The Last Posse / Alfred L. Werker (1953). The word spreads through town: the posse is returning. They have brought bad news. The men they were chasing, as well as one of their own, have died. The Sheriff is badly, perhaps mortally, wounded and the stolen $100,000 was not recovered. A series of three flashbacks, each with a different narrator, begin to fill in the story thus far. It is the late 19th century and the city of Roswell, New Mexico Territory is celebrating Founders Day with a lot of speechifying from the town’s pillars. All except Sheriff John Frazer (Broderick Crawford) who is, as usual, too drunk to attend. Frazer is well respected in Roswell as the man who, years earlier, had cleaned up the town and chased off or killed the lawless element. But the violence of those years has turned him into a hopeless and useless alcoholic. When a bar fight breaks out right in front of his face, he has neither the energy or interest to step in to end it. Then a crisis occurs. Rich cattle baron Sampson Drune (Charles Bickford) and his adopted son Jeb (John Derek) are robbed of $100,000 by a poor family who had been chisled by Drune. Drune forms a posse to pursue the robbers but he has to take along a citizens’ committee to insure justice when the robbers are caught. They just assume that their drunken sheriff will not be coming along, but Frazer decides to follow them even though it is tough for him physically. Crawford, just a couple of years past his Best Actor Oscar for 1949, does a great job as Frazer regains his sobriety, his pride, and his abilities as a law enforcement officer in the harsh New Mexico desert (really southern California and western Arizona). After the flashbacks, an inquest his held in town during which Sheriff Frazer’s courage inspires an unexpected confession. A superior western film.
Broderick Crawford and John Derek in The Last Posse
Blackjack Ketchum, Desperado / Earl Bellamy (1956). The title makes this sound almost like a western comedy, but it isn’t. It is a most competent and tight western adventure based on a novel by the legendary author Louis L'Amour who left behind over 100 works when he died in 1988. L’Amour is the creator of the Sacketts and of Hopalong Cassidy. BK, D is the old story of the gunslinger who just wants to hang up his guns and settle down with his lady on their own cattle ranch. But Tom Ketchum (Howard Duff) has his past catch up with him in the form of Jared Tetlow (Victor Jory) whose brother, a bar room bully, had been shot by Ketchum while protecting a friend. Tetlow is a big cattle baron who plans to take over the valley no matter who gets hurt. Standing in his way is Ketchum’s own ranch and that of Nita Riordan (Margaret Field), his intended. Duff is quiet and laid back, trying to use his intelligence rather than his guns to defeat Tetlow. Victor Jory makes a formidable malevolent presence. This 70-minute black & white feature was produced by Sam Katzman, he of the Katzman Kwicky. For Trivia fans: Margaret Field is the mother of two-time Oscar winner Sally Field. After divorcing Sally’s father, she married cowboy actor and stuntman Jock Mahony, which is why in her last three movies, including Blackjack Ketchum, she is billed as Maggie Mahony.
Howard Duff and Margaret Field in a clinch at the end of Blackjack Ketchum. Also with Angela Stevens, Robert Roark, and David Orrick McDearmon
Frygtelig Lykkelig (Terribly Happy) / Henrik Ruben Genz (2008). Danish film which was Denmark’s submission to the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language Film Award for 2010. Robert, a Copenhagen cop coming off some kind of experience that has left him emotionally fraught, has been assigned as the only law enforcement in a remote Jutland town. He is quickly informed by the populace how the “old marshal” did things and he is constantly reminded that “We do things our own way.” One of the ways is to make people who are problems disappear into the bog that surrounds the town. Slowly, he begins to conform to the town’s ways until a battered wife who is an outsider like Robert, tries to get him to take her away. Watching the plot unfold is kind of a frustrating experience as Robert is such a passive character. The trouble that comes to him is a result of his withdrawn, easily malleable personality – very unlike that of a cop. The movie seems way too long for the story it tells. I’m glad it wasn’t nominated that year.
…Continuing a watch straight through the 10 seasons of
Doctor Who: New Series in anticipation of next year’s introduction of the 13th Doctor.
S.8, Ep. 9 “Flatline” October 18, 2014. The Doctor saves the Earth from some two-dimentional creatures who want to make humans like themselves.
S. 8, Ep. 10 “In The Forest Of The Night” October 25, 2014. Overnight the Earth is covered with a thick forest. The Doctor can discover no reason for the sudden growth. All the trees register as normal trees. Meanwhile, a huge solar storm threatens life on Earth.
S. 8, Ep. 10 and Ep. 11 “Dark Water” and “Death In Heaven” November 1 & 8, 2014. This two part story ends the 8th season. In these creepy adventures, the Cybermen are back and the Master has got them. The Doctor and Clara visit the afterlife, a.k.a. The Promised Land and The Netherworld – which harbors a terrible secret: the minds of the recent dead have been uploaded into a data cloud and used to animate new Cybermen. Michelle Gomez joins the cast as Missy, the lastest incarnation of the Master.
S. 9 Christmas Special “Last Christmas” December 25, 2014. The Christmas Specials have never been very special to me but this is an exception. Beautifully plotted with many twists and turns, wonderfully acted by the entire cast, and continually surprising. Guest starring Nick Frost as……..wait for it……..Santa Claus!. As The Doctor says, “Do you know what the big problem is in telling fantasy and reality apart? They’re both ridiculous!”
S. 9, Ep. 1 & 2 “The Magician’s Apprentice” and "The Witch's Familiar" September 19 & 26, 2015. I always thought that Peter Capaldi never really imprinted his own persona on The Doctor during his first season. He never seemed comfortable channeling the First Doctor as a grumpy hero who loves humanity but hates people. But he enters the Season Of Two-Parters with a new attitude that fits him like the proverbial glove. I like to call it “The Aging Rock Star.” Capaldi is great for all of this season and the next, ending his tenure. The first two-parter brings back The Doctor’s most fun villains: Missy, the Daleks, and the Dalek’s creator, Davros.
S. 9, Ep. 3 & 4 “Under The Lake” and Before the Flood" October 3 & 10, 2015. Did you ever wonder what the Bootstrap Paradox is? The Doctor explains it all to you in the intro to the second part. A research team in an underwater lab finds an alien spaceship on the lake floor. Inside the craft is a strange figure who appears to be a ghost. When one of the crew is killed, he also becomes a “ghost.” The arrival of The Doctor and Clara causes even more confusion. Deaf actress Sophie Stone guest stars as the team’s commander. Very worthwhile.
S. 9. Ep. 5 & 6 “The Girl Who Died” and “The Woman Who Lived” October 17 & 24, 2015. Maisie Williams (Game Of Thrones) guest stars as Ashildr a Viking teen who The Doctor and Clara meet after being captured by her clan in 10th century Nova Scotia. In the second part, The Doctor meets Ashildr again in 16th century England. This outstanding season continuous with another winner.
S. 9, Ep. 7 & 8 “The Zygon Invasion” and “The Zygon Inversion” October 31 & November 7, 2015. At the end of the 50th Anniversary Special, a treaty was signed by Earth and the shape shifting race, the Zygons which allowed the Zygons to live on Earth in the form of humans. Now, a radical splinter group of Zygons want to control the planet and wipe out humanity. Good performances by Jenna Coleman as captive Clara and the rebel leader, her Zygon double, as well as by Ingrid Oliver as Osgood and Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart.
S. 9, Ep. 9 “Sleep No More” November 14, 2015. An odd episode that seems to be the first half of a two-parter (the final scenes are more like a cliffhanger than a resolution), but the ending never comes. Still, the story is a good one with some excellent science-fiction writing and storytelling.
S. 9, Ep. 10, 11, & 12 “Face The Raven” and “Heaven Sent” and “Hell Bent” November 21, 28, December 5, 2015. Wrapping up Season 9 is an epic three-parter that has to be watched twice – at least! – to catch all the connections and implications. A truly impressive and ambitious tale. It begins with finding a pan-dimensional street in London that harbors galactic criminals, Maisie Williams as Ashildr returns as the head person of the street, and ends on lost Gallifray with The Doctor confronting the leaders of his own race – The Time Lords.
