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Posted: |
Jun 19, 2012 - 3:07 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE DESERTER was a 1971 western released by Paramount. The film concerns a cavalry officer who deserts because he feels the Army was responsible for his wife’s death. But when marauding Apaches set up a stronghold just out of the cavalry's reach in Mexico, the officer is given amnesty in exchange for leading a small band of especially trained soldiers to wipe out the Indian stronghold.
The film starred Bekim Fehmiu, a Yugoslavian actor whose breakout film in the U.S. had been his starring role in 1970’s THE ADVENTURERS (based on the Harold Robbins novel). Still not widely known in America (THE ADVENTURERS had not been a success), Fehmiu was supported by a large cast of better-known stars, including John Huston, Richard Crenna, Ricardo Montalban, Ian Bannen, and Brandon de Wilde, as well as such western stalwarts as Chuck Connors, Slim Pickins, Woody Strode, Albert Salmi, and Patrick Wayne.
The name cast bespoke grand ambitions for this western, and indeed the film had been conceived on a larger scale than it ultimately ended up being. An August 1968 Hollywood Reporter news item noted that the film was to be produced by Norman Baer and Skip Steloff as a joint Heritage Pictures and Selmur Pictures production. The item added that the production was to be filmed as a multi-million dollar road-show attraction. But by February 1969, Baer had purchased all the rights and Steloff was no longer involved (although his company, Heritage, is still listed in the onscreen credits). Baer was later joined by co-producer Ralph Serpe. Financing was arranged with Dino De Laurentiis, and ultimately the film became (as stated in the closing credits) "An Italo-Jugoslav Co-Production, Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica, S.p.A. Rome, Jadran Film--Zagreb In association with Heritage Enterprises, Inc."
When filming began on 10 September 1969, the picture was titled “The Devil’s Backbone,” a title that it retained in its Italian language version (“La Spina Dorsale del Diavolo”). Filming continued through late December 1969 in Almeria, Spain, and at Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica Studios in Rome. The film was directed by long-time western director Burt Kennedy, who already had such films under his belt as RETURN OF THE SEVEN (1966) and THE WAR WAGON (1967). Reportedly, a separate Italian version of the film was directed by Niska Fulgozi. It is likely that the numerous sequences in the film that have no dialogue were only filmed once and used in both versions. Another western veteran on the production was screenwriter Clair Huffaker. Huffaker had written such well-known westerns as THE COMANCHEROS, RIO CONCHOS, THE WAR WAGON, and 100 RIFLES.
By the time of post production, the title of the picture had changed to “The S.O.B.s.” Composer Piero Piccioni, while not exactly a western specialist, had done a few, such as MINNESOTA CLAY and the original SARTANA. Piccioni’s score was not released on LP at the time, only appearing later on a Legend CD, first in 1997 at 51 minutes, then in an expanded 75-minute version in 2010.
When the film finally opened in the U.S. in April 1971, the title had been changed again to THE DESERTER. But whatever the title, the critics agreed with Newsday’s Joseph Gelmis that the result was simply “another spaghetti western.” For New York’s Judith Crist, this “monstrosity” was “a poverty-program ‘dirty dozen’ on horseback.” The Village Voice’s Michael Kerbel called the picture a “bloodbath” that was so full of “clichés” that “the result is total absurdity.” Kerbel blamed Burt Kennedy’s “strained” direction: “He has no recognizable style, point of view, or personality . . . He tries so desperately to be serious that we end up laughing.” Even Variety, which usually is more forgiving of good efforts, termed it “a routine programmer, long on scenery and explosive effects, but short on direction, acting and writing.” Only Howard Thompson of the New York Times was positive about the film, calling it “a solid, graphic job by Hollywood professionals that holds interest all the way.”
THE DESERTER has not been well-served on video. In 1992, a cassette was issued on the Paramount-Gateway label. This was a pan-and-scan version of the Panavision film, issued on tape in the extended play (rather than the standard play) mode. The tape was recorded in a proprietary process called “Master Sharp,” which purported to give EP tapes the same clarity as SP tapes. Having seen that tape, I can’t say that it did, although tracking seemed to be less of a problem than with your normal EP tape. This Paramount tape was the full 99 minute theatrical version.
Although onscreen credits include a 1970 copyright statement for Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica, S.p.A., THE DESERTER was not registered for copyright. Perhaps that’s why the film later showed up as a budget tape on the JTC label under the title “Ride To Glory,” at 94 minutes. There has also been a PAL DVD out of Australia under the original THE DESERTER title, reportedly at 92 minutes.
 
As far as I can determine, both of these versions are also pan-and-scan. Regarding the film’s length, Variety noted that “Frank Santillo edited to a sluggish 99 minutes, just right for television licensing—although somebody will have to clean up the ‘authentic’ he-man salty expressions.” Perhaps these shorter versions are edited television prints of the GP-rated film.
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Posted: |
Jun 20, 2012 - 1:57 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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DADDY’S GONE A-HUNTING was a 1969 thriller released by National General Pictures. The film was produced by Red Lion Productions, which was producer-director Mark Robson’s production company. DADDY’S GONE A-HUNTING was Robson’s first film after 1967’s VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, a film that was critically disparaged. DADDY’S GONE A-HUNTING seemed a likely fit for Robson, who had gotten his start editing and then directing suspense films for Val Lewton. It was also the next film for screenwriter Lorezo Semple, Jr. after he had won a New York Film Critics award for his script for 1968’s PRETTY POISON. Semple and Larry Cohen developed the screenplay for DADDY’S GONE A-HUNTING from a story idea by Cohen.
According to the Los Angeles Times, producers originally sought Marlo Thomas, Candice Bergen or Jane Fonda for the starring role that ultimately went to Carol White. White was a British actress who had made her U.S. film debut the previous year in John Frankenheimer’s THE FIXER (1968). DADDY’S GONE A-HUNTING was her first film actually shot in America. Supporting White were Scott Hylands (making his film debut), Paul Burke, and Mala Powers. Location scenes for DADDY’S GONE A-HUNTING were shot in San Francisco. The musical score was by John Williams, who also provided a title song with lyrics by Dory Previn (sung by Lyn Roman). It remains one of Williams’ few unreleased scores.
DADDY’S GONE A-HUNTING opened in Columbus Ohio on 2 July 1969 and generally found itself rejected by the critics. The Washington Post’s Gary Arnold was particularly critical of the “stupefying lines” given to the characters, claiming that “the writing is so slack that it’s impossible to engender any suspense.” The New York Times’s Vincent Canby, however, placed the blame for the film’s failure on the director. “Mark Robson makes movies the way other men build walls out of cement blocks—methodically and with heavy materials.” And yet other critics faulted the tastelessness of the film’s subject matter, with New York’s Judith Crist labeling it “a dreary suspense-murder movie of the rip-the-wings-off-the-flies-school” and Cue’s William Wolf claiming that “the ugliness in this shocker is upsetting.”
A few critics defended the film. The Los Angels Times called it “spine-tingling hair-raising escapist entertainment” and felt that “The film is a miracle of economy. There is nothing in it that isn’t absolutely essential to the telling of the story, and best of all no opportunity to use images instead of words is overlooked.” And Roger Ebert felt that the film “does work, very well, and that it’s a tribute to the power of the genre.” But overall, the majority of critics sided with the San Francisco Chronicle’s John L. Wasserman, who said that “The dialogue is bad, the acting is uneven, and certain plot twists ask to be accepted on faith. It is not entirely ineffective, but there are many more occasions to moan than to cheer.”
DADDY’S GONE A-HUNTING was released as a made-on-demand DVD by the Warner Archive in May 2010. It’s also available to rent or buy as a download.
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Posted: |
Jun 20, 2012 - 2:55 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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STRANGE IMPERSONATION-45- the one of a string of INNER SANCTUM films with LON CHANEY JR-that was not shown to death in syndication [local stations] in America in the 70's, of course in recent history none of those INNER SANCTUM films are shown on TV, was on MCA video in the 90's.Any comments?
Dan:
I think you're probably thinking of the film STRANGE CONFESSION, which was the fifth entry in Universal's "Inner Sanctum" series, and was re-released in 1953 as THE MISSING HEAD.
STRANGE IMPERSONATION, on the other hand, was a suspense drama released in 1946 by Republic Pictures. The film was directed by Anthony Mann, who, although he had had a previous fling with the “noir” genre in THE GREAT FLAMARION (1945), would with this film began a string of noir classics which arguably are unrivaled for artistry and technique. These were 1947’s DESPERATE and RAILROADED!, 1948’s RAW DEAL and T-MEN, and 1949’s BORDER INCIDENT and SIDE STREET. Mann would later switch to westerns, teaming with Jimmy Stewart for such 1950s classics as WINCHESTER’73, THE NAKED SPUR, and THE MAN FROM LARAMIE. He would finally end his career with epics such as EL CID and THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
STRANGE IMPERSONATION starred veteran actors Brenda Marshall and William Gargan. They were supported by Hillary Brooke and George Chandler. The film concerned a research scientist (Marshall) whose face is horribly disfigured in a so-called accident. Plastic surgery allows her to unravel the mystery behind that incident and to seek revenge. According to an April 1945 Hollywood Reporter news item, the picture was to be shot at the Chaplin Studio, but it has not been determined if shooting took place there. The film was released on 16 March 1946.
I don’t know what contemporary critics thought of the film, but modern ones tend to enjoy it. Leonard Maltin gives the film three stars and says that “Marshall gives a first rate performance.” He also terms it “perhaps the definitive Hillary Brooke movie.” CombustibleCelluloid.com calls it “too interesting to write off.” But blogger Dennis Schwartz (“Ozu’s Movie World”) says that the film “leaves a bad impression, giving few clues to [Mann’s] future greatness” Nevertheless, the consensus seems to agree with Jamie S. Rich (DVDTalk) who, although faulting the ending, says that “The film lacks any lofty pretensions whatsoever, and on a purely visceral level, I was loving every minute.”
STRANGE IMPERSONATION was released on cassette and DVD in 2000 by Kino Video. It is also available for rent or purchase as a download.
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Posted: |
Jun 21, 2012 - 4:44 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE MARRIAGE OF A YOUNG STOCKBROKER is a 1971 comedy-drama starring Richard Benjamin, Joanna Shimkus, Elizabeth Ashley, and Adam West. The film marked producer Lawrence Turman's directorial debut. Among the films he had produced in his then ten-year career were the highly successful 1967 film, THE GRADUATE, and that same year’s THE FLIM-FLAM MAN.
In THE MARRIAGE OF A YOUNG STOCKBROKER, Benjamin plays a stockbroker who is stuck in a dreary job and a marriage that's become a dull routine. To cope with the boredom and frustration, he resorts to voyeurism and extra-marital affairs. The film was based upon a 1970 novel of the same name by Charles Webb, who had also wriiten the novel “The Graduate.” The script was by Lorenzo Semple, Jr. who had already written the theatrical Adam West BATMAN film (1966) and Anthony Perkins PRETTY POISON (1968). Semple would go on to write such notable films as PAPILLON, THE PARALLAX VIEW, and THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR.
Fred Karlin scored the film, and penned a song, "Can It Be True," with lyrics by Tylwyth Kymry. The song is heard intermittently throughout the film, sung by Linda Ronstadt.
The film shot from 12 October to mid-December 1970, at various locations in California, among them the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. The brokerage firm sequences were filmed in a recently vacated Francis I. duPont & Co. branch office in Beverly Hills, and interior scenes within a beach house were shot in an actual beach house at Shaw's Cove in Laguna Beach. Laslo Kovacs (EASY RIDER, FIVE EASY PIECES) was the cinematographer.
The film was released by Twentieth Century Fox and opened in New York on 19 August 1971. Nearly every critic disliked the film. Time’s Jay Cocks wrote that the ‘limp’ film was “neither facile nor as funny as THE GRADUATE, and Richard Benjamin comes off like a dry-cleaned Dustin Hoffmann.” Newsweek called it “an embarrassing strike-out.” Saturday Review’s Hollis Alpert thought Semple’s dialogue “so unreal that one wonders why they made the thing.” While Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called the film “really boring,” some positive notes were struck by the New Republic’s Stanley Kauffmann who believed the film to be “modestly competent” and argued that “the tedium is the message.” And Variety called it a “hilarious, human and touching film.” But most reviewers sided with Molly Haskell of the Village Voice who felt that the film seemed “antiquated, cashing in on winds of fashion that have already blown out to sea.”
The failure of THE MARRIAGE OF A YOUNG STOCKBROKER must have given Lawrence Turman second thoughts about directing. He returned to producing, and his later productions included THE DROWNING POOL (1975), SHORT CIRCUIT (1986), and AMERICAN HISTORY X (1998). He would direct only once more, on 1983’s aptly titled SECOND THOUGHTS.
THE MARRIAGE OF A YOUNG STOCKBROKER was released on tape by Magnetic Video in the early days of VHS, but has not resurfaced on any format since. Perhaps it will finally show up as a made-on-demand DVD under the new Fox Cinema Archives program.
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Posted: |
Jun 22, 2012 - 3:25 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE SEVEN MINUTES
Noted sex film director Russ Myer made his first film for a major studio in 1970 with BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. That X-rated film was as notorious for its sex, violence, and nudity as his second studio film, also for Twentieth Century Fox, was notable for its complete lack of notoriety. According to Meyer, THE SEVEN MINUTES was his first film that did not make sex the focal point, and it was the first of Meyer’s films to use well-known actors.
THE SEVEN MINUTES starred Wayne Maunder, Marianne McAndrew, Philip Carey and Yvonne De Carlo in a story involving the trial of a book dealer accused of selling an obscene novel. The cast was filled out by such well-known character actors as Lyle Bettger, John Carradine, Jay C, Flippen, and Harold J. Stone, as well as an unknown, young Tom Selleck. Others having smaller parts included Edy Williams (the wife of Meyer from 1970 to 1975), Sally Marr (the mother of the late Lenny Bruce), and disc jockey Wolfman Jack. THE SEVEN MINUTES marked the feature film debuts of Wayne Maunder and John Sarno, who subsequently appeared mostly in television shows. Jay C. Flippen died a couple of weeks after shooting THE SEVEN MINUTES, which marked his final film.
The film was based on a novel by Irving Wallace, whose other filmed novels included THE CHAPMAN REPORT (1962) and THE PRIZE (1963). Wallace sold the film rights to his book prior to its completion as the second of a three-book agreement with Twentieth Century-Fox. The book was published in 1969, and the studio, which had the right of first refusal, bought the book. Initially, Richard Fleischer was set to direct the film, and planned to hire a “stag film” producer to ensure that THE SEVEN MINUTES was authentic.
After the success of BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, Russ Meyer had been offered a three-picture deal by Fox. By May 1970, it was reported that Meyer had been commissioned to make THE SEVEN MINUTES, and that Richard Warren Lewis had submitted a treatment and would complete the first draft of the script by early June. The screenplay was adapted from Wallace's novel by Lewis, who is credited onscreen, and Meyer’s assistant, Manny Diez. Meyer, whose previous low-budget exploitation films had frequently been subjected to litigation, claimed that the novel “exposes the greed and hypocrisy in censorship.” In interviews, Meyer stated his belief that censorship from outside the industry was mostly politically motivated by people wanting to win elections and who play on the fears of parents. Filming took place from 14 October 1970 to mid-January 1971.
Stu Philips scored the film, and along with Bob Stone wrote three songs for the film: “Seven Minutes” (sung by B.B. King), “Love Train” (sung by Don Reed), and “Midnight Tricks” (sung by Merryweather & Carey). Excerpts from other well-known songs were used in the soundtrack as commentary on the action of the film, among them: “The Caissons Go Rolling Along” was played during a sequence in "Elmo's" (Philip Carey’s) office as he stood in front of a portrait of General Douglas MacArthur; “Far Above Cayuga’s Waters” was heard in a scene set in a university professor’s office; “Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head” was used during a hotel poolside meeting of characters; the sleazy character “Merle Reid” (Ron Randall) plays “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing” on the piano; and hymns and organ music are heard during sequences in which Elmo meets with “Cardinal McManus” (David Brian).
THE SEVEN MINUTES opened in New York on 23 July 1971 and ran into a critical buzzsaw. The San Francisco Chronicle’s John L. Wasserman noted that “taking away sex, nudity, and violence from Russ Myer is like taking away Roget’s Thesaurus from Spiro Agnew.” The Los Angeles Times’ Kevin Thomas found the film to be “tedious” and “far longer on talk than action.” Time magazine’s Jay Cocks charged that even Meyer’s “usual cinematic stunts (blisteringly fast cutting) and visual diversions (actresses constructed like Goodyear blimps)” failed to salvage this “tepid” film. A few reviewers found some merit in the film, like the Village Voice’s Richard Corliss who praised Meyer for delivering “a well-wrought, highly entertaining, sensible, close adaptation of a riveting courtroom drama” that resembled “a satisfying ‘70s equivalent to the programmers of Hollywood’s halcyon age.” But the vast majority of critics agreed with New York’s Judith Crist that THE SEVEN MINUTES was “so diluted by banality, bad acting and worse writing as to be worthless.”
THE SEVEN MINUTES was Russ Meyer’s first (and perhaps only) commercial failure. It also ended his deal with Fox. He would go back to making low-budget exploitation features for the rest of his career. The film has never been issued on any video format in the U.S. In 1973, the film was cut from 116 minutes to 103 minutes and was re-rated from R to PG by the MPAA. About 5 years ago, when the American Film Institute went looking for a print of the film to view for its cataloging project, only the 103-minute version could be found. Perhaps the 116-minute version no longer exists, and may never be seen again.
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