Okay, so good ol’ Brian Doan tagged me in the viral “12 Films” meme more than a week or so back. The idea of this meme, which thanks to Dennis Cozzalio (who reminded me of a couple of films I want to add to my own list) has morphed from naming twelve films that you’d love to see, but are virtually impossible to find, to twelve films one simply hasn’t gotten around to.  In a way, that makes it even more intimidating seeing as I have some 300+ films films in my Netflix queue and another twenty or so films sitting on a couple of DVRs where I live. So, I’m going to kind of split the difference and kind of favor films that are at least somewhat tricky to see — with a few where my only excuse is filmic fecklessness.

The first is on loan from Dennis, but I come by it honestly….

1. Ulzana’s Raid –  This ultra-tough western from Robert Aldrich has the “virtue” of actually being almost impossible to find either in revival or, even more so, on DVD, it’s a movie I’ve vaguely wanted to see since I first took up a special interest in westerns some fifteen or more years back. That interest became greatly intensified, however, when Joss Whedon cited it repeatedly as a major influence (along with Michael Shaara’s novel, The Killer Angels) on his great, short-lived TV horse opera/space opera series Firefly, which I liked with a level of enthusiasm so strong that I can hear certain friends sighing even as they read this.  In any case, Robert Aldrich’s film is said to be of one of the very few action westerns to really attempt to deal honestly with the Indian wars following the Civil War. As much as I dearly love John Ford’s tales of sacrifice and frontier chivalry, Fort Apache and Rio Grande, I clearly need — I actually want — to be cinematically disillusioned about those vicious times.

2. Captain Kronos — Vampire Hunter. I’ve wanted to see this Hammer film since about age 15. Why? A vampire fighting swashbuckler written and directed by Brian Clemens of The Avengers. I mean, vampires, swordfights, presumably witty dialogue. I mean, seriously, what else do you need to know?

3. Chimes at Midnight. I actually blew numerous opportunities to see this one  at the Nuart and the long-gone Fox Venice as a kid. That was because I hadn’t yet read Shakespeare’s history plays featuring Prince Hal and Falstaff — which probably remain my favorite works by the by Bard. Putting together the Falstaff sections of the four plays featuring the iconic and beloved character appears in, this film is frequently talked about as perhaps Welles’ second great film after Citizen Kane. I am not a part of the giant-sized Welles cinephile cult when it comes to his later output, with something of an exception for Touch of Evil (I’m currently working on a review of the new DVD for this, btw) but I’ll basically watch any Welles film once – and with Welles, a great ham, playing one of my favorite ham characters, I can’t see not loving this one at least a little bit. According to Wikipedia because of legal difficulties this one remains viewable only as a DVD import from Brazil. Another reason to say that first, we really should kill all the lawyers. (Well, not the nice ones. You know who you are.)

4. Bunny Lake is Missing. I definitely love a mystery and this one just looks cool. I also think I was freaked out as a toddler by a scene involving…something…a baby doll? I have no clue, so that’s another mystery. So why has it been on my DVR for six months? (BTW — That’s my kind of movie poster — who says you have to see the actors?)

5. The President’s Analyst. Another DVR sitter that I’ve only seen a moment or two, here or there. I love political thrillers; I love spy films — I love them even more when you add in a little black comedy, or a whole lot. And throw in some late sixties pinache/weirdness, the fact that it’s written by a great TV comedy writer named Theodore J. Flicker (was that his real name?), and you’ve got a psychedelic martini I can’t wait to sip. But, yet, I do.

6. Kagemusha: The  Shadow Warrior. I went to see this lesser known, but highly regarded, late period Kurosawa samurai tale (actually kind of a spy film, when you think of it), right after finals in college with two buddies. I think I was nodding off within a quarter of an hour and woke up just in time to be baffled by some kind of ironic (?) conclusion. I missed seeing a new print of it a week ago today. Damn. It looks good.