BY FRED BLOSSER

Kino Lorber Studio Classics has released “A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die!,” a 1968 Italian Western, in a Blu-ray edition. In the movie, Gov. Lem Carter (Robert Ryan) offers amnesty to outlaws in a bid to quell lawlessness in 1880s New Mexico. On the run from deputies and bounty hunters, desperado Clay McCord (Alex Cord) decides to seek the governor’s clemency. McCord suffers from paralytic spasms of his gun hand. The attacks have become more frequent and more severe, and he fears that they represent the onset of epilepsy, the malady that disabled and eventually killed his father. But enemies on both sides of the law make it difficult for him to go straight as he wishes to do. Bounty hunters surround the town of Tascosa, where McCord must go to sign the needed papers, and even if he can elude them, the cynical marshal, Roy Colby (Arthur Kennedy), is disinclined to give him a break. The gunfighter is equally unwelcome in nearby Escondido, a haven for fugitives, after antagonizing Kraut (Mario Brega), the brutal hardcase who controls the rundown settlement. It’s even money on who will bring McCord down first, Kraut’s pistoleros or Colby’s deputies. Although I can’t find any sources to either confirm or refute the speculation, I believe that Brega’s dubbed English voice as Kraut belongs to American actor Walter Barnes, who made several Italian and German Westerns in the 1960s.

With an American executive producer, three high-profile ‘60s American actors in starring roles, an Italian producer, an Italian director, and an Italian supporting cast dubbed into English, “A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die” straddles the divide between the earnest tradition of U.S. Westerns and the violent, anything-goes approach of the Italian kind. It opens with a long (actually, too long) outdoor sequence of McCord and a pal eluding a posse, like characters in “One-Eyed Jacks” and any number of other classic Westerns. Then follows a scene of two sadistic gunmen roughing up a frightened priest in front of an altar, and eventually shooting him in the back. Try to find a situation like that in a John Wayne or Roy Rogers movie. The two gunmen are played by Aldo Sambrell and Antonio Molino Rojo, who -- like Mario Brega, the Ernest Borgnine of Italian Westerns -- are instantly recognizable from Sergio Leone’s stock company of scruffy character actors. An unsympathetic critic might speculate that a respectable if unexceptional American Western could have resulted had the moviemakers tightened the script, dialed back the film’s high body count, and substituted homegrown character actors for Italian ones in the supporting cast. On the other hand, for those of us whose moviegoing tastes were formed in the Cinema Retro era, the manic unevenness of the picture as it exists has a certain freewheeling charm of its own.

Kino Lorber’s cover notes advertise the Blu-ray as a new high-definition master from a 4K scan of the original negative. Although the daytime scenes have some graininess, the nighttime lights and darks are clear and sharp. The label’s resident Spaghetti expert, Alex Cox, contributes an informative, droll, but respectful audio commentary. Those new to Italian Westerns will learn a lot about the genre from Cox’s remarks, while fans will have fun matching their knowledge against his in spotting familiar Italian faces in the movie’s supporting cast. As another supplement, the disc also includes the original ending from the European print of the movie, transposed from an old, overseas VHS tape. This bleak denouement is stronger by far than that of the U.S. cut.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

FRED BLOSSER IS THE AUTHOR OF "SAVAGE SCROLLS: VOLUME ONE: SCHOLARSHIP FROM THE HYBORIAN AGE". CLICK HERE TO ORDER ON AMAZON

BY JOHN M. WHALEN 

Kino Lorber has released “Singing Guns” (1950), a Republic Pictures “singing cowboy” western filmed in Trucolor. The film is based on a western novel by Max Brand, and is pretty unremarkable except for the fact that the cowboy anti-hero, Rhiannon, an outlaw with a long bushy beard who has been robbing stagecoaches to the tune of over a $1 million, isn’t played by Roy, or Gene Autry, Rocky Lane Rex Allen, or any of the other western stars in Republic’s stable. Rhiannon, is played by a popular singer from that era named Vaughn Monroe.

I remember Vaughn Monroe when I was a kid. I used to hear him singing “Racing with the Moon,” on the radio. He had a rich baritone voice and my mother would turn up the radio every time it came on and sort of stare out into space with a funny look in her eyes. Monroe also had another big hit with “Mule Train,” with lyrics like “clippity clop, clippity clop, Muuuuuule Traaaainn.” Whips cracking. Well, it appears “Singing Guns “was made so that Vaughn could have a chance to sing “Mule Train” in a movie. The song has nothing to do with the story, but fits in with a scene where Vaughn drives a wagon pulled by two mules--- not exactly a train, but close enough, I guess. Monroe sings three other tunes in the film as well.

The script by the screenwriting team of Dorrell and Stuart McGowan concerns the attempts by Sheriff Jim Caradac (Ward Bond), doctor/preacher Jonathan Mark (Walter Brennan), and lady gambler Nan Morgan (Ella Raines) to catch, reform, and fall in love with the aforementioned stagecoach robber, respectively. The movie has a real corkscrew of a plot, starting with Rhiannon holding up the stage occupied by Nan and Sheriff Mark. When Rhiannon finds out the sheriff outwitted him by making sure there was no gold on this trip, he humiliates him making him march into town wearing a pair of Nan’s bloomers and a hat that looks like a flower pot. The sheriff, furious, gets to his office, grabs his other guns and chases Rhiannon out into the desert. Rhiannon gets to his mountain hideout and shoots the sheriff off his horse. He later goes down to bury him (he’s a decent sort of outlaw) but the sheriff was faking it and gets the drop on him.

He’s about to take Rhiannon in, but in another twist, Rhiannon jumps him and shoots him. In another weird turn, he decides to take the sheriff to town so the doctor can patch him up (like I said he’s a real decent sort of outlaw). Doc Caradac tells Rhiannon the sheriff needs a transfusion. The outlaw rejects his call for help (he’s not that decent, he’s gotta get out of town), forcing the doctor to slip him a mickey and perform the transfusion while he’s unconscious. (Aren’t there ethics rules being violated here?) Even worse than taking his blood, the doc also shaves off Rhiannon’s beard! When he wakes up he’s not only a quart low, he’s clean shaven!! And here comes the most unbelievable plot element. Without the beard, when he wakes up, nobody recognizes him. He’s just some guy who saved the sheriff’s life!!!

The story goes on like that with the plot switching back and forth, with the sheriff sometimes wanting to help Rhiannon and other time wanting to jail him, and Nan sometimes hating Rhiannon and sometime loving him, and Doc Caradac saying he’s just as interested in saving his patients’ souls as he is healing their bodies, and just wants everything to be okay.

Ignoring the ridiculous plot, perhaps the best thing about “Singing Guns” is the way it looks. It’s a brand new master by Paramount from a 4K scan of the original 35mm Trucolor nitrate negative. It’s sensational looking. And for the first time I’m aware of, “Singing Guns” shows how beautiful Ella Raines’ eyes were. The film she’s remembered for most is “Phantom Lady” (1944), the noir thriller based on Cornell Woolrich’s novel. It was shot in black and white, so you couldn’t see what color her eyes were. Film historian Toby Roan in his highly informative audio commentary said that cinematographer Reggie Lanning had trouble getting the color right; sometimes her eyes looked green, sometimes blue, sometimes yellow. Roan says he thinks they’re turquoise. Whatever they are they’re fascinating to look at, so much so I found myself having to reverse the disc in several places because I’d lost track of what she was saying. Maybe I was hypnotized. Raines only made 20 films in her lifetime. It’s a pity she didn’t make more..

“Singing Guns” is directed by R. G. Springsteen, who also directed Monroe’s only other western, “Toughest Man in Arizona.” The film is also notable for the number of familiar faces in the cast, including Jeff Corey, Harry Shannon, Rex Lease, and Jimmy Dodd (as well as Eleanor Donahue, and Billy Grey, who would later play Robert Young’s kids on “Father Knows Best”). Bonus features include the aforementioned audio commentary and several trailers for other KL Blu-rays. It’s another one of those discs that astonish you in regard to how good an old movie can look and sound when it’s done right. They can’t release enough of these to satisfy me.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

John M. Whalen is the author of "Tragon of Ramura". Click here to order from Amazon.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Samuel Fuller is today regarded as a revered name among directors. Unlike his peers- John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston, Howard Hawks, to name but a few- Fuller didn't get much respect when he needed it, at least from critics and studio heads who regarded his talents as workmanlike. Consequently, this talented director, screenwriter and occasional novelist and actor, toiled under meager budgets and scant support from studio executives. Fuller was typical of directors of his generation who had come of age during the Great Depression and World War II. He had a tough guy persona and had learned to survive on the mean streets of Manhattan where he worked as a crime reporter in the 1930s. Fuller could have landed a cushy job in the military during the war but eschewed the opportunity in favor of volunteering for combat duty in the European campaign. His scripts were tightly-written, no-nonsense affairs and his direction was direct and to-the-point. Fuller cut a larger-than-life figure with an out-sized personality and his penchant for indulging in cigars that were so large they looked as though they were inspired by cartoons. Despite the budgetary limitations on his films and the fact that he never enjoyed a career-defining breakaway hit, Fuller's movies have stood the test of time and before he died in 1997, he had witnessed his work being favorably reassessed by a new generation of directors and critics.

"Underworld U.S.A." is one of Fuller's true gems. A 1961 film noir crime story, the movie gave an early career boost to Cliff Robertson but its significance goes much deeper. Although viewed as a typical low budget crime thriller back in the day, the movie is a a true classic of the genre. The film opens with 14 year-old Tolly Davlin (David Kent), a street-wise product of a crime-infested unnamed big city, witnessing the beating death of the father he idolized by a pack of enforcers from a mob syndicate that he had crossed. Tolly's dad, himself a low-life who was teaching his son how to survive in the urban jungle by being more cunning and ruthless than the competition. Tolly, now orphaned, finds the only friend he has is Sandy (Beatrice Kay), a tough-as-nails saloon owner who takes a maternal interest in Tolly, though he rarely heeds her advice. Tolly is consumed with avenging his father's death. He arranges intentionally builds up a criminal record leading to him being incarcerated in a juvenile detention center- but all the while he is painstakingly following leads about who his father's murderers were and who employed them. The story jumps ahead and we find Tolly now a young man in his late twenties (played by Robertson) having been incarcerated in a prison that houses one of the killers, a man who is literally on his death bed in the hospital ward. That doesn't stop Tolly from smothering him with a pillow and making it look like natural causes. When Tolly is released from jail, he reunites with Sandy and has a chance encounter with  a sexy gun moll who is nicknamed Cuddles (Dolores Dorn) who has been marked for death for having failed to carry out a mission for the mob. Tolly saves her life and secretes her in Sandy's apartment while he begins his pursuit of two other men who killed his father that fateful night. Having succeeded in getting his street justice, he goes for bigger game: the syndicate bosses.

Fuller's film is somewhat unique in that he avoids the cliche of showing the mob echelon as seedy, Al Capone types. Instead, they are elite, sophisticated and corrupt businessmen and elected officials who run a major complex called The National Projects which ostensibly benefits the poor because periodically the Olympic-sized swimming pool welcomes neighborhood children. In reality, the top bosses live in splendor in penthouse apartments there and ruthlessly oversee their crime organization. In a clever plot device, Tolly works with the local crime-busting city official (Larry Gates) and volunteers to go undercover and work with the mob in order to bring them to justice. He then tells the mob he's a double agent, so to speak, and really working for them. Ultimately, he devises an inspired scheme by which he places circumstantial evidence to convince the crime lords that their partners are out to betray and kill them, thereby leading them to "off" each other and ensuring that Tolly's hands are clean. It's a plot device that was used in "The Godfather Part II" when the mob boss Frankie Pantangeli becomes mistakenly convinced that Michael Corleone tried to have him assassinated and tries to do the same to him. Similarly, in the 1989 James Bond film "Licence to Kill", 007 infiltrates a major drug gang and convinces the big boss that his key people are betraying him, thus leading to their murders.

Universal has released a superb boxed set of their horror classics. Here is the official press release:

Universal City, California, August 22, 2018 – Thirty of the most iconic cinematic masterpieces starring the most famous monsters of horror movie history come together on Blu-ray™ for the first time ever in the Universal Classic Monsters: Complete 30-Film Collection on August 28, 2018, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Featuring unforgettable make-up, ground-breaking special effects and outstanding performances, the Universal Classic Monsters: Complete 30-Film Collection includes all Universal Pictures’ legendary monsters from the studio that pioneered the horror genre with imaginative and technically groundbreaking tales of terror in unforgettable films from the 1930s to late-1950s.

From the era of silent movies through present day, Universal Pictures has been regarded as the home of the monsters. The Universal Classic Monsters: Complete 30-Film Collection showcases all the original films featuring the most iconic monsters in motion picture history including Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Phantom of the Opera and Creature from the Black Lagoon. Starring some of the most legendary actors including Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., Claude Rains and Elsa Lanchester in the roles that they made famous, these films set the standard for a new horror genre and showcase why these landmark movies that defined the horror genre are regarded as some of the most unforgettable ever to be filmed.

Universal Classic Monsters: Complete 30-Film Collection includes a 48-page collectible book filled with behind-the-scenes stories and rare production photographs and is accompanied by an array of bonus features including behind-the-scenes documentaries, the 1931 Spanish version of Dracula, Featurettes on Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., and Jack Pierce, 13 expert feature commentaries, archival footage, production photographs, theatrical trailers and more. The perfect gift for any scary movie fan, the collection offers an opportunity to experience some of the most memorable horror films of our time. 

The Universal Classic Monsters: Complete 30-Film Collection includes Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), The Invisible Man (1933), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Werewolf of London (1935), Dracula's Daughter (1936), Son of Frankenstein (1939), The Invisible Man Returns (1940), The Invisible Woman (1940), The Mummy's Hand (1940), The Wolf Man (1941), The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), The Mummy's Ghost (1942), The Mummy's Tomb (1942), Invisible Agent (1942), Phantom of the Opera (1943), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), Son of Dracula (1943), House of Frankenstein (1944), The Mummy's Curse (1944), The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944), House of Dracula (1945), She-Wolf of London (1946), Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954, and includes a 3D version), Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955), Revenge of the Creature (1955 and includes a 3D version) and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956).

BONUS FEATURES:

· Behind-the-Scenes Documentaries

· 3D Versions of Creature from the Black Lagoon and Revenge of the Creature

·1931 Spanish Version of Dracula

·Featurettes on Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., and Jack Pierce

·13 Expert Feature Commentaries

·Archival Footage

·Production Photographs

·Theatrical Trailers

Not mentioned in the press release is the impressive collector's booklet packed with rare photos and movie poster artwork. 

One caveat to note: the set was accompanied by a letter from Universal explaining that some of the Blu-ray discs containing the 3-D version of "Revenge of the Creature" and the 2-D version of "The Creature Walks Among Us" had some manufacturing snafus and customers might experience some playback problems on this one disc. If that occurs, Universal will send you a corrected disc if you E mail them at: USHEConsumerRelations@visionmediamgmt.com

CLICK HERE TO ORDER BLU-RAY SET FROM AMAZON

CLICK HERE TO ORDER DVD SET FROM AMAZON

RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES. 

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will" has long posed a conundrum for film critics and historians. How do you assess a film that is brilliantly made but which promotes a hateful message? The 1934 production which was created as a love letter to Adolf Hitler and his rapidly-rising National Socialist movement has been relatively shunned at film festivals and the art house circuit over the decades. It's undoubtedly been most widely seen in classrooms and on home video. Yet the passing of time has allowed the film to be more actively shown in recent years and it is nearly always accompanied by an introduction that rightly explains its relevance both to the period in which it was made but also as it pertains to today's world. Director Riefenstahl had been a popular actress in German cinema who had caught the eye of Adolf Hitler, who was quite the movie fan (his favorites included "Gone With the Wind" and Laurel and Hardy.) Riefenstahl had recently become a pioneer as one of the first women to enter directing in the era of sound films. Hitler commissioned her to film the Nazi party's annual meeting in Nuremberg in the expectation that it would bolster the movement as well as increase the fanatical cult of personality that was already attached to him. Hitler had tried to overthrow the German government a decade earlier but ended up in jail. He turned this to his advantage by becoming a martyr to the cause and writing his personal bible Mein Kampf from his jail cell. By the time he was released, even those who had prosecuted him were trying to curry favor with the future dictator. Hitler ran for office and won the election to become Germany's chancellor. In reality he had most of the political power but was prudent enough to bide his time until the ceremonial head of state, Von Hindenburg, passed away from natural causes. Hitler knew that the public would not abide him disrespecting the beloved Von Hindenburg, who was regarded as a national war hero.As it had so many times in these early days of Hitler's rise, fate cooperated with his interests. Von Hindenburg passed away and Hitler went full throttle to establish himself as a virtual dictator. His first order of business was to eradicate Germany's fragile hold on democracy, first attacking the free press and then nationalizing it as a propaganda arm. The nation had come out on the losing side in WWI and was suffering terribly from onerous war reparations that had to be paid to the Allies, who were basically using Germany as a cash cow. Hitler quickly put to rest the last remnants of the loathed Weimar Republic and combined the offices of chancellor and president, thus giving himself unchallenged power over the country. He then persuaded the Reichstag to voluntarily cede most of their powers to him, thus making the series of checks and balances in the government a rubber stamp for Hitler's policies. Hitler still had important goals to fulfill. It was important to mobilize the nation as a fighting force in the expectation of war. However, he was bound by the Treaty of Versailles which mandated that Germany's armed forces number no more than 100,000 men. Hitler got around this by organizing numerous civic and political groups and turning them into paramilitary organizations. In this way he was able to train millions of Germans as soldiers even if they carried picks and shovels instead of rifles. Hitler also did some controversial "house cleaning" within his party by personally ordering the murders of SA head Ernst Rohm and his top lieutenants. The SA was Hitler's personal bodyguard but had grown to the size of an army. He worried that Rohm had political aspirations of his own and that he might orchestrate a coup. On the so-called Night of the Long Knives, the top echelon of the SA was systematically executed. Hitler appointed a more benign stooge, Viktor Lutze, as the new head of the SA. Hitler's biggest challenge was to ensure that he and Lutze could convince the rank and file SA men to stay loyal to the party and Hitler himself. This he intended to do at the Nuremberg rally, where he would give speech extolling his appreciation of the SA. The ploy worked and any dissension never spilled over into a threat to Hitler. 

"Triumph of the Will" presents a sanitized picture of all these dastardly goings-on. What emerges is a nation that is completely behind Hitler and the Nazi cause. This was nonsense, of course. There were countless people who opposed the regime and over the course of the next few years they would pay dearly for their protests against the demise of German democracy. Nevertheless, as a propaganda piece the film is probably unrivaled in its impact. Although the movie was shown internationally, it didn't quite have the alarming impact one might have assumed. The Western democracies still thought of Hitler as primarily a quirky crank whose influence would be confined within Germany's borders. Hitler's propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels was a master of using cinema as a tool of manipulation. Not wanting to alarm the Allies before Germany had been rebuilt militarily, the film was given rather non-threatening sub-titles to accommodate its international showings. Meanwhile, within Germany, the messages were more ominous. When viewing the film even today one gets the feeling that Germany was an invincible power. One can only imagine the trepidation Allied troops must have felt when they finally had to go up against what had become a seemingly unstoppable war machine. The clues were in the film. The legions of robot-like paramilitary adherents are presented as fanatical loyalists to the new dictator. In fact the "real" armed forces were featured so slightly in the film that they raised protests. To appease them, Hitler commissioned a second film by Riefehstahl titled "Day of Freedom" (also included in this set). The movie has her trademark use of imaginary camera angles but it amounts to basically a sop to the armed forces by showcasing their prowess through military training exercises. More powerful are the scenes in "Triumph of the Will" that carefully showcase Hitler as a demi-god. He is seen traveling to Nuremberg by the small plane he favored for use in his political campaign stops. (Hitler was the first politician to eschew the traditional whistle stop train tours in favor of using a plane in order to cover more territory.) The images of his plane flying through the spectacular cloud formations are truly stunning. We also watch him as he stares down at the massive rally forming in expectation of his arrival. When Hitler does arrive at the rally he is preceded by a small army of his top officials who were being formally introduced to the German people through this film. In retrospect, they formed the perfect "Rogue's Gallery" and would go on to perpetrate some of the most heinous crimes of the 20th century. Most paid for their sins with their lives though others were sentenced to jail terms in the aftermath of  the war. When Hitler takes to the podium he uses his trademark practice of starting his speech in a low voice but gradually rising in tone and emotion into a virtual scream. The most disturbing part of the film occurs when all of the countless thousands of participants march past the podium and pledge their  loyalty, not to Germany, but to Hitler personally. The film then concentrates on the ancillary fanfare that took place during this seminal week in the nation's history as we watch torchlight parades march past Hitler's hotel balcony where he looks on approvingly. At all times Riefenstahl diminishes the notion of individualism in order to present Hitler in an almost superhuman manner. He is photographed from angles that make him seem literally larger than life. 

The Synapse Blu-ray, which features a restoration by Robert A. Harris,  contains some valuable extras, the most informative being a feature-length commentary track by Dr. Anthony R. Santoro, an expert on German history. Santoro's calm, laid-back manner is somewhat jolting at times, given the gravity of what we are viewing, but he provides excellent information regarding the nuances of these scenes and the fate of the individual Nazi top brass.Where the track falls a bit short is in Santoro's discussions of Riefenstahl and her legacy. He acknowledges her talents as a director but doesn't put much meat on the bone in regard to her personal life and legacy. (She lived until the age of 101 and never fully repented for her association with Hitler, nor was she ever prosecuted. She would defensively point out that she never actually joined the Nazi party, which is indeed surprising.) She would go on to make another important propaganda film for Hitler in 1938, "Olympiad", an equally whitewashed account of the 1936 Olympics that were held in Berlin and which also managed to elevate Hitler as a star attraction even though he was largely a bystander. Arguably, "Olympiad" was the more important and effective film as it was meant to appease foreign concerns about the atrocities that were just being implemented in Germany. Some of the slack from the commentary is addressed in excellent liner notes written by director and film historian Roy Frumkes, who delves deeper into Riefenstahl's fascinating life. Frumkes points out that the film should not really be considered a documentary because many of the "spontaneous" scenes were staged by Riefenstahl and some were shot repeatedly in order to get the desired footage. The new 2K restoration is impressive on all counts and does justice to Riefenstahl's astonishing camera angles. This presentation also boasts newly interpreted English sub-titles that accommodate the film's original German language version. It's beneficial to watch the film first then view it again with Dr. Santoro's commentary to provide context.

Compromised genius: Riefenstahl directing Triumph of the Will.

"Triumph of the Will" is indeed a major cinematic achievement- but tragically it promoted the greatest evil of the 20th century. The mind reels at what Leni Riefenstahl could have achieved had she not been compromised by her political beliefs. More importantly, the movie clearly illustrates that democracies are fragile states that can deconstruct under the influence and spell of one man.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

MURDOCH MYSTERIES: Home for the Holidays

DVD/Blu-ray Debut from Acorn TV on September 18, 2018

Special feature-length episode of the hit Canadian and Acorn TV period mystery series

Praise for Murdoch Mysteries:

“If you haven’t seen it, you must.” —Globe & Mail

“A terrific procedural police drama” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Yannick Bisson is perfect as Murdoch.” —Deseret News

“Smart, fast-paced fun” —The Globe and Mail

Garnering more than two dozen Gemini® nominations and the sole 2016 ‘Fan’s Choice Award’ at the Canadian Screen Awards for Yannick Bisson, MURDOCH MYSTERIES: Home for the Holidays makes its DVD/Blu-ray debut on September 18, 2018 from Acorn TV. Set in Toronto in the late 1890s and early 1900s during the age of invention, Murdoch Mysteries (aka The Artful Detective) centers on Detective William Murdoch (Bisson), a methodical and dashing detective, who enlists radical new forensic techniques to solve some of the city’s most gruesome murders. This DVD/Blu-ray 1-Disc features a feature-length Christmas special from Season 11 and bonus behind-the-scenes featurettes ($24.99, Amazon.com). Murdoch Mysteries: Home for the Holidays made its U.S. debut in December 2017 on Acorn TV. The series is currently in production on Season 12. Called a “glorious streaming service… an essential must-have” (The Hollywood Reporter), Acorn TV is North America’s most popular and largest streaming service focused on British and international television.

Dashing detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson, Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye) must solve a holiday whodunit in this feature-length special of the award-winning mystery series set in Edwardian Toronto. Days before Christmas, Murdoch and his wife, Dr. Julia Ogden (Gemini® winner Hélène Joy, Durham County), travel to Victoria, British Columbia, to spend time with Murdoch’s eccentric brother. But instead of a relaxing holiday with Jasper (Dylan Neal, Dawson’s Creek) and his family, they end up investigating a murder at an archaeological site.

Back in Toronto, Constables Crabtree (Jonny Harris, Still Standing) and Higgins (Lachlan Murdoch, Copper) try to impress their sweethearts before a skiing outing, and Inspector Brackenreid (Thomas Craig, Where the Heart Is) and his wife invest in a money-making scheme run by a man named Ponzi. Guest stars include Kate Hewlett (The Girlfriend Experience), Jake Epstein (Degrassi: The Next Generation), and Megan Follows (Reign, Anne of Green Gables).

Street Date: September 18, 2018

DVD 1-Disc: Feature length episode – Approx. 89 min., plus bonus – SDH Subtitles – UPC 054961265893

Blu-ray 1-Disc: Feature-length episode – Approx. 89 min., plus bonus – SDH Subtitles – UPC 054961265992

Bonus: Behind-the-scenes featurette (3 min.)

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

By Hank Reineke

If you trust the biographical sketch included on his 1963 LP As Long as the Grass Shall Grow (Folkways FN 2532, 1963), the folksinger Peter LaFarge hailed from Fountain, Colorado, a farming and ranching town settled ten miles south of Colorado Springs. If you trust the memory of his own mother, Peter LaFarge was actually born Oliver Albee LaFarge on April 30^th, 1931, in New York City. The singer-songwriter was the son of the notable anthropologist, author and historian, Oliver LaFarge. The senior LaFarge’s 1929 novel documenting life on a Navajo reservation, Laughing Boy, would earn him a Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 1930.

Though separated early on from his biological father due to his parent’s divorce in 1935, Peter remained his father’s son in his studious devotion of America’s indigenous people. His mother, with whom Peter remained, remarried in 1940 to Alexander Kane, a rancher in aforementioned Fountain, CO. Through his stepfather’s business, LaFarge fell in love with horses and roping and rodeo life, eventually dropping out of high school to try his hand at saddle bronc riding. Though he had become a cowboy in vocation - suffering numerous injuries during his brief association with rodeo life - he remained more absorbed by his birth father’s scholarship into the folklore, art, history, and customs of the American Indian.

LaFarge was a restless spirit, tending to drift in and out of things. He served on the U.S.S. Boxer during the Korean War, sparred as an amateur pugilist, studied acting at the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago, and wrote several (as of yet) un-produced plays. Befriending the folksinger Cisco Houston, an occasional singing partner of and best friend to Woody Guthrie, LaFarge’s existing interest in folklore ignited his enthusiasm for the folksong revival of the late 1950s. Upon his arrival in Greenwich Village with an intention of inaugurating a career in folk singing, the young LaFarge seemingly burnished his credentials by telling everyone he was the descendant of the Narragansett Tribe of the Rhode Island- based Algonquians. One of his stories was that once the Narragansett’s had been “wiped out,” he found himself adopted by “the Tewa Tribe of the Hopi Nation, whose reservation is near Santa Fe.” This appears to have been the tale he chose to settle on. He would write in a 1963 issue of the seminal folk music magazine Sing Out!, “The Pima Indians, whose reservation is just outside of Phoenix, Arizona, are cousins of my people, the Hopi Indians of the New Mexico Pueblos.”

If LaFarge’s assertions of a direct ancestral lineage to indigenous Americans are suspect - as most music historians now believe - the songwriter was certainly not alone in such self-mythologizing. Another recent Village transplant from the Midwest, Bob Dylan, was also telling friends and colleagues a similar fiction. Dylan, ten years LaFarge’s junior, famously suggested to a doubtful Izzy Young of Greenwich Village’s venerable Folklore Center that he was of Sioux Indian descent. To be fair, even Johnny Cash – who is, of course, more or less the central figure in Antonio D’Ambrosio’s moving 2015 documentary We’re Still Here: Johnny Cash’s Bitter Tears Revisited, now available on DVD courtesy of Kino-Lorber, was not above such mythologizing. In an infamous letter to Billboard (published August 22, 1964), Cash would describe himself as “almost a half-breed Cherokee-Mohawk,” whatever that means. It’s therefore somewhat perplexing that, regardless of the best intent and justice-seeking goodwill of all involved, D’Ambrosio’s film makes not even a passing mention to all of these innocent subterfuges.

Does any of this really matter? I suppose not. What does matter is that LaFarge, whether a full, half or non-fledged ancestor of indigenous Americans, wrote some of the most poignant, bitter and insightful songs somberly documenting the Indians’ experience in the United States. LaFarge’s intimate knowledge of Indian customs and folklore were, ultimately, far more schooled and convincing than either Cash’s or Dylan’s more clumsy appropriations which were easier to dismiss. While Cash and Dylan would, of course, both go on to be deserved long-standing totems of the music industry, LaFarge remained a mostly obscure figure, one very much on the fringe of the popular music scene. LaFarge would productively wax new no fewer than six albums between 1962 and 1965, but only “Ira Hayes” and Other Ballads (Columbia CL 17995/CS 8595) had been recorded for a major label with pop-music market distribution. It sold poorly. His following five albums were waxed for Moses Asch’s more austere and cerebral Folkways Records, whose eclectic catalog included everything from educational LPs, to anthropological studies, to early jazz and blues recordings. LaFarge’s addition to the Folkway’s roster was something of a more comfortable – if less royalty generating – fit for the artist. Asch, a supportive “fellow traveler” of left-wing causes, judiciously used his record label to provide an open microphone to such genuine folk music artists as Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Cisco Houston and Pete Seeger. It was a defiant gesture as well as a pragmatic one. The political climate made most labels in the late 1940s and early 1950s wary of recording rabble-rousers armed with guitars and 5-string banjos.