The Longest Yard (1974)

Plot:  An imprisoned ex-NFL QB puts puts together a rag-tag football team of inmates and plays the prison guard team.
Stars: Burt Reynolds, Eddie Albert, Bernadette Peters
Best Quote: Oh I ain't saying you did or you didn't. All I'm saying is that you could have robbed banks, sold dope or stole your grandmother's pension checks and none of us would have minded. But shaving points off of a football game, man that's un-American.

This is one of Reynold's best roles, as he plays a ex-NFL QB leading a prison football team vs, the Guards.  Burt was a college football player, so the role fits him like a glove. As does being a cynical smart-ass -  tossing off quips.  Eddie Albert, does equally well,  showing unexpected range as the charming but evil Prison Warden. Various familiar faces from TV and film lend adequate support.

Flaws: Unfortunately, the last 1/3 of the movie is a filmed football game - talk about Dullsville.  Its not 1940, anymore. We've all seen lots of REAL football on TV- and the Hollywood version looks fake, fake, fake.  Other problem - there's that painfully patronizing 1970's attitude toward blacks. The black actors (inmates) are given little screen-time or characterization - but to make up for that  - they're shown as super-athletic, "super-cool" dudes who don't want to hang with the  uncool Whites. That is, until even more "cool" Burt convinces them to join the team.  Ouch. Yeah, some liberal white nerd wrote the script - no black writers were involved.

Summary: One of Reynold's best roles, its pretty good - until the way too long football game starts. Worth a look on DVD, where you can press the fast-forward button.

The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944) - DeMille

Plot:  When the Japanese invade Java,  a Doctor miraculously gets wounded American Sailors safely to Australia.
Stars:  Gary Cooper, Loraine Day.
Best Quote:  Unless the Japanese can be stopped, it will be impossible for any of your 42 wounded sailors to escape.
Dr. Wassell: Good gravy.

In 1944, the critics hated Dr. Wassell,  but the public loved it. Based on a true story, DeMille "Hollywoodized " it - to increase the Box office. Among the changes... the real Dr. Wassell  (who was happily married and looked like Walter Huston) was made into a single 45 y/o Gary Cooper in love with his young nurse. The wounded sailors were transformed into lovable Yankee Doodle Dandies and the nurses were changed to Hollywood beauties with romance on their minds.  It made the critics very unhappy.

The Good.  The movie had a big budget and  every dollar is up there on the screen.  Filmed in the Jungles of Mexico, with excellent special effects and technicolor cinematography, the movie looks great and the action scenes are well done.  Cooper is very good as the lead.  Everyone else is OK or better than average.  The story itself is exciting.

Flaws?  Its way too long at 140 minutes. You could trim 20 minutes - and all the Arkansas Flashbacks - and not lose anything. And the movie sacrifices gritty realism for romance and corny humor.

A Forgotten Movie.  Mostly due to the title.  During WW 2, Dr Wassell was famous, so the movie title brought in business - but he was quickly forgotten. Its an epic war adventure film but today the title indicates a medical drama.

Summary:  A well-done adventure war film, dragged by down by an excessive run time and unnecessary romance.  But unjustly forgotten.  Rating ***

Cannonball Run (1981)

Plot: A wild and illegal cross-country road race attracts eccentric entrants who will do anything to win
Stars: Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Dean Martin, Dom Deluise. Farah Fawcett
Best Quote:  Burt Reynolds sleepwalks through a role he's played several times before, but never so indifferently...That means Reynolds gets to drink a lot of beer, talk like a good ol' boy, and get in the middle of a lot of crashes and other stunts - Roger Ebert.

Critics HATED Cannonball Run (cf: Roger Ebert who gave it 1/2 star) and it has an IMDB 6.2 rating,  but I enjoyed it, and consider it a good showcase for Burt's comedic talents.

Its not Shakespeare, its not even Smoky and the Bandit,  but if you want a pleasant time waster - it'll do.  Y'got cars., Reynolds tossing off quips, guests stars cracking jokes, some great American scenery - and plenty of great interior scenery when the camera focuses on Farah and Adrienne Barbeau. And its only 95 minutes.

What you don't got is a good script or a plausible story. But then  "you knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred!"

Thoughts On Burt Reynolds
Hollywood didn't really know what to do with Reynolds when he first started out. He was too big for TV - and too small for leading man parts.  He lacked something. He got his big break in Deliverance, but if you imagine Heston in the role (Chuck was offered the part) - its obvious Burt wasn't really the macho leading man.

Fortunately, someone saw him yakking it up on Johnny Carson and gave him a role that fit his talents: Smoky and the Bandit.  For years he was a great box office draw.  But attempts in the 1980's to branch away from his comic persona  weren't very successful (probably Sharky's Machine is the best) - either the role didn't fit him, or the script was terrible (cf: City Heat).  He's one actor who needed the right producer to exploit his talents. But that never happened.

Most of his movies were mediocre - he was usually the best thing in them.  But he still made some good ones: Deliverance. Longest Yard. Smokey and the Bandit.

Oscars - Best and Worst Supporting Actress - 1936-1999

15 Best Nominees:

1. Billie Burke - 1938 - Merrily we live
2. Olivia De haviland - 1939 - Gone with the Wind
3. Ann Baxter - 1946- The Razor's Edge
4. Marjorie Main - 1947 - The Egg and I
5. Hope Emerson - 1950 - Caged
6. Jean Hagan - 1952 - Singing in the Rain
7. Grace Kelly - 1953 - Mogambo
8. Thelma Ritter - 1953- Pickup on South Street
9. Elsa Lanchester - 1956 - Witness for the Prosecution
10. Janet Leigh - 1960 - Pyscho
11. Jocelyne LaGarde - 1966-  Hawaii
12. Carol Channing - 1968 - Thoroughly Modern Millie. 
13. Helen Hayes - 1970 - Airport
14. Terri Garr - 1982 - Tootsie
15. Dianne Wiest - 1994 - Bullets over Broadway

10 Worst Nominees: 

1. Gale Sondergaard - 1946   - The King of Siam
2. Ann Revere - 1947 - Gentleman's Agreement 
3. Shelly Winters - 1965 - A patch of blue
4. Ingrid Bergman - 1974 - Murder on the Orient Express
5. Lee Grant - 1975- Shampoo
6. Piper Laurie - 1976- Carrie
7. Candice Bergen - 1979 - Starting Over 
8. Olympia Dukakis - 1987 - Moonstruck
9. Whoopi Goldberg 1990 - Ghost
10. Lauren Bacall - 1996- The Mirror has two faces 

I only picked 10 "worst nominees" - I could have easily picked 25. The supporting actress category - with a few exceptions - is pretty good until about 1965, and then it becomes a dumping ground for "life time achievement awards", affirmative action picks, and Hollywood establishment favoritism.  Of course, the roles - in male dominated Hollywood - for actresses got worse and worse. So, there's that. 

But how else to explain Bergman in 1974, Lee Grant in 1975, or Bacall in 1996? And after 1965, some of the nominees are so obscure, I can barely remember them. And I watched the movie!

Vengeance Valley (1951)

Plot: Two sons of a Colorado cattle baron, fight for control of their father's cattle empire.
Stars: Robert Walker, Burt Lancaster
Best Quote:  I always heard you were a pretty good saloon fighter, Herb. How are you without a bottle or a knife?

There's nothing wrong with Vengeance Valley its just a very short (82 minutes) average Western with a melodramatic plot, standard characters, and two leads who don't seem very "Western" or dynamic. This is one of Burt's most generic roles.  He's just the straight-forward "Good Cowboy**" and he's very dull in the role.  Walker is much better as the villain, but he's no Cowboy, and looks uncomfortable in the saddle.

But after all, its a MGM movie and they never did Westerns right.  At times, it seems more like a documentary about ranch work and cattle herding or a travelogue of Colorado scenery then a Western. There's little action and what we do get (at the end)  its extremely bland.

The Ending Action Scene
Its completely standard - and filmed without any zest or pizazz.  Two bad guys with *pistols* ambush Burt while he's riding with Walker.  He gets winged in the arm, falls off his horse and then dives under a big rock.  The bad guys - behind bigger rocks - shoot at Lancaster. He shoots back.  Eventually, one baddie tries to outflank Burt and take him from the side. Burt sees him, and shoots him dead, with a pistol at 50 yards.  The other Baddie gets scared and runs off.  Burt then gets on his horse, chases after Walker.  After catching up with him, Walker draws on Burt and gets killed. The End.  There's zero tension and we're so diffident about both characters we don't really care.

Summary:   A tepid, forgettable movie - it played better when released.  In 1951, there were no TV Westerns, and very few Technicolor ones, so MGM made quite a bit of money. And this movie proved Manhattan-born Lancaster could ride tall in the saddle.

** - Absurdly, Lancaster would later describe it as a "John Wayne Role" - a slow-acting, slow-thinking Cowboy. Sorry Burt, Wayne was never this boring.

The Gypsy Moths (1969)

Plot: Three barnstorming skydivers put on a thrill show in a small Kansas Town
Stars: Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Gene Hackman
Best Quote:  Picture is a lack-lustre affair insofar as the character relationships are concerned. The stars do not appear particularly happy with their roles. Lancaster seldom speaking, Kerr not particularly well cast - Variety

This is the kind of movie they did much better back in the 1930's. Had it been made in 1939 - instead of 1969 - you would've had Clark Gable and Spenser Tracy as two thrill-seeking skydivers fighting over Myrna Loy, with everyone having a grand ol' time.

But its 1969 - so we get Burt, Gene Hackman, and Kerr  having "issues" and a downer ending. And the whole tone and pace of the film is wrong.  When we're not skydiving, its about as much fun as a funeral dirge - and moves at the same pace - with a depressed Lancaster committing suicide by parachute.  Meanwhile, Hackman is completely unlikable, and Wilson makes little impression.

As with The Great Waldo Pepper we're supposed to sympathize with the obnoxious performers as opposed to the "hicks" they're forced to live with. After all, they're in small town Kansas - where everyone's a dullard or living a life of quiet desperation. No wonder the rubes are super-impressed by parachuting*

Lancaster Performance
Burt is incredibly low-key and bland in this one. His character is depressed/suicidal but Lancaster can't portray any emotion that's not verbal. So, you get no sense of unspoken anger or inner turmoil. Lancaster just looks kinda sad - and then kills himself.  And we don't really care, because he's that way from the beginning.

* Nobody in 1969, even in small town Kansas, was overly impressed by "Skydiving" in the 1969.  Good grief, you had sky diving clubs all over the USA, and Army Paratroopers since 1941.