Kris Kristofferson‘s first cinematic vehicle Cisco Pike (1972), written and directed by Bill L. Norton, is dark and offbeat but not very successful. A cool dude, Cisco Pike, has quit selling drugs but must submit to a hypocritical—and damaged—establishment figure, Gene Hackman‘s police detective. The cop is driven to force Cisco to raise money for him—yes, through selling drugs. Some effective details crop up, but the story is vacuous and wispy. The ending is worthless . . . The acting of Hackman and Harry Dean Stanton is solid. Kristofferson, though, is uninteresting as Cisco. He mainly goes around just looking wary. Karen Black (as Cisco’s girlfriend) is terrifically attractive both clothed and in the nude. But she is not histrionically “natural” enough to portray a character, this woman.

I wish the documentary 20 Days in Mariupol (2023) had not been necessary to make, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine did take place, the city of Mariupol an early target. Associated Press journalist Mstyslav Chernov shot the film, adeptly, over 20 days, and the wreckage and grief are very troubling. Right away homes are destroyed; people hide in basements (not bomb shelters). Parents agonize over the deaths of their offspring. Putin is killing children. A maternity hospital is bombed. A Mariupol university stands quiet and empty and flatly ruined by shelling. All the work of a murderous aggressor. The footage is moving and stunning.

After seeing Mariupol, I’m convinced the previous U.S. appropriation of billions of dollars to Ukraine was justified. I don’t believe Ukraine can win the war, however—alas. And there must be a ceasefire.

In the 1972 The Valachi Papers, directed by Terence Young, a (real-life) gangster, Joe Valachi, informs the authorities about the Mafia and mob boss Vito Genovese in exchange for vital protection from Genovese. (Both men are in the same prison.) The flick is never boring, but it is a tad too pushy and overwrought to be quite as realistic as it ought to be. What really vitiates it, though, is Charles Bronson‘s self-conscious acting as Valachi, although there are failed performances from other actors, such as Jill Ireland, as well. On the other hand, Lino Ventura (Genovese), Gerald O’Loughlin and a few others, mostly Italians, succeed. But they don’t render this a worthwhile film.

Valachi was rated PG in ’72 despite its brutality and brief nudity. Ain’t for children.

The Crooked Way (1949) is nice and humorless; it’s film noir. A war hero (John Payne) was wounded all the way into amnesia. So, back in the States, he can’t remember his criminal past, unlike his enemies. He was a bad dude, albeit his ex-wife (Ellen Drew) begins to love him again.

Directed by Robert Florey, the movie is crisp, sobering and violent. Semi-opaque cinematography? You bet; a lot of it by John Alton. Payne is a good, handsome fit for his role, as comely Drew is for hers. Sonny Tufts is a scary criminal avenger.

“In another blow for Disney, the live-action remake Snow White was beaten at the box office by a middle school recorder recital in Rushville, Nebraska.”

Thus reports the satirical webzine The Babylon Bee about the new Snow White movie starring the noisy, woke Rachel Zegler. It bombed.