pullgees

A love story with an anti war message. Made at the height of the Vietnam War. With a growing anti war mood in America it was well received at the time. Those days gave hope for a change of methods and politics in the US but as we see today in Iraq the lessons of Sand Creek, Mai Lee and many others have been forgotten. At first I thought this was a sort of battle of the sexes buddy buddy story, not unlike the African Queen except this time the roles were reversed, the male was the prude and the female was the slap em on the back and burp type. But the ghastly history this love story takes place in becomes evident and is there simmering in the back ground all the way through. Finally we see the massacre at Sand Creek with the butchering of women and children, (civilians), sounds familiar? I thought Candice Bergen looked too Sixties and Donald Pleasance character was not nearly dangerous enough but silly instead.

A tautly directed and tight lipped B movie done in American 50's crime genre style. This was one British film that had actors playing tough guys properly instead of the usual feeble and artificial methods of acting tough that let down scores of British films of that time. In particular the fist fight scene looked convincing and dramatic for a change. All this was very refreshing for its time. A very watchable Patrick Mcgoohan excelled in the role as the main antagonist playing a believable hard b'stard. I wish he had done subsequent roles as a leading heavy he would have been good at that. A strong cast all round. The dour realism of working class England was captured well. The crazy driving was not too far from the truth either. During the Fifties there was a massive rebuilding programme going on following the war and the blitz and you would see these ballast lorries scurrying around everywhere breaking speed limits where they could. Many looked in a bad state of maintenance. For truck geeks they were Dodge Semi Forwards with mostly Perkins diesel engines.