SipteaHighTea Reviews

Ten Tall Men (1951)

Fun version of the Dirty Dozen

[10/10 · 13 May 2012]

The movie was excellent. To me, it was a very funny version of the movie Dirty Dozen (although the Dirty Dozen did not come until 1967). In the movie Dirty Dozen, Lee Marvin tells the prisoners that if one screws up, the others go right back to prison, so therefore, they are depend on each other. Since he is in charge of the mission, Marvin also realizes that his life also depends on them too and pointed out that fact to his superiors.

In the movie Ten Tall Men, Burt Lancaster says almost the same thing: "The main reason we're going to do it is we have no other choice. And just one other thing: each man has got to depend on the next man. I'm going to see to it that the next man doesn't let him down." Only difference is that Lancaster has two corporals to back him up while Marvin has the MP sergeant to help him out plus the men under Lancaster's command are not facing a death sentence or long imprisonment for murder. The insults at the wedding and the big brawl which occurred was the highlight of the movie. It's too bad that the movie not available on DVD and I don't know why TMC doesn't have it in its inventory of movies to be purchase.

The Secret Invasion (1964)

Shocking scenes and lack of attention to the uniforms

[8/10 · 8 May 2012]

The movie was good for a low budget. After looking at the reviewers, I wonder if it would have been a bigger hit because the movie had some graphic scenes: 1) Henry Silva suffocating the baby and in other scene, he throws a bayonet at a German doctor or medic orderly and you see the bayonet penetrating the person's throat.

2) A German sailor looking over the side of his boat and then a grappling hook is embedded in the side of his face.

I don't think that William Campbell play a good imposter because he did not look like the Commandent of the Fortress plus we don't know if he knew how to speak German. I also wonder what he said on the telephone that cause the Germans to send out armed patrol to search the fortress. It seems to me that the plot was to get the Italian General out of the fortress without having the Germans stop them.

I know that during World War II, some German SS officers had an German Army eagle sewn on their hats and/or on the left sleeve of their arms instead of an SS one. SS General Sepp Detrich was famous for having an Army eagle on his SS hat. However, in this case, it look like the entire German garrison had Army eagles on their left sleeves instead of the SS eagle and it looks like they were Panzer uniforms instead of field gray.

Some people stated that the the characters of Henry Silva and Spela Rozin had bonded together; however, it didn't look like it to me considering the fact that Silva's character came from prison, and in prison, guys tend to want to have sex with even ugly members of the opposite sex after being in prison for awhile and the Spela Rozin's character was married.

I agreed that the movie was like the Dirty Dozen, Guns of Navarrone, Were Eagles Dare, Band of Brothers, Hornets' Nest etc., where a lot of Germans get killed off and the Germans are lousy shooters. Frankly, I am surprise that some of the members were not killed by Germans when they had a gun running battle on the rooftops, and the Germans were only a few yards away from them; yet, none of the convicts and the major were hit by enemy fire when they finally fled the scene. Spela Rozin's character reminds me of Sylva Koscina's character in the movie Hornets' Nest where both ladies take a submachine gun and all of a sudden they become firearm experts at killing Germans.

I also wonder Roger Corman did not write the partisans into the script in helping the Italians when they attack the Germans.

To See If I'm Smiling (2007)

More information

[9/10 · 6 March 2010]

There should have been information about the number of mental casualties that Israel has due to its occupation and the fighting in southern Lebanon.

I watched a five part series on the History Channel in 1997 about the SS. One part was about the Waffen SS. One SS soldier fought in the 1940 French Campaign, and he stated when the fighting was over, his comrades drank heavily for 3 days straight. The producers also found a film taken by one of the SS soldiers showing a bunch of SS sergeants being in a drunken state.

It doesn't matter what uniform you wear and what country you are serving in: War changes you as the defense lawyer in the movie Breaker Morant pointed out where the normal everyday life has totally been replaced by the constant round of fear, anger, blood, and death. In the final episode of MASH, Major Charles Winchester stated that he play music to escape from war; however, because due to the death of Chinese POWS that he taught how to play music, Winchester stated that music will remind him of the war. The female medical officer in the movie To See If I'm Smiling ask the question at the end of the movie how do you get rid of what you had experience?

Frankenstein, Jr. and the Impossibles (1966–1968)

Favorite

[10/10 · 8 January 2010]

Frankenstein Jr and the Impossibles were my favorite show. I just wish they did play the songs of the Impossibles in their entirely. My favorite song was about a girl name Sally Annie, and part of the words to the song was "turn to the east, and turn to the west".

Its too bad they did not have their songs on a CD like the Banana Splits did. I would have love to buy and play it. I did not know that there were only 18 episodes of that cartoon show.

I don't why the people who own the copyrights to let the people buy them on places like Amazon. Shows like these are part of our culture and history and to deny our future generations the opportunity of seeing these shows is cultural genocide.

Tunes of Glory (1960)

Japanese not German

[10/10 · 26 November 2009]

Some of the reviewers stated that the Germans torture Col. Barrows during the War. If they had paid more attention, they would have discovered that it was the Japanese would torture Barrows.

Colonel Barrows informed Sinclair that he spend jail time in a Japanese POW camp after Sinclair stated that he did time in a civilian jail before joining the army. Furthermore, Barrows inform his adjutant when they were in a jeep near a lake about being tortured by the Japanese.

In addition, if you look at Col. Barrows' ribbon bar, one of them is the Burma Star for fighting the Japanese in World War II Burma from 1941-45. There is no Africa, Italy, or Germany Star on Barrows' uniform to show that he fought the Germans. Finally, there was nothing in the movie about whether Barrows fought the Germans in 1940 Norway, 1940 France, 1941 Greece, 1941 Crete, or assisting the various resistance movements in Occupied Europe.

Sinclair got rapid promotion as an officer. He enlisted in the army in 1933 and won the Military Medal; however, that medal was awarded only to enlisted and NCO ranks, so he must have won it along with the General Service Medal for seeing action during the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine and then was shortly commissioned during or after the revolt because World War II in Europe broke out in September 1939 and three years late, Sinclair become temporarily battalion commander during the Battle of El Alamein and won the Distinguished Service Order (awarded to officers only).

All in all an excellent movie

Sirocco (1951)

little shooting going on in the city

[1/10 · 10 October 2009]

The film was awful went it came to the fighting between the French and the Syrians. There should have been a lot more gun fire between the French and the insurgents. There should have been a lot more explosions of French artillery shells bombarding the city. They show the city against the background of a early sunrise; however, there was no heavy columns of smoke that resulted from the French artillery shells exploding in the city There was also no sound of French airplanes and having them bomb and machine gun the Syrians' positions.

In addition, the way the French troops move around the city was terrible. In a combat situation, troops would have their rifles at port arms so they be ready to bring their weapons to a firing position just in case they get fire upon. They would not be walking around the city with rifles on their shoulders and walking in a parade ground formation.

One person stated that the American people during the 1920s never heard of the Syrian revolt. I suspect one reason why the Americans never heard about it that the American press was concentrating on Prohibition, robbers like Pretty Boy Floyd, John Dillinger, organized crime like Al Capone, labor strikes that occurred after World War I, and the communist scare of the 1920s. Even if it was printed in the paper, it was just a sideshow event that never got much notice. I bet that today most Americans still don't know about the revolt in Syria. The only time we paid attention to Syria was during the various Arab-Israeli Wars and Syrian intervention in Lebanon.

It was and still easier to concentrate on doing war movies against the Japan and Germany since we won those wars.

Drowned Out (2002)

How can people with math and science degree make such mistakes

[10/10 · 20 September 2009]

What is fascinates me about this film is how the Indian engineers fail to determine how much damage was cause when the dam was build. They use a computer software programs to give different situations regarding water flow, speed of the water, etc. and yet they still underestimate how much damage was cause by the dam in terms of people being displaced, how much land was going to be underwater, how many people lost their livelihood after the dam was built, the river traveling in a different direction after the dam was finished, and whether the dam ever achieve its objective of bring water to the dry lands that it was suppose to have done. For people who have math and science degrees, it shows how pretty stupid they were despite the fact that some of them were probably the cream of the crop of India's engineering corp.

Bhowani Junction (1956)

Racism at all levels

[9/10 · 30 July 2009]

The only thing I have against the film is that Colonel Savage failed to realize that you had English people at all levels being racists against the Indians and the the Indians were racists among their own social, religious, economic groups. Without that racial divide and conquer policy, the British would have not been able to conquer and hold India for a long time.

In addition, the colonel failed to realize that many British enlisted and NCO soldiers stay in India after their term of service had expired because if they had went home, the only jobs for them would have been menial and physical labor jobs. In the movie The Man Who Would be King, Daniel Dravot and Peachey Camehan did not want to go back to England because ambitious men like them would never be allowed to rise above their social class/caste status particularly after seeing action in the 2nd Afganistan War plus being degraded to the above mention jobs that were awaiting for them. In the movie Gunga Din, Sgt. Ballatine was leaving the service because he was going to going to get married; however, he was going to enter the tea business because there was no way his girlfriend was going let him worked in a menial job. In the tea business, you had a better chance of acquiring a respectable living and social status.

Furthermore, the colonel also failed to realize the extreme prejudices that British officers in the regular English Army had against Britih officers in the Colonial Indian Army. During the Boer War of 1899, the War Office refuse to let any British Indian Officer serve in that war. Finally, the colonel would have face prejudice after being send back to England not only because he was an ex-British Indian Officer, but he would face additional racism if he had married that Anglo-Indian woman.

Lassie (1954–1974)

Lassie with the US Forest Service

[10/10 · 24 July 2009]

I was not born when the Lassie series starting in 1954. The only episodes saw Lassie was from 1964 to 1968 when she was owned by the U.S. Forest Ranger Corey Stuart. I was sad when Corey Stuart was severely injure while fighting a forest fire and his character was taken out of the series. One of Lassie's episode was a guy dumping out all his garbage into a river and the guy with Lassie's help save a raccoon whose head was stuck in a tin can which was part of the man's garbage. The man look at the river and saw how he had despoil the river's beauty with his trash plus nearly causing an animal to die from it. He went back down the river to remove all the garbage. It show how we should protect, respect, and cherish nature and not treat it like a huge dumping ground for all our garbage. That is why we have agencies like Fish and Game and the Forest Service to protect the land from human misconduct.

Close to Home (2005)

Many guys have trouble being assertive and aggressive

[10/10 · 14 May 2009]

I enjoy seeing the movie Close to Home on the IFC channel. I think it is also hard for males who have nice personalities to becoming assertive and sometimes assume aggressive roles and overcoming the natural hesitation and shyness especially when they are police officers and/or soldiers.

You can't blame nice guys for being that way when they were brought up to be gentlemen and not taught how to stick up for themselves against rude, aggressive bullies (males and females) and authoritarian figures. Furthermore, if they were to talk back to their officers and sergeants about things that they saw were morally wrong, they would be court-martial for being insubordinate and disrespectful to their superiors. And then the officers,sergeants, and police supervisors would complain about their people not showing initiative or taking charge of a situation. People can't do their jobs on their own if they are always constantly be told to shut up and not do anything unless instruction to do so.

Warriors (2008– )

Great show

[9/10 · 5 May 2009]

The show is great; however, in the Zulu episode, Terry should have added that the British had trouble trying to bring ammunition to their men. According to several books regarding the Zulu War of 1879, the Zulu soon noticed that the British soldiers were no longer firing because of running out of bullets and then one Zulu warrior let out a war cry and the rest of the warriors got up and quickly smash the British lines.

If the German tribes use the night and the forest to their advantage, why didn't the German Army use that knowledge to develop better night and forest fighting tactics? In World War I and II, several German officers stated that the Russian Army were masters at night fighting and forest fighting. You think that the German Army been the world's greatest night and forest fighters since their forefathers were doing it for years among themselves and the Romans.

Patton 360 (2009– )

Disappointed

[7/10 · 5 May 2009]

I am somewhat disappointed in beginning of the show where Patton lands in North Africa. They don't talk about what was Patton doing in trying to get his southern and northern pincers off the beach. They only talk about Patton trying to get his central force off the beach. If the French had a Rommel or Napoleon, Patton's two forces would have been crushed, and then Patton would have to withdraw his central force. Patton was pretty lucky that help came to his forces in the nick of time; otherwise, the British would have a lower opinion of the American soldier's fighting ability.

They did not seem to comment on Patton slapping the soldier too much.

Moonlighting (1985– )

Addison knows how to have fun and speak his mind

[10/10 · 13 April 2009]

David Addison was a character who knew when to have fun at work and enjoy life compare to most American men for the last 50 years. Furthermore, he is one of the few guys who don't back down from a fierce verbal argument with a female particularly with his boss Maddie Hayes. Grant it, Addison was a sexist person which is the one thing I don't like about him; however, if he has a point to make, he will not hesitate to argue with a woman even to the point of disobeying her orders.

All in all, it was a very fun show. I love the secretary manning the Blue Moon Detective Agency. She would have made a fortune writing poetry or songs the way she answers the telephone every day.

Flying Leathernecks (1951)

Combat aerial scenes and leadership

[8/10 · 14 March 2009]

The dogfights between the Marines and the Japanese in the Solomons in the movie was totally out of balance. John Wayne's squadron is send out to help destroy a Japanese convoy. On the way, they attack some Zeroes and after the dogfight, they proceed to attack the convoy with rockets and bombs.

The problem is that you don't attack an opposing fighter force while you are laden down with bombs and rockets. Its is bad enough fighting the Zero without heavy ordnance; however, it would be suicidal to engage the Zero while still carrying all that stuff.

Secondly, if Wayne felt that his executive was not up to task, he should have bust him and/or send him back to States. He should have also puts some documentation in the guy's file stating that the guy lack leaderships skills and therefore, should not be consider for any future promotion.

On the other hand, you did have some commanders who did make hard decisions; however, they were still won the popularity contest with their men because they still show the gentler side to their men so the guys saw that they were not callous brutes and were not martinets.

False Pretenses (2004 TV Movie)

Learn about white collar crime

[10/10 · 12 October 2008]

This movie should be shown to people on how scams work particularly the one that the movie is referring to. The movie does an excellent job of how the money is move from one phrase of the operation to another phrase in a well-thought, logical fashion that everyone can follow until it comes to the final end where the victims are finally jig out of their money.

The sad thing about this movie is where the local police told the ex-wife that they were not going to do a thing about it because it did not occurred in their area and they have too much crime in their own area to devote the manpower and resources. I guarantee you if someone pull a stunt like that on a law enforcement agency, the cops would spare no effort, time, and resources to bring the criminal to justice because cops do not like being made fools. Sometimes, it seems that the police need to become victims in order to get their butts moving because then they know what it is like to be a victim of white collar crime.

Kiss Them for Me (1957)

Pretty Good Movie

[10/10 · 17 September 2008]

I thought the movie was good for several reasons:

1) The movie show how people (even in 2008) running for office will use their military service and combat experience as a means to justify their reasons why they should be elected to office. Ray Walston's character felled on the floor and hurt himself. He stated that if this was combat, he could have gotten the Purple Heart and look good on his war record. In the movie Alvarez Kelly, Kelly told Major Steadman, that Steadman would profit from the war because after the war, the major would use his rank and war record to advance his lawyer career even though Steadman was a believer in the Union cause.

2) Cary Grant's character was great in that he was suffering from combat fatigue and just want to be left alone and have fun on his R&R. Most soldiers usually go about drinking and trying to hook up with ladies after being pulled out of combat. One of his fellow pilots was having nightmares about him being shot down in flames. At the end, of the movie, when Grant and his boys go back to the war, we have no idea of whether the third Navy pilot will be shot down or not.

3) The movie shows a hidden cost of war because there was a navy pilot from one of Grant's unit who was confined to a wheelchair due to serious wounds incurred in combat. The Navy Warrant Officer who accompany the wounded man inform Grant that the man was slowly dying and would succumb to his wounds in a short time.

4) Some of the reviewers stated that Grant was too old and look too old to play a World War II pilot. I read a book about U.S. Navy aviation where the Navy due to expansion of the war first raise the qualification age to fly at 27 and later, they raise it to age 35. I have seen 1940s pictures of General Albert Wedemeyer, and he look like he was in his 50s when actually he was in his 40s during World War II. Grant either had his hair dye black or his hair was still black before it started to turn gray. You also have to remember that before World War II, many military guys in their late 20s, 30s and 40s were still lieutenants, captains, or majors. In the enlisted ranks, you had to wait four years to become private first class and to become a three stripe sergeant rank you had to do 12 to 18 years of military service. Pomotions were slow back in those days, and you usually got promoted (as an officer) based on seniority. There was no up or out policy if you did not get promotion in a timely fashion in the military. The up and out policy slowly started after World War II and is now the norm in today's military even among the sergeant ranks.

5) When the leading lady in the movie asked Grant what job he did have before the war, Grant stated he did a little bit of everything. That's not surprisingly considering the fact that America and the rest of the world went through a Great Depression starting in 1929. People had to take what ever jobs they could find (which were far and few) to survive. In addition, the American workforce had no job security protection in terms of better labor laws until Franklin Roosevelt came into office.

The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957–1960)

Good Show

[10/10 · 16 September 2008]

I could only remember two of the shows - Lucy's Summer Vacation and Lucy Hunt for Uranuium. Both of them were classic episodes. I love it when Howard Duff and Ricky were playing a game of cards and Howard's wife was all dress up to entice her husband. Howard was smoking a cigar and blew smoke in his wife's face and she look like she was about to die.

I thought that all of Lucy's shows from the 1950s to the late 1960s and early 70s were funny in their own unique way. The fact that Ms. Ball had three to four TV shows prove how adaptable she was. Some of the same folks that were seen on her first show, later appear on her later shows.

You Can't Win 'Em All (1970)

Strange Haircuts

[9/10 · 22 July 2008]

Overall, I like the movie; however, I find it strange that many of Charles Bronson's men have hippie like long hair. This is suppose to be a film about a situation in 1919 not 1970. Men back in those days were clean cut unless you live out in a very isolated rural area like being a lumberjack or like in Lawrence of Arabia, you were herding sheep, horses, camels, etc., and because you were so far away from civilization and had to ration your water supply, you could not shave your face and cut your sideburns.

I am surprise with the firepower of the tommy guns, they could not shoot down the two Turkish plane or damage them. Its funny in a movie when you have German soldiers throwing lots of firepower against American soldiers, few Americans get killed; however, when you see soldiers of countries like Greece or Turkey with less firepower, they are good at killing Americans in large numbers.

The Tim Conway Show (1970)

Show had no chance to established itself

[10/10 · 22 July 2008]

I love the show except that the show was moved around to different times and days or it was interrupted by some other TV event. It nearly happen to the hit 1980s show Hill Street Blues. Veronica Harmel who play Joyce Davenport in that show stated that even her family complain that they couldn't find the show in the TV Guide.

One of the best episode was is where Joe Flynn and Tim Conway had a baby in the cockpit while they were up in the air. The baby started crying and Conway was rocking the airplane and singing Rock a Bye Baby. In the words of Larry the Cable Guy "That's funny." The same thing happened to the show Shark with James Wood. It should have been left on Thursday night after CSI Las Vegas.

WIOU (1990–1991)

Great show but not given a chance to succeed

[10/10 · 22 July 2008]

The show was great; however, it was not allowed to become firmly established. In 1990, Iraq invade Kuwait and later in the year, USA went to war to liberate Kuwait. I remember watching an episode of the WIOU when it was interrupted by an announcement that Iraq had invaded Kuwait. After that interruption, it seems that the show kept getting interrupt because of what was happening in Kuwait and finally, it was canceled without much fanfare.

My favorite character was the blond reporter played by Katie McNeil. She was hot and could have been one of our best actresses if the show was not interrupted by the events in Kuwait.

The Burglars (1971)

Good ending

[9/10 · 11 July 2008]

I don't remember much of the film except for 2 events. One was Omar Sharif playing a game with one of the crooks. He had a glass of booze in his hand and stated to the crook that the more he drinks the worse his aim gets and every time he drank, his shots came closer to the crook. The crook gets away; however, he is wounded in the shoulder.

I love the ending where Omar gets the gems; however, he is caught in a silo where grain is falling on top of him and in the end, only one of his hands with the gems is above the grain while the rest of his body is buried.

The film is one of the unknown films that I did not known that Omar Sharif had made apart from Genghsis Khan, Lawrence of Arabia, The Far Palivion, and Night of the Generals.

The New Centurions (1972)

Did not show bigot side of policing

[9/10 · 4 July 2008]

I have read the book and seen the movie; however, they both did not show the bigot side of police when it came to dealing with union activists, civil rights organizations, blacks, other minorities, etc. Police work is dangerous; however, it would not be so dangerous if the police got rid of their racist, sexist, political, and ideology attitudes against the rest of the community. The police in America are always voting and upholding the same economic, political, and social system that causes many people to turn to crime just to survive which in turn makes the streets dangerous for the police. The book and movie never show incidents of dealing with rich people who threaten to destroy a police officer's career if they are arrested.

If police fought for progressive change in America, then they would not have to face high divorce rates, suicide, and drunkenness on and off the job. Then again, if the crime rate in America was low like it is in Canada, Japan, and Europe, I think the police would get drunk out of sheer boredom of the job because they get too few calls. Many of them live for that adrenalin rush.

Stand by for Action (1942)

First rate punch lines

[9/10 · 23 May 2008]

I love Charles Laughton as Admiral Thomas in this movie. He pulls no punches when it comes to throwing barbs at his former aide and then to his own personal military doctor when it comes to dealing with childbirth. I wonder how did the American military let Laughton wear a Medal of Honor on his uniform? Back in those days, it was taboo to wear a medal like that let alone a ribbon.

The only thing I didn't like was about the commanding officer of the Warren coming up from the ranks because I wondered how many enlisted men between the First and Second World Wars actually made officer rank? America's officer corp was pretty much like the German Junker military officer corp and British officer corp where the upper middle class, rich class, and aristocracy class dominated the officer corp, and they were very conservative. The National Guard was like a social club for America's upper crust from the books that I had read. Otherwise, I would have given the movie a perfect 10.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable movie. I wish it was on DVD.

Vanishing Son (1995)

No will behind the show

[10/10 · 30 April 2008]

I love the show immensely; however, I hate it when it was canceled. The same company that produce the Xena TV show starring Lucy Lawless and the Hercules TV show starring Kevin Sorbo did not put the same kind of financial and political will into the Vanishing Son series.

That show could have been the biggest breakout career for Russell Wong and could have him gotten more TV roles and even appearing in the movies. The last time I saw Mr. Wong was on some short live TV show where was a guess star where he play a reporter on one show, and another show where he play a prosecutor. Another one show I saw him was on CSI where he was a Los Vegas Lieutenant working at the jail.

Heat of the Sun (1998)

Wish there was more of it

[10/10 · 11 April 2008]

I love the series and it's too bad it was not a long running one. The blonde Assistant Superintendent James Valentine who eventually became of the aides to the main character Superintend Albert Tyburn was kind of like the Chicago police recruit Georg Stone in the movie The Untouchables because both men were excellent marksmen.

The Police Commissioner told Albert Tyburn that he will never be one of them. I got news for the Police Commissioner in that he and the rest of his officers will never be considered part of the British society in Kenya. The Kenya Police was look down upon in British Kenya. I wonder why the producers and writers of the show pick Kenya. Why not send the character to Palestine, Shanghai, Singapore, or Hong Kong? Superintendent Tyburn would have seen plenty of action in murder, smuggling, organized crime particularly Chinese, and gun battles with Chinese mob or in Palestine especially in the Arab Revolt of 1936.