Blaine: Day Two - Henry King
First up we pay a visit to WWII in King's 1949 masterpiece:
Twelve O'clock High
We open in London, 1949. A Mr. Stovall spots something familiar in an antique window and immediately buys it. Now, I am no historian and frankly, quite ignorant when it comes to matters of history, but this looks like a mug you would get from McDonald's:
Anyway, Stovall (played by Academy Award Winner, Dean Jagger) takes his new purchase and travels across England until he comes to an abandoned airfield. He doesn't need to say or do anything -- the music explains it all (music, btw, which only appears in the opening and ending). There were memories made here -- some good, some horrifying. It was wartime and as the memories comes flooding back we are transported to 1942.
The airfield is buzzing with planes returning from their mission: first aid is on the scene and ready to patch up the men who need it. But these aren't mere bruises and scratches. One man was shot in the head and another didn't return at all -- at least, not all of him. We are not getting a watered-down version of war here. Some of the returning men are too disturbed to give their report, and when they do, it's told in gory detail -- frozen blood on the plane's windshield while madness prevailed. These men just attempted a brazen daylight bombing and they took a hit.
The man in charge, Col. Davenport (Gary Merrill - no relation) is taking all of the responsibility on his shoulders. He loves these boys and he does not feel okay with sending them right back out on a new mission.
There is a shit ton of behind-the-scenes planning going on here. They talk about the weather for tomorrow's raid, how many crewmen want out of the mission for one reason or another (fake illnesses, etc), and most importantly -- what, exactly, does "maximum effort" mean. We're about to find out.
Enter this sonofabitch:
Frank fucking Savage (Gregory Peck). Savage tells Davenport, that the orders stay: the men are to do tomorrows raid at 9,000 feet (not 19,000 feet as previously thought). Which pretty much makes this a suicide mission. Exactly the kind of mission a man sitting behind a desk would order soldiers to do. Another thing a man sitting behind a desk would do? Go to his superior officer (in this case, General Pritchard) and complain about Davenport: he's too weak, he's taking things too personally, he's too worried about the lives of his men.
And again we go into great detail about the failings of the previous mission -- a three-minute lag time, a change of wind, the little things. Nobody to blame but lives were lost and it simply cannot happen again. Pritchard agrees with Savage and Davenport is relieved of his duty.
So, who's going to take over the 918?
This sonofabitch. That's who.
First day on the job Savage chews out a fellow officer for both, not saluting and also allowing him to pass without checking his identification. What a prick. Next up? Demote some poor kid for not wearing his bomber jacket. Good lord, power hungry much? Savage does NOT mess around. He's arresting officers for being drunk, taking away leave passes, and just being an all around dickhead. But here's the thing -- it just so happens to be exactly what this group needs.
Savage's first plan? Practice. He wants to get to the bottom of why this group is having such "bad luck". Savage doesn't believe in luck so maybe it's the flying -- either way he wants to find out. And then things take a turn for the worse. Every single pilot requests a transfer to a new unit. Of course, they have to go through the proper channels so until that day...they fly.
We do start to see some cracks in Savage's rough exterior. For example, he gets to know Stovall a bit (remember the old guy with the flashback from the beginning? Obviously he's here otherwise how could we have a flashback?). Stovall explains how it's his job to gather the belonging of the deceased pilots and soldiers and send them back to their loved ones. And then it hits Savage (and you can see it all over Peck's face)...he never realized that was somebody's job. But let's not get too mushy on Savage, after all, he does have a reason for sucking up to Stovall. He convinces Stovall to help delay the transfer requests so now there's an awful lot of red tape to get through. The problem is, these boys aren't stupid. They know they're being stonewalled and a mutiny is on the horizon.
In the meantime they go on a new bomb run under Savage and show everyone what they're made of. HQ calls in an order for everyone to turn back but the 918 ignores the order and finishes the mission with every single plane and soldier returning back to base, unscathed. Savage comes up with some lame excuse about the radio malfunctioning but everyone knows he's lying. He recommends a commendation for every one of his men. And just when Savage is starting to warm up to his men, the men are starting to question the very existence of war and its purpose.
In an interesting turn of events, the men rip up their transfer orders forcing Savage to face the reality that he has earned their trust and respect. Oddly, he doesn't know how to handle this so guess who doubles down on being an asshole...
This sonofabitch.
Not only does he expect every soldier to toughen up, but he wants to weed out the leadership so that no one man shoulders all of the responsibility. It's difficult to tell whether he's touched by the men's sudden loyalty or surprised that he was able to earn it so quickly.
They fly more missions, learning that some of the other officers (like Stovall) are stowing away on the bombers because they want to be a part of Savage's team. Even the General, himself, tags along for one of the rides. Savage visits his injured men in the hospital and you can see the toll this responsibility is taking on him. He is in charge of whether these men live or die. And just in time for another mission -- a big one. Success on this mission will conceivably end the Nazi effort. But it's Savage who starts to have second thoughts. What is "maximum effort"? Is he pushing these men too hard? He's become the very thing he despised. What has two thumbs and has finally become a human being?
This sonofabitch.
We FINALLY get to see them in action and let me tell you something, it was worth the wait. Cutting back and forth between ACTUAL war footage, this scene is intense, even by today's standards. No matter how much I spoiled the plot of this film, it's worth watching just for this sequence. The sound of the planes mixed with engines roaring and failing, all background to the heavy gunfire shot rapidly and almost non-stop. I read in the trivia that Rian Johnson cited this film as an influence on The Last Jedi and I can see why. These bombing scenes are spectacular. It still doesn't make up for Last Jedi sucking so much.
Anyway, they lose a couple of planes on the mission but, for the most part, everyone returns home okay. And then it's time to go out again. But Savage is broken. He can't even bring himself to get inside the plane. He tries to get the men to stay put. "Stop them! They won't make it!" This is a man who has clearly reached his "maximum effort". The doctor puts it quite simply. "Have you ever seen a light bulb burn out? How bright the filament gets before it shuts down?" What does a broken man look like?
This sonofabtich.
And just when you think the movie's over, the boys return from their mission -- 19 out of 21 of them, anyway. Savage snaps out of his coma and finally responds with relief. Makes you wonder how he would have reacted had they not made it back. It's war, after all. But I guess those stories aren't always the ones we want to hear about.
Next up, I get to spend time with another tough guy...
This sonofabitch.
Rating: 19 out of 20
Bechdal test: N/A
Oscars: Best Supporting Actor and Best Sound, Recording (deserved).
And so we go right to Henry King's next film (according to IMDB), his 1950 western,
The Gunfighter
It's gotta be tough being a gunfighter. Just ask Jimmy Ringo. All the man wants to do is have a quiet drink in a bar and the next thing he knows, some punk starts running his mouth. This punk wants to find out just how fast Ringo is and sure enough, he finds out...the hard way. Everyone in the bar saw the kid draw first but the life of a gunfighter is never that black and white. See, the kid has three brothers and they won't care who drew first. So Ringo is forced to head out of yet another town with somebody new on his trail.
The brothers catch up to him (or so they think) but Ringo's too smart. He traps them and takes away their guns and horses and sends them back home on foot. Makes you wonder just how "bad" Ringo really is. I mean, these guys aren't going to stop and yet he lets them go. But go they do not...they simply wait a beat until they see which direction Ringo's heading and they follow. He's heading to Cayenne and the boys are gonna get there eventually. Start the clock.
Things don't go much better for Ringo in Cayenne. He orders a drink from the bartender, Mac (Karl Malden) and takes a few moments to wash up. Mac immediately sends his boy to the Marshall with word that Jimmy Ringo is in town and the Marshall shows up at the bar with three Deputies in tow.
Meet Marshall Mark Strett. Turns out, Ringo and Strett go way back. And, apparently, it was no accident that Ringo made his way to Cayenne. His girl and his son have been living here, under new names, and all Ringo wants is a moment of her time. But Strett's no fool. He knows Ringo better than almost anyone and he really doesn't want any trouble -- something that Ringo carries with him everywhere he goes. So they reach an agreement: Strett will find Peggy and let her know that Ringo is in town. But if she doesn't want to see him, he needs to be on his way. Ringo agrees.
But Ringo isn't Strett's only business at hand. He also wants his deputy to find a man by the name of Hunt Bromley -- the local troublemaker and the movie's biggest coward:
See what I mean? Even his mustache is a coward. But we'll get back to this douche later.
Strett finds Peggy at the school but as it turns out, she has zero interest in talking to Ringo. Unfortunately for Ringo, there are some others interested in his arrival. Including an older man named Jerry who, upon hearing about the new visitor, runs across the street from the bar to his second floor apartment(?) and pulls out his rifle. You see, Jerry's son was murdered some years back and he's convinced it was Ringo who done it. Jerry's wife pleads with him to stop but Jerry is a man determined. He sets the gun and waits for Ringo to step out of the saloon.
Ringo might be the fastest gun in Texas but he's a little slow on the uptick when it comes to understanding people. Upon hearing the news that Peggy wants nothing to do with him, he's genuinely dumbfounded. Why doesn't she want to see him? Is it because he abandoned her and his newborn son to pursue a life of crime? Weird.
By the way, quite the crowd has formed outside the saloon. Mostly children. Everyone wanting to get a glimpse of the man himself. One of those kids, it turns out, is none other than little Jimmie. Ringo's son that he's never met. He asks Strett to point him out to him but Strett doesn't see him. Or maybe he doesn't want Ringo to see him. Either way, Ringo is a man defeated and finally agrees to head out of town.
Unfortunately for the town, an old friend emerges from behind the saloon. Her name is Molly and she and Ringo also go way back. And this woman is a talker. Looks like Ringo ain't going anywhere any time soon. Molly knows Peggy well and fills Ringo in on her entire life story. She agrees to go talk some sense into Peggy and heads off towards the school, leaving Ringo alone, once again, with his drink.
Remember when I said that every town has a punk? Well, Cayenn's punk is the aforementioned Hunt Bromley who, upon hearing that Ringo is at the saloon, makes a beeline for it and does his best impression of an asshole. He promptly makes a scene by buying Ringo a drink. The two have, what could only be described as an "awkward" conversation filled mostly with subtext about Ringo putting a hole in Hunt's stupid face.
Hunt eventually realizes he's outmatched and leaves the saloon, fuming. Like the coward he is.
I think now would be a good time to set the stage in case any of you forget what's going on here. Ringo has now been in town for a few hours. He has a crazy old man across the street, waiting for him to poke his head out so he can blow him away. He has three brothers making their way into town and he even knows exactly how long until they arrive. He's still waiting for Molly to return with good news about Peggy and to top it all off, he has a zit on his ass by the name of Hunt Bromley. I'm telling you, it's tough being a gunfighter.
So Ringo needs to take care of these things one by one. He starts with the old man across the street. He sneaks out the back, up the two story building and into the old man's room. He easily disarms him and then spends way too much time defending himself. The old man is starting to believe Ringo that maybe he wasn't the one who killed his boy but just to be safe, Ringo locks the old man up in the jail. And then, just when you think things are going Ringo's way, he's confronted by a mob of women at the jail. They mistake him for a deputy and insist on knowing what the Marshall is going to do about that scoundrel Jimmy Ringo. Ringo handles them with charm and this scene really hits home the interesting theme of the movie: Is Ringo causing trouble with the town or is the town causing trouble with Ringo? Well, as we all know, stupidity and fear beget violence. As Kay says to Jay in Men in Black..."A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky animals and you know it." Well said, Kay.
Ringo returns to the saloon, well aware of how close the brothers must be to Cayenne and again, decides to leave the town. But not so fast! Turns out Molly came through and Peggy and Ringo finally have their moment.
Ringo wants to quit this life of his. He wants to take Peggy and Jimmie and go somewhere far away, where nobody can find them. Peggy actually mulls this over but in the end they decide on a truce. Peggy will give Ringo a few moments with his son in exchange for Ringo leaving town. It's a touching scene, especially since little Jimmie has no idea that Ringo is his dad. He just thinks he's meeting a badass gunfighter.
The brothers, by the way, have finally made their way into town and are holed up in the back, guns aimed. And just as Ringo makes his appearance the brothers are stopped by Strett's deputies. Strett's no dummy. He knew exactly where they would be and their plan is foiled. Too bad Strett didn't keep tabs on our least favorite coward, Hunt. You see, Hunt wants to make a name for himself. And what better way to do that than to take down the fastest gun in Texas -- even if it means shooting him in the back. Which is what he does.
Ringo goes down, in front of the whole town, and Hunt thinks that he accomplished his mission. But Ringo's not done yet. He tells Strett that it was he who drew first. He doesn't want Hunt getting off that easy. Hunt's confused. He tells Ringo that he doesn't need no defending but remember, Hunt's an idiot. He has no idea what Ringo has in store for him. You see, now Hunt is the man to beat. He took down Jimmy Ringo. He'll be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his days. He'll never be able to stay put in one town for too long without having to shoot it out and move on once again. If he lasts that long. No, the noose is too good for Hunt Bromley. And just to hit the point home, after Ringo dies, Strett beats the living shit out of Hunt and tells him to pack his things. He's not longer welcome in Cayenne.
The town ends up holding a funeral for Ringo and just about EVERYONE shows up for it. You see, Ringo wasn't their enemy after all. He was just a guy who wanted to be left alone. If only it were that simple.
Rating: 19 out of 20
Bechdal test: Fail (but it was close...there were women with names having conversations...all about a man).
Oscars: Best writing NOMINEE
Another great day from Blaine. I really enjoyed both of these films and had never even heard of Henry King before today. I am a loser.
Tomorrow we are in for an 'up and down' kind of a day with French Director, Louis Malle.
Twelve O'clock High
We open in London, 1949. A Mr. Stovall spots something familiar in an antique window and immediately buys it. Now, I am no historian and frankly, quite ignorant when it comes to matters of history, but this looks like a mug you would get from McDonald's:
The airfield is buzzing with planes returning from their mission: first aid is on the scene and ready to patch up the men who need it. But these aren't mere bruises and scratches. One man was shot in the head and another didn't return at all -- at least, not all of him. We are not getting a watered-down version of war here. Some of the returning men are too disturbed to give their report, and when they do, it's told in gory detail -- frozen blood on the plane's windshield while madness prevailed. These men just attempted a brazen daylight bombing and they took a hit.
The man in charge, Col. Davenport (Gary Merrill - no relation) is taking all of the responsibility on his shoulders. He loves these boys and he does not feel okay with sending them right back out on a new mission.
There is a shit ton of behind-the-scenes planning going on here. They talk about the weather for tomorrow's raid, how many crewmen want out of the mission for one reason or another (fake illnesses, etc), and most importantly -- what, exactly, does "maximum effort" mean. We're about to find out.
Enter this sonofabitch:
And again we go into great detail about the failings of the previous mission -- a three-minute lag time, a change of wind, the little things. Nobody to blame but lives were lost and it simply cannot happen again. Pritchard agrees with Savage and Davenport is relieved of his duty.
So, who's going to take over the 918?
First day on the job Savage chews out a fellow officer for both, not saluting and also allowing him to pass without checking his identification. What a prick. Next up? Demote some poor kid for not wearing his bomber jacket. Good lord, power hungry much? Savage does NOT mess around. He's arresting officers for being drunk, taking away leave passes, and just being an all around dickhead. But here's the thing -- it just so happens to be exactly what this group needs.
Savage's first plan? Practice. He wants to get to the bottom of why this group is having such "bad luck". Savage doesn't believe in luck so maybe it's the flying -- either way he wants to find out. And then things take a turn for the worse. Every single pilot requests a transfer to a new unit. Of course, they have to go through the proper channels so until that day...they fly.
We do start to see some cracks in Savage's rough exterior. For example, he gets to know Stovall a bit (remember the old guy with the flashback from the beginning? Obviously he's here otherwise how could we have a flashback?). Stovall explains how it's his job to gather the belonging of the deceased pilots and soldiers and send them back to their loved ones. And then it hits Savage (and you can see it all over Peck's face)...he never realized that was somebody's job. But let's not get too mushy on Savage, after all, he does have a reason for sucking up to Stovall. He convinces Stovall to help delay the transfer requests so now there's an awful lot of red tape to get through. The problem is, these boys aren't stupid. They know they're being stonewalled and a mutiny is on the horizon.
In the meantime they go on a new bomb run under Savage and show everyone what they're made of. HQ calls in an order for everyone to turn back but the 918 ignores the order and finishes the mission with every single plane and soldier returning back to base, unscathed. Savage comes up with some lame excuse about the radio malfunctioning but everyone knows he's lying. He recommends a commendation for every one of his men. And just when Savage is starting to warm up to his men, the men are starting to question the very existence of war and its purpose.
In an interesting turn of events, the men rip up their transfer orders forcing Savage to face the reality that he has earned their trust and respect. Oddly, he doesn't know how to handle this so guess who doubles down on being an asshole...
Not only does he expect every soldier to toughen up, but he wants to weed out the leadership so that no one man shoulders all of the responsibility. It's difficult to tell whether he's touched by the men's sudden loyalty or surprised that he was able to earn it so quickly.
They fly more missions, learning that some of the other officers (like Stovall) are stowing away on the bombers because they want to be a part of Savage's team. Even the General, himself, tags along for one of the rides. Savage visits his injured men in the hospital and you can see the toll this responsibility is taking on him. He is in charge of whether these men live or die. And just in time for another mission -- a big one. Success on this mission will conceivably end the Nazi effort. But it's Savage who starts to have second thoughts. What is "maximum effort"? Is he pushing these men too hard? He's become the very thing he despised. What has two thumbs and has finally become a human being?
We FINALLY get to see them in action and let me tell you something, it was worth the wait. Cutting back and forth between ACTUAL war footage, this scene is intense, even by today's standards. No matter how much I spoiled the plot of this film, it's worth watching just for this sequence. The sound of the planes mixed with engines roaring and failing, all background to the heavy gunfire shot rapidly and almost non-stop. I read in the trivia that Rian Johnson cited this film as an influence on The Last Jedi and I can see why. These bombing scenes are spectacular. It still doesn't make up for Last Jedi sucking so much.
Anyway, they lose a couple of planes on the mission but, for the most part, everyone returns home okay. And then it's time to go out again. But Savage is broken. He can't even bring himself to get inside the plane. He tries to get the men to stay put. "Stop them! They won't make it!" This is a man who has clearly reached his "maximum effort". The doctor puts it quite simply. "Have you ever seen a light bulb burn out? How bright the filament gets before it shuts down?" What does a broken man look like?
And just when you think the movie's over, the boys return from their mission -- 19 out of 21 of them, anyway. Savage snaps out of his coma and finally responds with relief. Makes you wonder how he would have reacted had they not made it back. It's war, after all. But I guess those stories aren't always the ones we want to hear about.
Next up, I get to spend time with another tough guy...
Rating: 19 out of 20
Bechdal test: N/A
Oscars: Best Supporting Actor and Best Sound, Recording (deserved).
And so we go right to Henry King's next film (according to IMDB), his 1950 western,
The Gunfighter
It's gotta be tough being a gunfighter. Just ask Jimmy Ringo. All the man wants to do is have a quiet drink in a bar and the next thing he knows, some punk starts running his mouth. This punk wants to find out just how fast Ringo is and sure enough, he finds out...the hard way. Everyone in the bar saw the kid draw first but the life of a gunfighter is never that black and white. See, the kid has three brothers and they won't care who drew first. So Ringo is forced to head out of yet another town with somebody new on his trail.
The brothers catch up to him (or so they think) but Ringo's too smart. He traps them and takes away their guns and horses and sends them back home on foot. Makes you wonder just how "bad" Ringo really is. I mean, these guys aren't going to stop and yet he lets them go. But go they do not...they simply wait a beat until they see which direction Ringo's heading and they follow. He's heading to Cayenne and the boys are gonna get there eventually. Start the clock.
Things don't go much better for Ringo in Cayenne. He orders a drink from the bartender, Mac (Karl Malden) and takes a few moments to wash up. Mac immediately sends his boy to the Marshall with word that Jimmy Ringo is in town and the Marshall shows up at the bar with three Deputies in tow.
But Ringo isn't Strett's only business at hand. He also wants his deputy to find a man by the name of Hunt Bromley -- the local troublemaker and the movie's biggest coward:
Strett finds Peggy at the school but as it turns out, she has zero interest in talking to Ringo. Unfortunately for Ringo, there are some others interested in his arrival. Including an older man named Jerry who, upon hearing about the new visitor, runs across the street from the bar to his second floor apartment(?) and pulls out his rifle. You see, Jerry's son was murdered some years back and he's convinced it was Ringo who done it. Jerry's wife pleads with him to stop but Jerry is a man determined. He sets the gun and waits for Ringo to step out of the saloon.
Ringo might be the fastest gun in Texas but he's a little slow on the uptick when it comes to understanding people. Upon hearing the news that Peggy wants nothing to do with him, he's genuinely dumbfounded. Why doesn't she want to see him? Is it because he abandoned her and his newborn son to pursue a life of crime? Weird.
By the way, quite the crowd has formed outside the saloon. Mostly children. Everyone wanting to get a glimpse of the man himself. One of those kids, it turns out, is none other than little Jimmie. Ringo's son that he's never met. He asks Strett to point him out to him but Strett doesn't see him. Or maybe he doesn't want Ringo to see him. Either way, Ringo is a man defeated and finally agrees to head out of town.
Unfortunately for the town, an old friend emerges from behind the saloon. Her name is Molly and she and Ringo also go way back. And this woman is a talker. Looks like Ringo ain't going anywhere any time soon. Molly knows Peggy well and fills Ringo in on her entire life story. She agrees to go talk some sense into Peggy and heads off towards the school, leaving Ringo alone, once again, with his drink.
Remember when I said that every town has a punk? Well, Cayenn's punk is the aforementioned Hunt Bromley who, upon hearing that Ringo is at the saloon, makes a beeline for it and does his best impression of an asshole. He promptly makes a scene by buying Ringo a drink. The two have, what could only be described as an "awkward" conversation filled mostly with subtext about Ringo putting a hole in Hunt's stupid face.
Hunt eventually realizes he's outmatched and leaves the saloon, fuming. Like the coward he is.
I think now would be a good time to set the stage in case any of you forget what's going on here. Ringo has now been in town for a few hours. He has a crazy old man across the street, waiting for him to poke his head out so he can blow him away. He has three brothers making their way into town and he even knows exactly how long until they arrive. He's still waiting for Molly to return with good news about Peggy and to top it all off, he has a zit on his ass by the name of Hunt Bromley. I'm telling you, it's tough being a gunfighter.
So Ringo needs to take care of these things one by one. He starts with the old man across the street. He sneaks out the back, up the two story building and into the old man's room. He easily disarms him and then spends way too much time defending himself. The old man is starting to believe Ringo that maybe he wasn't the one who killed his boy but just to be safe, Ringo locks the old man up in the jail. And then, just when you think things are going Ringo's way, he's confronted by a mob of women at the jail. They mistake him for a deputy and insist on knowing what the Marshall is going to do about that scoundrel Jimmy Ringo. Ringo handles them with charm and this scene really hits home the interesting theme of the movie: Is Ringo causing trouble with the town or is the town causing trouble with Ringo? Well, as we all know, stupidity and fear beget violence. As Kay says to Jay in Men in Black..."A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky animals and you know it." Well said, Kay.
Ringo returns to the saloon, well aware of how close the brothers must be to Cayenne and again, decides to leave the town. But not so fast! Turns out Molly came through and Peggy and Ringo finally have their moment.
Ringo wants to quit this life of his. He wants to take Peggy and Jimmie and go somewhere far away, where nobody can find them. Peggy actually mulls this over but in the end they decide on a truce. Peggy will give Ringo a few moments with his son in exchange for Ringo leaving town. It's a touching scene, especially since little Jimmie has no idea that Ringo is his dad. He just thinks he's meeting a badass gunfighter.
The brothers, by the way, have finally made their way into town and are holed up in the back, guns aimed. And just as Ringo makes his appearance the brothers are stopped by Strett's deputies. Strett's no dummy. He knew exactly where they would be and their plan is foiled. Too bad Strett didn't keep tabs on our least favorite coward, Hunt. You see, Hunt wants to make a name for himself. And what better way to do that than to take down the fastest gun in Texas -- even if it means shooting him in the back. Which is what he does.
Ringo goes down, in front of the whole town, and Hunt thinks that he accomplished his mission. But Ringo's not done yet. He tells Strett that it was he who drew first. He doesn't want Hunt getting off that easy. Hunt's confused. He tells Ringo that he doesn't need no defending but remember, Hunt's an idiot. He has no idea what Ringo has in store for him. You see, now Hunt is the man to beat. He took down Jimmy Ringo. He'll be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his days. He'll never be able to stay put in one town for too long without having to shoot it out and move on once again. If he lasts that long. No, the noose is too good for Hunt Bromley. And just to hit the point home, after Ringo dies, Strett beats the living shit out of Hunt and tells him to pack his things. He's not longer welcome in Cayenne.
The town ends up holding a funeral for Ringo and just about EVERYONE shows up for it. You see, Ringo wasn't their enemy after all. He was just a guy who wanted to be left alone. If only it were that simple.
Rating: 19 out of 20
Bechdal test: Fail (but it was close...there were women with names having conversations...all about a man).
Oscars: Best writing NOMINEE
Another great day from Blaine. I really enjoyed both of these films and had never even heard of Henry King before today. I am a loser.
Tomorrow we are in for an 'up and down' kind of a day with French Director, Louis Malle.
Applause again. Dittos all around on Twelve O’Clock High, and now I’m excited to watch The Gunfighter. The spoiler will soften the blow.
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