Author Topic: Once Upon a March in the West - 2021  (Read 10069 times)

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Once Upon a March in the West - 2021
« Reply #30 on: March 02, 2021, 07:27:53 AM »
Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966 William Beaudine)

I watched a very poor print on plex.tv. Sort of fitting given the low quality of the film.

Opening with 3 people sleeping at the side of a wagon and a bat flies in and Dracula (played by John Carradine) zeroes on of the young woman of the group. A terrible under lighting of his face with yellow lights.

Unusual for an American film of this time, some characters spoke German several times, with no particular comment on it in the film, they were just immigrants. Nice to hear other accents in a western.

Definitely a western, horse riding, gun shooting, and fist fights. In the end the script was passable, the acting patchy (Carradine was very hammy), but it had reasonable B-movie bones to it. Not for most people, but not as bad as I expected.

Rating: 65 / 100

1SO

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Re: Once Upon a March in the West - 2021
« Reply #31 on: March 02, 2021, 07:59:37 AM »


Murphy and Scott are closely associated with the genre, but have very few films you could call great. Often, they were a dependable presence on a project made fast and cheap. They loved to suggest a darkness that was maybe pulling them to the bad side, but would almost always do the right thing and follow an unnaturally high moral code when it mattered. Besides that, they couldn’t be more different. Scott was leathered and full of experience while Murphy always looked and sounded like a teenager, his characters were often in over his head. Their films may not compare with the more popular Westerns, but how do they stack up against each other?



Hangman’s Knot (1952)
“You got any plans?”
“We go out shooting.”

This benefits most from the danger of Lee Marvin, playing the untrustworthy partner in Scott's group. The film could’ve used more of him, though the writing quickly runs out of ideas and stoops low to having Marvin sexually assault Donna Reed. Reed seems largely unhappy to be in this film. She has no chemistry with Scott, but she has no chemistry with anybody. The story is largely a standoff, with Scott’s gang holding down a cabin of friends and foes from outside forces. It’s not long enough to feel like a filmed play, but the confined space restricts excitement.
RATING: ★ ★




The Guns of Fort Petticoat (1957)
”Better than any three men, Lieutenant,
Any three men.”

This can’t compete with Westward the Women, but it doesn’t need to for this Marathon. Bringing along Westward’s great Hope Emerson, the script approaches true feminist revision a number of times, but just as often resorts to hysterical, helpless female cliché. Murphy has to assume a command position, and he’s up to the task, shouting orders to hide his own worries.
RATING: ★ ★ ½

ROUND ONE: Audie Murphy
« Last Edit: March 02, 2021, 08:01:42 AM by 1SO »

Corndog

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Re: Once Upon a March in the West - 2021
« Reply #32 on: March 02, 2021, 09:14:30 AM »
I've been going back through the Pixar films as another quarantine project with the wife (sorry 1SO, I can't write up everything I watch), but recently had the thought spurred by Toy Story with Buzz "replacing" Woody and wondered whether it was a known theory/reality. Did the space race, etc. effectively end the interest in westerns and shift focus to sci-fi in the 60s? It seems to line up with westerns starting to die out in the 60s from their peak in the 50s, and I know a lot more sci-fi films came about in the 60s forward.

Would love to hear the thoughts of the group here, and whether there is content out there about this phenomenon.
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Re: Once Upon a March in the West - 2021
« Reply #33 on: March 02, 2021, 09:50:44 AM »
I looked up the Wild Wild West TV Series to see if it had the same blend of Sci-fi and Western as the movie, but reading about it suggests James Bond might've had as much to do with the death of the genre as the space race.

Corndog

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Re: Once Upon a March in the West - 2021
« Reply #34 on: March 02, 2021, 12:19:00 PM »
Vera Cruz (Robert Aldrich, 1954)

I know that I took a long break on the trail there, but it still feels like it has been a very long time since we’ve been treated to a Gary Cooper western. Cooper has been one of the stars of this first third or so of the marathon, bringing his silent movie sensibilities to the rough and tumble genre in the sound era. He is stoic, quiet, earnest. His performances are not the showiest, but he inhabits the characters and makes them his own, drenched in his patented on screen persona. Meanwhile, we’ve not yet seen the great Burt Lancaster on the scene here yet. So to get a film, Vera Cruz, which pairs the two is a great joy. We’ll also see that this is a film chock full of western legends, but while Lancaster may not have dabbled in the genre as much as some of the other names in this film, he is such a superstar actor and presence in any movie, that it was a joy to watch Vera Cruz and his arrival in a cowboy hat and pistol.

After the Civil War, many soldiers found their way down to Mexico in support of the war raging there. Often these soldiers were without a cause other than money or thrills. Ben (Gary Cooper) is one such soldier, who, after his horse goes lame, meets fellow American Joe Erin (Burt Lancaster), and eventually falls in with his men (Jack Elam, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson). The group encounters the rebellious General Ramirez, but ultimately decides the help the sitting Emperor Maximilian (George Macready) instead, helping guard and transport the Countess Marie (Denise Darcel) to the port town of Vera Cruz. Along the way, Ben and Joe discover that the real reason for the trip is not to the fashion houses of Paris, but to bring gold to the French in hopes of garnering their support. Eventually their wagon train is confronted by General Ramirez and the Juaristas and Ben and Joe must decide what is important to them.

What struck me most about this film is simply the star power. I knew going in we would see Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, but I was not expecting all the other great names that showed up throughout. Some of them had very small parts, but I think in some ways it was a sign of things to come in the next generation of western stars, which is a perfect representation of the two stars as well. Cooper at this point is aging and at the tail end of his career, and he’s passing the torch so to speak to Lancaster. That being said, Cooper still owns this movie; this is Cooper’s movie, not Lancaster’s. He is just so monumental and a telling presence on screen. Cooper’s performance reflects this too, back to his same old stoicism that fits in perfect juxtaposition to Lancaster’s permanent smile. Like, seriously, Lancaster manages to maintain a smile throughout the entire film and instead of feeling rigid and unnatural, it adds a certain element to the character that seems fitting. He comes across as an evil, conniving version of Errol Flynn, who in my mind was also always smiling in his movies.

That being said, the smile is actually quite menacing for a few reasons. This is a fun adventure movie about mercenaries, but these mercenaries are thrill seekers who like and seek out violence. So when you have a character like Ben who seems to be a little more wholesome, though he is also a gun for hire, and then a character like Joe who seems to really enjoy fighting, to the point that they hold children hostage to get out of a spot, the smile just adds to that evil. He’s enjoying himself. But at the same time, I think I left the film more on Ben’s side than Joe’s, and likely by design to position Cooper as the “hero”, but he’s really not a good man either. He may be wandering, unsure of what to make of his life after the South lost the Civil War, but he is seeking out this mercenary work. He is choosing to go after the gold instead of protecting the woman he was hired to escort to Vera Cruz. I don’t know what we’ve seen a movie this evil and full of bad characters before. In that regard, this is a pretty monumental film in the marathon, knowing that some of the films coming in the 60s relish in the evil, gratuitous violence that influenced Quentin Tarantino and his modern films.

Now it’s certainly not to the degree we will see later on. The direct violence itself is not shocking or particularly gruesome, but the premise and assumed violence set the stage for later films while also making this one more palatable. I would not usually by default take to an overly violent film about bad men, being very hit or miss on the films and style of Tarantino for instance, but I enjoyed Vera Cruz quite a bit for the actor showcase it was, which was not overshadowed. Cooper and Lancaster are truly great performers and it was marvelous to see them in a film together and work so well as a pair, working together while holding individuality entirely. I’d love to see more of not just these two in particular, but stories of similar western men who clash over their own bravado and brashness. In the end, the central story maybe felt not quite classic enough to elevate my ranking of this film above three stars, but it’s one I liked a whole awful lot for the different things it does to approach the genre, and the two outstanding central performances.

★ ★ ★ - Like It
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1SO

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Re: Once Upon a March in the West - 2021
« Reply #35 on: March 02, 2021, 01:16:25 PM »
I'm a big fan of this one. Antares, not so much.

Smiling isn't acting Burt!

Most of Lancaster's westerns are overrated to bad. The Professionals (1966) is a popular favorite and most people like Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), but I think that's because of the chemistry between him and Kirk Douglas. Lawman (1971) is a recent Discovery of mine, so I like to mention that when possible. I see all three are on your list.

This is a great Star Power film, but until your review I didn't notice how this starts the ball rolling towards For a Few Dollars More. I know you saw that one, years ago. It has a similar anti-John Wayne attitude of gunfights whose skill makes them mythic warrior types. One is a little bad and the other is a little worse. It matches this film because Eastwood and Van Cleef are on the same side... when it suits them.

Corndog

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Re: Once Upon a March in the West - 2021
« Reply #36 on: March 02, 2021, 03:28:01 PM »
Haha, love the "smiling is not acting take", but it worked for me. He dialed the charm up to 11.

Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955)

Westerns are traditionally set in the time period between the Civil War and turn of the century, with frontier stories of settling the Old or Wild West. But sometimes there is such a thing as a modern western, where the story takes place in the present day but features some desolate western landscapes, or more commonly known western tropes. Modern westerns are extra interesting because the dynamic of setting them in present day allows the filmmakers and storytellers a unique opportunity to make a genre film in the traditional sense, but also speak directly to the modern culture and political climate. There doesn’t need to be any stand-ins for the point their making. Of course, this can be a detriment as well, handicapping them with a straightforward approach instead of a creative allegory, or compelling circumstance.

Macreedy (Spencer Tracy) is a one-armed World War II veteran, having served time in Italy, who takes the train out to a remote California desert town called Black Rock, a place the train never stops. He’s in search of a Japanese farmed named Komoko, who was known to have lived in the area. Upon arrival, he makes acquaintance with the townspeople, trying to find direction or help to find Komoko. He checks into the local hotel, where he runs into local rancher Reno (Robert Ryan) and his cronies (Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin) and the town Doc (Walter Brennan). Reno seems uninterested in helping Macreedy find his man. But after he manages to rent a jeep from Liz (Anne Francis), he drives out to Komoko’s old farm to find it deserted, burnt down, and with an unmarked grave nearby. He quickly must find alliances who will help him face Reno and the others, who show him quite obviously that he is not welcome in Black Rock.

There are a lot of elements to this movie which make it one that I loved. First, I’ll start with the location. It’s confined almost entirely to a single sleepy desert town with very few buildings and townspeople. It’s a highly effective way to heighten and quicken the tension between Macreedy and the others, stuck in close proximity to one another. Sure, I might question the specific existence of a town like this one, seemingly plopped into the middle of the desert with very little meaningful surrounding it. How does the economy work here? Perhaps that’s the point, the attraction for these residents. Another great thing about the film is that it’s contained in a single day, a literal “bad day at Black Rock”. It’s just another tool on John Sturges’ toolbelt to build the tension and suspense. We don’t know who Komoko is, and even when we find out, the mystery still surrounds him with what happened, what is Reno hiding, why is Black Rock defending itself from a friendly visitor?

The cast and ensemble performance is also pretty great, led by Spencer Tracy who is a cool customer, and unencumbered by his handicap. Unflappable, he faces everything that Reno and the townspeople can throw at him. But on top of Tracy, we get to see Borgnine (again) and Lee Marvin, who will factor in significantly in the marathon in future. Their thug sidekicks are icy and intimidating, but the fight between Borgnine and Tracy is particularly telling of just who Macreedy is and what he is after. He doesn’t put up their bullshit and is unfazed by their intimidation tactics. The always delightful Walter Brennan as the Doc is once again delightful, but maybe to a lesser, more sidelined degree. Really it was just an absolute joy to see all of these players interact and come together in a small, self-contained story with stunning CinemaScope vistas in a dirty, dusty noir-modern western. Highly recommend.

★ ★ ★ ★ - Love It
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Re: Once Upon a March in the West - 2021
« Reply #37 on: March 03, 2021, 11:42:29 PM »

The Wife's Wild West



The Train Robbers (1973)
“Anyone starts crossing that river before
we’re out of sight…baptize ‘em.”

I’ve got a soft spot for Burt Kennedy. He directed Support Your Local Sheriff! and The War Wagon. He also wrote many of Budd Boetticher’s best films, like Comanche Station and 7 Men from Now. Roger Ebert was one of many critics who hated him and as a treat, I’m going to paste some vicious writing at the end. He writes and directs this no-nonsense story that goes from Point A to Point B with 20 killers hot on the trail of our heroes, who reach their destination and return to Point A for the final showdown. Reminded me of Fury Road, but here it’s to keep the story simple and the budget low. Meanwhile, old John Wayne spouts cowboy wisdom like they were planning to see tee shirts.

You'll find yourself standing your ground and fighting when you ought to run,
speaking out when you ought to keep your mouth shut, doing things
that seem wrong to a lot of people but you'll do them all the same.
You're gonna spend the rest of your life getting' up one more time
when you're knocked down, so you better start getting used to it.

For late period Wayne, this is one of the better ones. His best friend is Ben Johnson, a great, quiet sidekick. There’s Christopher George, so great in El Dorado. Ricardo Montalban is a wordless tracker. Ann-Margret looks like the weak link, but she holds her own with these old cowboys. The wife expected her and Wayne to click despite him being twice her age because that’s what these films do. They work up some light flirting before he ends the possibility with the line ”I got a saddle that’s older than you are.”


Kennedy’s direction is pretty elegant, with some great widescreen frames that show he’s at least watched Once Upon a Time in the West a few times. It’s a little slow and thin for a feature length, but a smooth ride all the way.
RATING: ★ ★ ★ - Okay


And now, as promised…

Quote from: RogerEbert
"Support Your Local Gunfighter" was directed by Burt Kennedy, whose continued employment during a period of depression in Hollywood is a first-class mystery. His films can be recommended, I suppose, for students of cinematography. It's hard sometimes to see how good directors get their camera effects, because good directors are subtle. But I imagine you could learn a lot about camera movement by watching how Burt Kennedy DOESN'T get his effects.

It takes genius to make great comedy. But it should only take competence and an elementary sense of timing to make routine comedy. Kennedy doesn't climb that high on the step ladder of wit. Anyone who knows enough about a joke to put the punch line at the end could direct a funnier movie than this one. Why have we deserved, in 1971, a Western comedy during which we're supposed to laugh because the characters call a mule a jackass? ... The repeated pronunciation of the noun "Jackass," and its occasional use as an adjective, represent the comedic high point of the Kennedy directorial style. He reaches, but he doesn't grasp.
« Last Edit: March 03, 2021, 11:52:53 PM by 1SO »

Antares

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Re: Once Upon a March in the West - 2021
« Reply #38 on: March 04, 2021, 08:00:47 PM »
Sergeant Rutledge (1960) 50/100 - For the life of me I cannot understand the amount of respect and admiration afforded to John Ford by cinephiles around the world. For every good film he made, you have to endure half a dozen mediocre or truly bad films. This one falls somewhere between mediocre and bad, the only saving grace being Woody Strode's performance as the title character. The rest of the cast have all kicked up an extra notch in histrionics and over the top melodramatics. One of the key roles in the film is the prosecuting attorney Captain Shattuck, played by Carleton Young. The name may not sound familiar, but two years later, in a much better Ford western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, he utters the best line of dialog in the film; "No, sir. This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." But here it seems like he had spent a few too many nights with a grandchild watching Snidely Whiplash from the Dudley Do-Right segments of the Rocky & Bulwinkle Show. If he had worn a mustache, I expect he would have twirled it a few times when he hurled accusations at Rutledge on the stand. While I applaud Ford for taking a stance against racial inequality, all while segregation was the standard in a good portion of the country, one has to wonder why he felt the need to have one of the minor characters seem as if he was one of Stepin Fetchit's ancestors. It was as if Ford just couldn't go all in on the storyline and had to have one minstrel type character to appease those with small minds. As the film was winding down I felt myself asking the question, "How could he make such a seminal western two years later, when it appears his directing abilities are on life support here?" I have six more Ford westerns to sit through in the next few weeks and I thought that this was going to be the best of the bunch. Well, you know what they say about one rotten apple in a bunch. I hope I'm wrong.
Masterpiece (100-91) | Classic (90-80) | Entertaining (79-69) | Mediocre (68-58) | Cinemuck (57-21) | Crap (20-0)

1SO

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Re: Once Upon a March in the West - 2021
« Reply #39 on: March 04, 2021, 10:11:49 PM »
My review.

For a long time, I looked at John Ford's direction the way you do. It isn't just the hokum, Ford presents things in an unnatural, theatrical manner. He doesn't compose a great frame, he frames it and hangs it over the fireplace so everyone looking has no choice but to say what a great image it is. I joined this forum with that attitude and time changed me. (If I had to name a film it would be Young Mr. Lincoln.) The very qualities that I used to call John Ford films phony became the qualities that endeared me to them. Sergeant Rutledge has a joke about a water pitcher that's supposed to contain alcohol. It's as old as vaudeville, but it's an old fashioned humor I found comforting in such an uncomfortable film.

I think 3 Bad Men will be the best of the bunch to you.
3 Godfathers will be the worst as it slowly sinks into Ford-style quicksand, though you might struggle more with Cheyenne Autumn because it's so damn long.