The Writer's Poke

I came to this one by way of Detour (1945) because I was interested in seeing what Edgar Ulmer and Billy Wilder were up to.  What we get here is a lot of nice footage of Berlin in 1930. That's pretty cool in and of itself. I'm not sure it makes for much of a movie. But I do enjoy watching people just doing what people do on the weekend. We also get to see people cleaning the streets, washing their cars, and so on.  On Sundays, people dress up, go out on dates, eat chocolates, make phone calls. Captivating stuff.  The Criterion edition includes two different musical scores. I chose the one with the Orchestra, which was fine.  At the beach, one of the guys is looking at postcards, many of which feature fat women. Then the scene transitions and we see that many of the women at the beach are old and fat, maybe mothers. But the "stars" of film are younger couples in good shape. They've brought their record player and they're just enjoying the day.  It would be hard...

This one does it. While I liked The Tall T (1957) and Decision at Sundown (1957), I felt like both were just missing "something." Comanche Station feels like they found the missing ingredient. Right from the start, I noticed the landscape. Just a beautiful place to shoot a film. In addition, it was the way that Budd Boetticher does the shooting. Plenty of really nice tracking shots, including for when we're just following the characters moving on horseback. We get to see them having real conversations. It's very nicely done. Randolph Scott seems to have a better overall ensemble cast, too. He doesn't have to do all of the heavy lifting. Although he's still the star, I also felt like he blended more into the story. Frank (Skip Homeier) and Dobbie (Richard Rust) have some nice banter between them, and Claude Akins (Ben) is a nice foil to Cody (Scott). And there's also a woman, Nancy (Nancy Gates). In a sense, the Indians play the "bad guy" role. Th...

If Buchanan Rides Alone (1958) is noticeably lacking in women, at least Ride Lonesome has Karen Steele. She's pretty prominent in this movie, although I guess her main role is to be a burden for the guys that are trying to ride faster than the people chasing them. She's also someone to stare at and talk about. She's the kind of woman, we're told, that needs a man and can't be happy unless there's a man around to give her what she needs... okay. Funny thing is, I watched this movie last night, went to sleep, and now I'm a little fuzzy already on what happened to her at the end. I can see her quite vividly talking to Brigade (Randolph Scott), but did they go their separate ways? I've honestly already forgotten and need to go back and watch the ending again. In a lot of movies, you'd just expect her and Brigade, as old as he is, to get together at the end. But I don't remember that happening. I just read the Wikipedia summary of the film and even Go...

The most important thing: Does Buchanan (Randolph Scott) leave town with his money? It's funny, because he does get the money from the Sherriff's safe, but it's $250 short. But as far as I can tell, he leaves town with $1750 plus Juan's (Manuel Rojas) amazing horse. Thus, his plan to buy a stake in west Texas is intact.  While Buchanan may ride alone, he does need the help of some friends to avoid hanging. At first, he's just a stranger in town, and since they know he has money, when he's in the wrong place at the wrong time, it seems like the Sheriff decides it's easy to hang him and steal his money. The Sheriff's brother, however, makes sure that Buchanan receives a trial, and Buchanan is found not guilty. Nevertheless, the Sheriff has no intention of giving back the money and sends two men to ride Buchanan out of town. The plan is for them to shoot Buchanan.  However, Buchanan and Pecos (L.Q. Jones) discover that they're both Texas men with the sa...

One way to describe the Ranown Westerns? Minimalist. In a user review for The Tall T, someone wrote that the characters weren't developed enough. I'm not sure I agree. What's definitely true is that both The Tall T and Decision at Sundown focus on a moment in time. These are not stories that tell us much about the moment before, and they may leave us uncertain about the moment after. All we get is the Now. Sundown is the name of the town. The name itself should tell us something. Consider a town that is named Sundown as opposed to Sunrise. Sundown is somehow more foreboding. The "now" of the moment is the Tate Kimbrough (John Carroll) wedding. Even though he's been with Ruby (Valerie French), even right up to before the wedding ceremony apparently, he's marrying Lucy (Karen Steele). Why? Because Ruby isn't the marrying kind. She's lowkey made out to be a "salon worker" and all that entails. Why would Lucy put up with this? Ruby even plans...

I came to the Ranown Westerns with no knowledge of who Randolph Scott and Budd Boetticher were. I love Westerns, and I've watched about 100 John Wayne films, but beyond that, I haven't studied the genre. Thanks to Letterboxd, I also know that I haven't been watching very many Westerns in 2025-26 -- it's the genre right at the bottom of my list. But I picked up the Ronown Westerns 5-film Criterion collection during the last sale, and I'm now ready to dive in. First impressions: 1. These films are at the tail-end of Scott's career. He did around 100 films, but here he's 59 years old and probably doing his last 10 or so films. He does look a bit old, and I would assume that the parts are really meant for someone younger. His age isn't a big issue. It's just something I thought about. 2. B-Movies. So, the Ranown Westerns are supposed to be B-movies -- the "cheaper" films slapped onto a double-bill. What makes these films B-quality? The run-time...

Yes, as other reviewers have said, it does have its moments, and sure, if you were reviewing individual segments, maybe you would rate some of them better than other. Unfortunately, this isn't SCTV, and the movie has to be rated as a unified whole. In some respects, Going Berserk is a loose parody of The Manchurian Candidate (1963). John (John Candy) is a fat chauffer driver who is preparing to marry the Congressman's daughter, Nancy (Alley Mills). The Congressman has a developed an enemy in the Cult Leader Rev. Sun Yi Day (Richard Libertini). Day and his group plan to hypnotize John and have him kill the Congressmen at the wedding ceremony. Along the way, the movie happens. Much of it has little to do with the plot I've just described. Some of it is funny; much of it is weird. This is Candy's first starring role in a movie. I read that he had zero acting training prior to this movie, but his acting isn't the issue here. He's a fine comedic actor. The problem is...