Balladeer’s Blog is here with a look at a score of James Garner films. NOTE: The Great Escape is not included, only because Garner was part of an ensemble cast in that movie.
Best remembered for his portrayal of slick-talking gambler/ gunslinger Bret Maverick and Westlake-esque private detective Jim Rockford, Garner inspired the term “marshmallow macho”. That description perfectly captured Garner’s special appeal.
For many American males James Garner and the characters he brought to life represented a happy medium between psychotically macho men and unbearably femmey men. I hate the term “role model” but for lack of a better choice that’s what we’ll go with.
In addition, Garner served in the Korean War and was a Purple Heart winner.
MAVERICK (1994) – Though James Garner was technically playing a supporting role to Mel Gibson in this film, Gibson was portraying Bret Maverick, the character Garner had turned into a sensation in the 1950s. Since this movie would not exist without the cultural cache built up by James’ portrayal of both Bret AND “Pappy” Beauregard Maverick (in old age makeup) this definitely counts as a Garner film. Bret, Pappy and Jody Foster as Annabelle Bransford are among the gambler-gunslingers headed east for St. Louis and a Poker Tournament on a riverboat.
James Coburn plays the Commodore, the host of the tournament.
NECESSARY SPOILER: The lawman character that Garner portrays in the film turns out to really be Pappy Maverick, with Mel Gibson’s Bret simply playing along with his father’s impersonation. FOR MY FULL-LENGTH REVIEW OF THIS FILM CLICK HERE
BARBARIANS AT THE GATE (1993) – In this telefilm based on the best-selling non-fiction book, Jim plays F. Ross Johnson, the real-life president of RJR-Nabisco who unleashed one of the most chaotic and frenzied leveraged buyouts in Wall Street history during the “greed is good” 1980s.
The real Ross Johnson was close with Warren Beatty and other major players in the entertainment industry, which may be why he gets painted in a less villainous light in the movie. (Being played by the ever-charming Garner certainly helps.) In reality FEWER jobs were lost by the ultimately triumphant Henry Kravis’ LBO plan than would have been lost if Johnson came out on top.
Teddy Forstmann, the lone Wall Street figure of the 80s who was a voice in the wilderness condemning LBOs and the damage they did to the economy, gets depicted as a virtual loon. Very odd, since Forstmann’s real-life views on LBOs were closer to the sentiments of Larry Gelbart and the others behind this flick than Johnson’s or Kravis’ were.
Ultimately Barbarians at the Gate is a dark comedy classic, it’s true, but read the book if you want the real low-down on the eventful RJR-Nabisco buyout.
A MAN CALLED SLEDGE (1970) – Garner’s lone Spaghetti Western was a fascinating departure from his usual depictions of a roguish but not ruthless rascal. This time around he plays Luther Sledge, a grim, pitiless bandit leader who becomes obsessed with robbing a fortune in gold from its temporary storage place in a combination fortress and prison for hardened criminals.
Dennis Weaver, Claude Akins and others are along for the ride in this rare type of Italo-Western that incorporates all of the sub-genre’s strengths while omitting nearly all of its weaknesses. Almost every minute of A Man Called Sledge is riveting to look at with only a slight letdown toward the end.
After watching this movie I wanted to see how Garner would have done in the Lee Van Cleef role in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.
36 HOURS (1964) – A black & white espionage drama set during World War Two. James stars as Major Jefferson Pike, a military intelligence man on a mission to Lisbon and who falls into the clutches of the Nazis shortly before D-Day.
Rod Taylor, John Banner, Eva Marie Saint and others play the Germans running a reverse-Mission Impossible deception on Major Pike. (I refer to the television series Mission Impossible, not the movies.) They put grey in our hero’s hair, use drugged eye-drops to blur his vision and employ other tactics to try convincing him that it’s years after the war and that he’s much older.
Part of the con job involves selling him on the idea that he’s had amnesia and other mental issues and – in the course of treating him and having unguarded conversations with him – learn the date and landing area for the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944.
It’s not a 100% realistic plot, but it makes for a nice gimmick movie as Major Pike, like Patrick McGoohan in The Prisoner, plays a cerebral game of cat and mouse with his captors.
DUEL AT DIABLO (1966) – A riveting western which sympathetically portrays the plight of Native Americans while not becoming overly preachy. Jim portrays Jess Remsberg, expert Scout for the U.S. Cavalry, who is on the trail of the man or men who killed and scalped his Native American wife.
Reluctantly, he gets drawn into a cavalry expedition led by rising military star Lt Scotty McAllister (Bill Travers) into the desert territory of Apache leader Chato. Also drawn into the affair is Toller (Sidney Poitier), a former subordinate of McAllister’s who now works as a contractor training horses for the army.
Bibi Andersson plays Ellen Grange, a white woman who had a child by one of the Apaches who raped her and is shunned by “polite society” because of it. Dennis Weaver plays her businessman husband Willard.
Through assorted twists and turns all of these plotlines tie together seamlessly amid a lot of action and gunfire. This is an incredibly underrated western that impresses me more each time I watch it.
MARLOWE (1969) – A movie adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s mystery novel The Little Sister. Garner stars as Private Detective Philip Marlowe but acts more like his later Jim Rockford character, and that’s not a complaint.
Gayle Hunnicutt plays Mavis Wald, a tv star whose affair with a west coast gangster lands her and her younger sister in the middle of multiple murders. Rita Moreno portrays Dolores Gonzalez, Mavis’ less successful friend who used to be involved with the same gangster.
Throw in a series of ice pick slayings plus a corrupt MD and the story is fairly decent. Carroll O’Connor does a great job as a police lieutenant who doesn’t like a private investigator mucking up his cases.
William Daniels, Kenneth Tobey, Corinne Camacho and Jackie Coogan have memorable supporting roles. The obligatory late-sixties “hero getting drugged” sequence makes the film comically dated. And the less said about Bruce Lee’s unintentionally hilarious death scene the better.
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL GUNFIGHTER (1971) – Garner portrays old west conman Latigo Smith in this nearly flawless comedy. Latigo has just romanced and abandoned a brothel madam but failed to make off with her money. Stranded in Purgatory, a town divided by a mining war, he plies his gigolo trade again with the local whorehouse owner, Jenny.
While trying to acquire enough money to move on, Smith is mistaken for notorious gunfighter Swifty Morgan, leading to all manner of complications which the conman tries to play to his advantage. Suzanne Pleshette co-stars as Patience Barton, the fiery-tempered daughter of one of the mine owners and becomes Garner’s love interest.
James Garner once said he preferred his earlier movie Support Your Local Sheriff to this flick, but I think he was off. For the sheer number of laughs Support Your Local Gunfighter has it all over the previous film.
UP PERISCOPE! (1959) – In this World War Two movie Garner is Navy Lt Kenneth M Braden, who gets recruited for a top-secret frogman mission. He must scuba dive from a submarine onto a Japanese-held island. Once there he is to break into the enemy base, photograph top-secret radio codes and return to the sub undetected so the Japanese won’t know the codes have been compromised.
Andra Martin stars as the Mata Hari who helps lure Braden into the scuba-diving mission and becomes his love interest. Edmond O’Brien plays Commander Paul Stevenson, who captains the submarine which transports Garner to the site of his dangerous mission.
Alan Hale does a surprising turn as a jovial hedonist who drinks heavily and beds numerous babes in between missions. Believe it or not he carries it off and made me wish he had starred as Babe Ruth in a movie. It would have been midway between the absurd William Bendix version and the John Goodman classic.
SUNSET (1988) – James Garner portrays old west lawman Wyatt Earp while Bruce Willis plays silent film star Tom Mix as the pair try to solve a murder in 1929 Hollywood. Don’t expect realism but DO expect a very entertaining movie.
For a silent movie geek like me Sunset is irresistible. Not only do you get Tom Mix but Malcolm McDowell portrays Alfie Alperin, a Charlie Chaplin pastiche who, believe it or not, is the story’s villain. We even get a partial reproduction of the very first Academy Awards ceremony.
Garner is pitch-perfect as the elderly Earp and Willis is serviceable as Mix. The pair are at their best in wry conversations which reflect on the artificial nature of both their reputations.
The murder “mystery” is a composite of a few real-life Hollywood killings of the time period. If you’re not a fan of Garner or Willis or silent movies you may want to give this one a pass.
GRAND PRIX (1966) – I don’t even like open-wheel racing, but this movie kept me watching and not just because of Jim’s always affable presence. Before Paul Newman’s film Winning came this racing movie.
Garner stars as Pete Aron, a Grand Prix driver who is dropped by his team after a horrible accident at Monaco. Drifting into the broadcasting profession for awhile, Aron inexorably feels the danger and the competition luring him back behind the wheel.
Standard sports cliches aside, the visual spectacle of this film is dazzling, albeit dated. Soap opera antics get acted out by the supporting cast of Yves Montand, Eva Marie Saint, Toshiro Mifune, Jessica Walter and others.
ONE LITTLE INDIAN (1973) – Light-hearted family western. James Garner portrays Corporal Clint Keyes, who, after clashing with his Indian-hating superior, escapes a potential hanging for it and rides off into the desert with a pair of camels left over from the ill-advised American Camel Corps attempt in the 1800s.
Clay O’Brien was the title character, Mark, a white boy who had been raised by Native Americans and who winds up tagging along with Keyes, Lone Wolf and Cub-style. Vera Miles plays the widowed Doris McIver and a very young Jodie Foster has the role of her daughter Martha. (“Why did you say that NAME!?”)
Morgan Woodward portrays the bad guy Sgt Raines, who relentlessly pursues Keyes to bring him back to be executed for mutiny and desertion. Robert Pine, Andrew Prine and Dallas‘ Jim Davis are in the cast as well. Naturally there’s a happy ending with Mark, the widow McIver and her daughter serving as a pre-packaged family for Garner’s character in the finale.
Not a great movie but you can watch it with your kids.
THE GLITTER DOME (1984) – Adapted from the novel by Joseph Wambaugh, this was made in the glory days of HBO Productions. Jim stars as Los Angeles Detective-Sergeant Aloysius Mackey, a profoundly cynical veteran cop who long ago resigned himself to the fact that a case is considered closed when the file is stamped “case closed” whether it really is solved or not. Just force a quick solution and move on to “close” another case, since so many murder cases are backed up.
That captures the entire approach of this gritty murder mystery, which is to say it’s like Film Noir Squared. John Lithgow plays Al Mackey’s partner Marty Wellburn, who is a sensitive sort finding it harder and harder to maintain sufficient detachment to do his job. Margot Kidder is Willie, Garner’s love interest.
The murder victim is a Hollywood producer who it turns out was making kiddie porno films on the side. Mackey and Wellburn’s investigation leads them into increasingly sleazy circles of L.A.’s underbelly. Stuart “Angel” Margolin directed capably but not outstandingly.
SPOILER: The telefilm maintains its hard-edged cynicism to the bitter end, with Mackey making up a “confession” from a dying sleazeball just to get the case closed, then actually solving the case afterward. The closing line of the movie manages to bring a bittersweet smile despite all the preceding darkness.
BRET MAVERICK: THE LAZY ACE (1981) – James Garner returned to the role of gambler/ gunslinger Bret Maverick nearly 25 years after it propelled him to stardom. The network had fruitlessly tried reviving the Maverick franchise in the 1970s with The New Maverick and Young Maverick starring Charles Frank as Ben, the latest member of the Maverick family.
At last common sense prevailed, with executives realizing Garner was always the main draw for the Maverick series, and Jim was back in the lead role. This telefilm which launched the new series featured the aging Bret winning a high-stakes, all-star poker game then settling down in the Arizona town of Sweetwater as a saloon owner.
Stuart Margolin directed and played in the supporting role of Philo Sandeen, a less annoying version of the weasely Angel from The Rockford Files. Ed Bruce co-starred with Garner as the suspicious town sheriff with Janis Paige and Darleen Carr as a lady gambler and a newswoman, respectively.
DARBY’S RANGERS (1958) – Garner’s first big-screen starring role came in this black & white World War Two movie. Jim plays the real-life Colonel William O Darby, leader of the title unit during the war.
Virtually all the other characters and events are fictional, so overall this is on the same pulp fiction/ dime novel level of heroic embellishment as the much later Pappy Boyington television series. Training, romancing women, learning to deal with killing, romancing women, danger, romancing women, etc.
This flick follows Darby’s Rangers from their formation to training in Scotland, then through campaigns in North Africa to Anzio and costars Jack Warden, Edd “Kooky” Byrnes, Stuart Whitman, Peter Brown and many more. It’s not meant as a profound look at war, it’s just a rah-rah actioner and is reasonably enjoyable on that level.
HOUR OF THE GUN (1967) – Jim stars as Wyatt Earp in a movie which OPENS with the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and then spends most of its time on the revenge killings which followed. Which is fine with me, since that’s where most of the action was.
Jason Robards co-stars as Doc Holliday in the odd tradition of frequently having people WAY too old play the deadly dentist, who died at age 37. Jon Voight is Curly Bill Brocius, Robert Ryan plays Ike Clanton, Frank Converse is Virgil Earp and William Windom plays Texas Jack Vermillion.
Garner is very, very serious as Wyatt so the cynical jokes go to Robards as Doc. As usual, the facts go out the window in favor of more simplistic storytelling, but the goodbye scene between Earp and Holliday is appropriately gruff but affectionate.
MISTER BUDDWING (1966) – Garner tries to stretch dramatically and doesn’t always succeed in this black & white would-be arthouse film adapted from the novel by Blackboard Jungle‘s Evan Hunter. Jim plays an amnesiac man who wakes up on a Central Park bench with few clues to his identity – a phone number on a piece of paper and a ring with the initials G.V.
He names himself in the most silly way this side of Buddy Love but for the most part his unrealistic and self-consciously “DEEP” search for his identity is more hit than miss. Our star gets to act opposite a lot of quality actresses like Jean Simmons, Suzanne Pleshette, Katharine Ross and Angela Lansbury with Nichelle Nichols showing up briefly.
Think of it as a failed attempt at crossing Film Noir with Eugene O’Neill on the big screen. There’s some decent tension when the title figure thinks he may be an escaped mental patient mentioned in the news.
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF (1969) – This lesser forerunner of Support Your Local Gunfighter sports many of the same cast members. In this one James Garner plays a slightly mysterious gunslinger headed for the Australian gold fields. Joan Hackett is his love interest, the eccentric, off-kilter Prudie and Jack Elam once again serves as our hero’s sidekick.
Garner’s Jason is an amazingly skilled marksman who hires on as Sheriff to tame the local criminal clan led by Walter Brennan and Bruce Dern. Many western cliches are skillfully lampooned in this funny flick, but I got spoiled by seeing Gunfighter first.
Naturally the good guy and gal win out, the bad guys get theirs and true love conquers Jason’s wanderlust. Jack Elam gets the last word, like in the later film. My favorite parts of this flick are the scenes parodying High Noon.
THEY ONLY KILL THEIR MASTERS (1972) – Big screen murder mystery with Jim in the role of Eden Landing Police Chief Abel Marsh, the character Andy Griffith later played in two tv movies. A Doberman is at first suspected of killing its female owner until it appears it was murder instead.
Abel adopts the dog while pursuing his investigation and therefore gets Veterinary Assistant Katharine Ross as his love interest. Despite how small Eden Landing is, the town is crawling with intrigue and kinky sexual activities which wind up playing a part in the motives behind the murder.
Hal Holbrook, Peter Lawford and a slew of other recognizable faces show up in supporting roles. This movie features Garner’s character being perpetually annoyed at the budgetary and jurisdictional limitations of his tiny domain. There are lots of adult themes in this flick. Not until The Glitter Dome would James appear in a story with this much tawdriness behind it. The prudish and the “woke” will very likely need smelling salts from some of the language.
SKIN GAME (1971) – Uneven tone ultimately relegates this drama/ comedy to second-rate status. The year is 1857. James Garner is conman Quincy Drew and Louis Gossett Jr portrays Jason O’Rourke, a free black man.
The pair of con artists are plying the dangerous Skin Game, a con in which Quincy pretends to sell Jason, complete with phony slave papers, and then helps him escape so they can pull the con again in a different locale. Things take a chilling turn when they try the game one time too many and are called out by a previous victim.
There is such odd bouncing back and forth from deadly seriousness to light-hearted comedy that the overall film doesn’t work. And the way Gossett uses a made-up gibberish language to command a slave uprising belongs in an absurdist piece, not a quasi-realistic effort like this. With Susan Clark, Ed Asner and Brenda Sykes.
THE PINK JUNGLE (1968) – In this adventure comedy Garner plays fashion photographer Ben Morris, who gets mistaken for a spy by the overly suspicious authorities in a tiny South American nation.
Temporarily stranded in this hotbed of intrigue and tinpot politics Ben makes the best of his circumstances. Keeping him company are gorgeous Eva Renzi as Ben’s model Alison and George Kennedy as the unsavory Sammy.
This trio and assorted other shady characters get involved in the search for a lost diamond mine. Cheap production values limit The Pink Jungle, which COULD have been the Romancing the Stone of its era with a bigger budget.
And stay alert for the final line of the movie, which is the best joke of the entire production!
FOR THE NUMBER ONE FRONTIERADO FILM CLICK HERE: https://glitternight.com/2011/07/06/the-top-four-frontierado-movies-number-one-silverado-1985/
FOR FOUR NEGLECTED REAL-LIFE WESTERN FIGURES CLICK HERE: https://glitternight.com/2011/08/02/frontierado-week-four-neglected-wild-west-figures/
