By Adrian Smith

Cesare Mori grew up in an orphanage in the 1870s but rose to power and influence through the military, then the police, and finally as a Prefect in Mussolini’s Fascist Party. He was dispatched to Palermo in Sicily in the mid-1920s with the specific task of destroying the power and influence of the Mafia, who held a vicious and all-controlling stranglehold on the island. The Mafia were responsible for hundreds of brutal murders every year, bribed officials, and were a prime reason why so many lived in poverty. Mori was a man on a mission, and would stop at nothing to break this criminal organisation. He was extraordinarily successful. His reasoning was that it was not enough to simply arrest people: The citizens of Sicily had to see that the authorities could help them and that they no longer needed the Mafia for protection.

Following his promotion to the senate, where ultimately he fell afoul of Mussolini after expressing concern over Italy’s relationship with Hitler, he wrote his memoirs about the role he played in breaking the Mafia, and it was this that inspired the 1977 production of The Iron Prefect, starring Giuliano Gemma in the title role. Gemma was well-known to audiences thanks to his role in such Spaghetti Westerns as A Pistol for Ringo (1965, Duccio Tessari) and Day of Anger (Tonino Valerii, 1967) and he would even appear in Dario Argento’s Tenebrae a few years later in 1982. Despite being around twenty years younger than the actual Mori, he creates a believable, authoritative character, and one can see why the Sicilian police were willing to follow his sometimes-unorthodox methods. The film features Claudia Cardinale in a supporting role as the struggling mother of a young boy whose father was an influential leader of the Mafia, but having had enough, she wants to try and secure a better life for the boy away from Sicily. It was ably directed on location by Pasquale Squitieri, who was himself no stranger to the Western, and had also made other films about organised crime and the Mafia, including Camorra (1972) and The Climber (1975).

It’s an easy comparison to make, but one can’t help but think of the Sicilian section of The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972), and this film makes an excellent companion piece to that: Sicily is hot, dry and crumbling, where peasants are armed with shotguns and the authorities are powerless to do anything about the criminal gangs who brazenly murder entire families to maintain control, until Cesare Mori arrives of course. The Iron Prefect has been restored in 2K from the original negative and is available here from new boutique label Radiance Films with new and archival extras. As Squitieri and Gemma are sadly no longer with us, an archival interview with them both recorded in 2009 provides fascinating insight, and there is also a new interview with Squitieri’s biographer Domenico Monetti. My favourite bonus feature here is an appreciation of Giulliano Gemma by writer, director and western fan Alex Cox who goes into detail and brings wit and style to the piece. If Alex Cox, host of the important Moviedrome series of film screenings on British television in the late nineties, could shoot videos like this for all of Radiance’s releases, I for one would be very happy. The limited edition of The Iron Prefect comes with a booklet featuring new writing by Italian cinema expert Guido Bonsaver and an original article on the real-life Cesare Mori and his Mafia raid as depicted within the film.

This is another excellent release from Radiance, who have rapidly become a popular and collectible label with an eclectic mix of world classic and cult cinema. Cinema Retro recently interviewed founder Francesco Simeoni about the label. You can read it here.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Actor George Maharis, who co-starred with Martin Milner in the classic 1960s TV series "Route 66", passed away last week. He was 94 years old. Maharis had a multifaceted career, starring on TV, stage and motion pictures. He also found some success as a singer in the 1960s. Maharis,a native of Queens, New York,  studied at the Actors Studio and became a popular presence on American television, guest starring on many hit shows. His popular role on "Route 66" ended before the third season had concluded. It was said that the producers of "Route 66" released him from the show because of suspected homosexuality in an era that was intolerant towards gays in the film industry, though other variations of his departure centered on his health and his desire to leave TV for motion pictures. He parlayed his popularity on TV into modest stardom on the big screen. Among his films: "Exodus", "Sylvia", "The Satan Bug" and "The Happening". Maharis was not without controversy. In 1967, he was arrested for engaging in "lewd conduct".  He appeared nude in "Playgirl" magazine in 1973.The following year, he was arrested on charges of soliciting sex. The case was widely reported in the media and arguably had a negative impact on Maharis's career. 

Maharis, who was of Greek heritage, boasted the kind of good looks that made him a heart throb at the height of his career. His last screen credit was the suspense thriller "Doppelganger" in 1993, after which he retired from show business. For more about his career, click here.

By Mark Cerulli 

Josh Agle, better known as “Shag” has made a name for himself creating Mid-Century, Tiki-inspired art that has become quite popular with collectors. He has previously mined the cinematic landscapes of Star Wars, Planet of the Apes, Godzilla The Addams Family and Batman, creating stylized fine art prints, many of which sold out. Now he’s finally turned his talents to James Bond, releasing “Bambi & Thumper”, a Diamonds Are Forever-inspired print at his Las Vegas store on May 27^th.

The work was, of course suggested by the 1971 Connery classic – “I first saw Diamonds Are Forever as a kid and the scene where two beautiful bodyguards beat up James Bond in a futuristic home is something that made a lasting impression on me,” the artist explained in a recent email to his followers. The story gets even better, as Agle wrote “Many years later I got to stay in that supervillain lair, the Elrod House in Palm Springs and I blasted the soundtrack to Diamonds Are Forever… how could it not inspire a painting?”

(Mark Cerulli with wife Sandra Carvalho with Shag at a recent print-release party at his gallery in Palm Springs, CA. Photo: Mark Cerulli.)

If your licensed troubleshooting takes you to Palm Springs, Shag’s unique store is worth a visit. The artist frequently hosts print release parties where he chats with guests and is happy to sign his work – which also includes Tiki Mugs, small prints, kitschy lamps and clocks, books, beach towels, even socks! He also has a store in The Palms Casino Resort in Vegas – a location both Bond and Shady Tree would feel at home at.

“Bambi & Thumper” will be for sale on the SHAG website (shagstore.com) starting Sunday, May 28^th, available framed and unframed. With a print run of only 200, hop in your Moon Buggy to grab one!

These images were culled from the pages of the New York Times' February 6, 1969 edition. What a time it was, with so many eclectic films playing simulataneouosly. Enjoy this trip down memory lane.

By Lee Pfeiffer

It's easy to look back on the Blaxploitation film craze of the 1970s as a short-lived period that spawned some cinematic guilty pleasures. However, time has been kind to the genre and if retro movie buffs view some of the films that emerged during this era they will undoubtedly find more artistry at work than was originally realized. Case in point: "Truck Turner", a 1974 action flick released at the height of the Blaxploitation phenomenon. I had never seen the film prior to its release on the new Blu-ray special edition from Kino Lorber Studio Classics. It's a violent, brutal film filled with ugly characters and "heroes" who deserve that moniker only because they aren't quite as abhorrent as the cutthroat antagonists they face. Yet, there is something special about "Truck Turner". Amid the carnage and frequent, extended action sequences, there is real talent at work here. Most of it belongs to Jonathan Kaplan, the director who had recently emerged as yet another promising protege of Roger Corman. In fact, Kaplan had just recently completed filming another Blaxploitation film, "The Slams" with Jim Brown, before being drafted into "Truck Turner". The idea of a white, Jewish guy directing a Blaxploitation film may seem weird today but at the time, most of the creative forces behind these movies were white guys, an indication of just how few opportunities existed in Hollywood for black filmmakers in the 1970s. The movies were also largely financed by white studio executives who benefited the most financially. Yet, it cannot be denied that the genre went a long way in opening doors for a lot of talented black actors and musicians, who often provided the scores for the films. Until the release of "Shaft" in 1971 (which was directed by a black filmmaker, Gordon Parks), most of the action roles for black characters seemed to be hanging on the durable shoulders of Sidney Poitier, Jim Brown, Harry Belafonte and the great character actor Woody Strode. Suddenly, there were a great number of opportunities for black actors and actresses to display their talents on screen. The vehicles in which they toiled were often low-budget potboilers, but it did increase their visibility and name recognition. More importantly, black action characters became commonplace henceforth. 

"Truck Turner" has emerged as a genuine cult movie in the decades since its initial release. The movie's oddball appeal begins with the casting of the titular character, who is played by legendary soul musician Isaac Hayes in his screen debut. While Laurence Olivier probably never lost sleep over Hayes's decision to enter the movie business, his casting was a stroke of genius on the part of the executives at American International Pictures, which specialized in exploitation films for the grindhouse and drive-in audiences. Hayes had recently won the Academy Award for his funky "Theme From 'Shaft'" and had an imposing and super-cool physical presence. He also  proved to be a natural in front of the camera. His emotional range was limited but he exuded an arrogance and self-confidence that the role required. Turner is a skip tracer/bounty hunter employed by a bail bond agency in the slum area of Los Angeles. A stunning opening shot finds literally dozens of such agency dotting the urban landscape- an indication of how out of control crime was in the city during this period. Turner and his partner Jerry (Alan Weeks) agree to take on an assignment to track down a local notorious pimp and crime kingpin named 'Gator' Johnson (Paul Harris), who has skipped bail, thus leaving the agency's owner Nate Dinwiddle (Sam Laws) on the hook for the money. Turner and Jerry pursue 'Gator' in one of those requisite high octane car chases that were seemingly mandatory in 70s action movies. This one is quite spectacular and features some dazzling stunt driving. 'Gator' is ultimately killed by Turner and this leads to the main plot, which concerns his lover, Dorinda (Nichelle Nichols). She was 'Gator's  partner in a lucrative prostitution business. The two pimped out beautiful young women who they keep as virtual prisoners on a large estate. Dorinda is the Captain Bligh of madams, routinely abusing her stable of girls and demeaning them at every opportunity. She is enraged by Turner's slaying of 'Gator' and offers a bounty for his murder: half of her stake in the prostitution ring. The offer draws more than a few professional assassins to her doorstep, all of whom promise they can kill Turner. However, the only one who seems to have the ability to do so is Harvard Blue (Yaphet Kotto), a soft-spoken but vicious crime boss who would like nothing more than to make easy money from a major pimping operation. With a small army of assassins, he sets out to make good on his promise to kill Turner. 

Like most action movies of this genre, the plot points are predictable. As with Charles Bronson's character in the "Death Wish" films, virtually every person who befriends Turner comes to great misfortune. This kind of predictable emotional manipulation is par for the course when you're watching 70s crime films and doesn't overshadow the fact that there is a great deal of style evident in "Truck Turner". The dialogue is saucy and witty. For example, Dorinda describes one of her "girls" as "Kentucky Fried Chicken" because "she's finger-lickin' good!" and another as "Turnpike" because "you have to pay to get on and pay to get off." If you think that's politically incorrect, consider that every other line of dialogue has somebody calling somebody else a nigger. Then there's the character of Truck Turner, who - like his fellow  cinematic tough ass crime fighters of the era ranging from Dirty Harry to 'Popeye' Doyle to John Wayne's McQ- seems oblivious to the fact that he is endangering an abundance of innocent people in his obsession to get the bad guys. Turner engages in carjacking and threatens the lives of people who he feels aren't cooperating fast enough. He also has a sensitive side, though, as we see in his scenes with the love of his life, Annie (Annazette Chase). She's recently completed a jail term and only wants to settle down with Turner to live a quiet, normal lifestyle. Good luck. When the contract is put out on Turner, she becomes a potential victim and is terrorized by Harvard Blue and his gang. The film concludes with some terrific action sequences, the best of which has Hayes and Kotto going mano-a-mano inside the corridors of a hospital. They chase and spray bullets at each other amid terrified patients in wheelchairs and on gurneys and in one scene, carry the shoot out into an operating room with doctors in the midst of  working on a patient! The finale, which centers on Kotto's last scene in the movie, is shot with such style that it almost approaches being  (dare I use the term?) poetic. The supporting cast is first rate with Alan Weeks scoring strongly as Robin to Turner's Batman. Annazette Chase is excellent as the ever-patient object of Turner's desire and, of course, Kotto is terrific, as usual, managing to steal scenes in his own unique, low-key way. The most enjoyable performance comes from Nichelle Nichols, who is 180 degrees from her "Star Trek" role. As the ultimate villainess, she seems to be having a blast insulting and threatening everyone in her line of vision. Her final confrontation with Turner makes for a memorable screen moment, to say the least.  

The Kino Lorber Blu-ray is up to the company's usual high standards in all respects. Old Truck never looked better on screen and there are some welcome bonus materials. Director Kaplan provides a witty and highly informative audio commentary, relating how American International was more interested in the soundtrack album they would be able to market than the film itself. (Hayes provides the impressive score for the film, including some "Shaft"-like themes.). He also said that he was originally drawn to the project because he was told the film would star either Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine or Robert Mitchum! Nevertheless, he speaks with great affection for Hayes and his colleagues and points out various character actors his used in the film including the ubiquitous Dick Miller, James Millhollin, Scatman Crothers and even Matthew Beard, who played "Stymie" in the Our Gang comedies.  Another welcome bonus is director Joe Dante,obviously an admirer of the film, in discussion at a 2008 screening of "Truck Turner" at the New Beverly Cinema in L.A. He's joined by director Kaplan and stuntman Bob Minor. The reaction of the audience indicates this film enjoys a loyal following. There is also a segment from Dante's popular "Trailers From Hell" web site that features director Ernest Dickerson introducing and narrating the original trailer for the film. The trailer is also included in the Blu-ray, as well as a double feature radio spot ad for "Truck Turner" and Pam Grier as "Foxy Brown". In all, an irresistible release for all retro movie lovers. 

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NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION

NEW TO 4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY^TM AND DIGITAL

HAROLD RAMIS’ ROAD TRIP COMEDY FILM STARRING CHEVY CHASE AND BEVERLY D’ANGELO WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 4K RESOLUTION WITH HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR)

Own it on 4K Ultra HD and Digital on June 27

Burbank, Calif., May 10, 2023 – National Lampoon’s Vacation, directed by Harold Ramis and starring Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo as Clark and Ellen Griswold, will be released on Ultra HD Blu-ray and Digital on June 27. As Warner Bros celebrates its 100th anniversary, this film is highlighted as a studio gem on its 40th anniversary.

The 1983 classic comedy film from Warner Bros. Pictures was written by John Hughes and was based on his short story “Vacation ’58 which appeared in the publication “National Lampoon.”  The film was produced by Matty Simmons and also stars Imogene Coca, Randy Quaid, John Candy, Anthony Michael Hall, Dana Barron, and Christie Brinkley in her acting debut.  National Lampoon’s Vacation also features special appearances by Eddie Bracken, Brian-Doyle Murray, James Keach, and Eugene Levy.

Ultra HD* showcases 4K resolution with High Dynamic Range (HDR) and a wider color spectrum, offering consumers brighter, deeper, more lifelike colors for a home entertainment viewing experience like never before.   

National Lampoon’s Vacation will be available on Ultra HD Blu-ray for $33.99 SRP and includes an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc with the feature film in 4K with HDR and a Digital download of the film. Fans can also own National Lampoon’s Vacation in 4K Ultra HD via purchase from select digital retailers beginning on June 27.  

About the Film:

Everything is planned, packed – and about to go hilariously wrong. The Griswolds are going on vacation. In the driver’s seat is Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase), an Everyman eager to share the open road and the wonders of family togetherness. Myriad mishaps, crude kin (Randy Quaid), encounters with a temptress (Christie Brinkley), financial woes, Aunt Edna (Imogene Coca) on the roof, one security guard (John Candy) and 2,460 miles later, it’s a wonder the Griswolds are together. There’s never been a family vacation like it. Except maybe yours. And that helps explain why National Lampoon’s Vacation remains so popular… and so very funny.

Ultra HD Blu-ray Elements

National Lampoon’s Vacation Ultra HD Blu-ray contains the following previously released special features:

· Commentary with Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid, Matty Simmons, Harold Ramis, Anthony Michael Hall, and Dana Barron (98 Minutes)

DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION ELEMENTS

On June 27, National Lampoon’s Vacation 4K UHD will be available to own for streaming and download to watch anywhere in high definition and standard definition on favorite devices from select digital retailers and will be made available digitally on Video On Demand services from cable and satellite providers, and on select gaming consoles.

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By Todd Garbarini

In honor of Al Pacino’s 83^rd birthday this past April, Cinema Retro looks at the new double-disc Kino Lorber 4K Ultra High Definition and standard Blu-ray release of Sidney Lumet’s 1973 police drama Serpico, a film that is based upon the real-life exploits of retired New York Police Detective Frank Serpico. Serpico is an early entry in Mr. Pacino’s film roles and also one of his most riveting. He got his start in feature films by playing a potential suitor to Patty Duke at a party in Fred Coe’s Me, Natalie (1969) and then played the lead opposite Kitty Winn in Jerry Schatzberg’s The Panic in Needle Park (1971), a cautionary tale of heroin addicts in New York City. Following his transformation from a discharged military soldier into cold-blooded family head Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972), he reteamed with Mr. Schatzberg for the heartbreaking Scarecrow (1973) -opposite Gene Hackman- as Lionel Delbuchi, a man who attempts to right past wrongs with his ex-wife. In Serpico, Mr. Pacino’s fifth film, he teams with veteran director Sidney Lumet to portray the real-life police detective who not only uncovers corruption in the ranks but takes the department to task for accountability and change.

Serpico begins at the end and is told in flashback leading right up to the start of the film when our hero is shot in the face by a small caliber pistol. Mr. Pacino gives a powerful and deeply nuanced performance of a man who knows right from wrong but feels trapped withing the workings of the police department and needs to proceed cautiously. As Serpico is rushed to the hospital and is met by Police Chief Sidney Green (John Randolph), the full weight of all he has been through shows on his face, his circumstance taking him back, in flashback, to his graduation from the police academy. In his early days, Serpico is an idealistic and happy young man who eschews donning the police department’s standard-issue plainclothes accoutrements in favor of dressing like a civilian to improve the relationship between police and the community. A burglary attempt nearly proves fatal when responding officers open fire on him in his unrecognizable getup. He meets and courts Leslie (Cornelia Sharpe), a ballerina, and her acquaintances back away when they learn of his profession. Their romance suffers, as does his superior’s (James Tolkan) perception of him.

Serpico comes face to face with police corruption and initially treads lightly as officers he works with take money from criminals to look the other way. From their behavior, it is just another day at the office. When he attempts to report this to his superiors, he is laughed off. Future busts with other officers results in him being offered his “take” which he refuses to the shock and dismay of his peers, especially Tom Keough (Jack Kehoe) who wants the gravy train to continue and does his best to ingratiate himself and warns Serpico to comply and not to go against the others. He begins to wonder who is worse: the rapists and robbers or his fellow officers?

Serpico entrusts the aid of an associate, Blair (Tony Roberts), who knows the right people. They go straight to the mayor’s office, but the initial meeting leads to more disappointment as the case is tabled, making life miserable for both Serpico and his new girlfriend who loves him and desperately wants children with him, but she eventually terminates their relationship. He then takes on a mobster, an unrecognizable Richard Foronjy who would appear opposite Mr. Pacino in Brian DePalma’s Carlito’s Way twenty years later in another elliptical narrative wherein the lead is shot and the story is told through flashback. The arrest and confrontation is Mr. Pacino at his most explosive in the film, his fury directed at both the mobster but more at his fellow officers who joke around with this man who was previously jailed for killing another police officer. Things take a dangerous turn when he goes outside of the department to report the corruption and brings his findings to the New York Times. Serpico finds himself transferred to a terrible neighborhood busting drug addicts, leading him to the near fatal shot to the face, after which he testifies before the Knapp Commission regarding the corruption.

Serpico opened in New York City on Wednesday, December 5, 1973, almost three years shy of the actual murder attempt in Williamsburg. It was Mr. Pacino’s first time working with producer Martin Bregman and he would collaborate over the next twenty years on Sidney Lumet’s Dog Dag Afternoon (1975), Brian DePalma’s Scarface (1983), Harold Becker’s Sea of Love (1989), and Brian DePalma’s aforementioned Carlito’s Way (1993). Serpico’s mother is played by actress Mildred Clinton. I have only seen her in one other film, Alfred Sole’s Alice, Sweet Alice (1976) wherein she played Mrs. Tredoni. She is deeply affecting in her small but significant role. The remaining cast is a smorgasbord of players you will recognize from the terrific roster of New York character actors that includes Tracey Walter, Tom Signorelli, Kenneth McMillian, Tony LoBianco, Judd Hirsch, Sam Coppola, Sully Boyar, F. Murray Abraham, M. Emmet Walsh, and Sal Corollo. Cornelia Sharpe, who was producer Bregman’s girlfriend at the time (later his wife), is given less screen time than she deserves. She went on to play the role of Nancy Stillman in Peter Collinson’s 1974 film Open Season, a bizarre film that has never seen the light of day on home video in the United States (but is finally available to download on Vudu) reportedly because producer Bregman wanted it keep out of circulation, but that’s another story.

Serpico is an example of the great New York 1970s filmmaking style that I miss so much, and the film is an authentic product of its time. There is no way to fake 1970’s New York convincingly today. There are too many details to capture, although HBO’s The Deuce did an admirable job of it.

The new Kino Lorber release of the film contains the following extras:

Disc One: 4k Ultra High Definition (UHD)

The first disc is a triple-layered pressing of the film in 4K UHD with the film image scanned from the original camera negative and color-corrected.

Exclusive to this release is an audio commentary by film historians Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson. This is an extremely informative and entertaining piece, including a discussion of great New York filmmakers (think Woody Allen, Spike Lee, and Sidney Lumet). John G. Avildsen, who would go on to direct Rocky for United Artists and win the Best Director Oscar, was the original director, and he did not see eye-to-eye with producer Martin Bregman and Dino De Laurentiis, leading to his dismissal. The film was edited by the late great Dede Allen, who would also work with Mr. Lumet on Dog Day Afternoon (1975, one of her greatest accomplishments) and The Wiz (1979). Filmed on a low budget, scheduling was challenging as Paramount also needed Mr. Pacino to return for The Godfather Part II.

Disc Two: Standard Blu-ray

In addition to the new transfer and running audio commentary, there are the following extras:

Sidney Lumet: Cineaste New York – this piece runs 30:24 and is ported over from the special edition Studio Canal standard Blu-ray release from 2010. Mr. Lumet, in a 2005 interview, talks about his time growing up in New York City during the Depression; the changing nature of what the city has to offer; how safe the city was at the time of the interview; how he uses very little violence in his films; shooting on location in the city, and how his characters relate to their environment.

Looking for Al Pacino – this piece runs 30:38 and is also ported over from the special edition Studio Canal Blu-ray. It includes onscreen interviews with directors Jerry Schatzberg, Michael Radford, and Jack Garfein, who all speak very highly of Mr. Pacino and his method of acting.

Serpico Reel to Reel – this piece runs 09:58 and is ported over from the Paramount DVD from 2002 and includes onscreen interviews with Martin Bregman and Sidney Lumet and how the film came together once they were all onboard.

Inside Serpico – this piece runs 12:55 and is also ported over from the Paramount DVD and focuses on the astonishing way that the film was made. It began shooting in July 1973, was shot in reverse continuity, edited during principal photography, and premiered five months later. Absolutely unreal for a film of this caliber.

Serpico: Favorite Moments – this piece runs 2:37 and is also ported over from the Paramount DVD. Mr. Bregman talks about his favorite scene, which comes near the film’s end when Serpico refuses his gold shield. Mr. Lumet’s favorite scene is at the Hell’s Gate Bridge when Serpico unleashes on his superior about going to outside investigative agencies.

Photo Gallery with Commentary by Director Sidney Lumet (4:24) is also from the Paramount DVD. It focuses on Mr. Lumet’s desire to have no music in the film, something that Mr. De Laurentiis completely disagreed with. Mikis Theodorakis was then contracted to write a theme for the film that appears sporadically throughout the film but is never overpowering.

The following trailers are also included: Serpico, Michael Winner’s Death Wish (1974), John Schlesinger’s Marathon Man (1976), Michael Cimino’s Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), Richard T. Heffron’s Newman’s Law (1974), Peter Hyams’s Busting (1974), Stuart Rosenberg’s The Laughing Policeman (1973), Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men (1957), Sidney Lumet’s The Group (1966), and Sidney Lumet’s A Stranger Among Us (1992).

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"Ralph Vaughan Williams, 49th Parallel - The Complete Music Written for the Film"

Ralph Vaughan Williams composed in a wide variety of genres, and film music became a significant part of his output in the latter decades of a long and distinguished career. He viewed film scores as more than just ephemera, seeking to “intensify the spirit of the whole” in wartime productions such as “49th Parallel” (CDLX7405).

Dutton Epoch presents the world premiere recording of the complete score. “49th Parallel” (aka “The Invaders”) has been constructed from the original manuscripts by Martin Yates in 2022. This new recording by The BBC Concert Orchestra is conducted by Martin Yates and offers a soaring re-birth it has long deserved.

It all began in 1940 when conductor Muir Mathieson approached Ralph Vaughan Williams about writing the score for this film. The movie was part of the government’s wartime policy to use cinema to rally up the support from the nation. The patriotic Vaughan Williams was only too happy to oblige, and the score became his first of eleven for film. Originally, The London Symphony Orchestra, (conducted by Mathieson and George Stratton), were used to record Vaughan Williams’ music for the production.

The music, of course, remains a stirring and remarkable achievement. The Prelude is the first piece of music heard in the film, and has remained perhaps the most popular piece from the score. The marrying of strings and brass set up the score perfectly as a repeated theme which is peppered throughout the soundtrack - but is delivered in its full glory within the Prelude. Vaughan Williams’ provides a rich and varied score, which makes good use of timpani rolls, bold brass and a variety of comforting woodwind.

“49th Parallel” is, and will quite probably remain, a quintessentially British classic. It has the ability to be both uplifting and emotionally charged. As one who has attended the odd concert of Vaughan Williams music, I can honestly say that there is almost a collective intake of breath amongst the audience once they are alerted to the opening chords of “49th Parallel” – and there’s not many pieces of music which command that degree of attention and general awe.

Spread over 23 tracks, the production team of Neil Varley, Emma Syrus and Executive producer Michael J Dutton have delivered perhaps the most comprehensive edition of Williams’ masterful score. The CD is also boosted by a super 12-page booklet which features detailed notes and photos – all of which is edited by Oliver Lomax. As with any of the Dutton SACD Hybrid Multi-Channel CD’s, all tracks are also available in stereo and playable on any standard CD player.

Charles Gerhardt National Philharmonic Orchestra – “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Star Wars”

In recent years, Vocalion have been instrumental in the remastered reissues of the highly enjoyable Charles Gerhardt albums of the Seventies, most of which were released on the RCA Read Seal label, a quality and highly respected label back in the day. Vocalion have chosen wisely in picking up and renewing these titles, often popular with budding young soundtrack collectors, they also retain a nostalgic, childhood charm and many original LPs can still be found in various collections. Vocalion’s latest offering in their SACD Hybrid series is the wonderful 1978 album “Charles Gerhardt National Philharmonic Orchestra – Close Encounters of the Third Kind And Star Wars” (CDLK4642).

Recorded in London’s Kingsway Hall on December 23, 1977, the album proved to be a very popular with fans of both films and were quite happy to welcome this piece of vinyl to sit alongside their original John Williams LPs. Some 45 years on from that original release, Vocalion’s Michael J. Dutton has remastered and remixed the recording in quadraphonic form from the original analogue tapes, and it’s a glorious piece of work.

I initially wondered if this particular release would be worth the upgrade. I still own the RCA Red Seal CD (RCD 13650) from 1983, and despite its gathering years, I always maintained the view that it still sounded rather good. However, popping this newly polished edition into the CD drawer, it soon became apparent that there was in fact a world of difference. The audio is much more expansive and completely envelopes you with a newly found level of richness, clarity and warmth. The CD sticks to its original sequencing of 6 tracks from “Star Wars” (totalling some 33 minutes) and is followed by the “Close Encounters” suite at 21-minutes. It’s great that Vocalion have again stuck to the original album art, a feature that collectors certainly respect and goes a long way in cementing their memories of enjoyment and nostalgia. The 8-page booklet contains Charles Gerhardt’s original (and quite extensive) liner notes and is illustrated nicely throughout.

“Charles Gerhardt’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Wars” is an impressive release and well worth the upgrade if quality ranks high on your list of priorities. Vocalion seem to have a reliable knack of delivering on quality and they appear to do it with a justified sense of pride – long may it continue.

https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk

(Darren Allison is the Soundtracks Editor for Cinema Retro.)

Legendary singer and actress Tina Turner has passed away at age 83. No details revealed yet other than she died at her home in Switzerland following a long illness. Turner had an occasional association with movies, playing the female lead in the 1985 film "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" and recording the hit song "We Don't Need Another Hero" that was featured in the film. She also sang the title song for the 1995 James Bond blockbuster "GoldenEye".  For more, click here

"Author's Corner": Cinema Retro invites authors to contribute a first-hand account of how they were inspired to write their book. Our guest contributor today is Julian Schlossberg, author of "Try Not to Hold It Against Me: A Producer's Life" (Beaufort Books). (Click here for Cinema Retro's review of the book.)

A producer had better be working on several things at the same time.  As they say, throw a bunch of spaghetti against the wall and hope that some of it sticks. But in 2021, with the pandemic raging, nothing was sticking. I felt the need to put all my projects on hold. So what is a producer to do with all of that free time and energy?  He looks back.  He shares stories. Prior to that, whenever I would share some anecdote related to my sixty years in show business, I was often asked “are you writing a book?”  I had always answered truthfully that I was too busy.  Well, now, with the pandemic, busy, I wasn’t. So I sat down and wrote just one chapter.  It was a story I had told for years and that had made my wife Merryn laugh, even though she had heard me tell it countless times.  I then wrote another. And another.  I would read each new chapter to Merryn and two women who are my frequent collaborators and, have become, like sisters to me, Marlo Thomas and Elaine May.  These three women were very important to my process.  Eventually Elaine would contribute the foreword to my book. 

The past started flooding back and I found myself downloading incidents I had forgotten.  The more I wrote, the more I began to realize that I had many reasons for bring my story to the page. In looking back, I wanted to transport readers of my generation back to a time that will never come again. I wanted to share my experiences with a younger generation that might enjoy reading about a totally different world that once existed. This was a time when there was only three television networks.  A time when people still dressed up to go to the movies (especially if it was a musical!). A time when I thought I could do anything, because I was still young and inexperienced enough to have not considered the alternative.

(Photo: Julian Schlossberg).

Beyond the nostalgia, I knew that I wanted my story to entertain, and perhaps, even inspire.  Having produced movies, television and theater, I wanted to write about my personal experiences working in all three mediums. I would recount in some detail how a play, a movie and a television show is produced from the ground up.  I would share my experiences learning the trade from the ground up, and recall my collaborations, encounters and, in some cases, friendships with the likes of Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Shirley MacLaine,  Bruce Springsteen, Elia Kazan, Sid Caesar, Orson Welles, Al Pacino, Burt Reynolds, Lillian Hellman, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Jack Nicholson, Bob Hope, Ethan Coen, George Burns, Sid Caesar, Steve Allen, Larry Gelbart and many others. 

Just writing such a list humbles me, and looking back, I am still amazed by my unexpected trajectory. When I was just starting out, I drove a taxi for a living.  To keep alert while picking up late night fares, I would listen to comedy legends on the radio; talents like Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Woody Allen and Alan Arkin. I dreamed that I might one day meet them and tell them how much I admired their talent.  The fact that I ended up producing for them, to this day, boggles my mind. 

But before I became a producer, my first showbiz job was working at the ABC-TV network.  There, I decided to learn all I could about the entertainment business.  I didn’t have a medical, accounting or law degree.  But I knew knowledge was power, and if I could attain knowledge perhaps I could attain some power.  So I became my own kind of hyphenate.  I was a TV network executive—motion picture syndicator—V.P. of a theater chain— V.P. of a major film studio—owner of a production and film distribution company.    

And after that, my list of hyphenated job titles grew to include producer—director—radio host—TV host—co-owner of a record company—talent manager—producer representative—lecturer-teacher.    

And, now, finally, I can say that I’m an author too. Who would have thought that the cabbie from the Bronx would one day author a memoir titled Try Not To Hold It Against Me – A Producer’s Life?  Who’d have thought that anyone would want to read it?  Certainly not me. But with the book having sold out on Amazon within days of its initial release, and a second printing on order, I guess people are reading. I’m awe-struck and I couldn’t be more pleased or grateful. 

(Photo: Julian Schlossberg).

Since this is a cinema site, I’ll close with a memory that I include in the new book.  I describe my experience of working, distantly, with Martin Scorsese and Federico Fellini. I close that particular chapter with this recollection: “It meant a lot to me to present a Fellini film with Scorsese.  I was proud to be associated with both of them.  But I also knew how to answer the question often posed in elementary school tests, ‘which one doesn’t belong’.”

I suppose, despite my 60 years in the business, I will always see myself as the kid from the Bronx who wanted to get into show business …but try not to hold it against me.

(PR contact for Julian Schlossberg: Brett Oberman at Keith Sherman & Associates: brett@ksa-pr.com)

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Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

On May 30th Rain Man, the winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay (Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow), Best Actor (Dustin Hoffman) and Best Director (Barry Levinson), makes its 4K Ultra HD format debut with a new restoration (a just completed 4K high definition 16-Bit Scan of the original camera negative) approved by Levinson and presented in its original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio in Dolby Vision / HDR.  

Rain Man stars Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise as estranged brothers on a road trip unlike any other across America. Charlie Babbitt (Cruise) has been given the news that his recently deceased father has left his entire fortune to his autistic brother Raymond (Hoffman), who he did not know existed. In a crass bid to grab some, if not all of the inheritance, Charlie abducts Raymond and what begins as a money-making scheme for Charlie turns into a journey of discovery between brothers who are worlds apart. 

The two-disc 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray 35th Anniversary Edition is packed with supplemental material including three audio commentaries (one with director Barry Levinson, one with co-writer Barry Morrow and a third with co-writer Ronald Bass). Along with the commentaries, there are several making of / behind the scenes featurettes including: The Journey of Rain Man featurette, Lifting the Fog: A Look at the Mysteries of Autism featurette, a deleted scene, and the original theatrical trailer.  

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To pre-order titles, visit the Imprint web site. All prices are in Australian dollars. Use a currency converter to see the price in your local currency.

All releases are in Region-Free Format.

By Dwayne Epstein

I have often been asked why did I choose to write a book about The Dirty Dozen. Well, the short answer is that it’s always been a favorite film, very popular, and no one has ever thought to do it before, to my knowledge. How it came about is a more involved answer concerning my current agent, Lee Sobel. After my previous agent, Michael Hamilburg passed away, I was left in free fall until Lee contacted me. I checked him out and decided to take him up on his offer of representation. In short order we came up with a new book idea, he goaded me into a proposal, and the next thing I knew, we got a publisher's offer!

Following my initial conversation with Lee Sobel, I began the research by rereading and notating the original novel, as well as Googling info on the internet before agreeing to create the proposal, all of which took place in January 2021 and continued until I turned in the manuscript nine months later. From that moment on I was researching and writing the book continuously, even though I had to maintain a day job to pay my bills. Thank God my girlfriend was willing to help out financially when my advance ran out. A freelance author’s lot is not an easy one.

(Author E.M. "Mick" Nathanson (center) visits the chateau set and poses with director Robert Aldrich (left) and actor Lee Marvin (right. Photo: Dwayne Epstein.)

Because of the extremely short timetable, the publisher gave me — the aforementioned nine months to research and write —I had to hit the ground running, very fast. Fortunately, I had a lot of unused research about the film from my biography of Lee Marvin that I could use which helped immensely. Also, a friend of mine, Beverly Gray, who also writes non-fiction about filmmaking, had recently written a book on the making of The Graduate (1967) entitled Seduced by Mrs. Robinson, which I was able to use as a sort of template. Even better than that, when I told Beverly what I was working on, she told me she had interviewed The Dirty Dozen’s original author, E. M. Nathanson, but it had never been published. In one of the most gracious acts of kindness I’ve ever experienced, she gave me the interview on a CD which proved invaluable to my research as Nathanson passed away in 2016. Can’t thank Beverly enough!

Most days began with me checking my sources, answering or sending out e-mail inquiries, and going over what I had written, and what was not yet written. Coffee was of course required, a local jazz station on the radio in the background and eventually playing the soundtrack to The Dirty Dozen as the day wore on. I was also wracked by the constant fear of not being able to finish in time but it was often allayed by the discovery of a new source of information. My favorite example was discovering the film’s producer, Ken Hyman, still alive at the age of 92 and sharp as a tack when it came to his memory of the film. Finding him was not easy but once I did, I like to joke, how come there aren’t any famous Jewish detectives?

(Photo: Barbara Troeller)

I quickly discovered that there are many facts and misinformation about the film and its production that are still circulating out there that I was most enthusiastic to correct with proven facts & stats or simply dispel out of hand. Where does one begin? The story of 12 convicts ordered to kill Nazis on a secret mission during WWII has always been thought of to be true. The inclusion of filmmaker Russ Meyer in the film’s genesis was also a revelation. What cast members, especially lead actor Lee Marvin, really thought of the film was great to disprove despite misinformation to the contrary. As I said, way too many amazing facts to narrow down to just one. Gotta read the book to find them all out! As a lifelong fan of the film, I was amazed at the number of differences between the novel and the film that was provided by such exclusive sources as producer Hyman, cast members Bob Phillips (Cpl. Morgan), Donald Sutherland (Vernon Pinkley), Dora Reisser (German Officer's Girl), Colin Maitland (Seth Sawyer), and more. I also spoke with the adult children of many of the film’s participants such as Valerie Walker, Lisa and Cheyney Ryan, Caine Carruthers, Michael Nathanson, and Christopher Marvin, among others. It also helps to have access to the Margaret Herrick Library at The Motion Picture Academy. Not to brag but my extensive personal library collection of motion picture history was also a key factor in discovering the film’s amazing history.

(Actor Lee Marvin (left) and producer Ken Hyman (right) practice the tick fighting skills explained by former Marine self-defense instructor Bob Phillips (center). Photo: Dwayne Epstein).

When I turned in the manuscript I was expecting to deal with a lot of edits or deletions from the editor assigned to the book. Much to my surprise, there were none at all. It was simply accepted and the proofs were sent to me for my approval. Pretty amazing. As my agent, Lee Sobel messaged me when he read the opening of the book: “I just read the opening of your book and it’s fantastic. I’m running around dealing with my kids so I’m not sure when I get to read more but that’s a sensational opening to the book. You did what all book openings of this kind should do in my opinion which is to whet the appetite for things to come and lay out your mission statement if you will. Bravo! It is nice and tight too, no wonder he didn’t do any editing.” The end result of such diligent hard work is now available online and in bookstores everywhere.

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With the passing of Jim Brown, it seems appropriate to revisit his show-stopping final scene in the 1967 classic "The Dirty Dozen" that incorporated his athletic skills into his final act of cinematic heroics in the film.

(Brown in the 1967 blockbuster "The Dirty Dozen". Photo: Cinema Retro Archives.)

By Lee Pfeiffer

Jim Brown, one of America's most legendary athletes and an iconic film star, has passed away at age 87. No cause of death has been announced as of this writing. Brown was an American sensation on the football field during his nine seasons as a fullback with the Cleveland Browns. When he left sports, he transcended into a successful acting career in the mid-1960s. It was a time when bankable Black stars were few in number. Brown was immediately accepted by movie audiences of all races and backgrounds. He exuded the kind of tough, dignified characters that resonated with film audiences in movies such as "Rio Conchos", "The Dirty Dozen", "Ice Station Zebra" and "Dark of the Sun " (aka "The Mercenaries"). In the 1969 Western, he and Raquel Welch caused a sensation (and a scandal in some quarters) with their steamy interracial love scenes in the Western "100 Rifles", a film that boasted an ad campaign that seemed specifically designed to cause racists sleepless nights. Brown benefited from the so-called Blaxploitation film craze of the 1970s that was initiated by the success of director Gordon Parks' 1971 film "Shaft", although like his colleague Sidney Poitier, he refused to play characters that were exploitive or undignified. Both men recognized they were symbols for a new generation of young Black people and-like it or not-they were also role models, even if Brown occasionally played a charismatic character on the other side of the law.

Brown and Raquel Welch in "100 Rifles" on the cover of Cinema Retro issue #4.)

By the 1980s, Brown's status as a leading man began to diminish but he never went out of style. He began to appear in supporting roles in films made by a young generation of directors such as Tim Burton and Spike Lee. Brown's success didn't prevent him from enduring some messy periods in his personal life, mostly concerning his interactions with women. He once opted to spend months in jail rather than settle a domestic misdemeanor charge with his wife. Brown prided himself on his role as an activist for civil rights. In 1988, he founded an organization dedicated to keeping young people away from the lure of street gangs.

Jim Brown had a low-key persona onscreen but there is no overstating his achievements in real life.

For more about his life and career, click here.

By Patrick Humphries

Where does a book begin? In my case, with Cleopatra it came when my dear late mother found out that Elizabeth Taylor had been recently seen in the pub in South East London where we used to go to celebrate family occasions.

This would have been in 1963/64, when the very idea of a screen goddess, a genuine film star, a bona-fide legend like Elizabeth Taylor would inhabit the same universe as us!

Thirty years later and I am Film Editor of Vox, a monthly UK music and film magazine. I wrote a feature for the 30^th anniversary of Cleopatra, and tried pitching it as a BBC radio documentary. So over the years I accrued a filing cabinet drawer and shelf full of material about that legendary 1963 film.

Few of the film’s stars survived into the 21^st century, so I had to rely on cuttings, biographies and film histories. As you might expect for a film on the scale of Cleopatra, that in itself was quite a challenge. But the more I dipped into it the more amazed I became: stars signed up for 10 weeks hanging round for 18 months in Rome. The battles Darryl F. Zanuck fought to gain control of 20^th Century Fox. The Burton family’s determination to keep Richard’s marriage together…

I suspect that my inspiration for a book was based on Steven Bach and Julie Salamon’s books on Heavens Gate and Bonfire Of The Vanities – brilliant books about terrible films. And for all its grandeur, Cleopatra is a terrible film. But what a story in how it made it to the cinema screen.

It was a five year journey: 20^th Century Fox were keen to cash-in on the success of MGMs Ben-Hur, and so dusted down a 1917 script about the Queen of the Nile. It was intended as a $2,000,000 vehicle for Fox contract player Joan Collins with a 64-day shoot.

The fact that the Theda Bara Cleo was a silent film didn’t seem to worry the studio unduly. Five years later, and at a budget twenty times the original estimate, Cleopatra premiered.

Elizabeth Taylor accounted for $1,000,000 of that budget, the first star to ask for – and get! – that legendary seven figure sum. There was no finished script, but the UK offered generous tax breaks, so Fox decided to construct a massive set of the ancient port of Alexandria at Pinewood Studios. Shooting began in September 1961, the beginning of the English autumn. Some days it rained so heavily you couldn’t see the other side of the set. Other days it was so cold, vapour was coming out of the extras’ mouths. The imported pine tress had to be constantly replaced because of the wind. The enormous sea tank containing a million gallons was overflowing because of the rain.

The original cast of Peter Finch (Caesar) and Stephen Boyd (Marc Antony) had to quit due to existing commitments. The sky remained grey and gloomy. Trying to conjure up Mediterranean grandeur was proving problematic. Ancient Alexandria in rural Buckinghamshire suddenly seemed not such a good idea.

Eventually, after two months the decision was made to pull the plug on the UK shoot. Eight minutes of film ended up in the finished film, at a cost of nearly $8,000,000. The question was: to write off such a sum (half of what Ben-Hur cost!) Or get a new director, script and stars and relocate to begin filming again in Rome. At least in Italy you could be guaranteed good weather, besides, what else could possibly go wrong?

As Cinema Retro readers will know it all went horribly wrong. Once in Rome, Cleopatra was far removed from the Hollywood studio. In those pre-fax, email and text days, it was a cumbersome business to arrange phone calls and telexes. The story of the romance between Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor was only one of the factors which delayed the production of Cleopatra. Poor writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz was shooting by day and writing the script by night. His original vision for the film was two films, but the studio wanted something – anything – out to cash in on the Burton/ Taylor romance.

On its release, Cleopatra was the most successful film of 1963, but it took years to claw back its costs, and 20th Century Fox was only saved by a modest little musical, The Sound Of Music, which came in at a sixth the cost of Cleopatra!

Like many, I was of an age to be beguiled by the big-screen releases of the early 1960s. It's a cliché, but with only two UK black & white TV channels, colour was a big deal. Especially in all its Todd-AO, stereophonic majesty. I’d already lapped up The Alamo, Barabbas, King Of Kings, Ben-Hur, El Cid, How the West Was Won, The Guns of Navarone, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Lawrence of Arabia, PT109, The Longest Day, Mutiny on the Bounty, Spartacus, and Taras Bulba. Then came The Great Escape, Fall Of The Roman Empire, 55 Days At Peking, 633 Squadron… The glory days.

Finally seeing Cleopatra was a disappointment. It has spectacle, but is somehow just not… spectacular. And beware the Ides of March, because once Rex Harrison is gone, the film dips. Over the years when I began reviewing and writing about films professionally, I kept coming back to Cleopatra. How could they have got it so wrong? And didn’t they learn from their mistakes? Obviously not as flops like Dr Dolittle, Star! and Hello Dolly were overtaken by the likes of The Graduate, Bonnie & Clyde, Easy Rider…

You’d think by now, the studios would have learned from their mistakes, but no, only last year Warners announced that they’d written off their $100,00,000 Cat Woman. There is something rather magnificent in the folly of Cleopatra. But it is a hard watch. Far more enjoyable was The VIPs, made to cash-in on the infamy of the Burtons.

For those of a certain age, those epic films were emblematic. They were school holiday treats at the London Astoria, the Dominion, the Metropole… Souvenir brochures and Kia-Ora in hand as we sat open-mouthed as the screen was filled with thousands and thousands of costumed extras, besieging the Alamo or Peking. Even rewatching them on CD or Blu-Ray, the scale of those productions is jaw dropping – and those were all humans occupying those Roman forums and besieged cities, not generated by a computer. And here’s a thought… a profile of that maverick producer Samuel L. Bronston is long overdue.

Cleopatra all but finished the career of J.L. Mankiewicz, it took the studio to the cleaners, and was a body blow from which the old Hollywood never really recovered. It is hard to be fond of it as a film, but what happened offscreen gave me a fantastic opportunity to recall those extravagant days. When even a film as flawed as Cleopatra was made on a scale which had to be witnessed with an audience. At a cinema near you…

There is little left to marvel at in the Marvel Comic Universe.

There just aren’t stars like Burton and Taylor today. For all its manifold flaws, there is something compelling about the legend of Cleopatra. Not so much in the finished film, but my memories of cinema-going when a film like that was an event. For all its follies, a film like Cleopatra could almost be said to end an era of cinematic innocence. My research into what went on off the screen, and what it took to get it into cinemas was fascinating. They have done it with The Godfather, so maybe a TV series about the making of Cleopatra. Now that would make a great movie.

Photo: Courtesy of Patrick Humphries.

"Cleopatra & The Undoing Of Hollywood" is published by The History Press, £20.00, ISBN 9781803990187

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Here is a 60 second radio spot commercial promoting director Terence Young's 1972 screen adaptation of the bestselling book "The  Valachi Papers" starring Charles Bronson.

By Dana Polan

Although it’s not necessarily thought of as initiating the cycle of late 70s and then 1980s teenage sex comedies, The Graduate, from Embassy Pictures in 1967, is clearly an inspiration for the later films about awkward virginal guys caught up in farcical narratives of dream, drive, and desire. The success of The Graduate enabled its production company head, impresario Joseph Levine, to broker a merger of Embassy with Avco, and it was the newly named Avco-Embassy that about a decade after The Graduate brought out the virgin teenage guy comedy, The Chicken Chronicles. From the same year (1977), The Van, a broad farce about a guy who revamps his van as a love-machine likewise suggests the first glimpses of a trend, one that got its fullest recognition soon after in the wildly successful Animal House from the following year, along with later iterations like Porky’s (1981) and its sequels, all produced by Melvin Simon who also was the producer of The Chicken Chronicles.

Ironically, although The Graduate has a stronger reputation in cinema history as a serious work of social-cultural engagement within the fervent and foment of the 1960s, it’s actually the raunchy low-class gross-out virgin-comedies that come after it that engage in any manner with the politics of the time. To be sure, the ups and downs of Benjamin’s relationships in The Graduate address in their own manner the claims of the Sixties to show that “the personal is the political” (especially for young women like Elaine Robinson, so mistreated by Benjamin when he first takes her out on a date), but one would be hard-pressed to find much direct reference to the times (we see some hippies as mere background when Benjamin and Elaine go out on that date).

In contrast, Animal House takes on the jockeying for power in the contemporary college system while Porky’s addresses redneck racism in the South. And from a very early scene where we hear tough news about the times on the car radio of protagonist Dave Kessler (Steve Guttenberg), The Chicken Chronicles, set in 1969 and continually referencing the war in Vietnam, keeps bringing the real politics of the day into its seemingly personalized story of one guy’s quest for sexual fulfillment. Most poignant is a moment where one of Dave’s co-workers at the fried chicken outlet he works at (hence, the film’s title) learns that her brother has died in Nam. An African-American woman, she had enjoyed a lively moment of dancing with her team, and she is a figure that we, and the white employees and boss, admire. Her last moment in the film comes when the take-out’s boss (Phil Silvers, the classic comedian) tells her to go home so she can mourn properly. A cut shows her waiting at a bus stop when Dave comes by in his car and offers her a lift: she demurs (is she worried about a white guy being seen driving her into her neighborhood?) and he drives off and we see her get on the bus and exit off-screen, out of the film.

No other scene in The Chicken Chronicles is like this one in its explicit and quite non-comedic acknowledgement of the times. But many other scenes are like it in their very fleetingness. In fact, it is probably misleading to insist too much on any consistent desire of the film to offer social commentary. Like the later broad and buffoonish sex comedies, The Chicken Chronicles operates by a sort of scattergun approach, taking on any and all topics, large and small, relevant or irreverent, and jumping here and there to random new scenes for the sake of immediate effect. While there’s an overall narrative thrust (pun not intended although noted!) – the goal of the protagonist to lose his virginity – the film is a deliberate hodgepodge, hoping that whatever’s onscreen at the moment will work at the moment. Whether this or that scene works depends then on individual taste: for instance, if you like to see stuck-up kids get theirs by falling into the suburban pool, that will be your moment of hilarity; if you like hints of relevance, there are enough of those in the film to keep you going. It’s noteworthy that while few mainstream critics reviewed The Chicken Chronicles – and the rare ones that did didn’t like it much – one thing these commentators did single out as intriguing was the fact that Dave Kessler’s parents are unseen in the film and communicate with him only by speakers dotted throughout their house (a contrast to the very different generational alienation of The Graduate where the problem for Benjamin Braddock is that his parents are too visible, too fatuous in their overbearing advice).

Ironically, the scattershot approach of The Chicken Chronicles is (no doubt, unintentionally) echoed in its commentary track, by cult film historians Lee Gambin and Emma Westwood, which is itself frenetic and all over the place. (Curiously, Westwood is not listed on the Blu-ray back cover.) At one point, the commentators even have to remind themselves to talk about the film at hand, as they go off on all sorts of tangents (for example, that the director had an interest in documentary leads to a digression about cinema verité maverick D.A. Pennebaker while a mispronunciation of “chutzpah” occasions discussion of Jewishness in film). While the commentary track talks of the actors (especially Phil Silvers), it does so by going at length into their filmography or videography, and the film frequently gets left behind. Luckily, one of the few moments where the commentators actually converse about the film unspooling before them has to do with the multiracial and multiethnic nature of the casting, an important aspect of the film’s random attention to politics (in this case, a politics of identity). The commentary track is one of the only special features on the Blu-Ray, along with a trailer.

To the extent that, like other examples from teen sex cinema, The Chicken Chronicles targets an audience that would come increasingly to appreciate the raucous non-coherence of individual moments around the central narrative premise, the film, and now its Blu-ray release, probably work best for its projected target audience. To state an obvious truism, if you like this sort of thing, you’ll like this early example of it.

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(Dana Polan is the author of "Dreams of Flight: The Great Escape in American Films and Culture") Click here to order from Amazon.)

Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Film Chest.

The film noir genre, which became a staple for movie fans during its heyday in the 1940’s & 50’s, was based on a tough and gritty environment and revolved around those who lived it. It was raw, without much margin for how things went down or who would end up surviving the fallout.Films stylized with elements of film noir have surfaced over the years and perhaps one of the best is the Mickey Spillane stories of Mike Hammer, which offered a more contemporary version of the format.Mike Hammer, Private Eye brings us to the late ‘90’s.

Stacy Keach plays the wiser, tougher, more sarcastic and blunt-worded private eye who offers a salute to the early years with his felt fedora. A bevy of beautiful women still abound in his world, and over-the-top measures with the use of his fists, wits, and savvy tenacity against deceptive enemies are the norm. Still, there is a balance, with Keach managing his character that’s both serious and, at times, more lighthearted with some campy humor.

This 26-episode series (along with the original trailer and episode synopses) includes a new sexy blonde secretary (Velda) played by Shannon Whirry and the introduction of a sidekick (Nick Farrell) played by Shane Conrad. Kent Williams returns with a strong portrayal of Deputy Mayor Barry Lawerence and Peter Jason plays Hammer’s closely aligned police captain, Skip Gleason.Stacy Keach has spent a career making Mike Hammer his own character, and without question, he has succeeded. Private Eye (1997-1998) is a fast-paced, no nonsense Hammer series that will delight the many fans of Mickey Spillane’s character and again prove that STACY KEACH IS MIKE HAMMER!

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By Hank Reineke

This Kino Lorber 4K Restoration Blu ray of Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame is likely as good as we’re going to get. Universal Studio’s official 1923 program heralded Hunchback as Hugo’s “Mighty Epic of a Mighty Epoch” and, truth be told, director Wallace Worsley’s film never delivers less than promised. It is, above all, a spectacle. In August of 1922 when announced Universal-Jewel was to begin lensing the film, newspapers reported it had been Lon Chaney’s “life’s ambition” to bring Hugo’s tale – and the story of the novel’s titular tortured soul Quasimodo - to the big screen.

Chaney’s Hunchback would not be the first cinematic adaptation of the famed 1831 novel. Esmeralda, a ten-minute long French adaptation was brought to the screen as early as in 1905. Albert Capellani’s 1911 French silent (Notre-Dame de Paris) would also precede the Universal version, but that film too was a modest production running a mere twenty-six minutes in length. The first feature length-effort was Fox’s romantic The Darling of Paris (1917) featuring silent-screen-siren Theda Bara. A British version of 1922 preceded Chaney’s by only a year – though, again, only as a short of some thirteen minutes. All but the 1911 version are now presumed lost.

If Universal was not the first to bring the epic to the screen, producer and studio co-founder Carl Laemmle promised a production unmatched in size and scope. Universal would front a budget of some $1,250,000, bringing in some 2800 artisans to work on the film’s massive sets. The centerpiece was to be the cathedral of Notre Dame, built practically to scale. Universal promised, “The cathedral at Notre Dame is an exact replica in every infinite detail of the cathedral as it looked in 1482, an extraordinary feat and an archeologic, historical and technical triumph.”

Such an ambitious project was going to require an ambitious production team. In October of 1922, gossips whispered the studio was “anxious to have D.W. Griffith direct” Hunchback. On the surface, Griffith would seem a natural choice. He had, after all, helmed such pictures as Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916), both showcase spectacles of large scale and huge casts. In the end, Universal would announce, January 1923, that Worsley would direct – with assists by “ten assistant directors and twenty-eight field captains.” Worsley and Chaney already had a good working relationship: the two having already combined their talents on The Penalty, The Ace of Hearts and The Blind Bargain. This new collaboration would spend six months in pre-production and one year in filming.

Everything was crafted bigger-than-life. The make-up appliances for Quasimodo, the film’s monstrous bell-ringer, were painstakingly crafted by Chaney in a series of three-and-a-half hour sessions. The September 1923 issue of Pictures and Picturegoer magazine enthused Chaney had promised “something even more startling than usual in the way of make-up.” Alongside that of Erik, The Phantom of the Opera (1925), the twisted and feral Quasimodo remains the most iconic example of Chaney’s make-up artistry.

Biographer Michael F. Blake’s Lon Chaney: The Man Behind the Thousand Faces (Vestal Press, 1990) and A Thousand Faces: Lon Chaney’s Unique Artistry in Motion Pictures (Vestal Press, 1995) remain the two most essential reference books on the man and his films, but they weren’t the first. There were earlier “serious” circulating books on the actor: Robert G. Anderson’s Faces, Forms Films: The Artistry of Lon Chaney (1971) came first, N.L. Ross’s Lon Chaney: Master Craftsman of Make Believe following more than a decade later. That said, Blake’s sister volumes remain the most reliable and error free sources of Chaney marginalia. Blake occasionally proffers stern judgements, some fair and some maybe not so, on preceding Chaney biographers, but all books mentioned above are worthwhile reads and contain excellent bibliographies.

Blake opens his 1995 study with the declaration “Lon Chaney was not a “horror actor.” Though this is essentially true, Blake – who contributes seven pages of booklet notes to this new Kino Blu – sighs the actor’s association with the horror genre is terribly overblown. He argues this mistaken union was due to the actor’s famous ghastly make-up creations. It’s doubtful the audience of eleven and twelve year-olds who sought out these cheap newsprint monster movie magazines of the 1950s and ‘60s had actually ever saw a Lon Chaney silent film. But the reproduced published stills would fire imaginations, giving Chaney Sr. instant cult status as a “horror film” icon. At the very least, I think it’s fair to say that the genre mags were instrumental in keeping Chaney’s legend alive at a time when few other outlets were interested.

It was that way for me at least. I’m not sure when I first learned the name “Lon Chaney.” But it was likely through photographs or an article in the pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. I had become obsessed with Famous Monsters when chancing upon a used copy of their May 1967 issue at a school “white elephant” sale. The magazine sent me scouring the listings in TV Guide in search of the films I was first introduced to in the pages of “FM.” It was through Famous Monsters I was first introduced to silent films – many of which I find even today to be as fascinating as any talkie.

In trying to learn about silent films, I discovered Daniel Blum’s A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen (1974) at my local library. It was an oversize hardcover held in the reference section. Since I couldn’t bring it home to read at leisure, I spent hours in the library looking through the hundreds – maybe thousands of stills – reproduced therein. My knowledge of and interest in film history really began there. While combing through the pages for Chaney info (there wasn’t a lot, if I recall), I discovered Chaplin, Keaton, Pearl White, Fatty Arbuckle, the Keystone Cops and hundreds of others.

It was around this time I also managed to catch Robert Youngson’s affectionate silent-era doc Days of Thrills and Laughter on television. As with Blum’s book, I don’t believe Chaney, again to my great disappointment, was even mentioned in the doc. Youngson’s emphasis was mostly on the slapstick comedy of Charlie Chaplin, “Fatty” Arbuckle,” Snub Pollard and Ben Turpin. Though a rare, brief clip of Boris Karloff in King of the Congo (1929) further fueled my interest in early cinema, Chaney – frustratingly – would remain a man of mystery.

Knowing what I know now, the notoriously private and reclusive actor – non-ceremoniously interred following his passing, age forty-seven, in a Glendale sepulcher – would have likely preferred it that way. At age nine I finally had the opportunity to catch Chaney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame on WNET-13, Manhattan’s PBS-TV affiliate. Hunchback was the last title to be featured on the network’s “The Silent Years” series (each segment introduced by Orson Welles) in September of 1971.

OK, I apologize. I have digressed. I will also confess it’s taken me quite some time to finally getting around to view this Kino issue of Hunchback. I was gifted a copy back in the autumn of 2021 but chose to put the Blu-ray aside – for the time being, anyway. I had already planned to attend a genuine film element screening of Hunchback at a local cinema that October, one complete with live organ accompaniment. That night, sadly, proved to be a projection booth disaster. The theater ran the last two reels in reverse so inter-titles appeared Cyrillic and completely unreadable. God bless Ben Model, the silent film historian/organist accompanying the program. He calmly and expertly navigated through this maelstrom with amazing poise and finesse, salvaging what would have been otherwise a completely disastrous evening.

There’s no point in discussing here the plot of Worsley’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It’s a more-or-less faithful rendering of the Hugo novel. This is a century old film, one I find as entertaining today as it was a hundred years ago. Yes, the acting often is – as was the order of the day – visually exaggerated and overly emotive, but the story remains a compelling one. The scenario really revolves around Esmeralda, the soft-hearted street dancer, and not the tragic Quasimodo. To his credit, Chaney – though top-billed – recognizes this and admirably serves as an essential member of the ensemble, not as the film’s principal player.

This Kino release has been cobbled together from the best existing prints available, so there are temperature and tinting changes from section to section. But it’s a beautiful 4K restoration and while surviving element damage is not totally absent, the film looks remarkable all things considered. This edition also features a lively and original musical score. This new soundtrack is composed and performed by Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum and Laura Karpman, both Julliard-trained artists and the previous recipients of Grammy and Emmy Award nominations/victories.

Over this millennium, The Hunchback of Notre Dame has been re-made on any number of occasions. The best recalled of these are RKO’s 1939 version featuring Charles Laughton or the French-Italian 1956 version featuring Anthony Quinn and Gina Lollobrigida. Folks of my generation might better recall these two post-Chaney re-tellings, especially if they have little interest in silent cinema. Younger folks were likely first introduced to the tale via Disney’s 1996 animated musical adaptation – a film whose cartoon Quasimodo most resembled Laughton’s pitiful, less grotesque caricature. Having said that, Chaney’s Quasimodo, despite age, will forever remain the most iconic.

A few notes on this generous bonus materials supplied on this set. Included is a vintage, silent Life in Hollywood newsreel that features a birds-eye view of the massive Universal City lot, described on an inter-title card as “the strangest city in the world.” Once on soil, we watch as a procession of Universal’s silent-era stars and starlets’ parade out of a studio canteen. Most of these names are now sadly lost to the memory of all but a small cabal of film historians. The newsreel, running approximately eight and a half minutes in length features a small clip of Chaney – sans costume and make-up - demonstrating a bit of acrobatics on the exterior of the Notre Dame structure.

The set also features a thirteen-minute silent reel of “Mabel and Bill Dumphy’s Visit with Hazel and Lon.” This is sourced from 16mm footage shot during the couple’s visits with Chaney, his wife Hazel, and their wire-haired terrier Sandy, at rest during the family’s residencies in Soboba Hot Springs and Saratoga. The Soboba footage is primarily interesting in its moody capture of the former’s Riverside County hamlet’s Spanish mission-styled architecture and terraced landscapes. There’s not much Chaney in the Soboba footage, aside from Lon looking out pensively over the hillside, or playfully tugging at Sandy the dog’s tail in another.

The Saratoga footage documents additional glimpses of the Chaneys at home. We watch as Chaney and guests mill about a backyard garden, the reclusive actor letting down his guarded reserve. We watch as Lon playfully wrestles a giggling Hazel on the lawn or smoking and drinking with friends. The latter clip is of interest due to the recognizable presence of Lon’s son, Creighton (strategically “re-christened” Lon Chaney Jr. following his father’s passing), smiling as he too puffs away on a cigarette in the background. The set also features an audio-commentary track by Farran Smith Nehme, a film historian and critic whose work has appeared in such publications as Film Comment, The Wall Street Journal, Village Voice and New York Post. The set rounds off with a generous gallery/slideshow of publicity materials and production stills.

One hundred years following the date of its production, Worsley’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame admittedly puts the “retro” in Cinema Retro. But despite the film’s age, its heart still beats soundly. Anyone interested in film history should visit this film at least once in their lifetime, and this Kino Blu-ray might just be the best conduit for one to do just that.

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By Todd Garbarini

An old saying is that drama is easy, but comedy is hard. When comedy works, it is nothing short of a miracle. When it fails, it is a thundering disappointment. On New Year’s Eve in 1976, I attended a party at my mother’s aunt’s house. While the adults were ringing in the New Year in the small and cramped basement, I was on the first floor watching a television airing of Stanley Kramer’s It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. It was the first time I had ever heard of and seen this madcap, star-studded extravaganza that pits a Who’s Who of top-notch comedians in a quest to locate a suitcase containing $350,000.00, the equivalent of roughly $3.5 million dollars today. To say that I loved it would have been an understatement. To make a film on that scale with that number of people and actually make it hilarious is other worldly. I immediately became a fan of most of the cast, particularly Jonathan Winters in his role as Pike, the driver of the moving van who must get to Yuma, AZ and will stop at nothing to get his hands on $350,000.00 located under a “big ‘W’”.

James Frawley’s The Big Bus is a comedy that took its maiden voyage theatrically on Wednesday, June 23, 1976, nationwide. As a send-up of disaster films that made their rounds at the box office during the 1970s, it is a film similarly pitting an all-star cast in an inane situation that should be laugh out loud hilarious but falls a bit short in this department. The premise concerns a nuclear-powered bus designed to be driven from New York to Denver in record time while an iron lung-encased oil magnate (Jose Ferrer), in cahoots with a group of oil sheikhs, plot to sabotage the bus to protect their financial interests. They manage to take both the driver and co-driver out of commission with a bomb, necessitating their replacements with Dan Torrance (Joseph Bologna), a vilified former bus driver who crashed a previous bus and was accused of eating all the passengers to survive, and his narcoleptic co-driver “Shoulders” (John Beck), so named as he cannot keep the bus off the highway shoulder and in his own lane. Along for the ride are Kitty Baxter (Stockard Channing) as Dan’s former flame; Ned Beatty as one of the remote radio navigators; Ruth Gordon as a passenger who tells it like she sees it; Sally Kellerman and Richard Mulligan as a couple about to be divorced who cannot seem to keep their hands off each other (the bit is initially humorous but wears out its welcome); Lynn Redgrave as a staid fashion designer; a crazed Bob Dishy as a veterinarian; Richard B. Shull as a man whose time on planet Earth is coming to a close, and so on. The bus is even outfitted with an onboard swimming pool, if you can believe that such a thing would fit. For those of you unlucky enough to recall, in February 1979 NBC-TV launched an ill-fated television series as their answer to ABC-TV’s The Love Boat. Titled Supertrain, the most expensive television series ever produced up to that time, it was (surprise!) a nuclear-powered transcontinental New York to Los Angeles souped up ride that housed a swimming pool, a movie theater, a disco(!), and a cast of characters so bland one wonders how this train ever left the station. The pilot episode, directed by Dan Curtis, was an interminable two hours, with a catchy theme that I dug at the age of ten and was composed by Robert Cobert. Both shows were conceived of by Fred Silverman at different points in his career.

Bus made its television network premiere on Saturday, May 24, 1980 at the unorthodox time of 09:30 pm. The film runs 88 minutes, and while being placed in a 90-minute time slot, a good amount of footage must have been excised to accommodate commercials. Bus may have played out much funnier at the time of its release as a fair number of jokes are topical, though the 2001 theme accompanying the rollout of the titular vehicle is still very much in the minds of filmgoers decades later. The gags are amusing but are light-years away from what it could (and should) have been. An admirable attempt at humor, Bus cannot hold a candle to the absurdist wrongdoings of the stewardesses and passengers of 1980’s Airplane! Apparently, the Zucker Brothers, the brains behind Airplane!, worked on Bus as well. Bus can be viewed as the appetizer, with Airplane! served up as the main course – and dessert, to boot.

Kino Lorber has released the film on a beautifully transferred Blu-ray. I love this company and they do not disappoint. There is a feature-length commentary by film historians Howard S. Berger and Nathaniel Thompson which is more fun to listen to than actually watching the film – at least for me. They discuss the location shooting and give short bios of the cast members as they appear onscreen, while also engaging in anecdotes about the big disaster films of the period. It is always a pleasure to listen to them.

The film’s trademark comedic key poster art was illustrated by the late great cartoonist Jack Davis, who also drew the key art for the aforementioned Mad World. It appears on the Blu-ray cardboard sleeve and the Blu-ray cover art in a slightly truncated and altered version to fit the dimensions and still be discernible.

Oscar-winning composer David Shire, who also scored The Taking of Pelham 123 (1973), The Conversation (1974), and All the President’s Men (1976), may seem like an unorthodox choice to score such material, but he makes the most of it with a rambunctious score that made its way to compact disc (remember those?) in 2011 via Film Score Monthly.

Rounding out the Blu-ray are a selection of trailers from the showcased title, John Schlesinger’s Honky Tonk Freeway (1981), Richard Fleischer’s Million Dollar Mystery (1987), Gus Trikonis’s Take This Job and Shove It (1981), Marty Feldman’s In God We Trust (1980), Michael Apted’s Continental Divide (1981), Joel Schumacher’s D.C. Cab (1983), and Neal Israel’s Moving Violations (1985).

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By Fred Blosser

When asked to name a Pre-Code melodrama starring Charles Laughton as a sadistic megalomaniac in a tropical setting, most movie enthusiasts are likely to cite “The Island of Lost Souls.” As H.G. Wells’ Dr. Moreau, who turns animals into humans through appalling surgery in his “house of pain,” Laughton’s performance in the 1932 Paramount film remains a classic of horror cinema. “White Woman,” which followed from the same studio in 1933, isn’t nearly as well remembered or as outrageous. Still, it provided another delicious role for Laughton and offers wonderful insight into the tactics used by Hollywood in the Pre-Code era to exploit audiences’ demand for lurid escapism, while skirting the watchful eye of censors. The film, based on a stage play and directed by Stuart Walker, is available as a Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, from a new 2K master.

Laughton’s character, Horace H. Prin, is a predatory merchant who holds a monopoly on trade in the hinterlands of Malaya, then a British colony. In town he encounters Judith Denning (Carole Lombard), a young woman shunned by her fellow expatriates. Already the subject of salacious rumours, she learns that she’s about to be deported as an undesirable after going a step too far, performing torch songs in a “native cafe.” The stiff-necked governor is unmoved by Judith’s plea that she’s broke and has nowhere else to go. Judith attracts Prin’s attention and he offers her an escape to “something better” by accompanying him to his remote outpost. There, he promises, she’ll live in style.

Once she accepts his proposal, she realizes she’d have been better off taking her chances with deportation. Horace exploits the tribes with whom he trades, holds his employees in virtual slave labor, and once he has Judith in his control, he treats her with biting scorn. One of his clerks, David Von Elst (Kent Taylor), a disgraced military officer, falls in love with Judith, and she with him. Horace enjoys watching them squirm with no hope of escaping his domination. The two are trapped because the river is the only feasible way out of the jungle. Prin owns the only boats, and headhunting tribesmen lurk along the trail by land. When David is banished upriver to one of Horace’s warehouses, Judith’s troubles come to a head. A new employee arrives, Ballister (Charles Bickford), a roughneck who doesn’t bother to hide his intention to make time with Judith: “I’ve watched those sweet eyes of yours . . . and other things,” he tells her. “C’mon baby, what do you say?” Prin takes note but he’s more curious than anything else. How far will Ballister press his crude advances, given that he doesn’t fear Prin, Prin doesn’t fear him, and Judith treats both men with icy contempt?

In 2023, when it takes a lot to create a sex scandal worthy of attention, the backstory of “White Woman” appears more quaint than shocking. The cafe that draws the governor’s displeasure is about as raucous as your neighbourhood Applebee’s, its Chinese, East Indian, and dissolute European clientele apparently more interested in chatting among themselves than ogling the gorgeous blonde who plays the piano and sings on stage. Judith might as well be performing Billy Joel tunes at a piano bar in Iowa City. But this was about as far as the filmmakers could push the envelope in those days of restrictive erotic and racial conventions. A franker explanation for the fuss and bother—that the hapless Judith is actually a prostitute who hangs out at the cafe to solicit sex from men of color—would have been a non-starter even in the Pre-Code era.

Things liven up whenever Laughton appears as the chortling, smirking, and preening Prin, wearing a cheap tropical suit, a straw boater, Jheri curls, a bushy, bristly moustache, and an East End London accent. Prin is one of Laughton’s great grotesque characters, a monster shaped by a terrible start in life. “You ‘aven’t spent any part of your childhood in the slums, ‘ave you?” he asks Judith. “Well, I ‘ave.” Thanks to his early lessons in class prejudice, he luxuriates in his ability, via wealth and influence, to intimidate the “bloomin’ snobs” who run the colonial government. The same passive-aggressive rage fuels his treatment of Judith, whom he exploits, isolates, and emotionally abuses. Inferentially, she is a surrogate for all of the beautiful women who spurned him when he was young and poor. That she refuses to act the victim only intensifies his abuse. If critics haven’t explored this facet of the picture as a feminist statement years before modern feminism emerged, they should.

The Kino Lorber Blu-ray greatly improves on the movie’s previous home video release, a 2014 manufactured-on-demand DVD in the Universal Vault Series. As a special feature, the KL edition includes informative audio commentary by director and film professor Allan Arkush and film historian Daniel Kremer. It’s difficult to argue with their criticism of Stuart Walker’s static, unimaginative blocking of scenes, but in fairness, most movies adapted from stage productions in the early days of talkies suffered from the same shortcoming. Walker showed a little more flair in 1935’s “Werewolf of London.”

The Kino Lorber Studio Classics’ Blu-ray edition of “White Woman” can be ordered HERE from Amazon.

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

By John M. Whalen

“PROUD MARY, KEEP ON BURNIN’” –JOHN FOGERTY

I reviewed the Universal print-on-demand DVD of “The Mississippi Gambler” (1953) for Cinema Retro eight years ago. I didn’t give the film, starring Tyrone Power, Julia Adams, and Piper Laurie, very high marks. Now Kino Lorber has released it anew on Blu-Ray. Aside from an audio commentary by film historian Toby Roan, and better color because it’s Blu-Ray, it’s basically the same experience. I can’t think of much new to say about it, so here’s some of what I wrote back when, along with some final thoughts on the current state of the home video market.

Here’s the original review I wrote 8 years ago:

I watched The Mississippi Gambler (1953) DVD from Universal while recovering from a root canal, hoping a good rousing Tyrone Power flick and three fingers of Kentucky bourbon, would cure my pain. Boy, was I wrong. Watching this slow, soap opera-ish movie, with a cast of characters that belong in an old Carol Burnett Show sketch, was like having the root canal all over again. Admittedly, the Technicolor was good, and Julie Adams was great (which she always was) but the script by Seton Miller was a complete turnoff with one of the worst endings I've ever seen. The characters were mostly boring and despicable. The plot was ham-fisted melodrama served with a mint julep. Direction by Rudolph Mate’ was lethargic and unimaginative.

Basically, it's one of those stories about four people all in love with the wrong person. But Miller added some very weird touches to the familiar story line. Piper Laurie plays Angelique Dureau, a snooty, neurotic iceberg who is way too close to her brother Laurent (John Baer) for comfort. She uses him as a shield against intimacy with any other man, as Tyrone Power, playing the titular gambler Mark Fallon, explains to her. For no comprehensible reason at all, other than the plot demands it, Fallon falls madly in love with her. Why? She's a pouty, petulant, porcelain imitation of a woman.

Her brother, Laurent, is a miserable weasel, a man with no honor and thus a perfect foil for the upright and honorable Fallon, who is not only good with a deck of cards, he's also the son of one of New York's finest fencing masters. (Zorro rides again!). The three of them meet on a Mississippi riverboat named The Sultana. Pardon a digression while I note that this was the same paddle boat on which Yancy Derringer, a few years later, would ply his poker skills in the CBS television series starring Jock Mahoney.

Fallon's goal is to run an honest gambling table and eventually open his own casino. He teams up with Kansas John Polly (John McIntyre), a seasoned veteran of many a three card Monty game. In a game of poker, Laurent loses his sister's diamond necklace to Fallon. Fallon tries to give it back to her later, but she pretends she told her brother to wager it. In the next scene she confronts the weasel and cries, "How could you do it without asking me?" This obviously gets the star-crossed- lovers off on the wrong foot. Fallon wins big that night but he and Polly barely escape being killed by a gang of crooked gamblers and have to jump off the boat when the captain gets near the riverbank. They walk to New Orleans, after losing all their winnings in the river. But they have a good laugh about it.

At about the second act mark,enter Julie Adams (billed here as "Julia Adams") as Ann Conant. She's the member of another weird brother/sister duo. Her brother, Julian (Dennis Weaver, believe it or not, with a sort of New York high society accent) sits down to play with Fallon, saying he heard he played an honest game. He quickly loses every cent he brought with him, then goes out on deck and shoots himself. The Captain and Fallon discover he has a sister on board, and Fallon feels responsible and wants to help her. She says he must have gambled away the money his company gave him to take to New Orleans. Fallon, noble fellow that he is, lies and says no he gave that money to the captain for safe keeping. He takes Ann to New Orleans where and sets her up in a hotel. It complicates his plans to romance Angelique but what's a story without complications.?

Meantime in New Orleans he runs into fencing expert Edmund Dureau (Paul Cavanaugh) and guess what? He turns out to be Angelique and Laurent's father! Of course, he invites Fallon to his home where he meets them again. In one of the lamest scenes in the whole film, when they have a moment alone, he tells her that he knows he and she are in love with each other and always will be. "I could have you thrown out of this house for speaking to me like that,” she exhorts. He replies, "You don't have to run me out. I'm leaving tomorrow." And he adds: "You’re not ready for marriage. And you won't be until the day you come to me." She calls him an egotistical cad. And here's the punchline. "Yes", Fallon says, "I suppose it sounds that way. But it's the only way a woman can be truly happy with a man".

What? Did women in the 50’s really buy this tripe? Can you imagine George Clooney trying that line on Catherine Zeta-Jones, or Catherine Heigel? He'd get his ass kicked. I won't go on with any more of the plot, but you can be sure it involves some fencing and a duel with pistols at the Dueling Oaks. Funny thing about Power's fencing scene with Paul Cavanaugh. Both men wore fencing masks through the entire scene, which makes me wonder if either one did any of the fancy sword work, even though Power was in reality a very good fencer. In another fight scene between Fallon and Laurent on the riverboat, it is so obviously two badly matched stuntmen carrying the action. Power was only 39 when he filmed “The Mississippi Gambler,” but he looked older and a bit tired. Maybe he wanted to take it easy. He'd made many great films by then but would only live five more years. He'd make seven more films in that time, all better than “The Mississippi Gambler,” including “The Sun Also Rises,” and “King of the Khyber Rifles.”

Nevertheless “The Mississippi Gambler” was a big financial success. Lucky for Power, because his wife, Linda Christian divorced him after losing out to Piper Laurie for the part of Angelique. She never forgave Power for not getting her the part, and also, allegedly, for having an affair with Anita Ekberg, who played an uncredited part as a maid of honor at Angelique's wedding to another of her suitors.

. . . So that’s the review I wrote 8 years ago. The new Blu-ray release, as noted earlier, contains nothing new except a commentary by Toby Roan. Frankly, even Roan’s commentary doesn’t warrant spending the money for the new edition. His comments merely consist of providing biographical info on each and every actor, no matter how insignificant his role. Oh, look, here’s John McIntyre. He was a regular on the Naked City TV series. There’s Paul Cavanaugh, he was in a Tarzan movie. And that’s Guy Williams who played Zorro on TV. And on and on and on. I turned the commentary off after half an hour.

The home video market is disappearing before our eyes. Streaming has become the consumer’s first choice for watching movies at home. Go into Target or Best Buy and what used to be row after row of DVDs for sale has shrunk down to a few shelves, hidden behind the flat screen TV display area. If companies like Kino Lorber hope to stay in business they have to provide extras that aren’t available through the streaming platforms to make it worth their while. So any of these commentary tracks are very welcome, even if this one falls short.

When it comes to Kino Lorber’s “The Mississippi Gambler,” as I said in the original write up, I'd rather put on a Yancy Derringer DVD and watch him at the poker table with Pahoo Ka Te Wah standing behind him with his shotgun hidden under his poncho, ready for action as the Sultana winds its way down the Big Muddy. Rollin’ down the river.

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(John M. Whalen is the author of "This Ray Gun for Hire...and Other Tales".)

By Lee Pfeiffer

Kino Lorber has released a Blu-ray edition of the little-remembered 1970 romantic comedy "How Do I Love Thee?" The film's primary distinction is the interesting teaming of Jackie Gleason and Maureen O'Hara. By this point in his career, Gleason was a force of nature in the American entertainment business. When his variety show went off the air, CBS couldn't induce him to do another series so the network actually paid him not to work for any other network. When you get paid a fortune not to work, you know you're doing something right. Gleason had settled in Miami Beach in the early 1960s as one of the demands he made of CBS in return for doing his variety show. The location offered what Gleason liked most: sun, golf, plenty of drinking establishments and no shortage of beautiful young women. Gleason's impact on elevating Miami Beach's popularity was notable. It was widely believed that the city's rebirth as a hip destination as opposed to a retirement destination was due in part to Gleason referring to Miami Beach as "The sun and fun capital of the world!". Gleason, like his contemporary Dean Martin, had long ago tired of working very hard. If you wanted him, the mountain had to come to Mohammed, so to speak. Thus, it's no coincidence that "How Do I Love Thee?" was filmed in Miami Beach, thereby ensuring Gleason prime opportunities for maximizing his play time and minimizing his work before the cameras. (Gleason had a photographic memory and famously refused to rehearse very much, often to the consternation of his co-stars).

The film focuses on the character of Tom Waltz (Rick Lenz), a twenty-something professor who is rising up the ladder at his university. He's a got a nice house and a beautiful wife, Marion (Rosemary Forsyth) but when we first meet him, he's filled with anxiety. Seems that while visiting the "miracle" site of Lourdes in France, his father Walt (Jackie Gleason) has suffered a major health crisis. Tom's mother Elsie (Maureen O'Hara) implores Tom to race over to France and visit his father, who seems to be dying. Tom wants to go but Marion reminds him of the lifetime of contentious situations he has endured with his father and tells him that this is just another method of Walt trying to gain attention. Indeed, as we see through a series of flashbacks, Walt is a real handful. He owns his own moving company but still has to break his back loading and lifting furniture all day long. He has a pretty fractious relationship with Elsie, largely due to her strong religious convictions that conflict with his atheism. As young boy, Tom witnessed a lot of fighting in the household. When he accompanied his dad on jobs, he discovered that his father is not the devoted family man he thought he was- especially when he witnesses Walt trying to seduce a ditzy social activist and amateur photographer (Shelly Winters in typical over-the-top Shelly Winters mode) who is one of his clients. Walt is similar in nature to Willy Lohman of "Death of a Salesman" in that both men are past their prime but working harder than ever to provide for their family. Walt is a good man, but he's subject to self-imposed crises generally related to his short temper, drinking habits and flirtatious nature. Ultimately, Tom opts to take the trip to Lourdes, even though Marion is threatening to divorce him over his decision. The majority of the tale is told in flashbacks that present some moderately amusing situations and some poignant dramatic scenes as well. There's also a good dose of sexual humor, typical for comedies of the era that were capitalizing on new-found screen freedoms.The direction by old pro Michael Gordon ("Pillow Talk") is fine but the screenplay, based on a novel by Peter De Vries,  punts in the final scenes, tossing in an improbable extended joke about cars going amiss on their way to a funeral and a feel-good ending that wraps everything up quickly in a style more befitting a sitcom episode of the era. Still, the performances are fun with Lenz and Forsyth quite good as the young couple and Gleason and O'Hara registering some genuine chemistry on screen.

The Blu-ray transfer is generally fine but around the 80-minute mark some speckling and artifacts appear during the final reel, although it isn't distracting enough to bother the average viewer. The bonus extras don't include the trailer for the feature film but do present trailers for other KL comedy releases including "Avanti!", "The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!" and " The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother".

Enjoy this vintage documentary, "Steve McQueen: Man on the Edge", narrated by his friend James Coburn, with whom he starred in "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape". (To watch in full screen mode, click on "Watch on YouTube".)

Now available from Imprint, the Australia-based video label. (The Blu-ray set is region-free.)  Since these limited edition titles tend to sell out quickly, we suggest you order ASAP.

Essential Film Noir: Collection 4 - Imprint Collection #210 - #213

Essential Film Noir: Collection 4 includes five acclaimed and much sought after classics: Rope of Sand (1949), Appointment with Danger (1950), The Enforcer (1951), Beware, My Lovely (1952) & Jennifer (1953).

Limited 4 Disc Hardbox edition with unique artwork on the first 1500 copies.

Rope of Sand (1949) - Imprint Collection #210

After a two-year hiatus, Mike Davis (Burt Lancaster) returns to the same African city where he was tortured and left for dead at the hands of a sadistic Police Commandant (Paul Henreid). Originally innocent of all charges, Mike is back to claim the diamonds he had supposedly stolen two years ago. He enlists the help of an alcoholic stranger (Peter Lorre) and the doctor (Sam Jaffe), who had helped him back to health. The diamond syndicate head (Claude Rains) recruits a nightclub temptress Suzanne Renaud (Corinne Calvet) to seduce and betray Mike as an alternate to brute force.

This suspense-noir classic was directed by William Dieterle (Dark City).

Starring Burt Lancaster, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Paul Henreid & Sam Jaffe.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2021 4K scan
• NEW Audio commentary by film historian Samm Deighan
• NEW Interview with film professor Jose Arroyo
• Trailer
• Original Aspect Ratio 1.37:1
• Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English HOH subtitles

Appointment with Danger (1950) - Imprint Collection #211

Postal Inspector Al Goddard (Alan Ladd) is assigned to investigate the murder of a fellow officer. The only witness to the crime is Sister Augustine (Phyllis Calvert), who identifies the photograph of one of the assailants. This leads Goddard to a seedy hotel where he learns that the assailant is a member of a gang headed by Earl Boettiger (Paul Stewart), and he soon discovers that the gang is planning a million dollar mail robbery. This classic film noir also features the stars of Dragnet, Jack Webb and Harry Morgan, as Stewart's Henchmen.

This was Alan Ladd's final Film Noir and was directed by Lewis Allen (The Uninvited).

Starring Paul Stewart, Alan Ladd, Phyllis Calvert, Jan Sterling & Jack Webb.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2021 4K scan
• NEW Audio commentary with professor and film scholar Jason Ney
• NEW Interview with Film Noir specialist Frank Krutnik
• NEW Video featurette on director Lewis Allen
• Trailer
• Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1
• Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English HOH subtitles

The Enforcer (1951) - Imprint Collection #212

Humphrey Bogart (The Maltese Falcon) is in fine form as a crusading District Attorney out to convict the head of a vicious murder-for-hire ring. But when his star witness is killed, Bogart must race against time to find the evidence he needs to bring down the mob boss. Told in a series of flashbacks, this tense, tough-as-nails crime thriller on the cutting edge of film noir was based on actual Murder, Inc. Trials.

Stylishly directed by Bretagne Windust (June Bride) with un-credited help from Raoul Walsh (Pursued) and beautifully shot by the great Robert Burks (North by Northwest).

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Zero Mostel, Ted de Corsia & Everett Sloane.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2021 4K scan
• NEW Audio commentary by noir expert and Film Noir Foundation board member Alan K. Rode
• Original aspect ratio 1.37:1
• Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English subtitles

Beware, My Lovely (1952) - Imprint Collection #213

Helen Gordon (Ida Lupino) hires Howard Wilton (Robert Ryan) as a handyman to do chores around her house. She doesn't know what she's let herself in for. Insecure and paranoid, Wilton thinks everyone, including Helen, is against him. He suffers from memory lapses and extreme mood swings. She's soon a prisoner in her own house after Wilton locks the doors and tears out the telephone. His mood swings from violence to complacency but after Helen gets a message to the police via a telephone repairman, she finds he is still in the house. ...Beware, My Lovely.

Starring Robert Ryan, Ida Lupino, Taylor Holmes & Barbara Whiting.

Premier Blu-ray release worldwide.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2021 4K scan
• NEW Audio commentary with professor and film scholar Jason Ney
• NEW Interview with author and programmer Pamela Hutchinson
• Original Aspect Ratio 1.37:1
• Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English HOH subtitles

Jennifer (1953) - Imprint Collection #213

Agnes Langsley (Ida Lupino) gets a job, through Jim Hollis (Howard Duff), as caretaker of an old and vacated estate. The owner's cousin, Jennifer, was the last occupant and mysteriously disappeared. Agnes soon begins to believe that Jennifer was murdered and that Jim, whom she has fallen in love with, is responsible.

Starring Ida Lupino, Howard Duff & Robert Nichols.

Premier Blu-ray release worldwide.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2021 4K scan
• Original Aspect Ratio 1.37:1
• Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English HOH subtitles

Enjoy James Coburn's star-making scene from John Sturges' 1960 classic "The Magnificent Seven". His unfortunate nemesis is Robert J. Wilke. The film cemented Coburn as the epitome of the screen hero who was short on words and long on action.

Writer Olivia Rutigliano knows a thing or two about Sherlock Holmes and she's put that knowledge to good use in this article that ranks the best, worst and strangest portrayals of the master detective on screens large and small. This isn't the usual slapped together, meaningless list created to serve as click bait. Rutigliano provides insightful background information on every conceivable portrayal of Holmes and includes stories in which the main character merely thinks he is Holmes. She also includes animated and animal portrayals of Holmes. Chances are you won't have heard of many of the more obscure international inclusions, which makes them even more interesting to read about. Click Here to do so. 

John Wayne only directed two films- "The Alamo" and "The Green Berets". Both were passion projects for him, though he certainly had a challenge with "The Alamo", an epic production in which he was reluctantly obligated to also star. To some, the film is a great American epic, to others it's simplified history loaded down with corny dialogue. But no one can dispute that when it came to the logistics of staging the climactic battle scene, Wayne did an outstanding job. In this clip, Wayne, Richard Widmark and Laurence Harvey initiate the action through a simple act involving a canon and a cigar.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Scorpion has released a Blu-ray edition of the 1979 Canadian disaster movie "City on Fire". If you've never heard of it, don't feel bad- neither had this writer and I thought I was quite familiar with the genre which arguably began with the release of "Airport" in 1970. The success of that film spawned similarly-themed adventures that generally found all-stars casts threatened by water, fire, animals and other forces of nature. Producer Irwin Allen hit two home runs with "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno", the latter representing the artistic and commercial peak of the short-lived but highly popular genre. At its height even second-grade disaster flicks could make sizable profits (a low-grade Japanese import titled "Tidal Wave" was a hit after it was "Americanized" with some brief footage of Lorne Greene included.) By the late 1970s, however, fickle audiences had tired of the sheer predictability of the disaster movie premise. The release of "Star Wars" incited a new interest in sci-fi but there were still some attempts to pump life into disaster flicks even if most of the passion and creativity had been drained from these productions. "City on Fire" is about, as you might have guessed, a city on fire. The unnamed city (actually Toronto) is the setting for a catastrophic blaze that starts as an act of sabotage caused by a disgruntled employee at a large chemical plant that has been foolishly located in the center of the urban metropolis. The seemingly minor act of mischief quickly escalates when raw fuel pours unchecked into the city's water supply. A spark ignites a huge inferno that rapidly isolates a major part of the city in a ring of fire that makes it almost impossible for firefighters to penetrate, thus leaving it to the potential victims to find their own methods of escape. Most of the action takes place inside a major hospital which is being evacuated even as the flames make it unlikely that many of the staff and patients will be able to reach safety. In order to do so they must navigate a deadly gauntlet of fire. 

"City on Fire" lacks the big budget production values of the more successful disaster movies but director Alvin Rakoff and production designer William McCrow get around that obstacle in very commendable ways. Rakoff does utilize the old stand by of using actual disaster footage from news broadcasts in certain instances and uses a jittery camera to provide a sense of impending danger to otherwise stagnant buildings, at times making it look like Don Knotts was the cameraman. However, the production design is quite good and Rakoff handles the action scenes very commendably. There are some cheesy special effects, primarily scenes of the skyline burning, but the up-close action footage is spectacular at times and the movie features some of the best stunt work I've seen including many instances of the stuntman's worst nightmare: the full-body burn.  The biggest star in this budget-challenged production is Henry Fonda, then in the winter of his career and seemingly content to play characters of authority who sit around offices and control rooms barking orders over telephones (i.e "Meteor", "Rollercoaster" and "The Swarm"). Old Hank would prove he still had his mojo with his final film, "On Golden Pond", that saw him win an Oscar, but in the years leading up to that he was happy to pick up quick pay checks with supporting roles in populist fare. Here he plays the stalwart fire chief trying to cope with the loss of an entire city. Barry Newman is the playboy physician who is trying frantically to save his hospital which is in the direct line of fire. He's also juggling a strained relationship with old flame (pardon the pun) Susan Clark, a glam socialite who had once been his lover. Meanwhile, she is involved in an illicit affair with the mayor (Leslie Nielsen) and is unaware that there are incriminating photos that are about to be used to blackmail both of them. Shelley Winters is wasted in a throw-away role as a bossy nurse who acts a lot like Shelley Winters and James Franciscus is a TV news producer who is trying to keep wall-to-wall coverage on the air despite that the fact that his star anchor, an aging diva (Ava Gardner) has turned up drunk right before the broadcasts. One of the more rewarding aspects of the film is that it affords meaty roles to actors who are generally relegated to second-tier status. They all perform admirably but it's impossible to view any of Leslie Nielsen's pre-comedy career performances objectively. He became such a master of brilliantly spoofing his own acting style that when you view his dramatic work you keep waiting for punchlines and slapstick gags that never materialize. The film follows all the conventional elements of the standard disaster movie (i.e children in peril, a pregnant woman who goes into labor during the crisis, lovers reunited, etc.) I half expected the climax to feature the heroes trapped aboard an upended ocean liner while being menaced by a shark. However, I must say that I very much enjoyed "City on Fire". It boasts an intelligent script, fine direction and reasonably good performances. There is also an almost complete lack of humor, so you won't see Fred Astaire as a charming con man or an unbilled Walter Matthau getting soused in a bar in the midst of an earthquake. The sense of gravitas is in keeping with the dramatic scenario of people stranded within a ring of fire. The movie came a day late and a dollar short to capitalize on the disaster movie trend. It's not as slick or polished as the best entries in the genre but it's better than many others including Irwin Allen's career-ending turkeys, "The Swarm" and "When Time Ran Out". 

The Scorpion Blu-ray contains a notice that the transfer was put together from various sources. There are a few blotches here and there but the Blu-ray generally looks fine. Bonus features include a TV spot for the film and a trailer gallery of other Scorpion releases. Recommended.  

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By Lee Pfeiffer

The James Bond-inspired spy movie boom of the 1960s resulted in the films of this genre generally fitting into one of two distinct categories: tongue-in-cheek spoofs played largely for laughs (the Flint and Matt Helm series) and gritty, realistic depictions of espionage that stripped away any glamour from the spy trade ("The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", "The Deadly Affair", "The Venetian Affair", "The Ipcress File" and countless others.) Straddling the line between the two genres was writer/director Val Guest's 1966 film "Where the Spies Are" starring David Niven, who seemed impeccably suited to capitalize on the movie craze. The film was based on the novel "Passport to Oblivion" by James Leasor, a straight-up thriller set in Beirut, Lebanon when it was a thriving holiday destination for wealthy Europeans to the extent it was known as "The Paris of the Middle East". The movie opens with the abduction and murder of an MI6 agent, Rossiter (Cyril Cusack) in Beirut. He's been investigating a Soviet-inspired plot to murder the head of state and install a puppet government. The British are especially concerned because they depend upon the friendly government of Lebanon to provide Great Britain with substantial amounts of oil (some things never change.) When Rossiter goes silent, MI6 boss MacGillivray (John Le Mesurier) needs to send an agent to Beirut to investigate his disappearance. He decides he needs a non-professional who has no trace to the agency to act as an operative. He recalls using the services of Jason Love (David Niven) twenty years earlier in the war. It seems that Love proved to be reliable in successfully pulling off a dangerous mission. Love is now a well-off physician living a happy bachelor lifestyle with a posh house and a vintage, valuable roadster that he takes pleasure in driving through the country lanes. MacGillivray uses Love's sense of patriotism (and a bribe to buy him an even more valuable and rare roadster) as an incentive for him to agree to visit Lebanon, ostensibly to attend an international medical conference. It's supposed to be an easy job with Love simply nosing around and trying to find some clues as to Rossiter's fate, but you know how things usually turn out in missions of this type. 

When Love disembarks from his plane in Rome to await a connecting flight to Beirut, there is quite a stir in the terminal because world famous fashion model known simply as Vikki (Francoise Dorleac) is being photographed for a fashion spread in a major magazine. They meet cute and Love is understandably distracted by her beauty. After turning on the charm, she confides in Love that she is actually one of the MI6 contacts he will meet on his mission. Love is so shocked that he is too late to catch his flight- and lucky for him that he didn't because minutes after takeoff, the plane explodes, killing everyone on board. (Inexplicably, the incident directly over the airport doesn't seem to generate much reaction from the people at the airport.) Love attributes the disaster to a mechanical flaw and arrives at his hotel in Lebanon- the same one that Rossiter had a room at. He's pleased to find that Vikki is there, too, and is as enthused about getting under the covers as he is. Their romantic fling is later disturbed by an assassination attempt and Vikki informs Love that the destruction of the airplane might have been a plot to kill him. He soon meets Parkington (Nigel Davenport), another MI6 contact- a career agent who is depressed and cynical about intelligence work. He copes by hitting the bottle hard but he proves to be a valuable ally to Love in tracing Rossiter's fate. Ultimately, Love finds himself in further peril and having to resort to his own defense mechanisms (and a couple of spy gadgets, of course) in order to survive. The finale finds him trying to thwart the assassination as well as escape Soviet kidnappers who bundle him aboard a plane bound for Russia.

"Where the Spies Are" starts off with the implication that it will be a comedy in the Flint/Helm mode with Niven playing a comic fish-out-of-water character embroiled in a larger-than-life adventure. However, the laughs are few and far between once he sets off on his mission. The film still offers some witticisms and subdued laughs, but it turns primarily into a thriller including a larger-than-life action scene atop ancient ruins. The movie was directed and co-written by Val Guest, a reliable old hand at making highly enjoyable mid-range films that weren't designed to be blockbusters or win awards. He keeps the action moving at a brisk pace, accompanied by a lively score by Mario Nasciembene. Niven is perfectly cast and delivers his usual charismatic and charming performance. Dorleac is given some mod fashion wear to show off and makes for a suitable love interest. She was set to follow her sister Catherine Deneuve as the next "it girl" in films but tragically died in 1967 in a car crash shortly after completing her final film, the spy thriller "Billion Dollar Brain". The film benefits from some exotic on-location scenes in Lebanon, with interiors shot at the old MGM Studios at Boreham Wood, England. However, it suffers from some crude special effects and the all-too-obvious use of miniatures and rear screen projection. Similarly, Niven's stunt double doesn't pass muster, as he doesn't resemble the actor in the slightest even from afar.

The film features any number of people associated with James Bond films. Niven, of course, would go on to star as Sir James Bond in the 1967 spoof version of "Casino Royale" which was co-written and co-directed by Val Guest. Wolf Mankiewicz, who had been an uncredited contributor to the script of "Dr. No", co-wrote the screenplay for "Where the Spies Are" as well as "Casino Royale". The titles were designed by Robert Brownjohn who also created the classic titles for "Goldfinger" and "From Russia with Love". Among the actors who were associated with at least one Bond movie include Eric Pohlmann (who provided the voice of the unseen Blofeld in the early Bond movies), Paul Stassino "("Thunderball"), John Le Mesurier ("Casino Royale" as "M"'s chauffeur), George Pravda ("From Russia with Love"), Bill Nagy ("Goldfinger") and Geoffrey Bayldon ("Casino Royale"). Also, former Bond star George Lazenby starred as Jason Love in an audio book adaptation of "Passport to Oblivion" available on Amazon Kindle. "U.N.C.L.E."  fans will also enjoy seeing "Girl from U.N.C.L.E." star Noel Harrison as an MI6 agent and will get a laugh out of one of the passwords used in the film, "Love from Uncle", which could not have been a coincidence since it was an MGM production.

Val Guest had obtained the screen rights to "Passport to Oblivion" and several literary sequels in the hopes that a series of Jason Love films would go into production. However, the film didn't elicit much excitement from moviegoers or critics and, thus, a series never went into production. Not helping matters was MGM's decision to recut Guest's final version of the film without his permission, which supposedly infuriated him. Nevertheless, if you have a soft spot for spy movies of the 1960s, you'll probably find the film as enjoyable as I did. 

The region-free Warner Archive DVD proves that this title is in dire need of a Blu-ray upgrade. The color quality is all over the place, ranging from satisfactory to wild deviations to various garish tints, giving it a Frankenstein-like quality in that it seemed to have been cobbled together with bits from several prints. That probably wasn't the case, but it is nevertheless the effect. The Archive is doing some great work upgrading even "B" titles so let's hope "Where the Spies Are" is on their list for future Blu-ray release. The only bonus feature is the original trailer which is narrated for some reason by a guy who sounds like an extra from an old WB gangster movie.

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Retro-Active: From the Cinema Retro Archives

By Lee Pfeiffer

For those of us who are hopelessly addicted to spy movies of the 1960s, the Warner Archive provides a gift: the first DVD release of "The Scorpio Letters", one of the more obscure 007-inspired espionage films of the era. Produced by MGM, the movie was shown on American TV in early 1967 before enjoying a theatrical release in Europe. It seems the studio was trying to emulate the strategy that it was employing at the time for its phenomenally popular "Man From U.N.C.L.E." TV series. That show had proven to be such a hit with international audiences that MGM strung together two-part episodes and released them theatrically. (Three films were released in America but a total of eight were shown in international markets.) As "The Scorpio Letters" was produced with a theatrical run in mind, it has a bit more gloss than the average TV movie, which was then a genre in its infancy. Nevertheless, it still has all the earmarks of a production with a limited budget. Although set in London and France, you'd have to be pretty naive to believe any of the cast and crew ever got out of southern California. Grainy stock footage is used to simulate those locations and there is ample use of the very distinctive MGM back lot, which at times makes the film resemble an episode of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." What the movie does provide is some nice chemistry between its two lead actors, Alex Cord, who had recently acquitted himself quite well in the underrated 1966 big screen remake of John Ford's "Stagecoach" and Shirley Eaton, then still riding the wave of popularity she enjoyed as the iconic "golden girl" from the Bond blockbuster "Goldfinger". The two play rival spies in London, both working for different British intelligence agencies, though whether it is MI5 or MI6 is never made clear. 

The film is based on a novel by Victor Caning that had been adapted for the screen by the ironically named Adrian Spies, who had a long career working primarily in television. (Curiously, his one credited feature film was for the superb 1968 adventure "Dark of the Sun" (aka "The Mercenaries".) There is nothing remarkable about his work on "The Scorpio Letters". In fact, Spies provides a rather confusing plot. The film opens on a jarring note with a man taking a suicidal plunge from his apartment window in London. Turns out he was a British intelligence agent and the reasons for his suicide are of great interest to the higher ups in the spy business. Alex Cord plays Joe Christopher, an American ex-cop who now does work for one of the intelligence agencies run by Burr (the ever-reliable Laurence Naismith). Burr orders him to get to the bottom of the suicide case and in doing so, Joe gains access to the dead man's apartment just in time to encounter a mysterious man stealing a letter addressed to the dead agent. A foot chase ensues that ends with both men getting struck by a London double decker bus (yes, MGM had one of those laying around the back lot.) Still, Joe manages to steal back the letter the man had swiped and finds it is obviously a blackmail attempt made against the dead agent by a mystery person who goes by the name of Scorpio. From there the plot gets rather confusing and becomes one of those thrillers that is best enjoyed if you stop trying to figure out who is who and just sit back and enjoy the ride. Joe flirts with Phoebe Stewart (Shirley Eaton), who works in another intelligence agency. It appears her boss and Joe's boss are constantly trying to undermine each other in the attempt to solve major cases. Phoebe makes an attempt to seduce Joe, but he correctly suspects that she is trying to compromise him for information he knows about the case. Inevitably, a real romance blossoms but the love scenes are pretty mild, perhaps due to the fact that this film was made with a television broadcast in mind. (The plot invokes the old joke of having the would-be lovers get interrupted every time they attempt to get it on.)  

Joe gets a lead that takes him to Paris where he discovers that Scorpio is the man behind a shadowy spy network that uses agents employed as waiters in an upscale restaurant. I imagine the reason for this is explained somewhere along the line but it's just one more confusing element to the script. Joe infiltrates the spies/waiters gang in the hopes of finding out who Scorpio is. Meanwhile, in the film's best scene, he is exposed, captured and tortured. There is even a modicum of suspense as there appears to be no logical way he will get out of this particular death trap. Refreshingly, Joe is no 007. He makes miscalculations, gets bruised and beaten and often has to rely on the intervention of others to save him. (In the film's climax, finding himself outmanned and outgunned, he actually does the logical thing and asks someone to call the local police for help.) Ultimately, Scorpio is revealed to be one of those standard, aristocratic spy villains of Sixties cinema. In this case he is played by the very able Oscar Beregi Jr. If you don't know the name, you'll know his face, as he excelled in playing urbane bad guys in countless TV shows and feature films of the era. There are numerous kidnappings, shootouts, double crosses and red herrings and one bizarre sequence that is ostensibly set in a French ski resort in which the ski lift is inexplicably in operation even though it's summer. Additionally, the California mountains look as much like France as Jersey City does.

Despite all of the gripes, I enjoyed watching "The Scorpio Letters". It's an entertaining, fast-moving diversion, directed with unremarkable efficiency by Richard Thorpe (his second-to-last film). Cord makes for a very capable leading man, tossing off the requisite wisecracks even while undergoing torture. Eaton possesses the kind of old world glamour you rarely see on screen nowadays. Together, they make an otherwise mediocre movie play out better than it probably should. (A minor trivia note: this represents the first film score of composer Dave Grusin, who would go on to become an Oscar winner.)

The Warner Archive DVD transfer is very impressive and the film contains an original trailer, which presumably was used in non-U.S. markets.

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It's always fun to look back on how retro films were regarded by critics at the time of their initial release. Here is the evaluation of Frank Sinatra's 1967 hit "Tony Rome" as written by a new, upcoming film critic named Roger Ebert!

Click here to read.

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