Shameless Self Expression

Yaphet Kotto plays Denmark Vesey a slave who buys his freedom from somewhat avuncular ship captain and owner Captain Vesey, and then organises a slave rebellion. Bernie Casey plays another slave initially reluctant to uprise against his racist but oddly sympathetic master Mr. Benjamin (Ned Beatty, whose character name isn’t listed on IMDb). Also somewhat sceptical of Denmark’s plot is Cleavon Little, slave to governor William Windom. Brock Peters shows up as a black preacher, whilst Antonio Fargas plays Gullah Jack, who seems to be some kind of practitioner of witchcraft in his spare time.   Shamefully obscure to the point where IMDb’s listing is lacking in certain cast and character information and there’s no Trivia items for it, either. Even if you can manage to get your eyes on it, most sources have a 90 minute version, whilst a certain free social media site contains a 2hr version where the sound infuriatingly cuts out for the rest of the film (it definitely is a 2hr versio...

Set in 1800s Texas, Jeffrey Hunter plays a horse-riding attorney who represents old flame (Joanna Moore) who is on a murder charge. James Coburn plays Hunter’s somewhat friendly legal opponent, the town marshal. Kevin Hagen plays the defendant’s husband, whilst Ed Nelson turns up as a decidedly sinister, intimidating figure.   Directed by actor William Conrad (best known for being one half of TV’s “Jake and the Fatman” ), this 1963 B-western was originally designed as a TV pilot, hence the less than 60 minute running time. Apparently it was repurposed into another show with a different lead character. Scripted by Dean Riesner ( “Play Misty for Me” , “Dirty Harry” ) and Michael Zagor (a TV veteran), I was initially unsure whether it would be fair to review this as a feature film since that’s not really what it is. However, it was released that way at the end of the day, and it turns out I managed to get some interest out of it at least.   It’s kind of an interesting id...