Outlaw Johnny Black (2023)

I’m not sure when I first saw this teased, but I believe it was around the release of director/star Michael Jai White’s Black Dynamite. I loved that movie and was super excited to see his Blaxploitation Western. I’m a huge fan of Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, and Woody Strode and they made some great flicks in the sixties and seventies. Truth be told I sort of forgot about this one until I saw one of my friends talking about it online. That same day I had a copy in my possession and dropped everything to watch it.

The movie opens with Johnny Black riding into a town. He is there to find and kill a man named Brett Clayton. While Johnny is an outlaw Clayton is a murderer who is there to rob the bank. We see in the first of a series of flashbacks that when Johnny was a boy his father, a gun toting preacher, was shot by Clayton. Since then he has been on a mission to get revenge. But Johnny is also a decent guy and when he sees the locals beating up on some Indians he stops them but accidentally gives the sheriff a heart attack. That leads to him being convicted, saved from the gallows, and spending the rest of the movie on the run from the law.

Along the way Johnny meets up with a preacher named Reverend Percy, steals his identity (to be fair the thought he died in another Indian attack) and falls in love with a lovely lady while waiting to steal money from a church. I mean he is an outlaw after all… Though something happens to him when he is forced to preach to keep his cover. His father’s words come pouring out of his mouth and suddenly make sense. Now instead of wanting to make off with the loot he now wants to save his lady friend, Jessie Lee, and protect the community from the evil rancher Tom Sheally. Don’t worry though as guess who shows up to burn the town to the ground on behalf of the bad guy? Yep, old Brett Clayton is going to get what is coming to him.

Outlaw Johnny Black isn’t what I had expected it to be. I was anticipating an over the top violent homage to the Spaghetti westerns common in the old exploitation days of the Grindhouse and Drive-ins. We do get some of that but most of the movie is about reminding us what is so great about the movies that inspired this one.

There are some clever homages to the exploitation classics westerns or not. Early on we get a Billy Jack reference about a foot meeting someone’s head and there not being anything they can do about it. Jai White also channels his inner Eastwood when he lets the undertaker know how many coffins to get ready when he rides into town. There is a last minute rescue from the gallows that will seem familiar to fans. Toss in a big saloon fight with all the highlights you would expect like a guy sliding down the bar, someone going over the railing, and that sort of thing.

The humor is also spot on. Whether in the spirit of the non PC culture with white guys playing many of the Indians as well as the shall we say… manly Indian lady that Percy is forced to marry many of the jokes do feel like those we would get in the seventies. There is also a reference to the classic Mel Brooks flick Blazing Saddles. Yeah, a horse gets punched and knocked out! Though instead of Mongo it is the previously mentioned Indian lady. We even get a funny gag when Johnny Black is dying of thirst in the desert and his horse kicks the bucket. It literally kicks the bucket! Maybe it is just me, but I found that very funny. We also get some great dialogue with the following line being one of my favorites. “I’m Crackshot Bob…” “Now you just shot.” Not sure if that works out of context well but trust me it is hilarious.

White is channeling his inner Hammer

The cast that Michael Jai White has assembled is great. Byron Minns, who was awesome in Black Dynamite is equally as good here as the Reverend Percy. He brings some over the top comedic delivery to his character that works well with the deadpan deliver that White brings to the lead role of Johnny Black. He is an excellent sidekick and the pair of them have chemistry that makes the story work. Barry Bostwick is good as the bad guy Tom Sheally though he isn’t asked to do much. Randy Couture, Tommy Davidson, Kevin Chapman, and Chris Browning all shine in supporting roles. Michael Madsen shows up in a blink and you’ll miss it bit part too. Those names might not be familiar to you, but I guarantee the faces will ring a bell.

Director/Actor/Writer Michael Jai White is clearly a fan of the movies that he is parodying with Outlaw Johnny Black. To that end I wasn’t surprised with the cameos. While we never see him as he only does a voiceover, I instantly recognized Louis Gossett Jr.’s voice. He does a voiceover as the preacher who was gunned down by the bad guys in a letter. There is also a very cool moment at the end of the movie where the main cast members toast a couple of fellas sitting on a balcony. Those men? Fred “the Hammer” Williamson and the late great Jim Brown. I loved the fact that respect was paid to the men who worked on and inspired a movie like this. It is that sort of attention to detail that made me dig Black Dynamite and Outlaw Johnny Black.

If you haven’t figured it out yet I’m going to recommend this movie. I hope that it does well because I’d love to see what Michael Jai White can do next. I certainly hope it doesn’t take another fourteen years for someone to give him the resources to make a follow-up.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

Kill Them All and Come Back Alone (1968)

Time for even more fun as I check out this Chuck Conners flick. Conners plays Clyde McKay who is leading a gang of misfits. When we first see them, they are attacking a Confederate army camp (this movie is set during the Civil War). But that turns out to be a test of their abilities as it is the Confederates who sent McKay off looking for the gang members with the idea of hiring them. The real target is a guarded stash of Union gold. Before they set off McKay is given one final instruction. To kill the rest of the gang after the gold is stolen so that there is no way to trace the crime back to the Confederate army. Why are they worried about this? Well, there is a very good reason, but one I won’t spoil here.

Kill Them All and Come Back Alone is a mixed bag for me. On one hand I really did like the story. It is part western and part heist movie. There are a lot of moving parts that reminded me of Ocean’s Eleven, the Sinatra flick not the Clooney remake. The plan involving a bar fight and sneaking into a secure fort by hiding in the water wagon is clever. They also think out that part of the movie well. Not all these westerns take the time to make sure that the plot is as solid as it is here. So, I appreciated that.

The characters are also a lot of fun, though in a very basic way. Conners’ character is the only one that really stands out as the rest are reduced to strong guy, knife guy, explosives guy, weird gun guy, and of course stab you in the back guy. They characters are less personality and more gimmick, but I’m okay with this. The movie is more focused on the action sequences then it cares about character development. Considering the movie was directed by Enzo Castellari that isn’t a surprise.

Where the movie loses me a bit is with the pacing and ending. There are portions of the movie that feel forced as if the filmmakers felt the need to pad things out. The bit with them “auditioning” before the actual heist takes time to establish a couple of characters, only one of which appears again after the first ten minutes. Then you get a bit of the traveling and getting to know them before they get to work. Again, even with this the characters are more or less reduced to their archetypes, so this all feels like a waste. I was also looking forward to what appeared to be another “no one wins” endings like we get in El Condor, but they do a switcheroo and give a happier ending. If you are happy about murdering bad guys making off with lots of gold that is.

There is a lot to dig here, but it is tempered with some slow spots. Kill Them All and Come Back Alone isn’t the first movie from the Spaghetti western subgenre that I would point folks to, but for the well versed looking for something different it is worth a look. It’s a flawed movie but not terrible.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

A Pistol for Ringo (1965)

Ringo has just been released from jail after being acquitted of murdering a member of the Benson family. When the sheriff hears this, and that the Benson’s have ridden out looking for him he takes off to try and prevent something bad happening. It seems that Ringo is handy with a gun and not too picky about shooting folks who threaten him. The sheriff is late and by the time he arrives Ringo has already killed the four men in self-defense. Still, he arrests him and tosses him in jail.

Ringo is still there when bandits roll into town and rob the bank while gunning lots of folks down. A posse sets off after them and the bandits end up surrounded at a fancy ranch between town and the Mexican border. One of the hostages is the sheriff’s fiancé, Miss Ruby. They surround the place, and the army is called for, but the sheriff knows that all the hostages will likely die so he hatches a plan. Send Ringo in to win the bandit’s trust and free the prisoners before the cavalry arrives. In exchange he will get thirty percent of the stolen money. The rest of the movie is Ringo playing the bandit leader, Sancho, manipulating him into what they hope is a fatal ambush.

This movie is a blast. It starts off with a gunfight before we even know what the heck is going on. Once Ringo and the bandit gang are established there is another huge gunfight with them robbing the bank and shooting up the town/locals. Then it switches gears a bit and we are treated to some excellent twists and turns and there are double, triple, and quadruple crosses! Sancho isn’t as clueless as we are led to believe… but then maybe Ringo knew that. This is that kind of movie and it is a lot of fun to watch. I’ll not go into more detail so I don’t spoil anything.

Giuliano Gemma is great as Ringo. He pulls of the sort of nice guy who will kill you if you cross him but would rather crack a joke unless he decides you are a danger to him then you die. It is a complicated character, sort of the murderous rogue. This sort of antihero is why I love Spaghetti westerns so much. We also get good performance from Fernando Sancho as the bandit leader Sancho. I remember him fondly from Minnesota Clay, another great Spaghetti western, and he is just as good here. There are also good performances from Nieves Navarro (Death Walks on High Heels, The Big Gundown, and several Emanuelle flicks) and Lorella De Luca (The Bloodstained Butterfly). Anytime I see some lovely ladies from Gialli I’ve watched it makes me happy.

The action sequences are executed nicely with lots of gun play, some stabbings, and fists are thrown around. They are spread evenly throughout the duration and are easy to follow who is who. We also get some decent explosions, and the sets are rather extensive. This looks like an expensive movie with a good budget. Toss in an excellent soundtrack from the legendary Ennio Morricone and you have a badass movie. I can’t believe that I hadn’t watched this until now, but it won’t be a one off. There isn’t a single bad thing I can say about the movie. I recommend you guys checking out A Pistol for Ringo.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

Challenge of the McKennas (1970)

Time for another western. The movie opens with the hanging of a man by some bad guys while his lady begs them to stop and cries beneath his swinging body when she is unsuccessful. Later another man stops by and helps the woman to her buggy, buries the body, and takes her to the nearest ranch for help. Turns out that ranch is her home but instead of being happy to see her the father, Don Diego, is annoyed that he buried the man on his land. Seems that Diego was responsible for his hanging because he didn’t approve of his daughter’s choice in boyfriend. The mysterious stranger Jones, played by John Ireland, quickly moves on and heads to town, but not until he annoys Diego.

In town Jones meets up with the local madam, Maggie, and runs afoul of Diego’s son Chris. Thru a series of escalating events including another rancher trying to win Diego’s approval in marrying his daughter by killing Jones, things get much worse. As the violence escalates, we also get more background to Jones, including why he can be so violent but still refuses to wear a gun. When he is finally forced to kill a man, all bets are off and things end quickly and rather bloody. 

I really liked this movie. First up John Ireland is fantastic as Jones, carrying most of the movie with his portrayal. He is rather mysterious in the fact that he keeps quoting scriptures, while casually tossing a bible away. He is also quick to anger and not afraid to use his fists or even threaten to use a pistol, though he never carries one. At least not until the end. Though the ending has him tossing it away in disgust as he realizes the folks around him forced his hand. Why is he like this? You know I’m not going to spoil that, especially since the story is slowly reveals that and gives the ending a real punch. I will say that it is very satisfying and is well thought out. I also liked that it isn’t a clone of the already iconic and much copied formula that most Spaghetti westerns were following by the early seventies.

I’ve already mentioned how much I liked Ireland’s performance. We also get another familiar face as Robert Woods, who I just covered in 4 Dollars of Revenge, plays a villain role here as Chris, the spoiled son of Don Diego. At first is seemed like he was going to be the foil to Ireland’s heroic Jones, but he is really manipulated by his father. He is so eager for his acceptance that it causes the violence and eventual deaths to occur. That was a cool twist. Woods is also a perfect blend of weasel and irrationally violent. He is good in the role.

The action sequences are exciting and range from a cool bit with some Molotov cocktails, multiple fistfights, and a climactic gunfight that while short is stylistically shot and immensely satisfying. There are a few spots where the stuntman standing in for Ireland is clearly obvious (it isn’t even close!) but that didn’t bother me much. Speaking of style this is also a beautifully shot movie with one of the highlights being the sun poking in and out from behind the hanged man’s body swinging on the rope.

There is a lot to recommend Challenge of the McKennas and I’m going to recommend that you track yourself down a copy. I think it is easy to find, but I hadn’t heard of it before finding it in my to watch pile. Though if it isn’t an Eastwood or a Van Cleef flick that isn’t too surprising. One of the reasons I’m doing this mini marathon is to correct that and find some new to me Spaghetti westerns. This one is worth finding.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

4 Dollars of Revenge (1966)

Bandits ambush a shipment of captured Confederate silver that is headed to Washington to be turned over to the government. This is during the Civil War, and it is a big deal. The escort is lead by Captain Dexter who ends up being the only survivor after being left for dead by the thieves. This was his last assignment as he was about to resign his commission to run for governor. After being nursed back to health he is eventually charged with planning the robbery and causing the death of the men under his command.

Convicted he is sent to prison and after what I believe is supposed to be a couple of years is almost killed. Knowing that someone is trying to murder him he makes his escape and goes looking for the men trying to kill him as well as those who framed him! The rest of the movie is Dexter backtracking from one suspect to the other until all those responsible for the crime and framing him.

I liked 4 Dollars of Revenge. While not one of the “A” list Spaghetti Westerns it does check enough boxes that it was a fun watch. I loved the mechanic of him having four silver dollars from the supposed crime being given to him by the court so that he will never forget his crime. This leads him to leaving one with each of the bodies after he exacts his revenge along the way. That is a neat plot device and obviously inspired the title. Yeah, it might seem improbable that he would have been allowed to hang onto the valuable coins while in prison, but this is a movie and I’m willing to suspend my disbelief.

The movie is paced decently and quickly establishes that Dexter is a good man surrounded by snakes who are out to get him. We are given plenty of suspects who have motive to get him out of the way. He has a political rival, a relative who is always hitting him up for money, and even a rival for the love of a beautiful woman. So many folks would like him gone. Without giving anything away I will say that I enjoyed how the story plays out. The who and why of the setup gives way to plenty of revenge and action. That is what I want in a western and I got plenty of it.

That said the shootouts and many fistfights are staged well and exciting. People are flying all over the screen and much blood is spilled. We even get a nifty saber fight that you don’t normally get is a flick like this. There is some fancy gunplay, and I was amused by how many shots Dexter can manage before reloading. Yeah, it is one of those magic gun westerns. But again, when I’m enjoying a movie, I don’t have time to get picky about the details.

I don’t want to oversell 4 Dollars of Revenge. It isn’t top notch but sometimes you can have a by the numbers genre flick that is worth a watch. If you are looking for something familiar but don’t want to pop in the same Eastwood or Van Cleef flick, then this one might be for you. If you are new to the Spaghetti Western, then there are much better places to start than here. That said as a fan of these flicks I got some enjoyment out of this one.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

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

The Devil and Miss Sarah (1971)

The movie opens with a man tied to some stakes in the middle of an Indian village with a hood over his head. A posse rides in and takes him away. Seems the locals were holding him prisoner for this very reason. The marshal, Duncan, keeps him hooded until after they leave the village. He explains this to the other men as the Indians thinking that the man, Rankin, is the devil and not to look into his eyes. Though if he believes this then why take the hood off? They ride off into the desert but are ambushed by some different Indians. Rankin thinks he is free but Duncan isn’t dead and gets the drop on him. This leads them to riding off and finding a couple traveling. They are Gil and his wife Sarah.

When the marshal dies Gil decides to take Rankin to the local stagecoach weigh station. But before they even start the trip it becomes clear that the outlaw has some sort of influence over Sarah. We also find out that she has a gift and can see things before they happen. Here we get an idea that there is more to this than just a normal western story. Unfortunately, when they arrive the stagecoach is burned, and the survivors are hiding out in the buildings. Seems the Indians from earlier showed up and did this. The rest of the movie are the survivors fearing and bargaining with Rankin, who is clearly evil, until it comes down to he and Gil fighting for Sarah’s soul. At least I think so.

This is an interesting ABC movie of the week. It combines the Western genre with the Horror genre in a very subtle way. You never are quite sure if our villain, Rankin, really is some sort of demonic force or if he is just a man. What is clear though is his evil intentions as he seemingly doesn’t care if he lives or dies as long as he can create some chaos along the way. Then again, he does seem to have some sort of mental control over folks as he seems to control the Indians chasing them into attacking and then leaving on a whim. And of course, he almost gets Sarah to pick up a gun and murder her husband while he sleeps. So yeah, maybe there is something to it. Remember this was the seventies and demons twisting innocent folks into doing bad things was just getting into the swing as far as popular entertainment goes. 

Honestly, the fact that they keep this so vague is one of the reasons that I liked this movie so much. The last line of the movie is Gil saying something along the lines of “he was just an evil man” but even then, I wasn’t so sure. I mean we don’t get the big twist where the supposedly dead Rankin sits up and smiles evilly… though I could totally see that happen after the camera and our attention left his body. The movie was that creepy and I dug it. 

This is a small cast, but it is a good one. Janice Rule and James Drury play Sarah and Gil respectively. They were both working actors that did a ton of television work including a lot of westerns as were very good in the roles. Drury especially sells the fear and confusion of Rankin’s influence on his wife. We also get some supporting roles filled by Logan Ramsey (Joysticks, The Beast Within), Donald Moffat (The Thing), and Slim Pickens (Blazing Saddles). Now that is one hell of a cast! Though the highlight for me is Gene Barry as Rankin. The man was an absolute legend starring in many classic fifties’ television shows. Mostly as the good guy so this was certainly against type. 

Cool story filled with characters portrayed by excellent actors combine to make The Devil and Miss Sarah a neat way to kill seventy or so minutes. I’ve seen and covered a lot of these movies of the week for the site and have to say that this is one of the better ones. I’m sort of shocked that I hadn’t seen it before but am glad to have rectified that. It is on the internet to watch for free at the usual spots. I recommend that you give it a chance. 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

Inn of the Damned (1975)

I keep digging thru my piles of movies and finding new to me stuff that I’ve not seen before. This is one of those and is also an example of why I’ve never seen it before. Spoilers… it is bad, really bad. But more on that later.

Set in Australia in the late eighteen hundreds the movie kicks off with an English gentleman completing a “transaction” with a working girl. He hops on a stagecoach and eventually gets dropped off at a small inn where he liaisons with another working girl or maybe it was the same one. Not entirely sure. While they are sleeping it off something happens to them, and they end up dead. What was it? Not entirely sure as we mostly just see their faces as they react to it. Eventually we see the the elderly German couple who run the inn are killing folks with the help of a man who is wanted for an entirely different murder. This is important later.

The rest of the movie follows an American bounty hunter who is tracking and eventually kills the helper. The locals get mad at his violence, so he needs to track down the trooper who was with him to show that his killing of the fugitive was justified. Guess where the last place the trooper was seen headed? Yeah, the inn. So, the American goes there, figures out what is going on, and gets into a shoot out with them. Along the way more random travelers stop by to get killed, including a stepmother and stepdaughter who she is molesting. I guess any excuse for some sleaze… Then it ends. Why were they killing travelers? A bad man killed their kids and um. You know who I don’t actually know.

Inn of the Damned didn’t work for me at all. My first complaint is the pacing, which is just terrible. There are long stretches of riding horses, useless characters that either show up for a hot minute as comic relief or to spend the night at the inn for the sole purpose of ending up tossed down the well after meeting their demise. It feels fragmented and never builds any momentum. This is reinforced by the complete lack of motives. We get the flashbacks to their children being abducted which is filled in a bit with some dialogue at the end. But they never connect why that set them on a path towards killing anyone who stopped by their inn. The story needs to make sense within the world that it exists, no matter how twisted.

They picked the wrong place to stop!

The decision to make this a horror and western hybrid also causes issues. I will admit that there are brief moments where the movie does get somewhat creepy with them lurking around the house and spying on the guests thru peepholes. But it keeps getting interrupted with random shootouts and chase sequences on horses. Trying to jam both film genres into the same movie might also explain the bloated runtime of two hours. I think they were trying to serve fans of both and ended up failing miserably.

The cast is filled with Australian actors that I sort of recognize from other flicks from down under. The most obvious is John Meillon, who was in the Crocodile Dundee movies. We also get Alex Cord as the American bounty hunter. I think that the cast is solid but is saddled with a terrible script that gives them nothing to work with. It is sad to see talent wasted like this.

If it isn’t obvious yet I’m not recommending Inn of the Damned. There was a seed of something interesting here and I really wish they had spent more time on the script to let it grow. Sadly, they didn’t so we end up with this muddled mess. You can skip this one.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

Teenage Monster (1957)

I’ve spent most of my life tracking down and watching every fifties monster movie available. Somehow, I keep finding new to me flicks which is what keeps me excited about this hobby and always on the lookout for new to me stuff. Teenage Monster is one of those that I recently stumbled over.

It is eighteen eighty and we meet a family struggling to get their gold mine to pay off. There is Ma, Pa, and their young son Charley. After a brief introduction we see a meteor hit the mine killing Pa and mutating Charley. He has a terrible scar on his face which is how we realize thru a helpful onscreen prompt that seven years have passed he is now the large hairy bigfoot looking creature. If his incredible strength and childlike mind aren’t dangerous enough, he also has an anger issue and overreacts to stress. The rest of the movie is him killing random folks until he grabs a girl named Kathy. She seems nice but manipulates him into doing some killing for her. But Charley isn’t stupid just naive and eventually he figures things out. The only way his Ma can be happy and free is for him to go. Since she is blackmailing Ma, he takes Kathy with him!

Not only is this a new to me fifties monster movie but it is also a western! I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get as much cowboy action as Charley sneaks around and stays in the shadows. But then they also establish that while he is very strong, he isn’t immune to a Winchester rifle. So, I guess that it would have been a much shorter movie. Though it does only clock in at a little over an hour which makes for a briskly paced bit of cheesy fun. The story wastes little time before getting the ball rolling. The bodies start to drop rather quickly as Charley smashes anyone he finds… well most everyone. When he meets Kathy, he kidnaps her and brings her home to have a friend. I also think he gets a bit of a crush on her. This leads up to a neat bit of messing with our expectations when Kathy turns out to be not so innocent and immediately becomes a villain. I didn’t see that coming and appreciated it.

The cast is solid and filled with working character actors and “B” list faces that you will have seen before. The highlight for me was seeing Gloria Castillo as Kathy. She is one of my favorites from the fifties for her performance in Invasion of the Saucermen. Anne Gwynne is Ma and appeared in House of Frankenstein as well as Murder in the Blue Room which I need to cover during my next mystery marathon. Like I said there is some talent here and they give it their all.

The thing that most surprised me about Teenage Monster was how well they did with the creature design. It basically looks like bigfoot in clothes, but it works. They use some forced perspective and platform boots to make the monster look larger than he is which I love. Old school Hollywood tricks are still the best in my book. The killings aren’t explicit, but then this is a fifties flick so you wouldn’t expect them to be. Basically, he strangles or pounds his victims until they die.

This was a fun way to kill an hour. You get a sympathetic monster, a scheming villain, some comeuppance in the end, and sort of a happy ending as Ma, while sad, is finally free to continue her life. They put a lot of effort into what many would have considered a throwaway “B” picture. I appreciate that and recommend everyone check out Teenage Monster.

 

© Copyright 2022 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

Throwback Thursday - Spaghetti Westerns

note: Back in the day I wrote a Blu-Ray review column for Grindhouse Purgatory magazine. I thought I'd post my look at some Spaghetti Westerns here. This includes a great Lee Van Cleef flick, The Grand Duel. 

The Blu-Ray report: Spaghetti Westerns

by John Shatzer

 

            Every time that we get a new home video format I watch as the companies putting out movies run out of material. They end up digging up all sorts of obscure films to fill their inventories. As a movie fan this can be both fun and overwhelming. Do I double dip on a Blu-Ray, or don’t I? What about the releases I’ve never heard of? Well fear not good readers I’m back again to help you out with the Blu-Ray report. This time around I thought it would be a nice change of pace to check out some Spaghetti Westerns.           

            The first disc I grabbed was a double feature from Mill Creek Entertainment with 4 Dollars of Revenge and The Last Gun. I’ve seen the latter so decided to watch 4 Dollars of Revenge. The movie opens with Captain Dexter returning from the Civil War. Dexter is a war hero, wealthy, and someone that those in power want to run for Governor. He is also involved in a love triangle between himself, the lovely Mercedes, and another army officer. Dexter tries to resign his commission to pursue politics, but his commanding officer insists that he deliver it, as well as a shipment of Confederate gold to Washington D.C. personally. So off he goes but along the way his patrol is ambushed and everyone but Dexter is killed. Miraculously he survives after being left for dead but soon ends up in prison after he is framed for the crime of stealing the gold. He escapes and goes looking for the men who destroyed his life.

            Many Spaghetti Westerns follow the formula of a wronged man getting revenge on those who wronged him. When done properly it can be a blast and in some ways 4 Dollars of Revenge nails it. We have many suspects that might be to blame for Dexter’s predicament. Was it his drunk cousin who keeps asking for money? Perhaps the fellow officer who is vying for the love of the same woman? Could it be a political rival that wants to stop Dexter from becoming Governor? Heck it might just be bandits looking for some gold. The movie gives us many options and I appreciate that. There is also a gimmick with 4 of the gold coins. Dexter is given them to remind him of his crime, so when he gets revenge on someone he leaves a coin behind, which ties into the title 4 Dollars of Revenge. See what they did there?  

            Unfortunately, as much as I liked how the story was setup and the plot device of the coins the movie has a fatal flaw. It is so damn slow! As an example, when the movie starts we get scene after scene of Dexter riding into town with people welcoming him home. After the first couple I figured out that he was well liked. Then we get a lot of talking as Dexter chats up his fellow officers, his lady, and anyone else that stops him on the street. Some of this is establishing characters, but much of it is just filler. Speaking of filler, the camera tends to linger on scenes long after anything pertinent to the plot has happened. The shots are nice but I don’t need to see background characters dancing. This makes the movie feel much longer than its 88-minute runtime.  

            Again, this Blu-Ray is from Mill Creek Entertainment, which is a budget releasing company. While it does boast on the back of the case that it is a new HD transfer I wouldn’t have high expectations. It looks like they did a transfer from a 35mm print, but it hasn’t been cleaned up. There are image defects, scratches, and an occasional pop in the sound. We also don’t get any special features. The biggest advantage to this disc is that you can normally pick it up in a bargain bin for less than 5 dollars. Still I’m not sure that 4 Dollars of Revenge is a good deal even at that price.

            The second disc that I grabbed is also a budget release from Mill Creek Entertainment and is a double feature of The Grand Duel and Keoma. I decided on the Lee Van Cleef vehicle The Grand Duel, which has also been released under the title of The Big Showdown. Van Cleef plays an ex-sheriff, named Clayton, that is doing all he can to help a murderer escape the bounty hunters that are trying to bring him in. The man, Philipp, has a large bounty placed on him after he is accused of killing the patriarch of the Saxon family. Early on we find out that Clayton knows that he is innocent, which is why he keeps trying to convince him to run away to Mexico, but Philipp refuses. He was framed for the murder to get him out of the way when the Saxon’s killed his father. There was silver found on some peasant’s land and Phillip’s father was organizing them to stop the Saxon’s from running them off and stealing the mine. This leads both back to town and a showdown with the Saxon brothers.  

            Unlike 4 Dollars of Revenge just about everything is perfect with The Grand Duel. The gunplay starts off early and continues until the end credits roll. We get many shootouts with lots of Saxon henchmen finding their ends at the hands of our heroes. Lee Van Cleef quietly chews up the scenery portraying a bad ass like only he can. He is dangerous and knows it even if those challenging him don’t. As I mentioned above the story of a wronged man getting revenge is common in Spaghetti Westerns but here it has an added twist. Philipp doesn’t know who he is looking for! He wants to know who killed his father and who framed him for the patriarch’s murder. This is a mystery that isn’t resolved until the very end of the movie and since it isn’t the same person we get a couple of reveals.

            Great pacing, entertaining story, lots of gunplay, and Lee Van Cleef. What isn’t to love here? As an added bonus, I was shocked at how nice the movie looks. When I saw the Mill Creek Entertainment logo I had low expectations about the transfer. While the Blu-Ray is bare bones and has no special features, the transfer is stunning. Like the first Blu-Ray this can be had very cheaply in the bargain bin of many large retailers. Unlike the that disc this one is worth every penny for The Grand Duel alone. Add in Keoma, which is a decent movie starring Franco Nero, and you get a double feature that is a steal. I highly recommend this one.

            Well that is it for this installment of the Blu-Ray report. I hope that I was able to steer you away from wasting your money by pointing you to the good buys. If you enjoyed this please check out my blog at horrordude.blogspot.com for more of my musings on all things movie related. As always please feel free to email me at gutmunchers@gmail.com with any complaints or compliments! I’m always eager and ready to converse with another movie fan.

 

 

© Copyright 2021 John Shatzer