Talk about sightings!!!

[cmvgor]

It happened again, and I saw the same face. I was watching Under The Volcano for the first time since the vhs vidio came out. Its a 1984 John Huston film starring Albert Finney as an alcoholic former diplomat sliding into a "leaving Las Vegas" mode, and very near the end
of drinking himself to death. But he's in Mexico, surrounded by resentful,
primitve people who are closing in on him. In his stupor, wandering around, he strays into a bar, where the circling vultures gather.

Then Emilio Fernandez enters with a couple of pals, and has one of the
few scenes I remember from the 1980s. He has a white fighting cock that
he is very proud of. He boasts of the number of fights the cock has won for him. Then he relates that his infant son had wondered out of the house and into the chicken run. The rooster had pecked the lad's eyes
out. His wife wanted him to kill the rooster, but he had no such intention.

This scene was part of the tale Huston was weaving about the nature of the country, and the plight of the innocents abroad who could not take care of themselves, especially with an alcoholic fog filtering out information they needed.

I'm slowly gathering information on Sr. Fernandez, and may one day satisfy my curiosity.

[klondike]

Edgar Buchanan. Along with Walter Brennan he seems to have been in almost every movie ever made. (Not just Westerns.)

And when neither of those guys were available, Chris, it seems like they always ended-up calling in Thomas Mitchell !!

[Mr. Arkadin]

Under the Volcano is a great film. I was so glad Criterion did the release. The 80's are not my favorite film era, but that one is one of the high points of the decade (or any decade!).