The Commancheors: John Wayne's 007 Movie

A few years back I watched John Wayne's The Comancheros for perhaps the fourth time and I recall thinking, and later mentioned to a friend, that the 1961 Western film was in some ways a James Bond-type thriller.

Nehemiah Persoff was an early-day Bond-type villain with a SPECTRE-like criminal organization. The Duke is a Texas Ranger who goes undercover and infiltrates Persoff's lair, much like Bond does in the 007 films (and the earlier Ian Fleming novels).

There is also a dramatic Bond-like card game with John Wayne and bad guy Lee Marvin. Marvin, in a brief but powerful role, is at his evil best. This bad guy may be even more rotten than Marvin's Liberty Valance outlaw character in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

There are other similarities between Bond thrillers and The Comancheros, as The Spy Commander website points out.

You can read the post via the below link:

https://hmssweblog.wordpress.com/2016/08/20/1961-john-waynes-007-movie/

Note: In this film John Wayne shows his acting chops when he assumes the identity of a gunrunner he meets briefly in jail. You can clearly see the contrast between Wayne's Texas Ranger character and his assumed role as an outlaw gunrunner. Good movie.

Philly Police, Including Frank Rizzo, Starred In Obscure '60s Cop Show

Stephanie Farr at the Philadelphia Inquirer offers an interesting piece on the discovery of an early reality TV series that featured real Philly cops, including an inspector who would go on to become the police commissioner and then mayor of Philadelphia, Frank Rizzo.

Long after his retirement in 1971, Philadelphia Police Lt. John A. Stevenson would tell his children and grandchildren about the time he starred alongside Frank Rizzo and other Philadelphia officers in one of the first reality-based law enforcement shows on television.

"He always talked about it. It was like family lore," said Dan Stevenson, 40, Stevenson's grandson. "We were like, 'OK, Pop Pop, you were on a TV show.' "

Stevenson insisted he was on a TV show, and it was hosted by Oscar-winning actor Lee Marvin. It was just that the show never aired in Philadelphia, so nobody here ever saw it, Stevenson told his family.

"He used to say, 'I'm waiting for the calls to come in from Hollywood for me to be a movie star,' " said Stevenson's son John Jr., 69, a retired Philadelphia police officer. "So we always thought he was embellishing."

... Each episode of Lawbreaker was set in a different city and starred police officers playing themselves in reenactments of crimes they had investigated or situations they had de-escalated.

Dan Stevenson went through the 30-minute episodes, searching for his grandfather. When he came upon one of the two episodes set in Philadelphia and saw Rizzo, he got butterflies.

You can read the rest of the piece and watch a video clip of the TV program via the below link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160724_Philly_police__including_Frank_Rizzo__starred_in_obscure__60s_cop_show.html

Happy Birthday To Lee Marvin

As Biography.com notes, today is the birthday of one of my favorite actors, the late Lee Marvin.

Actor Lee Marvin was born on February 19, 1924, in New York City. He eventually earned lead roles when his aggressive nature was perceived by such directors as Edward Dmytryk, Fritz Lang, and John Boorman. Marvin appeared in about 70 films between 1951 and 1986. He first branched out into sympathetic film roles in the early 1960s, partly thanks to his role in TV's M Squad. He died on August 29, 1987, in Tucson, Arizona.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.biography.com/people/lee-marvin-9542498

Note: There are a good number of films with Lee Marvin that I watch again and again, such as The Dirty Dozen, Point Blank and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Marvin, a combat Marine in WWII, was a fine actor.

The Man Who Was Liberty Valance: Lee Marvin On John Ford And John Wayne

Richard Brody at the New Yorker remembers the late actor Lee Marvin as the baddest of the bad in the Old West in his role as the outlaw Liberty Valance in John Ford's wonderful The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. The film is one of my favorites.

Marvin’s work is a model of intelligence played for malevolence: Valance’s amorality and corruption—his delight in malice—are matched by an exquisite control of tempo, of diction, and of gaze. The fact that Valance thinks so hard and so well about what he’s doing makes his evil all the more horrific.

You can read the rest of the piece and watch a video of Lee Marvin being interviewed about John Ford and John Wayne via the below link:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2012/02/the-clippings-file-lee-marvin-on-john-ford.html

A Review Of John Wayne's The Comancheros' Blu-Ray Release

William Bibbiani at Craveonline.com reviewed John Wayne's The Comancheros'  Blu-Ray release.

Although not one of the Duke's best films, The Comancheros is still a good film.

Lee Marvin briefly shines in his small role as a gun-runner and outlaw as mean and nasty as Marvin's Liberty Valance in John Ford's classic western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Lee Marvin plays well against John Wayne. I wish he had been in The Comancheros longer.

Stuart Whitman is fine, but as Bibbiani notes in his review, the role of Paul Regret was written with Cary Grant in mind. I would love to have seen Cary Grant in this film with Wayne and Marvin.

And for those who still say John Wayne can't act, I suggest they watch the scene with Wayne in a jail cell with an over-the-top character actor (I can't recall the actor's name), whom Wayne impersonates to get close to Marvin.

Watch Wayne's Texas Ranger character act like the jailed criminal when he meets Marvin. Great stuff.

If you've not seen The Comancheros, I suggest you check it out.

You can read the review of The Comancheros via the below link:

http://www.craveonline.com/film/reviews/168373-review-the-comancheros-blu-ray     

Actors We Miss: Lee Marvin

Cinematical looks back on the film career of the late, great actor Lee Marvin.

I'm a big Lee Marvin fan and if I had to pick three favorite films, I would choose The Dirty Dozen, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and Point Blank.

These are films that I can watch again and again, and there so many other Lee Marvin films that I've enjoyed as well over the years.

You can read the Cinematical piece, which offers clips of some of his films, via the below link:

http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/02/18/lee-marvin-movies/