Fort Bowie (1958)

United Artists
Directed by Howard W. Koch
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Encore)

Ben Johnson is a Cavalry officer sympathetic to the Indians. His new commander is a political appointee who would rather massacre Indians than talk to them. Johnson is also in the unusual role of lady killer, both the wife of his old CO and a local Indian girl can't keep their hands off him. The CO sends him on a dangerous mission in the hopes he gets killed and leaves his wife alone. The action is good, but the romantic melodrama frequently intrudes.

Hell's Highway (1932)

Radio Pictures
Directed by Rowland Brown
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Early prison drama with brothers serving out their sentence on the chain gang. Duke is the older one and has been there awhile before his younger brother Johnny arrives. The spend the day hacking at rocks, but Johnny is soft and ends up in the hot box, a metal cage in the sun. Duke agrees to turn stool pigeon in exchange for his brother's life. When threatened with expedition and a life sentence, Johnny sets his brother free but it turns into a jail break. The happy ending was literally refilmed after a better, downbeat one, and almost ruins the movie.

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)

Universal
Directed by Herbert Ross
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Watson is driven to intervene in the cocaine addiction of his friend Holmes. He tricks him into going to Vienna, where he is put under the care of none other than Sigmund Freud. Hypnotherapy is used to cure him of his drug habit, but along the way they solve the case of an abduction of a famous Viennese singer. Much is made about the similarities between Freud's way of deducing the unconscious and Holmes' way of solving a case. The film wavers uncomfortably between satire and drama, the prime examples being Alan Arkin's Freud and Duvall's Watson, neither of which are entirely successful in their characterizations. Nonetheless, an enjoyable ride, particularly the long set piece on a train for the finale.

Mask of the Avenger (1951)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Phil Karlson
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Diverting matinee fair with Anthony Quinn the traitorous military commander of an Italian village. John Derek comes to the rescue as the masked man on horseback who exposes him and saves the town from the invading Austrians, well at least the matte painting of the Austrian fleet. Jody Lawrance is the love interest, a pretty blond Italian gal.

Deep Valley (1947)

Warner Bros
Directed by Jean Negulesco
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Ida Lupino lives in a remote country house near the Pacific Ocean with her dysfunctional parents. She stutters and spends time alone in the woods talking to squirrels. One day she meets a convict on a road crew building a nearby highway. He escapes and they fall in love. He ends up hiding out in the barn loft while a posse scours the countryside. His temper gets the best of him and the ending is tragic.

Report to the Commissioner (1975)

United Artists
Directed by Milton Katselas
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(MGMHD)

Gritty police drama in the tradition of The French Connection and Dog Day Afternoon. A young Michael Moriarty is the rookie undercover cop assigned to hardboiled veteran Yaphet Kotto. Moriarty's character is a dangerous combination of idealism and naivety. He is told to find a runaway girl named Chiclet, but is unaware she is actually an undercover cop. He catches up with her in the apartment of a pimp named Stick. She is killed in the shootout, but Moriarty chases the nearly naked black man over rooftops, through the streets and into Saks Fifth Avenue. A long set piece in an elevator features a Mexican stand-off in stifling heat. It suffers from a predictable downbeat ending and an unnecessarily complex, non-linear plot, but otherwise a neglected gem.

Skippy (1931)

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Norman Taurog
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

9-year-old Jackie Cooper got a Best Actor nod for his role as Skippy, the precocious son of a doctor who spends most of his spare time on the other side of the tracks in Shantytown. He befriends Sooky, a pathetically cute little kid played by Robert Coogan. It's like an episode of the Little Rascals with a budget. Sooky's dog gets captured by the dog catcher mainly out of spite for a broken windshield. Sooky and Skippy have a few days to raise 3 dollars for the dog license before the dog is shot. They put on a show, sell lemonade and pawn stuff but still come up short. Things take a turn for the morose when the dog is shot anyway and Skippy and Sooky must come to terms with it.

Thomasine & Bushrod (1974)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Gordon Parks, Jr.
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Encore)

Max Julien followed up the superb exploitation classic The Mack with this rambling, boring remake of Bonnie and Clyde in an old west setting. They ride in a classic car from town to town robbing banks, giving most of the money to the poor. They are relentlessly pursued by a sheriff, leading to the inevitable bloody climax. Disappointing.

Who's Minding the Mint? (1967)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Howard Morris
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Dated heist comedy starring a dead pan Jim Hutton as a worker in the US Mint who decides to return money he accidentally stole by breaking in one night and printing new money. He needs a lot of help, and collects a motley assortment of comedy veterans for the job. The best part is the actual heist about half way into the movie which turns into a veritable slapstick comedy, everything that can go wrong does go wrong. They all wear a bunch of silly costumes and act their parts, for example Milton Berle is George Washington and Victor Buono a ship's captain. However, it's rarely funny and Hutton is a poor leading man.

Journey to Midnight (1968)

20th Century Fox
Directed by Alan Gibson, Roy Ward Baker
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Fox Movie Channel)

Sebastian Cabot hosts this anthology of two stories from a British TV series. In the first, dapper detective Chad Everett takes his antique car to a masquerade party in the country. He meets a girl who desperately wants him to take her back to London with him. As thunder begins to crackle, he leaves without her and wakes up the next morning alone on a country road. Was it all a dream or did he really travel back in time? In the second story, dapper detective Tom Adams is hired by an older woman to help her find a medium to communicate with her dead husband. He reveals the secrets of one charlatan after another, but little does she realize who is really after her money. This segment features a floating Indian head at a seance.