PORTRAIT OF A MOBSTER

Norman Alden, Peter Breck, and Vic Morrow

PORTRAIT OF A MOBSTER (1961). Director: Joseph Pevney.

The ambitious Arnold Flagenheimer rechristens himself "Dutch Schultz" (Vic Morrow) and goes to work for Legs Diamond (Ray Danton) along with his old pal, Bo (Norman Alden). But Dutch isn't content working for Legs and goes off on his own, taking over rackets right and left and incurring the wrath of other mobsters as well as the police. Dutch goes so far as to romance the daughter, Iris (Leslie Parrish), of one of the men he murdered, but he gets competition from Detective Frank Brennan (Peter Breck). Iris dallies with both men, marries one, and pays a heavy price for it. Portrait of a Mobster is superior to other mob movies of the same period if for no other reason than the casting of a terrific Vic Morrow [Curse of the Black Widow], who unlike Danton and David Janssen gets across a sinister and barely restrained menacing quality that makes him seem genuinely ruthless and psychotic. The picture is also well-directed and fast-paced, with an energetic musical score by Max Steiner who downplays the romance for pure and hectic action. There's plenty of gang warfare scenes and even a bit with a bomb in a coffin at the funeral parlor! Ray Danton reprises his role from The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond, but only has a couple of scenes. Both Breck [I Want to Live!] and Parrish [Missile to the Moon] give very good performances, and there's also good work from Norman Alden and Frank DeKova. The only person Dutch seems to care about aside from himself is Bo. Dutch has a habit of getting up in the nightclubs he owns and singing but his voice is flat and fairly awful.

Verdict: Snappy gangster flick with an excellent lead performance. ***.

TRIBUTE TO A BAD MAN

 Don Dubbins with his mentor, Cagney

TRIBUTE TO A BAD MAN (1956). Director: Robert Wise.

"You act like a man with a lot of ideas, all of them second-rate and none of them honorable." 

"A man doesn't die of a broken heart from his first love, only from his last."

Young Steve Miller (Don Dubbins), who wants to be a cowboy or wrangler, winds up in the territory owned and run by Jeremy Rodock (James Cagney). Rodock has had to put up with people encroaching on his land and stealing horses and livestock for years, and he enacts his own rough justice, including hanging the perpetrators. The latest to earn his enmity is his old partner, L.A. Peterson (James Bell), and his son, Lars (Vic Morrow), but he may be wrong in his belief that either murdered one of his ranch hands. Rodock lives with Jocasta (Irene Papas, in her American debut), a woman with a past who is coveted by McNulty (Stephen McNally) and for whom Steve develops a growing infatuation. Finally tensions begin to boil over and Jocasta fears that Steve may develop the same hardness she sees in Jeremy, but is it possible that Rodock can mend his ways? Tribute to a Bad Man is an interesting western with some intriguing characters, and interactions among them, and the acting is uniformly good. Cagney is marvelous as the crusty autocrat with romantic leanings, and Papas gives a lovely performance as the woman he is devoted to. ("Introduced" in this film, Papas had already made several films overseas.) Don Dubbins was Cagney's protege, and the boyishly handsome actor always gives sensitive portrayals as he does here. McNally [The Lady Pays Off] and Morrow [Great White] make multi-dimensional villains, and James Bell and Jeannette Nolan [My Blood Runs Cold] score as Morrow's parents. Lee Van Cleef, Royal Dano, Peter Chong, and Onslow Stevens also make notable, if briefer, contributions. Cagney's patronage led to Dubbins appearing in this and These Wilder Years with Cagney, but the long career that followed consisted mostly of television work. This has nice widescreen Robert Surtees cinematography, adroit Robert Wise direction, a good Miklos Rozsa score, and a touching ending, although one could argue that the film certainly glosses over certain aspects of Rodock's character and actions.

Verdict: Romance and hangings in the wide open spaces. ***.

CURSE OF THE BLACK WIDOW

CURSE OF THE BLACK WIDOW (1977 telefilm). Director: Dan Curtis. Originally presented as an ABC Friday Night Movie.

A woman comes into a bar and asks for help with her car. A guy named Frank obliges, and is later found dead and drained of blood. His fiancee, Leigh (Donna Mills), asks one of the men who was in the bar that night, private investigator Mark Higbie (Tony Franciosa of Wild is the Wind) to find out what happened, as she's under suspicion because her first husband died at sea under mysterious circumstances. Higbie learns that there were several previous victims found in the same condition and one witness saw what appeared to be a giant spider leaving the scene. Could Leigh's family be under some kind of mystical curse?  ... This is an utterly absurd but entertaining horror film with good performances from Franciosa, Mills, Patty Duke Astin as Leigh's fraternal twin sister, Max Gail as a cop, and even June Allyson [The Shrike] as Leigh's aunt [you have to see her caught in a spider web]! The cast even includes Sid Caesar as a landlord, Vic Morrow [Great White] as a detective, Jeff Corey [Seconds] as a caretaker, and June Lockhart as a mysterious old lady locked in an attic. Roz Kelly nearly steals the show as Mark's spirited and funny secretary. The effects are not exactly high-tech but serviceable.The best thing about the movie is the ad [see photo]. Dan Curtis directed many made-for-TV horror films such as The Night Strangler, as well as such theatrical films as Burnt Offerings.

Verdict: Tarantula is way better but this has its moments. **1/2.

TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE

A bizarre image from "Good Life"

TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE (1983). Multiple directors. Narrated by Burgess Meredith.

This big-screen adaptation of the famous TV show does not begin auspiciously with a dragged-out, unfunny framing sequence with Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks as ambulance men who sing theme songs from old television shows to pass the time; this builds up to a gag that is neither scary nor amusing.

The first segment of the movie is a new story entitled "Time Out," in which an embittered man (an excellent Vic Morrow) takes out his dissatisfaction with life on minorities such as Jews and Blacks, but then winds up back in Nazi Germany [as a Jew] and in the South [as a black], and so on. The tragic deaths that occurred during filming this segment and the repercussions were chronicled in the superb book Outrageous Conduct. "Time Out" is well-directed and edited, but it basically marked the end of director John Landis' big-screen career.

The original "Kick the Can" on The Twilight Zone [season 3], set in the Sunnyvale nursing home in which some of the inhabitants magically turn into children, has a good idea but is poorly developed, although it has a touching opening scene when one resident packs to go home with his son only to be told he has to stay in Sunnyvale. [The old people in the episode all seem too lively and lucid to be in a nursing home, which is also true in the movie.] The movie's adaptation is an improvement -- instead of just letting the "children" run off to go who knows where, it deals with the possible consequences of their transformation -- where would the kids go and do they really want to live life all over again? Murray Matheson and Scatman Crothers give good performances along with the rest of the cast. Directed by Steven Spielberg.

The adaptation of "It's a Good Life" is discussed in the post on Jerome Bixby's short story and the different film and TV versions of it. 

"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" [season 5] starred a notable William Shatner as a man who'd already had one nervous breakdown on a plane, and has the misfortune of being on another plane when a gremlin or alien creature decides to poke about on the wing outside his window. This was a good episode, even if the monster looked like a hairy Harpo Marx. The creature's appearance is improved in the movie. and the sequence -- while played like a black comedy as is "It's a Good Life" -- is often intense and exciting. John Lithgow is okay as a more nervous and hysterical passenger than Shatner played. Directed by George Miller. 

Verdict: Overall, this is really just so-so. **1/2.

OUTRAGEOUS CONDUCT: ART, EGO AND THE TWILIGHT ZONE CASE

OUTRAGEOUS CONDUCT: ART, EGO AND THE TWILIGHT ZONE CASE. Stephen Farber and Marc Green. Arbor House/Morrow; 1988.

Hard to believe that it's been over thirty years since the awful tragedy on the set of Twilight Zone -- The Movie and since director John Landis decided to circumvent child labor laws and bring two children, Renee Chen and Myca Le [along with actor Vic Morrow, who was desperate for a mid-life career break], onto a set late at night in close proximity to a low-flying helicopter and explosives, with the result that all three died horrible deaths. Landis and his cohorts [five men were put on trial while others who were clearly culpable in some way, such as producer Frank Marshall, managed to escape prosecution] were never charged with breaking the child labor laws, supposedly because the sentence would have been only a few days in jail -- but surely the fact that the children died would have made a big difference? In any case, there were severe prosecutorial blunders [the first prosecutor was let go, and he and his replacement seemed to have a private war going on], and the members of the jury, while not necessarily thinking Landis and the others were "innocent," felt the prosecution didn't prove its case. [However, prosecutor Lea D'Agostino and others seemed to think the jury consisted of twelve of the dumbest people on the planet.] Outrageous Conduct looks at all sides of the issue, assessing guilt and innocence [the title pretty much sums up the books' point-of-view], bolstered with interviews from many involved in the case, as well as court transcripts. The large cast of characters includes several self-important defense lawyers, as well as has-been Ralph Bellamy, who publicly and foolishly supported Landis because he gave the actor a job in Trading Places. The book looks at the varying opinions of directors of note in regards to Landis' actions and behavior. Any way you look at it, these three deaths should not have happened. While Landis basically got away with "outrageous conduct," it's also a fact that his career since the tragedy has been low-profile, mostly TV work, and his later films were not well-received; by major Hollywood standards he himself is a has-been. How much this has to do with Twilight Zone is debatable, as Landis was never really a major talent. Outrageous Conduct also examines the general subject of safety on Hollywood movie sets for added balance. Ultimately this is the story of two innocent children, all excited about being on a movie set, who were let down by so many of the adults they counted on, including associate producer George Folsey Jr. [one of the defendants] who told them and their parents that everything was "safe."

Verdict: A brilliant and sobering book that doesn't pull any punches. ****.