IDK abt RED SUN (1971)

The only thing missing is Burt Bacharach.

Not to give away too much (to you, my clamoring horde!), but if we’re at all familiar, I’ve very likely sat you down and made you watch the “Look of Love” scene from 1967’s (preposterous) Casino Royale—in which an electric pink Ursula Andress beckons a wide-eyed Peter Sellers into the depths of her swinging sex pad (And if I really know you, I’ve made you watch the full three hour movie; and if you really know me, you’ve sat there with patiently folded hands as I paused, every ten or so minutes, to explain the gaping chasms in the plot). Which is to say that I grew up on the Euro sex comedies of the 1960’s—from What’s New Pussycat? to Modesty Blaise—and I’m honestly a little embarrassed (stunned even!) that I’d never seen Red Sun till last week. Forgive me the cliché, but this truly is my Avengers: directed by Terence Young (of the first three James Bonds), it stars Toshiro Mifune! Alain Delon! Ursula Andress! And Charles Bronson, too, I guess, but to be quite honest, I’m not a big aficionado of westerns—which is probably how this movie evaded my all-seeing gaze for so many (wasted) years. Essentially a buddy movie, it’s a clash of the cultures between Bronson and Mifune as they track down the double-dealing Delon (known, here, as GAUCHE) through southern Spain qua the Wild West. Delon knows what we want from him here—with a cheeky red bandana and skintight bellbottoms, he mostly swings his little pocket watch and cocks his hip to the side. And Ursula is, as ever, the best at what she does: slipping in and out of furs, blouses, bedsheets, she spends most of the movie thinning her eyes, and with that whipcrack voice, saying “You bastard!” Mifune’s great, too, obviously, but don’t expect any Kurosawan nuance here—while undoubtedly the co-lead (despite being fourth billed 💀), his character never quite transcends the “noble savage” trope (in one scene he unpacks a full sushi dinner, which he’s ostensibly been carrying through the desert for days)—though apparently Red Sun was a huge hit in Japan, so what do I know. But regardless! If you’re at all moved by the global super stars of the 50’s and 60’s, please watch this: while everyone’s looking a little leathered by 1971, it’s got all the colors and whimsy of the great screwball comedies (I mean, my God, it’s even got Capucine!) with a “forget it, Jake” ending that left me wondering if it’s time, at last, to dive into spaghetti westerns—though IDK, I can’t imagine any of them will have Ursula atop a horse in a full fur cape with her hair teased to high heaven.

(P.S. For those of you in NYC, you’re in luck! Film Forum will be playing Red Sun on Wednesday, 4/17, as part of its “Delon” series.)

Next time! A little gloom, a little doom!