WHITE COMANCHE

 

WHITE COMANCHE is a 1967 Euro Western starring--of all people--William Shatner, who made the film during a break in his STAR TREK schedule. What's more, Shatner plays twin brothers, sons of an American father and a Comanche mother. Johnny Moon is a decent man who has chosen to live in the white world, while his brother Notah is a murdering renegade. 

Shatner was one of the many 1960s American male actors who traveled to Europe hoping to emulate Clint Eastwood's success with Spaghetti Westerns. If Shatner thought his time on the plains of Spain would give him some big-screen clout, he was sadly mistaken. 

Johnny Moon is constantly being mistaken for his brother Notah, and constantly blamed for the latter's crimes. This is such a problem that one wonders why Johnny just doesn't go ahead and kill Notah when they confront each other at the beginning of the film (of course if he did, the movie would be only five minutes long). Instead Johnny challenges Notah to meet him in the nearby town of Rio Hondo in a few days. Until then Notah continues his depredations, while Johnny gains the trust of Rio Hondo's Sheriff Logan (Joseph Cotten). 

The situation of William Shatner playing twin brothers, with one of them in Native American garb, calls to mind the STAR TREK episodes "The Enemy Within" (where a transporter malfunction creates a good Kirk and a bad one) and "The Paradise Syndrome", in which the Captain loses his memory on an unexplored planet and is assimilated into an indigenous tribe. Shatner does quite well as the tight-lipped Johnny. He's proficient in the action sequences and he rides a horse very well (which will be no surprise to anyone who knows about the actor's personal hobbies). When it comes to the role of Notah, Shatner just can't cut it. Notah is a peyote taking, crazed savage, and the whiter-than-white clean-cut Shatner looks ridiculous trying to emulate him. (It's easy to tell the brothers apart--Johnny wears a shirt, while Notah doesn't.) 

The lackluster production didn't do Shatner any favors. The movie has a cheap feel to it, with choppy editing, strange camera setups, and mediocre music. The version I watched of this film had an English-language soundtrack, and while Shatner and Joseph Cotten provided their own voices, the rest of the cast sounds flat (and it doesn't help that at times the sound of gun shots are not properly aligned with weapons being fired in the scenes). You can't really call WHITE COMANCHE a true Spaghetti Western, since it was a Spanish-American production, with a Spanish director named Jose Briz Mendez, who is credited as Gilbert Lee Kay in the main titles. One of the producers of the film was Sam White, who was the brother of long-time Three Stooges associate Jules White. 

Rosanna Yanni, an actress who would later work with the likes of Paul Naschy and Jess Franco, plays saloon girl Kelly, who is raped by Notah and later falls in love with Johnny. Yanni has screen presence but it's a bit of a stretch to think her character would have feelings for the identical twin of the man who viciously assaulted her. Joseph Cotten doesn't have much to do as Sheriff Logan, even though he gets top billing above even Shatner. No one else in the cast particularly stands out. 

Much of the plot seems an excuse just to kill time before the final confrontation between Johnny and Notah--a confrontation that winds up being very underwhelming. William Shatner probably assumed that getting a dual role in a European Western would give him a chance to show off his acting chops, but it didn't do much for his career. (I've been an original STAR TREK fan for most of my life, and I barely knew anything about this movie, and hadn't even seen it.) For those who enjoy the camp aspects of William Shatner's performances, WHITE COMANCHE might be of interest, but overall it's a below average Euro Western that might have had a lower budget than the average STAR TREK episode. 

HATE FOR HATE

 

This is a 1967 Euro Western that I was not aware of (its original title is ODIO PER ODIO). It turned up on Turner Classic Movies earlier this week. 

The movie stars Antonio Sabato as Miguel, a poor Mexican prospector who is trying to raise enough money to move to New York and become an artist, and John Ireland as James Cooper, a bandit who is hoping that after one last robbery he can go back to his wife and daughter, who he has not seen in years. Circumstances bring Miguel and Cooper together--the bank that Cooper and his backstabbing partner Moxon (Mirko Ellis) broke into happened to hold Miguel's life savings. After some misunderstandings, the duo join forces to go after Moxon and his gang. 

Despite its title, HATE FOR HATE has a jaunty air about it at times. The charismatic Miguel always has a big grin on his face, and John Ireland lacks the intensity that most vengeance-obsessed Spaghetti Western protagonists have. The pairing of a cocky youngster and a middle-aged gunman is a common one in Euro Westerns, and the element of Cooper's wife and daughter adds some drama, although the situation isn't explored properly. 

HATE FOR HATE is a decent enough production, but there isn't much in it to make it stand out. There is a brief shootout in a rainstorm, and Cooper happens to be dying of malaria that he contracted while in prison, but the movie overall lacks style and energy. Spaghetti Western veteran Fernando Sancho makes an appearance, and honestly he would have made a much better main villain than Mirko Ellis. 

One Domenico Paolella directed this film, and among the multiple screenwriters are such Euro Cult names as Fernando Di Leo and Bruno Corbucci. The best thing about HATE FOR HATE is the engaging lead performance by Antonio Sabato. 

IMPACT (1963)

 

This is an effective, if low-budget, black & white British crime drama lasting only about an hour that I discovered on Tubi. The main reason that it caught my interest was that the film stars George Pastell, who played a number of exotic ethnic types in various movies for Hammer. The Cyprus-born Pastell also showed up in such mainstream fare as John Huston's MOULIN ROUGE, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, and KHARTOUM. 

This time Pastell gets a major role as Sebastian "The Duke" Dukelow, a Soho nightclub owner who also happens to be an underworld kingpin. Dukelow always manages to avoid the law, but a newspaper reporter named Jack Moir (Conrad Phillips) has been writing a number of articles about his criminal activities. Dukelow decides to get Moir out of his hair by framing the reporter for a mail robbery. Moir is convicted, and he winds up serving 20 months in prison. While behind bars Moir comes up with a plan to get revenge on Dukelow. After his release, the reporter sets the plot in motion, with the help of his former cellmate Charlie (John Rees), a fellow who works at a meat-packing plant that has a number of large walk-in freezers. 

IMPACT is a very straightforward tale that barely has any flab on it (both Moir and Dukelow have girlfriends, but the ladies don't have much to do). Moir's plan for revenge is actually quite believable, since it doesn't involve a major action sequence. 

Conrad Phillips (best known for playing the lead role in the WILLIAM TELL TV series) shows plenty of understandable bitterness as the put-upon Moir. (Phillips co-wrote the script for IMPACT with its director, Peter Maxwell.) George Pastell gets the better role as the Duke, and the actor plays him as a disarmingly charming man with plenty of self-assurance. The Duke is so confident that his scheme to frame Moir will work, he even donates 1,000 pounds toward the reporter's attorney fund. 

IMPACT is the type of movie that is best watched late at night when sleep is elusive. Despite its title, the impact it makes is rather low-key.....but Hammer fans will enjoy seeing George Pastell as the lead bad guy. 

THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1969)

 

This is not the 1963 film with the same title directed by Mario Bava. This is a 1969 crime drama that I picked up on DVD at a very cheap price from Edward R. Hamilton, due to the fact that it stars Adam West, one of my childhood heroes due to his portrayal of Batman in the classic TV series. 

This movie was made after the end of West's time as the Caped Crusader, and he no doubt thought THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH would give him a much needed change of pace. West plays Johnny Cain, a former adventurer and intelligence operative who has settled down to become the owner of a nightclub. Cain lives on a luxury boat and zips about in a sports car, and he's also a ladies man. His swinging bachelor lifestyle is interrupted by an accident one night at his club. A garbage truck happens to smash into the wall of the establishment, killing the man sitting in front of the wall--a man who happens to be a powerful crime boss. Cain's former girlfriend Rebel (Nancy Kwan) was the crime boss's mistress, and the syndicate thinks Johnny has something to do with the killing. Cain becomes drawn into an intricate plot involving the mob, communists, the CIA, and a Tibetan statue. 

THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH attempts to be an action-packed adventure, but it falls way short. The plot is convoluted and confusing, and the too-few fight scenes are very basic (and they're not helped by Adam West having a stunt double that looks nothing like him). West spends most of his time either talking to someone or traveling to one location after another, and the pacing is hurt with the insertion of a performance by an exotic dancer and two mediocre songs by the lounge singer who works at Cain's club. The Tibetan statue is a very weak MacGuffin--it doesn't even wind up being all that important. 

Nancy Kwan is actually the title character, but she doesn't have all that much screen time, and she doesn't even provide all that much helpful knowledge to Cain. The supporting cast includes familiar types such as Nehemiah Persoff and Robert Alda, but there are none of the quirky minor characters that most above-average noir/crime/adventure films feature. 

Francis D. Lyon directed THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, and the movie at times feels more like the pilot for a TV series instead of a true theatrical film. The character of Johnny Cain is a promising one, and Adam West does his best with it. Unfortunately the story just never gets going, and Cain's quest for answers doesn't seem to be all that important. This is a movie that will mainly appeal to Adam West fans. 

STRANGE CONFESSION

 

In my post yesterday about THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD I forgot to mention that Universal remade the film in 1945 as STRANGE CONFESSION. The remake was part of Universal's "Inner Sanctum" series, a group of weird mystery movies based on a famed radio show/short story series. 

The Inner Sanctum movies had almost nothing to do with the mystery series it was supposedly based on. The films were low-budget features--they each lasted about an hour--and they all starred Lon Chaney Jr. Universal may have felt they were giving Lon Jr. a chance to stretch his acting chops in the Inner Sanctum series, but Chaney wound up playing a number of brooding, brainy characters that he wasn't really suited for. Lon Jr. spent most of his time on the Inner Sanctum series looking glum and depressed, and the roles that he enacted were not very charismatic. 

Chaney gets a lot of blame for the mediocrity of the Inner Sanctum series, but Universal gave the movies (six in all) journeyman directors, scripts that weren't all that thrilling, and a dull, overall look. I have the entire Inner Sanctum series on DVD, and I hadn't pulled it out in years before I did so last night to view STRANGE CONFESSION. Universal horror fans don't give much respect to the Inner Sanctum series, and even Lon Chaney Jr. fans find the movies underwhelming. 

STRANGE CONFESSION for the most part follows the story pattern of THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD, but there are some major deviations. THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD takes place in World War One-era France, while STRANGE CONFESSION takes place in contemporary America (even though no mention is made of World War II). In the original film Claude Rains is a pacifist writer whose work is credited to publisher Lionel Atwill, while in the remake Lon Chaney Jr. is a chemist working for devious boss J. Carrol Naish. (A pacifist character probably wouldn't have worked too well in a 1945 American film.) 

Lon's chemist, Jeff Carter, comes up with a number of medicines that Naish's Roger Graham, the head of the company, takes credit for. Jeff quits over this but he comes back to make life better for his wife (Brenda Joyce) and their young son. Graham is pushing Jeff to finish up a new medicine, but the chemist wants to make 100% sure it is effective. Graham sends Jeff off to South America on a research trip, so he can take Carter's notes and rush out the new medicine. Graham also wants to put the moves on Jeff's wife. While Jeff is stuck in South America, Graham rushes out the new medicine during an influenza epidemic, but the product doesn't work, causing a tragedy that drives Carter to attempt to retrieve his "mind". 

STRANGE CONFESSION, like all the other Inner Sanctum films, has a decent premise but its drab, no frills attitude doesn't take advantage of it. The movie spends a lot of time trying to establish Lon Jr.'s Jeff as a good family man, but Chaney still looks uncomfortable in such a role. J. Carrol Naish is much more low-key than Lionel Atwill in THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD, and the result is that Naish doesn't come off as a major threat. 

The supporting cast has plenty of familiar faces, including Milburn Stone, Lloyd Bridges, Mary Gordon, and Ian Wolfe. The movie was directed by John Hoffman, not exactly a household name, and while STRANGE CONFESSION isn't terrible, there's nothing in it that makes it stand out, other than its leading man and its Inner Sanctum connection. 

I don't think up to this point I have ever written a blog post on any of the Inner Sanctum titles. They are films that I don't revisit very often. If you happen to be a Universal Monsters fan and you haven't watched the Inner Sanctum series, I would suggest that you do check them out, just to see Lon Jr. and plenty of other cult actors. Just don't expect too much out of them. 

THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD On Blu-ray From Kino

 

Kino provides another rare early 1930s Universal production with a home video release. THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD (1934) has been branded as a "sort of" horror thriller, but it's really a melodrama set during World War One that details how one man's earnest creativity can be used for nefarious ends. 

The Man of the title is Paul Verin (Claude Rains). Paul is a French pacifist writer and a social misfit who takes up penning editorials and articles for publisher Henri Dumont (Lionel Atwill) in order to improve his family's financial standing. The articles go out under Dumont's name, which doesn't bother Paul, who believes the more socially-connected publisher will be able to influence public opinion and help shape a better world. When World War One breaks out, the ambitious Dumont is convinced by a group of powerful arms dealers to change his tune. The resultant rush to war sweeps Verin into the army, while Dumont attempts to seduce the writer's beautiful wife Adele (a very young and blonde Joan Bennett). The various crises cause Verin to go past the breaking point and leave the front in order to retrieve his "mind". 

The main story of THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD is told in flashback by a distraught Paul. This flashback takes up the rest of the film. Claude Rains gives another of his outstanding performances as the lead character, although the audience's sympathy for Paul is tempered by the fact that he's too modest and committed to his beliefs to realize he's being used. (One also wonders how a person like Paul was able to marry the much younger and attractive Adele.) 

The number one reason to see this movie is to watch greats like Rains and Lionel Atwill act opposite one another. Atwill's Dumont isn't so much an out and out villain as he is a clever, suave opportunist. One can even understand why Adele might be swayed by the outwardly charming Dumont. It's intriguing to think of an alternate version of this film where Rains and Atwill switched roles. 

Universal horror fans will recognize such supporting actors as Lawrence Grant, Gilbert Emery, Edward Van Sloan, and Harry Cording. (Valerie Hobson is also in this as well, but you'll have to really pay attention to get a glimpse of her.) Director Edward Ludwig and cinematographer Merritt Gerstad provide a number of expressive sequences and shots. 

Kino's Blu-ray of THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD looks and sounds great, with a very nice black & white transfer. Two new audio commentaries are provided. One features Troy Howarth, and he gives plenty of detail and interesting analysis about every aspect of the film. The other commentary is by David Del Valle, which I haven't listened to. 

I had never actually seen THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD before, but I had certainly read about it over the years. Despite having plenty of Universal Monster-style elements, it is definitely not a horror film, and I wouldn't even call it very thrilling. It is a well-done drama, a bit heavy-handed at times, and it is worth seeing mainly for Claude Rains and Lionel Atwill alone. Kino has thankfully released a number of early 1930s Universal films that have seemingly fallen through the cracks, and hopefully they have more on the way in the future. 

TREASURE ISLAND (1990)

 

This is another DVD I purchased at a discount from Edward R. Hamilton. This version of Robert Louis Stevenson's venerable story was first shown on the American TNT TV cable network in January 1990. I remember seeing commercials for it, but for whatever reason I didn't catch its original broadcast, and I never saw it until last night. 

One would assume that since this TREASURE ISLAND stars Charlton Heston and was written, produced and directed by his son Fraser C. Heston, it is nothing more than a vanity project. That's far from the case, however--it is a well-mounted production that was released in theaters overseas. Some reviews I've read online state that it is the best overall version of the classic adventure story. 

The 1990 TREASURE ISLAND gets off to a rousing start with the likes of Oliver Reed as a supremely rugged Billy Bones and Christopher Lee as a particularly loathsome Blind Pew. A teenage Christian Bale is Jim Hawkins, and even at this early stage in his career the actor is showing his "Look how intense I am" performance style (this Jim is not a wide-eyed youngster). 

Charlton Heston was in his sixties when he played Long John Silver here, but he puts his all into the role, and he seems to be enjoying himself immensely. He also makes Silver a decidedly nasty fellow who isn't as likable as other versions of the character. As a matter of fact, this TREASURE ISLAND is a bit darker and more realistic than other adaptations, with a group of cutthroats and scalawags who are much more brutal than quirky or entertaining. 

The supporting cast is a fine one, with Julian Glover as Dr. Livesey and Richard Johnson as Squire Trelawney. (Isla Blair, Julian Glover's real-life wife, plays Jim Hawkins' mother.) The art direction and production design is very impressive, and the movie is helped immeasurably by location shooting on the coast of England, and Jamaica. 

This technically may have been a Cable-TV movie, but it feels and looks like a theatrical feature, and it is better than most films made around this period. My favorite TREASURE ISLAND is still the Disney live-action version, but the Hestons should have been proud of what they accomplished with their adaptation.