1954 - VERA CRUZ, cynical western from director Robert Aldrich

Burt Lancaster is grinning away in Robert Aldrich's Vera Cruz.  Along with Gary Cooper, Lancaster is mixed up in the Mexican Revolution as a soldier of fortune.

The movie was noted for a new level of cynicism that hadn't been seen in westerns before.  Gary Cooper is I guess the nominal hero of the film but even he is a lot more interested in his own situation than helping out the Mexican revolutionaries

 

Robert Aldrich directed the film on location in Mexico but couldn't seem to rein Lancaster in with all of his goofy grinning.  After all, Lancaster was one of the producers.

 

The film runs 94 minutes and has some decent action.  Lancaster as usual does all of his own stunts.  Vera Cruz was written by Roland Kibbee and James Webb

1973 - EMPEROR OF THE NORTH or EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE

 During the Depression of the 1930's hobos ride the railroad and have to contend with conductors trying to keep them off of their trains.  One conductor in particular called Shack is particularly sadistic in dealing with kicking hobos off of this train.  It's up to one hobo in particular called "A-No-1" to face him down.

The photography is great the locations were the same ones used by Buster Keaton in The General. The director is macho man Robert Aldrich so you  be sure the action will be tough and rugged.

The film stars two of Aldrich's favorite actors Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine (who is very scary), so you can be sure this film will be dripping with testosterone to put it mildly.   

A very entertaining manly adventure drama.

118 minutes.

1955 - KISS ME DEADLY on BLU RAY

THE sleazeball private eye classic is out on Blu Ray in another classy Criterion disc.

Private eye Mike Hammer who is a border line sadist investigates the case of a missing woman and a strange black box which may or may not be part of the Manhattan project.  Hammer is such a dirt bag that it's almost impossible at times to see him as the hero of the story particularly when he's beating people up for information.

The cast as directed by Robert Aldrich is a group of almost unknown or character actors.  In a way it's a Robert Aldrich stock company of sorts since he uses some of the same actors throughout many of his other pictures.

And speaking of direction who but a tough guy director like Aldrich could knock out a film like this.  The film is rough and cynical and also very entertaining.

104 minutes

1959 - Ten Seconds to Hell, is subpar Aldrich

In probably a match made in Hell.   Robert Aldrich teamed up with Hammer Studios to make this film about a bomb disposal unit working in Berlin at the end of World War II.  Aldrich cast Jeff Chandler, Jack Palance and Martine Carol.  In a typically perverse Aldrich move, Jeff Chandler who usually played good guys is the bad guy and Jack Palance who usually played bad guys is the good guy.  Marine Carol was sort of a "oh la la" Marilyn Monroe sex symbol because in movies you always have to have a girl.

The plot involves a bomb disposal unit of ex German soldiers who one by one get blown to smithereens by unexploded British bombs.  The tension arises from figuring out who will survive this suicidal job.

The chief problem with Ten Seconds to Hell is that it is kind of boring.  The bomb disposal scenes should have had almost a Hitchcockian approach to ramping up the suspense but curiously these scenes are completely lacking in any kind of interest or tension.  Supposedly Hammer Studios was so disappointed in the finished film that they removed about 30 minutes from Aldrich's original cut.  Aldrich felt that this made the film incomprehensible but after viewing this film and in particular the scenes involving the disarming of the bombs I don't think adding 30 minutes to the running time would have helped this story.

Robert Aldrich was always a director who liked his films a little over the top.  In this case it would seem that in spite of Jack Palance's rather eccentric performance, the finished film was just to conventional for such a dramatic subject.

93 minutes

1977 - THE CHOIRBOYS, pretty bad film from Robert Aldrich

The Choirboys is another 1970's film from Robert Aldrich who struggled to find decent films towards the end of his career. 

A very badly made film.  The Choirboys should have been the perfect Aldrich film.  The film was a mixture of black comedy and drama the perfect material for Aldrich but man oh man what he did with it was next to nothing.

The acting is horrible, the photography from the reliable Joe Biroc is very flat and looks like a TV show.  The script is completely offensive in it's treatment of women and in particular gays.  Even as a gross out Animal House type of film The Choirboys completely fails.

Stunningly terrible film making.

119 minutes.

1967 - THE DIRTY DOZEN, on Blu Ray

Tough guy director Robert Aldrich had a big hit with this war movie which at the time was known for it's violence.  Robert Aldrich was an interesting filmmaker.  He had been an assistant director to Jean Renoir, Lewis Milestone and Charlie Chaplin.  His style of film making was to hit the audience over the head with films like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Kiss Me Deadly, Attack and The Dirty Dozen.

 Aldrich was looking for a commercial hit with this film and was also trying to make a statement about the nastiness of war.  The 12 convict soldiers were not exactly the kind of Army men you would see on a recruiting poster.  However, Aldrich sort of diluted his message by loading the film up with lots of little comedic moments. 

When you get right down to it, this is a superbly cast film.  Aldrich used a lot of actors he was very comfortable with and added a real live wire by hiring John Cassavetes as the criminal turned soldier, Victor Franco.  Finally there is ex Marine Lee Marvin as Major Reisman the leader of The Dirty Dozen.  This is an actor who is completely immersed in his part.

As a Blu Ray, the film looks pretty good if maybe a little over saturated in the colors.

150 minutes. Written by Nunnally Johnson and Lukas Heller.

1975 - HUSTLE, sleeze from Robert Aldich

Another old school Hollywood director struggles for relevance in 1970's Hollywood.  Robert Aldrich coming off his success of The Longest Yard with Burt Reynolds teamed up with Reynolds again for this "sleazy slice" of Los Angeles life.

Aldrich was always a director with a blunt hit you over the head technique but this story set a new low for him.  Cynical cop Burt Reynolds is shacked up with high class hooker Catherine Denevue.  Reynolds investigates the drowning of a girl who was involved in the sex trade business in L.A.  Meanwhile the dead girl's father wants revenge as the cliches pile up higher and higher.  Hustle is either a criticism of the lack or morality in a corrupt American culture or a big time Aldrich wallow in slime.

Aldrich cast some of his old actor buddies like Ernest Borgnine and Eddie Albert and he had his usual cinematographer Joseph Biroc with him but it's not much help.   Borgnine and Albert seem like they should be in another film preferably something set in the 1950's and for a film showing the grimy aspects of Los Angles, Biroc made the whole thing way too pretty.

The crappy screenplay was by a hack writer with pretensions named Steven Shagan who let everyone down for this film.  

120 minutes.