The Sea Chase

First and foremost, John Wayne was one of the screen's most iconic cowboys. Sure, he took some detours along the way as soldiers, cops and on occasion, as sailors and captains. It can be kinda odd seeing him at see instead of in the saddle, but some of the ventures are pretty good, especially 1955's The Sea Chase. And it's not just the Duke that's interesting, but some generally unique choices in storytelling and tone. And away we go on the high seas!

It's the late 1930's and the German steam freighter Ergenstrasse, commanded by German captain Karl Ehrlich (Wayne), is in port in Sydney, Australia. Ehrlich has fallen from some impressive heights in the German navy because he refuses to support the Nazi party, but he's a supremely capable officer with a solid reputation among fellow sailors. Then the whole world is turned upside down when World War II breaks out, leaving the Ergenstrasse far from home and badly under-supplied. Before they slip out from Sydney though, Ehrlich is visited by the German consul who thrusts a German spy on-board, Elsa Keller (Lana Turner), who has important information and needs to get back to German soil. The British Navy doesn't want to let Ehrlich's ship get through though, setting off a cat-and-mouse across the Pacific and Atlantic of who can out-maneuver the other.

This isn't a movie remembered as one of John Wayne's best, but from the star's weakest decade overall, it's a pretty good entry. It isn't a classic, but I found it damn entertaining, director John Farrow at the helm (shipping/sailing pun intended) of a war thriller that's been generally forgotten. John Wayne as a German captain during WWII? Even if he despises the Nazi party, that's a risky play for a star associated with America and patriotism. 'Chase' was filmed in Australia and Hawaii, its sun-drenched locations giving the thriller one purty look. It isn't flashy, but it certainly gets the job done.

So Wayne as a German captain works surprisingly well. He commits himself to the part in the same way he would a cowboy or a soldier. His Karl Ehrlich is a career man, someone who lives by his word and expects others around him to do the same. Nothing is aggressive or heavy-handed about the background, just that Wayne's Ehrlich has little use for Hitler and the Nazis and is paying for those feelings by being sent to captain the far-off German steamer with no value and no hope of promotion. He knows getting back to Germany will end in trouble for his own future, but it is his duty and he feels compelled to do it, troubling results be damned. He looks comfortable to in the role and compared to some of those 1950's duds -- like The Conqueror or Blood Alley -- it's a classic!

In a long, distinguished career, Wayne wasn't always given too many roles with love interests. Okay, that's not true. Love interests other than Maureen O'Hara. Some reviews seem to disagree with me, but I thought the Duke and the lovely Lana Turner were pretty good together. They've both got somewhat checkered pasts and neither has a future that seems too pleasant, but those two stubborn kids, wouldn't you know that they end up falling for each other a tiny bit? Oh, sorry, SPOILER. A good pairing, the only time these two Hollywood legends worked together. It's a very solid pairing.

If a John Wayne at sea love story isn't your thing, the supporting cast here should pull you in. They're not always given a lot to do in a 117-minute running time, but the character actor star power is ON-POINT here. It's cool just seeing all these fellas together, starting with David Farrar as Napier, Ehrlich's friend and a British officer leading the chase, and Lyle Bettger as Chief Officer Kirchner, a die-hard, loyal follower of the Nazi party who's gonna cause all sorts of problems. As for the Ergenstrasse crew -- and I take a deep breath -- look for Tab Hunter, James Arness, Richard Davalos, Luis Van Rooten, John Qualen, Paul Fix, Alan Hale Jr., Peter Whitney, Claude Akins, John Doucette, and Adam Williams. Not bad, huh? Movie nerds will definitely appreciate that character actor-studded cast.

There are some slower portions during the midsection as Ehrlich and the Ergenstrasse improvises and picks up some supplies at a remote Pacific island. It's necessary though as we get to know the persistently stubborn captain and his beautiful German spy on-board. The international intrigue though picks up, especially when Bettger's Kirchner goes on his own and makes a dangerous command decision that puts the whole crew at risk. There's nothing too flashy from beginning to end, but this is a pretty solid sea thriller, meant to be watched on a rainy Sunday afternoon or late at night with some popcorn. A cool change of pace for the Duke with the beautiful Lana Turner and a fun supporting cast. Definitely worth a watch.

The Sea Chase (1955): ***/****

Hostile Guns

The name A.C. Lyles doesn't exactly ring a bell with famous western directors/producers. He's no John Ford, no Budd Boetticher, no Sergio Leone. Why no notoriety? Short answer? He didn't produce any classics, maybe not even any just old fashioned, good flicks. I caught 1967's Hostile Guns on a recent airing on a movie channel -- a Lyles production -- and let's just say it's.....well....not so good.

Readying to transport prisoners to the Huntsville Prison, Marshall Gid McCool (George Montgomery) is struggling to find a deputy willing to travel with him. No one is willing to take on the dangerous job -- even if it pays well -- until McCool meets Mike Reno (Tab Hunter), a young, fiery cowboy thrown into a jail cell for starting a fight in the town's saloon. With the promise of $50 for his services, Reno agrees, signing on as a deputy and immediately slugs it out with the prisoner they're transporting, a convicted murderer, Hank Pleasant (Leo Gordon), who intends to make the trip just as difficult as possible. With a specially outfitted wagon, McCool and Reno head out on the trail, picking up prisoners as they go at different stops on the way to Huntsville, including a female prisoner, Laura Mannon (Yvonne De Carlo), another convicted murderer. The new arrival may be the least of their concerns though, both McCool and Reno quickly realizing they're being followed. Who's trailing them?

I guess it should have clicked for me early on. I've been watching westerns since I was a little kid, and when this one popped up on the TV schedule, I should have put it together. At no point in my tries to watch as many westerns as I can had I ever come across this western from director R.G. Springsteen. No mention, N-O-N-E, for good or bad. Nonetheless, I plodded on. After all, it sounded promising with a more than respectable cast. Yeah, that's about all it's good. This is a western that at 91 minutes reeks of cheapness. I'm thinking total budget here couldn't have been more than a couple bucks here and there, and that money went to assembling the cast, the best thing going here by far. Where to start, where to start?

Made on a small budget doesn't/shouldn't be a deal breaker. On the contrary, it can be nothing but a positive. For 'Hostile' though, huge stretches of the already dull 91-minute flick is simply shots of McCool, Reno and the wagon riding through the rocky, desert mountains. Then, we get a follow-up shot of their pursuers. I swear the angles of the shot were tweaked because it felt like I saw the same rock formation one time after another. Same for the follow-up shot of those evil bad guys!!! My personal favorite in the Badness Department is the fight scenes. Usually a halfway decent movie does its best to delicately transition the shots of the stunt doubles fighting with those of the actors "fighting." This was almost amateurish in that department. Not only don't the stunt doubles resemble who they're posing as, the fight scenes are so poorly edited you clearly see the face of the doubles. Get a sample in the link below.

If there is anything to remotely recommend here, it's not surprisingly the cast. They're almost all stock characters you've seen before in any number of westerns, but they have their moments. A familiar face if not a star, Montgomery is solid as the stoic, very capable marshal who's working with a real bad hand. Hunter is actually pretty respectable for the most part, only going high up on the Annoying Meter late. Their veteran law officer, young punk cowboy dynamic is good. Gordon does what he does best, growls and looks menacing as the brutal killer while De Carlo makes the most of her part as the society woman who's guilt or innocence is debatable. Brian Donlevy makes what amounts to a cameo as another marshal, while Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez (as a goat thief) and Robert Emhardt (as a corrupt railroad official) play two other prisoners being transported. John Russell plays Pleasant's pursuing brother, Aaron, James Craig playing his cousin, both looking to spring Pleasant. 

Familiar situations, bad stunt work, recognizable characters, none of them are deal-breakers for me with a western. Just plain boredom and laziness? Now we're talking. A B-western that uses the same stock footage over and over is just bad. How many times can we see Russell and Craig ride down the same hill? How much was actually filmed outdoors? Not much, most of the trail scenes relegated to indoor studio work. Mostly, it's just boring. There's lot of talking, intense staring, all of it building up to some sort of showdown that never comes to fruition. The finale is disappointing, and then it ends. Not very good.

Hostile Guns (1967): */****

Track of the Cat

John Wayne will always be remembered as an actor and a movie star. Fair? Yes. But during a long and distinguished career, he accomplished a lot of things behind the camera and backing movies as a producer, including starting his own production company, Batjac Productions. He starred in several of those movies -- Hondo, Island in the Sky, The High and the Mighty -- but not all of them. With Batjac backing, here's 1954's Track of the Cat.

It's the first heavy snow in the California mountains and the Bridges family preps for a heavy snowfall. Their ranch sits in an isolated valley with mountains ringing it all around, and as they prep for the weather hear the growls of an immense panther in the trees, not to mention its tracks around their cattle. One of their ranch hands speaks of a legendary black panther that's terrorized these mountains for years so could this be that animal? With their cattle at risk, brothers Curt (Robert Mitchum) and Arthur (William Hopper) pack food and supplies and bundle up to head into the wilderness to hopefully put an end to the panther. But as they head out, the rest of the Bridges family, including youngest brother, Harold (Tab Hunter), await their return back at the ranch. Under high tensions though, personal issues and long-held grudges come to the surface, threatening to tear the Bridges family apart.

The positives of 'Cat' are pretty evident. Working off a novel by author Walter Van Tilburg Clark, director William A. Wellman originally intended to shoot his film in black and white.....in color!!! Is your mind blown as much as mine? Most of the movie is shot in shades of white, gray and black. That way when we do see colors, they really do pop off the screen. The visual look of the film in general is a big success, even if there's too much use of pretty obvious indoor sets, thanks in great part to the filming locations in Washington at Mount Rainier. You know what looks like real-life mountains and not a mountain studio set? Real-life mountains! Also, composer Roy Webb turns in a solid score, a little over the top at times in telegraphing what's coming but still pretty good.

So we've got a real winner on our hands, huh? No, not really. Things play out like a Greek tragedy meets Russian classics versus Shakespearean dramas...except not that good. It is incredibly dark, which I usually eat up, but it's so heavy-handed and obvious that it loses any impact it could/should have had. That's one thing, but it also tries to be profound and existential with a message. Good and evil! What are you? Quasi-spoiler alert.....we never actually see the black panther terrorizing the mountains so we're led to believe that the panther is some sort of all-incarnate evil, right? It divides the family along very broad lines, all those bottled up emotions exploding outward in one big explosion. Then, out of nowhere we get these cutesy moments that are out of place and unnecessary. It can't find the right tone, going for an incredibly dark story Greek mythology would be proud but not getting there.

The cast itself is hamstrung by a script that writes in cliched, stereotypical and somewhat obvious parts. Mitchum makes the most of it as Curt, the brother who runs the ranch and made it what it is but he's also an intimidating bully to anyone who won't go along with him. Hopper is his complete opposite as Arthur, the good brother who reads poetry and tries to defend those bullied members of his family. Hunter looks surprised with big eyes a lot, his limited range crippling the part of Harold, the youngest brother who's had a girlfriend/friend, Gwen (Diana Lynn), move in with the Bridges. Gwen has caught the eye of Curt and basically thrown everyone for a loop. There's also the family patriarch (Philip Tonge), a preening drunk, and family matriarch (Beulah Bondi), a Bible-thumping, manipulative nut, and Grace (Teresa Wright), the only Bridges sister who hates her life, her family and everything basically. In a bizarre bit of casting, Carl Switzer -- formerly Alfalfa in The Little Rascals and wearing a ton of makeup -- plays Joe Sam, an elderly Indian supposedly over a 100 years old who works for the Bridges.

I didn't like this movie. I read about it for years and was at least mildly curious to watch it. Too much time is spent back at the Bridges ranch and not enough time with Curt out on the trail of the never-seen black panther. It tries too hard almost from the start and never really picks up any momentum over a 102-minute running time. Very disappointed.

Track of the Cat (1954): * 1/2 /****

Lafayette Escadrille

Before the U.S. entered the fighting in World War I, Americans still had a chance to join the fighting themselves, especially those wanting to fly. The Lafayette Escadrille was created as a fighter squadron of American volunteers who wanted to help turn back the Axis forces. The famous squadron has been in three film adaptations of their exploits, including a silent film, recently with 2006's Flyboys, and a real dud of a flick on basically all levels, 1958's Lafayette Escadrille.

Having gotten in trouble with the law and subsequently with his father, Thad Walker (Tab Hunter) flees and sneaks onto a ship out of New York heading for Europe. His plan? Join the Lafayette Escadrille, a squadron of flyers in the French army created for American volunteers looking to join the fighting in World War I. He's worried about his trouble with the law stopping him from the squadron, but he's accepted and arrives with three other Americans. They begin training under French commanders, learning to work as a team -- mostly on the ground with very little actual training in a plane. Thad's mind is elsewhere though. He's constantly thinking about Renee (Etchika Choureau), a beautiful young French woman he met in Paris before shipping out to training camp. Can he focus enough on the training and flying to become a flyer?

How do I put those delicately? From director William A. Wellman, this movie just ain't good. It's almost painful at times to actually get a movie that runs an endless 93 minutes. For starters, it isn't really much of a story about the American flyers flying with the French. That must have been a ploy by Wellman. Point to you, Wellman! It's a bizarre mix of a forced love story, out of place physical humor, and broadly written dull characters. How many scenes do we need of a French drill sergeant (Marcel Dalio) who can't speak English trying to get his volunteers to march in formation? Oh, but one of the Americans speaks French and is just messing with the sergeant?!? That's hilarious. The actual training scenes are embarrassing, rickety wooden planes crashing into each other, even running into a bakery and a bakery thief. It doesn't have to be a consistently dark tone, but a Keystone Cops tone is exactly what shouldn't have been done.

Much like 2006's Flyboys -- which I liked a lot -- 'Lafayette' devotes far too much time to an unnecessary love story that is criminally boring to watch develop. I've never been a huge fan of Hunter as an actor, and here the 27-year old just doesn't bring the character to life. First off, it's hard to root for him. As we meet him, he's stealing a car and actually crashes at high speeds into a kid on a bike (the kid's only injured thankfully). His Thad comes from a tough house where his rich dad was very tough on him. Boo-hoo, I don't feel for you, buddy. It's not just that I didn't like the character, I was actively rooting against him. That's always a good jumping off point for any movie. His relationship with Choureau's Renee brings an already slow-moving story to a grinding halt. At the 45-minute mark, the story focuses almost exclusively on the love story away from the airfield. I felt like I'd stumbled into a different movie, a far more boring movie.

But wait, there's hope! Right? Eh, maybe not. I was intrigued by the supporting cast here so I held out hope. Thad's fellow pilots he arrives with include David Janssen as the smooth-talking, pencil mustache pilot, Duke, William Wellman Jr. playing a variation on his dad who actually flew as a WWI pilot Jody McCrea as Tom. As for the rest of the pilots, look for a pre-Rawhide Clint Eastwood, pre-Billy Jack Tom Laughlin, and Will Hutchins. The problem becomes that many more pilots are introduced, but they're a faceless bunch of characters that never amount to anything. We're actually introduced to them as they're sleeping -- so we don't actually see most of their faces -- as Wellman Sr. narrates what will happen to them. We don't actually see any of that happen, but we learn that most of them will die. It would have had at least some emotional impact if we actually got to know them. Also look for Paul Fix briefly as an American general.

It's a film that wasn't intended to be a classic but is still highly disappointing. The actual aerial footage of the WWI-era planes is pretty cool, but there's very little of it. We don't even see a dogfight until the last 10 minutes of the movie, and by then I had long since checked out. A cool cast makes it almost worth watching as a sort of guilty pleasure, a way to check off an actor like Eastwood's filmography, but it has little else to recommend. It's Rebel Without a Cause in planes, but they forgot to bring the planes. Pass.

Lafayette Escadrille (1958): */****

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean

When people get more cynical, so do their movies.  In the 1930s, westerns portrayed good guys wearing white hats and bad guys in black duds.  By the time Clint Eastwood came along in the spaghetti westerns gunning down anything that would net him a buck, things were up for grabs.  Then in the late 1960s and 1970s, somebody decided to put a new spin on the old west, stories that were more cynical in nature that attempted to show what the west was really like.  Goodbye romantic, hello cynicism.  Say howdy to the revisionist western.

If you look at the list of westerns included in the Wikipedia entry, there are some good entries, but for the most part I don't necessarily like revisionist westerns.  They try much too hard to show you that what you've been watching all these years is garbage.  Take 1972's The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, directed by one of my favorites, John Huston.  In telling the story of real-life Roy Bean, this western blends some really awkward comedic moments, overlong sub-plots that go nowhere, some hypocritical views on just about everything (can't decide if that was intended), and in general a waste of a very strong cast.

Sometime around the turn of the century, "outlaw" Roy Bean (Paul Newman) rides into west Texas past the Pecos River, an area notorious for hiding bandits and criminals.  At one saloon, they turn on him and leave him for dead only to have the wounded man come back and gun them all down. Disgusted by what he's seen, Bean sets up shop as a judge, administering his unique brand of justice to anyone and everyone looking for trouble.  Word spreads and soon he even has deputies who help him out, all in the name of Texas and Lilly Langtry (Ava Gardner), a stage actress from the east, a woman Bean has always been in love with. But Bean's style of justice may catch up with him as civilization follows him around every corner, and his time may be running out.

I don't know where to start with this one because to be fair, Huston doesn't know where to start either.  Roy Bean was a real-life judge in west Texas who ended up becoming a legendary figure after he died.  So with this revisionist western instead of telling a story that showed what the actual man was like, Huston goes for the ridiculous legend.  At a run-time of 120 minutes (a very long 120 minutes), 'Life' is all over the place with no sense of where it's going.  The tone ranges from slapstick comedy that produces its fair share of groans -- it did from me at least -- to an oddly serious finale.  It tries to be funny while also delivering a hacked up message about the changing times and the last few years of the wild west.  Pick one or the other and go with it, but don't waver between the two.

A bright spot not surprisingly is Newman in the titular role, rising above materiel that at times is just beneath him.  Newman's parts in the 1970s typically covered a wide variety of movies, and this surely doesn't disappoint.  What works is that he commits so fully to this part.  His beliefs are ridiculously hypocritical, and he'll string anyone up at the drop of a hat if he disagrees with what's been said or done.  If you're loyal to him, he'll be loyal to you, but for heaven's sake don't turn on him.  This isn't a part on par with his best performances like Butch Cassidy or Lucas Jackson, but it's a quality one.  Even when the movie is dull to watch, it's worthwhile to check out Newman.

So with a story that is light on story and heavy on non-related vignettes, we get a chance to see a long list of actors play small parts (some being on-screen no more than a few seconds).  Gardner makes an appearance in the movie's final scene in a moving scene that comes along a little too late.  Anthony Perkins is a scene-stealer as a traveling preacher who realizes Newman's Bean may be a little off his rocker but doesn't want to get shot bringing the topic up. Ned Beatty, Matt Clark, Jim Burk, Bill McKinney, and Steve Kanaly are underused but all solid as Bean's loyal deputies. Also watch for Victoria Principal, Tab Hunter, Huston as a grizzled old mountain man, Stacy Keach as an albino gunman, Roddy McDowall, Anthony Zerbe, and Jacqueline Bisset in parts that range from bad to good, your decision on where they fall.

I will give Huston credit for trying new things.  Early on, we get narration from Perkins and Hunter, but instead of just hearing it, the camera is placed right in front of them as they ride into town. They're looking right at the audience, addressing us in a cool change of pace, a unique little technique.  But then the narration resorts to been there, done that voiceovers.  It's just an odd movie overall, one with plenty of flaws but enough positives to give it a mild recommendation.

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean <---trailer (1972): **/****

The Burning Hills

Author Louis L'Amour's novels and short stories have been a frequent source for movies and television shows over the years.  His westerns are typically old-fashioned stories where the line is clearly drawn between good and bad, the good guy always wins and usually gets the girl in the process.  It's basically a giant cookie cutter for a movie that can be duplicated time and time again with a few cast changes here and there.  There's one basic element that can ruin it -- check that, there's probably hundreds but I'll be talking about one -- and that's casting.

By the mid 1950s, you'd think Hollywood would have learned and stopped casting white people in roles that they just couldn't pull off; minorities.  Thankfully no instances of blackface come to mind, but Hispanics, Indians, Mexicans and any number of European nationalities were all ripe for the picking.  Some people can pull off playing a minority, but they seem few and far between.  Make-up and a phony accent do not alone make a part believable.  One of L'Amour's early novels of the same name was turned into 1956's The Burning Hills, a western that is undone by some awful choices in casting, several minority related.

In 1965's Major Dundee, Richard Harris laughs at a struggling Charlton Heston, stating 'You make an unlikely looking Mexican."  I love the line for its delivery, but also a trend that still lasts in movies.  Thankfully in this western from director Stuart Heisler only one part qualifies exactly with the Harris line.  That role is 18-year old Natalie Wood playing a Mexican girl, face-darkening makeup and awful accent included.  It's not Wood's fault because she would show in many other movies that she was an above average actress, but it does make a movie hard to take seriously whenever she's on-screen.  All things considered though with this oater, Woods as a Mexican girl is the least of the problems.

After finding his brother murdered on their land with a bullet in his back, Trace Jordan (Tab Hunter) tries to track down the three men responsible for the killing. The trail leads to the ranch house of Joe Sutton (Ray Teal), a rich land owner and cattle rancher, but when Trace confronts him, he is forced to shoot Sutton.  Trying to escape, he too is wounded and is forced to hide at the home of a poor Mexican family, including teenage Maria (Wood).  But time is short for Trace who as he tries to recuperate finds out a posse is gunning for him led by Sutton's son Jack (Skip Homeier) and ranch foreman Ben Hinderman (Claude Akins), and the group won't settle for anything less than Trace's dead body.

Working off L'Amour's novel, the story is everything that can be right about a western.  Simple but effective, exciting and rarely boring.  For all the flaws here, there is potential, much of it in how the chase and hunt are handled.  Characters are ruthless, and their actions often show a complete disregard for anything but the moment at hand.  A fight between Hunter's Trace and a cowboy/gunman played by Earl Holliman is particularly brutal in a knock-down, drag 'em out fight that leaves the viewer feeling like they were part of the fight.  The same for the finale between Trace and Jack as the two basically fist-fight their way down a mountain.  The ending is a little weird though because Homeier's Jack seems to just float away down a river without explanation.

One part casted badly is one thing, but a second and third all but doom a movie.  As mentioned, I can't completely fault Wood for someone else choosing her and casting her as a teenage Mexican girl.  But that said, the part is pretty awful.  Then there's her relationship with Hunter, that perfect kind of movie falling in love relationship where two people fall in love minutes after meeting because of the extremes of the situation they meet.  As for Hunter, he's too vanilla for the part he's playing.  He's not really bad or really good in the lead, he's just there, and that's it.  The western hero needs some sort of edge, and it just isn't here with the part as played by Hunter.

Where the lead is pretty plain, the villain is laughably evil.  Homeier was in a string of successful westerns in the 1950s, usually in a supporting role.  As the villainous Jack Sutton, he's laughable and looks to be auditioning for the part of the original gay caballero.  Decked out in an all black outfit -- leather vest included -- he isn't intimidating at all and any attempts at being that feared bad guy produce laughs, not goosebumps.  It'd be like a meek librarian, glasses perched on his nose, yelling at you.  Some other parts include an underused Akins as the foreman, and Eduard Franz as Jacob Lantz, a Ute tracker leading the posse.  A German actor playing an American Indian, just one more odd choice in a long list from this western.

An overall pretty bad attempt at a star vehicle for rising stars Hunter and Wood, this one bored me to tears.  A few supporting parts make it at least bearable to watch with some exciting, well-choreographed fight scenes, but not much else to go on here.  Watch it at Youtube, starting with Part 1 of 9.   

The Burning Hills (1956): * 1/2 /****