Blaze

Description

Academy Award(R)-winner Paul Newman (1986 Best Actor, THE COLOR OF MONEY) scorches the screen in this hilarious, sexy comedy from the creator of BULL DURHAM. Newman stars as a fiery, eccentric governor who falls head over heels in love with the dazzling Blaze Starr (Lolita Davidovich, PLAY IT FOR THE BONE), an innocent New Orleans stripper with a heart of gold. Forced to choose between the office he holds and the woman he loves, he chooses both ... igniting an outrageous scandal full of trouble, tenderness, and sexy high-spirited fun! Critically acclaimed, this sizzling tale delivers the year's most entertaining look at an offbeat love story!

Customer Reviews:

"Blaze" is Outstanding!.......2007-02-07

A wonderful performance by Paul Newman (as always!). The movie actually sweeps a person along so that one feels as if they are living in the era. A Must See!

Politics, Scandalous, & Sexy!.......2006-07-10

Politics, scandalous affair, and sexy-what more could you want??! Seriously, I enjoyed this film alot. I did not judge this as a documentary or biography. It is noted in the credits that this is "based on Miss Starrs memoirs". This is a story of a poor West Virginia gal who becomes the glamorous burlesque stripper Blaze Starr and her relationship with Governor Earl Long. Lolita Davidovich does a great job as Blaze and she is very sexy! Paul Newman is awesome as Governor Earl Long. Blaze may be naive to the ways of the world but learns to look out for herself. Gov. Long is a wheeler dealer who is a smart politician and outsmarts his opponents. I thought this film was very good and enjoyed it immensely. Entertaining and well done!

A Fun Films about a real rascal.......2005-06-20

I just love this film! Old Blue Eyes did real justice to one of the strangest and most effective Politicans to come out of the Old South.(Earl Long)I am willing to bet Bill Clinton has this film in his library.

Great Movie.......2002-11-15

This movie has everything.

Plot, personality, action.

Newman was never better.

Why isn't it on DVD??

"Blaze" flames out!.......2001-12-17

Ron Shelton's second directorial effort (after "Bull Durham") falls a little flat. You might be tempted to say that he should stick to sports films--which does seem to be his forte. But I suspect the real problem with this film was that it was based on a memoir and was not one of Shelton's original scripts. The memoir, of course, was that of legendary exotic dancer, Blaze Starr, and she not only provided the source material but served as consultant on the film and even had a cameo. Her influence may not have been all that felicitous, however.

The hurried exposition scenes (young Blaze, nee Belle, bidding her central casting hillbilly family goodbye as she boards a bus, being introduced to the world of exotic dancing by an unscrupulous promoter played by Robert Wuhl) just don't ring true. Belle/Blaze can't have been SO naive as to think that she was being hired to sing in a strip club. And the scene where she and Wuhl cook up her stage name is almost painful in its cuteness. The movie stumbles badly in its introductory scenes.

It is not the fault of Lolita Davidovich, who is quite fetching in the title role, and the film does get better once Paul Newman makes his entrance as the irascible, eccentric governor of Louisiana, Earl K. Long, brother of Huey and therefore heir to a colorful tradition of populist backwoods-backroom politicking. Newman delights in the role, and the chemistry beteen him and Davidovich is genuine. It ratchets the film up a notch or two.

But it still never quite catches fire. It may be that by 1989, we had already seen this type of cornpone politics on film a few too many times. Was the real Earl K. Long as much of a progressive on the integration and voting rights issue as the film implies. Well, this Yankee won't presume to know for sure, but within the context of the film, Long's progressivism comes off as a little cliched. He's clearly a rascal, but he's supposed to be redeemed somewhat in the audience's eyes since he's on the right side of the race issue. But frankly it would be a little more interesting, if he were just a little more conflicted about the racial politics of his home state.

As for the Blaze Starr character, well, as implied above, her character could be, uh, fleshed out more as well. She has been elsewhere described as a "stripper with a heart of gold," and that may well have been the case, but surely, the country gal who started out wanting to be a singer must have been more conflicted about her career path than this film ever suggests. The only sense we get of that inner conflict, however, is her reluctance to tell her backwoods mama what she really does for a living (of course, Mama's not quite as naive and isolated as Blaze thinks: she even keeps a scrapbook of her daughter's exploits). A more nuanced portrait might have upset the real-life Starr, however, and maybe she wouldn't have served as consultant to writer/director Shelton.

Customer Reviews:

"The King of B-Westerns & Serials...VCI Entertainment ~ Forbidden Trails (1941)".......2006-02-03

VCI Entertainment and Monogram Pictures present "Forbidden Trails" (1941) (digitally remastered), although The Rough Riders had a short run, they turned out some of the best B-Westerns ever to grace the Saturday Matinee screen...our story is the third of eight in the Rough Riders series is a better than average oater...three U.S. Marshals are working undercover Buck, Tim and Sandy help Dave O'Brien a struggling mine owner...our villain Tristram Coffin along with Charles King and Bus Osborne are planning to rob O'Brien and play the waiting game... there is a fine turn from Christine McIntyre the heroine who is cast in her second of the four Rough Rider adventures in which she appears, this film is perfectly paced by Robert Bradbury in his final stint as a director...in the film's most exciting scene, Buck is trapped in a burning shack and Silver his famous steed comes to the rescue pulling him out of a blazing window......just remember double thrills, chills, mystery and suspense...hitting the bull's eye with excitement...don't miss any of the Rough Riders features loaded with action that will leave you wanting more of his B-Western adventures

Under director Robert North Bradbury, producer Scott R. Dunlap, original story by Jess Bowers ...the cast include Buck Jones (Marshal Buck Roberts), Tim McCoy (Marshal Tim McCall/Parson McCall), Raymond Hatton (Sandy Hopkins), Tristram Coffin (Ed Nelson), Christine McIntyre (Mary Doran), Dave O'Brien (Jim Cramer), Charles King (Fulton), Bud Osborne (Joe Howard), Lynton Brent (Bill Tooley), Jerry Sheldon (Sam/henchman), Tom London (Marshal Tom, Silver (Buck Jones, wonder horse). . . . . . . . .special footnote, actor /producer Buck Jones made over 164 feature films beginning with "Western Blood" (1918/Silent) with a bit part...Jones final film was "Dawn on the Great Divide" (1942)...with his famed horse "Silver:, Jones was one of the most successful and popular B-Western actors of the '20s, '30s and '40s, at one time receiving more fan mail than any actor in the world...was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1973. . . . . . . . . .second special footnote actor Tim McCoy in real life was a sharpshooter and famed for his fast draw...was an expert on the Old West also an authority on Indian folklore could converse in Indian sign language...McCoy was inducted into the "Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum" in 1973, also inducted into "The Cowboy Hall of Fame" in 1974.. . . . . . . . final special footnote, one of my favorite character actors was Johnny Mack's sidekick Raymond Hatton (1887-1971) as Marshall Sandy Hopkins who appeared from 1943 and made 45 films for Monogram Pictures...Hatton who first appeared on film in "Tragic Love" (1909-Silent/unconfirmed), "Oliver Twist" (1917), "The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), "The Squaw Man" (1931), "Law and Order" (1932)...during the '30s & '40s he played the comical sidekick for Johnny Mack Brown and Bob Livingston...went on to join Buck Jones and Tim McCoy in the "Rough Riders" series...Hatton worked right up to his last film "In Cold Blood" (1967). . . . . .meanwhile this is an exciting Rough Riders western provided by Monogram Pictures during their heyday of the early '40s.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
BIOS:
1. Buck Jones (aka: Charles Frederick Gebhart)
Birth Date: 12/04/1889 - Vincennes, Indiana
Died: 11/30/1942 - Boston, MA (fire)
2. Tim McCoy (aka: Timothy John Fitzgerald McCoy)
Birth Date: 4/10/1891 - Saginaw, Michigan
Died: 1/29/1978 - Nogales, Arizona
3. Raymond Hatton (aka: Raymond William Hatton)
Birth Date: 7/07/1887 - Red Oak, Iowa
Died: 10/21/1971 - Palmdale, California

Check out other Buck Jones titles available on VHS from VCI:
1. Black Aces (1937)
2. Dawn on the Great Divide (1942)
3. Down Texas Way (1942)
4. Gunman from Bodie (1941)
5. Renfrew of the Royal Mounted (1937)
6. Riders of Death Valley (1941)
7. Silver Spurs (1936)
8. Six Gun Man (1946)
9. South of the Rio Grande (1932)

If you crave action, drama and plenty of adventure check out other western double features with Buck Jones:

ROUGH RIDERS WESTERN DOUBLE FEATURES:
1. Vol. 1 - Arizona Bound/Gunman from Bodie (VCI #7241) (DVD)
2. Vol. 2 - Ghost Town Law/Below the Border (VCI #7264) (DVD)
3. Vol. 3 - Forbidden Trails/Down Texas Way (VCI #7274) (DVD)
4. Dawn on the Great Divide (VCI #7219) (DVD)

Ask Amazon.Com to carry the above titles if they are not available as of yet...you can order and pick up your copy now from VCI Entertainment...if you enjoyed "Forbidden Trails" (1941), why not pick up other copies of Buck Jones features.

In 1941 the "Rough Riders" series began with Buck as Marshal Buck Roberts, Tim McCoy was Marshal Tim McCall and Raymond Hatton was Marshal Sandy Hopkins for Monogram Pictures:

1. ARIZONA BOUND (Monogram, 1941)
2. THE GUNMAN FROM BODIE (Monogram, 1941)
3. FORBIDDEN TRAILS (Monogram, 1941)
4. BELOW THE BORDER (Monogram, 1942)
5. GHOST TOWN LAW (Monogram, 1942)
6. DOWN TEXAS WAY (Monogram, 1942)
7. RIDERS OF THE WEST (Monogram, 1942)
8. WEST OF THE LAW (Monogram, 1942)

Great job by VCI Entertainment for releasing "Forbidden Trails" (1941),
the digital transfere with a clean, clear and crisp print...looking forward
to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '20s, '30s
& '40s...order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment where there
are plenty of copies available on VHS, stay tuned once again for top notch
action mixed with deadly adventure from the "King of Serials" VCI...just
the way we like 'em

Total Time: 60 min on DVD/VHS ~ VCI Entertainment #7274 ~ (11/20/1997)

Good B-Western, but the film transfer quality is just marginal.......2005-08-15

This review is for the Alpha Video issued DVD of Forbidden Trails" starring Buck Jones.

The movie itself is enjoyable with many of the essential elements of an above average B-Western. The story line is good with good acting as well as exciting action scenes, including Buck escaping from a burning house surrounded by two bad guys with rifles by having his galloping horse drag him out with a rope tied around his waist. There is also some tension and action in a saloon card game showndown that results in drawn guns, etc. - the story moves right along and engages your attention throughout.

The story is good - the caveat is that the source material for this DVD film transfer is marginal. Alpha Video certainly has a mixed track record in this regard - some films that they have issued are in good to excellent quality and some in pretty bad shape. With Alpha Video DVDs you take your chances and on this particular one it's the middle of the road - not very good, but neither is it so terribly bad that you can't adjust your viewing standards down a notch and still enjoy this movie.

This DVD resembles what you might expect from a worn out ten-year old VHS tape left on the dashboard of your car too long. The highlights are gone with too much contrast in night scenes. Unless you get a medium or close-up shot it is sometimes difficult to clearly recognize faces in the far background because of the lack of sharpness. In well-lighted scenes the film looks much better and you don't notice the flaws as much.

Don't get me wrong, if you really happen like this particular film I would recommend that you get it until something better shows up, it's not what I would call a terribly awful DVD - I have seen much worse film transfers for these public domain B-Westerns. Alpha Video probably did the best that they could with the source material, but I'll bet that there is a better print of this film out there somewhere - at least I hope there is.

As I said, you can certainly watch and enjoy this film, just don't expect too much in terms of picture quality.

See my other B-Western DVD reviews to find some examples of high-quality film transfers. Or just check out virtually any Hoppalong Cassidy DVD issued by Platinum - those are really excellent DVDs in all aspects (film transfer quality, acting and plot).

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