Sol Madrid

Though the name might not be instantly recognizable, director Brian G. Hutton has been at the helm of two of my favorite movies, both of them WWII flicks, Where Eagles Dare and Kelly's Heroes. He only directed nine movies while also acting in film and television so those directing efforts? Gotta scoop them up when you can. Turner Classic Movies helped me out last week, screening 1968's Sol Madrid.

An undercover Interpol officer with a checkered past, Sol Madrid (David McCallum) has been tasked with possibly his most dangerous mission yet. A longtime right-hand man to a Mafia boss in NYC, Harry Mitchell (Pat Hingle) has gone rogue and stole $500,000 from the boss while running away with said boss' girlfriend. The catch? Mitchell has a computer-like mind and is able to remember everything he's ever done for the Mob. If Interpol or the FBI can bring him in and convince him to testify, the case is almost a sure thing against the Mafia. Madrid follows some leads and finds out that Mitchell has headed south of the border to Mexico and is hiding out with a rival mob boss in Acapulco. How can Madrid get to him and then convince him? Well, it starts with finding the mob boss' girlfriend, Stacey (Stella Stevens), and convincing her to help with the promise of protection. Can it all work out?

Even considering the very cool cast assembled here, I'd never even remotely heard of this one. But courtesy of TCM, here we sit! This is a movie I wanted to love but ended up only liking it. I'll get into the cast more in a bit, but it's NUTS! Filmed in Acapulco, featuring an appropriately quirky score from Lalo Schifrin, and a style and winding story that seems like a 1960s bizarre-o film noir...'Madrid' should have been better. That's it. It just should have been better in plain and simple words. This is a 1960s crime thriller that is missing that one special thing to make it a really solid, memorable flick. As is? It's okay, pretty cool in moments, kinda dumb/weird in others.

That cast though....man, it's worth watching just to see the collection of talent assembled. Let's start with the other Man from U.N.C.L.E., David McCallum himself. He never grew into a huge star -- he's probably most well-known for his Ducky role in NCIS -- but it's always cool to see him in a leading role, especially an anti-hero role like this. We meet Sol Madrid as he's resting in an apartment full of drugged-out heroin users. What an introduction! From there, it's one cold-blooded decision after another, all the while observing what's going on around him and planning steps in advance of everyone around him. Brutal, calculating and looking at the bottom line, Madrid risks it all over and over again. And that name? Sol Madrid?!? Sounds very fake, but damn, I wish I had a badass, ridiculously goofy and cool name like that.

I'm a sucker for ensemble casts though, and what we've got here for 'Madrid' is pretty impressive. Stevens specialized in these type of roles in the late 60s and early 70s as the damaged woman so it's right in her wheelhouse! She certainly has some fiery scenes with McCallum's Madrid. How about some tough guys?!? Hey, everybody, it's Telly Savalas as Emil Dietrich, a drug supplier with a rivalry against the Mafia! Next up, Ricardo Montalban as Jalisco, another undercover officer and Madrid's contact who may be too comfortable in his job. Oh, and there's Rip Torn as Villanova, the mob boss with a vengeful streak right up his back. Not a bad group, huh?

Also look for Paul Lukas as an older, experienced mobster, Michael Ansara as a Mexican police officer, Perry Lopez as Francisco, Dietrich's enforcer, and Michael Conrad as Scarpi, a mafia hitman tasked with killing Madrid and Stacey.

Probably the biggest flaw in this 90-minute flick is the story. It's far from pointed and doesn't seem to know where it's going, where it wants to end up. To get his hands on Mitchell, McCallum's Madrid partners up with Dietrich to bring huge amounts of heroin into the U.S. In a painfully slow scene, we actually see the smuggling effort, bringing an already slow pace down to a snail's speed. Things pick up in the final act with some good twists and finally some action, but as a whole, this isn't a consistent movie. Decent, pretty entertaining but with some serious flaws.

Sol Madrid (1968): ** 1/2 /****

Nevada Smith

Just a few weeks ago, I watched and reviewed 1964's The Carpetbaggers, the story of a business mogul expanding his empire in the 1920s and 1930s. A minor character in the story? An aging cowboy turned western movie star, Nevada Smith. His backstory is explained but not shown. That's for a prequel made two years later, 1966's Nevada Smith.

Working at his father's played-out mine that has recently produced some gold deposits, a young half-breed Max Sand (Steve McQueen) is away from the house when three outlaws (Karl Malden, Arthur Kennedy, Martin Landau) ride up looking for that gold. Max is too late to help though, arriving at the house to find the tortured, mutilated corpses of his parents. The outlaws are nowhere to be found, but their trail is easy enough to follow. Max's biggest problem though? He's capable of caring for himself on the trail, but he has little money and no real experience with guns, especially when it comes to actually using a pistol or rifle on a human being. Desperate and with no supplies left, Max tries to rob a man on the trail. Instead, the man, Jonas Cord (Brian Keith), an experienced trailsman and capable shot, teaches Max all he can in his quest for revenge. His biggest advice though? Abandon his quest for revenge and move on with his life, but Max isn't hearing it.

It had been years since I watched this 1966 western from director Henry Hathaway (a solid western director, True Grit, Sons of Katie Elder). My biggest takeaway? It isn't as good as I remembered. Still good, still enjoyable, but not as good. There's still positives to take away though. 'Nevada' was filmed on-location in Inyo National Forest and the Owens Valley in the Sierra Mountains. Visually, it is a stunningly good-looking film with the mountains as a backdrop to the revenge story. The score from composer Alfred Newman is solid -- especially the main theme -- but isn't necessarily used enough. The best thing going is the revenge motive, a pretty gruesome story at times. Not graphic, just really violent because we know what's happening. Stabbings, drownings, choking, beating, systematic shooting of an unarmed man. It can be pretty rough at times.

So if you watch this 1966 western and come away a little confused, there's a good reason. The Max Sand character is young, really young. I'm assuming a teenager, maybe approaching 20. When the movie was made in 1965, McQueen was...35. And he's a half-breed with a white father and Kiowa mother. So yeah, he doesn't really look like a teenage half-breed (with his blonde hair too) in a pretty obvious case of miscasting. Still, McQueen makes the most of it. With the revenge motive, it is a fascinating character. Max -- later dubbing himself Nevada Smith -- becomes obsessed with killing his parents' murderers no matter what the cost on those who are helping him. McQueen does a good job in a physically demanding part, doing his own stunts while also adding a dimension of pure physicality to the performance. It's not often spoken words, just a sad look here, a drop of his shoulders there. Not ideal casting, but McQueen makes the most of it.

But the rest of the cast? The rest of the cast?!? It's pretty great. Brian Keith has always been one of my favorites, but I think this is one of his bests. His Jonas Cord is only in the movie for about 20-25 minutes but steals every scene he's in. His chemistry with McQueen is pretty perfect, and their scenes together crackle, an experienced hand with a gun trying to teach the younger Max all he can through good and bad. The Jonas/Max dynamic has always been my favorite, the movie's strongest point. With the episodic story, Malden, Kennedy and Landau make the most of their screentime, three particularly nasty villains you can't wait to see get their due. Raf Vallone is good too as Father Zaacardi, a priest who comes across Max and helps him in a time of need. Also look for familiar western faces Gene Evans, Paul Fix, Pat Hingle, John Doucette, Lyle Bettger, Howard Da Silva and Strother Martin in supporting parts.

Where does 'Nevada' go a little off the tracks then? At 130 minutes, it drifts too much with some extremely slow portions involving the episodic story. There just isn't a ton of energy at times. Two semi-love interests are added, Janet Margolin as an Indian dance hall girl and Suzanne Pleshette as a Cajun girl, are meant to show Max's obsession over a possible future with either, but they become repetitive and tedious. Just not a ton happens. The performances are good, the locations cool, but it's missing that special something. Good but not great.

Also worth mentioning is a western nerd moment. Any western fan who's seen any number of 1960s westerns will recognize Chuck Roberson, Chuck Hayward and Jerry Gatlin as background players and supporting parts. 'Nevada' takes that to new levels. Watch closely and you see them all playing multiple parts. In one scene, Roberson is part of Malden's gang, and the next he's Paul Fix's deputy. It's a little much and a little lazy, something Hathaway also did in Sons of Katie Elder. Thus ends this rant.

Nevada Smith (1966): ** 1/2 /****

Sudden Impact

Growing up watching westerns, I will always associate Clint Eastwood with the genre, most notably his spaghetti westerns with Italian director Sergio Leone.  He of course is known for any number of other things, including become an Oscar-winning director as he started working behind the camera instead of in front of it.  So while I picture him as the Man With No Name, a roaming gunfighter looking to make a buck, ask another fan and you will probably get a completely different answer depending on the fan.

Name Eastwood's most famous character over the course of his career, and I'd bet 8 or 9 people out of 10 would say Dirty Harry instead, San Francisco homicide detective Harry Callahan.  It's easy to understand why as Eastwood created one of the most recognizable, iconic characters in movie history with this tough as nails police officer who does things his way, procedure and laws be screwed. Starting with 1971's Dirty Harry, Eastwood played Callahan five times, the fourth effort coming with 1983's Sudden Impact after a seven-year break since 1976's The Enforcer.

Working a case with Mafia connections, San Francisco homicide detective Harry Callahan (Eastwood) is up to his usual shenanigans.  He meets a mob boss in public and berates him, the boss actually dying of a heart attack.  His superiors are sick of his troublesome attitude and complete disregard for procedures and the laws, assigning him to a case in the tiny, seemingly peaceful coastal town of San Paulo involving a brutal murder where the victim was shot in the crotch and in the forehead. Callahan sees a connection with his case though as more bodies start to mount up. A victim of a vicious gang rape 10 years earlier, Jennifer Spencer (Sondra Locke), has returned, killing off the men who raped her. No one thinks much of his hunch though, meaning Callahan is on his own...as usual. Criminals watch out because here comes Dirty Harry.

The threat with any series/franchise is the proceedings getting stale at a certain point. Like any series, Dirty Harry doesn't always keep up the momentum. The first two movies of five -- Dirty Harry and Magnum Force -- are a cut above the last three, but that doesn't mean they aren't good movies...just not as good.  In terms of story, this has to be the darkest of the five, a rape victim gunning for her rapists.  With Eastwood directing though, I think too much time was spent on Locke's Jennifer character. By the last 30-45 minutes of the movie, the story focuses more on Jennifer than on Harry.  Credit to Eastwood girlfriend and underrated actress Sondra Locke for bringing her character to life, but I watch these movies for Dirty Harry above all else.

That is what is so appealing about vigilante movies like this, even if Callahan's vigilantism is toned down a bit here.  In his world, there are no shades of gray. There is black and white, good and bad, and if you can't pick a side, Callahan will pick one for you.  As a veteran inspector, he's just sick of the countless crimes he sees around him. He always gets his guy -- sometimes stretching the limits of the law to do so -- only to see the system let the bad guys back on the street. The bad guys here are ridiculously evil, not a human bone or redeeming quality in sight. The rapists include Paul Drake as the psychotic Mick, Audrie Neenan, and Jack Thibeau. This is a Dirty Harry movie that's tired of bosses, superiors, and all-around tools so the uppity-ups include Pat Hingle as the San Paulo police chief, and Bradford Dillman and Michael Currie as his San Fran bosses. If we've learned anything from these movies though, it's that Dirty Harry doesn't do well when told what to do.

This isn't a great cop movie regardless of who the main character is.  It starts off on a great note, the first 30 minutes full of energy, action and one-liners as Eastwood has some fun with the character, delivering the iconic 'Go ahead, make my day' line when stopping a robbery in progress. Watch that scene HERE. The remaining 90 minutes are far from boring, but they have the feel of being phoned in.  It lacks the energy that the first half hour has.  The movie is at its best when Eastwood is front and center. At different points, Harry takes on the mob, chases a suspect by driving a retirement home bus, practices with his cannon of a Magnum pistol, and hangs out with his bulldog, Meathead.  Albert Popwell plays Horace, a friend on the force, while Mark Keyloun has a good supporting part as Bennett, a young San Paulo officer working with Callahan. Overall, the character has become more of a caricature of itself as opposed to an even somewhat realistic character.

Still, all things consider, it's Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry, and it's hard to pass that up. There is something simple and perfect in terms of entertainment value watching Callahan lose his mind and take his anger out on any crook stupid enough to tangle with him. There is no question that in the end he will get his man, just how and when.  Sudden Impact doesn't bring anything new to the procedural cop drama or the Dirty Harry series, but it is a solid if unspectacular (and still entertaining) movie, mostly because Clint Eastwood is still and always will be cooler than anyone and everyone.

Sudden Impact <---trailer (1983): ** 1/2 /****

Netflix review #15: The Gauntlet

Thanks to a 'Statistics in Journalism' course I took at IU, I've only seen bits and pieces of 1977's The Gauntlet. And for those curious, 'statistics in journalism' is as exciting as it sounds. Working on some random project, I had it on in the background so I knew the basic storyline and liked it enough to add it to the 'ole Netflix queue.

Right at the top of his game in the late 70s and a Hollywood icon already, star and director Clint Eastwood plays Ben Shockley, a Phoenix police officer who joined the force for all the right reasons but he's been beaten down over the years as he waited for that big case to break. Then one day when it seems things can't get much worse Commissioner Blakelock (William Prince) sends Shockley to Las Vegas to extradite a prisoner named Gus Mally who's going to testify in a low-level trial, a nothing witness for a nothing case he'd told.

Nothing goes smoothly though as several surprises are thrown Shockley's way. For one, Mally is Augustina "Gus" Mally (Sondra Locke), a prostitute scheduled to testify in a mob trial. And two, the Vegas bookies have 50-1 odds she'll ever make it to Phoenix and those odds keep going up. What was a simple return flight with a low-level prisoner turns into a crosscountry chase as Shockley and Gus desperately attempt to get back to Phoenix with the mob and possibly even some crooked cops gunning for them.

With the Shockley character, Eastwood looks to be having some fun with his image, specifically Detective Harry Callahan. Shockley's introduction has him pulling up to City Hall and having an empty bottle of Jack Daniels fall from his lap. He's told he's been given the job because his superiors know "he will get the job done." It's only through Gus's help Ben realizes that he has been set up to fail and be the scapegoat.

The Gauntlet also gets points for having a strong, smart female character as a lead. Locke gives maybe her best performance as Mally, a less than typical hooker. She's not some drug-addict on a street corner looking for money for her next fix. Gus is college-educated and can put a man in his place in the blink of an eye. This character allows for some great exchanges with Shockley as the duo realizes they're not so different.

While Eastwood and Locke are the two leads and dominate much of the screen time, the supporting cast has several names worth mentioning. Pat Hingle reunites with Eastwood for the first time since Hang 'Em High as Josephson, Shockley's former partner who may be the only cop he can trust. Typically a villain, Bill McKinney plays a country sheriff who becomes an unlikely hostage. McKinney's part delivers much of the line's dirtier conversations as he questions Gus about what her job as a hooker entails. Michael Cavanaugh joins Prince as the men in charge as Feyderspiel, the crooked assistant D.A.

Slim on action other than an exciting motorcycle vs. helicopter chase, the movie is nonetheless entertaining, especially as certain twists in the storyline are revealed. The basic storyline has been used in other movies, like Midnight Run and 16 Blocks, but this one has some nice touches. It all builds to an absolutely ludicrous ending as Ben and Gus drive through a gauntlet of armed police officers set on stopping them. But it is in this craziness that makes the movie a lot of fun.

With a good but not great widescreen presentation, the DVD includes cast and crew information that's limited to an Eastwood filmography and a trailer narrated by Shaggy from Scooby Doo, Casey Kasem. Amazon has it for under $10 so buying it won't break the bank.

The Gauntlet (1977): ***/****

Netflix Review 2: Hang 'Em High

After the huge success of Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy, Clint Eastwood returned to the US and quickly made an American western, Hang 'Em High, that bears quite a resemblance to the basic style of the spaghetti westerns. I've avoided watching Hang 'Em High for years for a couple reasons, I always figured it could never live up to the Dollars movies, and reviews were always mixed. While I enjoyed the movie, my worries were pretty dead on. It was an average western that would not be remembered if Eastwood wasn't starring.

Eastwood is Jed Cooper, a small rancher who has recently bought 100 head of cattle. As he's driving the herd home, Cooper is stopped by a nine-man posse who say he stole the cattle and murdered the rancher even though he's got a bill of sale. They string Cooper up and leave without making sure he's dead. A marshal happens to be riding by and cuts the man down before he dies. After his innocence is proved, Cooper takes a job as a marshal in the Oklahoma territory and starts to hunt the men down one-by-one.

Very much influenced by spaghetti westerns, this movie just doesn't live up to what it could have been. Looking at the cast, I was blown away by all the names, but I guess I should have learned by now. Big cast full of big names: characters aren't developed much at all. Ed Begley plays Capt. Wilson, the leader of the posse who is terrified of Cooper's revenge, but he basically disappears for huge chunks of the movie. Inger Stevens is the obligatory love interest, a woman with a past who's also looking for revenge. Stevens is gorgeous, but her part is as bland as they come.

The rest of the posse is similarly underwhelming despite some big names including L.Q. Jones, Bruce Dern, Alan Hale JR, and Bob Steele. These parts could have been great, add Strother Martin, Dub Taylor, and Warren Oates and you've got a perfect posse.

Three parts, along with Eastwood, stand out. Pat Hingle, always a good slimy villain, is an ideal counterpart to Cooper as Judge Fenton, a power-hungry official who wants statehood for the territory no matter what he has to do. He becomes so obsessed with justice you're not sure if his mind is all there. Ben Johnson, a real-life cowboy, makes a brief appearace as Dave Bliss, the marshal that rescues Cooper. Just by being in the movie, Johnson gives it credibility. Gravelly-voiced Charles McGraw plays Sheriff Ray Calhoun, a peace officer who may be working both sides.

But that's just three supporting roles, Dennis Hopper makes a bizarre one-scene cameo as the Prophet, a crazed, bearded prisoner, and James MacArthur shows up to lead a crowd in prayer at a hanging as the Preacher. It's just all too weird. The movie tries too hard to be a great western. The music is overdone and loud, although some good parts sound like Morricone's soundtracks, but it takes away from the movie overall.

The DVD is cheap with a somewhat grainy widescreen presentation and a trailer I've included the link for that's pretty revealing. Don't watch it if you haven't seen the movie. Overall, I was disappointed with this 1968 western, but there's enough to recommend, especially Eastwood, Hingle, and Ben Johnson.

Hang 'Em High trailer

Hang 'Em High (1968): **/****