincade (Dan Duryea). Bringing in the bandit is one thing, but Clay may have bit off more than he could chew. In his efforts, the new deputy finds out that Sheriff Kenyon and a lawyer in town, Meredith (William Pullen), may know far more than they're letting on.

This 1954 western was recently on Encore Westerns -- they seem to have a lot of B-westerns available on their programming -- and as a fan of Audie Murphy, I wanted to give it a try. It's received a solid rating at IMDB (6.8 as I write this review), but I didn't come away hugely impressed. I enjoyed it, liked it but at the same time didn't love it. 'Diablo' doesn't do much to distinguish itself from the rest of the pack in terms of B-westerns, but director Jesse Hibbs does a good, workmanlike job behind the camera. Pretty forgettable, but decent enough in the moment.

The biggest thing to take away from 'Diablo' is the early quasi-buddy pairing of Murphy and Duryea. It's an interesting Odd Couple pairing with Murphy's resolute, revenge-seeking lawman and Duryea's ruthless but intelligent hired gun teaming up. It isn't a friendship -- far from it -- but there's at least a mutual respect between the two men who are very different but hold more similarities than they might care to admit. Duryea's Kincade has a sick, morbid curiosity, always putting Clay into compromising situations to see how he'll handle it. Somewhere along the way, maybe they do become odd friends. I liked the dynamic between the duo a lot, their dialogue scenes together in cantinas and saloons, even just on the trail are Westerns 101, but they work.

In a movie that runs about 80 minutes, too much time is spent on a possible love interest for Clay in Susan Cabot's Laurie, the sheriff's well-meaning niece. She's engaged to the sinister, conniving Meredith (meh in the villain department), but wouldn't you know it? Laurie might just like Clay too. A far more interesting female part goes to Abbe Lane as Kate, a dance hall girl looking out for herself above all else. As for the villains beyond Kenyon and Meredith, Russell Johnson (Yes, Professor from Gilligan's Island, and yes, it's unsettling) is a greedy hired gun while Jack Elam plays Tim Lowerie, a rustler who takes an instant dislike to Clay upon arrival. Denver Pyle is solid in a smaller supporting part as Reverend Moorehead, his conversations with Clay about the right and wrong of the brutality of the west a highlight. 

Mostly though, whenever Murphy and Duryea aren't together, the story in 'Diablo' runs a little slow. It picks up the pacing some in the finale as the duo team up to bring the rustling killers to justice including a surprisingly vicious final shootout. The script getting there is full of holes. How can Clay not see that Sheriff Kenyon is basically sending him on suicide missions every other day? Is he that stupid? A decent western, but nothing more.

Ride Clear of Diablo (1954): ** 1/2 /****

The Hills Run Red (1967)

Discovering the spaghetti western genre through the Clint Eastwood/Sergio Leone Dollars trilogy, I quickly figured out the problem if I was going to see more of the spaghettis. Most of them just weren't available in a watchable form, at least the ones that were somewhat affordable. So to find them I was scouring TV listings, looking through bargain bins, even trading a couple movies here and there. Thankfully DVD distributors finally started releasing some of the lesser-known entries, including one I'd always wanted to see, 1967's The Hills Run Red.

As the Civil War comes to a close, Confederate soldiers Jerry Brewster (Thomas Hunter) and Ken Seagull (Nando Gazzolo) have robbed a Union payroll. About to be caught by a Union patrol, they flip to see who will buy the other one some time, Jerry losing out but demanding that Ken care for his family until he can get back to them. Ken escapes with the money -- some $600,000 -- and Jerry is captured and sent to prison, serving a brutal five-year sentence. He is finally released only to find that Ken refused to help his family, Jerry's wife dying years before and his son is missing. His former partner even used the money to set himself up as a powerful rancher, holding rein over hundreds of miles of land. A man possessed, Jerry is looking for revenge. He gets himself hired by Ken's top hand, Mendez (Henry Silva), and goes about taking down the empire from the inside.

This is pretty typical of a majority of spaghetti westerns in that it is neither a classic nor an awful movie. It's entertaining on a pretty basic level but never rises or falls to any heights or depths.  Former film critic Carlo Lizzani takes his crack at a genre that was at the height of its popularity in 1967, turning out a western that has some strands of an American western but has a decidedly Italian flavor, most of them for the good. Composer Ennio Morricone's score is not one of his best or most memorable, but it's catchy like most of his scores were. It certainly has a different sound compared to his more well-known scores, even featuring a song, 'Home to My Love,' that feels out of place.

Spaghetti westerns have a reputation for being particularly nasty in their brutal portrayal of the west, and 'Hills' has to be one of the most brutal. One review called it misanthropic, and after a quick detour to the dictionary, I can confirm.  It has little regard for people at all, mowing down countless gunmen in various fashions, one nastier than the rest. Hunter's Brewster has to be one of the genre's most punished leads, and that's saying something. Within the first 30 minutes, he's been beaten half to death twice, tortured in prison, cuts off his own tattoo, gets tangled up in a handful of gunfights and also stabs a rival gunman in the hand. Don't worry though, nothing's stopping this guy. It's a little more graphic than even most spaghetti westerns so if you're a fan of graphic, brutal violence, this is a movie for you.

One of hundreds of spaghettis generally forgotten, much of that can be chalked up to Thomas Hunter in the lead. An American actor who only starred in nine movies (most of them European), Hunter just isn't the greatest actor or charismatic enough to have a starring role, one where the movie depends on him. The dubbing across the board is pretty awful, but it hurts Hunter a ton. A gunman looking for revenge is an ideal lead, a man obsessed with avenging his family, but in Hunter's hands that means overacting in a BIG way. His scenes that call for any emotion are almost hysterical. He screams so much, his eyes bulging that I couldn't help but laugh. You're rooting for him because he's the good guy, not any real reason.

Now where overacting can be a good thing is the villain, and in steps Henry Silva, one of the all-time great movie bad guys. Just like Hunter's Brewster, Silva's Mendez is ridiculously and completely over the top, but he's the villain so you buy it, and it's fun. He laughs hysterically in almost every scene, is always ready to pull a gun and blast away, and speaks in this basic Spanish that is comical in its badness. Va-ma-nos mu-cha-chos! Mendez is also decked out in black leather jacket and pants, black shirt and black sombrero. Bad Guys 101, Silva is a good bad guy, and he does most of the heavy lifting. Gazzolo makes no impression at all as Ken Seagull turned Ken Milton.

In the bizarre, kinda weird casting department, American actor Dan Duryea plays Winny Getz, a mysterious gunman working with Brewster to take down Milton and Mendez and their empire. Why so mysterious? Gotta stick around to the end to find out his "secret." It feels thrown together and unnecessary, but Duryea feels out of place here anyways, like he accidentally got on a plane to Italy and walked onto the set. Italian beauty Nicoletta Machiavelli is the obligatory love interest, Milton's sister, Mary Ann, who likes Brewster but is pursued by Mendez.

What else to recommend or rip? Little of both in the finale, Brewster and Getz running on a wild goose chase through an abandoned town as Mendez's small army of gunmen pursue them. It's some good action with some exciting gunplay, but also mind-blowingly stupid. If these gunmen thought it through at all, they'd stop chasing these two vastly outnumbered guys into dark rooms. Still, it's a fun sequence like the rest of the movie. Fun and pretty forgettable, but you could do much worse.

The Hills Run Red <---trailer (1967): ** 1/2 /****

The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)

In the age of unnecessary remakes, I'm usually first in line opposing the new movies. If a movie in its original form was lacking something and with a remake could be significantly improved, then so be it.  Really though, how rarely does that happen?  A little less than two years ago, I reviewed the 2004 version of Flight of the Phoenix (a guilty pleasure that I love), a remake of the original, 1965's The Flight of the Phoenix. Even as I wrote that first review, I couldn't believe I was writing I enjoyed the new version more...but it's still true.

It is impossible to review a movie combination of an original and a remake without comparing the two so let's get that out of the way early.  The 1965 original is held in high regard thanks to its directing, survival story, and all-star cast.  As for the 2004 remake, well....it's more fun.  It is the most unnecessary of remakes, dumbing down the original with a thinner story that revolves more around action and adventure than pure survival.  I still liked it though a lot.  The problem with the original is that it just isn't as fun.  A better movie? Oh, definitely, but it does not have that re-watchable aspect that I'm always looking for in movies.

Flying a cargo plane headed to Bhengazi loaded with passengers and cargo, veteran pilot Frank Towns (James Stewart) and navigator Lew Moran (Richard Attenborough) are forced to detour when they fly into an epic sandstorm. The storm eventually knocks out both their engines, forcing them to crash land in the desert. With about a dozen survivors, survival mode kicks in with a dwindling supply of water and pressed dates as the only food around. Towns, Moran and the survivors sit back and wait, hoping a search plane or some form of rescue will save them. As the days go by though, all the men question what their fates will be. That is until a German passenger, Heinrich Dorfman (Hardy Kruger), steps forward with an idea. Why not use the wreckage from the downed plane to build a new smaller plane? Could it somehow work?

From director Robert Aldrich comes a tough, hard-edged and well-told story with no frills or distractions. This is a story about surviving in the harshest of conditions with nothing else to focus on.  These survivors of the plane crash can either sit back and die waiting to be rescued, or they can work together and try to pull off this seemingly impossible scheme. Aldrich films in the California desert (a decent stand-in for the Sahara), giving his movie a wide open, vacant feel to it.  Over the course of the movie (a sometimes long 141 minutes), we see the effects of the desert on the survivors, their skin looking like it is being torn apart by the winds and lack of water. You feel like you're there with them, going through the same things they are in a struggle to survive.

The best thing going for Aldrich's survival story is the chemistry among the cast.  Nowhere is that more evident than between James Stewart and Hardy Kruger.  Stewart's Frank Towns has been flying for decades, thousands and maybe millions of miles under his belt.  He's struggling with the guilt of knowing that some of his passengers died in the crash -- he blames himself -- and now has to deal with a primadonna in Kruger's Dorfman who wants everything done exactly as he has stated. A battle of wills ensues, both men fighting for control, their pride and vanity getting in the way of working together and surviving another day. Their scenes together bristle with tension and intensity, providing some much needed outside drama as opposed to just battling the conditions.

It is an Aldrich movie, and one of his trademarks as a director was being able to work with all-star ensemble casts.  In a career of movies with impressive casts, this might be his best.  Stewart and Kruger are great as the opposing forces with Attenborough delivering one of his all-time best performances as Moran, the second-rate navigator who's always struggled with drinking too much. The survivors of the crash include Captain Harris (Peter Finch), a long-time prim and proper, very British officer, and his not so loyal sergeant, Watson (Ronald Fraser), Dr. Renaud (Christian Marquand), Standish (Dan Duryea), a company accountant, and a group of recently relieved oil drillers including Ernest Borgnine, Ian Bannen, and George Kennedy. Star power much? Like any ensemble, all involved get a chance to shine, none disappointing here at all. Finch stands out as does Marquand, Borgnine and Bannen.

Now as a 26-year old moviegoer and film fan, I often get lumped in with a lowest common denominator crowd. I don't like reading subtitles, hate foreign movies, and only go to see new movies with nudity and/or explosions.  I resent the judgment most times, but I say that as a forewarning. It takes a lot for me to say this, but 'Phoenix' is a downright boring movie at times. The focus is on survival and the interactions among these men, but watching the survivors put together a plane out of wreckage is just not a visually stimulating thing to watch. In the night, they work. During the day, they sleep. It doesn't ruin the movie. It just slows it down at times to an incredibly slow pace.

By all means, see both movies and compare. The original is the better made, more professional and well-handled movie, but I still enjoy the dumber, more action-packed remake more.

The Flight of the Phoenix <---trailer (1965): ** 1/2 /****