Red Zone Cuba (1966)

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

As others have said, this is Coleman Francis' (inspired by a bad acid trip?) attempt to do "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," which itself has its roots in Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale: ruthless criminals end up double-crossing each other and nobody really wins. Unfortunately, that sort of thing works only if you care about the characters or at least are curious to see what will happen next. I can't tell one character from the next, except that (as everyone else has pointed out) the main guy looks like the guy from the Three Stooges. As for what happens next, I can't tell what ALREADY happened, and I'm still watching it, courtesy of MST3K. I think they threw in the Cuba stuff just because it seemed timely in the '60s. Other than that, this movie seems like a bunch of random chase scenes and shoot-em-ups from other movies tossed together. The Stooges guy choking the one who keeps talking about his long line of Kallikak ancestors is Charles Boyer freaking out at a blind beggar in "Algiers," the MST3K crew picked up on the hiding- from-the-cops scenes cribbed from "The Defiant Ones," the chick associating with the men who abandoned her wounded husband is out of GOK how many films noirs. If you want to see a movie where random amorality actually works, watch 1972's "Bad Company." I've clicked the Spoiler option, but I'm not sure there's anything to spoil. NOBODY knows what's going on in this film.

"Griffin...ran all the way to hell...with a penny...and a broken cigarette." Coleman C. Francis' last installment to his notorious film trilogy is Night Train to Mundo Fine, also billed as Red Zone Cuba. Night Train to Mundo Fine (pronounced "Finé", in which Francis also starred as well) is an American drama film telling of the meandering adventures of three mercenaries caught in the Bay of Pigs Invasion. After directing such bombs such as 'The Beast of Yucca Flats' (1961) and 'The Skydivers' (1963), this film, as the other two, still hold their prominent places on IMDb's Bottom 100. This final entry, like the others in the trilogy, have nothing in common with each other, except all use preoccupation with light aircraft and parachuting, coffee and cigarettes, which serve as prop or a center of conversation, and a vigilante-style gunning down of suspects without a trial to conclude the film as frequent motifs. With a minimal budget of $30,000 and shot entirely in the general Santa Clarita, California, (as per his two films) what could possibly go wrong? Francis' films have often been criticized for their abysmal production values, repetitive plot devices, murky picture quality and stilted acting. Critics have characterized his films as among the all-time-worst, even suggesting that he may surpass Ed Wood in terms of ineptitude. Would this film had been better off had the train not left the station? Let's take a look.'Night Train' opens with a young reporter approaching an old train engineer (John Carradine, the only big name in this picture) about three men--Griffin (Francis and the narrator), Cook (Harold Saunders) and Landis (Anthony "Tony" Cardoza, of whom also produced and played Castro)--of whom hopped his freight train back in 1961. Carradine must have wanted out pretty fast, because this is the only time we see him throughout this monochrome drudgery. He does sing the theme for the opening credits, performed by Ray Gregory and the Melman, but that's it after that. Griffin, a hulking escaped convict, joins up with Cook and Landis when the men are sitting down to eat in the desert while pointing a gun at them. A police officer arrives to question the men as Griffin hides in the brush. The office informs them to watch for Griffin of whom has $5,000 on his head. Upon his leaving, they know they can't turn the towering brute in due to having him kill them, so they allow the lug to travel on their sojourn in earning money to fight in Cuba. They go to a man named Cherokee Jack, (George Prince), and they trade in their truck for $35 in return for a flight to the war-torn communist country. Once there, the man get captured and become prisoners of war. They abandon their superior officer Bailey Chastain (Tom Hanson), although he begs for them to take him along with them. He desperately informs them of his family's mine back home, of which contains pitchblende, tungsten and other precious metals. They trio manage to escape through a window after Griffin strangles a guard. Stealing one of Castro's planes, they flee to Arizona. Once on American soil, the threesome partake in throwing diner owner Cliff Weismeyer (Charles F. Harter) down a well and Griffin creeping up and grabbing the blind daughter (Elaine Gifford), tearing her away from sitting at the facility's tinny piano and strangling her on a bed. The gang then steal Cliff's car and hop a train. Post engaging in a variety of crimes, the threesome finally make it to Chastain's home as they and his wife (Lanell Cado) head towards the mine the following day. Eventually the law catches up with them. Cook and Landis both surrender, Griffin refuses to go down without a fight. A shootout ensues and he dies in the desert sand. 'Night Train' is an hour and a half and feels like to longest ninety minutes I felt as if I ever had to sit through in a long time. It was almost as testing as sitting through 'Manos'. At least this film had the audacity to have a plot, which kept my interest a little more than 'Manos' did, but not so much. Everything in this film is practically filler and stretched out to unbearable lengths. We see the three men in uniform amongst some other soldiers running on the beach, walking along trails and scaling ledges. We witness executions in the Cuban prison camp, though we have no emotional connections to these anonymous souls being shot as we were just introduced to them. And for a film entitled 'Night Train to Mundo Fine', the train itself is barely in this picture. On December 17, 1994, 'Night Train' appeared on an episode of MST3K. It was the second of Francis' films to be featured on the show's sixth season, following 'The Skydivers' and preceding 'The Beast of Yucca Flats'. Francis received notoriety due to these televised spots and as a result of their appearing on the show as well. Cherokee Jack even went later on to appear in The Office episode 'Threat Level Midnight'. 'Night Train to Mundo Fine' is indeed a train wreck, meandering more than the characters on screen to an unbearable, lengthy extent, metaphorically derailing over an unfinished railroad bridge ascending over a hundred plus feet of gulch. And Coleman C. Francis, director and conductor, went down with it. He passed away at only age fifty-three due to cardiovascular disease. Though arteriosclerosis was listed as the official cause of death, Cardoza said that his body was found in the back of a station wagon at the Vine Street Ranch Market with "a plastic bag over his head and a tube going into his mouth or around his throat". Though he did make two more bad films before passing, 'Night Train' stills remains as a loud whistle blowing in homage to his terrible craft.

Auteur extraordinaire Coleman Francis once again proves that staying away from studio interference and a budget as well as casting one's incompetent self is the only surefire way to create a surrealist, absurdist, and yet somehow ultra-realistic cinema-verite masterpiece of the magnitude of "Red Zone Cuba", also known as "Night Train to Mundo Fine".Coleman Francis uses multiple inventive and original techniques to establish the absurdist atmosphere of this uncompromising noir epic. His use of repetitive imagery evokes the unnecessary nature of the lives being lived by the protagonists as well as the antagonists in Francis' typical ultra-realist and yet abstract sensationalist cinema verite noir universe. John Carradine in particular was an inspired bit of casting- a fine actor whose career was deteriorating- the perfect way to portray a character in the dark, gloomy, relentless world of continuous close-ups that Francis creates.Of course it's fairly obvious that "Red Zone Cuba" was Stanley Kubrick's primary influence for "2001: A Space Odyssey", but the similarity between both films goes even farther. Indeed, "Red Zone Cuba" creates an aesthetic far removed and yet nearly identical to "2001". Kubrick has stated that Coleman Francis succeeded so unbelievably well in "Red Zone Cuba" that no director in the future of cinema should attempt to equal it, resulting in Kubrick's deliberate attempt to create an inferior film. Needless to say, the poorly-paced "2001" succeeds in this aspect.Although released late in Francis' career "Red Zone Cuba" was actually shot in 1961. It is said that critics who viewed the film in 1961 walked out in droves appalled and yet fascinated with Francis' portrayal of Fidel Castro as an American man named Landis in a deliberately fake beard. This absurdist view of Cuban-American relations caused controversy that delayed the film's release by five years.Francis includes many of his trademark stylistic choices in this film as both a writer and director. For example, coffee is the focus of more than one scene, and we all know how brilliantly coffee is used in Francis' films as a motif. Another important aspect of this film is the use of repetitive imagery to enhance the gritty realist absurdism that is Coleman Francis' cinema. The scene where several men climb up a cliff using a rope is remarkable and possibly the greatest sequence in all of cinema.Of course the final line is the greatest of all time: "Griffin ran all the way to hell... with a penny, and a broken cigarette."Narration that is clearly an influence on Terrence Malick and other reputable directors.10/10

I wasn't surprised to find this film ranked #100 on the IMDb's bottom 100. I saw it on "Mystery Science Theater 3000" and besides being the worse movie ever made, it was also really depressing. It makes me wonder why people give films like "Plan 9 from Outer Space," "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" and "Reefer Madness" such a bad rap. Heck, it makes "The Giant Gila Monster" look like "Jurassic Park." This film does have a certain historic value, however, as it represents an attempt to make a dramatization of an important event--the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba--on an almost infinitesimal budget. Judging from this film, the entire population of Cuba is about eight people, and the total invasion force numbered seven. Nice try, but no cigar! We can just be thankful that Coleman Francis didn't follow up with a low-rent version of the Cuban Missile Crisis.