THE BEST OF BOGART COLLECTION (The Maltese Falcon/ Casablanca/ The Treasure of the Sierra Madre/ The African Queen) -- Blu-ray review by porfle

 Originally posted on 3/28/14

 

When I made a list of my top 100 favorite actors a few years ago, the first three positions were pretty much a lock.  Number one, of course, was John Wayne.  Two--well, I'm a Bruce Willis fan from all the way back to "Moonlighting", and I even liked "Armageddon." 

But as for number three, there's only one actor who could knock either of them out of their slots at my slightest whim, and that's Bogart.  He invented cool, refined it, and perfected it to such a degree that nobody else could ever be quite that cool again. 

Now, Warner Home Video has brought four of Bogart's greatest and most varied performances together on Blu-ray with THE BEST OF BOGART COLLECTION, a four-disc set which contains "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), "Casablanca" (1942), "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948), and "The African Queen" (1951). 

Humphrey DeForest Bogart looked like he'd been around the block a few times and could take care of himself in a tough scrape, unlike a lot of the pretty-boy leading men who populated movie marquees then and now.  Which is ironic, since he started out as a male ingenue in film roles that were pure fluff. 

This prompted him to keep returning to his native New York and the stage, where he eventually landed the role of escaped killer Duke Mantee in the play "The Petrified Forest."  When this was slated to become a film, star Leslie Howard insisted that Bogart be cast as Mantee, and his chilling, tough-as-nails performance made him a movie star in the Warner Brothers gangster vein.

Bogart's screen persona wavered between no-nonsense good guy and fearsome bad guy, with sometimes a little of both.  If need be, he could also portray either a frightening psycho or a pathetic failure.  As an actor with a much broader range than one might first suspect, he could make any of these personas both convincing and compelling, with a nuance and intensity that few actors can ever achieve.  And there was something about that unforgettable face which seemed to express everything his character was thinking and feeling. 

One of the finest actors in the history of the medium, Humphrey Bogart's filmography contains several of the greatest movies ever made.  The best of these comprise quite a selection of Hollywood filmmaking at its peak as both an art form and a means of pure escapist entertainment.  


THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)

The first great "film noir" set the standard both storywise and in its impeccably exquisite visuals.  First-time director John Huston does a masterful job orchestrating his actors and crew to create a visual experience which is consistently involving and often dazzling. 

The film, shot mostly on interior sets, was brought in on budget and ahead of schedule despite Huston requesting an extra day of rehearsal for the film's climactic sequence, which takes place entirely within a single hotel room with almost all members of the main cast.  The complex character interactions and the way the tangled plot is meticulously resolved during this scene makes for some of the most breathlessly riveting cinema ever filmed.

Huston uses clever direction and camera movements to keep things from getting claustrophobic, and never once lets the pace drag.  His screenplay follows Dashiell Hammett's novel almost to the letter (the two earlier, inferior adaptations, 1931's "Dangerous Female" and the comedic "Satan Met a Lady" in 1936, didn't), and crackles with scintillating dialogue, intriguing plot twists, and relentlessly building suspense. 

Hammett's celebrated anti-hero Sam Spade is the perfect noir detective--brash, resourceful, self-assured, keenly intelligent, streetwise, tough but not infallible, and opportunistic.  He does have a moral code, one not easily compromised, and a motto that is rigidly enforced: "Never play the sap for anyone." 

The first person to try and use him is quintessential femme fatale Brigid O'Shaughnessy (exquisitely  played by Mary Astor), who hires San Francisco private detective Spade and his partner Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) to locate her missing sister along with a mystery man named Floyd Thursby.  When both Archer and Thursby turn up dead, it appears there's more to Brigid's story than she's letting on. 

Before long Spade discovers that she's after a priceless treasure known as the Maltese Falcon, for which she's in fierce competition against  "the Fat Man" Kaspar Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet) and the wily, effeminate Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre).  Spade must spar with these conniving characters while fending off police detectives Dundy and Polhaus (Barton MacLane, Ward Bond), who suspect him in the murders although the more genial Polhaus tends to side with Sam.  All in all, these actors comprise one of the finest casts ever assembled for a film.  (Look for John Huston's father Walter in a quick cameo as a fatally wounded ship's captain.)

Huston delights in working with these masterful performers as any artist deftly employs his chosen medium.  The dialogue scenes between Bogart and Greenstreet are a verbal delight (Gutman constantly admits his glowing admiration for the crafty Spade), while the utter dishonesty underlying Spade's love affair with Brigid gives it an air of perversion. 

Lorre's Joel Cairo, both dangerously scheming and amusingly fussy, is always fun to watch.  I love the scene in which Spade disarms and manhandles Cairo, whose main concern is expressed with the heated accusation "Look what you did to my shirt!"

Even young character actor Elisha Cook, Jr. gets to shine in the plum role of Gutman's "gunsel" Wilmer Cook, a callow trench-coated hood hiding his cowardice behind guns and tough talk.  (Dwight Frye played the part in the 1931 version.)  The ever-sharper Spade delights in yanking Wilmer's chain, and in one incredible closeup we see fat, glistening tears suspended in each of the young killer's eyes as he's overcome with burning frustration and impotent rage (another bravura touch by Huston).

But it's Bogart's show, and his performance is a pure delight.  We know Spade's a stand-up guy, yet the moment his partner's murdered he has the signs around the office changed from "Spade and Archer" to "Samuel Spade."  He's even having an affair with Archer's wife, Iva (Gladys George), but loses interest once he meets Miss O'Shaughnessy.  Yet we know he's an okay guy as long as his faithful gal Friday, Effie (Lee Patrick), still secretly loves him. 

In one delightful moment, after storming out of a tense encounter with Gutman and Wilmer in the Fat Man's swanky hotel room, Spade smiles when he realizes that his hand is shaking and his palms sweating.  Spade may be brave, but he still gets scared, a fact which both amuses and excites him.

This vintage detective yarn sizzles with suspense and excitement for viewers who are able to plug themselves into its high-voltage current.  For me, it took several viewings before I finally began to appreciate just what a finely-rendered thing of beauty it truly is.  Others (as some IMDb comments would indicate) seem to take a strange kind of pride in remaining immune to its charms, believing that such classics are revered by many simply because they're "old." 

But if it doesn't hit you right away, just keep watching and remain open to it.  Sooner or later, hopefully, THE MALTESE FALCON will weave its magic spell over you.  Like the rare and unique artifact of the title, it's "the stuff dreams are made of.

1080p High Definition 1.33:1, DTS-HD Master Audio: English 1.0, Dolby Digital: Espanol 1.0
Subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.

Special Features:

·         Commentary by Bogart Biographer Eric Lax
·         Featurette The Maltese Falcon: One Magnificent Bird
·         Breakdowns of 1941: Studio Blooper Reel
·         Makeup Tests
·         Becoming Attractions: The Trailers of Humphrey Bogart
·         Warner Night at the Movies
·         1941 Short Subjects Gallery
·         Audio-Only Bonus: 3 Radio Show Adaptions
·         Vintage art card


CASABLANCA (1942)

This is one of those films which we can now look back on as an undisputed classic in which everything seems to come together perfectly.  At the time, however, it was regarded by the studio as just another production, whose script, based on the unproduced play "Everyone Comes to Rick's", was being written on the fly and didn't even have a proper ending worked out until shortly before it was shot.

The story takes place in 1942 in the Vichy-controlled Moroccan city of Casablanca, which overflows with refugees desperately struggling to gain passage to America and elsewhere in the free world to escape Nazi encroachment in Europe .  Exiled American (and ex-freedom fighter) Rick Blaine, played to perfection by Bogart , runs a nightclub called "Rick's Café Américain" in which many of these people meet to buy and sell the hope for freedom. 

Also on hand is Rick's friend, Captain Louis Renault (THE INVISIBLE MAN's Claude Rains in one of his best performances), the head of the local police and an opportunist of the first order whose greatest pleasure is accepting bribes both monetary and sexual.  Renault openly admires Rick's similarly self-serving qualities and even displays a platonic crush on him ("If I were a woman, and I were not around, I should be in love with Rick," he admits). 

We wonder how Renault would react if Rick started reverting back to his old, noble self, especially in the presence of the vile German officer Major Heinrich Strasser (Conrad Veidt, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI,  THE MAN WHO LAUGHS), newly-arrived and on the trail of famed Czech resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henried). 

While Rick starts out as an anti-hero, he gradually and without really meaning to becomes more heroic as the story progresses.  Early on, Peter Lorre's oily Ugarte--who recently killed some German soldiers to attain two letters of transit to sell in Casablanca--begs Rick for help before he's captured ("Hide me, Rick!  Hide me!").  Rick's terse response: "I stick my neck out for nobody." 

And indeed, Rick seems grudgingly content to sit out the current world war as manager of his bustling nightclub until one night, when an old flame named Ilsa (the utterly radiant Ingrid Bergman) comes through the front door with her husband, none other than Victor Laszlo.  Rick, once an idealistic crusader himself but now cynical and disillusioned, has never forgiven Ilsa for inexplicably running out on him during the fall of Paris, at the height of their love affair--not knowing that Laszlo, whom they both thought dead, had turned up alive.

When Rick obtains the two letters of transit from Ugarte, he has the means of whisking Ilsa back to America with him and resuming their love affair while leaving Laszlo behind to carry on alone and devastated.  But will he do something so selfish and immoral?  Or regain his soul and commit the supreme act of sacrifice for the sake not only of Ilsa and her husband but of the free world itself?

This is the dilemma which gives CASABLANCA much of its power to effect us emotionally while simmering with a growing suspense.  As a film, everything clicks-- Michael Curtiz' sharp direction, the gorgeous black-and-white photography, great performances by a stellar cast, a powerful musical score by Max Steiner, and a story that's always totally engaging. 

Action and romance are perfectly balanced and compliment each other, while comedic touches abound, especially from the delightfully corruptible Renault,  the antics of Rick's eccentric staff (including S.Z. Sakall), and a fez-topped Sydney Greenstreet (again) as a competing club owner who wants to acquire Rick's place along with his loyal piano-playing band leader Sam (Dooley Wilson, who croons the classic "As Time Goes By"). 

But when Laszlo exhorts Sam and his band to strike up a stirring rendition of "La Marseillaise" in response to Strasser and his fellow German officers belting out "Die Wacht am Rhein", the move (which Rick okays with a subtle nod of his head) not only stirs the patriotic fervor of everyone else in the club but may bring the viewer to tears as well.  (Steiner uses this same anthem as a fanfare for his own musical credit during the main titles.)

The climax of the film takes place at the airport, a focal point for dreams of freedom throughout the story.  Rick now literally holds the ticket to a new life with Ilsa, who will join him if he asks her to.  Yet his newly reawakened sense of duty to humanity now fights for precedence.  Meanwhile Renault, his own duty to Strasser  putting him at odds with his friend, awaits Rick's decision. 

When the plane fires up its engines, Steiner's music swells, and there comes a stunning, perfectly-edited series of  closeups of Bogart,  Bergman, and Henried which generate a dramatic tension few films could ever attain.  It's pure, undiluted Hollywood magic at its most sublime, and the resolution which follows couldn't be more perfect.  CASABLANCA is an intricate jigsaw puzzle of seemingly disparate pieces which fit together to form a beautiful picture.

1080p High Definition 1.33:1, Dolby Digital: English 1.0, Francais 1.0 & Espanol 1.0
Subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.

Special Features:

·         Commentary by Roger Ebert
·         Commentary by Historian Rudy Behlmer
·         Introduction by Lauren Bacall
·         Additional Scenes & Outtakes
·         Scoring Session Outtakes
·         Bacall on Bogart
·         You Must Remember This: A Tribute to Casablanca
·         Featurette As Time Goes By: The Children Remember
·         Production Research Gallery
·         Homage Cartoon Carrotblanca
·         Who Hold Tomorrow? : Premiere Episode From 1955 Warner Bros. Presents TV Series Adaptation of Casablanca
·         Audio-Only Bonus: Radio Production with the Movie’s 3 Key Stars
·         Theatrical Trailers
·         Vintage art card


THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)

With this epic outdoor action-drama, based on a novel by enigmatic writer B. Traven,  Bogart once again joined with director John Huston and his father Walter for a grueling tale of the devastating effects of greed on average men.  During the film's arduous shoot in the wilds of Mexico, any hint of Hollywood glamour would soon become a distant memory. 

As Fred C. Dobbs, Bogart loses himself in one of his grittiest and least sympathetic roles.  Dobbs is an American stuck in a small Mexican town with no job or money, wandering the streets and begging for pesos.  (The younger Huston has a funny cameo as a well-to-do man Dobbs keeps hitting up for change.)  Dobbs will fling water in the face of a small boy (Robert Blake) pestering him to buy a lottery ticket, yet we sense a modicum of decency somewhere beneath his gruff exterior. 

This early sequence of him trudging his way through life, getting bad haircuts, chasing after prostitutes, etc. lets us sit back and watch Bogart at work creating one of his finest characters.  Dobbs hooks up with a fellow American named Curtin (Tim Holt) for a job in which they're cheated out of their pay by a crooked foreman (Barton MacLane of THE MALTESE FALCON) whom they beat senseless after he attacks them in a bar.  (This well-choreographed fight scene is brutally effective.)  Then, after meeting grizzled old prospector Howard (Walter Huston) in a flophouse, they take his advice and set out to find gold in the mountains of the Mexican desert. 

Walter Huston enjoyed recounting the story of how he told his son John that if he ever became a filmmaker to "write me a good part."   The old gold-hunter Howard is that part, a role the elder Huston,  sans dentures, inhabits so fully that he almost manages to steal the picture right out from under Bogart.  (He would go on to win an Oscar for it.)  Howard is a goodnatured, level-headed old man, and we believe him when he warns of the evil effects gold can have on weak-willed men.  

Dobbs blusters against such talk, thinking himself above any negative influences.  Yet without missing a beat, he will fulfill each of Howard's admonitions one by one as the lure of gold transforms him into a paranoid,  resentful,  and ultimately dangerous man.  By the time he's gone over the deep end, he's a frightening character, convinced in his mindless desperation that everyone's out to get him and that he's justified in whatever heinous act he may commit to protect himself and his newfound fortune.

When Dobbs and Curtin finally find themselves locked in a life-or-death battle of wills in the middle of the desert, the film almost takes on the eerie inevitability of a horror movie.  The only thing that undercuts it, along with much of the rest of the film, is one of Max Steiner's worst musical themes--a loping, folksy motif that  I find jarringly out of place.

In addition to being a fascinating character study,  TREASURE is a terrific action-adventure.  Alfonso Bedoya is unforgettable as the ruthless Mexican bandit Gold Hat,  whose gang attacks our heroes' train during their trip into the mountains and then later stumbles upon their mining camp, leading to a blazing gunfight.  Gold Hat may be a monster, but Bedoya manages to make him funny, especially with his immortal response to Dobbs' question "If you're federales, where are your badges?"

"Badges? We ain’t got no badges...we don’t need no badges...I don’t have to show you any stinking badges!"

Tim Holt is solid in the less flashy role  of sturdy, dependable Curtin, who shares Howard's dismay at Dobbs' growing instability.  Walter Huston is a delight in a truly wonderful performance--he even gets to break the fourth wall and give us a sly look during one sequence in which he's being given the royal treatment by a tribe of Indians after doing them a good turn.  We don't even hold it against Howard when he votes along with the others to execute another man, Cody (Bruce Bennett), who tries to horn in on their find. 

But it's Bogart, as a man susceptible to bouts of pure, wild-eyed insanity, who makes the film as truly memorable as it is.  No matter how low he sinks and what horrible things he does, we always remember the relatively decent guy he was before gold changed him, and feel some remorse for what he's become.  And just like Dobbs, I'd like to think gold wouldn't make me act that way--but who knows?

1080p High Definition 1.33:1, DTS-HD Master Audio: English 1.0, Dolby Digital: Francais 1.0 & Espanol 1.0 (Both Castilian and Latin)
Subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.

Special Features:

·         Commentary by Bogart Biographer Eric Lax
·         Discovering Treasure: The Story of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
·         Documentary Profile John Huston
·         Warner Night at the Movies
·         1948 Short Subjects Gallery: Leonard Maltin Introduction, Newsreel, 2 Classic Cartoons, Comedy Short, Theatrical Trailers.
·         Audio-Only Bonus: Radio Show with the Movie’s Original Stars
·         Vintage art card


THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951)

Here's the story of two people you'll want to get  to know very much--Humphrey Bogart as Charlie Allnut, a goodnaturedly uncouth little man who runs a tiny supply boat up and down the river in German East Africa in 1914,  and Katharine Hepburn as Miss Rose Sayer, a Christian missionary who, along with her brother Reverend Samuel Sayer (Robert Morley), brings God's word to the natives until German soldiers burn down the church and village, kill her brother,and leave her all alone in the jungle.

Director John Huston deftly blends comedy with tragedy in the opening scenes.  Shortly before their horrific encounter with the German military, the Sayers invite Charlie to tea during a supply stop.  He hasn't eaten in awhile, so his stomach starts making the most impolite growling noises to which Rose and her brother react with growing dismay until finally Charlie explains brightly, "Ain't a thing I can do about it!" 

Charlie returns later to bury the brother and take Rose away in his boat, the "African Queen".  But her first thought is to somehow aid in her country's war effort by whatever means available.  Hearing of a German gunboat, the "Louisa", which is terrorizing the countryside from a large lake somewhere downriver, she hatches a scheme in which Charlie will devise a couple of torpedos out of compressed gas bottles and they will then ram the Louisa with the torpedos sticking out of the African Queen's bow. 

Humoring her for the time being--and not realizing that he has begun something he won't be able to back out of--he later mocks Miss Sayer's request in a grumbling approximation of her prim accent: "Can you make a torpedo?  Then do so, Mr. Allnut." 

This belly-laugh moment, courtesy of Bogart's irresistibly natural, likable performance as the ragtag river rat, is just the beginning of what will be a rip-roaring adventure, a tender romance, and a gut-busting comedy.  The independent production, filmed mostly on location in Africa in lush Technicolor, is one of John Huston's warmest and most heartfelt films.  This is due in large part to the chemistry between the two stars and Huston's ability as a master director to showcase them at their best.

Miss Rose Sayer is naturally brave and resourceful, which helps make up for her naivete' and inexperience with life in general.  She adapts quickly and becomes instantly addicted to the thrill of adventure as a substitute for sexual intimacy (her first excursion down the rapids leaves her as though she'd just had her first sexual release).  Learning to handle Allnut's boat is symbolic of her growing familiarity with the man himself  while he, in turn, finds himself suddenly yearning to bring out the inner woman behind the straight-laced exterior. 

Allnut is one of Bogart's funniest and most uninhibited characters--his emotional honesty and expressiveness are at their peak here.  Often a single look on his face will convey more thought and emotion than many actors can manage with an entire speech.  Hepburn is ideally cast as the initially very proper, timid spinster who gradually lets her hair down (literally) and begins to appreciate the more sensual and even carnal aspects of life as her love for Charlie Allnut blossoms toward fruition.

Their journey down the river is a series of funny and romantic vignettes interspersed with moments of harrowing danger which are excitingly staged.  The rapids are a major obstacle, as are mosquitoes, leeches, and, in one suspenseful sequence, German bullets.  Through it all, Rose's indefatigable attitude brings out the best in Charlie, and together they give each other something to live for even when things are at their worst.

Huston's technical skills are dazzling throughout the film.  The location photography is not only stunning but often amazing as well, as when we see a number of large alligators diving off the bank into the water right after Bogart has moved out of the frame--all in a single shot.   The process shots are as well integrated into the action as possible for the time and, for me at least, proved little distraction.  Allan Gray's musical score is another of the film's many pleasures. 

The story reaches its triumphant conclusion aboard the German gunboat, where our unlikely hero and heroine reach the end of their journey in fine style.  Like SHANE, which is tied with KING KONG (1933) as my favorite movie of all time, there are scenes throughout THE AFRICAN QUEEN which bring me to the verge of tears.   Not because these scenes are particularly sad, or particularly happy, but simply because they're quite disarmingly beautiful. 

1080p High Definition, Dolby Digital: English 1.0, Francais 1.0 & Espanol 1.0.
Subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.

Special Features:

·         Embracing Chaos: Making The African Queen
·         Vintage art card


Own it on Blu-ray:

Official WB Shop Link
Official Facebook
Official You Tube Videos

Images shown are not stills from the actual Blu-ray discs
Street Date: March 25, 2014

FELICITY -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 3/24/16

 

Having already been introduced to the ins and outs of sex "dan unda" by his documentaries THE ABC OF LOVE AND SEX: AUSTRALIA STYLE and AUSTRALIA AFTER DARK (in addition to his lurid slasher-horror NIGHTMARES), I was interested to see Ozploitation director John D. Lamond's entry in the "Emmanuelle" school of softcore sex dramas, 1978's FELICITY. 

This story of a young schoolgirl's growing sexual awareness is a deft mix of crass and class that plays like a humid back-pocket novel.  Within minutes it's already offering up plentiful amounts of nudity as young Felicity and her fellow convent school mates splash in the shower (Felicity marvels at the tingling in her "special place") and go skinny dipping at a nearby pond as neighboring boys look on from the bushes, which excites her.

Felicity isn't just curious about sex--she's obsessed, thinking about it every waking minute and talking about it at length in the diary-like narration.  Her school day consists of gazing at the other girls, contemplating her own body's budding wonders, and making those awkward first lesbian advances toward her best friend Jenny while fantasizing about losing her virginity to an actual boy. 

The film continues in this hazy pastoral vein until Felicity gets an invitation from her sister Christine (Marilyn Rodgers, PATRICK, "Prisoner: Cell Block H") to vacation at her home in Hong Kong, which we predict will be like setting wild dogs loose in a butcher shop. 

Not surprisingly, Felicity witnesses a couple having sex on the plane and pleasures herself in lieu of finishing her dog-eared copy of "Emmanuelle."  Arriving amidst the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong, she soon ends up peeping at Christine and her cutie-pie hubby Stephen doing the nasty as well, and chomping at the bit to try it herself.

At this point it's pretty much just a matter of waiting to see what kind of sexual exploits will come Felicity's way next, and with whom.  Our first sight of a dashing older guy with a porn 'stache is a dead giveaway, as is Felicity's meeting with Christine's pretty friend Me Ling (Penthouse Pet Joni Flynn). 

These two adventurous babes go out on the town for the day, allowing Lamond to indulge in plenty of nicely exotic travelogue stuff until it's time to retire to a bath house for some steamy (literally) interplay with a couple of lady sex workers.

Our sensuous heroine wanders in and out of a few more brief encounters until she finally finds love with the proper stranger (Christopher Milne, THIRST), whereupon she discovers that there's more to life than simple hedonism. 

I won't give away the final outcome, since this story has precious few surprises to offer as it is before the rather abrupt ending.  Suffice it to say I was pleased that it didn't take the sort of darker turn that I was anticipating. 

Not exactly the most plot-heavy movie you'll ever see, FELICITY saunters along at a lazy pace and is quite enjoyable if one gears down enough to sit still for it.

The sex scenes are artistically rendered--hazy lighting, soft focus, subtlety--with enough simulated hoo-hah to count as softcore porn without ever coming close to raunch.

Director Lamond has enough finesse to make a visually pleasing film with a low budget and get adequate-to-good performances from his cast.  Glory Annen (SUPERGIRL, THE LONELY LADY), who was actually about 26 at the time, is fresh-faced and girlish enough to be convincing as the young Felicity without creeping us out.  The Hong Kong backdrop adds immeasurably to the film's appeal.

The Blu-ray from Severin Films is widescreen HD with Dolby 2.0 sound.  No subtitles.  Incredibly, the bonus menu includes both of the aforementioned full-length sex documentaries from John D. Lamond, THE ABC OF LOVE AND SEX: AUSTRALIA STYLE and AUSTRALIA AFTER DARK, in their entirety, including the original commentary tracks.

We also get lengthy interviews with Lamond and an older "Felicity" herself, Glory Annen, as well as a commentary track for FELICITY featuring the two.  Trailers for Lamond's films round out the selection. 

I'm past the point of finding this kind of stuff all that titillating these days, but back in 1978 this was pretty hot stuff for those not yet jaded by Cinemax After Dark or The Playboy Channel.  Now, FELICITY has a pleasant kind of novelty value and, with a little honest-to-goodness romance thrown in, it makes for a very nice couples flick.

Buy it at Amazon.com:
Blu-ray
DVD

Release date: March 29, 2016
Stills shown are not taken from the Blu-ray

THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

 

The Film Detective does it again with a nicely-restored special edition of the 1957 fan favorite THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS, which looks way better now than most of us have ever had a chance to see it.

Of course, the scratchy old prints on my local station's afternoon movie show sufficed for me as a kid back in the 60s. While very low-budget and admittedly hokey at times, the film gave me chills back then and still delivers on sheer entertainment value for those of us who grew up on these lurid sci-fi/monster thrillers.

BRAIN boasts a solid cast, with genre stalwart John Agar as scientist Steve March, who stumbles upon strange radioactive signals coming from deep within a desert mountain. Robert Fuller plays Steve's assistant Dan, years before he would become a TV icon in such shows as "Laramie", "Wagon Train", and "Emergency." 

 

Joyce Meadows vividly plays Steve bride-to-be Sally, who grows concerned when Steve returns from the cave without Dan and displaying strange, frightening new personality traits (including a wildly increased libido). This is because he's been taken over by Gor, an evil alien entity bent on conquering the world.

While Gor's appearance has evoked laughter from many viewers over the years--he's basically a giant floating brain with eyes--I've always had a fondness for both him and his counterpart, a benign floating brain named Vol whose mission is to capture the criminal fugitive.

Whenever Steve's body is ruled by Gor, it gives John Agar a chance to display maniacal, homicidal villainy as never before, which he seems to enjoy despite the pain caused by a pair of silver-painted contact lenses designed to make his eyes glow.

It was this indelible vision, and not the floating brains, that gave me such shivers as a kid as Steve/Gor gleefully blew up passenger planes and fried hapless victims with that sinister glare.

The film is skillfully and econically directed by Nathan Juran (aka Nathan Hertz), whose eclectic career also included such diverse titles as THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD and ATTACK OF THE 50-FOOT WOMAN. Camerawork and lighting are particulary good, as is a rousing musical score by Walter Greene.

The disc from The Film Detective offers some nice featurettes (listed below) including a recently-shot tour of the film's outdoor locations with star Joyce Meadows, who also appears along with other guests in the commentary track by leading film historian Tom Weaver. Weaver also penned the illustrated booklet on the career of producer Jacques Marquette. Viewers of the film can choose between full-screen and matted widescreen.

Good production values, amusing dialogue, and a few actual chills are some of the reasons why THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS should appeal to fans of low-budget 1950s sci-fi thrillers. For a film which, on first glance, looks like just another of those "so bad it's good" flicks, it's actually not bad at all.



THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS

Retail Price: $29.95
Release Date: 6-21-2022
Runtime: 71 min.
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy
Language: English
Closed Captions: English, Spanish
Color/BW: BW

SPECIAL FEATURES -

    Full Color Booklet with original essay by Author/ Historian Tom Weaver
    Full commentary track by historians Tom Weaver, David Schecter, Larry Blamire, and PLANET AROUS star, Joyce Meadows
    The Man Before the Brain: Director Nathan Juran - an original Ballyhoo Motion Pictures production
    The Man Behind the Brain: The World of Nathan Juran - an original Ballyhoo Motion Pictures production
    The film will also be included in a full frame format, 1.33:1
    Now including a special, all new, introduction by Actor Joyce Meadows!

Pre-order: https://www.thefilmdetective.com/arous

AMERICAN ROMANCE -- Movie Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 10/20/16

 

It isn't every day that I can describe a bloody, violent serial-killer movie as a "feelgood flick", but I just got through watching AMERICAN ROMANCE (2016) and darned if that isn't just what it is. 

Okay, it isn't THE SOUND OF MUSIC, but it isn't THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE or HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER either.  It isn't even NATURAL BORN KILLERS (despite the clear similarities) because it lacks both that film's sardonic pessimism and indulgence in cinematic artifice. 

After one of those cool SE7EN-style main titles sequences that gives the movie a lot to live up to, we meet troubled ex-sheriff Ricky Stern (Barlow Jacobs, GREAT WORLD OF SOUND, THE MASTER, THAT EVENING SUN), who's sort of a shut-in due to something bad that happened to him during a case which was known as "The Diorama Killings" since the victims were always arranged in such a way as to preach a message against sin (another similarity to SE7EN). 

When a writer (Elana Krausz) comes by to interview him about it, his tortured recollections set off a series of flashbacks that carry us back to the story of young newlyweds Jeff Madison (Nolan Gerard Funk, DEADGIRL, BEREAVEMENT) and his wife Krissy (Daveigh Chase, SPIRITED AWAY, THE RING, DONNIE DARKO), who have just had a flat tire in the middle of rural nowhere.

They walk to the nearest house, where a weird, jittery old man named Emery (John Savage, THE DEER HUNTER, DOOR INTO SILENCE) is in the process of putting a gun in his mouth.  He grudgingly calls a tow truck, but during their wait (in which Emery's behavior becomes increasingly odd), Krissy happens to look through the bathroom window and sees a naked dead body in the bathtub, splattered with blood. 

Have they stumbled into the very lair of "The Diorama Killer"?  Or is there more here than meets the eye?  What seems at first to be a fairly straightforward story will just get more and more deliriously strange as the viewer is kept off-balance the whole time.

Trouble is, this is one of those movies where the more I tell you about it, the less you'll be able to experience it the way I did.  Even the trailer reveals just a little too much even though it does try not to spill ALL the beans. 

Anyway, the less said about things like Emery's paraplegic wife Brenda (Diane Farr, ABOUT CHERRY) who is bound and gagged in her wheelchair, or horny tow-truck driver Hank (Mark Boone Junior, SE7EN, MEMENTO, BATMAN BEGINS), or anything else that happens when all the stabbing and shooting and screaming starts, the better.

I can say that the performances are top-notch, with John Savage being his usual weird, creepy self--he's always been an expert at seeming not quite right in the head.  Daveigh Chase (who was the voice of "Chihiro" in the Disney dub of Miyazaki's SPIRITED AWAY) is a sexy backwoods delight as she does her best Juliette Lewis, while Funk reminds me of a young Nick Chinlund.  Both invest their roles with just the right touch of humor. 

Mei Melançon (X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, LOADED) appears as an investigator helping Sheriff Stern, while familiar face James Duval (INDEPENDENCE DAY, VENICE UNDERGROUND, THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND) shows up in a mostly non-speaking role as the body in the bathtub.

Director Zackary Adler (THE RISE OF THE KRAYS, CASUAL ENCOUNTERS) has crafted a bloody thriller that's a pleasure to look at, with a story good enough to avoid having to rely on mere shock value and violence for its own sake. 

And maybe I'm just weird, but, like I said, AMERICAN ROMANCE left me feeling lighthearted and uplifted when it was over.  It's the bloodiest feelgood flick of the year! 


Amazon Video
iTunes
Trailer

ELVIS: THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW--THE CLASSIC PERFORMANCES -- DVD review by porfle

Originally posted on 8/6/09

 

Of all the various stages that Elvis Presley went through during his staggering career as a worldwide cultural phenomenon, the one I still prefer most is the fresh-faced supernova that we see in ELVIS: THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW--THE CLASSIC PERFORMANCES. Intense idolatry and fame are still new to this young, vibrant, almost naive Elvis, and we can see him having fun with the experience before it sours and begins to isolate him from the rest of humanity.

"The Ed Sullivan Show", for those who have never seen it, was a live hour-long variety show that ran seemingly forever and was hosted by a stiff, dour-looking guy known mainly as a renowned entertainment journalist. Ed brought to his vast television audience a wide array of acts that ranged from ballet to Broadway, from Shakespeare to Shecky Greene, and finally, unwillingly, began to encompass the burgeoning world of rock and roll. Ed was hesitant to feature this strange new hip-waggling rocker on his show, but when an appearance by Elvis on Steve Allen's show garnered astronomical ratings, Ed figured it was time to get some of those millions of rabid teen fans tuning in to his own show before the fad had faded. 

 

This DVD is a record of Elvis' three major appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show." The September 9, 1956 episode is minus Ed Sullivan himself, who had been injured in a head-on collision and would rely on a series of guest hosts until his return several weeks later. After being introduced to the screaming audience by a not-ready-for-primetime Charles Laughton, Elvis makes his way onto the stage and humbly thanks everyone for what he calls "probably the greatest honor I've ever had in my life" before launching into "Don't Be Cruel." The other songs he performs on this show are "Love Me Tender", "Ready Teddy", and "Hound Dog." After that last number Charles Laughton asks the audience in classic old-fogey style, "Well, what did somebody say, uh...music hath charms to soothe the savage breast?" 

 

The young Elvis proves to be a fun-loving cutup who rarely takes himself seriously. He loves to make faces during songs to provoke laughter and screams from the audience. Referring to "Love Me Tender" as his "latest RCA Victor escape...uh, release", Elvis doesn't even spare this solemn, sappy tune his constant clowning. Later, he holds up a finger and says with mock seriousness, "Friends, as a great philosopher once said..." before launching into "Hound Dog" with as much awareness as anyone else that it's a supremely silly song. 

 

On the October 28, 1956 show, a vibrant Elvis greets the returning Ed Sullivan by laughing his way through "Don't Be Cruel" and then having to slog through "Love Me Tender" again like a kid being forced to eat his spinach. He still manages to have fun with it, though--the playfulness of his mood that night just couldn't be contained. Surrounded by his ever-present backup vocalists the Jordanaires, he then croons the turgid ballad "Love Me" while relishing its doo-wop mawkishness for all it's worth. 

 

Strapping on his guitar, Elvis offers an elaborately solemn introduction to his final song of the night:

"Ladies and gentlemen, uh, could I have your attention, please. I'd like to tell you that we're gonna do a...sad song for you. This song is one of the saddest songs we've ever heard. It really tells a story, friends. Beautiful lyrics. It goes something like this..." 

 

The song, of course, is "Hound Dog", and Elvis finally cuts loose and becomes the hip-shaking rock and roller that we all envision him to be. Rarely does an entertainer seem to be having this much fun (much of it at his own expense) as he shares in the joyful mood of the audience. 

 

Not only that, but old-fashioned Ed himself, once reticent to book Elvis on his show, clearly loves the guy. At one point he even drops his usual stern countenance and jokes, "I can't figure this thing out, you know he just does this [shakes his hips] and everybody yells!" Elvis humbly ends his appearance by telling the audience, "Until we meet ya again, may God bless ya as He's blessed me. Thank ya very much." 

 

 

The January 6, 1957 show begins with a medley of "Hound Dog", "Love Me Tender", and "Heartbreak Hotel", but something seems a little odd. That's because this is the famous show in which, due to complaints from more conservative viewers about The Pelvis' lewd bodily motions, Elvis is never seen from the waist down. 

 

The segue from "Hound Dog" into "Love Me Tender" couldn't be more extreme, and Elvis' goofy facial expression conveys his weariness of singing it. He breaks loose again with lively versions of "Don't Be Cruel", "Too Much", and "When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again" before ending with a heartfelt spiritual, "Peace in the Valley." Ed Sullivan, who has obviously had a ball during his experience with Elvis, doesn't let him get away without offering this endorsement of the controversial rocker: "I wanted to say to Elvis and the country, that this is a real decent, fine boy." 

 

The 1.33:1 full-screen image and Dolby Digital sound (5.1 surround and original 2.0 mono) are as good as the original kinescope elements permit. A wealth of interesting bonus material includes: 

 

--Why Ed Didn't Host Elvis' First Appearance

--Elvis and Ed: Intros and Promos

--Special Elvis Moments

--Caught on Celluloid: The First Moving Pictures of Elvis

--Jerry Schilling's Home Movies

--Remembering Ed and Elvis (interviews) 

 

Totally belying his image as an inarticulate yokel, the engaging performer that we see here is a shimmering entity brimming with intriguing paradoxes. Retaining a respectful humility that ingratiated him to the older crowd, he was also effortlessly cool, cocky, and irreverent just by being himself. He could be heart-on-his-sleeve sincere even as he mischievously poked fun at the superficial nature of his image, as playfully self-mocking and self-aware as anyone with such immense, intense popularity could be. Most of all, as ELVIS: THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW--THE CLASSIC PERFORMANCES reminds us, he was a beautiful, almost mystical creature who burned brightly long before he began to burn out. Buy it at Amazon.com:

 

Elvis Presley: The Ed Sullivan Shows: The Performances 

 

EPIDEMIC -- DVD Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 9/16/18

 

The press release describes this film as "a tender, female-centric coming of age drama."  Fortunately, that's just someone having their little joke, because EPIDEMIC (2018) is actually pretty much what the title implies--a horror thriller about some nasty little bugs that get loose and make people violently ill before doing all sorts of horrible biological nightmare stuff to them.

Dana (Amanda K. Morales) is all tense because it's her 30th birthday and she's invited her estranged, alcoholic dad Rufus (Andrew Hunsicker) to the party.  She and husband Mike (Joe Walz) have also invited another couple, Troy (Marquis Valdez) and Mandi (Gina Destra), along with a nerdy loner to the festivities.  But Dad is so distraught over the impending reunion that he pulls into a parking lot on the way and gets drunk in his car.

Which is just as well, because Mandi, who earlier discovered a secret room in her basement containing a deadly, incredibly contagious virus (which she immediately uncontains), infects her fellow party-goers with the most vomitous, facial-disfiguring insta-plague of all time.  Everyone exposed to it monsters out and, either immediately or over time, goes slap drooling nuts.

While these rampagin' contagion flicks often strive for disaster movie proportions, EPIDEMIC keeps things focused pretty much on our main group of characters, especially Mandi and her tortured dad who yearns to make amends with her but can't overcome his life-destroying alcohol addiction.

Shelley Brietling enters the dramatic fray later on as Mandi's frantic stepmother Claudia, and between them and the rest of the cast, this movie is brimming with good performances.

I like co-writer (with Adam Romanchik) and director Stephen Michael Giglio's low-key approach, which allows him to make a modest but nifty-looking shocker within a very limited budget.  A smaller scale means both a much more intimate story (which pretty much evolves into classic tragedy) and the ability to concentrate on just a few really cool makeup effects.

Gorehounds may be disappointed, since this isn't a slasher/meatgrinder fest and there's more emphasis on story than sheer visceral horror.  But those disease victims in the advanced stages of infection sport a pleasing array of shocking visages while taking part in some nice jump scares and various creepy hallucinatory images along the way.

The DVD from Breaking Glass Pictures is in 1.78:1 widescreen with English stereo sound. No subtitles.  Bonus features consist of a director's commentary, trailers for this and other Breaking Glass releases, an interview with Andrew Hunsicker (Rufus), and some outtakes.

Short, terse, and effective, EPIDEMIC wastes little time drawing us into the slimy, nervewracking bio-horror while still managing to let us get to know and feel for the characters.  I was infected by its low-key charm and am still recovering from the after-effects. 

DVD/VOD RELEASE: September 4, 2018

THE BELIEVERS -- DVD Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 6/7/2019

 

It seems like there were a lot of horror flicks about the Caribbean voodoo cult of Santeria for awhile there back in the late 1900s or so, and one of the main ones was definitely John Schlesinger's frantic potboiler THE BELIEVERS (Olive Films, 1987), which, for those in the mood for such bleak goings-on, delivers the goods and then some.

Martin Sheen (APOCALYPSE NOW, THE DEAD ZONE) is Cal Jamison, a police psychotherapist who tragically loses his wife in the film's shocking (pun intended) opening, leaving him to raise their son Chris (Harley Cross, THE FLY II) by himself.

When the city is struck by a series of ritual child murders so gruesome that even hardboiled cops like Lt. Sean McTaggart (Robert Loggia, INDEPENDENCE DAY, SCARFACE) are appalled, Cal is called in to help a cop (Jimmy Smits) whose undercover work on the case has driven him insane.

Cal is then drawn into a maelstrom of organized evil that threatens his own son, who may have been marked as the next ritual sacrifice victim.

Schlesinger (MIDNIGHT COWBOY, MARATHON MAN) starts things out slow and steady but keeps them gradually building until, before we know it, the film has kicked into high gear and everything we see is filled with a dark, pervasive feeling of dread. 

There's also an abundance of seriously creepy-crawly stuff at every turn, especially in connection with those horrific rituals whose victims keep popping up here and there. One victim's autopsy, for example, yields a number of live snakes, which I found quite sufficient for a shiver or two.

The film's approach here is a prime example of that hamhanded, wonderfully unsubtle horror style that had us glued to the screen back in the 80s--hokey as heck, but surprisingly effective in the long run. 

This is displayed not only in the director's aggressive style but also in the punchy script (co-written by Mark Frost of "Twin Peaks" fame), replete with whiplash-inducing plot twists, and some wonderfully unrestrained performances.

Sheen, knowing the material calls for an indelicate approach, emotes accordingly.  Two great character actors, Loggia and fellow SCARFACE alumnus Harris Yulin (as business tycoon Robert Calder, who may or may not be behind it all) add their considerable talents, while Helen Shaver does her best to add depth to the underwritten character of Jessica, Cal's new romantic interest. Richard Masur plays Cal's lawyer friend Marty.

The capable supporting cast also includes Malick Bowens as Palo, a frightening figure of great power within the Santeria cult. Bowens knows how to look scary when he wants to, and lends the film some of its most spine-chilling moments, especially when he crashes a posh fundraiser held by Calder and lapses into a furious trancelike state complete with all-white eyeballs. 

Naturally, as was the custom of the time (and still is in many cases), we get one of those annoying "gotcha!" endings that really get on my nerves. But I wouldn't expect it to end any other way, since, as James Whale once said, "it's all part of the ritual." Until then, THE BELIEVERS slowly but surely develops into a real barnburner of an edge-of-your-seat horror thriller.


Buy it from Olive Films

Rated : R
Video : 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio, Color
Runtime : 114 minutes
Year : 1987
Languages : English (with available captions)
Extras: Trailer

SHIN GODZILLA -- Movie Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 10/8/16

 

I never was a huge kaiju fan, but I always thought GODZILLA and other Japanese monster movies from Toho Studios were pretty cool when I was a kid.  I remember titles like KING KONG VS. GODZILLA, RODAN, and DESTROY ALL MONSTERS showing at my local theater when they were new and the place being packed with happy, excited kids (we really loved our monster movies back then!) I rarely missed these and other such films as MOTHRA and GAMMERA on television as well.

I did pretty much miss out on the middle period in Japanese monster movie history, namely the updated stuff from the 80s and beyond.  I had the misfortune of seeing the Roland Emmerich/Dean Devlin GODZILLA remake in 1998, the less said about which the better except that it was, in two words, horribly ill-conceived. 

With that in mind, I must say that I found Toho's latest 2016 remake, SHIN GODZILLA (or "Godzilla Resurgence"), to be a welcome throwback to those old-fashioned kaiju epics of my childhood which I recall most fondly.

 

For one thing, even though the giant green lizard is purely a modern-day CGI creation, he's designed to resemble the man-in-a-monster-suit Godzilla of old.  I find this both delightfully nostalgic and somehow just plain right.  He sounds the same too, and his appearance is usually heralded by the familiar strains of his original theme music. 

What I found intriguingly different this time around is that the beast is in a state of accelerated evolutionary flux.  When we first see him, he's a purely amphibious fish-eyed creature--sort of a cross between a turtle and a seahorse--whose intense body heat causes a steam cloud to erupt in Tokyo Harbor and inflict extreme tsunami-style damage on the coastline.  After it makes its way out of the water, it morphs into a being that can exist on land. 

After its initial rampage and a brief return to the sea for its final stage of evolution, the monster returns fully transformed (more or less) into the Godzilla we've always known and loved.  At this point the movie kicks into high gear with scenes of devastation that are absolutely breathtaking and, this time, completely convincing.  (No more cardboard buildings and flimsy pagodas with wind-up toy military vehicles skittering around, as endearing as they were.)

 

In his third of three major appearances, Godzilla lets loose all of his radioactive fury with both heat breath and photon beams from his tail and dorsal fins that slice right through buildings and blow military craft out of the sky. 

There's one sequence in particular in which several skyscrapers surrounding Godzilla are detonated and brought down upon him all at once, resulting in a scene so utterly catastrophic yet realistically rendered that I found it strangely exhilarating.  If you have a sweet tooth for scenes of full-scale destruction, this movie should satisfy it and then some.

That said, SHIN GODZILLA resembles the Godzilla movies of old in another, less positive way--it's often incredibly boring.  Remember all those long, talky scenes they'd always put between the monster action to pad out the movie?  This one has those in abundance, and they're talkier than ever. 

Much of the talk consists of a lot of overwrought political and scientific chatter spouted by an endless succession of uninteresting and resolutely unmemorable characters.  The only two who make any sort of lasting impression are young Mr. Yaguchi (Hiroki Hasegawa), who assembles a crack team of geniuses to figure out how to neutralize the radioactive beast before it has to be nuked along with the rest of Tokyo, and Miss Patterson (Satomi Ishihara), a winsome, headstrong Japanese-American woman acting as liason for the American President.

But even these two characters are too busy yakking about boring stuff (Mr. Yaguchi seems particularly stiff-necked) to develop much interesting character interaction, and the rest of the old fogies do nothing but sit at long tables endlessly gnawing on all the political knots with an almost comical nationalistic fervor.

These scenes with all their rapid-fire exposition really are a calcified bore despite attempts by co-directors Hideaki Anno (EVANGELION) and Shinji Higuchi to make things interesting by keeping the camera moving a lot. 

The only time the non-Godzilla scenes liven up is when the monster's approach throws all of the earlier formality into utter chaos during the mad scramble to evacuate in time.  Some suspense is also generated late in the film with the impending decision whether or not to use nukes as the Americans (natch) and UN are urging the Japanese to do. 

But all of this is forgotten during the three major monster sequences in the film, the third of which begins with 15-20 minutes of the 120-minute running time left and features some of the film's most amazing SPFX including several explosive-laden commuter trains crashing into Godzilla, a missile attack involving jet planes and ground-based vehicles, and a nail-biting attempt by Yaguchi's team to defeat the beast via their own highly unorthodox scientific methods. 

After the dust has settled over Tokyo, SHIN GODZILLA emerges as both a modern update and a welcome throwback.  Just like the old Godzilla movies, it's boring as hell between the monster stuff.  But when Godzilla starts stomping his way through downtown Tokyo as millions of terrified civilians flee for their lives, with the added benefit of today's state-of-the-art effects making the massive devastation all the more perversely thrilling, it makes me feel like a little Monster Kid again.

Official website, ticket info, etc.

Our previous coverage of the film

Trailer

HICKOK -- Movie Review by Porfle

  Originally posted on 6/26/17

 

HICKOK (Cinedigm, 2017) is one of a current breed of modestly produced, low-key, but solid westerns that are just as entertaining as anything if you set your expectations accordingly. 

I've grown quite fond of their simplicity, their often beautiful photography, their museum-quality Old West settings (things look brand new, but back then, for a while anyway, they were), and their earnest effort to give fans of the traditional western what the big studios rarely offer these days.  

What's more, this easy-to-take saga of "Wild Bill" Hickok's younger days as outlaw-turned-lawman delivers the goods in a most satisfying way whenever it's time to clear leather and start blasting.

 

Luke Hemsworth (THE ANOMALY, "Westworld") stars as the young Civil War veteran making his way through the post-war west, as valor on the battlefield translates into a knack for survival in peacetime.  This often necessitates straddling the line of the law and sometimes ending up on the wrong side of it.

Bill is cocky and arrogant but only kills when he has to, a quality that helps land him a job as marshall of a lawless town when the mayor (Kris Kristofferson, nowadays ably portraying wise old souls) sees the good in him. 

This doesn't stop Bill from extorting protection money from the quietly dangerous saloon owner Phil Poe (Trace Adkins), whose wife Mattie (Cameron Richardson, OPEN WATER 2: ADRIFT) turns out to be an old and way-too-close acquaintance.  (Which, unsurprisingly, will end up causing some very unfortunate complications.) 

 

While engaging enough on their own, HICKOK's plot development and dialogue are frequently punctuated by welcome bursts of lead-slinging action that are excitingly staged and pack just the right kind of wallop.

What triggers the main conflict here is Hickok's decision to install one of those highly unpopular bans on guns within city limits, driving customers away from Poe's saloon and hotel. 

Relations between the two deteriorate to the point where coldblooded killer John Wesley Hardin (Kaiwi Lyman-Mersereau, TRADED) is enlisted to eliminate the problem, resulting in one of the film's most surprising and suspenseful twists.

Hemsworth plays the lead role lightly at first--his "Wild Bill" has a mischievous streak and isn't nearly as full of himself as many western heroes tend to be--yet his character gains increasing gravitas as the story progresses.  Physically, he's just right as someone who can take care of himself in a situation requiring fists and/or guns as well as wits.

 

His softer side is demonstrated during a heartfelt scene in which he relates a tall tale of his own derring-do for Mattie's son after he's been shot in the leg, while the Doc (the venerable Bruce Dern adding his considerable presence to the proceedings) digs the bullet out.  Scenes such as this contribute to Hickok's evolution into a serious, thoughtful man with a sincere desire to set things right.

As his nemesis Poe, Trace Adkins (TRADED, STAGECOACH: THE TEXAS JACK STORY, DEEPWATER HORIZON) once again proves an imposing presence well-suited for this sort of robust, old-fashioned western.  Tall, brawny, and possessing a voice like the lower registers of a pipe organ, Adkins ably conveys his character's dark, slowburn anger that will eventually erupt into violence.

Playing fast and loose with the facts--but in the most fun ways--HICKOK harkens back to a time when westerns were populated by actors who actually looked like, and often were, the kind of real men they were portraying.  And when it's time for them to stop talking and start shooting, you can almost smell the gunsmoke.


Opens Theatrically July 7 in Top Markets Including Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas
Also Available On Demand & Digital HD

Read our original coverage

Watch the Trailer: