“A Fistful of Dollars” Trivia!

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Rob Hunter at Film School Rejects came up with 21 Things We Learned from the Fistful of Dollars Commentary.  Before you click over, here are three of my favorites and my thoughts on each…

Eastwood was paid $15,000 for the film with a six-week Spanish “holiday” included. Other actors originally considered for the role, including Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Henry Fonda, and others, all asked for too much money. (I always find it interesting to see who was offered a role compared to who ended up playing it.  Of the three listed, Charles Bronson is my hands-down favorite.  Eastwood is iconic as the Man with No Name, but it would have been interesting to see what Charles Bronson could have done with that role. – Craig)

The opening title credits were designed by Luigi Lardani and based in part on the popular James Bond title credits of the time. (If you watch the opening credits, the 007 title credits influence is clear.  It was a smart idea to use modern title credits for a movie set in the old west.  – Craig)

You know this already, but the film is very directly based on Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961). Kurosawa had already acknowledged that his samurai films were in some ways a reworking of traditional Hollywood westerns, but A Fistful of Dollars is a very, very clear remake of Yojimbo — “the trouble was that nobody had cleared the rights.” Kurosawa eventually wrote to Leone after seeing the western and said “I like your film very much, it’s a very interesting film, unfortunately it’s my film not your film.” They settled out of court with the Japanese director going on to earn more from this film than from any of his own releases. (Wow!  I knew that A Fistful of Dollars was a reworking of Yojimbo, but had no idea that Kurosawa’s settlement made him more money than any of his own films!  I also love his quote: “I like your film very much… unfortunately it’s my film not your film.” – Craig)

AND SOMETIMES I WONDER ABOUT YOU by Walter Mosley / Z-View

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And Sometimes I Wonder About You by Walter Mosley

Trade Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard; Reprint edition (April 19, 2016)

First sentence…

Taking the local train from Philly to New York’s Penn Station may not be as smooth as the Acela’s ride but it gets the job done for a few dollars less and sometimes, like that Monday afternoon, the car is nearly empty and a man has time to think.   

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Leonid McGill is a legitimate tough guy.  He’s a former boxer, a full time PI and sometime criminal.  While riding the train from Philly, a beautiful woman, Marella Herzog asks McGill to get her safely to a cab.  He says he will for a price: if he walks her to the cab and there is no incident, the price is a handshake and kiss on the cheek.  If he has to play bodyguard, the price is $1,500.00.  Marella asks, “Isn’t that price high?  “I couldn’t be trusted for less” is McGill’s response.

McGill has to take action when a man with a knife attacks Marella.  McGill leaves the man unconscious with a broken arm and gets Marella to a cab.  The attraction between Leonid and Marella is undeniable.  She invites him up to her hotel for payment.  He agrees to come by later.

As And Sometimes I Wonder About You unfolds, McGill becomes more involved with Marella.  She’s beautiful, smart, as lustful as McGill and cannot be trusted.  Why are people after her?  She has something they want, but what?  McGill realizes that she’s everything he could want in a woman (if she doesn’t kill him), but McGill has so much going on…

  • There’s his wife who is currently wasting away in a sanitorium.
  • Hiram Stent, who yesterday wanted to hire him to find his cousin, was found murdered.  Mr. Stent said his cousin was set to inherit a million dollars.  McGill felt the case was fishy and declined.
  • Then last night McGill’s office was broken into and one of the building’s security guards killed.
  • Plus, McGill’s adult son has gotten himself involved with a mysterious “underground” gang that the police have been trying to take down with the only result being more dead bodies.
  • Oh, and McGill’s estranged father is about to show up.

If this sounds like too much going on, it is for Leonid McGill, but not the reader.  Mosley keeps all plot threads going without any confusion.  Don’t think that everything all ties together and is resolved with a bow.  A couple of the plot threads are related, but others aren’t.  This seems realistic.  Too often in detective novels there is one case and nothing else comes up until it is resolved.  (If only life would cooperate like that.)

McGill is a tough guy, but he isn’t invincible.  He doesn’t have a heart of gold and has done some pretty terrible things in the past.  McGill is flawed, but has a (tarnished) code of honor.  Walter Mosley has written so many excellent novels.  And Sometimes I Wonder About You is one of them.  It rates 5 of 5 stars.      

Rating:

And Sometimes I Wonder About You Trade Paperback

And Sometimes I Wonder About You Kindle   

RIP: Ray Liotta

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Word has come that Ray Liotta died in his sleep at the age of 67.  No cause of death was given.

In 1978, Ray Liotta graduated from the University of Miami with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.  He then moved to New York, and within six months landed a regular role on the soap opera Another World.  Three years later, he left the series and moved to LA where he worked in both movies and television for the rest of his career.

Some of Ray Liotta’s memorable television appearances include: St. Elsewhere, Casablanca, The New Mike Hammer, Frasier, The Rat Pack (tv movie), Family Guy, ER, Texas Rising, The Making of the Mob, Modern Family and Shades of Blue.

Ray Liotta’s most notable feature films include: Something Wild, Field of Dreams, Goodfellas, Unlawful Entry, No Escape, Cop Land, Hannibal, Blow, Narc, John Q, Identity, Control, Revolver, Local Color, Smokin’ Aces, Crossing Over, Killing Them Softly, The Iceman, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and No Sudden Move.

I first became aware of Ray Liotta in Goodfellas.  Here was this young actor holding his own with DeNiro and Pesci in a Martin Scorsese film!  Who does that almost straight out of the shoot?  Think about this — within six months of graduating college, Ray Liotta had an agent and a regular gig on television.  Then when he went to California, he quickly began getting roles in films and television.  Ray Liotta worked continuously from the very start of his career.  That didn’t happen by accident or luck.  It happened because Ray Liotta was one of the best actors working.

My favorite Ray Liotta role is as Gary Figgis in Cop Land.  Word is Mr. Liotta wanted the starring role as Freddy Heflin.  The director wanted Stallone for the part.  Some actors would have walked away.  Not Ray Liotta, he took the supporting role and turned in one of his all-time best performances.  There are some real heavyweight actors in Cop Land including Robert DeNiro and Harvey Keitel.  Often the performance fans talk about first is Ray Liotta’s.

I love it whenever Ray Liotta turns up in a television show or movie.  He steals any scene he’s in and makes the production better. If you want to see Ray Liotta in a performance that deserves more attention, check out Narc written and directed by Joe Carnahan. In 2021, Ray Liotta co-starred in No Sudden Move (one of my favorite movies of the year) and turned in a masterful performance.  That same year he appeared as two characters in The Many Saints of Newark and once again showcased his acting chops.  Those two appearances made me excited for what the future held for Ray Liotta.  Although he has a few yet to be released appearances coming, Ray Liotta died too young.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Ray Liotta’s family, friends and fans.

“The Killer is Loose” (1956) / Z-View

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The Killer is Loose (1956)

Director:  Budd Boetticher

Screenplay:  Harold Medford from a story by John Hawkins and Ward Hawkins

Starring:  Joseph Cotten, Rhonda Fleming, Wendell Corey,  Alan Hale Jr., Michael Pate and John Larch

Tagline: He was no ordinary killer… She was no ordinary victim… This is no ordinary motion picture!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Leon Poole (Corey) is a mild-mannered teller who police learn was the inside man on an an attempted bank robbery.  As police go to arrest Poole at his apartment, he decides to shoot it out with them.  When Detective Sam Wagner (Cotten) returns fire, he accidently kills Poole’s wife.

Poole is captured, tried and convicted. Before Poole is escorted out of the courtroom, and while staring at Detective Wagner’s wife, Poole calmly states that he will one day get his revenge.

Two years later Poole escapes from prison.  It turns out that Poole is a sociopath who has nothing on his mind other than killing Detective Wagner and his wife.  As the murders pile up, it is clear that Poole is on his way to extract his revenge and no amount of police will stop him!

“Beast” Starring Idris Elba – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

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Above we have the poster and below the trailer for Beast starring Idris Elba.  It’s got to be better than Endangered Species… right?

Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Writers: Ryan Engle
Producers: Will Packer, James Lopez, Baltasar Kormákur
Executive Producers: Jaime Primak Sullivan, Bernard Bellew
Cast: Idris Elba, Sharlto Copley, Iyana Halley, Leah Sava Jeffries

Sometimes the rustle in the bushes actually is a monster.

Idris Elba (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, The Suicide Squad) stars in a pulse-pounding new thriller about a father and his two teenage daughters who find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the savannah has but one apex predator.

Elba plays Dr. Nate Daniels, a recently widowed husband who returns to South Africa, where he first met his wife, on a long-planned trip with their daughters to a game reserve managed by Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley, Russian Doll series, Maleficent), an old family friend and wildlife biologist. But what begins as a journey of healing jolts into a fearsome fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers who now sees all humans as the enemy, begins stalking them.

Iyana Halley (The Hate U Give, This is Us series) plays Daniels’ 18-year-old daughter, Meredith, and Leah Sava Jeffries (Rel series, Empire series) plays his 13-year-old, Norah.

From visceral, experiential filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur, the director of Everest and Universal Pictures’ 2 Guns and Contraband, Beast is produced by Will Packer, the blockbuster producer of Girls Trip, the Ride Along franchise, and ten movies that have opened No. 1 at the U.S. box office, including Night School, No Good Deed and Think Like a Man, by James Lopez, president of Will Packer Productions, and by Baltasar Kormákur. The film is written by Ryan Engle (Rampage, Non-Stop) from an original story by Jaime Primak Sullivan and is executive produced by Jaime Primak Sullivan and Bernard Bellew.

“Murder at Yellowstone City” Starring Gabriel Byrne, Thomas Jane and Richard Dreyfuss – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

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Westerns are making a comeback.  Murder at Yellowstone City starring Gabriel Byrne, Thomas Jane and Richard Dreyfuss has a cool poster and the trailer ain’t bad.

Murder at Yellowstone City is coming to theaters this June 24th!

The once peaceful and booming Yellowstone City has fallen on hard times, but when a local prospector strikes gold, things seem to be turning around. Any hope is soon shattered when the prospector is found dead and the Sheriff quickly arrests a mysterious newcomer. But nothing is so simple in this sleepy western town, and more than a few of the locals have secrets to keep and reasons to kill. As the brutal murders continue, pitting neighbor against neighbor, Yellowstone City goes down a bloody path to a final showdown that not all will survive.

Starring Gabriel Byrne, Thomas Jane, Isaiah Mustafa, Anna Camp, Nat Wolff, and Richard Dreyfuss

Directed by Richard Gray

GUNSHINE STATE by Andrew Nette / Z-View

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Gunshine State by Andrew Nette

Trade Paperback: 306 pages
Publisher: Down & Out Books (February 12, 2018)

First sentence…

The high-pitched whine of the power drill tore through the confined space of the back office.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Gary Chance is an ex-military truck driver, part time bouncer, and part time thief.  What he isn’t, is a killer.  When an in-and-out robbery ends with two people dead, Chance is on the run and forced to go back to work for the Chinaman.

Chance is quickly offered a job.  A crew is in place to rip off Freddie Gao, an extremely wealthy man who is flying into town for a weekend of gambling (he always loses) and whoring.  Gao has security and his father is a well-connected and feared criminal.  Chance can see holes in the crew’s plan, but there are holes in any plan.  All Chance has to do is drive… and hope there are no hiccups.

When members of the crew pull a double-cross a lot of people die and Chance is set-up to take the fall.  Now on the run from the police and Gao father’s gangsters, Chance looks to clear his name and get revenge on everyone who set him up.  Odds aren’t good, but there’s a Chance.  ; )

Andrew Nette has written a fast paced crime story populated by believable characters.  Chance is a likeable (anti)hero.  The story flows with the action moving between Australia to Thailand, but never becomes a travelogue.  Nette puts Chance through the ringer, but the story and twists don’t seem forced.  Gunshine State is a crime story that entertains from start to finish.  It earns 4 of 5 stars.    

Rating:

Gunshine State Trade Paperback

Gunshine State Kindle   

“The Gray Man” Ryan Gosling & Chris Evans – The New Poster and Trailer is Here!

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The Gray Man trailer is here and it looks awesome.  Deal me in.

Ryan Gosling is THE GRAY MAN and Chris Evans is his psychopathic adversary in the Netflix/AGBO spy thriller directed by Anthony and Joe Russo – available globally July 22 on Netflix.

Also starring Ana de Armas, with Regé-Jean Page, Billy Bob Thornton, Jessica Henwick, Dhanush, Wagner Moura and Alfre Woodard. Based on the novel The Gray Man by Mark Greaney, the screenplay is by Joe Russo, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.

THE GRAY MAN is CIA operative Court Gentry (Ryan Gosling), aka, Sierra Six. Plucked from a federal penitentiary and recruited by his handler, Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton), Gentry was once a highly-skilled, Agency-sanctioned merchant of death. But now the tables have turned and Six is the target, hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), a former cohort at the CIA, who will stop at nothing to take him out. Agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) has his back. He’ll need it.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) / Z-View

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The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)

Director:  Robert Fuest

Screenplay:  James Whiton, William Goldstein

Starring:  Vincent Price, Joseph Cotton, Virginia North and Terry-Thomas

Tagline: Dr. Phibes has great vibes!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Dr. Anton Phibes (Price) is out for revenge.  When Phibes learned his wife was in a terrible auto accident, he jumped in his car and raced to get to her.  Sadly, Phibes was also involved in a wreck.  Meanwhile, Dr. Phibes’ wife died on the operating table.

Four years later, disfigured due to his accident, Dr. Phibes is ready to extract his revenge on the doctors who failed to save his wife.  Phibes plots to kill each based on one of the Ten Plagues of Egypt.  After the third doctor is murdered, the police figure out Dr. Phibes is the killer.  Always a step behind the insane Dr. Phibes, the police continue to search for clues as the bodies pile up.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes is supposed to be a dark comedy, but there aren’t any real laughs.  Dr. Phibes often kills his victims using elaborate Rube Goldbergesque contraptions.  In between murders he spends time dancing with his mute assistant with music provided by his large wind-up animatrons.  The advertising for Dr. Phibes – “Love Means Never Having to Say You’re Ugly” – “Dr. Phibes has great vibes” – indicates they weren’t sure how to sell the film to the public.  Once you’ve seen the film, that is understandable.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes isn’t a great film or a bad film.  It’s a strange film.  For that reason The Abominable Dr. Phibes rates 2 of 5 stars.

“Vengeance” Written, Directed and Starring B.J. Novak – The Trailer is Here!

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I like the look of the Vengeance trailer.  This is one to keep an eye on.

VENGEANCE, the directorial debut from writer and star B.J. Novak (“The Office”), is a darkly comic thriller about Ben Manalowitz, a journalist and podcaster who travels from New York City to West Texas to investigate the death of a girl he was hooking up with.

With an ensemble cast that includes Issa Rae, Ashton Kutcher, Boyd Holbrook, J. Smith-Cameron, and Dove Cameron.