wingthwong
Joined Jun 2013
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wingthwong's rating
I don't know how much authority Richard Boone had in accepting scripts and directors for this series. I know the series could have been better off with a few less of these unmentionable writers.
But the worst part is Ida Lupino's directing skills. I don't know if she had something on the series creators, Boone, the production company, or what. Maybe someone or all had a warm spot for her from her earlier acting career in the film noir genre.
The problem is with Ida Lupino is that she was the only prominent female writer or director of film noir in the 50s, and that she did everything purpose built with a social message. Sadly, Paladin is not supposed to be a social message character. Have Gun Will Travel should have never been a platform for her brand of liberal socialism and proto feminism. A late 1800s era western that families watched and boys admired should not have been a test bed for her fantasy revisionist history style.
This is yet another episode that started off fine, at the hotel, but turned into a truly unrealistic kangaroo court that went off the rails before it even started. By the end, if you can call that an ending, you're left scratching your head wondering several things.
Mainly, how did Boone stomach this episode? Every time Lupino touches an episode, she puts Paladin in a different light. It's as if she hates how Warner Brothers continually shut her down and suspended her for her self absorbed elitist demands, that from then on out, she had to take it out on every man she directed. As in this episode, you feel her presence of the saying, "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." Poor Richard Boone looked so miserable from the very beginning at the hotel. I wonder if he thinks his fans are wondering if his character needs to see a psychiatrist for all the personalities he's having to portray. Yes, this is inherent with this many writers and directors, but usually they act as a team and keep the main character or characters somewhat on the same line throughout a series. Somewhat like a cart has four wheels and they all work together to keep the cart going in a correct path, Ida acts like that one bent wheel on a shopping cart. When Lupino is at the helm of this show, she not only spins the wheel, she tries to shipwreck the whole theme of the show.
True, Hollywood, at the time, was not about equality. I get it. I Love Lucy was the only show with a woman in charge completely, and it didn't even put women in a good light there. There were no female led dramas. Most woman were relegated to be the second banana to a male lead. Sadly, Have Gun Will Travel shouldn't have been one of those shows where feminine socialism had the helm.
Others may call me out for singling out Lupino episodes, but the credits don't come until the end. I didn't go in search of Lupino episodes to bash. I watch them, and at some point, usually from the start, or from the first twist, you just know it. Then the credits role. Sure enough, it's Ida. Something doesn't feel right. It's not like it was necessarily written badly, which this one was, or it wasn't like it was filled with bad actors. No, it felt like everyone hated showing up to work that day. It felt like the cast was bitter towards each other.
Could it also be that Lupino leaned heavily on her English background as well? Could it be she just didn't understand the American west genre? Whatever the case, she turns Paladin into a blathering fool, a rabid dog, or a disgusted human being who probably didn't want to be involved with her liberal socialism that day. True, she's left us, and this isn't a judgement on her. It's just a to the bone dissection of an episode that never should have happened.
If you're a fan of the show like me, watch it. Take the bad with good. If you just want to be curious, go ahead and watch it. If you only want to watch episodes with a good Palsin portrayal, skip this.
But the worst part is Ida Lupino's directing skills. I don't know if she had something on the series creators, Boone, the production company, or what. Maybe someone or all had a warm spot for her from her earlier acting career in the film noir genre.
The problem is with Ida Lupino is that she was the only prominent female writer or director of film noir in the 50s, and that she did everything purpose built with a social message. Sadly, Paladin is not supposed to be a social message character. Have Gun Will Travel should have never been a platform for her brand of liberal socialism and proto feminism. A late 1800s era western that families watched and boys admired should not have been a test bed for her fantasy revisionist history style.
This is yet another episode that started off fine, at the hotel, but turned into a truly unrealistic kangaroo court that went off the rails before it even started. By the end, if you can call that an ending, you're left scratching your head wondering several things.
Mainly, how did Boone stomach this episode? Every time Lupino touches an episode, she puts Paladin in a different light. It's as if she hates how Warner Brothers continually shut her down and suspended her for her self absorbed elitist demands, that from then on out, she had to take it out on every man she directed. As in this episode, you feel her presence of the saying, "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." Poor Richard Boone looked so miserable from the very beginning at the hotel. I wonder if he thinks his fans are wondering if his character needs to see a psychiatrist for all the personalities he's having to portray. Yes, this is inherent with this many writers and directors, but usually they act as a team and keep the main character or characters somewhat on the same line throughout a series. Somewhat like a cart has four wheels and they all work together to keep the cart going in a correct path, Ida acts like that one bent wheel on a shopping cart. When Lupino is at the helm of this show, she not only spins the wheel, she tries to shipwreck the whole theme of the show.
True, Hollywood, at the time, was not about equality. I get it. I Love Lucy was the only show with a woman in charge completely, and it didn't even put women in a good light there. There were no female led dramas. Most woman were relegated to be the second banana to a male lead. Sadly, Have Gun Will Travel shouldn't have been one of those shows where feminine socialism had the helm.
Others may call me out for singling out Lupino episodes, but the credits don't come until the end. I didn't go in search of Lupino episodes to bash. I watch them, and at some point, usually from the start, or from the first twist, you just know it. Then the credits role. Sure enough, it's Ida. Something doesn't feel right. It's not like it was necessarily written badly, which this one was, or it wasn't like it was filled with bad actors. No, it felt like everyone hated showing up to work that day. It felt like the cast was bitter towards each other.
Could it also be that Lupino leaned heavily on her English background as well? Could it be she just didn't understand the American west genre? Whatever the case, she turns Paladin into a blathering fool, a rabid dog, or a disgusted human being who probably didn't want to be involved with her liberal socialism that day. True, she's left us, and this isn't a judgement on her. It's just a to the bone dissection of an episode that never should have happened.
If you're a fan of the show like me, watch it. Take the bad with good. If you just want to be curious, go ahead and watch it. If you only want to watch episodes with a good Palsin portrayal, skip this.
Over in the U. S., you had your comedy westerns, in Italy, many of the spaghetti westerns were touched with comedy, so when kung-fu movies became a dime a dozen, and Bruce Lee clones, Jackie Chan cheese clones, and drunken beggar So clones became passé, the kung-fu genre needed a break every once in a while, and so the Shaw Brothers gave us breezy, unforced humor (unlike Jackie Chan's cliché forced humor, not all serious and outrageous acrobatics, and with a tidy little story to boot. It's nice to see a kung-fu classic where the whole introduction isn't choreographed nonsense and the whole story is about, isn't my kung-fu is stronger or better than yours, isn't an ending where the good guy is in mid kick or mid punch delivering the death blow to the bad guy, etc. Yes, this movie has your standard stock actors you see in hundreds of other kung-fu movies of the time. There are some truly memorable people in this film who make it that much more enjoyable. For reference, think of a low budget version of James Garner's Support Your Local Sheriff, just kung-fu and a little breezier. Almost a little every western where a nobody or a couple of nobodies come into town and save the town from the bully lecherous group. And these two heroes are some of the least unlikely. I'd rather watch this than another Disney/Star Wars/Marvel/Pixar clone/remake movie.