therumpo-kid Reviews

Black Velvet Band (1997 TV Movie)

That Rarity - A British Western set in South Africa!

[10/10 · 26 July 2006]

I really loved this when it was shown and can hardly believe it's nearly ten years ago. I expected it to be released on video shortly after as Nick Berry was a huge star at the time but it never appeared and has never as far as I know been shown again on television in the UK. Great plot about a gang of Victorian criminals(the Black Velvet Band) who plan an audacious theft of the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. However they are caught red-handed and transported to Australia for life. En route there ship stops in South Africa and they manage to escape from the ship and deep into the South African veldt pursued by a British officer and troops. My memory of the plot goes a bit awry here but they fall foul of a nasty local landowner and he either double-crosses them or has killed one of band and they seek revenge in a terrific shoot-out that would grace any great western. They then move on further into the veldt and decide to settle. Nick Berry was very good indeed and handled the action sequences well. All the other actors were good and the period setting was done very convincingly. Maybe it'll turn up one day on one of the satellite channels,if so don't miss it, if like me, you love westerns or western derivatives.

Man from Atlantis: Shoot-Out at Land's End (1977) Season 1, Episode 10

Took me back to my childhood for 45 enjoyable minutes

[7/10 · 24 July 2006]

you know when a series is running out of ideas when it turns to a time travel plot. Having said that I love westerns and I've been waiting 30 years nearly to see this again and it was strangely enjoyable. The plot involved Patrick Duffy searching out his long lost 'bad' gunfighter twin brother though how he managed to time travel was never explained,he just left the submarine swam to shore and suddenly he was back in the Old West! Pernell Roberts was the main villain and was as watchable as ever. As an aside along with 'One Eyed Jacks','High Plains Drifter' and the truly awful 'Cactus Jack' these are the only westerns that I can think of that feature scenes set by the ocean. Took me back to my childhood for 45 very enjoyable minutes.