Craig Zablo – Page 492 – Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views

Key Largo (1948) / Z-View

Posted on July 26, 2016August 5, 2020 by Craig Zablo

Key Largo (1948)

Director: John Huston

Screenplay: Richard Brooks and John Huston from a play by Maxwell Anderson.

Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, Claire Trevor, Thomas Gomez, Thomas Gomez, Harry Lewis and Jay Silverheels.

The Pitch: “Bogie. Bacall. Huston.”

Tagline: “WHERE MEN IN HIDING WAITED…WITH READY GUN!”

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

Frank McCloud (Bogart) a World War II vet, travels to Key Largo, Florida to visit the family of a soldier in his unit who was killed in the war. McCloud arrives at the hotel just ahead of a hurricane and finds the hotel deserted except for his friend’s father and widow and famous mobster, Johnny Rocco and his crew. Rocco’s crew are already on edge and the worsening weather keeps pushing them closer to the breaking point.

Rating:

Drew Struzan’s Snake Plissken Sketches

Posted on July 26, 2016July 22, 2016 by Craig Zablo

Today we have a couple of Drew Struzan’s sketches for his work on John Carpenter’s Snake Plissken character.

Source: Lost Drawings.

Here’s the Comic-Con Trailer for the return of “Prison Break”!

Posted on July 25, 2016July 25, 2016 by Craig Zablo

Here’s the Comic-Con Trailer for the return of Prison Break!

The Cotton Club (1984) / Z-View

Posted on July 25, 2016August 5, 2020 by Craig Zablo

The Cotton Club (1984)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Screenplay: William Kennedy & Francis Ford Coppola

Stars: Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane, Bob Hoskins, James Remar, Nicholas Cage, Fred Gwynne, Lawrence Fishburne, John P. Ryan, Tom Waits, Jennifer Grey, Ed O’Ross, Woody Strode and James Russo.

The Pitch: “Let’s make an event movie based on famous gangsters with dancing!”

Tagline: “Welcome to The Cotton Club. Where Crime Lords rub elbows with the rich and famous. Where deals are made, lives are traded. And the legends of jazz light up the night.”

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

It is still hard for me to believe I don’t like this movie better than I do. Look at the director (Coppola!), the cast (too many to list) and the subject matter. How can this not rate higher? Perhaps the narrative is too all over the place…

There’s the young musician [Gere] who inadvertently saves a gangster [Remar] and ends up in a romantic triangle with the gangster’s girl [Lane].

There’s the African-American brothers who want to make it as a dance team but end up feuding and split up.

There’s the two gangs which are almost ready to go to war.

There’s the Cotton Club – the place owned by whites, but the talent is black and where a lot of the action happens.

There’s the… well, I could go on, but I think you get the idea. The music is fine. The dance numbers [especially by the Hines brothers] are fun. It’s also a kick to identify the real historical figures portrayed in the film. Still, the movie itself falls short.

Rating:

Classic and Rare Art by Marshall Rogers

Posted on July 25, 2016July 13, 2016 by Craig Zablo

Diversions of the Groovy Kind takes a look at some classic (and rare) art by Marshall Rogers.

Tarzan Escapes (1936) / Z-View

Posted on July 24, 2016August 5, 2020 by Craig Zablo

Tarzan Escapes (1936)

Director: Richard Thorpe, John Farrow (uncredited), James C. McKay (uncredited), George B. Seitz (uncredited), William A. Wellman (uncredited)

Screenplay: Cyril Hume based on novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Stars: Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O’Sullivan and John Buckler.

The Pitch: “Let’s make another Tarzan movie.”

Tagline: ” It’s New! It’s amazing! 2 years to produce!”

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

Jane’s cousins come to the jungle. Their father has died and Jane is needed to see that the will goes through. Jane agrees to go back to England for a short time and then return to Tarzan in the jungle. Jane’s guide has plans to capture Tarzan and sell him to a sideshow.

Jane starts on her journey. Tarzan is captured. To make things worse a warring tribe is on the way to wipe out the white hunters.

Rating:

Jack Carter and Gravedigger McCrae by Jonathon Brandon Sawyer

Posted on July 24, 2016 by Craig Zablo

Jonathon Brandon Sawyer created his take on Sly as Jack Carter teamed with Chris Mills’ and Rick Burchett’s Gravedigger McCrae. How cool is that? Very.

To check out more of JBS’ art, head here. You can follow JBS on Twitter.

Gravedigger: Hot Women , Cold Cash by Mills and Burchett gets an A+ rating and is available at the link. – Craig

The Top Ten Deadliest Gunslingers

Posted on July 24, 2016July 13, 2016 by Craig Zablo

The Vintage News takes a look at the Top Ten Deadliest Gunslingers and it has some real doozies. Listed below is just a tidbit or two about each gun fighter. You can get the full accounts of each (and they are worth reading) at the Top Ten Deadliest Gunslingers.

John Wesley Hardin – …claimed to have killed 42 men though the newspapers attributed only 27 killings. He was so quick tempered with a gun that it has been said that he once killed a man for snoring…

Jim “Killer” Miller – …credited with killing at least 14 people, though legend has it that the number is somewhere closer to 50… famously declared that he would kill anyone for money, and is rumored to have gunned down everyone from political figures to famed sheriff Pat Garrett…

James “Wild Bill” Hickock – most notorious man in the Wild West. A gunfighter, gambler, civil war spy, Indian fighter, peace officer, Hickok was said to have killed more than 100 men…

Tom Horn, Jr. – following his resignation from the Pinkertons… he developed a reputation as a hitman and is said to have been responsible for as many as 50 murders in his 43 years of life.

Clay Allison – A head injury in the civil war is, many historians believe, what led to his violent temper and unpredictable behavior and… explains some of his shockingly brutal actions, which included once beheading a man he suspected of murder and carrying the head into his favorite bar to share a drink.

Wyatt Earp – participated in numerous gunfights in his life, killing anywhere from 8 to 30. He would become the fearless Western hero in countless novels and films.

Dallas Stoudenmire – After the Civil War he… moved to the lawless and violent city of El Paso, Texas, to serve as sheriff. On the third day on the job, he killed three men with his two 44 caliber Colt revolvers in a famous incident known as the “Four Dead In Five Seconds“ gunfight.

William H. Bonney – All told, Billy the Kid is said to have killed a total of 21 men, one for each of the years of his life…

King Fisher – was known for gunning down three members of his own gang during a dispute over money and then killing seven Mexican bandits a short time later…

Sam Bass – robbed the Union Pacific gold train from San Francisco, netting over $60,000, which is to this day the largest single robbery of the Union Pacific…

Miami Blues (1990) / Z-View

Posted on July 23, 2016August 5, 2020 by Craig Zablo

Miami Blues (1990)

Director: George Armitage

Screenplay: George Armitage from a novel by Charles Willeford

Stars: Fred Ward, Alec Baldwin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Charles Napier and Paul Gleason.

The Pitch: “How about a crime movie based in Miami?”

Tagline: “Real badge. Real gun. Fake cop.”

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

Ex-con, Frederick J. Frenger Jr. [Baldwin] heads to Miami for a fresh start. A fresh start means stealing and conning. When Frenger ends up with a cop’s gun and badge, he finds that it makes stealing and conning easier. The cop [Ward] makes it his life’s mission to track down the thief using his identity. Oh, and there’s a sweet prostitute [Leigh], too.