1967 - CHUKA, typical Western with an unusual cast.

Set in the American West it's the old story where the fort is surrounded by some savage Native Americans who the U.S. Army has decided to let starve to death.  Understandably the Native Americans are pissed.  Into this mess comes gunfighter Chuka and a whole bunch of other characters with lots of subplots to wade through.

Chuka has an eclectic cast to put it mildly.  He-Man Australian actor Rod Taylor is the gunfighter Chuka.  British actor John Mills is the weakling Colonel in charge of the fort.  Ernest Borgnine who was in a lot of films and TV shows (this guy liked to work) is the sadistic Army Sergeant.  Michael Cole the future "Pete" from The Mod Squad is a treacherous soldier.  Another busy actor James Whitmore is an alcoholic scout for the Army.

 

Well it gets better, Italian actress Luciana Paluzzi plays a Mexican Senora.  Paluzzi played Fiona Volpe a SPECTRE assassin in Thunderball which kind of typecast her.  Playing Paluzzi's niece is American model Victoria Vetri who would star as a scantly clad cave woman in When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth.

 

Chuka is a film that has a fairly sympathetic view of the Arapaho Indians but that doesn't seem to slow down the number of Indians that Chuka shoots with his trusty six shooter.  The film was directed by Gordon Douglas who had a long career it not a particularly distinguished one as a filmmaker.  Rod Taylor has a producer credit on this film.  Chuka is kind of the same old Western film stuff for the most part, been there done that.

The film was written by Richard Jessup who authored the original story, the running time is 95 minutes.

1968 - LADY IN CEMENT, incredibly a sequel to Tony Rome.

Incredibly Frank Sinatra's Tony Rome private eye character is back in a sequel to the first under performing film.   While treasure hunting, Sinatra finds a naked dead woman with her feet stuck in a bucket of cement at the bottom of the ocean.  So the viewer is off with another Tony Rome adventure as he romances the babes again and wisecracks his way through the case yet again.

The director Gordon Douglas returns probably because he is some kind of masochist when it comes to making films with Frank Sinatra.  The music is by Hugo Montenegro a composer who is best known for his peppy I Dream of Jeannie TV series theme

Well what can you say about the cast.  Richard Conte, Marin Gable, Lanie Kazan and Dan Blocker are in it.  Blocker in the ads is frequently referred to as Dan "Bonanza"  Blocker a reference to the long running television series he was a part of.

This time Raquel Welch, 20th Century Fox's resident contract sex symbol gets to endure Sinatra's misogynistic behavior.  Anything for the great art of film I guess.

 

Two writers were involved it this mess, Jack Guss and Marvin H. Albert the original author of the novel Lady In Cement.  Yes you read that right this film is actually based on a novel.

The running time is 94 minutes.  Lady In Cement was also an under performer at the box office which insured there would be no more Tony Rome films.

1967 - TONY ROME, attempt to revive the detective film.

Frank Sinatra is Tony Rome, a private eye living on a boat in Miami.  Tony Rome is up to his ears in dead bodies, and babes.  Tony Rome wisecracks his way through his case as he puts the puzzle pieces together on a case involving missing jewels.  The reality of this film is that it is just an excuse for Frank Sinatra to romance the dolls and shoot off his mouth with lots of quips and one liners. Occasionally Sinatra pulls out his "38" and plugs some bad guy with it.

The film was directed by Sinatra's go to director Gordon Douglas but as in any Sinatra film, Frank calls the shots. It does have some nice on location photography of late 60's Miami.  Sinatra's daughter Nancy sings the lame-o, title song.

 

The cast is full of Sinatra's Los Vegas buddies and lots of fun character actors like Richard Conte, Robert Wilke, Lloyd Bochner and Simon Oakland.  The female characters are treated with a less than open minded attitude.  Jill St. John is a tough talking broad who has to put up with Sinatra's leering and the camera frequently is pointed at her bottom.  Well that's how it went back in the 1960's I guess. You would never know the Vietnam War was going on and American cities were burning down from racial strife.

 

The film is recommended for it's very weird Sinatra Los Vegas attitude.  It's certainly some sort of time capsule of that era for better or worse.

The writer was Richard Breen, the running time is 110 minutes.

1963 - CALL ME BWANA, another bad Bob Hope comedy from the 1960's

Bob "ski nose" Hope made a lot of terrible comedies towards the end of his movie star run.  Stuff like Cancel My Reservation, I'll Take Sweden, Not With My Wife You Don't and Boy Did I Get A Wrong Number.  Call Me Bwana can hold it's head high with this group as truly awful.

Hope trots out his patented wise cracking coward bit yet again.  This time he's a phony big game hunter in Africa searching for a moon probe that has landed in Africa for the United States.   The Russians have sent big breasted Anita Ekberg to seduce him and steal the probe some very unfunny stuff occurs from this setup.

Since this is a Bob Hope movie, besides the lame wisecracks the viewer gets an extended golf sequence with Arnold Palmer.  In the good old days of the 1940's Hope could take command of a film with superb comic timing and rescue it, this time it seems like he isn't even trying.  Only Lionel Jefferies as a Russian agent pretending to be a missionary is actually funny.  Ekberg does what she is supposed to do walk around sticking her chest out.  The whole thing is mighty pathetic.

If the Call Me Bwana has any interest at all it derives from the company that produced it EON productions, the legendary group that filmed and continues to film the James Bond films.  There is something almost odd about seeing this film with the same cinematographer, editor, special effects man, production designer and producers essentially the men who produced the classic Sean Connery James Bond series, pumping out this unfunny mess.

102 minutes written by Johanna Harwood and Nate Monaster and knowing Bob Hope probably a bunch of his gag men.

1961 - GOLD OF THE SEVEN SAINTS, modest western, nice photography, decent script

Howard Hawks was supposed to follow up Rio Bravo with this film, he supervised the script which was written by one of his favorite writers Leigh Brackett.  Hawks apparently lost interest in the project and wanted to film  Hatari instead.  Warner Brothers didn't want to make Hatari, Hawks left, and Warners filmed Gold Of The Seven Saints with one of their studio directors Gordon Douglas and two of their TV actors Clint Walker and Roger Moore.

Gold of the Seven Saints is nothing special for the most part.  The story was filmed on location in and around Monument Valley,  Arizona, the photographer Joe Biroc did a nice job with the black and white Cinemascope image.  Monument Valley looks like the desert hell hole it probably is. 

Gold Of The Seven Saints is about two trappers who strike it rich  and are then chased throughout the desert by various groups who want their gold.  The story is laid out in a way that has a certain precision and logic to it. The acting is not to bad.   Clint Walker looks like a trapper.   Roger Moore has some sort of bizarre Irish accent and for a pretty boy he does pretty well with his part as well.

It's hard to know why Howard Hawks lost interest in this project.  Hawks could usually take material like this an redeem ii by adding humor to the story and getting good performances out of the actors.  Maybe Hawks didn't think the story was special enough to warrant his involvement.

A quick ninety minutes for people who enjoy westerns.  You could do a lot worse than Gold Of The Seven Saints but you could really do a lot better.