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“The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox” (1976) offers comedy set in a Western era, as well as a change for George Segal or Goldie Hawn fans to laugh and laugh in this misadventure about gambling, romance and what it was like for “some” of the ladies who worked the salons during the Gold Rush days of 1800s in San Francisco. Rife with humor and almost a slapstick comedy, the film is more representative of the classic film era than the 1970s.

Amanda Quaid (Hawn) is a saloon hall dancer who must get really friendly with the patrons if she intends to make enough to eat and survive. In other words, she’s a hustler. When Charlie ‘Dirtwater Fox’ Malloy (Segal), a real card shark, comes in for a drink, he’s attracted to Amanda, although he shows it in an annoying way, almost ridiculing her. Offended Amanda goes for another rude patron, even though she had her eye on Charlie all along.

When he returns the next day Charlie and Amanda connect and she follows him to his room. While Charlie expects a good time, Amanda moves into normal routine – spike her client’s drink, fleece his wallet and leave before he wakes up. But when Amanda goes looking for his wallet, she can’t find it. She does find a doctor’s bag with a few bills inside and walks off with the entire bag.

Meanwhile Amanda is looking for a way out of town and her life. When she overhears that a Moran family has just landed in town and needs a nanny – Amanda decides she’s up for the job. Using some of her new found stash, she trades in her sexy saloon wardrobe for more appropriate clothes and presents herself to the Josiah Widdicombe (Thayer David), the Mormon patriarch, as Duchess Swansbury.

The Dutchess has to audition for the job along with other women. Lacking any real educational skills that might convince Josiah that she’s capable of the job, she proceeds to entertain the children with a song she sang on stage, changing some of the sexual and provocative words to more appropriate ones for the kids. This is a very funny scene and Hawn plays it to the hilt. She earns the job, then realizes when Josiah comes onto her, that he expects her to added to his long list of wives.

Charlie finds Amanda just in time as he’s running from some hombres who are looking for him. It seems Charlie’s trick of a card up the sleeve is too well known and the men who lost their dough want it back. Charlie and Amanda hide out in the wedding party of a Jewish couple, and each must go through a series of Jewish rituals before they escape. Well- actually Amanda escapes in Josiah’s wagon, hiding the black bag full of cash, but Charlie is in hot pursuit on a horse.

The rest of the film is one mad-cap adventure as the two chase, find and runaway from each other again. They both go through some hilarious scenarios. Had not Hawn and Segal starred in the lead roles, the film might never have been as funny.

The writing by director Melvin (from a story by Barry Sandler), is brilliant; it’s sophisticated, funny and practical. The back and forth banter between Hawn and Segal is tops and they deliver each line as if was written just for them. Hawn is just too cute! Her infectious smile makes anyone overlook her illegal pursuits, and her beauty makes it easy to believe she could captivate anyone from card sharks to Morman patriarchs.

George Segal is a fantastic actor who immerses himself in the role Charlie both emotionally and physically. Credit goes to both actors in that realm as there were many physical actions required in the movie, and also to director Melvin Frank who managed to convey a lot in a broad scoped film.

Despite a somewhat unsatisfactory ending, “The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox” does exactly what it intends to do and what so many films fail to – entertain.

Director: Melvin Frank

Writer: Barry Sandler (story) Melvin Frank (screenplay)

Run Time: 103 minutes

Rated: R

Hood’s fictional film imitates a case study as it carefully tracks Tsotsi’s everyday life. Viewers are first shown the evil side of the character — he has a gory fistfight with a friend and an evenly aggressive and ruthless job as a full-time robber.

Recurrent use of flashbacks allows the viewer to have ideas and thoughts about Tsotsi’s childhood. Instead, the audience views his mother on her bed dying, her hand reaching out for her son. This heart-warming moment is ruin by gunfire as Tsotsi’s father shoots the family dog to stop it from barking.

The film concentrates on Tsotsi’s life, so its effectiveness depends on main character’s acting — fortunately, he acted so well. With frequent close-ups, the audience sees every mixed emotion and astonished facial expression on some scenes which involves the baby.

Because the actors’ facial expressions show a collective language, there’s slight dialogue in the film. Suspense scenes are created gently but successfully. When a homeless man in a wheelchair furies Tsotsi, he quietly follows the handicapped man from the subway station to an isolated area under a faintly lit highway. The audience is required to wait patiently for Tsotsi’s expected attack.

In spite the flashbacks and deserted scenes of suspense, the film flows well. Even the purist of the film’s strikes of social comments have a recurring sense of cinematography.

Since Tsotsi struggles to be reasonable, the movie is often identified as a bloody and violent. Compared to U. S. Films, the violence in this movie appears fast and detached. Hood’s documentary-style description of aggression shows an unconscious acceptance of it. When Tsotsi fires at the baby’s mother, the camera focuses less on the gun and more on the woman’s reaction.

But the blood does not overpower the movie’s great acting or deteriorates its difficult situations. Instead, the difference between right and wrong shapes until the viewer completely recognizes with the main character.

The Tsotsi movie gives an accurate depiction of life in extremely poor and rich parts of South Africa and what people do to survive in ghettos. Because of the in-depth plot, perfect depiction of life in South Africa, a total drama involved in the movie, is rated 4 out of 5. Best film one can ever see.

It’s not all popcorn and free movies: the lives of film critics are fraught with danger. Sore backs, headaches, and loss of faith in cinema as an art form are only some of the risks we bravely face on a day to day basis—so you won’t have to. From the megaplex to the art house, the world of movies is a minefield, and this is our list of the most explosive dissapointments of the year.
1) Match Point
It feels as if Woody Allen isn’t even trying anymore. Scarlett Johansson is utterly wasted in this shoddily written and executed morality tale about unlikable posh Londoners and one homicidal, social climbing tennis pro. “Annie Hall” wasn’t just light years ahead of this mess, it was also shorter.

2) The Brothers Grimm
Oh Terry, what grim disillusionment. A third class theme park ride, much too dark for children, too familiar for adults, and too lame for either audience. Nobody who’s seen the Ents march on Isengard will be thrilled by your animatronic branches.

3) Sin City
We like a little story with our orgies of decapitation and wanton violence. Our lizard brains might enjoy these obvious, ripped-off noir-light tales of sex and blood, but what about the rest of our heads? Since there’s nothing else going on, the extremely stylish look is wasted. Miller and Rodriguez are threatening a sequel.

4) Brokeback Mountain
No, we’re not homophobic, but a quickie in a tent followed by years of lying, mumbling, and being mean to their wives and daughters did nothing to endear Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal’s simple-minded shepherds to us. Ang Lee’s artfulness can’t hide the basic emptiness of this story. A plodding disappointment, stretched out to marathon length and hyped beyond belief.

5) The Aristocrats
Potty humor is potty humor, no matter how many of your talented friends you line up to deliver the punch line. The only worthwhile joke belonged to Sarah Silverman, and she has her own movie.

6) 5×2
Francois Ozon tells the story of a disintegrating marriage, backwards. But by making the couple miserable examples of human beings, it’s impossible to give a damn. Ugh, times five.

7) The War of the Worlds
No, it’s not an independent or world film by any stretch of the imagination. But we can still feel the industrial-strength headaches this utterly superfluous blockbuster gave us, so it deserves getting dissed one last time. (Spielberg, by the way, more than regained our respect with the powerful drama “Munich.”)

Reel Paradise
Nobody needed “reality cinema,” and we’d bet my friendly neighbor’s vacation video is more gripping than the Pearson family’s tale of running a movie theater in the Fiji islands.

9) Don’t Move
In this preposterously bad Italian art-house drama, Penelope Cruz falls passionately in love with her rapist. Making herself ugly to gain respect (a move cribbed from Charlize Theron), Cruz dons false teeth, tacky blue eye shadow and impossibly bad clothes to prove her depth as an actress.

10) Breakfast on Pluto
For an audience that has seen “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” “Velvet Goldmine,” and Neil Jordan’s own “Crying Game,” it takes more than transvestites, tacky magicians, and the IRA for a truly fresh experience. Cillian Murphy’s considerable charms couldn’t save this timid and predictable adaptation of Patrick McCabe’s novel.

The 1933 picture “King Kong” became not only one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed movies of all times, it saved the RKO studio from bankruptcy. Directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack’s vision to create a 50-foot monster that hoped to eat a five-foot tall beauty (Fay Wray) for breakfast, paid off. “King Kong” is the all-time classic, ranking 43 on the American Film Institute’s list of Top-100 American movies, and who can forget those images of King Kong atop the Empire State building fighting off the biplanes tiring to kill him.

Warner’s newly restored and digitally mastered 2-Disc Collector’s Edition also contains a copy of the original March 24, 1933 program for the screening of “King Kong” at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and color cards of the original posters.

When Merian C. Cooper exposed his idea about King Kong to a possible backer, he probably held his breath that he wouldnt be shipped off to a lonely bin. Luckily that idea turned the film into a profit for RKO of $1.75 million and saved the studio.

The film is so amazing, that in 2005 Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson , who admits “King Kong” has been his favorite movie of all time and inspired him to be a filmmaker, released his newest version of the incredible horror film. James A. Creelman and Ruth Rose (Ernest B. Schoedsack’s wife), original screenwriters of the 1933 film, could pat themselves on the back if they were still around (Creelman committed suicide in 1941), that their story has held up and is the basic plot of Jackson’s new film as well.

The story of documentary film producer Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) who longed to take a ship to an undiscovered island and pit a beauty against a beast was not only a milestone for horror and fantasy fans, the humanistic aspect that a pretty blonde could tame a beast appealed, and looking at the 2005 box office receipts, still appeals, to movie fans across the board. The new Warner version begins with a melody from Max Steiner’s impressive soundtrack of the film, which you may be tempted to fast forward through, but should really listen to, because since the film has little dialogue and is mostly visual, it backs up those visuals impeccably.

Carl discovers Ann Darrow (Wray) only hours before he compels the captain of the Venture to set sail out of Manhattan quickly, as the several people looking for Carl are fast on his heels. At first Ann questioned Carl’s motives, but understanding that he wants to feature her in one of his movies with prehistoric animals, and the fact that she’s really down and out, she agrees.

Ann, the only woman aboard, is ignored by the ship’s Captain Englehorn (Frank Reicher) as he has too much to oversee. However, Ann’s beauty does not escape adventurer John “Jack” Driscoll (Bruce Cabot), who soon announces he’s in love with Ann. Driscoll is rumored to be modeled in personality and demeanor after filmmaker Ernest B. Schoedsack.

The romance is perfect for Carl, who has been chastised for the lack of romance in his pictures. Now he’ll have romance AND adventure.

The adventure starts almost immediately when the ship sails into the mist-covered Skull Island. The sound of the native drums is like an enticement of gold to Carl, who orders the crew to board the rowboats for shore. Once there the crew encounters a bunch of natives having a ceremony to present one of their island girls to the beast, Kong, as his bride. But once he sees Ann, the chief decides she will be a better offering and begins to banter with Englehorn about trading for her.

Now, one must admit it’s a far stretch that Englehorn would be able to understand this primitive language, especially since he never even knew about this island, but one goes along with it for the sake of the adventure.

The crew makes their way back to the boat agreeing to address the issue with the chief the next day. But during the night the islanders make a raid on the boat and kidnap Ann. By the time the men make their way on shore, Ann has been strung up by her wrists, gets her first look at Kong and let’s out her first blood-curdling scream as the towering beast tramps through the jungle towards her.

As Carl and the men hunt for Ann, they’re attacked by one kind of dinosaur after another. The animals kill some men, and although it’s obvious now that at times some scenes were filmed with the actors on a treadmill against a rear projection screen, the method worked back then to up the fright quotient.

Except for Jack and Carl, all the crew that went ashore is soon killed by historic creatures. Jack sends Carl back to the boat for help and more bombs they brought along, while he goes to look for Ann. She’s begging cuddled by Kong who treats her like his own little doll. He fights off other giant lizards and snakes about to eat her.