Well, we all have our favourite actors (and I possibly have more than most), but James Stewart is right up there in my personal top ten. I have never known him to be bad in a film even when the film itself is definitely so-so (some drivel with Brigitte Bardot immediately springs to mind) and he certainly had more strings to his bow than his slow-speaking persona implied. This is one of his later roles and probably not that well-known, but I find it a real charmer. Stewart has just been freed from jail after serving forty years and with a cheque for his accumulated wages of some 25,000 dollars in his pocket. Along with his sidekicks, the grizzled character actor Strother Martin and an incredibly young Kurt Russell, he plans to start a new life. Oh, and he has one glass eye, brown and twice the size of his blue one. However a venal prison warder, an unlikely part for the usually genial George Kennedy, and his lowlife associates want Stewart's stash. So there begins a game of chase and cat and mouse until the good guys prevail. The original UK title for this movie was the mouthful "Dynamite Man from Glory Jail" which will give you some clue as to how dear old Jimmy wins. Maybe this wasn't one of Stewart's greatest roles, but it sure is a memorable one.
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2 comments:
The family films Stewart made in the 60s are not drivel and 'Dear Brigitte' is one
of them but no Brigitte Bardot in it. Midly amusing with reasonable acting from
the main characters and a sompletely unlikely premise - but this could be said of
many films. It benefits from the Stewart persona like the others he made around
this time. Don't knock the rubbish!
mgp 1449
I stand corrected - the delectable Brigitte does appear briefly near the film's end
as herself which is, of course, the whole point of the film.
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