Not a Good Movie, but Nice Titles by Robert McGinnis

Recently I talked about some "Hidden Gems" - movies I streamed on Netflix that I had never heard of before but enjoyed very much.

Of course, you can't find that many gems (and more recommendations to come) without discovering some lumpy, misshapen rocks. And fossilized dinosaur poo.

Based on my "viewing habits" Netflix recommended "The Hallelujah Trail" because it is also a western starring Burt Lancaster and was directed by John Sturges who has a pretty decent track record.

So I watched it. All of it.

And I thought it was horrible in every way. So I am NOT recommending "The Hallelujah Trail".

I actually wrote a long analysis of what's wrong with the movie but I hate to dump on things mercilessly and I don't like to sound snarky and negative. So I decided against posting it.

If you want to know one thing about the movie that sort of signifies all that is wrong with it, then check this out: Martin Landau (one of my favorite actors of all time) plays an Indian named "Chief-Walks-Stooped-Over" because he.......walks stooped over.

And that's ALL that Landau has to do in the movie, is walk stooped over. There's nothing more for him to play. There's no other funny or interesting thing about his character. He's just a guy that walks bent over and is called "Chief-Walks-Stooped-Over" and that's just about as funny or interesting as this movie gets. Which is to say, not very.

If you have never experienced tedium and want to see what it feels like, then by all means, watch it. Otherwise, stay away.

So why even bring it up? Well, because the opening and closing titles are paintings done by the illustrator Robert McGinnis. And they're awesome! I love the level of caricature in these. So I screencaptured all of the opening titles from the Netflix stream. That's why they're not such great quality. Sorry. I suppose I could buy the DVD and screencapture them, but I'm not going to buy this stinker. Sorry, I have done a lot for the sake of this blog, but I can't bring myself to do that.

I can't help but think that even these titles reflect the lackadaisical slapdash feel of the rest of the film. They don't seem to be lit very well. They seem to be reflecting some of the lights that were shining on them on the left hand side of the images (it's more pronounced in some than in others).



























I hope you enjoy these, because at least that would help me feel better about the time I spent watching this film. And let me know if you really like them, because I can go back and screencapture all of the closing credits, if people really want me to. Let me know!