Ride the High Country

1962  NR  WESTERN  1h 34min

CAST— Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, Mariette Hartley, Ron Starr, Edgar Buchanan, R. G. Armstrong, Warren Oates, John Anderson, L. Q. Jones, James Drury

MUSIC— George Bassman  DIRECTOR— Sam Peckinpah

     A fine Western that focuses more on character development than on shoot-‘em-up violence. An aging man of the West (played by Joel McCrea) is offered a job: deliver loads of gold from the mining town all the way back to the bank. Risky business, to be sure. So McCrea hires on an old acquaintance (Randolph Scott) who has acquired a sidekick for himself (Ron Starr). Maybe McCrea should have searched a bit longer for his partners; for you see, Scott and Starr are not on the up-and-up; their plan is to cut and run, hightail it with the gleaming gold. Well not if McCrea has any say in the matter. There’s a subplot about rescuing a girl from her murderous husband, which causes his vile brothers to gang up on McCrea and his rascally men. So there you have the drama, the action; lighten up, it’s a Western and most horse operas have less going for them than this one. AKA Guns in the Afternoon. Deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress National Film Registry.

OUR RATING— ** ½

     The Ride Back

1957  NR  WESTERN  1h 19min

CAST— Anthony Quinn, Lita Milan, William Conrad, Ellen Hope Monroe, Louis Towers

MUSIC— Frank DeVol  DIRECTOR— Allen H. Miner

     Engaging suspense oater that keeps it short and sweet. A lawman hoofs it down to Mexico to haul in a fugitive, a cunning, sneaky gunman who refuses to go quietly. From then on the lawman must keep a constant vigil lest he wind up another victim of his prisoner (or even a victim of his prisoner’s rampaging girlfriend). Soon they come to rely upon one another (however grudgingly) when Apache raiders come into the picture. Entertaining through and through. Title ballad sung by Eddie Albert!

OUR RATING— ***

Trailer Unavailable

     Revenge of the Zombies

1943  NR  SCIENCE FICTION  1h 9min

CAST— John Carradine, Gale Storm

MUSIC— Edward J. Kay  DIRECTOR— Steve Sekely

     Ho-hum sci-fi chiller in which evil scientist plots to supply Nazis with an unstoppable zombie army. A waste.

OUR RATING— *

PRECEDED BY— King of the Zombies (1941)

     Revenge of the Pink Panther

1978  PG  COMEDY  1h 38min

CAST— Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Dyan Cannon, Robert Webber, Tony Beckley, Paul Stewart

MUSIC— Henry Mancini  DIRECTOR— Blake Edwards

     Peter Sellers returns as that imbecilic inspector (uh, Chief Inspector, if you please) Jacques Clouseau in the sixth Pink Panther film and, sorry to say, the charm is wearing thin. This time Clouseau gets involved in the infamous French Connection, that decades-long heroin smuggling operation involving multiple national borders (and Gene Hackman, but that’s another film). Though our hero is absolutely clueless as to what’s clearly going down, he inexplicably takes down the bad guys with regularity. When the leader of this particular smuggling operation decides to take out Clouseau in order to prove his still potent villainous prowess, Clouseau of course inadvertently avoids the villain’s ploys. Even Claude Dreyfus, supposedly cured once again (and apparently reintegrated after his demise in The Pink Panther Strikes Again [1976]) gets in on the action as he is reinstated as an inspector. But will his constant run-ins with Clouseau drive him right back to the funny farm? Not as inspired as Clouseau’s last go-round, where the antics came fast and furious, but one can still appreciate the globe-trotting madness herein.

OUR RATING— ** ½

PRECEDED BY— The Pink Panther (1963), A Shot in the Dark (1964), Inspector Clouseau (1968), The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)

FOLLOWED BY— Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), Son of the Pink Panther (1993)

     Revenge of the Creature

1955  NR  HORROR  1h 22min

CAST— John Agar, Lori Nelson

MUSIC— Herman Stein  DIRECTOR— Jack Arnold

     The Gill Man returns in this followup to The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). It's been a year since the scientific crew aboard the Rita fought the amphibious Gill Man deep within the bowels of the Amazon rain forest. Now a capture team has come to finish the job and take the creature into captivity. The Gill Man is taken to a marine life research and exhibit center in Florida. Already one can tell that's a big mistake. While the head researcher gets smoochy with a female science student, the Gill Man is being examined, observed, poked and cattle prodded within the confines of a fish tank. The poor guy, once used to the freedom of the Amazon, is now reduced to being a toy for scientists who use negative reinforcement techniques to try to teach him (really, one begins to feel for him, thinking that his promised revenge couldn't come too soon). The creature inevitably escapes his holding tank, terrorizes the sightseers and subsequently begins to stalk the fetching science student, culminating in a final standoff along the shores of Jacksonville. A worthy successor to the first film in terms of action and monster footage, though transplanting the creature to a Florida tourist trap seems like an obvious and desperate attempt to make the creature's reign of terror seem that much more frightening. Still, a fairly good Universal Monster movie. Final note: Check out a young Clint Eastwood, in his film debut, in an uncredited role as a lab assistant. Originally filmed in 3D. AKA Return of the Creature, Return of the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

OUR RATING— ** ½

PRECEDED BY— The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

FOLLOWED BY— The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)

     The Revenge of Frankenstein

1958  NR  HORROR  1h 29min

CAST— Peter Cushing, Francis Matthews, Eunice Gayson, Michael Gwynn, Lionel Jeffries, John Welsh

MUSIC— Leonard Salzado  DIRECTOR— Terence Fisher

     You remember Frankie, right? When last we saw him he was headed for the gallows. Well, he escaped somehow and now Baron Frankenstein lives the life of a village surgeon (call him Dr. Stein, if you please). But, of course, that’s merely his day job; his nights are a bit more complicated, you know with all of the experiments on displaced human remains and the carnivorous chimp with the brain of an orangutan. His real project will be Karl. Karl is Dr. Stein’s lab partner who has faith that the good doctor can cure Karl of his paralysis… but only by placing Karl’s brain into a rather normal looking homemade body (a vast disappointment after the monstrous Christopher Lee in this film’s predecessor, The Curse of Frankenstein [1957]). Success! But soon Stein is to see (again) that playing God only leads to mayhem. More holes than a vat of Life Savers in this one but dank atmosphere keeps things murky.

OUR RATING— * ½

PRECEDED BY— The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

FOLLOWED BY— The Evil of Frankenstein (1964), Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)

     Return to Never Land

2002  G  ANIMATED  1h 12min

CAST— Harriet Owen, Blayne Weaver, Corey Burton, Jeff Bennett, Kath Soucie, Dan Castellaneta, Spencer Breslin, Russi Taylor, Roger Rees, Clive Revill

MUSIC— Joel McNeely  DIRECTOR— Robin Budd

     Walt Disney Pictures brings back characters from the past in this slight fantasy. By now Wendy is all grown up with children of her own. When WWII hits London daughter Jane, a serious-minded child who refuses to believe in the stories of Never Land, is determined to become an adult before her time. But when Captain Hook kidnaps her she must rely on the eternal child, Peter Pan to come to her rescue. Even then she refuses to enjoy her time in Never Land with Peter and his pals, the Lost Boys; she even (gasp!) refuses to believe in fairies. But in time she comes to except this enchanting new world and becomes the very first Lost Girl. Minimally entertaining kiddie fare, originally intended for video but released theatrically instead. AKA Peter Pan 2, Peter Pan in Return to Never Land.

OUR RATING— **

PRECEDED BY— Tinker Bell (2008), Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure (2009), Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue (2010), Secret of the Wings (2012), The Pirate Fairy (2014), Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast (2015), Peter Pan (1953)