Reviews

Death Valley Days, brought to by 20 Mule Team Borax in the original airings, always has entertaining true life stories. The horse that can swim is a great story of a con man bringing some excitement to the city of the Angels. Jess Pearson, of Bye Bye Birdie game, and a regular on Days, stars as the smooth talking huckster. The plot evolves around building the public's anticipation that a horse can swim to Catalina Island (26 miles across the sea, as the song says). Of course, there is a pretty girl involved. I won't reveal the outcome, it is well played out. Each week Death Valley Days presented a concise thirty minute program based on western history. We were blessed in the 1950's with a broad mixture of action shows that tell a story in thirty minutes. Today, we have one hour programs that stretch a half hour plot into thirty extra minutes of commercials. Death Valley is a great place to visit in the winter because places like Furnance Creek and120 air temperatures make summer visits slightly unpleasant. One Death Valley episode outlines the accidental discovery of borax. Another show has an Irish prospector who believes his short acquaintance is a leprechaun and he will lead the tall Irishman to gold.

The west is full of exciting stories and Death Valley Days was on television for many years. The stories were first introduced by the Old Ranger. Later, came Robert Taylor, Ronald Reagan, and, finally, Dale Robertson. Death Valley Days plays daily on StarzEncore Western channel. Here you can watch the television shows: Wyatt Earp, Big Valley, Laramie, Maverick, Cheyenne, Lawman, and the Virginian. This is some of the best television ever. The west was used as a metaphor for the issues that face mankind. In the western setting the issues of prejudice, greed, pride and cowardice are exposed and discussed. We discover that things haven't changed all that much. Death Valley Days uses real stories to illustrate timeless issues. Watch it, if you can.

Vietnam war was a major USA mistake that cost 50,000 lives. As a veteran of the Vietnam era, I choose to avoid volunteering a tour in Nam. But we must not at this late date to seek to glorify Vietnam veterans. They did their job and they did it well. We can't change history and a film that tries to makes us veterans into "heroes " is wrong. Unless, you acted like Audie Murphy in combat, you are not a true hero. Hero is a word like iconic, that is misunderstood and overused in today's poorly educated society. We never learned anything from Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. If this film teaches us to only fight wars to win, then it was not made in vain.

This 1974 Zorro is true to previous films. The best part for me was the use of 1940's film score. The music ties the film to the classic performance of Tyrone Power. Frank Langella was destined to play remakes, Dracula and Zorro. Ricardo Montalban, Yvonne deCarlo, and Gilbert Roland are consummate actors that bring the film above its humble TV budget. The film follows the 1940's script, which makes the film enjoyable to watch. Later versions because of their modern thirst for gore can't compare. Watch it on Starz or buy the DVD.

Copying the third and fourth season of the original Man From U.N.C.L.E., the music is the best part of this production. Hugo Montenegro's jazzy arrangements of Goldsmith, Freid , and Shores compositions overshadow the content. We can all pray that a Guy Ritchie sequel will happen sometime soon.