Catlow

Before his death in 1988 at the ripe, old age of 80, author Louis L'Amour had 89 novels, 14 short story collections and two non-fiction books to his name. Kinda a busy career, huh? He's always been one of my favorites, and a personal favorite (one of many) is one that doesn't always get mentioned as one of his best or most well-known. It's a 1963 western that got a feature film adaptation with the same-named 1971 flick, Catlow.

It's the years following the Civil War in the American southwest and veterans from the war have had to move on to other things, some good, some bad. Ben Cowan (Richard Crenna) is a marshal out on the trail looking for an outlaw wanted for rustling cattle and horses. Jed Catlow (Yul Brynner) is that outlaw, an amiable fella who always has a smile on his face. The problem? Cowan's warrant is for Catlow, but the two men are old friends having served together during the War, making that potential arrest a little more difficult. Well, sorta. Through a series of mistakes and misadventures, Cowan just can't seem to bring his friend in. Now, Catlow could have bitten off more than he can chew. With his gang, the outlaw is heading into Mexico after a recently discovered hidden gold treasure. He's not the only one in pursuit though, with Cowan and others on his trail.

Not quite an American western, not quite a spaghetti western, 'Catlow' lies somewhere in between. Director Sam Wannamaker's western has been basically completely forgotten, lost in a wave of one of the more tumultuous times in the genre's history. It reflects more the past than what's coming, a tongue-in-cheek tone unfortunately stepping to the forefront. That tone does feel a bit weird, a bit forced, especially against the Almerian backdrops. Spaghetti western fans will see a long list of familiar locations, all those locations providing a ton of fun along the way. The score is a mixed bag, two main themes dominating the soundtrack (listen HERE). One is more serious, the other reflecting the light mood, that tongue in cheek angle. The weird thing? Well...

L'Amour's source novel is not light or comedic or tongue in cheek at all. It's pretty standard stuff, and I mean that in a good way. A likable, resolute anti-hero of sorts, a bad guy who's not so bad, a not so trustworthy gang, conniving, greedy female characters, and a treasure that would change any man's life. Getting there is part of the fun so even the story drifts and isn't that pointed...it is fun. The cast, the winding, often goofy story, the locations, It...Is...Fun. L'Amour's novels are always entertaining, even when the film versions aren't so great. That's a case in point here. Original? No, sir. Entertaining? You bet. Don't expect too much of a coherent story, and you'll be aces.

So....hmm...fun, there's gotta be something positive to talk about, right? I'm going with Yul Brynner, one of my favorites and clearly having a lot of fun here as the affable Catlow. His most iconic parts are The Magnificent Seven and Westworld where he plays stoic, almost emotionless gunfighters so it's cool to see him branch out and show off some comedic timing. He's an underrated comedic presence. His chemistry with Richard Crenna is very solid, two old friends who are on opposite sides of the law but don't seem to let that bother them too much. They're always getting each other out of one sticky situation or another, and they're always able to laugh it off in the end. I will say Crenna's Cowan as presented here could be the dumbest sheriff/peace officer I can think of in a western. He continuously walks into one ambush after another and takes his fair share of lead in the process. Still, Brynner and Crenna are excellent together throughout.

The rest of the cast is interesting to say the least. Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, plays Miller, a gunman hired out to bring Catlow in dead or alive (preferably dead). For you Star Trek fans, yes, you do get to see Nimoy's naked ass in all its glory. Talk about bizarre, huh? We need some sexy love interests too and get them in Daliah Lavi as fiery, murdering, betraying Rosita (Catlow's sorta girlfriend) and Jo Ann Pflug as Catherine, the beautiful daughter of a Mexican rancher who falls for Cowan (naturally). Jeff Corey plays Merridew, a grizzled trailhand and Catlow's right-hand man, while Michael DeLano plays Rio, the more treacherous, greedy member of the gang. Also look for Julian Mateos as Recalde, a Mexican officer who Cowan meets on the trail.

Look, this ain't rocket science. It's a fun, pretty mindless American/spaghetti western. It doesn't try and rewrite the genre by any means and is quite content being fun and pretty mindless. Watch it for Yul Brynner, Richard Crenna, Leonard Nimoy's naked butt, some pretty ladies, fun action and cool Spanish locations filling in for the American southwest and Mexico. If you can, watch for it on Turner Classic Movie's schedule. The print they showed was by far the best -- clean, very clean -- I've seen.

Catlow (1971): ** 1/2 /****

Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Well, let's not mess with a good thing. I love the original Planet of the Apes, and it's been years since I caught up with its four sequels. While none of the sequels live up to the original's success, these are good movies (even if there was no need for any sequel). My personal favorite has always been the first sequel, 1970's Beneath the Planet of the Apes. 

Following where the previous NASA mission explored in deep space, a spaceship crashes on the same far-off planet, astronaut Brent (James Franciscus), trying desperately to survive. When the ship's commander (Tod Andrews) dies from his wounds, Brent is all alone among the wreckage. Thinking he's alone on this planet, Brent is shocked when a woman rides over the hill on a horse packed with supplies. The woman is Nova (Linda Harrison), and she's clutching the dog tags of Taylor (Charlton Heston) in her hand. Unable to speak, Nova can't communicate what happened to Taylor, Brent only knowing that he's landed on the right planet. Nova takes him to Ape City though, leaving the stranded astronaut stunned at what he's found. Now on the run, Brent and Nova must stay one step ahead of the gorilla army, an invasion planned for the mysterious Forbidden Zone.

Picking up exactly where the original 'Apes' left off, 'Beneath' is an interesting follow-up. Following the immense success of the first movie, Fox Studios went ahead with a sequel that star Charlton Heston wanted nothing to do with. That contract thing though, it gets in the way of what you want to do. Heston agreed to play a small part (he's only on-screen for about 10 minutes) with the demand that one sequel was all there would be. Well, he got his first part of the deal, but there were three more sequels to come. What's the result here? A solid sequel that stays true to the formula laid out by the first one, adding some new layers in the second half of a 95-minute movie. Early on, it feels almost like a scene-for-scene remake -- Brent going through what Taylor did -- but it's the second half that brings the movie up a notch or two.

Replacing Heston in the lead role is Franciscus, a good actor who never became a huge star in film or television. He was a familiar face though who does a solid if unspectacular job as Brent. The biggest issue with the character is what I mentioned earlier, Brent is just too similar to Taylor to really leave his own mark. Still, I liked Franciscus, and Brent does get his chance to step into the spotlight in the final act as we find out what's in the Forbidden Zone. Also returning from the first movie is Kim Hunter as the friendly, helpful intelligent Dr. Zira, Maurice Evans as the cynical, truth-hiding Dr. Zaius, David Watson replacing Roddy McDowall (other obligations) as Cornelius', Zira's husband and fellow scientist. Also joining the cast is James Gregory as General Ursus, the commander of the army who's obsessed with leading an invasion into the Forbidden Zone.

So what exactly is out there, hiding away in the Forbidden Zone? SPOILERS in this paragraph SPOILERS Chased by a squad of gorilla cavalry, Brent and Nova ride into the Forbidden Zone, hiding away in a subterranean cavern that ends up being the subway tunnels underneath New York City. They find a community of mutants who survived the original atomic blasts and now worship a Doomsday bomb that was built strong enough to destroy the world. What to do, what to do? The mutants have no way of protecting themselves while the invading gorilla army intends to wipe out anything they find in the Forbidden Zone. Brent, Nova and Taylor are caught in the middle to look for a solution, however dangerous. Look for Paul Richards as Mendez, leader of the mutants, with Victor Buono, Jeff Corey, Natalie Trundy, Don Pedro Colley and Gregory Sierra his Mutant Cabinent of sorts.

Where 'Beneath' sets itself above the other sequels is in the road the story goes down in the final act. A familiar story up to that point, it takes a big turn....for the better. I don't want to give spoilers away because like the original, the ending resonates more if you're surprised at where it goes. You know me by now, I'm a sucker for a dark, brutally cynical ending. This one sets the bar pretty high, unceremonious in how it knocks off certain characters, the final twist coming and going in a flash. That's it. That's all. Movie over. An underrated sequel for sure, well worth checking out for science fiction fans, especially for fans of the Apes series. Next up, Escape from the Planet of the Apes!

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970): ***/****

Impasse

One of the biggest stars of the 1970s, Burt Reynolds was the Man, plain and simple. He was the breakout star in 1972's Deliverance, made the fan-favorite Smokey and the Bandit in 1977 and parlayed his success into the even bigger 1980s with all its bad sequels and awful flicks in general. Before he was a known star though, Reynolds worked his way up the ladder in the 1960s with some starring TV roles and a handful of leading roles in films, like 1969's Impasse.

So I've mentioned before there's nothing wrong with a B-movie, right? There really isn't.  Think of a low-budget movie made without any hopes of turning out a classic finished product.  The cast will almost certainly feature some big names, and some other names of actors you might not know but you'll certainly recognize them from other supporting roles. Throw in a mix of humor, action and sex, and there you go. You've got your B-movie.  All those elements are there with Impasse, but I didn't end up enjoying the movie anywhere near what I thought I would.

Heading his salvage business in the Philippines, Pat Morrison (Reynolds) has possibly stumbled onto the biggest find of his career. He has found out the location of a hidden cache of World War II gold on the island of Corregidor where retreating US forces in 1942 hid anything they couldn't ship out. The only problem? Pat has the general location, but four army vets all hold the clues to the exact location. He's spent months assembling the group (Lyle Bettger, Rodolfo Acosta, Clarke Gordon, and Vic Diaz) and now stands poised to get his hands on the gold if he can get just get past a ring of Filipino security on Corregidor which is easier said than done. His plan becomes murkier when Pat meets, Bobby (Anne Francis), the daughter of one of his crew.

My head kept going back to the same thing repeatedly as I watched this movie. It should have been better. It just should have. A B-movie about a heist of long-forgotten WWII gold in the Philippines sounds like the perfect schlock of a story. And Burt Reynolds is starring in it?!? Oh, count me in.  But in turning that story into a feature length movie, director Richard Benedict instead opts to add all these disparate elements that don't work together.  In a movie that isn't particularly long at just 100 minutes, but with all these wide-ranging subplots, I'm guessing maybe 30 minutes is actually spent on the gold heist.

So let's have some fun with all these pointless asides the story takes, shall we?  Let's start with Reynolds and Francis who have little chemistry together.  Francis looks confused in general, seemingly questioning how she ended up in a movie like this.  Then there's Penny (Joanne Dalsass), a young lesbian hippie who stalks Francis's Bobby. She's really nice about it though so don't worry. Bobby is a pro tennis player, and Penny follows her around spouting hippie mumbo-jumbo. Bobby's father (Gordon) is kidnapped so Reynold's Pat has to track him down from evil "journalist" (<---you read that right), Wombat (Jeff Corey). Oh, right, the gold heist. There's gold hidden in artillery shells in a maze of underground bunkers, and each of these vets knows part of the location. The heist ends up feeling like a forgotten piece of the story, and then the movie ends in about as anti-climactic fashion as is possible. Yeah, good times.

A known name if not quite a star yet, Burt Reynolds is a bright spot here.  He certainly shows off the potential he had to play a leading role, especially in an action movie with some comedy here and there. His Pat Morrison is that conniving rogue you can't help but like, doing whatever he can to make some cash. The anti-climactic ending is somewhat funny because of Reynold's reaction, but only to a point. As for the crew, all-around reliable bad guy Bettger is the racist Hansen, Acosta is the stereotypical Apache, Draco, spouting 'Ay Chihuahua' whenever possible, and Diaz is the sniveling black market dealer, Jesus, who does nothing when he finds out Pat is sleeping with his wife, Mariko (Miko Mayama). Corey I suppose qualifies as a straight bad guy, looking to be having some fun as Wombat, a shady fella who is up to no good in whatever he's doing.

While this is by no means a classic, the movie isn't all bad.  In all the departures and asides from the story at hand, the movie is set in the Philippines and thankfully was filmed there instead of a Hollywood backlot.  So the story may drift too much for my liking, but it's nice to look at. The Philippines are beautiful. That's something, right? About midway through the movie, there is a very long chase sequence -- just a foot race basically -- between Reynolds and one of Wombat's henchmen. There's nothing fancy about it, just two guys going absolutely nuts running through the back alleys and dingy Manilla streets. Reynolds also does most if not all of his own stunts the whole movie, adding to his badass quota.

The movie is a stinker, if a moderately entertaining stinker. Just don't expect a classic. Sorry, I couldn't find a trailer or clip of any kind.

Impasse (1969): **/****

True Grit (1969)

Through a career that spanned four decades by the time 1969 had rolled around, John Wayne had somehow only been nominated for one Oscar in his entire career.  His part in 1949's Sands of Iwo Jima earned him a Best Actor nod which he would lose to Broderick Crawford in All the King's Men.  My complaint isn't that Wayne lost, but he had some excellent parts during his career that included The Searchers, The Quiet Man, Red River, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon among others.  Well, in 1969 Wayne won his first and only Oscar for his performance in True Grit, an award that obviously came about because of that movie but was almost a symbolic Lifetime achievement award.

Recently this flick has been in the news because the Coen brothers remade it with their movie hitting theaters in the last few weeks.  My worry was that it was a movie that didn't need to be remade so why touch it?  Honestly, the 1969 version isn't a great western, but it is remembered so fondly because of what it meant for John Wayne, his career and his fans.  It's a pretty standard oater and a good example of the type of movies Wayne made at this later point in his career.  Familiar story, good vs. bad, lots of recognizable faces, and nothing really groundbreaking.  But in the end, it's entertaining and a pleasant enough way to pass a couple of hours.

For those not familiar with the story, here's a basic description. The 1969 and 2010 versions are pretty identical story-wise, but here goes. Teenager Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) travels to Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1880 looking for help in tracking down the man, Tom Chaney (Jeff Corey), who gunned down her father in cold blood. She finds no takers other than U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Wayne), a one-eyed, drunk who is a few years past his prime.  With a Texas Ranger, La Beouf (country singer Glen Campbell), Mattie and Rooster head into the Indian territory to hunt down Chaney and bring him back, hearing rumors he has joined up with outlaw Lucky Ned Pepper (Robert Duvall) and his gang.

Call it his best performance if you want (I don't think it's even close, he had much better) but this may be the one Wayne is most remembered for.  Criticisms aside, and I don't have many, but he had better parts that showed off his ability, Wayne does deliver a great performance and one that he fully deserved his Oscar for.  To a certain point, he is playing a caricature of himself.  He later joked that if he knew all it would take to win an Oscar was put on an eye patch he would have done it years before.  Wayne was an underrated comedic actor, and his Rueben 'Rooster' J. Cogburn shows that off.  He's rough and ready but has a softer side to when it comes to Mattie who can both drive him nuts and have him develop a fatherly bond with her at the same time.  Watch his Oscar acceptance speech HERE for a simple, effective and very moving look at Wayne and this part which finally earned him some Academy Award consideration.

So Wayne is obviously the biggest selling point here, but the problem is what else is there to sell?  As good as Wayne is as Rooster, his two main supporting parts are about as awful as they can be. The Mattie character is key, and as was the case with the remake, annoying but endearing in an odd way.  You're supposed to root for in spite of how ridiculously annoying, how brutally honest she is.  Darby just can't manage it in one of the most grating performances I've ever come across.  You just can't get behind this character.  A similar problem exists for Campbell as Texas Ranger La Beouf.  First, this country singer can't act a lick.  His character is supposed to be the polar opposite of Rooster, but just like Darby's Mattie it's hard to find a reason to like him.  If nothing else, his character redeems himself in the end...twice actually.  Still, it's not enough to save the part.  Check out the remake for how these characters should and could have been played.

Having watched both versions in little less than a week, I had to laugh at the idea that the Coen brothers did something vastly different with their version. Working off the Charles Portis novel, whole scenes, whole exchanges of dialogue are exactly the same between the two movies.  The tone is obviously different -- more light-hearted here -- and the only huge difference is the period authentic dress, dialogue, and accuracy in general.  Director Henry Hathaway films this story in Mexico, California and Colorado and ends up with a beautifully photographed film that looks absolutely nothing like the setting it takes place in, but that's just a minor detail, right? Elmer Bernstein's score sounds like a mix of a lot of his movies, but not necessarily in a bad way.  You'll notice a lot of familiar notes if you're familiar with his work at all, but the main theme is a good one.

You can't help but compare the two, and all I could come up with involving both was that the story itself is lacking something.  Portis was known for straightforward stories that didn't pull punches.  If anything, True Grit is too simplistic, too straightforward.  At times, it's even a little dull.  This is a movie about characters, and for the most part they're interesting even if we don't like them.  Story gets lost in the shuffle at times, but sit back and enjoy getting to know the main characters.  Of the rest of the cast, Duvall makes basically a small cameo, Jeremy Slate and Dennis Hopper are two of his gang, and Strother Martin is a haggling horse trader who incurs Mattie's wrath.

True Grit <---trailer (1969): ***/****

Seconds

Can an ending to a movie save the whole movie? Today I watched 1966's Seconds after taping it last week off of TCM.  The first 80 minutes or so I absolutely hated, bored to tears and hoping the ending would salvage something out of this wreck.  Surprisingly enough, I was rewarded.  How often does that happen?  A movie you're not enjoying actually gets better?  No way.  But still, the build-up was excruciatingly dull at times in an effort to be different.  So did the ending save the movie?

Director John Frankenheimer is one of my favorite directors with his unique visual style and storytelling ability.  His critics use those things against him, saying that his movies often lacked heart.  True to a point but not as a broad, all-covering statement for a director that made his fair share of classics.  His 'Seconds' is a deeply flawed movie and one that certainly qualifies as heavy on style, short on heart (until the end at least).  It tries to be too different, too groundbreaking in delivering an interesting story that would have sufficed on its own.

A middle-aged loan officer at a bank with a wife and kids, Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) is in a rut.  He's incredibly on edge after he receives several calls in the dead of night from an old friend, Charlie, who Arthur believed was dead.  Charlie delivers an ominous message for Arthur to go to a specified address.  He somewhat suspiciously goes along and discovers a company that offers people a second chance in life.  For a fee, their death is faked and through extensive plastic surgery they are reborn and given a new life.  Arthur agrees and in his new life is Tony Wilson (Rock Hudson), a young painter living in California with absolutely no responsibilities.  But Arthur/Tony quickly realizes maybe his life wasn't so bad in the first place.

The story itself is pretty trippy and appropriately came from a source novel.  Kudos to the author on originality.  But that unique-feeling of the story is slowed down to a snail's pace as it is revealed.  The premise is great, but Frankenheimer spends too long on the reveal.  I won't say he's showing off with the camera, but some shaky-cam and in-your-face shooting is evident in the early segments.  The reveal itself with Jeff Corey playing an executive of the 'Seconds' company is pretty good, if somewhat confusing, but post-surgery the slow pacing comes back.  One really bizarre sequence has Tony and his new girlfriend, Nora (Salome Jens), taking part in some weird hippie wine-making ritual.

It is in his new life that Tony realizes he still has all the same problems he used to have.  He even breaks down and goes and sees his "widow," posing as an old friend of her dead husband.  This is when the movie picks up in terms of storytelling, style and a twist so perfect I wouldn't even think of blowing it here.  The ending twist isn't one that is hinted at other than a throwaway line early in the movie so when it comes, it should hopefully catch you completely off guard.  Credit to Hudson in these final scenes for some of the most emotional, wordless acting I've ever seen.

Other than the obvious physical differences between Randolph and Hudson -- and a 10-year age difference -- that makes the transformation a little too remarkably well done, I have no problem with the acting.  Randolph is a depressed middle-aged man looking for a second chance but at the same time is wary of an offer that seems too good to be true.  Hudson delivers maybe his best performance as Tony, an older man trying to live again as a younger man.  At times a little over the top, his part is still dead-on.  Corey and Will Geer are frighteningly calm as two executives at 'the company' with Richard Anderson as the brilliant surgeon rounding out the unholy trilogy.

So all that said, it's hard to recommend this one.  The first 75 minutes was extremely difficult for me to watch, even with a very visual style that borders on showing off.  Great movie to look at, sure, but in terms of story I wasn't interested.  And that's with an incredibly innovative premise!  However, the ending is a perfect mix of paranoia, fear and realizing your mistakes too late.  Know that the first 3/4 of the movie can be difficult to get through, but the ending makes those struggles worthwhile.

Seconds <----trailer (1966): **/****