Local Hero (1983)

Knox Oil is developing oil rigs in the Atlantic off the coast of Scotland and needs a location for a refinery.  The tiny seaside town of Ferness looks to be ideal.  It is thus decided that "Mac" MacIntyre (Peter Reigert) is the man to send; after all, he's of Scottish descent.  In fact, he's of Hungarian descent and his ancestors chose the name because it sounded American to them.  Before he departs, Mac has a brief meeting with Felix Happer (Burt Lancaster), the owner of Knox Oil & Gas.  Oddly, Mr. Happer's biggest concern is the sky, especially around Virgo.  He wants regular reports from Mac.  He arrives in Scotland and is met by Danny Olsen (Peter Capaldi), a Knox Oil rep in the UK.  The pair make a brief stop at a Knox facility to learn about the proposed oil facility and meet Marina (Jenny Seagrove), the lovely assistant of Dr. Geddes.  Both Mac and Danny are smitten.  Then it is off to Ferness, where they meet Gordon Urquhart (Denis Lawson), who serves as hotelier, bartender, accountant, and local deal maker.  And then the story grinds to a halt.  Mac and Danny wander the beach and otherwise while away the time while Gordon negotiates with the residents.  All but one are eager to sell, but the one happens to own the beach!

Mac's life in Houston is not going well.  Though he is making good money, owns a Porsche, and is being entrusted with this important deal, his personal life is empty.  Before leaving, he made a couple efforts to get a date, but they fell through.  Once in Ferness, he is quite envious of Gordon's life, especially his wife, Stella.  While drunk, he suggested swapping lives, offering all he had in Texas for the comparatively modest life that Gordon had.  Back in Texas, he is clearly not happy to be home.

Felix Happer is an oddball.  He has a wacky shrink (Norman Chancer) who insults and berates him - it's therapy - and keeps doing so even after being fired.  His fascination with the stars outweighs his interest in oil, which is strange for the head of an oil company.

Danny Olsen speaks half a dozen languages, but not Gaelic.  That was mildly amusing; Capaldi is Scottish.  He is generally awkward and hopelessly in love with Marina.  When she unexpectedly emerges from the surf at Furness in SCUBA gear, he desperately pursues her.  The pair always meet on the beach, usually as she pops out of the water.  Is she a mermaid?  There are hints that she may be.  Huh.

Gordon Urquhart is the town fixer and general jack-of-all-trades.  He runs the hotel, waits the tables, stands in as bartender at the pub, plays the accordion in the local band, and keeps the accounts of everyone, including Victor, the Russian fisherman who makes regular visits.

Overall, the movie is slow paced and has a dearth of comedy.  The fish out of water theme only goes so far, especially since both Mac and Danny are soon enamored of Ferness.  It is humorous how eager the residents are to sell out their slice of heaven to the oil company while the buyers want to settle down in the village.  There is also the running gag of the motorcyclist who narrowly avoids running down the characters when they exit the hotel.  Despite getting 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, I found it to be just so-so.

The Kentuckian (1955)

It is the early 1820s and Big Eli Wakefield (Burt Lancaster) is heading west with his son, Little Eli (Donald McDonald).  They have big plans of relocating to Texas; Big Eli has enough money to get transport and get them started in a new land.  However, there are problems.  The Wakefields have a long-standing feud with the Fromes; Big Eli keeps a wary eye out.  Stopping in a town, Eli runs afoul of the local sheriff who tried to shoot his dog; the sheriff locks Eli in jail.  Hannah (Dianne Foster), an indentured servant, hears the sheriff send for the Frome brothers.  She frees Eli and flees as well, but the sheriff finds them.  To buy them out of trouble, Eli surrenders the Texas money.  Is Hannah now indentured to him?  How are they going to get to Texas?

Without funds, Eli finds himself working for his brother, Zack Wakefield (John McIntire), a tobacco farmer.  To avoid obvious scandal, Hannah works in a local tavern run by Stan Bodine (Walter Matthau).  Ziby Fletcher (John Carradine) is a local snake oil salesman who inexplicably stays in town for the rest of the movie, a gadfly at Bodine's tavern.  Susie Spann (Diana Lynn) is the local schoolteacher and has eyes for handsome Big Eli.  Eli is a man of the wild and is soon made the fool among 'civilized' folks.  He learns quickly but it may cost his dream of Texas.  Little Eli is especially set on Texas.

There is a lot of silliness.  The fight between Big Eli and Bodine was ludicrous.  The Frome brothers were a pair of statues who stood with grim looks on their faces and staring straight ahead.  Look menacing?  Sure.  Look human?  No.  The acting is mostly weak and many of the characters have inexplicable motivations.  Little Eli looks to be on the brink of tears, either of joy or sorrow.  Why did Bodine manufacture a fight between Little Eli and his classmate, Luke?  In a later scene, he tries to weasel out of something by saying he has a reputation to maintain as a local businessman.  Really?  After getting kids to fight each other?  Hannah, who escaped indentured servitude thanks to Eli, sold herself right back into it to pay him back.  What?  Helping him escape a date with the Fromes while locked in jail wasn't a fair trade?

Despite being in the South, there are no slaves to be seen.  There was a scene when the riverboat arrived in town and several black men in colorful attire sang about the glories of Texas, clearly trying to recruit immigrants.  Slaves?  Almost certainly, but they seemed a happy bunch.  The movie doesn't specify the year, but James Monroe is named as the President of the United States; he served from 1817 to 1825.  Also, Moses Austin - father of Stephen Austin and advocate for Texas migration - is mentioned as recently deceased.  Austin died in 1821.

Mediocre.

The Scalphunters (1968)

Joe Bass (Burt Lancaster) has just spent the winter collecting pelts when he is surrounded by Kiowa warriors.  Two Crows, the leader, wants the pelts and is willing to trade a black man for them.  Joe has no interest in an escaped slave but the deal is forced on him.  Joseph Lee (Ossie Davis) was a house slave in Louisianna and happens to be surprisingly well-educated.  Though Joseph explains how he was recently captured from the Comanche and would like to be returned to the Comanche, Joe Bass decides he would be worth more if sold back into slavery.  Futhermore, Joe explains how there is a jug of whiskey hidden inside the pelts and he expects the Kiowa will be dead drunk this evening.  It will be the perfect time to sneak into camp and abscond with his pelts.  They have hardly arrived to surveil the Kiowa campsite when scalp hunters led by Jim Howie (Telly Savalas) slaughter them.  The scalphunters ride off with the pelts!  While Joseph thinks that's the end of that, Joe is still determined to get his pelts.

The scalphunters have several wagons, several women, and about a dozen men.  Jed (Dabney Coleman) is Jim's righthand while Kate (Shelly Winters) is the woman he tries to please.  Kate is not easily pleased.  She makes demands of Jim that he usually obeys.  Maybe she's Jim's righthand?

Mostly, this is Joseph Lee's story.  He starts off as property of the Kiowa, finds himself traded to Joe Bass, and later falls into the hands of Jim Howie and his band of scalphunters.  Though everyone wants to sell him as a slave (he's worth $1000 to $1500!), he is determined to get to Mexico where slavery is illegal.  He has a real talent for manipulating people.

Strange to say, this movie about men who scalp Indians was often comedic.  The interactions between Joe Bass and Joseph Lee are funny and sometimes slapstick.  Then, in the next scene, someone is run through with a spear.  That switch is often jarring.  The comedy is a little too heavy at parts.  Joe Bass, who is cunning through much of the movie, suddenly turns doltish as the plot requires.

The time period of the movie is inscrutable.  Most of the guns are post-Civil War weapons.  However, it is clearly during or before the Civil War since slavery is still legal.  The heyday of the mountain man hunting pelts was from 1820 to 1840.  Yes, many continued for years after but the fur market had crashed with a change in fashion.  The most infamous of the scalp hunters were John Joel Glanton (1819 - 1850) and James Kirker (1793-1852).  Each had crews of men with whom they slaughtered Indians or anyone whose scalp might pass as Indian.  They would collect the bounty from Mexico, who could not post enough soldiers to protect the northern frontier from Indian depredations.

Ahistorical in its setting, it is still good popcorn fun.

Zulu Dawn (1979)

King Cetshwayo has assembled a huge army in Zululand and the British are concerned.  Sir Henry Bartle Frere (John Mills) drafts a demand that Cetshwayo disperse his army or suffer consequences.  Lord Chelmsford (Peter O'Toole) approves the message.  Cetshwayo replies that he has no intention of crossing the border and the status of his army should be no concern of the British.  The British disagree.  Lord Chelmsford leads an army into Zululand to forcibly disperse the Zulus.  After crossing the Buffalo River into Zululand, Chelmsford camps his troops at Isandlwana.  Despite suggestions from the colonial militia to arrange his wagons in a defensive barrier, Chelmsford declines; he views this as merely a temporary camp.  The following day, he led a column to reconnoiter in the direction of Ulundi, leaving 1300 men camped at Isandlwana under the command of Colonel Pulleine (Denholm Elliot).  Colonel Durnford (Burt Lancaster) had arrived with a mix of native and colonial mounted troops.  Not one to sit on his thumbs, Durnford went looking for Zulus and found thousands en route to Isandlwana.  After a brief engagement with the Zulus, he retreated toward Isandlwana.  Despite having artillery, rockets, and rifles, the unsecured camp could not hold against the sheer number of Zulus that washed over it.  As the camp was overrun, Pulleine ordered Lt. Melvill (James Faulkner) to save the flag.  Melvill and Lt. Coghill raced toward safety but were killed crossing the Buffalo River.  The colors floated away in the current.

The movie has too many characters.  We open with Sir Bartle Frere, who figures only in the first act.  Then we have the commanding general, Lord Chelmsford, who is the central character.  Then there is Colour Sergeant Williams (Bob Hoskins), who provides a view from the ranks.  Colonel Durnford is the second lead and the loose cannon character.  Quartermaster Bloomfield (Peter Vaughan) cares more about accounting for every bullet than expediting ammunition distribution during the attack, placing some of the blame for the catastrophe on his attention to details.  Norris "Noggs" Newman (Ronald Lacey) is a newspaper reporter who has a contentious relationship with Chelmsford, viewing the whole Anglo-Zulu War as a manufactured one for political ends.  Lt. Vereker (Simon Ward) is a newly minted officer who floats between commands, presumably meant as a binding agent between the various figures; he should have been eliminated since he is a fictional addition.

Entertaining and educational.  Good popcorn fun.

Buffalo Bill and the Indians, Or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976)

The Buffalo Bill Wild West is rehearsing at their base in Nebraska.  Nate Salisbury (Joel Grey) is everywhere, directing the various acts, giving direction, and making plans.  Annie Oakley (Geraldine Chaplin) is clearly a big draw, shooting items from the hands of her shaking husband, Frank Butler (John Considine).  Ned Buntline (Burt Lancaster) lectures everyone in the saloon regarding how he discovered Buffalo Bill and, through his writing, made him a star; Nate makes it clear that Ned is persona non grata, but Ned ignores him.  Finally, we meet Buffalo Bill Cody (Paul Newman), a hard drinker who spends much of his time in his office.

An opportunity arises to have Sitting Bull join the show.  Soon, Major John Burke (Kevin McCarthy) returns with Sitting Bull (Frank Kaquitts) and William Halsey (Will Sampson).  Everyone mistakes Halsey - who is six and a half feet tall - for Sitting Bull.  In fact, he is Sitting Bull's interpreter.  Sitting Bull agrees to join the show only because he wants to meet the Great Father (i.e., the President of the United States), who he says will come to see the show.  Though Bill would like to stage the Little Bighorn as a sneak attack slaughter by the Indians, Sitting Bull refused.  Instead, Sitting Bull only consented to ride around the arena and be seen.  Eventually, President Cleveland (Patrick McCormick) and his new bride (Shelley Duval) arrive to see the show.  Sitting Bull seeks to ask the Great Father a question but Cleveland refuses to listen.  Soon after, Sitting Bull leaves.

Buffalo Bill comes across as a pompous oaf.  Whatever business acumen there in in the show comes from Nate Salisbury, and Annie Oakley is the true star.  Repeatedly, Bill is embarrassed by Sitting Bull.  His claim that the nearby river cannot be crossed is proved wrong.  His efforts to track Sitting Bull's party show he can't track.  Moreover, the canny Sitting Bull exposes the underhanded trick to Bill's sharpshooting.  It certainly appears that Buntline's claims that he plucked Bill from obscurity and made him famous are true.  In fact, there is some truth to that.  Buntline had been seeking Wild Bill Hickok, who didn't like Ned's forwardness and ordered him out of town in 24 hours.  Wisely complying he went looking for another hero for his novel and stumbled upon Bill Cody soon after.

Sitting Bull had met Annie Oakley in 1884 and became a fan of hers.  She was likewise impressed with him.  In 1885, Sitting Bull was allowed to leave the reservation and joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West.  He remained for 4 months.  President Cleveland married Frances Folsom on June 2, 1886.  The movie timeline does not work.

Kevin McCarthy affects a Paul Harvey voice as the MC of the show.  Normally an immaculaty-groomed actor, he was almost unrecognizable with a rugged fur coat, wide-brimmed hat, wild long hair, and immense walrus mustache.

The big problem with this movie is that it fails to entertain.  It's a boring slog that paints Buffalo Bill as an incompetent fool.  You can have an incompetent fool as the protagonist in a comedy, but this isn't a comedy.  Of course, the 70s was a time when many of the Western heroes of old were torn down.  Where Errol Flynn had played Custer as a noble hero in They Died with Their Boots On (1941), Richard Mulligan played him as a pompous oaf who richly earned his fate in Little Big Man (1970).  Of course, the truth is somewhere between those two extremes.

Despite an impressive cast, take a hard pass on this one.

Vera Cruz (1954)

It is 1866 and many Americans have traveled across the Rio Grande to become mercenaries in the Franco-Mexican War.  Colonel Benjamin Trane (Gary Cooper) of Louisianna is one of those.  Unfortunately, his horse has broken a leg.  However, he encounters Joe Erin (Burt Lancaster) who has a horse for sale.  It is not a particularly good horse and the price is steep.  Trane accepts.  No sooner has he purchased the horse than a column of troops approach and give chase.  Trane is perplexed by this until Erin reveals that the horse he just purchased belongs to them.  Despite their difficult start, Ben finds himself joining with Joe and his band of mercenaries, an impressive crew that included Pittsburgh (Charles Bronson), Tex (Jack Elam), and Donnegan (Ernest Borgnine).  They are hired by Marquis Henri de Labordere (Cesar Romero) to escort the Countess Marie Duvarre (Denise Darcel) from Mexico City to Vera Cruz, where she will set sail for France.  Of course, there is something more valuable than the countess in the wagon - 3 million in gold - and Joe has notions of getting his hands on it.  The road to Vera Cruz is crowded with Juaristas, who seek to unseat Maximillian I and want that money to fund their efforts.

Joe Erin is a black hat to the core.  He never misses an opportunity to cheat or steal.  When offered the commission from the Marquis, a couple of men decline the offer so he shoots them.  Nice.  I'll bet that does wonders for morale.  He repeatedly makes plans that don't include his cohorts and is then startled when they turn on him.  When his goal is in sight, he gladly abandons allies or even shoots them.  There's very little nuance to him.

Ben Trane is mostly a white hat.  Sure, he shows a willingness to abscond with the gold, but decides that's not the right thing.  He's always rescuing ladies from Erin's band of brutes, showing his noble attitudes, proving to have culture and grace, and helping anyone in need, even Joe Erin.  For a guy who made a living by owning a plantation full of slaves and fought to keep that state of affairs, he's a pretty cool guy.  Despite being the good guy, Lancaster scene-chewing overshadows Cooper's subdued performance.

There is plenty of action, usually in the form of an ambush on the road to Vera Cruz.  The incompetence of the Marquis by riding down narrow defiles that have not been scouted is embarrassing.  In the final battle, it was dumbfounding how easily Ben and Joe were able to flank and take out a key gun emplacement, showing a catastrophic - and obvious - hole in the Marquis' defense.  Don't let our heroes win because the bad guys are abysmally stupid.  It would have been nice if Joe weren't quite so bad and Ben wasn't quite so good.

As for the history, it's pretty weak.  Vera Cruz was the entry point for Spain, France, and England during the 1861-1867 Mexican Adventure.  This was the main port for all support and the port where France made its exit.  It was not captured by Juaristas in a mass attack in 1866.  By 1866, the United States was providing arms to the Juaristas and was intent on kicking the French out of Mexico, per the Monroe Doctrine.  Also, the Gatlin gun that appears in the final battle is not yet in service.  Many of the guns seen were not yet available in 1866.  Maximillian I was only 34 at the time of the film, but is portrayed by the 54 year old George Macready.

Entertaining and fast-paced, but too predictable.  Good popcorn fun.

The Professionals (1966)

Henry "Rico" Fardan (Lee Marvin) is hired by millionaire JW Grant (Ralph Belamy) to rescue his kidnapped wife (Claudia Cardinale) from Jesus Raza (Jack Palance), a Mexican revolutionary.  Fardan's crew consists of Hans Ehrengard (Robert Ryan) who is former cavalry officer and all-around horse expert, Jake Sharp (Woody Strode) who is a master tracker, crack rifleman, and a skilled archer.  Rico says he needs an explosives man added to the team, suggesting Bill Dolworth (Burt Lancaster).  Grant happily agrees.  The four men cross into Mexico.  They haven't gone far when they discover they are being hunted by a party of ten bandits.  The professionals show just how professional they are by taking down the larger force.

During the trek, it is learned that Rico and Dolworth had both joined the Mexican Revolution in 1911, but returned to the United States after 6 years.  Rico had had a Mexican wife who was killed during the revolution.  Both have fought alongside Raza and are puzzled by his kidnapping of Maria Grant; it's not his style.  After overcoming several obstacles along the way, the team arrives at the hacienda of Raza and make plans to grab Ms. Grant and race back to the US border.  The fuses are already burning when they discover that Maria Grant was not kidnapped; she returned to the man she loved, Jesus Raza.  They carry out the plan.  With Maria seeking to escape her rescuers, can the team outrun the pursuit? 

The banter between Marvin and Lancaster is great fun.  They feel like old friends and one would never guess they had a contentious relationship while filming.  Lancaster is the standout, stealing scenes, laughing infectiously, and doing most of his own stunts.  He's a cheery fellow who contrasts nicely with Marvin's stoic seriousness.  Ryan and Strode are good, but clearly secondary to Marvin and Lancaster.  Jack Palance makes a good villain, as always.  However, he transforms along the way as his side of the story is revealed.  Claudia Cardinale's part is undemanding.  She has a much more substantial role in Once Upon the Time in the West.  Maria Gomez, who plays Chiquita the Bandita, did a lot with her small role.  Fardan and Dolworth know her from their time in the Revolution and provide a background sketch for her that was lacking for Maria Grant.  More character development despite less screen time.  The big plot hole is that Raza didn't send a message to his former comrades rather than seek to kill them.

Highly recommended.

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)

Wyatt Earp (Burt Lancaster) is riding through Texas on the trail of Ike Clanton.  He drops in to see an old friend, Cotton Wilson, and discovers that Cotton let Ike ride through unhindered.  Once a tough as nails lawman, Cotton is now interested in feathering his nest.  Earp leaves unhappy.  At the hotel, he finds Ed Bailey (Lee Van Cleef) lying in wait for Doc Holliday (Kirk Douglas).  Though he doesn't know Holliday, he still feels obliged to warn him.  Warned, Holliday kills Bailey in a duel and flees a lynching with Earp's reluctant help.

 

Back in Dodge City, Earp is irritated when Holliday shows up.  He tries to drive the gambler out of town but finally agrees to let him stay provided 'No guns, no knives, no killing.'  Holliday has a reputation.  In the ensuing days, Holliday helps Wyatt on a few occasions and a friendship develops.  Also, Wyatt falls in love with Laura Denbow (Rhonda Fleming) and plans to give up his badge in order to marry her.  Then word comes from his brother Virgil in Tombstone: Ike Clanton is making trouble.  Reluctantly leaving Laura, he rides to Tombstone.

 

After some preliminaries that result in the death of James Earp (Martin Milner), Billy Clanton (an astonishingly young Dennis Hopper) meets with Wyatt to schedule the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.  Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan (played by DeForrest Kelly, better know as Doctor McCoy from Star Trek) are joined by Doc Holliday.  The gunfight is more like a military skirmish that lasts five minutes rather than the historical 30 seconds.  In the end, every Clanton and McLaurey is killed, as are Johnny Ringo, and Cotton Wilson.

 

Though entertaining, it is far from historical.  Rather than Wyatt being Charlie Basset's deputy, this has it the other way around.  Burt's Wyatt is clean shaven, as are all of his brothers.  The Earps are known for their full handlebar mustaches.  Ike Clanton survived the O.K. Corral and Ringo wasn't even there.  The only fatalities were the McLaury brothers (Tom and Frank) and Billy Clanton.  Tombstone (1993) does a far better job with the history though it too has its faults.

 

Kirk Douglas makes for a good Doc Holliday.  By contrast, Lancaster plays Wyatt Earp as some proto-Boy Scout, which is far from the mark.  A clear product of the 50s, it is nonetheless fun.