By Fred Blosser

Career criminal Jerry Barker (Ralph Meeker) demands $200,000 in ransom from the wealthy father of a missing 10-year-old boy, whom Barker has hidden away in an abandoned fire tower in Royal Gorge National Park, Colorado. Jerry successfully collects the ransom, but the boy accidentally dies trying to get out of the tower, and after Jerry coldly disposes of the body, he’s caught in a police cordon before he can get away. Jim Madden, the FBI agent on the case (Reed Hadley), doesn’t have the evidence needed to bring a kidnapping charge, since the boy’s body hasn’t been found, and Barker refuses to talk. So Barker, nicknamed “Iceman” by the press because of his recalcitrance, is sent to prison on extortion. The authorities hope he’ll eventually break down and confess to the more serious crime. Meanwhile, Madden doggedly continues to pursue clues.

Behind bars, Jerry is ostracized by other inmates, even his hardened cellmates Mason (William Talman), Smith (Lon Chaney), and Kelly (Charles Bronson). The other cons have heard about the crime and figure that Jerry not only abducted the missing boy, he also murdered him. (“Kid killer . . . that’s really scrapin’ the bottom of the barrel!” Kelly sneers over the top of a bodybuilder magazine.) But the fourth cellmate, Rollo (Broderick Crawford), has a better idea. The ransom money hasn’t been found either. Rollo convinces the others to take Barker with them when they execute an already-planned escape, so that he’ll lead them to the missing money.

“Big House, U.S.A.,” a modest 1955 Bel-Air/United Artists release, is a relatively obscure slice of ‘50s crime cinema, despite the presence of stellar plug-uglies Meeker, Crawford, Bronson, Chaney, and Talman in the main cast. Maybe it’s gotten lost in the myriad of other crime and noir movies from the decade that have “Big” in the title. Or maybe the students of auteur cinema, who are usually the first to unearth gems in the trash heap of low-budget films, have overlooked it because it wasn’t directed by Don Siegel, Phil Karlson, or Sam Fuller (the director was the prolific but relatively unheralded Howard W. Koch). Too, the title may be a turnoff for crime-film buffs and critics who don’t particularly care for prison stories. It’s actually a misnomer because the prison scenes (filmed inside McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary) comprise less than a third of the movie.

In truth, the script is all over the B-movie landscape, in a good way, from the methodical scenes about the kidnapping (particularly creepy these days, when stories about child predators are all over the news), to the procedural scenes of the FBI agent questioning witnesses, with voiceover by Hadley, to the inevitable double-crosses among the escaped cons. In addition to the gritty, sweaty scenes at McNeil’s Island, the movie also features on-location shooting in Royal Gorge and nearby Canon City, all in no-nonsense black-and-white, heightening the sense of documentarian realism. Some of the script doesn’t quite hang together -- for example, it doesn’t seem likely that the combined forces of the FBI, the park service, and state and local law enforcement couldn’t find the missing son of a millionaire, alive or dead, even in a sprawling wilderness park. But film buffs likely will be too busy spotting familiar ‘50s faces in the supporting cast to care. Those faces include Felicia Farr (here billed in an early role as Randy Farr), Roy Roberts, Robert Bray, Jan Merlin, John Ford stalwart Willis Bouchey, and Jack Webb regular Bill Boyett.

The new Kino Lorber release, in 1920x1080p hi-def, continues the label’s rescue of neglected but interesting movies that deserve new exposure. The visual quality is somewhat grainy, as you’d expected from an older film, but that isn’t necessarily a drawback for a hardboiled crime drama. The only extras are trailers for three other Kino Lorber releases.

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BY DANIEL D'ARPE

If there is one scene that sums up the tone of Sergio Martino's Craving Desire, it is the climax. After her true nature is revealed, a deranged Sonia (Vittoria Belvedere) begins to sensually strip down to nothing but her garter and panties. While doing so, she uses the heel of her stiletto to brutally attack Luigi (Ron Nummi), who is helpless against the assault. Belvedere’s performance here is many things: disturbing, terrifying, deranged; yet also mildly erotic. Such are words that not only perfectly sum up the movie, but many of the films produced in the giallo style of horror.

Filmed by legendary Italian low budget director Sergio Martino, Craving Desire was made in the 1990s, long past the golden age of the genre. Although more of an erotic horror/drama hybrid than a pure giallo, it still contains enough hallmarks to somewhat qualify as one. Overall, it is a truly dark film that leaves viewers with a distinct sense of unease. For horror fans, this undercurrent of dread has the potential to hook you up until the very final seconds.

The story of the film follows Luigi, a man who seemingly has everything. He lives in a beautiful apartment, has a gorgeous fiancée (even if she is a total witch), and seems to have a fairly decent job. Yet it is clear that Luigi is simply unhappy in life. This all rapidly changes one day after a funeral, when the beautiful Sonia shows up on his door step. They quickly jump into bed and overnight Luigi’s existence becomes full of the excitement that he so desperately craves. Yet as he continues to spiral deeper and deeper into debauchery, his life begins to fray before completely falling apart. Finally hitting rock bottom, he tries to end things with Sonia, only to realize what a true monster his lover is. He becomes trapped in mortal peril, with no possible escape in sight. Thus, Luigi learns the hard way an age old lesson: man should always be careful about what he wishes for.

To start, credit must go where its due. Ron Nummi does his best with what’s given to him, trying to make us like his character. Yet the truth is that Luigi comes across as a very flat, one dimensional guy who has a knack for poor decision making. As the film progresses, it becomes clear that he simply is an idiot who falls into a trap of his own construction. To sum up, he is too much of a dirty minded moron to really feel pity for.

As that stands, the real focus of the film goes to Nummi’s lovely costar Vittoria Belvedere, and understandably so. Her character is not developed any better than Luigi, yet she still does quite the exceptional job regardless. Belvedere portrays Sonia as some type of succubus; although there is something clearly off about her, she radiates a sexuality that is both mystifying and alluring. She is like a praying mantis whose entire existence consists of feeding off a victim’s lust. The thing is, no lover can ever satisfy her completely, even after they torpedo their entire life for her: a disappointed Sonia is unfortunately also a very deadly Sonia. Belvedere, who was only in her twenty’s at the time, proves that she has some real acting potential. Sadly, she is the only real bright spot in a film that screams “mediocre” right from the get-go.

From a creative and technical standpoint, Craving Desire isn’t a very good film. At times, it struggles just to be watchable, let alone enjoyable. For one thing, the production value leaves a lot to be desired, with abrupt transitions between scenes and a music score so bad it makes the soundtrack’s of adult films seem like platinum sellers. (One scene sums all this up perfectly: early in the film a boom mike can clearly be said hovering directly above an actor’s head. It’s pretty difficult for any movie to recover from a start like that). While other films can rely on a decent plot to cover up such shortcomings, Craving Desire sadly has no such luck. Evidently, Martino and his producers realized all this and decided to follow an age old tradition that has helped visual media thrive for generations. Vis-a-vis: sex and nudity. Lots of it.

Ms. Belvedere’s figure (“assets” is a more accurate term) is often used in an attempt to distract viewers from the film’s numerous flaws. (One memorable scene involves Belvedere and a female club goer involved in a very “breezy” sequence that probably melted some of the cameras on set). Although it’s unlikely that many (male) viewers complained about such obvious gimmickry, it sadly makes the movie devolve into pure T&A at times. In fact, it’s not really unfair to claim that most of the movie simply lurches from one T&A moment to the next before it ultimately culminates in a rather gruesome fashion. Hence, the results are anything but impressive.

To further add to the list of negatives, much of the content in Craving Desire will shock and/or upset many viewers. Foremost on the list is that the fact that Sonia and Luigi, the film’s lustful lovers, are cousins, or at least have been raised as such. Such gross revelations aside (there’s an even worse one at the end), the violence can get shockingly brutal. The aforementioned heel scene is a prime example of this, becoming very uncomfortable to sit through. As such, it’s strongly recommended that one check out the movie’s content beforehand if they plan to watch it.

Craving Desire was released by Mya Communication, the notorious label that quickly squandered away its promise by releasing horrible quality films ripped straight from old VHS. Thankfully, Craving Desire is not such a feature. The audio is respectable while the video quality, while not Blu-Ray, is still quite crisp. The special features are, well, nonexistent. The DVD simply comes with a language selection (English/Italian) and chapter viewer (which at only six, seems a bit insufficient). There are no subtitles, so whichever language one chooses (Nummi speaks English while Belvedere only talks in Italian) some characters are going to get dubbed. Thankfully, the dubbing is, for the most part, fairly well done and not too noticeable.

All in all, the film was not this reviewer’s cup of tea. So why the recommendation? Although falling short, the movie does represent something that makes it special. It’s bad but different; a quality often lacking these days. After all, horror (like many Hollywood genres) has been recycling content for some time now, making the genre grow somewhat stale of late. In today’s film market, originality is a characteristic that is getting harder and harder to come by. Even when something novel does come along, it is often rehashed so rapidly that within a year we have an entire trilogy, if not franchise, of diminishing returns. All in all, it is not a pretty picture.

In a nutshell, Craving Desire is a movie that hints at a better place for horror fans, pointing to a sub-genre that was sadly never really noticed in the United States. Although giallos are the forbearers of the American slasher film, they are also so much more. With a focus on eroticism and paranoia, they are films that truly focus on the psychological aspect of fear. While it is true that their heyday has long past, occasional films continue to be made today, often with respectable success.

At the very least, Craving Desire can be viewed as a kinky date movie for Halloween. But even more so, the film can be regarded as the doorman to the giallo genre. If one can sit through the movie, and actually enjoy it, then they might want to consider giving other (and better made) giallos a chance. Odds are they are the missing link that your horror collection has been waiting for.

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BY DARREN ALLISON

A witty, spooky and fabulously atmospheric comedy-thriller, The Phantom Light was an early feature from British film legend Michael Powell. With leading roles for the multi-talented Binnie Hale and endlessly popular character player Gordon Harker, this classic Gainsborough feature remains a wonderful piece of entertainment.

Adapted from Evadne Price and Joan Roy Byford's play, The Haunted light, this delightful British thriller wastes little time and begins with the strange murder of a lighthouse keeper. Since his death, the area (an unspecified Welsh coast), has suffered a number of shipwrecks due to a phantom light or indeed a failing light from the North Stack Lighthouse. A female detective in the shapely form of Alice Bright (Binnie Hale) unites with new lighthouse keeper Sam Higgins (Gordon Harker) and a navy officer Jim Pearce (Ian Hunter) in order to solve the mystery. Directed with flare and confidence by Michael Powell, The Phantom Light is a superior entry among the quota-quickie melodramas that were saturating the British film market at the time.

The Phantom Light was one of seven films released by Michael Powell in 1935 and was essentially a star vehicle for the Cockney comedian Gordon Harker. The film retains a great atmosphere with plenty of storm-tossed coastal action provided by a combination of stock footage, fine model work and superb studio sets. For Michael Powell, it is an early exercise into a pre-modern Britain that still continues on its isles and rocky locales and would become a feature of his later films.

Powell cleverly uses his low budget and without straying too far from the London studios of Gainsborough Pictures. He successfully sells us his imaginary Wales from one railway station, a pub set and a couple of process shots. A fun script, enjoyable performances, and its sheer entertainment value bring all elements together rather nicely throughout its 73 minutes.

Network’s DVD works very well, with film elements both clean and vibrant. Yes, there are a few minor scratches here and there, but for the best part it does little to disappoint or become an overwhelming hindrance. It has to be remembered, this charming low budget film is now eighty years old. Audio is clear and crisp and the film is presented correctly in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The DVD also features a nice stills gallery (approx. 40 images) containing photos, press book ads and even a cigarette card featuring the film, another lost treasure of cinema’s past.

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BY ROD BARNETT

Vinegar Syndrome comes through again with this Blu-Ray double feature release that combines a 1970s Euro-Trash vampire movie and a really obscure 1970s British-made stab at a creepy plantation gothic. I wish more video companies would follow this template for films of this type and vintage, thus giving a new audience a chance to see these often overlooked bits of genre history.

Hiding behind the title Crypt of the Living Dead is the public domain video standard Hannah, Queen of the Vampires. Until now I had managed to never see this feature because every time I tried, the print available was nearly unwatchable. Luckily VS seems to have improved wonderfully on past transfers. Mechanical engineer Chris Bolton (genre regular Andrew Prine) travels to a Turkish locale know to its inhabitants as "Vampire Island" in response to his archaeologist father's death. When he arrives to take care of his father's remains, he is taken to the body which is still lying crushed under the heavy stone coffin that supposedly killed him in an - accident! Of course, we know his death was no accident because the film showed us in a prologue that it was actually Mark Damon's character Peter that strangled the man and then deliberately crushed his body to hide the crime. It appears that Peter has completely bought into the island legend and mythical history about the tomb being that of Hannah, the wife of the 13th-century French King Louis VII. The tale insists that the tomb that 'fell' onto the archeologist actually belongs to this Queen and that she was a vampire. The legend states that Louis was too captivated by the vampire monster's beauty to have her killed so he had her sealed alive in a stone tomb - possibly this one. Chris dismisses this silly superstition and sets about building a contraption to raise the coffin off of his dead father. Peter helps the grief-stricken man in his efforts, enlisting some locals for muscle but these islanders baulk when it becomes clear that this thing might be the legendary tomb of the vampire queen. Things get worse when they remove the lid to make the task easier and discover a perfectly preserved woman inside! Oh, my. Of course, this is Hannah played by the lovely Spanish actress Teresa Gimpera, and she soon wakes from her several hundred years long snooze to wreak havoc on the islander with the help of a hideous, beastly 'wild man' servant (Ihshan Gedik) who gets his kicks playing around with decapitated heads. This section of the film is done with some nice style and a good handle on how to use a low budget wisely. We see Hannah transforming into a green mist, floating out of her coffin and changing into a wolf as part of her horrific attacks. Adding to the complications Chris gets romantically involved with Peter's sister Mary (the wonderful Patty Shepard) who teaches school on the island. By this time Peter is completely under Hannah's influence, helping her in her activities and Chris wants to get his lady love off the island and away from her increasingly crazed brother. The story then becomes a contest between the engineer and Peter for the life of Mary leading to a dark finale.

Hannah, Queen of the Vampires is often derided as a cut-rate vampire film but now that I've finally seen it I have to slightly disagree. While it is not a great genre film, it has several points in its favor as a better than 'bad' effort. First, its island locations (shot in Turkey) are very nice adding immeasurably to the atmosphere and creep factor. Also, the actors take the proceedings seriously, giving the often sub-par dialog more gravitas than it should have. Another good point is that the film's score is unexpectedly quite good,adding a lot to the dark proceedings and never feeling out of place. The vampiric sequences are well done and memorable, making the supernatural horror elements feel more effective than I expected them to be with Hannah herself posing a striking figure as the silent vampire Queen preying on poor islanders. The film has some missteps with the most serious being that Peter's evil nature should not have been revealed at the beginning of the movie so that more suspense could be generated as things ramp up.

Vinegar Syndrome's Blu-ray presents the U.S. theatrical version of the film restored in 2k from a newly-discovered 35mm negative and it looks very good for such a neglected title. The film looks its age but the colors are vivid with good detail even in darker scenes. The soundtrack is the mono English version fans are familiar with but probably sounding much better than past releases. I doubt this film has ever looked or sounded better on video and this is the best way to evaluate it or reevaluate it if your impressions of it were colored by bad transfers from the past.

The South African made 1973 film House of the Living Dead (AKA Curse of the Dead) is on this Blu-ray more as an extra than a full blooded second feature. The story takes place in the late 1800's in the Cape Colony of South Africa where an aristocratic English family own and run a large plantation farm. The family matriarch Lady Brattling (Margaret Inglis) is unhappy to learn that her son Michael’s lovely fiancée Mary (Shirley Anne Field) is about to arrive with her chaperone Dr. Collinson (David Oxley). Lady Brattling has advised against bringing outsiders to the plantation because of the unfortunate presence of her other son Breck (Mark Burns, playing both brothers) who seems to be deformed although we can't really tell since he covers his face in public. Breck hides away in his laboratory room conducting strange experiments based on a theory about capturing living souls through blood transfusion - paging Dr. Moreau! We see his tortuous experiments on a baboon he has captured in the jungle and it's clear his work is pretty unhinged. Lady Brattling tries to stop the young girl from arriving, believing that her family has a history of inescapable madness and that any outsiders will be in mortal danger. Of course, soon after Mary settles in to the big house Breck starts taking in unwilling humans for his experiments and things escalate out of control even as some of the deaths are attributed to voodoo curses, which just adds to the confusion. The movie has a nice twist at the end but by the time you get there it is more of a curious moment than a surprise that makes the story resonate.

Shot in 1973, House of the Living Dead didn’t play in the states until years later and then only on the drive-in circuit so chances are good that this movie has been under the radar of most genre fans until now. I know I had never heard of it until I explored this release and after enjoying Hannah I was hoping for another little gem. Sadly, although the film’s production values are pretty high and the cast does a solid job overall, the film is fairly dull. It starts well leading with plantation mystery and the ending is lively enough but the middle is a dead weight. This section of the movie just plods along with little energy often seeming to meander around to the point where I began to forget what was going on earlier. If I had to guess I suspect that the producers were trying to give this the look of the Hammer Studio gothics of the 1960's. I will admit that I enjoyed watching the beautiful Shirley Anne Field work her way through the mystery hidden in the large house but she is really just required to scream a lot and then look pensive before screaming some more. If the film weren't so plodding it might be worth seeking out but that slow middle hour is deadly. This one is at best a one time watch for the Gothicly curious but bring some caffeine for the ride.

Vinegar Syndrome's Blu-ray presents the film sourced from a slightly scuffed up 35mm print and in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio - it looks pretty muddy in the darker scenes. Colors are soft with little detail except in bright sequences and a sometimes distracting amount of grain throughout. The soundtrack is fine with more detail in the design of the creaks of the old house than I expected. Vinegar Syndrome has included a DVD of both films in the package using the same masters found on the Blu-ray and they even put Crypt of the Living Dead extras (trailer; alternate title sequence) on it as well.

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BY DARREN ALLISON

Chain of Events 1958 Region 2 DVD Review: Directed by  Gerald Thomas, Starring Kenneth Griffith, Susan Shaw, Dermot Walsh, Freddie Mills and Joan Hickson. Released November 2nd 2015

A taut 1958 crime melodrama, Chain of Events features noted actor and film-maker Kenneth Griffith as a bank clerk whose attempt to dodge a fare has devastating consequences; a powerful cast includes Rank "Charm School" starlet Susan Shaw and future Richard the Lionheart lead Dermot Walsh. Chain of Events is also directed in sharp, pacey style by the ‘Carry On’ legend Gerald Thomas.

Rather curiously, Chain of Events was adapted from a radio play written by the late Australian character actor Leo McKern. John Clarke (Kenneth Griffith), an uninspiring sort of gentleman, one day boards a bus on his way home from work and foolishly “forgets” to pay his fare. He is caught by an inspector, but instead of owning up to it, gives the name and address of one of the bank's clients and thereby setting in motion a violent chain of events involving blackmail, robbery and death...

Whilst Chain of Events was very much a B movie feature, the film stands firmly, and really works exceptionally well on its own merits. Both Dermot Walsh as newspaper reporter Quinn and the beautiful Susan Shaw as his girlfriend Jill light up the screen. The narrative twists and turns rather intelligently, and by the end of its 60 minute duration you are left somewhat confused, not by the plot, but how everything was condensed into such a short running time. Of course, as a result the film moves at a frantic pace, which is good, as it never allows time for it to run into tedium or endless meters of tiresome padding.

Network’s Region 2 DVD delivers a beautiful, brand-new transfer from the original film elements and presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1. Detail is sharp throughout with nice deep blacks and minimal signs of dirt or damage. Audio comes in the way of a nice clear mono track. Special features pinclude an image gallery and original Pressbook material. Overall, a nice smooth way to kick back and take an hour from your life…

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

 Explosive Media is a German-based video label that releases superb special Blu-ray editions of films that retro movie lovers will salivate over. The only problem is that, due to licensing issues, their products are primarily available through Amazon Germany, although some imports of the titles can occasionally be found on eBay and other Amazon sites. Among their latest releases is Roger Corman's 1960 adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher". (Bizarrely, the film was marketed under this title in some territories and simply "House of Usher" in others. Go figure.) The film was a milestone in Corman's career. It not only marked his first color, Cinemascope production but also allowed him to finally graduate from making ultra-cheap, B&W exploitation flicks. More importantly, the film marked his first collaboration with Vincent Price, with whom he would team for numerous other Poe adaptations. "House of Usher" also proved important for Corman because henceforth, he would be working with American International Pictures for many years to come. AIP was supportive of his creative ideas and gave him virtually complete artistic control over his productions. The end result was that Price gained iconic stature in the horror genre, AIP became a highly profitable studio and Corman gained acclaim and respect as a producer and director who worked incredibly fast and efficiently without sacrificing the quality of the films. ("Usher" was shot in only 15 days!)  Along with way, the ties to Poe's original stories became quite flimsy, to say the least, but Corman always insisted on keeping them as period pieces and hired talented behind the scenes craftsmen to provide lush production values that masked to some degree the low budgets of the films. 

"House of Usher" opens with a solitary man riding his horse through a barren, ominous landscape. (Corman actually utilized an area of the Hollywood hills where a devastating fire had recently swept the area.) He arrives at a mansion house shrouded in fog and mist (another ploy of Corman's that he would frequently use to disguise the fact that he was shooting on a rather small studio set.) The man is Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon), who has traveled a long distance to reunite with his fiancee, Madeline Usher (Myrna Fahey). His arrival at the mansion is the stuff of horror movie cliches: a creepy butler refuses to let him in but Winthrop will have none of it. He insists on being announced to the mansion's reclusive owner, Roderick Usher (Vincent Price). Roderick is clearly annoyed by the presence of the interloper. He informs Winthrop that he is Madeline's older brother and has taken on the duties of being her caregiver because she is allegedly gravely ill and confined to her bed. Winthrop insists on seeing her. The tension between the two men is broken by Madeline's unexpected entrance into the room. She seems in desperate straits emotionally but does not appear to be physically ill. Winthrop soon finds that Roderick has been keeping her a virtual prisoner in the isolated Usher mansion. Alone and forgotten, Madeline seems eager to accept Winthrop's offer to take her from the premises back to Boston where he originally met her. Before he can do so, a series of eerie events intervenes and results in Madeline's apparent death by heart attack. Roderick, a distraught Winthrop and the butler, Bristol (Harry Ellerbe) preside over a short funeral service before Madeline's casket in entombed in the cellar along with those of previously-deceased members of the Usher family. Prior to departing, however, the heartbroken Winthrop learns that Madeline suffered from a rare disorder that put her in a trance-like sleep. He frantically runs to her tomb to find out that she had been buried alive. He rescues her and confronts Roderick who admits his despicable deed but justifies it by telling Winthrop that the Usher family has been cursed because of the inhumane acts the family members committed over generations. Even as the mansion house crumbles around  them during a storm, Roderick says the best thing he and his sister can do is simply die so that they will not bring any more suffering into the world in the manner that their ancestors did. As the storm intensifies, the mansion literally begins to fall apart...and Winthrop finds himself in a race against time to rescue the woman he loves, even as a raging fire begins to engulf the house. 

The Explosive Media Blu-ray edition boasts an outstanding transfer of this fine film, which features Price in top form and an impressive performance by Mark Damon in his first important role as a leading man. The production values are impressive, even though one cannot escape the obvious budget constraints.  (The "mansion" is depicted through obvious matte paintings and miniatures.). There is also a good deal of legitimate suspense and fine supporting performances by both Myrna Fahey and Harry Ellerbe. Cinematographer Floyd Crosby makes the most of the widescreen, color format and Les Baxter, who would also collaborate with Corman on future productions, provides a fine score. Bonus extras include an extensive new video interview with Mark Damon, who won a Golden Globe as "Most Promising Newcomer" for his performance in the film. Damon looks back on the film with pride and delight. He also discusses his eventual retirement from acting and his new career as a top producer, a status he still enjoys today. Damon speaks very fondly of Vincent Price but drops a bit of  bombshell by stating that Price, who had married three times and fathered children, was actually gay and, in fact, hit on him during the making of the film. Damon says that he politely rejected the overture and in the aggregate enjoyed working with and socializing with Price. (Price's daughter Victoria, recently confirmed her belief that her father was bi-sexual. Click here to read.) Other bonus extras include the original trailer, a wonderful gallery of stills and marketing materials and a German language collector's booklet. There is also a selection of trailers for other Explosive Media releases. Their titles are not easy to find in English language markets, but they are worth the effort to search them out. 

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UK release from Second Sight.

BY TIM GREAVES 

A quartet of ageing gentlemen friends (Fred Astaire, John Houseman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Melvyn Douglas) meet up on a weekly basis in the snow sprinkled town of Milburn, New England in order to exchange scary stories. Self-dubbed ‘The Chowder Society’, they challenge one another to come up with something truly unsettling. Good natured entertainment takes a sinister turn when a dastardly secret that has lain dormant for more than 50 years rears its terrifying head. Drawn helplessly from sweat-sodden nightmares into a living nightmare more frightening and deadly than anything conjured up in their yarning sessions, the comrades’ collective fate falls to the hands of a seemingly unstoppable entity hell bent on revenge. But revenge for what? What could the friends have possibly done all those years ago that was so terrible?

Now wait just a moment... Fred Astaire made a horror movie?! Indeed he did. And a pretty decent one it is at that. As he had done for a number of then-recent non-musical roles (among them The Towering Inferno and A Purple Taxi), the legendary song and dance performer shelved his top hat and tails and signed up for this effective little terror tale of retribution from beyond the grave. 

In a review I pencilled some time ago I perhaps unfairly labelled 1981’s Ghost Story as "average". However the passing of time has been very generous to the film – either that or I'm going soft – for a handful of viewings in the intervening years have gradually elevated it in my opinion. Though by no means a top-ranking classic of horror cinema, I now readily acknowledge it as an efficient little chiller that benefits hugely from the gravitas afforded it by its combined star power. The four leads may not seem the likeliest of go-to names for a director mounting a horror movie, but their united seasoned talent forges a level of dramatic credibility that (almost) makes the fantastical elements of the story feel plausible. A modern audience needs to be aware that these guys were pretty big Hollywood players in their day; imagine the likes of Clooney, Pitt, Cruise and Cage getting together for a spook show in 30 years’ time and you'll get the measure of the men. Furthermore, and most pleasingly, what could have been a wince-inducing exercise in cashing in on past glories is actually anything but. For all except Houseman Ghost Story would also be their final big screen appearance. A very worthy epitaph it proved to be.

Clocking in at just shy of 111-minutes in length, the story does feel a shade drawn out. But if its screenplay – fashioned by Lawrence D Cohen (scripter on Brian DePalma's 1976 classic Carrie and the respectable 2013 Kimberly Peirce remake) from a 1979 bestselling novel by Peter Straub – is occasionally a tad ponderous, it at least never strays from narrative relevance; it's certainly testament to the time invested in establishing the diverse individual personalities of the characters portrayed by Astaire, Houseman, Fairbanks Jr and Douglas that they are immediately identifiable in their younger "flashback" incarnations (Tim Choate, Ken Olin, Kurt Johnson and Mark Chamberlin, respectively). Meanwhile Craig Wasson gets to toy with dual roles as Fairbanks Jr’s twin sons (and delivers a moment of frontal nudity, something possibly less taboo – albeit still uncommon – today, but extremely scarce in mainstream cinema back in 1981) and, also playing two characters, Alice Krige brings to the show a performance that is excitingly provocative and icily malevolent in equal measure.

Director John Irvine (The Dogs of War) moulds some potently emotive imagery, abetted immensely by some marvellously gruesome (and suitably squishy!) special effects and the lush – if occasionally a tad overwrought – orchestral compositions of Philippe Sarde.

There's something curiously enticing about spectral fiction set against crisp wintry snowscapes, intrinsically suggestive of the perfect winter evening movie fare, inviting you to settle comfortably in front of the fire with the lights out and a glass or three of port to hand; if that sounds like an appealingly cosy scenario then you need look no further than Ghost Story for your viewing of choice.

USA release from Scream Factory.

The film arrives on both Region 2 DVD and Region B Blu-Ray (for the first time in the UK) from Second Sight. In North America, the Blu-ray is available with the same supplements on Region A Blu-ray through Scream Factory. The Blu-Ray delivers a very nice transfer of the 34-year-old film showing only negligible traces of print damage – the odd blemish here, occasional vertical scratches there – with the sometimes soft image being a faithful representation of the intended aesthetic of the film. Supplements are exceedingly generous. Director John Irvine provides an informative commentary to accompany the feature. There’s a 40-minute piece in which author Peter Straub talks at length about his writing style and the novel on which the film is based. A trio of half-hour featurettes comprise interviews with Alice Krige, scriptwriter Lawrence D Cohen, producer Burt Weissbourd and matte photographer Bill Taylor (who discusses late colleague Albert Whitlock’s impressive visual effects on the film). Rounding all this off is an original release trailer, a TV and radio spot, plus a slideshow (comprising an expansive collection of production stills that depict imagery from in front of and behind the cameras, lobby cards, and artwork), which runs in the company of selections from Philippe Sarde’s score.

Click here to order from Amazon USA.

Click here to order from Amazon UK. 

Turner Classic Movies has released a major DVD boxed set that is comprised of the most complete collection ever assembled of James Dean's television appearances. Here is a list of the contents:

Before East Of Eden (1955), Rebel Without A Cause (1955) and Giant (1956) turned James Dean into an international icon, he honed his craft on television, appearing on such shows as Studio One, Lux Video Theater and Hallmark Hall of Fame—many broadcast live and thought to be lost. This is the most complete collection to date of Dean’s television legacy featuring 19 full episodes, 2 original commercials and 2 clips featuring Dean, all meticulously re-mastered for picture and sound quality from the best available sources.

This box set also includes a commemorative booklet featuring a comprehensive essay focusing on the actor’s personal life and television career, and featuring rare stills, episode credits and descriptions.

Bonus Material
- The documentary Fairmount Today, exploring Dean’s hometown in Indiana
- Episode introductions by James Dean’s cousin, Marcus Winslow, Jr., head of the Dean Estate
- 3 photo galleries from world famous photographers Roy Schatt, Frank Worth and Sanford Roth
- A video demonstration illustrating the restoration and preservation process

Episodes
Family Theater: Hill Number One (1951)
Trouble With Father: Jackie Knows All (1952)
Westinghouse Studio One: 10,000 Horses Singing (1952)
Lux Video Theater: The Foggy, Foggy Dew (1952)
Westinghouse Studio One: John Drinkwater’s Abraham Lincoln (1952)
Hallmark Hall Of Fame: Forgotten Children: A Historical Biography (1952)
The Kate Smith Hour: The Hound Of Heaven (1953)
Campbell Sound Stage: Something For An Empty Briefcase (1953)
Westinghouse Studio One Summer Theater: Sentence Of Death (1953)
Danger: Death Is My Neighbor (1953)
The Big Story: Rex Newman (1953)
Kraft Television Theatre: Keep Our Honor Bright (1953)
Campbell Sound Stage: Life Sentence (1953)
Kraft Television Theatre: A Long Time Till Dawn (1953)
Armstrong’s Circle Theater: The Bells Of Cockaigne (1953)
Robert Montgomery Presents: Harvest (1953)
Philco Television Playhouse: Run Like A Thief (1954)
Danger: Padlocks (1954)
General Electric Theater: Sherwood Anderson’s I'm A Fool (1954)
General Electric Theater: The Dark, Dark Hour (1954)

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The documentary "Back in Time", which celebrates the legacy of the "Back to the Future" films is now on Blu-ray. Here is the description:

"The documentary film Back in Time is, at its heart, a look at the very real impact the Back to the Future movies have had on our culture. What was once a little idea that spawned a tightly-focused documentary has grown into something truly amazing over two years of filming. Back in Time is a cinematic monument to the vastness of the trilogy’s fandom. In addition to the footage and interviews revolving around the time machine itself, the crew found that simply by delving into the impact of the trilogy an epic journey began to unfold before them. The crew captured countless hours of footage during filming. From Steven Spielberg to Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, to the Sheas and Hollers, and from James Tolkan and Lea Thompson to Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox, Back in Time features interview after interview that simply must be seen."

Available from on-line retailers.  

BY FRED BLOSSER 

Life moves at warp speed these days.  Almost overnight, cutting-edge in arts and technology becomes old-school.  

It seems like only yesterday that the Hong Kong movies of Jackie Chan and John Woo were the big new flavor in action cinema, and laser disc was the medium of choice for upscale home theater.  In reality, it’s more like yesteryear, and at that, nearly two decades of yesteryears.  

How many of today’s kids under 20 would you have to ask before you found one who’s seen a Jackie Chan film?  How many have even heard of laser disc, let alone loaded one of those unwieldy LP-sized platters into an equally clunky player?

These nostalgic if chilling thoughts occurred to me when, recently, I browsed through an old issue of “Mystery Scene” magazine and came across a review I’d written back in the day.  The topic was Jackie Chan, and more specifically, the availability of Jackie’s Hong Kong-made, martial-arts police movies on U.S. digital home video.  At the time I wrote the review in late 1998, laser disc was already in defensive posture against the rapid growth of the more affordable, more physically convenient DVD format.  By the time it appeared in print in 2000, DVD had taken over the digital market.  Shortly, it would supplant VHS as the dominant home-video product.  

In the review, I sorted out the Chan titles then on American DVD from those that remained available domestically only on laser.  Most of it is badly outdated now.  However, I believe that one observation remains true: on authorized American VHS and DVD editions (and more recently, Blu-ray), you can only find Jackie’s arguably best HK police caper, “Police Story 3,” directed by Stanley Tong, in the dubbed, edited version released to U.S. theaters by Miramax’s Dimension Films in 1996 as “Supercop.” 

For U.S. moviegoers, Dimension deleted some 10 minutes of the original HK version, inserted spastic opening credits, replaced the original Cantonese voice track with an English dub, and added new music tracks, including hip-hop in some scenes and “Kung Fu Fighting” over the end blooper reel.  “Kung Fu Fighting” was an OK Tom Jones remake, not the vastly superior, wonderfully cheesy 1974 Carl Douglas original.

A few months after the theatrical release, “Supercop” moved to American VHS and DVD on Buena Vista Home Entertainment, and to laser disc from the prestigious Criterion Collection.  Of them all, the only American edition that included the original Cantonese soundtrack as an audio option, and the only one that included the five scenes excised by Dimension, was the 1997 laser disc.    

As I noted in the “Mystery Scene” review, Jackie’s character in the movie was Officer Kevin Chan of the Hong Kong Police Department (in the HK original, Chan Ka-Kui), continued over from the first two “Police Story” films.  Kevin is teamed with a Mainland Chinese officer, Inspector Hannah (in the original Cantonese track, Inspector Wah), to infiltrate  an international drug cartel led by kingpin Chaibat (Ken Tsang).  To do so, they have to bust Chaibat’s brother, Panther (Wah Yuen), out of a Chinese labor camp.  Then, accepted into the gang, they accompany the gangsters to Cambodia, where Chaibat closes a heroin deal, and after that to Malaysia.  In Kuala Lampur, the kingpin intends to break his wife out of jail before the authorities can force her to reveal the code to Chaibat’s offshore bank account.

Jackie is well matched with Michelle Yeoh (then billed as Michelle Khan) playing Hannah, and Maggie Cheung as Kevin’s sweetheart May.  Cheung’s character was also carried over from the two prior movies. There’s a rather simplistic but funny complication when May catches Kevin in Hannah’s company at a vacation resort in Kuala Lampur.  Not knowing that her boyfriend is on an undercover assignment, she assumes he’s cheating on her.  It’s the kind of contrivance that dates back at least as far as silent movies, if not to Shakespeare.  But Cheung is cute, the physical comedy is well timed by Tong, and the set-up isn’t much more primitive than the twists you’d see in a 2015 chick flick.

Yeoh, a truly awesome beauty, has wonderful comedy timing of her own, great rapport with Jackie, fluid grace in the martial arts fights, and remarkable gumption in doing many of her own stunts.  In one wince-inducing outtake in the blooper reel, Yeoh misses her grip as she drops onto a moving sports car, tumbling backward onto the street as car and camera speed away.  All of the action in the movie has this visceral immediacy, which movies largely have lost in the past decade with CGI effects and ADHD editing.    

It’s easy to guess why one scene from “Police Story 3” was removed in the editing as potentially offensive for American audiences.  A snickering Chinese punk helps a couple of Caucasian teeny-boppers shoot up with heroin.  One of the girls dies -- offscreen -- from an overdose.  Chaibat suggests that the corpse be used to smuggle a cache of smack past customs.  “Waste utilization,” he cackles.  Even without this callous bit, the American cut retains enough gun mayhem and blood squibs to earn an “R” rating, a rarity in the Chan movies tooled for the U.S. market, which typically earned the family friendlier PG-13.

On the Criterion laser disc, the five deleted scenes were added at the end of the disc as a supplemental chapter, not re-integrated into the “Supercop” cut.  The laser disc also benefitted from appreciative back-sleeve notes by film critic Dave Kehr.  A 2009 DVD reissue under the Weinstein Brothers’ Dragon Dynasty label restored the Cantonese voice track as an audio option, along with supplemental interviews, “making of” shorts, and an audio commentary by a kung fu movie expert, but the deleted scenes remained MIA.  Reviews suggest that a more recent Blu-ray edition from Echo Bridge Home Entertainment lacks any supplements, not even a Cantonese voice track.  

So, for a full package, the obsessive collector may want to get the 2009 DVD and the Criterion Collection laser disc (available cheap from online dealers), assuming he has one of the antique players lying around.  Another option -- ordering the original “Police Story 3” on Blu-ray or DVD from import dealers.  Online marketing has made it tremendously easier for U.S. collectors to obtain overseas videos today than 20 years ago.

If you're looking for the perfect holiday or birthday gift, Cinema Retro can tell you to get "Lost"-- as in "Space", that is. Check out this fantastic Blu-ray boxed set that contains every episode of the beloved Irwin Allen TV series and  over 8 hours of bonus materials.

Here is the official product description from Fox:

Product Description

Bring home the timeless journey of Irwin Allen’s LOST IN SPACE! Follow the heart-racing, cliff-hanging adventures of John Robinson and his family aboard the Jupiter 2, along with Robot B-9 and the delightfully devious Dr. Zachary Smith. This massive 18-disc set contains all 83 episodes remastered in high definition, and loads of exciting extras with recently discovered content you won’t find anywhere else in the galaxy. It’s out-of-this-world fun for everyone!

Additional Features

OVER 8 HOURS OF RARELY SEEN AND NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN EXTRAS

50th Anniversary Interviews with Original Series Cast Members

Original Cast Reunion Performance of Bill Mumy’s 1980 Unproduced Script, LOST IN SPACE: THE EPILOGUE

Vintage Versions of 4 Original Network Episodes (AS SEEN ON AIR in the 1960s with Original TV Commercials and Bumpers) 

1973 Animated Special 

20th Anniversary Audio Interview with Lost in Space Series Creator Irwin Allen 

2 Full-Length Lost in Space Documentaries 

Original Animated Series Concept Pitch Video

Unaired Series Pilot Episode: “No Place to Hide” 

Original Network Commercials, Vintage Cast Interviews AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!

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By Lee Pfeiffer

Twilight Time has released Fox's 1970 box-office disaster The Only Game in Town as a Blu-ray limited edition (3,000 units). The film is primarily remembered for reasons its creators would never have desired. It was the last movie of legendary director George Stevens and represented his re-teaming with Elizabeth Taylor, with whom he had made two genuine classics: Giant and A Place in the Sun, both which featured two of her most acclaimed performances. In fact, by the time this movie went into production in 1970, Stevens' clout in Hollywood had been somewhat diminished by his obsessive quest to bring his dream project, The Greatest Story Ever Told to the screen. He finally succeeded in doing so in 1965, only to have the film become a politely-acclaimed epic that ended up losing United Artists a fortune. Nevertheless, in those days past reputations still helped keep older filmmakers in high regard, so Fox executives saw plenty of potential in the third teaming of Stevens and Elizabeth Taylor. To add additional boxoffice clout, the studio signed Warren Beatty as the male lead. Beatty had been kicking around the industry for a decade but had only recently become red-hot due to the success of Bonnie and Clyde. Beatty was so eager to work with Stevens that he passed on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, another Fox property that would have a considerably more positive fate. 

The Only Game in Town was written as play by Frank D. Gilroy, who was riding a wave of acclaim for The Subject Was Roses. Fox was so eager to land the rights to the story that they paid a (then) astronomical $500,000 to Gilroy, even though the play had not yet been performed. Fox was in for a rude awakening. When the play opened on Broadway, it had a very abbreviated run and closed shortly thereafter, having been deemed a major flop. Left with a costly investment, Fox felt the same fate might not befall the screen version, given the involvement of Stevens, Taylor and Beatty. However, as with any project involving La Liz, the studio found itself being held hostage to her costly demands. Although the story is set entirely in Las Vegas, Taylor insisted that it be shot in France (!) where hubby Richard Burton was filming Staircase, a movie that was set in London. Go figure. It appears the Burtons had a fetish for demanding that movies be shot in places other than their actual locations. Thus, what should have been a modestly-budgeted romance with only two major characters (there are only four actors credited for the entire movie) ballooned into an $11 million production, with much of the cost going into costly production design in order to recreate "Vegas" in France. This was achieved in a fairly unconvincing manner. Remember those old B&W movies in which someone's arrival in Paris is indicated by the fact that the Eiffel Tower (usually a matte painting) is directly visible from the window or balcony? Well, the same principal applies here. Liz lives in an apartment on the outskirts of the Strip but the casinos are glaringly visible over the sand dunes from her window. However, the effect is not even remotely convincing. The garish still life suggests anything other than a bustling tourist center. For understandable reasons (Liz was a few thousand miles away from the real Vegas), no traffic or people can be seen on "The Strip". Thus, the backdrop takes on an eerie air as though it is an effect from a long lost episode of The Twilight Zone. 

The story opens with Fran Walker (Taylor), a chorus girl in a big casino stage extravaganza calling it quits for the night. (Critics cruelly noted at the time how unsuitably cast Taylor was for the role of a chorus dancer. Although she was only 37 years old at the time, she seemed far older. Director Stevens tries to deal with this challenge by confining scenes of Fran at work to one "blink-and-you-miss" intense closeup of Liz bopping up and down a bit, all too apparently not in the presence of any of the "real" dancers shown in the establishing shot.) Seemingly bored and despondent, Fran stops into a local gin mill near the Strip to have nightcap. The joint features a tuxedo-clad pianist who warbles for the sparse crowd in between making cynical jokes and comments. He's Joe Grady (Beatty), a handsome hunk who immediately meets cute with Fran. Before you can say "Dickie Burton", the two of them are canoodling under the covers at Fran's apartment (with sleep being impossible, given the blinding lights from the garish phony Vegas set outside her window.) The script goes nowhere fast with Fran and Joe bickering, making up, bickering again... Fran confesses she is the mistress of a wealthy business executive who assures her he is leaving his wife to marry her. Joe cautions her that she has fallen for the oldest con game practiced by cheating husbands and her assurances that she believes in the man's integrity seem increasingly shaky. However, just when Fran and Joe are about to set up house together, Fran's lover, Lockwood (Broadway actor Charles Braswell) turns up unexpectedly and -dammit all- he turns out to have been a man of his word. He wants to marry Fran immediately and take her away from Vegas for a globe-trotting life of luxury. Trouble is, Fran is now smitten by Joe. Who will she choose? The uber-successful businessman or the down-and-out lounge singer? Joe has other problems beyond his finances. He's a compulsive gambler who squanders away his savings every time he manages to put a little aside. In fact, the sequences with Beatty sans Liz  (some of which were actually shot in Vegas)  are the best in the film, as we see Joe constantly weaken in his vow to stay away from the craps tables. The scenes of him blowing his hard earned money on rolls of the dice are emotionally effective and, at times, cringe-inducing. What doesn't add up is why the charismatic Joe would be so smitten by Fran. Granted, she looks like Elizabeth Taylor, but she's a moody, whining, generally unhappy person who spends most of her time kvetching about every aspect of her life. Although essentially miscast, Taylor plays the role as effectively as one could hope. However, the generally glamorous Liz is attired in array of bland costumes that makes her look uncharacteristically dowdy. It's Beatty who surprises. He's long been one of the least interesting screen presences among iconic leading men and- with a few notable exceptions- he generally delivers performances that are so low-key they border on being boring. However, as Joe Grady, he's more lively than usual and he displays the charisma that would attract any sane, heterosexual woman. (There is one scene, however, that is a bit too cute: love-struck Joe warbling Some Enchanted Evening in the corridor outside of Fran's apartment.)

The Only Game in Town is a bizarre film and is compromised by the fact that the two lead characters have a relationship that never rings true to the viewer. In her Oscar winning performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Taylor was able to actually play an every day person in a believable manner. Martha, the protagonist of that film, may have been a human spitfire, constantly insulting and berating her long-suffering husband George, but she had charisma and was a sexual dynamo. In George Stevens' film, we are too aware of the fact that we are watching a movie star trying desperately to play an ordinary woman. The ploy simply doesn't work. The fact that the movie lacks any interesting supporting characters (even Braswell is bland and boring) gives the entire production a claustrophobic feeling. The score by Maurice Jarre, certainly one of the great composers, also feels out of place here with inappropriate cues coming at inappropriate times. In the wake of the film's poor box-office performance, Beatty emerged unscathed and went on to become an Oscar-winning director. Taylor, however, lumbered through a number of other major studio productions, all of which flopped. It was the end of her reign as a boxoffice draw. 

The Twilight Time Blu-ray features a very nice transfer (though some artifacts are noticeable here and there), an isolated score track and the original trailer. It is region-free and can play on any international system. Julie Kirgo provides the usual insightful background notes in an illustrated collector's booklet. The movie is not quite as bad as critics indicated at the time of its initial release but it falls far short of its potential, given the talent involved. Its sad legacy is, ironically, the prime reason we can recommend retro movie lovers to check it out and form their own conclusions.  

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

At some point in the career of seemingly every porn movie director there comes the desire to aspire to something more meaningful. The problem is that most such directors don't possess the know-how or have the opportunities to become auteurs. Thus, they work within the parameters of their own genre in an attempt to elevate it to something more than just mindless rolls between the sheets. One of the more ambitious directors of 70s and 80s adult fillms was Chris Warfield,  a former actor whose 1980 production of "Champagne for Breakfast" has been released on DVD by Vinegar Syndrome. It's easy to dismiss any porn flick from any era but we at Cinema Retro try to objectively evaluate even these lesser contributions to the film industry because, as with mainstream cinema, there are vast differences in the quality of productions- and retro porn represents an important aspect of pop culture, even if you are among those who loathe such films on a moral basis. "Champagne for Breakfast"- a title I never heard of prior to reviewing it on DVD- apparently made a splash back in the day for being one of the first such films made to appeal to couples instead of the usual audience, which consisted of creepy guys sitting in fleapit theaters. It's hard to recall an era when porn movies had to be enjoyed publicly but in those pre-home video days, that was largely the case. The only option was to get 8mm "loops" that could be purchased for home viewing. The quality of these was about as erotic as taking a bath in a tub of ice water. For women who wanted to enjoy cinematic erotica, going to an X rated theater alone was virtually out of the question. Even escorted by a male companion, it had to be an uncomfortable experience not only because of onerous atmosphere inside of such theaters but also the social stigma that came with being seen entering or leaving one. Thus, it was rare for a production company to produce films that might appeal to female viewers. In that sense, "Champagne for Breakfast" was somewhat groundbreaking because there is an attempt to tell a relatively engaging story in a humorous manner from a young woman's point-of-view.

Champagne fulfills one of her fantasies: erotic role playing.

The film opens in the board room of a major cosmetic company in San Francisco. Champagne (Leslie Bovee) has impressed the president of the company with her business know-how and he announces that he has promoted her to VP position in marketing. Champagne is delighted but as soon as the room clears out, the boss's daughter, Peggy (Bonnie Holiday) who is also an executive at the company, has a shocking life lesson for her.  She tells Champagne that now that she is in management, she has an obligation to use her power to sexually manipulate men in the manner women have been manipulated for centuries. She proves her point by calling in a waiting sales rep who very much wants to sign a big contract with the cosmetics firm. In front of Champagne, she informs the shocked salesman that the only way he'll get the contract is to service her right there on the boardroom desk. He willingly complies but Champagne is disgusted and leaves the room. Before long, her star rises in the company but she realizes that she is a workaholic with little free time and no significant other in her life. Frustrated, she makes a bold decision to take two weeks off and indulge in hedonistic fantasies. To enable her to do so, she calls an employment agency and requests a body guard to accompany her on her potentially dangerous journey. Answering the call is Harry (John Leslie), a charismatic young man with a chip on his shoulder. He's living on poverty row but every time he takes even a low end job, his good looks result in female bosses wanting to sexually harass him. Sensing that Champagne might be intimidated by a hunky young guy as a bodyguard, he adopts Warren Beatty's character's strategy from "Shampoo" and pretends he is gay. His flamboyant mannerisms ensure he gets the job but frustration soon encroaches when he is forced to drop Champagne off for various sexual liaisons, including a male bordello. Knowing his new boss is sex-crazed but having to act disinterested drives Harry to the breaking point. Things only worsen when Champagne asks him to start giving her daily nude massages. Harry's cover is almost blown when he has to interrupt a fling Champagne is having with a beefy construction worker who begins to abuse her. Harry rides to the rescue and beats the man to a pulp, which doesn't enhance his attempts to play a meek, mild guy. At least Harry doesn't have to suffer the frustration of observing his boss's most daring and promiscuous encounter: an orgy with three male prostitutes. There is also the obligatory lesbian sequence, with Champagne being seduced by an aggressive young woman. The film suffers a bit from some unrealistic aspects of Harry's character. When he is seduced by the female manager of a strip club he has applied for a job as a bouncer in, he becomes outraged when another woman wants to join in the action. He storms out of the bedroom when the two women start entertaining each other, claiming that lesbianism is a perversion. Yeah, right. On the more realistic side, the film's feminine viewpoint results in some role reversal situations. Woman wield most of the power in this film, whether its in the boardroom or the bedroom, though the film does take a sympathetic twist on what males often go through in trying to pick up members of the opposite sex. When the sexually frustrated Champagne enters an upscale bar and tries to seduce an older man, she is shocked that he rebuffs her. 

"Champagne for Breakfast" benefits from relatively expensive production values  (they even had use of a Rolls Royce!)  and a director who can ensure that the cinematography isn't the jittery mess found in other erotic movies of the era. There is even an attempt to provide a romantic love song over the opening credits, even though it sounds more like one of those Sinatra parodies Mel Brooks sings in "High Anxiety". The performances are relatively accomplished and both Leslies- Bovee and John- have real on screen chemistry together. The somewhat amusing plot goes off the deep end in the final act with Harry discovering he has millions of dollars in stocks but they are in the name of a former brother-in-law who has power-of-attorney and won't relegate them back to him. This situation is resolved predictably and abruptly but the entire plot device of a pauper having access to millions in stocks is weak even by porn movie standards when it comes to credibility. Still, the sex scenes do sizzle and there are some genuine laughs. "Champagne for Breakfast" is indeed a cut above most films of this genre.

Vinegar Syndrome's DVD boasts a great transfer, the original trailer (which has tag-on reviews from erotic magazines that tout the film as being virtually the "Citizen Kane" of the porn genre) , a trailer for a softcore version and some deleted scenes. I presume the bizarre box art is taken from the original film poster. For some reason, the main focus is not gorgeous Leslie Bovee but a cartoon of some dork who doesn't even appear in the film, which provides proof that, despite appearances to the contrary, not all lousy film posters are contemporary. Still, you can't judge a porn film by its DVD sleeve and this one is considerably better than the promotional art would have you believe. 

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

When Walt Disney plucked a lanky, charismatic actor named Fess Parker from relative obscurity to star as Davy Crockett in the 1950s, little did either man realize that an international phenomenon was about to be launched. So great was the impact with young viewers that Disney wasn't about to let the fact that Crockett died at the Alamo in the final episode stand in the way of meeting the public demand. Thus, he had to commission some "prequel" episodes to satiate the audience. The Crockett craze resulted in the biggest merchandising boom seen in America since the Shirley Temple phenomenon of the 1930s. Kids everywhere were indulged with Crockett toys and frontiersman garb. Disney even re-edited episodes and released them as a feature film. As the initial audience grew older, Disney simply telecast the color episodes again and younger kids got into the craze, with boys wearing their older brother's Crockett costumes and toting about their toy muskets. In 1964 Parker had an inspired idea of his own: put on the old buckskins again and a coonskin cap and recreate his earlier success by playing Daniel Boone. For all intents and purposes, the characters were virtually indistinguishable. There was even a catchy theme song much in the style of "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" from the Disney shows. The difference was that the Crockett episodes for Disney were few and far between while the adventures of Daniel Boone would be a weekly TV series on NBC, totally independent of Disney's tight knit control. Whatever Walt thought about this rather obvious theft of his concept isn't known, but Parker found that lightning would indeed strike twice. While the Boone program never set off a merchandising craze, it was sufficiently popular to last a full six seasons, a rather remarkable achievement for that era. Over the decades, the show has retained many fans who recall the program with fondness. To their frustration, the show was not available on DVD and illegal bootlegs of episodes commanded high prices. In 2007, the series was finally released on DVD as individual seasons commanding exceptionally high prices, much to the disdain of collectors. In 2014, however, Fox released the entire series in one boxed set ON 36 DVDs that can be had through Amazon for less than the price of two seasons from the previous release. (Note: the first season of the show was presented in B&W and all subsequent seasons were telecast in color). The quality is excellent and this release is sure to bring back many fond memories for Baby Boomers. 

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Calling all Charlie Chan fans! If you are not aware of it, Warner Home Video released a 4 DVD set of Chan rarities in 2013. Here is the information from the original press release.  

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment brings back the legendary master of crime in the Charlie Chan Collection -- four beloved films making their DVD debut, and now available for the first time, newly remastered, as a single collection. Included are Shadows Over Chinatown, starring Sidney Toler in one of his last Chan films, plus Docks of New Orleans, Shanghai Chest, and The Golden Eye starring Roland Winters, the last actor to play the detective on film.

Writer Earl Derr Biggers created Charlie Chan, a fictional Chinese-American sleuth, in a series of printed tales beginning in 1923. As early as 1926, the first of more than 48 Charlie Chan films was put on the silver screen. Actor Warner Oland, born in Sweden, began a popular run for Fox in 1931 in Charlie Chan Carries On. After its success, Fox would produce 15 more Chan films starring Oland. Not surprisingly, the films became the most popular in 1930s China.

After Oland died, Sidney Toler, an American actor with Scottish roots, took on the Chan role. Toler starred in 22 Chan films, first for Fox and later for Monogram Studios. After Toler's death, Roland Winters became Chan in six more films. The character has also been featured frequently on radio, television and in the comics.

ABOUT THE FILMS

Shadows Over Chinatown

Charlie Chan heads to San Francisco on a murder case when he encounters a mother trying to find her daughter who’s gone missing. Chan also meets a young man, searching for his missing girlfriend. Charlie determines they’re both looking for the same person and soon uncovers a murder gang, which has been illegally benefiting from life insurance of the dead.

Docks of New Orleans

Charlie is asked to investigate after the mysterious demise of a New Orleans chemical company magnate, because even though the police believe the death was caused by a heart attack, a series of unexplainable deaths follow. Only Charlie Chan can solve the mystery!

Shanghai Chest

Three people are murdered in San Francisco – a judge, District Attorney and a juror. The fingerprints of a deceased man are found at all three murder sites, but could it really be possible for a dead man to be a serial killer? Again, leave it to Charlie Chan..!

The Golden Eye

An Arizona gold mine is suddenly making a ton of money. The mine’s owner, instead of delighting in his newfound wealth, confides to Charlie that something is wrong and he fears for his life. Charlie and “friends” go to the mine, pretending to be just visitors. They soon discover that the mine is being used as a cover up for some major crimes and that, indeed, somebody will soon be murdered.

(Although not mentioned in the press release, the set also includes an abundance of special features.)  

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By Lee Pfeiffer

First Run Features specializes in releasing often obscure, but fascinating documentaries, with many titles relating to WWII history. The company has just made available Dear Uncle Adolf: The Germans and Their Fuhrer, a 2010 documentary by filmmaker Michael Kloft. It's pretty hard to bring a new angle to the study of WWII, as virtually every conceivable aspect would seem to have been covered countless times. However, Kloft examines a genuinely unique aspect of Nazi culture: the countless "fan letters" written to Adolf Hitler during his ascent to power and his reign as Fuhrer. It seems that after the Soviets took Berlin in the waning days of the war, they uncovered a massive archive of personal letters written to Hitler by German citizens. These were studied, cataloged and stored because Hitler felt they were a good measurement of how his people felt about his policies. The Soviets kept a lid on the archive but in the post-Cold War period, they were opened up, though it's unclear how many historians took advantage of this obscure but important find. The cameras pan down endless rows of neatly cataloged storage boxes all filled with the letters. A narrator reads some of them, along with official communiques from Nazi officials. All of this is blended with mesmerizing footage of Hitler and his cronies, much of it new to me.

The film presents a stark and timeless lesson about how cultured, educated and rational people can willingly suspend their common sense- as well as their civil liberties- in hopes of appeasing a charismatic leader. While it is true the German people had suffered terribly in the aftermath of WWI and the oppressive conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, the desperate population willingly adopted Nazi policies that a decade were deemed uncivilized. When Hitler tried to take power at the point of a gun, he failed. He succeeded only when he went the legal route, understanding fully that frightened people will pay any price to have a benevolent strongman solve their problems. If the price of this pact with the devil is that countless numbers of their fellow citizens be deemed undesirables and marked for death, well, that was just too bad. The letters written to Hitler and documented in this film run the gamut from those sent by academics to literal nutcases. (Yes, even the Fuhrer wasn't immune from attracting crazed eccentrics such as the barber who pleaded with Hitler to allow him to meet him in Berlin so he could fulfill his dream of giving him a haircut!) Countless women wrote to Hitler, with the type of adoration that American bobbysoxers were reserving for the likes of young Frank Sinatra. Their flowery prose barely hide their all-too-apparent desire to offer him sexual favors. One woman blatantly invites Hitler to father a child with her so that his legacy can live on.  However, there are also heartbreaking letters from the early days of Hitler's regime. These come from wives and children who profess their devotion to him and the cause of National Socialism even as they plead with him to intervene and release their husband/father who has been jailed for unspecified reasons. One woman writes incredulously that her husband has not even been formally charged with a crime despite being in jail for months, as though the niceties of the Weimar Republic were still prevalent in the courts. In one particularly disturbing missive to the Fuhrer, a terrified woman reaffirms her Germanic heritage and spells out the reasons why a trace of mixed blood should not result in her being branded a Jew. She pleads with Hitler to deliver her from the "curse" of being Jewish. In contrast, one child writes to Hitler to beg him to annex his native Austria into the Reich because the Jews are using Christian German children as human sacrifices. Such tall tales were widely believed and helped justify Hitler's amicable takeover of a once sovereign nation. The letters and communiques in the film also show how well Hitler understood the importance of not trivializing his super-human image, as a baker is chastised for naming a cake in his honor. The man writes a sniveling and apologetic reply explaining he was only conforming to the popular demand for such a delicacy from local party officials.