BY LEE PFEIFFER

Neil Simon's "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" was based on his own hit Broadway play that opened in 1971 and ran for two years. It starred Peter Falk and Lee Grant. The play resonated with audiences of the era even though it was an unusually dark piece for Simon, reflecting the social decay of New York City during this period. Those factors were still very much in evidence in films of the era when Simon rather reluctantly agreed to bring his play to the big screen in 1975. He felt the material was too disturbing for his core audience but conceded to write the screenplay himself. He also trusted Melvin Frank as director, as Frank had a long history of helming hit comedies with broad appeal. Simon was also enthused about the decision to cast Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft for the film version. Two of his greatest screen successes- "The Odd Couple" and "The Out ofTowners" - had starred Lemmon and Simon was looking forward to working with Bancroft for the first time. In many ways, "Second Avenue" resembles the latter film in that the script steamrolls over the city that Simon called home at a time when there was a malaise among Gotham's residents due to soaring crime, financial instability and racial divisions. In "The Out of Towners", Lemmon and Sandy Dennis played a couple visiting New York City who are besieged by a series of potentially tragic accidents and crimes that Simon deftly plays out to comic effect. In "Second Avenue", Lemmon and Bancroft deal with essentially the same scenarios from the standpoint of proud New Yorkers who refuse to relent to the on-going urban chaos even as it encroaches on their day-to-day existence.

Lemmon is cast as Mel Edison, a middle-aged executive for a failing corporation, who copes with the depressing atmosphere of a company in which everyone is sitting around waiting to be fired. He's already high-strung and perpetually whining about the deteriorating conditions in the once tony apartment he shares with his loyal and ever-patient wife Edna (Anne Bancroft). The elevators to their 14th floor apartment conk out routinely, the water supply is erratic, as is the air conditioning, the doorman (M. Emmet Walsh) is greedy and inept, two female flight attendants next door keep Mel and his wife awake all night by having noisy sex with their lovers and Mel is constantly in a verbal feud with his upstairs neighbors who he shouts at from his balcony below. Topping it all off, their apartment is ransacked and robbed.  All this unfolds amidst a summer heat wave. Mel's depression goes into overdrive when the inevitable happens and he gets fired. Unable to find work, Edna has to return to her profession as an assistant for theatrical productions, something that further diminishes Mel's sense of self-worth. (This was the mid-1970s, after all, the era of Archie Bunker ruling the roost.) Adding to Mel's woes are periodic interactions with his older brother Harry (actor/director Gene Saks in a deft comedic turn), who ostensibly wants to help Mel. However, Harry can't help reminding Mel about how much more successful he is than his kid brother, thus opening old wounds between the two that extend back to their troubled childhoods.

There's a lot going on in "Second Avenue" in terms of exploring relationships and dealing with social issues on a far deeper basis than one might expect from a Neil Simon comedy. For much of the film, Lemmon's Mel is an unsympathetic whiner who engages in verbal tirades against the long-suffering Edna while also indulging in endless bouts of self-pity. Moping around the apartment alone, he turns to talk radio and becomes an adherent to the wacky political conspiracies espoused by crackpot show hosts, thus proving that some things never change. Just when the character becomes insufferable, Simon's script cleverly reverses the situation by having Mel calm down after seeking psychiatric care and Edna become a monstrous, whining presence in the house when she has to absorb the full burden of long work hours and financial responsibility. Ultimately, we see these are two good, loving people just trying to survive in the urban jungle and there is an uplifting ending (sorta).

Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Kino Lorber:

NEW YORK, NY -- June 21, 2019 -- Kino Lorber Studio Classics announces the Blu-ray release of SWEET CHARITY (1969), from legendary director Bob Fosse (Cabaret, Lenny, All That Jazz, Star 80), with a new street date of August 20, 2019.

Based on the hit Broadway show by Neil Simon, SWEET CHARITY stars Shirley MacLaine, heading a cast of great stars including Sammy Davis Jr., Ricardo Montalban, Chita Rivera, Ben Vereen, Stubby Kaye, John McMartin, Barbara Bouchet, Paula Kelly, Alan Hewitt, and Toni Basil.

This edition from Kino Lorber Studio Classics contains both the original roadshow version (151 minutes) and the alternate "Happy Ending" cut (145 minutes) in new 4K restorations. The Blu-ray comes packed with bonus features including an audio commentary by film historian Kat Ellinger, "A Girl Who Wanted to Be Loved" -- a booklet essay by Julie Kirgo, "Edith Head Costume Design" and "From Stage to Screen" featurettes, and the theatrical trailer.

Hollywood royalty Shirley MacLaine (Irma La Douce) gives one of her greatest performances in this spectacular musical based on Neil Simon's (The Odd Couple) Broadway hit inspired by Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria.

Director Fosse broke new cinematic ground with this freewheeling, visually stunning story of a lovelorn New York dance hall hostess, Charity Hope Valentine (MacLaine), who dreams of old-fashioned romance but gives her heart to one undeserving guy after another. MacLaine joins all-star cast members Chita Rivera (Chicago), Sammy Davis Jr. (A Man Called Adam), Ricardo Montalban (Madame X), Ben Vereen (Funny Lady) and Stubby Kaye (Guys and Dolls) in belting out thirteen vibrant Cy Coleman-Dorothy Fields numbers including Big Spender, The Rhythm of Life, There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This and the show-stopping If My Friends Could See Me Now. It's an unforgettable production of an all-time classic.

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Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Paramount Home Video:

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – On July 6, 1994 moviegoers met a man named Forrest Gump whose story was both a deeply personal and affecting odyssey and a universal meditation on our times.  Hailed as “magical” (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times) and filled with “startling grace” (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone), FORREST GUMP became not only a global blockbuster, but a true cultural touchstone. 

25 years later, FORREST GUMP remains a treasured cinematic classic that is beloved and quoted the world over.  Tom Hanks gives an astonishing performance as Forrest, an everyman whose simple innocence comes to embody a generation.  Alongside his mamma (Sally Field), his best friend Bubba (Mykelti Williamson), his commanding officer Lieutenant Dan (Gary Sinise), and his favorite girl Jenny (Robin Wright), Forrest has a ringside seat for the most memorable events of the second half of the 20th century.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis and written for the screen by Eric Roth (based on the novel by Winston Groom), FORREST GUMP won six Academy Awards® including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Tom Hanks), Best Writing, Best Film Editing and Best Visual Effects.

NEW TWO-DISC BLU-RAY

A newly remastered version of FORREST GUMP is now available in a two-disc Blu-ray.  The set includes access to a Digital copy of the film as well as over three hours of previously released bonus content detailing the creative efforts that went into making the enduring classic:

Disc 1

·         Commentary by Robert Zemeckis, Steve Starkey and Rick Carter

·         Commentary by Wendy Finerman

·         Musical Signposts to History

o   Introduction by Ben Fong-Torres

Disc 2

·         Greenbow Diary

·         The Art of the Screenplay Adaptation

·         Getting Past Impossible—Forrest Gump and the Visual Effects Revolution

·         Little Forrest

·         An Evening with Forrest Gump

·         The Magic of Makeup

·         Through the Ears of Forrest Gump—Sound Design

·         Building the World of Gump—Production Design

·         Seeing is Believing—The Visual Effects of Forrest Gump

·         Screen Tests

·         Trailers

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SELECT THEATRICAL SCREENINGS

In addition, on June 23^rd and 25^th, FORREST GUMP will return to the big screen in more than 600 cinemas nationwide for two screenings each day as Fathom Events and Paramount present the film.  For information and tickets, visit www.FathomEvents.com.

BY HANK REINEKE

When the revered folksinger and author Woody Guthrie passed away on October 3, 1967 – following a long, tragic battle with Huntington’s disease – his friends and colleagues were moved to celebrate his life and legacy with a tribute concert. The manager of Guthrie’s business affairs, Harold Leventhal, commissioned the blacklisted novelist and screenwriter Millard Lampell to re-work an old script he had earlier fashioned from Guthrie’s bountiful catalog of songs and prose. Lampell was well suited to the task, not merely an outsider looking in. In 1941 Lampell would co-found the Almanac Singers, the agit-prop folk music ensemble that featured Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Lee Hays and several others.

That original program, Woody Guthrie’s California to the New York Island, first broadcast on CBS-TV’s Camera 2 program in December 1965, would serve as the template for the proposed memorial Tribute to Woody Guthrie. The tribute concert would be staged twice with afternoon and evening’s performances at New York City’s Carnegie Hall on January 20, 1968. The Carnegie tributes would have likely sold out quickly without any impetus beyond the simple desire of celebrating Guthrie’s life and work. But when Leventhal announced that that the reclusive Bob Dylan – not seen on a concert stage since May 1966 – would be included on the tribute bill, both shows would sell out within hours of the ticket on-sale. Even without Dylan’s participation, the bill at Carnegie was formidable and featured the finest folksingers from the New York City scene: Seeger, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Odetta, Richie Havens and Tom Paxton. The evening program at Carnegie Hall was recorded from the venue’s house system and shelved away for the possibility of a future LP release. Sadly, neither of these Carnegie Hall shows was professionally filmed.

While this tribute was originally conceived as a standalone memorial program, Guthrie’s colleagues and admirers on the west coast were feeling, not without justification, slighted. Guthrie’s earliest successes were, after all, on radio station KFVD out of Los Angeles. And Woody, a radical balladeer and refugee from Oklahoma’s dust bowl, was quickly embraced by those in L.A.’s progressive political circle. So much so that Guthrie was offered a gig as an occasional columnist for the mostly doctrinaire west coast Communist Party newspaper People’s World.

Guthrie’s Manhattan-based heirs were sympathetic to their west coast brethren’s disappointment. So it was a relief when it was announced that on September 12, 1970, there would be a Pacific coast Tribute to Woody Guthrie concert staged at the Hollywood Bowl. Dylan, to the disappointment of many, would not perform at this second concert. But several of Carnegie’s musical guests would return: Seeger, Havens, Odetta, Arlo Guthrie, and Jack Elliott. At the Hollywood Bowl, folk-diva Joan Baez would replace Judy Collins. Also joining the cast for the first time were Country Joe McDonald and an old colleague of Woody’s from the days of People’s Songs, Earl Robinson.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

"The Deadly Affair", directed by Sidney Lumet, is the 1967 film based on John Le Carre's 1961 novel "Call for the Dead". Le Carre was riding high during the Bond-inspired Bond phenomenon of the 1960s. Unlike the surrealistic world of 007, Le Carre's books formed the basis for gritty and gloomy espionage stories that were steeped in realism and cynicism. The film adaptation of Le Carre's "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" had been released the previous year to great acclaim. Lumet, who made "The Deadly Affair" for his own production company, rounded up top flight British talent including screenwriter Paul Dehn, who had written the film adaptation of "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and  co-wrote the screenplay for "Goldfinger".

As with all Le Carre film adaptations, the plot is complex to the point of being confusing. There are many intriguing characters of dubious allegiance to one another, a scarcity of violence in favor of people talking in back alleys and living rooms and a desire to paint the world of Cold War espionage as a tawdry environment in which the good guys are indistinguishable from the bad guys. James Mason plays Charles Dobbs, a veteran British Intelligence agent who takes a leisurely walk through St. James Park with a civil servant, Fennan (Robert Flemyng),who is aspiring to get a promotion to the Foreign Office. Dobbs informs him that there is a bit of concern about his security clearance because an anonymous person has tipped off MI6 through a letter that states Fennan's may have a dual allegiance to the communists. Dobbs considers the matter somewhat trivial and tries to assure Fennan that his name will probably be cleared. The men part on seemingly upbeat terms but the next day Dobbs is told by his superiors that Fennan has committed suicide. Dobbs is flabbergasted and insists the man showed no signs of instability. Nevertheless, Dobbs feels he is being made to be the fall guy for failing to see obvious weaknesses in Fennan's personality. That's not his only problem. Domestically, his young wife Ann (Harriett Andersson) is causing him great distress by taking on numerous lovers under his very nose. (Dobbs is even instructed to phone her before he comes home in case she has a bed mate in their house.) Dobbs is humiliated at playing the role of cuckold but can't bring himself to divorce Ann- even when it is revealed that his old friend Dieter (Maximilian Schell), a German Intelligence agent who is visiting London, has also been seduced by her.

Dobbs smells a rat at MI6 and doubts Fennan committed suicide. He starts his own investigation into who killed him and why. An interview with Fennan's widow (Simone Signoret) only makes matters more complex when he begins to suspect she might be a Soviet agent. Dobbs enlists the only two colleagues he can trust: agent Bill Appleby (Kenneth Haigh) and the semi-retired agent Mendel (Harry Andrews). The trio find that as they get closer to the truth, the trail is getting more dangerous with numerous murders occurring and their own lives in danger.

To bring Le Carre's novel to the screen, certain recurring characters from his books, such as legendary spy George Smiley, had to have their names changed because Paramount had the rights to "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and the characters appeared in the novel and screen version. Paul Dehn's screenplay is confusing but never boring and by the end you can pretty much figure out what is going on even if some of the peripheral characters' significance remains a bit vague. Sidney Lumet was the ultimate "actor's director" and could always be counted on to get top-rate performances from his cast. "The Deadly Game" is no exception, with James Mason in fine form as a man who has been disgraced professionally and personally but who still has enough pride to attempt to clear his name. Lumet hired two fine actors who appeared in his 1965 masterwork "The Hill"- Harry Andrews and Roy Kinnear- to reunite for this production and they have a great scene together. (Andrews must be one of the most under-rated actors of all time.) Maximilian Schell only appears sporadically but his role is pivotal and he is typically impressive, as is Simone Signoret as a woman of doubtful allegiance. Harriett Andersson, whose proficiency in English was limited, is occasionally difficult to understand (she was reportedly partially dubbed because of this). She accepted the role at the last minute when Candice Bergen had to back out of the film. She is suitably sultry and her character is quite interesting, professing to love her husband even as she revels in submitting him to sexual humiliation. The only humor in the film is provided by a very amusing Lynn Redgrave in a small role as Virgin Bumpus (!), an inept set designer for a Shakespearean theater production. Quincy Jones provides a fine jazz score that fits in well with the lounge music craze of the era and Freddie Young's cinematography depicts London as an ominous, rain-spattered place that adds to the chilling atmosphere of any Le Carre story.

"The Deadly Affair" was highly acclaimed in Britain, having been nominated for five BAFTA awards but it was largely overlooked amidst the tidal wave of other spy movies from the time period. It's a first-rate thriller and Mill Creek Entertainment has included it with five other Cold War films in a collection that features "Man on a String", "Otley", "Hammerhead", "The Executioner" and "A Dandy in Aspic". The DVD transfer is excellent but unfortunately there are no bonus features. Highly recommended.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

In 1971, director Blake Edwards took a career diversion by venturing outside the comedy genre into Westerns with the release of "Wild Rovers", for which he also authored the screenplay. The film was a highly personal project for Edwards who had earlier in his career made some effective non-comedies that included "Experiment in Terror" and the highly acclaimed "Days of Wine and Roses". The film marked a brief and unhappy two-picture association with MGM, which was then under the control of the universally despised James Aubrey, who was nicknamed "The Smiling Cobra". Aubrey had a habit of second-guessing esteemed directors in an era in which few filmmakers retained the right of final cut. Consequently, Aubrey was known to eviscerate films to conform to his personal views regarding their commercial value. The year before, he took the scissors to "Kelly's Heroes" and cut out what star Clint Eastwood felt was the emotional heart of the film. (The missing footage has never been found and Eastwood never made another film for the studio.) Aubrey would do the same to "Wild Rovers", which had a leisurely-paced running time of 136 minutes that included an intermission. Aubrey had it cut to 106 minutes, thus outraging Edwards, who was known for his mercurial temper. Making matters worse, Aubrey also cut Edwards's follow-up film for MGM, "The Carey Treatment". Edwards had suffered a similar fate when Paramount chief Robert Evans had made cuts to Edwards's 1970 big budget musical "Darling Lili". Ultimately, Edwards sought revenge with his 1981 film "S.O.B." a scathing take-down of studio executives who interfere with the artistic visions of film directors.

"Wild Rovers" is lyrical and at times tender story that depicts the unlikely friendship between two ranch hands: middle-aged Ross Bodine (William Holden) and Frank Post ((Ryan O'Neal), a young twenty-something upstart with a cocky manner. They are both employed by Walter Buckman (Karl Malden), a stern but honorable rancher who owns an impressive cattle empire. Ross is getting weary of a back-breaking life and Frank fears following in his footsteps. Impulsively, they decide to rob the local bank which they manage to do successfully by holding the bank manager's family hostage. Not exactly a noble act, but Edwards mitigates the moral consequences by having Ross leave enough money to be given to Buckman to pay his ranch hands. It's a sign of sentiment on Ross's part but upon his departure, the banker and his wife decide to not tell Buckman about the gesture and keep the money for themselves. The script finds the outraged Buckman sending his sons (Joe Don Baker and Tom Skerritt) to raise a posse and relentlessly pursue the robbers. The film then morphs into a road trip story with Ross and Frank bonding and learning to respect each other. Ross is inspired by the younger man's zest for life and Frank learns to control his impulsiveness. The nagging flaw with Edwards' script, however, is that while Ross retains a sense of nobility and decency, Frank is trigger happy and occasionally cruel, a fact that Edwards attempts to mitigate by showing us Frank's sentimental attachment to a puppy, a plot device that plays out as pretentiously as it reads. Although "Wild Rovers" never achieves the classic stature that Edwards had envisioned, it is a very good film that has many attributes, not the least of which is a very fine performance by William Holden, who- like most actors- became more interesting as he aged. As for O'Neal, he was always competent as an actor but not very compelling. This is one of his better performances because Edwards provides him with an interesting character to absorb. Malden is always very good but his screen time in "Wild Rovers" is frustratingly limited. The film boasts superb cinematography by Philip Lathrop and a great score by Jerry Goldsmith, filling in for Edwards' usual composer-of-choice, Henry Mancini.

The film tanked at the box office and with critics. Edwards blamed it on MGM's virtual destruction of his vision for the final cut. Not helping matters was the bizarre ad campaign that featured O'Neal and Holden on the same horse with O'Neal giddily embracing a rather uncomfortable looking Holden. For a hard-bitten, action-filled Western, it was all wrong and implied a "Brokeback Mountain"-like relationship in an era that was far less enlightened, to put it mildly. Happily, the Warner Archive has released a restored version of the film and provided a gorgeous transfer. They've even included the original intermission and entr'acte so you can appreciate Jerry Goldsmith's score even more. Bonus extras include a very good vintage "making of" documentary that makes it clear how Holden and O'Neal did a lot of impressive stunt work and wrangling themselves. There is also a rather murky trailer that will make you appreciate how good the main feature looks on Blu-ray.

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(For full analysis of the making of "Wild Rovers", see Frank Aston's article in issue #40.)

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Twilight Time has released the 1965 WWII espionage thriller "Morituri" as a region-free, limited edition (3,000 units) Blu-ray edition. The film represents yet another gem from Marlon Brando's "lost decade" of  films that were bookended by the massive failure of "Mutiny on the Bounty" in 1962 and his triumphant starring role in "The Godfather" ten years later. During those years, Brando's films were largely disparaged by critics and ignored by his former fans. Ironically, many of these productions were very good indeed and Brando often gave some of the most intriguing performances of his career. "Morituri" paired Brando with Yul Brynner, another Hollywood legend with a penchant for being difficult to work with. Brynner was known for making demands of producers that rivaled that of the King of Siam while Brando engaged in a penchant for making last minute changes to the script that often put him at odds with the cast and crew. Such was the case on this film, which is a moody, B&W production that is by necessity claustrophobic in nature as virtually all of the action takes place aboard a ship. The film opens with Robert Crain (Brando) being paid a visit by a British Intelligence office, Colonel Statter (Trevor Howard, who reconciled with Brando after griping about his work habits on "Mutiny on the Bounty"). Crain is posing as a Swiss national and living out the war in India,  leading a carefree life of leisure. He also happens to be a munitions expert and Statter reveals that the Brits are aware that Crain is actually living under an assumed name, having deserted the German SS a couple of years before. He offers Crain a proposition: agree to go on a possible suicide mission or be placed in the hands of German forces who are eager to have him in custody in return for the release of a high-profile British prisoner. Crain's mission is to pose as an SS man and board a German freighter that is carrying a precious load of valuable raw materials to occupied France. The Allies want to capture the goods or at least destroy them before they can reach the Germans. Crain is to try to somehow disable the explosive devices hidden within the ship that are designed to scuttle the craft in the event of capture, thus allowing the Allies to intercept the vessel and take the cargo. Left with a Hobson's Choice, Crain reluctantly agrees.

The captain of the freighter is Mueller (Brynner), a career sailor whose reputation has been tarnished due to a scandal. The German high command have given him another chance for redemption by ordering him to deliver the goods to France by navigating through waters that are filled with Allied submarines on the prowl. Mueller considers himself to be a loyal German (his son is an esteemed naval captain) but he balks at the brutality of the Nazi regime. Thinking Crain is actually an SS officer, he takes an immediate dislike to him and suspects he is there to spy on his movements for the German brass. Crain immediately sets out to disable the scuttling systems on the ship but finding the hidden boxes proves to be an arduous and dangerous task. Meanwhile, an unexpected boarding by two German naval officers results in their expressing skepticism about Crain's real identity. With his mission and life in mortal danger, Crain attempts to rally disaffected crew members to take control of the ship in alliance with some American prisoners who are also being transported.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Probably no genre illustrates the rapid advance of cinematic screen freedoms than the biker movie. The genre debuted in 1953 with Marlon Brando in "The Wild One". The film, which chronicled the virtual takeover of a small California town by a wild motorcycle gang, was considered extremely controversial at the time. The biker film remained largely dormant until the release of Roger Corman's "The Wild Angels" in 1966, which became a surprising boxoffice and media sensation. Only a year or two before, teenage audiences were being fed a steady diet of white bread rock 'n roll films that bore little resemblance to real life. Suddenly, the biker film blatantly presented raging hormones, gang wars, drug use and group sex without apology. Young people patronized these films in droves. With social constraints falling by the minute, the biker films- cheaply made as they were- spoke to the emerging generation that would be defined by hippies, drop-outs and protesters. Suddenly, Elvis movies seemed like entertainment for their parents and grandparents.  With the success of "The Wild Angels", imitators galore sprang onto drive-in movie screens across America. The biker films were like any other genre in that some of the entries were poorly done efforts designed to reap a few fast bucks at the box-office, while others had a certain crude efficiency about them. Such a film was "The Glory Stompers", one of the better entries in the biker movie genre. Made in 1967, the film was released by (surprise!) American International, which reaped king's ransoms by producing low-budget exploitation movies. Make no mistake, "The Glory Stompers" is indeed an exploitation movie with little redeeming value beyond it's interesting cast. Dennis Hopper, in full psycho mode, top-lines as Chino, the leader of a brutal biker gang known as The Black Souls. After being dissed by members of the rival Glory Stompers gang, Chino and his posse track down a Glory Stomper, Darryl (Jody McCrea) who is with his gorgeous blonde girlfriend Chris (Chris Noel). Chris is badgering Darryl to leave the biker lifestyle and do something meaningful with his life. They are interrupted by the arrival of the Black Souls, who beat Darryl mercilessly. Believing him to be dead, Chino orders the gang to kidnap Chris to prevent her from filing murder charges against them. Chino advises the group that they will transport her by bike several hundred miles into Mexico, where he has arranged to sell her into white slavery. Unbeknownst to them, however, Darryl recovers from his wounds and immediately sets out to rescue Chris. Along the way he meets a former fellow Glory Stomper, Smiley (former Tarzan star Jock Mahoney), who agrees to join the rescue effort. The eventually pick up one other ally and his girlfriend and head into Mexico in hot pursuit of the Black Souls.

The film features a good deal of padding with extended shots of the bikers cruising down highways or navigating over sandy desert roads. There's also a good deal of footage devoted to sexploitaiton, with topless biker women riding rampant through drug-fueled orgies and the requisite cat right between jealous biker "mamas". This was pretty shocking stuff back in the day and gives the movie a relatively contemporary feel (even though today's Hell's Angels are primarily known for organizing charity fund raisers.)  The cast is rather interesting and it's apparent that Hopper's presence in films like this clearly gave him street cred when he decided to make "Easy Rider". Chris Noel is quite stunning as the kidnap victim who must use psychology to avoid frequent attempts by her captors to rape her. She's also a good actress who brings a degree of dignity to the otherwise sordid on-goings. Jock Mahoney is the grizzled biker veteran who puts loyalty above his personal safety and it's refreshing to see him wearing attire that goes beyond a loin cloth. Jody McRae, son of Joel McRae, is a bland but efficient hero. The supporting cast includes ubiquitous screen villain Robert Tessier and future music industry phenomenon Casey Kassem (!), who co-produced the movie. The direction by Anthony M. Lanza is uninspired but efficient and the cinematography by Mario Tosi (billed here as Mario Tossi) is surprisingly impressive, which explains why he became a top name in "A"-grade studio productions. The rock music tracks, produced by Mike Curb, are awful. Curb was a Boy Wonder at the time, producing memorable music scores for American International films such as "The Wild Angels" and "Wild in the Streets". Here, he's clearly slacking. Curb composed the score with Davie Allan but the duo insert jaunty, upbeat tunes during moments that call for suspense-laden tracks. Nevertheless, the film remains consistently entertaining and stands as one of the better entries in this genre. 

MGM has released "The Glory Stompers" as a burn-to-order DVD. Despite some initial artifacts present in the opening sequence, the print is crisp and clean. There are no bonus extras.

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It may be hard to believe, but there are apparently a few people left on earth who don't have "The Godfather" trilogy on home video. Paramount is launching a new edition of the films as a Father's Day promotion. The films have hours of previously-released bonus materials plus some new collectibles: three portrait cards for the films and a frame you can display them in plus a Corleone family tree sheet that gives capsule descriptions of each individual.

Here is the official press announcement:

An ideal gift for Father’s Day, this new 4-Disc Blu-ray collection of director Francis Ford Coppola’s epic masterpieces beautifully packages all three films along with previously released special features and new collectibles, including a Corleone family tree, original theatrical art cards, and collectible portraits with frame.   

Francis Ford Coppola’s masterful adaptation of Mario Puzo’s novel chronicles the rise and fall of the Corleone family in this celebrated epic. Collectively nominated for a staggering 28 Academy Awards®, the films won nine, including two for Best Picture for The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II. To this day, the saga is rightfully viewed as one of the greatest in cinematic history.

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By Hank Reineke

On the eve of the November 1963 release of TWICE TOLD TALES, the British actor Sebastian Cabot would tell a reporter from the Copley News Service, "They've been after me to do more of the horror pictures with Vincent Price. I wouldn't mind that a bit, though I must say I wouldn't want to do them exclusively." He intimated that he and his co-star had discussed a possible future pairing in " light comedy" motion-picture. Alas, it was not to be; the two actors would not work together again. Cabot, of course, would soldier on and enjoy success as both a television personality and a recognizable voice-over actor. Following the passing of Boris Karloff in 1969, Vincent Price would reign as the big-screen''S uncontested "King of Horror". Cabot'S estimation of Price as an actor as "extremely adept at light-comedy" was incisive. Throughout his long and fabled career, Vincent Price;s on-screen ghoulishness would nearly always be mitigated with a wry smile and twinkle in the eye.

TWICE TOLD TALES is the second of two quickie vehicles in which Price starred for Robert E. Kent's Admiral Pictures, Inc. (1962-1963). For their first pairing, DIARY OF A MADMAN (released in March 1963 and distributed through United Artists), Kent mined the imagination of the great French short-story writer Henri-René-Albert-Guy de Maupassant. That film’s ballyhoo proclaimed it “The Most Terrifying Motion Picture Ever Created!” It most certainly wasn’t, but the film still managed to be a worthwhile psychological thriller - though one that didn’t particularly resonate at the box-office. In what was obviously an attempt to capitalize on the low-budget but big commercial success of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations for A.I.P, Kent quickly changed course and ambitiously turned to the short stories and novels of Nathanial Hawthorne for material.

Though a descendant of John Hathorne, the unrepentant magistrate who presided over the fate of several innocents during Salem, Massachusetts’s celebrated witch trials, Nathanial Hawthorne was a romanticist: he was not prominently a writer of mysteries or of fantastic fiction. Having said that, Hawthorne was not averse to penning a good ghost story or two and his talent had won him the praise of contemporaries. One such fan was Edgar Allan Poe himself. In his review of Hawthorne’s two volume collection of short stories TWICE TOLD TALES for Graham’s Magazine in May of 1842, Poe unabashedly pronounced the New Englander as “a man of truest genius… As Americans, we feel proud of this book.”

Of course Hollywood producers have always somehow managed to take great creative liberties with the acknowledged classics. Stories of cigar-chomping producers passing on tracts of classic literature so their stable of writers might “give ‘em a polish” are legion. Though Roger Corman’s series of Poe films both successfully and artistically mined the great man’s work for their tortured characters, grim atmosphere and elements of plot, Corman himself rarely offered filmgoers a straight-forward re-telling of any of the doomed author’s fabled tales.

Producer-writer, Robert E. Kent seems to have taken a similar, albeit far less successful, approach with his production of TWICE TOLD TALES. Only segment two of this trilogy film, “Rappaccini’s Daughter” closely resembles Hawthorne’s original story, and even that diverges when at odds with cinematic expectations. In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” a sinister love-triangle between Dr. Carl Heidegger (the corpulent Sebastian Cabot), Alex Medbourne (Price) and the recently revived but still exquisite corpse of Sylvia Ward (Marie Blanchard) is re-engineered as to feature an original - if salacious - back-story. This “Virgin Spring” elixir-of-eternal-youth morality-fable plays out with little fidelity to the original tale.

Original comic book tie-in.

Such creative-license is stretched to the breaking point with the film’s final episode, “The House of the Seven Gables.” This segment bears little resemblance to Hawthorne’s celebrated novel, but it has borrowed elements from the better known – and far more lavish – 1940 Universal film of the same title. The Universal film, perhaps not coincidentally, also featured Vincent Price in a starring role, though this tale, too, strayed far from Hawthorne’s original. Though I recall no physical blood-letting in the Hawthorne novel, in TWICE TOLD TALES the sanguine red fluid pours freely– and mostly unconvincingly, it must be said - from ceilings, walls, portraits, and lockets. The Pyncheon’s family’s metaphorical skeleton-in-the-closet becomes all too real in this rather uninspired re-working.

Part of the film’s original marketing stratagem was the offer of “FREE COFFEE in the lobby to settle your nerves!” One might suggest, with a measure of cynicism, that such brew was a necessary component in helping to keep audiences awake. TWICE TOLD TALES is, to be generous, a very good ninety-minute film. The problem is that the filmmakers stretched this ninety-minute film to an interminable two-hour running time.

This is a “sitting room” or “parlor” film; most of the action (as it is) takes place in mildly claustrophobic confines of small home settings with long stretches of unbroken dialogue. There are very few provocative set-pieces employed over the course of three segments and the most ambitious of these, the deadly and poisonous garden of Dr. Giacomo Rappaccini (Price), is only experienced in sun-soaked broad daylight. This supposedly lethal garden is both terribly over-lit and ill-disguised in its construction (the seams of the faux-grass mats are clearly visible). As such, this potentially visual and cinematic garden of death portends little of its intended menace. If only love-struck suitor Giovanni Guasconti (Brett Halsey) could have encountered the beautiful but lethal Beatrice Rappaccini (Joyce Taylor) in a blue-swathed moonlight setting, the garden’s mysterious atmosphere would have been instantly heightened.

Kent’s too-wordy screenplay suffers occasional patches of purple prose, but it’s serviceable. There are a couple of great moments: Cabot’s toast of the glass prior to his experimental drinking of a fluid that may or may not kill him (“To eternal youth, or just eternity?”). In “Rappaccini’s Daughter” we’re not sure, at first, of who is a prisoner to whom. Is it the estranged daughter to the father, or the father to the daughter? When all is made clear, we can better understand the poisoned daughter’s bitter complaint, “The only difference from being dead is that this house is bigger than a grave.”

TWICE TOLD TALES is no classic, but it’s not unworthy of one’s time. Vincent Price is, as always, brilliant in all three of the villainous roles he inhabits. The supporting cast is mostly great as well, and Kent, unashamedly, brings aboard several of the familiar players who earlier worked with Corman on the Poe series. Director Sidney Salkow was, sadly, no auteur. Though he had been directing and writing films – and bringing them in under or on budget - for both independent and major studios as early as 1936, it’s clear he was most interested in producing a satisfying checkmark in the company’s profit ledger and not terribly concerned with film-as-art. Though Salkow’s films are never less than competent, they’re generally pedestrian and not particularly memorable. As helmsman, Salkow simply possessed none of Corman’s visual-style or displayed any ability to stage an impressive production on a shoestring budget.

To be fair, Corman had advantages. His gothic films were European in design: his settings were of torch-lit gloomy and brooding castles, of misty streets of cobblestone and black twisted tree-limbs. Two of the TWICE TOLD TALES, on the other hand, are set in the non-atmospheric repose of 19^th-century small-town America. With the small exception of a creepy sequence in which a thunder and lightning-storm disturbs a tomb that had been sealed for thirty-eight years (and sits, inexplicably, just to the rear of Dr. Heidegger’s back-door), the dressing that surrounds TWICE TOLD TALES demonstrates little of the macabre ingredients necessary for mounting a successful horror film.

This release from Kino-Lorber Studio Classics presents TWICE TOLD TALES for the first time in the U.S. in a Blu-Ray edition. The film is presented in Technicolor and in its original 1.66:1 ratio. Bonus features include an optional commentary from film scholars Richard Harland Smith and Perry Martin, as well as trailers for the title film as well as Corman’s TALES OF TERROR and BLACK SABBATH. A brief “Trailers from Hell” segment is also included, courtesy of Mick Garris.

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BY HANK REINEKE

Sir Christopher Lee left us in 2015. In doing so he left even his most rabid fans to spend a good portion of their lives trying to track down all of the films he appeared in since 1946. This Kino Lorber Studio Classics Blu-ray release of director Kevin Connor’s Arabian Adventure (1979) will be a welcome one to his many devotees, especially as it sports a transfer superior to the old Televista DVD issued in 2007. This new transfer is colorful and bright, with very few issues of scratches or speckling and with just enough authentic film grain.

Though a near life-long fan of Christopher Lee’s work, I somehow managed to miss this film when on U.S. release in 1979. I vaguely recall a feature cover story on the film in a very early issue of Fangoria magazine but, perhaps since Arabian Adventure was marketed as a “family film,” my then too-cool nineteen year old self chose to skip it. Or maybe my friends weren’t interested in seeing it; or maybe it didn’t play at a theater near me. I simply don’t recall the circumstances. Lee historians Robert W. Pohle and Douglas C. Hart (The Films of Christopher Lee) suggest that the failure of this Arabian Nights-styled fable at the U.S. box office was due to it having been released during the Iranian hostage crisis. Perhaps. Or maybe it was too whimsical and anachronistic a film to usher out the 1970s, a decade of often seamy, violent, and envelope-pushing cinematic tropes.

The film was largely photographed at Pinewood Studios, the fabled home base of the James Bond series. Eagle eyed viewers will catch glimpses of some familiar Pinewood faces, character actors who have contributed to the 007 franchise in small but meaningful ways: veterans Shane Rimmer (You Only Live Twice, Diamonds are Forever, The Spy Who Loved Me) and Milton Reid (of The Spy Who Loved Me and several Amicus Productions). There’s even a youthful appearance of a future ally of agent 007, Art Malik (billed here under his actual first name Athar), “Kamran Shah” from The Living Daylights.

Of the aforementioned three, Reid has the most memorable role as a hulking, intemperate genie tasked in the guarding of the “Sacred Rose of Elil.” Otherwise, the other aforementioned actors share roles barely above cameos. Another connection of this film to the Bond series is the bright and colorful cinematography courtesy of veteran Director of Photography Alan Hume. Hume would go on to be EON’s DOP of the 80s, handling principal photography on three successive Roger Moore-era adventures (For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View to a Kill).

The film also boasts two “Special Guest Appearances” featuring a pair of on-screen personas far more familiar to casual movie-going audiences. The genial Peter Cushing makes two brief appearances in the film, but is sadly underused here, relegated only to a small role and one semi-extended scene as Wazir Al Wuzara, the deposed ruler of Jaddur. More disappointingly to fans of his work in the Hammer Horror film franchise is that Cushing and his frequent on-screen nemesis Lee do not share a single scene.

If it’s any consolation to Cushing’s fans, at least the beloved actor gets a few lines of dialogue. The same cannot be said of the film’s second special guest, Mickey Rooney. The diminutive, aged Rooney has an unusual and wordless role as the Steam-Punk marionette master to a trio of fearsome, fire-breathing, gilded gold steel-plated gargantuan dragons. It’s an amusing scene, but his presence here amounts – again – to little more than a cameo.

BY TIM MCGLYNN

Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (Paramount 1970) introduces the title character, scarred by an acid attack, as she leaves the hospital and rents a dilapidated house in small town Massachusetts. Her roommates are Arthur, an introverted epileptic and Warren, a paraplegic who is also gay. Otto Preminger’s 1970 film, based the novel by Marjorie Kellog, has been missing in action until Olive Films’ Blu-ray and DVD release.

Liza Minnelli stars in this charming story as Junie Moon, physically and emotionally damaged by a horrific encounter with a psychotic lover. Actor-Director Robert Moore (Murder By Decree, The Cheap Detective) is Warren, who will not be limited by his wheelchair in the pursuit of love and happiness. Ken Howard (1776, The White Shadow) is the shy Arthur, who suffers from seizures that seem to be brought on by stress.

After renting a small bungalow from the eccentric Miss Kellog (Kay Thompson), the three set up house and learn to survive by leaning on each other in various times of need. Arthur is offered a job at a local fish market by Mario (James Coco), but is fired when a nosy neighbor claims Arthur is a child molester. Mario, realizing his mistake, befriends the trio and offers them a vacation at a seaside resort.

While on their trip to the ocean Arthur declares his love for Junie, and Warren, much to his surprise, spends the night with a woman. The three are befriended by a local man played by Fred Williamson (Hammer, Black Caesar), who acts as their host. Along the way there are comic encounters with resort guests, hotel clerks and beachcombers. While short on plot, the movie is a wonderful character study concerning the importance of friendship and the overcoming of life’s obstacles.

Junie Moon is a marked departure for the usually bombastic Preminger in that he is more laid back and subtle in his observations of society’s problems and inequities. There are several flashback scenes exploring each character’s history including the use of hallucinations that Arthur experiences before his epileptic attacks.

Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Paramount Home Video: