Yellowstone Kelly

One of the turning points in the history of the taming of the west in the U.S., the massacre at the Little Big Horn has certainly received its due in film adaptations. Maybe more so is the fallout from the battle that wiped out George Custer and his famed 7th Cavalry. There's been a-plenty of westerns about what happened after the battle, like 1959's Yellowstone Kelly.

It's been several months since the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and well-known trapper and frontiersman Yellowstone Kelly (Clint Walker) has ridden down out of the hills with his trappings from a busy season. He catches a ride on a steamboat where he meets Anse Harper (Edd Byrnes), a young, inexperienced man traveling west, Kelly agreeing to take him along -- somewhat unwillingly -- when he heads back up into the mountains. Kelly is also approached by the cavalry to scout for them in helps of leading an expedition against the Sioux and Cheyenne. The veteran scout knows the land as well as anyone, but he also has an agreement with the warring Sioux so he declines the offer, instead heading out with Anse into the mountains. His decision has been made, but his involvement between the Indians and the cavalry is far from over.

From director Gordon Douglas, this 1959 western is a good but not great entry. It popped up recently on Encore Westerns and with no regular DVD out there for viewing, I wanted to give it a shot. If it doesn't do anything particularly new in the western genre, so be it. It's mostly entertaining. 'Kelly' benefits from some great location shooting in the Coconino National Forest and Sedona, Arizona. This is a Technicolor movie that needs to be viewed in widescreen. Just watching Walker's Kelly ride around through the mountains is a visual treat. Mountains, deserts, it's got it all to produce a great-looking movie. As well, the score from an uncredited Howard Jackson is good, borrowing from themes from They Died With Their Boots On, as well as a familiar tune here and there from The Charge at Feather River. It must be the Warner Brothers file archive.

Right in the midst of his successful TV run on Cheyenne, Walker takes a break to star here, and it's a good part. He's a good if not great actor, as much of a domineering physical presence as anything. The 6-foot-6 actor was certainly a presence on-screen, appearing to tower over his co-stars. He has a good chemistry with another TV star in Edd Byrnes. The experienced trailhand and scout working with the oppositely inexperienced younger man is a familiar genre convention, but it works well here. Neither Walker or Byrnes ever became huge stars, but the TV turned movie stars do very capably here. If there's a weak point, it's when Kelly and Harper rescue Wahleeah (Andra Martin), an Arapaho captive of the nearby Sioux tribe. Byrnes' Harper falls quickly for her, Kelly recommending he stays clear of her. It's just not as interesting as the other story. It's not awful, but it does slow things down in a 92-minute movie. 

This must have been a TV stars convention here for the cast. Star of TV's Lawman, John Russell wears some skin darkener and wears a pair of braids as Gall, a Sioux chieftain who had his life saved by Walker's Kelly years before. Now, he has an uneasy deal with the scout about where he can/can't go. Ray Danton plays Sayapi, Gall's pissed off nephew who wants his Arapaho captive back, and he doesn't care who's trying to stop him. Leading the cavalry contingent is Rhodes Reason as Major Townes, an officer who seemingly learns nothing from the past (i.e. Custer) with Gary Vinson as his Lieutenant, Claude Akins and Warren Oates playing Sergeant and Corporal, no names provided.

The action is kept on the small scale for the most part. An early fistfight has Kelly and Harper teaming to tangle with Akins' Sergeant and his soldiers. The biggest fighting is saved for the finale between the cavalry and the attacking Indians on a desert hillside covered in trees. It's pretty quick and doesn't have a ton of scale, but it's a good action scene. That's the western itself. Nothing flashy, but I enjoyed it. A pleasant time-waster with good locations and cast.

Yellowstone Kelly (1959): ** 1/2 /****

Darby's Rangers

Released in 1955 to waiting audiences, Battle Cry ruined author Leon Uris' source novel.  I read the book and loved it, going into the movie with high expectations just because the book was that good.  Well, the movie ruined one of the best books I've read in years.  Sappy, overdone romances, and battle sequences that unceremoniously killed off characters (sometimes even offscreen).  Released three years later in 1958, Darby's Rangers used the tagline 'Nothing Like it Since Battle Cry!' and somehow found a way to make a similar but much, much worse movie.

It is based on the true story of the founding of the 1st Ranger Battalion, an American commando unit from WWII fashioned after British commando units that ended up taking part in France, North Africa, Sicily and Italy.  The story sounded like an easy home run for a studio, and a young, impressive cast was assembled to fill out the important roles.  Just last week I reviewed The Devil's Brigade, a prime example of the 'unit picture,' and I had high hopes for this one.  But instead of telling a hard-hitting, realistic look at this fighting unit, director William Wellman turns in a soap opera-ish story that almost completely disregards the actual development and fighting history of the battalion for a handful of wasted falling in love subplots.  In other words, an unofficial companion piece to 1955's Battle Cry.

Early in 1942, Army captain William Darby (James Garner) is chosen to lead a new American fighting force, the 1st Ranger Battalion, where regular Army soldiers can volunteer to be trained similar to British commandos.  Their job will be to lead beachheads and often work behind enemy lines, causing whatever havoc they can.  The volunteers go through arduous training in England and by the end only 600 of the 1,500 remain.  Their training is completed, and it's not long before the Battalion is shipping out to help join the war effort, including missions and fighting in North Africa, Sicily and Italy.

For several years, I've tried to track this movie down, one, because of the subject matter, and two, the casting.  Along with James Garner, there's Jack Warden as the tough sergeant, Edd Byrnes as a lieutenant fresh out of West Point, and enlisted men that include Stuart Whitman, Peter Brown, Murray Hamilton, and Adam Williams.  First off, Garner is almost a secondary character even though Darby is the commander and has his name in the title!  Right in the middle of his TV success with Maverick, Garner is completely wasted here, making an occasional speech or address to his men before disappearing off-screen.  Too bad because his scenes with loyal sergeant Jack Warden provide the few positive moments this movie actually has.

The cast does what they can with their characters, but they're hamstrung by the movie's inability to pick a tone.  Instead, it bounces all around from slapstick, broad, physical comedy to steamy romance to hard-edged battle scenes.  Pick one and go with it, but don't bounce among all three.  Byrnes, Whitman and Brown are all given romantic subplots -- the same way the platoon in Battle Cry did -- that grind the story to a halt, especially Whitman's and Byrnes' stories.  A quick 2-3 minute firefight is shown, then Warden's narration, then a 20-minute interlude as Whitman woos a British girl and Byrnes falls for an Italian girl he mistakes as a hooker...oops!  Repeat this several times, and you've got a 122-minute movie about soldiers falling in love.

Then there's the comedy angle which would have been more appropriate in a Marx Brothers movie or a Three Stooges short.  One character is introduced in a comedic fistfight full of over the top stunts and over exaggeration with funny sound effects and all.  Then there's a running gag with one private -- played by the director's son, William Wellman Jr. -- who always fall asleep on the go and falls off the back of the troop truck and has to run to catch up.  Pretty hilarious, huh?  Wellman Jr. also gets one of the most overdone theatrical deaths I've ever seen.  And on a non-comedic rant, there's also a drawling, ladies man of a private (played by Corey Allen) who is billeted with an English family, seduces the wife, forces himself on her, convinces her to leave her husband and then dies in a training exercise.  It's a despicable character who is dispatched quickly -- thankfully -- and serves no real purpose for even being there.

The one saving grace I figured could be the actual scenes of the Battalion forming and then going into battle.  The training sequences are handled well enough with a few nice montages, but the battle scenes are hampered by some very obvious indoor work.  Wellman showed with 1949's Battleground that indoor battles can work very effectively, but it doesn't click here.  Epic sequences of a battalion under attack is an actor or two with a few extras getting shot alongside them.  SPOILERS The battalion is all but wiped out in Italy, but we never see more than a handful of Rangers and the two or three German machine gun pits firing down on them.  END OF SPOILERS  Disappointed in the scale and lack of emotion brought up in these scenes.  What scenes do work are those of the battalion bonding, the quiet moments as they rest and recuperate, but they are few and far between.

After years of being unable to find this movie, the Warner Archive has made it available to purchase through a made-to order DVD.  It's a great system offering over 500 previously unreleased movies, but Darby's Rangers is a good example of doing your research before you buy.  Thankfully, I didn't buy this one.  It had a lot of potential but wastes a good cast and never makes up it's mind as to what type of war movie it wants to be.  A disappointing negative review for sure.

Darby's Rangers <----TCM clips (1958: */****   

The Secret Invasion

Released in 1967, Robert Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen came along at just the right terms for movie audiences with its cynical tone and generally pessimistic look at society and any sort of hierarchy and power.  The story of 12 convicts chosen to take part in a suicide mission just before D-Day was unlike anything audiences had seen.  To Aldrich's credit, he made the premise unique and damn entertaining.  Really though, the idea of convicts turned commandos had been used countless times before.

Take 1964's The Secret Invasion from the master of schlock, low-budget B-movies, director Roger Corman. The cult director made a career of doing a lot with very little in terms of money in the budget as well as producing some 300-plus movies.  But when given the chance, Corman showed what he was able to do with even a mid-sized budget like in 1964's The Secret Invasion, a WWII story that uses the same basic premise as Dirty Dozen.  Don't be confused though, 'Invasion' is still a B-movie without any notion of being anything else.  On the highly positive side, it's a prime example of how good a B-movie can be when everything goes right.

Stationed in Cairo in 1943, British Major Richard Mace (Stewart Granger) has assembled a dubious crew to help him on a dangerous mission in the Balkans.  From prisons and penitentiaries all around the world, Mace has assembled a crew of criminals -- all experts in one way or another -- to join him.  Just days away from the Allied invasion of Italy, Mace and his team will sneak into the Balkans and help an Italian general (Enzo Fiermonte) escape from a heavily guarded German prison.  With the general's help, Mace hopes to turn the Italian forces against the Germans, making the Allied invasion even a little bit smoother.  First though, the major has to worry about keeping his team of crooks in line, many of them willing to shoot him and escape the first chance they get.

Now with a B-movie -- even a really good one like this -- you can't expect a bunch of A-listers starring.  Instead, you get something better.  Actors you know and have seen countless times but usually in supporting roles.  Some were past their prime and others still on the rise.  Corman hits a home run with the casting of his dirty half-dozen including Raf Vallone as Rocca, a mafioso and expert planner of strategy, Mickey Rooney as Scanlon, an IRA explosives expert, Edd Byrnes as Fell, the master forger, Henry Silva as Durell, the hired assassin, and William Campbell as Saval, a master of disguise and deception.  These were all solid character actors given a shot at starring roles, and the ensemble doesn't disappoint.

With any 'men on a mission' movie, there's a certain dark element that makes them intriguing.  By the end, you know most if not all won't make it so early on make your choices.  'Invasion' certainly has some fun with this notion as to who survives and how.  The cast is clearly having some fun with these cardboard cutouts for roles.  Vallone as the reliable second in command speaks in that heavily accented English and certainly makes a positive impression, as does Silva as the dead-eyed killer.  But by far, the most surprising and enjoyable part is for Rooney as the half-mad Irishman and explosives expert.  Playing completely against type -- as he would do again two years later in B-movie Ambush Bay -- Rooney absolutely steals the movie.

As much as I like a good, old-fashioned long movie (even The Dirty Dozen was 150 minutes long), a quick-paced B-movie can be just as enjoyable.  With his 95-minute movie here, Corman keeps the story going at all times with some snappy dialogue or a quick action set-piece.  The story flies by and never really slows down.  It's never long before the half-dozen find themselves in some sticky new situation they have to get out of.  Along the way, they dodge either, work with some partisans, and then finally must fight their way out of the German fortress.  Sounds easy, don't it?

Taking advantage of a bigger budget, Corman filmed in Yugoslavia and Croatia, giving the whole movie a unique, realistic feel to the proceedings.  The on-location shooting is great, but Corman saves the best for last.  Chased by hundreds of German soldiers, Mace's crew must escape up a seaside hill with the Germans close on their heels.  He clearly spent some money on this battle sequence with an epic feel.  Lots of extras working as German soldiers, explosions and shootouts galore, and some surprises as to who survives and who doesn't.  It's a great action sequence, and Corman almost lulls you to sleep early with so little action.  He certainly makes up for it in his finale.

I stumbled across this war flick at IMDB a few years back and am I ever glad I did.  It's exciting right from the start -- opening scenes included below -- and never really slows down.  Cool choices in casting, gorgeous locations, and a wham bang action finish.  Maybe it doesn't have the high hopes a movie like The Dirty Dozen did, but from master director/producer Corman, this is about as good as a B-movie can be!

The Secret Invasion <---opening (1964): *** 1/2 /****

Any Gun Can Play

Most moviegoers will agree, Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is the most well-known, and depending on how you ask, best spaghetti western around. With its huge success came a flurry of westerns with similar storylines, including one, 1967's Any Gun Can Play, that is almost an exact duplicate except played more for laughs. Lack of originality aside, director Enzo Castellari's action-heavy western is a good one.

A heavily guarded train carrying $300,000 is attacked by a group of bandits led by the infamous Monetero (Gilbert Roland). But in the aftermath of the robbery, one of Monetero's men doublecrosses him and makes off with all the money. He's tracked down, but before he is shot and killed, the bandit gives a clue to Monetero, a medallion with the location of the gold hidden somewhere in its meaning. Joining the hunt for the gold coins is Clayton (Edd Byrnes), a representative from the bank hoping to get his money back, and a mysterious bounty hunter, known simply as the Stranger (George Hilton). What follows is a series of uneasy alliances with more double-crosses than I could keep track of.

Director Castellari adds some nice touches to his take on GBU without any epic touches that Leone's classic had. For one, the opening is great, check it out here. Three gunslingers dressed as the Man With No Name, Django, and Col. Mortimer ride into a town, passing an undertaker moving three coffins with a lone man, the Stranger, walking behind. They stop to ask who died, the man answering by reading off 3 names, their names. He guns them down in a flash and collects the bounty. Call it a myth/legend, but Leone supposedly wanted to film the opening to Once Upon a Time in the West with Bronson gunning down Eastwood, Wallach, and Van Cleef, similar to the opening here. It's a nice touch by Castellari and sets the tone immediately for the rest of the movie.

Throughout his career, Castellari was the master of action, especially over-the-top action like in the original Inglorious Bastards or Franco Nero movies Street Law and Keoma. This movie never goes too long without a fistfight or a gun battle which keeps the pace going at a breakneck speed. This was also one of the first spaghettis to have acrobatic fights, like Sabata, with stunt men jumping from heights, hitting a trampoline and flipping across a street. Is it ridiculous and completely unnecessary to the movie? Of course, but it's fun to watch.

Three scenes jump out, one the finale in a rundown mission where our three anti-heroes have traced the gold to with the former members of Monetero's gang also showing up, and two and three, extended fistfights between Clayton, the Stranger, and a group of nameless henchmen there to get beaten up. Both fights almost outstay their welcome, but with the right mix of acrobatics, punches, and henchmen flying through the air, they hit the right note.

While the cast may not have the name recognition of GBU, the three leads are perfect for the jokey, over-the-top feel of the movie. With Byrnes as Clayton, you just know the character isn't exactly what he's letting on to be because, well, it's Edd Byrnes and every character he ever played seemed to have some ulterior motives. George Hilton adds a bit of a humorous edge to the Stranger, a mix of any number of Eastwood and Nero characters. When it comes down to it though, the Stranger can shoot with the best of them. And late in his career when he made a handful of spaghettis, 62-year old Gilbert Roland has the Tuco-role except with a little more extravagance. The three find a good mix and stick with it.

There's a fair share of recognizable faces in the supporting cast, including Ignazio Spalla as Pajondo, Monetero's double-crossing gangmember who was in all three Sabata movies, and Gerard Herter as Blackman, the insurance investigator trying to figure everything out as everyone tries to get their hands on $300,000 in gold. Not as polished as some of the better spaghettis, but definitely worth a watch for fans of the genre. If you're just getting into spaghetti westerns, I'd recommend starting with the Leone Dollars trilogy first.

The VCI Entertainment DVD has some issues, but nothing that should stop you from purchasing it if interested. The movie is shown in widescreen, but it seems at times to be a pan-n-scan version pushed down for the widescreen bars. It's also a grainy feature, but compared to a lot of the low-budget, cheapie DVDs released of spaghetti westerns, it's a godsend. The picture's good but not great, and the sound comes through clear at all times. Special features include a trailer, and a trailer for A Bullet for Sandoval, which I reviewed in April.

Any Gun Can Play (1967): ***/****