All through my years of film geekery, there's been a handful of movies I desperately wanted to see but never could track down. One by one, I've been finding 'em — and in almost every case, what I've seen has been worth the wait.7 Men From Now — one of the greatest Westerns I've ever seen.
Gun Crazy — for once, all the books of snobby scholarly film noir analysis didn't screw up my enjoyment of a terrific B crime picture.
Another example, which I saw last night here, is 1955's Big House, USA (located by my web-surfing wife Jennifer — another reason I love her so much).
It's a tough, gritty B crime film, directed by Howard W. Koch and boasting one of the greatest casts I've ever come across: Broderick Crawford, Ralph Meeker (the same year he did Kiss Me Deadly), Reed Hadley, William Talman, Lon Chaney (Jr.) and Charles Bronson. I knew it'd be good. Gordon Avil's camerawork is impressive, too.
This is nowhere near the movie those other two are. But as a nasty 83 minutes of Fifties cinema, it's hard to beat. Let's see. A kid is chucked off a cliff. A guy is trapped inside a giant boiler — and promptly steamed like a lobster tail. And as previously mentioned, Bronson has his face and fingertips seared off to conceal his identity.
Y'all can have Wizard Of Oz and Sophie's Choice. Give me more like this.
So go watch it. (You can spare 83 minutes, can't you?) You'll thank me.
1 comment:
Another reason why I love YOU.
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