John Huston's 1948 screen adaptation of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre has been released by Warner Home Video on Blu-ray. The presentation is stunning and the crisp black-and-white cinematography has never looked so entrancing. The film is regarded as one of the great triumphs of American cinema, but was a box-office flop at the time, despite winning Oscars for Huston and his father, Walter. Apparently, audiences didn't want to see Humphrey Bogart stray so far from his image as a lovable crook or detective. Yet, Bogart gives the greatest performance of his career in this film, though he was criminally denied a Best Actor nomination. The story of three men who virtually sell their souls in the quest to find gold in the mountains of Mexico is the ultimate cautionary tale. When they are impoverished, they would give their lives for one another. However, after striking it rich, greed and jealously lead inevitably to tragedy. The story behind the film is almost as engrossing. Huston insisted on shooting much of the movie on location in the wilds of Mexico, which was quite innovative at the time. The resulting budget increase made the film a costly venture for Warner Brothers. Additionally, Huston's attempts to meet with the book's author, the legendarily mysterious B. Traven, caused endless speculation. The man on the set during production who claimed to represent the elusive Traven may well have been the author himself, and books have been written debating this possibility.
The Monkees' Head is one of several pop culture films from the 1960s to get the deluxe Blu-ray treatment.
The Criterion Collection has announced the label will release a major collection on Blu-ray. Here are the details:
Like the rest of America, Hollywood was ripe for revolution in the late sixties. Cinema attendance was down; what had once worked seemed broken. Enter Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider, and Steve Blauner, who knew that what Hollywood needed was new audiences—namely, young people—and that meant cultivating new talent and new ideas. Fueled by money made from their invention of the superstar TV pop group the Monkees, they set off on a film-industry journey that would lead them to form BBS Productions, a company that was also a community. The innovative films produced by this team between 1968 and 1972 are collected in this box set—works created within the studio system but lifted right out of the countercultural id, and that now range from the iconic (Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show) to the acclaimed (The King of Marvin Gardens) to the obscure (Head; Drive, He Said; A Safe Place).
In the course of editing Cinema Retro magazine, I've met countless actors and filmmakers- many of them true legends. While each encounter is a memorable and cherished moment, one does get a bit jaded over time and you tend to adapt an attitude that "it's all in a day's work." However, while in London for Cinema Retro's recent Movie Magic Tour of British film locations, Dave Worrall and I were invited back stage at the London Film Museum to meet Ray Harryhausen. The special effects genius and his friend and biographer Tony Dalton were about to engage in an interview before a packed auditorium. Although Ray has been a contributor to Cinema Retro and allowed us access to his personal archives of priceless film props, I had never met the man. Making the occasion even more special was his impromptu reunion with actresses Caroline Munro and Honor Blackman. I was fully aware I was observing a wonderful bit of movie history. Blackman played the Greek goddess Hera in Harryhausen's landmark 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts. As we all chatted, I recalled seeing the movie for the first time and the lasting impression it has had on me. Jason was not particularly successful at the box-office compared to Harryhausen's trademark monster movies, but it has grown in stature and seems to have inspired an entire generation of younger movie directors and special effects experts.
Sony has finally done justice to the movie with a superb Blu-ray release. Harryhausen, who is now 90 but as spry as ever, is all over the special edition in both new and previously-released bonus features. Harryhausen's mastery of stop-motion animation required the kind of patience and skill that few could imagine in this era of overblown CGI-stuffed action film monstrosities. While there is no denying today's animated features are wonderful in their own unique way, there is nothing comparable to Harryhausen's achievements. If you don't understand why, the special features on the Blu-ray will illuminate the subject for you. In essence, every second of film required dozens of minor movements of the model figures Harryhausen created. It's a craft that still exists today, but barely. The film itself impresses more today than it did in 1963, with virtually every scene transfixed in one's memory from the playful attitudes of the gods, who use humans are pawns in their games, to the extravagant action sequences highlighted by the legendary battle with the skeleton army. If there is a weak aspect to the movie it is the casting of Todd Armstrong as Jason. Although physically appropriate for the role, Armstrong is the victim of some bad dubbing that distracts from his performance. On the other side of the coin, Nigel Green is wonderful as Hercules, playing the part in a far more down-to-earth manner than previous screen incarnations.
Regular readers know that we're big fans of director Joe Dante's site Trailers From Hell!, in which prominent film makers and scholars provide audio commentary on vintage movie trailers. Now Trailers From Hell! has released their first DVD of highlights from the site. Here is the official description:
Any movie can be great in 2 ½ minutes.
Trailers--you know, those fast-paced 2-to-4 minute theatrical promo
shorts that have preceded the Feature Attraction since the dawn of
sound? An exciting montage of all The Best Parts of a movie the
exhibitors want you to NEED to see! Full of swirling letters screaming
hyperbolic promises of THRILLS! ACTION! MYSTERY! ROMANCE! Packing all
the highlights of a whole picture into its own mini-movie in just a few
minutes!
THE BEST FROM TRAILERS FROM HELL!, Volume 1
showcases the cream of the award-winning website series, concentrating
on promos for horror, science fiction and fantasy films which viewers
can watch both as originally intended or accompanied by pithy commentary
by Trailers from Hell Gurus: Joe Dante (Gremlins), John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), Mick Garris (The Stand), Eli Roth (Cabin Fever) and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead).
The trailers and commentaries are:
Joe Dante - The Tingler, Blood and Roses, Curse of Frankenstein, Earth vs. Flying Saucers
Mick Garris - Rabid, The Valley of Gwangi, Scream and Scream Again, Horrors of the Black Museum
John Landis - Curse of the Werewolf, Green Slime, Private Parts, Mighty Joe Young
Eli Roth - Squirm, The Birds, 3 on a Meathook, Forbidden Planet
Edgar Wright - Corruption, The Sentinel, Silent Running, Phantom of the Paradise
Included as an added bonus is the 1933 Majestic Pictures horror classic, The Vampire Bat, as well as two animated cartoon classics: Foster & Bailey's The Haunted Ship (1930) and Ub Iwerks' The Headless Horseman (1934).
Universally praised as one of the best films made about WWII during the era in which the War was ongoing, director Lewis Milestone's A Walk in the Sun was based on a popular novel by Harry Brown. Released a few months after the War had officially ended, Milestone's film has not fared well over the years. Originally an independent production, the budget ran dry several times before the movie was salvaged by an investor with deep pockets. Samuel Bronston, the future producer of epic movies, was integral to bringing the novel to the screen, though he never received a formal credit in the movie. Fox ultimately picked up the movie for distribution, though studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck almost changed the title to Salerno Beachead out of fear that A Walk in the Sun sounded too much like a love story. In the ensuing decades, the movie fell out of copyright and it was routinely found on bargain basement DVDs sold in "dollar stores". Now, VCI Entertainment, which specializes in restoring public domain films, has issued an impressive, first-class DVD edition.
The 1975 box office hit Once is Not Enough starring Kirk Douglas and Deborah Raffin will make its DVD debut in late September from Olive Films, which has acquired the rights to many great retro film titles. Here is the official synopsis:
Based
on a Best Seller by Jacqueline Susann (Valley of the Dolls). January
Wayne (Deborah Raffin), the adoring daughter of movie producer Mike Wayne (Kirk
Douglas) returns home to New York, only to find her father married to Deidre
Milford Granger (Alexis Smith), the fifth richest woman in the world. The
marriage is one of the conveniences for Mike, who has lost his magic touch as a
producer, and is in desperate need of money to continue his and his daughter’s
lavish lifestyles. Jealous January bitterly resents her father and cannot
accept the moral codes of this new world, finding only frustration. She gets a
job with Gloss Magazine and falls in love with Pulitzer Price-winning novelist
Tom Colt (David Janssen), whose virile prose and celebrated fistfights turn out
to be a compensation for his physical inadequacies. Her Stepmother Dee wants
her to marry David Milford (George Hamilton), Dee’s handsome young cousin and
wolf-about-town, who’s having an affair with the reclusive retired movie star,
Karla (Melina Mercouri), who in turn is carrying on a clandestine lesbian affair
with Dee. Directed by Guy Green (55 Days at Peking), with original Music
and Score by Henry Mancini (Victor/Victoria). Brenda Vaccaro won a
Golden Globe® award (and an Academy Award® nomination) for her supporting
performance as the man-crazy editor of a fashion magazine.
