Were
it not for the beloved nature of Victor Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz
(1939), itself a financial failure upon its original release but finally making
a profit decades later, there is a good bet that many fantasy films would never
have seen the light of day. I get the feeling that director Jean Yarbrough’s Jack and
the Beanstalk (1952), which opened at the Warner in New York in April 1952
and was the first color outing by the late great comedy team of Abbott and
Costello, falls into that camp. The inspiration for the film reportedly came
from Mr. Costello’s daughter, Christine, who asked him to read her the
fairytale one night before bed, and he was so taken with the story that he
decided that it would be a good vehicle for him and his partner, Bud Abbott, to
make in the hopes of reaching young children in the audience.
From
the opening sepia-toned “real-life” scenes to the colorful fantasy sequences, Jack
and the Beanstalk may be delightful for children but is an uneven comedy
for all but perhaps the comedy duo’s most fervent admirers. While it is indeed
whimsical, it lacks the re-watch factor found in Gus Meins and Charley Rogers’s
wonderful comedy/musical March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934) starring
another great comedy team, Laurel and Hardy, a film that I grew up on and can
still watch today.
Donald
Larkin (child actor David Stollery), a self-described problem child, is a
precocious nine-year-old whose older sister, Eloise (Shaye Cogan), wants to
attend the rehearsal of a play with her fiancé Arthur (James Alexander),
however a babysitter for Donald is nowhere in sight. Through a mishap, Lou
Costello and Bud Abbott end up taking on the boy through the Cosman Employment
Agency while they are looking for work. Lou and Bud make their way to Donald’s
house and Lou banters with Donald. Lou attempts to read Donald “Jack and the
Beanstalk”, but the wording proves too much for him. In a reversal of roles,
Donald becomes the reader, but Lou falls asleep, and we are taken into the
fairy tale in color. In Lou’s dream, Jack (as portrayed by Lou) finds himself
face to face with a giant (Buddy Baer) who gives him a run for his money. Jack
has a cow named Henry and ends up selling Henry for some magic beans. Just as
in the fairy tale, the magic beans are planted and, in a quick but charming
animated sequence, the magic beanstalk grows high into the sky. Jack marvels at
its height and, along with the village butcher Mr. Dinklepuss (Bud in a
supporting role), climbs into the giant’s abode and finds a wealth of treasures
that he took from the villagers, including a hen that lays golden eggs and a
large harp with a truly maniacal-looking face fashioned on the end of it. I can
imagine many a child in the audience being frightened by this image. A
kidnapped prince (James Alexander) and princess (Shaye Coggan) become the
objects that Jack attempts to extricate from the giant’s clutches.
It’s
disarming to see the Warner Brothers logo before the film given that the team
made nearly twenty films for Universal Pictures. While it’s certainly not one
of the duo’s best films – much of the acting is wooden and their antics and
jokes seem a little forced. However the slapstick would no doubt be appreciated
by youngsters and the film actually improves during the musical numbers. Mr. Costello sings the film’s best tune, “I
Fear Nothing”, which you’ll be singing for days after viewing the film, and
there is a funny dance routine that is lifted from Hold That Ghost
(1941).
While
this film has been available on home video many times before (on DVD in 1999, 2000,
2001, and 2012 and in 2020 on Blu-ray), if you’re a true Abbott and Costello
completist the new 70th anniversary 2022 Blu-ray from ClassicFlix.com is the way to go as it
contains a 4K restoration of the film in color as well as a whole host of
extras not found anywhere else.
Bonus
Features:
Newly
recorded feature introduction by Lou’s youngest daughter, Chris Costello. This is in high definition and runs 1:12 and
you have the option of watching it or not.
Commentary
by Abbott and Costello expert Ron Palumbo, with recollections from Jack and
the Beanstalk co-star David Stollery. The information that Mr. Palumbo
knows about this duo is unreal. His rapid-fire discussion of the onscreen
antics and the behind-the-scenes history of the images are well researched and
encyclopedic. He informs us that the sepia-toned opening was filmed after the
color sequences, and that the film was shot between July 9th and
August 2nd in 1951. A real pleasure to listen to.
Who's
On First? on December 2,
1940 – this is very cool: Abbott and Costello performing for military troops
and is presented in high definition and runs 4:05.
Imperfect
Spectrum: A Brief History of Cinecolor by Jack Theakston – in high definition and running 13:21.
This is a fascinating piece that explains both the history of and the workings
of Cinecolor. I wish that someone would do a full-blown documentary on this and
Technicolor.
Climbing
the Scales: The Music of Jack and the Beanstalk – in high definition and running 9:18,
this piece gives us a look at the creation of the musical score and the songs
in the film.
Cutting
Down the Beanstalk – in
high definition and running 18:30, this piece recreates the 26 minutes of
footage that was excised prior to the film’s release. Ron Palumbo provides the
running commentary.
Abbott
and Costello Meet the Creature
– in high definition and running 15:00, this piece is from February 1954 and
shows Bud and Lou looking through some props from their past movies. Glenn
Strange appears as Frankenstein's Monster, recreating his famous bits from Abbott
and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
Rudy
Vallee Radio Sketch – in
high definition and running 6:16, this piece is a radio bit set to images.
Restoration
Demo – in high definition and running 3:10,
this piece shows how the film looked before and after the restoration.
Image
Gallery
Behind
the Scenes photo gallery by Chip Ordway with 1952 children's recording – in high definition and running 7:02,
this includes a wealth of images taken on the set with Bud and Lou telling the
story of Jack and the Beanstalk (at 2:31, it sounds as though Lou is saying
“godammit”, which I cannot believe, but then it sounds like “there Abbott!”)
Publicity
Materials photo gallery by Chip Ordway
– in high definition and running 12:15, this is exactly what the description indicates.
Trailers:
Abbott
and Costello Trailer Rarities
– in high definition and running 41:04, this features 18 original "Coming
Attractions" previews, including Jack and the Beanstalk. The
condition of some of them vary from poor to excellent.
Fireman
Save My Child – in
high definition and running 2:10, this features two commentary tracks: one by
Mike Ballew (3-D aficionado) and the other with Ron Palumbo.
ClassicFlix
Trailers: There are several trailers here for other titles by ClassicFlix,
among them the Marx Brothers’ A Night in Casablanca (1946) which
actually begins the disc when you start it up. It runs 2:17. The only way to skip
the trailer is to fast forward through it. Also included are Abbott and
Costello’s TV show, The Little Rascals, Merrily We Live, and Zenobia.
Writer/director/producer Russell Rouse may
not be a household name, but his credits are pretty impressive. For instance,
he co-wrote the 1949 film noir classic
D.O.A. (and the 1988 remake). Russell also co-wrote and directed the 1956
western The Fastest Gun Alive which
starred Glenn Ford. He was nominated for an Academy Award for co-writing the
1951 drama The Well, and in 1959
Rouse finally won the Oscar for co-writing the Pillow Talk screenplay. Recently, the 1967 heist film The Caper of the Golden Bulls, which
was directed by Rouse, has been released on Blu-ray.
The Caper of the
Golden Bulls concerns
former bank robber Peter Churchman (Stephen Boyd) who is blackmailed by an old
flame (Giovanna Ralli) into stealing priceless jewels from a bank in Spain. Along
with his girlfriend (Yvette Mimieux) and his old crew, Churchman attempts to
pull off the dangerous heist during the annual “Running of the Bulls” festival.
Filmed on location in Spain, The Caper of the Golden Bulls is an
entertaining and well-done caper film which features fun performances from
Boyd, Mimieux and Ralli as well as from many other talented and familiar faces
(who all seem to be having a good time) such as Vito Scotti, Walter Slezak,
Clifton James, Jay Novello, Henry Beckman, Leon Askin, J.G. Devlin, Arnold Moss
and Noah Keen.
I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It’s a very
watchable caper flick with a strong cast, an involving story, solid direction
and beautiful locations. The cute film also benefits from a terrific musical
score by the great Vic Mizzy and lovely cinematography by Academy Award nominee
Harold E. Stine. I definitely recommend checking it out.
The Caper of the
Golden Bulls has
been released on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. The film is presented in its
original 1:85:1 aspect ratio, the 4K transfer looks great and the audio is
clear. Special Features include an audio commentary by film historian Phillipa
Berry and trailers for the films Topkapi,
The Brink’s Job, Loophole, The Real McCoy, The Mercenary and The Neptune Factor.
As we all know, Fred Astaire’s
amazing, God-given dancing talent made him a Golden Age movie star. As a matter
of fact, numerous times, he has been called the greatest dancer in film
history. Although Astaire was also an accomplished actor, singer and
choreographer, he will forever be remembered as a top-notch, innovative dancer.
He made 31 musical features; some of his best being Holiday Inn, Easter Parade, The Band Wagon, Funny Face and, of
course, the many films he made with the lovely and equally talented Ginger
Rogers. (The Gay Divorcee, Top Hat, Swing
Time, Shall We Dance, etc.) If
you’re a fan of this legendary Hollywood icon, you will be happy to know that,
although not a musical, Midas Run, a
film Fred Astaire made near the end of his long and illustrious career, has been
released on Blu-ray.
Written by Ronald Austin, James
Buchanan and Berne Giler, and directed by Alf Kjellin, Midas Run tells the entertaining story of a retired secret service
agent named Pedley (Fred Astaire) who hires writer Mike Warden (Richard Crenna)
and Mike’s girlfriend Sylvia Giroux (Anne Heywood) to help him steal
$15,000,000 in gold. However, the clever Pedley may have something even bigger
planned.
Made for only $1.1 million, Midas Run was shot in London, Venice,
Milan, Tuscany and Rome and was released in April of 1969. The lighthearted production
not only contains fun performances from Crenna, Heywood and Astaire, but also
features several highly talented and recognizable faces from classic cinema such
as Sir Ralph Richardson, Cesar Romero, Adolfo Celi, Jacques Sernas and Roddy
McDowall. Midas Run also benefits from
a wonderful musical score by immortal composer Elmer Bernstein and a title song
written by Don Black and sung by Anne Heywood.
It may not ever appear on a “best of” Fred
Astaire film list, but Midas Run is still
an extremely well-made, engaging and fun movie that is sure to make you smile.
Midas
Run has been released on Blu-ray by the fine folks at Kino Lorber. The film,
which looks terrific, is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The
disc contains a very informative audio commentary by film historians Lee Gambin
and Emma Westwood as well as the original theatrical trailer. There are also
trailers for Robbery, The High
Commissioner, Cop-out and Street
People.
Film
Director Paul W.S. Anderson cut his teeth in the industry by directing the 1995
Christopher Lambert film Mortal Kombat, a cinematic adaptation of the
video game franchise of the same name. This gave him the clout to tackle the
sci-fi horror film Event Horizon, a colorful pastiche of genre influences
ranging from Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) to Gary Nelson’s The Black
Hole (1979) to Peter Hyams’ Outland (1981) to Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce
(1985) and to James Cameron’s Aliens (1986).
The
term “event horizon”, as defined by Wikipedia, refers to “a boundary beyond
which events cannot affect an observer.” Physicist Wolfgang Rindler founded
this term in 1956 and this phenomenon is mentioned by Dr. Hans Reinhardt (played
by Maximillian Schell) in Walt Disney’s The Black Hole. In Mr.
Anderson’s film, Event Horizon is the name of a starship that mysteriously
vanished on its way to Proxima Centauri in 2040. Proxima Centauri is roughly 25
trillion miles from Earth and would take 6300-man years to get to it with
present day technology, but the film has much better transportation methods in
mind. It reappears seven years later with little explanation regarding its
current state. A distress signal is picked up by the rescue vessel, Lewis and
Clark, and the Event Horizon is now orbiting Neptune. The inhabitants of the
Lewis and Clark, who come out of hyper sleep like the crew of the Nostromo in Alien,
consist of Laurence Fishburne (of 1979’s Apocalypse Now) as Commanding
Officer Miller, Sam Neill (of 1993’s Jurassic Park) as Dr. William Weir,
Kathleen Quinlan (of 1997’s Breakdown) as Peters, Joely Richardson as
Starck, Richard T. Jones as Cooper, Jack Noseworthy (of 1997’s Breakdown)
as Justin, Jason Isaacs (of 2006’s Brotherhood, Showtime’s best series)
as D.J., and Sean Pertwee as Smith. This motley crew is on edge, dropping not-so-subtle
hints about their reluctance to engage in this mission to see if there are any
survivors aboard the starship. Dr. Weir reminds me of Ash, the aloof and
sinister science officer in Alien. He designed the Event Horizon and
tries to explain to the crew how the ship was built with the capability of
generating manmade black holes to connect space and time for the purpose of
enabling lightning-fast travel – at least that’s what I got out of his rant.
Even
in space, the ultimate enemy is man (anyone remember that tag line?), and there
are many pissing contests in space to be had in the testosterone-bathed
environment that the crew is forced to work in. Snide remarks and insults
abound, much to the consternation of Miller who realizes that the ship itself
has a life of its own and causes the crew to hallucinate when it taps into
their psyches, exposing unresolved fears and grief from their past that only
each individual can see. This is a nice change of pace for the genre. Sending
the crew to their demise at the hands of yet another onboard alien would truly
have been an unnecessary and unwarranted retread of Sir Ridley Scott’s and
James Cameron’s aforementioned masterworks, no matter how good the intentions
may have been. Event Horizon may be the ultimate “face your fears” film.
The premise results in some truly shocking imagery that, according to director
Anderson, appears in the form of one to three quick frames to give the audience
a glimpse of what the crew is facing/experiencing. If the imagery does appear
to be very fast, it’s also due to the fact that much more had actually been
filmed but ultimately cut as it was deemed to be too gruesome.
Interestingly,
Event Horizon was both a critical and commercial failure following its
release on Friday, August 15, 1997 and if the film seems confusing at times, it
should – the original desired 130-minute cut assembled by director Anderson was
truncated by 34 minutes by the studio against his wishes. It also didn’t help
in that the film was rushed through both principal photography and postproduction
and was released just a mere five months after the production wrapped. Through
no fault of the director, the 96-minute running time feels too little for a
film like this. What makes Alien and Aliens the masterpieces they
are is even after many viewings is that they spend time on character
development and exposition and never feel rushed.
A
similar fate infamously befell Michael Mann’s doomed 1983 film version of F.
Paul Wilson’s novel The Keep when he was forced to reduce the original running
time of 210 minutes down to 120 minutes, and Paramount reduced it by yet another
23 minutes to a nearly incomprehensible 97 minutes, giving audiences only a
hint at what greatness may have lay on the cutting room floor. While fans of Event
Horizon would love to see the longer cut (even Paramount reached out to the
director following the film’s excellent rental and purchasing history on DVD
following its box office failure), this footage is, unfortunately, deemed to be
lost.
Event
Horizon was previously
released on DVD in a movie-only edition in 1998, then again in a special
edition with extras in 2006. It made its way to Blu-ray with the same extras in
2008, 2013, 2017, and most notably in 2021 with a special edition from Scream
Factory boasting eleven new extras exclusive to that edition. The new 4K Ultra
High Definition Paramount Blu-ray easily contains the film’s best-looking
transfer to date, along with a Blu-ray and a Digital Code. The ported over
extras consist of:
A
feature-length audio commentary with director Anderson and the film’s producer
Jeremy Bolt, partners who met early in their careers and founded Impact
Pictures in 1992. The track was recorded for the 2006 DVD release, and it
covers the requisite history of how the film came to be, the difficulties in
the execution of the film’s effects, the design of the starship, their working
relationship with the actors and actresses, the film’s marketing, to name a
few.
The
Making of Event Horizon
– This is a five-part making-of documentary from 2006 that has the “Play All”
feature available as an option. It runs one hour and forty-three minutes. It’s
a fascinating look at the origins of the film, with a lot of intercutting among
the cast and crew speaking eloquently and complimentary about the production.
There are some funny and humorous anecdotes here, which is refreshing to see when
you’re dealing with such horrific subject matter. Director Anderson also speaks
about the difficulties of rushing to get the film answer printed and locked for
test screenings.
The
Point of No Return: The Filming of Event Horizon – Just over eight minutes, this is a four-part
encapsulation of the revolving tunnel, the 360-degree camerawork, zero gravity,
and one of the character’s descents into madness.
Secrets – At ten minutes, this piece consists
of three deleted scenes that were cut from the film. Most of it contains the
more unsavory elements that were excised from the final cut, such as a truly
creepy scene of one of the characters in an Exorcist-inspired “spider
walk” scene.
The
Unseen Event Horizon – At
three minutes, this piece illustrates conceptual art done for the film, most of
which was not filmed.
Rounding
out the extras are a theatrical trailer and a video trailer.
If
you’re a fan of the film, the new transfer is a must-have.
Film
director Paul W.S. Anderson, not to be confused with film directors Paul Thomas
Anderson or Wes Anderson, hails from Wallsend, North Tyneside, England and,
like so many of his contemporaries, began shooting movies on Super-8mm in his
youth. In his mid-twenties, he enjoyed professional success as a writer on the British
series El C.I.D. Following the end of the show, he and producer Jeremy
Bolt founded their own company, Impact Pictures and, after much toil, financed Shopping,
which was released in the United Kingdom in 1994 and in the States in 1996. This
put them on the map and brought him Mortal Kombat in 1995, a film based
upon the popular video game of the same name. This led to the sci-fi/horror
film Event Horizon, which is now available on 4K UHD Blu-ray, and it’s
this film that I discussed with Mr. Anderson recently while he was promoting
the release.
Todd Garbarini: I want to thank you for taking the
time to speak with me and thank you also for the Resident Evil films. I
enjoy those very much.
Paul W.S. Anderson: Me, too!
TG: How did you first see Ridley Scott’s Alien and what
was the effect that it had on you?
PWSA: I saw
[Sir] Ridley’s Alien when I was at school, and I saw it when I was far
too young, and it terrified the living daylights out of me. I also had a real
crush on Sigourney Weaver. So, it was a big, big impact. I had never seen a
movie like it. I mean it was amazing, and the look of the alien and the alien
spaceship, which I later realized was the work of [Swiss artist H.R.] Giger,
was just spectacular. It was really like nothing I’d ever seen in cinemas
before.
TG: I feel
the exact same way. I was ten and-a-half years-old when Alien was
released here in the States, two years to the day that Star Wars was
released here…in fact, the financial success of Star Wars bankrolled Alien…and
I was shocked to see that it was restricted to just adults! My parents would not
take me to see it. Kenner had produced toys, games and puzzles in the stores
based on the film. It took me another four years to see it on home video, but
the power of that movie came through tremendously, even on a six-year-old 13” Sylvania
television.
PWSA: I didn’t
see it with my parents either. Like you, I had loved Star Wars and I
thought, Wow, another space movie! Boy, was I wrong! (laughs)
TG: Was there one
particular film that, or filmmaker who, compelled you to become a director?
PWSA: I can
tell you that certain filmmakers have had a huge influence on me. Ridley Scott and
Tony Scott in particular because I love their movies. I love the look of their
movies and what their movies are about and how they are put together. They came
from the same part of the Northeast of England as I did. I never knew anyone in
the film industry, and no one made movies in the North of England. So, wanting
to be a film director when I was growing up seemed like an impossible dream. But
there were these two brothers who somehow managed to do it and they were very
inspiring to me because of that. They didn’t know anyone in the film industry
either. They built themselves from the ground up. I felt like I could do it as
well.
TG: You
derived inspiration from them.
PWSA: Exactly. Now, in terms of
wanting to become a filmmaker, I used to watch a lot of westerns when I was a little
kid. They used to have these things called “Saturday morning pictures” wherein
your parents would drop you off at a cinema that was full of about 350 kids without
any parental supervision. This would never happen today, and you would be there
for about four hours to basically run riot while your parents went and did some
shopping or went and had sex or did whatever they did on a Saturday afternoon without
the kids around. Most of the kids were running around throwing popcorn at one
another and beating each other up. I think I was one of the few kids who just
sat and watched the movies. They showed a couple of Laurel and Hardy shorts because
they were cheap and then some old westerns. I must have seen every John Ford western.
John Wayne was my favorite actor because I watched all these westerns with him
in them. I recall at the end of either The Searchers or Rio Bravo,
I saw his name in the credits as they rolled and I suddenly made the link that
he wasn’t a real cowboy, but rather an actor pretending to be a cowboy. Once I
realized that movies were not reality and just recorded by a cameraman, that
they were artifice, they were awesome and that’s what I wanted to do with my
life. I had no idea how I was going to achieve that. I just knew that that’s
what I wanted to do after seeing those amazing images on the big screen. That
was the inception of me wanting to make movies.
TG: Do you consider yourself to be a genre director?
PWSA: Yes, I
have worked almost exclusively in the sci-fi/horror genre. But like every
director in the world, I want to direct a western. No studio wants to make a
western, unfortunately, because they are just so uncommercial nowadays. I’m
about to make a movie called In the Lost Lands based on a story by author
George R.R. Martin [of Game of Thrones fame]. At its heart, it’s very
much a western as it has all the iconography that one would associate with a
western. It’s set in a post-apocalyptic land, so on the surface it’s not a
western, but at its heart it is most definitely a western. It deals with a lot
of western tropes and storytelling and imagery, so I am very excited to be
doing that.
TG: I
interviewed John Carpenter in 2010 and he is a big fan of westerns like yourself.
When he came out of film school in the early 1970s, he really wanted to make one,
but nobody was doing them in this country at the time. So, needless to say, he
was very disappointed.
PWSA: Yes,
but if you take a look at Assault on Precinct 13, the obvious influence
of westerns is in that film.
TG: Yes, absolutely. I love how that film was edited by “John
T. Chance” [the name of the sheriff that John Wayne plays in Rio Bravo]!
PWSG: Exactly! (laughs) And also people like Walter Hill, who was a big influence on me. I absolutely loved, loved The Driver
and 48 Hours. But specifically, what I really liked about Walter Hill
was when he was basically redoing the kind of Jean-Pierre Melville vibe of
those French gangster movies. So, they had imported the American movies, and
they did the French twist on them making them very existential, and then Walter
Hill kind of reimported them back into America and didn’t bother giving the
characters any names, which I absolutely love. So, for me Walter Hill is
somebody who pretty much, with every movie he makes, is a western. Ironically,
the films that work the least are actual westerns, but the ones that tend to
work the best are these urban movies that are really westerns in disguise. So,
I’m sort of hoping that it’s a “lightning strikes” moment for me when I do In
the Lost Lands. It’s basically my western, but nobody will realize it!
TG: Event Horizon pits
a lot of terrific actors in an ensemble piece, among them Sam Neill, Lawrence
Fishburne, Jason Isaacs, and Kathleen Quinlan. Were they your first choices for
their respective roles?
PWSA: Yes, it was a movie where I was
very lucky that the studio was kind of willing to go with my personal choices.
They never insisted that we absolutely had to have somebody who was a movie
star who carried very big movies before. They were on board for doing the ensemble
casting. I was very, very happy about it. It allowed me to get some really
terrific actors together, playing roles that they didn’t traditionally play as
well. Sam Neill at that point was very much in the minds of audiences as the heroic
guy who saved the children from the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. He was
up there with Tom Hanks as probably the actor whom the audience could trust the
most.
TG: Yes. I recall seeing Michael
Mann’s Collateral wherein Tom Cruise completely plays against type.
PWSA: Exactly. Sam Neill was still
sort of the guy who could look after your kids. So, the idea that he would be
the one who goes insane and tears his own eyes out, at that point in time it’s
probably the type of role that you would have expected Laurence Fishburne to
play. And then Fishburne playing sort of the heroic Captain as well, that was
not really a role that he had played before. So, both of them are amazing
performances but both of them were kind of stretching, but in a good way.
TG: Have
you ever seen Sam Neill in a film by Andrzej Zulawski called Possession?
PWSG: No, I
haven’t.
TG: It was shot
in the summer of 1980 in Germany and was released the following year
internationally. It made its way here to the States in a highly butchered
version in 1983, but it’s one of the most bizarre, cinematic experiences that I’ve
ever seen. You should catch up with it if you can. The uncut version is readily
available now.
PWSA: I will!
TG: What
are some of the challenges that you encountered in making Event Horizon
that you hadn’t foreseen?
PWSA: It was
just the compacted time that we had to actually make the film. That was a big
challenge. You know, I was young, and I hadn’t made many movies so I didn’t
really know what I was doing. I was up for a challenge at the time, but
nowadays I would probably say, “Hey, wait a second, I don’t know if that’s really
a good idea.” I had another movie to make right after Event Horizon and
it was with Kurt Russell [Soldier (1998)] with Warner Brothers, so I had
to finish Event Horizon on a certain date, so we had to start shooting
early. So, for such an elaborate movie with so many big builds, and really
complicated things, like the third containment being a real spinning, gyroscope
that was thirty-five feet high, I mean, this was really complicated stuff to do
in the time frame allotted. Then the production got even more compressed when Titanic
fell out of the summer and Paramount announced that Event Horizon would
be taking its place, and then suddenly I had only three to four weeks to
actually do my first cut of the movie before we started testing it. Those were
the logistical challenges. The actual making of the movie was just a delight. I
loved being with those actors on those sets. I didn’t even mind the challenges,
to be honest. Like I said, now I would think twice about doing certain things
in the movie, but back then I was just up for it.
TG: Thank
you for your time and best of luck to you with In the Lost Lands!
PWSA: Thank
you!
(Thanks to Deborah Annakin Peters for her help in arranging this interview.)
I’ve always been a fan of the heist/caper
film; a genre which details the planning, execution and aftermath of a huge
robbery. It’s an extremely fun and involving formula in which we oftentimes
sympathize with the thieves and want them to reach their goal. Some notable
heist/caper films are The Asphalt Jungle,
The Killing, Ocean’s 11, Bonnie and Clyde, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Italian
Job, The Getaway, The Sting, Dog Day Afternoon, Thief, A Fish Called Wanda, Reservoir Dogs, Heat and The Usual Suspects. Just to name a few.
Add to the list the comedy caper film A Man, a Woman, and a Bank available on
Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.
Solidly directed by Noel Black from a
humorous screenplay by Raynold Gideon, Bruce A. Evans and actor Stuart Margolin,
A Man, a Woman, and a Bank tells the
tale of friends Reese (Donald Sutherland) and Norman (Paul Mazursky), who
devise an elaborate plan to rob a bank in Vancouver. Things get a bit
complicated, however, when Reese falls in love with a pretty photographer
(Brooke Adams).
Released by Avco Embassy Pictures in
September of 1979, A Man, a Woman, and a
Bank is listed as the first and only film to be made by McNichol, a
production company said to have been created by actress Kristy McNichol and her
mother Carollyne. However, some believe this to be false and state that
McNichol is actually Donald Sutherland’s company. Whatever the case may be, A Man, a Woman, and a Bank is an extremely
enjoyable, well-directed, written and acted feature that definitely deserves to
be seen. The engaging story contains very interesting and likeable three-dimensional
characters. Reese is intelligent, confident, romantic and also a good friend.
The great Donald Sutherland effortlessly gets all this across and makes his
character totally believable. Five-time Academy Award nominee Paul Mazursky is
hilarious and extremely convincing as henpecked hypochondriac Norman, and the
lovely, talented and always welcome Brooke Adams (reuniting here with her Invasion of the Body Snatchers co-star,
Sutherland) shines as adorable photographer Stacey.
The fun feature also benefits from some
wonderful cinematography by the legendary Jack Cardiff and a terrific musical
score by Academy Award winning composer Bill Conti. All in all, it’s an
extremely solid and fun comedic crime film that audiences are sure to enjoy.
The Kino Lorber Blu-ray presents the movie in its original 1.78:1
aspect ratio. The transfer looks beautiful and the disc also contains quite a
few worthy special features. There’s the original theatrical trailer as well as
two very interesting and informative audio commentaries; one by director Noel
Black and producer Peter Samuelson from 2002, and another by film historians
Dean Brandum and Andrew Nette. The Blu-ray also has trailers for four other
films featuring Donald Sutherland: The
Great Train Robbery, Ordeal by Innocence, The Rosary Murders and The Puppet Masters.
RRP: £86 (a more
reasonably-priced paperback will be available soon)
Review by Adrian
Smith
In a world where
every possible sexual proclivity and desire can be sated at the click of a mouse
button, the idea of pornography only being available at an illicit party in a
hired hall, where the gathered men watch black and white amateur footage
projected onto a wall whilst half-expecting to be raided by local law
enforcement, seems difficult to imagine. Yet according to this fascinating
study by historian Dan Erdman, this was indeed the situation for decades, from
the early days of cinema through to the 1950s when home projector ownership
finally meant that people could receive illegal pornography through the mail
and watch it in the privacy of their own homes. As things began to change in
the 1960s, individual film-viewing booths became available, where for a dime a
customer could get access to a few minutes of hardcore pornography. Ultimately
by the 1970s hardcore went mainstream and husbands and wives could go to the cinema
together for screenings of Deep Throat or Behind the Green Door
and the stag film fell out of fashion.
But just what is a
stag film, I hear you cry innocently? Erdman, drawing on his own research as
well as the writing of others, explains that they were short films, often made
by amateurs and usually shot on 8mm or 16mm film, in which hardcore sex acts
took place, they were anonymously made and presented, and undated. One would
have no idea whether the film you were watching was made last year or thirty
years ago. They were effectively “orphaned films”, in that no records were
kept, and no information was provided about who was in the films, who directed
and produced them, and who was even making all the prints. They were screened
at private parties, or “smokers” as they were sometimes described, which would
often be accompanied by live performances, but those in attendance were
constantly in fear of a police bust. As home projection became more
commercially available thousands of copies of stag films criss-crossed America
in the postal service, with enterprising distributors using carefully compiled
mailing lists and anonymous return addresses to target customers whilst
avoiding both the police and the FBI.
Here, in this
US-focused book, Dan Erdman attempts to chart the origins of the stag film, its
growth in popularity, the people behind the production and distribution, and the
many legal attempts to shut it all down. Given that the production,
distribution and screening of these short pornographic films was illegal, and
the films were generally considered ephemeral with no historical or cultural
value, it’s no surprise to learn that the people involved in this underground
world were not really keeping records or even copies of the films. The Kinsey
Institute appears to be the main archive currently available for seeing copies
of stag films but given that even if a film did have credits the names would
inevitably be fake, the job of trying to piece together a history is a
difficult one.
It is a surprise to
discover that the other main archive is the FBI, who kept thousands of seized
films and attempted to keep records of names, dates, and places, but sadly,
again given that the films had no perceived historical value, the films were
all destroyed long ago to save archival space. Luckily the written records
remain, and through drawing on these records, alongside the Kinsey Institute,
the President’s Commission on Obscenity and Pornography (funded in the late
1960s in an attempt to provide legislation, which ultimately concluded that the
constitution’s guarantee of freedom of speech trumped charges of obscenity and
paved the way for porn’s golden age), private archives and newspaper reports,
Erdman has managed to piece together what is surely the definitive history of
this elusive subject. He also provides an excellent case study in how one can
attempt to write a history of a subject when access to both primary and
secondary sources is severely limited, and as such it should be compulsory
reading for any serious historian researching in the margins of popular
culture.
This book gives
fascinating and non-judgemental insight into the secret world of the twentieth
century American male (the audience was always male) and may also provide some
nostalgia for a simpler time before pornography became a global billion-dollar
business, and modern mainstream culture became increasingly pornified.
