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DVD Reviews: MAGNUM FORCE (1973) & THE ENFORCER (1976)

December 5th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Magnum Force (1973)
Directed by Ted Post
Written by John Milius and Michael Cimino based on characters created by Finks
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Hal Holbrook, Mitch Ryan, David Soul, Tim Matheson, Robert Urich, Kip Niven, John Mitchum and Albert Popwell
Photographed by Frank Stanley in
Running Time: 122 min.
Rating: ★★½☆☆

The Enforcer (1976)
Directed by James Fargo
Written by Gail Morgan Hickman and S.W. Schurr based on characters created by Finks
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Tyne Daley, Harry Guardino, Bradford Dillman, John Mitchum, Albert Popwell and Jocelyn Jones
Photographed by Charles W. Short in
Running Time: 96 min.
Rating: ★½☆☆☆

Arriving home the other day, I found a Gran Torino screener parked in my mailbox. While waiting to publish a review of what will most likely amount to Clint’s vigilante swan song (and final farewell to acting), EC thought it would be fun to revisit a couple of Clint’s early “Magnum” opuses.

Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood’s Coogan’s Bluff took the sheriff out of Dodge and transplanted him in the urban jungle. In Siegel’s universe it was only right that cop and killer would eventually merge and the duo’s Dirty Harry became one of the the 70s defining films and icons. Harry spawned four sequels: Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact and The Drowning Pool. Off the meter there was dirty drunken Harry in The Gauntlet, dirty kinky Harry in Tightrope, dirty Harry and son in The Rookie and the upcoming Gran Torino features dirty old Harry. In each one, Clint’s alter ego hates everyone and everything even more than he does himself.

In Magnum Force, Clint may get top billing, but his star Smith & Wesson hogs the title. Before seeing Harry’s snarled lips, encrusted glint and surf’s up haircut we pay Zen-like tribute to the most famous cinematic firearm this side of Jimmy Stewart’s Winchester. Magnum Force opens with various tight shots of the most powerful handgun in the world, poised and ready to fire, that play underneath the credits before ultimately pulling a Leo G. Carroll and firing directly into the camera.

The rule of thumb regarding sequels is to up the budget and meet audience expectations head on with more of the same. (The film opens with Harry’s famous “Well, do you punk?” monologue from the first picture.) It’s customary to have the stars from the original reprise their roles, but in the case of a Dirty Harry picture the only actor left standing at the end is generally Clint. Harry’s partners have a shorter life expectancy than Charles Bronson’s love interest in a Death Wish opus.

Magnum Force was written by a pair of gung ho neophytes that would both go on to greener directorial pastures. “General” John Milius, already a foot soldier in the Eastwood army, contributed to the Dirty Harry screenplay while Michael Cimino would next year make his directorial debut on Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. In spite of his participation in Stevie’s coked-out fiasco 1941, glory bound Milius had at least one masterpiece up his sleeve, Big Wednesday. (He also co-wrote Apocalypse Now.) Michael Cimino…well, Heaven’s Gate does ramble on a bit, but it is not deserving of the vilified reputation that precedes it and both The Deer Hunter and Year of the Dragon offer delightful diversions.

If repetition is the key to a sequel’s success, Milius and Cimino see to it that the audience doesn’t leave hungry. Once again Harry is in the right place at the right time to foil a crime, but now the stakes are higher. Instead of battling a pesky pimp while dining al fresco on hot dog, Harry thwarts a hijacking with burger in hand. The one ingenious elaboration on the part of the storytellers was the inclusion of no less than five vigilante lawmen to perplex their mentor Harry. There’s a rookie team of four army buddies cum motorcycle cops on the loose led by Lt. Briggs (Hal Holbrook, who gave Mark Twain the night off to play a sanctimonious crooked cop). The dress-alike renegades are played by four fascinating new personalities. Robert Urich makes his screen debut while David Soul’s performance as the gang’s neo-Nazi overseer led him to Starsky and Hutch fame and decades worth of residual checks. Tim Matheson makes the smooth transition from bit ingenue parts in Lucy and Bob Hope vehicles to violently insane traffic cop. Kip Niven never lived up to the family name.

As a director, Ted Post lives up to his last name. Clint, who didn’t want to make another Dirty Harry picture let alone direct it, drafted his old Hang ‘Em High compadre to take command. Clint has since gone on record stating stunt man/second unit director Buddy Van Horn was responsible for most of the film’s shots.

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DVD Review: LADY IN CEMENT / Gordon Douglas (1968)

November 30th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Lady in Cement (1968)
Directed by Gordon Douglas
Written by Marvin H. Albert and Jack Guss based on Albert’s novel
Starring: Frank Sinatra, Raquel Welch, Dan Blocker, Martin Gabel, Pat Henry, Richard Conte, Lainie Kazan, Steve Peck, Richard Deacon, Christine Todd, Joe E. Lewis and B.S. Pulley
Running Time: 93 min.
Photographed by Joseph Biroc in and DeLuxe Color

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

The third installment of the Gordon Douglas, Frank Sinatra so-called “Tony Rome” trilogy continues the series stellar display of fag bashing and obsessive depiction of women as props, or in this case shark bait.

Sinatra kicks off the proceedings by playing an underwater scene without once getting wet. His stunt double fends off a drugged, toothless shark before discovering a blond naked “broad” anchored in cement. He spends the rest of the picture traversing Miami and dispensing verbal sexual slurs to every chickie baby he meets. Emerging from a pool, a sizzling Raquel Welch instantly sizes up the five-foot-seven crooner’s game: “Shall I scream rape now or wait and phone in a complaint?” Without the benefit of so much as a word, Ms. Welch had perfectly pegged Tony Rome’s idea of interpersonal relationships.

This is a Frank Sinatra picture for people who couldn’t afford to shell out the $5.95 (1960 price) plus airfare and accommodations, to attend a Rat Pack summit live at the Sands in Vegas. No, he doesn’t sing and Dino, Sammy, Joey and the excommunicated Peter Lawford didn’t make this scene. Prior to From Here to Eternity, “The Voice” appeared in a string of whimsical studio musicals. After the horses’ head gag and an Oscar, Mr. Sinatra was always careful to maintain a separate career as a serious dramatic movie star. When it came to directors, Frank gave what he got. With the exception of a certain Ferris wheel incident on the set of Some Came Running, he freely granted Liza’s dad Vincente all the time and demands the master filmmaker required. For John Frankenheimer and George Axelrod’s controversial The Manchurian Candidate, executive producer Frank raised the money (ask me no questions, I’ll tell you no lies), consented to rehearsals, met every 6 am call time and put in a full’s day’s work. In other words, he did what he was handsomely being paid to do.

For others less gifted, he took the dough, showed up at noon and walked off the set at four. Ever wonder why so many of the lesser Sinatra vehicles were filmed in resort towns? The scripts, and subsequently the films, were structured around his swingin’ lifestyle. While in Vegas, Frank would perform two shows nightly, party till dawn, knock off a few broads, catch some daylight shut eye and devote a couple hours to picture making.

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