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Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Last week's quiz movie was Sam Peckinpah's 1969 classic The Wild Bunch, starring William Holden, Ernest borgnine, Robert Ryan and Warren Oates (among others). While I don't agree with Leonard Maltin that it's Sam's best-- I like Ride the High Country more, another old tough-guy on his last run movie-- I certainly agree with the four-star rating. The perfect blend of old and new Westerns, with traditional movie actors playing the heroes, who are bad guys!

Stuff I like about The Wild Bunch:

-- The opening unexpected shoot-out, best described by young Bo Hopkins: "They're blowin' this town all to Hell!"

-- Robert Ryan describing his cohorts, L.Q. Jones and Scrother Martin, as "egg-suckin', chicken-stealin' gutter-trash." (But then, I'd like any movie that had the great Mr. Ryan in scenes with L.Q. and Strother.)

-- The dragging scene, where Holden and Borgnine's characters realize what pigs the General and his men really are. (By the way, regular quiz winner Hank Parmer steered me to the bio of Emilio Fernandez, the actor who played Gen. Mapache-- he's right, it was a hell of a life.)

Stuff I don't like:

-- The forced hilarity, especially with Ernest Borgnine and Edmond O'Brien, who come across like Old West versions of the Car Guys.

-- The imitative score by Jerry Fielding, which evokes Elmer Bernstein and Ennio Morricone, but not in a good way.

Other than that, great movie.

So congratulations and a bag of silver washers to the sharp-eyed quiz winners who not only recognized William Holden in last week's picture clue, but director Peckinpah as well: Wayne Palmer, Dan Andreasen, E. Yarber, Tim McDonough, Joe Rosenberg, Bill Hearne, and Kevin Musolino. And extra-special kudos to long-time quiz winner Hank Parmer, who wins this week's grand prize, the DVD of the second season of My Favorite Martian. Hey, Hank, maybe this will have the episode that guest-stars the chimp that chewed Ray Walston's face off his skull! (I hear they cut it out of the show, though-- drat!)

Posted by Steve Monaco at March 21, 2006 2:29 AM

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