This is the third remake of High Sierra (directed by Raoul Walsh & then directed again by him as a Western named Colorado Territory) from 1955. This time Jack Palance is Roy 'Mad Dog' Earle, a recently paroled inmate asked by an old boss, played by the original wolfman Lon Chaney, to do a big job at a hotel. His crew consists of Earl Holliman (from Police Woman), Lee Marvin & their girl played Shelly Winters. On the road to his destination, Palance nearly gets into a car accident w/some old timers (& their lame granddaughter who has a bum foot) who he befriends & visits throughout the course of the story. Palance tries to keep his rowdy crew in line, soon joined by an inside man, a front desk man played by Perry Lopez (Chinatown), & as the heist comes closer, all the disparate elements of the yarn come together as the robbery is successfully pulled off (but in this type of story there are curves & twists to it), the lame girl gets an operation & Palance has to get away w/the goods or will he? If you know the previous treatments, you know where the story is going but seeing this tale told in widescreen Technicolor w/familiar actors playing the characters from W. R. Burnett's tale is a lot of fun. Co-starring Dennis Hopper in a small role as a partygoer & genre vet (& former Bubbleyum bubblegum spokesperson) Dub Taylor as a gas station attendant.
Review of I Died a Thousand Times
