FSM # 36: Missing Jack Nicholson….
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This isn’t a very good film. A standard 1-hour B western from 1962, made on a low budget. Three guys escape from a prison with the help of a woman, having been unfairly imprisoned by the town’s tyrannical sheriff. As they escape, they’re forced to engage in criminal activities themselves. Nicholson plays one of the convicts (the only halfway ‘bad boy’ of them) and does the best he can with the role he’s given. He’s by far the best actor of the bunch, utilizing a more realistic style as opposed to the more experienced actors’ more theatrical mannerisms.
Music is by Richard La Salle, perhaps best known for his work on LAND OF THE GIANTS. For the most part, it’s a pretty standard western score with trademark open “Americana” intervals and brass in addition to some rather non-descript suspense music. It ain’t half-bad, but it’s quite conventional and dated. It seems to have been performed by a rather small orchestra, pr. the low budget.
I doubt anyone has seen or heard this, due to its obscurity.
I know a lot obscure westerns but I don’t think this one. But I saw two other obscure westerns with him: RIDE THE WHIRLWIND and THE SHOOTING.
No no. Disturb away!
I had hoped people would chime in when I get to individual titles, like Dr. Jacoby on THE WILD RIDE, but maybe they will later.
So it was time for another early Corman/Nicholson flick, this time a gothic horror tale from 1963 also starring Boris Karloff as the lugubrious count.
The film holds together in its own charming and cheapo-squeaky way for the most part, untill the end, where both narrative and meaning fall completely apart. Boris is always a treat to watch when he’s able to be all sinister and Shakespearean, but Nicholson does not fare well in these roles. He’s an everyday man or a character actor, and doesn’t do “the straight guy” very well. Especially not if it’s costume/period dramas. It just feels forced and uncomfortable to see him play a French soldier in the Napoleon army. So sorry Jack, not one of your shining moments.
Ronald Stein’s music was a typically oldfashioned gothic horror thing with lots of melodrama, dissonance and sturm & drang. Screaming brass and high-pitched flute fluttering abound. Not my thing at all, but it would be interesting to hear a cleaned-up rerecording some day. Maybe it makes for better listening then. I also thought there was far too much music in the film, allowing little room to breathe. I don’t know if Humphrey Searle’s THE HAUNTING was released earlier that year, but they should have learned a lot from that film and score when putting this together.
Interesting Nicholson already is at the 2nd place on the poster.
but it would be interesting to hear a cleaned-up rerecording some day.
THere are some original tracks on this Ronald Stein compilation but I haven’t listend to it in ages. But I can imagine the style (which I do like somehow). I doubt that anyone would re-record those nowadays 😉
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