Month: January 2022

In the days following the Civil War, Union colonel John Wayne leads his men west to gather and sell wild horses while his counterpart Confederate colonel Rock Hudson, disgusted with the actions of carpetbaggers in the south, gathers his family and neighbors to caravan to Mexico to help the French in their invasion. The two groups meet on their disparate paths south. As a fan of Hudson, he was the main draw for me to watch this film, but from a modern perspective, his character is fairly dislikable in the film. In fact, the film glorifies the Southern cause to uncomfortable degrees. I preferred John Wayne’s character here over some of his other work I’ve seen, but even he was uncomfortably sympathetic to the Confederates.    

In 1971, An American Family, considered by many to be the first reality show, aired on PBS. This film is a spoof on that concept. Albert Brooks, as a version of himself, is intent on filming the activities of an ordinary American family of four, headed by Charles Grodin, 24 hours a day for an entire year. Rather quickly this intrusion into the family’s lives disintegrates whatever bonds the family originally had and the project itself implodes. It’s an amusingly quaint view of what reality shows could potentially come told from the naïve views of someone who couldn’t even comprehend how intrusive, outlandish, and ubiquitous they would become.  

Directed by and starring the late great Sidney Poitier, here he is a widowed American doctor vacationing in London with his daughter. There he meets beautiful, but mysterious Ester Anderson who it turns out is the niece of an African ambassador. The two fall in love, but there are a number of complications to get in the way of their happiness. It reminds me a lot of Autumn in New York, except it’s actually good. The leads are both appealing characters and they have fantastic chemistry with each other. I love the 1970s costume design and touches of ambiguous, generic ‘African’ culture. The only weak point is the child actor, but they unfortunately often are.  

When the woman who has hitched a ride with him is murdered, detective Mike Hammer, played by Ralph Meeker, decides to investigate with the help of his girlfriend/secretary Maxine Cooper. The pair soon find themselves mixed in a conspiracy involving top secret governmental experiments. I enjoy the settings, especially Hammer’s swinging bachelor pad and various Los Angeles locales such as Angels Flight. I always like a good MacGuffin, here in the form of a hot suitcase that leads to an explosive ending. The film is notable for featuring the debut of an unrecognizable to me Cloris Leachman. What I didn’t like in the film was the entire character of Hammer. I’ve never read any of the Mickey Spillane books, but the detective here is a hyper-masculine wreck who treats women and friends like easily discarded trash.  

An early telling of the Island of Dr. Moreau, shipwrecked Richard Arlen is stranded on the island with the good doctor, played by Charles Laughton, and a menagerie of creatures of questionable genesis. Laughton’s performance is wonderfully over the top and smarmy. He takes great delight in introducing his guest to his experiments, particularly the panther woman Kathleen Burke. While the production has a thoroughly 1930s feel, it’s definitely an elevation of the form from the make-up of the hybrids to the elaborate set designs. Overall, it’s a pretty good version of the story that was likely very influential in the future renditions.