What classics did you see last week ? (9 Dec - 15 Dec 2018)

Inspired by the thread put up by snsurone on 1939’s “Jesse James,” I decided to watch two other western biographies that I already had on my DVR queue for their historicity as well as their movie value.

The Kid From Texas / Kurt Neumann (1950). Universal International Pictures. Technicolor, Academy ratio. This was Audie Murphy’s second lead role and his first western of many to come. He plays one of the most famous gun fighters in the lore of the American west, Billy The Kid (whose real name was either William H. Bonney – which was “fact” when I was growing up - but which now seems to have become Henry McCarty). Murphy still seems a little stiff in front of the camera (which could also be taken as internal acting), but, as the saying goes, the camera loves him and he has a sort of boyish, soft spoken charisma that makes him very watchable. Separating fact from legend as far as Billy The Kid is concerned is never easy, but scholarship has pretty much uncovered the major events of his life. After the opening titles, a narrator tells us that what we are about to see is true. Sure, he says, they changed all the names and altered some chronology, but it is all factual. Actual history is used a sort of a clothesline to hang a fictional story on: Billy being taken in by an honest rancher and merchant in south east New Mexico Territory, the murder of that rancher over a land dispute, Billy and his friends on a mission of vengeance, Billy refusing a pardon from Gen. Wallace, his arrest and conviction for murder, his escape while killing two deputies, the “siege of Lincoln,” and his ultimate death at the hands of Sheriff Pat Garratt. All of this is in “The Kid From Texas.” But some of the playing out of these occurrences and other incidents are fictional as are most of the people who populate this movie. The movie even gives The Kid an infatuation with the young wife (Gale Storm) of a Lincoln, New Mexico banker (Albert Dekker). One delight is getting to see Dennis Hoey (Inspector Lestrade in the Rathbone/Bruce Sherlock Holmes series) as the head of a gang of land grabbers. Also with Shepperd Strudwick, Will Geer, William Talman, and Ray Teal.




Cole Younger, Gunfighter / R.G. Springsteen (1958). Allied Artists Pictures. Color by DeLux, Cinemascope (2.35:1). Very entertaining western. We are supposed to be in sympathy with Southerners during Reconstruction as Texas is under Federal Control and its state police force is brutalizing the citizenry. Young hothead Kit Kaswell (James Best) is doing his best to annoy the local force even though his father and fiancé (Abby Dalton) want him to back off. Kit is arrested with Frank Wittrock (Jan Merlin). When Frank begins to be beaten, Kit revolts, fights the officers and escapes with Frank. Fleeing a posse, they run into Cole Younger (Frank Lovejoy). Younger, a cynical gunfighter, slowly forms a bond with Kit. Cole’s help will be needed when Frank manages to frame Kit for murder so he can make moves on Abby. This is fast moving and well acted but this story never made the acquaintance of a history book. The character played by Lovejoy could have had any name, but Cole Younger sounds intriguing. So take my advice and don’t write a history paper for school based on this movie.



Murder On The Blackboard / George Archainbaud (1934). RKO Radio Pictures. The second of three movies in which Edna Mae Oliver played Hildegard Withers, an amateur detective created by mystery novelist Stuart Palmer. Other continuing cast members are James Gleason as Inspector Piper and Edgar Kennedy as Det. Donahue. A young music teacher is murdered in the school where Hildegard is also teaching. Is the murderer the principal or the science teacher both of whom had flings with the victim? Or the dead woman’s flat mate who shared a winning Irish Sweepstakes ticket? Or the drunk janitor? Or someone else? Great chemistry between Oliver and Gleason, their back-and-forth dialog is very witty. Technically, this is a pre-Code film but there is not much that is pre-Codish about it. Loads of fun.



The Favourite / Yorgos Lanthimos (2018). A delightful cookie full of arsenic set in the early 18th century under the reign of Good Queen Anne (Olivia Colman). Anne is obese and, usually, ill and tired. Most of the running of the government falls on the Queen’s best friend (and more, as we learn) Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz). That is, until a poor relation of Sarah’s, Abigail (Emma Stone) from the Landed Gentry but become destitute, looking for work. This begins a tug-of-war between Sarah and Abigail for the attention and favors of the Queen, leading to some hilarious backstabbing and mayhem. Nicholas Hoult shines among the masculine members of the cast as the Tory leader of the opposition in Parliament. A fun romp and some marvelous, amazing acting from the three lead women, especially Colman – but Weisz and Stone are not to be missed either. All three ladies have Golden Globe and SAG nominations.