Run of the Arrow (1957)

I've been wanting to see this movie for years.  It wasn't available until just recently, but it is finally out on DVD, so I finally got me a copy, which arrived yesterday, just in time to add in one more review to the Legends of Western Cinema blog party.  (Look at me go... radio silence for ages, and then all these posts again... you'd think I love Westerns or something.)

**SPOILERS!**

This movie is about an Army Lieutenant named Driscoll.  At the beginning of the movie, it's the end of the civil war, and he's shot off his horse by a Confederate soldier, who at least has the courtesy to take him to the surgeon's tent, and not let him bleed to death.  He recovers and heads West with his regiment to fight Indians... only to be stymied in his violent ambitions by generals and peace treaties.  The nerve!  He's sent as escort (wet nurse, in his opinion) to a troop of Army engineers who will be building an Army fort in a place agreed upon by the Army and the Indians.  Driscoll immediately recognizes this spot is all wrong and has no military value.  But will anyone listen to him?  No!  However, a renegade Indian kills his commanding officer, and he finally gets to take over and do things his way.  Peace treaty?  P'fah.  He scouts out a new, completely unsanctioned (but an actually useful) location for the fort, one with a great view, and one that can only be approached/attacked from one direction.  Work gets underway, but his new fort location and direct violation of the agreement has angered the Indians. They attack en force.  With barely half a wall built, it doesn't matter that there's only one direction from which the Indians can attack the new fort.  They easily overrun Driscoll's camp, massacre the soldiers, and take Driscoll prisoner.  Because he interfered earlier in a Sioux form of justice, the "run of the arrow," the penalty is death... by being skinned alive.  Poor Driscoll.  It isn't a pretty way to go.  Fortunately for him, the confederate soldier who shot him in the beginning of the movie, has been living with the Sioux, and is on hand to shoot him again to put him out of his misery. Which nicely brings things full circle.

What?  That's not the movie's plot?  Of course it is!  From the point of view of a Ralph Meeker fan, that is.  Cuz Meeker's why I was watching the movie, naturally.

The plot everyone else is watching apparently concerns the Confederate soldier, O'Meara, played by Rod Steiger. He's so angry and bitter and full of hatred that the South surrendered, that he heads West, survives the run of the arrow himself and becomes a Sioux.  He might be full of identity issues, about himself, about the new United States, about which side he's on.  He might become the designated scout the Sioux lend to the army to help them get to the designated spot to build their fort.  He might try to keep the peace and convince the soldiers to surrender.  He might decide he's more American than Sioux, and return with the army.  The movie might actually be his story.

It's always interesting how many "movies" there are within one movie, isn't it?  LOL!

(the other guy the movie may be about)

Lt. Driscoll could almost turn into Roy Anderson, the dishonorably discharged, morally unstable lieutenant from The Naked Spur, if Driscoll hadn't been killed at the end of Run of the Arrow.  Driscoll's far more callous and self-aggrandizing than Anderson, but they're close cousins.  Which means Meeker is perfect for playing Driscoll and is clearly having fun chewing scenery.  He's rather delightful, as he usually is.  All cigar-chomping, chafing at being told "no" every other minute.  His smug grin when he finally takes over command shows no compassion whatsoever for the poor captain who's just been killed and shines with pure Meeker smirkiness.

The captain is played by Brian Keith.  He's lovely in the role, nice (too nice to survive this world), honorable, steadfast, honest, and rule-following.  He puts Driscoll in his place a few times (as Driscoll's resentment grows).  He also has some nice pointed conversations with that other guy, O'Meara.  His death was very sad, everything he worked for lost in a heartbeat.

Charles Bronson plays Blue Buffalo.  He doesn't get much to do other than show off his fine physique.  It is mighty fine.

H.M. Wynant plays Crazy Wolf, the Indian equivalent of Driscoll.  The one who passionately hates the other side, who won't obey orders, and causes no end of trouble for everyone.  If someone had just let those two hot-heads fight each other to the death, it would have saved everyone else a lot of pain and suffering. Those two really mess all the hard-earned peace everyone else is trying to preserve.

This was a surprisingly short movie, less than 90 minutes, and it feels too short to me.  I wanted more time with the characters.  However, the short running time keeps it fairly tight and ALL extraneous stuff is cut out.  That's not necessarily a bad thing.  It shows the Native Americans in a fair light.  There are good and bad people on both sides.  Some strive for peace, some for war.  Some live on hate, some live on love.

There's lots of action, including the titular Run of the Arrow.  It consists of giving a barefoot person a head start, and letting them run for their life across the desert while the tribe chases them down.  No one has ever survived it, until O'Meara does, with the help of Yellow Moccasin (Sarita Montiel).  Surviving the run of the arrow is what cements his place in Sioux life.

I liked this one, though didn't love it, and will watch it again when I need some smirky Ralph Meeker looking mighty fine in his uniform while he causes trouble and gets innocent people killed.

Silly Friday

Because by Friday evening, I am utterly exhausted, but happy because it's Friday, which tends to make me slaphappy, I present something fun for a change.

So.

I love Ralph Meeker.  I love Bill Paxton.  This is apparently not remotely a coincidence... as they look like twin brothers sometimes.

Behold:

Listy things -- Ralph Meeker

Today is Ralph Meeker's birthday! Here's my favorites of his films:

1. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
2. The Dirty Dozen (1967)
3. The Naked Spur (1953)
4. Jeopardy (1953)
5. Paths of Glory (1957)
6. Four in a Jeep (1951)
7. Desert Sands (1955)
8. Birds of Prey (1973)
9. The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (1957)
10. Battle Shock (1956)

I know, I'm one of the few people who even knows who he is, but my love for him has not diminished in the slightest. There're very few actors I'll sit through movies like Food of the Gods for, but he's one of them. I love his easy, smiling charm. Paths of Glory is such a powerful, gut-wrenching movie, and I absolutely love his doomed Corporal Paris. Desert Sands is a rather ridiculous story, but he looks so good in it that I ignore the story. I really want to see Run of the Arrow, but haven't yet had an opportunity. I like all the clips I've seen from it, although I will be looking away and covering my ears for the gruesome ending, which I've had spoiled, but that's okay in this case.

But more than the films, I really wish I could see two of his Broadway stage performances: Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and Hal Carter in "Picnic," with Janice Rule. I think that he would have been fabulous in both.


(next up, John Wayne)

Day 3- A film that makes you happy

Only selecting one film this time, because while there are lots of films that make me happy, there's really only one film that I'd answer for this question instantly, where the others I'd have to think about. That would be The Dirty Dozen (1967).

This is a film that I can watch at any time of day, any day of the week, heck, every day of the week. If I'm in a less than stellar mood, it'll have me smiling again in just a few seconds. It's impossible for me to watch this film and stay in a bad mood. Just thinking about it makes me happy.

Now, you may be thinking, is she kidding? It's a war movie, nearly everyone dies including my favorite character, for goodness sake, how can this film make her happy? Well, a big part is that it's tied up with my sister and family, and many, many happy times spent watching it together over the years. And the rest of it is because it's simply a really good movie with non-stop great, quotable dialogue, acted by a whole lot of actors I love: Lee Marvin, Ralph Meeker, John Cassavetes, Charles Bronson, Clint Walker, Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, Robert Ryan, George Kennedy, etc. And it's funny. The exchanges between characters just crack us up. Honestly, I don't think a single day goes by that a line or two of dialogue from this film isn't quoted between my sister and me. It's that much a part of our daily lives. Even normal stuff, like "Come on," or "Yeah," we usually say with the character's inflections, just to make each other grin.

I don't think there's any other film ever made, not even among my favorites, that puts me in the same Happy Realm ballpark as The Dirty Dozen.

Guest blogging - Alfred Hitchcock

I'm guest blogging at Millie's lovely journal, Classic Forever, today! As August 13th would have been Alfred Hitchcock's 110th birthday, she's celebrating in fine style by having a series of posts on him, both by her and guest bloggers, during the month of August. My entry is on one of my favorite episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Be sure to check out her other Hitchcock posts, particularly this one, the first in her series. Millie always finds the most interesting photos of her subjects to share!

"You said no rules, Colonel."

Hollywood Dreamland just posted a marvelous series of posts detailing his ten favorite actors, all amazing actors with great films under their belts. He had a little segment in each where he listed the first movie he saw for each actor, and his favorite movies for each of those actors. Made me really curious which was the first movie I'd seen my own favorite actors in. So, I thought I'd jog my memory and record it for myself here. I'm woefully behind in posting movie reviews and other things, so I'll ease myself back into posting this way. Favorites are always interesting to me because they're so subjective, and sometimes quite fickle. It's always intriguing to see how lists change over time.

Writing these out also made me realize that with the exception of William Holden and Dana Andrews, the movies I love my favorite actors for are all made in the 1950's on. Which then naturally led me to contemplating which 1930's and 1940's stars would be my favorites, without considering any of their films made after 1949. I'm still thinking about that, actually, and will post a list of those later.

• William Holden

First Movie I saw him in: The Horse Soldiers when I was a kid. Really, if I'd never seen him in another movie, it wouldn't have mattered. This is the William Holden movie for me, the one that imprinted on me and gave me the cynical, charming, smirky William Holden I love above all his other characters.

Three Favorite Movies: The Horse Soldiers, Sunset Blvd., Alvarez Kelly
Honorable Mention: Texas

• Lee Marvin

First Movie I saw him in: No idea. This could be any one of a dozen when I was a kid. It was probably a Western like The Comancheros or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, or possibly Donovan's Reef. There's no moment where Lee Marvin's movies aren't in my memories, where his name wasn't known and his face and voice and swaggering walk not instantly recognizable. He always stood out from the crowd for me.

Three Favorite Movies: The Dirty Dozen, The Professionals, Paint Your Wagon
Honorable Mention: Cat Ballou

• Dana Andrews

First Movie I saw him in: No idea here either. Probably Battle of the Bulge or In Harm's Way or Airport 1975 when I was young... but he was just a guy with a name I really liked back then. The first movie I saw him in where I sat up and paid attention was Best Years of Our Lives in Sept 2005.

Three Favorite Movies: Fallen Angel, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Swamp Water
Honorable Mention: Best Years of Our Lives

• Ralph Meeker

First Movie I saw him in: The Dirty Dozen when I was a kid. But I never saw him as more than the guy with the funniest, most-quotable lines in one of my favorite movies until I saw Kiss Me Deadly in April 2008. Then he leaped from the just plain cool balcony, to the oh wow, where have you been all my life center stage.

Three Favorite Movies: The Dirty Dozen, Kiss Me Deadly, The Naked Spur
Honorable Mention: Jeopardy

• Sam Neill

First Movie I saw him in: The Hunt for Red October, 1990, which launched the biggest (and still unrivaled) movie actor crush of my life.

Three Favorite Movies: The Hunt for Red October, Dead Calm, Jurassic Park
Honorable Mention: Reilly: Ace of Spies

• Ewan McGregor

First Movie I saw him in: The Phantom Menace, 1999

Three Favorite Movies: A Life Less Ordinary, Brassed Off, Revenge of the Sith
Honorable Mention: Young Adam

• Joel McCrea

First Movie I saw him in: Sullivan's Travels, Sept 2008

Three Favorite Movies: Ride the High Country, Ride the High Country, and Ride the High Country. Really, I should drop McCrea off my favorite actors list, because despite the fact that I've been hunting down all his movies (a requirement to make my favorite actor list), really, no other movie of his has yet come close to matching his performance in Ride the High Country. In his early days, he made a ton of romantic comedy movies, and those just aren't my thing. They're fun for a one-time viewing, but they won't make a repeat viewing list for me, and favorite movies are ones you watch over and over.
Honorable Mention: Dead End - There I named something else!

• Aldo Ray

First Movie I saw him in: The Green Berets, sometime in childhood, but David Janssen was the guy who stood out at the time. First movie I paid attention to Aldo in was God's Little Acre, Dec 2005

Three Favorite Movies: Battlecry, We're No Angels, What Did You do in the War, Daddy?
Honorable Mention: Nightfall

• Richard Boone

First Movie I saw him in: It was either The Alamo or Big Jake, sometime in childhood. I remember waiting through The Alamo just to get to his big scene towards the end, cuz I liked him so much.

Three Favorite Movies: Big Jake, Have Gun-Will Travel series, The Alamo
Honorable Mention: The Tall T

• Vic Morrow

First Movie I saw him in: Combat! back in the early 90's. Not a movie, but that's okay. I knew his name because of his tragic death long before I actually saw him in anything. I didn't sit up and take notice until I started re-watching Combat! in 2004.

Three Favorite Movies: Combat!, Men in War, Cimarron
Honorable Mention: King Creole

Betty Hutton extravaganza

So, thanks to this really nice site, I've watched three Betty Hutton films I've never seen, each starring one of my favorite men:

The Fleet's In (1942) with William Holden
Somebody Loves Me (1952) with Ralph Meeker
Spring Reunion (1957) with Dana Andrews

Now, I have mixed feelings about Betty Hutton. Sometimes I really like her, and other times she's simply too loud and annoying for me. This goes for both her acting and her singing. My mileage definitely varies. For example, I don't particularly like Annie, Get Your Gun, but I do like The Stork Club. So, these three new films were an interesting mix.

My least favorite of the three... Spring Reunion. Sorry, Dana, but I did not like this film at all. This is like a chick flick from the 50's. I don't like current ones; I don't like old ones. Premise... the man and woman voted most likely to succeed in their senior year in high school meet again at their school's fifteen year reunion, find out they both have done nothing with their lives, and since neither's married, they fall in love in one day and run off immediately to get married because this will make their useless-to-date lives complete. *rolls eyes* Okay, now I'm not really arguing that a chick can't fall for and decide to marry Dana Andrews in one day, ahem, but really... it's just a completely nerve-grating movie where I want to slap all the characters at various points. Blech. But high points go to Jean Hagen -- always wonderful in whatever films she turns up in, and I loved Betty Hutton here. She's low key and very appealing, and she worked well with the material given. Dana... hm. His character was a very odd clash of opportunist and sincerity, with a bit of lonely desperation. Hard to get a fix on who he was really aiming to be here.

The middle-rated movie was The Fleet's In. Oh sigh. William Holden is absolutely adorable, Dorothy Lamour is sassy and snarky, and the premise simple, but cute. Navy sailor Holden gets photographed kissing a movie star (an accident of location) and his shipmates plug the naïve sailor as top wolf of the boat. A bet gets made that he can't get famous night club singer Dorothy Lamour to kiss him in public. That's it... simple and cute. I loved everything with Holden and Lamour. But unfortunately they're not the whole movie. And the movie was sideswiped way off track in the last half hour by a variety show put on for the sailors... the story ground to a halt, and every act in their show either creeped me out or was so far gone into slapstick I couldn't deal. Cut all that extra stuff out, and this would have easily been my favorite film of the three. And alas, this was also Betty Hutton quite loud and obnoxious (though she did have some very funny scenes), so I had a hard time getting through the parts minus Holden and Lamour. And oddly, this was another film with an overnight romance leading to marriage, but at least this one had the benefit of a WWII setting when men and women did need to act quickly sometimes. Spring Reunion had no such excuse.

And my favorite of the three films was Somebody Loves Me. I really loved Betty Hutton in this one. There's no brash hollering, no craziness; she's soft-spoken, emotional, pretty, and her singing is beautiful. This one's the story of the rise and fame of a real vaudeville singer and her husband, from 1906 to somewhere in the 1920s. It had a lot (a LOT) of songs, most as performances on stage, but I think with only one exception, I enjoyed them all. Ralph Meeker is at the beginning of his career and very young here. He's playing a character type he does very well... the scheming heel who ultimately redeems himself. Betty Hutton falls for him almost instantly, but his character simply uses her, her wealth, and her fame to get ahead in the show biz world -- until he realizes he's really in love with her. It's sounds a bit corny, but they play it straight and it never falls into yucky pretentiousness baloney sandwich material like Spring Reunion (no, I really didn't like that movie!). Only lousy part of this movie? Whoever they picked to dub Ralph Meeker's singing voice. I mean the voice itself is very lovely, it's just that Meeker has such a distinctive speaking voice (one of the things I love about him), the filmmakers couldn't find any baritone a little closer in quality than this? I mean, really?? Cuz it was such a bad match it yanked me out of the movie and just made me giggle every time he started "singing."

20... er 10 Favorite Actors

So a 20 favorite actor meme is now making the rounds, and since I'm about to head out on a business trip, I thought this would be a good way to cheer myself up.

As I did for the 20 fave actresses meme, I'm actually only listing 10. Not that there's a shortage of actors I adore. Quite the contrary, I could ramble on for hours on all my favorite men, but I'd rather keep it focused on the ones at the top, the ones who are little more special than the others. Of course, the word "favorite" can mean so many things, so what I did for this particular meme was list thirty or so actors that I really really loved, then I ranked them accordingly to how loudly I'd whoop and how widely I'd grin if they turned up unexpectedly as a guest star in a "Route 66" ep, then I picked the ten at the top. Seemed a fair enough way to figure out who was important to me. The results surprised me a little, as some I thought for sure would be on this list, when I put 'em to this particular test, I found I didn't care quite as much as I thought I would. And vice versa.

So...

1. William Holden -- said it all already :-D

2. Lee Marvin - Yep, Lee Marvin beats out everyone else for second place. Like William Holden, I've loved him for as long as I can remember. Nobody, but nobody can play mean quite like he can, or play a good guy, or do comedy, or sing -- all while keeping that wonderful sexy swagger, and with that wonderful voice. He elevates every movie he's in, and if he's around, he always has my full attention.

3. Dana Andrews - Ah, Dana. It's hard to articulate what he means to me. There are some people who change your life, even if you haven't met them, and he's one of them. He conveys so much with those handsome eyes of his, and he has that smooth voice that never fails to melt me. He gets my full admiration and respect like no one else. More than anything in the world, I wish I could have heard him sing opera. I don't even know which opera roles he studied and sang, which opera was his favorite. His daughter told me that at the end, when he was suffering Alzheimer's and couldn't remember anything else, he was still singing opera in Italian. That makes me cry from both sadness and a strange sort of joy, that he still had that. Because love of opera is something I understand with every fiber of my being.

4. Ralph Meeker - Yeah, he's way higher on the list than I thought he might be, but man oh man, do I love him. I've seen him play pretty much all types of roles, and I like him best when he's playing morally ambivalent characters. He does Grey oh so very well, and as we well know, I'm a huge fan of Grey!

5. Sam Neill - Sam Neill was actually my first true actor crush as an adult. The first time I saw The Hunt for Red October, he completely stole my heart. There's very few movies he's made I haven't seen.

6. Ewan McGregor - He simply can play any role and make you believe in him. I can't think of any current actor I love quite as much as him.

7. Joel McCrea - four things I've learned to appreciate from watching McCrea: 1 - How well some men can wear clothes. I used to think Dana Andrews was the best dressed man in a suit. Nope, I'm afraid McCrea cleanly stole that award away. I almost never pay attention to clothes, or how well a suit or tux actually fits a guy... until McCrea made me notice without even trying. 2 - How good a guy looks after getting dunked in a river. 3 - How important romance is. 4 - And how there's nothing quite as attractive as a truly good man.

8. Aldo Ray - I think he's my all-time physical ideal. If I was ranking actors solely by how lustworthy they were, he gets top slot. Love his brawny build, love his raspy voice, love how easily he laughs, love how often filmmakers get him out of his shirt...

9. Richard Boone - I was a little surprised at first to see him beat out so many of the others to make this list, but really, it's no surprise. I've adored him since the first time I saw Big Jake. Paladin is one of the coolest characters ever put on television, but he'd be nothing if he wasn't played to perfection by Boone. Richard Boone is a great combo of intelligence, honor, swagger, and meanness (when he wants to be). He intimidates the hell out of me, but there's nobody I'd rather have at my side in a confrontation. Like all the guys on this list, I think a movie is better if he's in it.

10. Vic Morrow - A good-looking, fine actor, but more than that... from watching him in films and on television, I've learned so much about how to write a story. That sounds odd, but it's true. There's a lot of acting in writing (at least for me), and Vic Morrow is one of those actors who, for whatever reason, I feel on a visceral level, and the things I've learned about acting from studying how he says his dialog, how he physically carries himself in different roles... he taught me, more than anyone else, how to completely become (and believe in) something I'm not, and that carries into my fiction writing every single day.

Reason #1 not to read TCM's schedule

Dang it. I really really wish I could get just subscribe to one cable channel sometimes: Turner Classic Movies. Cuz they're having a Ralph Meeker night tonight, and as I don't have cable or satellite, I can't watch any of it. Sniff. And if I'm going to procrastinate on Nano writing, I can't think of a better way to do it.

Maybe it's a good thing, because my goal is to get 5000 words today. (The most I've done is a little over 6000 in a day, so I know 5K is doable.) I'm thoroughly distracted already by Joel McCrea right now... add a healthy dose of Meeker back into the mix (including two movies I've never seen that aren't out on DVD) and I'm doomed.

But what a pleasant doom it would be.

Miscellaneous movie roundup

So, I've watched a whole bunch of movies lately, but none have stood out enough to warrant their own review, but I still wanted to keep track of the more interesting ones.

"Brannigan" -- seen this one before, of course, cuz it's John Wayne. I remember liking it, and sure enough, it was still a lot of fun popcorn action. John Wayne can kick ass at any age and watching him and Richard Attenborough together is fabulously enjoyable. I also wanted to see Ralph Meeker, even in a tiny little cameo, playing John Wayne's boss, just because the thought of him ordering John Wayne around cracks me up. (And yes, I did rent it to get that whole two-minutes of RM screen time... hey, when I fall, I fall hard.)

"The Street with No Name" - Man oh man, Richard Widmark... never cross a character of his when he's on the wrong side of the law. He is so bloody intimidating. This was an okay movie, had that sort of documentary narrated style going on that doesn't really do much for me. It was good when it was in the nitty gritty of it. It was good whenever Richard Widmark was around. And it was even better when John McIntire was around. McIntire's one of those guys who shows up everywhere in older films. I mostly know him as a bad guy from westerns, but he was a good guy here, one that I was really really really rooting for. No, I wasn't particularly worried about the hero, but I sure was on the edge of my seat when McIntire was nosing around Widmark's lair.

"The Stranger Wore a Gun" - Randolph Scott western. Boring and the plot felt cobbled together, despite the great people in the cast, like Claire Trevor, Lee Marvin, and Ernest Borngine. Lee Marvin was the reason I had netflixed it, and he never does disappoint. He is just way too cool. This was also one of the many movies filmed in Lone Pine, and I've been systematically checking those out. They actually not only went up the Whitney Portal road, but into Whitney Portal itself for one of the shoot outs. It was quite cool to see what the pond looked like fifty years ago. Not much different, really! LOL!

"The Night Heaven Fell" -- Mmmmmm, Stephen Boyd. They dubbed over his lovely voice, so I had to listen to someone else speaking French, even though he was clearly saying his lines. Maybe they didn't like his Irish accent? So, quite disappointing from an audio standpoint, but ye gods the man is smolderingly sexy and brooding in this movie and... yeah. I've always found him attractive, but I've never seen him playing up the sexy angle in a role quite like this. He does it extremely well, and I have to admit, it caught me off guard. Didn't realize just how much he could turn on the sex appeal when he wanted to. He was downright mesmerizing. It was worth it just to watch him reduce every female in the film (and the audience, ahem) to melted goo. A young Brigitte Bardot's in it for the guys to drool over. She sure does show a LOT more skin than Boyd does. Hmph, but I think it says a lot that he doesn't have to. All he has to do is look at you.

"Duck, You Sucker" -- HAH! This movie amused me greatly. Sergio Leone spaghetti western, starring Rod Steiger and James Coburn, who make a surprisingly good pairing. "Duck, you sucker" is Coburn's signature line, and he uses it to great comedic effect when he first meets Steiger and they engage in a little tit for tat destruction of each other's property. Had to watch that part three times, it was so danged funny. I've always loved Coburn, but it surprised me just how much I loved Steiger here. Movie's a rather odd mix of humor and nasty deadly seriousness, but I thought it worked. Of course, it also explores friendship and betrayal, two of my favorite things, so that helped. And the bridge explosion.... holy moly. Now THAT is an explosion. That might just be the most jaw-droppingly spectucular explosion I have EVER seen on film. Wow.

"The Blue Bird" -- watched this Shirley Temple movie for sentimental reasons. I remember this movie from my youth because the cat and dog turned into people, because of the place of unborn children that freaked me out when I was little, with the ship that sailed in the sky carrying them down to earth, and the giant forest fire. Yep, those were all there, and still somewhat freaky and bizarre. But Gale Sondergaard was the cat and she rocked, even if they did make her a stereotypical, conniving feline out for her own good.

Wednesdays, however, suck

Fizzlebait.

However, brain has been figuring ways to solve the issues in DTD's beginning, so that's good. Need to sit down with paper and pencil and start mapping a few things visually. Also need to do a little more research.

Fizzling out though was not pretty and left me in a rather aggressively self-destructive mood, which I placated by watching a particularly nasty death scene I can't actually bring myself to watch except with much wincing and covering of my ears... but I figure if I watch the worst that can happen to someone I like, my simple troubles are going to seem like absolutely nothing. Sure enough, it seems to have worked, my life is seeming rosy by comparison, and things are perking up this afternoon.

Movie line that makes me grin right now:

"I never strike my flag for an enemy or a rebel. Now put that in your peace pipe and smoke it."

Four in a Jeep

What an interesting little movie this is! 1951, post WWII, Cold War just starting. The four in the jeep are four MP sergeants, one American, Russian, Frenchman, Brit. They tool around Vienna (which has sectors run by each of the four countries, and one sector run by all four) keeping the peace. It was really filmed in Austria, so it looks great. And everyone's speaking their own language half the time, so that's fun too.

Trouble starts when the four arrive on the scene where the Russians are giving a woman a hard time. Actually, it starts earlier when the Russian joins the other three as their new patrol partner. See, he knows the American from the end of the war, and there's a bit of bitterness between them. There's two main stories going on here. In one, the woman is trying to reunite with her husband, only the Russians are after him because he busted out of the POW camp and is trying to cross the frontier to reach her on his own. The American, Frenchman, and Brit try to help her, the Russian wants to help her, but is under strict orders to apprehend her husband. Of course, the fact that she's a beautiful woman, and the American is half-hoping her husband isn't going to return adds a bit of spice to the mix.

The second story is about reconciling the friendship of the American and the Russian (and to a lesser extent, exploring the friendship between all four men). My favorite scene in the movie is a flashback to the end of the war, when the American and Russian each on patrol from their own side first encounter each other. They realize they're allies, there are no Germans, and therefore the war is just about over. They whoop and holler and hug each other and promptly get drunk on pilfered German brandy, and it's so dizzingly carefree and uninhibited. It's such a happy scene, and after all the death/destruction of the war, it just feels right. At the same time, their initial meeting is a fascinating counterpoint to the Russian couple's danger-fraught reunion. The American and Russian soldiers are almost like two lovers themselves, even to carving their initials into a tree to immortalize their meeting and the end of the war.

There are chases and fist fights and a good dressing down by their superiors, and one scene that made me tear up. And of course, one of those hilarious scenes where the American insists on coming into the beautiful Russian lady's apartment, and at her worried look he quickly says "no, I don't mean like that," but then of course, on the other hand, he doesn't want to insult her by indicating she isn't attractive either, so he has to backpedal yet again... guys just can't win that one. LOL!

This was Ralph Meeker's second film, playing the American sergeant, and he's so very young here. Enjoyed it a lot. It's a short movie, but it's surprisingly complex. I'm glad I tracked it down.

There are no happy endings in WWI movies

It's been WWI movie week over here, with "The Trench" and "Paths of Glory." The former is a modern film (1999), with Daniel Craig, and was mostly a character study watching the young British soldiers on the eve of what we know from history will be a battle of devastating loss. You know from the get-go no one's going to cross the end credits alive, though that didn't stop me from hoping and hoping and hoping. The lead character Billy, (played by Paul Nicholls) and Beckwith (Anthony Strachan) were particularly fantastic, not that Daniel Craig isn't, it's just that he's a known quantity, and it was fun to have unknown actors to root for. DC makes a particularly fine don't-mess-with-him but caring sergeant. Loved his strawberry jam scene and trying to get whiskey from the lieutenant.

This DVD had an excellent special feature on WWI narrated by Robert Ryan and filled with footage. It made me cry at several points, just the sheer wasteful loss of life endured on all sides. I didn't realize that it was in WWI that the Germans introduced flame throwers, I assumed that was later. Just one more nastiness in a war of bloody nastiness. I learned a lot more about trenches and trench warfare than I had known, and more about the whys and wherefores of Verdun.

I've seen "Paths of Glory" before, once back in my teenage years. I remember my family watched it because of Kirk Douglas, and I remember being bored because it was not a battle/adventure war movie and, consequently, I wrote it off. Well, there's a prime indicator of silly youth for you. I watched it this morning, and this movie is great; however it was also as stomach-wrenchingly hard to watch as "Ox-Bow Incident," and for similar reasons. Three innocent men there, three innocent men here. Gah! Dana Andrews there, Ralph Meeker here. No more! I'm through! I can't watch any more of my men go through false charges/sham trials, lynching/executions/death again! At least in this one, instead of too-little, too-late Henry Fonda for defense, we've got Kirk Douglas and he is wonderful and awesome here. He's got some fabulous scenes with great dialog. Love love LOVE his scene giving the true cowardly lieutenant the firing squad duty. Pure love! But ultimately, Kirk can't do anything either, and I came *this* close to stopping the movie before it ended. Damn it. Damn damn damn. I'm going to be wrecked the rest of the day now.

But Ralph Meeker was great in all his scenes. He hit it all just right, emotionally, from bravery through bravado to fear and back again. Sigh. (And I got Bert Freed as a sergeant for extra cast bonus!)

"Aw, loosen up. It's spring!"

So, I've been getting up around 6 every morning lately. Shocking for me, but since my evenings are usually spent at my sister's, it lets me get some stuff done. Either writing, or even watching movies.

"The Naked Spur" has been in my queue awhile. Goes with my whole string of Jimmy Stewart westerns I've been watching. ("Bend of the River" is next in that list.) I just sorta happened to bump this one up to the top this week because it also has *cough*Ralph Meeker*cough* in it. Yeah, I got it bad. And he keeps getting cuter in each successive film I've been watching.

I really liked this film a lot. I thought I'd seen it before, but it didn't match at all what I was remembering, so now I wonder. I think I was confusing it with one with Randolph Scott. Plot was tight and a lot of fun. Jimmy Stewart is after outlaw Robert Ryan because he wants the $5000 dollars reward for turning Ryan in so he can buy his ranch back. He gets two unwanted partners, an older broke gold miner and a dishonorably discharged cavalry lieutenant (RM!). Naturally, no one quite trusts the other to split the reward at the end of the road.

The unexpected part? Robert Ryan. Now he's always a solid and dependable actor, but I don't particularly like him. He's usually such a stick in the mud. But here? Wow! He finally gets to relax, and he just goes to town in this role. He plays his captors against each other, sits around smirking when the infighting starts, schemes some more, talks a great line.... he was great! This role is marvelous for him. Just a lot of fun. I don't think I've ever seen him smile or laugh so much in all the other movies I've seen with him combined. And, of course, the fact that he's a nasty, cold-blooded killer beneath the exterior just makes it even better. Color me impressed!

And Ralph Meeker... mmmm, Cavalry uniform suits him well. So does the moustache. He's a crack up in this, unrepentant of his past, and almost as smirky as Robert Ryan at some points. He's got the Arthur Kennedy role here. The guy who's not entirely bad, not quite good, has his moments of bravery, but is mostly just a selfish bastard. Dig it! He goes nicely toe-to-toe with both Jimmy Stewart and Robert Ryan and more than holds his own.

"I like livin'..."

How sad is it that I pop into my own blog a couple times a day just to look at the picture I put in the previous post? But it's a pleasant interruption from work, which is threatening to overwhelm me, so I'll take all the distractions I can. I showed my sister part of "Jeopardy" yesterday for the Dirty Dozen connection, and she was quite shocked and delighted that he was such a hottie in his 30's. But she and I like mostly the same look in our men, so I knew she'd dig him too.

I have a rough outline of the last half of POW done now, and more new words on a fanfic story. I have two fanfic stories left to write (well, two and a half), and then I'm done. They're pressing stories, stories that are driving me crazy to get them down. Don't think I've ever had that with any of my previous stories. I just wrote them for the fun of it. These last two, I have to write. Unfortunately, I also have to write the conclusion to Murder's Melody. Or maybe I'll just pull that story for good and let it die a hard and painful death in the incomplete files. I know what happens, I just can't get motivated to work on it with these other stories horning in.

What I'd really like to do is just sit down on a Sunday and finish off the second draft of "In Little Stars." Turn off the internet, stop watching my weekend movies with hot, drool-inducing actors, and finish the damned thing. Then finish "Blood of the Air." Because both are eating up valuable brain cells that I could be spending on POW and the DTD rewrites, but they won't go away no matter how hard I try to shove them into the cellar. If anything, they get stronger in my head each day I delay working on them, and my focus even simply working on an outline for POW was sketchy. I haven't been grabbed by stories this hard in ages. And it's a perfect pair of stories to end my C! fanfic career on, too, particularly BotA. I dig that!

Now, I just need to stop talking about it and get writing so they're outta my head already! Go! Shoo! Shoo!

"Honest!"

Hee hee. Continuing my Ralph Meeker fling, I watched "Jeopardy" today. 1953, with Barbara Stanwyck. Quite a fun little thriller. I wouldn't mind owning this one at all. Some improbabilities, but still quite fun. And what made it so much fun was Mr. Meeker. Once he arrives on the scene, the movie jumps into high gear. Yowza, he's even better looking here (scruffy and disheveled), and he's got all the plum dialogue. His lines made me grin throughout. He's a fugitive from the law whom Ms. Stanwyck tries to recruit to help rescue her husband, who's trapped by a piling on the beach with the surf coming in. He's so very snarky and sexy and smug in this movie, and all in a carefree and careless way that make him even more appealing, and more dangerous, at the same time.

And Barbara Stanwyck is always an interesting actress to watch. I like how rather ruthlessly she decides to accept what she needs to do to get Ralph Meeker's help. I like how you can see the wheels turning. There's one funny scene where the front tire blows, and she waits around all casual and lets him discover on his own there's no jack in the trunk. Cracks me up. Then he gets to figure how to change the tire without a jack. And I like his solution... quite simple, but clever. And it cracks me up how proud he is of himself whenever he does something he thinks is cool. And where some may roll their eyes at the ending, it worked for me because both characters had changed because of their encounter, not just him. I like that a lot.

Kiss Me Deadly

I'm under the weather, and so finally had a moment to watch this movie. Suh-weet! Totally dug it. This is one I knew little about, other than Ralph Meeker was in it, and I only know him because he's Captain Kinder in The Dirty Dozen. He's so very nice and unassuming in Dirty Dozen; here, 12 years younger, he's totally my type of good-looking. He reminds me of an odd cross between Bill Paxton and Vic Morrow and a dash of a young William Holden thrown in for good measure. His character is selfish, arrogant, determined, and quite vicious when pushed. I was originally wondering how he'd carry a movie, but he's just fine, and he suits the sleazy dark underworld of this movie perfectly. His half-defeated, half-desperate line, "I didn't know," followed by the lieutenant's bitter observation: "You think you'd have done anything different if you had known?" totally sums up who he is. Absolutely love it!

This is quite the dark noir film. But it gives me many of the things I do so love in noir. Detective ignoring police advice and doing his own thing, femme fatale, cool cars, more stairways than a stadium, shadows and more shadows and creepy camera angles, opera, a few fights, a few guns, a few kisses, a few deaths, more than a few drinks, a protagonist who dishevels nicely and actually spends time in a hospital when injured. And best of all? I had no idea what everyone was after the whole film! How cool is that? I had my own (wrong) ideas that revolved ultimately around similar themes, but the reality was much much cooler. I'd say more but it'd be spoilerific and might ruin the fun.


It's interesting because I was just having a debate about mysteries the other day, and about how I'd started running into books that kept things a mystery and it pissed me off. This movie was the opposite. It did the mystery right, and kept me wanting to find out what was going on, and not turn it off in frustration (as happened with the book). This rather fascinates me, the what works, what doesn't, and gave me a better idea what to avoid in my own writing.

And the ending sound effects? Freaked! Me! Out! Thank goodness I never saw this when I was young. I don't think I'd have slept for weeks. I still might not.

I'm really curious to read the book now, see if it explains a little more.