Tom Selleck Movies

[IslandHopper]

Oh, it is Crossfire trail, Last Stand at Saber river and Monte Walsh.
I like Crossfire trail best.

Funny, I just watched "Last Stand at Saber River" and "Crossfire Trail" yesterday. "Monte Walsh" is excellent too. I never realized "Monte Walsh" was a remake. I recently saw the earlier version (circa 1970) starring Lee Marvin as Monte Walsh. The entire time I was watching Lee Marvin (who is a great actor as well as a combat wounded Marine during WWII) I kept comparing his portrayal to TS's.

[Carmen]

And? Who did a better job?

[IslandHopper]

I would have to go with TS, but Lee Marvin is a great actor, and obviously was excellent as Monte Walsh too.

[MACattack]

If Cheech & Chong can reunite, why can't Tom Selleck and Donald Bellisario reunite with the original cast of MPI to make an excellent new film?
I've been waiting twenty years to see what happened to the original gang
and how they're living now.
Blast Brian Glazer and all of Hollywood for trying screw up a great genre!

I know it was just a TV show, but I grew up watching it in the 80's and now I enjoy watching it with my daughter.
Tom Selleck played the role of Magnum so well, he made him seem like a real person.

Who knows what can happen. Back in the last season, they almost killed Magnum off and ended the series, but they resurrected him! A miracle could happen. What if Tom Selleck was allowed to play him again? Maybe the producers are just playing a big practical joke.

[J. Rickley Schneider]

Recently watched Ike: Countdown to D-Day (2004)

Not casting John Hillerman as Monty was a missed opportunity.

[Steve-O]

So I have had a copy of The Chinese Typewriter (TCT) for quite awhile and have finally sat down to watch it. Much of my casual notes have likely already been covered in comments here on MM, so just another set.

I found the movie's opening title sequence to feel and look like a 70s prime time tv investigator show, the somewhat surprising Post-Carpenter discobeat theme notwithstanding. This is not surprising considering TCT is a Stephen J. Cannell product. With regard to fonts, as discussed recently here on Magnum Mania, the titles font appears to be the same as that used on MPI, but in white.

James Whitmore Jr.'s character is named Jim. Tom Selleck's character is named Tom. That makes things easy for everyone. Tom Boston-- interesting how several TS characters seem to connect somehow to the US Northeast. Fun to see James (Nuzo/Gutterman) Whitmore Jr. in a different production as I near the end of watching the full Black Sheep Squadron series (most of it for the first time).

Tom and his pal Jim appear to be detective-type guys (PIs?!), although seeming to be unlicensed in any proper way. They just appear to have a good rep as guys who can crack a crime/mystery. Tom has unique accommodations with a nice view (sound familiar?) and seems to share it with Jim.

The Al's Automotive ball cap appears early, in the rather long little league game segment where Tom is coaching. Somehow, even after many unsuccessful pilots, TS may have had enough influence to get some baseball content into the script.

Some of Selleck's Magnum mannerisms are here as well, such as the smiley, submissive, close-lipped "approval grin" he gives while discussing some sleuth-work in the motor home. We even have a "work-the-lock" type of scene with Tom, although there are no Lads coming and it seems to be a combination lock.

Strangely enough, in San Ricas (aka. Oahu) there's a city-side public beach scene where a lovely blond woman in a peach-colored bikini steps up to a shower head to wash off the salty ocean. This scene is shot at Waikiki and used in the MPI episode China Doll. And strangely enough again, San Ricas seems to have what looks a lot like the Pali Tunnel, at about the 60-minute mark, not to mention the Anderson Estate getting a few external looks as well.

Tom and Jim are walking along a tropical beach with Miller having a conversation about the work a physicist Jim knows is doing in Germany. At the time of this film, few if any viewers or tv-writers would know this conversation somewhat foreshadowed the whole cold-fusion thing that would happen a few decades later. Also in this scene, it seems there are two dobermans frolicking in and out of the water behind the group. Please tell me these are not somehow the aforementioned Lads. And by the way, I did the comparison of beach walk scenes (TCT and Three Minus Two): they are not the same beach-- you can tell by the beach shape in the background.

James W. Jr. at one point is disguised a Saudi sheikh. Wardrobe for this film does a terrible job on this. His gutra (head dress) is on way too tight, tucked/folded uncharacteristically for any Gulf Arab, and features no pattern on it at all. Any businessman portrayed in this film who has dealt with any oil sheikh would see this fraud straight away-- he looks more like a shepherd from a kids bible story. Having lived/worked in KSA for several years, I would know this. Anyhow, it made me laugh.

The aircraft near the center of the plot here is a B737 dressed in what appears to be Southwest Airlines livery. I found it amusing in a technical kind of way, that when the group is stealing away from San Ricas with the jet near the end of the film, Miller throttles to full just immediately before rotation. Oops.

Though not a great or even good film, it was fun to watch. I enjoyed the throwback disco vibe to the action and chase scenes. The plot was thin enough and the characters not so complicated to make it a workable bit of mindless fun. In some way, I can't help but to think in the back of my mind that this and the Magnum pilot were perhaps written incredibly close together. When this was made, it was very close to the beginning of Magnum, and while Tom Selleck was not quite the same kind of player (acting chops) in TCT as in Magnum, you could see he was very close-- close to the character of TSM in confidence and mannerisms. And the 'stache was in full bloom of course. Somebody somewhere really wanted TS to be a PI on the telly, except for maybe Jim Rockford. I probably wouldn't have bothered with this flick if I wasn't a MPI fan, but as such, I'm happy I did.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

I would have to go with TS, but Lee Marvin is a great actor, and obviously was excellent as Monte Walsh too.

Tom Selleck as Monte Walsh better than Hollywood legend Lee Marvin in the original? I disagree.
I think Selleck's remake is the superior flick, but I don't think you'd find many movie buffs who would rate Selleck the better actor in "Walsh".
Like John Wayne Tom Selleck is outstanding in his niche, his oversize personality and bulk part of his likability and screen presence.
But Lee Marvin's talent overall blows both Duke and Tom away.
That's not an insult, Laurence Olivier could do Henry V and many other varied roles but could he do Rooster Cogburn or Magnum, no.
Lee could win a Oscar doing comedy as well as great drama like The Iceman Cometh or war flicks like The Dirty Dozen.
Combat vet Marvin's realistic take on violence made some uncomfortable but as Lee said, "It is what it is. Anything else is farce".
My favorite story about him was when he guested on Combat! and was invited by the 20 years younger cast to share their private bar that was
in the French Village set featured in a good quarter of the episodes.
What was supposed to be a few beers after the filming had ended for the day degenerated, thanks to champion booze hound Marvin,
into an all night drinking session.
Dawn arrives and finds Lee bright eyed and bushy tailed before the cameras, while the director frantically searched for his missing cast whose fate
Lee feigned any knowledge of. When the director found them on the bar floor comatose, he supposedly blurted
"they have been fighting the Germans unscathed for two years on this show and after one night with Marvin the squad is wiped out!"

[NitroNick50]

Top 3 theatrical movies for me: Quigley, An Innocent Man and High Road to China.


TV movies: Crossfire Trail, Last Stand at Sabre River, Monte Walsh.

[MagnumsLeftShoulder]

Crossfire Trail will be on INSP Sept. 1 at 8:00 eastern.

Top 3 theatrical movies for me: Quigley, An Innocent Man and High Road to China.

Good choices I would add Mr. Baseball just because it's a fun flick. Her Alibi is fun, too.

TV movies: Crossfire Trail, Last Stand at Sabre River, Monte Walsh.

All good, but so are The Sacketts and The Shadowriders.

[Steve]

Two little known Selleck movies I have always loved are Twelve Mile Road and Ruby Jean and Joe.......One of the worst is Folks even though I will watch it as some of it was filmed around the area that the loft I used to live in was located.....One thing I will say about Tom Selleck movies is look at the cast that surrounds him. Some of the best actors around that I assume come on board a project due to TS being involved....

[Steve]

For anyone interested and that may have this new channel TUBI that is now on the Xfinity (comcast) system, Concrete Cowboys, renamed Ramblin Man??? is listed on the menu.......I have tried three times to watch it but Jerry Reed is gawd awful and ruins it to the point I haven't been able to get more than 20 minutes in.....

[MagnumsLeftShoulder]

Two little known Selleck movies I have always loved are Twelve Mile Road and Ruby Jean and Joe

I would love to see Ruby Jean and Joe again! I saw about 15 years ago on Lifetime or Hallmark. I can't figure out why it's not available on DVD or streaming. Was there some music in it that would create a "music rights" issue?

Concrete Cowboys, renamed Ramblin Man

It's also available under both titles on Amazon Prime. It's not totally horrible if you can watch it for free.

[Lord Ickenham]

BTW, did you know "3 Men and a baby" (followed some years after by "3 Men and a Little Lady") was a remake of a french movie called "3 hommes et un couffin" ?



In France, in 2003, they released "18 ans après" :


starring the same actors 18 years after with the baby become adult.

Why not some title like "25 years after" to be released in 2010 starring Tom Selleck and the same actors of the first version in 1985 ?

But it's a fact "18 ans après" did not have a great success in France ...

As a European I know the French films. And I don't understand the American remake mania. For example: there are remakes Les Fugitifs and other Pierre Richard films. (Pierre Richard is a legend, but who is Martin Short?)