Wild Weird West

FIVE BLOODY GRAVES-1970-I can't believe this is the first Al Adamson movie I'm reviewing here! He was a staple of late night NYC TV viewing in the '70's and '80's. His stuff usually featured aging actors, long fight or chase scenes with no dialogue and bad SFX. Here's his only western! 

I love the cartoon credits too!

Death (Gene Raymond; once a popular star in the 1940's) narrates this low budget weird western tale. Cowboy Ben Thompson (Adamson regular Robert Dix who also wrote the screenplay) is hunting renegade Apache Setago (Adamson regular and future director John “Bud” Cardos) for killing his wife on their wedding day. He starts off by helping save Setago's half brother Joe Lightfoot (also Cardos). Then he saves a former girlfriend Nora Miller (Adamson regular Vicki Volante) but gets into trouble with her jealous husband Dave (Adamson regular Kent Osbourne). 

After Ben leaves Setago's minions kill the couple and burn their house down. Then Death introduces us to Clay Bates (Jim Davis) and his partner Horace (Ray Young) who sell rifles to the Indians. Ben meets up again with Lightfoot now wounded in an attack. Clay and Horace find Lightfoot's “squaw” (Maria Polo) staked to the ground by Setago and Clay rapes and kills her. The Indians then attack a stagecoach. Somehow the passengers manage to hold off the first onslaught. Scott Brady is crabby Jim Wade who's always barking orders at his wife. Paula Raymond (BEAST FROM 50,000 FATHOMS) is aging show girl Kansas Kelly and John Carradine is great as Boone Hawkins, a voyeur preacher. Tara Ashton (later Mrs. Dix) is Althea, another show girl who provides some new love interest for Ben who shows up (with Lightfoot) to help the group survive. 

They meet up with Clay and Horace along the way. After some in fighting Lighfoot gets his revenge on Clay but he is killed by Setago. Then the Indians attack and most of the remaining cast is killed off leading to a final knife fight between Ben and Setago. Death says: “One will come to me. The other will ride on seeking me. Because in violence between men and nations there can be only one victor and that is death”.

I read comments about FBG saying it's the worst western ever made. Well, of course it's not great but it's entertaining. The “oldsters” cast (typical of an Adamson movie) is great but the film is really enhanced by locations (it was shot in a Utah National Park) and the cinematography by future Academy Award winner William (now Vilmos) Zsigmond. Al himself plays an Indian who fights Ben near the beginning of the film and his own father Victor Adamson has a small role. The elder Adamson once made his own low budget westerns in the '30's under the name of Denver Dixon! Besides playing two roles John Cardos was associate producer, production manager, stunt coordinator and assistant director!  

As with most of Adamson's product it was distributed by Independent International, a company founded by former Famous Monsters of Filmland writer Sam Sherman. On the DVD from Retro Shock A Rama there's a commentary track by Sherman and star Robert Dix. (both still alive at the time of this review)

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Note: I just realized I reviewed another Adamson movie:

http://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2010/12/talking-chimp.html

 

Another Great Moving Picture!

THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS-1920-This silent film is a little masterpiece of it's kind and holds up very well for being made nearly 100 years ago! It's also fairly faithful to Jame Fenimore Cooper's novel (part of a trilogy) but the character of Hawkeye (Harry Lorraine), usually the main emphasis in later versions takes a back seat to Uncas (Alan Roscoe), the title Mohican and his relationship with Cora (Barbara Bedford), the white English woman who's father is a Colonel leading an army against the French and their "bad Indian" companions. Wallace Beery is top billed as the evil Magua who wants Cora (or her sister) all to himself.

The violent and graphic (for the day) Indian massacre scene still packs a wallop and Boris Karloff is seen briefly as a brave who kills baby! It all ends tragically of course.

 

It had two directors: Clarence Brown and Maurice (father of Jacques  Tourneur). Co-stars Roscoe and Bedford were married at the time and were big stars in the Silent Era. Unfortunately both their careers went into decline on the advent of sound. Beery became a big star in the Sound Era winning a 1931 best actor Oscar for THE CHAMP. He actually "tied" with Fredric March who also won for DR. JEYKLL AND MR HYDE.

Weirdly, a German version was made the same year that featured Bela Lugosi!

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The Stooges and West Out West

THE OUTLAWS IS COMING!-1965-The Three Stooges reek havoc in the old west!

Adam West (just before the BATMAN TV show) plays a crusading Boston magazine editor who goes to Wyoming to stop the slaughter of the buffalo. Of course he takes his three assistants (Moe, Larry & Curly Joe) along with him. There they run into town boss Rance Roden (Don Lamond) and gunslinger Trigger Mortis (Mort Mills) who are deliberating killing the buffalo to start a war with the Indians. Nancy Kovack is Annie Oakley.

It’s kind of dumb but the Stooges manage a few good laughs. There’s no eye poking but a lot of slapstick and even some pie throwing. Stooge second (or fourth?) banana Emil Sitka plays 3 roles. Henry Gibson plays a hip talking Indian and 1960’s children’s TV host “Officer” Joe Bolton has a small role.

Not counting KOOK’S TOUR (an aborted project that was later re-edited) this was the last of the “new” Stooges feature films (which began in 1959 with HAVE ROCKET-WILL TRAVEL). It was directed by Moe’s son-in-law Norman Maurer (who also directed them in AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAZE two years before). Maurer (along with comic book artist Joe Kubert) created the first 3-D comic book as well as well as the “CineMagic” film process (with producer Sidney Pink). He managed the Stooges from 1957 until Larry Fine’s stroke in the early ‘70’s. He later created the cartoon series THE THREE ROBOTIC STOOGES and worked on other Hanna-Barbera projects. He died in 1986.

It was a comic book too!



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Daniel Boone Was a Man...

DANIEL BOONE TRAIL BLAZER-1956-Low budget, color western from Republic Pictures features Bruce Bennett (who was in LOVE ME TENDER the same year) as the famous "trail blazer" trying to convince The Indians (lead by Lon Chaney as Blackfish) that the white man means no harm and just wants to live in peace with them. Trouble is started by a renegade French soldier. Many settlers get scalped.

It's rather violent and graphic for the time but beware! This film includes characters singing!!! Country Western singer Faron Young co-stars. Two directors are credited. One, Ismael Rodriguez directed THE BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN the same year.

In fact, 1956 was a busy year for Chaney (who would co-star in the TV show LAST OF THE MOHICANS the next year). He also made THE BLACK SLEEP, MANFISH and THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN. Bruce Bennett, a silver medal winner in the 1928 Olympics, was once known as Herman Brix and played the lead role in the Edgar Rice Bourroughs backed THE NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN. He and Chaney would meet again in THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE in '59.

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