CHINA 9, LIBERTY 37

China 9, Liberty 37
1987
Directed by Monte Hellman

China 9, Liberty 37 (the title refers to a sign at the start of the film) is a strange latter day sphagetti western that really does deserve to be better known. The disc I watched is part of the 50 western movies megapack from Treeline Films. The print doesn't look as if it has been remastered at all for the digital age and so both the sound and picture are a little muddy.

It's a great film, though.

Fabio Testi,a big Italian star, plays the Eastwood-alike Clayton Drumm who is spared from the hangman's noose by the greedy railroad in order to kill a farmer, Warren Oates, in his last western role, who is refusing to sell his property to the land hungry railroad.

However Clayton grows to like the man and decides he can not kill him - he also starts a love affair with his wife played by the lovely Jenny Agutter. When Warren Oates discovers his wife's infidelity it sparks a fight and she stabs him. She then flees with Clayton Drumm, thinking she has killed her husband, and soon they have not only the railroad after them but her wronged husband and his retard brothers. It is worth noting that Sam Peckinpah has a small role as a hack writer.

The film has a curious dreamy feel to it and it's very 1970's in the way it depicts the west as an immoral place but inhabited by basically good people who do what they have to do in order to survive.

I thorughly enjoyed this western.

THE TEXAS TERROR 1935 - it's a FREE movie, folks!

The Texas Terror
1935
John Wayne. George Hayes.
Directed by Robert Bradbury
Lone Star Productions

In between The Big Trail (1930) and Stagecoach (1939) John Wayne found himself in poverty row churning out B-movie after B-movie. Some of these are dire and some are very very good.

Texas Terror falls somewhere between the two extremes and is a fun, rough and tumble slice of the young Duke in action, not to mention George Hayes before he became George "Gabby" Hayes or, as often billed Gabby Hayes.

Unusual for a 1935 budget picture is the fact that the Indians are not portrayed as out and out blood thirsty savages - indeed in this movie they are good guys and actually befriend John Wayne's character.

The plot is well signposted in the dialogue and the action is non stop. There are a couple of anachronistic moments since the film is set in what seems a period immediately following the civil war and yet there are early telephones and motor cars in the movie. The fact that Wayne is able to drive the car at one point is not explained.

There are several ways to get this film - it's on the public domain and can be either downloaded or streamed at the internet archive. It is also available to watch here on The ARCHIVE as an embedded video (below).

Or the DVD pictured is worth the slim price since this region 0 Disc also contains The Dawn Rider and The Trail Beyond. And there has been some remastering to both the sound and vision.

Jack Martin news

The Devil's Right Hand by Jack Martin - a western short in the traditional sense will appear on Beat to a Pulp next week. Although written a couple of year ago and bought by Great Western Fiction Magazine the story has never been published before, since the magazine folded before the story was printed. I'm pleased Beat to a Pulp is running the story as the webzine was actually the first place I'd been published under the Jack Martin name when they ran my story, A Man Called Masters which you can access from the sidebar of this blog.

Tarnished Star again

Crime writer Rafe McGregor has posted his review for The Tarnished Star HERE


My novel, The Tarnished Star is available to buy now at all the usual online retailers or you can go into any brick and mortar book store and ask them to get the book for you. Alternatively ask your library to carry the book.

The Tarnished Star by Jack Martin

THE MOST TACKY TIE IN AWARD GOES TO...

This is the strangest tie-in I've ever come across - it's not based on a TV series or film, well not officially. But the title's Leatherwood, the main character is Cliff Leatherwood. And is the resemblance on the cover to a certain Clint Eastwood a coincidence?

I've not read it, picked it up amongst a pile of secondhand books but it amuses me but the plot, involving a freedom fighter called Benito Juarez makes it sounds as if it's aiming for the feel of the dollar films.










It was published by Powell Books of California in 1970 and is credited to the name Stack Sutton. It was probably a house pen-name. The publisher's address is in Sherman Way, Reseda and there is a list of other western titles inside the book but author names are not specified. There doesn't seem to be a cover price anywhere on the book.

It shows how vibrant the paperback business was in those days - books like this would have probably turned a tidy little profit.






WESTERN RELATED -There's a great interview with Black Horse Writer, John Paxton Sheriff over on Western Fiction review

TARNISHED STAR NEW REVIEWS

"The Western was one of the most significant precursors to the hardboiled and noir styles of crime fiction, and if the PI didn’t quite replace the lone lawman, he certainly followed the path he had blazed down a mean street or two. Gary Dobbs – writing as Jack Martin – knows this better than most, and has a number of gritty and uncompromising short noir thrillers to his credit. The Tarnished Star is his first novella, and focuses on the struggles of Sheriff Masters in a tiny Old West town called Squaw."


The quote above comes from writer, Rafe McGregor, author of Architect of Murder - the full review will appear on both his blog HERE (this weekend) and Tangled Web later in the week. Be sure to check out the full review this weekend - it's a bloody good one, review that is.

Larkrise to Eastwood

Another busy day spent filming the third series of Lark Rise to Candleford. I've was on set for 7 this morning and I'm back in again for 7 in the morning and so the Archive has been quiet. However I'm off for the next week so we'll get kicking with the usual mix of articles, reviews and news and random musings.

However this is good news concerning Archive hero, Clint Eastwood.




LOS ANGELES, June 17 -- The American Film Institute said it has conferred an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts degree upon actor and director Clint Eastwood.

The Oscar-winner was last week presented with the honorary degree for his "contribution of distinction to the art of the moving image" during AFI commencement ceremonies for its 2009 graduating class, the Institute announced in a news release.

Following the presentation by film historian Richard Schickel on the American Film Institute campus, Eastwood warmly quieted the group by telling them to "Knock it off, will ya?"

He then reflected on his early experiences in filmmaking saying: "I never went to a film school because they didn't have them when I started out. But after doing more than 50 films as an actor and 30 as a director I would have thought I could have graduated before this."

Eastwood concluded by reminding the graduates that when they find themselves challenged by difficulties in their careers as filmmakers they should never forget they are artists and they should always believe in their talent.