“Try Not to Hold It Against Me: A Producer’s Life” by Julian
Schlossberg (Beaufort Books; $27) 168 Pages, Illustrated (B&W); Hardback.
ISBN: 9780825310256
Review by Lee Pfeiffer
Julian Schlossberg's achievements in the film industry make for an amusing and informative
experience in devouring his often whimsical memories of the business in decades
past. He grew up in New York City, far removed from any connection to show
business, but fell in love with movies after seeing his first flick on the big
screen: Elia Kazan's "On the Waterfront". It set in motion a desire
to get involved in the entertainment industry despite the fact that his
background provided neither the money, connections or influence to do so. An
indication of his reputation in the film industry is hinted at by the
celebrities who provide enthusiastic blurbs for the book. They are certainly
eclectic: Twiggy, Tony Roberts, Steve Guttenberg, Renee Taylor, Susan Strohman
among them. The foreword is provided by the legendary Elaine May. Schlossberg
has kept good company throughout his long career.
His memoir
details how enthusiasm, confidence and the willingness to take chances resulted
in his edging his way slowly up ladder at a time when Gotham was a crucial
centerpiece in the film business. After a stint in the U.S. Army, Schlossberg
painstakingly sold himself to higher-ups he didn't even know through sheer
determination, first starting in entry level positions and then becoming a
salesman for packages of theatrical films that would be sold to small markets
throughout America. He had quite a chore. In those days, "small
markets" were just that: some places had only one or two TV stations and
were selective about what they chose. Schlossberg had to convince them to buy
packages of acclaimed films that were generally art-house, big city fare. In
several of the markets, he was amicably informed by contacts that he was the
first Jew they had met. Oy vey, indeed! He later worked as the booking agent
for the prestigious Walter Reade theater chain, a high-pressure job that
mandated that he had to pick winners to play to sophisticated New York
audiences. At Warren Beatty's personal request, Schlossberg took a gamble and
opened Robert Altman's "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" in one of the
theaters- despite the fact that it had opened and bombed at another theater
recently. With an inspired new ad campaign, the film proved to be a hit. In
those days, new movies often opened in a few select big city theaters before
going into wide release. He opened Woody Allen's offbeat "Everything You
Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask") at two art houses in
Manhattan to great results, an anecdote that had personal resonance to this
reviewer because, at age 15, a friend of mine and I saw the film when it opened
at one of these theaters and we became
the only people in history who were threatened with expulsion for laughing too
hard at a comedy.
Schlossberg
would later gravitate to producing plays and serving among the top brass at movie
studios. Along the way there were plenty of triumphs and missteps, which he
candidly recalls with humour. In doing so, he provides some rare glimpses into
the trials and tribulations of producing live theater. In one chapter, he painstakingly
details the attempts to stage a revival of “Sly Fox” on Broadway. Everyone is
enthused about the project but every actor who is considered for the leading role
proves to be unreliable, including “nice guy” Burt Reynolds, who leaves
Schlossberg and his partners hanging out to dry by backing out at the last
minute. Ultimately, the show went on with Richard Dreyfuss in the lead role, but
the reviews and boxoffice were disappointments. The logistics of putting on
this one production boggle the mind. No wonder Noel Coward once quipped “Why
must the show go on???” There are also plenty of names to drop along the way
from Harrison Ford to Barbra Streisand, some as long-time friends, others
through one-off encounters. This book isn't filled with vengeful rhetoric. Schlossberg writes mostly about people he likes and goes soft on criticizing the people he doesn't. One curiosity concerns how he eventually represented Elia Kazan, his boyhood idol. Perhaps for that reason, Schlossberg doesn't address the controversies about Kazan's "naming names" during the Blacklist period, which made him a figure of great controversy. Yet, it's admirable that his affection for the man on a personal level allowed him to show some deference in the cause of sentiment, which is an emotion not always found in show business relationships. If Schlossberg engages in some occasional bragging,
he’s earned the right. The book is a delight throughout and a “must” for anyone
interested in the behind-the-scenes aspects of films and live theatre.
(This book will be available on Amazon on April 15. Click on this link to pre-order from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3KjmJVd)
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Following the “monstrous” success of Universal’s Frankenstein, Boris Karloff no longer
had to cast about Hollywood looking for employment.Between 1932 and 1942, the actor would appear
in more than forty feature films for nearly every major and minor Hollywood
studio: Universal, of course: but also Fox, United Artists, Paramount, MGM, RKO
Radio, Warner Bros., Monogram and Columbia.Prior to Frankenstein, Karloff
had appeared in several gangster/prison pictures for Columbia Pictures as a menacing
presence.It was a gift that brought
attention.
Though it was Universal’s Frankenstein (1931) that would make Karloff a box-office star in
his own right, the actor would go on to make two other films for Columbia in
the 1930s (The Black Room and The Man They Could Not Hang).Though Columbia studio boss Harry Cohn didn’t
care much for horror pictures, Karloff’s on-screen villainy was a hot
commercial property ripe for exploitation.So Columbia cast him – in a dual role as bothers Anton and Gregor De
Berghman’s – in Roy William Neill’s big-budget historical melodrama The Black Room Mystery (the title later
shortened to The Black Room).It’s interesting that the two-page spread
Columbia took out in the trades didn’t play up the film’s “horror” angle.Only that the film would star “Boris Karloff: The Man They Love to Hate in
a powerful mystery romance.”
Columbia’s The Man
They Could Not Hang (1939) followed, the first of a five-picture deal
Karloff would strike with the studio. Between 1939 and 1942 the actor embarked
on a series of Columbia films that fans describe as the actor’s “mad scientist”
pictures.All five of these melodramas/horror-sci-fi
pics, as well as The Black Room, are
included on Mill Creek’s new Blu- ray package Thrillers from the Vault.Two additional horror/sci-fi efforts from Columbia (Return of the Vampire and Five)
round out this generous – if curious - set. But we’ll get to that in a moment.
In many respects the first four of Karloff’s mad
scientist films closely resemble one another in construction.They’re formula films. In each Karloff portrays
a scientist/doctor working on a formula or experiment that will benefit all mankind.But in each instance the science goes wrong -
which causes Karloff to do the same.In
fairness, his murderous turn-of-heart is usually due to the interventions of
disbelievers.The premise of all these “mad
scientist” films can be summarized in a line Karloff delivers in The Man They Could Not Hang.Having vanquished nearly all of those he
holds responsible for his murder conviction, he snarls bitterly, “Every gift that science has given them
has been twisted into a thing of hate and greed!”
In Nick Grinde’s The
Man They Could Not Hang (1939), Karloff plays Dr. Henryk Savaard, a noble
scientist who plans to test his newfangled mechanical heart pump on a young and
trusting medical associate (Stanley Brown).To conduct this experiment, the young man must be first put into a state
of clinical death prior to reification.But due to the alarm of his hysterical nurse – the fiancé of the test
subject, to boot – the authorities are alerted.Upon their hurried arrival at Savaard’s laboratory, they do not allow
the pleading scientists the chance to revive the corpse of the test subject.
Savaard is tried for murder and executed on the
gallows.But the scientist’s devoted
assistant Lang (Byron Foulger) collects his body from the prison morgue, applies
the mechanical heart procedure on Savaard’s corpse, and resurrects Savaard.But Dr. Savaard is no longer a benevolent
scientist.The actions set off by the
“treacherous” nurse has left him mercilessly unhinged.He’s now interested only on exacting revenge
on the twelve jurors and prosecution team who found him guilty of murder.
In Grinde’s The Man
with Nine Lives (1940), Karloff plays Dr. Leon Kravaal, a scientist whose
cancer research leads him to believe that freezing those afflicted –
temporarily in a secretive, subterranean glacial chamber - helps retard or cure
the disease.But the authorities –
pressed by a gaggle of wary villagers - wrongly suspect Kravaal is up to no
good.They travel out to his secretive
island with the intent of hauling Kravaal to prison.
With the life of his frozen patient in jeopardy due to this
unwelcome incursion, Kravaal releases a gas, rendering everyone – including
himself – unconscious in the frozen chamber.The film flashes forward a decade on when a trio of scientists decide to
investigate Kravaal’s mysterious disappearance.Upon finding both the doctor and his interlopers perfectly preserved in
ice, all are thawed out.But Kravaal,
now crazed with revenge, uses his new lease on life to continue his experiments
on his imprisoned and unwilling subjects.
Grinde’s back again for Before I Hang (1940). In
this one Karloff plays Dr. John Garth, an elderly, mild-mannered scientist in
search of a serum that will retard the aging process.He’s not successful in his first effort, compelling
him to perform a “mercy killing” on a patient whose life was nothing but a
“sleepless, tortured nightmare.”For
this act he’s convicted of murder and sentenced to hang.While awaiting execution, the warden (unreasonably)
allows Garth to continue with his experiments under the supervision of a prison
doctor Dr. Howard (Edward Van Sloane).Reworking
the formula, Garth has the bad idea of mixing the blood of recently executed
fellow inmate – who happened to be a three-time convicted murderer – into the
serum.
Garth chooses to be the willing guinea pig himself – he’s
about to be executed anyway, so has nothing to lose – and injects the serum
into his own bloodstream.This time the
age reversal works – but with a caveat.Though
Garth begins to transform into his younger self, his veins now carry the
“contaminated” blood of a murderer.Unable to fend off evil impulses, Garth strangles Dr. Howard.But prison authorities mistakenly pin
Howard’s murder on another inmate and Garth – injured in a frantic melee with
that inmate - is ultimately pardoned.But the tainted blood he carries compels him to seek out fresh victims outside
of prison walls.
Things go no better for Karloff’s Dr. Julian Blair in Edward
Dmytryk’s The Devil Commands
(1941).Despondent over his wife’s death
in an automobile accident, Blair is convinced brainwaves of the deceased live
on following a body’s expiry - and such waves can be recorded electrically on a
graph.Though most of his colleagues scoff
at his theory, Blair is determined to continue his work in a remote cliff side cottage
near the sea.To this end he has built an
elaborate – and decidedly eerie – laboratory: one brimming with electrical
gimmickry, wires and steel-plated robotic helmets.Such experimentation might have been sanctioned
had Blair not robbed local graves in search of test subjects.Needless to say things, as ever, do not turn
out well for anyone involved.
The sixth and final Karloff Columbia effort in this set
is Lew Lander’s The Boogie Man Will Get
You (1942). This is a more lighthearted affair, a black comedy that’s,
regrettably, only occasionally comedic.The film, a co-feature with Peter Lorre, is mostly a poor cousin to a
more recent and successful enterprise.The Boogie Man Will Get You is mostly an
ill-conceived knock-off of Karloff’s popularity as the murderous Jonathon
Brewster in the Broadway stage production of Arsenic and Old Lace.
There is a key difference.While the Broadway play and Lander’s film attempt
to mix laughs with menace, the former does so to perfection, the latter… not so
much.As this is a WWII era-film,
Karloff’s Professor Billings and Lorre’s Dr. Lorencz work to create a race of super-humans
to assist the Allied war effort.It’s
best to be a fan of mug boxer-turned-character-actor “Slapsie” Maxie Rosenbloom
if one truly expects to mine sixty-six minutes of reasonable entertainment.
The seventh and eighth films of this Thrillers from the Vault set are the only two not featuring Karloff. Lander’s The
Return of the Vampire (1942) features Bela Lugosi’s caped return as Count
Dracula… well, more or less.In the film
his character is actually referred to as Armand Tesla, but Lugosi plays his
part mostly as he had the more fabled Count of Tod Browning’s Universal classic
of 1931.While there’s no Dwight Frye to
attend to his sinister beckoning’s, this film’s “Renfield” styled servant is
Andreas Orby (Matt Willis), a talking werewolf.
As with The Boogie
Man Will Get You, this film too situates a favorite horror actor in a modern
WWII setting.The vampire Tesla is resurrected
in the film’s earliest scenes as his graveyard internment is disturbed by a
German air-raid bombing over London.This is, most welcomingly, the first time The Return of the Vampire has been issued in the U.S. on Blu-ray.The title was previously issued by
Columbia/Tri-Star on a DVD release of 2002.
The set’s eighth and final film Five (1951) is the odd man out here, a thoughtful if dystopian film,
courtesy of writer-director-producer Arch Oboler of Lights Out radio fame.A
nuclear bomb blast has wiped out all of the world’s population, save for five
souls who wander and ponder moralities, politics and the future’s gloomy future
prospects.It might have been best to
include Five on Mill Creek’s sister
set to this Thriller release, Sci-Fi from the Vault.
In truth, my first reaction when scanning this set’s
packaging was wonderment why a 1950’s film such as Five was included in this set of 1940s horror-mystery programmers?There are several 1940’s pictures from the Columbia
vault that would have better fit this Thriller
set thematically and chronologically:Will
Jason’s Soul of the Monster (1944)
and Henry Levin’s Cry of the Werewolf
(1944), for starters.The former title
was issued as a Columbia Classics made-on-demand DVD in 2011.To my knowledge, the only official release of
the latter was on a Goodtime VHS tape – issued way back in 1989 – it’s well
past due for a digital re-freshening.
So what’s the verdict?The films look great for their age, with minor speckling and scratches
here and there, but nothing too distracting.It’s a mixed bag if we’re to contrast this Mill Creek U.S. issue with Eureka’s
UK handsome Blu-ray set Karloff at Columbia.If you’re a US fan without a multi-region Blu
ray player than the Mill Creek set should more than satisfy.There are more than a handful of worthy extras
on the Mill Creek set.The primary bonus
is the forty-minute long doc Madness and
Mayhem: Columbia Horror in the ‘30s and ‘40s which features historian C.
Courtney Joyner discussing the studio’s involvement in the horror trade.
Five of the eight films on the Mill Creek feature audio
commentaries: Dr. Steve Haberman (The
Black Room), C. Courtney Joyner and Heath Holland (The Man They Could Not Hang), Tom Weaver (The Devil Commands and Five),
the Monster Party Podcast group (The
Boogie Man Will Get You) and Larry Blamire (Five.) And, of course, the
Mill Creek set gives you the added bonus of two extra features.On the downside, the four Mill Creek discs share
space on two spindles – on my copy the discs frequently dislodge.This will surely not make fussier collectors
happy.
If you are a particularly devoted fan with region-free
Blu-ray capabilities, Eureka’s Karloff at
Columbia (a limited edition of 3000 copies) might still be considered for
your collection as the six films featured on that set comes with fresh
commentaries separate of those found on this Mill Creek set.The Eureka release also contains an
informative booklet featuring the musings of author Stephen Jacobs (Boris Karloff: More than a Monster),
film critic Jon Towlson and film scholar and University lecturer Craig Ian
Mann.Eureka also includes audio of
four Inner Sanctum radio broadcast
programs (1945-1952), all featuring Karloff.So, as Karloff the sinister might say, it’s upon you to “choose your
poison.”
To coincide with Paramount Home Video's new 4K release of the 1986 film Dragonslayer, Cinema Retro's Todd Garbarini caught up with the film's director, Matthew Robbins.
By Todd Garbarini
Matthew Robbins is a film director whose experience in the
industry goes back over fifty years. Born in New York City and a graduate of
Johns Hopkins University in 1965 with a BA in Romance Languages, he formed
friendships with Academy Award-winning film editor and sound mixer Walter Murch
(The Godfather, 1972) and Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Caleb
Deschanel (The Black Stallion, 1979). While a student pursuing his MFA
at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles, he met future film director
George Lucas who enlisted Mr. Robbins to work on his student film, Electronic
Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB (1967), which was later made into the feature film THX
1138 starring Robert Duvall and Donald Pleasence.
Well into his mid-twenties when he came into The New
Hollywood (aka the American New Wave or Hollywood Renaissance), his
professional career began during one of the most original and fruitful decades
in American Cinema, the 1970s. Along with his USC writing partner Hal Barwood,
they scripted the real-life 1969 escapades of ex-convict Robert “Bobby” Dent,
22, and his wife, Ila Fae Dent, 21, into The Sugarland Express, hailed
by New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael as “one of the most phenomenal debut
films in the history of movies,” as directed by Steven Spielberg and released
in 1974. Both Mr. Robbins and Mr. Barwood made brief appearances as two of the
World War II pilots returning to Earth from the mothership in Mr. Spielberg’s Close
Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).
After writing The Bingo Long Travelling All-Stars and
Motor Kings (1976) and MacArthur (1977), Mr. Robbins made his
directorial debut while co-writing Corvette Summer (1978), a comedy that
pitted Mark Hamill and Annie Potts against a ring of car thieves. Next, he
embarked on his most audacious outing yet – the fantasy film Dragonslayer,
the second film made a co-production with Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney
after Robert Altman’s Popeye in 1980. Starring Peter MacNicol as Galen,
apprentice to the wizard Ulrich (Sir Ralph Richardson), who must battle the
dragon Vermithrax Pejorative following Ulrich’s death, Dragonslayer has
had a poor representation on home video over the decades. All that has changed
now, thankfully, as Paramount Home Video has restored and released the film in
native 4K Ultra High Definition on Blu-ray and Standard Blu-ray. The result is
glorious. I spoke with Mr. Robbins recently about this new restoration.
Todd Garbarini: Dragonslayer
is one of my favorite movies from childhood. I fell in love with Merian C.
Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack’s King Kong from 1933 and had seen a lot
of the Ray Harryhausen stop-motion films prior to that. When I saw your film, I
thought, “Wow, they really have come a long way.” I was so impressed with the almost
seamless juxtaposing of the special effects and the live action and full-size
dragon. In the years since, I’ve had the film on every conceivable home video
format, but the picture always seemed very dark and murky, even the letterboxed
laserdisc. The new 4K UHD Blu-ray is just so beautiful, you can now really
enjoy the amazing production design, cinematography, gadgetry, matte paintings
and the incredible Vermithrax Pejorative, a dragon so bad-ass that he has a
surname!
Matthew Robbins: Yes! I have been very carefully
avoiding seeing this movie for about forty years because it looked so wretched.
They worked so many miracles with the new technologies of today to fix one
egregious problem after another (on the new 4K release). So, the fact that you are
so conscious of the difference here before and after, it means a lot.
TG: I would say it almost looks even better
than it did in the theater. Any movie that requires this amount of visual
design to create a world that does not exist, the intricacies and nuances, the optical
effects, the matte paintings and the go-motion with blur, it is truly an art
and collaborative effort. I am a real proponent of the real-world special
effects. I have loved reading Cinefex, Cinefantastique, Starlog and Fangoria
for decades and it is amazing how much time and effort goes into a film such as
this. It is very gratifying to see these movies get their due as none of them
have ever been properly represented on home video due to the limitations
inherent in those technologies. It is wonderful that younger audiences can
really benefit from seeing Dragonslayer in this new 4K ultra high
definition. It is my understanding that this movie got the go-ahead because of the
popularity of the Dungeons & Dragons imagination game.
MR: That’s right. When Hal Barwood and I
drummed up this story, we had been very much present when George Lucas was
creating ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) for Star Wars in 1976 when it
was being set up at the warehouse in Van Nuys with John Dykstra. We were at
that facility, and then he brought it up to Kerner Boulevard, here in Marin (County) where I live, and we
specifically created Dragonslayer to get all that horsepower attached to
something other than star fields and spaceships. So, it was like turning loose
Phil Tippett! Dennis Muren was super charged up because he got a new sandbox to
play in. In terms of what you mentioned before, we were aware of Dungeons
& Dragons, but we weren’t playing the game.
TG: Neither was I! I have no idea why,
either. I loved fantasy, and close friends of mine were very much into it, but
I just was never asked by them. I did love the 1978 Ralph Bakshi cartoon of The
Lord of the Rings with that wonderful score by Leonard Rosenman.
MR: Well, speaking of Lord of the Rings,
Hal was very influenced by Tolkien. He was a fan of Lord of the Rings and
got me acquainted, and I thought it was great.
TG: So many people have been influenced by
Tolkien. George R.R. Martin credits him for his Games of Thrones novels.
MR: Exactly! I was a big fan of Fantasia
with Mickey Mouse and the sorcerer. So, there’s that, and so we combined all
those elements, and then we went out with our agent to find a buyer for this
thing. While we were waiting, he came back with this news that both Paramount
and Walt Disney were both interested. Our first meeting about the film was with
Michael Eisner, who was the president of Paramount at the time. He pointed to
his desk, and he had a stack of scripts about dragons that they had tried to
develop based on their awareness of the Dungeons & Dragons game. So,
the fact that people were playing that game in droves really helped us get the
project off the ground. As far as I know, people still play it. That’s some of
the origins of Dragonslayer.
TG: Was that a long process in your
opinion, to your recollection, or did it all kind of come together fairly
quickly?
MR: It came together fairly quickly compared
to, say, (Guillermo Del Toro’s) Pinocchio.
TG: I had spoken to Robert Wise in February
1994 about my favorite film of his, 1963’s The Haunting, and he talked
about Elliot Scott, his production designer. He did such wonderful work on that
film, as well as Arabian Adventure (1979), The Watcher in the Woods
(1980), Labyrinth (1986) and two of the Indiana Jones films. His
work on Dragonslayer was no less stunning.
MR: Oh, I’m so pleased you’re asking about him.
He was the dean of production designers. When we went over there to England to
put together a crew, everybody was busy. I had actually met some of the people
that George (Lucas) had used on Star Wars and Sir Ridley Scott had used
on Alien. And so, we were very ambitious, and they were all busy, and
they kept saying, “Why aren’t you in touch with Scotty?” I didn’t know who they
meant! Everyone else had been kind of either directly his acolytes or had been
influenced by him. He was a remarkably talented and experienced individual, and
this was only my second picture. He was one of those people whom I relied upon
and he helped me tremendously. He would say things like, “I’m gonna put this
here for you, and you can do the thing,” or “It’s not attached to the rest of
the castle, but then you have this here, and your transition is easy.” He took
me in hand. He was a senior presence and a very lovely man. I was quickly sort
of in awe of him, really. I remember when we had met and we talked about it,
and then I’d had a meeting with him in the art department at Pinewood (Studios),
where he was working, and he had a staff. He was a beloved figure and he came
in with rolls of paper. He put them out on the desk, and he had drawn some
preliminary ideas about how he thought we might have the interior of Ulrich’s
Castle. But, I had something else in mind, something very different.So,
I said, “Well, I don’t know if this is exactly what I want, because I thought
maybe…” and before I could even finish, he took all the papers and he crumpled
them up, and he threw them away. And he said, “All right, we’ll start over.” I
was just appalled because these beautiful drawings, you know, had just gone to
waste! I thought that we were going to discuss it! (laughs) He just
scrapped them! I still have a vivid memory of that. I felt very much like what
they call the imposter syndrome. How could I have done such a thing? He was one
of my favorite people on that movie.
TG: How about cinematographer Derek
Vanlint? He was a veteran of television commercials, just like Sir Ridley Scott
and they had done Alien together. He brought a wonderful and original look
to that film as well. Was he your first choice?
MR: Yes, and he had a cadre around him as
well. He was hard charging, very demanding. His nickname for me was “Pet”. (laughs)
He was a really gifted cinematographer. I was not experienced enough to know
when I was asking for the impossible. He tried to tell me now and then, “We’ll
get you as close as we can get.” He was remarkable. I had not had much
experience with using more than one camera on set at once. So, I learned,
sometimes to my dismay, that I wasn’t free to put the camera just anywhere,
once the master was lit. I learned a lot. You can tell it was my second movie, as
it was on a vastly bigger scale than my first film. I was running to keep up
sometimes.
TG: Were you a fan of movies growing up,
and do you recall the first movie you ever saw?
MR: I was afraid of movies when I was
growing up! I was very easily frightened by not even scary movies, but films that
had a lot of drama or suspense in them.
TG: I was, too. I remember hiding behind my
grandmother’s chair while a documentary on Alfred Hitchcock was on and there
was a scene playing from Dial M for Murder. My father had told me that
the strangler gets killed by a pair of scissors and I was beside myself.
MR: It made me very anxious. I can remember
when I was very little, my father was very interested in classical music, and
he had a lot of classical LPs. He would put on classical music and I would get
scared. They would say, “Well, what’s scary?” And I would say, “Well, this…,”
and the fact that music could have things in a minor key, an orchestra music, it
meant that it was a score to what was happening in the house! It was background
music to what we were living. So, if we were in the kitchen and the music was
in the living room, but my mother was at the stove or something in the kitchen,
I just felt that something terrible was going to happen because Dimitri Tiomkin
was behind this and it was portentous. I was very interested in movies, even
though I was very scared of them. I can’t remember literally the first movie I
ever saw, though. My neighbors had a television set, and I saw some movies
there, such as the Bela Lugosi movies. They were scary. I would leave and then
listen at the door. That’s what my grandson does today. One of my grandchildren
is exactly like me with regard to being afraid of movies. He’ll flee from the
room, and then he’ll linger because he can’t stop, you know?
TG: Are you going to show them Dragonslayer?
Caitlin Clarke was my introduction to the female form. (laughs)
MR:(laughs) My grandchildren are
too young to see Dragonslayer. (pauses) But one day, soon,
they’ll see it!
Click here to order 4K UHD Limited Edition Steelbook edition from Amazon
Click here to order regular 4K UHD edition from Amazon
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Paramount Home Video:
Get
ready to roll out with the AUTOBOTS and their human allies as they defend the
world from the evil DECEPTICONS with a Limited-Edition SteelBook™ set featuring
six blockbuster TRANSFORMERS movies on 4K Ultra HD™!Debuting May 30, 2023, this out-of-this-world
collection arrives just in time for fans to catch up on all of the thrilling
adventures before the newest chapter, TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS, arrives
in theatres on June 9th.
The
TRANSFORMERS 6-Movie SteelBook Collection includes TRANSFORMERS, TRANSFORMERS:
REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON, TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF
EXTINCTION, TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT and BUMBLEBEE all in eye-popping 4K
Ultra HD.Each film is presented in a
separate SteelBook with the feature on 4K Ultra HD Disc plus a Blu-ray Disc™
with legacy bonus content.All six
SteelBooks are housed in a striking magnetic slipcase that also includes a
collectible decal and access to Digital copies of each film.
The
TRANSFORMERS film franchise ranks among the biggest of all time, having earned
over $4.8 billion at the global box office.
Bonus
content included in the TRANSFORMERS 6-Movie SteelBook Collection is as
follows:
TRANSFORMERS
Disc
1 - 4K Ultra HD
Feature
Film
Commentary
by director Michael Bay
Disc
2 – Blu-ray
Our
World
Their
War
More
Than Meets The Eye
TRANSFORMERS:
REVENGE OF THE FALLEN
Disc
1 - 4K Ultra HD
Feature
Film
Commentary
by Michael Bay, Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
Disc
2 – Blu-ray
The
Human Factor: Exacting Revenge of the Fallen
A
Day with Bay: Tokyo
25
Years of TRANSFORMERS
NEST:
TRANSFORMER Data Hub
Deconstructing
Visual Bayhem
Deleted/Alternate
Scenes
The
AllSpark Experiment
Giant
Effing Movie
Linkin
Park – New Divide
The
Matrix of Marketing
TRANSFORMERS:
DARK OF THE MOON
Disc
1 - 4K Ultra HD
Feature
Film
Disc
2 – Blu-ray
Above
and Beyond: Exploring Dark of the Moon
Uncharted
Territory: NASA’s Future Then and Now
Deconstructing
Chicago: Multi-Angle Sequences
The
Art of Cybertron
The
Dark of the Moon Archive
The
Matrix of Marketing
TRANSFORMERS:
AGE OF EXTINCTION
Disc
1 - 4K Ultra HD
Feature
Film
Disc
2 – Blu-ray
Bay
on Action
Evolution
Within Extinction—The Making of TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION
Just
Another Giant Effin’ Movie
A
Spark of Design
T.J.
Miller: Farm Hippie
Trailers
TRANSFORMERS:
THE LAST KNIGHT
Disc
1 - 4K Ultra HD
Feature
Film
Disc
2 – Blu-ray
Merging
Mythologies
Climbing
the Ranks
The
Royal Treatment: TRANSFORMERS in the UK
Motors
and Magic
Alien
Landscape: Cybertron
One
More Giant Effin’ Movie
BUMBLEBEE
Disc
1 - 4K Ultra HD
Feature
Film
Disc
2 – Blu-ray
Feature
Film
Sector
7 Archive
Deleted
and Extended Scenes
Outtakes
Bee
Vision: The TRANSFORMERS Robots of Cybertron
Bringing
BUMBLEBEE to the Big Screen
TRANSFORMERS—PG-13
for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief sexual humor, and
language
TRANSFORMERS:
REVENGE OF THE FALLEN—PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence,
language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material
TRANSFORMERS:
DARK OF THE MOON—PG-13 for intense prolonged sequences of sci-fi action
violence, mayhem and destruction, and for language, some sexuality and innuendo
TRANSFORMERS:
AGE OF EXTINCTION—PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action,
language and brief innuendo
TRANSFORMERS:
THE LAST KNIGHT—PG-13 for violence and intense sequences of sci-fi action,
language, and some innuendo
BUMBLEBEE—PG-13
for sequences of sci-fi action violence
The
Asphyx Will Rip You Apart…The Asphyx
Will Invade Your Mind… The Asphyx Will Destroy Your Soul… If It Were In Your
Power… Would You Sacrifice Your Wife… Your Children For Immortality?
The answers to the questions posed above by the
advertising campaign for Peter Newbrook’s The
Asphyx (1972) was a resounding “yes.”As the gifted but obsessed psychic-research scientist Hugo Cunningham, celebrated
British actor Robert Stephens puts everyone in his family through the
proverbial ringer by film’s end.Such
single-minded research on his part is not accomplished without a measure of
personal guilt, mind you.But as a
curious man of science – and one obsessed with paranormal exploration -
Cunningham pushes forward determinedly with increasingly morbid experimentations.
Such “experiments” include the exhuming of his dead son
for some post-mortem testing, the photographing of a condemned man at a public
hanging, a self-administered electrocution, putting his daughter’s head through
a guillotine pillory and even willfully torturing a tubercular pauper.Hey, the last guy, a poorhouse resident, had
only forty-eight hours to live anyway… so he was fair game.
Like Shelley’s Dr. Frankenstein, Cunningham is a man driven
by obsession.Appearing before members
of the Psychic Research Society, the scientist presents to colleagues a series
of slides depicting a trio of unfortunates photographed at the precise moment
of their deaths.Each photograph has a
“smudge” present, a sort of phantasmagorical protoplasmic image hovering
nearby.It’s Cunningham’s theory that
the image is an Asphyx, a creature of Greek mythology.The Asphyx is a visual manifestation of one’s
tortured “soul the moment it departs the body.”It’s the scientists’ belief that if one could pre-emptively isolate and
imprison the Asphyx prior to expiration, that person might carry on as an
immortal.This appears to be
Cunningham’s endgame interest.
Though adopted son Giles (Robert Powell) is wary of his
father’s dark experiments (“This isn’t science!” he warns), he begrudgingly
becomes one-half of Cunningham’s research team – to disastrous results as one
might expect.Since Cunningham, to his
credit I guess, puts his own life on
the line in pursuit of science and immortality, it seems only fair to him that
members of the family do the same - and without complaint.Which certainly makes the case that, on some occasions,
father doesn’t know best.
Cameras began rolling on the The Asphyx on Monday, February 7, 1972, at Surrey, England’s Shepperton
Studios.Shooting wrapped a mere five
weeks following first photography. The film was to be helmed by first time
director Peter Newbrook, a former cameraman and cinematographer who boasted a filmography
dating back to the early 1940s.The film
certainly looks great, even if the
pacing of Newbrook’s direction is somewhat suspect.The Academy Award-winning Cinematographer
Freddie Young (B.S.C.) - of Lawrence of
Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, The Battle of Britain and You Only Live Twice fame - would use the newish Todd-AO 35mm
anamorphic system to great effect.In
many respects, Newbrook’s The Asphyx
is of similar construct to such British parlour-horror films being churned out
by Hammer and Amicus in the late 1960s/early 1970s.
The question now was whether or not a Victorian-era set horror
picture would make any money in 1972?The horror biz was already moving away from stately, moody gothic films to
more exploitative blood-splattered fare. Nevertheless, upon the film’s completion,
it was announced The Asphyx was to be
distributed in the British market by Scotia-Barber.On week later, Variety reported that Martin Grasgreen, President of Paragon
Pictures, had managed a deal with Glendale Film Productions (London) to handle
distribution of The Asphyx in both the
U.S. and Canada.In early winter of
1972, Paragon already had a number of exploitative horror-thrillers in release,
including Blood Suckers, Blood Thirst and Death by Invitation.
In August of 1972 the Independent
Film Journal announced that The
Asphyx, described as a “science-fiction suspense thriller,” would be
released the following month, the first of twenty-two films that Paragon had
waiting in the queue.Box Office promised the film would be
the recipient of “an extensive national advertising and promotion campaign,”
with “key theater” roll-outs in Dallas, New Orleans, New York City,
Philadelphia and Washington D.C.
Upon its September release, Variety noted The Asphyx
was – welcomingly - bucking the recent trend of blood and gore horrors:
Newbrook had intentionally delivered a more “cerebral” or “thinking man’s
horror film.”Acknowledging the film was
well cast and beautifully photographed, the trade review did rue that Brian Comport’s
verbiage-laden screenplay was slow going and riddled with historical
improbabilities. Other critics noted Robert Stephen’s mad scientist was one
seemingly gifted with precognitive invention.
It was true.As The Asphyx is set in the year 1875, scientist
Cunningham had somehow managed to prefigure such mechanical appliances as the
first motion picture camera (not actually developed until 1888) and an electric
chair (not developed into the early 1880s).To the credit of Box Office,
the trade paper cautiously suggested that, “Selling the film as a monster movie
would not be to its advantage: a more intelligent approach to sci-fi fans is
indicated.”I imagine “less-intelligent”
monster movie fans might have shifted restlessly in their seats back in ’72, awaiting
even the mildest of jump-scares.
The
Asphyx was the fourth and final of writer Brian Comport’s
screenplays to be produced.His first screenwriting
effort, Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly
(Cinerama Releasing Corp., 1970), was an out-and-out freaky and grisly
exploitation film.Technically speaking,
Girly wasn’t a completely original
invention of Comport’s.The original
story was loosely based on the stage play Happy
Family (aka All Fall Down) by the
novelist and BBC radio playwright Maisie Mosco.His second screen credit was a co-authorship with director Pete Walker
on Man of Violence (later re-titled The Sex Racketeers).That film was a convoluted and overly talky
international-gold smuggling-racketeer-caper-thriller with a pronounced sixties
swagger.
In one of those local-lad-makes-good-type newspaper
items, journalist Anthony Cardew of the Surrey
Mirror and County Post, shared an hour with Comport, then basking in the
success of his industry breakthrough with Mumsy,
Nanny, Sonny and Girly.“I was
offered a script which a producer wanted lived up,” the writer told
Cardew.“He wanted a bit more action or
something.I took the script apart and
rewrote it completely.I added new
characters, took some out and changed the thing entirely.I wrote it in note form, just suggesting the
way I thought it should go.”
The producer was pleased with Comport’s revised scenario
and formally commissioned him to draft a new screenplay, in the scripters own
words, “from the beginning, according to my own ideas.”With the film in production, Comport was also
approached by a representative from London’s Sphere books to turn his
screenplay into a novelization, a six-week effort bringing in a bit of extra
cash.
Many film critics found Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly – later retitled simply as Girly –aggressively unpleasant in its
lurid, sexually suggestive subject matter - and decidedly distasteful in its depiction
of depravity and violence.One critic would
unflatteringly suggest Comport as a leading “candidate for sickest mind of the
year award.” Another nonplussed reviewer thought the film as “Theater of the
absurd… absurdly vicious.”
Scolding reviews aside, Comport’s star seemed to be on
the rise.In October of 1970, only shortly
following the release of Mumsy, Nanny,
Sonny and Girly, production had already started on Robert Hartford-Davis’
thriller Beware My Brethren (Cinerama
Releasing Corp., 1972) also from a Comport script.Things then cooled for an interim but, following
a year or so of film-work drought, Comport was back with The Asphyx.
Though Comport’s script – adapted from a story provided
by Christina and Laurence Beers – would appropriate more than a few elements from
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Independent Film Journal interestinglysuggested The Asphyx was of similar construct to William Castle’s B-movie
classic The Tingler (1959):“There
too a visible spirit of sorts popped up; but that one was of fear rather than
death.” Though some wondered why a
classically-trained actor of Robert Stephens’s caliber would agree to appear in
a film clearly beneath his station, the former board-trotter of the Royal
National Theatre thought The Asphyx “rather
good.”He told journalist Neville Nisse
of Staffordshire’s Evening Sentinel, “I
really enjoyed making it because I liked the script and the people
involved.”
The Asphyx performed
reasonably well at the box office – not boffo perhaps, but reasonably well.So much so
that in January of 1973, Paragon announced they were going to enter into a
co-production deal with Glendale for two additional features.Paragon would, of course, retain all U.S.
distribution rights, but would now also share in a generous slice of a film’s
international profit.When U.S. box
office receipts measurably dipped following the film’s initial run, The Asphyx was often paired on the
secondary market with other indie horrors:Night of the Living Dead, Son of Blob and Blood Suckers among them.
(Variety trade advertisement)
In Australia, The
Asphyx was given the more compelling title Spirit of the Dead, the adverts teasing an audience confrontation
with “The Horror That Lurks Halfway Between Heaven and Hell!” The campaign
posters for Spirit of the Dead featured
accompanying artwork promising a more ghoulish monster than the film would deliver.The Asphyx
would also enjoy a sustained life in the United Kingdom.Exploitatively re-titled The Horror of Death on its re-release, the film would play in cinemas
throughout the 1970s.It was often
incongruously paired on multi-bills with such chop-socky fare as Kung Fu Virgins and The Angry Dragon.
This 2023 Kino Lorber Studio Classics edition of The Asphyx replaces the Kino/Redemption
Films co-issue of 2012.The only really new
“Special Features” offered is the commentary track provided by film historians
Kim Newman and Stephen Jones and six trailers promoting other Kino
Product.This new edition is also
packaged in a protective slipcase that mimics the artwork of the case
insert.Both the 86 minute U.K.
theatrical cut and 99 minute U.S. expanded cut are made available to view.But, as the package warns, the
“reconstruction of the extended version blends HD footage mastered from the
35mm negative with SD footage mastered from the U.S. release print.” The
changes in visual quality are very significant as forewarned.
For the record, I watched the extended version.Though the inclusion of an additional
thirteen minutes is welcome, these extra fragments are of no great
interest.In fact, it’s possible the added
running time further slows down a film already in desperate need of judicious
editing.Newbrook’s direction is
competent, but Comport’s screenplay is weighed down by too many sermons: the
film’s main characters continually perseverate on the moral misguiding’s of
Cunningham’s tampering with spiritual and life-and-death issues.Such hand-wringing tires after a while.Having said all this, The Asphyx is an interesting film, if far from a forgotten classic.While aficionados of British horror should
certainly add the title to their watch list, it might be best to screen the
film with muted expectation.
Scores
of modestly budgeted, black-and-white Noir movies about gangsters, cops,
private eyes, and murderous love affairs were produced in France in the 1950s,
but only a few crossed the Atlantic in dubbed prints.Some were dumped in second-run movie houses,
where they were often labeled and advertised “for adults only,” emphasising
their sexual content (tame now but steamy back then, when TV routinely depicted
married couples in separate beds).I
discussed one such Noir, released in France in 1959 as “Du Rififi Chez Les
Femmes” and in the U.S. in 1962 as “Riff Raff Girls,” HERE.In the later ‘60s, others were bundled with
other foreign B-movies for broadcast on local television stations, hardly a
prestigious showcase either.Coming off
the midnight shift, a bleary-eyed factory worker might see the end of an Eddie
Constantine movie with mediocre dubbing in a late-nite time slot, just before
the station signed off for the night.With a mug that looked like a bad night on the town, Eddie was even more
popular than Humphrey Bogart in the France of the Charles De Gaulle era, but
his tough-guy pictures as wisecracking, two-fisted FBI agent Lemmy Caution
hardly made a ripple here.To the extent
Constantine and Caution are remembered in the U.S. at all, it’s because Eddie
reprised the role in Jean-Luc Godard’s “Alphaville” (1965).But “Alphaville,” although wonderful, was a
New Wave absurdist parody and not part of the original series.
Only
with the advent of home video and social media since the 1990s have films like
“Touchez Pas au Grisbi” (1954), “Bob Le Flambeur” (1956), “Any Number Can Win”
(1963), and “Le Circle Rouge” (1970) been rescued from obscurity, packaged with
care, and re-evaluated by a modern, more receptive audience.With many more pictures of this type yet to
be rediscovered and restored, the release of “French Noir Collection” on
Blu-ray is a step in the right direction.The Kino Lorber Studio Classics set includes three dramas that will be
new to all but the most tenacious fans of the genre.
In
“Speaking of Murder” (1957), Louis Bertain (Jean Gabin) seems to be a stolid,
middle-aged Parisian whose garage caters to high-end customers.The appearance is deceiving.Louis, an ambitious high roller, needs more
money than the garage earns.He makes it
as the leader of a four-man theft ring, targeting deliveries of cash and
securities at banks. The robberies are
grab-and-run jobs, based on insider tips about delivery schedules, and
carefully planned with the exacting attention to detail that fans expect from
stories like this about heists.Louis
and his partners Fredo, Pepito, and Raymond have been together for more than
ten years, but fractures have begun to appear.The volatile Pepito (Lino Ventura) distrusts Fredo, who developed a bad
case of the shakes on their last job.Worse,Pepito also has suspicious
eyes on Louis’ younger brother, Pierre (Marcel Bozzuffi), a petty offender
vulnerable to police pressure.For good
measure, Louis is determined to retire after the next job, and we know how that
usually turns out in gangster pictures.With a sliced-to-the-bone plot and almost documentarian black-and-white
cinematography on the streets of Paris, the film is as good as the genre gets,
even if it is saddled with a lacklustre title, apparently tacked on for release
in English-speaking markets back in the day.“Speaking of Murder’ would lead you to expect a sedate episode of “Columbo”
or “Murder,
She Wrote,” not a hardboiled heist drama like this one.The original French title, “Le Rouge Est Mis,” or “The Red Is On” (referring
to the light that comes on outside Louis’ garage when the gang meets there)
isn’t any more compelling in direct translation.If Marcel Bozzuffi looks familiar, you
probably remember his later role in a much more famous crime drama.In “The French Connection” (1971), the
prolific French actor played Pierre Nicoli or “Frog Two,” the sniper who flees
from Gene Hackman’s Popeye Doyle in William Friedkin’s iconic car and train
chase.
The
other two films in the Kino Lorber set follow the pattern of James M. Cain’s
“The Postman Always Rings Twice” and “Double Indemnity,” in which murder
results when one spouse cheats on another with an extramarital lover.In “Back to the Wall” (original title, “Le
Dos au Mur,” 1958), Jacques (Gerard Oury), a wealthy construction tycoon,
discovers that his wife Gloria (Jeanne Moreau) has resumed an old affair with
Yves, a small-time actor.The vengeful
millionaire assumes a false identity to blackmail the lovers and humiliate his
errant wife.He doesn’t need the
blackmail payments; he just wants to see her squirm.It isn’t a spoiler to note that Yves is
murdered in the course of the scheme, since the film opens with Jacques
disposing of his body.We presume that
the millionaire was the murderer, but if so, how does that square with his
extortion game, once it begins to unfold in a long back story we follow through
Jacques’ eyes?In “Witness in the City”
(“Un Témoin Dans La Ville,” 1959), another millionaire, Pierre, kills his
mistress Jeanne by throwing her off a moving train.In turn, Jeanne’s husband Ancelin (Lino
Ventura again—the Roy Scheider of French crime pictures) murders Pierre after
the millionaire is acquitted in court for Jeanne’s death.Ancelin thinks he’s committed the perfect
crime when he makes Pierre’s death scene look like a suicide instead of a
murder, but as someone tells him, “No crime is perfect.”Ancelin becomes desperate when a cab driver
sees him outside Pierre’s house, just before the dead man’s body is found. Since the driver was a witness, Ancelin
decides he has to get rid of him too.The film reaches for the tension of an Alfred Hitchcock or Fritz Lang
picture as Ancelin stalks the cabby, but doesn’t quite succeed; but then,
nobody ever quite matched Hitchcock or Lang.Still, both it and “Back to the Wall” will be welcomed by suspense fans
in search of obscure works in the genre, and both benefit from glistening
nighttime scenes in actual Parisian locations.Nostalgists will enjoy the wet streets and neon at actual locations, the
Midcentury interiors, trenchcoats—plenty of trenchcoats—and classic product
placements in all three films.When was
the last time, if ever, you saw an Esso sign?
The
three movies, licensed from Gaumont Films, are presented in sharp, restored
prints, with French voice tracks and crisp English subtitles.One of the two discs in the set contains
“Speaking of Murder” alone, and the second contains the other two films.Trailers for “Speaking of Murder” and “Back
to the Wall” are included.The Blu-ray
can be ordered HERE.
Now,
when can we see a Lemmy Caution Collection of comparable quality?
Fred Blosser is the author of "Sons of Ringo: The Great Spaghetti Western Heroes". Click here to order from Amazon)
Orchestra
Performs Collection of His Most Memorable Works
With
Select Scores Accompanied by Film Clips
Ken-David
Masur Conducts in His NY Phil Debut
Williams
Himself To Take the Podium
Special
Appearance by Steven Spielberg
Wu Tsai Theater, David Geffen Hall, April 25, 2023
The New York
Philharmonic celebrates the career of John Williams in its Spring Gala: Celebrating
John Williams, April 25, 2023,at the Wu Tsai Theater, David
Geffen Hall. Conductor Ken-David Masur, the son of the late NY Phil Music
Director Emeritus Kurt Masur, makes his debut with the Orchestra leading a
selection of Williams’s most memorable compositions. Williams himself conducts a
portion of the concert, and special guest Steven Spielberg, the director with
whom Williams has collaborated on 29 feature films, introduces some of these
selections, some of them performed live as film clips are projected above the
stage.
Gala events
include a cocktail reception from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on the Leon and Norma
Hess Grand Promenade; premium seating for the concert, which begins at 7:30
p.m.; and a seated dinner immediately following the performance, attended by
the artists, also on the Hess Grand Promenade. Gala dress will be cocktail
attire. The Honorary Gala Chair is Steven Spielberg. The Gala Co-Chairs are
Kristen and Alexander Klabin, Harold Mitchell AC, James L. and Margo M.
Nederlander, and Carol and Chuck Schaefer.
Tickets Tickets
to New York Philharmonic performances may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling (212)
875-5656, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday; 1:00 p.m. to 6:00
p.m. Saturday; and noon to 5:00 p.m. Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased at the
Welcome Center at David Geffen Hall. The Welcome Center opens at 10:00
a.m. Monday through Saturday, and at noon on Sunday. On performance evenings,
the Welcome Center closes one-half hour after performance time; other evenings
it closes at 6:00 p.m.
Availability for the Spring Gala: Celebrating
John Williams is limited.
For
more information about the entire Gala evening, which includes a cocktail
reception, the 7:30 p.m. concert, and a post-concert dinner, please call the
Office of Special Events at (646) 661-2471, or email specialevents@nyphil.org.
For
press tickets, contact Lanore Carr at (212) 875-5714 or carrl@nyphil.org.
Event Listing
SPRING GALA: CELEBRATING JOHN
WILLIAMS
Wu Tsai
Theater, David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center
Tuesday,
April 25, 2023, 7:30 p.m.
Ken-David Masur, Conductor (New
York Philharmonic debut)
John Williams, conductor
Steven Spielberg, special guest
The
New York Philharmonic performs a selection of Williams’s most memorable
compositions, including selections from the scores to Raiders of the Lost
Ark, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park, along
with other works.
ALL PROGRAMS SUBJECT TO CHANGE
Programs
are made possible, in part, by the New
York State Council on the Arts with the
support
of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
In this excerpt from the U.S. PBS series, "Pioneers of Television", Peter Graves discusses his long career from "B" sci-fi movies to his success on "Mission: Impossible" and even his comedic appearance in the "Airplane!" feature film. He also chats about the career of his brother, James Arness, another true icon of television.
"Good Day for a Hanging" is minor 1959 color Western elevated by an unusually intelligent script and an impressive cast of veteran actors and a couple of up-and-comers who would find stardom in the 1960s. Fred MacMurray plays former town marshal Ben Cutler, a widower who is living a serene small town life in the company of his fiancee Ruth (Maggie Hayes) and his teenage daughter Laurie (Joan Blackman). Their peaceful existence is shattered when Laurie's former beau Eddie Campbell (Robert Vaughn) arrives in town in the company of some shady bandits. While Laurie tries to reignite the romance with Eddie, his companions are pulling off a robbery of the bank which goes wrong very quickly when a shootout ensues. Eddie and his companions flea the scene with a posse in hot pursuit led by Marshal Cain (Emile Meyer). Another shootout follows with some of the gang killed and others escaping with half the loot from the bank. In the melee, Ben witnesses Eddie fatally shooting Marshal Cain before Eddie is wounded and captured. When he is brought back to town, Eddie is nursed back to health, in part by Laurie, and admits the obvious- he took part in the robbery. However, he insists that he did not shoot the marshal and that he must have been hit by gunfire from another gang member. Ben knows this is untrue and tells the townspeople as much. He also reluctantly agrees to temporarily resume serving as town marshal until a permanent replacement can be found. Eddie is put on trial and plays the victim, recounting a hardscrabble upbringing and turning on the charm. Nevertheless, he is convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. From his jail cell, he can see the gallows being built. However, he begins to convince the townspeople that he is not guilty of murder and his death sentence should be changed to serving time in jail. Soon, many of the town's most prominent citizens are buying his story and they force Ben to take a petition bearing many signatures to the governor asking him to grant Eddie's request. Laurie, blinded by her romantic interest in Eddie, is his chief defender- a fact that causes Ben great consternation. Because this is a Western, there are dramatic developments that result in an action-packed climax.
What sets "Good Day for a Hanging" apart from many other minor Westerns of the period is the fact that it has a compelling and interesting script that touches upon sociological factors such as the ability of one person to manipulate many others, often against common sense, by using charisma and a strong will. Eddie has both and you can't help but be reminded of how many contemporary people, often in public service, are excused for all sorts of behavior simply because people find them personally likable or intimidating. Doubtless, there have been times when all of us have seen such scenarios and wondered how intelligent people can ignore established facts in their defense of someone whose actions are indefensible. In this case, Ben Cutler is 100% right in his testimony against Eddie but before long he is the odd man out, criticized and resented by the very people who only recently begged him to serve as marshal. Fred MacMurray gives a strong performance as the protagonist- a man who has lost the respect of his own daughter in her misguided quest to benefit a killer. Robert Vaughn gives an excellent, understated performance that allows the viewer to understand why he is able to win over so many townspeople.
It's interesting to analyze the career trajectories of several actors who appear in the film. Fred MacMurray had been going through somewhat of a minor career slump at the time but it would be short-lived. Later in 1959, he starred in his first Walt Disney movie, "The Shaggy Dog", which was a major hit. He would star in many other Disney films over the next decade. Additionally, he would give an outstanding performance as a misogynistic heel in Billy Wilder's Oscar winner, "The Apartment". Capping off his career turnaround, he would also star in the long-running sitcom "My Three Sons". Robert Vaughn would rise to stardom with his performance later that year in "The Young Philadelphians", earning an Oscar nomination for his work. That, in turn, led him to be cast as one of "The Magnificent Seven" and he would reach the level of international teen idol in the mid-Sixties due to his starring role in "The Man from U.N.C.L.E". Some of the fine character actors who would appear in the film would also find major success over the next few years. Howard McNear, who plays one of the prominent townsmen, would create his iconic comedic role as the eccentric Floyd the barber the next year in "The Andy Griffith Show". Denver Pyle, who plays deputy in the film, would also make periodic appearances in the show as the lovably loony hillbilly patriarch Briscoe Darling, as well as appear in two major John Wayne films, "The Horse Soldiers" and "The Alamo" before landing his most memorable role as Sheriff Frank Hammer in "Bonnie and Clyde". James Drury, who would go on to star in "The Virginian" TV series, also has a supporting role. Special mention should be made of Edmon Ryan, who is especially good, portraying Eddie's defense counsel. One more note of interest: the film was produced by Charles H. Schneer, a respected figure in the British film industry who was most often associated with the films of special effects master Ray Harryhausen.
The Sony DVD has a reasonably good transfer, if a bit soft. The only extras are original trailers for "Silverado" and "The Professionals", both on Sony Home Video. Strangely enough, the trailer for "Good Day for a Hanging" isn't included, but we found it on YouTube and are providing it here.
I don't want to exaggerate the merits of "Good Day for a Hanging". It isn't a great movie by any means, just a good Western- but it's loaded with fine actors who were on the cusp of major career successes.
ViaVision/Imprint is releasing the superb 1984 film "The Bounty" starring Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins as a limited edition (1500) Blu-ray. Here are the details:
THEY BEGAN THEIR EPIC VOYAGE AS
FRIENDS… IT ENDED IN HATRED AND BLOODSHED
William Bligh (Anthony Hopkins) was a
real-life sea captain who, in 1787, steered HMS Bounty on a 27,000 mile voyage
into danger, chaos and madness. After 31 days battling severe sea squalls and
Bligh’s ever-increasing cruelty, the weary crew is relieved to land on the
tropical island of Tahiti. But soon their tyrannical captain wants to set sail
again and the desperate men turn to first mate Fletcher Christian (Mel Gibson)
to help take the ship by force.
Originally, “The Bounty” was a
longstanding project of Director David Lean who ultimately left the project in
1981 and was replaced by Australian Director Roger Donaldson.
Starring: Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins,
Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson, Laurence Olivier, and Edward Fox.
Strictly Limited Edition Hardbox set
with unique artwork & booklet featuring the original press kit. 1500 copies
only.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Disc One:
1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from
a 4K scan of the original negative
Audio Commentary by director Roger Donaldson,
producer Bernard Williams, and production designer John Graysmark
Audio Commentary by historical consultant Stephen
Walters
Making of The Bounty – 1984 documentary narrated by Edward Fox
2004 Visual Essay narrated by Stephen Walters
Isolated Score (in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo)
Audio English DTS-HD 5.1 Surround + LPCM 2.0 Stereo
Original Aspect ratio 2.35:1
English subtitles
Disc Two: Bonus Disc
NEW Interview with Director Roger Donaldson
NEW Featurette on the history of film adaptations of “The Bounty“
NEW Featurette on the Vangelis film score
A Fated Ship – 1981 documentary surrounding the construction of
“The Bounty” replica ship and the early development of the film
In Bligh’s Wake – 1984 documentary charting the voyage from New
Zealand to Tahiti to deliver “The Bounty” replica for shooting the
film
NEW Interview with Maritime historian & film producer Stephen
Walters
NEW 90 min feature with the cast & crew
Any pre-order titles will be
dispatched in the week leading up to its aforementioned release date. Special
features and artwork are subject to change.
Note: Imprint limited editions tend to sell out quickly. The Blu-ray is Region-Free.
Keep in mind that prices are quoted in Australian dollars. Use a currency converter to see what the price is in your national currency.
Here is some rare footage of stars arriving for the Hollywood charity premiere of MGM's Cinerama classic "How the West Was Won". It's probably the only chance you'll ever get to see Walter Brennan clad in a tuxedo!
In early December of 1947 Box Office made note that producer Ben Stoloff’s Eagle Lion “film
factory” – an American arm of Britain’s Rank Organisation - was to begin production
of two new pictures.The first was Brooklyn U.S.A, a dramatic film to
recount the Ebbets Field barrier-shattering saga of Brooklyn Dodger Jackie
Robinson.The second was Bernard
Vorhaus’s The Spiritualist, a mystery
to serve as a starring vehicle for Turhan Bey, the suave actor having recently been
released from his contract at Universal.December of ’47 had already been a busy period for Eagle Lion, the
company having rushed through the noir
crime-dramas The Cobra Strikes and Assigned to Danger. Stoloff assured the studio would remain busy following
the holidays.Principal photography on The Spiritualist was scheduled to
commence in January of 1948.
The primary castings for The Spiritualist were soon being announced in the trades.Lynn Bari was cast in the principal role of Christine
Faber, a grieving well-to-do widow who lives in a sprawling mansion on the Pacific
cliffs.Her proximity to the ocean is a
mixed blessing.Faber hears the ghostly voice
of her beloved dead husband Paul (Donald Curtis) – reportedly killed in a fiery
automobile accident -rolling in with the evening tide.The role of the lawyer Martin Abbott, the
kind current paramour of the widow Faber, was filled on January 10 when it was
announced that Richard Carlson had been cast as the “top male” in the feature.
The earliest scenario of The Spiritualist was drafted by Crane Wilbur, a journeyman writer-director-actor-playwright
who had been kicking around Hollywood since the silent era.Muriel Roy Bolton was commissioned to write
the screenplay from Crane’s treatment.Director
Vorhaus thought the ideas behind The
Spiritualist intriguing, but was of the opinion Bolton’s script lacked
“characterization and humor.”The
screenplay’s absence of humor was odd, especially as Bolton was primarily known
for her scripting of several “Henry Aldrich” comedies of the 1940s.In any case, Vorhaus belatedly brought Brit Ian
McLellan Hunter onto the project. Vorhaus was familiar with Hunter’s work: the
two had collaborated on a trio of films in the years 1939-1940.In Vorhaus’s memory, Hunter’s reworking of
the script necessitated the drafted scenarist to labor a full week’s time,
working both “day and night,” to tidy and tighten things up.
The basic premise of The
Spiritualist was Christine’s falling for the con of the flimflamming
trickster known simply as “Alexis” (Turhan Bey).Taking advantage of his grieving clients,
Alexis – whose calling card advertises his services as “Psychic Consultant” -
uses all sorts of supernatural malarkey to convince his clientele that he
possesses “secrets of the outer world.”Amongst his subterfuges to gain “insight” into his patsies is a rigged
spirit cabinet, a closed-circuit television monitor, wire recorders, room
temperature regulators, and projection cameras.He even secrets an earpiece beneath his turban, a hidden confederate
slipping him information from a remote location.
The influence of Alexis’s “readings” on the emotionally-distressed
Christine raises the concern – and suspicion – of boyfriend Martin and Faber’s younger
sister, Janet (Cathy O’Donnell).They
hire a private detective (Harry Mendoza) to investigate the background of this
alleged “spookchaser.” But there’s a second, and more nefarious, development they
miss entirely.They soon learn that the emotional
manipulation of Christine is more than a simple money-grabbing swindle.The initial ruse serves only as a prelude to a
far darker plan orchestrated by a second mysterious figure in the shadows.
Just as The
Spiritualist was starting production, a United Press Hollywood
correspondent reported that the office of producer Stoloff was under
siege.Hundreds of phone calls and
letters were – reportedly – pouring in from enraged members of the National
Associations of American Spiritualists as well as from other devout
practitioners.It’s hard to separate the
reality from the ballyhoo of such reporting, but Stoloff allegedly tried to salve
the fears of complainants by assuring his film was only interested in exposing
“crooked” mediums, not all.But a
secretary at Eagle Lion suggested the angry spiritualists were not easily
appeased.She reported that, “Mr.
Stoloff’s received countless letters placing a ‘hex’ on him.”
On May Day of 1948, it was announced The Spiritualist was to be released on July 7, the trades
trumpeting the Hollywood’s summer schedule of 1948 was shaping up to be a more
profitable season than that of the previous year.(In actuality, the film’s release appears to
have been pushed back to early August).In any case, the “hex” put on the film seems to have been at least
partly successful.Though Variety was impressed, describing the
picture as “a whale of a yarn,” “expertly directed” and featuring “topflight
performances,” exhibitors and audiences seemed nonplussed as the film rolled
out regionally across the U.S. and overseas throughout 1948-1949.
London’s
Picturegoer thought the film, a “Poor spiritualistic
melodrama, wholly unconvincing, with the artists concerned completely at sea
owing to the ineffectiveness of both characterization and direction.”One exhibitor told Box Office sighed that while The
Spiritualist had attracted only an “average draw” during screenings, he
thought the film deserved better.It was,
in his opinion, well done if perhaps reminiscent of that same year’s noir Sleep, My Love featuring Claudette
Colbert and Robert Cummings.
The producers of The
Spiritualist – mindful of their accounting ledgers - were of the surprised opinion
that such superstitious belief in mediums and séances was more deeply entrenched
than anyone guessed.So, in February of 1949
with plenty of markets still unvisited, Eagle Lion made a decision to re-title The Spiritualist to The Amazing Mr. X.In the
end, the name change did not appear to make much of a difference at the box
office.By May of 1949 the film was
still on the circuit but still not doing particularly well.
One Kentucky-based exhibitor decried the picture’s walk-up
business as “simply awful.”He also
opined the film’s lack of dramatic action – as well as “poor” sound and too-dark
photography - was to blame.He counseled
other “small town exhibitors” to “lay off this one” as it “laid an egg at the
box office.”With the film was still
making the rounds in August of ‘49, other exhibitors complained the picture,
while generally solid, was “too talky in parts and the sound was very
low.”It was thought the spiritualism hoax
was given up to early in the film, removing any sense of a suspenseful reveal.Both were valid criticisms.It’s true that most of the films on-screen
time was consigned to intimate parlour discussions.
The film suffered overseas as well.In England, the Rank Organisation and British
Board of Film Censors were also inundated with complaints by spiritualists, though
censors ultimately chose to allow the film to be exhibited as issued.This caused an aggrieved “former president of
the Spiritualist National Union” to sulk, “I am amazed that such a malicious
and offensive statement about spiritualism should be passed for exhibition
purposes.”
Though not a lost classic, The Spiritualist/The Amazing Mr. X has a lot going for it.The film is wonderfully shot and the film’s spooky
and spectral optical effects are certainly effective.In an interview with the Australian
journalist John Baxter, Vorhaus gave all credit to Director of Photography John
Alton for the film’s dark and moody visuals.Vorhaus recalled Alton as, “faster and more talented than any other
cameraman I’d ever worked with, partly because he used so little lighting… He
regarded shadow and darkness as just as important as light.So you never had a fully lit set; you had
this mix of highlights and darkness.”The film is also made interesting by Vorhaus’s interesting camera
placements.The film is sprinkled with a
number of creative attention-getting and undeniably unusual camera angles.The film’s acting troupe are uniformly
top-notch in their performances.
The
Spiritualist would sadly be among the last few films
Vorhaus would direct in America – or anywhere.On April 25, 1951, director Edward Dmytryk – a member of the infamous Hollywood
Ten who served a six-month prison sentence for his “uncooperative” testimonials
- chose to salvage his career by ingratiating himself with the House
Un-American Committee.In new testimony,
Dmytryk gave the Committee the names of seven members of the Screen Directors
Guild who he alleged were members of the Communist Party in 1945.Vorhaus’s name was among them.
With the Rosenberg and Alger Hiss cases being reported
daily and the war in Korea grabbing headlines, Vorhaus saw little reason to
stay in Hollywood.The director chose to
live out his life as an American exile, doing a bit of film work in Europe
before quitting the movie business altogether.He would later settle in London and be granted British citizenship.There was no reason or benefit of returning
to America - at least not at the height of red scare paranoia. It was our loss, as well as his.
This Blu-ray issue of The
Amazing Mr. X from the folks at The Film Detective is top-notch, a 4K
transfer mastered from restored original 35mm elements and presented in an
aspect ratio of 1.37:1.The B&W film
looks wonderful, film grain present and Alton’s exquisite photography bringing
out the almost unnaturally soft facial features of the film’s featured players,
especially the ladies.Special features
include Daniel Griffith’s interesting twenty-minute featurette, Mysteries Exposed.The documentary offers a brief primer on the
history of spiritualism and its subsequent exploitation by filmmakers: from the
silent short camera trickeries of George Méliès to RKO’s You’ll Find Out (1940) through such Universal features as The Devil Commands (1941) to various entries
in their Inner Sanctum series to
Paramount’s The Uninvited (1944).
The documentary features some interesting background on
spiritualism, séances and mediums – and of the practice’s historical debunkers,
many of whom were magicians wise to their slight-of-hand methodologies.The featurette offers commentaries courtesy
of Lisa Morton, author of Calling the
Spirits: A History of Séance’s, and of film historian C. Courtney
Joyner.The set also includes a
commentary by film scholar Jason A. Ney and ten-page booklet, mostly recounting
the star-crossed career of Turhan Bey, written by Don Stradley.As always, The Film Detective delivers a very
nice, lovingly assembled package of a film too often misused due to its public-domain
status.
The scenario of Mad
Love was adapted from Maurice Renard’s Grand
Guignol thriller of 1920Les Mains d'Orlac (The Hands of Orlac).Renard (born 1875) was an author of
science-fiction and fantasy tales.Not
surprisingly, he was an ardent admirer of literary forebears Edgar Allan Poe
and H.G. Wells.Both of these authors –
similarly to Renard – contributed to the pulp publications of their day.Les Mains d'Orlac was
Renard’s third pulp to be published. It was also his most famous.
Renard’s novel tells the story of a world-famous pianist,
Stephen Orlac, whose hands are tragically severed in a train wreck outside
Paris.A surgeon, Dr. Gogol, grafts a
new set of hands on the gifted Orlac, having not advised the pianist his “new” hands
once belonged to a notorious – and recently guillotined - murderer.Orlac is, not unreasonably, frightened when
he discovers the grafts are seemingly directing him to do evil things, the
bidding of the devil.
Upon Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s announcement that esteemed director
and cinematographer Karl Freund was planning on shooting the first sound
version of The Hands of Orlac – a
silent featuring Conrad Veidt had already seen light as early as 1924 – the
studio’s publicity department went into full press.They excitingly described Renard’s yarn, as “the
weirdest and most novel of all thriller mystery stories.”
Freund very much wanted the Hungarian actor Peter Lorre
to play Doctor Gogol, the mad surgeon.Lorre had already established a reputation as an impressive figure in
European – and especially German – cinema.But following his international success as the psychotic child murderer
of Fritz Lang’s grim M (1931) and in Alfred
Hitchcock’s production of The Man Who
Knew Too Much (1934), executives at Columbia were eager to put the exotic Lorre
under contract for his first U.S. film assignment.
They were, perhaps, too
eager to bring him to Hollywood.Columbia had not yet found a project for him – and the actor’s command
of the English language was still in a nascent stage.Though offered a role in one of the studio’s adventure
dramas featuring action-star Jack Holt, Lorre demurred: he wasn’t interested in
such low-brow fare.He was pressing
Columbia to cast him in a more high-minded production, a film for the ages: an adaptation
of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment.Lorre was also insistent that esteemed
director Josef von Sternberg should helm the prospective epic.
There was a problem with this demand. Columbia’s co-founder and president, Harry
Cohn, wasn’t interested in such a project – nor was von Sternberg for that
matter.This resulted in Lorre sitting
in a state of contractual limbo of some “eight months,” at least by the actor’s
recollection.So it came as a relief
when MGM approached Cohn and Columbia asking for an inter-studio loan of Lorre
for Mad Love.Though not particularly a fan of horror
movies - then a recent box office rage thanks to Universal’s Frankenstein and Dracula pictures – the actor agreed to the one-off trade.
There was one condition of acceptance: that Columbia put Crime and Punishment on their production
schedule of 1935.Cohn agreed, without
enthusiasm, to greenlight the project.Though a New York Times interview
suggested Lorre’s subsequent relationship with Von Sternberg was a “happy one,”
the sentiment may not have been reciprocal.Though Von Sternberg would express admiration that Lorre was the only
actor on set who had actually read Crime
and Punishment, he felt the actor was completely miscast, “unsuitable” for
the role he was awarded.
In any event, on April 23, 1935, Variety reported Metro having secured Lorre’s loan from Columbia.Things moved quickly following that
announcement.By May 1st, MGM
had signed Ted Healy, Billy Gilbert and May Beatty to the cast.Screenwriter John L. Balderston was tapped to
freshen up the adaptive scenario of Guy Endore and the actual script of P.J.
Wolfson.Another source would report
that actress Francis Drake, on loan from Paramount, was also to be brought
aboard, as Yvonne, a Grand Guignol performer
in Paris and the primary target of Gogol’s romantic overtures and obsessions.
The final principal casting announcement was reported on
May 2 when Colin Clive – Dr. Henry Frankenstein himself - was conscripted to
play Yvonne’s husband, the amputee Stephen Orlac.With their star-studded cast in place, on May
3rd, Greg Toland was announced as a photographer on the project.Toland would work alongside both Chester Lyons
and director Freund.Freund was, of
course, the acclaimed cinematographer of such classics as Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) and Tod Browning’s Dracula (1931).
Freund was certainly taking the Mad Love project seriously.On
May 8, Variety reported he and Lorre
had visited California’s Lutheran Hospital, sitting quietly through several surgeries
“to get atmosphere” for the forthcoming production of Mad Love.A subsequent item
in the Los Angeles Times noted the
pair attended the gruesome surgeries as the invited guests of Dr. Albert and
Francis Alton.It was explained the
director and his star were to witness “the performing of several operations… in
order to study certain technical details of surgery for the picture.”
Though Lorre was pleased to be in front of cameras again,
he made it plain early on that he wasn’t a fan of horror pictures, steadfast in
his conviction that he would not be typecast as an actor of the genre.He needn’t have worried as a variety of interesting
work offers were coming his way.Just as
production on Mad Love was set to
roll, the actor was visited by the British producer Michael Balcon.Balcon had been spending a lot of time in
Hollywood looking to ingratiate himself with U.S. film executives.On May 6, 1935, Balcon announced he had managed
to sign Lorre and reigning boogeyman Boris Karloff for a pair of London-based projects
– both of which would come to fruition:Lorre
would act a second time for Hitchcock in Secret
Agent (1936), Karloff for Robert Stevenson’s The Man Who Changed His Mind (Gaumont-British Film Corporation,
1936).
With some of the film earnings and personal savings he
had accrued, it was reported that the savvy, self-starting Lorre had recently purchased
no fewer than three stage plays of European origin for development as possible
Hollywood films.The scripts, it was
noted, would be peddled to producers only “on the condition that he is spotted
in if and when made.”But first the
famously diminutive, pop-eyed actor, once described by Charlie Chaplin, as “the
world’s greatest living character actor,” had to get through the filming of the
Mad Love chiller.
Members of the Hollywood press were invited to visit the
set on May 8, the first day of shooting. Gossip wag George Lewis who, like
Lorre, was no fan of horror movies, arrived just as poor Francis Drake was
trussed to a wheel and branded with a hot iron at a grim Grand Guignol staging at Paris’s Théâtre
des Horreurs.Lewis made
note that Freund appeared “quite cheerful” as the macabre scenario played out
before him.Freund trumpeted his picture
was to be “the most colossal horror yet presented to the civilized world.”But following the preview screening of Mad Love on July 1, 1935, critic Lewis remained
nonplussed, sniffing the film only “capable of scaring to death at least a few
timid people.”
A more savvy reporter from the Oakland Tribune, also in attendance at the first-day shoot,saw MGM’s renewed interest in horror
pictures as the studio’s attempt to give Universal “a little competition in the
matter of fantastic films and regain, if possible, the position it held when
Lon Chaney was alive and Tod Browning in his prime.”Both Universal and Paramount had done very
well with their recent chillers, and MGM sensibly wanted a little taste.
Nothing if not a method actor, Lorre consented to shave
his head for the role of Dr. Gogol.Such
a dramatic shorn required the actor to visit the studio barbershop every
morning prior to shooting.Resting
between takes on set, Lorre needed to apply a wet chamois cloth on his eggshell
skull to protect him from the burn of the hot klieg lights hanging
overhead.
The consummate cinematographer, Freund expertly executed
an eerie monochrome contrasting of “hard lights and shadows” to create a moody
and mysterious ambience - one befitting Gogol’s personal gallery of
horrors.Continuing to do his part, the
roly-poly Lorre, thinking himself too heavy-set to play the mad surgeon
convincingly, went on a crash diet.On
alternate days, the actor would eat only fruit, then vegetables, then dried
meat, then boiled potatoes.He reportedly
dropped a total of nine pounds in four days’ time.
One journalist would go on to describe Lorre as “the
finest scarer of woman-and-children and even grown up men since Lon
Chaney.”Which was high praise
indeed.Chaney’s reputation in and around
Hollywood was as exalted as ever despite his having passed on August 26, 1930,
age 47.Though Lorre graciously
acknowledged the compliment, he nevertheless was of the opinion that grotesque
make-up appliances often disguised “an excuse for an ability to act… An actor
should find his expressions in his naked face.”The one exception to that rule, Lorre then sensibly corrected, was the
great Chaney since “He was an artist.”As a recent transplant to Tinseltown it was best not to kick up dust at
the expense of one of Hollywood’s most mourned and respected figures.
Despite Lorre’s disdain of make-up appliances, there was
a lot of press in the lead-up to the production of Mad Love that the filmmakers planned on using a series of Grand Guignol style masks in their
upcoming production.“Intensive
experiment went into the perfection of the new masks,” noted the Los Angeles Times, suggesting such
ghoulish set decorations were “often suggested in fiction but never before
worked out on a practical basis.”Such
artful masks are scattered about and
used as macabre decoration for the Théâtre
des Horreurs sequences near the film’s beginning.Otherwise they play little role in the
storyline.
June 15 would mark the final day of shooting, the
Hollywood press again invited to attend.It was a less exciting day to be on set, the film crew mostly finishing
up on various insert shots, the journalists watching Lorre’s double, “Raspy” Rasputin,
menacing Drake’s distressed double.The
genuine Lorre was on set as well, pacing about in silence, occasionally
breaking a studious concentration to relax and joke with members of the crew
with whom he had become friendly.
Following an industry preview of the film at Glendale’s
Alexander Theatre, Billboard was
certain Mad Love would score at the
box office, citing the “masterful performance” of Lorre in his U.S. film
debut.The critic did astutely rue, “the
significance of this grotesque film is likely to be obscured by its flimsy
title. It will take a change of title or heavy promotion to gain for this eerie
but well-done production the grosses it warrants.”This title change did, in fact, transpire.
In certain markets the title was changed to The Hands of Orlac in the hope of
increasing audience interest and box office revenue.With a production budget of just over
$217,000, domestic receipts of Mad Love
had totaled a disappointing $164,000.Some blamed the unrepresentative title of Mad Love for the film’s underwhelming performance.It
was believed that the audiences who routinely flocked to horror pictures passed
on Mad Love due to bad marketing.The title Mad
Love suggested the film was merely one-more dreary Hollywood romantic
drama.
London’s Picturegoer
thought the film a serviceable thriller, but little more.Acknowledging that Lorre’s performance
carried the production, the film otherwise “fails to grip to any great
extent.”Variety’s opinion was much the same.Suggesting Lorre’s role as the villainous Dr.
Gogol was an ideal one for the actor’s American film bow, “the results in
screen potency are disappointing.Being
a chiller, much will depend on exploitation.” The trade predicted Mad Love would “probably will do fair
biz on the whole.”
Subsequent reviews of Mad
Love were mostly positive, though some thought the grim subject matter too
sadistic and intense for the impressionable young and any patron with a weak
constitution.Lorre’s notices were uniformly
positive, one critic writing – likely to the actor’s chagrin – that he had managed
a spine-chilling performance both “menacing
and sinister.Karloff and Lugosi,
erstwhile nonpareil bogey-men of the movies, have a doughty rival.”Interestingly, Mad Love was released within weeks of Universal’s faux-Poe
thriller, The Raven featuring Messrs.
Karloff and Lugosi.Such release date synchronicity
might have hurt the box-office receipts of both films.There was, apparently, only so much sadism audiences
could sit through in the summer of 1935.
This Warner Bros. Archive Collectionregion-free issue of Mad Love is presented in 1080p High
Definition 16x9 with an aspect 1.37:1 and in DTS-HD Master mono audio. The transfer is excellent. As is often the case with these Warner
Archive Blu ray issues, there’s no abundance of special features offered
outside of the film’s trailer and a highly informative second-life commentary track courtesy of
Steve Haberman (screenwriter of Dracula:Dead and Loving It), ported over from the
six-film Hollywood Legends of Horror
Collection DVD box set of 2006.
Click here to order from the Cinema Retro Movie Store.
Steiner – Das Eiserne Kreuz, Teil 2 (aka:
Breakthrough/Sergeant Steiner); the German-British movie from 1979 brought
together Richard Burton, Robert Mitchum, Rod Steiger, Curd Jürgens and an uncredited
Christoph Waltz.
Following the immensely successful and
profitable School Girl Report movies, producer Wolf C. Hartwig could afford a
much bigger international production. Cross of Iron was based on a World War II
novel and of course directed by Sam Peckinpah. The music was set to be composed
by Peter Thomas. However, on meeting, the two did not get along (interview with
Peter Thomas in “Der Filmkomponist Peter Thomas” by Gerd Naumann, 2009 ibidem
Verlag). In the end, the American composer Ernest Gold scored the movie.
Despite several financial squabbles, the film became a great international
success in 1977.
A sequel was quickly set in motion. This time
directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, and with a score finally written by Peter
Thomas. The new director and the composer hit it off right away. The title
melody by Peter Thomas was released as a single by Ariola shortly after the
film premiere in 1979. The film Steiner – Das Eiserne Kreuz, Teil 2, however,
was unable to match the success of the original movie despite an impressive cast
and the reuniting of Burton and director McLaglen who had worked so well on The
Wild Geese (1978). A proposed soundtrack LP release of Thomas’s score was
therefore shelved due to the film’s poor reception.
Allscore Media’s new revised release marks
the vinyl premiere of the film music, supplemented by a previously unreleased
track that was not included on a long out-of-print CD release from 1993. Following
Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra – Bruce Lee: The Big Boss (CD/LP ASM 048, Allscore
2020) and Winnetou and Old Firehand (CD/LP ASM 049, Allscore 2021), this is the
third CD/LP release in a series dedicated to the legacy of composer Peter
Thomas.
Steiner-Das Eiserne Kreuz 2 is presented in a
very limited edition of 500 and comes in an orange translucent vinyl (LP
22228-1) with a super gatefold sleeve featuring brand new artwork by the
talented artist Adrian Keindorf. This release is also available in a digipack
CD release (CD 22228-2). The audio quality is remarkably clean and wide in its
delivery, suggesting that the masters have survived and been kept very well.
April Wright is a film director whose credits include the
documentaries Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the American
Drive-In Movie (2013), Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the
Movie Palace (2019) and Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story
(2020), all of which can be viewed JustWatch.com.
Like all of us cinephiles, Ms. Wright was not just a fan of movies but also a
lover of the experience of going to see a movie, especially at the
drive-in. Ms. Wright and I are similar in age and her enthusiasm for the
drive-in dates back to her childhood, a familial outing which became a much-anticipated
and frequent event during the summer months. I cannot make that claim,
unfortunately, as I have attended the drive-in only a handful of times in my
life.
Ms. Wright’s latest film, Back to the Drive-In (2023),
looks at a dozen remaining drive-ins across the United States and the owners
who are, quite honestly, struggling to keep them going. It’s a poignant look at
an American pastime that has slowly become an endangered species.
Todd Garbarini: I loved your film. I’ve been a movie
fan all my life and I love drive-ins, as well as big and beautiful movie
theaters. Clearly you share my enthusiasm.
April Wright: Yes, absolutely. I had a movie family
in a way. My dad had an 8mm camera and reel-to-reel editing equipment for that
in the basement. I did understand a little bit of the nuts and bolts of
filmmaking even when I was a kid. We watched lots of movies. There was a
neighborhood movie palace down the street from my house in Chicago that my
brother and sister ended up working at. I was able to see a lot of movies. I’ve
been interested in movie palaces, just because they were so big and ornate. Now
you watch movies at home or on your smartphone and that showmanship is changing
and I just don’t really understand why. I like making movies to remind people
about what a cool experience it can be seeing a movie as an event and an
experience.
TG: Do you remember the very first movie
you saw in either a drive-in or in a movie theater?
AW: I really don’t because it was just so
commonplace that we saw a lot of movies, so I don’t have any “first-experience”
memories. I kind of remember seeing Song of the South as a kid and I
remember Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I’m sure I saw some of
the Herbie the Love Bug films. Escape to Witch Mountain, I remember
seeing that one at a drive-in. I love horror films and I saw them, too. One
thing I remember vividly is when Carrie was on television, and my mom
telling me I couldn’t come in the room. Of course, I really wanted to, and I
snuck downstairs. I looked in right at the end where the hand comes out. It
scared me, but it made me really curious. When I was older and I saw the whole
movie, it’s one of my favorite films of all time. It intrigued me in a way,
just planted that seed since she made it even more forbidden, like, “You can’t
watch this!” (laughs)
TG: You’ve made a documentary about movie
palaces.
AW: Yes! One of the interviews in that
movie is shot at the Loew’s Jersey City. We shot that in 2017. That’s a
gorgeous theater. I love it. When that reopens, it’s going to be really great.
That theater’s interesting because at one point in time, they had split it into
three theaters during the multiplex era.
TG: What?! Are you serious? I had no idea…
AW: Yes, so on the main floor, they split
it right down the middle. You had half of the main screen on the left and the
other half on the right. They covered the balcony so that they had a third
screen up there and they took all that out, which is incredible that they were
able to remove all that partitioning. Right down the street is The Stanley
Theater which is now home to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. We got to go in there
during the Theater Historical Society
tours that we were on. That one is gorgeous, too. It’s an atmospheric
theater and they used to have a blue sky and twinkling lights on the ceiling in
most of them. Then it would look like a little town around you as if you were
outside. It’s impeccably maintained, it’s gorgeous, but they painted their
ceiling white, so it looks like you’re up in the heavens or up in the clouds
when you’re in there.
TG: I’m jealous because in my area, I had a
handful of movie theaters that I went to over the years, and now they’re all
gone. One of them was the Plainfield Edison Drive-In. They had a double feature
of Black Christmas and Psycho, TheVelvet Vampire, Lemora:
A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural, etc. It opened in 1957 and closed in
1984, the year before I obtained my driver’s license!
AW: I don’t know if you know this, but the
very first drive-in ever was in New Jersey.
TG: Yes, that was Camden. The founder was Richard
Hollingshead.
AW: Yes! His son is in my first documentary
talking about how his dad invented it. It opened in 1933, so this year is the 90th
anniversary of the drive-in, which is pretty cool.
TG: Hard to believe. In fact, what I liked
about your new film, Back to the Drive-In, is that you have the Delsea
Drive-In in Vineland, NJ, the only remaining drive-in in the state.
AW: Yes. I went down there. We shot more,
but they said, “Oh, we don’t want to be in it that much.” Some people like
being on camera and don’t.A lot of the drive-in owners are part of the
United Drive-In Theater Owners Association, there’s a group. They have an
annual conference in Florida. I went to it in February of 2020, which is right before
COVID. I knew I wanted to do a follow-up (to my previous film about drive-ins),
and at that point in time, I thought I wanted to just go really in depth with perhaps
three families. I said to them there, “Does anybody want to be part of this
film?” There were some other drive-ins that had wanted to be part of my next
film that weren’t in my first one, and so I had a few potential ones. Then a
month later, COVID hit, and even though drive-ins were open, I still felt like
states were changing the rules and everything was still weird for a little
while. I waited, but then the more that COVID was going on and then drive-ins
started getting all this attention, I thought that this is a layer to my story
that I never could have anticipated. It made me expand that instead of just
showing a few families in depth and what they do. I wanted to show not only
that, but what was COVID doing to it? It made me want to have a bigger cross-section.
I needed to see what was going on and go to some really old and some fairly new
drive-ins. I wanted to go to some big ones with seven screens, and I wanted to
go to the single screens out in different states. I tried to just pick every
type of factor to represent. The weird thing was, as soon as I got on the road
and went to a few of them, I realized they were all telling me the same story. They
were all struggling. Everybody was just trying to get through this period. They
were small businesses, family-owned, and they were just trying so hard to keep
them going because they really care about what it provides to their community.
That’s how it came about. I was going to do it anyway, but then the way I
decided to do it evolved because of COVID.
TG: What I find interesting is, in the
movie, they say, “We ask you to keep your mask on while you’re in the car.” We
forget how bad it really was back then during the height of COVID.
AW: Yes. I think that might have been a
California drive-in, too, because California was more rigid than other places.
California was definitely in a program wherein if the numbers were high, the
rules were stricter. If the numbers went down, then it got released. That might
have been at a moment when the numbers were high. I know because although I’m
from Chicago, I live in Los Angeles.
TG: I haven’t been to LA since 2008. I have
gone to more drive-ins as an adult while out on business than I ever did when I
was a child. It just kills me to see this type of thing dying out. I look at
the theaters that used to be around here on CinemaTreasures.org and there is no
evidence that these places ever existed.
AW: I know. When you see a horror movie at
a drive-in and you can look over to your right or left, and there’s a forest right
next to you, that’s an extra layer of film! That’s like 4-D!
TG: Who are some of your favorite directors?
AW: One of my favorites is Brian De Palma.
TG: Oh, I love him. I just saw the new Dressed
to Kill 4K Blu-ray and it’s beautiful.
AW: I really like pretty much all his
films, just theway he shoots them. I like the
split-screen stuff.I think they all hold up. He had great actors and
all of them and just, yes, I think he’s a great filmmaker. Like even the Mission
Impossible series, I still think the first one is the best one that he
directed.
TG: Do you like William Friedkin?
AW: I do. Actually, we’ve met and chatted before
because he’s also a fellow Chicagoan. I love TheFrench Connection.
That’s probably his best movie, my absolute favorite. I went to a screening of
that at the Academy where he was there doing Q&A and just some of the stuff
that he did because he came out of documentaries first. For him to do moving
shots the way he did and just the grittiness of it, I mean that was something
on the newer side when he shot something that way. Yes, I really love that.I love all John Carpenter’s
stuff, for sure. Richard Linklater. I love (Steven) Soderbergh’s work because
he’s just made such a wide array of movies, big movies but also small and experimental,
some that he shot on videos cameras. He tries different things. I really like
them as filmmakers as well. Amy Heckerling has such a great body of work and
Penelope Spheeris. She started in documentaries. I actually just went to see
her doc a few days ago, the first Decline of Western Civilization, about
punk and she was there for Q&A. I love Nicholas Cage, too. Thrillers and
horror are probably my number one. Of course, I do like documentaries as well,
especially if they’re about subjects that you can learn something about.The
Shining is one of my favorites of all time. Also, I love John Landis. I’m
from Chicago, and he shot some things there like TheBlues Brothers.
TG: How much footage did you shoot for Back
to the Drive-In?
AW: Quite a bit. I had a crew to help me in
Los Angeles when I was here, but the rest I actually did by myself. I had my
primary camera, I had my drone, and then I had a GoPro, which I did time-lapses
from empty daytime to evening. Between those three, it gave me enough to cut
together, but I usually got to each drive-in in the afternoons, you would start
maybe at three in the afternoon, capturing all their preparation, and then stay
until late, usually two in the morning. It was basically almost twelve hours of
footage for each one, because I would just get there and be shooting non-stop.
Then the logical way to put it together, I thought it might be by subject, but
once I looked at it, I realized, no, it’s got to be chronological. Just one big
arc of the afternoon, the prep, and then opening the doors, and then the snack
bar, and then getting the movie on screen, and then the breather once all that’s
done became the way to tell it.
TG: I miss the aura and aroma of the
theaters I went to as a child.
AW: Yes, it’s true. Movie theater smell.
When I go to old theaters, too, a lot of times you walk into them and your
reaction is, “Oh, there’s a good old movie theater smell.” Also in the projection
rooms, if they’re where they have all that old equipment, that’s a certain
smell because the film and the oil and all that had a smell, too. That’s almost
gone now because they had to convert them to clean rooms for the digital
projection. You must have a climate-controlled, very fancy environment for
those. A lot of the drive-ins still have both projectors.
TG: Do you have an all-time favorite movie?
AW: Rocky.
TG: Did you see it in the movies when it
first came out?
AW: I did. Even though I was a little kid,
my mom saw it and she wanted to take us to see Rocky. That’s probably
part of it. Also, I realized after I’ve been a filmmaker for a little while,
some of the things I like or I’m drawn to – and Carrie falls into this,
for sure – is that I really like underdogs and people who shouldn’t win but
somehow do. That’s a theme in the films that I like. For Rocky,
obviously, that is one of the best underdog stories. It’s not even the message
of winning. It’s just going the distance, of course. The story of making it is
an underdog story, too. The fact that Stallone can be a semi-nobody struggling
actor and come up with this and write it and create such an iconic character
that lives on is inspiring as well. I love that movie. It is my all-time
favorite. If you want to talk horror, my all-time favorite is Carrie.
TG: I was sorry to see your film end
because I just wanted to see so many other people talking. I’m sure you’ve
probably seen The Last Blockbuster,
the film about, literally, the last Blockbuster Video, which is in Bend,
Oregon. In some ways, your movie reminds me of that film because I say, yes,
there are no more video stores to go to. I want to thank you so much for taking
the time to speak with me.
AW: Thank you very much. I’m glad you
liked the movie!
Back to the Drive-In can
now be seen streaming on iTunes, Amazon Prime, Google Play, and Vudu.
Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill (1980) is one of the
director’s best and most entertaining works. It also appears to be ahead of its
time in some ways while simultaneously paying homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), something Mr. De Palma
also did to great effect with his excellent 1973 Staten Island-lensed thriller Sisters, a film that Stephen King loved
so much that he championed Mr. De Palma to make his own novel Carrie into the 1976 film of the same
name. His 1976 romantic thriller Obsession
was also inspired by the Master of Suspense, specifically Vertigo (1958).
Filmed in the autumn of 1979 and
released on Friday, July 25, 1980, Dressed
to Kill pits Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) as a woman who is bored and
sexually frustrated in the Big Apple as she looks to spice up her unexciting afternoons.
Her teenage son Peter (Keith Gordon, who would play Arnie in John Carpenter’s Christine in 1984
before becoming a film director) is a computer geek at a time when being a
computer geek meant being male and having zero sex appeal (he has built a
computer that carries binary numbers; he is also adept with booby traps and
other forms of technology). Kate is under the psychiatric care of Dr. Robert
Elliott (Michael Caine) for her frustrations and attempts to seduce him during
a session but is rebuffed.
An afternoon trip to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York results in the film’s most talked about
scene wherein she is “picked up” by a stranger who never says a word, and
playfully entices her in an extended and wordless “chase” in the museum which ends
with illicit sex in the backseat of a taxi and climaxes (no pun intended, of
course) with the quickest female orgasm in cinema history. Kate ends up
spending the evening with her mystery man in his swanky Front Street apartment,
only to discover surreptitiously that he has a venereal disease. This leads her
to rush off in haste and be unceremoniously dispatched by a razor-wielding nut
job in a carefully orchestrated elevator murder sequence that is intercut with
the introduction of Liz Blake, a call girl played by Nancy Allen, who witnesses
the murder.
Kate’s son is obviously shattered by
his mother’s death, although we only see his stepfather very briefly – at the
start of the film during a “wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am” sex scene with Kate,
through the shower as he shaves, and later after Kate’s murder when Peter is at
the police station. Detective Marino (played brilliantly by Dennis Franz) tries
his best to get what info he can out of Liz and Dr. Elliott, but Peter teams up
with Liz to find the killer themselves who appears to be a man dressed as a
woman, with long blonde hair and dark sunglasses.The obvious tip of the hat to Psycho, complete with Ms. Dickinson’s
death scene a third of the way through the film (making her a modern-day Janet
Leigh), should give a clue to the killer’s real identity.
There is a great deal of sexual
tension and graphic violence in Dressed
to Kill, so much so that when the film was released 43 years ago it was
initially given an X rating by the MPAA. Jack Valenti, who was president of the
MPAA at the time, had stated prior to the film’s release that the political
climate in the U.S. had been shifting to the right which in turn meant more
conservative attitudes toward sex and violence (those of us who lived through
the Meese Report days know this all too well). Interestingly Zombie (1979), the Italian Lucio Fulci gross-out film, was released
the same day as Mr. De Palma’s film, unrated and with a similar caveat that appeared on the poster of
George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead
two years earlier since newspapers would not run ads for X-rated films.So, violence was certainly still acceptable
on the big screen, as long as it was rated accordingly. Some of the dialogue in
the film was also sexual in nature and had to be altered, but the cuts that
were made for the theatrical version have all been reinstated on the latest
home video releases of the film. Currently, wherein XXX-rated hardcore pornography
is just a computer mouse-click away, just about anything in Dressed to Kill seems tame in
comparison.
Mr. De Palma has consistently
received critical flak for “ripping off” Alfred Hitchcock, but this time he
manages to create and sustain a visual style all his own. Even Vincent Canby
liked the film, which is saying a lot! Had Bernard Herrmann still been alive
(the great musical collaborator of Mr. Hitchcock), he no doubt would have been
commissioned to write the score, having already delivered two excellent scores
for Mr. De Palma’s Sisters (1973) and
Obsession (1976), the latter of which
is sumptuous and gorgeous, clearly one of his best. His successor proved to be
quite formidable. Pino Donnagio, who wrote brilliant music for Don’t Look Now (1973) and Tourist Trap (1979), delivers another
great piece here, and has gone on to work with Mr. De Palma on many other
films.
Dressed to Kill has been released in many formats
since its theatrical release. Warner Home Video released it on VHS in the big
clamshell box at least twice; Image Entertainment released a somewhat
letterboxed laserdisc; and MGM/UA released it on both DVD and Blu-ray in a
special edition, as did The Criterion Collection. Now, Kino Lorber has added
this title to their ever-expanding and impressive roster of classic titles. This new edition is loaded with new
and exclusive extras while porting over some from the aforementioned MGM/UA releases:
Disc
One is Dressed to Kill in 4K UHD. This is hands-down the best that the
film has ever looked. I recall purchasing the Image Entertainment letterboxed
laserdisc in 1990 and being very disappointed in the transfer. I would not have
guessed that I would have to wait 33 years to see this vast improvement.
Disc
Two is a standard Blu-ray that contains the following supplements:
Strictly Business runs 17:26 Nancy Allen talks about how the script came about and how an
executive saw Suzanne Somers in her role! I would have loved to have seen that,
with Mr. Roper (Norman Fell) as the killer.
Killer Frameswith
Fred Caruso runs 8:13 and is a look at the work of associate producer and
production manager Fred Caruso who worked on Midnight Cowboy (1969), Husbands
(1970), The Godfather (1972), and later on Blow Out (1981) and
several other films for Mr. DePalma.
An Imitation of Life with Keith Gordon runs 14:15 and is an engaging
discussion about how Mr. Gordon got cast in the film and played Angie
Dickinson’s son who was originally envisioned as a sexually unaware ten-year-old.
Mr. Gordon decided to play it as an older teenager who has been up all night,
tired, etc. and to his credit, Mr. DePalma agreed. He also discusses how he saw
them shooting the murder scene and it looking ridiculous, but the way that it
was edited made all the difference.
Symphony of Fear, 2012 Interview with Gordon Litto by Fiction Factory runs 17:36 and
the producer talks about how he saw Brian DePalma’s Sisters and began
his professional relationship with the director.
Dressed in White, 2012 Interview with Angie Dickinson by Fiction Factory runs 29:53 and is
an onscreen interview. Brian DePalma contacted her while she was promoting Claude
Pinoteau’s Jigsaw in Canada in 1979. She talks about Michael Caine’s
hilarious sense of humor; the celebrated museum sequence took four days to
shoot; the subtlety of Bobbi’s first appearance onscreen (something that I
missed over and over again); the difficulties of shooting the cab sequence; the
elevator set; and suggesting to Ann Roth the costume designer that she wear a
white coat.
Dressed in Purple, 2012 Interview with Nancy Allen by Fiction Factory runs 23:04. Ms.
Allen discusses starring in Carrie following her early onscreen cameo
opposite Jack Nicholson towards the end of Hal Ashby’s The Last Detail (1973);
the sensual movement of a camera being similar to a dance; working again with
Keith Gordon (they had previously collaborated on Brian DePalma’s Home
Movies the previous year); Ann Roth’s costuming on her; the editing of
Jerry Greenberg, the Oscar-winning cutter on William Friedkin’s The French
Connection (1971); the uncomfortable lingerie outfit; and auditioning for
Dario Argento’s Inferno in New York in 1979 and not wanting to shoot
underwater (that role went to Irene Miracle)
Lessons in Filmmaking,2012 Interview with Keith Gordon by Fiction Factory runs 30:46. Mr.
Gordon discusses his experiences on the film and how it was an excellent course
in film school with a master filmmaker. He watched the elevator murder sequence
being shot and thinking how silly it looked, only to be blown away by the way
it was cut together in the final film.
The Making of Dressed to Killruns 43:51 and is a 2001 documentary shot in standard definition which
includes recollections from the cast and crew.
SlashingDressed to Killruns 9:49 and is a 2001 look (shot
in standard definition) at the changes that needed to be made to the film in
1980 in order to secure an R-rating.
Unrated/R-Rated/TV-Rated Comparison from 2001 that is exactly what the
title implies.
An Appreciation by Keith Gordon runs 6:05 and is a 2001 featurette (shot in standard
definition) wherein Mr. Gordon talks about the impressions that Kate’s
character has as she is in the celebrated museum sequence and the subliminal
images in the film.
1980 Audio Interview with Michael Caine runs 4:50, and he
discusses how much he loves shooting in New York and his-then recent move to
California.
1980 Audio Interview
with Angie Dickinson runs 3:30 and she talks about how the film
should receive a double “R” rating because of its sexual content. Fun stuff!
1980 Audio Interview with Nancy Allen runs 14:30 and she
speaks at length of how much she prefers to work on smaller films with lower budgets
than big, budgeted films, such as Steven Spielberg’s 1941, as the crew
was too numerous in size for her to remember who worked on the film.
Dressed to Kill Radio Spots
Dressed to Kill TV Spots
Dressed to Kill Teaser Trailer and Theatrical Trailer
Trailers
for Play Misty for Me, And Soon the Darkness, Eyes of Laura
Mars, Happy Birthday to Me, and Not for Publication round out
the package.
On March 31, 1931 Variety
reported that Paramount had secured, for an undisclosed sum, the sound rights
to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from the estate
of Robert Louis Stevenson.Stevenson’s
classic short story of 1886, Strange Case
of Dr. Jekylland Mr. Hyde, had
already been filmed by Paramount as a well-regarded 1920 silent featuring John
Barrymore. But it was curious to some industry watchers why Paramount went to
the trouble to secure rights: the novella was, after all, already in U.S.
public domain status.
Though true, it soon became apparent why Paramount’s
legal team wisely chose a formal rights lockdown.One week following the studio’s announcement
– to feature actor Fredric March in the titular double-role – a British
filmmaker, I.E. Chadwick (described by Variety
as “an independent producer inactive three years”), announced he too was planning a sound version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.Chadwick’s competing version would not see
the light of day.On June 23, the trades
reported his production had been summarily derailed by Paramount’s buying out all
British rights to the story.
Though Fredric March was touted as Paramount’s new Dr.
Jekyll as early as April 1931, a challenger would soon surface.On May 12, Variety picked up on a syndicated Hollywood gossip report that Paramount
was interested in having John Barrymore reprise the role.Though a Barrymore reconsideration seemed an
unlikely prospect, on May 5, Louela O. Parsons of the Motion Picture Editor
Universal Services teased that Paramount was looking to woo Barrymore from Warner
Bros. for their new “talkie” version of Hyde.
It’s altogether possible that Parsons, an old friend of
Barrymore’s, was sending out a trial balloon on the actor’s behalf.Barrymore’s contract with Warner Bros. had in
fact not been renewed following completion of Michael Curtiz’s The Mad Genius in May of 1931.The high- salaried and hard drinking actor
was now casting about for new work and a new contract.Warner Bros. was already expressing
unhappiness with the dwindling box office appeal of the former matinee
idol.In the final tally, Barrymore’s last
two pictures for Warner’s, The Mad Genius
and its predecessor Svengali (1931),
had combined for revenue losses totaling a reported half-million dollars.Following his ousting, Variety was kinder in their assessment of the actor’s continuing public
appeal, reporting only that, “Sales reports on Barrymore have been mild.”
There had to be a measure of professional disappointment
on Barrymore’s part.While Fredric March’s
star was in the ascendant, his own was dimming.March, an equally handsome and talented actor, had even played a
thinly-disguised character based on Barrymore in both the stage and film
versions of The Royal Family of Broadway.
Barrymore was good-naturedly impressed by March’s gift of impersonation and
mimicry.Following his attendance at a
stage performance of The Royal Family of
Broadway, Barrymore conceded March’s performance had captured, “my
mannerisms, exaggerated but true to life.”
But by May’s end it was clear that Barrymore would not be
returning to the Jekyll/Hyde role.Gossiper
Parson sourly rued that while, “never has any actor had more matinee fans
flocking to his side than our John, […] the flapper age yearns for Fredric
March and Paramount knows it.”In fact,
“flapper” appeal aside, March wasn’t the first pick of Paramount co-founder Adolph
Zukor or of West coast studio boss B.P. Schulberg.Paramount’s front-office had initially considered
either Barrymore or contract actor Irving Pichel considered for the role.But director Rouben Mamoulian insisted that
while the naturally sinister-looking Pichel might have made a suitable Mr.
Hyde, he simply couldn’t convincingly pull off the handsome, pheromone-inducing
romantic that was Dr. Jekyll.
It was a bold if immovable position for Mamoulian to
take.The director had only recently
signed with Paramount, delivering two Pre-Code pictures of modest success: Applause (1929) and City Streets (1931).He had also
boldly demanded – and was granted - a stipulation in his contract that he be
given extended leave-of-absences from Paramount so he could continue working on
Broadway back in his beloved New York City.Stagecraft aside, Mamoulian did possess an eye for filmmaking.Upon the news that Mamoulian was to direct Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the editors of Film Weekly cheered, calling him, “a
wizard with the camera.”They promised
the Mamoulian Dr. Jekyll, “promises
to outdo even the weirdness of the celebrated “Dr. Caligari.”
March was to return to Hollywood from Astoria, Queens,
New York, to begin production of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde directly following work on George Abbott’s Morals and Marriage (later re-titled as My Sin).Production on Jekyll was originally
slated to commence on August 3, though delays seemingly caused a schedule push-back
to September 1935.
In August it was announced one of March’s doomed victims,
Ivy Pierson, was to be played by the fetching blond ingénue Miriam Hopkins,
just off her assignment playing opposite Maurice Chevalier in Ernst Lubitsch’s The Smiling Lieutenant. By late summer
nearly all of the film’s principal and auxiliary players had been cast: Rose
Hobart, Edgar Norton, and Halliwell Hobbes among them.This was to be a production of major
scope.There were reports that Paramount
was planning the hire of some six hundred screen extras, with as many as
eighty-one to be given speaking parts.Both of those estimates were certainly possible: the film features large
crowds attending both prim society dinner parties and déclassé backstreet
London music halls.
To successfully mount such an unwieldy production,
director Mamoulian desperately wanted a trusted assistant, in this case Robert
Lee, to help him out.Though the trades
reported Lee had only recently been given “full director” status at Paramount, the
budding helmsman agreed to put off this promotion – an opportunity which was,
sadly, not offered again.Mamoulian’s
direction was – as always - nothing if not inventive, with Karl Strauss’s acrobatic
camera roaming restlessly through POV tracking shoots, half-screen swipes and
the sorts of extreme close-ups later found in Sergio Leone films.
Though some film historians and fans believe – not
unreasonably – that John S. Robertson’s silent version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was the more groundbreaking effort, few
would argue that Mamoulian’s was the finest of the several sound versions that
would follow.Though the various film
adaptations were not always true to Stevenson’s original storyline, they were
far more cinematic in presentation.Following
in the wake of Universal’s horrific caricatures of Dracula and Frankenstein,
Paramount chose to eschew the original tale’s Jekyll’s split-psychologic
dichotomies and instead highlight Mr. Hyde’s physical appearance as a hideous, feral
beast.Mamoulian’s film was also
envelope-pushing in its Pre-Code depictions of implied - and sometimes more-
than-implied – scenes of on-screen debauchery and salacious sexuality.
The iconic make-up conjured by Wally Westmore for March’s
Hyde was certainly top-notch, as great as anything Jack Pierce had conjured for
Universal.Newspaper accounts contemporary
to the film’s production suggested March withstood nearly two-hundred hours in both
Westmore’s make-up chair and on set for the filming of the “eight” mind-blowing
transformation sequences expertly rigged by Mamaoulian and Struss. (If eight
transformations were photographed as reported, only six would make pass the
film’s final cut, the final one a mostly unconvincing time-lapse).
It was later revealed by Strauss that the justifiably
famous transformation sequences near the film’s beginnings had been created by a
novel use of panchromatic film stock and a blend of colored filters.Strauss was certainly the man for this
particular photographic effect.The
cinematographer had had already earned a well-deserved Academy Award for his photographic
work on F.W. Murnau’s German Expressionism masterpiece Sunrise (1927). Upon completion of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’s fifty-one shooting days, Mamoulian celebrated
in style, throwing a huge party for the film’s cast and crew members at
Hollywood’s swanky Russian-American club.
Mamoulian’s Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was released during Christmas week of 1931.It was off to a good start, though
Universal’s Frankenstein (released
November 21, 1931) was still holding strong at cinema box-offices.Paramount brass continued to hold their
collective breaths through mid-January to see if Jekyll might have the same staying power.The film proved that it had, ultimately
bringing in earnings that made it one of studio’s highest grossing successes of
1932.One casualty of the runaway
box-office successes of Frankenstein
and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was, sadly
and ironically, Barrymore’s The Mad
Genius, released only a couple of weeks previous to the former.It’s interesting to note that both Frankenstein and The Mad Genius featured a struggling, middle-aged actor who would
receive absolutely no screen credit for the latter and only back-end credits of
the former – Boris Karloff.
Though Paramount would never become the fright-factory
that Universal was in the 1930s and 1940s, the studio would follow Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with a few genre
classics and semi-classics of their own:Island of Lost Souls (1932), Murders in the Zoo (1934) and The Monster and the Girl (1941).No subsequent Paramount horror other than Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde would earn the
prestige of the Academy however.The
film would earn no fewer than three Oscar nominations at the 1932 ceremony
(Best Actor, Best Cinematography and Best Adaptive Writing).But only March would walk off with the
coveted trophy in the first category.
This Warner Bros. Archive Collection issue of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is presented in
1080p High Definition 16x9 with an aspect 1.19:1 and in DTS-HD Master 2.0 mono
audio.The film looks brilliant; if
there was a single visual on-screen blemish, it escaped my notice.Ported over from the film’s digital DVD issue
of 2004 is a commentary by Author/Film Historian Greg Mank and the Friz
Freleng/Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes cartoon
short Hyde and Hare (1955).New to this Region-free Blu-ray set is a second impressive commentary featuring
screenwriter Steve Haberman and filmmaker Constantine Nasr.A very
special feature included is a Theatre Guild of America radio play of the tale,
first broadcast on November 19, 1950. This
radio show is of particular interest since it finds Fredric March reprising his
role as Jekyll/Hyde nearly twenty-years on, with Barbara Bel Geddes and Hugh
Williams assisting in the principal supporting roles.Essential.
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When this year's Oscar nominations were announced last month, there was a discussion of the choices on the popular A.M. chat show "Morning Joe". Veteran columnist Mike Barnicle seemed to sum up the feelings of the panelists when he griped that the choices for Best Picture had too many quirky films that most movie-goers would not have seen. This is a common complaint but those who make it are flat-out wrong. You see, the Oscar awards are not supposed to be obligated to reflect popular taste. They are not The People's Choice Awards. Rather, they are supposed to reflect the feelings of industry professionals in regard to who among their peers should be honored. However, the awards have largely been defined by the TV broadcast, which has grown to C.B. DeMille proportions over the decades. Thus, the Academy is partly to blame for the perception that populism should play a role in the nominations and who is declared a winner. The Academy also made a blatant attempt to reverse declining ratings some years ago by artificially inflating the number of Best Picture nominees from the traditional five to ten. There was no reason to do this other than to try to goose up audience interest by including films that would appeal to viewers but which would probably not stand much of a chance in terms of winning.
Last night's telecast seemed to revert back to the Academy's main mission: to honor films based on their artistic merits, not popularity. Thus, quirky was "in", as evidenced by the seven awards accorded to "Everything Everywhere All at Once", a film that people find hard to even describe. One friend of mine has seen it nine times while others have made repeated attempts to get through it only to throw in the towel before reaching the conclusion. The film has already grossed over $100 million and the Oscar haul will boost it into the stratosphere.
Here are some random observations about last night's telecast on ABC-TV.:
Overall, the show was one of the better ceremonies in recent years. No major flubs or time-wasting episodes. Host Jimmy Kimmel was very funny and delivered the bon mots in a low-key manner. He addressed the elephant in the room early in the broadcast, taking a swipe at Will Smith and last year's "Slap heard 'round the world". Kimmel quipped that anyone in the auditorium who provokes violence this year would be awarded the Best Actor Oscar and be allowed to give a 19-minute speech. Smith has been banned from the ceremonies for ten years but there had been consternation that his much-hyped 2022 release, "Emancipation", would make him a front runner for another Best Actor Oscar. What would the Academy do if a nominee was not allowed to attend the ceremony? The crisis was averted when "Emancipation" didn't live up to expectations and vanished from theaters quickly.
There was an abundance of old style high style. Men seem to have forsaken those dreadful "new, improved" tuxedo designs from some years ago and gone back to the traditional look, perhaps influenced by the fact that early films of Cary Grant and Sean Connery still epitomize what classic black tie look can do for any guy. For the women, plunging necklines and cleavage were the order of the day. Most of the gowns looked great with only a few coming close to being over-the-top. Helping in this regard was the fact that Cher was not present, although Academy president Janet Yang showcased a gown that looked like a costume for the next Marvel superhero.
The auditorium featured some wonderful production designs for the various segments orchestra was presented in a retro-chic manner.
Bending to industry outrage after the Academy had relegated some of last year's technical awards to an off-camera ceremony, all of the traditional categories were reinstated. Jimmy Kimmel warned that this would result in an extended running time for the broadcast, but who cares? This is the culmination of many talented people's careers and they should be afforded public recognition. The show did run over 3 1/2 hours but the pace was lively and there was thankfully very little of that awful "spontaneous" banter between presenters that causes viewers to groan every year.
There were some nice tributes to elder statesmen of the industry including the seemingly immortal actor James Hong and fellow immortal John Williams, who was up for his latest Oscar for scoring "The Fabelmans". Kimmel quipped that Williams has been nominated over 50 times and won five Oscars, therefore making his percentage of wins very unimpressive. Williams, looking fit and chipper at 91 years-old, appreciated the joke.
There were some truly touching acceptance speeches and some poignant pleas for a better world. Brandon Fraser was so moved by his Best Actor award for "The Whale" that he appeared to be on the verge of hyper-ventilating. In accepting his Best Supporting Actor Award, Ke Huy Quan reflected that in his youth, he had spent a year in a refugee camp and was now representing the America Dream. Equally moving was Michele Yeoh's acceptance speech for Best Actress. It was great to see older actresses honored, reinforced by Jamie Lee Curtis's Best Supporting Actress win. Maybe we're reaching a time when fine actresses aren't relegated to grandmotherly roles by the time they hit 40.
There was a dearth of political references and jokes, which was rather shocking and refreshing, though Kimmel did get off a funny jibe about Tucker Carlson qualifying for Best Editor. He also made a joke at the expense of America's own Baron Munchhausen by taking a swipe at embattled Congressman George Santos. However, it's not likely to ruffle any feathers because Santos has brought about true bi-partisanship: his colleagues in both parties want him out of congress ASAP.
The Best Song nominees were all very well presented and performed and the category represented one of the few upsets of the night with the viral sensation "Naatu Naatu" winning from the Indian film "RRR". The song's accompanying on-stage group dance presentation was sensational.
The year's biggest financial blockbusters, "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Avatar: The Way of Water" were relegated to receiving technical awards. Both Tom Cruise and James Cameron were absent from the ceremony, causing Jimmy Kimmel to joke that the men responsible for so many people returning to movie theaters could not be persuaded to be at this theater.
There were some misfires in terms of content. To buy time while sets were changed on stage, someone thought it would be funny to have Kimmel approach celebrities in the audience and read them questions that were allegedly sent in by viewers. The stars looked bewildered and offended by the intrusion and you could almost see the flop sweat breaking out on Kimmel's forehead before the misguided scenario was saved by the clock. Memo to Oscar: never send the host into the audience. It never ends well for anyone. There was also a ill-fated attempt to capitalize on the latest cult flick "Cocaine Bear" that barely registered on the laugh meter.
Video tribute segments include the usual memorial to prominent people in the industry who we lost in the last year. This year's segment was introduced by a bald, bearded John Travolta who was brought to tears by the inclusion of his dear friend and co-star Olivia Newton-John. As for the presentation, it's always beautifully presented but also controversial because it excludes any number of people who should arguably have been acknowledged. The Academy should just buy the rights to Turner Classic Movies' annual tribute to lost artists, which is far more inclusive, since the Oscars producers can't seem to get this important ritual right. Similarly, the justified video tribute to the 100th anniversary of Warner Brothers was compromised by the fact that classic movies from other studios were included. Why? Because over the years, Warners bought the rights to them- but that doesn't make them WB productions and they should not have been included. Doesn't the studio have enough bragging rights to their own films without trying to take credit for MGM's "North by Northwest"?
James Bond fans could relish the unique sight of one of the franchise's actresses (Michelle Yeoh) receiving a Best Actress Oscar from a previous Best Actress recipient who also was a Bond leading lady (Halle Berry) while another nominee for Best Actress who was a Bond star, Ana de Armas watched from the audience.
The Best Picture is usually announced by a mega star and this year was no exception, with Harrison Ford doing the honors. If you watched the closing credits, you could see him reunited with Ke Huy Quan, who had appeared with him as a child star in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom".
In all, one of the better Oscar presentations of recent years, but that's just my humble opinion.
Get ready for tonight's Oscar awards by taking this trip back in time to the opening ceremonies of the 1967 ceremonies, including Bob Hope's monologue. Nominees attending include Alan Arkin and Steve McQueen. Also in attendance, a retired actor now known as Governor Ronald Reagan.
Robert Blake, the mercurially-tempered Emmy-winning actor, has died at age 89 from heart-related issues. Blake's given name was Michael Gubitosi and he was born in Nutley, New Jersey, a short distance across the Hudson River from midtown Manhattan. Blake had one of the longest Hollywood careers imaginable, starting out as a child actor who appeared in the famed "Our Gang" comedies. This led to him having roles in feature films such as a recurring role in the low-budget Red Ryder Western series. He also had a small role in John Huston's 1948 classic "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" opposite Humphrey Bogart. He was the product of a troubled household. He claimed his father, who committed suicide in 1955, physically beat him. Stardom would elude him until he was cast as one of the notorious murderers in director Richard Brooks' acclaimed 1967 screen adaptation of Truman Capote's bestseller "In Cold Blood". Blake and Scott Wilson played the infamous murderers of an innocent family whose house they broke into. The killings shocked the world, especially since the victims posed no threat to the duo. Blake and Wilson brought nuance to their roles and won critical praise. Blake specialized in playing moody men of action. To some he was the epitome of a Method Actor, while others saw him as a pretentious Marlon Brando wannabe.
Blake's star rose to new heights on television when he starred as the eccentric, streetwise detective in "Baretta" on ABC-TV. The show ran from 1975-1978 and earned Blake an Emmy award. Henceforth, he would fall victim to his personal demons. Blake could be jovial and witty when making frequent appearances as a guest on Johnny's Carson's "The Tonight Show", but he alternately had developed a reputation for being difficult and temperamental. His starring roles in feature films such as "Electra Glide in Blue", "Busting" and "Coast to Coast" were boxoffice disappointments. In 1986, he returned to series television in the series "Hell Town", playing a tough, streetwise priest. However, Blake's personal issues proved too much for him to overcome and he would later admit he was potentially suicidal. He pulled the plug on "Hell Town" after only a few episodes. In 1993, he had a comeback, starring in the TV movie "Judgment Day: The John List Story" in which he played the real life New Jersey murderer who, despite his nondescript nature, systematically murdered every member of his family who resided in the household. Blake received an Emmy nomination for his performance.
In 2001, Blake emerged in the news in an unfavorable manner when his wife, Bonny Lee Bakely was murdered in a bizarre incident that occurred when she and Blake were out to dinner. Bakely was known as a master manipulator who had been married nine times previously. During their dinner date, Bakely was killed by an assassin who shot her twice at close range as she sat in their car. During the sensational trial that followed, Blake said she was shot by a random murderer after he left their car to retrieve a pistol he had accidentally left in a restaurant. He was tried for murder and acquitted, though, as in the O.J. Simpson case, public sentiment didn't agree with the verdict. He would later lose a civil suit in the case that he said wiped out his personal fortune.
Blake had all but retired from acting by the late 1990s. His last screen credit was for director David Lynch's "Lost Highway" in 1997.
We
are all faced with challenging situations in our lives, but one would hope that
we face nothing like the scenario that Thomas Babington “Babe” Levy (Dustin
Hoffman) does in John Schlesinger’s Marathon Man, the film version of
William Goldman’s novel of the same name and who was the film’s screenwriter.
The movie opened in New York on Wednesday, October 6, 1976. Babe is a Ph.D.
candidate selected to be in an exclusive class of five students at Columbia
University taught by a professor (Fritz Weaver in a terrific cameo) who knows that
Babe’s father committed suicide following his being investigated during the Joseph
McCarthy-era witch hunts. He urges Babe not to turn his research into a
personal crusade to clear his father’s name, something that Babe is wrestling
with.
Babe
is an avid runner and times himself daily while running through Central Park,
presumably to compete in the New York City Marathon. He is verbally ribbed by
the guys who live across the street from his apartment. His brother, Henry
“Doc” Levy (the excellent Roy Scheider), passes himself off to Babe as an oil
company executive, but in reality is a diamond courier for an infamous Nazi war
criminal named Dr. Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier, who was nominated as Best
Supporting Actor), who has been hiding in South America while living off of
diamonds he stole from Jews during the Nazi occupation in Europe. Szell shares
a safe deposit box with his brother who lives in New York, however the latter
dies in an accident involving an oil truck. This complicates matters for Szell as
he must come out of hiding to get his diamonds, running the risk of being
recognized by Auschwitz survivors.
Babe
meets and falls for a research student named Olga (Marthe Keller), who is
fluent in German and French and they begin a romance which takes Babe deeper
into the mystery of his brother’s affiliation with Szell. The overall film may
not make one hundred percent sense, and there are plot holes large enough to
drive an oil truck through, however it is terrifically entertaining and so far
ahead of contemporary thrillers that I suggest one overlook these flaws. For a
basis of comparison, its most obvious cinematic antecedent in terms of
atmosphere is Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View (1974) with Warren
Beatty. William Devane also is terrific as Janeway, Doc’s friend who comes to
the rescue and needs to get pertinent information from Babe.
Marathon
Man was the first Dustin Hoffman film that
I saw when it aired on CBS in October 1980 and for a while Szell’s ominous
inquiry to Babe when he is captured by Szell’s henchmen (Richard Bright and
Marc Lawrence), the infamous “Is it safe?”, became part of the lexicon and a
cultural reference that even appeared in Joe Dante’s Gremlins (1984) when
one of the titular creatures jokingly brandishes a dental drill. The film requires
active viewing for first-timers as there are double-crosses in abundance and if
you blink you might miss them. Viewers may dig deeply with questions about the
plot, but my only concern is where did Szell obtain that nifty killer wrist knife
that he uses on Roy Scheider and Fred Stuthman (the survivor who recognizes him
at the end of the film)? That is a nice device that can come in handy (sorry)
during ponderous corporate meetings and heated disagreements with political
adversaries.
Marathon
Man has been released before on video
cassette, laserdisc, CED (remember those?!), DVD, Blu-ray, and is now available
in a two-disc set from Kino Lorber, which keeps releasing great movies in
equally great special editions.
(Photo: Paramount)
Disc
One contains the film in 4K UHD, scanned in 4K from the original 35mm camera
negative. I personally cannot see a noticeable difference between this and the
standard Blu-ray on my 4K television, though it might be on a much larger
screen. There are no extras on this disc.
Disc
Two is a standard Blu-ray derived from the same 4K scan and down-converted to
standard HD, and the disc has extras ported over from the original DVD release,
with some exclusive extras this time around to add additional value. For the
first time in any format, there is an audio commentary by film historians Steve
Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson and it is feature-length. It is a joy to listen
to and I am grateful that they took time to discuss the great contribution of
composer Michael Small’s score for the film. A veteran of terrific film music
for Klute (1971), The Parallax View (1974), Night Moves
(1975), and an unused score to The China Syndrome (1979), his score for Marathon
Man is characteristically icy, creepy and sinister. There is also a good
deal of info regarding the cast and crew, particularly screenwriter Goldman and
director Schlesinger. They also quite correctly point out that the original
movie poster add campaign, which strangely consisted of simply the words, “A
thriller,” would have benefitted greatly with “Is it safe?” instead.
The
Magic of Hollywood…Is the Magic of People runs 21:14 and is a wonderful behind-the-scenes look at the
making of the film while it was in production, ported over from the 2001 DVD.
Much of the footage is of Robert Evans talking about catching lightning in a
bottle and getting his first casting choices to come along for the ride. Input
from Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, John Schlesinger and Marthe Keller
bookend footage of the final confrontation between Babe and Szell on a Los
Angeles backlot set!
Going
the Distance: Remembering Marathon Man
runs 29:07 and is a 2001 piece from the DVD of the time and contains interviews
with the cast and crew.
Rehearsal
Footage runs 21:06 and is
my favorite extra which includes Dustin Hoffman’s, Roy Scheider’s, and Marte
Keller’s explorations of their characters. This is very interesting as much of
it was shot before and during the release of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws,
the blockbuster that Mr. Scheider starred in, before principal photography
commenced in October 1975 and finished around February 1976. Marathon Man
also has the unique distinction of being the second motion picture to employ
the use of the then-new Steadicam.
Rounding
out the extras are the theatrical trailer, ten TV Spots and two radio spots.
“Instrumentalisation” (2023)(Cine 28) was
released on vinyl on February 24th together with a CD edition that includes last
year’s release, “Manipulation” (2022)(Cine 27) in a different mix and order.
There is also a 2-vinyl/CD set offered together with “Manipulation”. “Instrumentalisation”
is the long awaited and eagerly anticipated sister album to LAWA’s “Manipulation”.
I should point out at this stage, and for
review purposes, that I am listening to the vinyl LP version of this release.
The LP plays continuously (in a concept style) and without breaks, which
sometimes proves hard to determine where some pieces begin and end. “Instrumentalisation”
opens with the brooding ‘Plugout’, a nice synth-based rhythm played over a deep
throbbing bass riff. It sets up the album well, and wouldn’t sound out of place
in any number of 80s sci-fi flicks made by John Carpenter or David Cronenberg. Pulsating rhythms and industrial themes form
the basis of side A, the 8 pieces vary in their range. ‘Complot’, for instance,
features some delicate, childlike backing vocals that really add a haunting
charm to the track. Additional tracks such as ‘RND’ and in particular, ‘Guns’
ramp up the apocalyptic synths and drum beats and provide a real sense of dread
and tense, edgy atmosphere. Side A closes with the delightful ‘Soft Girl’, a
dreamy little segment which unfortunately is also the shortest track of the
side. Nevertheless, it does set you up nicely for the flipside – or perhaps is
simply designed to lead you into a false sense of safety and security? LAWA
always maintain a dark, wicked sense of humour and a genuine knack of messing
with your soul on an emotional level.
Side B does continue in a much similar vein,
perhaps a little more restrictive in its themes and doesn’t quite branch out,
(as far as exploring new directions) as side A. That said, there is still a
whole lot to enjoy. Diverse influences here range from the film works of Goblin
to Tangerine Dream. Tracks such as ‘Vault’ and ‘So soft’ are all good, solid
examples of filmic synth-pop of the past. I have a lot of love for “Instrumentalisation”,
but I also believe LAWA can spread their wings to a wider degree. Over the
course of these two albums, it’s proven that the duo can do the dramatic and
the ‘industrial’ – but I wouldn’t want it to turn into a self-restrictive style
or limited in terms of exploring new areas. I feel that LAWA could quite easily
remove the restraining belts and venture out into even richer (and dare I say
it) softer territories? They have certainly touched upon it, perhaps a little
too tentatively in this album, but I feel it’s there, just waiting for the
opportunity to breakthrough. Retro synth
film music can also have a softer under belly. I immediately think of Maurice
Jarre’s “Witness” (1985) or “Blade Runner” (1982) by Vangelis – all of which
proved to have a heart with genuine warmth, as well as a rhythmic pounding beat.
Cineploit’s packaging is again beautiful,
with a nicely conceived post-modern design. The vinyl is pressed in a striking
white/blue and blue/white combo mix to each side. Audio quality is deep, wide
and fully rounded and has been mastered very nicely by Alain Leonard.
Israeli Actor Chaim Topol, known professionally as Topol, has passed away at age 87. The official cause of death is said to be the effects of Alzheimer's Disease. He was born in Tel Aviv in 1935 and grew up in a modest family setting. He began performing during a stint in the Israeli army. In 1964, the 29 year-old landed the leading role in the acclaimed Israeli film satire "Sallah Shabati", which was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. It also gained Topol a Golden Globe award for Most Promising Male Newcomer. It set the pattern for the young actor to excel at playing characters far older than his actual age. In 1966, he was cast in a major Hollywood production- Kirk Douglas's "Cast a Giant Shadow", which chronicled the battles surrounding the founding of the state of Israel as seen through the eyes of American Army officer Mickey Marcus, played by Douglas, who played a key role in establishing the Israeli military as a fighting force. Topol had a plum role in a film that featured supporting performances by such heavyweights as John Wayne, Frank Sinatra and Yul Brynner.
Topol had first played his signature role of the Russian milkman Tevye in the stage musical "Fiddler on the Roof" in Israel at age thirty, even though the character was much older. He had seen Zero Mostel's acclaimed starring role in the production on Broadway, little dreaming that he would follow in his footsteps. However, in 1967, producer Hal Prince cast Topol in the part for the West End stage production in London. The show was a smash hit and Topol was on his way to stardom. He would eventually play the role in the Broadway revival in the early 1990s, earning a Tony Award nomination. However, most people became acquainted with him through director Norman Jewison's 1971 big screen musical adaptation. The film bucked the recent trend of high-priced screen musicals bombing and became a major hit, with Topol getting a Best Actor Oscar nomination. (He lost to Gene Hackman for "The French Connection".) He appeared as a villain in the 1980 film "Flash Gordon". In 1981, he was cast as the mysterious and charismatic Greek smuggler Columbo opposite Roger Moore in the James Bond film "For Your Eyes Only". His genuine chemistry with Moore would make him one of the more popular Bond allies in the film series' history. He would also appear in the mega-budget TV productions of "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance".
Over the years, Cinema Retro magazine has covered the various WWII films released by Oakmont Productions, the British film company that produced mid-range budget action movies that were released by United Artists. The movies all had a couple of factors in common: aside from their somewhat modest production values, each starred an actor of sufficient popularity to add a bit of luster to the overall marketing campaign. Between 1968-1970, Oakmont produced six feature films. Some were released as the main feature on double bills and sometimes each movie served as the second feature. The Oakmont films and stars were:
"Attack on the Iron Coast" (Lloyd Bridges)
"The Thousand Plane Raid" (Christopher George)
"Mosquito Squadron" (David McCallum)
"Hell Boats" (James Franciscus)
"The Last Escape" (Stuart Whitman)
"Submarine X-1" (James Caan)
These films, which always boasted sensational poster artwork, were made without the expectation of winning awards or becoming blockbusters. The producers were happy to make a modest profit, a philosophy today's film industry should revert to instead of betting the ranch on mega-budget would-be blockbusters. I've long admired these well-made productions but I was also frustrated that "The Last Escape" had eluded me because, to my knowledge, the film was the only Oakmont title not released on home video in the U.S. That problem has finally been remedied to a degree by the fact that the movie is now streaming on Screenpix, which is available to subscribers of Amazon Prime, Roku and Apple TV for an additional charge of $2.99 per month.
"The Last Escape" casts Stuart Whitman as Capt. David Mitchell, who leads a squad of commandos who are parachuted into German territory where they are to join up with British allies and launch a raid on a facility where renowned scientist Dr. Von Heineken (Pinkus Braun) is being held against his will. Seems von Heineken can provide crucial information to the Germans to help them further develop their V-class rockets, which have been used to devastating effect on England. The mission goes awry immediately when the Germans ambush the rescue team. In the ensuring firefight, Mitchell succeeds in securing von Heineken's release but only after his teams have suffered devastating casualties. The remaining group manage to escape to the woods for a rendezvous point with some Underground members. The plan is to radio for a plane from England to be sent to a remote field where the team will be flown back to safety. However, Mitchell has another unwelcome surprise: a large number of everyday citizens are waiting for them with the expectation of being taken aboard the plane. Mitchell reluctantly agrees and the group sets forth in captured military trucks to reach the rescue destination. Along the way, they encounter numerous ambushes and Mitchell begins to suspect that a traitor in the group is somehow alerting German forces to their locations. Adding to his woes, Soviet tank forces are in pursuit of them, hoping to take possession of von Heineken. Although ostensibly allies, the U.S. and British command knows that the Russians would use von Heineken's expertise to develop super weapons for use in the forthcoming Cold War period.
Director Walter Grauman does a good job in doing justice to an engrossing script by John C. Champion and Herrman Hoffman, and there is nary a dull moment. There are also some surprising developments along the way that prove that war really is hell. A bit of romantic fluff is introduced by the presence of Margit Saad as the captive mistress of a German general who joins the refugees along with her young son. Refreshingly, the byplay between Whitman and Saad is limited to a brief kiss. After all, these are desperate people who probably aren't having many erotic thoughts even if the opportunity was there to act upon them. The film gets better as it progresses until the action-packed finale which finds Mitchell and his ever-dwindling group trying to rendezvous with the rescue plane while simultaneously avoiding German patrols and Soviet tanks.
As with some other Oakmont productions, the film cribs some of the more expensive battle footage from more prestigious movies, in this case "633 Squadron" and "Battle of Britain", which were both also United Artists releases. Whitman is the only "name" actor in the entire production. He gives a suitably grim performance, reflecting the fact that this is a rare movie without single moment of humor or levity. The Screenpix streamer is not without problems: it is shown in the wrong aspect ratio and the scenes featuring characters speaking in German are devoid of any English sub-titles. Nonetheless, the film is worth checking out if you're a WWII buff. It was the final Oakmont production but at least the company went out with a winner.
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Paramount Home Video:
All four big-screen adventures featuring fan-favorite Star Trek characters Picard, Riker, Data, LaForge, Worf, Troi, and Dr. Crusher arrive for the first time ever on 4K Ultra HD™ with Dolby Vision™* and HDR-10 on April 4, 2023, just in time for First Contact Day (April 5th, the day Vulcans first made contact with humans).
The
journey begins with original cast members Kirk, Scott, and Chekov in a
story that spans space and time in STAR TREK: GENERATIONS, continuing
with a terrifying face off against the Borg in STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT,
a dangerous plot against a peaceful planet in STAR TREK: INSURRECTION,
and a familiar old foe returning in STAR TREK: NEMESIS.
All four films will be available together in the STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION 4-MOVIE COLLECTION.
The 4-Movie Collection includes each film on 4K Ultra HD, as well as
fully remastered on Blu-ray™, plus all legacy bonus content and access
to Digital copies of each film. The Collection is presented in a slipcase beautifully illustrated to complement the STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL 6-MOVIE COLLECTION, making this a must-own set to complete every fan’s collection.
In
addition, each film will be available individually on 4K Ultra HD with a
bonus Blu-ray featuring the fully remastered film, along with all
legacy bonus content and access to a Digital copy of the film.
Special features are detailed below.
STAR TREK: GENERATIONS Bonus Content
Commentary by director David Carson and Manny Coto
Commentary by Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore
Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda
Library Computer
Production
Uniting Two Legends
Stellar Cartography: Creating the Illusion
Strange New Worlds: The Valley of Fire
Scoring Trek
Visual Effects
Inside ILM: Models & Miniatures
Crashing the Enterprise
Scene Deconstruction
Main Title Sequence
The Nexus Ribbon
Saucer Crash Sequence
The Star Trek Universe
A Tribute to Matt Jefferies
The Enterprise Lineage
Captain Picard’s Family Album
Creating 24th Century Weapons
Next Generation Designer Flashback Andrew Probert
Stellar Cartography on Earth
Brent Spiner - Data and Beyond Part 1
Trek Roundtable: Generations
Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 007: Trilithium
Deleted Scenes
Archives
Trailers
STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT Bonus Content
Commentary by director and actor Jonathan Frakes
Commentary by screenplay writers Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore
Commentary by Damon Lindelof and Anthony Pascale
Text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda
Library Computer
Production
Making First Contact
The Art of First Contact
The Story
The Missile Silo
The Deflector Dish
From “A” to “E”
Scene Deconstruction
Borg Queen Assembly
Escape Pod Launch
Borg Queen’s Demise
The Star Trek Universe
Jerry Goldsmith: A Tribute
The Legacy of Zefram Cochrane
First Contact: The Possibilities
Industrial Light & Magic - The Next Generation
Greetings from the International Space Station
SpaceShipOne’s Historic Flight
Brent Spiner - Data and Beyond Part 2
Trek Roundtable: First Contact
Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 008: Temporal Vortex
The Borg Collective
Unimatrix One
The Queen
Design Matrix
Archives
Trailers
STAR TREK: INSURRECTION Bonus Content
Commentary by Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis
Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda
Library Computer
Production
It Takes a Village
Location, Location, Location
The Art of Insurrection
Anatomy of a Stunt
The Story
Making Star Trek: Insurrection
Director’s Notebook
The Star Trek Universe
Westmore’s Aliens
Westmore’s Legacy
Star Trek’s Beautiful Alien Women
Marina Sirtis - The Counselor Is In
Brent Spiner - Data and Beyond Part 3
Trek Roundtable: Insurrection
Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 009: The Origins of the Ba’ku and Son’a Conflict
Creating the Illusion
Shuttle Chase
Drones
Duck Blind
Deleted Scenes
Archives
Advertising
STAR TREK: NEMESIS Bonus Content
Commentary by director Stuart Baird
Commentary by producer Rick Berman
Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda
Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda
Library Computer
Production
Nemesis Revisited
New Frontiers – Stuart Baird on Directing Nemesis
Storyboarding the Action
Red Alert! Shooting the Action of Nemesis
Build and Rebuild
Four-Wheeling in the Final Frontier
Screen Test: Shinzon
The Star Trek Universe
A Star Trek Family’s Final Journey
A Bold Vision of The Final Frontier
The Enterprise E
Reunion with The Rikers
Today’s Tech Tomorrow’s Data
Robot Hall of Fame
Brent Spiner - Data and Beyond Part 4
Trek Roundtable: Nemesis
Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 010: Thalaron Radiation
Cinema Retro has received the following press release relating to the UK release of "Frankenstein: The True Story":
Presented
for the first time in high definition and featuring some incredible bonus
material and stunning new artwork by Graham Humphreys, Frankenstein: The True
Story is one of the most acclaimed versions of Mary Shelley's masterpiece.
The
film features an all-star cast led by James Mason, Leonard Whiting, David
McCallum, Jane Seymour, Michael Sarrazin, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson and Tom
Baker.
Frankenstein:
The True Story (1973) inspired author Anne Rice to write Interview with the
Vampire, the movie of which starred Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.
Having
finished The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola and John Boorman, having wrapped
up Deliverance were both keen to direct Frankenstein: The True Story as a
theatrical release but it was decided to keep it as a made-for-television movie
directed by Jack Smight.
Writers
Christopher Isherwood (Forever and a Day, The Great Sinner, A Single Man, and
author of Goodbye to Berlin, the novel on which the musical Cabaret was based)
and Don Bachardy (Isherwood’s longtime lover and chief creative consultant)
weren’t happy that Smight played down the homo-eroticism they’d written in to
the screenplay and so published it separately.
Leonard
Whiting, who stars as Victor Frankenstein, is currently in the process of suing
Paramount Studios for ‘forcing them into a nude scene’ in Franco Zeffirelli’s
1968 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Zeffirelli chose Whiting for the part of
Romeo because he had “a magnificent face, gentle melancholy, sweet, the kind of
idealistic young man Romeo ought to be." The role of Frankenstein saw
Whiting growing increasingly hideous as the film progresses. The make-up was by
Hammer horror veteran artist Roy Ashton.
Synopsis:
In 19th Century England, Dr Victor Frankenstein, bitter over his brother's
death, voices his wish that men could have power over life and death. Following
a chance encounter with Dr Henry Clerval, a surgeon experimenting in this very
field, they begin to work together. Victor achieves the impossible, the
creation of life, but with it comes unforeseen and unimaginable terror.
Cast:
James Mason, Leonard Whiting, David McCallum, Jane Seymour, Michael Sarrazin,
John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Tom Baker, Nicola Pagett, Michael Wilding,
Clarissa Kaye, Agnes Moorhead and Margaret Leighton.
Extras:
Film Introduction from James Mason; Off with Her Head - An Interview with Jane
Seymour; Victor's Story- An Interview with Actor Leonard Whiting;
Frankenstein's Diary- A Conversation with Writer Don Bachardy; A Double-Sided
Fold Out Poster of the All New Graham Humphreys Artwork; Audio commentary with
Filmmaker/Film Historian Sam Irvin.
(This Blu-ray is a Region-2 release.)
Click here to order from Amazon UK (The Blu-ray will be released on 27 March)
Even
diehard fans of filmmaker David Lynch were puzzled by his 2006 epic surrealist
horror picture, INLAND EMPIRE. There are legions of fans and critics who
love the movie, but there are likely more who find it impenetrable, way too
long, self-indulgent, pretentious, and, as one critic called it, a film that
might have been made by a “former genius who now has Alzheimer’s.”
INLAND
EMPIRE is
tough viewing. It deals with what could be called “multi-verses” before that
term was trendy. Some consider it to be the third film in a loosely
interconnected trilogy of movies Lynch made about “psychogenic fugues,” or dissociative
disorders. Lost Highway (1997) and Mulholland Drive (2001) both
deal with similar themes in which protagonists become “somebody else” during
the course of the stories.
One
aspect of the film that everyone agrees on is the stellar, virtuoso performance
by Laura Dern. Lynch famously sat on Hollywood Boulevard with a live cow in an attempt
to campaign for Dern’s performance to be considered for an Academy Award (she
wasn’t nominated). Ironically, even Dern has admitted she has no clue what is
going on in INLAND EMPIRE.
The
best this reviewer can make of the story is that Dern plays Hollywood actress
Nikki Grace, who is married to a Polish man, Piotrek (Peter J. Lucas), who has
something to hide. Nikki has just been cast in a movie called On High in
Blue Tomorrows, to be directed by the great Kingsley Stewart (Jeremy Irons)
and co-starring heartthrob Devon Berk (Justin Theroux). We learn that the movie
is based on an unfinished German movie from decades ago that was allegedly
“cursed” because the lead actors were murdered. Nikki, who has begun an affair
with Devon, sets out to investigate this history and literally falls through a
series of rabbit holes (there are even sequences featuring the anthropomorphic rabbits
from Lynch’s online shorts series, “Rabbits”) and becomes Sue Blue, who may or
may not be a completely different character from Nikki or perhaps a separate
personality. And then there’s the “Lost Girl” (Karolina Gruszka), a
human-trafficked prostitute in Poland in another decade (the 1930s?) whose
actions mirror what’s going on in Sue’s world.
Is
it a story of reincarnation? Of death and what might be the afterlife? Or maybe
there isn’t a story at all that can be followed linearly. Perhaps Lynch
intended INLAND EMPIRE to be an experience of emotions, images, and
surrealism in the vein of classic experimental filmmakers such as Stan
Brakhage, Germaine Dulac, Man Ray, and the Luis Buñuel
& Salvador Dalí collaborations. Maybe the movie is the
attempt to film in dream logic—which often makes no sense but can be vividly visceral.
At
any rate, INLAND EMPIRE is not for a mainstream audience. This is Lynch
at his most Lynchian. Be forewarned. Interestingly, it is the last theatrical
feature the filmmaker has made to date.
The
Criterion Collection has issued a new HD digital master on Blu-ray, made from
the 4K restoration supervised by Lynch, with both a 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master
Audio and uncompressed stereo soundtrack (also remastered by Lynch and original
recording mixers Dean Hurley and Ron Eng). As is usually the case with Lynch’s
films, the sound is always impressive, and INLAND EMPIRE doesn’t disappoint
in that regard.
The
package contains two disks—one with the feature film (it’s 180 minutes in
length), and the other with hours of supplements. Some of the supplements are
ported over from the original 2007 Rhino-Studio Canal DVD release: “More Things
That Happened” (75 minutes of extra scenes); LYNCH (a 2007 nearly-90-minute
behind-the-scenes documentary made by blackANDwhite); and “Ballerina,” a 2007
short film by Lynch. New to the Criterion release is an excellent half-hour
conversation between Laura Dern and actor Kyle MacLachlan, who both discuss
their respective work with Lynch and specifically Dern’s role in INLAND
EMPIRE; LYNCH2, a shorter documentary made by blackANDwhite; an
audio excerpt read by Lynch from his autobiography, Room to Dream
(co-written with Kristine McKenna); and the theatrical trailer. The booklet
contains an interview excerpt from Richard A. Barney’s book David Lynch:
Interviews.
Love
it or hate it, INLAND EMPIRE is without question one of the most
challenging and provocative pieces of cinema released since the New Millennium.
Click here to pre-order from Amazon. (The Blu-ray will be released on March 21.)
"Alvarez Kelly" is a 1966 Civil War adventure that blends in considerable elements of the traditional Western, primarily its emphasis on a cattle drive. William Holden plays the title role of a Mexican national of Mexican-Irish heritage. He's also a hard-nosed businessman who has recently overseen the arduous move of a herd of 2500 cattle from Mexico to Virginia, where he fulfills a contract with Union forces to provide the herd as a source of food for General Grant's troops who have encircled the Confederate capital of Richmond. For his efforts, Kelly is paid the princely sum of $50,000 through his Army liaison, Major Albert Stedman (Patrick O'Neal), who takes an instant dislike to Kelly. He accurately views him as a financial opportunist who is completely apolitical in terms of the issues associated with the war. Kelly tells Stedman that he would just as easily have sold the herd to the Confederates but their currency is declining in value along with their odds of winning the conflict. Stedman's men park the herd at the stately home of local belle Charity Warwick (Victoria Shaw), who is not happy about Union forces using her land. Still, she uses her good looks and flirtatious tactics to charm both Kelly and Stedman- though both men don't realize that she is feeding any relevant information she obtains to Col. Tom Rossiter (an eye-patching wearing Richard Widmark), a local officer in the Confederate army. Rossiter has been assigned a difficult mission: to help relieve the starving and blockaded citizens of Richmond by stealing the herd and finding a way to get it to the city, despite the overwhelming numbers of Union troops in the area.
Rossiter and a handful of men succeed in kidnapping Kelly and bringing him to the War Department in Richmond where he is asked to provide assistance in enacting the audacious plan to steal the herd. If he agrees to do so, he will get $100,000- though it will be paid in Confederate money, an offer that Kelly can refuse. Rossiter places him in jail and has to finally shoot off one of his fingers to elicit reluctant cooperation from Kelly, whose first job is to train Rossiter's cavalrymen to be effective trail drivers. Kelly finds a way to exact revenge on Rossiter by seducing his girlfriend, Liz Pickering (Janice Rule), a once-wealthy woman who has seen her fortunes and lifestyle diminish as Grant's forces tighten the noose on Richmond. In return for sleeping with Kelly, he pays a Scottish riverboat merchant to take her away from the city without Rossiter's knowledge. This plot point becomes pivotal toward the end of the movie. The film shifts into high gear with the realization of the cattle raid, which Kelly and Rossiter orchestrate successfully. The problem is getting the herd into Richmond, which will require a seemingly impossible cattle drive through a notoriously dangerous swamp and across a rickety bridge- all the while with Major Stedman and his men in hot pursuit.
I had originally seen the film as a kid when it was first released but had no lingering memories of it. Having discovered it on Screenpix, I thought I'd give it try. I almost gave up when I heard the title song, which is played over the opening credits. It's the very definition of "cornball" to the point of being almost laughable. Only my belief that any movie featuring William Holden is worth watching convinced me to hang in there. I'm glad I did because "Alvarez Kelly" is quite a good, off-beat film. The teaming of Holden and Widmark is very effective. Holden was once again playing the type of character that was becoming his trademark, namely, a likable rogue with great courage but seemingly no moral principals. Holden was 48 years-old at the time but looked older, probably due to his well-known penchant for heavy drinking. Thus, the concept of presenting him as a Civil War era Matt Helm or Derek Flint, with gorgeous and willing women being easily beguiled by him seemed a bit of a stretch at this point in his career. Still, he gives a marvelous performance, as does Widmark, who could be problematic and somewhat hammy if not under the proper direction. Fortunately, veteran director Edward Dmytryk is up to the task. The film gains momentum as it moves along and climaxes with a terrific, ambitious action scene that incorporates a major battle and a thrilling cattle stampede.
The production was a troubled one, however. The script by Franklin Coen was deemed to be unsatisfactory and uncredited rewrites were done by Elliott Arnold and Daniel Taradash. There were also delays in filming caused by weather and illness. When the film was released, it was met with mixed reviews, though Holden and Widmark received good notices.
I should point out what some film fans have observed: "Alvarez Kelly" has much in common with John Ford's 1959 production of "The Horse Soldiers" in which Holden co-starred with John Wayne. Namely:
Both movies were inspired by daring raids conducted in the South during the Civil War. "Alvarez Kelly" is based on what is known as "The Beefsteak Raid" of 1864 in which Confederate raiders successfully stole about 2500 cattle from Union forces and provided them as food for starving Richmond.The raid was so daring that it won reluctant praise from its execution from none other than President Lincoln.
Both movies feature a beautiful blonde southern belle whose property is utilized by Union officers, who she charms even as she spies for the South.
Both movies were shot in Louisiana.
Both movies feature a climactic battle at a bridge which has been mined to prevent pursuing forces from catching them.
Both films feature William Holden in a tense relationship with an army officer who both come to respect each other at the film's conclusion.
"Alvarez Kelly" isn't a great film but it's a good one. It deserved a better fate in 1966 but, through streaming and home video, hopefully more people can appreciate its merits today.
The Sony DVD from many years ago is the only home video release to date in the U.S.A. The picture quality is good but the film really deserves an upgrade to Blu-ray. However, the only Blu-ray editions have been released outside of the U.S. The only bonus features are fact files about the stars and director and the original trailer along with bonus trailers for "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Silverado".
Ricou
Browning, a multi-talented filmmaker best known for playing TheCreature
from the Black Lagoon (in the underwater sequences) passed away at his
Florida home on February 27 at age
93.A Florida native and lifelong
swimmer, in 1953 Ricou was selected to accompany the location scouts from
Universal Studios, then planning their next monster epic about a prehistoric creature
rising from a remote Amazonian lake. This film, unlike many of their other
monster films, had extensive location photography, much of it underwater in
Wakulla Springs and Silver Springs, Florida.The 6’3” Browning’s grace and ease underwater so impressed studio
executives, that he was offered the title role for the water scenes. (The
Creature on land was played by actor Ben Chapman.)The film became a much-loved hit and spawned
two sequels – with Ricou reprising his role in 1955’s Revenge of the Creature
and 1956’s The Creature Walks Among Us.He got the idea for a show about kids and dolphins after raising some
dolphins himself and the movie Flipper was born (co-written with his
brother-in-law Jack Cowden).He went on
to direct and write numerous episodes of the TV series that followed.Another career highlight was when Ricou was
selected to choreograph the iconic underwater battle in Thunderball,
marshalling dozens of divers from the Florida diving community.He rehearsed their moves above water on a
barge, then recreated them for the cameras below the surface. Ricou returned to
Bondage to coordinate the underwater scenes for Sean Connery’s 1983 film, Never
Say Never Again and arranged the famous “Caddy Day” pool sequence in Caddyshack
(shot in Davie, Florida).
All
in all, Browning’s epic career spanned some five decades and over 50 films and
TV projects.And to think, it all
started with a swim in a lagoon!
Ricou
is survived by his four children including underwater coordinator, actor and
director Ricou Browning, Jr. ,10 children and 11 great-grandchildren. RIP, Ricou and thank you.
Attack
of the 50ft. Woman is by no measure the finest science-fiction
film to emerge from 1950’s Hollywood.It
may, however, be one of the most iconic.I suspect the film’s notoriety is partly due to Reynold Brown’s eye-catching
one-sheet poster design:a grimacing,
gargantuan deep-cleavaged Allison Hayes hovering over a city highway picking
off random automobiles.That nothing
like this actually happens in the
movie is mostly forgivable.If we were
to judge any film by its true delivery-of-on-screen mayhem against the false promises
of its imaginative publicity campaign, a lot of press agents would be serving
time.
Having said that, Brown’s artwork is an inseparable
component of the film’s status among fans of Silver Age sci-fi.The poster design has been both parodied and mimicked,
plastered on coffee mugs, jewelry, wristwatches, puzzles, t-shirts, model kits,
fridge magnets and book covers.Reynold’s
empowering image has even seen adoption as a feminist-rallying call-to-arms.Which is a pretty amazing feat for a film
dashed off in little more than a week’s time, with less than stellar optical
effects and at a budget of some $88,000.
Attack
of the 50ft. Woman was directed by Nathan Juran who is credited
on this particular film - for no reason I could source or conjure - as “Nathan
Hertz.”It’s not as if Juran was a fallen
helmsman of high-budget studio “prestige” pictures.He wasn’t a director reflexively protective
of a former glory, someone defensive that his once glittering career had
somehow descended into directing 50s sci-fi fodder.Juran’s first directorial assignment was, in
fact, for Universal’s The Black Castle
(1953) a mostly glossed-over gothic B-film featuring Richard Greene and Boris
Karloff.From 1953 on, Juran
subsequently bounced between directing low-budget feature films and studiously working
on early television.
But by 1957 Juran had become semi-typecast as a
successful auteur of low-budget sci-fi films, his streak beginning with 1957’s The Deadly Mantis.Over the course of the next several years
(1957-1964), Juran directed a number of features and television episodes, many
of which could be categorized as falling under the umbrella of sci-fi and
fantasy.These would include such offerings
as 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), The Brain from Planet Arous (1957) and,
perhaps most famously, The 7th Voyage of
Sinbad (1958).
The screenwriter of Attack
of the 50ft. Woman was Mark Hanna. Hanna had already displayed a modicum of
insight in his crafting of bigger-than-life-size monster movies.The writer had collaborated the previous year
with producer/director Bert I. Gordon on A.I.P.’s The Amazing Colossal Man. There’s
little arguing that Allied Artist’s decision to back Attack of the 50ft. Woman was simply an opportunity to coat-tail
Gordon’s recent string of successful “giant monster” pics.There had been plenty of them, some having
already seen issue, others in the can being rush-readied for release:King
Dinosaur (1955), Beginning of the End
(1957), The Cyclops (1957), The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), Attack of the Puppet People (1958), War of the Colossal Beast (1958) and The Spider (1958).
Jacques R. Marquette and Bernard Woolner’s production of Attack of the 50 ft. Woman would start on
Wednesday, January 8, 1958, under the working title of The Astounding Giant Woman.It wasn’t a great title, but Allied Artist’s had been bandied a pair of
alternates, both of which were also subsequently rejected: The Mammoth Female Monster and The
Colossal Female Monster.The film
was still being touted in the trades as The
Astounding Giant Woman through March of 1958.In April of 1958 the film was finally and
permanently re-titled Attack of the 50ft.
Woman.
Actress Yvette Vickers, who plays sultry sex-kitten Honey
Parker in the film, recalls the entire picture was shot in eight days, with no
one under the illusion they were making cinematic history. Allied Artists were
interested in quick returns on their investments.By January’s end of 1958, no fewer than ten
of their projects were reported as being “in various stages of editing,”
including Attack of the 50ft. Woman
and Howard W. Koch’s Frankenstein 1970.It was also during the last week of January
that Ronald Stein was brought onboard to compose the film’s engaging and jazzy soundtrack.
One intriguing aspect of Attack of the 50ft. Woman is that the film’s sci-fi elements would often
play second fiddle to the script’s domestic drama.Allison Hays plays Nancy Archer, a wealthy
but alcoholic socialite whose marriage is in shambles.The cruel ways of her unfaithful and
conniving husband, Harry (William Hudson) has already driven her to a
sanatorium.While his wife is away
(unsuccessfully) convalescing from her binge-drinking and mental frailties,
Harry has taken up with the “red-headed wench” Honey Parker (Vickers).Harry and Honey spend an inordinate amount of
time at Tony’s Bar and Grill, drinking, listening to jazz, dancing, and
plotting a comfortable future together - a future to be financed by Nancy’ loss
of stewardship of the family fortune due to her faltering mental health
capacities.
This scenario on paper, of course, appears very film-noir
in construction.But Hanna’s script
upends the film’s love triangle aspect almost from the very beginning.There have been worldwide news broadcasts describing
a “strange red fireball in the sky” hurtling towards earth.Driving back on Route 66 to her tony home
upon release from the sanatorium, Nancy unluckily encounters an alien craft somewhere
in a remote section of the Californian desert. No saucer-shaped spacecraft, this particular vehicle
arrives as a 30-foot high sphere resembling a weather balloon.As if suffering from “mental exhaustion and
alcoholism” was not enough, Nancy now finds herself in the clutches of giant
hand with hairy knuckles.
Unfortunately, this alien contact has left Nancy with
blue-green traces of radiation on her throat which brings about the onset of
“giantism.”Though doctors are summoned
to try to figure out why the poor and delirious Nancy is increasing in size at
an alarming rate, husband Harry and mistress Honey care not one whit, still duplicitously
scheming at Tony’s bar and grill.But
the two of them – as well as the local sheriff and police department – will soon
find themselves no match for a lady scorned: a wrathful woman who now stands 5o
ft. tall, is wrapped in an over-sized white bed sheet and appears angry as
Hell.
The earliest press screenings for Attack of the 50ft. Woman were held in Los Angeles on May 8, 1958.The film was screened with Roger Corman’s War of the Satellites, a second sci-fi feature
that was to be paired with Woman on national
release.In the view of the Variety critic, both genre offerings
were “on weak side.” The trade cited Mark
Hanna’s “corny dialogue” and Hertz’s “routine” direction on Woman as the film’s primary deficiencies,
dismissing the film as “a minor offering for the scifi trade where demands
aren’t too great.”
Well, maybe I’ve simply just sat through too many Silver
Age sci-fi films to be objective, but I didn’t find Hanna’s script necessarily
corny – but I did find the screenplay absent of likable characters worth caring
about. Although I am a fan of Attack of the 50ft. Woman, I can
understand the sulking review given the film upon release by critic Margaret
Harford of the Los Angeles Mirror: “Attack of the 50ft. Woman has so few
idealists on hand that the survival rate is lamentably low.”She goes on to describe the three romantic-triangle
leads as “unregenerative types” possessing souls not worthy of salvation.The unrelenting unwholesomeness of the aforementioned
trio ultimately inspires, “a wholesale blood bath that amounts to an extra
dividend for scare-traders on the horror market.”
While Attack of the
50ft. Woman would not be the last sci-fi/horror flick in which Hayes would
be cast, the actress happily moved over to dramatic work on television.She was enjoying the variety of roles such
new castings offered. It wasn’t surprising.Shortly following the release of Attack
of the 50ft. Woman, one journalist met with Hayes for a brief
interview.The gossip writer thought
Hayes “a fugitive from ‘Monster’ pictures,” a talented actress looking to take
an extended break from such desultory features. The actress had, in fact, racked up a score of
horror credits in recent years, appearing in a quartet of exploitation pictures
in 1957 alone: The Undead, The Zombies of Mora Tau, The Unearthly, and The Disembodied.In 1958
this former 50 ft. giant was looking for roles more befitting a woman of her
stature.
Shortly following her work on Woman, the saucy Yvette Vickers was cast in the feature The Saga of Hemp Brown and an episode of
TV’s Dragnet.In the years 1958-1961 most of Vickers’
casting was on various television dramas, though a few feature film roles were
mixed in as well.She would also, more
infamously, appear as a “bottoms up” “Playmate of the Month” centerfold in the
July 1959 issue of Playboy magazine,
the photo spread courtesy of Russ Meyer.Of course, I’m just noting the above for the historical record, not to suggest
anyone should rush off to eBay to source a back copy.But if you’re looking to add something new to
your collection…
This region-free Warner Bros. Archive Collection issue of
Attack of the 50ft. Woman is
presented in 1080p High Definition 16x9 with an aspect 1.85:1 and in DTS-HD
Master mono audio. As is often the case
with these Warner Bros. Archive Blu releases, there’s not an abundance of
special features offered outside of the film’s trailer and a commentary track.The latter item is particularly special, if
not unfamiliar to serious collectors.
The commentary track on this new Blu release has been
ported over from Warner’s DVD box set of 2007, Cult Camp Classics, Viol. 1: Sci-Fi Thrillers.On the bright side, the commentaries of film
historian Tom Weaver and actress Vickers are certainly worthy of preservation
on this second digital go round, the film’s first appearance in HD.Both Weaver, likely the finest author-commentator
of vintage Hollywood sci-fi and horror, and Vickers – present on set back in
1958 - offer wonderfully playful and often prescient insights and memories on
the making of the film.Vickers’s
contributions are now made all more special in 2023 as the actress/pin-up girl with
the great sense of humor has since passed.
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Before Burt Reynolds became a bankable leading man with the release of "Deliverance" in 1972, he toiled for years through mostly "B" movies, some of which were designed to be secondary films in double features. A rare exception was "100 Rifles", which afforded him a prominent role opposite Jim Brown and Raquel Welch. However, films such as "Navajo Joe", "Sam Whiskey", "Operation C.I.A.", "Shark" and "Skullduggery" may have kept him employed but only as a leading man in minor features. After reaching superstar status, Reynolds would look back on these films with self-deprecating humor. He needn't have. These minor features were generally highly enjoyable and efficiently made. They also allowed him to hone his skills as an actor rather than just another tough guy. The best of this lot of films was "Impasse", a 1969 production that I've only caught up with recently. The plot finds Reynolds well-cast as Pat Morrison, a hunky, lovable rogue who is in the Philippines to enact an audacious heist on the island of Corregidor. For historical context, it was at Corregidor that U.S. forces and their Filippino allies put up a historic and stubborn resistance against overwhelming numbers of Japanese troops in early 1942. Although the island ultimately fell to the Japanese, the starving and weary American and Filipino forces had put what the Japanese felt would be a quick victory far behind schedule. Before the battle began, American forces had moved a substantial amount of gold from Manila banks to Corregidor, where it was stored in the elaborate system of tunnels under the gun batteries. (Presumably, the Japanese took possession of this gold after seizing the island.) In the film, the hidden gold is a big secret and its location has never been found. Morrison rounds up some of the former U.S. and Filipino soldiers who were brought blindfolded to a certain location during the war and instructed to hide a large stash of gold bricks behind a wall and seal it up. He's betting that if they are able to revisit the caverns, they will be able to piece together the approximate location of the gold, which is estimated to weight 6,000 pounds. The disparate group is being advised by a sickly WWII veteran, Trev Jones (Clarke Gordon), who has a strategy for getting everyone into the tunnels despite the fact that the island still maintains a military garrison.
Morrison's team also consists of Draco (Rodolfo Acosta), a hard-drinking, violent Apache who is inspired to take part in the caper because he wants to return to Manila and track down a woman he had been obsessed with during the war; Hansen (Lyle Betteger), a similarly hot-tempered man with racist tendencies toward Draco and Jesus (Vic Diaz), native Filipino who played a key role in secreting the gold. To add a bit of spice to the testosterone-laden scenario, Anne Francis pops up as Bobby Jones, Trev's daughter, who is a tennis ace participating in a tournament in Manila. Naturally, she meets Morrison and the sparks fly. Morrison is also involved with his married mistress Mariko (Miko Mayama), and the relationship will pose a serious problem later in the film. Complications ensue when Trev is kidnapped by local crime boss Wombat (Jeff Corey), which adds a subplot in which Morrison has to rescue him. This results in Morrison taking on one of Wombat's paid killers in an incredibly complex and exciting chase scene. It begins in a packed cockfight stadium, leads to moving vehicles and an extended foot chase in a high rise apartment. It's quite incredible to watch and the scene is superbly staged by director Richard Benedict, who impresses throughout the film by getting the most from his eclectic cast members. The only flaw in the casting is Vic Diaz as Jesus. He gives a fine performance but he is far too young to have been in the battle for Corregidor. In fact, he was born in 1932, which means he was ten years-old at the time.The always-addictive Anne Francis displays good chemistry with Reynolds and although there are no steamy love scenes depicted, there is a very funny vulgar quip tied in with the couple entering an elevator. Reynolds is in top form throughout and the film benefits from his experience as a stunt man, as he performs most of the hard stuff himself. The caper itself is believably scripted by John C. Higgins right down to the mishaps and unexpected events and Mars B. Rasca's cinematography does justice to the Philippine locations.
"Impasse" has been released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber in a very fine transfer. The only bonus extras are the original trailer and a generous and fun gallery of other Reynolds trailers for films released by KL. The film is also currently streaming on Screenpix.