THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT: One of Raoul Walsh's Best

THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT (Blu-ray)

1940 / 95 min

FROM WARNER ARCHIVE COLLECTION

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Mr. Paws😹

They Drive by Night is an excellent film with a loaded cast, a couple of whom were on the verge of stardom when this was released. What begins as a rough & tumble road movie eventually evolves into a stunning slab of film noir, with romance and a surprising amount of humor in between. It’s all seamlessly assembled by director Raoul Walsh.

Joe & Paul Fabrini (George Raft & Humphrey Bogart) are a couple of loyal brothers struggling to make a living as freelance truckers while avoiding a loan shark trying to repossess their rig. During one run, Joe meets and gives a lift to Cassie (Ann Sheridan), who just quit her waitress job. The two eventually fall in love. 

Meanwhile, during another run, an overtired Paul crashes the truck and loses his arm. Racked with guilt over the incident and now without a vehicle, Joe takes a job working for old buddy Ed Carlsen (Alan Hale), who owns a successful trucking business. Ed’s married to Lana (Ida Lupino), who barely masks contempt for her husband’s constant drinking and lack of class. She’s also obsessed with Joe, who rebuffs her repeated advances out of loyalty to Ed (and love for Cassie)…

Guess who's getting stuck with the check.

…so Lana murders her husband, making it look like an accident. She then offers Joe an equal partnership in the business, which he agrees to on the proviso that their relationship remains professional. He even brings Paul onboard as a dispatcher. However, upon learning Joe plans to marry Cassie, Lana becomes so enraged that she tells authorities she murdered Ed because Joe forced her to. 

From beginning to end, this is great stuff, punctuated by sharp dialogue and top-notch performances from the main cast, who seem to be taking turns stealing scenes from each other. Lupino, in particular, wonderfully transforms from sultry femme fatale to raving lunatic over the course of the story. It's no wonder she became a star soon after. Same with Bogart, who isn’t really in the film all that much after the first act, but is an indelible screen presence. 

Walsh keeps things moving at a lively pace with his usual directorial flare. They Drive by Night isn’t among his most-remembered work, but it’s arguably one of the best he made while under contract at Warner Brothers. While the movie can’t really be pigeonholed into one particular genre, it’s definitely a must-see for film noir fans. So far, this is the best Warner Archive Blu-ray release of the year.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTE - Divided Highway: The Story of They Drive by Night is an excellent 10 minute retrospective doc, with insights and history from critics & historians like Leonard Maltin.

WB SHORT - Swingtime in the Movies is a 20 minute 1938 comedy with cameos by a few notable WB stars, including Humphrey Bogart.

LUX RADIO THEATER BROADCAST - From 1941, this radio adaptation of They Drive by Night features George Raft and Lana Turner.

TRAILER

Litter Box Treasures: THE GUMBALL RALLY (1976)

In Litter Box Treasures, we focus on a variety of older films which aren’t necessarily classics, but are well-worth discovering.

THE GUMBALL RALLY (1976)

Starring Michael Sarrazin, Tim McIntire, Normann Burton, Raul Julia, Gary Busey, Nicholas Pryor, Harvey Jason, Susan Flannery, John Durren, J. Pat O'Malley, Vaughn Taylor, Steven Keats, Wally Taylor, Joanne Nail, Tricia O'Neal, Lazaro Perez. Directed by Chuck Bail. (105 min).

ESSAY BY D.M. ANDERSON💀

The Gumball Rally evokes really fond memories, so please indulge me if I give this film more praise than the genre generally warrants.

Nearly every week as a kid, I'd hit the Cinema V, a local second-run theater near my house, to catch double-bills for less than a buck. Sometimes I biked there, other times Mom or Dad would drop me off with a friend. The place was old, dank and sold Milk Duds dating back to the Middle Ages. As hang-outs go, it was second only to 7-Eleven as the most wonderful place in the world. That's where I first caught The Gumball Rally (with a Vanishing Point chaser). I'd seen plenty of car chase movies before - which had their heyday in the 70s - but this one struck a chord with me and remains one of my childhood favorites.

On the other hand, maybe it does warrant more acknowledgment & praise than its relative obscurity suggests.

Superficially, The Gumball Rally is just another car chase movie made during a decade rife with them. It has most of the same ingredients...hot cars, outlaw antiheroes, idiot cops, sexy babes, a plot with the complexity of Go Dog Go and, naturally, plenty of high-speed motorporn. A few of these crash-fests went on to become cult classics - like the aforementioned Vanishing Point - but most were brain-dead junk food made on-the-cheap and destined to be forgotten within weeks of their release.

But while The Gumball Rally walks & talks like its contemporaries, beneath its turbo-charged exterior beats the heart of old-fashioned madcap comedies like The Great Race, Monte Carlo or Bust and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (with a dash of Looney Tunes). The humor is broad, silly...even a little corny. But the whole thing is constantly good-natured and what little violence there is is strictly of the slapstick variety. In fact, if not for the preponderance of boob jokes, this could (almost) pass muster as a family film.

What's wrong with this picture?
(That's right...the driver on the right doesn't have insurance)

Unusual for the genre - at least until Burt Reynolds went into the Smokey and the Bandit business - the film boasts an impressive ensemble cast consisting of respected character actors, led by Michael Sarrazin (channeling his inner Peter Fonda...and a bit of Bugs Bunny thrown in for good measure). The fun they have with their characters (no matter how broadly drawn) is infectious. A young Raul Julia steals the show as oversexed Italian race driver Franco - Pepe Le Pew personified - while Normann Burton makes a perfect Wile E. Coyote (beleaguered expression and all) as the hapless Lt. Roscoe.

Though The Gumball Rally is played strictly for laughs, it doesn't skimp on high-speed thrills, which are expertly choreographed and shot, with far better production values than the average chase film of the time. It's all punctuated by a music score that combines ragtime, jazz and what resembles music from a Quinn Martin cop show. Yet somehow it fits, going a long way in establishing the jovial tone of the entire movie.

Sure, I may be biased, but what can't be disputed is the movie's influence. Not only was The Gumball Rally was the first of a wave of similar films depicting an illegal coast-to-coast road race (all inferior rip-offs), it eventually inspired real-life racing events all over the world, the most famous being the annual Gumball 3000, still held in Europe each year. Additionally, the MiceChat Gumball Rally is a yearly event at Disneyland, where fans compete to see who can ride the most attractions in a single day.

Not bad for a silly chase comedy hardly anyone recalls. For me, the movie is a nostalgic trip down memory lane that I take about once a year. I may not laugh as boisterously as I did at 13, sitting in the back row of that decrepit old Cinema V, but The Gumball Rally still brings a smile to my face.

THE POOP SCOOP: Classic Kibbles

😺CHINATOWN Celebrates 50th Anniversary With New Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD Release on June 18 from Paramount.

The haunting noir classic CHINATOWN celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and Paramount is marking the occasion with a Limited-Edition 4K Ultra HD release on June 18, 2024. Produced by the legendary Robert Evans, CHINATOWN was originally released on June 26, 1974 and received widespread critical acclaim along with 11 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Robert Towne’s brilliant Academy Award-winning screenplay weaves a tragic and shocking tale of corruption, greed, and the human propensity for evil.  Powerhouse performances by Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and John Huston, a riveting story inspired by real events, vivid imagery, and a stirring score combine to make an unforgettable film that is essential for every cinephile’s collection. The Limited-Edition Paramount Presents release includes the restored film on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc for the first time ever. In addition, this release includes extensive new and legacy bonus content, access to a Digital copy of the film, and a bonus Blu-ray with the 1990 sequel The Two Jakes, directed by and starring Jack Nicholson and written by Robert Towne.

😺AMERICAN SNIPER Arrives on 4K Ultra HD May 14 from Warner Bros.

American Sniper, the 2014 biographical war drama directed by Academy Award Winning Director Clint Eastwood and starring Academy Award nominee Bradley Coopers as will be available for purchase on 4K Ultra HD Disc and Digital for the first time on May 14, online and in-store at major retailers and available for purchase Digitally from Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Vudu and more. The film stars Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle. A two-time Oscar nominee for his work in “Silver Linings Playbook” and “American Hustle,” Cooper stars alongside Sienna Miller, Luke Grimes, Jake McDorman, Cory Hardrict, Kevin Lacz, Navid Negahban and Keir O’Donnell. Oscar-winning filmmaker Clint Eastwood directed American Sniper from a screenplay written by Jason Hall, based on the book by Chris Kyle, with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice. The film is produced by Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Andrew Lazar, Bradley Cooper and Peter Morgan. Tim Moore, Jason Hall, Sheroum Kim, Steven Mnuchin and Bruce Berman served as executive producers. American Sniper was nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor and won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing.

😺AMERICAN GIGOLO on 4K UHD and Blu-ray June 18 from Arrow Video.

Paul Schrader, hot off writing the scripts for Martin Scorsese's immortal classics Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, stepped into the director's chair for the third time with 1980's American Gigolo, a gripping tale of intrigue and deception set against the backdrop of sultry late-70s Los Angeles and starring Richard Gere in a breakthrough performance. In a world of wealth and desire, high-end male escort Julian Kay (Gere) offers his love and attention to women in need. But when a client, the wife of a sadistic finance magnate, is found dead, all eyes turn to Julian as the prime suspect. Realizing he's being framed, Julian races to prove his innocence, determined to unravel the mystery behind the setup. As he digs deeper into the case, he embarks on a journey that forces him to confront his own identity. American Gigolo is a feast for the senses thanks to cinematography by John Bailey and costume design by Giorgio Armani, not to mention a soundtrack courtesy of "Father of Disco" Giorgio Moroder including the Grammy-nominated anthem "Call Me" by Blondie. Co-starring Lauren Hutton, Héctor Elizondo, and Bill Duke, American Gigolo is presented here in a brand new 4K remaster and packed with bonus features.

😺THE DEPARTED Arrives on 4K Ultra HD and Digital April 23 from Warner Bros.

The iconic crime thriller film The Departed from Academy Award winning director Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, Goodfellas) will be available for purchase on 4K Ultra HD Disc and Digital for the first time on April 23. The Departed’s prestigious ensemble cast stars Academy Award winner Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant, The Wolf of Wall Street) , Academy Award winner Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting, The Martian), three time Academy Award Winner Jack Nicholson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Terms of Endearment, As Good as it Gets), and Academy Award nominee Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter, Boogie Nights). Directed by Scorsese, the screenplay is by Academy Award Winner William Monahan and is based on the 2002 Hong Kong action thriller Internal Affairs by Alan Mak & Felix Chong.  The film was produced by Brad Pitt, Brad Grey, and Graham King.

Revisiting BLAZING SADDLES at 50

BLAZING SADDLES (Blu-ray)

1974 / 93 min

FROM WARNER BROS.

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Mr. Paws😺

Reviewing this Blu-ray re-issue of Blazing Saddles is the first time I’ve sat down to watch the film in its entirety since the 1980s. Back then, it was often the movie of choice during Friday nights when a work buddy, Brian, would swing by my apartment to partake in a bit of herbal enhancement. 

Brian happened to be African-American, and when he first spotted it among my small VHS collection, he said it was one of his favorite movies. I was initially hesitant about watching it with him, especially with its liberal - and notorious - use of the n-word. But it was actually during the more racial-charged scenes when we always ended up laughing the hardest. 

Of course, anyone with a modicum of intelligence who’s actually seen Blazing Saddles - as opposed to knowling it by reputation - realizes the movie isn’t racist…it’s about the stupidity of racism, played for laughs (which it still largely earns 50 years later). That’s arguably why the film hasn’t been quite as retro-condemned as, say, Gone with the Wind, Sixteen Candles or Breakfast at Tiffany’s. 

Cleavon finds Gene's tickle spot.

Still, we live in a different world today, and revisiting the film resulted in a few personal takeaways…

• The movie is still funny without weed, though I missed Brian sitting on the sofa next to me. His laughter was infectious.
• Actually, I was thankful to be watching it alone this time. My daughters - both in their 20s - cannot stand racial epithets, no matter the context. Sure, the n-word is only spoken by bad guys and bumpkins (both depicted as idiots), but it’s weird to hear it used so often.
• If there’s one aspect of Blazing Saddles that could still be considered truly offensive, it’s the film’s cartoonish depiction of gay stereotypes. 
• I’ve heard a lot of people - mostly right-wingers - who claim Blazing Saddles couldn’t be made today because of woke culture. The fallacy in that statement - besides being a tired old cliche - is that so-called "woke" liberals are far less likely to take the humor at face value.
• Speaking of face value…now that I’m older, with more discriminating tastes and a heightened sense of humor, the campfire scene is still funny as hell. Of course, fart gags are common (and overused) today, but Brooks did it first…and did it big.
• “S’cuse me while I whip this out” is one of the funniest lines in movie history.
• Harvey Korman might very well be the movie’s MVP.
• Cleavon Little should have been a bigger movie star than he was. His delivery and comic timing are perfect.
• No one used anachronisms or broke the fourth wall better than Mel Brooks.
• Speaking of Brooks, it may be his name above the title, but even when prominently casting himself, he always gave the best roles, scenes and dialogue to his fellow actors.
• Watching the pilot episode of “Black Bart,” a proposed TV spin-off based on the movie (and included as a bonus feature), reminded me that network television didn’t have a problem with the n-word back then.
• Ironically, the same network felt compelled to edit the movie’s campfire scene for its TV broadcast, replacing the farts with belches (that scene is also among the bonus features). Racial slurs are okay, but God help us if impressionable viewers hear gas passing. The '70s were weird.
• Having seen a lot more classic westerns over the years, I appreciate Blazing Saddles’ satirical elements a lot more than I used to.

Those are my takes, anyway, and some might think I’m way off base on a few of them. But 50 years later, Blazing Saddles remains Mel Brooks’ funniest, most subversive film. Certain surface aspects notwithstanding, perhaps it’s even his most enduring, with underlying themes beneath the farce (and farts) that are still relevant.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTES - Back in the Saddle is a retrospective documentary featuring interviews with many of the surviving (at the time) cast & crew, including Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Dom DeLuise, Andrew Bergman and Burton Gilliam. Intimate Portrait: Madeline Kahn is an excerpt from the Lifetime biography series, made in 2000.

BLACK BART - Pilot episode for spinoff series that never happened, featuring Louis Gossett Jr. in the title role. More interesting than funny.

SCENE-SPECIFIC AUDIO COMMENTARY - By Mel Brooks.

ADDITIONAL/DELETED SCENES

TRAILER

DARKGAME Has Been Played Before (and that's okay)

DARKGAME (Blu-ray)

2024 / 100 min

FROM GRAVITAS VENTURES

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Mr. Bonnie😽

If you have never seen or don’t recall the movie, Untraceable, it’s a 2008 thriller about a serial killer who kills his victims on the internet. The more viewers that visit the site, the faster these people die. Taking place in my hometown of Portland, Oregon, it’s a repeated race against time to find this guy, who also taunts the FBI team assigned to the case. While no classic, I thought the film was better than its box office numbers and critical consensus suggested.

The writers of DarkGame must have thought so, too, because not only does it feature a very similar premise, the story also takes place in Portland, Oregon. One big difference here - besides the budget and star power - is that this killer chooses his victims at random, whereas the one in Untraceable was driven by revenge. That aspect renders this one a bit more disturbing, though the death scenes - while pretty graphic - aren’t nearly as drawn-out or sadistic.

The unnamed antagonist (Andrew P. Stephen) is certainly sadistic, though. Never seen without a mask, he hosts a dark web “game show” called Russian Roulette, where “contestants” are forced to participate in various gruesome contests while viewers bet on the outcome. The highest wagerer gets to choose how the loser will die. Meanwhile, brooding Portland cop Ben (Ed Westwick) and his squad desperately (and repeatedly) try to trace his location and stop him, which proves to be very difficult. And of course, once the killer learns Ben is heading the investigation, he makes things personal.

Spring Training takes a dark turn.

The narrative shifts between Ben’s investigation (while clashing with the FBI) and Katia (Natalya Tsvetkova), one of the kidnapped contestants imprisoned in a room with several others who are waiting for the right moment to fight back and escape. While not particularly original, DarkGame is fast-paced and manages to create a lot of genuine tension in certain scenes. It also features a compelling, cryptically funny antagonist. Performed with gusto by Stephens, he’s the best part of the film. The remaining cast bring earnestness to their characters, most of whom seem lifted from other movies, right down to the boneheaded FBI agent “taking over the case.” 

The film is efficiently directed by Howard J. Ford, who’s kinda made a career out of making movies that never win awards for originality, but are generally well made and entertaining in the moment. Similarly, DarkGame is a decent race-against-time thriller on a limited budget. The door is even left open for a sequel, which I wouldn’t be opposed to.

VIOLENT ROAD and the Small Wages of Fear

VIOLENT ROAD (1958)

Starring Brian Keith, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Merry Anders, Sean Garrison, Dick Foran, Arthur Batanides, Perry Lopez. Directed by Howard W. Koch. (85 min).

ESSAY BY D.M. ANDERSON💀

If you haven't seen Violent Road (which is quite likely), this essay contains a spoiler.

William Friedkin’s Sorcerer has been one of my favorite films since I was 13 and first caught it at the Southgate Quad as the bottom half of a double feature. Released at a time when the movie industry was increasingly focused on high concept blockbusters with wide audience appeal, the film was crushed under the wheels of the Star Wars juggernaut, coming and going nearly unnoticed by everyone except for the two studios (Universal and Paramount) who footed the bill for its bloated budget.  

With hindsight, it was easy to see why. Who the hell wanted to endure a grimy, depressing flick about criminals on a 10 mile-an-hour suicide mission for an $8000 payday when you could catch Luke Skywalker rescue a princess and defeat an empire? And trucks loaded with explosives certainly doesn’t sound as fun as the Bandit driving cases of Coors across the state line. Hell, the only reason I actually saw Sorcerer was because it was the only movie at the Southgate I hadn't yet watched. But I fell in love with every aspect of the film…the dark tone, stunning imagery, gritty aesthetic, nerve-jangling set-pieces, Tangerine Dream’s haunting score and a team of morally ambiguous characters played by a great international cast led by Roy Scheider. 

Best of all was the premise…four fugitives from various parts of the world who end up in a godforsaken poverty-ravaged South American village where escape means buying your way out. When an American oil platform explodes 200 miles away, the only way to kill the raging fire is to blow it out with dynamite. Unfortunately, the only cases available are so old and unstable that the slightest jolt will cause them to explode. Worse yet, the only way to get them there is to drive a couple of trucks through mountains, swamps and jungle. With nothing left to lose, these four desperate fugitives take the job.

Another meeting that could've been an email.

Sorcerer has been rediscovered and reassessed over the years, becoming something of a cult film. Though its initial failure exacerbated Friedkin’s career descent into mediocrity (from which he never truly recovered, in my opinion), it’s now widely considered one of his best. Today, there are cinephiles and critics worldwide who appreciate Sorcerer for the neglected masterpiece it really is. But I knew it all along.

What I didn’t know - for many years - was that my beloved Sorcerer was actually a remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1953 French classic, The Wages of Fear. It’s an excellent film, similarly bleak with heaping helpings of cynicism thrown in. Still, it took some time for me to warm up to it and I still prefer Sorcerer’s aesthetic, tension and unsavory characters (perhaps because it’s the version I grew up on).

Another thing I didn’t know, until just recently, was that Sorcerer wasn’t even the first remake of The Wages of Fear. That honor actually goes to a little-seen film called Violent Road. 

Released in 1958 and directed by Howard W. Koch (probably best remembered for producing Airplane! and some Oscar broadcasts), Violent Road doesn’t officially acknowledge Clouzot’s film or Georges Arnaud’s original novel (just like Akira Kurosawa was never credited for inspiring The Magnificent Seven). However, it features the exact same premise and plot, though with less creative ambition and a lower budget. Based on the cast, perfunctory direction and conveniently commutable Southern California locations, it’s obvious Warner Brothers simply wanted a quick & dirty potboiler. 

There are few minor differences between this one and The Wages of Fear. Instead of two trucks and four guys transporting unstable nitroglycerin, six people are hired by Cyclone Rockets to drive three trucks carrying explosive & corrosive fuel components to a new factory. Barred from using the main highways, they’re forced to make the two day trek over treacherous desert mountain backroads.

"No one goes shirtless but me."

Leading the team is Mitch Barton (Brian Keith), an experienced career trucker who needs the work after running afoul of his former boss. His crew includes down-and-out war veteran Frank ‘Sarge’ Miller (Dick Foran), reckless young race car driver Ken Farley (Sean Garrison), chronic gambler Ben (Arthur Batanides), resourceful mechanic Manuelo (Perry Lopez) and Cyclone’s rocket fuel expert George Lawrence (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.). As with The Wages of Fear, there’s a beautiful woman waiting for Mitch when (and if) the job is done...Carrie (Merry Anders), with whom he recently had a whirlwind fling. With the possible exception of Sarge, none of these characters convey a similar sense of desperation to those in Wages and Sorcerer. There’s a big payday, for sure, but at no point does the job seem like a last option for any of them.

Nor does the overall journey feel as perilous. There are no scenes as tension-filled as the jaw-dropping bridge sequence in Sorcerer or the decaying turning platform in Wages. At no point does the trek seem utterly hopeless, with potentially insurmountable obstacles prompting the characters to consider giving up in despair. There’s danger, of course, but for much of the trip, these guys don’t even drive like their payload could blow them sky high at any moment. The only time Violent Road comes close to achieving the same level of suspense as Wages and Sorcerer is when the brakes in Mitch’s truck give out as he’s barrelling down the mountain. The movie even has the audacity to tack on an upbeat ending.

But while Violent Road is never particularly thrilling or memorable, it’s well made on a low budget and certainly watchable, with solid overall performances. Keith, in particular, is enjoyably stoic, studly and cynical. I think it might be especially interesting to those who’ve already seen The Wages of Fear or Sorcerer. This film never approaches the technical or thematic artistry of either - nor does it really try - but if nothing else, Violent Road earnestly adheres to the same basic premise and structure.