Marshland / La isla mínima (2014)
Spanish movie. German blu-ray.
A murder mystery thriller set in the spanish “deep south”. Recommended.
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Duel (1971) - 7/10.
Timeless film, in my opinion. Some genuinely tense and suspenseful scenes, as well as some nicely crafted car sequences. I did not expect it to hold up as well as it did for a film that’s over fifty years old.
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great film, there is also a german remake btw. and i recently saw a newer film by the director called Los Tigres
Thanks for the tips. Freies Land you mean? I will check it out!
And Los Tigres also maybe. He have made some other films that I also want to see, Unit 7 and Prison 77.
The Last Round (Il conto è chiuso) (1976): A poliziotteschi directed by Stelvio Massi. It transplants Yojimbo, or more accurately ‘Red Harvest’, to a gritty, industrial setting in Northern Italy and actually credits Dashiell Hammett as one of the writers. It stars actor Luc Merenda as a villain and former middleweight boxing champion Carlos Monzón as the Yojimbo/No Name character (although here he’s actually named Marco Russo.)
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Got excited there for a moment - I thought that was Jeff Cameron.
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Some British films from 1957
The Smallest Show on Earth (Dearden / 7/10)
Campbell’s Kingdom (Thomas / 7/10)
Hell Drivers (Endfield / 8/10)
Windom’s Way (Neame / 5/10)
Violent Playground (Dearden / 6/10)
Interpol (Gilling / 5/10)
The Flesh is Weak (Chaffey / 6/10)
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I noticed Hell Drivers (I had never heard of it) is on You Tube, so I might give it a try. Stanley Baker is nearly always good value
I’ve always liked it, Scherp.
I like Baker and I am a sucker for these 1950s British films. My favourite period for our cinema. Some of the pleasure is in “face spotting” in the same way that we do in Spaghettis. Those bit part and character actors that just turn up in so many of the films from the period. Sid James, Herbert Lom, William Hartnell, Alfie Bass, Marjorie Rhodes, Gordon Jackson all turn up in this one. Plus a few “new faces” that would become more well known in the next decade. David MacCallum, Jill Ireland and Sean Connery.
But I think Patrick McGoohan probably steals the show as the manic Irish pace man, Red. A psychotic ball of tension constantly on the verge of exploding he makes a good foil for Baker’s stoic granite jawed hero. I’ve watched it many times and always enjoy it.
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Oh yes, Patrick and David. Childhood nostalgia. Patrick McCoohan will always be Danger Man to me. He was a hero I (an ordinary kid, not a figure of strength) could identify with: he didn’t look like a super hero and lacked that laconic charisma of Roger The Saint or Sean Bond that made their characters elusive. Ordinary but nevertheless be dangerous, that’s what I wanted to become, as a 12-year old kid.
And then this Man from Uncle. I told the whole world that Uncle wasn’t a real uncle, but an abbreviation that, when written out, read United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. From time to time I rewatch an episode on You Tube and I noticed that the series was - more or less like The Avengers - tongue-in-cheek, almost a parody, but we didn’t notice that back then, we took things seriously and all wanted to be Napoleon Solo or Ilya Kuryakin.
I was defintely a Kuryakin wannabe.
And yes, McGoohan was Dangerman for me too although I guess became more associated as The Prisoner over time. Back in ‘57 he was still stuck playing villains in B movies and he did it well.
A bunch of pretty ordinary films from 1957
Loving You (Kanter / 6/10)
Kiss Them for Me (Donen / 3/10)
Funny Face (Donen / 4/10)
Pajama Game (Donen / 4/10)
An Affair to Remember (McCarey / 4/10)
Man in the Shadow (Arnold / 6/10)
The Guns of Fort Petticoat (Marshall / 4/10)
Run of the Arrow (Fuller / 4/10)
The Tall Stranger (Carr / 5/10)
The True Story of Jesse James (Ray / 5/10)
Wow, Run of the Arrow only 4/10 ?
I was impressed by that one the last time I watched it. Very unusual western for the 50s. The first scene probably inspired Leone for the tracking shot with the horse along the dead bodies in OUTW.
Surprises me too. I haven’t seen the movie in years, but seem to remember that I liked it, at least to a certain degree, and mainly for being ‘different’. Maybe time for a rewatch, because I don’t remember the opening scene
In that first scene we also see Steiger taking a smouldering cigar from the (presumed) dead he just had shot down from his horse. Tuco very much does it the same way when he trails Blondie.
The directing of the whole film has its share of innovative looking shots, as so often by Fuller. The style is different enough from 40 Guns though, but for me both belong to the best westerns of the 50s.
It was a rewatch for me and I remembered it being better but I really struggled with it for long stretches. Primary among these was Steiger’s awful attempt at what I came to realise was an Irish accent. It was truly bad and made it very hard for me to take him seriously in the role. I also thought the script was pretty poor and I found the whole motivation and process of him “becoming Sioux” was unbelievable.
The “Tuco” cigar moment was a high point and there were some good shots but on the whole I felt like Fuller was in a losing battle with some very weak key components.
On another day it might have made a 5 but only just.
I should also probably clarify that for some time now I have been aligning my scoring with the system on Filmaffinity which is where I record all my film viewing. It looks like this:
10 - Excellent
9 - Great
8 - Very Good
7 - Good
6 - Interesting
5 - Decent
4 - Average
3 - Poor
2 - Bad
1 - Awful
Although I would rate 4 as below average and 10 as practically perfect
Last 10:
- Tarr: Damnation 9/10
- Lang: Song of Nibelungen part 1 6/10
- Virtanen: Vastavirta Dokumentti (doc) 6/10
- Polanski: Fearless Vampire Killers 10/10
- Kechiche: Blue is the Warmest Color 10/10
- Hathaway: Rawhide 6/10
- Ford: How Green Was My Valley 7/10
- Jessua: La vie á l’envers 9/10
- Barker: Obsession (cinema) 8/10
- Lanzmann: The Last of the Unjust (doc) 6/10
Been on holiday to west Canada (the rockies). traveled with the family in an RV and had no time to watch movies but saw a lot of beautiful nature instead.
I watched however some movies during the flights from the Netherlands:
- Tombstone (yes, it was available on the plane. Great re-watch)
- Rental Family (good to see Brendan Fraser in shape)
- Song Sung Blue
- PAAZ (Dutch movie about a woman who end up at a psychiatric ward
When home I ended up watching the 3 Hercule Poirot movies
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