Tiger by the Tail

Sometimes you have to wonder why some films are snubbed at the Oscars, and Tiger by the Tail is one of those films.

Afterall, Charo is in it. Any film about a guy being framed for murder is obviously top notch. Why is there no Maltin review?

Polar bears, rhinos, elephants. It doesn't matter which animal you choose, this title makes no sense. This looks like a TV movie and I was surprised to find that it isn't. The story centres around a racecourse and some missing money and unfortunately, it's pretty boring. There is nothing too convincing about any of it especially when Christopher George (Steve) starts throwing around Alan Hale Jr (Whitehorn). I don't think so!

Badger by the belly, cat by the coccyx, hippo by the hairline…..like I said, this film is boring so there's nothing much to say about it. Why not spend time making up alternate titles for it? Remember that the title must bear absolutely no relevance to the film and keep to the animal theme.

Yes folks, that's the last film of RG Springsteen. A film director specialized in westerns, and that's even more surprising to see that his last film is a crime drama. As John Sturges, two films before his retirement, gave us MC Q, a crime movie starring John Wayne impersonating Dirty Harry. This RG Springstee's film looks like a TV movie and is worth watching only because of its scarcity. Chris George is bland as usual but that's not a real problem for such a film. It is agreeable for early seventies gem diggers as me. The scheme is used, overused, so don't expect any surprise. Except maybe the horserace track heist, which will never make you forget Stan Kubrick's THE KILLING heist, but which is enjoyable to watch though. And also notice that director Sprinsteen gave us another junk, back in 1956, showing a race track cashier heist in TRACK THE MAN DOWN. This film is a masterpiece, compared to the other.

Upfront, I confess I am biased in writing this review. What are my biases?

For one thing, I am a Christopher George fan. I think he is underrated as an actor, as I find many so-called good-looking actors often are.

For another thing, I am a huge director RG Springsteen fan and this was his final movie. And I think he does a fine job here.

Having gotten that out-of-the-way, let me get to my rating and my review:

I would actually probably rate this as a solid nine or maybe 9.5. But I have to round up my rating, because I feel it doesn't get a fair enough average.

I thought the writing was really good. And if this movie had been done in black-and-white, and either in the 40s or 50s, it would probably now be considered at least in the upper tier of film noir.

Sure, it has a few "television movie" qualities to it. But I still found it cinematic enough project it on my wall to be some thing I would watch again and again. I thought it had a good mystery, yet played fair with the viewer. I did guess the solution, but not until about halfway through. And I wasn't sure until the very ending.

All the Performances were great, by a stellar cast. I have to admit, I was surprised by Charo's performance, which was far better than I expected. I thought she really did a great job for such a small part.

I would recommend this movie for anybody who likes film noir, mystery, a few good action scenes, great performances by iconic actors, some interesting settings, cinematography, and music score.

Viet Nam vet Christopher George comes home to his Arizona town to try to make up with his brother, Dennis Patrick. Patrick is promptly murdered and thieves steal a million dollars from his racetrack. Then the plane they are escaping in blows up in the air, with the money replaced by newspaper. As his brother's heir, George is a suspect, but sheriff John Dehner thinks he can stir up more information by letting George free to investigate. There's racetrack co-owners fronted by Alan Hale Jr.; the corpoate papers give George three days to buy their shares at their price; if he doesn't they can buy his shares at the same rate. There's businessman Dean Jagger, who has a finger in every local pie save the race track; there's Tippi Hedren, who wants to take up where they left off when George left town; and assorted mysteries keep piling up.

It's R. G. Springsteen's last directorial effort, and the last movie appearance by Glenda Farrell. She had collapsed on stage and died in 1969, while this movie sat on the shelf. Editor Terry Morse would cut one more movie before he retired. The producers had picked up behind-the-screen talent cheap, I should imagine, and those had used their connections to do some interesting casting. While Charles Wallace's script has a couple of big holes in it, it's a well-run story of greed and desperation in the west.