TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING (1977)

[Update 08/29/2021: I just added some newspaper clippings and after reading the review...I really want to go back and watch this film again! Maybe update some screenshots also.]

As a child growing up in the early 1980's, I loved (and still love) those overly dramatic Cold War thrillers where America and the USSR nearly go to war or where Russia invades America.  I had hopes that TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING was going to be such a film, but I quickly discovered that instead of those evil Ruskies being the bad guys it's actually Burt Lancaster as the bad guy!!!  It seems Burt was once a highly regarded soldier, but when he wouldn't shut up about the injustice of the Vietnam War, the military "railroaded" him and threw him into prison on some bullshit charges.  Now he's escaped (before the beginning of the film...how lazy of the filmmakers) and quickly takes over a nuclear missile compound that houses nine missiles that are all aimed at Russia.

This set up could lead to all kinds of interest, edge-of-your-seat thrills like the Russians finding out about it and threatening to strike first or maybe some super exciting attempts at breaking into the control room.  But no, instead the Russians are barely even mentioned and the portrayal of the soldiers trying to get into the control looks like something out of an Apple Dumpling Gang movie!  Just to give you an idea of how bad it is: they have John Ratzenberger (Cliff Clavin from Cheers) as one of the elite military soldiers.  Yeah.

So that leaves us with the negotiations.  They're not too bad.  The heated confrontations between Lancaster and Richard Widmark are the highlight of the movie.  I also enjoyed listening to Joseph Cotten.  The others were passable.  And as far as Charles Durning as the United States President goes, he was good, but he's nowhere as impressive as Rock Hudson in the superior WORLD WAR III.

Overall, TLG is an interesting historical timepiece, but it's kinda surprising this film was actually released in the theaters!  I have no idea how wide the release was (according to Wikipedia it lost money), but it honestly looks like a made-for-TV movie.  There are many "goofs" throughout the movie and the 2 1/2 hour running time is totally uncalled for with the material showed onscreen.

I am curious (Yellow) if Richard Widmark wore the exact same uniform a year later in THE SWARM?

IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (1963)

What is there not to love about the epic comedy IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD?  In the opening scene Jimmy Durante goes sailing, just sailing, over a ridge next to a desert road.  Some fellow motorists pull over to see if they can help, but he's too far gone.  In his last moments right before he kicks the bucket he tells those gathered around about a treasure of 350 big ones buried 200 miles away underneath "a big W".  The witnesses dismiss it as the ravings of a dying man...but maybe it's true.  Couldn't hurt to check it out.  What follows next is the psychopathic rampage of a bunch of nuts who will stop at nothing to be the first person to the big W.  Also, since the cops don't know where the money is they decide, for whatever stupid reason, to allow these maniacs to destroy half of Southern California to see where the money is.

IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD is probably the greatest epic comedy of all time.  I can't think of anything funnier and with such an impressive cast.  The blazing pace, the comic timing, the lines, the scenery, the vehicles and more familiar faces than I even want to name!  It's more than you can take in in just one viewing.  Maybe even more than in a couple of viewings.  If you are at all interested in the classic comic actors/actresses of the 1930's - 1960's then IAMMMMW is a excellent starting point.  Just studying the names involved with this film alone will keep you busy for ages.  My only complaint is Jack Benny didn't have a bigger role...but then again his five word cameo is one of the funniest scenes in the movie.  Every time I think about his expression after she yells at him I crack up.   Why, oh why, didn't the movie gods see fit to have Ethel Merman and Jack Benny in a movie together?!!

Anyway, IAMMMMW is great movie that I think is hysterically funny.  Highly recommended.  Also, even though I appreciate the expanded 197-minute version on the Criterion Blu-ray, I actually prefer the quicker paced 163-minute version.

I seriously love this movie.

[Update: This has absolutely nothing to do with the review, but if you think about it...the relationship between the characters played by Jonathan Winters and Phil Silvers are kinda like The Terminator and Sarah Connor. Or even a slasher killer (Michael Myers, for example) and the final girl (Laurie Strode).