Midway (1976)

I considered saving the last U.S. war movie left on my list for a patriotic holiday, much as I like to save horrors for October. But in all likelihood, I wouldn't remember on time. Besides, I was already in the mood for something very different from what else I'd seen lately.

The story begins with the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in April '42. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (Tohiro Mifune overdubbed by Paul Frees) sees it as a blessing in disguise, because now his superiors will give him carte blanche for his next move. Soon after, U.S. intelligence staff supervised by Commander Joseph Rochefort (Hal Holbrook) and monitored by composite character Captain Matthew Garth (Charlton Heston) find inconclusive evidence that Japan's next target is Midway Atoll. By the time of the eponymous battle in June, U.S. naval forces are not fully prepared and consider themselves the underdog.

Angel Face (1952)

So far, my Otto Preminger viewings have been about half great and half mixed in my opinion. This one had the added appeal of Robert Mitchum to draw me in. He's not even the creepiest character this time.

Beverly Hills ambulance driver Frank (Mitchum) comes to a mansion where one Catherine (Barbara O'Neil) has had a close call with a gas leak. Circumstances suggest an attempt at either suicide or, as she claims, homicide, tho she names no culprit. Frank is smitten with the beauty of her stepdaughter, Diane (Jean Simmons), despite already having a girlfriend (Mona Freeman). Diane goes out of her way to make him her favorite, even persuading her father (Herbert Marshall) and Catherine to hire him as their chauffeur. Frank doesn't fully trust Diane after her insincere manipulations and contempt for Catherine, but he might just be game for whatever she schemes next....

The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)

I don't recall when I heard about this movie or when I put it on my queue (probably the same time). All I knew when I moved it to the top was that it was a neo-noir and therefore unlike anything I'd watched in quite some time. Top billing to Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle didn't hurt either, tho Boyle's role isn't the second most prominent.

In the Boston area, Eddie (Mitchum) and Jackie Brown (Steven Keats, whose character name supplied the title of a Quentin Tarantino flick) are newly acquainted gun traffickers. Eddie enlists Jackie's help to outfit bank robbers. What Jackie doesn't know is that Eddie, having been caught hijacking, sees little choice but to serve as an informant to FBI Agent Dave Foley (Richard Jordan). What Eddie doesn't know is that Foley has an informant on him as well: mobster Dillon (Boyle), who had arranged the hijacking.

El Dorado (1967)

This could easily have been a flop. One of the last movies directed by Howard Hawks, it looked a lot like his earlier westerns, which didn't fit the mood of the late '60s. John Wayne was getting too old to pass for a hired gunman. He didn't get along well with Ed Asner and had previously given trouble to Robert Mitchum. The film took longer than projected to complete. And despite a delayed release in order not to compete with another Wayne film, it wound up competing with yet another. (Dude did have quite a run, even in later years.) But it still performed well at the box office and has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, so I had to check it out.

In and near the titular city, Cole Thornton (Wayne) gets caught up in a battle for territory between the rightful McDonald clan and the outlaws under Bart Jason (Asner), including noted sharpshooter Nelse McLeod (Christopher George). Between the influences of buddy Sheriff J.P. Harrah (Mitchum) and on-and-off lover Maudie (Charlene Holt), Cole picks the good side. He soon enlists the help of newcomer nicknamed Mississippi (James Caan), who does much better with a knife than with a gun. Unfortunately, as aged Deputy Bull (Arthur Hunnicutt) reports, J.P. is usually too drunk to be of any use. And a bullet near Cole's spine, which he hasn't found time to treat properly, sometimes paralyzes part of him....