JUROR #2. Nicholas Hoult, Zoey Deutch, Megan Mieduch, Toni Collette, J. K. Simmons, Kiefer Sutherland. Director: Clint Eastwood.
Juror #2starts with a premise and then runs with it to the very end. Magazine writer and recovering alcoholic Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is called for jury duty in Savannah, Georgia. It doesn’t take him long, however, to realize that the defendant, former drug dealer James Michael Sythe (Gabriel Basso), is most certainly innocent, and that he himself was the accidental perpetrator of the crime in question.
The state’s official version of events is that Sythe, after a public fight with his girlfriend (Francesca Eastwood), followed her down a dark, rainy two lane highway, bashed her head in, and dumped her in a ditch. What the state doesn’t know is that Kemp, juror number two, accidentally killed the victim that same night, thinking that he had hit a deer with his vehicle.
That’s the set-up. What follows for the next ninety minutes or so is a taut courtroom drama and thriller that doesn’t waste a minute of your time. The viewer gets to witness not only the jury deliberations, with Kemp trying to bend the jury to his will, but also the contest between an ambitious prosecutor (Toni Collette) and the overworked public defender (Chris Messina), tasked with a thankless job.
Filling out the cast are J.K. Simmons as a juror who turns out to be a retired police detective from the Midwest who has doubts about the case, Kiefer Sutherland as a lawyer who is also Kemp’s Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, and Zoey Deutch as Kemp’s pregnant wife who wants to believe that her husband is a good man. All three are excellent in their roles. One only wishes Simmons had a more prominent role. His character simply disappears after a while.
Overall, a solid, comparatively apolitical work by director Clint Eastwood that doesn’t remotely dumb things down for a mass audience. It’s a mature, sophisticated film that is able to both appeal to both one’s emotions and intellect without being pretentious or preachy. It’s not flashy and there’s not a lot of action, but it’s worth your time.
R.I.P.MARIANNE FAITHFULL (29 December 1946 – 30 January 2025)
“As Tears Go By” is a song written by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham. Marianne Faithfull recorded and released it as a single in the United Kingdom in 1964. Her song peaked at number nine on both the UK and Irish singles charts. [From Wikipedia.]
SIX BLACK HORSES. Universal, 1962. Audie Murphy, Dan Duryea, Joan O’Brien, George Wallace, Roy Barcroft, and Bob Steele. Produced by Gordon Kay. Written by Burt Kennedy, Directed by Harry Keller.
Sometime in the late 1950s, a producer at Universal figured out how to make a good Audie Murphy Western: Hire a capable character actor to steal the show.
This resulted in some enjoyable outings, as Audie tangled with Walter Matthau, Barry Sullivan, Stephen McNally, and here Dan Duryea, as a somewhat weathered rogue who saves him from being wrongly hanged, then partners with him escorting an enigmatic woman on a journey across Indian Country (popular terrain in this genre) to join her husband.
Director Harry Keller was trained up in his craft at Republic, the cradle of the B Western. So was producer Kay for that matter, so the locations are scenic, the action fast, and Duryea’s character is a bit more complex than usual—he sees this job as a welcome respite from his usual vocation as a killer-for-hire, and maybe even a path to redemption—until his past comes crashing down around his ears.
With so much fine work from producer, director and stars, it’s just a shame that writer Burt Kennedy let us down. Kennedy was doing some promising work about that time, with scripts for Seven Men from Nowand Ride Lonesome to his credit, but in this case he simply loots and pillages his best stuff, “borrowing” big chunks of dialogue, characters from his own work, and even a bit of Borden Chase’s script from Bend of the River.
The result is not so stale as it is unsettling. They say those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it, but we remember films like The Tall Tand Gun the Man Down with genuine affection for their depth of feeling and taut drama. To see their best parts here sliced-and-diced for a quick buck, somehow cheapens our regard for them.
ANALOG SF – October 1967. Edited by John W. Campbell. Covert art by John Schoenherr. Overall rating: **½
ANNE McCAFFREY “Weyr Search,” [Dragonriders of Pern] Short novel. Reviewed separately here.
TOM PURDOM “Toys.” A good idea, the effects of advanced toys on children, is completely wasted. Two policemen save hostages from kids holding them prisoner. Action, action, unreadable action. (0)
CARROLL M. CAPPS “The Judas Bug.” Novelette. A sense of paranoia pays off, as a member of Phase Two of the Expedition begins to suspect that the leaders of the original party are plotting against him. Is the author C. C. MacApp? (3) [Answer: Yes.]
W. MACFARLANE “Free Vacation.” In a society run by consensus, dissenters are given the choice of rehabilitation or space exploration. The author has little sense of either description or dialogue. (1)
J. T. McINTOSH “Pontius Pirates.” Novelette. Pontius Pirates are cautious, looking both ways trying to be in the clear whatever happens. But IP agent Jack Sheridan’s suspicions of the girl who picks him up in a bar on the planet Molle tell him someone there has something to hide,. Amazing by-play that does not develop into anything serious. (3)
GEORGE FOY – Asia Rip. Viking, hardcover, 1964. Pocket, paperback, 1985.
The highly evocative title of this novel comes from one of the shoal areas off the coast of Cape Cod, an area worked by the rugged men of the North Atlantic fishing industry. George Foy sets his impressive debut mystery among these men and the corrupt individuals on land who control the industry.
Lars Larsen joins the search for his friend Joe Sciacca when the latter fails to return from a fishing run. Later he is asked to continue to investigate by Sciacca’s widow, Marie. When the pregnant Marie is also murdered, Larsen finds himself with a murder rap on his head, and a need for vengeance in his heart.
Foy’s well-wrought plot features a lot of bloody action as Larsen traces the link between organized crime and the fishing industry. Much of the action includes feats of unbelievable derring-do by Foy’s hero. Not your average fisherman, he is a former Harvard man and drug-runner. He is also the kind of central character who keeps the reader involved and believing even as he scales the beams and girders of a massive railroad bridge with an injured and infected shoulder.
George Foy has worked as a journalist covering the fishing industry. This background lends great authenticity to his first mystery/adventure novel. He is also a-fine storyteller.
DENVER & RIO GRANDE. Paramount Pictures, 1952. Edmond O’Brien, Sterling Hayden, Dean Jagger, Kasey Rogers (as Laura Elliott), Lyle Bettger, J. Carrol Naish, Zasu Pitts. Screenwriter: Frank Gruber. Director: Byron Haskin.
Although admittedly a minor film within the grand scheme of things, Denver & Rio Grande nevertheless punches well above its weight and remains a solidly entertaining thrill ride. Filmed on location in Colorado with some spectacular natural scenery, the movie stars prolific actor Edmond O’Brien as Jim Vesser, a construction foreman on the Denver & Rio Grande railroad.
Vesser is tasked not only with building a brand new railroad in the wilderness, but also with protecting the enterprise from its primary rival, Cañon City & San Juan Railroad. Leading that unscrupulous outfit is the criminally-inclined McCabe (Sterling Hayden) and his henchman Johnny Buff (a wide grinning Lyle Bettger). Complicating matters is a love-hate relationship that O’Brien develops with his railroad’s secretary, Linda Prescott (Laura Elliott).
Written by pulp writer Frank Gruber and directed by Byron Haskin, Denver & Rio Grandecarefully balances grit with some romance and (in my estimation, unnecessary) light comedy. At its core, it’s a fast-paced action movie set against a perilous part of the American landscape. While one might not necessarily think of O’Brien as a leading man for westerns, he in fact did appear in numerous movies in that genre. That includes Warpath (1951) and Silver City (1951), both also directed by Haskin. I haven’t seen either of those two, but would be curious to see if they exist on physical media.
Rounding out the cast are two supporting actors I always appreciate: Dean Jagger, who portrays the bearded railroad boss and J. Carrol Naish, who portrays the project’s seemingly ethnic lead engineer. Overall, a decidedly fun, if occasionally uneven, movie that doesn’t require too much mental effort.
Final note: there’s a breathtaking train crash toward the end of the movie that you won’t want to miss! Good stuff.
FRED SABERHAGEN – The Broken Lands. Ace G-740. Paperback original, 1st printing, 1968. Cover art: Richard Powers. Baen Books, paperback, 1987. Collected in The Empire of the East (Baen, paperback, 1990; Tor, trade paperback, 2003).
The are very few good examples of effective combinations of science fiction with swords-and-sorcery. This may be the best so far, better to my mind than anything by Andre Norton, for example. Since a sequel is definitely required, Saberhagen may have more in preparation, very good news indeed.
Some large indefinite time in the Earth’s future, magic and sorcery have replaced science and technology in the scheme of things. Magic works, while science is regarded with superstitious awe. But the old things do work, and a nuclear-powered tank found buried under a mountain comes to life to help fulfill a myth, as an evil satrap is overthrown by the outlaw Free Folk.
Try to imagine a Barbarian learning the operation of that tank, succeeding by trial and error. The fascination is so great that it truly comes as a disappointment when he is captured and the secret of tank’s existence is lost.
Humor is present, too, as when instructions for a magic stone allowing its holder to escape go unread because of the very active requirements of doing so, ’Tis a very deep stone, too, to be able to determine which side of a barrier leads to the “outside” or to the “inside” …
WHEN WILLIE COMES MARCHING HOME. 20th Century Fox, 1950. Dan Dailey, Corinne Calvert, Colleen Townsend, William Demarest. Screenplay by Richard Sale & Mary Loos. Director: John Ford.
Dan Dailey stars as the first young man in his hometown to sign up for World War II, but the fanfare becomes frustration as he soon discovers he’s permanently stationed only five miles from home.
Finally given the chance to redeem himself in the eyes of his family and friends, his mission to France ends so quickly, no one believes he was gone. As a young actor, Dailey proves to have been a lanky, likable sort of chap, and I liked his performance here.
NO GOOD DEED. Screen Gems, 2014. Idris Elba, Taraji P. Henson, Leslie Bibb, Kate del Castillo, Henry Simmons. Director: Sam Miller.
Idris Elba plays against type in this suburban home invasion thriller. Elba portrays Colin, an escaped convict with narcissistic personality disorder. On a dark stormy night in Atlanta, he enters both the home and life of Terry (Taraji P. Henson), a former prosecutor and current stay-at-home mom.
With charm and guile, Colin manages to persuade Terry that he is merely waiting for a tow truck after he wrecked his car. Little by little, and with the intervention of a friend of Terry’s, Colin’s story unravels. What begins as a good deed – inviting a stranger into one’s house to wait for a tow truck – turns into a nightmare.
That’s the premise. What happens next is standard home invasion thriller fare. A cat and mouse game between the monster and the captive. There are some very tense moments here, which go to show most of all how talented an actor Elba is.
There’s a moment – it’s actually quite late in No Good Deed – wherein the villain’s true motivations are finally revealed. Some might say that it comes too late. Others might rightfully consider that the reveal wasn’t presented in a manner that captures the viewer’s attention.
Still, it’s a pivotal moment in the movie and one that makes No Good Deeda slightly more clever thriller than it might initially appear to be. Which makes one wonder why the film has only a mere 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s definitely better than that.
Overall assessment: extremely watchable, but without a considerable amount of depth. If you choose to watch this one, do so for Elba’s performance and the claustrophobic atmosphere.
JACK FOXX – Freebooty. Bobbs-Merrill, hardcover, 1976.
Jack Foxx is a pseudonym used by Bill Pronzini for four Foxx novels written in the 1970s. Two are action/ adventure stories featuring Singapore bush pilot Dan Connell — The Jade Figurine (1972) and Dead Run (1975); a third, Wildfire ( 1978), is a thriller about a small California logging community menaced by both a trio of dangerous criminals and a forest fire.
Freebooty, a historical mystery, is very different in tone from the other tautly written, action-oriented Foxx novels. This is not to say that there isn’t plenty of action and suspense, but Freebooty‘s style is gentler, evoking an earlier age, and it is spiced with frequent, delightful humor.
Fergus O’Hara and his wife, Hattie, arrive in San Francisco in 1863 en route to the port city of Stockton, where they suspect the members of a bandit gang who have been terrorizing coaches of the Adams Express Company are hiding out. As O’Hara explains, his wife is not an operative of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, as he is, but frequently assists him in his inquiries, “women being able to obtain information in places men cannot.”
Before the O’Haras board the steamer Freebooty for the inland Journey, Fergus makes the acquaintance of Horace T. Goatleg, an obese man with patently suspicious motives; encounters an articulate and ribald parrot (one of the most memorable characters in a cast of outstanding ones); witnesses a near-riot on the Barbary Coast; finds a murdered man in an alley; and sustains minor injuries himself, including being half drowned by a shower of beer.
Needless to say, all of the above events tie in to further goings–on aboard the steamer. And as the O’Haras — an effective team –investigate them, their initial purposes take a series of twists and turns, leading to a final revelation that is sure to leave the reader both surprised and amused.
Pronzini has a firm grasp of historical fact, and he blends it skillfully into his narrative, capturing the tenor of the times without allowing detail to slow the pace of his story. This is an entertaining novel, well plotted and full of engaging characters.