The Professionals is a well-made, fast-paced action-adventure western starring Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan and Woody Strode. It's a sharp, witty caper flick with a team of amusing specialists engaged in a job—rescuing a rich man's wife from a Mexican revolutionary—that should get everybody killed by the end of the first reel but you damn well know won't. A sort of Ocean's Eleven, if you will, set in the Mexican desert. But underneath all the rousing action is a melancholy meditation on the end of things (in this specific case, the Mexican Revolution) that, to me at least, makes The Professionals both a sublime western and something other than a simple caper flick.
"La Revolución," Jack Palance says in a great speech toward the end of the film, "is like a great love affair. In the beginning, she is a goddess. A holy cause. But every love affair has a terrible enemy—time. We see her as she is. La Revolución is not a goddess but a whore. She was never pure, never saintly, never perfect. And we run away, find another lover, another cause. Quick, sordid affairs. Lust, but no love. Passion, but no compassion. Without love, without a cause, we are nothing! We stay because we believe. We leave because we are disillusioned. We come back because we are lost. We die because we are committed."
It's a very good western, and may be the best of a list of those that, despite its cast and three Oscar nominations, no one seems to have ever heard of. Written and directed by Richard Brooks, with Oscar-nominated cinematography by the great Conrad Hall.
Oh, and Claudia Cardinale is spectacularly bosomy.
Maybe there was something in the water, but living on the cul-de-sac where I grew up were four future members of the Country Music Hall of Fame: George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Bobby Bare Sr. and, as of today, Hank Cochran.
Congratulations, Hank!
Although he was a recording artist for nearly thirty years with seven chart hits, I think of Cochran primarily as a songwriter. He wrote several number one country hits including Patsy Cline's "I Fall To Pieces," Eddy Arnold's "Make the World Go Away," George Strait's "Ocean Front Property" and Ronnie Milsap's ""Don't You Ever Get Tired (of Hurting Me)."
While hanging out at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge in Nashville, he discovered a singer-songwriter named Willie Nelson and immediately urged his record company to sign him.
Who Am Us writes to tell us that he finally saw his first Bette Davis movie, All About Eve, and that he loved it. And a good choice it was. If I were going to recommend one and only Bette Davis movie, that's the one I'd pick.
But what should he see next? Now, Voyager? The Letter? What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? Something else? Vote here, and remember an eager young man's budding infatuation with Bette Davis hangs in the balance.
The final contest seesawed back and forth for days, but in the end, Bette Davis defeated Barbara Stanwyck, 49-47, to win the 2014 Favorite Classic Movie Actress Tournament. I imagine she'll cherish this victory over even her two Academy Awards.
She's the tourney's fourth winner, joining Irene Dunne, Ginger Rogers and Carole Lombard in the winner's circle. Congratulations, Ms. Davis! Click here to head on over to Monty's site All Good Things and read more about it.
The final round of Monty's Favorite Classic Movie Actress Tournament has started over at All Good Things. Barbara Stanwyck versus Bette Davis. Davis made it to the finals last year, losing to Carole Lombard. Stanwyck was this year's pre-tourney favorite. Either would be a worthy champion.
Here's a clip of Stanwyck with Henry Fonda in The Lady Eve. I had a lot of moments just like this one while working in a shoe store during my law school days:
And Bette Davis with Leslie Howard in Of Human Bondage—which also reminds me of law school:
A new documentary series on the TLC cable network about real life female homicide detectives starts tonight ... I mention it because my nephew shot tonight's episode, following Jenny Luke of the Cincinnati Homicide Unit around.
"Why didn't David become a lawyer?" asked my pal bellotoot. "Can you talk to him?"
"There was just no talking sense to that boy," I told him. "He insisted on doing something he loved."
P.S. My brother also tells me that my nephew filmed a public service announcement featuring the Nigerian World Cup soccer (football) team, about the prevention of malaria. It's currently playing in Nigeria, so if you happen to be visiting there, give it a look-see.
Named for Katie-Bar-The-Door, the Katies are "alternate Oscars"—who should have been nominated, who should have won—but really they're just an excuse to write a history of the movies from the Silent Era to the present day.
To see a list of nominees and winners by decade, as well as links to my essays about them, click the highlighted links:
Remember: There are no wrong answers, only movies you haven't seen yet.
The Silent Oscars
And don't forget to check out the Silent Oscars—my year-by-year choices for best picture, director and all four acting categories for the pre-Oscar years, 1902-1927.
Look at me—Joe College, with a touch of arthritis. Are my eyes really brown? Uh, no, they're green. Would we have the nerve to dive into the icy water and save a person from drowning? That's a key question. I, of course, can't swim, so I never have to face it. Say, haven't you anything better to do than to keep popping in here early every morning and asking a lot of fool questions?
The Professionals is a well-made, fast-paced action-adventure western starring Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan and Woody Strode. It's a sharp, witty caper flick with a team of amusing specialists engaged in a job—rescuing a rich man's wife from a Mexican revolutionary—that should get everybody killed by the end of the first reel but you damn well know won't. A sort of Ocean's Eleven, if you will, set in the Mexican desert.
But underneath all the rousing action is a melancholy meditation on the end of things (in this specific case, the Mexican Revolution) that, to me at least, makes The Professionals both a sublime western and something other than a simple caper flick.
"La Revolución," Jack Palance says in a great speech toward the end of the film, "is like a great love affair. In the beginning, she is a goddess. A holy cause. But every love affair has a terrible enemy—time. We see her as she is. La Revolución is not a goddess but a whore. She was never pure, never saintly, never perfect. And we run away, find another lover, another cause. Quick, sordid affairs. Lust, but no love. Passion, but no compassion. Without love, without a cause, we are nothing! We stay because we believe. We leave because we are disillusioned. We come back because we are lost. We die because we are committed."
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