It was only a matter of time before a Hollywood company westernized the great Japanese film Seven Samurai. An instant classic when it made its debut in 1954, Akira Kurosawa’s masterwork came to America in late 1956, largely seen in […]
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Discussions of movie series
The Magnificent Seven (1960) ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Featuring a great cast and perhaps the greatest western movie score ever written (by Elmer Bernstein), The Magnificent Seven is a genuine American classic (based, of course, on the Japanese classic Seven Samurai). Like other films that attained classic status, […]
Continue reading »Return of the Seven (1966) ☆ ☆
It took six years for the Mirisch Company to formulate and produce a sequel to its original hit. During those six years the original film gradually found an audience, partly because its younger stars, as well as Yul Brynner, found […]
Continue reading »Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969) ☆ ☆ 1/2
The third entry in this — unusual — western series is, essentially, a remake of the first one. Nine years after the original, three years after the second adventure, the Mirisch Company tried again. Set in Mexico again (but shot […]
Continue reading »The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972) ☆ ☆ 1/2
The fourth and final film in the original Mirisch Company series takes a very different slant to the familiar formula. Three years after his last south-of-the-border adventure, Chris Adams is faced with another one — but this time he turns […]
Continue reading »The Magnificent Seven series: Epilogue
So it turns out that even though Seven is the keynote number to each film, the key number to this series is one, one being Chris Adams. He is the only character to appear in more than two films, and […]
Continue reading »The Nancy Drew Mysteries: Overview
This article, and those that follow, initially appeared in Filmbobbery, Volume 9, Issue 1 (Summer, 2007). That should explain any references to other pages and articles. With the recent success of Nancy Drew this summer (my review of it is […]
Continue reading »Nancy Drew — Detective (1938) ☆ ☆ ☆
The first Nancy Drew feature establishes the locale as River Heights, Missouri, where Nancy goes to school at the Brinwood School for Girls. When the elderly dowager who is going to endow the school with a gift (for what the […]
Continue reading »Nancy Drew . . . Reporter (1939) ☆ ☆
The weakest series entry is the second one, Nancy Drew . . . Reporter (1939), with an ellipsis instead of dashes in the title. Why the change? As Geoffrey Rush might say, it’s a mystery. However, the third films also […]
Continue reading »Nancy Drew . . . Trouble Shooter (1939) ☆ ☆ 1/2
With this entry, the series seemed to turn more comic in tone. Ted continues to be the butt of jokes even while he follows Nancy into trouble and helps her escape it. Oddly, however, there’s no romantic feeling from him […]
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