Change Your Image
njp2011
Reviews
How I Spent My Summer Vacation (1967)
Fine Thriller that probably helped make the TV "Movie" a staple.
People forget that, in those days, before movies gave up trying to compete with TV and turned into the mostly CGI cartoon crap fest that it is today, there was serious doubt that the small screen could compete with it in the the long format drama. With production values that did not rise above the average TV drama, scripts that felt like 43 minute "hour- longs" padded out to 90 minutes, and cast lists bulging with TV-only actors, the early TV movies did not inspire confidence or critical praise. Since TV films could be shot at less cost the two independent hour episodes, it was seen as a cost-cutting move. This movie, more than any other flew in the face of that. Established film actors like Lawford, St. John and Pidgeon lent the film a more cinematic feel. The script was tighter and, in spots, the production values approximated, at least, movie ones and the actors, across the board, seemed to take the material seriously. All that convinced, I'm sure, more than a few movie folk (most of whom, it seemed, were still holding their noses at the thought of doing TV) that their might be something to those "lights and wires in a box."
The Nickel Ride (1974)
Honor Among Thieves
Not so much a review as an observation. Cooper's position seems to be as much a function of his outmoded sense of honor as any other reason. His boss speaks to the corporate nature of the "higher ups" who want results while Coop seems to have a sense of obligation to the small fry who look up to him. He "carries" thieves whose goods are clogging his warehouses when he should be taking their goods and selling them off opening space for those clamoring to get in. He refuses to force a two-bit fighter who is all but washed up to take a dive and throw his career because of a friendship with his manager. His beat down of his bosses enforcer is in defense of the "little guys" who hang on in his territory by their fingernails. Their love and respect is shown in the birthday party. This notion of Coop being driven by an out of place sense of honor is what gives the denouement its sense of inevitability. He cant change. He knows it and he knows where it will lead - certainly most clearly after his "dream."