Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

Limited-Edition 35^th Anniversary Blu-ray^â„¢ Steelbook Arrives June 8, 2021

Blu-ray^â„¢ Steelbooks of Pretty In Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful Also Debut June 8

Writer/director John Hughes’ seminal comedy about a high school student’s wild adventures in the Windy City during a single, glorious day off continues to be enjoyed, quoted and revered 35 years after its theatrical debut.  Originally released on June 11, 1986, FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF captures the uproarious antics of Ferris and his friends as they relish the freedom of being not quite grown up.

In celebration of the film’s 35^th anniversary, Paramount Home Entertainment will release a FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF Limited-Edition Blu-ray Steelbook on June 8, 2021, which includes access to a digital copy of the film, as well as the following legacy bonus content:

·         Getting the Class Together: The Cast of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

·         The Making of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

·         Who is Ferris Bueller?

·         The World According to Ben Stein

·         Vintage Ferris Bueller: The Lost Tapes

·         Class Album

Matthew Broderick stars as the delightfully charming Ferris who, with his girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) and best bud Cameron (Alan Ruck), ditches school to enjoy one perfect day as a kid with no responsibilities.  In 2014, FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF was added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, which serves as a compendium of films that have been judged to be culturally, aesthetically or historically important. 

Two more John Hughes classics will arrive in Blu-ray Steelbooks on June 8: Pretty In Pink, which also celebrates its 35^th anniversary this year, and Some Kind of Wonderful.  Both films were written by Hughes and directed by Howard Deutch.  The Steelbooks include access to digital copies of the films, as well as previously released bonus content.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

BY LEE PFEIFFER

In days of old, there were precious few opportunities to see documentaries about the making of specific films. In 1960, John Wayne hosted "The Spirit of the Alamo", a one-hour publicity special for his epic film. In 1965, the James Bond film "Thunderball" was promoted with a one hour prime time TV special, a strategy that was repeated in 1967 for "You Only Live Twice". However, these were the exceptions. In most cases, "making of" documentaries were short featurettes lasting between five and ten minutes on average. Movie fans would only encounter them by accident. American viewers might catch one of them if a network needed something to fill some time gap, such as a rain delay in a live baseball game. The only way die-hard movie buffs could watch such films on demand required access to a 16mm film projector and the ability to know where to purchase them on the collector's circuit. Things were more liberal in the UK, where a thriving 8mm collector's market made it possible for fans to purchase full length feature films and occasionally production shorts. Today, of course, even the most inconsequential feature films generally have "making of" featurettes included on DVD and Blu-ray releases. If you're a John Wayne fan, you might like to know that buried in the thousands of unpromoted indie titles available for streaming on Amazon Prime is "John Wayne: Behind the Scenes", a mishmash compilation of featurettes pertaining to the Duke's films between 1967 and 1975.The quality ranges from awful to barely acceptable, but that doesn't diminish the pleasure of indulging in the short films.

The compilation isn't a documentary, per se. It's simply a group of individual promotional featurettes strung together without any narration. The shorts included pertain to the following films:

• "The War Wagon" (1967): this rather lengthy featurette covers the making of the fun-filled Western that paired Wayne with Kirk Douglas. It remains one of the Duke's most popular films among fans. The featurette is primarily geared to showing the logistics involved in staging the film's centerpiece fight scene, a big barroom brawl and shows Wayne, Douglas and co-star Howard Keel working with the stunt crew to stage the elaborate scene. The narration is hokey but it does give a good idea of how much work and precise timing goes into filming a major action set piece.
  
• "The Green Berets" (!968): Wayne's propaganda film in support of the Vietnam War was predictably quite controversial in its day but still grossed a sizable sum. Wayne, who starred and directed, is shown overseeing the staging of a major battle scene along with co-stars David Janssen and a young and unidentified George Takei.
  
• "The Undefeated" (!969): is a relatively short featurette in which the movie's plot about a major drive of horse herds to Mexico is narrated by a horse! (Actually, the voice of Chill Wills, who had provided the voice of Francis the Talking Mule in the feature film series.) The movie shows glimpses of Wayne and co-star Rock Hudson, but most of the footage is dedicated to the challenge of working with hundreds of horses. (Stunt legend and future director Hal Needham can be seen in some scenes.)
  
• "Chisum" (!970): John Wayne's first feature film following his Oscar win for "True Grit" is commemorated by a mere TV spot. It isn't a featurette at all, but does open with footage of Wayne at the Academy Awards showing off the Oscar to adoring crowds.
  
• "The Cowboys" (972): One of Wayne's very best films. The featurette is excellent, too, as it shows director Mark Rydell working with trained young actors who didn't know how to ride horses and, conversely, boys who could ride horses but couldn't act!
  
• "Cahill: U.S. Marshall" (1973): One of Wayne's few late career duds, "Cahill" is not generally fondly remembered by his fans. The featurette is unremarkable, as well.
• "McQ" (1974): Wayne made a surprisingly good detective film with this title. Unfortunately, the "Behind the Scenes" relegates coverage of the movie to the theatrical trailer. A pity, since a featurette was made that showed how the film's spectacular car chase on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state was filmed. As a public service, we are presenting the featurette here.
  
• "Brannigan" (1975): Wayne was back in detective mode, co-starring with Richard Attenborough in this fun romp set in London. The lengthy featurette shows Wayne enjoying the sights and sounds of the city and charming the locals. It also interviews Attenborough, who was not an action star, about his trepidation in squaring off against the Duke in a major pub brawl.
  

BY TIM MCGLYNN

The Paramount Presents Series recently released The Golden Child on Blu-ray and it is a beautiful disc to behold even though the movie has a few flaws.

It’s 1986 and Eddie Murphy is riding high on the success of Beverly Hills Cop, 48 Hours and Trading Places and it is time to create another blockbuster for this talented star. What do you do? Well, let’s keep the same formula and feature Murphy as a hip, wisecracking hero who this time finds lost children. Then, throw in a bit of martial arts in the style of John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China and add some Asian mysticism that reminds viewers of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Make sure your lead character displays an anti-authority attitude and even include a humorous scene where he pretends to be a government official flashing a phony badge. Mix it all together and you have 1986’s The Golden Child directed by Michael Ritchie.

Hollywood loves to rehash successful formulas in the hopes that audiences will enjoy seeing the same thing over and over. The Golden Child doesn’t quite make it, however, although the talent is there both in front of and behind the camera. The magnificent Charles Dance is evil Sardo Numpsa who kidnaps a young Buddhist mystic from Nepal known simply as the Golden Child. He also just happens to be the savior of mankind. Sardo wants to channel the special powers the child possesses to advance the Dark Forces and their desire to control of the Earth.

Beautiful Kee Nang(Charlotte Lewis) sees Chandler Jarrell (Murphy) interviewed on a public access television show as a finder of lost children. Charles Levin is hilarious as the 3^rd rate TV host in this scene and is reminiscent of John Candy in Little Shop of Horrors. Kee identifies Jarrell as the Chosen One, the only person who can rescue the Golden Child from the clutches of the evil Sardo. Jarrell initially doubts his choice as the Chosen One, but joins Kee on this mission as he is intrigued by her martial arts skills and attracted to her stunning beauty. Along the way we meet a bumbling high priest played by Victor Wong who helps the pair in their mission, although he doubts they will succeed.

Randall “Tex” Cobb plays a dim but kind-hearted henchman named Til who serves as captor for the Golden Child. Til is easily distracted when his prisoner performs feats of magic in an effort to charm the big oaf. One of these tricks is the bringing to life a discarded Pepsi can in what has to be one the longest, most blatant product placements I’ve ever seen. Cobb was an odd casting choice as an Asian giant, but this was the 80s and Hollywood hadn’t become enlightened as of yet.

Kee and Jarrell do finally rescue the child, but in the process must confront Sardo and all the forces of the Dark World. The Golden Child has the ability to restore life to one who has died, but only as long as the victim is still touched by sunlight. This power becomes necessary during the final battle with Sardo and his minions.

The special effects are outstanding as they are practical and predate the CGI madness of recent films. ILM not only created the Dark World and all the evil creatures doing battle with our heroes, the company served as a producing partner for the film.

The film is bright, colorful and loud which was typical of adventure movies from the 80s. Alan Silvestri and then John Barry were the first two choices as composer but were then replaced by Michael Colombier in an effort to produce a more pop- sounding score. This works well in the Los Angeles settings but seems a bit out of place when the action switches to Nepal. This is a bit disappointing as I am a big fan of the Andrew Powell rock score for Ladyhawke that was produced by Alan Parsons.

It appears that Paramount hedged their bets when test audiences didn’t buy Jarrell as an adventure hero. Murphy was brought back for re-shoots and allowed to improvise some of his dialogue with humor in the style of Alex Foley from Beverly Hills Cop. Being a PG-13 movie, however, there is a lack of the expected profanity. This did not hinder Murphy from dressing down an uptight businessman perusing a porn magazine in one of the funniest scenes. The problem occurs when the finished film doesn’t know which route to take. Not enough humor and a compromised adventure story make this movie kind of a mess. As Archie Bunker once said on All in the Family, ‘Too much of both and not enough of neither.”

Michael Ritchie created a handsome film with first-rate cinematography and special effects. It might have been interesting to see how John Carpenter would have treated this story, as he was the original choice for director. Carpenter went on to helm Big Trouble in Little China instead.

As for the Blu-ray itself, this is one of the first offerings from the Paramount Presents series and it is magnificent. The digital transfer is outstanding with sharp contrast, dense colors and a wonderful 5.1 mix that is a bit heavy on the bass. If this is the quality continues, we’re in for a treat. Extras on the disc include The Making of The Golden Child in HD, The Chosen Ones, Daggers, Design and Demons as well as a theatrical trailer. I personally enjoy the short features on the technical aspects of adventure movies especially when practical effects are used. A commentary track would have been a nice addition, but director Ritchie is sadly no longer with us and Eddie Murphy has all but disowned this movie.

The Golden Child as a whole does have some problems, but individual scenes of action and humor are outstanding. As a gorgeous looking film presented in 1.85, my preferred aspect ratio, it is a great title to show off your video and audio components.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

BY JOHN M. WHALEN 

“Springtime in the Sierras” (1947) is one of Roy Rogers’ better movies. There are three or four great action scenes, half a dozen songs, a solid cast, including the most cold-blooded villainesses to ever show up at a Saturday matinee, and a worthy theme dealing with wildlife protection. Republic Pictures must have splurged on the budget for this one too, just for wardrobe alone. By my count Roy wore a dozen of those colorful western shirts that John McClain said he was so partial to. It’s a very cool movie but it’s a pity that most people have only seen a version of it that has 20 minutes of footage missing. A quarter of the original 75 minute version ended up on the cutting room floor back in the 1950s, when it, along with many other of Rogers’ movies, were sold to television and had to be edited to fit into a one-hour TV broadcast. That’s the bad news. The good news is that there is a full-length version available. It’s not perfect but better than the alternative. We’ll get into the details later.

“Springtime in the Sierras” starts with Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers delivering a herd of horses to Jean Loring (Stephanie Bachelor) the new owner of the Lazy W ranch in the Sierra Nevada country where Roy grew up. Things seem normal at first except for an abandoned fawn that Roy finds wondering in the forest. He takes the fawn to an animal sanctuary run by his old friend, game warden Cap Foster (Harry Cheshire), where he finds the fawn’s mother dying of a gunshot wound. Foster tells him a lot of animals are being killed out of season by a gang of professional hunters who sell the illegal meat at a high profit to big city restaurants and private clubs.

Roy leaves the game warden, who puts Bambi’s mother out of her misery, and goes into town where he meets with old friends, brother and sister Bert (Harold Landon) and Taffy Baker (Jane Frazee). Taffy is gaga over Roy and while Bert seems to be glad to see Roy, there’s a dark cloud of some kind hanging over him. The next day Roy spots a hunter with a high-powered rifle and chases him through the woods. The hunter manages to get away, but Roy suspects, much to his dismay, that it was Bert. A little later, Cap Foster comes upon the gang of hunters, which, as it turns out, includes Bert, and attempts to place them under arrest. Jean Loring, with her vicious sidekick Matt Wilkes (Roy Barcroft), comes up behind Foster and take his gun. Bert is horrified when Jean aims Cap’s pistol at the game warden, saying very casually, “This might hurt a little,” and cold-bloodedly shoots him. For a movie filled with cuddly animals, and cowboy serenades, this, nonchalant burst of brutality comes as a shock. It certainly unnerves Bert, who decides he no longer wants any part of the hunting racket.

Let’s stop the action here and discuss this unusual twist in the screenplay by A. Sloan Nibley, who wrote this and several of Roy’s other flicks. Normally a writer would have had Roy Barcroft, as Jean Loring’s henchman, do the killing. But Nibley and director William Witney give the story a decidedly dark turn by having the femme fatale shoot him herself. And from that point on the story takes a decidedly weird direction, especially when Cookie Bullfincher (Andy Devine), the local photographer, tells Roy that shortly after Loring bought the ranch she had a bunch of refrigeration equipment brought in. Dum-de-dum-dum. Of course I don’t have to tell you that the freezers are used to store the illegal meat and that it won’t be too long before Roy and Bert both end up hogtied and left to turn into popsicles in one of the freezers.

While Roy and Bert freeze, Jean is all smiles hosting a big party for everyone, as a farewell tribute to the late Cap Foster no less. She was a cold one. Obviously Roy isn’t going to freeze to death, and I don’t want to give away the ending, but I will say it involves the use of a large white truck. That’s right a truck. And that’s exactly what makes Roy Rogers’ movies so unique. Up until that scene, which is near the end of the movie, we’ve seen every one riding on horseback, dressed in cowboy outfits in scenes that could have taken place in the 1880s. But now all of a sudden there’s a big 1947 Ford Box Truck in the movie and you know what? We really don’t even notice the incongruity. We’re not jolted by it because Roy Rogers’ movies take place in a world of their own. In a Roy Rogers movie, the horses and stagecoaches of the Old West exist in the same world as modern day airplanes, cars, radios and movies.

Quentin Tarantino, who is a big William Witney and Roy Rogers fan, in an interview once said Sergio Leone’s “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” tops his Top Ten List of great movies, because Leone creates his own world in his films. He said Leone is a combination of “a complete film stylist, where he creates his own world, and storyteller.” The same thing is true in a good Roy Rogers film, especially those directed by Witney. They exist in Roy Rogers’ special world, and it’s a damn cool world.

While the most often seen version of “Springtime in the Sierras” is the 55-minute one, back in 2012 Film Chest released a DVD that it billed as a “restored” version “in its original Trucolor.” At the current time, it’s the only full-length version available, but if you’re expecting to see a Blu-ray quality picture in vivid color and detail, you’ll be disappointed. There’s been no attempt to clean up the DVD, and the result is something about as good as a decent VHS tape. It’s a far cry from Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray restoration of “Sunset in the West,” which has brilliant color and sharp picture detail. What has been “restored” in “Springtime in the Sierras,” apparently, is the film’s original 75-minute length. The DVD has gone out of print but is still available through Amazon and other outlets, and until someone like Kino Lorber, decides to restore it on Blu-Ray, it’s the best version available.

There’s another feature that makes this DVD even more worth checking out. As a bonus feature, there’s a copy of a 1961 Chevy Show, an Easter special starring Roy and Dale Evans, with special guests that include Charley Weaver and a rare live appearance by Martin Milner and George Maharis, the two dudes from the “Route 66” TV series. They actually do a live Chevy commercial—something they never did on “Route 66,” even though Chevrolet sponsored the adventures of the two guys in the Corvette. Maharis, who was trying to launch a singing career at the time, gets to sing “Free and Easy.” It’s a real curiosity. Does anybody do Easter specials anymore?

So there it is—the good the bad and the ugly of “Springtime in the Sierras.” All in all, it’s a DVD worth owning until a truly “restored” version becomes available. Happy Trails.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

(John M. Whalen is the author of "Vampire Siege at Rio Muerto". Click here to order from Amazon.)

Click here for the complete list of nominees and winners from the Oscars.

BY DOUG OSWALD

“WWII: Behind the Front Lines of the War that Shook the World” is a six-DVD set comprising three documentaries released by Mill Creek Entertainment. While the first documentary in the set is about WWII, the second, “Combat Aircrafts,” is a five-part series tracing the history of aviation from the pioneers to modern military aircraft and partially touches on the topic of WWII. The third, “Waves of Freedom,” is a documentary film about American volunteers who helped break the British blockade of Palestine in 1947.

“The Finest Hours of the Second World War” is a 21-part series originally released in 2009 and is a Spanish American co-production from Pacific Media. Written and directed by Jose Delgado, the film footage shot during the war is mostly familiar to those of us who have enjoyed watching similar documentaries over the years. Each episode is about 52-minutes long and was probably designed to fit an hour long time slot. The series begins with events leading up to WWII starting with the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany. Each episode focuses on one aspect of the war and explains in detail the motivations and mistakes behind the memorable moments of World War II in Europe, North Africa and the Pacific.

The series is narrated by Drew Crosby with the original Spanish narrator, Jose Ma del Rio, also credited. Unfortunately, there is not a Spanish language track or subtitles on this set. The narration is presumably translated from Spanish and the English speaking narrator has a distinctive diction. Crosby places the wrong emphasis on the syllables of certain words, such as strategist, which can be distracting and results in what my high school French teacher called spastic speech. Other than that, the research is sound and when combined with the film and maps, makes for a very interesting take on the war.

Unfortunately, the presentation is in full frame and is also letterboxed on top of that, resulting in a small image area and cropped film footage on the top and bottom. Movies in this era used the full frame ratio of 1.33:1. I found it best to leave the picture as is because messing with it to fit a contemporary wide screen monitor contributed to more fuzziness in a product which is not high definition. The image quality is okay and what you’d expect from film of this era going on 80 years. Overall, the picture and sound were fine, but the image area was distracting. Music and sound effects credited to Rosa Perez & Bakery Publishing were also good. In what is often silent film footage, they added the sounds of men, machinery, gun fire and other sounds of war one would expect which brings the film to life. All 21 episodes are presented on four discs with “The Dawn of War” made up of 11 episodes spread over two discs and “The Fight for Freedom” making up the remaining 10 episodes on the next two discs.

The second documentary, “Combat Aircrafts,” is a five-part series on the history of military aviation with two parts devoted to WWII. This documentary series was also produced by Pacific Media and co-written and directed by Jose Delgado in 2010. Each episode is 52 minutes in length and relies on mostly black and white archival footage. The series is narrated by Drew Crosby with the original Spanish narrator, J. Angel Juares, also credited. The narration has the same issues as the previous title starting with the title which is spelled out on screen as “Combat Aircrafts” and pronounced in the narration as “Combat Aircraft.” It would have been helpful if a native English speaker with knowledge of WWII and military aircraft had proof reviewed the product prior to releasing it to the English speakers. I’m not certain where this was originally presented, but my guess is it was sold independently to various cable television and broadcast outlets. Overall, the presentation is good, presented in full frame, this time without letterboxing the image area. Each episode held my interest in spite of the distraction in the pronunciation style of the narration. All five episodes are presented on one disc.

“Waves of Freedom” is a documentary film about Americans recruited to smuggle Jewish refugees into Palestine which was still controlled by the British in 1947. The men were a combination of Merchant Marine and U.S. Navy veterans of WWII of mostly Jewish background who were recruited on a secret mission to bring European Jewish refugees into Palestine which would soon become the nation of Israel. Made for television in 2008, the documentary was written, directed and co-produced by Alan Rosenthal and is narrated by Antony Thomas. The film clocks in at 52 minutes and features excellent picture and sound quality in the full frame presentation which uses a combination of archival black and white footage from the post-war period and contemporary interviews with the men who took part in the mission which are filmed in color. The movie is presented on its own disc.

The discs on this set offer no supplements of any kind. The set is hard to recommend with so many other better offerings on the same topics. The third stand alone documentary, “Waves of Freedom,” is the documentary of greatest interest, but it doesn’t have much to do with the other programs in this set. (This release also includes digital copies.)

CLICK HERE TO ORDER

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Writing on the Den of Geek web site, Kirsten Howard relates how the forthcoming auction of the late actor David Prowse's personal script for "The Empire Strikes Back" demonstrates the length that producer George Lucas went to in order to preserve the legendary surprise ending regarding the relationship between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. While Prowse was hired to physically play Vader, Lucas always intended to have his voice dubbed in the final cut by James Earl Jones. Prowse was unaware of this during filming. The script copy he used did not have the famous shock revelation that Vader was Luke's father. Even Mark Hamill, who played Luke, was unaware of this shocker right up until the pivotal scene was being filmed, though director Irvin Kershner was in on the secret. The scripts had omitted the revelatory line entirely. These tactics caused hard feelings between Prowse and Lucas, as Prowse had felt deceived that it had been decided all along not to use his voice in the final cut. However, few would argue that the gravitas of Jones's instantly recognizable voice added far greater impact to character of Darth Vader. For more, click here. 

When it was released in 1985, director/star Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky IV" was lambasted by critics who griped about the film's abbreviated running time (91 minutes) and Stallone's use of considerable footage from previous movies in the franchise to pad out the production. Still, Sly had the last laugh when fans embraced the Cold War-themed plot and ensured the movie would gross over $700 in today's equivalent if adjusted for inflation. Now Stallone has let it be known that he is finishing his director's cut of the film but is being mum about precisely what changes will be made. Click here for more.

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

Latest Addition to the Paramount Presents Line Debuts June 1, 2021 with New Special Features

The endlessly quotable and unforgettable drama MOMMIE DEAREST celebrates its 40^th anniversary with a brand-new Blu-ray in the Paramount Presents line, debuting June 1, 2021 from Paramount Home Entertainment.

Newly restored from a 4K film transfer, MOMMIE DEAREST is presented in a limited-edition Blu-ray Discâ„¢ with collectible packaging featuring a foldout image of the film’s theatrical poster and an interior spread with key movie moments.  The Blu-ray includes a new Filmmaker Focus with biographer Justin Bozung on the film and its director Frank Perry, a new audio commentary with American drag queen Hedda Lettuce, access to a Digital copy of the film, as well as previously released bonus content.  Special features are detailed below:

·         Commentary by American drag queen Hedda Lettuce –NEW!

·         Filmmaker Focus: Biographer Justin Bozung on director Frank Perry –NEW!

·         Commentary by filmmaker John Waters

·         The Revival of Joan

·         Life with Joan

·         Joan Lives On

·         Photo Gallery

·         Original Theatrical Trailer

Synopsis

Based on Christina Crawford’s controversial best-selling tell-all novel, MOMMMIE DEAREST features a powerhouse performance by Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford, struggling for her career while battling the inner demons of her private life. While the public Crawford was a strong-willed, glamorous object of admiration, behind the scenes is a private Crawford—the woman desperate to be a single mother and trying to survive in a devastating industry that swallows careers thoughtlessly.

About Paramount Presents

This collectible line spans celebrated classics to film-lover favorites, each from the studio’s renowned library.  Every Paramount Presents release features never-before-seen bonus content and exclusive collectible packaging.  Additional titles available in the Paramount Presents collection on Blu-ray include: Fatal Attraction, King Creole, To Catch a Thief, Flashdance, Days of Thunder, Pretty In Pink, Airplane!, Ghost, Roman Holiday, The Haunting, The Golden Child, Trading Places, The Court Jester, Love Story, Elizabethtown, and The Greatest Show on Earth.

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER FROM AMAZON

“SKIP THE JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AND GET RIGHT TO THE SEX”

By Raymond Benson

Kino Lorber and Something Weird Video continue their collaboration to present “Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Picture” with Volume 10—Wages of Sin. Unlike the other exploitation titles that have appeared over the last two years, Wages is not an American picture; instead, it comes from Switzerland and was originally released as a serious drama examining the social problem of illegal abortions and the need to educate the public in birth control, as well as make a case for the legalization of a woman’s right to choose. The original German title translates to, roughly, The Doctor Says… or The Doctor Speaks Out…

However, American producer/director/actor Donn Davison, who at the time was a practitioner in the grindhouse and exploitation film circuit, secured the U.S. rights to the film and released it in 1966 with the salacious title of Wages of Sin. The movie was dubbed into English—although the dubbing actors speak with German accents, so go figure. Davison would appear in a “professional” capacity as a doctor (it is unclear if he really had any medical credentials) to provide a short lecture to the audience and hawk “how-to” sex manuals during intermission. Davison filmed his 15-minute presentation to show at drive-in theaters, where obviously he couldn’t speak in person. (This filmed lecture is included as a supplement on the new Kino Lorber/Something Weird disk, and it is hilarious. He tells us that we “may have seen him on Johnny Carson talking about juvenile delinquency and sexual matters… but tonight he’s going to skip the juvenile delinquency and get right to the sex.”)

These delicious and suitably sleazy pictures in the “Forbidden Fruit” series were made cheaply and outside the Hollywood system, and certainly in this case outside of the U.S. They were distributed independently in the manner of a circus sideshow, often by renting a movie theater for a few nights, advertising in the local papers, and promoting the scandalous title as “educational.” For adults only, mind you, but exhibited all in the good name of science or health or whatever.

Wages of Sin is such a serious and sincere take on the subject matter that it is mind-boggling to think that anyone would be titillated by it. One can imagine trench coat wearing patrons complaining to the theater management afterwards and asking for their money back, because there is absolutely no nudity or sex in the film. Instead, there is real, clinical footage of childbirth, frank talk about birth control, and dramatized depictions of back-alley abortions.

The story concerns well-meaning Dr. Maurer (Tadeusz Lomnicki) and his superior Dr. Diener (René Deltgen) as they deal with several female patients for various maladies regarding pregnancy, botched abortions, and childbirth. Some of the women’s stories end happily, but others are not so fortunate. Maurer is determined to get the illegal abortionists behind bars but also stop the insane law that criminalizes the women who receive the procedure. In short, the film, while melodramatic and a bit stodgy, has an important message that is still relevant today.

And yet, in the U.S., the picture was promoted with sensational taglines such as, “Shocking! Beyond Description!” and “No one under 16 admitted without parents!” Shocking indeed.

At most exhibitions of Wages of Sin, a second feature, The Misery and Fortune of Women (aka Frauennot, Frauenglück) was shown. This picture, from 1929, is also a Swiss production of the same ilk—a serious drama about pregnancy, illegal abortions, and childbirth—that was just as potent in its original year of release as today. In fact, it might be the better movie in the “package.” It was directed by Eduard Tissé, but the picture was “supervised” and co-edited by none other than Sergei Eisenstein (of Battleship Potemkin fame)! One can see Eisenstein’s influence, especially in the close-ups of faces.

The new Kino Lorber Blu-ray presents both features in high-def restorations and they both look remarkably good. Wages of Sin comes with an informative audio commentary by film historian Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, who brings a welcome feminine point of view to the proceedings. Supplements include the previously mentioned Donn Davison “lecture” and two shorts that were sometimes also exhibited with the two main features—Life and Its Secrecies (with clinical footage of various types of childbirth), and Triplets by Cesarean Section (a silent film of the real delivery of triplets). Both the latter short films suffer from poor visual quality, but it doesn’t make them less icky. Trailers from other Forbidden Fruit titles round out the package.

For fans of exploitation pictures, or for those interested in how the subject matter was handled both in 1966 and 1929, the Wages of Sin disk is for you!

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

BY FRED BLOSSER

“Rosebud” (1975), Otto Preminger’s next-to-last film, has been released by Kino Lorber Studio Classics in a 2K Blu-ray restoration. In the political thriller, a terrorist cell kidnaps five teenaged girls from a luxury yacht, the “Rosebud” of the title. The kidnappers are members of Black September, an extremist Palestinian faction -- a reference that would have been better known by audiences then than now. Their reasons for seizing the young women become clearer as they open communications with the girls’ parents, an international power elite of politicians, industrialists, and financiers. Sending along a film of the five young women on the deck of the commandeered yacht, nude and shivering, the terrorists dictate that it be televised as a prelude to a series of demands that will demean Israel and it allies on the global stage. If the demands aren’t met as each is put on the table, the girls will be killed one by one.

Fargeau (Claude Dauphin), the grandfather of one of the hostages, engages Larry Martin (Peter O’Toole), a Newsweek correspondent, to advise on the negotiations. It seems to be an open secret that Martin’s press badge is only a subterfuge. He’s actually a CIA operative. Playfully, Martin neither confirms nor denies involvement with U.S. intelligence as he holds down his desk at Newsweek’s Paris bureau. It’s a little like the movies where James Bond’s cover story as a salesman for Universal Export never fools anyone. Helped by an Israeli Mossad agent, Yafet (Cliff Gorman), and calling on his friends in West German intelligence, Martin begins multi-tasking several challenges at once. It’s a daunting checklist but he takes it in stride, much as the rest of us would balance our weekly chores: Find the teenage hostages, who are being held in an undisclosed bunker. Design and execute a rescue plan. In the meantime, counsel the parents on strategies to buy time as various political hurdles arise. And locate and neutralize the elusive mastermind of the kidnapping, Sloat (Richard Attenborough), a wealthy, radicalized convert to Islam. Because the girls are being held in one-far flung location and Sloat is hiding somewhere else, the job becomes even more complicated.

Critics were primed to savage “Rosebud” when it opened on March 24, 1975, after months of behind-the-scenes cast changes, script revisions, and other production difficulties. They didn’t disappoint. “Incoherent plotting,” “ineptitude,” “Idiotic,” and “flaccid” were some of their kinder comments. Preminger’s stunt casting of former New York Mayor John V. Lindsay came in for particular derision. As a U.S. Senator whose daughter (Kim Cattrall, in her movie debut) is one of the kidnapped girls, Lindsay’s “manner of looking worried is to look elegant,” Vincent Canby joked in his New York Times review. Never mind it’s a relatively small role that required Lindsay to do little more than look elegantly worried anyway. Besides, where would Hollywood be without stunt casting?

Robert Mitchum was originally set to play Larry Martin, but he quit (or was sent packing) after he and Preminger clashed. Enter Peter O’Toole. Probably anticipating that fussy viewers would wonder why a CIA operative looks and sounds British, the script pointedly calls Martin a “mercenary.” The implication is that he’s a freelancer on retainer, not technically a CIA employee of U.S. citizenship.

Rumpled and unruffled, O’Toole delivers a sharp performance that’s nicely counterbalanced by Attenborough’s icy turn as the fanatical Sloat and Gorman’s as the intense Israeli agent. The cover of the KL Studio Classics Blu-ray reproduces the original poster artwork of assault rifles, machine guns, and nudity. The collage promises a strong dose of exploitative action, but the script by Erik Lee Preminger and Marjorie Kellogg is primarily a meticulous, gather-the-clues espionage drama. It’s more John Le Carre than “Die Hard.” Martin and his associates are too busy sifting through aerial photographs, geologic charts, and eyewitness statements to provoke any premature shootouts with their adversaries. Once they have the evidence they need, they decide that their objectives -- rescuing the kidnapped girls and apprehending the mastermind -- are better accomplished using subtlety, not large-scale confrontation. The critics called it boring, but the scenes move at a nice pace, and fans who favor movie brains over brawn will be pleased.

There’s also less nudity than the art suggests, at least in the U.S. version offered in the KL Studio Classics print, where the girls are briefly shown from the back as they’re herded on deck to be filmed. Reportedly, an alternative print for other markets depicted full-frontal nudity. It isn’t likely that, today, in the #MeToo era, filmmakers would enact a similar scenario about victimized young women, nudity or not. Sadly, other things haven’t changed in the past 46 years, except for the worse, as Middle Eastern conflicts continue to take a dreadful human toll.

The handsome Kino Lorber disc of “Rosebud” may inspire home video enthusiasts to visit Preminger’s late-career film and reappraise its virtues and shortcomings for themselves. Special features include the theatrical trailer and a full, informative audio commentary by filmmaker/historian Daniel Kremer.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

(Fred Blosser is the author of "Sons of Ringo: The Great Spaghetti Western Heroes". Click here to order from Amazon)

Most people think of Audrey Hepburn as the epitome of Hollywood glamour. But as a young girl, she came of age during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.The famous star said little about her experiences between the time in which her country was occupied and its ultimate liberation by Canadian troops. Reporting in Den of Geek, David Crow examines the dramatic secret life of Hepburn during the war years. It may well surprise you. Click here to read.

James Dean at his best in "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955). Curiously, he's sharing the scene with two future TV icons: Jim Backus, excellent as his milquetoast father and Edward Platt, who would go on to be a great comedy star in "Get Smart".

BY LEE PFEIFFER

"The High Cost of Loving" is yet another worthy film that has been plucked from obscurity by the Warner Archive. The 1958 comedy offered a rare starring role to Jose Ferrer as well as an opportunity for him to direct a feature film. Ferrer plays Jim Fry, a 15 year veteran of working diligently in the purchasing department for a mid-size company. He is frustrated with the corporate red tape that inhibits productivity but is overall happy in his work as well as with his home life. Why not? He's in his late 40's and his wife Ginny (Gena Rowlands in her big screen debut) is a ravishing blonde beauty twenty years younger than him (though the poster for the film simply ignores this and refers to them as the "young couple".) The film opens on an amusing note that will be familiar to many working couples. We see Jim and Ginny go through their morning workday rituals in an almost robotic fashion, barely saying a word to each other as they each perform their unspoken duties. He gets breakfast ready, she serves him orange juice in the shower. They both sit silently at the table, each taking a quick read of sections from the newspaper. They both climb into their vehicles and pull out of the garage in tandem before, each en route to their jobs. Ginny, against the fashion of the day, has her own career working at a small company. Jim still considers himself a rising star in his own company, a conceit that is reinforced by the news that his employer is being taken over by a much larger corporation. Warned that this often results in layoffs, Jim feels he is immune. He also isn't sympathetic to those who might lose their jobs, attributing it to social Darwinism and "the law of the jungle". 

Jim's smug attitude goes into a nosedive when he discovers that virtually all of his fellow executives have been summoned to a forthcoming luncheon as a get-acquainted meeting with the new brass. The problem is that he didn't receive the invitation. Assuming it must have been a mistake, he pretends he did receive it and joins in all the backslapping among his colleagues who view this as a way to make a good impression on the new bosses and rise the corporate ladder. As the days pass, it becomes apparent an invitation isn't in the cards for him. His concern turns to paranoia as he tries to analyze why all his years of devoted service have resulted in him being bypassed. He becomes obsessed to the point that he barely acknowledges Ginny's news that she is pregnant, something that both have been hoping for quite some time. (Although the film hints at sexual activity, the prudish norms of the time in the film industry relegates both husband and wife to separate beds.)  To bolster his spirits, Jim's best friend from the office, Steve Heyward (Bobby Troupe) arranges for he and his wife Syd (Joanne Gilbert) to go to dinner with Jim and Ginny. However, the evening is ruined by Syd's incessant chatter about the importance of the corporate luncheon, which she doesn't realize Jim has not been invited to. The script plays out predictably with Jim interpreting every action (or inaction) of his new bosses as a sign that he is about to be fired. He looks up an old business contact in hopes of getting a new job but not only are there none open, but he is warned that in terms of his age, he might be considered "over the hill" in the corporate world. Now enraged, Jim plans to have a showdown with the brass and tell him what he thinks of them, unaware that his snub from the luncheon was due to a bureaucratic mistake that they intend to rectify. 

"The High Cost of Loving" is a modest production shot in B&W on a fairly low budget (most of the scenes are studio interiors). However, the movie signifies that paranoia about one's place in their jobs is not a new phenomenon and that discrimination based on age in the corporate world is also a long-standing concern. There is also plenty of sexism that never gets addressed. When she announces she is pregnant, Jim orders Ginny to quit her job ASAP. The corporate world is made up entirely of men in management positions and bosses refer to keeping an eye out for good "men" they can promote. All of the women in the office are clearly in secretarial positions. Ferrer gives a wonderful performance (did he ever not?) and has a deft hand at the comedic elements of the script. He never allows the characters to depend on slapstick or one-liners to get a quick laugh. They all talk the way real people would in the circumstances. There is also a great deal of pathos involved as Jim comes to a life lesson that no one should define the worth of their character  on the basis of a specific job. The film boasts a wonderful supporting cast with Rowlands displaying the star qualities that would serve her well in the years to come. There are also some fun appearances by TV sitcom stars of the future including Jim Backus ("Gilligan's Island"), Werner Klemperer ("Hogan's Heroes"), Edward Platt ("Get Smart") and uncredited appearances by Nancy Kulp ("The Beverly Hillbillies") and Richard Deacon ("The Dick Van Dyke Show" and the only character in the film allowed to go a bit over the top.)

The film is not only delightful but unexpectedly poignant. The DVD includes the original trailer.  

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM THE CINEMA RETRO MOVIE STORE

Cinema Retro continues to shine the spotlight on independent films of merit. 

BY GIACOMO SELLONI

Written by Lucie Borleteau, Clara Bourreau, and Mathilde Boisseleau

Directed by Lucie Borleteau

In French and English with English subtitles.

Alice Lesage is a woman with her life in flux. We first meet her, swimming nude, on a secluded, rocky beach watched by her lover and fiancé. She is approaching thirty and engaged to Felix Bjornsen, a Norwegian cartoonist. She seems happy and at ease. But Alice has a strange occupation for a woman. She is an engineer on a freighter charged with keeping the ship's engines healthy. She's a very good one. But she is a lovely young woman, the only woman on a new assignment on a ship that's new to her, the Fidelio. It may be the name of the ship but it may also be viewed as an omen, Fidelio is eerily similar to the French word "fidèle," which translates into English as "faithful."

She boards the ship only to find the captain is, Gaël Levasseur, her first love. Even in her dirty, blue, grease-stained overalls, she is an appealing woman. Her competency at her job (she is the second engineer) just makes her moreso. Can a young woman, with a woman's heart, desires and longings who will be away from home and Felix for three months, visiting many ports remain faithful?

Ariane Labed is charming as Alice. Melvil Poupaud as Captain Levasseur strikes all the right notes as her temptaion on the ship. Watching them dance around their feelings is intoxicating. When the obvious happens and Felix discovers it, their relationship seems doomed. Anders Danielsen Lie as Felix, is superbly understated as a man in pain from being cuckolded. When home with her family and Felix she receives a new, unexpected offer. The first engineer of the ship has passed away and the position is offered to her.Originally released in 2014 Fidelio, Alice's Odyssey won a number of film festival awards for Lebed and Lucie Borleteau. Well deserved for both. I found the film compelling and the lack of a resolution made me want more of the triangle.

Warning. There are sexual situations and full frontal nudity (both sexes) in the film.

The film rated 82% on Rotten Tomatoes and is available on ITunes and OVID.tv.

BY HANK REINEKE

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from half-a century or more of watching Hollywood films, it’s this; the distant future is no place in time I wish to visit. This pandemic of 2020-2021 aside, the future Tinsel Town promises is made up of things far worse: robots gone crazy, desolate landscapes, warring hordes of mutants and an assortment of post-nuclear zombies running amuck. And that’s not to mention, of course, the bland and unfashionable unisex leotards we’ll all be expected to wear as uniforms. So I stand firm in this conviction and, truth be told, Ib Melchior’s The Time Travelers (American International Pictures, 1964) does little to convince me that I’m wrong.

Melchior’s story is OK. A laboratory accident allows a team of scientists to be catapulted from 5 July 1964 to one hundred and seven years in the future. This event is the result of an overzealous technician pushing the already overloaded circuit board to maximum power. In doing so, the fuses spark and give out. This turn of events is unfortunate as it allows a free floating, collapsible portal to suddenly appear. If you are stupid enough to walk through the portal… Well, it’s a one-way trip. Once entered, the awkwardly hanging portal does not allow anyone to return to the humdrum existences of the present day. This, we’re told, is due to the presence of a circular electrically-charged force field barrier that prevents such return.

The scientists soon learn that the desolate, bleak and rocky landscape they’re walking through is planet Earth. The only difference is that it’s now the year 2071 and Earth is dying, the remnants of mankind huddled together for their own safety. We’re told that this unfortunate situation was caused by “man’s own folly,” and the spliced-in stock footage of atomic-bomb blasts pretty much explain how the handful of remaining humans found themselves in their present situation. The survivors have spent most of their time living in subterranean caves. They pass the time by fighting off radiation-scarred mutants who continually try to gain entrance to their shelters so they can rip them to pieces.

Actually, they do little of the fighting themselves. To defend themselves from the mutant-barbarians, the survivors have engineered a race of androids with inverted football-shaped heads to battle it out for them. Sure, they might have committed themselves to take up arms in their own defense. But they’ve been pre-occupied with other matters. They’re building a big starship that – if all goes well – will jettison all of them - sans-mutants - to another solar system and the planet of Alpha Centauri. They reckon it will be a long flight, but Alpha Centauri is the best they can hope for, gas being the price it is. It’s the only other planet – that they’re aware of, at least - that can sustain human-life due to its Earth-like atmosphere.

The problem is one less altruistic and self-serving member of the survivor community is convinced that the starship - as presently designed - will be unable to handle the additional weight of the four time travelers who arrived at an inopportune time due to a stumble through a time portal. So he has plans to leave behind the new and uninvited visitors from 1964 to fend for themselves.

I like bad vintage sci-fi as much as the next guy, but The Time Travelers isn’t a particularly riveting film. Even with a running time of some eighty-four minutes the film seems much longer. You’ll likely be hitting the “Pause” button a few times for a run to the kitchen for a hot snack or a cold beverage. Unless you’re on a strict diet, of course, whereupon you will be glancing incessantly at a clock while pondering if the minute hand is broken. Time seems to be passing by much too slowly. On the surface, The Time Travelers seems a late starter to the glory days of Silver-Age 1950’s sci-fi which – all things considered – should be a good thing. Except in this case it’s not.

Melchior’s screenplay is, at best, workmanlike and the film’s direction is pretty listless (His co-written script for another 1964 film, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, in far more intriguing). The camera of Director of Photography William Zsigmond frustratingly lingers over long-shots of protracted length as people and mutants lumber through the desolate stone canyons of Barstow, California. No one could ever confuse the editing of Hal Dennis to be hyper-kinetic since the completed film’s pacing is, to put it mildly, pretty sluggish throughout. Out of curiosity – and a guilty sense that my own opinion of Melchior’s film might be overly harsh and unfair - I decided to look up the original November 1964 Daily Variety review of the film. I have to say, I can find no fault or hold an opinion contrary to that journal’s own critic: “David Hewitt’s effects are stagey and William Zsigmond’s camera work and Hal Dennis’ editing is so-so.” (Zsigmond would ultimately redeem himself and go on to become a legend in his field.)

There are far too many moments in this film where we wish – and wait – for anything interesting to happen. Melchior’s screenplay, from a story by David Hewitt and himself, is ponderous and predictable. There is a sense that the story might evolve into something when a non-mutant survivor of the nuclear holocaust tries to find refuge in the caves with his brethren. Instead of being welcomed and rescued, he is turned away due to a suspicion of “outsiders” and plain ol’ human selfishness. But this sub-scenario examination of the failures of human empathy and compassion passes by without much fuss or notice.

On the plus side, Melchior’s film may have inspired a couple of future filmmakers to more fully develop ideas proposed here for their own films and TV series. Sexual pleasure in 2071 comes courtesy of a partner-less “Love Machine” that allows survivors who – due to the present lack of resources - need to suppress their emotional and sexual desires until they all land on Alpha Centauri. In the meantime, they can get their rocks off in a more mechanical way, without the messiness or warmth of a human partner. Could this have been the genesis of Woody Allen’s “Orgasmatron” in Sleeper?

And while the tech-minded survivors have not been able to construct a starship capable of handling an extra six-hundred pounds of human cargo, they have succeeded in building a neat matter transporter. This transporter would precede that of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek series by a couple of years. Melchior’s transporter is less dynamic in presentation, making subjects lie sown in a supine position ala a rotisserie chicken, before being whisked away to… Well, to wherever, but mostly not all that far from the place they began.

BY TODD GARBARINI

Film director Richard Rush, perhaps best known for his unorthodox and original 1980 film The Stunt Man, passed away in Los Angeles, CA on Thursday, April 8, 2021 just one week shy of what would have been his 92^nd birthday following years of health issues. He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Claude (née Claude Cuveraux); his son, Anthony; and his grandson, Shayne.

Mr. Rush was born on Monday, April 15, 1929 in New York City and broke into the film industry through the UCLA film program and later worked for producer and director Roger Corman as the co-writer and director of Too Soon to Love (1960), alternatively titled High School Honeymoon, about high school sweethearts who go all the way and the girl ends up pregnant. This was heady subject matter for the time and Jack Nicholson has a small role in the film. Of Love and Desire (1963), a sexually charged film, followed. Hells Angels on Wheels (1967) had Jack Nicholson as part of a motorcycle gang, and Thunder Alley (1967) starred Annette Funicello and Fabian. Another teen, heartthrob Tab Hunter, starred in The Cups of San Sebastien (1967) as a religious artifact thief. A Man Called Dagger (1968) featured Terry Moore in a film about a scientist’s attempts to revive the Third Reich. Psych-Out (1968) was a far-out psychedelic trip about a hearing-impaired runaway searching for her brother in San Francisco, with Jack Nicholson again along for the ride.

Mr. Rush ended the Sixties with crazy bikers in The Savage Seven (1968) and began the Seventies with the counter-culture film Getting Straight (1970), a comedy-drama with Elliott Gould and Candice Bergen. 1974’s Freebie and the Bean pitted Alan Arkin and James Caan against crime as cops, one of the earliest buddy/cop films, but it was his ambitious film interpretation of Paul Brodeur’s 1970 novel of the same name that captivated filmgoers. Years in the making and the victim of a poor advertising campaign and minimal distribution, The Stunt Man pits an escaped convict named Cameron (Steve Railsback) into the middle of an action sequence that is actually the set of a war movie, unexpectedly causing the death of the stunt man of the film within the film. The director, Eli Cross (Peter O’Toole), then puts Cameron in the film, specifically in all sorts of dangerous situations, in order to get truth onscreen. Cross’s manipulation of Nina Franklin (Barbara Hershey) is exceptionally cruel. The film is a litmus test for audiences as we have to keep track of what is real and what is in the reel – reality as opposed to the movie-within-the-movie. I see the film as a challenge and it’s a rewarding experience.

Mr. Rush was a true maverick director and was nominated for both a co-writing and directing Academy Award, as was Mr. O’Toole for his performance of the out-of-control director. Despite not getting the wide audience that it deserved, The Stunt Man lives on in the world of home video.

Mr. Rush’s last film was Color of Night with Bruce Willis and Jane March in 1994.

BY TODD GARBARINI

I love home video. It has introduced me to the films that have been held near and dear to me in a far more intimate way than broadcast television ever could. The first home video system that I ever owned was the RCA SelectaVision Capacitance Electronic Disc system, a $500M failure that nearly bankrupted its creator, RCA, just five years after its inauspicious introduction in March 1981, Following 17 years of research and development hell, it proved to be a technological also-ran even before it left the gate. Star Wars (1977) and Poltergeist (1982) were the first two films that I owned on a caddie-enclosed 12-inch capacitive disc that were played over and over again during the spring and summer of 1983. These were not just movies that I saw, these were movies that I owned. They were mine and they became a part of my identity.

I came of age during the video store rental era. I broke my VHS rental cherry by illegally duplicating the only store copy of Media Home Entertainment’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) on Independence Day in 1985 from a local drug store’s video department. I did this even before I owned a VCR and before the anti-copying encoding scheme called Macrovision infiltrated pre-recorded tapes, forcing me to finagle work-arounds. Like so many towns in the surrounding areas, video stores proliferated with their original scent resulting from a mixture of the new carpet and the video boxes that adorned the aisles and shelves. Despite the eclectic assortment of titles, each store was severely limited in terms of the sheer number of VHS titles that they carried. One store actually rented Beta cassettes!

In December 1988, a new and exceptionally large video store with blue and yellow lettering appeared three miles from my house. It was called Blockbuster Video and it offered movies I never knew even made it to home video. I managed to see Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960), Brian DePalma’s Sisters (1973), Ulu Grosbard’s Straight Time (1978), and James Toback’s Fingers (1978) all from this one store. I was in heaven! The glaring absence of adult titles was curious since all the local stores had them, even the corporate chains like Palmer Video and later on Easy Video. Porn was most definitely a lucrative part of a store’s weekend intake, but the religious-owned Blockbuster spurned such fare in favor of unrated violent gorefests like Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985) and Bad Taste (1986). Little by little, however, Blockbusters started to show up in neighboring towns sporting multiple key differentiators: having upwards of 25 VHS copies of the newest releases on hand whereas local stores generally only had one copy in stock; allowing renters to keep movies for three days and two nights as opposed to two days and one night; and allowing renters to return the tape to a store after hours through a drop box.

Once VHS was supplanted by DVD as the primary method of home video viewing, Blockbuster was forced to change as well and after having pushed out many of the local rental shops into bankruptcy, Blockbuster found itself up against Netflix, a company that Blockbuster was offered to purchase for $50M - but simply did not have the capital to do so. It is this event (misunderstood by lay people as Blockbuster simply not wanting to buy Netflix), coupled with poor management and the elimination of late fees, that sounded the death knell for the ubiquitous company that at one time had over 9,000 locations. The Last Blockbuster, a 2020 documentary produced by Netflix ironically enough (ouch!), directed by Taylor Morden and narrated by Lauren Lapkus, attempts to both chronicle the rise and fall of one of the most well-known companies in the United States and answer the questions as to why the company ultimately failed. The film succeeds for the most part, but my favorite sections of the film are people reminiscing about renting tangible cassettes and DVDs.

The title itself refers to the last single remaining Blockbuster Video located at 211 NE Revere Avenue in the town of Bend, Oregon, about three-and-a-half hours southeast of Portland. It is still a functioning video rental store, run by the Harding Family. It began life in 1992 by Ken and Debbie Tisher who opened it as Pacific Video until it was franchised and rebranded Blockbuster Video in eight years later. Today, the store finds itself in the same dilemma that it put so many local stores into decades ago – either soldier on or fold. Sandi Harding has worked for the company for over 15 years and pretty much takes care of the entire store. The film depicts her coming in early, checking back in the titles left in the drop box, and disclosing what it takes to keep a store like this in business. She keeps a collection of old computers salvaged from long shuttered Blockbusters in an attempt to keep the database and methods of renting titles up-to-date and running.

The film is not focused on just this last remaining store but rather bemoans the lost art of getting in one’s car and going to the video store to peruse the aisles and pick out something to watch on the weekend. Hanging out with the person behind the checkout counter on slow evenings to talk about movies is another casualty in the time of the Internet and movies at our fingertips. Among the other personalities interviewed in the film are Kevin Smith, Ione Skye, Brian Posehn, Doug Benson, Paul Scheer, and Samm Levine.

As with any disruptive technology, the previous methods of watching movies are invariably swept away and forgotten by the masses. However there is always a small and significant percentage of people who recall with fondness the halcyon days of renting movies from a store. Watching The Last Blockbuster, it becomes clear that video stores were my generation’s equivalent of a drive-in.

Passion River's DVD/Blu-ray package of the film contains an assortment of extras:

The film’s original trailer.

Eddie Brandt’s Saturday Matinee – This is a four-and-a-half-minute piece about a video store that opened in Los Angeles in December 1968 as a thrift store and over the next few decades amassed an enormous collection of tapes and discs. COVID-19 forced this store to temporarily close in May 2020 as they were looking for a new venue.

More with Kevin Smith – Director Kevin Smith is the most fun to listen to, as he really has a true love of movies. His explanation of working as a video store clerk and wanting to do that for the rest of his life is heartfelt and honest. He talks about renting Bloodsucking Freaks, a movie that I have heard of but still have not seen despite growing up with sick friends who loved the 1980 film Mother’s Day. This bit runs six minutes.

Talkin’ Movies with David McAbee – Just over two minutes, this is another movie fan who explains the joys of buying tangible product. I completely agree!

JC from Scum and Villainy – This bit is about two-and-a-half-minutes and echoes similar cineaste sentiments.

Andres The Last Blockbuster Music Video – Under three minutes, this is a clever song about renting movies.

Our Chat with Coach Pete – This piece runs under one minute and discusses the love of renting. I wish that these pieces were longer!

MTV’s Matt Pinfield – This runs about three-and-a-half minutes – I share Matt’s love of going to the record stores and video stores, talking with fellow music lovers and movie lovers, and having other people recommend titles I would not have normally gone for.

Wordburglar “Rental Patient” Music Video – At four minutes, this is a clever song about renting movies.

Ska-Punk show at Costa Mesa, CA Blockbuster Video – This is something that I think you had to be there in order to appreciate it.

The Last Blockbuster is a loving tribute to the extraordinary experience of renting and watching movies. It will not win the Academy Award for Best Documentary, but it belongs in every movie lover’s collection.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

BY LEE PFEIFFER

If you're among the very few who were impressed by John Wayne's performance as Genghis Khan in "The Conqueror", you'll be delighted to know that the obscure 1978 film "The Norseman" has been released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber in collaboration with Scorpion and it affords an abundance of delights that range from similar historical inaccuracies along with the inventive casting of a leading man in what would appear to be a highly inappropriate role. We speak of Lee Majors- yes, that Lee Majors- who had been enjoying considerable success on the small screen as "The Six-Million Dollar Man". Now, Majors wouldn't be the first actor to come to mind to star in a film about Vikings, but, hey, if you accepted the Duke as Genghis Khan, you'll have no problem with Majors in this particular role. Like many actors who found fame and fortune on the small screen, Majors obviously wished to expand his influence to the silver screen. After all, Tony Curtis had been overcoming being severely miscast for many years and made favorable impressions in "Spartacus" and- wait for it!- "The Vikings", playing heroic slaves in both films despite his undisguised New Yawk accent. Majors, a native of Michigan, attempts the same feat here, but alas, with less successful results. He plays Thorvald (presumably no relation to the Marvel Comics hero Thor, but you get the drift), a deadly earnest Viking warrior who is on a mission of rescue and revenge. Seems his father, King Eurich (Mel Ferrer,) set sail to seek out new lands for conquest and he and his crew haven't been heard from since. Thus,Thorvald and his crew attempt to retrace his route in hopes of finding and rescuing him. When they finally reach their destination, you may be perplexed as to why it looks a great deal like Florida. That's because the film was shot in Florida, despite the fact that Vikings didn't get within thousands of miles of the future Disney World. They are instantly attacked by an Indian tribe, which leads to one of the dullest action scenes in memory. Turns out ol' King Eurich and his not-so-merry men have been held captive by the particularly cruel chief of the tribe, who has systematically blinded them and forced them to work as slaves. With the help of a vivacious tribal maiden (are there any other kind in movies of this type?), Thorvald locates his dad and constructs a "Mission: Impossible"-type plan to free him and escape.

The film was written, produced and directed by Charles B. Pierce, who had gained a good deal of credence through his atmospheric 1972 cult horror films "The Legend of Boggy Creek" and "The Town That Dreaded Sundown", both of which proved to be extremely successful for low-budget independent films. This time around, however, Pierce eschewed the horror film genre that had served him well in favor or making a horrible film, albeit one with plenty of camp appeal and an abundance of unintended knee-slapping dialogue. The first problem is that the viewer can't avoid being distracted by the sight of Vikings cavorting through Floridian terrain. The second problem is Majors in the lead role. As with Duke Wayne's Genghis Khan, he makes no effort to affect an exotic accent and delivers the dialogue in his normal Midwestern accent in a bored, somnambulatory manner, as though he began to have second thoughts about starring in the film the moment the cameras started turning. Among the other victims is the esteemed Cornell Wilde, a fine actor and director, who is reduced to playing Majors' right-hand Viking and shouting out innocuous orders to the crew. Mel Ferrer is made up in a long white wig and beard that seems to be channeling Christopher Lee's future appearances in "The Lord of the Rings" films. Director Charles Pierce cast his son Chuck as Majors' teenage brother, through whose eyes the tale is told. Debutante actress Susie Coelhoe is the helpful maiden Winetta, who gets to dash through the Florida swamps in a sexy one-piece number that seems to be the Viking era equivalent of the mini-skirt centuries before the design was ripped off by those rogues on Carnaby Street. Contemporary American football star Deacon Jones of the Los Angeles Rams doesn't escape unscathed, either. He's bizarrely cast in a nondescript role that includes a single line of dialogue, which unfortunately doesn't explain how his character became history's only African-American Viking. Rounding out the hodgepodge of veteran and novice actors is Jack Elam (!) as a wizened Viking prophet who is shrouded in a hood so that, we are told, his face can never be seen (despite the fact that his face is plainly visible throughout the film.) It should be noted that many of the Viking characters are attired in horned headgear, which actual Vikings did not wear. It seems that director Pierce's historical research didn't extend beyond Hagar the Horrible comic strips. The best news for Lee Majors was that the film never hurt his career, probably because so few people saw it. He went on to star in another hit TV series, "The Fall Guy" with his reputation unscathed.

Although one can be sarcastic about wacky movies such as "The Norseman", it must be said that it's a good thing that companies such as Kino Lorber and Scorpion devote time, energy and resources to keep them in circulation. Even bad films don't deserve the dignity of falling into oblivion and this one is fun to watch, even if for all the wrong reasons. The Blu-ray features a very nice transfer with the trailer and a trailer gallery of other Scorpion releases as the only extras.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

An underrated gem from 1970 is director Martin Ritt's "The Molly Maguires" which told the story of oppressed Irish coal miners in Pennsylvania and how they launched a violent resistance campaign in the quest for gaining livable wages and working conditions. The film was a major flop despite the presence of stars Sean Connery and Richard Harris but time has been kind to Ritt's thoughtful and engrossing film and its moral issues still resonate today.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER DVD FROM AMAZON

BY EVE GOLDBERG

The Hustler (1961) is a gritty, unsettling drama set in the seedy underbelly of the American Dream. Produced, directed, and co-written by Robert Rossen, and starring Paul Newman in one of his best performances, the film is a hard-edged gem in which all the elements—writing, directing, acting, cinematography, set design, editing, and music—are superb, and all the players are at the top of their game.

On the Page — Origins

The Hustler began as a short story, “The Best in the Country,” written by Walter Tevis and published in Esquire in 1953. Tevis drew from his own experiences as a pool hustler knocking around the dingy bars and pool halls of Lexington, Kentucky. Later, he expanded the story into a novel—The Hustler—published in 1959.

The book centers around Eddie Felson, a small-time pool hustler with dreams of beating the best player in the country, Minnesota Fats. He challenges Fats to a pool match and loses, then dumps his longtime friend and manager, Charlie. In a desolate bus station he meets Sarah, a crippled, alcoholic woman. Eddie and Sarah begin a relationship, but it’s clear that she wants more from him than he wants to give. He also encounters Bert, a gambler who recognizes Eddie’s talent, but calls him a “born loser.” Bert offers to manage Eddie, teach him how to become a winner, and stake him to a big-time pool hustle. Eddie turns down the deal because Bert’s percentage of his winnings would be too high. Desperate for money, he goes to a bar in a rough area of town to make some money hustling pool, but gets his thumbs broken by some guys who don’t like being hustled. As Sarah nurses him back to heath, their relationship deepens. After Eddie recovers, he accepts Bert’s offer and they head out to the Kentucky Derby where he successfully hustles a rich southern billiards player. He then beats Minnesota Fats in a re-match. At the end of the book, Eddie’s fate is left in limbo: Will he continue his relationship with Sarah? Or will his life be loveless like Bert’s, dedicated only to winning at any cost?

Tevis’s novel was a popular success…and Hollywood came calling. The property made its way around the movie industry; at one point Frank Sinatra was attached, but that deal eventually dissolved. Then writer/director Robert Rossen optioned the book.

Robert Rossen — Regret and Redemption

Robert Rossen had a lot to prove. His life, and especially his relationship to Hollywood, was complex and troubled.

Rossen was raised on New York’s Lower Eastside, the son of impoverished Russian-Jewish immigrants. As a youth, he hustled pool and pinochle to get by. Eventually, he attended college and became involved with radical-left theater during the Depression of the 1930s. Like thousand of other artists and progressives at that time, he also joined the Communist Party.

Rossen broke into the movie business as a writer. Under contract to Warner Brothers, his screenplays, including Marked Woman and Dust Be My Destiny, were about tough characters in a tough world. His depictions of gangsters, slums, and political corruption were hard-hitting and street-wise, epitomizing the socially conscious Warner Brothers’ style of the 1930s and 40s.

When the U.S. entered World War II, Rossen helped mobilize Hollywood to assist in the war effort and fight against the Nazis. After the war, he joined a picket line in front of Warner Brothers Studio where laborers in the Conference of Studio Workers were striking. His relationship with Warner’s was over. But his directing career, and the gut-wrenching ethical dilemma that would shape the rest of his life and career, was about to begin.

In 1947, the U.S. Congressional House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), subpoenaed 19 Hollywood writers, directors and producers, to testify about their political affiliations, including their involvement in the Communist Party. Robert Rossen was among them. The first ten to testify, including screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, stood on their First Amendment right to freedom of association, and refused to answer the Committee’s questions. All ten were sent to prison for Contempt of Congress. They became known as The Hollywood 10. The eleventh person called to testify was world-renowned poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht. Brecht sparred with the Committee during a morning session, then boarded a plane for Europe never to return to the United States again.

Hollywood luminaries, including Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, and Lauren Bacall, rallied in support of the Hollywood Ten. The HUAC hearings became a media circus, and the Committee decided not to call the remaining eight to testify. Robert Rossen went home.

The Hollywood 10, plus several hundred others named as “subversives,” were blacklisted out of the entertainment industry. Careers and lives were ruined. For the moment, Rossen was spared. Right before the HUAC hearings, he had directed the noirish boxing drama, Body and Soul. Now he went on to direct All the King’s Men about corrupt Louisiana political boss, Huey Long. The movie won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1949. By this time, Rossen had left the U.S. Communist Party, unhappy with its connection to the repression and terror of Stalin’s Soviet Union. But HUAC had not finished its work. In 1951, Rossen was again subpoenaed to testify. He was questioned not only about his own political affiliations, but was also asked to “name names”—to snitch out other people. He refused to name names and was blacklisted. His career came to a screeching halt.

Two years later, Rossen was once again called to testify before HUAC. This time his desire to work trumped his desire to do what he knew was right. He cooperated with the Committee, naming 57 people as Communists. Thanks to his cooperation with HUAC, Rossen revived his career. But he spent the rest of his life justifying, defending, and being eaten up inside by his decision to name names.

The Hustler is one of only a handful of movies Rossen made following his HUAC testimony. In it, he explores the themes closest to his heart—and his heartache: the corrupting forces of capitalist society; human weakness; the emotional cost of selling out.

While Rossen’s screenplay for The Hustler remains essentially true to the novel’s plot and themes, one major change darkens the mood, and drills down into its ultimate meaning: In the movie, Sarah kills herself. Anguished by Bert’s cruelty towards her, her self-destructive impulses win out. Right before her suicide, she writes in lipstick on a bathroom wall: Twisted Perverted Crippled. Eddie is devastated by her death. He continues on to defeat Minnesota Fats in their re-match, but it has taken Sarah’s suicide for him to break free of Bert. To break free from the win-at-any-cost mentality. He’s done selling out. He’s finally acquired “character.”

Rack ‘Em Up — Assembling the Cast

As producer, director and co-writer (with Sidney Carroll), Robert Rossen had control over all creative aspects of The Hustler. He knew, however, that in order to obtain funding and distribution for the movie, he would need a star.

At the time, Paul Newman was coming up in the ranks of Hollywood actors. He had studied at the Actors’ Studio in New York and had the reputation as a kind of pretty-boy Brando. He had acted on Broadway and television, and co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor in the film version of Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Then he made Exodus. This big-budget production was not a great movie, and it was widely recognized that Newman’s appeal was what made it a box-office success. Paul Newman was now a top, bankable star.

Rossen believed that Newman had just the right qualities to play cocky, good-looking, loser Fast Eddie Felson. But the actor wasn’t available, already scheduled to star opposite Elizabeth Taylor in Two for the Seesaw. Others were considered for the part, including Bobby Darrin. Then Rossen got lucky. Taylor became sick and plans for Two for the Seesaw fell apart. Rossen sent Newman his script for The Hustler. “I read half of it,” the actor recalled, “and called my New York agent at six o’clock in the morning and said, ‘Get me this film.’ And he did.”

With Paul Newman on board, Twentieth Century Fox agreed to put up the money and distribute. The movie was a go.

Rossen’s casting of the supporting roles is crucial to The Hustler’s quirky, dark vibe. The talent and chemistry of the terrific cast is key to why it’s become a classic.

Piper Laurie was chosen to play self-hating, alcoholic Sarah. She brings to the role a fragility and a yearning to be loved that is painful to witness. She portrays Sarah as heartbreakingly vulnerable, but also as someone with reserves of inner strength. When she limps, we see her pride attempt to triumph over her self-loathing.

George C. Scott was cast as Bert, the vicious gambler who vies with Sarah over Eddie’s soul. Like Newman, Scott had cut his acting teeth on stage and television, transitioning to film in the 1950s. While he doesn’t possess Newman’s romantic-lead good looks, he radiates power in all his roles. In The Hustler, Scott plays Bert as a man who has sold his soul for money and wants Fast Eddie to follow down the same path. He’s cruel and cunning; an astute judge of character and a master manipulator. As critic Pauline Kael comments, “George C. Scott in The Hustler suggests the personification of the power of money.”

And finally there’s Jackie Gleason. What inspired casting! Known primarily as a comedian, and especially for his loudmouth bus driver Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, Gleason was not an obvious choice. But he was the perfect choice.

Gleason’s Minnesota Fats is gracious and regal. He’s an elegant dresser, ruling his shabby pool hall kingdom with a fresh carnation in his lapel. He moves with the grace and fluid precision of a dancer. He’s a man in control of his game. Unlike Fast Eddie, he knows when to quit and cut his losses. Forty hours into their marathon pool match, with Eddie slumped in a chair, drunk and exhausted, Gleason’s Fats genteelly freshens up in the loo. There’s also a sadness in his eyes; he holds no illusions about the life he’s chosen.

* Fun Fact: Minnesota Fats was a wholly fictional character created by novelist Walter Tevis. After the success of the film, an overweight New York pool hustler, Rudolf Walderone, renamed himself Minnesota Fats. Walderone cashed in on his new identity with book and TV deals, including a series of widely televised matches with top-ranked pool professional, Willie Mosconi.

As important as the supporting cast is, The Hustler is still Paul Newman’s movie. He has said in interviews that he viewed Fast Eddie as a man trying to find himself, to express his talents, to be a somebody instead of a nobody. Newman identified strongly with Eddie’s struggle: “I spent the first thirty years of my life looking for a way to explode. For me, apparently acting is that way.”

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

Own 14 of John Wayne's Most Essential Films in One Collection for the First Time

Relive some of the greatest performances by legendary actor John Wayne with the JOHN WAYNE ESSENTIAL 14-MOVIE COLLECTION, arriving on DVD May 11, 2021 from Paramount Home Entertainment.

An American hero and icon, Wayne had an epic, 50-year film career in which he played the lead in over 140 films. He was nominated^* for three Academy Awards®, winning the Best Actor award for his performance in True Grit.

Representing Paramount’s biggest John Wayne collection ever, this 14-movie set spans nearly 25 years of Wayne’s exceptional career and includes his only Oscar®-winning performance in True Grit and his final lead role in The Shootist. Encompassing epic stories of integrity and dramatic battles of will, these fan-favorites capture the virtue, courage, and humor of an American original.

The films in the DVD collection are:

• · Hondo (1953)
• 
  
• · Island in the Sky (1953)
• 
  
• · The High and the Mighty (1954)
• 
  
• · The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
• 
  
• · Hatari! (1962)
• 
  
• · Donovan’s Reef (1963)
• 
  
• · McLintock! (1963)
• 
  
• · In Harm’s Way (1965)
• 
  
• · The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)
• 
  
• · El Dorado (1966)
• 
  
• · True Grit (1969)
• 
  
• · Rio Lobo (1970)
• 
  
• · Big Jake (1971)
• 
  
• · The Shootist (1976)

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER FROM AMAZON

KINO LORBER'S "LUST FOR GOLD: A RACE AGAINST TIME": WATCH THE PREMIERE OF THE TRAILER

REVIEW: "LASH OF THE PENITENTES" (1936); BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FROM KINO LORBER AND SOMETHING WEIRD VIDEO

MIKE HENRY: MARK CERULLI REMEMBERS A HERO ON SCREEN AND OFF

MICHAEL CAINE DISCUSSES "ZULU" WITH DICK CAVETT (1972)

ORSON WELLES DISCUSSES "CITIZEN KANE" WITH DICK CAVETT

DVD REVIEW: "THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT" (1945) STARRING JACK BENNY

REVIEW: "SUNSHINE" (1973) STARRING CRISTINA RAINS AND CLIFF DEYOUNG; BLU-RAY RELEASE

STREAMING REVIEW: "EASY MONEY" (1983) STARRING RODNEY DANGERFIELD AND JOE PESCI (AMAZON PRIME)

BOOK REVIEW: "SHOOTING MIDNIGHT COWBOY" BY GLENN FRANKEL (FARRAR, STRAUSS"& GIROUX)