Western Union

I’ve said it here on Filmizon before, and I’ll say it here once again... 1969 is arguably the best year for westerns. On top of rather avant-garde boundary pushers like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 100 Rifles, Paint Your Wagon, and others, there were also a slew of more traditional style features from the genre, including the movie reviewed here today, The Undefeated (1969) – which has often been a bit overshadowed by another John Wayne starring western that was released the same year, True Grit. Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, the story is set in a rather interesting period – just as the American Civil War has come to an end. Swapping between two intersecting stories, Union Col. John Henry Thomas (Wayne – Arizona; The Quiet Man) has stepped away from his military role, taking his few remaining men west to gather some wild horses to sell before heading home

Interweaving an emotional narrative between historical fact and seemingly plausible guesswork/fiction to the point that it feels a wholly realistic possibility, this year’s Academy Award Best Picture nominee Hamnet (2025), co-written and directed by Chloé Zhao, provides an intriguing look at the life of William Shakespeare and his family tied into his legendary tragedy Hamlet. Also co-written by Maggie O’Farrell – who wrote the novel of the same name that the film is based upon, the narrative takes a years long look at the Shakespeare family. Opening with an explanation that the names of Hamnet and Hamlet were basically interchangeable at this time in history, that will certainly come into play later.

In 1928, after falling under some financial pressure, Buster Keaton moved away from his own independent productions and merged things with MGM... a most profitable decision, yet a choice that he later called the, “ worst mistake of his career”. Going from the creative genius behind his own projects to a cog in the studio system with limited creative control over his projects, it went well enough on their first feature, The Cameraman (reviewed here on Filmizon), but with their next effort, Spite Marriage (1929), sadly that freedom was mostly gone. Directed by Edward Sedgwick, with a star like Keaton there is still some magic here, though that feeling of spontaneity, charm, and warmth feels confined within the structured, more efficient MGM production.

When it comes to car chase scenes, the one that is always highlighted, and for good reason, is from Peter Yates’ 1968 action thriller Bullitt starring Steve McQueen... but some eight years later, the city of San Francisco was replaced by Montreal, Quebec in this little known Italian production with quite the epic speedy sequence of its own, Shadows in an Empty Room (1976), directed by Alberto De Martino. Fusing this touch of Bullitt with a Dirty Harry style storyline – hence why it is called Blazing Magnum in some markets (including the UK), while also including a hint of the ever popular at the time 70s giallo for some murder mystery elements, the narrative follows gritty, hard as nails Ottawa cop Capt. Tony Saitta (Stuart Whitman) as he dispatches some bank robbers in his own city... before getting the tragic call that his much younger sister, Louise (Carole Laure – Sweet Movie), who lives in Montreal, has died under very suspicious circumstances.

One of the trends of the gialli, when possible, was for the film making team to attract a formerly successful Hollywood star who had aged out of his heyday a bit... think The Pyjama Girl Case who nabbed Ray Milland, The Cat O’Nine Tails starring Karl Malden, or The Killer Is On the Phone featuring Joseph Cotten... and, with today’s example, Farley Granger leading So Sweet, So Dead (1972). Directed by Roberto Bianchi Montero, the feature, which is also known as the less subtle The Slasher ... Is the Sex Maniac! follows a small city detective, Inspector Capuana (a mustached Granger – They Live by Night; Side Street), who has recently moved to a larger locale in southern Italy.

A very important film from 1935 that is probably not as well known today as it should be, the swashbuckling action adventure Captain Blood, directed by Michael Curtiz (The Sea Wolf, The Breaking Point), featured numerous important happenings that would leave rippling effects on the industry for many years to come. Though Curtiz had immigrated to the United States years before, having some success in the silent era with Noah’s Ark (1928) and with the early sound pictures Doctor X (1932) and Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), it was this bigger budget extravaganza that would help him become a top tier film maker, someone who would go on to make an inordinate number of future classics, including The Adventures of Robin Hood, Angels with Dirty Faces. Yankee Doodle Dandy, Mildred Pierce, and perhaps most importantly, Casablanca... among others.