The Red, White, and Black (1970)

This western is set after the Civil War when the U.S. Army fielded all black cavalry units commonly referred to as Buffalo Soldiers. Here we follow a man named Eli who gets caught in bed with another man’s wife. To escape the gun wielding angry spouse he gets in line and joins the army. Then we watch him arrive at a fort and go thru training where we are also introduced to other soldiers as well as the seamstress Miss Julie.

Here is where things go sideways for me. There is a brief romance and then Eli marries Miss Julie. I was expecting more shootouts and cowboy stuff, but we get this instead. Okay fine… but then there is a subplot with a local Indian leader, played by the very white Robert Dix (yikes!). He is friendly and has a treaty with the army, but that ends poorly when a local merchant guns one of his braves down and is in turn killed. Even that makes little sense because they go from friendly to let’s kill everyone without every trying to either hide the crime or explain what happened. Oh, there is also a subplot where Miss Julie hops into bed with another soldier that causes some drama but goes nowhere.

I suppose I would have enjoyed this movie if it had picked one of the storylines and stuck with it. Even if that wasn’t the action that I expected at least I could have followed and maybe had some sort of resolution. Instead what we get is a mess of plot threads that all unravel and never get resolved. Eli is supposed to be our main character, at least I think so. But after spending so much time with him and the fallout from him discovering Miss Julie’s affair he is unceremoniously killed off before the big finale involving the Indians! Yeah, the last ten minutes we are minus what has been the focus of the prior hour and fifteen minutes of plot development.

The above is further muddled with the inclusion of a brief affair and quickly forgotten violence from our main character Eli. Seriously he goes from sympathetic man who we could be rooting for to an abusive and scary husband threating to kill his wife. The entire Indian subplot is also confusing as it serves no purpose other than to maybe insinuate that the African American troops and the oppressed Native Americans should be fighting the real enemy (listen to the song that keeps playing). But then all the white officers are portrayed as at least kind towards the men they command. I’m so confused by this. It basically made it impossible for me to follow or really care about what was happening on screen.

The cast is solid with the previously mentioned Robert Dix as well as the legendary Cesar Romero, Isabel Sanford (The Jeffersons), Barbara Hale (Perry Mason), and Robert DoQuil (Robocop, Walking Tall II). There was a lot of talent in front of the camera as well as behind it with one of my personal favorites, John “Bud” Cardos, behind it directing the action. The fact that they are so let down with a terrible script that also has some very clunky and awkward dialogue makes for an extremely disappointing experience. Obviously, I’m not recommending The Red, White, and Black.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

Throwback Thursday - My Favorite Al Adamson Movie

note: I wrote this for the Grindhouse Purgatory issue dedicated to Al Adamson. I'm not a big fan of his but I've always dug Five Bloody Graves and was happy to cover it for the issue. 

My Favorite Al Adamson Movie: Five Bloody Graves

by John Shatzer

How is everyone doing? Here I sit putting the finishing touches on my article for the latest issue of Grindhouse Purgatory quarantined in my house. We are living in a strange world my friends. I had kidded that sitting at home on the couch watching movies was something that I had been training for my entire life. It was fun for a week or two, but then I got bored. Thankfully, I have this article and a few other projects to keep me occupied while I wait for the world to get back to some sort of normalcy. Hell, maybe by the time you are reading this we are all hanging out again and talking movies. Enough with all of this depressing shit lets dive into some Al Adamson Western goodness

When Pete told me that the next issue of the magazine was going to be a tribute to Al Adamson I sort of panicked. While I love cheesy low budget movies, I’ve always felt like many of Adamson’s flicks were boring and not at all fun. Sure, I dig Satan’s Sadists and Angel’s Wild Women, but those were already spoken for. Then I remembered Five Bloody Graves and did a little jig. While I haven’t seen it in years, I did think that I enjoyed the movie so after asking to make sure it was available, obviously it was, I went looking for a copy to review. There is a surprising amount of options, but I decided to watch a beat-up print complete with scratches and pops. It just seemed right.

Before I get to talking about the movie, I suppose I should give a bit more explanation when I say that I find Adamson’s work boring and not fun. To begin with let me stress that I have watched all of his movies. I’m a big drive-in nerd and love bad movies. Hell Ted V. Mikels is one of my favorite directors, so I’m not unrealistic when it comes to independent movies from the ‘60s and ‘70s. When I watch an Adamson flick it doesn’t seem like there is a complete script as characters seem to do random actions that don’t always make sense. There is also normally a ton of padding which makes for a tedious viewing experience. I’ve seriously used his movies to help me fall asleep during bouts of insomnia. I’m not being a smart ass about this it’s the truth. There are some exceptions like those I’ve mentioned above, but they normally are helped along by a great cast having fun. But this one is different in that it has maybe the most unique and best story that Adamson ever shot. Now that you know where I’m coming from let’s get to talking about Five Bloody Graves.

Ben Thompson, played by drive-in legend Robert Dix, is riding back from somewhere when he starts to meet up with people. One is an old flame, another is a half-breed Indian that he is friendly with, and yet more are a group of stranded travelers stuck when their wagon rolled over and the horses ran off. The connection between all of these characters, other than Thompson, is that they are all being menaced by some Indians that have gone on the warpath. Toss in some gun runners that have been providing the means for the Indians to stir up trouble and we have our characters.

Robert Dix is excellent

After watching some bad things happen eventually all the characters end up together and have to fight their way out of the territory they are in while being harassed and picked off along the way. If the Indians trying to kill them isn’t bad enough you also get some internal conflict as most of the characters are flawed and turn on each other. By flawed I mean cranky and downright abusive. Between the ambushes and bickering most are lost on the way. I can’t say more without explaining a very important plot device.

The story of Five Bloody Graves is an interesting one that is surprisingly complex and filled with action. Almost immediately we get this strange narrator talking directly to the audience about Thompson and his history. How he lost his wife to a bullet that had been intended for him and how he had been seeking out death since then. But he couldn’t die because he was a servant of death and that death wasn’t done with him yet. Then you start to figure out and eventually are told that our narrator is death and that he is explaining why things are happening. So basically, the idea is that everyone who Thompson meets up with either dies by his hand or gets caught up in the violence surrounding him. This is best summed up by one of the last lines in the movie, “…there can be but one victor and that is death…”. This is kind of deep.

Referring back to what I had mentioned above I was a bit concerned when I started watching this one because it starts off with that feeling of random characters and action scenes not really fitting together. It seems like Dix’s character is just going to ride around stumbling over one fight to another for the duration. For a good half an hour that is what happens, but this is actually just introducing the characters and setting up the rest of the story. Once they all meet up what felt like disconnected plot lines suddenly click together. At that point all of the stuff that was set up gets resolved and we find out more about Thompson and his connection to death. I had forgotten the details in the years since I last watched Five Bloody Graves and found myself really getting into and enjoying it as the narrative progressed. The pacing is wonderful with a lot of shootouts and fighting to keep things interesting and moving along briskly.

Speaking of the shootouts and fighting the stunt work is top notch. You get a lot of gun play with actors that clearly know their way around firearms. Many of the cast members had a long history working on Westerns, more on that later, and it shows. Nothing can kill a flick more than seeing people who are clearly not comfortable with guns trying to act as if they have lived their lives with one strapped to their hip. Same goes for riding horses, which again this cast is total comfortable with. This includes a lot of trick riding, especially falls. The fight choreography is very good as the fights feel real and there aren’t the awkward pauses that you sometimes get in low budget flicks. Considering that John ‘Bud’ Cardos helped with the stunts as well as starring in one of the roles that shouldn’t be a surprise.

John Carradine sighting!

I’ve already mentioned Robert Dix but that isn’t the only familiar face you get to see. Scott Brady, veteran of many drive-in favorites as well as a frequent guest star on television shows sinks his teeth into an abusive pimp traveling with his “girls”. Jim Davis, another veteran of television as well as a ton of Westerns, gets to play a gun running rapist that gets what is coming to him. John ‘Bud’ Cardos is Joe Lightfoot, the half-breed Indian and sort of side kick to Thompson. It doesn’t end well for him. Best of all is John Carradine in the most John Carradine of characters the cranky old preacher Boone Hawkins. Seriously guys there is a lot of “A” list drive-in talent in this movie.

One more thing that I wanted to mention that I found amusing. I had just covered Beyond Atlantis for the Sid Haig tribute issue and was shocked when I heard some familiar music at the opening of Five Bloody Graves. Now this isn’t the first time that I had that happen to me where someone used the same music library to score their flick (Night of the Living Dead and Teenagers from Outer Space come to mind) but it was weird that it happened in back to back movies I was covering for Grindhouse Purgatory. Plus, I’m such a huge nerd that immediately after the end credits rolled on Adamson’s flick I had to pop in my Blu-Ray of Beyond Atlantis.

Honestly, I found this movie to be very entertaining and highly recommend that people check it out. My opinion about Al Adamson’s work in general hasn’t changed. I’m still not a fan of most of it. But I think that it is important, especially in this day and age when everyone is looking to get offended, that you all understand something. I’m not saying that his work has no value. Adamson has a lot of fans and if you are one of them then good for you. There are plenty of filmmakers and movies that I love, and other people hate. The majority of his stuff just doesn’t appeal to me. 

Well I suppose this is all I have to say about Five Bloody Graves. As always you can email me with any questions or comments. I’m even willing to debate the value of Adamson’s work with anyone out there. I’d love to hear from you regardless of whether we agree or not. That email address is gutmunchers@gmail.com. Until next time stay safe and keep watching the classics. Thanks, as always, to 42^nd Street Pete for letting me write for such a cool magazine. Don’t forget to support him by buying back issues and check out his Gunslinger books. They kick much ass!

 

© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer

The Day Time Ended (1979)

Recently I’ve been digging back into my Mill Creek DVD sets. These are those collections of Public Domain movies that they put out on the cheap. Though many times they find out that they aren’t public domain (see the Giant Spider Invasion) and are forced to recall products. Admittedly most of the movies contained are junk but once in a while you find something decent hiding in there. The set that The Day Time Ended is in has a decent copy of The Crater Lake Monster in it, which is a personal favorite of mine. Does this movie stack up to that one? No, it does not, but it isn’t half bad.

The story focuses on a family that lives in an isolated ranch house that has solar power and is sort of off the grid. Living there is Grandpa, Grandma, their kids, son in law, and a granddaughter. They have just returned from vacation when all sorts of weird stuff begins happening. First up we get a strange pyramid in the horse corral, which is followed by UFOs, and other strange lights. The action really heats up when a diminutive alien shows up and dances around the house followed by an aggressive spaceship the size of a dust buster and some dinosaur looking creatures that have a wrestling match in the yard. Yeah this is a weird movie. After some talk of time warps the family ends up on another planet looking at an alien city and talking about it being their new home.

First, I had no idea that this was directed by one of my favorite exploitation low budget guys, John “Bud” Cardos. This is the man responsible for Mutant starring Wings Hauser and Kingdom of the Spiders with William Shatner. While those two movies are very straightforward monster movies this one is a bit different. While the Day Time Ended boasts some fun stop motion effects and a lot of strange creatures this isn’t a typical monster movie. It focuses less on the creatures and doing battle with them and more on the odd sci-fi story at the center of the action. We keep hearing about a supernova and what it might mean for the planet Earth. There are also weird electrical storms and an even weirder sequence where the house teleports to a scene surrounded with planes and other debris from the past and maybe the future? I found it all very interesting but could totally understand someone not digging it.

You thought I was kidding about the dancing alien!

The second thing that I never knew was that this was produced by Charles Band. While Cardos’ involvement excited me I’m not that thrilled with Band. He has made some good movies but also has a lot of bad ones on his track record. Here I think his involvement is a plus and was probably the reason we got so many great stop motion creatures. They reminded me a lot of the aliens from Laser Blast, which I’ve always enjoyed. The music and other visual effects work were also decent and on par with what I’ve seen from his other productions.

I'm a sucker for stop motion

My final observation is this. While many other movies in seventy-nine were trying to cash in on the animal attacks genre (Jawspolitation), or Star Wars this one feels more like Close Encounters of the Third Kind both in the way that the aliens are portrayed as well as the time travel elements involved. Hell, the boneyard with the airplanes and other debris looks quite similar to those in Spielberg’s movie. This was an odd choice considering how popular and easier the other movies were to “borrow” from, but I give The Day Time Ended some credit for trying.

This one is for the science fiction fan only. If you are looking for a movie with lots of action and monsters you will be sadly disappointed. Do I recommend it? Yes, with the caveat that you understand the kind of movie you are about to watch.

© Copyright 2019 John Shatzer