FILM FRENZY

The poster art for Dr. Who & the Daleks (Photo: Severin)

By Matt Brunson

(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray, 4K and DVD. Ratings are on a four-star scale.)

DR. WHO & THE DALEKS (1965) / DALEKS’ INVASION EARTH 2150 A.D. (1966). To date, there have been 14 versions of The Doctor since Doctor Who first premiered on the BBC in 1963, but there had only been one (played by William Hartnell) when an attempt was made to create a trio of corresponding theatrical films. But while the first picture was a modest success, the second was a flop, and plans for a third entry were abandoned. There are several notable differences between the movie and TV versions, with the main discrepancy (well, other than the movies being in color while the show was in black-and-white) being that the small-screen Doctor is an extra-terrestrial Time Lord while the theatrical one is a kindly human inventor. Peter Cushing portrays the cinematic scientist, seen in Dr. Who & the Daleks traveling with his granddaughters Susan (Roberta Tovey) and Barbara (Jennie Linden) and Barbara’s klutzy boyfriend Ian (Roy Castle) to a distant planet where he becomes involved in a centuries-long skirmish between the brutal Daleks and the peaceful Thals. Cushing is back for more doctor duty in Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., this time journeying to the future alongside Susan (Tovey), his niece Louise (Jill Curzon), and an affable constable (Bernard Cribbins), only to find our planet overrun by destructive Daleks. The first film is pitched directly at small children, but it works on that level, and it further benefits from a vibrant color scheme that’s easy on — and engaging to — the eyes. The sequel is more adult-oriented but less interesting, with a clutter of characters and less overall emphasis on the Doctor and the Daleks.

The two films are available on 4K and Blu-ray individually or as part of a double feature release titled Total Extermination: The Peter Cushing Doctor Who Collection. Extras on Dr. Who & the Daleks include audio commentary by Linden and Tovey; film historian audio commentary; the 1995 documentary Dalekmania; and separate interviews with director Gordon Flemyng, producer Milton Subotsky, and author Gareth Owen (The Shepperton Story). Extras on Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. include film historian audio commentary; separate interviews with Cribbins, Subotsky, and Owen; and a look at the movie’s restoration.

Dr. Who & the Daleks: ★★½

Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.: ★★

ENTERTAINING MR. SLOANE (1970). This adaptation of controversial playwright Joe Orton’s 1964 stage show retains its creator’s liberal application of outrageous black comedy in service of his intricate, dead-frog dissections of hypocrisy, immorality, and sexuality. Peter McEnery plays the title deadbeat, a manipulative pretty boy who captures the fancy of both middle-aged nymphomaniac Kath (Beryl Reid) and her closeted homosexual brother Ed (Harry Andrews). This causes much distress to the siblings’ elderly father (Alan Webb), who remembers Sloane as the lad who killed his boss years earlier. The laughs are of the barbed-wire variety, and the commitment of its quartet of performers is admirable — this is especially true of Reid, working without a net as the repugnant floozie who’s introduced (in close-up, no less) slobbering all over a phallic popsicle. The movie was released three years after a 34-year-old Orton was beaten to death by his boyfriend Kenneth Halliwell (who immediately committed suicide) — for an interesting double feature that both entertains and educates, catch this in tandem with 1987’s Prick Up Your Ears, starring Gary Oldman as Orton and Alfred Molina as Halliwell.

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by film historian Nathaniel Thompson and Orton scholar Dr. Emma Parker; an archival interview with McEnery; a look at the various adaptations of the play over the years, with comments from Malcolm McDowell and Grease 2’s Maxwell Caulfield (who have both played Mr. Sloane on stage, McDowell in 1975 in London and Caulfield Off Broadway in 1982); an interview with author John Lahr (Prick Up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton); and a piece on Reid.

Movie: ★★★

FIREWALL (2006). This tired thriller stars Harrison Ford as Jack Stanfield, a bank executive responsible for creating the computer programs that prevent the facility from ever getting hacked. But when British bandit Bill Cox (Paul Bettany) and his gang of techies snatch Jack’s wife (Virginia Madsen) and their two children, our hero has no choice but to aid them in their scheme to siphon millions of dollars from the accounts of the bank’s wealthiest clients. This in turn puts Jack on the run, although this time he doesn’t have to worry about Tommy Lee Jones being hot on his trail. Nothing about the earthy Ford screams “computer whiz,” so the scenes in which he’s hunched over a keyboard figuring out how to use spare parts from an iPod and a fax machine to help him achieve his goals fail to convince. Yet they’re no more preposterous than the action sequences in which he must scale down the side of a tall building like Spider-Man or swing a mean pickax behind his back to take down a kidnapper. Madsen finds herself relegated to cheerleader status as her character has nothing to do except wait to get saved by her hubby — she doesn’t even warrant an Anne Archer moment to call her own. Bettany appears to be having fun as the baddie, although he’s a lightweight compared to Alan Rickman’s similarly overreaching cad in Die Hard. As for Ford, it’s almost painful to watch him going through the motions here. The twinkle of mischievousness and sprinkle of levity that he brought to many of his most memorable films — even the dramas like The Fugitive and Witness — were mostly MIA by this point, replaced by a cranky fatigue that’s difficult to watch and impossible to enjoy.

There are no DVD extras.

Movie: ★½

JACK THE RIPPER (1959). While the 2001 Jack the Ripper film From Hell remains woefully underrated, this 1959 take on London’s notorious serial killer falls more into the underseen camp. A British production that was brought stateside by prolific producer Joseph E. Levine, it’s similar to the Johnny Depp picture in that it also subscribes to the popular theory that the man who was murdering Whitechapel prostitutes in grisly fashion was actually a person with medical knowledge — most likely a doctor. Thus, the suspects are plentiful in this version, as there’s the grouchy Dr. Tranter (John Le Mesurier), the pompous Dr. Rogers (Ewen Solon), the friendly Dr. Urquhart (Garard Green), and, in the best monster-movie tradition, their facially scarred hunchback assistant, Louis Benz (Endre Muller). Scotland Yard’s Inspector O’Neill (Eddie Byrne) isn’t having much luck cracking the case, so his friend Sam Lowry (Lee Patterson), an American detective, arrives to lend a hand. With an intelligent script by Hammer mainstay Jimmy Sangster (Horror of Dracula), an appropriately oppressive atmosphere, and a clever denouement, this remains one of the finest Ripper films to date.

Severin’s 4K + Blu-ray edition of Jack the Ripper contains the U.S. and European versions of the film — oddly missing is the U.K. cut that was featured in Severin’s earlier Blu-ray release. (For those keeping track, the European version includes some nudity but less gore, the U.K. version similarly goes lighter on the gore but has no nudity, and the U.S. version also has no nudity yet not only ramps up the gore but also contains one gruesome color shot in an otherwise black-and-white film.) Extras include audio commentary by Sangster, co-director Robert S. Baker, and assistant director Peter Manley; an interview with author Denis Meikle (Jack the Ripper: The Murders and the Movies); and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★★½

A MINECRAFT MOVIE (2025). It figures that one of the two best video game adaptations to date, 2021’s Werewolves Within, only grossed $990,000 (and that’s globally!) while the other, 2023’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, was a notorious box office underachiever — meanwhile, one mediocrity after another manages to earn millions upon billions upon gazillions. Like 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, here’s a money machine that, despite its bright CGI palette, feels oddly colorless, a condition brought about by spiritless storytelling and monotonous characterizations. As Steve, the master crafter who discovers the cubic Overworld and later helps four other humans navigate their way through this tricky landscape, Jack Black brings his usual manic energy to the role, but is there anything fresh left in his repertoire of tics and tactics? Jason Mamoa plays against superhero type as the loser-at-life Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison, but there’s little in the part that breaks away from the standard man-child persona beloved by modern cinema. And here’s a movie that has absolutely no use for women — you can tell because while the characters played by Mamoa, Black, and Sebastian Hansen (faring best as a bright kid named Henry) all are gifted personalities (albeit threadbare ones) as well as personal quests to carry out and conflicts to conquer, the characters essayed by Emma Myers (as Henry’s sister Natalie) and The Color Purple Oscar nominee Danielle Brooks (as real estate agent Dawn) are offensively nondescript, just a handful of steps above the level of extras. The uniqueness of the blocky effects (based, of course, on the video game) manages to maintain some interest, but the film’s creativity begins and ends with its look.

Blu-ray extras include a handful of behind-the-scenes featurettes, including pieces on the visual effects and the cast.

Movie: ★★

THE MONKEY (2025). As the son of Anthony Perkins, who died of AIDS, and Berry Berenson, who died on American Airlines Flight 11 on 9/11, it’s understandable that writer-director Oz Perkins would use his horror films as a cathartic way to work through heavy issues. That’s reportedly what he did with this adaption of a Stephen King short story, and here’s hoping it helped. But some viewers might have a hard time latching onto The Monkey, which attempts to examine the inevitability and unpredictability of death but smothers all reflections with generous dollops of broad humor and outlandish gore. Twin boys Hal and Bill Shelburn (both played by Christian Convery) discover a toy monkey among the possessions left behind by the father (Adam Scott) who abandoned them — it’s soon revealed that whenever the monkey beats its drum, someone will suffer a gruesome death (a beheading, a horse stampede, and so on). The boys get rid of the toy, only to find it reappearing 25 years later. As the killings resume, the adult Hal and the adult Bill (both played by Theo James) take different approaches in tackling the crisis. The dialogue is lively and the thematic undercurrents (particularly the ones related to brotherly love — or the lack thereof) intriguing, but the jokey tone and the endless use of cartoony CGI prevent this from qualifying as little more than a garish freak show.

Blu-ray extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes and trailers.

Movie: ★★½

NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS (1974). Ingmar Bergman’s Oscar-winning 1960 Swedish drama The Virgin Spring, in which three peasants rape and murder a teenage girl and then unwittingly end up at the home of her vengeance-minded father (Max von Sydow), remains a powerful examination of Old Testament ire coupled with New Testament redemption, as well as a penetrating examination of the manner in which faith can alternately confound and comfort those seeking spiritual guidance. Trust that hack Wes Craven, then, to completely miss any and all points when he made his debut 12 years later with The Last House on the Left, a wretched (if influential) update in which not one but two teenagers are violated and slaughtered before the folks exact their revenge on the creeps responsible. Preferring to wallow in cruelty and misogyny (as was his norm), Craven removed all the nuance and meaning coursing through Bergman’s original and replaced it with unrelenting sadism, resulting in such similarly controversial (but far, far superior) flicks like Night of the Living Dead, The Exorcist, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre seeming as nonthreatening as Little Lord Fauntleroy by comparison. Night Train Murders (aka Last Stop on the Night Train, aka Late Night Trains, aka Torture Train, aka, har har, Second House on the Left) is Italy’s own take on the Craven snuff film, with the most of the proceedings switched to, well, take a guess. This one is more competently made and better acted than its one-star predecessor, and it’s almost as off-putting, with so much time spent on the torture that the dad’s revenge is almost an afterthought. Director Aldo Lado fared much better with his earlier thriller, Short Night of Glass Dolls (recently reviewed here).

4K + Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by Lado and interviews with co-stars Macha Méril, Gianfranco De Grassi, and Irene Miracle. A CD of Ennio Morricone’s score is also offered.

Movie: ★½

NOVOCAINE (2025). Jack Quaid, so memorable in this past winter’s Companion (reviewed here), is just as accomplished here, delivering a winsome performance as a guy who literally cannot feel pain. Suffering from a condition called (checking my notes) congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA), Nathan Caine can’t chew solid foods for fear of biting his own tongue off and has to set his watch every three hours so his bladder doesn’t burst without his knowledge. Nicknamed “Novocaine” years ago by school bullies, he leads a lonely life, working as an assistant manager at a San Diego bank but otherwise spending all hours playing computer games, usually with his Internet friend Roscoe (no fair revealing the actor, since it’s a nice surprise when he finally shows up in the flesh). It’s therefore a shock when newish employee Sherry Margrave (Amber Midthunder) shows an interest in him — they get acquainted, go out on a date, sleep together … and then she’s taken hostage by a trio of violent bank robbers. Nathan decides to rescue her rather than wait for police assistance, piecing together clues to determine their hiding place and taking an awful lot of beatings along the way. The opening act, detailing the romance between Nathan and Sherry, is so sweetly handled that we almost wish this were simply a love story. That changes once the crooks show up — from there, the film is one big adrenaline rush, marked by some sharply choreographed fight sequences, goosed by a major plot twist, and anchored by Quaid’s disarming turn. The movie overplays its hand with one climax too many, but overall it’s one of the better action flicks of recent vintage.

There are no DVD extras.

Movie: ★★★

ST. ELMO’S FIRE (1985). Maybe it’s because I was in college when St. Elmo’s Fire was originally released, or maybe it’s because my comparable age at the time prevented me from taking a condescending stance toward the so-called “Brat Pack,” as most older critics did. Whatever the reason, I found a lot to like (and still do) in this look at life A.C. (After College). Many reviewers at the time slammed the movie for being fussy, unfocused, and self-important, completely missing the point that these are the very same qualities often attributed to college-age kids who form a façade of cocky confidence in an effort to mask their foibles and insecurities as they prepare to venture out into the real world. As an actor, Andrew McCarthy may have gone absolutely nowhere over the long haul, but here he’s pretty great as a cynical writer unlucky in love, and he’s ably supported by most of his co-stars: The Substance comeback queen Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez (quite amusing as he pines for an early-in-her-career Andie MacDowell), Ally Sheedy (appealing as always), Mare Winningham, even Rob Lowe (only Judd Nelson is miscast). This produced two hit singles in John Parr’s “Man In Motion (St. Elmo’s Fire),” which made it to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and David Foster’s instrumental “Love Theme From St. Elmo’s Fire,” which peaked at 15; the music also earned a Grammy nomination for Best Album of Original Score (Motion Picture) and a pair of nods for Foster’s love theme.

Extras in the 4K + Digital edition include audio commentary by writer-director Joel Schumacher (who co-scripted with Carl Kurlander); a vintage making-of featurette; 12 deleted scenes; and the music video for Parr’s “Man in Motion.”

Movie: ★★★

THE WEDDING BANQUET (2025). The Wedding Banquet is a remake of Ang Lee’s same-named Taiwanese film from 1993, an utterly charming comedy that earned an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign-Language Film (check out the review here). What’s interesting is that James Schamus, who co-wrote the original with Lee and Neil Peng, penned this new one as well, sharing scripting duties with its director, Andrew Ahn. But Schamus didn’t merely dust off his old script and hand it to Ahn for his approval — instead, the two men have added an entire new subplot to the principal storyline that complements the proceedings. Bowen Yang is Chris, a Seattle resident whose five-year relationship with Korean student Min (Han Gi-Chan) is threatened when Min’s stern grandmother Ja-Young (Minari Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung) orders him to return to Korea to take over the family business. In an effort to fool the grandmother and keep Min in the U.S., a plot is devised where Min will marry an American woman named Angela Chen (Kelly Marie Tran). So far, so same. What’s different is that this picture gives Angela a girlfriend in Lee (Lily Gladstone), who’s desperate to have a child but has had little luck with IVF. This deepens — and threatens — the relationships, since all four are good friends (they live on the same property) and there’s some knotty history there. The generational material isn’t as strongly realized as in the original, and Joan Chen’s role as Angela’s mother and all-around LGBTQ ally often feels superfluous (Angela’s worry that she will turn out like her spotlight-stealing mom is the least interesting element in the film). But the dialogue is witty, the acting is superlative, and the warm glow is all-embracing.

There are no Blu-ray extras.

Movie: ★★★

THE WIZ (1978). An all-black adaptation of the L. Frank Baum classic, The Wiz was a Broadway hit, playing for four years and winning seven Tony Awards (including Best Musical). The film version, on the other hand, was a flop, earning mostly tepid reviews, failing to make back its budget, and giving white Hollywood a reason not to finance any more all-black movies. Yet it’s nevertheless a landmark production, embraced by many Blacks for its unique take on the African-American experience and for its gathering of so many generational icons (including Lena Horne as Glinda and Richard Pryor as the Wiz). Sidney Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon) had never helmed a musical, but he was renowned for capturing New York City on film like few others, and his fantasyland, with a Big Apple rising in the sky instead of a sun, looks just right. Unfortunately, scripter Joel Schumacher tossed out William F. Brown’s book for the stage show and went his own way, which is where many of the problems manifest. Basically a schmaltzy tutorial on self-confidence and “I can do anything!” bromides, the film somewhat overrides this flaw (as well as some leaden new songs) with perfect casting in the supporting ranks and some eye-popping set-pieces. As a trembling, timid, 24-year-old Dorothy, 34-year-old Diana Ross has the pipes for the part but not necessarily the personality — she’s awkward and unconvincing throughout. But Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, Nipsey Russell (a longtime fave) as the Tin Man, Ted Ross (imported from Broadway) as the Cowardly Lion, and Mabel King (also from B’way) as Evillene The Wicked Witch of the West are marvelous, with King landing the  best musical number, “Don’t Nobody Bring Me No Bad News.” This earned a quartet of Oscar nominations for its cinematography, costume design, art direction, and Quincy Jones’ adaptation score.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray edition include film scholar audio commentary and archival interviews with Lumet and Ross.

Movie: ★★½

FILM CLIPS

THE DARK HALF (1993). Based on the Stephen King novel, The Dark Half stars Timothy Hutton as Thad Beaumont, a scholarly author who elects to “kill” his more successful alter ego — George Stark, writer of sex-and-blood potboilers — only to discover that his pseudonymous creation (also Hutton) truly exists and is partaking in his own killing spree. The film is well-cast and nicely photographed by Howards End lenser Tony Pierce-Roberts, but Romero’s direction is atypically listless, and the supernatural aspects are never explained in a satisfactory manner. For a better film about a “dark half,” check out David Cronenberg’s 1988 Dead Ringers, featuring a pair of knockout performances by Jeremy Irons.

4K extras include audio commentary by Romero; a making-of featurette; an interview with Pierce-Roberts; deleted scenes; behind-the-scenes footage; and storyboards.

Movie: ★★

A WORKING MAN (2025). It’s Jason Statham doing what Jason Statham does best: kicking ass and not bothering to take names, and shooting first and not bothering to ask questions later. It should be noted that he’s no worse (and perhaps a tad better) at this sort of thing than such fellow vigilantes as Liam Neeson and Sylvester Stallone (who receives screenplay credit here alongside director David Ayer). Statham is Levon Cade, a construction worker who learns that the grown daughter (Arianna Rivas) of his kind boss (Michael Peña) has been snatched by Russian sex traffickers. It’s a good thing Levon was formerly a special ops commando rather than, say, a grocery store manager or a high school janitor or a lowly film critic! As usual, there’s some effective action, some convoluted plotting, and lots of gruffness.

As with the home release of the last film from Staham and Ayer, 2024’s The Beekeeper (reviewed here), there are no Blu-ray extras.

Movie: ★★½

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM

DEMOLITION (2016). With Demolition, viewers are once again expected to feel sorry for a pampered, well-to-do white guy who can’t feel anything for anyone else. Here, it’s Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal), who ends up in a dazed and confused state after his wife (Heather Lind) is killed in a car accident. Much to the anger of his father-in-law (Chris Cooper), Davis is no longer sure what he feels about anything, but he does come to realize that he didn’t love his wife. He begins sending a flurry of letters to an unlikely recipient — it’s a narrative device that was also seen in About Schmidt, only here the sender actually gets to meet the person receiving his missives. That would be Karen Moreno (Naomi Watts), a single mom dealing with a troubled, foul-mouthed son (Judah Lewis) and maintaining a dreary relationship of convenience with a drab co-worker (C.J. Wilson). Director Jean-Marc Vallée, whose previous two films (Wild and Dallas Buyers Club) had both made my 10 Best lists in their respective years, finds himself working from a shakier script this time around, with writer Bryan Sipe cramming his pages with all manner of silly incidents that might best be described as precious. But wipe away all the clichéd clutter and there’s actually a worthy story here, an affecting tale of a man who has to deconstruct his life in order to put it back together in a way that makes sense. Gyllenhaal adds to his gallery of enigmatic and emotionally repressed characters with another dazzling performance — he’s never less than terrific, even in those moments when the movie surrounding him threatens to completely collapse.

Movie: ★★½

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940). After he had made a number of classics in his native Britain, Hollywood finally got around to importing Alfred Hitchcock to contribute to its own film heritage. He came charging out of the gate with two 1940 gems that still delight today: first Rebecca and then Foreign Correspondent. The latter casts dependable Joel McCrea as reporter John Jones, who’s sent to Europe to report on the rumors that a war might be brewing. His assignment takes him to both London and Amsterdam, and it also introduces him to a pair of fellow journalists, the wry ffolliott (George Sanders, and yes, his character name is spelled with a lowercase “f”) and the jocular Stebbins (Robert Benchley). It also places him in the company of Carol Fisher (Laraine Day), the daughter of the head (Herbert Marshall) of a peace organization, but any wooing eventually gets put on the back burner once an important dignitary (Albert Bassermann) is assassinated and Jones stumbles across a major conspiracy. Foreign Correspondent contains no small measure of stunning set-pieces — the killer’s dash through a sea of umbrellas, a mysterious windmill that turns against the wind, a spectacular airplane crash into the ocean — and while Bassermann earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for a somewhat hammy turn, the best performance actually comes from Sanders, atypically cast as a fearless and resourceful hero rather than the cads and scoundrels he generally played. This earned six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay; it was beaten in that first category by, yup, Hitchcock’s Rebecca.

Movie: ★★★½

MYSTERIOUS SKIN (2005). Neil McCormick (Chase Ellison) knew he was gay as far back as the age of eight, when he would get off on watching the in-the-moment reactions of the boyfriends his single mom (Elisabeth Shue) would bring home for sexual fulfillment. Brian Lackey (George Webster), on the other hand, was more typical for his age, a blank slate merely interested in innocuous childhood pursuits. How these boys’ lives are shaped by their molestation at the hands of their Little League coach (Bill Sage) drives this drama. Attracted to his handsome, smiling coach, 8-year-old Neil is ripe for seduction, and this leads to an eventual teenage existence as a gay prostitute (now played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who services older men on the streets of his Kansas hometown. Little Brian is molested twice by Coach, but he remembers nothing about either encounter; as he moves further into his teen years (now played by Brady Corbet), he becomes convinced that during those blackout periods, he must have been abducted by aliens. Neil is cold, cynical, and sexually reckless, while Brian is timid, confused, and obviously asexual. Yet despite their radically different lifestyles, it becomes clear that these two kids must come together again if they’re to have any chance of addressing their collective demons from the past. Writer-director Gregg Araki has a history of shocking audiences with his indie efforts, yet by choosing to adapt someone else’s work (Scott Heim’s book of the same name), he locates a gentleness within his own art, crafting a deeply moving film that examines the betrayal of childhood innocence as well as the fallibility of roiling memories.

Movie: ★★★

VIGILANTE FORCE (1976). Considering its eye-catching cast and a workable premise, this ranks as a real disappointment, with writer-director George Armitage content to churn out drive-in yahoo fare rather than craft anything with any sort of staying power. The picture opens like a modern-day Western, with a small California community being subjected to all manner of lawlessness after an oil strike brings numerous rowdy rednecks to town. Desperate, the mayor (Brad Dexter) and police chief (Judson Pratt) ask respectable citizen Ben Arnold (Jan-Michael Vincent) to contact his brother Aaron (Kris Kristofferson), the town black sheep as well as a Vietnam vet, and see if he and his friends can restore order to the community. That they do, but they replace the trouble with their own brand of criminal activity, including gambling, robbery, and murder. The performances by Kristofferson and especially Vincent are so aloof that it seems like the actors were never even properly introduced, let alone able to convince us that their characters are supposed to be siblings. But the supporting cast is interesting for its trio of talents who would soon hit it huge on television: Victoria Principal (Dallas) as Ben’s girlfriend, David Doyle (Charlie’s Angels) as the bank manager, and an uncredited Loni Anderson (WKRP in Cincinnati) as a saloon girl named Peaches. Not surprisingly, the best emoting comes from future Broadway superstar Bernadette Peters, cast as an aspiring singer who becomes Aaron’s kept woman. The climactic battle between Aaron’s thugs and the good townspeople is embarrassing to behold.

Movie: ★½