A CLOSE CALL FOR BOSTON BLACKIE (1946) ***

Chester Morris returns as reformed jewel thief-turned-sleuth Boston Blackie in his tenth big screen adventure.  (This was the first of three Boston Blackie movies he made in 1946 alone.)  This time out, Blackie tries to help a former flame evade her jealous jailbird husband.  When her hubby catches them alone together, he mistakes her baby for Blackie’s, and pulls a gun on them.  Before the hotheaded husband can pull the trigger, he winds up getting gunned down by a shadowy figure.  Blackie is blamed for the crime by his old nemesis Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) and with the help of his faithful sidekick Runt (George E. Stone), he sets out to clear his name. 

Director Lew Landers (a veteran of several other Boston Blackie adventures) ensures A Close Call for Boston Blackie gets off to a crackling good start.  The mystery is solid and twisty, and there’s a handful of humorous moments to keep things moving along at a steady clip.  Landers gets a lot of mileage out of the cute baby, not to mention a pack on ornery dogs that cause quite a commotion in one of the movie’s best scenes.  My favorite moment though involves Blackie disguising himself as an old man to pull the wool over the villains’ eyes.  

These little asides help to balance out some of the plot hiccups that occur in the third act.  The climax lacks sparks too, but fans of the series will be pleased by the breezy pace, snappy banter, and energetic performance by Morris.  He’s in fine form once again and his verbal sparring with Stone and Lane is often amusing, making this one of the better Boston Blackie adventures.

AKA:  Lady of Mystery.

THE OUTLAW (1943) * ½

The Outlaw was eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes’ second and final film.  Like Hell’s Angels, the story surrounding the making of the movie is more interesting than the movie itself.  Hughes found his lusty, busty leading lady Jane Russell during a nationwide talent search, and her two big talents were the main reason why the flick was such a sensation.  Hughes openly defied The Hays Code, which forbade depicting implied sexuality, and because of that, it couldn’t legally be shown in respectable theaters.  It later wound up playing on the roadshow circuit for years and went on to become a cult item.  Seeing it now though, it’s hard to tell what the fuss was all about. 

The Outlaw depicts the meeting of Wild West legends Doc Holliday (Walter Huston) and Billy the Kid (Jack Buetel).  They make an uneasy alliance as Doc helps Billy perpetually evade capture by his good friend, sheriff Pat Garrett (Thomas Mitchell).  Trouble brews once Billy becomes enamored with Doc’s best gal Rio (Russell). 

Despite all the hubbub Russell’s bustline caused, this is a drab, dreary, and slow-moving oater in just about every way.  You know you’re in trouble when the great Gregg (Citizen Kane) Toland is your cinematographer and the film still looks blah.  The listless performances and terrible score (which often fluctuates from whimsical to comedic to melodramatic, sometimes within the same scene) further hamstring the experience.  Then there’s the clunky revisionist finale, which throws all historical accuracy out the window and only succeeds in making the whole thing that much more laughable.

Russell’s cleavage is best thing about the otherwise forgettable film.  Sure, the scene where Buetel gives her a roll in the hay was shocking for the day.  That doesn’t make it worth sitting through all the stilted dialogue scenes and forgettable shootouts.  Speaking of rolling, Hughes might’ve been rolling in the dough, but he sure isn’t much of a director.  At least Hell’s Angels had the benefit of some great aerial dogfight footage.  While Russell’s rack might be an impressive sight, The Outlaw is a big bust. 

HALLOWEEN HANGOVER: BLUE DEMON (1965) ***

Blue Demon makes his second screen appearance and has his first starring role in this fun Mexican monster movie.  A mad scientist (Mario Orea) is on the loose turning people into werewolves via injection.  Professor Carral (Jaime Fernandez) decrees he must be stopped and turns to the great luchador, Blue Demon for help.

What makes the monster scenes so much fun is that they blatantly rip off the old Universal monster movies.  The transformation scenes are a lot like The Wolf Man and the professor is clearly modeled on Edward Van Sloan’s Van Helsing in Tod Browning’s Dracula.  The filmmakers probably wanted their werewolf to resemble the Universal pictures, but it winds up looking more like the one in the 1956 flick, The Werewolf. 

Things kick off immediately with a great werewolf attack.  What I liked about the werewolves in this movie is that they revert back to human form not when they are shot by a silver bullet, but when Blue Demon body slams them.  That right there tells you it’s going to be a better than average werewolf flick.

The film contains two wrestling scenes.  The first one is pretty ordinary.  In fact, the camera is stationary for much of the time.  The second match is great though.  It’s here when the mad scientist dopes Blue Demon’s opponent with wolf juice and he turns into a werewolf right in the middle of the match, causing pandemonium in the arena!  

So what if things get a little dull whenever Blue Demon isn’t on screen?  That kind of goes with the territory when it comes to these things.  Besides, it’s hard to hate any movie that combines Mexican wrestling, werewolves, mad scientists, a haunted castle (that looks like it came right out of the bottom of a fishbowl), and a mob of angry torch-wielding villagers.  All I know is that when Blue Demon is body slamming lycanthropes, it’s damned good times.

FORD V FERRARI (2019) *** ½

I’m not much of a gearhead or anything, but I do enjoy me a good car movie every now and then.  I’m also a sucker for a good underdog sports flick.  The two roads intersect with James Mangold’s gripping, expertly crafted drama, Ford v Ferrari.

It tells the true story of how American car maker Ford Motors challenged Ferrari’s dominance at the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans race.  Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) gives car designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) carte blanche to create a car that can beat Ferrari.  His pick to drive the car is Ken Miles (Christian Bale), a notoriously prickly driver who does not play well with others, especially corporate scum like Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas).  It’s up to Shelby and Miles to not only defeat Ferrari on the track but cut through Ford’s bureaucracy in order to get the job done off the track.  

Like all good underdog films, it follows the Rocky formula of having your heroes suffer a defeat before the no holds barred rematch.  There are also montages because, what would a sports movie be without montages?  Mangold’s camera gets up close on the drivers and the cars during the racing scenes, so you feel like you’re right in the middle of the action.  (I’m especially proud of myself for not typing “so you feel like you’re in the driver’s seat".)  

The film wouldn’t work so well if it wasn’t for the excellent cast off the track.  Damon and Bale are complete opposites, which is kind of what makes them a good team.  Their acting styles are as different as oil and water, but they are terrific together.  That works in their characters’ favor too as Shelby has a knack for juggling cars with hobnobbing with corporate suits while Miles is not a people person, but can drive the hell out of a racecar.  

If the film has a fault, it’s that it stops short of showing us what exactly (pardon the pun) drives both men.  Shelby is out to prove that since he can’t drive, he can build a fast car and Miles just wants to race and provide for his family.  Outside of that, they’re rather thinly sketched.  You have to give Damon and Bale credit for enriching their characters, even if they weren’t fully fleshed out on the page.

AKA:  Le Mans ’66.

CHAMPAGNE FOR BREAKFAST (1980) **

Champagne (Leslie Bovee) has just been promoted to vice president of her advertising firm.  Now that she is in a place of power, she seeks to objectify men and use them for sex.  She hires an ex-boxer (John Leslie) to be her chauffeur and he takes her around so she can ball various lovers.  Predictably, he winds up falling in love with her.

I know this is just a dumb early ‘80s porn, but the out of date attitudes and rampant homophobia really bring it down.  I mean, it’s one thing for John Leslie’s character to pretend to be gay in order to get a job.  It’s another for him to sock a guy on the jaw for coming onto him.  The strangest scene occurs when banging a hot babe and she invites another woman into the bed.  When he sees her, he starts freaking out, calls them “lesbians”, and storms out of the room.  Man, what guy wouldn’t want two sexy girls at the same time?  He clearly has some issues.  (Either that, or the filmmakers do.)

Many of the sex scenes are lackluster too.  There’s one fuck scene that happens on a waterbed that doesn’t even have a money shot, just a close-up of stains on the sheets.  The best scene is when Leslie bangs Kay Parker on her desk and she gets so hot that she starts breaking everything in her office.  

At over 100 minutes, Champagne for Breakfast is just too long for its own good and has too many drawn out dialogue scenes that ultimately go nowhere.  It’s also really cheap looking too.  I mean you kind of expect to see crew members reflected in the car windows during outdoor scenes in these movies.  You don’t expect to see them walking around in the background during a bedroom fuck scene!  Jeez, even Ed Wood kept his crew out of his shots.

Champagne for Breakfast was also released in an edited R-rated version titled, Boss Lady.  I can’t imagine how it played without the XXX scenes.  With the hardcore scenes, the movie isn’t much.  Without them, it’s probably even less.

AKA:  Boss Lady.  AKA:  Talk Naughty to Me.

TAZA, SON OF COCHISE (1954) ** ½

Rock Hudson stars as Taza who inherits leadership of the Apache tribe from his father on his deathbed.  Tensions flare when several of his men break off and attack some white settlers.  To prevent further bloodshed, Taza agrees to move his people to a reservation and become a Calvary soldier to help police the reservation.  Trouble brews when Geronimo (Ian MacDonald) is taken prisoner and brought to the reservation where he begins talk of a revolt.

Directed by Douglas Sirk, Taza, Son of Cochise was made around the same time he and Rock were collaborating on their mawkish melodramas, Magnificent Obsession and All That Heaven Allows.   Although it’s probably looked down upon because it’s a B western, it does have some interesting aspects.  Even though Taza is seen as a traitor by his people for wearing a soldier’s uniform, he’s still not fully trusted by the whites for being a Native.  Because of that, Taza is stuck squarely in the middle as he strives for peace between both people.  You can see Sirk trying to wrestle with working in more adult subject matter into the material, although he’s only slightly successful at doing so.  

This isn’t Rock’s best performance by a long shot.  That’s mostly because he’s sorely miscast.  To make matters worse, he’s stuck speaking a lot of stilted Native American dialogue.  It is fun seeing This Island Earth’s Rex Reason as Rock’s hotheaded brother though.  It’s Barbara Rush who gives the best performance as Rock’s unrequited love who winds up betrothed to Reason against her will.  

If it wasn’t for the 3-D effects, this would’ve been a better than average, but forgettable programmer.  Thankfully, the 3-D is strong enough for me to give it a marginal recommendation.  Sirk doesn’t go overboard with the 3-D, waiting for just the right moment to spring it on the audience.  I also liked the way he kept a stick, tree, or hitching post in the foreground to make the depth-of-field effects pop.  In doing so, it gives you a good feel for the majestic plains and desert landscapes.  

The 3-D effects include:  

·         3-D Universal Logo

·         3-D Torch

·         3-D Spear

·         3-D Whip

·         3-D Arrow (multiple)

·         3-D Gun (multiple)

·         3-D Stone (multiple)

AKA:  Son of Cochise.  

MY LUCKY STARS (1985) ** ½

Detective Jackie Chan needs help cracking a case.  The bad guys seemingly know his every move, so he turns to his old gang, led by Sammo Hung (who also directed), who are now wanted criminals for help.  After they spend a LOT of time goofing off and perving on the lady cop sent to babysit them, they finally team up with Jackie to take the villains down.

My Lucky Stars is a sequel to Winners and Sinners, a movie I haven’t seen, but there’s enough exposition (perhaps too much of it) so you can kind of get an idea what happened.  It starts off like a Jackie Chan Police Story sequel before turning into a Sammo Hung comedy.  Unfortunately, the two only occasionally intersect.  The early scenes hold a lot of promise as the film kicks off with some amazing stunts, including a jaw-dropping car chase, a terrific fight at an amusement park, and an inexplicable Ninja attack. 

In fact, after the stellar opening scene, Jackie disappears for a good hour, popping up only briefly for a decent fight against the Ninjas.  The great Yuen Biao gets even less screen time as Chan’s partner, who almost immediately gets kidnapped by the bad guys.  Once the film primarily becomes the Sammo show, it goes downhill fast.  A lot of the humor is downright painful to sit through (like the toilet scene), and the part where the gang dress as Ninjas and take turns tying each other up to the sexy cop is especially dire.  

Things end on a high note with an electric finale set in a haunted house amusement park attraction.  The scenes of Chan fighting Ninjas and samurais, not to mention the zombies and ghosts inside the attraction, are great.  Hung is impressive as well when he’s allowed to fight instead of mugging for the camera with his dingbat friends.  If only he had Jackie around more often, My Lucky Stars could’ve been a classic.  As it is, it doesn’t shine as bright as it could’ve.

AKA:  Winners and Sinners 2:  My Lucky Stars.  AKA:  Tokyo Powerman.  AKA:  Lucky Stars Superior Shine.