{"id":16644,"date":"2017-09-05T13:27:49","date_gmt":"2017-09-05T17:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=16644"},"modified":"2017-09-05T13:31:16","modified_gmt":"2017-09-05T17:31:16","slug":"bronson-the-boxer-kid-galahad-1962-hard-times-1975","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=16644","title":{"rendered":"Bronson the Boxer: Kid Galahad (1962) + Hard Times (1975)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Once upon a time Charles Bronson appeared in an Elvis film, a pairing that seems almost impossible when the Bronson films that first come to mind are the action-revenge films of the 1980s, or the edgy & verbally minimalist dramas and suspense films of the 1970s, and yet it happened.<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s an observation I make in my review of Kid Galahad<\/a><\/strong>, the sort-of musical remake of the 1937 drama about an ex-G.I. who fights in a tournament to essentially save the ass of his fiancee\u2019s careless brother: you never see Charlie without a shirt nor in a tank top.<\/p>\n

This is important when one considers some of Charlie\u2019s early films, like Miss Sadie Thompson<\/a><\/strong> (1953), the 3D Rita Hayworth sort-of musical remake of a steamy romance-drama. Bronson plays a marine on an isolated island, and there\u2019s plenty of shots showing the seriously buffed actor who worked in a coal mine as a kid.<\/p>\n

If he wasn\u2019t cast for his physique, then it was his tough guy demeanor, and by the 1970s it was, as even colleagues would say, due to his face \u2013 that \u2018stone face\u2019 from which one could read anything. It was an unlikely visage for a man that was the world\u2019s biggest star, earning $3 million per film.<\/p>\n

Kid Galahad<\/strong>, new on Blu via Twilight Time, is an Elvis film, and Elvis is great in the movie, navigating through this concept film where everyone wanted to exploit his voice and good looks, and Elvis himself wanted to essay a strong part and show he could do drama. It\u2019s a weird hybrid, but it works, aided by a cast packed with outstanding character actors with visages and shapes & sizes that weren\u2019t movie star ideal, but memorable, realistic, and even lovable.<\/p>\n

Bronson plays Elvis\u2019 coach – no revenge, no meanness, just a former champ helping new guys learn the moves to survive in the ring – but he\u2019s also great in an antithetical role in another boxing \u00a0film made more that a decade later. \u00a0Bronson plays a fighter in what many regard as his best role,\u00a0Hard Times<\/a><\/strong> (1975), which Twilight Time released around 2013. I\u2019ve updated the review with contrasting info on Eureka\u2019s British region-free Blu that sports different extras worth assessing.<\/p>\n

Hard Times<\/strong> was Walter Hill\u2019s first film as director, featured fine performances by Bronson and James Corburn, and like producer Lawrence Gordon says in Eureka\u2019s interview, it\u2019s a film that keeps showing up on people\u2019s favourite lists. Whenever they see the one-sheet on his production office wall, they pause and start spouting praise for this little gem.<\/p>\n

All deserved.<\/p>\n

Coming next: <\/em>\u00a0reviews of Showtime\u2019s Twin Peaks: The Return<\/strong> (aka \u2018Season 3\u2019), Amazon\u2019s Comrade Detective<\/strong> and an interview with composer Joe Kraemer, and more!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charles Bronson coaches Elvis Presley in the unlikely musical-drama-comedy Kid Galahad (1962) on Blu via Twilight Time + a comparative review of the extras between Twilight Time & Eureka’s Masters of Cinema Hard Times (1975).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[5300,2201,3051,2562,2563,5299,5294,5296,2189],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/KidGalahad_featured.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-4ks","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16644"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16644"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16662,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16644\/revisions\/16662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}