Tierney As A Good Guy

 

BODYGUARD-1948-Disbarred cop Mike Carter (Lawrence Tierney) is hired by Freddie Dysen (Phillip Reed) to be a sort of bodyguard for his old aunt Gene (Elizabeth Risdon) who's the head of a meat packing plant. No sooner is he on the job when he's framed for the murder of the police Lieutenant who fired him. While evading a manhunt he travels around town trying to figure out who framed him. With the help of his girlfriend Doris (Priscilla Lane) he finds out that the death of a health inspector might not have been an accident but a murder scheme involving pumping meat with water by the plant manager Fenton (Steve Brodie). 

Nice little murder mystery with some comedy directed by Richard Fleischer in his feature film debut (before this he'd only made short films). It also features bits by Ben Frommer, Bobby Barber, Dewey Robinson and Joe Devlin.

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Time Is Running Out

I have to go shovel snow so these will be very short!



SANJURO-1962-This is a sequel to Kurosawa's classic YOJIMBO (1961) but throws in some comedy between the swordplay. The always amazing Toshiro Mifune stars (he made CHUSHINGURA the same year). He helps some young clansmen against a corrupt "superintendent". It also feaures Tatsuya Nakadai and Takashi Shimura, the "Japanese John Carradine", a mainstay in the films of Kurosawa (and Ishiro Honda).




TRAPPED-1949-Not bad film noir with Lloyd Bridges as a counterfeiter sprung from jail by The US Treasury Department. Barbara Payton is his girlfriend. John Hoyt is an undercover Treasury agent. Director Richard Fleischer went on to make huge Hollywood shit like MANDINGO, AMITTYVILLE-3D and CONAN THE DESTROYER. He also made two other "noirs" around this time: ARMOURED CAR ROBBERY and NARROW MARGIN.



THE WILD BEES-(Divoke' vcely)-(2001)-From the Czech Republic and a first time director (Bohdan Slama) comes this quirky sometimes bizarre look at a small town and it's unusual inhabitants (including a Micheal Jackson impersonator). Everyone has a story and a lot of drinking goes on (suposedly the cast drank heavily during production!). Interesting.....





T.R.Y.-2003-Ok China/Japan co-production features Ken Watanabe (right before THE LAST SAMURAI) as a renegade military officer involved in an illegal arms deal. Yuji Oda (from TOKYO LOVE STORY) is the hero. The director Kazuki Omori also made GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE (1989) and GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH.

Thanks for reading and HAPPY NEW YEAR!