Blue
In the annals of '60s Westerns (a genre and time-period I discussed briefly in the Johnny Reno review below) Blue (1968) is one of the era's oddest. And though I can't attest to watching every Western cranked out in the 1960's, it surely has to be one of the worst.
And I really hate to say this as I generally love watching actor Terence Stamp (especially '60s Stamp who so impressed in films like Poor Cow and The Collector). But he's all wrong here--stilted to the point of silliness and labored in his Western-ness. Stamp is a Brit through and through--and one with such a beautiful voice that you hate to see him mangle it here. The film is also weirdly shot, sometimes lovely, perhaps by accident (by Stanley Cortez) and features the painfully gorgeous Joanna Pettet, one of those creatures who seem to have only emerged, Venus like, from the 1960S (why don't women look like this anymore?)
Directed by Silvio Narizzano (who also did Georgy Girl--a far better movie), the picture tells the story of Blue (Stamp) a Yankee raised by an outlaw adoptive father named Ortega (Ricardo Montalban) who led the gang Blue rode with. But when Blue is wounded during a take-down on a small Texan settlement, he's treated so nicely by the sweet Doctor Martin (Karl Malden) and his beautiful daughter (Pettet--how she could have come from Malden's mug is a mystery) that the redemptive powers of good folk make him a changed man. So what to do when the gang rides back?
Well, I guess you can imagine, but I'll leave it at that. A supposedly gritty but finally sappy and flat out strange picture, Blue will leave you just as the title states.
Paramount present Blue in a nice widescreen transfer enhanced for 16:9 television. The fine audio comes in Dolby Digital English mono. No extras. Release Date: May 17.
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